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mikeprometheus
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Battle: Los Angeles (2011)
Dont overthink it, its an alien invasion movie, with Marines
I feel sometimes that movie reviewers try to use the same scale for all movies, I call it the Schindlers List effect. If its not Schindlers list, you dont rate it high. Thats like judging Pizza against a gourmet meal at a three Michelin star restaurant. Context matters, Pizza can be 10 stars too, when compared to other pizzas. So it is for me with movies.
Which brings us to Battle: Los Angeles, this is a pretty damn good alient invasion movie, certainly more "realistic" than Independence Day (which is also, IMO, a good movie). As someone else said, this is Blackhawk Down with Aliens. Thats a solid description.
And as alien invasion movies go, or military movies go, this one is solid and could stand on its own as either. Take out the Aliens, but in some other conflict and youve still got a good movie.
For the Alien Invasion movie genre this is a real bonus. Normally theyre either too focused on character or the Aliens and the military side of the story is just unrealistic or wrong. This one has a pretty accurate represation of the military, TTPs, etc. The Aliens are anonymous which makes it more interesting to me, no dialogue from the aliens or "from their perspective", theyre just Aliens attacking Earth.
Additionally, on the pure movie front, its got a good cast, good actors, good pacing, good directing, realism (come on dont over think it, Alien Invasion... Aliens) and plenty of action. Not a lot of exposition or time spent talking about whats going on, just Marines fighting aliens.
Definitely would watch if you like that kind of movie. If youre looking for something else, its not for you.
Black Christmas (2019)
LOL this is a laughable bad movie
They must have just stolen the movie title, because it has nothing to do with the original movie. Well it does take place during Christmas time, but thats where the similarities end. This writing is... well its writing technically, but thats also where the similaries end.
It is a laughable bad story, wooden dialogue, meh acting, a really cringey song and it takes itself way too seriously for such a bad movie. Normally Id say watch it because it is bad and have fun with it, but its mean spirited too and really does seem to think this story "could happen in real life and we know this because its happening right now!" so its also a real downer. Not a fun bad movie.
As movies go, I wouldnt put this in the B Movie column as with too many bad horror movies, which are still awesome as long as you know its not Schindlers List, but I cant even call this a B Movie let alone a horror movie. More a message movie, a very bad message movie that probably had a different title that they changed because they realized thats the only way to get people to watch it.
Skip, even if you love bad movies (which I do).
Bel-Air (2022)
Ugh really wanted to look this but it's so bad
Reused character names, poor casting, wooden acting plus predictable messaging, add in a pinch of "wish I'd thought of empire, let's try to copy it" and you have this show.
That's the best I can say about this. It's not unique ot good enough on its own, it's like a bad copy of something great and the promise of a show you alresdy know and love. Ketchup and ice cream. Doesn't work together, yeech.
Maybe they meant to make a nightmare version of a show that was wonderful. I dunno, this show doesn't make sense why it exists. I can only guess no one wanted to pick this up when it was sold as it's own story so they said "wait I've got another show idea, irs reboot of the fresh prince!" And they just green lit the same terrible idea without looking. Because that's only reason I can imagine this was made. Should have dropped the tacted on reboot angle and just made this Diet Coke empire. This formula doesn't work.