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Reviews
Road House (2024)
Conor McNugget is not the worst part
The original road house is so corny and ridiculous that is an actually a pretty good entertaining movie.
The new road house fails to entertain. First of all, because the replacement cast is annoying. The protagonist love interest moves from one attractive bimbo to an unattractive feminist who hates all men. The original cast included a bunch of overweight people to show authenticity of the bouncers, patrons.
The new one has a gentrified clientele who looks that they are all personal trainers. Even the villains look not menacing at all. The owner of the Road House treats vandalism like it is a normal thing. In any bar or restaurant, broken equipment means money loss.
Then you have a bookstore girl with a stupid hairstyle. When Patrick Swaize was the lead, he tried to create the character of a bouncer/philosopher. Who would muse brains instead of muscle. The new one, the main character doesn't look or act smart.
In short, it is a wasted opportunity.
La sociedad de la nieve (2023)
This movie touched me deeply
Somehow I felt connected with all those characters. The movie depicts the saga of a group of elite you g Uruguayans.
I went to private school in South America, so I understand the universe this people come from. They come from privilege. Which means they all had servants, maids, gardeners, cooks, chauffeurs, so they never had to learn life saving skills like sharpening objects, making bonfires, stitching because those tasks an chores are below them.
So the fact that they were stuck in the mountains and they only had themselves to organize their survival was amazing. They had to grow up and become heroes without any experienced person to guide them. It is about growing up, but with much more obstacles.
The group made many wrong decision, because they were never prepared for that. So I thought with myself, that it could be me one of those guys.
Many thing for us are obvious, like the higher you stay in the mountains, the colder it is, but it was not obvious for them. They suffered way more than necessary because no one could guide them.
And despite all their class, they get their act together and learn how to adapt.
This. Lucie deserves an academy award for sure.
The Woodsman (2004)
It is a story about addiction and redemption.
This movie is really strong. It shows the viewpoint of someone who developed some behavior when he was a kid, and as he grew old, he kept the same behavior instead of evolving, maturing. But there is more to it. The movie deals with sex between siblings. Two characters had realtions with their brothersor sisters. Later one minor character has incest with a parent. So those are the situations where it most occurs. At home, because it is easier.
So we cheer for Walter (the protagonist). We want him to move on and cure himself from his addiction. He already spent many years in prison, but the desires sometimes go back. It is almost like the movie is about a heroin addict. His mind is rejecting the sensual desires, but his heart is not. Walter still gets attracted to younger people. He knows the imorality of his feelings, but he doesn't know how to stop them.
Son of the South (2020)
Not entertaining or inspirational at all
It is an Ok movie, but I didn't. Like the message at all.
The civil rights fight was essentially a struggle for economic advancement. So I have this grandstanding about lunch counters and greyhound buses.
That was not the priority, and Martin Luther King always made it clear.
They included an Asian character on the side of the Civil rights, when in real life, Asian Americans were opposed to African-Americans. Their rivalry resulted in the LA riots in 1993
And the movie portray Virginia Durr and Jessica Mitford as sort of heroines. In real life they were communist activists, Virginia even was part of a traitor network (Alger Hiss). Mitford was an Stalinist.
In short, this movie is bland and uninspiring.
In Tranzit (2008)
It is a history lesson.
First of all, anyone should watch this movie not because of the plot, but because one needs to learn history from alternative viewpoints.
What is remarkable about this movie, is that it depicts accurately the Soviet policy of killing any prisoner of war by starving, exposure, sentenced execution of simply random killing. One of the dark secrets of the Allies is that they never respected any Geneva conventions and were notorious for committing crimes against humanity.
So some prisoners (the minority) did survive because of luck. There were a few righteous among the nations that helped them with extra food or clothing at a great risk for themselves, so I am glad this movie pays tribute for those compassionate ladies.
Flesh+Blood (1985)
It is a movie for History enthusiasts
People did not understood Paul Verhoeven geniality here.
He was showing how ridiculous, greedy and superstitious European late middle ages people were.
By 1501, we see a few improvements like gunpowder, but people had no advanced medicine at all. They would bleed victims of bubonic plague, which would ensure certain death
I think Jennifer Jason Leigh looks very comfortable in her naked scenes. She is so natural that it is not even arousing, but just beautiful to admire lie a fine painting.
And Rutger Hauer is not a villain, but an anti-hero. He leads a party of looters, but he needs to act evil in order to earn their respect, although he is slowly improving his morals and manners.
I think the movie is a criticism about how Europeans were so unreasonable, and despite that, they prevailed and created Western civilization.
The Remains of the Day (1993)
Lord Darlington was a here. He almost achieved peace.
There are two movies here. One is the political and historical discussions about how to create peace and prosperity in Europe, and the other is the personal relationship between a butler and a maid.
I was more interested in the first. Lord Darlington confesses to his butler that the Versailles treaty was a scam, and it was starving to death a small, poor and defeated nation that fought bravely. So as he had money, some influence, he saw an opportunity to fix a mistake the British and French made in 1919. He handles the politicians of his time, and creates conferences that can improve the world, but the British public later show lack of gratitude to him for his efforts to reach peace. Therefore, the movie now worth just to admire the effot of a brave and bold man who only wanted the best for the people.
Nobody (2021)
Important movie to show how Russians are the bad guys
I think after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hollywood is missing the ideological while entertaininh movies it used to make in the 80s like Rocky IV or Red Dawn.
Russia hot away for so many decades because in the minds of the Western public, they were harmless.
The movie nobody is a reminder of their violent nature and ruthlessness. Here the Russians are the villains, and we celebrate every time one of them gets killed by the protagonist.
So the movie is worth watching for its content, but also by the morale boost. I hope many Ukrainians get to see it as well.
Besides, it is amazing to watch Christopher Lloyd still being active and kicking ass.
The Whale (2022)
Good, but it is too anti religion movie
I did not like the characters. One is a missionary who is sort of runaway. And he keeps visiting the same apartment despite being rejected. Can't he understand he is not welcome?
Then we have an annoying nurse who is hanging out instead of taking care of her own family and life.
Then there is the delinquent daughter. Instead of trying to help her father, she only brings sorrow and pain
The main character blames his obesity on the suicide of his male partner. And apparently this partner died because he was rejected by his former religion. That is BS.
Normally apostasy never results in suicide. I think the director wants to scare people away from religion.
Till (2022)
It feels like a documentary. Mildly entertaining or engaging, but very educational.
The movie spends most of the time showing what happened to Emmett Till mother and the civil rights movement. But I think more context would engage the viewer more.
I think more scenes should show how was the racial interactions in Mississippi. The movie focus too much on the African American family and NAACP, but always them in their own bubbles of church, home, funeral parlor, barbershop. The interesting parts are when whites and blacks interact. Like the people in the North with their concealed prejudice, or in the South , where the slurs are the name of the game. So I'm the end, we have a movie that missed the opportunity to be meaningful (like Green Book, Benjamin Button, even Forrest Gump) when showing race relations back then in the South.
Blood & Gold (2023)
Not historically accurate
I was mildly entertaining by the movie, but for me it doesn't make sense.
You have a group of SS soldiers about to lose a war. They try to look for some good, but what are they gonna do with it? They can't escape. Germany is all surrounded at this point. The Americans as seen here are too busy committing war crimes. They won't spare any adult male . So the logical thing would be those soldiers would be fighting back against the invaders, or they would be foolishly surrendering (there is no record whether any Wehrmacht soldier survived as POW).
So we see the entire movie, people fighting for some useless gold, since the Allies will spare no one. What is the point? Their lives were about to end soon. And there is this annoying girl Elsa and her brother who are against their own people. Doesn't she knows what the enemies would do to her. For her own sake, she should be supporting the war effort.
Rocky V (1990)
I disagree with the reviews. I got entertained.
Rocky V hot a bad reputation because the reviewers are elitists. The public always liked Sylvester Stallone's movies, but the fat cats in the media always rejected him, just like the character Rocky Balboa was always marginalize for the same reasons. Because Rocky IV is considered to be a patriotic movie, Rocky V got boycotted by the press mostly because the journalists are left wing and thought it is not ok to show Soviet Union in a negative way. Hollywood believes that you can only make social criticism against the right, against Christian religion, against conservatives.
For example, Rocky Balboa always asks for the Catholic priest to bless him, he always prays and do the sign of the cross, he cared criticize the Soviets, his best friend was an African American (in the leftist world, races are always segregated), he is faithful to his wife and never divorce her despite marital troubles. And he keeps uncle Paulie working for him despite him losing all their money, showing that family matters more than money.
By the way, in the movie, Rocky and son encourage tourist to visit the art museum in Philadelphia to see the historical paintings.
So he crossed all the lines that the politically correct people created.
On the Line (2022)
People here are against anything Mel Gibson makes.
The movie provides entertainment. I really liked it. I imagined myself in that situation where your own popularity makes you a target for a psychopath.
The theme here is that the talk radio host could not and would not leave the police manage the case because of the imminent threat against his family.
Mel Gibson's acting for me was amazing. He convinced me as a frightened victim who also thinks and decided quickly, because that's what talk radio hosts and DJs do. They know how to use their words to engage the other person, and in his case, to buy time and get clues.
So I liked the idea of how a revenge for employer abuse can get out of control. So many people were victims from above, and I pretty much know that many would like some revenge, but not as extreme as in this case.
The Cotton Club (1984)
Why nobody is watching this movie?
I am writing here in 2023, and I noticed nobody wrote a single review in 2022. That means it is a movie forgotten by history.
I am no jazz fan, but I appreciated the acts in "The Cotton Club"
It is important to remember the Harlem Renaissance and the time when African Americans were producing the peak o American music and dance at the time. Entertainment was their only avenue out of poverty, since sports were still segregated. So they give it all to entertain a white crowd that loves them on stage, but hates them in the real world.
I think the musical scenes were good, but for some people they might be boring.
Kleo (2022)
It is not a political series. The focus is on entertaining.
First of all, this series covers the most important part of German history, or even European history, which is the two of the Berlin Wall/Iron Curtain.
The interesting element here is the fact that the protagonist is an Easy German girl. Her country is falling apart, but she opposes reunification with West Germany at any cost. We know her cause is hopeless, but we keep cheering for her once she realizes she has been working for the bad guys, the Stasi which is the secret police.
The show is not so nostalgic because the hair and clothes are all contemporary. Nobody looks like they are from 1989 or 1990, but that's irrelevant. It is fun to see a society collapsing, and how people who were once powerful adapted to the new system.
Child 44 (2015)
Educational while entertaining. Very relevant after Russia-Ukraine war.
In 2015 this movie was censored in Russia. The minister of culture banned it, and surprisingly that didn't made headlines in the West.
But it shows how Russia nowadays, they try to erase any criticism of USSR. So a movie is interpreted as an attack on the Russian population.
In the movie, many characters die, some are tortured and others exiled to poorer provinces. That explains how the soviets essentially erased all creative, open minded people, and the survivors of communism were the yes men, the dishonest, the sadistic ones. Even people who were part of the military, secret police were always preying on each other. No one was safe and betrayal was the name of the game as long as Stalin's rule remains unchallenged.
So if you want to understand why Russians are so ruthless right now , this movie might help to explain.
The Hustler (1961)
It is very boring. And unnecessary long.
I got interested in Paul Newman after watching him in "the sting". But the Hustler is way inferior. I have the feeling that anything produced before 1964 in USA is too fake and unreal. I guess the arrival of The Beatles was the best thing in the planet that changed forever their art and culture.
My complaint about The Hustler is the bad acting of a female character who is supposed to be alcoholic, but she doesn't act, talk and act like one. If you ever saw a drink lady, you would notice that the actress as faking it so bad. They should give her real alcohol.
Then we have a scene when an obese guy is playing pool for 25 hours and he simply combs his hair and apparently he is clean and tidy again. The movie ignores that a person sweats, the beard grows in one day. In order to look sharp, he needed at least a shower and fresh clothes.
Then the movie gets incredibly long with smoking and drinking scenes. It is like the director kept inserting fillers that don't contribute to the plot at all.
And there are scenes where the protagonist and his friend are sleeping in a hotel with their everyday clothes on and on top of the bed instead of under the sheets. I don't think it is real.
And a scammer like the protagonist act in very irrational ways. Normally people like him are psychopaths. They get everyone's money and disappear in order to avoid retaliation. Here we witness an idiot who can't stop screwing up. Con artists never lose (in life)
In short, this is an overrated flick with little entertainment value. Maybe only art lovers would see anything positive here.
Red Dawn (1984)
Classic anti communist movie
Red Dawn became very relevant recently after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In the movie, the Soviets invade USA with lame excuses and abuse the local population with a high degree of sadism.
In Ukraine it is the same, the rhetoric, the barbarian, the brainwashing. The movie is important to show that you can never count on being safe in a democratic country. And once the invaders take your lands nothing will stop them, because they want more and more.
In Red Dawn's we see a group of teenagers who resist bravely, and the civilians are executed in retaliation to every Russian death. But that doesn't scare the partisans, and they keep fighting because their cause is just. So people must watch it and be inspired to oppose any Russian invasion a because what the director John Milius is forecasting in 1984, is actually happening in 2023.
We need more patriotic flicks like that. They give us hope.
Im Westen nichts Neues (2022)
Very educational. It shows us that world wars were huge mistakes.
I learned many things after watching this movie. For example, that the French/British/Americans/Russians were superior numerically, economically and technologically. Essentially those armies have access to tanks, flamethrowers, airplanes, snipers, machine guns, poison gas, while Germans and Austrians had only rifles and bayonetta, which are pretty useless against such a powerful foe.
As a result, we understand the desperation of the political elite in order to sign an armistice, despite all the punishments and reparations. Because there is no better option. It was a war where Germans were losing since the beginning, and eventually were running out of troops, food and morale.
So when people describe those wars as challenging, we see they were not. For the Americans, British it was a picnic in the park, since they were well protected and relied on colonials as soldiers.
Súbete a mi Moto (2020)
The first ten episodes are good, but the series is longer than necessary.
There are many plots in the series. One is the relationship between the protagonist Edgardo Diaz, and his mother, who do manages the boy band he creates. Then we have the plot between Edgardo and the choreographer and costume maker Joselo Vega, who is a role model for the group, and a friend/advisor to Edgardo. Then we have two Menudo fans who never grow old despite the years going by, Renata and her best friend. Then we have the plot involving Renata's daughter, who in the present interviews an aged Edgardo. So among all those stories, there is very little coverage of the band members themselves, and what happened to them after leaving the band.
How does it feel to be ex-famous? That would be interesting. And how did they created the lyrics, songs that became so popular? Joselo himself, we never see him creating the dance moves. There is very little about the romantic live of members.
In short, the series are fun, but with too many subplots and unnecessary characters.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)
Silly plot. Unlikeable characters.
What I liked about the first ghostbusters was Venkman's (Bill Murray) cynical attitude. A man who used his job as an academic primarily to seduce young students. There was some comic relief from the accountant Rick Moranis, also the fact that the Ghostbusters considered themselves as a business venture, not an altruistic volunteer group.
In this movie, the magic was gone. The main characters, first of all are boring, annoying and unrealistic. They are totally unfazed when witnessing paranormal activity, when an average person would be freaked out.
There is essentially one single ghost in the entire movie. Part of the fun of the originals was observing the creativity of the production when creating creatures with specific designs and personalities. In this movie there was a lack of ghosts for us to see.
And in the end, we liked the original cast. We could not care at all about the teenager version imposed on us.
Coming 2 America (2021)
The director did not understand why "coming to america" was great. It was a celebration of Black America, with all it's flaws and virtues.
Coming to America as directed by a white guy (John Landis) who used an all black crew to mention the stereotypes about black urban culture in USA, but in a pleasant, educational way:
The black church more festive than religious
The barbershop (Jewish landlord, boxing)
Basketball (a path to college education)
Fast Food (McDowell's)
Hair products (Soul Glo)
The movie was not about Africa at all.
Now Coming 2 America fails to see that we wanted to see a comparison. What changed in Black America in 30 years?
We liked the movie because of Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall. We couldn't care less about those new characters.
The movie somehow depicts African Americans as having bad manners compared to the Africans. They are always loud, obnoxious, and disrespectful.
The original movie showed a black middle class (the McDowell's) who were honest, altruistic (free food at the church), patriotic.
The magic is mostly gone now.
Russian Doll (2019)
The second season is garbage
As a fan of season 1, I confess that I could not finish season 2. Part of the story happen in the 1980s, but nobody looks, dress or talks like the 80s. That time was the Reagan era, where people were patriotic, cheesy, embracing Cold War confrontation (Rambo 2 and 3, Rocky IV, Chuck Norris). The actors swear a lot, especially sexual slangs and profanities, something people were way more polite forty years ago.
NYs Manhattan is depicted as a demographic diverse place, while it was still very segregated back then. And you see all those races fully integrated when in reality they were not. It was very uncommon to hire professionals from ethnic and religious minorities.
Then the main character is just so obnoxious. Natasha Lyonne is far from attractive, which it makes it harder to forgive her for her lack of humor and stupid quotes.
The first season even made fun of the elite in NY that doesn't work and live in a bubble. The sequel is boring. The plot is improvised. In short, she screwed up badly.
Where the Day Takes You (1992)
One of the best from the 90s
I don't know why, but I just love depressing g movies, such as "requiem for a dream", "trainspotting", "natural born killers" and "christiane f".
This movie is depressing and great a the same time. It casted actors known for jolly and friendly characters (like Sean Astin from "Goonies" and Will Smith from "Fresh Prince"), and challenges them to portray hopeless kids who are self destructive and refuse help from the adult world.
The story is about this pack of teenagers who are surviving in the streets without taking showers or changing clothes (despite having those luxuries available in charities), and they live mostly under a bridge. The first thought in my mind is that that place probably must be rat infested, but the kids seem to enjoy their lifestyle.
It is hard to understand why they live like that, but the movie doesn't judge. It doesn't try to say whether they are good or bad, it just depicts their reality.
Fauda (2015)
For people who like politics/foreign affairs
I just binge watched 9 episodes in a row, and I can say that the series are really exciting, with many plot twists, intrigues and betrayals. First of all, we have to understand that this is a Israeli series, so we already expect the typical stereotype where Jews are the good guys and the non Jews are the bad guys.
Fauda was directed produced and created by Jewish Israelis, so their main audience are Israelis and Jews abroad, but the interesting part is that they portray the Palestinians in the movie (using Arab actors, so no whitewashing) as human beings, not as savages like we see in movies such as "Delta Force" or "True Lies". In their society, martyrdom is encouraged, and they see their acts not as terrorism, but as nationalism.
Against such determined foes, Israel uses this group of soldiers who speak fluent Arabic and know how to groom themselves and behave in a way that does not arises suspicion when they are infiltrated in the Palestinian territories. So the series is mostly bad guys fighting bad guys violently, because both sides desire the same land.
If you show any empathy, you are seen as weak. There is a scene where a Jewish female soldier starts sobbing after witnessing her fellow soldiers torturing a very old Arab with a hammer, essentially breaking his bones. So she is reprimanded by her colleague for showing compassion towards a non Jew, which is taboo in Israeli society.
And there is many cruel and sadistic scenes that might disturb the viewer, like when the Israeli soldiers kidnap and severely injure an 8 year old Palestinian girl in order to blackmail her father. You watch the series, and become more cynical, thinking that there is no humanity in the middle east.
The main message is that if you don't fight for the homeland (whether Jewish or Arab) you are a nobody. The characters cannot enjoy any simple pleasure like going to the park, practice a sport or go to the cinema. They spend 24 hours a day only thinking about revenge, and both sides only care about killing as many as possible. It is sad, but real, welcome to middle east.