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Reviews
The Gray Man (2022)
I really wanted to like it! I tried!
They will lose you in the opening scene. Ryan Gosling is supposed to be in prison, major make up department fail, he looks like he just walked off a runway, perfect hair and everything, minutes later he's all dressed up and looks the same, just as good, no contrast. The editing gave me major vertigo, you get a cut every 3 seconds. I'm a fan of Gosling and of his work, he's usually fantastic, but Gosling and Billy Bob Thornton have no chemistry whatsoever. They're like the same actor, their acting styles are way too similar to be in the same movie together, you need a Tommy Lee Jones or a more flamboyant actor opposite a guy like Ryan Gosling. Too much lipstick on the teenage girl, major distraction, make- up department messed that up. They spent a lot of money on this movie, feels like they wasted it. I'm having a hard time finishing it. Life is too short to waste on this one.
Same Kind of Different as Me (2017)
Djimon Hansou and Jon Voight
I was on Djimon Hansou's instagram, and on one of his post, one of his fans posted about the film and I rented it on Amazon once I realized Joh Voight was also in it. I started immediately fantasizing about epic scenes between Voight and Hansou but I got deep into it before Jon Voight ever showed up on the screen. Djimon is electric, more movies with him in them please Hollywood. I'm not too sold on his Southern accent though, but if you've never seen him in anything before, it won't bother you that much. The story is great, made me wanna do better in life, inspired me, reminded me of my childhood, my mom made me do stuff like that and I'm so glad I'm watching this film.
The Humbling (2014)
Al Pacino's autobiography
This film speaks to the genius of Al Pacino. Where an ordinary actor, or in his case film icon, would dictate his life story to a writer or simply write a book, in staying true to his magnitude as an actor and being the true artist that he is, he decides to sum up parts of his life, make into a film with extreme highs and lows obviously. Yes, it is an adaptation of a novel, but adapted into a script that Pacino can speak through and put his stamp on. Am I talking out of thin air? No! I was fortunate enough to see a screening of it where Al Pacino spoke afterwards, and he himself said it was somewhat autobiographical, and that's the way I felt when I was watching the film, and that it took about a year to write the script, or adapt it into the film, so it was wonderful to hear him confirm that "autobiographical part". I think he may continue to make films like this for a while, that he can speak about his own life through, his true fans will appreciate it, and it will be a part of his legacy as an actor. Good for him!
It's brilliantly funny, and it's for the intellectual palate, it's not your typical Hollywood comedy with silly fart jokes, this is humor with sophistication, humor that actually titillates your brain. It's also low budget, don't expect explosions and cgi, this is an actor's film. For people who love good acting and an intricate story. His acting in it is superb, this is my personal favorite performance of his. You get a window into his intellect, his personal thoughts on acting all through this character. At the end you come out knowing this man is only interested in one thing, the truth in his work, and being truthful in it. When the film opened, I said to myself "oh, this is similar to Birman," (which I thought was just okay) but as it progressed, I realized there was no comparisons and all of the accolades that film got, The Humbling deserved and I personally loved it. They're similar except this is a million times better, you actually get what it's about and it's not abstract for the sake of being abstract with fancy camera tricks to distract you from a fragmented story. Yes there are so many partisan reviews promoting self-interest and bashing good films that deserve a chance. I urge everyone who loves Pacino or has loved any film he's been in prior to see this film.
Unbroken (2014)
truly inspiring film
I absolutely loved it. If you ever get down on how things aren't going your way, if you ever get lazy, if you ever complain, this film will change your life. The only thing missing, I would have loved to see what happens to Zampini afterward. Angelina Jolie is super woman, I don't know how she does it. It's so inspiring, I vowed never to complain another day in my life, the perfect film to have seen at the end of the year to inspire and motivate me indefinitely.
The bad guy was so captivating, his first acting role, WHAT? I felt like I was going through some of the horrible ordeals with the character. You're in it, feeling it and dealing with it.
Don't listen to all the thrashers.
Jolie is a beautiful woman and beautiful people are often underestimated and judged harshly, especially when taking a stab at an art-form which is predominantly pursued by men. Her haters are all over this movie but the truth is it's really good, and they can't take that away.
No Good Deed (2014)
A fun thriller
Even after having watched the trailer you'll be in for lots of surprises. There were a few things I didn't see coming, subtle twists and turns which caught me off guard. Idris and Taraji have great chemistry on screen, you want to watch them and you don't get bored watching them.
I love to see films with black people in them, which have nothing to do with race or where race isn't even mentioned once. You literally could have placed any one from any ethnic background in any of those characters and it would have worked.
This movie re-enforced to me that Taraji and Idris are really good actors, I got my money's worth. I went to see the movie at the Grove where there are lots of tourists and people from all over the country, who have normal reactions to what they see on the screen. The audience as a whole cared a lot about Taraji's character, they cheered for her when she was winning and they had natural human responses that were real, and so at the end of the day, that says to me all the people involved in making this movie did their job. Seeing the film there got me avoiding the jaded Hollywood movie "experts" on cinema with their snobby intellectual bully b.s, I was with regular people at a movie theater, the reason actors make movies to begin with, the people who are funding our industry with their hard earned dollars, not movie critics who go the movies for intellectual stimulation instead of reading a freaking book. You're gonna like Taraji's bff, she has a great moment with Idris that has everyone who has a best friend going "YOU TELL IT."
I personally love to go see a movie and turn off my brain and enjoy myself and you get to do this with this movie, it kept my attention from beginning to end. Go see it, worth your money!
Noah (2014)
I found it genius at times and utterly ridiculous at other times.
I found Noah to be brilliant at times and utterly ridiculous at other times. It's thought provoking in a sense, it reminds me of many of today's self righteous vegans (not the good ones) Who love animals but severely hate people based on their own self- righteousness. They're so concerned with other people's wickedness that they can't even for a second concern themselves with their own. Noah was exactly that. I've heard someone call that kind of behavior, "can't smell your own sh!# on your knees". In the film you see the outcome of that type of pre-occupation with judgment as it only leads to isolation, addiction, pain and suffering. That kind of truth and expression in a piece of art is brilliant. Since Moses wrote Genesis a few thousand years ago, and considering how relevant that message is today, I call that genius, I've always thought Moses was genius. Whether he did in fact live and write these amazing stories, that's not the point of this critique.
Where does it get ridiculous? Well, you know how: many times people read a book and then go see a film based on the book and they come out saying the book was better than the movie? Well, that's exactly what happened here, except most people who've read the book of Genesis are religious and have a personal attachment to it. I'll ask you to silence all this religious argument and ignore the atheists as well, they're all the same, arguing non-sense ad-nauseam. They're literally two sides of the same coin. For the rest of us who are sane, who know that we don't know, who just went to see a movie based on a book we liked, the movie fails to deliver the goods in a sense, it deviates from a pretty good story and the dots get thrown all over the place. This is Aronofski's interpretation and I admire the man as an artist so I will respect it but I do wonder how the story would have been, had he stayed on course with the original and I think it would have definitely been better. Maybe a director out there will take another stab at it, I hope so and I will go see it again. With all that said the acting was brilliant, Russel Crowe, Jennifer Connely, and Anthony Hopkins, these actors always deliver, come on! The younger actors all held their own. It was certainly worth my time and money.
Repentance (2013)
psychological thriller lover's delight
Sadly this film may not be embraced by the masses, as bad as they need to see those types of films, but one can hope. One ought to be sharp and capable of following intelligent plot to really enjoy this film. It's not the 6th sense, where everything is pretty much spelled out for you yet still maintains it's integrity by being genius. This is more for the figure it out, use your brain kind of audience.
The cast bring it in terms of acting, my congratulations to the people who thought this would be great for an all black cast. The direction, the casting, was brilliant. Mind, consciousness, terror, a strong sense of reality, moving at real life pace, all the ingredients for a great psychological thriller are there. Very atypical for an all black cast, remember, I said atypical, please look it up and don't get confused. I personally think they should have maintained the original title VIPAKA. I played the Seer so I won't comment on my brilliant work :), I read the guidelines and it doesn't say I can't review a film I'm in, since many actors don't like films they're in, this one, is definitely worth a shot especially if you like the actors in it, (I personally can never take my eyes off of Forest Whitaker) and that genre, you will be happy you saw it.
The Counselor (2013)
The problem was the script
The problem was not the director and it wasn't the actors, they are all brilliant and did their jobs.
The writer himself is a brilliant novelist, but just because you're an acclaimed writer in your own genre doesn't mean you can write scripts. I'm sure the script was a great read but the movies are a show me don't tell me genre, and the dialogue definitely felt 'novelish' which in film comes across pretentious because I think no matter how brilliant people are, more often than not they speak differently than they write. Unless they're delivering a speech which is what all the characters were doing, delivering speeches rather than having normal conversations. You would think that's just basic, but even an acclaimed writer can miss that.
This is like the movie Carnage all over again, one of my favorite playwrights who is a Pulitzer prize winning author wrote a script for Carnage which she wrote as a play, it had a great cast, good director but the same fate followed.
Moral of the story for Hollywood, if your author is well acclaimed but has never written a script, most likely his script will leave much to be desired no matter who's directing it or who's acting in it. It would have worked if McArthy had a copilot for his script, someone who has written successful scripts before. Something for the execs to thing about.
Midnight in Paris (2011)
A Moveable Feast, read it before you see the film
I found myself reliving chapter 14 of Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. If you've read that chapter in that book, then you have in a sense seen this movie. I'd love to pick Woody Allen's brains about that, because that book was written in the 30's. Find it on youtube then go see the movie you'll see what I mean.
I couldn't imagine someone would enjoy this movie the way I did unless they've read some Hemmingway, Fitzgerald, and Gertrude Stein, unless you knew about her relationship with Picasso, even if you've only read A Moveable Feast, the movie would make a lot more sense, but my date hadn't read a single book by any of those authors and when I asked him at the end, he said he liked it. Which tells me it stands on it's own, I still honestly couldn't imagine.
I liked some performances more than others but Owen Wilson nailed it. Marion Cotillard makes everything seem effortless, and Adrian Brody was fantastic, Forgive me, I see it from an actor's perspective. I gave it a 7 because of Fitzgerald & Hemmingway, CASTING?????? See the movie and you'll understand question marks.