Reviews

I loved this film. I must say thought I was getting a bit bored in the first hour with the endless talking. But once you find out what's really going on the film is expertly made.

The man in the trailer is a serial killer, contemplating suicide. He hears a knock at his door in a storm and it's a woman looking for a ride. Turns out that woman is the first woman he ever killed and in his head is reliving all his past murders. He wakes up at the end where he was at the beginning having gone through with the suicide attempt while his last victim lay dead in the back of his trailer.

The film is beautifully shot all within a small trailer. The acting from the 2 leads is simply incredible and I did not see the twist at the end coming. I know people will say it's boring boring boring. Blah blah blah but I was riveted and finally a horror film with a fantastic ending. I look forward to what's next from this filmmaker.

Let me start off by saying the lead actor is phenomenal. I'll never remember his name but everything I see him in he is always fantastic. It's a shame then to say he is wasted on such a piece of trash like this.

The film starts off decent enough. I like the backstory and the voice over by Michael ironside. The only problem with it is they give the movie away immediately by bringing up Bohemian Grove. I instantly knew that the talk show host did some kind of sacrifice in the first 2 minutes of the film.

The buildup of tension is only decent. Not fully knowing who to trust or what's really happening but again once the plot starts with the demon girl I knew where it was ending. Very predictable but well shot and the cinematography was different and quite clever.

It's just the last 20-25 minutes really was bad. Very bad. It was the type of thing you'd see in one of those awful VHS anthology movies. That's honest what this should've been. The first half hour was decent though. Don't waste your time.

As a wrestling fan, this film really misses the mark. It seems as if the director is either a casual fan or just doesn't know wrestling at all. It seems as if the film was made by someone with only the basic knowledge of the business. All the wrestling parts in the film are shot and viewed as from the fans perspective and not from the wrestler's perspective. Which makes the whole thing seem overly dramatic and not very realistic to the business.

I understand they are trying to tell a story about this family but it misses a mark so much on the wrestling side of things that I mostly lost interest in the family drama stuff.

It's a shame what happened to this family and the loss of all those lives. The sadness in this family is apparent.

The acting was the selling point and to be honest the acting is pretty bad. Besides Jeremy Allen White, everyone is giving terrible performances or just average.

Lastly, the way the film portrays Ric Flair is a travesty and I really wanted to turn it off after they showed him to be just a drunken jerk and beneath the Von Erich family. The filmmaker should be ashamed of himself for trying to portray arguably the greatest professional wrestler of all time as worse then a family of wrestler that never really could hack it in the business. Also the actor who is playing Flair is awful. Looks & sounds nothing like the man. Not even the same energy. Awful casting.

All that being said it is an average film, all the story beats are there but the people who made it have no understanding of the wrestling business. Flair is better than everyone in this family put together. Honestly it's decent for the family drama stuff but mostly a forgettable film with no understanding of professional wrestling.

During the first half hour I was thinking this was in the 8-9 range for a score. Then the last act happened. Just like in the film the writer can't come up with an ending to his story.

While the acting is good, (I honestly don't understand why this is getting so much Oscar love. I've seen everyone in this give much better performances) I don't understand the screenplay as much. The story goes in 10 different directions and tries to say so much about the black experience while always calling out white people for always pretending to understand it or the white guilt. I wish the story would've just stuck to its narrative.

When Tracee Ellis Ross died early on I was very intrigued with where the film would go. After the point exactly is where I started losing some interest. While it focuses on so many subplots that I felt weren't interesting. The mother subplot, and then the insane idea of writing a book and lying about being a criminal while all the while hating black people for doing exactly what you're doing. To me this is a black guilt movie. It's a strange thing.

Lastly Sterling K. Brown is a phenomenal actor but I do not understand how in any world this performance warrants an Oscar nomination. He barely has anything to do and gives no real performance. It's really baffling. Jeffrey Wright on the other hand I can understand. Also a phenomenal actor and gives more detail to his character but yet still conflicted and not all that interesting. But I'm happy he gets recognized by the academy finally for his work.

Decent solid film just feel it's a bit overrated.

Alexander Payne does it again!! This is by far the best film of 2023 (sorry Oppenheimer). The screenplay, the directing and especially the acting from Paul Giamatti, Da'vine Joy-Randolph & newcomer Dominic Sessa.

They truly don't make films like this anymore. R rated feel good comedies. Paul Giamatti in my opinion give his best performance ever here. You can tell how much he enjoys playing this over the hill professor of young men. Ever word he speaks is lived in and heartfelt.

The chemistry between all the actors is perfect. The story of a washed up professor stuck at school with his student over the holidays is a great story told brilliantly by Payne. Dare I say it's also his best film.

I hope Giamatti wins best actor and Payne was snubbed in the directing category but hands down my favorite film of 2023. Absolutely should be a must watch!

This just might be the best "comedy" of 2023 in the darkest sense. There is laugh out loud moments in Poor Things but it's all undercut with tragedy. This is definitely a film that makes you think. Most of what Bella goes through are things that happen in real life and it's sad to imagine someone having to live like that.

But the film is a comedy. Basically Frankenstein with Emma Stone as the monster. Her learning how to become a human being is quite hysterical. Also Mark Ruffalo gives his best comedic performance ever and to me he is the doing the best work in the film. Mucking it up as a real "ladies man" is some of the funniest bits in the film. Willem Dafoe is also stellar but that leads me to this.

I really enjoyed the film but there are 2 things in it which I didn't fully either like or rubbed me the wrong way. Bella spends way too much time learning about sex. A good hour of the film is pretty repetitive and is just her learning every and any way to like, love, enjoy and hate sex. There's a lot more she could've done to learn about life. You get to see Emma Stone in the nude for a lot of the film so I guess that's fun but the film focuses way too much on that aspect of finding out about who you are.

Also the futuristic setting but wrapped in old timey Britain didn't connect with me. The film looks fantastic and was wonderfully shot by Yorgos Lathimos but the mash up of that time period with sci fi didn't fully resonate. I understand what he was going for but I guess it wasn't fully for me.

That's all to say this was the funniest film of the year and the acting is first rate and Lathimos really knows his way around a camera. While not perfect it's a top 10 film of 2023.

Johnathan Glazer has made yet another fantastic film. That isn't to say this is an entirely enjoyable piece of entertainment. It's actually quite dour and makes you sick to your stomach after watching it.

First let me say the film looks beautiful. For all the horrors that take place in the distance, the house in which this nazi family live in is shot expertly wonderful. The lives that this family live next to Auschwitz is all sunshine and rainbows. Which I think is the point.

The film is told from the point of view of Rudolph Hoss and his family. They just so happen to live directly next to Auschwitz. For all the beauty Glazer shows on screen the sound editing is amazing. Like I said this is a dour film and for every beautiful shot there is people being tortured and killed literally feet away.

Glazer never shows us the atrocities of Auschwitz, he only lets us hear barely what's happening in the background, which in my opinion only makes it more heartbreaking. To see this family live the perfect life while listening to the screams of innocent Jews mere feet away on the other side of a wall made me sick.

The film is well acted, everyone is good in it and with how nonchalant everyone is while a horror story is happening next door, I can't imagine it was easy trying to get into the mind of these real life people.

Clearly this one of the best films of 2023. Technically stellar with its sound editing, and directing, Jonathan Glazer has nearly made another masterpiece.

Ridley Scott seemingly can throw together a war epic like it's nothing. He seems to release one of these type of films every year at this point. Which is to say he should make smaller films at his old age.

There is nothing epic in this film. Not even the performance by Joaquin Phoenix. He is chewing the scenery while at the same time being understated. It's a weird performance. The movie is laughing at him but at the same time trying to make him a hero and Phoenix doesn't seem to know what film he is in from scene to scene.

Vanessa Kirby is completely wasted in this film. Her character is nothing. Just a part of the story Napoleon can't let go of. Who knows if any of this is even true but I felt nothing from her character at all.

No side characters stand out either and it's hard to tell what year it is and where we are from scene to scene. The pacing is all over the place.

The story is the worst part though. I was way more interested in the story of Napoleon as the French Leader. Not the simp who can't get his girl out of his head. The film wanted to do way too much. It could've been a good series if stretched out but for 2 and a half hours it's quite boring beside the first and last scenes of action. The rest is all filler and no character development.

The film does look beautiful though and the sets are insanely expensive looking. The costumes are fantastic and the color grating is top notch.

Last complaint is everyone in the film speaks perfect English... it really bothers me that there's two lines of subtitles in this film about a French war general in the 1700s. He sounds like he's from Los Angeles in 2023. It's jarring.

This film is a mess. I understand the film has become politicized by now but just from a filmmaking perspective the film is all over the place.

I like Greta Gerwig & most of what she's made. But the story of Barbie somehow becoming real and learning to be a human being doesn't make sense in the context of the film. She just somehow ends up on earth and real. No explanation. I'm not sure if the film is about finding yourself as a woman in the world or about being a mother or about not being controlled. Its messaging is chaotic.

The set design is pretty cool i suppose but I couldn't help but think it's a Wes Anderson rip off.

The acting is ok, I really don't understand the hype of this movie. Ryan Gosling clearly steals the show here and every time he isn't on screen the film is boring. Margot Robbie is fantastic as an actress but she's playing Barbie... the character is interesting in anyway. I get it she learns to be herself but it's so preachy towards the end it's almost gross in how serious the film takes itself near the end.

A lot of hype for this film especially when we still all know Barbie's are not good for little girls yet Mattel tricked little girls into thinking Barbie's are cool and good for them again. That company gets richer while the same problems still exist that the film is trying to bring to the spotlight. The film is mostly a nightmare & complete contradiction that's entertaining a bit because of Gosling. Really overrated film. This is an Oscar's frontrunner? Yikes.

I love David Fincher. Seven is an all time classic. Fight club is one of my favorite guilty pleasure movies. All the way to Gone Girl which is also phenomenal. David Fincher is a legend but, ya can't win em all.

This is a decent film. The acting is great on fassbenders part but that's about it. Finchers keen eye and style is always a breath of fresh air but for this film it felt stale and dull. No other actor in the film leaves an impression and that's sad when your film has Tilda Swinton in it.

Last tidbit is that I've seen this film before. A better version & it's a Steven Soderbergh film called haywire. Also staring Fassbender. I will watch every Fincher film I love his work but this film was just a bore from start to end. Great visuals and a good acting performance didn't save it from being a bad script and boring story.

Last thing, that ending was so abrupt & unsatisfying. Again, we all know Fincher is a legend but he definitely missed the mark on this one. I look forward to what is next for him in his Netflix deal.

This film isn't great. Dracula is played out at this point but, it's a cool concept. Dracula at sea terrorizing the crew. The execution and story are just way off in this for me.

The direction is decent from Andre Overdal (The Autopsy of Jane Doe). I assume the budget wasn't much but he did a decent job with what he had.

The cast is trying their best. Again the material and the screenplay are terrible. But the relatively unknown cast are doing as good as they can.

This films screenplay is the problem. This film should've been 20 minutes shorter and taken place over the last night on the ship. I was so frustrated with how many "days" pass without the crew finding Dracula in the middle of the day and releasing him into sunlight. Only to have the final battle take place at night. Why would these characters, who have literally watched 2 people spontaneously combust wait until the darkest night imaginable to fight a vampire? They had day after day to go search from Dracula on this boat and have the sun take him. Really bad screenplay.

Again, not a great film but I like the filmmaker and will watch whatever he makes next. This was a dud though.

Oppenheimer is a great film but not without its flaws. No matter how minor or major those flaws, this isn't a flawless film.

Christopher Nolan's direction is fantastic and cinematography are just as great. Maybe not one of his best jobs behind the camera but he still made a film like Oppenheimer, that is very intimate and small scale still feel epic. He is one of the last true "filmmakers."

Now the best job Nolan did with Oppenheimer is the script. I personally think besides maybe Memento and The Prestige, Oppenheimer is the best script his ever written. The dialogue honestly sounded like it was written by a different person. The words just snapped on the screen. Some of the most buzzy dialogue he's ever written.

Onto the acting, Cillian Murphy carries the film clearly as J. Robert Oppenheimer but it's more than him just being the main character as all of Hollywood seems to be in the film. His acting is never overshadowed by anyone else and he really deserves an Oscar nom for his performance, one of the best of the year and of his career. Also another actor who deserves an Oscar nom is Matt Damon as Gen. Leslie Groves. His performance is maybe the most showy of the film but he brought some levity and some must needed humor to the film. I think he did a very great job. Now this may be an unpopular opinion but Robert Downey Jr performance just didn't resonate with me. Im he did a fine job and honestly I feel this way because.....

The non linear way the story is told is as confusing as some Nolan films but RDJ's character gets lost with the story jumping around time periods. I wasn't quite sure why he was so resentful for Oppenheimer until the last 20 minutes and I suppose that's the point but I couldn't help but think if the story was told in a linear way Downey's character and performance would sat better with me. He is technically the villain in the film but I never got a real sense of that until the very end. I Hope Nolan one day decides to tell a story other than Batman in a traditional fashion. It really could've benefited from it in Oppenheimer.

This leads me to the women characters. Emily Blunt & Florence Pugh are both very great in the film but their characters are so underwritten and really have no purpose in the story that's being told. "Kitty" played by Emily Blunt is just constantly drunk and hates her life and Florence Pugh's character as a colleague and mistress of Oppenheimer is also a crazy suicidal person. Now this is a true story but for a film about the making of the atomic bomb I don't quite see how these 2 characters in the film were necessary especially for the way they are written and portrayed. For those 2 prestige actresses to basically be drunk and suicidal and having no real baring on Oppenheimers life seemed odd to me. Although Emily Blunt has one of the most memorable scenes in the film while being interrogated. I just felt those actresses could've been used more and had more to do then besides be drunk and hate themselves.

Lastly... The Score. It honestly was completely overbearing and distracting for 2/3rds of the film. In every scene where 2 or a group of people are talking in a small room there is a very loud and bombastic score behind it which is utterly annoying. I know this is a Nolan film and every second of screen time needs to be epic but in a film like this that score throughout the entire film was completely unnecessary. If that was cut back considerably my score might be higher than 8 but in certain scenes that I think we're meant to feel powerful because of the dialogue I either could barely hear the words being said or they lost impact but of the obnoxious music playing behind it.

Oppenheimer will be one of the best films 2023 for sure. Besides the score and the women being underwritten it's pretty darn amazing. Cillian Murphy for best actor please.

This film an absolute mess! The plot in idiotic and to be honest the film has no reason to exist. There are no stakes involved. If every time something happens the flash could go back in time and fix or as the film says, everything that happens will always happen, so again the film has no reason to exist. But yet after the film tells us that the flash can't change the past, he still happens to change it to save his father, but wait it's from a different universe. Get all that? Yeah I hated it too

Now the CGI.... I feel awful for these effects artists that worked to death only for the final product to be this bad. I'm talking about early 2000s CGI bad. Every character is either a complete BAD CGI rendering of the actor or digitally enhanced version of them. It's baffling how bad this film looks especially with the amount of time It was delayed to save it from looking so bad.

I'm sorry but Michael Keaton is completely phoning it in. If that was to be the one saving grace of the film like others claim, I don't agree. He looks like he wants to be far away from being in it.

Which brings me to the cameos... this film wanted to be Spider-Man No Way Home so bad. With the amount of "cameos" from older superhero actors. Seeing Christopher Reeve as a digital rendering made my skin crawl. Same with Nicolas Cage (who was never even Superman, seeing that film never got made.) Then you trot out George Clooney for a totally useless cameo that made me literally LOL in the theater.

Also Ezra Miller is an awful human being and an awful actor. He was so annoying and grating. I really wanted to walk out of the theater but I couldn't stop watching this train wreck.

Please James Gunn save DC from this garbage!!!!!

This is one of the least "Black Mirror" style episodes but it is a great short film. The way it played out and the twist once again had me shocked. It played out like an actual Netflix documentary and then became one at the end. It was very well done.

It might be middle of the road for most as a black mirror episode but for me it's one of the better told stories on this show. Not much too do with technology but I like how it ties in with "Streamberry" lol.

All in all this is a very well told story even if it's not your typical black mirror episode. I fully enjoy black mirror when it's dark. Solid episode for season 6 in my opinion.

Black Mirror is back and again with an optimistic episode. The twist at the end was clever and honestly didn't see it coming. The performances were good. The only negative was the dialogue. I liked commentary on AI and on Netflix. It feels as if Netflix really is putting out content strictly based on what people engage with instead of making good movies and TV.

Also the commentary on deepfakes and likeness is spot on. In reality if any regular person had the opportunity to have their life be made into a tv show with an AI rendering of a famous actor playing them, they would jump all over it. It makes sense in the story that Joan hates it because she loses her job and fiancé but if this was real "Joan" would be able to get paid and anyone would love to have this happen to them.

So not a perfect Black Mirror episode but I like the performances and the clever twist. Not a bad opening episode.

Now I know there's one more episode to this absolutely perfect television show, but I need to write this now, The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire.... Move over Succession is here to topple you. I'd like to keep this series review short and sweet but there is so much to unpack not just in the shows entirety but in this episode specifically.

The culmination of everything prior to "Church & State" is all laid out in it. The writing is most important and I believe Succession the greatest written television show of all time... at least matched with breaking bad. The way the characters are written in this show should be studied. Every character is fleshed out to the point where you really believe they are real. Kendall Roy = Walter White. Honestly there hasn't been a better character since Heisenberg. Then Kendall Roy. I know Brian Cox gets all the love in this show and it's well deserved but Jeremy Strong is in the convo as one of the greatest characters ever written for television. The way the writers make you root for him but at the same time make you hate him is astonishing. One moment he's threatening to take his children from their mother (who obviously is the clear parent who should have custody, seeing that Kendall Roy is a complete psychopath or as his father would say, Not a serious person). To the next moment where you honestly believe he loves his father and was raised in a way where Logan's "tough love" was exactly what his children needed. Kendall Roy the character is the best character development I've ever seen in tv.

Next is the acting... also again I believe on par or if not better than The Sopranos cast and Breaking Bad cast. Every single actor make you feel... they feel real. In such a nuanced and honest way. All of the main cast is phenomenal and should have no issues finding leading work in any film or tv. Again, Brian Cox was the main draw and rightfully so but in his absence this cast has done him Justice and have given their A game to every scene.

Finally is the directing. As maybe the most important aspect. For how flawless the writing and acting is, you still need to put the paper to screen, and the filming of these incredible written scenes and dialogue is done in such a flat and cold way that just makes the words and acting so much more poetic.

Honestly we are lucky to have seen this program even with one more episode left, I am more than comfortable saying this is the greatest form of entertainment on television I have seen maybe ever. At least since that maniac in the New Mexico desert. I feel lucky to have watched this show and no matter how It ends I am lucky to say I witnessed it's greatness. I hope you all agree. It's been a blast!!!

This film really is a fitting end to the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy. Every character is wrapped up quite nicely. Peter Quill going back to earth, new Gamora takes Peters place with the scavengers. Nebula starting a new community because she never had a family (with Drax, who will be a great father figure to all those children that were saved.)

This film is all about Rocket though. Although I love the character, it's a bit too much about this one character. I did enjoy the back story of Rocket though and it was quite sad what happens to him and his friends. Which brings me to the villain. This might be the second best villain in a marvel movie after Thanos. Whoever that actor is deserves a lot more work after this because for how goofy and absurd Guardians films are this particular actor was always believable and very convincing, dare I say actually frightening.

All in all this to me is the third best out of the trilogy but it's bad whatsoever. I just think the other 2 were more entertaining and consistent. But I'm happy with how it wrapped up and it was a great ending for all the characters. Now I only hope marvel can learn from it and make their films entertaining again.

Snowfall started with so much promise. The writing and acting have been great since day one but seasons 5 and 6 have been complete trash. I don't know who has been running this show but every character turned into a shell of themselves. The writing in this finale tries to clever but to me comes off as amateurish. Why wouldn't Franklin just sell more crack ? Find a new plug ? Instead, (i get it, the writers wanted him to turn out just like his dad, but come on..... he could've done anything but what he did).

Again the acting was superb throughout this show but the writers really blew it. Just a sad way for a great show to end. It really went off the deep end in the final 2 seasons. Had such great potential but they had no idea what to do late in the series. RIP John Singleton. Wish they made your show better.

I don't quite understand the hype of this movie. Sure, the cast is all top tier and they seem to be having a great time portraying the real life counterparts but I have to say, it is boring. The story of Nike signing Michael Jordan to a shoe deal is one of the most non-compelling stories I think that's ever been adapted to the screen.

Matt Damon Is average at best & he has no real character other than signing Michael Jordan. I never felt like I knew who Sonny Vaccaro was. That goes for every character. They're all just in the movie to love Michael Jordan. They talk about him as he is today, not as he was then.

I just am not sure what the film is about. It's not about Nike becoming the juggernaut it is today. It's not about Sonny Vaccaro or his story, he'll it's not even about Michael Jordan. It's about shoes. The fact Ben Affleck thought this was a compelling story is baffling.

With all that being considered, the cast is having a blast & Affleck still has it behind the camera, I just hope in the future when he decides to direct another picture, he finds a story worth telling.

Scream VI is only a slight improvement over the abysmal Scream (2022). The acting is slightly better. The first hour & a half are decent enough and the killer(s) are more brutal then usual. But I have to say right off the bat, this is the most predictable film I've ever seen. That is the problem with the new Scream movies, you know who the killer is 15 minutes Into it. At least with the original trilogy is kept you guessing or flat out was someone you never would've guessed. So yeah there's no suspense after the first 20 minutes. The cast is decent though besides the lead actress. Don't know her name but she's just as awful in this as she was in Scream (2022). Jenna Ortega definitely got more screen time after her popularity skyrocketed and I'm not complaining about that. She's the best part of the film. But this franchise for once should just make the killer a complete nobody. Just a psychopath, no one in the main cast. It's really time to start coming by up with new stories in Hollywood. This franchise just as with Halloween is completely dead. Move on to something new.