compmend-60164 Reviews

Parish (2024– )

Boring snooze fest couldn't finish the first episode.

[4/10 · 23 April 2024]

I saw the trailer for this show and was hyped for it. I like Giancarlo Espasito and most recently saw him in Abigail. I sat down to watch this and waited and waited for something to happen.

The pacing was slow and there was nothing in the story to make one scene stand out more than another. There was a somber melancholy that permeated every frame of the show, even the scenes that should have been exhilarating like fast driving.

As for the music, it was horrible and misplaced. The music didn't match the show and was like a shoe that didn't fit. My wife entered the room hands over ears and asked where the horrible music was coming from.

The icing on the cake of this horrible story was when Giancarlo's character, who has a luxury automobile, beautiful home and rather charmed life over all begins with the whole "we were both victims of the British..blah blah blah" when speaking with another posh and privileged character in the show. Just lazy writing and playing to stereotypes. This is where I cut off the show and decided to find something to watch that actually cared about my time as a viewer and would put in the effort.

Even for a die hard Giancarlo fan, this is a hard pass.

Leave the World Behind (2023)

Only got a three because of the beautiful cinematography

[3/10 · 10 December 2023]

This movie was beautifully shot, the imagery crisp and clear, and great lighting.

That was the good. Now the bad,

The movie was filled with weird camera angles and rotating camera effects that made my stomach lurch and activated my vertigo. Everyone in the room with me were clutching their stomachs because of how vomit inducing the camera effects are.

The movie had a bipolar soundtrack with a weird mix of music genres that didn't seem to fit with each other as if the director was trying to be inclusive even in the music selections. It just didn't work. Each song was crisp and clear, they just were disjointed.

The acting was okay, the characters played the role they were assigned really well. There just weren't any characters that were likable or anyone to root for.

The story was long and dragged out for no reason. The scenes didn't make sense and the dialogue was flat, only touching the surface of conversations. You might have a deeper conversation with a stranger at Starbucks than the conversations in this movie and that is important because this movie is extremely dialogue heavy.

As others have mentioned, the movie is boring and slow. It doesn't seem to go anywhere and tries to rely on poor dialogue to carry it through. It just doesn't work, if more time had been spent developing each character and giving us a reason to feel anything at all about them, this might have been a better movie, but as is, I would recommend avoiding this one.

Candy Cane Lane (I) (2023)

Wanted to give it a higher rating...

[3/10 · 1 December 2023]

I have been a long time fan of Eddie Murphy and although I haven't always found him as funny as I hoped, his roles have always been charming enough to satiate my expectations.

I started this movie with bridled expectations. The camera work and lighting in this movie is really nice, the effects were also quite well done, and I enjoyed some of the music, though I did notice that some of the music sounded like generic loops from Garage Band were used.

Where this movie fell apart was the story and delivery. The story felt forced, where it needed more fleshing out and new characters seemed to drop from the sky and clash with the story instead of interweaving.

The characters were also annoying, with some just being outright vulgar and some screaming their lines as if screaming somehow validated their dialogue.

Eddie Murphy and his family seemed disconnected from each other, as if there had been a miscast of the actors. Their dialogue was shallow and the most disappointing thing was that it wasn't delivered with convincing tone and body language.

The movie had all the trappings of all of the common commercialized Christmas movies that are being released now days, case in point there were two prominent cans of brand-name paint on display in one of the first scenes of the movie.

This will not be a movie that I add to my yearly watch list by no means.

The Exorcist: Believer (2023)

Entertaining, religious aspect was a bit all over the place

[6/10 · 25 October 2023]

To begin, I am not a Catholic, but recognize that the Exorcist franchise is a Catholic-based series, a sort of priest vs evil franchise.

This movie moves into a more ecumenical space, where the religion was wishy-washy and all over the place. From Evangelical to Catholicism, spiritualism, atheism, skepticism, and even philosophy. The Bible verses quoted weren't as well researched and fleshed out and it seems like the script was written by a soul-less AI version of religion. And since Catholicism is a core aspect it is noticeable.

The story was okay, it was interesting enough to give the average person a good value for their time and money I believe. There was some hokey dialog and some script choices that seemed odd and a few scene transitions that didn't make sense.

The acting was also decent and the visuals were well-done.

As others have pointed out there seemed to be something missing, perhaps it was just the novelty the first movies brought. A more innocent time that was penetrated by fearful images and scenes of possession. Nowdays, the local news is as violent and scary as anything a writer can imagine.

To summarize: I would watch the movie if the opportunity arises and you have time to kill. I wouldn't go seeking this movie to watch again, unless it was on a steep discount or available to watch on streaming for free.

Monsters of California (2023)

A directionless and brainless movie

[1/10 · 17 October 2023]

Casper Van Dien and Richard Kind were wasted in this movie. Their acting was excellent but the plot and storyline were very shallow and the ideals thrown about in this movie are old and worn out.

The three friends who were the main characters were annoying and profane for the sake of it, not adding anything to the story at all. The 'stoner' angle was juvenile and lacked anything in the way of charm or substance to make up for the dumbing down of the characters.

The movie attacks religion, specifically Christianity with tiresome attacks that are used so often that entire tomes of Apologetic materials have been written to address them. Heck even a Google or ChatGPT conversation would have yielding a counter-argument to any of the issues raised in the movie. It is just sloppy writing to make an argument or point and not understand the issue at all. It makes you appear bigoted and biased just because.

There were a few moments I chuckled and one promising scene with a fictional creature that made me sit up and take notice, but overall the movie felt drawn out and directionless.

As for the audio, graphics and effects, there were times the movie was a bit too dark and times when the audio would get overly loud. There were some beautifully shot scenes and some of the effects were well done and then there are other scenes toward the end of the movie where it looks like the effects were done by hiring the lowest bidder on Fivver.

Mob Land (2023)

No one talks like the people in this movie

[4/10 · 27 August 2023]

Someone decided to turn on the 'Hillbilly' tropes and keep them going through the whole film. Every line felt like it was a depiction of what someone from California thought that someone who from the South might say, not the way people actually talk. The accents were horrible and the cliche filled caricatures were distracting.

This move would have gotten a higher score from me, maybe a solid 7/10 if not for the dialogue and the poor character portrayals. The cinematography was spot on and atmospheric, the music was good (Not great), and there was an okay plot, though not as fleshed out as I would have liked to have seen.

This movie was one I didn't regret watching once, but I would be hard pressed to sit down and watch it again.