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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
Boring Action
2 hours and 40 minutes of the thinnest spy story you can think of, turned into a schematic series of chases neverending scenes.
The best MI movies were never just about chases with any transportation vehicle you can think of, but included good plot twists and engaging narratives, like the double masked scene in the hotel in Ghost Protol. Here we have just a long series of people chasing someone, often Cruise, or escaping someone, often Cruise. From time to time the action stops for some boring explanation of the McGuffin. I sincerely hope they will change direction in the next episode, and save money for good screenwriters.
Foundation: The Sighted and the Seen (2023)
I stop here
I tried to go on on watching this mess of a screenplay, hoping that it would get better. Actually it is going down to unbelievable levels of stupidity. They wanted to make it better than the book, but they did so bad. They finally reduced to ashes the most interesting character of science fiction literature, the mule. No mistery, no surprise, everything is exposure of boring facts. I don't care at all about any of these characters, simply because they are terribly fake and artificial. I hope this is the last season and all the incredible artists the contributed to the visuals, go working for something else, written with the proper respect for the audience.
Extraction 2 (2023)
A never ending videogame with no joystick
Armed with a one-page screenplay without any invention or wit, all that remains is a never ending choreography of hyper violent action scenes.
Probably some kids will like it, but mine were so bored that they stopped during the overlong no-cuts extraction scene. CGI and real actors are so intertwined that it all looks incredibly fake. Why Netflix and Prime are producing empty products like this, Citadel, the Grey Man and Ghosted? What all these products are totally missing is not only substance, they have no style at all. If this is the future of movie streaming, let's all go back to theatres.
Il sol dell'avvenire (2023)
Sad and hopeless
This is a movie of an author that openly and transparently admits that he has nothing personal to say anymore.
His fantasies about italian communism in the 50s are completely childish. His marriage is sterile and purely based on repetitive ceremonies.
When looking for inspiration, he makes empty copies of scenes by Fellini and Woody Allen. The actor Moretti endures in repeating and enlarging obsessively the very same classic behaviours of his previous movies, so much that my 14 years old son asked me why his character is speaking in such an odd way.
Sadly, this is Moretti reflection on death: death of inspiration, death in movies, physical death, death in endless repetition. Infact, the end of the movie is clearly a funeral, with many of his actors from all his movies paying homage to him, with a smile. A mild attempt at sweetining the overall feeling of the movie, which is sadness and hopelessness.
Foundation: The Leap (2021)
I tried hard
In spite of the displeasure of boring myself in front of this gigantic act of presumption, I persisted until this last episode.
I admit that Lee Pace is pretty good at being the Emperor and that the cloning idea of Cleon(s) is not that bad.
But my gosh, I wasn't prepared for the "Hello! I am Salvor Hardin and I am back with a smile!" moment.
I stared petrified while Salvor was doing the classic exposure of his master plan to the audience of Star Trek wannabes.
I was still recovering from this very WTF moment, thinking that nothing could be worst than this, but I was wrong.
Salvor discovering that Gaal is her mother was way too much for me to bear. A mediocre plot device to reach the "everything is connected" wow effect, but that is artificial and seen already in too many soap operas before. Stop the player. Stare in silence. Enough.
Foundation (2021)
What a mess...
Apart from some characters names you won't find any trace of Asimov's Foundation in here, nothing.
The authors believe that their brand new story is much much better than anything written by Asimov.
This is not at all "Based on the novels by Isaac Asimov" but "Based on an idea by Isaac Asimov", simply because nothing from the novels is to be found here, apart from the starting idea.
But let's say that we don't care about Asimov's novels, we care about the characters, the story. Do we, when we watch Gaal Dornick screaming? Are we carried away by constant nonsense voice-overs? Do you feel like looking at a series of disconnected action scenes?
By comparison, "The Expanse" looks like written by Kubrick: believable characters that have an arc, a story that makes sense, nevertheless complex.
This is really sad, and after the deplorable movie "I, Robot" this is just another case of completely inappropriate use of Asimov's name.
Foundation: Death and the Maiden (2021)
Narratively mediocre
The source material offers so much to breath and feel the vastness and time spanning hugeness of Asimov's universe.
Unfortunately, here we find ourselves trapped in bad Star Trek episode territory, and I say it with the greatest respect for Roddenberry's creation.
The narrative is still haunted by tedious voice-overs, Klingon-speaking anacreons driven by the sad and overused "retribution" motivation, galactic emperors shooting CGI birds.
No trace of Asimov characters and inventiveness in here.
Foundation: The Mathematician's Ghost (2021)
Narrative doesn't work
I don't have any problem with book adaptations.
I don't have any problem with male book characters turning female.
But I have problems with confused narration going back and forth hundred of years in few minutes and constant voice-overs explains us what's happening because the story by itself is incomprehensible.
It's clear the authors do not trust Asimov material enough, and that's the real pity.
The Irishman (2019)
Miscasted and predictable
I have already seen too many mafia biographies, and the peak of the genre is Good Fellas. Nobody can outdone Good Fellas, not even Scorsese himself.
Here we find the classical themes of a mafia biography spanning from 50s to 70s, the usual wonderful camera work, the maniacal reconstruction of that era.
This is all a Scorsese obsession, like a kid that maniacally wants to go back to his childhood.
The movie is very predictable, to the point that you can easily anticipate each scene. Last but least, casting De Niro as an irish is total crazy.
The Predator (2018)
Worst one of the whole Predator series
By far the the lowest peak of the series and probably one of the worst movie ever. Logic is completely avoided and nothing makes much sense, like a beautiful model-looking scientist that shoots as an experienced soldier.
There is no tension whatsoever and the movie alternates misplaced humor, gore violence and wtf moments until the end.
Is it really funny to see an autistic kid witnessing massive body dismemberment?
The Night Manager (2016)
Predictable in every way
Maybe I was expecting too much, but I waited and waited for some kind of surprise or unexpected moment, which never came out. The story does not look as coming from Le Carre, as it is so simple and straight. Hugh Laurie sometime delivers some good baddie look, but he is not helped by the screenplay which gives him the usual "The world is already a bad place, I am just doing my job" lines to give him some substance. Tom Hollander is the only one delivering a believable, interesting and menacing character. I am sorry for Tom Hiddleston, who delivers a completely uninteresting flat Jonathan Pine, who is so lovable, generous, courageous and good at everything he does, that when the series ends I am not curious at all to see him again.
I, Robot (2004)
Asimov betrayed
Lousy boring and oversimplified sci-fi flick with a lot of non-sense visual effects and Will Smith over-acting as usual. There's nothing left here of Asimov's invention and creativity: no Daneel Olivaw and no Elijah Baley. What we get is not even a visual clear idea of the future, but just usual tech stuff we see even on TV. Is this REALLY the director of "Dark City" and "The Crow"? It looks like a complete different director. In his two previous movies at least we got a lot of visual ideas and an a certain atmosphere. Here he leaves Smith do his "I-am-the-smart-funny-guy" things without control and covers the rest of the movies of CGIs. A last note for the screenplay: Akiva Goldsman is the man that killed Batman and wrote "Lost In Space". Sometimes in the middle of the night I wonder how could he write "A beautiful mind"... Mysteries of the unknown.
La Cage aux folles (1978)
Much Better than the American version
Micheal Serrault's acting is wonderful! And the movie is so well-written and directed that i's almost a miracle of craftsmanship. The USA version (The birdcage) is a carbon copy without the european lightness and the humor of Serrault and Tognazzi, not forgetting the lovely Michel Galabru as the ultra-catholic politician.