Change Your Image
justino1996
Reviews
No Time to Die (2021)
As sharp as a fork
I'm still baffled this film is 163 minutes long. The best way to prepare for this film is to picture it as a double greatest hits album; has some highs, has some lows and has some unfinished demos.
It's hard to not reckon back to Casino Royale (since this film does from the beginning) but the series ended nowhere near where it started. No Time to Die takes the grit of the former and replaces it with the charm of a collectible Elvis dinner plate. What should have been a retrospective story of Bond understanding what it means to be 007, the film quickly abandons this idea and lets the story play itself out. ".
Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2020)
Wonderful setups, disappointing execution
The original Borat struck the world at the PERFECT time. A time when certain topics deserved to be questioned and satirized when they commonly weren't. Borat was a breath of fresh-woke-air. Sadly, 16 years later, Borat Subsequent Movie Film marginally fails to match the payoff of its culturally classic original. Every joke is based upon political/social satire, just like the original, but never once goes over the realm of being anything funnier than something you saw on College Humor or SNL four years ago. Every joke is there waiting to be told, but never attempts to be anything more than a "that's funny" comment. The film feels incredibly safe when it should have let itself let loose and stir the pot like it did almost two decades ago. A lot of this can be related to the lives we live now where politics have become hyper saturated and aggressive to the point where nothing makes us "surprised" anymore. I can't let that excuse the new Borat, but I think it may have been a roadblock that is impossible to to hurtle in this political climate. To more technical faults, the director clearly did not have a sense of classical comedic pacing; every joke is a mile a minute, not unlike a new episode of family guy. We never get the chance to examine Borat's reactions to the cultural divide that made his first outing so charming but realizing. This is a film that would have greatly, and I mean greatly, come to excellent realization as a multi-part series not unlike modern streaming-only documentaries. I feel this would have been the true home of the beloved Borat Sagdiyev. To conclude, there's visual enjoyment to be had, however, there's nothing here you can't get from watching YouTube for the 97 minute running of Borat Subsequent Movie Film.
3 from Hell (2019)
Something was off from the start
I attended the 3rd and final night of the film's theatrical presentation. The 3rd night happened to be a double feature featuring The Devil's Rejects leading right into it's sequel. I think this was unfortunately a fatal decision since it truly shows how inferior of a film this is to its predecessor. From incredible first act problems to 75% of plot points being rehashed from the previous film, 3 From Hell falls flat. Imagine a car continuously stalling, it gets so close to taking off, but perpetually stalls. This film lacked that dirty, nasty, gross taste we expect with a Rob Zombie film and instead replaces it with silly silly humor and Hollywood production. The film gradually feels more Hollywood and standard as we approach the third act which presents itself like one big reshot 3rd act almost completely separate from themes and character arcs presented in the first half of the film. While it was a joy to see the Firefly family once again, I feel this film ultimately tarnishes the image of the first two thirds of this trilogy. Predictable and tame; two words I'd never expect to describe a sequel to The Devil's Rejects.