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bmbelko
Reviews
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
(2/10+6/10)/2=4/10
2 stars for plot holes and ridicuolously thin character behavior. 6/10 for concept executed in a meh manner.
Obligatory IMF car chase was pretty well done with some comic elements. I actually chuckled a couple times.
Characters behaved in ways even I, as a regular guy with only my attitude and suspicions, would never have.
"Ten bucks says he makes it", I announced to my wife at a critical juncture. She would not take the bet.
Below this are potential. Spoilers.
Refusal to kill the enemies of mankind right after they subdue them. Not being more careful than they were at crucial times. Simon using autodrive when they are trying to desperately to not use the internet. There are more. I'm writing this with 20 minutes left in the movie but we rented it and I don't want to turn it off. By my calculation I have USD0.73 left to watch.
Lucy (2014)
More than adequate. Thought provoking. Perhaps, though....
...a little melodramatic. Disclaimer: I am a Scarlett Johansson and
Amr Waked fan, so I walked into this a little skewed to the high end. I thought the premise of the movie was already done, but this evolved to a different take on things. Second disclaimer: I am a retired meteorologist so I have no patience for "Twister", that collection of lies and idiocy. But I'm not a neuroscientist so the science behind this mostly escapes me and I'm okay with that.
The characters were necessarily a little shallow-ly developed, but what else can you do? It's not really about them.
Con: I wish it had explored more of her new abilities and included
Amr Waked in them.
Pro: The car chase was not overdone as in most movies. Some Tom Cruise movies contain 50% car chases. This one was sufficient to the plot.
It's a fun ride with just wonderment to warrant a 7/10.
Radius (2017)
Wow! Completely pointless and yet I watched the entire film to...
...see if it ever explained anything. Nope. Just kept tossing in more inexplicable things until...it could add in more inexplicable things. The ending was a bit of a surprise given the 180 degree change in personality in one character. Twice. It seemed less a serious attempt at a sci fi/mystery and more a way for the writers to get to use their potty mouths in a "How can we use the f word a LOT and have a minimal plot and story line?" way. I gave it four stars because it did have some drama between the husband and the wife who doesn't remember him or anything else, and the cool but never addressed concept of people dying because...why? They got too close. It took me four separate sessions to watch the movie because I kept falling asleep.
65 (2023)
The average is five stars so I'll stick with that.
I like Adam Driver. I like dinosaur movies. Quasi-time travel movies. Speculative fiction. I like good SFX. I like watching a movie where the actors actually know how to handle a weapon instead of the ones where they hire frat boy actors to point weapons at each other and look down the muzzle of their own weapons.
This had a good premise and then slowed down and then came the deus ex machinas to wind the day. The acting had its bright spots but there was way too much down time between meaningful scenes. Happily, I streamed online and used the FF ten seconds button a lot. Took it down from 1.5 hours to about 35 minutes. There were enough good scenes to keep me going that long.
I dislike when a movie is shot at night or in the dark to apparently conceal weaknesses in blocking, CGI, or scary scenes.
Possible spoiler next:
There seems to be room for a sequel at the end. Don't. Just don't.
Disenchanted (2022)
No.
The first movie was charming, disarming, quirky, with catchy song lyrics and lines. This one, an hour in, was painful to watch. No really lovable characters, everyone overacts instead of just Amy Adams, which was her success in the first one. Now we have chipmunks, high schoolers, neighbors, husbands, magic scrolls, everything overacts. Three adults sat in pain and finally switched it off. Perhaps seven year olds would like it. The overdone NYC accents are funny for a bit nut, unlike Rizzo, quickly become annoying. I give it 2/10 stars. I'd give it 1/10 but I reserve that for Ed Wood movies.....
Black Adam (2022)
Better than expected.
I went to this movie on Halloween. Alone. Not well attended, obviously. But I laughed out loud a few times. The dialogue was better than most superhero movies because they were saving actual people who had personalities and rights and feelings. I was happy to not see 30 minute fist fights between demigods who can't suffer physical damage.
Black Adam, filled with old anger, stays mostly true to this characterization with forays into caring for others and even almost smiling a couple times. The family he's saving has faults and strengths and are believable and supportable.
My one frustration was with the other superheroes' intractability in initially working with BA.
I'll go back. Be even more fun with my date.
Junior Bake Off (2011)
Kids 10/10. Harry Hill zero.
Get rid of Harry Hill. Please. This show has the potential to be an international blockbuster and Hill just cuts its legs off at the start. It's not fair to the kids. Who owed Hill some huge favor? The producers obviously used the GBBO format as a venue for Hill's sagging career, hoping to rejuvenate it. It's excruciating to watch his three year old slapstick antics and the 9-14 year olds struggling to just ignore him. When a 9 year old tells him, "Please stop. I'm busy here", he really needs to be replaced mid-season. Get a fun substitute teacher who understands children and is a responsible adult, too.
The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch (2020)
Good show...With a caution.
I like the concept of the show. I don't like dragging things out for three seasons which could be completed in one. It's tuning into a combination of "Lost" and "Oak Island".
I want to believe and so I'm not the biggest skeptic. But...I might become one. Guys? Go ahead and work the mystery in winter. Lots of ranchers and other people, and cows, keep working there in winter.
Caution.....potential spoiler ahead.
I had my access to the History Channel cut off and I still wanted to watch S3E10-11. So I bought them on AP. E10 did nothing but recap the entire three seasons in 42 minutes. Nothing new. E11 did nothing but the same as E10. Waste of money. Not sure I'll watch season 4. Assuming the anomaly doesn't get them first.
Resident Evil (2022)
Open mind? No.
I had an open, hopeful, anticipating mind when I saw the teaser. Then I started the show. Twenty minutes and it was looking like an Apple TV teen angst/frat boy/bad SyFy remake of a classic, proven novel. It would be like Justin Bieber doing a remake of Unchained Melody. No. Seems like they're reading their lines on cue cards. Even the zombies were looking places on obvious "Aaaaand.....LOOK!" cues from the second unit assistant directors.
Should not have "remade" this franchise.
Riaru onigokko (2015)
Give it a 9 or a 5?
7 will do. The story is hard to follow at first then becomes coherent. The end is unexpected. Disconnected from the rest of the movie, I felt. For these reasons I give it a five.
The cinematography is flawless. The soundtrack is soaring. The main character is believable to the point of tears...I want her to triumph. If she were my kid, I go all Uncle Buck on the bad guys. The rest of the characters' acting was over the top, too much, until I pulled everything together toward the end. Ah...makes sense.
I'd watch it again, and probably need to. I have friends and family who couldn't sit past the bus scene.
The Time Machine (1960)
It's a good movie if you suspend belief.
And not because it's sci fi. So many plot holes and unlikely things. One example, the Morlocks take the trouble to dress their cattle in becoming little outfits with belts and 60s and beatnik hair.
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Typical Disney stock in trade.
Disclaimer. I only listened from the other room. Disney movies have all become the same.
The end.
Riders to the Stars (1954)
Snooze fest
While the movie starred some big name stars and the script was adequately worded, the entire first half or so of the film was a complete snoozer. Little happens other than testing the astroman candidates for their psychological and physical fitness. Some were excluded on the basis of their neuroses, others kept despite theirs. Eventually, things did happen, thankfully, and some truly horrible (and plausible) things occurred. The end was....rather open to interpretation.
The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues (1955)
Zzzzzzzzzz......
The really only redeeming quality of this movie is the periodic overacting...and the frequent underacting. The constant "eerie" back music got annoying.
A Race of Giants: Our Forbidden History (2015)
Nonsense.
This "documentary" uses information easily obtained from various World Wide Web searches but nothing from actual scientific research. "It is said..." "Some say..." "Is there a conspiracy to..."
The biggest problem, though, for me was to listen to the narrator mispronounce word and names all through.
My Octopus Teacher (2020)
I have no words.
I have no words, only emotions. There are few true "feel good" movies. That this man, who admits he feels uncomfortable with people and his own son, learned from this creature to appreciate other humans, is to me what makes this movie a 9.5/10.
Beyond the Rising Moon (1987)
Is the movie making me sleepy? Or is it keeping me awake to see if something happens?
Snooze. I'm 35 minutes in and...the cliches are killing me. The underacting is killing me. It's like the actors looked at William Shatner in Star Trek and said, "Let's do the complete opposite!"
Occhi dalle stelle (1978)
Great acting. Incredible cinematography. Outstanding sfx.
Ha ha. Kidding. Sometimes these old Italian films do have incredible cinematography, I think because Italy is gorgeous. But partly because scenery doesn't act badly or move. There were some very good camera angles, which Italian films often rely on. They did not overcome the Captain Kirk-like acting. The story line was....there....but there was no resolution. If it intended to leave questions, that's okay, but zero answers is not okay. Sort of the "life is a s*** sandwich and every day you take another bite then you die" low budget existential....thingie. Very Italian.
Highlights:
Great use of bland facial expressions
Great use of Italian, British, fake British, American, and fake American accents
Great placement of arbitrary commercials on the service I was using to ensure something interesting periodically showed
Favorite highlight:
The aliens. Great button pushers and toggle flippers. I especially liked the one whose job was to push and hold the red button the entire time.
Dickinson (2019)
You have got to be kidding.
Confession. I saw the trailer while playing app games. My first thought was, "This is a trashy frat boy and sorority girl view of Emily Dickinson and her time period." I went to college with these people and they couldn't put a brain together between all of them. I'll keep playing the game, but I cringe and my eyes bleed every time the trailer comes on.
Teleios (2017)
Better than average, average, and less than average.
Overall, it started slow, but I felt it picked up as it progressed. It's more a thought provoking story a la "Solaris" than an action flick. At times the lines were delivered like a high school play, especially from some players. I'd recommend it to my movie and lit groups on social media, with caveats.
Zero (2019)
Well executed...
...and yet left me wondering what the point was. Another doomsday, apocalypse, end of the world drama only this time without a conclusion? "...leave the house". Maybe I just will...
Mary Poppins Returns (2018)
It's not a remake. It's the follow on.
If you're expecting a remake, it's not. It's the magic of the next generation. I smiled, laughed, and cried all the way through. I suppose giving it one star is for people expecting PG13 and cursing and sex. Nah, it's for families. Remember those? Emily Blunt was practically perfect. Totally different story with nods to the original. I was at the first one on opening night as a child. I was transported back to those days tonight. I don't give ten stars to any movie out of principle, so I'd give this 9.5 if I could.
Luma (2017)
Tension
In my mind, I gave it 7 stars for effective mounting of tension and anticipation. I gave it 1 for lack of a story line and plot. That's 4 stars average. I've tried, and I just don't understand what the point was. The synopsis added nothing. The sun is going out? Predators? Urgent mission? I may not know art but I know what I like. Help me here: what am I missing?
Gamma (2017)
Off and on...(potential spoiler)
(Potential spoiler)
First, it could have been...better. But I've seen far worse shorts. Like many shorts, for me at least, it left too much speculation at the end. I like more tidy resolutions. The acting was good, much better from some characters than others. The story had a lot of potential that could have been developed with another minute or two of film or by replacing something in the middle. I watched it because of the description, which was accurate, but a little...misleading is wrong....perhaps a little incomplete. Still, by two minutes in I was hooked. As an investment of a few minutes of my day, I'm glad I watched. I struggled briefly with giving it a 7/10 rating, but could not. 6/10 seems a bit low. Worth watching.
Traveler (2015)
It's a commercial
The whole short film felt like a commercial for the latest version of a quasi-luxury car, cornering on curvy roads with beautiful to semi-beautiful people involved somehow. You drive and you go nowhere, but if you buy our car, you'll be cool...ish.