M_Exchange Reviews

Challengers (2024)

Tennis made interesting

[7/10 · 26 April 2024]

When "Whiplash" was released ten years ago, many people were appalled by how many people thought that it was a sort of blueprint for how to live life. Some of the foremost intellectuals of our time (cough), including Arnold Schwarzenegger said that it was inspirational even though its director Damien Chazelle outright stated that he disagreed with such interpretations. Zendaya's character in this film is the epitome of a "Whiplash" figure--an obsessive, soulless husk who is willing to sacrifice decency, family and friends on The Altar of Me. She was insufferable, yet well-played. She served as the engine for the movie.

Even though I personally did not understand some of this movie's themes completely because I am not bisexual, I appreciated it, and I loved its brilliantly subtle comedic moments. I laughed quite a few times. As many people have stated, although a lot of the cinematography and the editing techniques that the crew used were outstanding and possibly even innovative, I absolutely hated the sluggish pace of the third act--far too many slow motion shots. The final scene is a bit underwhelming as well.

But overall, it's a solid film.

Saltburn (2023)

Its third act requires a HUGE suspension of disbelief

[6/10 · 30 November 2023]

Yes, it's derivative, and yes, if you have even moderate familiarity with movies from the last few decades you will think "The Talented Mr. Ripley" fairly early during its runtime. However, for the most part, I enjoyed it. Barry Keoghan never disappoints me. Whether he is playing a suicidal dullard in "The Banshees of Inisherin" or a psychotic mastermind in this movie (and many other roles in between), he is always brilliant.

For me, unfortunately its third act is probably its most memorable feature because it requires an enormous suspension of disbelief. Rosamund's Elspeth character invites Keoghan's Oliver character into her home yet again even though his history there is unbelievably dubious. She claimed that she felt guilty about his exile, but one wonders about her motives. Was she trying to have sex with him at that point? Rosamund Pike is an ageless, gorgeous woman, and her character had endless wealth--she didn't need an average-looking poor guy in her life. Also, why did she sign away her fortune to him so quickly? Was she not suspicious about her sudden illness with him in her life again? The butler, who observes everything obsessively, remained a presence there. Even if Elspeth took leave of her senses, wouldn't he intercede? The third act defies any sort of logic.

But again, it was worth watching.

Napoleon (2023)

I would have loved the Kubrick version.

[5/10 · 22 November 2023]

As many of you know, Stanley Kubrick was obsessed with Napoleon, and he wanted to make his magnum opus about him near the end of his life. He never got around to it. I would have loved to have seen that film.

This film is not a total disappointment, but it's far from great. I fell in love with its visuals, and I felt as if I was in the era of the 1790's/early 1800's. Its war scenes are good. Also, I appreciate that it does not hit the three hour mark, but it felt choppy and often incomplete. For instance, when Napoleon got punished a couple of times for his defeats one might think that he cut straight from a loss to a meeting with foreign dignitaries. In actuality, things were much messier in between.

I never really felt a romantic spark between him and his first wife, and I never really felt much emotion ever throughout the entirety of the film. Even his death was rather anticlimactic and weak.

I would recommend this film only to French people and history buffs.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

My favorite Guardians film BY FAR

[9/10 · 10 June 2023]

It's the first MCU movie I've seen since "End Game." If you made a list of every MCU movie that has followed "End Game" and asked me which one I was most unlikely to watch, I almost certainly would have replied, "Guardians 3." The first Guardians was profoundly overrated, and the second one was a moronic, rambling mess. Perhaps worse: almost all of the films' humor fell flat. I noticed that they were only funny to me when the Russo brothers were writing their dialogue.

But as I watched Guardians 3, I laughed hysterically even late into the movie, and the comedy was amazing-- i.e.: "The Soviets put me on a rocket knowing full well that I would die in a fiery crash.... but the one thing they never did was CALL ME A BAD DOG." In fact, it seemed like the Russo brothers might have served as ghost writers for James Gunn sometimes--which is fine. As the film critics stated (and it's the reason why I even took a chance on the film), Gunn took a chance on an actual narrative instead of relying on Marvel's recent stale, formulaic and gimmicky approach of nostalgia combined with setups for subsequent films.

It has a couple of minor flaws: Rocket's backstory with his fellow caged talking animals was extremely predictable and manipulative, but I was willing to overlook it because for the most part I liked it. Also, it's much too long. I knew exactly which scenes I would have edited to reduce its length to two hours.

It's well worth watching, though.

Barbarian (2022)

Flaws galore, but good nonetheless

[8/10 · 8 October 2022]

Many previous reviewers have valid complaints. For instance, I live in Las Vegas now, and decades ago I was raised in suburban Detroit. I know that Detroit doesn't have Vegas-like hotel conditions in which an enormous convention books out all of the hotels and forces someone to sleep in her car or whatever. Detroit isn't surrounded by a vast desert--one could easily drive five to ten minutes out of the city and find decent lodging. Also, the supernatural nature of the basement door closing was probably something that threw off everyone. Nothing else in the film was particularly supernatural (presumably). The writer/director should have added a scene in which the monstrous woman's movements caused air currents that caused the door to close. Also, when a panicked person tells me that the strange house I'm renting has a torture chamber in the basement, and she suspects that someone else is living there, I'm not going to say, "yeah, let's just chill. I want to see it myself."

However, the film's slow build, good timing, good acting and overall good story make it worth watching. There were many moments when I expected to get disappointed by a jump scare, but the film delivers mostly REAL scares, not cheap visual effects. I love that Justin Long's AJ character remained consistent--sometimes comedically so. The ending was satisfying.

Fallout 4 (2015 Video Game)

Great game.

[8/10 · 5 October 2022]

It's fairly profound. It caused me to make a decision about an issue that doesn't even exist yet-- artificial intelligence in androids/ "synths". Are they truly sentient? I decided (with the movie "Ex Machina" weighing on me), "hell no." Thankfully, I will probably never need to invoke that belief in my everyday life, but my kids will probably need to deal with such matters.

Fairly early during the game, when I discovered the Minutemen, I was completely on board with their cause, and not just because I love such references to American history. I loved that Preston Garvey (I assume a reference to Marcus Garvey--again, I love American history) bestowed the title of "general" on me and allowed me to call the shots. So, when I discovered The Brotherhood of Steel and realized that they wanted me to serve them as a grunt soldier, I rejected their invitation to join them. Plus, Preston spoke about them as if they were evil.

By the end of the game, I wished I had joined them. I maintain that the Minutemen UNDER MY COMMAND were good, but the other factions were garbage. The Institute was comprised of elitist morons who believed that they could save humanity by dehumanizing everyone. The Railroad asks you, "are you prepared to die for a synth?" as an opening question. When I answered "no" then received disapproval from a supposedly "good" character (Piper) I believed that I made the wrong decision. Then, when I joined them, they wanted to send me on assassination missions against The Brotherhood because they're SO MUCH MORE DECENT... I guess.

Although the game has a theme of its "good" characters siding completely with the synths and "selfish" characters hating synths, it drops subtle hints that they are simply robots with implanted human memories, and there is an additional creepiness of them replacing actual organic humans surreptitiously.

By the end of the game, I knew that my transition from "undecided" to "HELL NO" about supporting synths was complete when Preston looked at the smoldering wreckage of The Insititute after we demolished it and said something to the effect of, "I wish it didn't have to be that way. But they brought the fight to us."

I wanted to say, "Dude... Shut up. I loved it."

Fallout 3 (2008 Video Game)

Worth the time, but it's too little time

[7/10 · 5 October 2022]

I began the series with Fallout 4, which I prefer to this game. Everything is resolved just a bit too quickly, and if I had skipped most of the side quests that I finished (which I could have done easily and still beat the game) it would have felt like I barely even played the game. I encountered several bugs that MOST of its players have experienced, and I cannot believe that they haven't patched such errors yet-- errors that probably wasted one hour of my time total.

When Liam Neeson and Malcolm McDowell are involved with any production, you know that its voice acting is good. And watching the Brotherhood's full arsenal on display near the end bumped my rating up from 5 to 7 stars. It was THAT powerful and THAT HILARIOUSLY awesome.

But again, I prefer Fallout 4 slightly.

Elvis (2022)

Amazing. Tom Hanks's best performance since Saving Private Ryan.

[9/10 · 30 June 2022]

It's Tom Hanks's best performance since Saving Private Ryan, Austin Butler's breakout role and Baz Luhrmann's best film to date. It's mostly true to history with light fictional twists, and I even learned something about Elvis's story: his mom hated his overnight success, which was wonderfully depicted in the film. I read mixed reviews about it, so entered the theater with only middling expectations. I left the theater with my hair blown back in a pompadour, baby.

Beavis and Butt-Head Do the Universe (2022)

"With God's help, we will learn from Cornholio today, and we will become better men."

[8/10 · 27 June 2022]

As other people have written, unlike many modern reboots and sequels, it's like a time portal to the '90s because Mike Judge changed nothing. I have rarely laughed as much at a comedy from the last couple of decades during this movie's first half. It lags a bit in the second half, but even during those mundane moments I was pleased to waste time with my favorite morons.

I was 15 when I discovered them on Liquid TV when they were 15, so it was... haunting... to see Judge's representation of them as they would appear as my age today. It was brief, yet haunting. But decades of idiotic living would truly cause that appearance. It's "the faces of meth" without the meth, I guess.

Great job, Mike Judge.

The Batman (2022)

The good and the bad

[7/10 · 8 March 2022]

Among more recent Batmen, Ben Affleck was better as Batman, but Robert Pattinson dominates Christian Bale in the role--that bar wasn't particularly high, though.

Paul Dano as the Riddler was fairly good, but I couldn't stop thinking that someone else would have done a better job--I've advocated for Weird Al Yankovich in that role for a long time.

Zoe Kravitz as Catwoman is another positive.

People warned me in advance that the runtime is annoyingly long, and they are correct. I wish that I had edited the film. I know exactly which parts I would have excluded. It should have been 30-45 minutes shorter.

People have complained that it's humorless, which is incorrect. It has a few subtle jokes, but unlike Marvel movies it does not linger on them.

I'm glad that I saw it, but I will probably forget almost everything about it within the next five years.

Jackass Forever (2022)

The expected lowbrow crap-- but I laughed a few times

[5/10 · 21 February 2022]

This material is funniest when unsuspecting people are involved with it. When it's just the guys laughing at their own idiocy, I don't really care. When an oblivious woman yells, "WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?" when a toilet explodes, I'm in.

Unfortunately, the innocent people segments were few and far between.

Dying Light 2: Stay Human (2022 Video Game)

"The perfect example of a 7 out of 10 game"

[7/10 · 9 February 2022]

I just read a much-hated review of this game on this board. Could you have possibly imagined even five years ago that someone would complain that most of the zombies in a game are white? That's where we are, folks.

I put the title in quotation marks because I'm borrowing it from an article about this game. And I agree with it. This game has improvements from its predecessor-- I especially like the fact that so far the enemies aren't cartoonish James Bond movie-like villains. But the animation for the combat is a bit weird to me, and it's maybe even too easy. I've really enjoyed it so far, though. I will probably update this review when I complete it.

Shatner in Space (2021 TV Special)

I love William Shatner. I despise Jeff Bezos.

[6/10 · 15 January 2022]

Someone wrote a profoundly racist rant against white people in his or her review. I do not view all rich white men as evil, but I consider Jeff Bezos the embodiment of pure evil. I skipped beyond every biographical detail about him and his opinions about the flight. I could not care less.

But I loved to see Shatner's reaction to the things that he viewed. It was moving and touching. He was honest and raw about his feelings throughout the entire documentary.

I am also glad that they added a lot of Glen de Vries footage. He died shortly after this experience. RIP.

Cry Macho (2021)

Clint Eastwood's worst film

[1/10 · 22 September 2021]

I have probably seen half of the movies in which he has acted, but I have seen almost every movie that he has directed. In terms of directing, this thing is his worst movie by far, and I would be willing to bet that it's also the worst movie in which he has acted.

At least most of his previous lesser movies were mildly interesting. This thing is a bore fest.

The acting is just god awful. Almost everyone either underacts or overacts-- mostly the latter.

Although Clint is quite sprightly in this movie, he is in the twilight of his life. I hope that he can close it out with something that is much stronger than this nonsense.

Army of the Dead (2021)

Less is more

[4/10 · 23 May 2021]

Chris Stuckmann stated that if I liked Zack Snyder's "Dawn of the Dead" remake then I would like this movie. No... Just no. I continue to believe that Snyder's Dawn remake is his best movie ever. At the time even Stephen King said that it was the best movie of 2004. This thing is quite a departure from it.

When I was in film school, my teachers preached "KISS"-- "keep it simple, stupid." As they stated, in horror especially, less is generally more. For instance, when Spielberg made "Jaws" he couldn't get his motorized model shark to function properly, so he made use of just splashes and minimal use of his shark models. It was extremely effective, and it made the movie much scarier. If the motorized model had worked properly then that movie probably wouldn't be regarded as a masterpiece.

As Snyder himself stated in the director's commentary version of "Dawn of the Dead" we should not see prolonged shots of the zombies. Also, they should not have human-level intelligence. The best zombie movies, including his first one, rely on the interactions and conflicts between HUMANS. In such movies, the zombies are just hurdles, and sometimes they cause moral dilemmas between the HUMANS. George Romero made this mistake himself with "Diary of the Dead"-- the zombies could communicate and plot with each other, and it made for a painfully boring film. "Day of the Dead" is one of his finest movies partly because his "intelligent" zombie Bub played only a minor part in the story.

In Army of the Dead the vast majority of the zombies have human-level intelligence, and they might as well just be ugly humans. Unlike Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, Army has almost no character development partly as a result of the superficial character building with the zombies. It's just.... dumb. I don't care about the zombies' lives and motivations. Why would you sacrifice the quality of the humans' story for their story? Why would you remove their mystique and scare factor?

This movie has good, twisted scenery and good action sequences, but ultimately it's everything that I feared that Znyder would do to ruin his zombie movie legacy if he had a bloated budget. Bleh.

Wrath of Man (2021)

I liked it.

[7/10 · 17 May 2021]

It's a fall from Guy Ritchie's last movie (The Gentlemen), but then again I don't expect two legendary back-to-back movies from any living director aside from Martin Scorsese.

I have a few minor complaints, and one major complaint.

Major complaint: I wanted H (Statham's character) to kill Bullet. I think that most of the people who watched this movie wound up hating that traitorous psycho even more than the main villain.

The Social Network (2010)

A Hideous Story about a Hideous Man

[3/10 · 5 May 2021]

Although Jesse Eisenberg starred in numerous movies before he starred in "Social Network" (including "Zombieland"), when I watched this movie it was my introduction to him. And I hated him. I've grown to accept that he was actually playing an extremely unlikeable character very well, and I now love Eisenberg's performances, particularly in "The End of the Tour." So I'll rate it three stars instead of one star.

But as I stated, the real life character he portrays (Mark Zuckerberg) was and is increasingly repulsive, so I despise this story and his glamorization. As he continues to practice Stalinist tactics against high profile people such as JP Sears and right-leaning commentators because they write innocuous opinions on their Facebook pages you see the true personality of the man who stole the Facebook template from two brothers who attended Harvard with him.

Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin's depiction of Harvard as party central is RIDICULOUSLY COMICAL. The late, great William S. Burroughs described his experience at Harvard: "Everything about the place was dead." I've since spoken to several Harvard graduates who have watched this film and told me, "that's not the Harvard I remember." Yet Sorkin insists that he collected accounts from actual Harvard grads, including Natalie Portman. Maybe Natalie attended the campus's "special" celebrity wing-- she doesn't strike me as one of the smartest people, to phrase it politely.

Don't cry for Zuckerberg because he is getting increasingly scrutinized lately. Don't cry for any of the people who were involved in the birth of this social media tragedy, including the brothers he ripped off. Postscript: they received a massive settlement then converted it to insane wealth when they invested in Bitcoin, and Zukerberg gave rise to his hideous cousin Jack Dorsey and his Twitter jackpot, so all of these men can sleep on mattresses that are stuffed with cash as anyone who they deem "unsafe" can be removed entirely from all social media platforms simultaneously.

The Last of Us: Part II (2020 Video Game)

One word for this one

[2/10 · 17 March 2021]

I vowed to myself when this one was released that I would wait to pay only $20 for a copy because I read bits about it that were depressing. Well, it happened recently on eBay. So now I experience the disappointment myself for the cost of a good meal. I should have opted for a good meal. But like so many of you who knew that you were going to hate it, I loved the first one so much, that... yeah.

I'm probably at the 80% mark right now. One word springs to mind whenever I play this game: masturbatory. It's very PREDICTABLE in its masturbatory self-righteousness as well. Creator Neil Druckmann crafted a pseudo-profound storyline. If you played the first game you are already familiar with Ellie, and you already empathize with her. When you play as Abby you get a sick feeling because you already know what Druckmann wants from you. You already know that you are headed for unbelievably extreme situations so you will feel a bond with her. The first Last of Us game was linear, yet it had a great story so it didn't really bother you when it felt like someone was steering you toward the inevitable outcome. In this game, it feels like Druckmann is drunk on his own ego-- he wants to blow up the first game's story, and in his own plodding, dull way he wants to manipulate your thoughts as well so you think the destruction is so poignant and deep. Again, it's not.

I think that Druckmann thinks that he is such a brilliant writer that he could pull off killing a beloved character (Joel) then make his killer so engrossing that we LOVED playing as her as time wore on. Nah.

There are long stretches in the Abby story when I'm bored, and I never view things from her point of view, which clearly wasn't his intention. I rarely even liked her friends except when they were raging against her and disagreeing with her "revenge" against Joel. Her father was supposedly a living saint, and he instilled a monastic conscience in her. Abby and her dad are the personification of the modern disease that has infested the media and all of entertainment-- nearly "perfect" people who love to out-virtue everyone with their virtuoso virtuousness. Why, Abby can't even sleep at night unless she has done her duty as Superwoman. So even tasks such as diving into the depths of areas that she knows are infested with the alpha infected, which would certainly result in death (and did multiple times when I played in such areas) is no problem as long as she is doing the right thing for other people. When someone thanks her for such services, she replies, "Don't thank me. I did it for myself." Moronic writing. Modern writing.

It's the age of virtue-signaling ad nauseum, so I guess that Druckmann thought that it was time to introduce moral relativism to the franchise and ruin our goodwill toward the first game as a tribute to his soy god. And he introduces it in such a way that he believes that we NEVER considered that maybe the people who Joel killed in the first game have families who love them and think that they're the heroes and Joel is the bad guy.... Yes, maybe if I were six years old. I'm a grown man. I don't require a lesson in moral relativism, especially when I disagree that Joel's actions in the first game were horrible.

I wish that I could speak to the Abby character. I would remind her that her "saint" of a father teamed up with the Fireflies, who are revealed in the first game to be dishonorable people who wanted to kill Joel for no reason minutes after they beat him unconscious for no reason, and they are also further revealed as frauds in this game. I would also inform her that her father-- who she admits is an "idiot" stood in front of Joel with a tiny scalpel in a statuesque pose as he awaited his inevitable death in the first game. Like an idiot. Joel clearly did not WANT to kill him. But so be it. Frankly, even if the Fireflies had created a vaccine I wouldn't have even trusted them to distribute it properly because they were nowhere near the SAINTS that Abby and her dad were. It would have wound up in the hands of warlords. Also, I don't think it's saintly to make the decision for Ellie that she will be a human sacrifice. But who needs such details when we're crafting a moral relativism strawman with Joel?

Pseudo-profundity in an age of idiocy. It's fitting that it won "Game of the Year" for 2020. No one is surprised.

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021)

A case of the LAPD's unforgivable idiocy?

[5/10 · 22 February 2021]

It's manipulative. They want to pique your interest, so much like the actual case they do not detail the depth of her psychological problems until much later.

During the final episode they wrap up everything in a nice, tidy way with facts that they have deliberately avoided revealing to you so you can let your mind wander wildly through the possibilities until you listen to those revelations. Unfortunately for them, I had already heard this rather bland and vanilla explanation for the cause of her death.

The only thing that continued to grate on my nerves was the detail of the tank lid. The LAPD claims that the tank lid was closed or that it was acutally open and there was just miscommunication OR that they closed it without inspecting it-- they don't even seem to know. I believe the maintenance man who said that it was open when he inspected it several weeks after her death. The documentary failed to mention that other people who viewed the roof verified that account. LAPD's incompetence has understandably allowed various internet idiots (who are featured much too often in this doc) to run wild with every possible conspiracy theory imaginable. And frankly even I question how a crew that supposedly (according to the first episode) searched every nook and corner of the hotel for a body overlooked an open water tank. It's unbelievably moronic-- to the point that even I have slight suspicions. I'm not entirely convinced that the boring and bland Occam's Razor approach applies here. The documentary's use of the last episode's title "The Hard Truth," which seems to imply that they have conclusively solved the mystery, is wrongful because even "the truth" is obviously disputed in this case.

This doc provided solid information to me in its first two episodes, but it leaves much to be desired.

Confessions of a Superhero (2007)

Wonder Woman: "God, this is a train wreck. But you can't look away. You can't."

[8/10 · 9 February 2021]

So Wonder Woman/ Jennifer Wenger actually described this entire documentary in a few sentences when she described Hollywood Superman/ Christopher Dennis.

When I watched this film for the first time ten years ago during 2011 I had no idea that I was going to meet Christopher Dennis months later and speak with him bimonthly for years. By that time, he had divorced his wife Bonnie, who he was shown marrying in this film. He said only positive things about her, but he seemed to have only a passing knowledge about her. When I asked him, "she is a psychologist, right?" he replied, "no, she is a psychiatrist." Incorrect. His ignorance about someone with whom he was supposedly close is representative of this entire film. The "actors" who were featured in it were mostly selfish and myopic, and they had great difficulty in having sustained, healthy relationships with people and reality in general as a result. Fascinating.

Also, for me, it has great sentimental value. It shows Los Angeles before its slow, excruciating death during the last several years-- a place of many opportunities for people who could rein in their insanities, however temporarily.

Jennifer Wenger, who I believe is the best actor by far in the film and is part of what makes it watchable, accomplished it. She married a B list actor, and she made a name for herself in underground movies. Her "costars" in this film didn't fare nearly as well. Christopher Dennis has died from a meth addiction, Batman/ Maxwell Allen was banned from "performing" on Hollywood Boulevard and was forced to move onto Las Vegas, and I saw Hulk/ Joe McQueen on the boulevard as recently as 2019.

Sad. But you can't look away. You can't.

Cobra Kai (2018–2025)

William Zabka is the man.

[9/10 · 6 February 2021]

What the hell took me so long to discover this show? I LOVE the direction that they took with this series. They could have played it safe and boring by retitling it and focusing on Ralph Macchio's Daniel character, but they decided to flesh out William Zabka's Johnny and make him more of a three dimensional man rather than the cartoonish kid villain he was in the movies. And Zabka is clearly seasoned and talented enough to meet the challenge.

I can't believe that I'm going to write this sentence: this show's writing is phenomenal. I often laugh uproariously at one of Zabka's lines or feel tension when a character is in an awkward situation. Sometimes there are subtle messages in scenes that the quick witted will notice. The episodes flow smoothly, and I never check the time or fast forward beyond segments.

I've just completed show 4 of season 1. I know that my opinion will not change. This show's foundation is strong.

The Bill Murray Experience (2017)

I enjoyed it.

[6/10 · 28 January 2021]

You've probably read the harsh adjectives about this film and its creator on this site and Amazon: "self promotional, self absorbed, exploitative." Well, I lived in L.A. for twelve years, so as the great Randy Newman sang about that city, "feels like home to me." Also, its production values are severely lacking, even for a guerilla style documentary. They weren't filming in a warzone or anything, so I can't really excuse that flaw.

But it's also sincere to the point of insanity (literally). To me, it didn't drag much because Sadie Katz is charismatic and easy on the eyes, and she often addresses the camera directly. So I was half in a trance for a large portion of it.

As other people have noted, P.J. Soles revealed fascinating information about the making of "Stripes" and general tidbits about Bill Murray.

I met Bill once during 2015. He refused to sign autographs, but he shook everyone's hand, including mine. I think that he is the best comedic actor of all time, so I should have been elated. But as Sadie states throughout the film, I wanted a more "organic" experience. Bill was polite and kind, but the gesture was perfunctory, and he seemed tired. So in a somewhat horrifying way, I can relate to Sadie Katz more than I want to admit to myself.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow (2020)

Bad.

[3/10 · 20 January 2021]

I know that Riki Lindhome has a sizeable following, but I think that most of us watched this film because we wanted to see Robert Forster's final performance. He didn't disappoint. Lindhome isn't exactly a superb actor, but when she is paired with Jim Cummings she seems like Catherine Keener.

As I've stated several times in the past, when your lead actor is horrible it weighs down the entire production, and it's difficult to look beyond him. Cummings has goofy Jim Carrey-like facial expressions during grave scenes, and he often causes you to wonder if some of the film's serious moments are supposedly funny until you realize that it's just bad acting. He says his lines as if he is doing a cold reading and trying to make them seem as spontaneous as possible even though he just read them for the first time one minute earlier. But he wrote the script. So he has been familiar with every line for years. I think that he should have just directed the film and allowed someone else to take the helm.

Also, the character he plays is unlikeable. One could make a comedic montage for YouTube from this film in which the main character is just yelling at people, including his own daughter when she almost dies. It's laughable. With few exceptions, when the main character is repulsively unpleasant the audience generally doesn't want to follow him.

But I will state that the climax was good, and for me it achieved the proper creepiness and suspense. It's just not worth sitting through more than an hour of mediocrity, though.

The Comedy Store (2020)

It started out well.......

[5/10 · 17 November 2020]

It documented The Store's origins well, and it profiled the most famous comics from the '70s and '80s well. Then it sort of lost the thread. The last few episodes are scattershot and disorganized.

It glossed over every decade since the '80s to focus on the present-- you will learn details about every unknown regular and perpetual open micer that you didn't want. I know from listening to The Comedy Store's podcast that there are MUCH more interesting stories about obscure names from the '90s and '00s-- stories that director Binder could have discovered if he had done cursory research about them.

This doc often unexpectedly bored me.

Ghost of Tsushima (2020 Video Game)

Best Game of 2020

[10/10 · 6 October 2020]

This game is almost perfection-- everything from the ultra-realistic renderings of Japan to the combat to the acting is incredible. I also love the story and Jin's conflicted nature about the rogue element of his combat style.

The main villains' barbarity was portrayed well. In one of my favorite games, Medieval Total War 2, and during the Medieval era the Mongols were the most ruthless enemies you could battle. Historically, they were such an existential threat that warring provinces in Eastern Europe called a truce with each other and banded together to drive them back to Asia.

People have complained about this game's repetitiveness. Yes, sometimes the combat is somewhat repetitive, but to me it's the GOOD kind of repetitive. I'm not annoyed by it.

Whenever I want to complete every task in a game you know that it has attained legendary status. I posted a "top twenty video games" list on my blog last year with games that ranged from the '80s to today. Now I want to revise it to include Ghost on it.