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Reviews
Oppenheimer (2023)
Over rated
Not sure why people are giving this a perfect 10, I'm also not sure why it's made nearly a billion dollars at the box office.
I typically base my enjoyment of a movie on how badly I want to see a movie a second time after I've watched it. Oppenheimer is a movie I will never watch ever again. Much like Tenet before it.
It's an absolute struggle to sit through. The entire film is one scene after another of people talking. The anchor of the film is Oppenheimer himself. Who in my opinion doesn't have an interesting enough story to really root for and because I don't give a $hit about this person and his struggles with possible communist collusion I don't care about the movie.
Take scorceses the Aviator. The character of Howard Hughes is fascinating. He's talented, driven, charming, and also tragic. He's a character people want to know more about.
I will say this about Oppenheimer, it's well directed, with great cinematography and acting.
So it gets a 7 from me. But it's no where near on the same level as Nolan's other works.
The Deep Web: Murdershow (2023)
A trio of well designed villains
Low budget Indy's are tricky. Because you are limited by your budget, you need to cut corners. You can't hire A list actors, nor can you purchase the best locations, makeup artists, etc.
These limitations hold you back but you try to over deliver in the places you can.
The late director Dan Zachary didn't deliver the most ground breaking script, there's a second act sag which happens after Ethan learns of his sisters death which slows the movie down, but once the detective work and mystery about what or who the murdershow is begins things start to pick up the pace which leads to a well executed finale.
Dans trio of creepy clown like villains are well thought out and designed. You can even find their masks at your local costume shop if you are lucky.
It is this creativity on display which makes the film fun and unique.
Brendan Fletcher plays shadowmonkey and he steals the show with his over the top antics. And what can I say about Kimi Alexander. She starts off as a victim and quickly turns into a kick ass heroine in the same league as Laurie Strode, or Nancy from A nightmare on elm street. Aiden Howard might be the weakest link in the cast, shining in moments and sometimes not as convincing as one would like.
If you like a quick horror flick on a dark night and can get through that second act sag this movie will deliver for you.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Any Indy movie is better than no Indy movie.
I was pleasantly surprised by this film. Sure it doesn't touch the original trilogy. How could it? An 80 year old Ford doesn't have the physicality, the charm or charisma of a 40 year old Ford, but the important thing is that it is far superior to Kingdom of the crystal skull. The story is better, the macguffin is better, the villain, puzzles and locations are better. It has real tense moments and above all no stupid nuke the fridge, or vine swinging.
One thing I will touch upon is Helena Shaw. She's an enjoyable foil for Indy and while some might think she steals the spotlight I feel they both had equal footing and played off each other well. There were moments where I wanted to ring her bratty neck, but by the end of it she cares deeply for Indy and you warm up to her.
I highly recommend it.
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
A 12 for action and spectacle, a 7 for script
I gave this movie a 10 mostly because in regards to an unforgettable cinematic experience that visually takes you places you've never seen before, it gets top marks. Even with the Weakest script James Cameron has written it still delivers like no other.
It feels like going on safari to a beautiful planet that actually exists and also a theme park ride.
The action is well choreographed with huge stakes.
Jake Sullys family are a loveable clan who I cared about by the end, and even Quarrich was elevated from a 1 dimension evil villain to someone with depth.
I'll be watching this as many times as possible in the theatre.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)
Serviceable movie, but not Marvels best
Wakanda forever is one of those movies which does everything well. But doesn't excel at anything in particular. The performances are good, the action is good, the vfx is good, but it's not Great.
Riri Williams aka Iron heart felt tacked on and could have shaved off 20 minutes of run time. Shuri took a back seat in her own movie and didn't do much of anything until she became black panther.
There's also Namor's motivations which weren't well thought out.
Overall I'm growing tired of superhero films and the logic inherent in most of them. Tony Stark was special because he created a suit of armour that was unique to him, but now Riri, Shuri and just about anyone with a mechanical engineering degree can make iron man suits.
Also if the heart shaped vibranium flower can give anyone the power of black panther why not feed it to an entire army so you are guaranteed to win? It's like when Thor imbued all those kids with the power of Thor.
These plot holes are starting to become more evident the deeper we go down the MCU rabbit hole.
Black Adam (2022)
DC needs to hire better writers
This movie was trash.
I thought no one could over use slow motion in a movie more than Zach Snyder, I was wrong.
What an exhaustive eye roller of a movie. Dialogue was cringe especially from the young kid who ends up being Black Adam's cheerleader. Atom smasher and cyclone girl were unbearably annoying.
The villain was lame. The action was an overly CG video game cut scene. There were no stakes at all. How can there be when the characters on screen are invincible and smash each other in super speed blurs for over an hour.
At this point, I'm starting to dislike superhero movies especially characters like Shazam, super man, and Black adam which are Over powered and uninteresting.
Avoid this flick.
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Yikes, what a Tonal dumpster fire
The script felt like it was written in a weekend. The tone is like an SNL skit. 80% of the jokes don't land. It's Joel shumacher Batman level bad.
It wasn't completely terrible. But definitely not at the level of quality I've come to expect from the MCU.
Uncharted (2022)
An enjoyable action adventure
Not sure why the critics are so harsh. Yes the movie borrows heavily from past movies, but it still blazed it's own path and had some moments I've personally never seen.
It's not ground breaking by any means, but I still had a lot of fun, and hope for this to spark a franchise where they can continue to get it right.
The caveats I had with the movie is that Tom Holland can never match the video game Nathan Drake for ruggedness. And Mark Wahlberg's version of Victor Sullivan was a bit 1 dimensional and jokey for my taste. It lacked a proper intimidating villain, the stakes needed to be higher and I would have liked more emotion in the narrative.
Solid 7.