cbockiii Reviews

The Burial (II) (2023)

Jamie Foxx is the man

[7/10 · 21 October 2023]

I swear I can watch anything Jamie Foxx is in. No matter how serious he tries to get, I get a picture in my head of the kid who did Wanda on In Living Color and I start laughing to myself.

It's a wild story and I didn't even realize until the end that it was somewhat based on facts. You want to believe it's word for word but who knows whether all of the characters were real. I kept thinking how crazy it must have been for the son's friend who was fresh out of law school and a key player.

This movie is good, not great, but my god with all of the horrible crap coming out these days it's a solid 7. He's not the only one who made this movie good either, lots of well-known actors that give the story some depth. Definitely worth watching!

Halo (2022– )

This Show is Far Better than I Heard

[8/10 · 26 December 2022]

A lot of my friends are loyal Halo fans and really bagged on this show when it came out. Over this year's holiday season I got a chance to binge it and I was....very surprised.

First off, the show is beautifully shot. Secondly, it has some really good character actors who did a great job - Pablo Schreiber, Burn Gorman, Bokeem Woodbine and Natasha McElhone are all good on this show.

Some of the plot points are a little dull, but watching this really reminded me of playing the game. They didn't use enough of the great Halo music, but they did do a nice job of recreating the Covenant characters.

I don't get it, I very much enjoyed the first season and I hope they keep going with it. There's a ton of material left to show and I'm looking forward to what's next. There were some fantastic action sequences that felt like I was back playing the game.

The Dropout (2022)

Very Well Done Retelling - More Suspense than I Expected

[8/10 · 26 April 2022]

This is a very well done documentary/true story series. All I knew of Elizabeth Holmes was what I gathered from a few Youtube videos of her, and I tuned out of most of them because it was so blatantly obvious she was a fake. She even faked her own voice on top of trying to appear as the female reincarnation of Steve Jobs. How could anyone believe that she was capable of patents of innovation in the medical industry?! She was a complete psychopath, and shockingly Amanda Seyfried did a great job of acting that out. I turned this on because I was so hard up for new viewing material, but this show got my interest from the jump. Sam Waterston still has it, and then some. Who knows how much of this show was true, but I really enjoyed it.

The Desperate Hour (2021)

I don't get the hate, it's not that bad

[6/10 · 7 March 2022]

This movie created a lot of suspense, I thought it was a decent find. It's not a 4, but it's not an 8 either. I liked it, and I'm a movie nut who hates cheese. It's not this bad.

Ted Lasso (2020–2023)

Huge, Huge Surprise

[9/10 · 9 August 2021]

I've never been a Jason Sudeikis fan, but man did he hit a home run with this show. Even as a character he's good, much less writing the series.

Watching this show will make you want to be nicer to people. Fantastic characters and good - fairly clean - fun. I guess British people swear a lot and there's tons of it in this show, but I like being offended watching TV so I don't care. Do not miss this show, I don't want to spoil anything.

Roy Kent is a legend and football is life.

Wind (I) (1992)

Cult Favorite

[7/10 · 14 December 2020]

This is one of those movies where I feel like I'm the only person who has ever seen it. No one I know has ever talked about this film, I stumbled across it one time surfing through old school cable. I've always been a fan of Matthew Modine and while he's pretty good in this one, Jennifer Grey is at her very best. She's the brains and Matthew Modine is the ambition. Neither one can do much without the other, blah blah.

It's straight out of the late 80's and it's cheesy as hell, but I enjoy it every time I see it. I loved the Australian guys - party animals that sail like pirates, it's just fun.

It's one of those rare movies where nobody is tied to the mafia, nobody shoots anyone and nobody traffics a metric ton of cocaine out of Peru...and it's still fun to watch. Actually it would have been a lot better if it had those things, but hey I'll take what we got.

2067 (2020)

You Guys Aren't Being Fair

[6/10 · 3 November 2020]

I've seen a lot of terrible movies and this wasn't terrible.

The lead guy was weak, but Ryan Kwanten was good.

Not great, about a 6. Interesting theories presented.

Them That Follow (2019)

Terrific Indie Movie

[7/10 · 30 September 2020]

This movie is right there with Winter's Bone. Gritty story about a place nobody really knows about.

I watched this because I liked the main actress in Ratched, and she's great in this movie. I don't want to give anything away, but just watch it. It's impressive.

ZeroZeroZero (2019–2020)

Very Pleasant Surprise

[9/10 · 22 April 2020]

And here I thought Amazon Video had nothing but crap aside from Man in the High Castle...this show was great. Non-stop suspense, really enjoyed it. I won't go into detail and spoil everything, but if you like drugs and violence this is a must-watch.

See (2019–2022)

Very Pleasant Surprise

[8/10 · 8 April 2020]

This show had "bomb" written all over it. A retread of Khal Drogo, swordfighting, blah blah. Another Game of Thrones ripoff.

This show actually has a decent plot, and the acting is pretty good. I binged the first season and I really liked it. It's not top tier, but definitely worth checking out. I don't want to give anything away so I'll stop there, but this is very solid work by Jason Momoa.

Marriage Story (2019)

This is why Adam Driver is awesome

[8/10 · 26 December 2019]

I really liked it, although I'm getting a little tired of hating Laura Dern. Every time I see her on the screen she becomes more and more detestable. Scarlet Johansson is great, and it was cool to see Ray Liotta again.

Adam Driver is a great actor, and he's great at conflict. He tried to be reasonable and then he's awesome at losing his mind. His meltdowns were the best part of the movie.

The Mandalorian (2019– )

This is Star Wars and I'm hooked again

[9/10 · 21 November 2019]

Someone on this production team finally got it right. Everything since Return of the Jedi (with some small exceptions in Force Awakens) has been garbage, but this show has completely recaptured what was cool about Star Wars.

The Jawa scenes in Episode 2 were spectacular. They're not just throwing old characters back into the mix for nastalgia, this really feels like an extension of the original story. Not to mention that the cinematography and music are exceptional.

Not to mention, I've always been a big Pedro Pascal fan and he fits perfectly for this show. But they're also nailing the side characters and they're all interesting.

Very, very well done, guys.

Treadstone (2019)

It's Good - from a big Bourne fan

[8/10 · 31 October 2019]

Yeah so...they might not be as good at selling the Jeet Kune Do as Matt Damon was, but it's a very interesting show so far. They capture a lot of the Bourne suspense and there are a lot of good characters. I'm sold.

Succession (2018–2023)

It's Getting Better

[8/10 · 14 October 2019]

The first season stumbled...a lot. This second season has been terrific from start to finish. I went from hating most of the cast to only hating Shiv and her moronic husband. I don't understand why the creators think that Tom is an interesting character, but every moment he's on screen turns my stomach. A lot of things happened in Season 2 that really interested me, especially with Jerry and Roman. It's becoming a really good show, I'm excited for what's next.

Shot Caller (2017)

Surprisingly Good

[6/10 · 30 June 2019]

I'm a tough grader, and a 6 is a decently good movie on my scale. Of all of the Game of the Thrones actors' movie attempts, I'm pretty sure this is the best one I've seen. NCW gets a lot of help from the rest of the cast, I saw a lot of familiar faces in this movie (the Power guy - lol). The story surprised me a couple of times, NCW was halfway believable and it was a movie worth watching. Solid 6. Lake Bell once again was terrible, but she wasn't in it enough to make a difference.

Cobra Kai (2018–2025)

Loved it, even more fun than the original

[10/10 · 15 August 2018]

Billy Zabka was the huge surprise here. Yeah he was great as an 80's brainless bully who always got beat down to end the movies he was in. But he never really got to act in any of those movies. He acts for real in this show, and he's DAMN GOOD, not to mention funny as hell. Yeah, you have a little bit of trouble taking him seriously like anyone else would, and the writers expect that. The pace moves very quickly and they got a great group of young actors. Ralph Macchio is very good as well, although he's not as big of a character this season. They also do a fantastic job of laying a foundation for a million possible plot turns in the next seasons.

I'm giving this 10/10 because it's harder to make a show for all ages. The same reason Forrest Gump beat out Pulp Fiction. I've got young kids that are watching this show and laughing like crazy, it's so much fun. Superb job on this one, guys, I cannot wait for Season 2. Get me more of Hawk and Miss Robinson!

I'm a Game of Thrones and Breaking Bad junkie, but the first season of this show is up there near them. It's hard to compare because Cobra Kai is shorter episodes.

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

Way, way better than the prequels...review from a huge fan

[8/10 · 20 December 2015]

I'm almost 40, which means I saw two of the original three movies in the theater as a kid. I had all of the old toys, stupidly threw them all into the bathtub and wrecked them and constantly begged my parents for my own light saber.

Take all of the annoying garbage from the prequels and toss them out. The horribly sappy dialogue, the horrible acting, constantly changing outfits every scene and annoying characters (Jar Jar) that refuse to go away. You'll thankfully get none of that this time.

When I saw that JJ Abrams was in charge, I knew at the very least we'd get a solid attempt with this new trilogy. We definitely got that, and a little bit more. Just a little. It felt like he knew what the old die hards wanted to see. He also managed to find some really good actors. I knew Oscar Isaac would be good, but I didn't know the Rey or FIN characters at all. All three did a great job, but I was particularly impressed with Adam Driver. Being a great goof-off on Girls doesn't necessary mean you can be a key character in a Star Wars movie, but he did a super job. It's a grittier, more human movie with far more interesting characters.

For the most part Abrams played it safe, nailing the action scenes and adding some quirky CG animal characters. But he did try a few things that worked. For example, we've never seen a non-Jedi handle a light saber, and I thought that was very cool. There could have been more light saber action, but what you do see is very well done and believable.

The real test was taking my six year old daughter to the movie, the most exciting part for me. She hasn't watched any of the old movies yet, but she spent most of the movie with her eyes half-covered. That's always a good thing. She loved it, and now she's asking me to play the first movie for her to see. So thanks Disney, you passed the test.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1 (2014)

Pretty good job with this one

[7/10 · 13 December 2014]

I read all three books of this series a few times. The first two were terrific, and no matter how many times I read the third book I just plain didn't like it. I didn't like the direction the story went, it lacked excitement and what made this series so interesting was completely missing.

I wasn't crazy about the first movie, the second one was vastly improved and this movie might have been the best adaptation of the book that I've seen yet. I can tell you that this movie was more interesting to me than the first half of the third book. I've been going to the theater with the same group of people for all of these movies and I expected this one to be really bad and it wasn't. It kept my attention, the acting was decent (except for Liam Hemsworth, I still fail to understand why he's allowed to be in movies) and it created some suspense that the book didn't have. Aspects of the book that seemed downright silly didn't appear that way in the movie. It gives the finale some hope, not that I wouldn't go see it anyway.

I give it an honest 7 out of 10 and I'm a pretty hard grader. It's worth going to see. It doesn't have the pizazz that Catching Fire did, but they're on the right track with this one. And a big reason it's not higher is because of the lack of material they had to work with. The last book in this series was really bad.

Interstellar (2014)

Excellent Movie

[9/10 · 10 November 2014]

Deep space travel and finding another habitable planet are two of my favorite topics to read about online. I had been keeping up on this movie's development since a year ago. I like Christopher Nolan's movies, even though I always feel like his plots tend to squander some brilliant ideas. The best example was Inception - he could have done so much more with that brilliant premise for a movie. He sort of did it again with Interstellar, there was an opportunity to do much more, but the end product was a highly impressive movie that I really enjoyed.

Seeing the visuals of this movie in an IMAX theater is enough enjoyment for the ticket price. But Nolan managed to make the plot worth following as well. He took the plot in a direction that I wasn't crazy about, but I can't really talk about it because it would become a spoiler. I kept thinking during the movie - "If Nolan would have done this, or taken the movie this way it would have been so much better..." the same way I said it to myself during Inception. I ended up not being impressed by Inception, but this movie was different. His way was pretty darn good. There were several scenes that had me literally on the edge of my seat. Great suspense.

I had a preexisting hatred of Anne Hathaway's acting, but she was actually pretty good in this. She played her part perfectly. I've always been a fan of Wes Bentley and I hope to see him take on some bigger roles now that he's back and recovered from drug abuse. And I don't get why so many people don't like Matthew McConaughey, but he is on some kind of a roll lately with his movies. He was superb in this one, very believable both as an astronaut and as a caring father. I really think he's going to win another Best Actor for this, he was that good.

We need more great, serious space exploration / sci-fi films, and this is a terrific start. I really liked the effort by Nolan to make this movie seem real. You could tell that they spent a lot of time with Kip Thorne and incorporated his ideas very well.

I know that it's far fetched, but I would really like to see a sequel to this movie. As great a job as Nolan did, I'm already anxious to see more. I think he could do it and I think that with the story he built, it could be even better.

Carnivàle (2003–2005)

Loved it, but it's not perfect

[8/10 · 17 July 2014]

I watched the two seasons of this show in one of those weekend marathon viewing sessions. There are a lot of interesting characters that play very small parts, but each one manages to be interesting. The MVP of this show is Clancy Brown, who is outstanding. I was already a fan of his and this show really let him show his teeth.

The pacing of the story was off. Too much time was spent in the two seasons wading around and then when the crap hit the fan, it was a little too rushed. They could have give the dry parts a little more oomph and smoothed it out. They certainly had the acting talent to make this a 5- year series. But you take the two seasons for what they're worth, and it's a solid 8. Don't quit when it drags early in the first season.

Breaking Bad (2008–2013)

Fantastic show, second only to Game of Thrones

[10/10 · 17 July 2014]

For at least a year I had people coming up to me and trying to talk about Breaking Bad. I said yeah yeah, sounds great but it's not a pay channel - therefore there's no nudity, gore and F bombs. Not for me. Boy, was I wrong.

This show is so good you don't mind the slight censorship. There's enough swearing, chicks and blood to satisfy you. We all know that Bryan Cranston knocked his role out of the park, but he's not the only one. I loved his brother in law and Aaron Paul was really, really good. Jonathan Banks was super as well.

This is the only show where I can say that I got a big kick out of every single episode. It's like the writers know what you want to see and they bring it every time. Not too much, not too little, just the perfect pacing for a story. I was sorry to see it end.

The Wire (2002–2008)

Seemed pretty darn real to me

[9/10 · 17 July 2014]

Another top notch show in HBO's arsenal. I'm not a big fan of the Hill Street Blues, hard core cop kind of show but it's impossible not to enjoy this series. You get plenty of material from the bad guys as well. You get a really good, realistic (in my amateur opinion) look at what it's like to be a homicide cop and it's rough. You also get a decent look at the other side, the hierarchy of people who commit the crimes. Does a really good job of spreading the story around, covering all the bases. Some seasons were better than others - I enjoy watching the drug trade more than city officials bickering with each other - but the acting is spot on across the board. If you're an HBO show fan, this series is a must-see. Right there with the best of them.

Game of Thrones (2011–2019)

The Best of the Best

[10/10 · 17 July 2014]

I watched the first two seasons On Demand, then I decided to read all 5 books. I loved the books, but after season 4 I'm convinced that the show is better. The casting of each character is perfect, particularly for Oberyn Martell and Brienne. Peter Dinklage is terrific and Emilia Clarke is sex on wheels. There is a lot of turnover in the casting and I miss some of my favorite characters, but that's just the story.

Seasons 1 and 2 were superb, season 3 dragged a tiny bit and season 4 was the best of the series so far. Largely because of Oberyn Martell.

The show deviates from the book plot a little bit, and just about all of them actually improved the story - filled some holes with a sensible change.

Grand slam home run, HBO. There are a ton of great HBO shows and this is the crown jewel. HBO series beat the crap out of 99% of the movies you're going to find in the theaters now.

The Leftovers (2014–2017)

This show is doomed and the reason is simple

[6/10 · 6 July 2014]

So far the story is somewhat interesting. But it's not up to snuff when you compare it to the rest of the great HBO shows - Sopranos, Game of Thrones, The Wire, Boardwalk Empire...

This show is guaranteed to get cancelled and the reason is Liv Tyler. She is quite possibly the worst actress on Earth and she is already destroying this show after two episodes. I think Justin Theroux has been great and Amy Brenneman is always decent. They gave Liv Tyler way too big of a part and she's been horrible as always. I like the direction of the plot as it looks like a good vs. evil / god vs. the devil showdown.

You heard it here, this show is not going to do well.

Buffalo '66 (1998)

Big fan of Vincent Gallo and this is by far his best work. Very, very funny movie that grabs your interest from the very beginning.

[9/10 · 23 November 2013]

Almost every sentence that comes out of Vincent Gallo's mouth makes me laugh. He says terrible things in his movies and in interviews, but he's one of the most interesting people in show business.

Every actor in this movie did a super job. Gallo, Christina Ricci, Mickey Rourke, Ben Gazarra, Anjelica Huston, Goon... the list goes on. How much of it was because of Gallo's direction, I don't know, but I loved every minute of it.

You can imagine the hilarity in an innocent, kind woman falling for a guy who is a miserable jerk. She never gives up, and the audience reaps the rewards of that. He's a jerk to his family, he's a jerk to his friends and he's a jerk to her. And all of it is hilarious.