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Corner Office (2022)
It should have been an episode
The premise of the film is intriguing and quirky, worthy of an episode of The Twilight Zone, but not enough for a full feature film, let along one that lasts 1.40 hours. The story has been adapted from a book, and I suspect it must have been a very short one.
This is the biggest limitation of this movie: there is not enough "meat" in it. Not enough plot, characters, situations, or character development. In fact many of the scenes seem repetitive, slow-paced and prolonged more than it's necessary.
Another important issue is that the ending is predictable. I could tell how the film was going to end halfway into it. Even though some people will try to extract some deep meaning from it and the story overall, there aren't enough elements to suggest there's a deeper message but to address the alienation of work life.
On the positive side, it's refreshing to see a story that is very different from everything else. Points to that.
Going Ape (2013)
A fascinating exploration of our animal nature
It is quite suprising that, considering we humans are essentialy apes, we rarely think about it. This documentary addresses our animal nature directly, pointing out fascinating similarities between the behaviour of chimps and humans in three key domains: dominance, sexual behaviour and group dynamics.
The tone and pace of the show is humorous and dynamic, and several hidden cameras experiments are set up to demonstrate the concepts expressed by the experts. This adds a great deal of fun to the whole experience.
Some of the content surely could make some viewers uncomfortable. It's not always too pleasant to face our primitive fundamentals.
Encounters (2023)
I became a disbeliever
I should say that before watching this documentary I was open-minded in regards to the UFO phenomena. But this piece of "documentary" convinced me all the depicted events are more based on fables and imagination than reality.
In part I feel sorry for the people behind this series. I suspect they started truly interested in researching every case in depth, but they kept encountering there was not much to say, nor much evidence to support anything.
Among the testimonies, we find some of them are truly absurd, of the kind "I was in bed half asleep and I dreamed that I was abducted". Or "If we can believe Jesus walked on water, why don't we believe in aliens? We have whitnesses to support both".
The episode about the Fukushima UFOs sightings was particularly embarassing. They claim hundreds of people saw the UFOs, but they were only able to provide 1 blurry and shaky video that only lasts around 3 seconds. And they spend a big part of the episode discussing Astro Boy in the Japanse culture, for no reason whatsoever.
Not something I'd recommend anyone watch.
Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome (1954)
No plot, no direction
I'm not familiar with Kenneth Anger and his work, this is my first time watching one of his films. I understand he's was an experimental indie filmmaker, but the overall quality of this film doesn't even reach the standard of a student project. Basically it seems that Anger dressed up some friends in different cheap costumes and recorded them doing poses and movements. But there's nothing else than that: there's no plot, no dialogue, no meaning. The acting is very poor. I've read that the characters are supposed to represent gods from various religions, but the costumes are so cheap and improvised that it is impossible to recognise any deity. For such a short film, it gets surprisingly tedious very quickly. I'd categorize this film in a bin labelled "unwatchables". Not worth anyone's time.
We Have a Ghost (2023)
Tig Notaro is painful to watch
"We have a Ghost" is a lighthearted and entertaining adventure, similar in tone and theme to Ghostbusters. In normal cirumstances, I'd give this film an 8 stars rating. Bug Tig Notaro's performance is so unprofessional that can't be ignored. It's puzzling that she has been casted not in one but several films. In fact, it seems like a supernatural event no less incredible than the existence of ghosts.
Every time Tig Notaro is on screen she becomes distracting, because you're never sure what emotion she's trying to convey. And it seems the director wasn't sure either, because he stays with her longer than he should, probably expecting her to do "something". But she just stands there. She doesn't move her body, and she barely moves her face. You could move a mannequin with your hands and it'd look more alive and expressive than Tig Notaro.
Violent Night (2022)
Too silly, too gruesome
This film is too silly and unrealistic to be for adults, and too violent and gruesome to be for children. So it seems it doesn't know who's talking to. Another problem is that it seem to have "borrowed" elements directly from Home Alone and Die Hard, and not in a subtle way.
Despite its weaknesses, I do believe somewhere there, with some plot tweaks, was the seed for a great film. "Violent Night" just needs to decide if it wants to be either "magical" or violent and gory. The combination, at least in its current form, does not work. Maybe it could have worked if it had gone full "Happy Tree Friends", that is, full cute madness.
Wednesday (2022)
Wednesday is not an Addams
"The Addams Family" films are among my all-time favourites, and I had high hopes for this series considering Tim Burton is again in the directing role. But to my surprise almost every aspect of this series is simply wrong.
One main problem here is the core concept. The Addams family is supposed to be a eccentric or weird family, and the main conflict in their stories -as well as one of the main sources of comedy- comes from the conflict between this family and the "normal world" that surrounds them. But in this series Wednesday goes to a school for misfits with supernatural powers, among which we can find vampires and werewolves. They seem much more dangerous and even more interesting than Wednesday. So anything special about the character is simply gone out the window from the start. What could possibly be interesting about Wednesday, if she's surrounded by actual monsters? She's just a girl who says creepy things. Strangely, characters around her still act like they're scared of her, which makes no sense whatsoever. Shouldn't they be more scared of the actual vampires and werewolves in the school?
Another big problem is the casting. I can't imagine for a second that Catherine Zeta-Jones (Morticia) and Luis Guzmán (Gomez) are a couple. And apparently they neither, because they don't seem eager to touch each other. Pugsley doesn't look like Pugsley. Uncle Fester doesn't look like Uncle Fester. Every character seems off. And the title character most than anyone. Jenna Ortega has a "sexy latina" look that certainly doesn't match the Wednesday Addams style. Characters around her call her "pale", but she seems to have a healthy tan. Shouldn't a teenage Wednesday look like a stereotypical gothic girl? Is that so difficult to do? Also, for someone who is pretending to be a cold, unexpressive killer, Jenna Ortega seems too emotional. It's the most unconvincing character, probably because it's the one with the most screen time.
Another worrying aspect is the comedy. "The Addams family" films had great jokes, which still make me laugh despite having seen them 100 times. And dark comedy provides so many opportunities... But in "Wednesday", most jokes don't land. And in some cases, they were so bad that they made me wonder if they were actual jokes. I've seen bad comedies, but I've never seen a comedy so bad that I'm even unsure if they're trying to make me laugh. It's perplexing.
But the most unforgivable of all these sins is not understanding the characters and what made The Addams Family great. It was the story of a family that, despite having very odd members, loved each other and cared for each other. "Wednesday" fails miserably at that. The first things we learn about the title character is that she seems to hate her parents and despise her brother. She doesn't love anyone, so why should we love her?
Ancient Apocalypse (2021)
Just a load of BS
It's a shame Netflix includes and promotes content like this. Documentaries should be based on facts. The point is to document reality. But "Ancient Apocalypse" is more interested in pushing absurd claims. It tells us about a "theory" that a mysterious advanced civilization existed before us and got extinct.
To any reasonable person that "theory" would sound ridiculous, considering that, if that were the case, that civilization would have left plenty of evidence of its existence, that archeologists would have found.
Basically, this documentary is just a new spin to the old "The pyramids were built by aliens" claim. To anyone who have been misled by this documentary, I'd recommend researching how the pyramids were actually built, because that's known already. There's no mystery there anymore.
Samaritan (2022)
Entertaining
It's an entertaining film, but in this day and age it seems a bit out of date. It reminds me of superhero movies from the 90s or early 2000's. In many parts it seems too generic and cliché.
Stallone's performance is good. But one massive problem is that the film relies too much on a child actor, something that is always difficult to pull off.
A detail that took me completely out of the film was the superhero suits. We all know that in this genre the suits are fundamental. But here they were so goofy that they seemed more like the kind of suits you would find in a parody, not a serious superhero film. It didn't help that the hero and villain suits were almost identical. The characters backstory was also very goofy and generic, which didn't match the seriousness in the rest of the film.
In sum, I would recommend Samaritan only if you are a big superhero fan who doesn't miss any superhero film, or you don't mind watching something super generic to pass the time. Otherwise, you can skip it safely.
Ang-ma-reul bo-at-da (2010)
Gory revenge film that goes nowhere
This film has some of the most gory and distasteful scenes I have seen in a long time. Which wouldn't be a crime if the plot of "I saw the Devil" presented a cohesive or interesting story. But it just goes nowhere. The plot is so weak and rambling that it seems improvised on the go, and just an excuse to show gory scenes one after another.
The lack of ideas becomes quite obvious when we see that similar or identical situations repeat themselves 2 or 3 times. It makes you wonder if the creators behind this film were simply focusing on shock value. It seems like that, because I couldn't find anything else here apart from that.
I can't say the movie intended to show the true horror of evil, because the way the characters behave is very unrealistic. Also, none of them seem to have a personality. There's no psychological depth whatsoever. Maybe teenagers interested in seen something shocking will find some value in it.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (2022)
She's not a superhero
If we compare the first MCU characters to be introduced in films, like Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Hulk... Their character development was very different than the MCU characters that we have been presented lately. Each character gets his powers because they deserve them and/or those powers are representative of who they are. But recent MCU characters like She-Hulk seem to just bump into their powers. They have done nothing special to get them or deserve them. She-Hulk in this series is not a superhero, she's a super.... person. Just a woman with superpowers. I don't see much of heroic in her behaviour and thoughts. Marvel seems to have forgotten that a superhero is not merely a random person with superpowers. They should have values too.
The Degenerates (2018)
Just watch the Nikki Glaser episode
Nikki Glaser is the only one that made me laugh, and the only one that performs like a professional comedian. The rest are really bad, amateurs at best. Some of the acts and jokes were quite cringey.
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
I'm done with Marvel
I think I have been patient enough, but since Endgame almost nothing good have come from Marvel. Phase 4 has been disastrous. No direction, bad scripts, bad character development, bad CGI. And it took several films but people finally seem to start to notice. Captain Marvel, Shang Chi, Eternals, Strange 2... and now this. I wonder what changed. It seems evident that someone in Marvel who knew what he was doing has been sidelined, because the drop in quality is very noticeable.
Bill Burr Presents: Friends Who Kill (2022)
Very cringe
Considering Bill Burr and Jimmy Carr are part of this, my expectations were high. But it's terrible. It almost seems like the comedians involved had little time to prepare material for this stand up, or they didn't want to use their best jokes. Or their mediocre ones. It's really bad.
100 Humans (2020)
Fake science with an agenda
For a show that pretends to show scientific experiments, it's surprisingly unscientific. The general public won't probably notice, but any person with some idea of how real experiments should be conducted will see it. It seems all the experiments have been pre-arranged to give a certain result. In some cases you can even tell how they have been rigged.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Multiverse of plotholes
The cracks in the MCU are starting to notice more and more. I don't know what causes it, but the scripts are getting worse and worse in phase 4. It's inexplicable how a new superhero could be introduced in this film without explaining where her powers come from and with almost zero character development.
American Vandal (2017)
It's excellent... and it was cancelled
This is one of the best series I have ever watched. It was very popular too. Inexplicably, Netflix cancelled it. No wonder Netflix is losing subscribers.
Stan Against Evil (2016)
Blatant rip-off
Blatant rip-off of "Ash vs Evil Dead", with a much cheaper budget. It's not the first Amazon Prime series that seems to be a direct copy of Netflix content. Not sure what's the strategy behind these shameless copies.
Cinderella (2021)
Simply awful
This is a Cinderella film that Amazon Prime created to compete against Disney Cinederella brand. It truly shows why Disney is good at what they do because I couldn't find not one single redeeming aspect in this film. Avoid at all costs. I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy.
Morbius (2022)
No blood?
A vampire film without blood. That says it all. And it clearly shows that the film has been poorly thought since the start. Not to mention that the character is probably one of the most unknown and uninteresting comic book characters.
Is This a Joke? (2011)
This is the worst thing I've ever seen on any streaming service
I was browsing Amazon Prime and the illustration caught my attention, so I checked it out. It's so bad it's insulting. I cancelled my subscription as a result of watching 5 minutos of this.
American Gods (2017)
Slow as a snail
One of the slowest TV shows I've forced myself to watch. For a bunch of gods, they don't do much beyond talking. Simple actions and dialogiues get extended inexplicably for minutes.
It wouldn't be so bad if at least the series were coherent and had a proper plot. But it's impossible to follow. According to comments and reviews I've seen online, most people who claim to understand American Gods are people who have read the book on which it is based, or have been searching for explanations on Google. The series, as it is, is incomprehensible.
It was funny that in an interview I watched Ricky Whittle -who plays Shadow Moon- admitted he couldn't understand what is going on in the series and that he had to read his lines many times to understand what his character is doing or what his motivation is. If the cast doesn't get it, imagine what's left to us.
The Book of Boba Fett (2021)
Bad acting and weak plot
I loved the 1st season of The Mandalorian so I was excited to see what would happen in The Book of Boba Fett. But this first season has been a major disappointment.
For a start, bad acting. I haven't seem much from Temura Morrison but if we have to judge by this series, he is a bad actor. He doesn't look convincing in the role. His performance is very stiff, and soon you get tired of seeing him doing the same poses and doing the same gestures again and again. Ming-Na Wen has the same problem. It seems she's always doing the same face and speaking in the same tone. I'm not seeing any acting range or changes in emotions. It seems they're always putting a lot of effort into trying to look "cool", and instead it looks silly.
The other major problem is the plot. In The Mandalorian, the plot was easy to follow. We understood the character from the start. A bounty hunter, a loner. In The Book of Boba Fett, I can't really tell who Boba Fett is or what's his end goal. It seems like he's someone who has nothing, an old and tired soldier, but he behaves as if everyone should bow before him as if he were a king. At the same time, no one seems to respect him much and he keeps being tricked by almost anyone he meets. So he has a very high image of himself, which doesn't seem correspond with how others view him. So it results in a character that is... kind of pathetic.
The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window (2022)
Read this if you don't get it
I've noticed from several reviews that a lot of people simply didn't understand this series. It's actually a parody of a recent trend in thrillers, of which some good examples would be "Servant" (on Apple TV) and "Archive81" (on Netflix).
They're thrillers that have a small cast and are very slow paced. The episodes are full of suspense and tense situations that come from nowhere and lead nowhere. You can watch 3 episodes of that kind of series and the plot doesn't seem to advance. Information about what's really going on comes rarely and in small doses.
I enjoyed The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window as much as I hated the series it's making fun of.
Peacemaker (2022)
Unwatchable
I was surprised by how slow this series is. Actions that could be shown in 2 seconds drag for 5 minutes. Dialogues that could be resolved quickly continue and continue for no reason. It would be worth watching if there were any depth to the characters and the story, but unfortunately there isn't. The main character isn't really interesting and John Cena acting skills aren't precisely top-notch. I've watched almost any superhero film and series created but this one is simply unwatchable.