Reviews

I was expecting this to be the typical 2000s comedy: Man-child protagonist, gross-out humor, dick jokes, stupid dialog, stereotyping... and yeah it is all of that, yet still I found it sort of intriguing.

For the most part what work for me was the casting like Reynolds, Penn even Daniel Crossgrove does a decent job on his role. The only problem with the cast is Tara Reid that woman can't act! But regardless when you pay attention to their dialogs and scenes you realize how bad they are, it's these people who make them work or at least tolerable, because a lot them are pretty damn bad with no real point.

The first sequence is Van telling a suicidal guy to be the "jumper", cause that's the school wants apparently. Someone to throw themselves from the main building in the first day, however later in the movie a bunch of people tell Van that he shouldn't put himself down since he's an "inspiration" for them to become better, like what? It make no sense.

Then there is the gross-out humor and that scene... oh dear! Which, i'm not going to get into too much detail but proops to the sound design & editing department for making me almost want to puke. I suppose i should give them that credit.

Even though i give it a low score I still might rewatch this and I don't really know why.

Mile 22 is not a good movie but It's not a terrible one either as the reviews are saying. Its waaay to low on RT and, I don't know, I feel like I need to defended but, at the same time I see the issues.

The biggest one is of course the editing. It's a movie that is kinda hard to watch because of it, there are cuts and cuts all the time, the shots are weird close-ups, not to mention some of the characters are yelling and are very coarse, especially Wahlberg who can get pretty irritating fast. But, interestingly that might be the point; to disturb us and dizzy us, showing how the titular character might feel about all of this situation, if this was intentional It might be something. Unfortunately there is no real character development or a decent plot to sustain this supposed stylistic choice.

Some of the special effects look cheap, I mean, this looks more like a streaming film in several occasions than for theaters. The first half especially is very boring, lots of exposition, character moments that go nowhere and setups that are not strong enough to keep you invested. The second part however gets a bit better the over the top chasing scene is entertaining and has some tension.

Both Uwais and Wahlberg give strong performances for tokens basically, and Iko is kind of wasted in this i'm not going to lie and his action scenes seem amateurish for someone who is a professional. Mark in the other hand is the rude american macho and he plays it well, yes, he can be very irritating but I feel it's more of a problem with the script, we needed a bit more info about his character and how he deals with his condition, yeah we have that. Everybody else is... who cares? And this is another twist movie... at this point i'll give it a pass. At the end while it could be just a popcorn film, it's undeniable that could´ve been a more interesting film.

Not worth for cinemas, if want to give it a chance wait for it on Netflix.

I'm no fan of Tarantino but his first film attempt is pretty remarkable. The structure seems pleasing enough, we start with the introductory scene for the characters and even spoils who is the traitor in a clever way.

Each one of the characters are later re-introduced in a more detailed way, all well performed and engaging, except for Tarantino he is a bad actor. The movie is also violent and its quite disturbing yet fun to watch. There is also the theme of betrayal and why it's never a good idea to make bonds with you "co-workers" and yet its kind of inevitable, hence its the reason their plan failed.

It was innovative for its time but I can not considered a masterpiece, on the other hand is one those films that you end up liking and remember why we need the support for low budget films in this era of big expensive blockbusters.

The Rider is on one hand beautiful, the cinematography, the scenery and setting is quite dazzling to look at. It does capture the country´s charm and passion. And its an Indie movie so its slow paced, edited on a less conventional way and has non-actors who at the very least look different from the high stars.

On the other its a decent drama about a coming of age kid in a rural environment with a very linear ideal of manhood. It's also a journey to his identity and how to deal with it now with an disability. The movie captures greatly the sense of loss for every part of his lifestyle he adores.

This is until he takes the decision between following his dream bieng a "man" or being a "man", in the sense that sometimes its not about proving how much of a man you to others but rather, you need to get on yourself and move on, some people might need you now. Hence the strongests points are his relationships with his friend and sister, which I notice they are meant to be portrait as stronger than with the horses, as to showcase how more important they are than his dream to continue on the rodeo.

That's what I get from it.

My personal issue however, and it's kind of its charm ironically, are the performances. Like I said, these are almost non-actors and most of them, specially the main actor do a decent job. But there are others like the father and some the extras who are a bit underwhelming, It does get kind of distracting.

Still is a good film and if you want something fresh and rest a little from the hollywood blockbusters this a nice option.

To be fair I knew from the beginning that this was going to be a stupid movie. I only bought it because i found it cheap and had a slipcover and i´m a Renner fan.

Oh Boy! where should i start?

Ok, the two main leads are terrible written. They supposed to these bad ass witch hunters who had been in the business for years. And yet they don´t know that witches camouflage, that there are white ones, that they change form o can be pretty. They get their asses beaten for most of the movie and create more damage than good. They also have zero development or at least a personality. The supporting cast is even more deplorable, no characters just tokens for bad guys, sidekicks, witches and that's it.

The visuals are abysmal! with awful makeup and costume design, obvious green screen and CGI, not to mention the overuse of gore for no reason.

The acting also doesn't help, Gemma Arterton is just bad actress, interestingly I haven't seen her in a "mayor" hollywood movie scene. Jansen is on her worst and Renner is here to get a paycheck.

There is also a weird scene where they edit the bad guys beating up the heroine and treating to rape her meanwhile Renner has a awkward sex scene with the sexy witch, she shows her ass (but they don't show his btw) and they make out again for no reason.

Do i forgot to mention the weird "romance" between the heroine and the orgeish creature?

But all of that could be forgettable if this was stupid fun but no, it's boring and frustrating bad.

I'm not into the Cloverfield franchise, so maybe i could be missing some stuff. However that doesn't excuse this movie. Not only is very confusing for its "plot" and "themes" neither of them become well established or executed.

The movie also has a tonal & genre dissonance, it doesn´t know what it wants to be, a horror, Sci-fi, fantasy, thriller or what ever, I know nowadays movies tend to be mixed towards genre but this is ridiculous.

The acting is some of the worse i've seen, we already don't have characters but tokens and pawns for lazy screenwriters, but the line reads go from cringy to absolute atrocious.

The main lead actress has the same expression for pretty much the whole movie, some weird thing happens and she continues with her mopey face. The rest of the cast continues the same way.

But the worst aspect is definitely the pretentious philosophical elements in the film, they come out of nowever and are used in a contrived way to expand the time of the movie.

Boring, stupid and just plain silly. Thank god this a streaming film and no one has to pay to see it in the big screen.

It seems most people loved the movie mostly due to the references and nostalgic feel to it, while some others criticized for its "misogyny". Now to be fair, it's not boring nor time-consuming, the pacing is decent, is visually interesting (although some people felt dizzy for camera work) some references are kind of clever and the score is moving and 80s.

The concept itself might sound interesting to some, but is filled with overused elements, archetypes and lots of exposition scenes. Particularly on the first fifteen minutes with all the narration. I get that we need to establish the setting but i think there could be a much more visually interesting way to explain for all of this, especially considering this is Spielberg we are talking about. This movie sets us in a place where the world is so awful people have no other option than to live on a virtual reality. The fact that this movie implies that people only play their video game and not other activities like work, play outside, go shopping, we are supposed to get that everything can be done on this game (i guess even getting a medical degree can be got by this method). The way the easter eggs and mysteries are solved get pretty repetitive and sometimes the characters get to discovers things out of nowhere.

But the biggest issue in the film more than the flawed world-building, are the characters, none of them are particularly interesting or compelling. Our main hero is your virgin, shy gamer (even though everyone is like that in this movie ¿?), but of course he is athletic, perfect lips, perfect hair, perfect chin, that makes the whole thing shallow. Similarly the love interest has some sort of problems due to an issue on her body (even though it's no big deal) and of course she´s a Strong and Independent Womyn®. And the rest of the characters, not even worth mentioning. I guess the movie is trying a traditional black & white conflict but i works to movie's disadvantage. The people in this movie act like complete idiots or intellectuals when it's convenient for the plot. As for performances i could only saved Mark Rylance and Ben Mendelsohn ( even if his plays one the stupidest villains) playing of course an evil corporate asshole, you know an executive who doesn't get the importance and art of... pop culture.

And that's another thing, pop culture has been severely criticized not because it's not real art, some have argued that, but more because it turns music, films, video games and comics into vulgar products. It's less an homage of modern arts but more a Funko Pop vomit gallery. And all of this comes from a person who criticizes Disney for not understanding animation.

Ready Player One tries to be escapism and at the same time criticizes it. Well you can't have it both ways (or you can?). Either the movie thinks is way smarter than it actually is or Spielberg just wanted a sub par moral so the average moviegoers can think this movie has a heart. Either way, it's cheap, shallow, cringey and ineffective. It's a silly movie to distract yourself for two hours. I mean, i get it when people say they had fun, it's meant to entertain, you are over analyzing it, etc.

Okay fine, but Spielberg could stop giving his movies supposed dark themes which are never explored and just trick the audience, he is better than. Although due to his recent comments on Indiana Jones I guess I'm going to start questioning his artistic visions for the future.

Considered by many as a "Modern Classic", it's the story about a man who discovers his ex ask a service to memory erasing program which he tries to forget her, only to regretted later.

Jim Carrey has even to this date an interesting career, after his nineties comedies he decided to enter into much more "intellectual" films like The Truman Show, Man on the Moon and of course this. In which he gives one of his best performances of his career, playing an introvert, lonely and melancholic character.

Kate Winslet, Clementine, is the more crazy girlfriend that fills the protagonsit´s boring life with her... craziness. Not a fan of characters like her, but she works greatly on this storyline. This almost reach a sense magic realism or even surrealism, it establishes a world where unreal things like an institution that erases memories and dream-memory scenery happen without questioning.

All to tell a very basic but somewhat not very common message.

For a misunderstanding a man loses his rug, makes a deal to help a wealthy man in order to have it back. Ended up getting in more trouble that is need it.

This is one of those movies that I had an enormous curiosity to see, since everyone was telling me that it was good movie, and a few minority telling me that is a stupid overrated one.

So I finally watch it and... it's fun, that´s about it. I haven't had this much fun watching a movie in recent years.

The performances are all great, Jeff Bridges sells it as "The Dude", iI get why people like the character, I love John Goodman. I kind of like the use of Steve Buscemi and the Sam Elliott´s cameo. The characters are all very likeable, very distinct with their own ideals which most of them contradict themselves oddly enough.

Sure the plot again is very simple, but not entirely predictable, I was always wondering where the story was going to go. We go around from one weird character to another and of course, those dream sequences, I had the WTF look on them.

I also love the scenery, as someone who has lived in LA, this quite how it is, with some "fantasy" touch, it reminded me of other movies with more realistic approach to LA like Drive and Nightcrawler against your La La Land for example.

If it's a real masterpiece or not is still something I need to analyze it for a few more time, but I can finally see what drives people nuts for this movie.

A drama made for men as they say, and yeah, pretty much. Two brothers form a broken home got into a fighting contest, while dealing with their issues.

Simple story and conflict, and it is kind of predictable I not going to lie. But that is not the reason this isn´t worth a watch. The performances are all excellent and each one of the characters are motivated, this creates an interesting tension and great scenes. You just have to cheer up when each one of the brothers defeat their opponents. And I'm going into too much spoiler but the moment where Nick Nolte´s has a breakdown, want to cry you really want to.

Another wonderful thing is the cinematography, each character has its own visual look, later we have a tv sport feel to it with grain, shaky cam and close-ups.

But I'm not going to lie the fact that this is a male drama gives the movie some point, since there really isn't any movies like this, I guess filmmakers view melodrama as not a very "manly" genre. Although there is still a conflict with family members, I've yet to see a drama film between men who aren't blood/legal/romance related, at least in modern America.

Uchiage Hanabi, Shita Kara Miru ka? Yoko Kara Miru ka? is the newest entry in the new anime film era started with Kimi no na wa, which follows similar trends: high school years, romance, comedy and melodrama, time traveling and striking visuals. However unlike Your Name, Fireworks is very weak in many aspects. It's not a bad movie by any stretch but certainly not good one either.

The movie suffers for the most part for three problems.

The orb gimmick: a supposed mcguffin, which the main character uses to travel through time and returns to an specific point. It is never explained or detailed where it came from, why it works that way and why it can travel in time since is just a firework. This also leads to a world building problem, anime movies tend to be good on creating and using fantasy elements on modern settings, something american films can't do and thus they heavily rely on historical periods, but this movie can't achieved that at all leading to scratch your head every five minutes. The whole orb issue wouldn't be a problem if wasn't for the ending, particularly the last scene lead to a much more confusing story.

Not so much melodrama. This has a lot to do with culture differences but, it really is hard to believe the drama of a young girl who makes a huge take on her mother having a new husband. Now, there was an opportunity to explore on possible father issues or her relation to her mother's past but they don't go there at all which makes the conflict rather shallow. Not to mention the main characters rivalry with his best friend and the bid between the boys that goes absolute nowhere. So i guess the whole conflict is Norimichi and Nazuna being together at least a day, and all could have work if it wasn't for the ending, I swear that if i don't included the ending here is for spoiler purposes.

Animation: Now, the are some good use of computer animation but there are some objects and scenes where it felt underwhelming, mainly some of the human animation and some backgrounds like the school hall or the water, just looks off. The character design with the exception of Nazuma is not very interesting. Something i notice for this new era of anime films is that they tend to have a more tv anime style over a more film style, not sure it's because i'm accused to ghibli or what.

Besides all the negative towards the movie you'll think there isn't any redeeming qualities, for me at least, but there are a few.

Weirdness. I know it was not done in purpose at all but there is something about this tone, that i kind of absolutely love on how sometimes Japanese filmmakers tend to exaggerate even the most mundane conflict, making at least a consistent tone throughout the movie. Also this might be as to how a teenager sees the world, as their issues/problems are the most important thing, maybe not the most sympathetic thing but in some cases, relatable. The biggest example of the scene where Nazuma imagines herself as a idol princess it's was so odd i could help myself but enjoy it.

Animation. Besides my hiccups with it, like always seeing 2d animation is a joy, even if it's not best I've seen i still quite decent. The CGI for the crystal orb it's really amazing, i kind of wish it was the only element in computer animated and the rest in traditional but it's what we have i guess. Finally the colors with the fireworks are gorgeous, the scene where our main couple are together in the lighthouse or the "climax" is really breathtaking.

Score. The musical segments are pretty good sometimes a little exaggerated again going with hyper shallow melodrama of the film so go well the scenery. There are some good songs in here as well.

Perhaps i'm having a soft spot for it but i did have some fun watching but don't hold your breaths to high for this one, it's not complex, it's no the greatest romance, it's no profound or anything and worst of all the message is all over the place, specially due to that ending. If you don't mind exaggerated anime soap with pretty colors this one's ok but if you're looking for a excellent anime movie, skip this one, you won't lose anything.

OMG, you have no idea how much i hated this movie. Honestly the only reason i watched in the first place was because of a personal project (that i dropped BTW). I saw it had negative reviews, but i never expected to be this awful. Instead of going on too much details i'll give you the three main problems i have with it.

Forced Melodrama: I get this is a film, believe me i should now, but the world building the people, psychological status, events are presented on a very convoluted and unrealistic way. You don't buy pretty much anything, there is force melodrama to create "tension" but it ends up being laughable.

Annoying characters: Starting with the teenager (whose name i don't remember nor do i want to), who has a god awful accent, looks for materials to fulfill her stupid dream. Of course she has an alcoholic uncle, she loves her father even though he abandoned her to go for his selfish dream. The two workers are absolutely obnoxious. Thank god the wife character appears so little cause i hated her since the first scene. The only redeeming character is the Henry, with again falls for this stupid and unrealistic plot.

Awful message: I'm not against twisted morals in movies, no really i 'm not, but this POS gives the typical message i hate in movies. So near the end of the movie when Henry recovers from his lost and understands that the teenager's dream is idiotic and continues with his life. BUT NO, risked all: a good job, nice house, and a nice life. Leave that "shallow" past to go on a fulfilling adventure. Diarrhea in celluloid indeed.

Aside from that it looks mostly cheap, the lighting is bad, the color palette is wrong, the sets looks somewhat fake, the cinematography is just awkward. I guess Jason Sudeikis performance is decent, but gets diminish with the rest of the cast and the stupid, horrible and forced plot.

It's good for those who like garbage massage movies.

Koe no Katachi has so many virtues in comparison to western animation. Between consumerist nonsense from Ilumination, the bipolar quality of Dreamworks, the blatant prostitution of Disney and the insignificance of Blue Sky. Japan seems to put very high standards in their animated film industry.

The film touches the themes of bullying, hypocrisy, double standards, suicide and social structure on individual, in a different approach with less "black & white" stereotypes without losing the melodramatic tone.

It tells the story of Shoya a boy who molest Shoko a girl with deafness. His antics came to an extreme that she lefts school and the other children molest him now, even though most of them laugh at her or speak badly about her. Due to the abuse Shoya wants to commit suicide and fails. Time later he encounters Shoko again and now wants to become friends with her, although a lot of people prevent that due to his background as a bully.

One good aspect of the film is how the manage the tone. Is is hard to have a cry scene and then have a joke successfully without an awkward feeling. However they do it decently with their comic relief characters, with give the some of the best bits. That and the drama is well handed, I have to admit that some scenes are kind of sad for example when Shoko apologizes to Shoka's mother.

The animation is great, is fluent and pretty. With a very interesting color palette, pinks, the yellows, the greens and the blues just pop out of the screen, giving a somewhat melancholic but warm atmosphere.

For negative I got to say that the pacing is weird, the first part of the movie that introduces to our main character and the background for the conflict goes a bit too quickly. However by the ending it goes for bit to long in one or two scenes i felt it was going to end but no. This does not affect the movie at all, but i can see people finding a bit difficult to get by. And the little development for some of the supporting characters, one or two are just there and their roles could be filled by others. I heard that in the manga a lot more details are explained, i guess i have to check it out.

How can a movie like this got little attention from the Academy back in 2013 (aside from a well deserved Best Cinematography) is beyond me, cause this a damn good movie.

Two girls get kidnapped and one the fathers becomes insane when the first suspect gets freed, so he tortures him until he lays where are the gals. Meanwhile the detective in charge stars to to follow the father steps as he is getting justice on his hands, while also becoming crazy at it.

The theme of "From Man to beast" is excellent, as our main character is the traditional Christian masculine dad, becomes a literal demon torturing a somewhat innocent fellow (who turns out was a victim after all). And all to continue to be the hero, the provider, the protector ending to be the victim of a 'weak' person. Similar to Detective Loki who has resolve his past cases is now desperate as he sees all lost with this one.

The directing is great, the story has also its merits not only is pretty awesome to have an original screenplay once for a while and there are so many plot twists you are just guessing "Is he really the raptor?" "Was he involved?" so i guess it accomplishes it's goal perfectly. Everybody talks about the Cinematography by Dickens and indeed is one of best (if not the best) aspects of the film, not only does it look gorgeous, the lighting is great, the clichéd teal and orange color palette works here and the atmosphere is amusing. To an extent i didn't think about it until now, but as someone said to me "if you don't notice the cinematography on a film, you did something right".

The acting for both Gyllenhaal and Jackman are also a gem in this, especially Jake's performance, who becomes both heroic and cynical to somewhat charming.

There are some nice things to say about Moonlight. Firstly, I admire the film's attempt to go away from the effeminate gay stereotype not that there's anything wrong with it but its refreshing, the three age structure is somewhat interesting and tackles to actual issues with the black and gay communities. Finally Mahershala Ali is easily the best part of the movie.

Now on my new view of the film, which was meh at first, now its a bit more positive. The first part, the best one, tackles the story of a young kid in the need of a parent figure. Even if this figure is an amoral man, there is a need for the protagonist to discover his identity, in this case in a male figure, since he is raised in a lower class and traditional environment, even if he is surrounded with a morally bankrupt society.

In his teenage years and adulthood there is a concern with the issues of growing up queer in this society; with abuse, bullying and the need for companionship. Cleverly our main character turns into his "role model" but keeps all his issues formed from his past.

I admit the structure and pacing seem a bit too slow for me, and for an oscar winning movie it's a bit too small. I understand the cultural relevance of being a black and queer movie, but... I wish it was on a more game changing film.