HeyimShibby Reviews

Mad Max (1979)

TIW Mad Max

[7/10 · 20 March 2024]

Today I watched Mad Max and I thought it was good.

I personally find this film to be a rather ambitious venture for the director. For a first full length feature on a micro budget, this film is incredibly impressive.

The action is genuinely really good for the low budget. The practical effects are very visceral. They're are genuinely the best parts of the movie.

I find the acting from Mel Gibson to be pretty decent. I can't really remember anything really bad besides like 1 weird delivery. The villains are kinda caricatures and are almost comedic.

The overall story of this movie is kinda repetitive... We basically get the same emotional beats repeatedly throughout the movie. Also, don't get me wrong, there are some really great story moments in this movie. However, It's just kinda not the main part I'm finding interesting about the film.

The stuff about his family was like, not very moving oddly enough? It felt dumb and forced. It has this inconsistent tone with most of the other parts of the movie as well. I understand this is to make him relatable but one of the characters makes very dumb mistakes repeatedly. Like why are they splitting up, why are you going there? Because the plot needs you there. There is payoff to that part of the story, but I just didn't really attach to that aspect. Max and his cop partner had a much more direct level of chemistry between their characters than Max and his wife.

There is a lot of leather. One of the characters is wearing an ascot with his full leather gear and uh... he has a small bit of hair on his bald head while rocking a handlebar mustache and his name is Fifi. There are a lot of men in leather.

The music was kinda pretty good. Again given the budget, I'm surprised it sounds as good as it does. It is not perfect, but there are memorable moments from the soundtrack.

The cinematography was pretty good but sometimes very annoying. It had a good way of conveying action in a believable way that felt intense. At the same time, there were several 180° rule breaks, some very jarring framing, and extreme unnecessary closeups. The dialogue scenes were usually worse visually than the action scenes.

I know I praised the practical effects already, but there are a couple of instances where the special effects definitely fell under budget restrictions. Some weird prosthetics and one goofy looking crash stuck out in my mind.

The visual landscape of the film is very neat. I understand that the original intention wasn't for post apocalyptic, but it really does have a "everything is falling apart" vibe.

The movie felt oddly long by the end of it. Like it wasn't long at all, but I was just kinda waiting for it to end. I did like the ending however.

Overall, I find this film to be a very ambitious movie. The shoestring budget does show sometimes, but it is very impressive what Miller was able to do in this film. It's a pretty fun watch and I'd like to see it again.

Low 7/10.

Madame Web (2024)

TIW Madame web

[10/10 · 16 March 2024]

Today I watched Madame Web and it was incredibly funny garbage fire.

This movie is genuinely horrendous. There is not one aspect of this that is even mediocre, it is bad through and through. So bad it's good.

Every person working on this film feels like they're only here for the paycheck. Pure contractual obligation. Check the interview footage, it's hilarious how much people just don't care about this movie, well besides the director.

Like the director actually is just very bad at their job, but they pretend like they are really good... The movie and director come off as like... oddly pretentious, especially with the ending and the directors interviews.

The camera movement is horrendous and visually unintelligible.

The writing is very very very very childish, trivial, and stupid. The acting alongside the writing makes it seem almost like a parody satire, it's so funny. There is also bad audio dubbing, sound effects, transitions, bad musical layering, mixing, and overpresent original basic music that is incredibly insistent of an epic tone.

This movie is basically disectable because it's so bad on every single account. You can look into every scene and get so much out of it because it's so... full of garbage. Every. Single. Scene.

Overall, if you like so bad it's good movies, this might be a classic for you. Otherwise this is a genuinely terrible film with very little even slightly okay about it.

Mid 1/10

PS. A very hilarious 1/10.

Edit, watched this again. Changing it to a 10 because it is absolutely hilarious the entire movie. So yeah, for me it's a10/10. It's hilarious.

The Holdovers (2023)

TIW The Holdovers

[6/10 · 26 January 2024]

Today I watched the Holdovers, and it wasn't amazing like many reviews say it is, but I thought it was still pretty decent.

I enjoyed this movie by the end of it, but I can't really lie about the fact that I have a lot of issues with this project. This film is not really challenging, something you could easily watch with like your mom or something. It is a very very safe movie that I think anyone could watch. Might put some people to sleep honestly. It's pacing is just not fast enough for me tbh.

Realistically I love the acting, costumes, and set design. The overall feeling of the film feels very accurate to something you'd expect from a movie from 70s. I like the framing of the cinematography though for the 2024 Oscar season I thought there were better movies in that regard. Paul Giamatti was generally very good in his performance, he's a very great actor that I feel is often not a main character enough in films these days.

This is very much a vibe movie. Basically, if you vibe with the first 30 minutes you'll probably like the rest of the movie.

I actually liked the character development, but I just feel like this film could have been much faster about it. By the 30 minute mark it felt like 45 minutes had passed, by the end of the film it felt like a 3 hour movie, which just isn't a good feeling when the film is an hour shorter than that.

The screenplay wasn't very funny, but it did get a couple chuckles. It feels more like a straightforward sentimental drama. It doesn't have any really glaring issues in the story structure besides slow pacing. Just also isn't very innovative with its structure.

To be honest, the overall experience of this movie reminds me of just a better Collateral Beauty. In fact, this movie reminds me of a bunch of different movies, like Lean on Me for example. It's kind of predictable and again didn't really offer me a completely new perspective on this type of film.

Overall, I would probably recommend this movie if you just wanted something very safe to watch. This movie is not really ever offensively bad, but it's also not really immaculate. I can't pretend like this movie does not have a lot of good qualities, but I personally find the film to just not be a very essential watch... rather anecdotal. I will probably forget about this until my grandma decides she wants to watch a movie with me, and this will probably immediately pop up in my mind. It's perfect for that occasion.

Low 6/10.

Battlefield Earth (2000)

TIW Battlefield Earth

[1/10 · 22 January 2024]

Today I watched battlefield earth which was horrendous

This movie has been on my radar for a long time for being so awful and yeah it was absolutely abhorrent. Easily one of the worst movies I've ever seen with pretty much nothing going for it besides being sometimes funny.

The acting is just baffling bad. The set design is horrible. The plot is pretty much nonexistent and insanely convoluted. Music is horrible and forgettable at the same time. The costumes reminded me of a billion other things, but the alien's costume in particular made me think of like... what you would get if you had highschool theater goth kids make their interpretation of what an alien from star trek may look like, even though they had never seen star trek, let alone a single sci-fi movie. Its just so bad. Its so... so... so bad.

If you took a shot of the weakest alcohol ever made every time there was a Dutch angle, you'd die. Literally any human would die from alcohol poisoning. Every other scene is a dutch angle for this incredibly long 1 hour 57 minute long movie.

This film feels a billion years long even if I was laughing at the absurdity sometimes. It genuinely felt like a 4 hour long movie even though nothing happened and nothing made any sense.

This was horrendous and very terrible, I will never watch this movie ever again there are funnier bad movies than this.

Low 1/10.

The Pope's Exorcist (2023)

Tiw poops exorcist

[2/10 · 22 January 2024]

Today I watched this turd and it was bad

THIS MOVIE IS VERY STUPID AND CRINGE IT IS LIKE EVERY EXORCIST MOVIE EVER THERE ARE 18 BILLION MORE THAT ARE BETTER

IT DOES NOTHING ORIGINAL

ALL OF THE ACTING SUCKS, EVERYONE IS OVERRACTING OR UNDERACTING THE ENTIRE MOVIE, NOBODY CARES AT ALL

THERE IS VERY LITTLE TENSION AND NOTHING MATTERS NOBODY IS LIKABLE

THE STORY IS DUMB, AS MENTIONED IT HAS BEEN DONE A BILLION TIMES THIS IS NOT A NEW INTERESTING WAY TO DO THIS AAAAAGH

THEY ARE MAKING FUN OF ITALIANS

THIS WAS A WASTE OF TIME

MAYBE 3 VISUALS IN THE MOVIE LOOKED NEAT BUT MOST EVERYTHING LOOKED FAKE

RUSSEL CROWE LOVES MOPEDS HE MOPEDS PLACES VERY COOL

LOOKED LIKE A MUSIC VIDEO WITH ITS HORRIBLE OVERSATURATION OF COLORS, THERE WERE NO GOOD SHOTS IT LOOKED VERY BAD

THIS WAS VERY BAD I HATED IT A LOT

Overall, DO NOT WATCH IT WAS TERRIBLE

Mid 2/10.

Past Lives (2023)

TIW Past lives

[9/10 · 22 January 2024]

Today I watched Past Lives, and I thought it was fantastic.

Apparently, this is the director's debut film and for that I'm genuinely amazed. This film feels fully fleshed out and realized on impact. The film has style, it feels mature, it feels very human and realistic. This movie was an extremely fast paced thought-provoking experience for me.

The story was great in pretty much every way. The film is reserved about how it delivers information. So much is told to you without it having to be directly said and I love that about this movie. Again, I must say this feels very human as far as experiences go, like this whole story feels like something that could happen to pretty much anyone unexpectedly. The way characters' stories change and go makes it feel like they are really living a life on screen.

The acting was pretty much always fantastic. The actors are really delivering great performances throughout the entire movie, including the child actors I thought. The actual dialogue in the film ranges from being funny to extremely thought provoking. I personally was not bothered by any of it.

The cinematography was immaculate, it was visual candy. There was always so much to look at and soak in, especially with there being so many long takes within the film. The framing of most scenes added another layer of intention and emotion into the scene. Characters being cut out of the scene or different perspectives of visuals to subtly guide your emotions.

I love the soundtrack, it always felt very fitting for the scene. It kind of reminded me of something like Postal Service would have made, at least that's how I feel from memory. I enjoy it a ton and it doesn't really ever overstay its welcome, great instrumentation.

If there is anything that I think this movie could have been better with, it would be makeup and foley design. Characters look way too old in some scenes and are not indicative of their actual age in the film. With the foley, like, there are several scenes where the sound or lack thereof does not feel like a part of the environment. Inside a house it felt like there were birds also inside the house, there is barely any background noise when they're talking next to a boat.... Stuff like that. Still, this did not really affect the overall believability of the movie very much and I think it's something the director will probably develop in their next film.

Overall, this was a fantastic first feature. It's a fast paced, thought-provoking drama that feels incredibly personal and grounded. I'm fully on board with watching whatever this director makes next and as it stands this is easily in my top films of 2023. I thoroughly loved it.

Low 9/10.

Fallout 4 (2015 Video Game)

Fallout 4 is LAME

[4/10 · 7 January 2024]

Honestly, very disappointing video game. Feels like a hollow shooter with looting rather than an actual RPG.

The characters are not very interesting, the storylines all feel very similar regardless of what choices you do and also feels kinda like fallout 3 but reverse, the dialogue is boring and repetitive, the gameplay is fun but it just doesnt hold up the other elements. One really annoying mechanic though is that vats sucks so much. In fallout 3 and NV if you had a 95% chance of hitting you would still hit if you're literally in their face, but in this game, that 95% chance is literal. Thats stupid as heck.

Overall, to give the game credit I like some of the environments even if a lot feel very forgettable, I like the nostalgic soundtrack kinda, the shooting element of the gameplay is still pretty fun minus vats... But yeah this game is just hilariously one dimensional and very shallow. What you see in the first 10 minutes of the game is what you will get for the rest of the 200 hours. It feels like a hollowed shell of Fallout 3 and especially New Vegas and it is just very bland and forgettable. Do not buy this unless it's on sale and you're willing to mod the heck out of it.

Mid 4/10

PS. I can say nothing about the DLC, i hear they're much better than the base experience but the base experience literally requires mods to be anything more than a boring dull shooter so I just really don't even care to go back to that to see if its not that.

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (2023)

TIW Agua man dos, the second one

[3/10 · 1 January 2024]

Today I watched Aquaman 2 and it was very stupid and kind of funny bad.

I loved the first Aquaman very much ironically and thought that movie was also very stupid dumb fun to me. It felt like James Wan and the crew really knew they had nothing to offer so they just did not care at all about what was happening in the film. They just did whatever they wanted and it came out to be a rather hilarious spectacle to me.

It's kind of hard to talk about the humongous stupidity in the movie without spoiling it but trust me when I say nothing feels like it's being taken seriously. The plot points all just feel thrown in from other things, the weirdest and most prevalent thing would be some things that feel directly from the World of Warcraft universe...???

The acting and delivery made me laugh a lot. It was bad across the board, but I didn't think Jason Mamoa or Patrick Wilson were bad. They seemed like they were trying along with Nicole Kidman though she wasn't in the movie much. Amber Heard and Randall Park were both very 1 dimensional and were unbelievable in every single scene they were in. Manta was very over the top and often made me laugh when he was on screen. It was stupid. Dolph Lundgren was TERRIBLE, every line he delivered was as if he was an amateur they picked up off the street, it did not seem like he wanted to be there.

The forced dramatic parts in this movie essentially border on parody. They did a low framerate slowdown during an incredibly overdramatic melodrama sequence that just came out of nowhere. It was very funny. I know a lot of people are having issues with this but given the tone of the entire movie (which was inconsistent by the way) it felt like a lot of this insanity was completely intentional. I'm not saying its not stupid, I'm saying I was busting up laughing in the theater.

I liked some of the fight scenes to be honest. Barring the first one which was actually very bad, basically it felt like this blue cgi mess and was just all the same color pigment, so it was just very hard to keep track of anything that is happening. The desert fight was not bad, I enjoyed the choreography in that scene and thought that was probably the best scene in the movie. Though there was a comical scene in that fight scene involving Patrick Wilson that I just couldn't deal with, it was so funny to me.

There were scenes in the movie that were intended to make you laugh that I like, actually intentionally unironically laughed at. I think they were a little low on the joke tierlist but this movie's jokes did tickle my fancy occasionally. I was definitely never bored watching this movie.

Overall most of this movie just made me laugh because of how stupid it was all the time. It felt like a video game so often. It felt like nobody cared about the seriousness of what they were doing, and it just feels like watching a ridiculoustrainwreck and personally I'm all for it. I find it incredibly engaging. If something very stupid and over the top does not interest you, probably stay away from this movie, as it really does not offer much outside that element.

Low 4/10 or High 3/10.

PS. I know this may seem like a high score for how much I talked poorly about this film, but I again... I really cannot preface how much I had a great time watching this movie. I would much rather watch this DC film again over something like Wonderwoman 1984, The Marvels, Ant Man 3, Thor 2... ETC.

Friends vs Friends (2023 Video Game)

tiw FvF

[7/10 · 13 December 2023]

Bought this game a while ago, really good game concept that just feels like a logical meeting point of a bunch of other common game concepts. A shooter card game with a bunch of furries sign me up

Feels very fluid, love the controls, love the style of the game and the character designs. It is intensely fun when it comes to the actual gameplay when playing with friends. Even solo, I just really enjoy the fluidity and speed of this game. Also I really like the sound effects in the game.

My problems with this game lie in the fact that I feel like it can be so much more. The voice acting is really lacking and some of the characters sound kinda amateur. The music is not my favorite and it doesnt really add much into the game, infact I turned both voices and music off.

There should be more cards. I wish there was way more ways to build in this game. Right as it stands, the 25 card minimum limit leaves you to have to use at least a couple filler cards and many decks feel pretty similar.

Some of the characters feel a bit underpowered compared to other characters. Particularly the tiger compared to the kitty cat.

Overall I really like this game, its a very fun 2v2 shooter and I cant wait to see what happens with the game. I would recommend this pretty heavily if you have at least one other person to play with. Its a very cheap fun indie game

Low 7/10.

Mulholland Falls (1996)

Tiw mulholland falls

[4/10 · 7 December 2023]

Today I watched mulholland falls and it was underwhelming

Starting off, I thought some of the acting was great, particularly from the actresses. Jennifer Connely has a very strong screen presence even though she's not in the movie as much as she needed. Melanie Griffith is also pretty convincing barring one scene where she seemed really bored when she was supposed to be mad. Malkovich was pretty good.

I really liked the set designs. They felt very of the period and I thought the accuracy towards that was pretty spot on. I liked that it felt like the characters were actually moving between many different sets and they always seemed very fitting for the time.

Barring that, I just really couldn't get into this movie at all. It's cheesy, it's boring, and it feels like a missed opportunity. The characters feel stupid. They just figure things out so slowly and are very unbelievable. The script is immensely stupid and cheese, it just keeps feeling so ridiculously . The main actor Nick Nolte does not sell his characters performance and seems just incredibly wooden throuought the entire movie besides literally one scene where he seems very convincingly livid at one character.

The music throughout the movie wasn't bad it just was ever present and kinda tried to manipulate your emotions so much. The cinematography was inconsistent, it'd break the 180 degree rule often and was just very jarring often, though there were some really well shot scenes in this movie as well.

The movie also just wraps up so quickly and feels really rushed by the end of it. The very emotional scene right before the end was so giga cheese I was laughing at how silly it was. Nothing feels wrapped up, it just feels like they farted out the end and we were supposed to care, but how can we when the movie doesn't? It's a really lame ending man

Overall, there are just a billion other Noirs that are way better, way less boring, way less cheesy, and just flat out more interesting. Kinda lame movie don't watch it. Also lighting should have been moodier and probably the whole movie would have benefitted from being black and white

Mid 4/10.

Crimson Peak (2015)

Tiw crimson peak

[3/10 · 26 November 2023]

Today I watched crimson peak and it was infuriating

Movie had an interesting setup for about the first 15 minutes. I like a lot of the sets and I thought the acting was decent. Some of the cgi and the effects was actually really awesome, Guillermo is known for his great effects.

If I'm being honest, this is unfortunately does not hold up the movie from its pretty hideously terribly predictable plot. This movie has been done a billion times and the main character, along with everyone other than the antagonists(kinda), are just so stupid. They just take forever to figure anything out and it's ridiculously slow. It's painfully obvious as to what's happening at every single point, there is 0 intrigue or mystery, which for a mystery thriller is really lame.

I kept begging the characters just to not be stupid and maybe idk head any warning given to them at any moment. The main character and Loki have virtually 0 chemistry and they just very quickly fall in love. Jessica Chastain was actually not bad at all but again the script just made her a caricature. Loki was literally just playing loki. He's just Loki again very good

The ending was both unsatisfying and also really funny bad. It just kinda farted out an ending. I dunno man. This story of a failing writer going into a spooky house where something really bad happened in the house has happened a billion times now and it's not supplemented well with interesting anything. Main character sucked was rooting for everyone to die by the end.

Overall I hated this movie, it was a cliche, predictable boring nothing film that could be summarized in 2 sentences. It has some decent effects but it was unbearable watching the incredibly inept characters flounder around till the conclusion. Which was stupid and obvious. Devolves more and more as the movie goes on really. Waste of good effects on just an abysmal script.

High 3/10.

The Marvels (2023)

Tiw Captain Marvel 2: Electric Boogaloo

[2/10 · 19 November 2023]

Today I watched the literal worst grossing Marvel movie which was also incoherent and often stupid, dumb, and embarrassing to the point of being funny

For starters, this movie is less boring than the captain marvel movie, which i guess is something but to be blunt I hated that movie too. Most of why it's less boring is cause it's really really stupid. It also makes Captain Marvel not as much of a unlikable character and tries to make her not a completely awful person to root for

The problem starts with this actually, like Carol Danvers in all other instances of this character is a totally rude and awful. Even in this movie, it acknowledges this character being like literally a monster. It just takes a completely different personality of a character and puts it on captain Marvel. It just pretends like she somehow developed a conscience/empathy and disregards her being a Dookie butt. Whatever who needs consistency

Speaking of consistency this movie couldn't even be consistent with its own tones? It's trying to be serious, it's trying to be funny, and it tries to make you think what youre watching is super awesome. It fails at all of those things intentionally every single time. Every instance of humor was either extremely cringe or very dumb low hanging fruit. The movie will attempt to make jokes during the very serious scenes which are never funny and are often entirely clashing with how we're supposed to be feeling. One time it even did this thing where it went into an animation that was kinda neat but it literally never did it ever again. Just a lot of questionable tones and stylistic choices that clash constantly.

Sidenote, the acting sucked across the board. Brie Larson kept doing this thing where her eyes were just BULGING 👁 💋 👁 out of her head and she was just super surprised by everything. It actually ended up being very wooden. The other two "main" characters were also bad but I thought the character who played the niece was particularly awful. Not a single word the entire movie felt natural and she was probably my least favorite person to watch.

The main villain was hilarious. Her costume(and personality) makes her look like daenyrs targaren season 8 style and she is just so over the top the entire movie. She reminds me of Eddie redmayne from Jupiter ascending or maybe even Troll 2 witch. It's hilarious to watch her lick her lips and give goofy expressions when looking at her weapons after they get powered up.

I haven't even gone into the story yet man ugh. It's so bad man. Basically it just doddles around till the main villain is introduced. Characters hop around everywhere and it takes them FOREVER to figure literally anything out even though it's insanely obvious what's happening. They just keep having eureka moments like 20 minutes after the audience figures out what's happening. Then often they disregard what they've learned and conveniently things just start working differently from how they were explained in the movie just for conflict. Also Captain Marvel is insanely overpowered and she just keeps being stupid to make things harder. She's just broken OP man...

There was a main conflict in the movie that was just a complete red harring(again which is obvious) but it actually just has nothing to do with the movie. Seriously there is a whole massive ps3 graphics scene that just could be taken out of the movie and it wouldn't have changed anything.

Cgi throughout the movie looked really bad but those CGI cats were really some ps3 graphics man. The sets often looked fake as heck and looked like plastic or very heavily cgi gummy plastic garbage.

The music was not very notable but I liked the choice to use that skillex song. I don't really remember anything musical besides that song being used, even in the scene was often filmed so horribly that I couldn't tell what was happening.

And yeah lastly the cinematography was kinda awful. It was shaky and looked extremely unprofessional for a Marvel movie. It was often incoherent during action scenes and was edited together poorly.

Overall this movie sucked. It was often enough so bad it's funny. This makes it at least a little more entertaining than the extremely unlikable boring snoozefest that is captain marvel. I think technically speaking, that movie is better... with this movies incompetence, I'm at least not entirely bored. Incomprehensible, badly acted, poorly shot, poorly plotted, boring music, terrible stupid movie haha

High 2/10.

M3GAN (2022)

TIW mthreegan

[4/10 · 1 October 2023]

Today I watched megan and it was not very good

I liked some of the concepts in this film even though they feel really inspired by childs play. Thought there were a couple genuinely funny scenes alongside the unintentionally funny scenes. The story is comprehensible from beginning to end I guess.

There's a good idea in this film somewhere, but I dunno, it feels really mishandled and dull by the end of it. It's really predictable also. Like predictable to the point where I predicted the whole movie before it was like 15 minutes in and it went beat by beat through 90% of the predictions. The story really should have been better.

Also the technical elements lack any flair or personality which really is a shame. The cinematography was extremely close up and was often jarring. Really wish the cinematographer would just back up their camera a little bit or hold shots for longer than .5 seconds sometimes. Maybe that was the editors fault who knows but god its really choppy.

The music sucks, its bland and manipulative. The crescendos for the jumpscares were all very predictable and lame...

The acting was for the most part... kinda bad? They really don't even show any emotion towards the inciting incident and it doesn't really feel like anything in the cold open effected the story very much. The woman who played Gemma, allison williams, was very wooden and not very believable. Occasionally she would give a very funny reaction to something and it would be hilarious the face she'd make to something supposedly scary. The little girl was mostly bad, though the script did not help with that. For people saying Allison williams is the worst actor in the movie, id like to point your attention to Ronny Chieng as the boss guy who was absolutely horrendous. Everyone else was really... not really worth mentioning. Just kinda average.

The problem with this movie is the helm. The director I believe. Every actor is doing bad even if I have seen them do good in other roles, I can't imagine what the direction they were given is. When every single aspect of this film is this mediocre, you kinda have to blame the guy in charge because they didn't even notice the problems here.

Overall this movie was kinda lame and definitely not great. It's not really worth a watch and just feels like a predictable childs play clone kinda. It didnt make me laugh as much as I'd hope, it didnt really make me feel terrified ever. Yeah it was just kinda like, I dunno, felt like someone's first film ever, but its not sooo...

Low 4/10

PS this is still better than the childs play remake, which is not a very high bar but I was thinking of that piece of poopie while watching this.

Baldur's Gate III (2023 Video Game)

Tiw balders gate

[10/10 · 11 August 2023]

This is probably one of the best games on release in the past couple years. It's a bar raiser at its least. This game is complex but also relatively straightforward.

There is an immense amount of lore and character choice. The writing is fantastic and the game really doesn't feel boring whatsoever.

There are so many different ways to play, so many different paths that have small to massive impact on the way the game is played.

Realistically this is one of the best games I've ever played. It's absolutely stunning how amazing the game looks, feels, plays... it's honestly a jawdropping achievement in RPG's.

If there was any improvements I could request, they would simply be nitpicking and i do feel like i gotta really search for a problem. Like maybe I wish the equipment system was a little less derivative/slow, but it really isn't that bad. Also some of the companions are a little annoying, but I just slaughtered them... WHICH IS COOL. ITS COOL I CAN DO THAT!!!

Overall, fantastic story, fantastic character design, Amazing lore, immense player choice, and wonderful game play. There are very few things that could be improved in this masterpiece of a videogame. I hope future developers use this as inspiration as I just can't give this game enough praise.

High to mid 10/10.

Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

Tiw Oppenheimer

[6/10 · 24 July 2023]

Today I watched Nolan's Oppenheimer and it was good.

To start off I think that Cillian Murphy and most of the other cast did really great. I think the acting in this film is genuinely very good, most of the actors really transform into their characters, even some smaller role actors have the opportunity to show a lot of range in this film.

The story is definitely my favorite part, I enjoy almost all of it and think this is one of the best tales to be told on the big screen. I think Nolan also did a good job writing a 3 hour long film without to much of it feeling like it needed to be cut out, it's not easy to do. There are a couple moments that are incredibly visceral and really make you question the philosophy of what's happening here.

My huge problem with this film is the technical aspects however and there is a unfortunately a good chunk of it that I do not love. For starters, the cinematography in this film feels like a downgrade from every Nolan I've watched(haven't seen tenet).

Half of this film, no, 75% of this film is just shot reverse shot close ups that are so insanely unimaginative that it really boggles my mind that they didn't just pull the camera back a little bit. Like, your sets are actually pretty neat, can you PLEASE pull the camera back from Oppy and show me the laboratory their in?? Maybe show me a bit more scenery and not a close up shot reverse shot? We did get some genuinely Jaw dropping scenes, however for the most part it just often was so bland.

The cinematography also doesn't help the fact that this movie has some really adhd editing going on. So many different scenes happen and so many different characters come in so quickly that it's actually bordering on bloated. It really felt like there was like 30 cuts on average per minute in this 3 hour long film and that's just eye straining sometimes. Like we're cutting back and forth between areas and times and it's just so much information overload...

Also the mixing, as per Nolan standard, renders certain scenes absolutely unintelligible on a big screen. Maybe it's fine for home video or with subtitles, but, especially near the end, some scenes the vocals are just buried in the mix so badly. I cannot hear over the music that is not normally in the scene why is it so loud...

And uh yeah the music was fine, I really don't have much to say about it. I guess it serviced the film well in some parts but I found it to be generally forgettable. Like I really loved the music in some of Nolan's older works (dunkirk and memento in particular) but this particular soundtrack didn't blow me away or anything. No pun intended.

Overall, I still enjoyed this movie despite what I believe to be pretty annoying flaws. It has a lot of payoffs, it's a good story and writing(barring one kinda cringe scene with Florence Pugh), and it really is fantastically acted by the main actors. I definitely do not regret watching this movie but I do wish that some elements didn't feel kinda phoned in.

Low - Mid 6/10.

Nimona (2023)

Tiw nimona

[5/10 · 22 July 2023]

Today I watched Nimona and I apparently watched a different movie than everyone else

Like this movie is fine but in my opinion, it just isnt that special.

The voice acting, animation and fight choreography were all nice, but like...

after the first major event happens in the film and the titular character comes in.... the film is just so extremely predictable and feels like it lacks all forms of tension. One of the characters is just so insanely overpowered I can't help but wonder why they don't do more with that overpoweredness.

And yeah like every beat in this film feels like it could have been plopped from like 13 other disney or Pixar films, especially past the first 15 minutes. Btw this was originally a disney film that got scrapped.

The villain was not hard to deduce. The main backstory was incredibly obvious as to what actually happened it did not feel impactful at all. Characters act incredibly unprofessional when they're supposed to be extremlty well trained guards of the queen of this land.... there's a couple more cliches that annoyed me but to talk about them would be spoilers so, sorry

And yeah, I do like the the fact that the main character is LGBT but it doesnt add(or subtract) anything from the story. Its just a thing. Also since im on this topic, the boyfriend did some pretty bad stuff to the main character.

Overall, this is movie is fine, but I really don't see why everyone thinks this is like the best film ever. It feels like wallpaper, sometimes it looks cool in concept. However, it doesnt do enough world building for it to be anything more than just "in concept." It's medieval techno themed wallpaper.

Mid to High5/10.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

TIW guardains of the galaxy 3

[7/10 · 14 May 2023]

Today I watched Galaxy Guardian, the third one

Really liked this one honestly, probably my favorite James Gunn superhero flick. It still has the cliche Marvel formula but it takes some creative risks and shows a real James Gunn feel. Its not that the marvel formula is a bad thing, its just that it can be very stale if there isnt an interesting way the formula checkboxes are hit. Luckily, on this one, his imprint is marked all over this thing.

For starters, this movie flies by, I didn't even feel the run time in the slightest. Maybe some scenes could have been chopped out, but I wouldn't know which one to choose. Sometimes the film can be a bit confusing, but I feel like thats just because the movie is really chalked full of stuff.

Loved the action, some very fun cinematography. There were some VERY fun long takes that looked incredibly well choreographed. Boring soundtrack, kinda exactly what you would expect tbh. It was standard Marvel and standard guardians of the galaxy soundtrack. Radiohead's creep is the most overrated radiohead song.

Thought that some of the performances could have been a bit better. Mantis occasionally made me cringe but was overall fine, Chris Pratt kinda the same. There was a scene with Rocket where he was talking at a higher octave and it sounded like an adult trying to imitate a child's voice and it was abhorrent. Usually Bradley Cooper does fine, but honestly he felt like he kinda phoned it in on this one through the whole movie. Cgi was mostly awesome, but there was a scene when they were in space suits that looked oddly gummy. Like their suits were very weirdly stretching around and being funky. Looked like a computer

Really why this movie works is the combination of high stakes intensely well made action, coherent story telling and relatively funny jokes. The film also does a good job at tugging at your heartstrings... Pretty tightly I may add. This is definitely the most intense emotional driven Marvel movie since infinity war imo, there are some heart wrenching scenes in this one and seriously great character growth through the film.

Overall, even though this is a bit formulated, its my favorite Guardians movie and my favorite Marvel movie since Infinity war. I love the direction James Gunn went here and I'm glad to see him have a bit more creative freedom on this one. A lot of the falling flat here is so menial it barely effects the movie. The formula is still here, but its bended splendidly. Would definitely recommend, also a good dad movie.

Mid 7/10.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)

TIW mario bros

[3/10 · 14 May 2023]

Today I watched the Mario movie

This feels like an AI generated film that has as much flavor as water with a side of wheat bread.

The Story was bland, predictable, and 40 minutes of it could have been completely removed and it would have flowed nearly the same exact way.

The voice acting wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it was still not good tbh. Jack black did great, that's about it.

The music was repellent. It was wallpaper orchestral nothing music with a hint of mario. Truly the mario flavored lacroix of music. Also they played a super mario galaxy song at the incorrect time which was weird.

Overall this movie sucked. It was a dull kids movie that made me chuckle 4 times. Mostly was just annoyed by how soulless this was. Oh well illumination sucks. It was well animated and I guess it was cohesive but what was it in service of...?

High 3/10 or Low 4/10.

Bros (I) (2022)

TIW bros

[4/10 · 11 May 2023]

Today I watched the movie Bros

Yeah, didn't like this film. Which is honestly disappointing cause I feel it starts relatively well. It has a bit of charm and its kinda funny even though I think some of the humor perpetuates negative stereotypes.

The real problem at this movie's core is that it didn't have any restraint and it feels like it was written in a single draft.

There are scenes in this movie that are painfully cringey and forced that drag out the experience. There is no reason this movie needed over 90 minutes. Let me mention that I am an LGBTQ+ male and I am just saying that gym scene made me absolutely repulsed. It was not funny and it was in poor taste. This is just one example of the problems that really only start popping up about 45 minutes into this movie.

The beginning first half of this movie is mostly fine like I said, there are some okay performances and pretty funny jokes. I was laughing a lot. The jokes seemed well written. The acting seemed fine, but um, the main actors have virtually 0 chemistry. They are both very unlikable and I dont know why they even like each other. As mentioned previously, I have no problem with an lgbtq+ main character, all for it actually, but this was written for straight people who think that this is what being a "home of sensual" looks like.

The film is formulated like a literal hallmark movie, its like totally self aware. Which gives it kinda the excuse to be... just... technically made like a hallmark movie. That is not a good thing. Just because you are going for the cadence of a hallmark movie and you are self aware does not mean you get to give us the most wallpaper music of all time, most unstimulating shots, its kinda aggravating.

Not to mention the shot reverse shot, shot reverse shot, shot reverse shot that this framing is doing. The camera work maybe had a couple scenes where I was genuinely surprised by but for the most part this movie doesn't ever hold a really interesting shot.

For anyone wondering why I'm making a big deal of a comedy like this to care about technical aspects, its because there are so many other movies that do, comedies included.

Overall I would not recommend this movie. It was funny for the first 45 minutes and then it just falls apart, becomes cliche, and the laughs start turning to mega cringe. Not to mention the main actors have 0 chemistry and I'm not sure why they even like each other anyways. I laughed a lot watching this movie but by the end it was in service of a weak plot and a weak love story. Very unfortunate.

Mid 4/10.

Elvis (2022)

Tiw Elvis

[3/10 · 24 February 2023]

Today I watched Oscar nominated film Elvis

I did not like this movie very much it was absolutely fascinating however. I really did not like how many cuts there was in the film.

The film has the feeling of a YouTube video from like smosh, maybe a tiktok, or even a movie trailer but for an extremely long time.

There's a scene when doja cat plays and a scene where Denzel curry played and I was very confused. Elvis gyrated his hips real good and it made all the ladies scream.

See this film just feels so surreal. Also the acting oh my God. Austin butler did fine. I am not sure hes like best actor or anything but he really does carry the movie. Tom hanks was ATTROCIOUS. Very funny.

Overall, this film is insane, a lot of people love it, I do not. The person I watched this with loved it. I found this to be absolutely bizarre, crazy and needed to be reined in. I dunno, it's ridiculous and funny cause of how "stylized" it is when youre watching it. Tom hanks sucked. Very long movie trailer.

High 3/10.

All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)

TIW All quiet on the Western Front

[5/10 · 21 February 2023]

Today I watched all quiet on the western front and it was alright

Personally, this film did not blow me away or leave me in tears or anything, but I did not dislike my experience. I'm glad to have watched this movie

For starters, the acting, though in a different language (subs not dubs bb), seemed fine. The cinematography was alright, but I wish I could have seen more. The overall story was okay too, but that's where it all kinda ends. This movie was just okay.

Nothing from this film blew me away and each opportunity to do so were unfortunately swindled. Moments that could have been incredibly intense were oddly... not? Something took away from the intensity of what was happening in every single scene where I should have been filled with emotions. I had one sad moment but the way the character died seemed very forced into the movie I guess? Also, I wish that Paul was a younger looking actor, they casted a 27 year old and he doesnt look 17 at all. He looks in his mid 20s. He did a great job, but they should have just said he was 20 or gotten an actor that looks 17 year old.

The music was interesting but then kept getting reused to the point of parody. Like the first 4 times they used that menacing 3 key deep toned song i was like "weird, but this is neat" and then they just kept spamming it. Well, until it was gone for like 45 minutes and then it just pops up again in a random scene in such a way that it really did just come off as a comedic. I audibly giggled when literally nothing was happening and I just hear "DUN DUN DUN" for the 18th time in the movie. I dunno if it was more reserved it would have been more effective. Also, I piano music in a scene before the end of the film.

There was some very bad cgi fire and cgi rats. If those rats weren't cgi how did they make them look like a base level windows media maker effect? That whole scene when the characters are eating in the kitchen really just felt entirely like a set, which is kinda annoying when you're supposed to be immersed into the film. A lot of this movie just looked oddly fake and less genuine than i'd like. Guy getting ran over looked fake. Guy getting lit on fire looked fake. Someone walked on a landmine and looked like he was totally fine, dont those kill people or blow off arms/legs or do something idk? Reminded me of the pg-13 explosions in dunkirk

There was some incredibly interesting color grading in the film. It was kinda harsh on the eyes with how muddy all the colors would get together. It'd be like bright blue, green, red, brown, and more colors all flooded into the scene at the same time. It fits with the themes of the film well and some of the ways that it is used is effective, though I will admit it did absolutely hurt my eyes at some scenes. Like it'd go from super muddy, to a bright white explosion. Ouch

The story really is the most interesting thing here. However, even with that, I feel that this film's handling of the story was done in such a way that it feels unnecessarily dragged out by politics and stuff that honestly, i did not care about. I wish that the movie really did just hammer in on Paul and less about the politics behind the movie. Everytime the movie cut to the negotiating room, I just wished I was getting more info about Paul, or seeing more of what happened with the soldiers, or just had it removed from the scene entirely. It just felt like unnecessary and well, like a very obvious B plot.

Overall this film was an alright war movie. It makes me interested in reading the book again and watching the original 1930's film for the first time, but I don't think this film actually adds a lot to the genre. I never was necesarily bored but I also didn't see much that impressed me. I felt like most things in this film could have been pushed a bit harder. Unfortunately, this is just another very average war film. Not at all bad, but does nothing to push boundaries and does nothing to stand apart. I will probably never watch this movie again, but I was not unhappy to give it a shot.

High 5/10.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

Tiw pickles and booties

[8/10 · 22 January 2023]

Today I watched a shrek sequel and it was very good

Yeah, this movie was a complete shocker to me as I really didn't expect anything from it going in. But uh yeah this movie really does have everything going for it, it's funny, it has a lot of really intense action, there's actual stakes which doesn't feel like the case in most kids movies, and it has a really charming unique personality to it.

If there's anything that I didn't like from the movie, it would really have to be the mixing in the opening of the movie. It felt like Pickles wasn't properly mixed into the scene, and I really could not hear half of the words he was saying, thankfully this only really went on through the first maybe 10-15 minutes of the film, basically when the opening stops. Besides that you can make an argument that there are cliché and predictable elements to this film. There was one instance when i noticed Pickles literally change sizes between scenes and then it never happened again, it was during a fight scene near the beginning where he got tossed around.

However, though its story structure is predictable, this is reductive a bit. It's a three act structure with a typical ending you'd see in 1000 movies till this point, but the way that the movie goes to reach this point feels like it's own unique true journey. Every character reaches their logical end in such a satisfying fashion, it's easy to overlook that. The story basically perfectly led to the ending and didn't really leave me feeling like I could ask for more in that regard from a modern day shrek sequel.

This film genuinely feels like characters are in real danger. It feels like every character, no matter how small or big, has a distinct personality and look to them, and they can absolutely die. That feels really good in a movie to feel like there's a real challenge to overcome, something this movie does excellently. The villains feel like real villains and are actually pretty menacing, showing a real threat within the story to the main characters. Also I cannot tell you how nice it is to have a comic relief character be pivotal to the story and not annoying. Seriously it's so common and annoying(I'll never forgive you treasure planet 😢)

The film looks absolutely gorgeous. It's like a pastel paradise of colors. The animation is smooth when it needs to be and stylistically choppy during intense pivotal points. All of the characters look fantastic and stylistically distinct from the other cgi art styles I've seen in the past. Each character is immediately recognizable as their own. I want to pet the dog.

The action scenes are so dang well executed. It doesn't feel to abnormally fluid and I feel this to be assisted by the intentionally choppy animation style during these scenes. They also use comic book style action lines to emphasize certain movements and to drag your eyes to what they want you to focus on. The bad guys did something LIKE this basically but I feel that this movie really improves upon that style.

Overall, I could spend a long time talking about how awesome and surprising this movie was for me. It was genuinely great, and probably my favorite shrek movie. Isn't that a funny thing to say, your favorite shrek movie is a puss n boots sequel. Please watch this movie it's very good. It's tremendously funny too btw.

High 8/10.

The Menu (2022)

Tiw teh menu

[3/10 · 4 December 2022]

Today I watched the menu and it was very very cringey and lame

K how the heck does this have such a high rating you can't be serious right, this movie is very lame. It rides on the fact that it's trying to be original but honestly it doesn't even feel that original. It just feels like truth or dare. Oh no the menu is weird and the game is real! Or like midsummer actually, oh spooky cult except with food. I'm sorry to be reductive, but this movie feints a level of sophistication that it just simply does not have.

The best part of this movie is Anya Taylor Joy's performance and some of the visuals. I laughed a couple times I think. This film is definitely trying but it just does not work at all. It's frankly very pretentious honestly.

Like dude why does the writer seem to feel like he's gotta say some deep intellectual garbage through the mouths of these extremely one dimensional nothing characters. There is so much "tell, not show" going on in the character development and many of the actors are absolutely not selling what's happening.

Hong Chau sucks a lot, she is not at all threatening. Ralph Fiennes was not intimidating for 80% of the horror movie where he is the horror movies. There's so many nothing characters it's hard to mention a single one besides the guy who played tyLer who sucked a lot.

There was a supposedly serious point in the film where one character gets injured cause he's being a bad boy and you can't take it seriously at all cuz the actor sounds like that saw video game actor that your movie sucks quotes all the time. It was very funny in the wrong ways. This movie was almost only ever funny except when it wasn't trying to be. Why the heck are these characters yelling when everyone is around them like aren't they trying to be sneaky at all for no reason.

Why don't characters do anything?? Why are they all so awful and stupid. Isn't this a good movie why didn't they use good lighting for the food is that the point...? The cinematography and lighting as a whole was very mixed. Like it felt so professionally shot for 30% of the film and the other 70% is fishbowl close ups that leaving you just begging for more. It's so lame. I loved some of these shots but jeez... what a waste of potential.

There was a scene with Anya Taylor Joy and Hong Chau near the end had a scene together and it was so horribly choreographed and shot I was laughing in my empty theater so loudly it was horribly awful. They do like a zoom up on Chau's face and it was really funny.

The ending was absolutely stupid it was so dumb. I cannot believe that it really was done in that sort of fashion, it seemed so rushed and forced I cannot believe that. I was appalled. I really cannot stand the ending of this film it reminds me of so many different films.

I cannot stand this movie, it is very bad.

Overall I have no idea why this got such high reviews, I could not stand this movie it was absolutely infuriating. The glimpses of ambition that the film maker tried for are definitely there, but it just insists it's so much deeper and more original than it is. I haven't even mentioned the lines in this film... they're so cheesy cringe, it's exhausting. "He mustn't disturb the high order of sustenance", god eye roll cringe. I hate this movie. I might lower this to a 2 maybe, it's so bad but it does have some nice shots sometimes and Anya Taylor joy tries with this awful script.

Low 3/10.

The Christmas Chronicles (2018)

Tiw Chrimbus with the minions

[2/10 · 23 November 2022]

Today I watched Kurt russel as Santa and that's the selling point

The first 45 minutes of this movie is mostly harmless kinda cliche bad Christmas movie. It has all the traditional movie cliches about how this family loves Christmas and now the family's family member is somehow not involved in Christmas and they have to find the Christmas spirit. But uh

The morals of this film are beyond questionable, like the son character does some pretty terrible stuff and it doesn't feel like his arc is at all even okay. The characters are in Chicago and there's no cars anywhere. It's just an unrecognizable city that has some buildings, it could have been anywhere.

The cgi looks very bad, oh no the character is falling into a computer. There was a scene when a character looks up at a bunch of presents and it's like they're all very obviously fake as heck and it looks terrible; they have lens flares that don't move properly in the light. There are several times when characters look gummy and plastic when they're zooming around or falling because they're obviously cgi-ed.

But honestly the film doesn't become egregious until the 45-50 minute mark. Basically the cgi is ramPed up to 1 million and the film feels more like a horror movie where everything just becomes incredibly nonsensical even for a Christmas film.

The film doesn't feel that it raps up well, characters are very morally bankrupt, apparently the dads favorite song was a Christmas song. Like imagine this dude rocking out to jingle bell rock in the summer, that's kinda funny. Several characters in a line Fortnite dance.

Overall this was an extremely cringe movie by the end of it. It looked bad in every way. I forgot to mention the music was also very generic. The story sucked, The characters are nearly blank slates besides being morally 1 dimensional and their arcs are the most cliche direction, but also the characters are not really redeemed for being awful. The cgi is TERRIBLE AND I HATE DESPICABLE ME

High 2/10.

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

Tiw bodies 3x

[6/10 · 25 October 2022]

Today I watched bodies bodies bodies and it was fun

I enjoyed the color grading, soundtrack, and I thought the acting was all pretty good. The film is generally serviceable in every direction I feel, but that's kinda where it ends for me. As a whodunnit murder mystery movie it does not push boundaries as far as I'd like and as a horror movie it doesn't feel scary ever. As a comedy it's pretty funny often enough.

I do not like a single character as like... a person, which is the intention, but there's nobody to root for, I just want them all to die. The story is interesting but I did not really feel anything when anyone died unless the death was really funny.

Rachel sennot as Alice was definitely the standout performance, but like I said everyone was fine. Mostly every character was just hilariously stupid. Not a single one of them seem intelligent at all, they're all annoying and awful and I want them all to die.

Also the movie was not scary at all ever. It's marketed as a horror movie but it more has horror elements and is formatted like a horror movie but it was never scary once. It's pretty funny for sure and I think it's worth the watch for the humor for sure.

Cinematography was mostly fine also but there were a few scenes that looked like they were smeared with Vaseline. As far as visuals go, the lighting and color grading was more interesting than the actual camera movement.

My biggest issue is that this movie does not push the boundaries in any direction in my opinion. It's best element is humor, but it doesn't feel fantastic in that regard either. There's 2 or 3 times when I felt like the joke for the scene was kinda unnecessarily long and it hindered the humor. There was only one time when there was like 8 million gen-z buzzwords and that was the only genuinely kinda cringe moment of the whole movie.

Overall I'd recommend this film. It's funny, and I was interested in the narrative, but I didn't have someone to hook on to to love. I'd watch this again with a group and this is certainly a good movie for sure! This is a fun drunk party movie with your friends. It's very easy on the eyes and it very serviceable.

High 6/10.