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Rubikon (2022)
Production Quality: HIGH - Writing Quality: TOILET
Rubikon(2022) - Science Fiction - Austria - 1 hr 50min - Set onboard an orbital Space Station this otherwise well done production was apparently written by a collection of hysterical emotional amateurs. When the opening minutes of the story begin the viewer will immediately perceive the skill with which the film has been crafted. Cinematography, color balance, lighting, set design are all composed with experienced professionalism. The acting is convincing and the directing on target. One will believe that a decent Science Fiction movie is on its way. Sadly it quickly becomes apparent that the writers have emotional problems of their own and have mercilessly incorporated those hysterical mental issues into the actions of their characters and the progress of the plot. Professional astronauts acting like bitter demented children having one tantrum after another. It makes no sense to the viewer. There is nothing believable or realistic in the actions of people that would normally be selected for their intelligence, calm demeanor and performance under extreme situations. It is as if the authors have absolutely no idea what it takes to become an astronaut. The overall result is ridiculous and almost unwatchable. Production 8.5 Acting 7.5 Characters 4.0 Plot 2.0 OVERALL: 5.0 (this review 2022nov.05)
The Way Back (2020)
Plot Blunder
Ben Affleck's character breaks into a guys house by mistake while drunk. Attacks him in an effort to escape. ALMOST KILLS THE GUY. Then the next scene you see him playing basketball like everything is gonna be ok. WHY ISNT THE IDIOT IN JAIL ?? The writer decides we'll just ignore that I guess. Idiotic. Otherwise a decent although predictable time waster.
Black Rock (2012)
Decent Movie - Distorted Moral Grounding
I liked this film. Decent production quality and acting for the budget level. Lake Bell is a natural beauty and a joy to behold every time she is on the screen. The tension is well built and the story progresses at an engaging pace. The action and violence is handled reasonable well if perhaps not entirely expertly. Overall a well done and entertaining effort.
*** SPOILERS ***
Elements of the plot suggest a distorted moral sensibility or perhaps a screen writer with psychological issues : One of the three female characters is physically engaging one of the men while the group drinks around the camp fire. Touching him flirting with him, overtly verbally expressing her attraction for him while she caresses him in front of the group. This is a man she only met hours earlier. He is reluctant and repeatedly disengages her physical advances. It appears he would prefer to speak to a different woman sitting in front of the fire. The flirtatious woman seems to reach a point of frustration since her advances are not reciprocated so she goes to the woods for a bathroom break shall we say and she lures the man she is interested in to come join her. He does. She kisses him passionately and so he asks if she wants to "have fun". In the context of the scene the invitation is for sex. She agrees. They are lying on the ground, both breathing hard and apparently sex hormones now raging at high levels in both, removing clothing. Suddenly she decides she no longer wants to have sex and she murders the man by crashing a sharp rock into the side of his skull.
Now as a viewer it is clear that this woman is emotionally unstable and she has just gone insane and killed a man she doesn't even know. A man she enticed to have sex in the woods. She spuriously and with little warning changed her mind about having sex and kills this poor guy.
I believe that the audience is supposed to side with the woman because there was a point in time where she appeared to change her mind. Any judge or prosecutor viewing the exact same footage would clearly convict her of entrapment / murder but the viewer I believe is supposed to see it as an attempted rape.
In a sense this one scene, given that it is the pivotal scene of the film, is disastrously misguided. The screen writer should have made it a clear case of attempted rape so that the viewer would side with the woman as a potential victim rather than an obvious criminal psychotic.
The women then proceed to murder the other two men and escape to freedom by stealing the dead men's boat.
The film was quite good. I enjoyed watching it, but the women in the story were not the valiant women defending themselves against a trio of evil men they were unstable violent criminals plain and simple.
I suspect the woman who wrote the screen play, Katie Aselton, sees it differently. This is a sad comment on how women view the world they live in and their place in it, but such is the state of humanity.
Detroit (2017)
Unintentional Comedy
*** mild spoilers ***
1960's Detroit is in a state of utter chaos. Police and military swarm the streets in an attempt to control rioting, violence and looting that has ravaged the city for days. Some people are partying in a motel not doing any harm and one guy decides it would be funny to shoot several rounds (just sound generating blanks) of his starter pistol out the window in the direction of the squad of soldiers/police across the street. The police storm the building trying to find the "shooter" and in the process shoot and kill the guy that had shot off the starter blank rounds.
I laughed uncontrollably at how idiotic this moron with the starter pistol was and how hilarious it was that the writer decided that he be the one killed as the police raided the building. It could have been anyone else that decided to do a rabbit run and subsequently got killed by the trigger happy police.
What follows is equally comedic when you watch the remaining party goers submit to assault, torture and torment by the police as they attempt to discover who it was that was shooting at the police. No one will admit that yes, one among them was shooting but it was only a blank shooting starter pistol and that in fact the guy that did the shooting was already dead on the floor.
If they had simply explained this then the entire interrogation/torture event would have been over. You could have wrapped up the film and rolled the credits. To me this was hilarious. Why would they not simply explain this, tell the cops where they thought the pistol was and be done with it.
The writer chose to have the characters all remain silent in spite of the threats and beatings. It makes no sense and this is the basis for comedy.
In addition to this obvious error in screen writing the cinematography is just terrible. The camera jumps around incessantly regardless of whether the characters are motionless sitting in chairs or whether they are running frantically down the street. Zooming is excessive and random. The shot will suddenly show part of someone's foot, then the side of a head, then down at the floor, then an overly zoomed shot of a wiener cooking in a fry pan... etc etc. Was the camera man ON DRUGS ??? Why didn't the director control him ?? The entire affair makes you sea sick. Its a cheap, unprofessional, grade C effort. The budget of $34 million posted on IMDB makes no sense. This film has the look of a 2 million dollar effort.
Overall I must admit that I did get some laughs at how absurd the story was, how pathetic the characters behaved and every time the camera man suddenly zoomed way in on some random object or part of someone's body it made me smile. So I'll give it a 4/10 which meant there was some entertainment value but overall it bothered me more than not.
Yes, yes I know there is supposed to be a message about some social/political issues here but that message is utterly lost in the crappy delivery style of the film.
Life (2017)
Riveting Thrilling Intelligent Science Fiction Horror
The beauty and awe inspiring wonder of space is captured in the opening scenes of this movie. Samples from mars are to be analyzed by crew members of the International Space Station.
From the very beginning moments of the film you are immediately drawn into the environment. The characters are quickly and efficiently painted such that you will develop a connection with and understanding of who they are. This is critical for any good story telling since the audience or reader must empathize with the characters in order to truly feel a presence and thus have interest in the proceedings.
This film is virtually flawless. If you enjoy a well written, intelligent and clear science fiction story that at the same time is thrilling and has a powerful emotional tone you must watch LIFE(2017).
The nominal 7/10 rating with the average 6.7 here on IMDb is not even close to reality. This film is easily a straight up no questions asked 9/10. I loved it !
Planet Dinosaur (2011)
Excellent Series - Terrible DVD production Quality
Planet Dinosaur (2011) DVD - An excellent series on the subject of dinosaurs. Several species are covered including hunting behaviors, diet, nesting, habitat range. The information is delivered in a professional and yet exciting fashion. Very well done.
I've enjoyed several of the BBC produced series on the subject of Dinosaurs. They are all good. The dramatic fashion in which this series is presented is excellent. Narration by John Hurt is flawless. Much of the content incorporates new evidence uncovered within the last 10 or 15 years which gives this series a fresh and interesting view. The additional mini documentary on how Dinosaurs are reconstructed is very informative and enjoyable - don't skip that segment.
It is difficult to comment on the quality of the CGI since I watched this on DVD. They put over 3 hours of content onto ONE SINGLE DVD disc ! What a BLUNDER. In order to accomplish this they must compress spectral and resolution information to such an extent as to render the final visual product a disaster. How could they have done this ? Were they trying to save a few bucks on production costs or did the marketing people convince them it would sell better as a single disc ? They even eliminated the chaptering and time sequence data to further save on space. This means that if you stop watching in the middle of one episode to go use the bathroom your DVD player has no way of remembering where you were. You must restart the episode from the beginning and fast forward to where you were. Ridiculous.
Perhaps the BLU-RAY disc version has all these flaws corrected. As bad as the disc quality was I still really enjoyed the content and rate this an easy 7/10. On BLU-RAY this may be an 8/10 or higher.
Brimstone (2016)
Brilliant Heartbreaking Gruesome Satisfying Unsatisfying
*** MINOR CONTENT STRUCTURE SPOILERS ***
WARNING - This Movie is NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH !! Don't watch this film and trash it because you were grossed out. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED
One of the most memorable scenes in ALL OF MOVIE MAKING EVER. You'll know it when you see it. The hand.
The story is excellent. Riveting. Realistic and at the same time over the top. While you can believe any of the events that occur might very well have occurred in that time period under those conditions you will still be shocked repeatedly and to your core. While many scenes are gruesome none of the violence is gratuitous. This statement will confuse many readers but at the same time others will understand what is meant by this seemingly cryptic observation.
I believe that chopping up the plot and telling the story backwards was an mistake. This was probably decided in post production during the editing phase to give the final product an uncommon spin. The continuity is compromised and you can tell that the writer/director had not initially intended this delivery. This complaint however does not completely undermine the effectiveness of the story it diminishes it only somewhat. Artistically oriented people will actually enjoy the decision.
One significant error I feel was found in the balance between the time spent watching the sympathetic characters get the crap beaten out of them and the time spent seeing the evil antagonists getting their due. It is far to skewed in one direction. It leaves many viewers with a sense that the evil forces almost get away with it for the most part. This doesn't really leave you with a happy satisfied feeling. If you are looking for that from a movie this film won't do it for you. The balance is off in that regard.
The quality of the acting, production, and cinematography (which is frequently stunning) is absolutely fantastic. I consider the casting of Dakota Fanning an error. She isn't right for the role except for the fact that her first name has a western feel to it - ha ha. A different actress might have been better. This is only a minor quibble. She did a decent job.
Through much of the film this was in my mind an easy 8/10 but when taken in total and especially when considering errors in balance my vote would be a qualified 7/10.
For the right people you will love this film. For the wrong people you will despise this film. Extremely polarizing. The people who rated it a 10/10 are being honest as are the people that gave it a 1/10.
Remarkable.
Jackie (2016)
Depressing Film is Unpleasant To Watch
It will make you uncomfortable to watch Natalie Portman try to simulate an accent she is unable to handle. It sounds like she is whisper mumbling a Southern drawl or something. Its laughable. Her wig looks like some children in grade school made it at home and just popped it on her head at the last second before they started filming. The camera work is shaky hand held and unprofessional looking. The majority of shots are significantly over zoomed so that you are often looking at part of a human face rather than an entire scene. As if you were standing one inch from the persons nose. Its idiotic. The color spectrum has been compressed to look drab, depressing and unappealing. One has to assume that the director did all this in an attempt to create a realistic and somber mood but instead it comes off looking cheap. To take such an important and tragic part of American history and treat it is this shoddy fashion is unforgivable. Utter garbage. Shame on you !
Diablo (2015)
Annoying Ridiculous Plot
No normal person could watch this movie and enjoy the plot. The acting, cinematography and production values are good and demonstrate a professional touch but the story itself is idiotic - as if composed by a screenwriter with an illness. You won't enjoy watching this mess. Any rating higher than a 6 is an outright lie. My vote 3/10.
Creep (2014)
Cheap Amateurish film will Really Annoy the heck out of Most Normal Viewers
Nothing about the plot - other reviewers have provided that information. This film is done on a budget of probably around $20,000. The producers have been very careful to conceal this fact. There are literally only TWO screen actors and one additional voice actor. All footage is shaky HAND HELD CAMERA. Probably 2 or 3 days of filming and an additional day of editing to put this together and sync in the audio.
The number of reviews here on IMDb and more importantly the ratings themselves are obviously the result of bot technology that allows the owners of the film to reproduce a normal distribution centering on a nominal rating of 7/10. This is total deception. A normal movie going viewer looking for entertainment, scares, thrills or perhaps something interesting or moving would watch this film and think someone was playing a prank on them. Most regular people would rate this in the range of 2/10, 3/10 or 4/10.
It is as if the individuals who produced the film said to each other " Hey lets see if we can make a film in a couple days and use modern internet technology to create the appearance that its popular - and lets see if we can fool a bunch of people into watching it - ha ha ... ". If you watch this film you will probably come to the same conclusion. I'm not joking.
Normal components of story content, acting, coherency and consistency of character behavior are so deficient that you will constantly have a feeling of discomfort regardless of whether you think the plot has any merit whatsoever. This is truly a poorly constructed piece of cheap film making.
The highest quality part of the film was the DVD/BluRay cover - the promo shot showing a shadowed individual at the top of some poorly lit stairs with the word " CREEP " written across the top. The composition / colorization / lighting spectrum do look professional. The film looks nothing like this at all.
I'm taking the 10 minutes to write this review with the hope that I will save others from being fooled into tracking down a copy of the DVD and grinding their way through the 72 minutes of this piece of crap.
There are so many great films out there which are truly entertaining. Spend a few more minutes and find one of those.
The Expanse (2015)
Use the SUBTITLES and Watch with a CLIPBOARD and PAD of PAPER
... You'll need it. Much of the dialogue is poorly mic'd and is unintelligible. Many characters have accents that are very difficult to understand. One important character who is actually an older woman sounds like an old man who has a bath towel stuffed in his mouth. For her you will need subtitles every time.
Also you'll need to write down the name of every character, every space station, every asteroid, every space ship, all the abbreviations and made up slang words or you will have NO IDEA WHAT'S GOING ON.
The story itself is a simple one, includes a compelling mystery on the backdrop of a solar system wide collection of competing interests. The technology, outer space scenes and gun battle action are all excellent, high quality and professionally delivered.
The screen writer has unfortunately made several mistakes in terms of structure and scene to scene integration. Proper writing will involve cues to the audience and simple overlaps that will provide the audience a reasonably coherent story that flows without the viewer needing to rewatch sequences to remember who was who and what side were they on and why was that girl going there instead of there cause I thought she was his daughter and not a spy or was that guy the spy and the UN undersecretary doesn't know that or is she just pretending she doesn't know that he's not a terrorist etc etc ... on and on.
Proper writing will allow the viewer to know what is going on and who is who even if the characters themselves don't know. If a viewer is confused by an incoherent convoluted and muddled plot then he isn't happy. Its OK if the characters are confused but not OK if the viewer is.
Many people who have given this a high rating either have an excellent memory - and I mean excellent like top 0.1 % of the population - or have read the book RECENTLY. I read the book 4 years ago and found it necessary to rewatch the "previously on the Expanse" intro with subtitles at least 3 times at the start of every episode to kinda know what was going on. Kinda. But still I was incredibly frustrated. I'm a physicist and I LOVE sci fi. I've read over 300 different authors and close to 700 sci fi books. So I'm not a sci fi noob but I will freely admit that following this story was not very easy and for me not very enjoyable as a result.
The other possibility that would explain the high ratings is that in the last couple of episodes the writers actually have one of the characters claim that he "doesn't know what's going on" and then another character will literally explain everything including displays and maps to make every thing clear. At this point the viewer will have a moment of clarity - the " ohhhh, right, ... now I get it" moment. This provides the viewer such a powerful sense of relief that most people will forget the fact that they endured 7 hours of "wtf is going on ??". When your brain then puts things together after the fact you can look at the overall story as being kinda cool. And it is. But to force the viewer to endure such a period of unpleasant confusion is unnecessary. It's bad writing.
Look at how bad MY writing is. Didn't you find my overblown review was unpleasant ? It was. I'm a bad writer. But then I'm a physicist not a screenwriter...
So, if you take a cool story with excellent effects and thrilling gun battles/space battles and say give that part a 9/10 and then you look at dismal dialogue mic-ing and deficient scripting/structure and give that part a 3/10 the result is my overall 6/10 rating.
The Legend of Tarzan (2016)
This Film has Virtually NOTHING to do with the stories Written by Edgar Rice Burroughs
If you are familiar with the 22 Tarzan novels written by ERB between 1912 and 1947 you will not like this movie at all. The plot content, tone, sensibilities, moral code, sense of adventure and excitement that are present in the novels are entirely lacking in this film. The only elements that are retained from the novels are the names of some of the characters and the African setting. The plot of the film has nothing to do with ANY of the actual Tarzan novels. While the novels are utterly thrilling pulp adventures the film is OK at best.
It appears that the producers in their desire to keep as many modern viewers happy as possible and thus to maximize their profits decided to ignore the original novels and just make up a story using the name " Tarzan " because people are familiar with the name and believe it relates to an adventurous tale. Sad. This is what modern film making has become.
Even people unfamiliar with the novels will find this film to have a balance of positives and negatives with the overall result being one of mediocrity. Too bad. Huge budget essentially wasted.
I don't think any of the producers or screenwriters or the director himself bothered to spend the 5 hours it would take to read the actual (first) novel. They would have made an entirely different film.
There is a reason that Tarzan of the Apes (1912) represents one of the best known stories ever told. Too bad the film makers of The Legend of Tarzan (2016) didn't bother to read the book.