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Reviews
Morgan (2016)
so many missed opportunities
Morgan (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a bioengineered child who began walking and talking after one month of existence, exceeding the wildest expectations of her creators. When Morgan attacks one of her handlers, a corporate troubleshooter (Kate Mara) visits the remote, top-secret facility where she's kept to assess the risks of keeping her alive. When the girl breaks free and starts running amok, the staff members find themselves in a dangerous lockdown with an unpredictable and violent synthetic human.
Like everyone else said, good premise, but fumbled at the beginning. So what we like to see in any story is character arc. Someone's starting out thinking one way and by the end of the movie they have grown or changed in some way. But this movie starts out with a brutal stabbing in the face by a synthetic human to some one that it's supposed to love. No real room for growth or change there. Strike one.
Strike two, the entire scientific crew living in isolation with this creature is completely and unapologetically in love with it. Regardless of its horrible murderous temper. What could have saved it is watching Morgan change overtime little by little. And watching the scientists gradually understand that this was a failed experiment.
Strike three, Morgan goes through a face stabbing to another murderer, then another and another. No gradually falling off the cliff. Anya Joy is great as usual. So is everyone else for that matter. Like many other movies, so many missed opportunities.
The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special (2022)
it's sort of sweet. but not funny. more for kids
Anything Guardians is usually very high quality. Look forward to and enjoy all the movies. I don't know what happened here. It seems like a bunch of jumbled vignettes glued together. I guess it was sort of sweet, but I really only think an 8 year old would enjoy it. The jokes are not funny at all. I'm sure most people will enjoy it though. If you're looking for Christmas cheer, Watch spirited with Will Ferrell instead. The 1st is fantastic. Especially the song about good afternoon. Way better than it sounds. If you're tempted to watch a guardians watch the 1st 10 minutes. It doesn't get any better after that. Also, no one's looking for portly Drax.
Titane (2021)
Nudity. Murder. And brutality. But boring
The first five minutes of the movie is either a woman dancing provocatively with the camera focused on her crotch or a shower scene followed by a murder followed by another shower scene. And after all that cleaning up , she has sex with a car. Seriously. Can we please stop trying to depict this in movies? It's been tried before and is never convincing or realistic. Just silly. I love nudity. I love cars. I love murder. I love women. But not this way. There is nothing sexy about this. Not interesting or memorable. And the murder was strictly amateur. It's competently made and acted . And I guess it's going for different or shocking. But the level of sophistication is like a 90s movie. It could have been more over the top. Or darker and depressing. But it just sort of Lays there.
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
This isn't The Godfather or even The Sopranos
It took me awhile to figure it out, but for years I asked myself why I didn't like the Godfather. It's obviously well made. Good sets costumes and acting. Great music. I finally realized, like the Irishman, that it just was not very interesting. It's difficult to say about a well-made movie. But if the Godfather is a 7, the Many Saints of Newark is a 5. It's missing the good performances, has a generic storyline, and embarrassingly, budget songs from the Rolling Stones and Van Morrison that you've never heard of.
Perhaps the biggest crime of all, it ignores the most interesting storyline of all: a black underling of the mob named Harold (Odam Jr.) decides to Branch out on his own and comes into conflict with the crime family. Now that would have made a great movie.
Hellion (2014)
Almost perfect
I probably watch 10 movies a week. Maybe that sounds pathetic. And I definitely am not looking for a movie to be a certain thing. But I really love the naturalistic dialogue in this movie.
They got the interaction between men and boys just right. They characters and the core issues are written in such a way that it could have been a zombie movie, Syfy or really anything. It's it seems like this is gotten very rare. Either the director is spending too much time on the special effects or trying to be too weird or killing off a character every 5 minutes.
But this should be a master class in script writing. And halfway through, I realized I didn't care if the ending was bad. I just enjoyed watching these people try to figure it out.
Shotgun Stories (2007)
Slow moving without much insight into its characters
Michael Shannon is always good. But you can definitely see him get better in later films. And I know you have to set the atmosphere. But nothing happening for 35 minutes is a bit much. There's a lot of uninteresting conversations between bored men without many options. There's a chubby friend that seems to exist only as comedy relief. He does goofy things like trying to put a house air conditioner into his van. Not funny. Not pathetic enough to be sad. Then there's a goofy guy named shampoo. Another silly aimless young man. With no prospects. The movie seems to shamble slowly from one generic Country Boy scene to another, setting up the final showdown. It's hard to say all these things because of all the good reviews. It's not bad. But it's also not worth watching.
Free Guy (2021)
Since Reynolds is just playing another version of Deadpool, skip this and see that. Again.
I liked it better when it was called Deadpool. In fact both Deadpools are better than this movie. Same superhero character. With worse jokes. And uninspired kills. For instance, they stole the lame Girl-shooting-while-riding-backwards motorcycle stunt from Knight and Day. And the Antoine Mogul character, tries way too hard to be clever / edgy but ends up just being annoying. The leads are supposed to be in love. But have zero chemistry. The dialogue is strictly after school special. Sorry to sound so negative. But it could have been so much more.
Midnight Special (2016)
Very good. Skip the last 5 minutes.
I barely noticed it was PG-13. Good acting all around, especially the kid was effective at being different. But the last 5 minutes felt corny, unnecessary and killed the mystery. Should have ended when the boy walked into the field by himself and looked up. But then there was a bunch of other stuff that ruined the momentum. Highly recommended though.
The Two Faces of January (2014)
Well made. But shallow
3 people died in this movie. And for no good reason. Maybe just to make it more thrilling? The real problem is not the acting. Everyone's great. But you never really know the motivations of the three main characters. You never really find out if they're good or bad. Of course they're both. But the movie does not make it clear what is causing them to act the way they do. One scene seems to show something about their personality. But then the next scene shows just the opposite. We see anger. We see dishonesty, reactions. But we never quite see the thought process. And the last 5 minutes feels like it was prescribed by a Committee of studio executives.
The Card Counter (2021)
So low-key it barely has a heartbeat
Oscar Isaac plays a former Army interrogator who is playing with the idea of getting revenge on a cruel man from his past. Isaac is great as always. I can't say the same for Tiffany haddish.
She doesn't quite, but almost ruins every scene she's in. When it comes to Comedy, she's the best. But when it comes to drama, she's too twitchy and doesn't seem to know which way to play a scene. This movie is so low-key that it barely has a heartbeat. What we want to see is a story arc where a man who has come to terms with his bad deeds, slowly convinces himself to do justice to a bad man. But most of the movie concerns itself with his quiet life as a card counter. And his relationship with the young man who is pushing him to violence. It's not bad. But you lose interest about halfway through.
Archive (2020)
Recreate dead wife?
It's okay. But spends too much time on technology and corporate Intrigue. Which is not as interesting as questions like, what makes us human? Solaris and ex machina does it Better. Or even demon seed. Which is not about demons at all.
Bloom (2019)
So-so idea, good acting, too many side plots
There are many movies about being younger, or going back in time to correct mistake from the past. Middle-aged people love it! This series is about a flower that Springs up after a massive killer Flood that's returns people to their youth. It appears to be mid-20s. This makes for some interesting situations. Including a borderline icky situation where a beautiful young woman is repeatedly badgering a 70 year old man for sex. The acting is good, the premise is interesting. But the plotting doesn't have much imagination. And when you throw in the murder mystery, and people desperate to be young, all the good stuff gets overlooked. Buried. For instance, conversations between a man who was able to spend more time with his wife because she was no younger, gives way to car chases and other uninteresting things. This idea is not new. And it's handled in a much more nuanced and moving way by the French series The Returned from 2012.
Cannibals and Carpet Fitters (2017)
A few laughs. But mostly not very good
The story of 5 carpet installers, or carpet Fitters if you're British, go to a country mansion in the middle of nowhere to work and find a murderous old woman and her four low IQ ( handicapped? ) sons. About every 10 minutes, you are rewarded with a nice kill: spike to the Head, decapitation, or a head split open with an axe. The acting is okay. But does not feel committed. So it's feels like everyone is throwing their lines away. . I do not believe in being a logic police when it comes to movies. But no one here behaves as a normal person would in these situations. For example, in the old house, they find blood and severed fingers and toes. But they still stick around to chit chat. This sort of thing happens so often that it ruins any sense of danger. As with any movie, even a dark comedy like this, we really have to believe that they believe
they are in danger. Litter are some funny bits and it's not amateurish. Maybe a step or two above that. So you might like it