Change Your Image
cmatzenauer
Reviews
Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery (2022)
MORE Murderville please!
These are absolutely fantastic! Massive kudos to the guest actors and Will Arnett for their performances.
Jason Bateman and Maya Rudolph were geniuses in this episode with Jason barely chuckling ocassionally at the natural silliness that was unfolding.
I laughed so hard at one point I was crying. This is not for folks looking for slapstick humour - this is dark sarcastic comedy at its finest! I imagine the negative reviews are from folks who just aren't into sarcasm.
The subtle nuances and clues and set touches really keep you on your toes to keep looking for the details!
Please - make more of these - for every season! They are fantastic!
Barbarian (2022)
#disappointed
I'm a huge horror movie fan, especially in October. We held off watching this until Halloween weekend as we thought it was going to be a classic and scary in some kind of innovative way.
Sadly, we could barely keep it on. No human would do anything this woman did and unfortunately that was at the core of why this was just stupid :(.
Not sure where the title came from either as it had no relevancy to the movie.
There was also a huge unanswered question that was never answered or eluded to again and not in a 'oohh I wonder what that meant' thought.... no... more like a writer had an idea, it was mentioned as critical in the movie.... and then forgotten.
And to waste the talents of Justin Long and Bill Skarsgård in a movie that doesn't have the depth to support their abilities.... I just don't understand HOW this has such high ratings :(
The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power: A Shadow of the Past (2022)
Overlay of constant music doesn't fix it :(
Like most of us I'm sure, I was greatly looking forward to the continuation of this epic saga.
My skepticism started as I watched the trailers when 'so' much focus was on the 'revealed head shots' like pulling down their hoods and looking right into the camera....that were so 'staged'.... I started to have my doubts about the depth and focus we would be getting with this version.
Sadly, my suspicions were right. The depth just isn't there...I really hope the director makes changes to next season (& if any way to make changes to this one that would be amazing).
My biggest complaint is the overlay of music, albeit beautiful orchestra playing, it is constantly playing too loud as an overlay so you can barely hear what the actors are saying but, worse, it takes away from the environment and feel of the scenes and diminishes their value. It's too much, too loud in the mix And way too often.
It seems like the director is using the music to fill in the drama that just isn't there.
The dialogue is also misplaced. There are long rants of shakespearian speak that is unnecessary and due to the overlay of music, you can't make out anyway.
While there is potential for depth and umph I'm doubtful it will be explored, at least this season.
Both my husband and I almost fell asleep :(. Which breaks my heart.
The director needs to spend quality time alone with Peter Jackson's versions and 'learn'.
Nightmare Alley (2021)
Underwhelming sadly
Great cast, cinematography and potential.... but just not good enough. The complexity that should have come with this level of a 'grift' wasn't there and it ended up being boring and too long.
The end was valuable but not enough to save what was missing. It was unfortunate to figure out Cate's plan in one step with no further thought or mind games involved.
Again, a lot of potential that didn't make it. I probably wouldn't recommend it despite the good performances.
Cate, Bradley, Willem, and my favorite Toni Collette save the movie as much as possible.
We're going to rewatch the Mentalist to get a fix of proper mind games that you can never figure out!
Dune (2021)
Disappointing and, frankly, boring.
Wanted to love, or even enjoy. But I found myself bored scene after scene. Take away the CG and you have nothing left but weak directing and acting that brought no life or depth to the film.
I don't know why it is rated so high except for possibly lovers of the book and story who are judging the film based on its CG.
To me, it can't be unbelievable scenery or stunning cinematography when is essentially all CG.
In the end..I was just happy, or sad I suppose, that I 'made it through'.
The Pack (2020)
Really sad for the dogs
I wanted to like this show but I just can't. In fact, episode 3 I just walked away upset as I truly feel this is animal cruelty. These dogs don't want to do this, they are freaked out the majority of the time. They aren't trained to live this life of these activities to, frankly, humor Hollywood and their owners.
I'm deeply disappointed in this production and can not support it.
It Chapter Two (2019)
Story, depth and scare factor replaced with boring special effects
I'm sad and disappointed. Sequel or not.. the director and probably the producer(s) relied way too much on special effects.
With this budget and the level of actors to work with and a genius storyline.. how do you cop out and rely on effects?
If you remove the typical blood filling bathroom, buried in dirt, oversized 'monsters' attacking each character one by one... each expected next scene was more over the top than the last.
It isn't that the movie is too long that's the problem.. it's that the director didn't use the time wisely.
The opportunities for real deep scares were ignored for the ridiculous disembodied head that became a large spider with legs... its too much of a not good thing.
The folks who financed this movie really lost a lot of money wasted on special effects that weren't good enough to remember and were over the top so much.. the story was lost :(.