ajbarm Reviews

Murder by the Coast (2021)

Apparently justice systems are horrible close to everywhere

[7/10 · 15 September 2023]

If you have enough patience this documentary has some sort of payoff.

It handles every case in the relative perceivable detail that you could expect, mainly with the most important highlights which point to the result that was achieved for every case.

I think it's important to recognize that it paints a picture of how the system takes the pain in people and tries to arrive at an outcome that will satisfy the victims, but not specifically to make sure justice is served and that is a big flaw. Since i have never been involved in any criminal case directly or indirectly i don't have first hand accounts to how the justic systems operate around the world, but i wouldn't be surprised this type of outcomes happen considerably often in many countries.

It's absolutely despicable that the justice and legal systems are as rotten as shown here, and how the media as well is to blame for this making people angry and thirsty for vengeance more than justice and then the legal and judicial system just caves in to the pressure the media helped propagate. Really for shame. Things must change for the better or more innocent people will pay and will suffer because of these ways of handling cases by the media and the system.

Rosa Peral's Tapes (2023)

Very partial account of the events

[3/10 · 14 September 2023]

There is not enough testimonies nor a more in depth look at the case. It's all based upon a prison interview made to rosa where she explains what she went through when things happened and during the trials.

There's no account from the other people involved, they added interviews made to reporters and other people that are very tangential to the case, that will only tell about how their point of view as spectators was during the case.

It is mentioned a few times that the evidence is a must in a case like this, factual and material evidence. Then all that goes down the drain since everyone just goes on and on about what they feel, what they think might have happened and very little evidence but some phone tracing. There's some reenactment by actors that dont show their face during crucial explanations by the people involved but all of that is mere speculation cause is based from an account of someone who might be lying either way.

If this thing revolved more around actual evidence and what people had to say about more concrete things it would have improved the experience of watching this a lot i think, instead of that you are left with a very superficial, even gossipy, account of what happened.

The case is interesting, the lack of information just destroys this "documentary". The only saving grace i can find is to see how a case of this nature might be handled by the justice system in that spanish locality.

The Bear (2022– )

Classic cliched style over substance

[5/10 · 26 February 2023]

You know a show has very little in form of a plot when it uses cheap drivers to get people engaged. In this case is the cliched extra chaos and extra screaming and extra swear words and extra stressed characters. The premise of the show itself is nothing new, there's even been "reality" shows about this subject, this hyper real bull makes those other shows look fake but now u know how fake this one is for that reason.

I wouldn't even doubt that a viewer that likes the sopranos or any other "violence for violence sakes" type of audience would be the target for this, although this seems to have been made with somewhat more taste it still feels cheap in how it's been woven.

I think they could have made a better plot and character development if they didn't go head on with the cliches for "content" and cheap drivers cause there's some appealing style to what they did here, just the type of substance is lacking.

The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker (2023)

More like a confession from people who crossed paths with him

[6/10 · 13 January 2023]

It seems like an unintentional documentary on how the kid could have been rescued or helped with many chances to do so but all the people he kept crossing paths with only saw how they could benefit from him or cast him aside when they were done with their intents for him. Fairly crazy to look at these many people just act as if they don't know what they are doing, fairly mesmerizing, really. The pattern just keeps repeating from different people and even from the same people he crosses more than once, noone wants to see past themselves and face the reality that is in front of them basically screaming for help. What a sad society.

In Broad Daylight: The Narvarte Case (2022)

The things we already knew about justice in Mexico , partially exposed

[10/10 · 12 December 2022]

It could be improved in some areas, but i'm giving it a 10 to try and bring more visibility to the subject. The information presented is outrageous and i am more than shocked, appalled, disgusted, revolted and repulsed about the information displayed within, this type of documentary makes me feel an urge of becoming an activist of some sort because i can't believe how terrible things are and how nothing seems close at all to changing from decades upon decades of terrible government and the scum of the earth being able to do whatever they want and being able to keep their freedom/immunity and their power to keep doing what they do. It doesn't really matter if "there's more good people" if the bad people are the ones with the power to hold all humanity hostage and keep destroying lives upon lives, either directly or indirectly. Justice is going to have to wait til humanity is done for, apparently. One can only hope that bringing visibility to this type of case will help push justice towards broad daylight.

Rise (2022)

If you are not into dance in different forms you are probably better off avoiding this

[6/10 · 27 October 2022]

This story is strongly rooted in dance, if you don't find dancing fun, intriguing or dramatic enough there's barely anything else happening here that has not been done before better in a different movie.

The life of the protagonist is shown in different common facets that usually appear in drama films. The way she found ways to thrive through dance is probably the only more specific plot point to this film and since dancing is really not something that interests me i just couldn't connect with the main character.

Secondary characters are barely fleshed out at all besides her relationship with her father maybe, and just a little. That was about it. The rest is just related to her dancing career and setbacks related to it and a little bit about how some parts of society are also preconcevied to be setbacks but how life finds ways and stuff like that.

I guess acting and directing and production and everything else is alright but nothing really ever pulls you in.

Maybe if you can stream if somewhere i could say go for it, i wouldn't be satisfied with this film if i had to pay a full admission ticket to watch it.

The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)

Run of the mill satire, not even worth it when there's plenty better movies around

[4/10 · 12 July 2022]

This plot is just too reminiscent of that recent Sandra bullock movie... A typical everyday guy (this time an actor, that last time a fiction writer I think, haven't watched the Sandra bullock movie, really, just read some of the plot) is pushed to the front and needs to save the day... Most of what you are going to see in this movie has been done better somewhere else, it's like a frankenmovie, i'd rather watch last action hero again or something more entertaining, these people (even "nick cage") are just characters in a movie and I couldn't care less about them, there's no stakes, u don't really feel for anyone in the movie, everyone is just selfish, then there's some development in the story which really barely goes anywhere believable given the setting and then it just predictably ends with all the plot armor u could need... Pedro Pascal is probably the best part of the movie but not by that much, I guess it's on me for reading a few reviews and trusting this was going to be worth my time, believe me, if you are not a Nicolas cage die hard fan or if u don't have very basic taste you are not going to thoroughly enjoy this movie as everyone is saying, watch at ur own risk of being utterly disappointed, u are not missing anything novel, relevant or highly creative at all.

The Batman (2022)

Frustrating to see some good ideas wasted for close to 3 hours

[5/10 · 9 March 2022]

It's crazy to me how overrated this movie seems to be. I like batman as much as the next person but to apply some critical thinking is not going to hurt your fandom. I understand that with comic book movies there's enough reason to suspend disbelief but if they are trying to make it realistic then they should be held to the same standard that you would use for, say, dramas, thrillers or other similar type of films.

I'm not sure how to structure the rest of my review but since that's one of the main problems with the movie itself, them not knowing how to give good structure to some good ideas, and everyone is still praising it i guess it doesn't matter. If the movie had been smart about how they wanted to portray Bruce Wayne's arc here they would have a way better film (not what the arc was but how it was portrayed, this is important), instead they just produced a film that feels like it can't develop its own ideas in a plausible, intelligent manner. If you think about Bruce Wayne's arc, as I was saying, and you feel it concludes the way it does by chance and by a single action that has no real impact on the story (something that only batman could have achieved or done given his attributes and the stages of the movie these plot point occur in) then we might agree on this movie falling short when It comes to developing batman's arc.

After presenting that first gripe I would like to commend how they tried to root the movie as much in reality as the plot permitted. Also the acting from Collin Farrell and Turturro were spot on given what they had to work with, the rest were from good (dano) to mediocre (i won't say who but easily half of the rest of the people were nothing special or anything to write home about).

Directing was kind of a 50/50 here. I guess cinematography and editing were good, didn't notice anything wrong in particular with those but most of the times those 2 won't save mediocre story development.

A lot of what was happening on the screen didn't make full sense and didn't amount to much except to move a plot forward and to move mostly batman's story arc forward but as stated before it wasn't even developed convincingly.

Stakes involved with the plot were basically zero or when there were some I didn't care enough for them cause the way they presented them were just not engaging enough.

Most of the movie, as partially stated before, seem like it had good ideas developed poorly, from the introduction of the batman to how he confronted his enemies to how the arc was solved for every character and that was one of the main problems. It felt really frustrating detecting good ideas panning out horribly or in a very mediocre fashion across the close to 3 hours of run time.

I really felt like not wanting to go see the next installment if most of these people are involved with it, specially the producers and director, fortunately for them it seems most people will disagree with me and they will cash out, i guess it all works out in the end, they just do whatever they want with the franchise and I do the same.

The Beatles: Get Back (2021)

Good for hardcore fans, somewhat ok for musicians in general, bad as an actual guide to structured Beatles' creative and reflective train of thought

[6/10 · 23 December 2021]

Thing is all over the place, considering the overdubs and/or the way it's edited (audio and video parts that don't even match) I don't think it could even be considered a documentary. It's a bunch of clips from those sessions stitched together sometimes audio over video that doesn't even correspond to what u are watching and it skips all over the place. It really is off putting that they put this thing together like this, i don't know if that's all they had to work with and If that's what it is I guess it's ok as reference of what the Beatles were doing back then but as a more in depth look at how the Beatles actually composed their material it frustratingly fails and doesn't deliver. Most of the times the songs have already been written halfway through and the way this thing is put together tries to make you believe that you are watching Beatles magic being created right in front of your eyes, very deceiving. At one moment Paul is sitting on a chair speaking to a bunch of businessmen then he is at the very next second behind his piano talking to one of them and so on. The material is shown respect in a way since it's presented very raw in some regards but when it's just all over the place it just gets frustrating as stated before. Should probably have split it in more parts to make it more enjoyable and structure it more chronologically concise, like give actual timestamps during the days or something, otherwise it feels like a weird collage.

Spiral (2021)

Chris rock wasn't the right option for the lead, I'm sorry

[6/10 · 18 October 2021]

He probably even made a better job at executive producing this. I think the movie in itself had some great ideas to revive the saw franchise, unfortunately Chris rock is too distracting (tripping all over himself even) half of the time to actually let the viewer get into the movie. Also the last bit was a bit forced, it's unbelievable that what was suggested in the last second could happen considering all the factors present I think. I would be interested in a continuation of this if they swap Chris rock with somebody else or if he takes some serious acting classes cause he constantly fell short as I've explained before except perhaps when comic relief was needed, if it wasn't for him I could really get into other things about the movie with more detail maybe. The only thing that felt tired to me was abductions since they didn't switch that up at all, everything else, even the story I think it works in today's society. Also the second to last trap felt kinda forced, I don't think it should work like that at all. Most of everything else had something going on for it and I enjoyed it at least partially. If they do decide to make sequels hope they take time to fix what they missed so that it doesn't shoot itself in the foot again this easily.

The Host (2020)

Fairly bad movie, avoid at all costs

[3/10 · 3 February 2021]

What a mess I guess it's my fault for not being thorough, I wanted to watch the movie Host (2020) and ended up watching this instead... Don't make the same mistake I did, this is a trainwreck, poor all the way around, except perhaps good filming equipment... Acting IMHO was flat and kinda rubbish, dialogue started kind of alright then went downhill from 1/4 of the movie and plot was stolen from another famous movie (the decent part), characters were lame and like half of the plot they didn't steal was also a trainwreck, they dropped part of the plot halfway through and went with the stolen one from that point on... I don't know what else to say, find something else to watch, you've been warned.

The Night Eats the World (2018)

Zombie apocalypse? nope, a character study. This is basically about evolving one self to survive through tougher times

[8/10 · 25 July 2018]

Perhaps the avengers franchise and other similar blockbuster have actually hurt cinema far beyond i had expected. In those types of movies you don't really need any character development, maybe somewhat of a basic character arc, but nothing as deep as in this movie. This movie fell far more realistic than most movies with the zombie apocalypse theme that i remember having seen (i've seen 28 days, 28 weeks, world war z, all the dead romero movies and a few more i could barely care to count (besides the comedic ones like return of the living dead and shaun of the dead which i actually like)). It doesn't rely on a massive landscape to be successful, this relies on character development, a character study of someone that you can maybe identify with or you know someone that can be similar to him and that's how it draws you in. You begin to know how this character feels and what he is thinking through the course of his actions, there isn't even that much dialogue in it and it helps make it even more realistic if you were following someone in the same situation. His mental progression through this ordeal is something i had wanted to watch in a movie with the same theme so it felt really fresh and rewarding.

If you don't care about a character study and a character arc, don't even try to watch this, if you care for good storytelling through actions, mental progression and relatively brief dialogue i can almost guarantee you will like this. Empathy is a key concept here as well.

Wonder Woman (2017)

Disappointing

[6/10 · 27 July 2017]

I basically fell for the raving reviews of most people calling it the best superhero movie to date and other similar adjectives just to find out that, even when the movie as a whole kind of works as a superhero movie, it's parts are severely flawed and disjointed in themselves.

If you can get past the fact that Gal's acting is so one-dimensional at best (she's kinda charming and that's it), the lousy story (including villain, plot devices and even some dialogue) which makes impossible to let you suspend disbelief and the cgi fest which wasn't bad but uncomfortable to watch at times, you might enjoy the movie (which seems to be the case for a lot of people). But if you are looking for something refreshing and different in the genre, this movie is not it and DC (and WB) seem to be very far from understanding the game that Disney is getting away with (even when their movies are not perfect, they are at least good enough in most cases).

Unfortunately with the success of this, they basically are now showcasing wonder woman as the leader of the justice league at least until superman gets back, and even then she might be given a role that will attempt to steal the spotlight.

All in all, this had potential, at least as a black horse of the genre, but the effort was so wasted in mediocre scenarios and lame execution that it just fell too short.