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David65536
Reviews
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel (2017)
Not for everyone, enjoyable if you like over the top cutesy, weirdness, and nostalgia for things you did not experience. Watch it anyway!
This is from the same creators of Gilmore Girls (GGs) and it shows. It has the witty "charming" protagonist, a butch woman (not the same, but reminiscent of the mechanic chick in GGs) and it needs you to believe in them if you want to find them charming. As GGs the show is based in a lot of dialog and somewhat surreal events and interactions between the protagonists. This is my only beef with it and the reason for the 8/10 grade. At the second season I found myself liking less the protagonist as it is a little too "free spirited" to be likable, as in GGs the protagonist does not seem to have enough empathy with others to avoid being always brutally honest ignoring social conventions just for the sake of being cute.
I totally buy the romance that appears on many occassions: Paris, Summer Vacations, very stereotypical Italian-Americans, etc. The main plot is very likable if you don't care about the stand-up as it would be perceived today, but as it would had been perceived in the 50's. I like the struggles the protagonist suffer because of her naivete and I understand that part of being a comedian requires her apparent lack of mental filter, so I still enjoy the "free-spirited" way of the protagonist (I just find it a little bit over the top sometimes).
Tony Shaloub's character and his character's wife are too adorable and in some way I feel very representative of old school traditional marriages. They evolve into another "free-spirited" cute couple that may put off some people. I just love Tony too much to dislike the character. It is adorable.
All the other characters end up being cute and adorable too. In a GGs way all of them are sweet people and they do not represent reality. You have to have an infatuation with all of them to tolerate them. For this, I understand all the very low ratings. I find it a little bit too musical sometimes, but again I find the music very likable if you buy into the fantasy of the show. This is not exactly the same thing, but as in GGs you need to fall in love with the quirkyness. In GGs is Stars-Hollows' quirks and weirness.
The Orville (2017)
Better than expected if you watched trailers
This show is very fresh if you are a fan of Star Trek of which is not a parody at all. The jokes are not that good, but they are not distracting and they are just add a comtemporary atmosphere that I don't find too bad. The plots of each episode are different enough from each other to the extent that they seem like a mini film and they have high quality for the philosophical questions they take. I expected the show to be more preachy due to the presence of McFarlane but I found the plots to be balanced enough though you can see the progressive leanings of the creators. Anyway, there are other plots that are less about social issues and have some cool philosophical idea or an adventure that provides a neat character development.
I very rarely feel the impulse to binge watch a show and this one has been pretty bingeable so far. I hope the show continues for another season to see what is in the future for the main characters. These are very interesting if you don't mind some light hearthness and they have different qualities that makes them likeable. I am very fond of all of them.
There are some references to the akward interactions between the two commanders as they are a divorced couple in the teasers that may prevent you from watching this, but these interactions are kept to a minimum and eventually fade out to give space to other more interesting human interactions. There is humor in all the episodes, but it is kept under restrain and it only makes the series more watchable by providing some release from what could be a too serious atmosphere.
I am surprised to say that I like MacFarlane as the captain and I cannot imagine another captain for the Orville.
The show is an obvious copy of Star Trek and its style is very similar in the way adventures always have the Orville's crew exposed to real dangers in their missions, but they always manage to beat the odds. If you get the style of this type of show you won't be dissapointed because they seem to always manage to keep their main crew together. This is TV after all. Without giving a spoiler I liked a lot an episode that manages to be like a tribute to The Twilight Zone without ever making a reference to it, even though the show has plenty of cultural references. But again these references are very moderate and do not try to steal the show.
TL;DR. Watch this as a tribute to Star Trek with comtemporary human behaviors and some light heartness and you won't be dissapointed and your imagination will be delighted by many possible realities that are not close to our daily ones as well by issues that are very relevant today.
Con Air (1997)
Best pure cheese movie after Top Gun
The whole point of this movie is to enjoy over the top dialogue and situations. I watched this movie originally in 97 and it is still my pick me up movie next to Top Gun when I want to enjoy pure Hollywood cheesy drama/comedy.
If you want top notch effects and subtle drama this is not your movie. Here Nicolas Cage and John Cusack are the perfect heroic figures you dream when you are 13 years old and somebody gives you a budget to create a movie. From this view the movie is pure genius.
Cage plays the role of the good guy caugth in bad situations that land him in jail and in the Con Air flight that is supposed to move the worst criminals of the nation to a new supermax. All the story details of the movie pretty much do not make any sense in reality, but as movie tropes they are very entertaining.
This movie has all the movie tropes you can pack: from Cage writing love letters to his daugther explainig to an innocent mind how in jail you don't have playtime, to a prisoner that has to be transported Hannibal Lecter style but turns out to be a sweet philosophical guy. Malkovitch is the perfect mastermind sicopath criminal that has to be witty to boot. Many of the characters are overacted in a very effective way to make the movie hilarious even when you know that they are doing it intentionally.
There is plenty of action, physical comedy, puns all over, innocent people being as pure as the criminals being cheesily bad to make this a very entertaining movie. The ending could not be better with the non sequitur landing on Vegas strip. You know this scene does not make any sense, but it is part of the over the topness of the movie and therefore is a perfect fit for all the other exagerations. The villain -Cirus the Virus- is so evil that he has to go over several painful ways to kill him when you know that only one of them was necessary, but he is close to immortal so he needs to be killed several times.
And to top the cheesines Cage has to rescue a dirty bunny from the sewer to have a proper birthday present to his daughter. The scene where Cirus makes a threat to the bunny has to be one of the most hilarious things ever if you buy into the overly theatricness of the movie.
To me the greatness of the film resides on the playful way it uses a lot of classic cliches in an intentional way to push your buttons without insulting you as a viewer as you are into the joke all the time. This is not a movie to be taken seriously and at the same time it can be very smart when you notice how all the details are shown to maximize the epicness of the story. So please if you haven't watch this give it a chance, all the sillyness and outragoeusness is played masterfully and you will have a good time.
Ghostbusters (2016)
Woefully bad even if you lower your expectations
After the controversy about the all female cast and the unappealing trailer I lowered my expectations and decided to watch this movie without measuring it against the original Ghostbusters. I didn't pay too much attention to the gender of the characters and their positive or negative attributes. The movie is just not funny. The plot is messy and the exposition is very poor. It is very difficult to root for the protagonists as they are flat and there is no sense of the magnitude of the threat and you have a very unclear sense of what is going on. That forces you to rely on the original as a reference as it had a very clear enemy and a bunch of funny sidekick ghosts. The end is pretty weird and sort of comes out of nowhere.
I would not criticize too much the actors as the lines they were given after not very funny to begin with. The action is pretty much missing and scarce for a two hour long movie. And somehow all the time that is spent introducing us the characters and their motivations is lost. It's like they wanted to rely on the charms of Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, but as charming as they are you have to give them something to work with.
The interaction of the Ghostbusters with the government is not very funny either. I'm not going to introduce spoilers here so I'm just going to say that it was not an interesting parody and it tried to rely on jokes that didn't have to much punch.
All the scenes that i remember from the trailer, that were pretty alarming, are played in the movie with the results you expected. Not a good thing. I feel sad about the movie because given the nostalgic value of the original and how well it still stands despite the defects it has, I would had really liked for this movie to work, the idea of the reverse gendered Ghostbusters could have been made well and even taking advantage of the female perspective on things. I feel bad for women, they deserved a better movie and you sense that a funnier and smarter movie could have been made with the actresses cast for this remake.
From an amateur critic perspective, I think the movie makers forgot the the original Ghostbusters was a parody of many things: government, politicians, horror movies, fringe scientists, and romantic relationships. The movie had a lot of dialog comedy and pure slapstick but it didn't rely on them only.
Obviously the 2016 version of Ghostbusters sets the way for a sequel at the end. I just hope they find a different scriptwriter and director to make it.
For the Boys (1991)
If you like the music and are nostalgic about the era it is worth it, don't pay attention to the politics
I stumbled just two weeks ago with the soundtrack of this movie without knowing there was a movie for it. I absolutely loved the songs and the band tunes and decided to watch the movie. I think this movie looks better with the age as its obvious flaws (makeup of the old protagonists for example) probably offended moviegoers in 1991. Today the movie is doubly nostalgic as I also found charming the portrayal of the initial scene that was very 80's in style. The hate story in the backstage/perfect chemistry in the stage was perfectly performed and the music (and the now outdated jokes) are terrific. Because there is no pressure to ask the film to be perfect in every possible way now that is 2013, you'll enjoy the movie if you like the music and the 'magic' of show business in a now bygone era that is portrayed very well in the dramatic scenes of the film in my opinion.
iSteve (2013)
It is a parody of Steve Jobs hagiographies, don't take it as factual as it is not intended to be
The movie is not the best movie ever, but it is a good parody of every other Steve Jobs biopic. I think all the factual inaccuracies are totally intentional as it was common for Jobs to take credit intentionally and not for a lot of the innovations present in Apple and non-Apple products. For example, he actually had the vision to save Pixar financially, but he didn't create the lamp short film that was the first Pixar short film, and in the movie it appears as if he was the brains behind the lamp flick in an eccentric way.
The movie is very eccentric so its jokes are really convoluted and require a lot of previous knowledge of the real history of personal computing, computer animation movies, virtual reality, etc, etc.
The story about the rivalry of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates being partially motivated by Melinda Gates is a total fabrication, so it is just a way to make the story stereotypical as a love triangle totally made up as Steve Jobs was successful romantically too and the differences between the two titans were of other sort being competitors for the graphic OS market.
The virtual reality sex scene shown a typical virtual world of the 90's if you were into virtual worlds then showing perfect geometrical solids and primitive rendering techniques. So the movie is a little nostalgic in that.
The Commodore's CEO plot to out Jobs of Apple is also totally made up and it is a collage of real facts twisted in really imaginative ways. John Sculley uses Jobs' 'weakness' for sodas to infiltrate Apple as a Pepsico Marketing guy. But at the end he reveals that he never worked for Pepsi and he was a con artist working for Commodore. But everybody knows that Sculley was CEO of Pepsi for real and Jobs lured him into Apple. Again a surrealist joke.
But Steve Jobs is sort of a cult figure so at the end who knows if the serious biopics of Steve Jobs are more real. I guess that's the point of the movie in my opinion.
Ted (2012)
Entertaining but lazy comedy by Seth McFarlane
I am a McFarlane fan but the movie seemed to me too hung to Family Guy's cast and regular jokes. So I was disappointed to see that the teddy bear was made "funny" out of being a total jerk based on a combination of Quagmire-Peter Griffin from Family Guy. The idea of a teddy bear partier foulmouthed could be funny if the character wasn't so mean and utterly despicable.
As a Seth's follower I appreciate his 80's references and some of the comedy situations come from cameos from actors from Seth's favorite 80's movies: Top Gun and Flash Gordon. Those were classical McFarlane so I didn't dislike them. But the movie doesn't get out of the jokes and you never get a reason to like either Ted or to cheer for John Bennet, he never gets how disgusting his friend is to his girlfriend of four years. The movie includes a grotesque scene that IMDb doesn't like in Bennet's apartment which the girlfriend has to clean (!) and the teddy bear having sex with a coworker over food in a grocery store and getting promoted for it as a joke on corporate America I suppose... is not that the humor is too brown is that is not that funny in my opinion.
There is a competitor for the love of Mila Kunis character, but the guy is a total jerk all the time so we never see her falling for him, unless she is a total idiot too as she would be better alone. The denouement of the movie is not too bad, but you have to be a hardcore Family Guy fan to like the movie as it seems a long episode of the series. In the future I would like McFarlane to try some humor without trying to make an offensive joke every sentence or at least not fall for the easy ones, we have Family Guy for that: R-rated stuff that IMDb does not allow me to write... sometimes when you break taboos I consider them fine, but FamGuy has a tendency to try to be over the top and so we have enough of this in that cartoon series so it looks bad in a movie that otherwise has a good premise and a good cast.
Moonrise Kingdom (2012)
Ironically a very good film if you watch it without filters and if you like nostalgic films
Being an occasional movie viewer rather than a consecrated film critic I didn't know what I was signing up for when I added this film to my Netflix queue. Honestly I was expecting a romantic comedy set in contemporary times with a cute couple and freaked out parents, but it was too late to stop the disc from coming to my home when I realized that this is not my favorite type of movie.
Anyway I started watching it and I loved it enough to write a review, I had no expectations not being a follower of the Wes Anderson cult and that may have helped. I read some reviews that compare it to other Wes' movies and try to draw references outside my knowledge, so I watched it as a regular movie you just put in the player out of boredom.
The movie is filmed through a filter (or a set of them I'm no expert on the matter) that places the movie in the 60's besides the objects that appear during the film and their colors that come from those times. But the objects and the colors, the formal stuff, cannot do the magic without the attitudes of the characters. Those characters are what make the movie sweet, witty, charming and serious at the same time.
Some things that I loved about it are related to what growing up felt like before the Internet age. The fascination with cartography (maps appear several times with some intelligent jokes included), the fact that the Kakhi Scouts' leader seems being the most happy man in his job (leaders of young camps seemed to be having a great time then, and I don't see any problem with that), the wisdom that some kids have before puberty, and also the innocent violence that can have serious consequences.
**I checked the spoiler alert box, I may had given some before, but here's when my main spoilers come**
Another hit of the film is that the kids are able to make their own decisions during the film, not only the two main characters but the whole troop when the kid leader decides to help them. I loved the militaristic (intended as parody maybe) portrait of the Khaki Scouts and the telegraphic sounds and dots-in-map highlighting the telegraph connections, all connected to some militaristic efficiency in the way the Scouts sent their telegraphic messages but also reminiscent of old war movies before CGI robbed us from a big chunk of our imaginations.
The educational vinyl record was also spot on.
I also liked the adults on the film. They have frustrations more common in their times, but they have a great heart and it is obvious from the first time the policeman and the Khaki Scouts' leader talk to social services that one of them will offer to adopt the orphan kid. I guess that's all for blunt spoilers, so I only will hint that the previous to final scene is glorious in mixing nostalgic technology, drama, happy professional coincidences that make the adoption of the orphan kid easy.
I am somewhat sensitive to films that try to lecture me, or movies that are too indulgent to their creators' tastes, but this film cracked me up with its quirky sense of humor without saturating my emotions. I don't know about other Wes Anderson's films (I watched the Royal T and Rushmore like five years ago and I have forgotten many details from those movies), but this one didn't feel over the top emotionally, or technically (with all those filters and obsession to get picture perfect frames).
And, in my opinion, if you watch it without mental filters or expectations it is a very funny film with lots of laughs, some tears, but a definitely positive view of the 60's. But you have to be a fan of the quirky stuff, I happen to be a quirk fan. Anyway most of the movie is set in the mindset of young adventurous kids (Khaki Scout, camping loving, not bored of the organization type), so the quirkiness is not out of place (I absolutely loved the kids' wedding scene).
The Family Stone (2005)
I can't believe I liked this movie 6 years ago
This movie is so awful that I decided to write this after viewing it on TV one day I was sick and awake at 1AM. I am liberal and so I didn't have any problem with the 'stoned' qualities of the family portrayed in the movie. SJP acting is really good and I disliked her character so much when I saw this movie about 6 years ago that I sided with the Stones.
But I guess I have left my adolescent mindset and it is clear now how this 'liberal' family is a horrendous set of petty minded people. I could watch only an hour this time and being sick I didn't have too much else to do so that says pretty much how much I disliked the characters.
We are supposed to be charmed by the quirks of this dysfunctional family, but the way they humiliate SJP's character -Meredith- is appalling to see. She escapes from the Stones' house and registers in a hotel after calling her sister to come for help. But in the scene when she is waiting for her boyfriend to drive her to the hotel, Luke Wilson's character shows up to give her a coffee in a mug that belongs to his mother who hates her (!!!) while doing this he is insinuating her physically and obviously hitting her, he even tells her he had a dream with her! Then Meredith's sister comes and she is immediately welcomed by the Stones, she seems to prefer them to her own sister anyway. After the sister asks a very awkward question to the gay couple and survives, Meredith feels confident to ask another awkward question failing miserably. But at this point the family is so over the top unlikable that I was on Meredith's side at this point. Meredith is humiliated again and she tries to escape again, but she collides with a tree and in that moment neither her sister or her boyfriend runs to support her. Luke Wilson's character acts as the saver and they end up having a sort of date which end with them sleeping together without sex. When Luke Wilson's goes away with Meredith her boyfriend ends up having a date with Meredith's sister who doesn't seem to care to much about her sister or about being romanced by her sister's boyfriend! There are other points of the plot that are contrived and don't make too much sense if you are non-judgmental with uptight people. Curiously this time I found Meredith the most likable (the only likable perhaps) character in the movie. With all her faults, she was only a snobby uptight girlfriend trying to fit in her boyfriend's family.
The epilogue of the movie is unbelievable and only tries to be a feel good moment. I couldn't believe that this movie got so many good reviews when it was just released, but I liked the movie then too so I guess this movie is likable when you are as judgmental as the Stones and think that that gives you a license to be a jerk with uptight people.
Ratatouille (2007)
A classic of the computer animation films
To me this is one of the best animated movies of the last years. It has a very inspiring story and has a timeless signature. It has many comedy elements but is not overloaded with jokes that make reference to the present time (like Shrek).
This movie integrates a very nice story, with attractive characters and the last advances in computer animation. Is a real art work in the sense that it integrates all its elements without oversizing one of them: an inspirational cartoon tale that uses the computer graphics with some elements of comedy.
The facial and corporal language of the main characters is amazing. I love too that its makes reference to the typical problems that sometimes you have to get all the things you love at the same time.
This movie also has many other goodies inside, but it's up to you to discover them.