Reviews

Didn't make it very far....a bunch of the Xennials on reddit rejoiced when this show appeared on Prime...I had heard of it before and it seemed cool. The first few episodes were great...kinda cliche but the people were interesting and it seemed cool. Plus the girl from Cliffhanger was in it...Anyway, shortly after the show started they started having these really long dream sequences that took me away from everything I liked. Eventually we got to an episode where two characters were going to have a duel and then, like a bastardization of Mel Brook, the whole cast turns to the camera and breaks the 4th wall...

That was enough for me. Why get invested if I can't count on the show to take itself seriously, and not write itself into corners it can't get out of...dropped it there.

This movie has a really cool film noir esthetic. But that's where my 5 stars come from.

It looked cool, had a great vibe, but there was no point where I actually got attached to any of these characters. Batman seemed OK, but Bruce was kind of a moody whiner. Selena character seemed ok, but her relationship with her missing friend wasn't developed enough, so I didnt care about her motivation. Paul Dano seemed really interesting when he was finally unmasked...but they didn't give me any time with him until he was already caught, and by then I didn't care.

Sure, our superheroes did some cool things. But that's all it was. Superheroes doing cool things...but I didn't care.

A big part of me was thinking, man if this was a streaming 10 episode show, I think it would be really great. They could have taken the time to live in this world a bit more and actually spend some time getring attached to the main characters...but they definitely didn't do that in 3 hours.

And the movie felt long. By the end, I was like, Finally it's over, but then three more places came where it could have ended and it just kept going.

A movie that felt too long and still couldn't make me feel for the protagonists? Ouch.

This is a tough one. First of all, it was really great to get another mature story on Netflix: great character development, lots of grey areas between good and evil, risk taking, and the courage to tackle some of the ugly realities of the past and present...it seems like there are less and less stories for adults as the major studios put so much money into the next huge blockbuster...And, nobody can dispute, the art is fantastic.

For me the issue is that the first half of the series is really great, while the second half seems kinda inconsistent and sloppy.

At the beginning, there was some unrealistic stuff when it came to Misu's fighting, but I sort of thought that it was just stylistic, like Crouching Tiger - in Crouching Tiger people can literally fly, but it doesn't matter because that doesn't really impact the plot...it never saves anyone's life. In Blue Eyed Samurai, what I thought was stylistic license in the first few fight scenes turns into our main character being kind of superhuman and invincible...and this kinda ruins it for me. It's great that our hero can take damage, it makes us worry and builds tension...the problem is when our character gets impaled through the ankle and still carry a 200 pound man while climbing a tower, or falls hundreds of feet off a cliff, or falls hundred of feet into ice water and sinks. Some people say that's a nitpick, but these are just a couple examples of our protagonist's invincibility, and it stretches my suspension of disbelief past my limit. Another issue is Fowler's power level - the guy is completely kicking the heck out of our 2 heroes, and then she beats him alone when she's still recovering? I guess she was less hurt.... But it just wasn't satisfying, it was like, well, it's the last episode, I guess she gets to win now.

Besides that, the ending where the invading army comes was really problematic for me. There are thousands of folks invading, and they're completely slaughtering the town, until they're just not, and they all die in a fire.

The Princess's story actually seemed like the more developed story in the latter half of the series, and I was really into it, but then she pulls a kind of Julia from Netflix Cowboy Bebop...she flips on a dime from wanting to escape the bonds of royalty to wanting total power...they don't actually show her becoming a tyrant, but they hint at it and that seems like a betrayal of the compassion she learned in the world outside the palace.

Besides that, the end left too many threads dangling. Taigen? What happened to him? Who knows? The love triangle between him, the Shogun's son and the Princess? His emotional connection to Miss? I at least wanted to see that addressed...Also, Fowler just gets left in a cell? Our protagonist's fire killed how many innocents just to get to the guy, and now he's in a cell? I mean I guess she needs him to find the other 2 white men, but why would she believe him at all? Also, they keep hinting that she's going to grow past her motive for revenge and learn to have honor, but it never really goes anywhere...her lust for revenge may have resulted in killing the entire city because of the fire, and we're supposed to keep cheering her on?

Definitely worth watching, but I was expecting a masterpiece from what the critics are saying...what I got was a great looking, but problematic and sloppy Samurai movie.

First of all, I just wanna say, I have seen every popular movie version of a Christmas Carol, plus many unpopular ones. I've seen parodies, supercuts, commercials, and I re-read the book every year.

One thing that even the good adaptations usually get wrong is that Scrooge in the book is NOT CRUEL. He doesn't take any pleasure in others misfortune (or anything at all, before his conversion). The story is about a man who is so obsessed with money and personal gain that he lost everything that was once important to him, and he';s destined to lose the rest unless he changes. He isn't cruel, he's single minded...I'd say selfish, but like an addict, Scrooge doesn't even get pleasure from his obsession with gain or money. A true covetous old sinner indeed.

This is the only version of A Christmas Carol that stays true to that Character: the beginning when Scrooge is in his counting house is really well done...he obsesses over each coin, covering everything up even to step away from his desk for a second....he actually counts Cratchit's pay 3 times when giving it to him...personally hiding his money underneath his chamber pot after locking his doors. These are little things, but they perfectly capture the spirit of the book....the only time Scrooge actually gets mad is when someone is preventing him from working...Compare this George C Scott, laughing while wishing ill on Christmas well-wishers, or the awful Guy Pierce version playing with the lives of his underlings like a psychopath and sadist.

Normally I hate musicals...but the songs here are truly amazing: How many of us have sang "I Hate People" while being stuck in Christmas Traffic; The Beautiful and Sad Ballad Sung with his Breakup with Isabel, that puts the Muppets Christmas Carol's "The Love Is Gone" to shame; and the best song of all "Thank You Very Much": a song that I had heard before seeing the movie...Imagine my shock upon learning what it was really about: Tom Jenkins thanking Scrooge for dying. It's an unappreciated bit of black humor.

Besides that, what can be said. It's a yearly tradition. But for me, all of these points make this story the definitive adaptation of A Christmas Carol. One last thing - I will always wonder if Tom Jenkins slipped a little something into Scrooges to-go mug of soup...

I've seen every popular version of A Christmas Carol, and many unpopular versions...from TV parodies, to movies, to supercuts of A Christmas Carol commercials, to SNL skits...I read the book during Christmas every year...I've seen some really awful versions but this one takes the figgy pudding.

One thing that even the good adaptations usually get wrong is that Scrooge in the book is NOT CRUEL. He doesn't take any delight in anyone's misfortune. The story is about a man who is so obsessed with money and personal gain that he lost everything that was once important to him, and he's destined to lose the rest unless he changes. He isn't cruel, he's single minded...I'd say selfish, but usually selfish people have some kind of pleasure in their own gain...scrooge almost an addict for work/gain/and money, which gives way to coldness and apathy...but he is not a sadist.

This story flips the entire character on his head and I can't even say what he really is without getting blocked and flagged...Let's just say his character and those like him are the reason for the ME TOO movement. He actually tries to extort Crotchets wife for her body to save her son.... Why even bother having a redemption arc in this movie at this point? The guy is unredeemable...and for what? Shock value?

Look, I'm happy all these actors are getting work, Andy Serkis is great as always...but all the reviewers who claim to love the original story who are giving this a 10 and saying it's brilliant, are either bots, insane bots, or lying. You cannot like this and the book. And if you do like this, please don't recommend movies to people.

Got some problems, but it kinda rocks.

Intro scene was perfect.

David Harbour was perfect casting, he's really got the action/comedy thing down.

Leguizamo was kinda disappointing. I think it's honestly just because I've seen him be so brilliant before, but this (and the Menu) just seemed like phoning it in. Plus, the character's hatred for Xmas seems like an afterthought.

Alex Hassel...keeps getting work...I guess he was good as Translucent in the Boys, but he was laughably terrible in Cowboy Bebop (probably not his fault)...but I definitely wasn't really rooting for him here...

The little girl? She was great.

It's a bit sloppy overall, but it's doing a great job of filling the Christmas Action movie hole, and unlike die hard, Christmas is essential to the plot. It's also better than a lot of the Christmas garbage out recently hoping to make it into the zeitgeist's yearly rotation.

Good work, y'all.

This movie is hilarious.

Watching Dougray Scott say "YOU SHOULDA KILLED ME!" to Tom Cruise while holding Tom Cruise at gunpoint always makes me Crack up...then Tom Cruise has time to kick a gun into his hands and shoot the bad guy...I guess it's the slow motion.

But yeah, this is very cartoonish compared to the new MI movies...pretty amazing that we've come so far. Tom Cruise is a much better star in 2023 than he was back in the early 2000s...I think it might be Xenu...

Anyway, good for a laugh. Watch while vacuuming.

Still need 74 characters, but what else is there to say? I know...the Lighthouse sucks.

I have a hard time believing people actually like this movie...it feels to me like buying an expensive piece of art that you don't understand and sticking it in your front yard to impress people you don't actually like.

So many critics I respect gave this great reviews, and at the beginning it seems like it's building up to something special...after about 40 minutes in I started getting this strange feeling that nothing was going to happen, and it turns out I was exactly right...did they miss their chance to get off the island? Is there a supernatural force on the island coming for our leads? Who knows?...all we get is two actors getting drunk and acting like jackanapes. There really is no story. Just 2 characters....getting drunk.

I mean, I guess I'm glad someone paid these actors 2 hours to flex, but honestly that wasn't even that impressive. I usually love Dafoe, but I've heard better pirate accents in TV movies.

If you're an actor, you may love this. If you're a snob, you'll tell everyone why they should love this. If you wanna seem smart, you'll tell everyone you love this.

Meanwhile I'm scratching my head wondering what I was exactly that I was supposed to get.

I know it's the popular thing to crap on this movie. Many of us still have great memories of the Brendan Fraser Mummy Franchise from 20 years ago, and while those are better, Tom Cruise's new Mummy movie actually shares some of the same successes.

You can say he's crazy, but Tom Cruise is still an awesome movie star. He's charismatic and in some ways, his character is similar to Rick O'Connell, a scoundrel with a heart of gold. He doesn't really have much chemistry with Annabelle Wallis in a romantic way, but his drive to protect her is pretty believable. Jake Johnson as Tom Cruises nervous, unwilling partner is funny and doesn't come off as cliche...I would have like to see more of them together. I liked Sofia Boutella as the baddy, it's a complex character and she plays the crap out of what she got, but the character needed more development.

Also, why set up Jekyll as the Nick Fury of this Universe? Here they set up Jekyll as a monster keeper/expert...woudn't that role have been much better for Dr. Frankenstein or Van Helsing? Jekyll is completely different from the book but worse than that, he takes away time that would have been better spent on our main characters....instead, why not have Annabelle Wallis be the expert here, it would give her something to do instead of just being the "love" interest and a flimsy pretext to get Cruise in context with Jekyll...

Anyway, besides that, it's a good action film...good seeds here, too bad they won't sprout at this point.