Reviews

First off, beware the preview. The movie portrayed in it seems to be a comedy/dramedy of 2 half-brothers (Ethan Hawke & Ewan McGregor) dealing with the death of their world's worst dysfunction junction childhood father. But it's not light-hearted fun in the least...Which is not a problem if the story makes sense, it rings true in it's universe and you can somehow understand & believe the characters actions. But this story certainly does not.

Is it a surrealist absurd take on bad fatherhood? Is it a rumination on the possibility of a bad human changing & evolving as he advances in life? There are so many strange, incongruent characters & things happening in this movie that it's hard to know exactly what it's trying to achieve. And no offense to the actors, i think they do their best with a questionable story. My question is when they read the script, how were they not scratching their heads at the premise? Seems like they should've been.

Just a few examples, this father of theirs who seems to be a terrible person somehow has fathered multiple children who keep popping up in the movie and the latest is about 10 years old that he fathered with the spunky half his age Latina women in the movie that Ewan McGregor winds up fooling around with at the end of the movie (Lol, payback/karma?). Somehow in the town of the father's funeral, he's viewed as extremely charismatic, charming etc by mulitple characters. This is the same man our 2 main characters hate & still have scars as grown men from? Oh yeah and 1 more thing, this father slept w/ his son's wife (Ewan McGregor's character) and impregnated her, so that Ewan's character has a son that's not really his, it's his father's; so who he thought was his son is actually another half-brother?!? Lol...Uhhh, yeah that's in this story.

So maybe to whoever's reading this, maybe you should see this movie for yourself and experience the confusion of these characters' actions yourself & make your own decision? Or maybe don't waste 2 hrs of your life and watch a more entertaining movie that makes sense and gives you something to legitimately think about. This ain't that movie in my humble opinion...Sorry Ethan & Ewan, nice jobs w/ the material you had but next time delve a little deeper into that screenplay...

Of the 3 series: Yellowstone, 1883, 1923; I think this is the weakest. And it's still pretty good don't get me wrong but the Spencer/Alex segment consistently completely stops the momentum every time it cuts to them...And Alex's affectations & speech manners, I'm not sure exactly how the character of Spencer is swept off his feet by her, but ahh young love, who can explain it?

However this whole 1st season is building & leading to a big showdown of some sorts, the Duttons vs the tag team of Tanner the sheep herder & Timothy Dalton's sadomasochist businessman. All's he needs is a handlebar mustache to twirl & he could be a villain from bygone days... And the season ends with Spencer still across the pond just trying to get back to America. Obviously Mr Sheridan has a long view here but damn, it's a tough pill to swallow & a long way to wait for the "payoff". Kudos to Ms Helen Mirren, I think she kills it and the Spencer character is also well done, except he's dragging around the Alex anchor for some godforsaken reason. I don't buy that mad passionate love affair imho.

And the cruelty & degradation of the Native Americans, while I presume rooted in truth, is tough to watch but powerful. Though I'm not sure where the intersection of that storyline is going to mesh w/ the main story but I'm sure Mr Sheridan has it all planned out on a story board I guess.

All in all, a decent watch (w/ lots of holes & eye-rolls) but nowhere near great. 1883 = great.

There's alot of angry vitriol about this movie. I don't really get the 1 star reviews but I totally get that this movie can be very polarizing to say the least. It was making me angry while I was watching it, especially when it seemed to segue into making the main character, Rosamund Pike's Ms Grayson, kind of the 'hero' who the audience should be rooting for...But I think that the director kinda knew what he was doing throwing a bit of a curveball at the audience & seeing if they'd fall for it because most everyone in this movie is part villain, just to lesser degrees.

There's some tough things to swallow in this movie, assassins who make a complete mess of things over & over again & no intended victim ever dies...until the end when...well yes, the surprise ending is what kind of saves the movie from being a total black hole of swallowing acid. But there's really no good guys in this movie, it's a mess of worse & more worse. But it definitely makes you feel something. It's gonna make you angry & disturbed & that's the point I think thus it's worth the watch.

I wonder what the gay & lesbian world will think about the main characters portrayals in this movie. On the 1 hand she is strong, independent, courageous & yet totally immoral & full of evil & quite possibly a sociopath...another interesting point to ponder. Rosamund Pike kills it as the evil angel with a smile on her face who 'cares a lot'. Decide for yourself, but the 1 star crowd I think is way off base....There's ALOT to digest & consider from this movie.

So Mark Hamill/Luke Skywalker is now the reluctant irascible Bill Murray curmudgeon like character, doesn't want to be bothered, is too scarred by his own vanity/mistakes & has lived by himself w/ some weird creatures for decades.

Benicio Del Toro shows up for a few minutes as the fixer/con man, helps a couple of main characters & then pulls a fast one.

Leia gets blown up into outer space but 'the Force' enables her to survive & float on back in & thank goodness, She's alive. Then the old hyperspace kamikaze sacrificial mission by the Rebel leader that those meanies, the First Order didn't see coming thank goodness again....

Sorry for the spoilers, it's a decent flick if you don't analyze too deeply & just wanna see it b/c you've seen all the others but imho Mark Hamill doesn't really pull off the Yoda role (though it was nice to have a Yoda cameo). I like Rey as a character but wow, she really was blessed with a whole boatload of powers for someone who really hasn't done much in the training dept...Like I said, don't analyze too much & you'll be ok. If you do, well there's lots of things that may make you, like me, go "Hmmm". And thank God that the bad guys still can't shoot too well & seem to miss all the good guys, lol...sorry couldn't resist.

Spoiler Alert - The Movie with a capital M looks, sounds & feels classic & real in that England late 1890s kinda way. Killer cast - Bale, Jackman, Johanssen, Caine etc...The cinematography, the acting, top notch. So what's the problem? The problem is that this serious, 'artistic' movie about antagonistic magicians hinges at the end on a Cloning Machine created by Nicola Tesla in Colorado & shipped over to London somehow & the other character is actually Twins!!! Lol, that's alot to swallow in the last 5 minutes that undoes much of the good value of the previous 2 hours...But judging by all the 10s given & cheers for Nolan as a director, I guess most people overlook those small factoids, lol...I'd like to but can't, thus a 5 rating...