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thekeithbahjat
Reviews
Memory (2022)
Ludicrous ludicrosity
A man hits his head and ends up in the hospital. When he awakens, he believes he is a prominent scientist. He attempts to reunite with his wife, but finds another man in his place, claiming to be the person he believes he is. He struggles to understand how he has been replaced, while a crew of baddies chase him to keep him quiet. Throughout this ordeal, it never occurs to him as odd that he knows absolutely NOTHING about science. I'm an invited speaker at a genetic engineering conference, but I have no clue what I would talk about. Or what genetic engineering is. There are 100 other ridiculous holes in the plot, but this one should sufficiently convey the point.
Bill Maher: #Adulting (2022)
Old Man Yells at Cloud: The Movie
Bill laughed way more at his own jokes than I did. More than the live audience did. An hour of smugly complaining about the blatantly obvious without proposing solutions (not that this was supposed to be a policy talk, it's a comedy show - nevertheless, that's kind of his MO as of late. Non-constructive criticism). He remains overly-concerned with other people's choices, i.e., mask wearers, people with tattoos. If you're one of the few people still watching his show, you've heard most of this special.
Shattered (2022)
Misery meets Basic Instinct meets Rear Window, and is run over by Dumb and Dumber
Is John Malkovich OK? Seriously - he's very out of place in this ill-conceived idea of a "thriller".
An amalgam of ideas from past classics stitched together for a freshman writing class. Embarrassing acting performances, especially the female lead - to the point where you question if the writer, director and actors were trying to make something purposefully bad as some sort of a statement? I don't understand either.
Dear Mr. Malkovich - blink twice if you are in trouble.
Don't Look Up (2021)
Depressingly accurate satire
Fantastic screenplay from Adam McCay - captures the current anti-intellectual wave to a T...and therein lies the sadness. It's simply too spot-on. Almost nothing that happens seems like a stretch considering the current state of affairs in the US.
Now to the scoring: I struggled with one line - was it intentional or an unfortunate reflection of society's ignorance? Toward the end of the movie, Dr. Minday mispronounces nuclear as "nuke-you-ler". Was this (a) A mistake by the actor (as a tenured professor in a scientific discipline would certainly not mispronounce nuclear)? Or (b), is it a dig at Michigan State or perhaps the current state of science as a whole (where a tenured professor can't correctly pronounce nuclear)? If the latter - deep burn, McCay! If the former - send the editors back in to dub over the mispronunciation.
Apologies for the long-winded rant over a single word - more a reflection of the movie's perfection (and my neuroses regarding detail) than any shortcoming by the production team.
John and the Hole (2021)
Come on
Being confusing and illogical does not make your movie a work of art. The whole premise is nonsense. Freshman creative writing tripe.
From Jail Cell to Stem Cell: The Next Con for the Ex-Con (2020)
Chiropractors running a scam?!? Say it aint so!
Alright, this is an insightful report for the gullible among us. A disgraced chiropractor uses a similar boondoggle to push other untested, unproven "treatments" on individuals who don't know better. As a scientist who develops cell-based therapeutics for cancer, I've always been dumbfounded by what these clinics advertise. Glad they put this documentary together - hopefully somebody listens.
Perhaps next they can do chiropractic treatments?
Greenland (2020)
Selfishness over survival
Probably not the best film for those witnessing the US pandemic response. Selfish people grinding any organized plan to a halt. I found myself being very pro-comet.
On the positive side, at least there WAS an organized plan in this alternate timeline.