Healing_Process Reviews

The Wild Hunt (2009)

Weak movie but an absolute success in terms of an independent film

[7/10 · 19 April 2024]

This is very much a low budget indie film. When I saw it in 2010, I was actually floored by how good of a movie it was for a very limited release indie film. My only complaint about the movie is really style and characters being a little too unbelievable, but only the unbelievability because the movie starts off trying to establish realism vs fantasy but seems to lose realism in later forms of the movie.

This movie is essentially a retelling of a Shakespeare tragedy involving the LARP scene community. The build up could have truly been a lot better but the later half of the movie is very well done in terms of the Shakespearean tragedy. I cannot say much because this movie is a need-to-watch basis to see it although it is difficult to get your hands on.

If you ever do find this movie, I would recommend watching it with a group of friends. It is a dark and emotional movie that is a good watch for the first time.

Sex and the City (1998–2004)

Tacky but well written and misunderstood

[7/10 · 19 April 2024]

I am a 34 year old man and I did watch this when I was underage in the late 90s and didn't really understand what I was seeing. I rewatched it again in my 20s and again in my 30s. I'm telling you this now because with this knowledge, I can see how this show is misunderstood and not liked by some.

First off, the show is extremely well written and witty. The dialogue has great introspection. The show was mostly written by gay men, and at times, does seem to be over-sexualized, cynical, and very vain but I do think this is a major center theme within the idea of the obsession with sex and the vanity of New York city. Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) is essentially written through the gaze of a gay man who is friends with hyper neurotic caricatures of NYC women.

I do feel this show was far more on the cusp of open sexuality and social politics involving relationships and men/women/gay/straight/single/marriage issues in the late 90s/early 00s. It did a great job showing raw human behavior and how deplorable and sexual a lot of people really are sometimes on the inside. With the show being on HBO, it had an easier time showing these things as well. Some people were offended by how vain and vulgar it was which resulted in it unrealistic nature. This is true, but I feel people may be misunderstanding the how deep the human psyche does go for something people who are highly cynical and critical. The same could be said about other shows like Seinfeld.

All-in-all, it's a great watch for adults and it still holds up today 20 years later. Some of the jokes and pop culture references are dated, but they are still perfectly fine when knowledgeable and I do think the show deserves a solid 7 for its efforts.

Planet of the Apes (2001)

Tim Burton's Battlefield Earth

[5/10 · 17 April 2024]

This movie is essentially a Tim Burton's Battlefield earth. An extremely expensive early 2000s epic movie involving speciesism and the conflict between human and the other species struggle with their differences and understanding of each others intelligence and the struggle of religiousness/prophecy and desert/dune type low-tech.

If you know this while watching the film, you will understand what you are seeing and why . The movie has all of the early 2000s. Late 90s tropes and stereotypes that are overexaggerated and over-bearing to many viewers. The production and acting is far better as you can tell they have spent so much on the make-up department. But it cannot hide that this movie barely takes itself seriously even though it tries to represent itself as an epic with some kind of philosophical or moral undertones. It is fairly fun for what it is and it is a decent watch, but it is nothing to write home about and should be seen as just that; a watchable movie.

Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer (2019)

A Morally insulting docu-series

[3/10 · 10 April 2024]

Please give me your time while reading this and let me explain in detail why this docuseries is morally wrong in all respect.

The first 50% of this docuseries is about a Facebook group created with the intention to catch Luka Magnotta who is the person behind the cat killing video (Spoiler).

The biggest problem with this first half is that, the whole entire time they do petty P. I. work and internet sleuth work to try to find out where this cat-killer is. They essentially get nowhere with any solid evidence and only find little bread crumbs here and there. After much failure, they incorrectly target a guy in Africa as the "cat-killer". This person apparently had depression problems and they hinted that people in their Facebook group gave him a pummeling when he was falsely accused, most likely with the presumption that death threats were made that ended up in this man ending his own life. In the film, they use this as a time-waster and brush his death under the run and their contribution to his death through bad investigation on this poorly managed Facebook group.

This is the first big problem with the docuseries and with the continuation of the story, they tell the audience that they hit a dead end and cannot find the man until they hit a big break. What is this big break? (A sock account that someone anonymous person created that tells them to look up the person Luka Magnotta. )

They do not tell you this in the documentary, but the person with that sock account was Luka Magnotta himself toying with them and giving them breadcrumbs because they made it very clear through the whole docuseries that he got a rush out of almost being caught and eluding them. They praise themselves for finding this Luka Magnotta guy while also talking about how sick he was for continuously posting new cat-killing videos to incite their anger. They did an extremely piss poor job being self-aware enough to know that all these cat-killing videos and sock accounts are purely because of the infamousness attached to this Facebook group made to catch the cat-killer.

They did not fully come clean the whole time through this docuseries acknowledging that they are actually the engine of this wild goose chase and are causing a hamster wheel of more cat-killing videos to come. The lack of self-awareness was piss poor.

The only reason Luka Magnotta was caught had nothing to do with the Facebook group, they only incited this man to want to up the ante and raise the bar to incite anger, so he ends up killing a human. Not only did he end up killing a human. But he did it extremely sloppy and he sent dismembered parts of the body to the Canadian federal political party offices, which put him as public enemy #1 which resulted in him getting caught shortly there after. Remember with absolutely no help to the Facebook group, besides to incite him to do something more heinous.

This is where the nail in the coffin arrives. For the Facebook group, their intentions were good, but their awareness was narrow. They could have come clean and apologized for their mishandling of the situation. They instead, did a poor job and gave crocodile tears, not taking the responsibility for a man cyber-bullied into suicide and inciting Luke Magnotta to kill more animals and a human.

But the idea that in the end of the docuseries they lay down a killing hypocrite blow saying that all people who watch this docuseries are essentially complicit in Luka Magnotta's crimes because we watched a docuseries on him. Even though they led to a person's suicide, incited Luka Magnotta's crimes with a Facebook group they created, and even made a docuseries, just to tell us that we are the ones that should think about what we are doing with out life. It really does like like the ratio of complicities compared to the viewer and to them is extremely disproportionate. We spent time watching a docuseries on Netflix (or whatever) and the contributed to death of innocent people and make money on it to throw the moral card back at us. Does no one else, feel this is asinine? I do. 3 out of 10. The most offensive docuseries ever created (Read and understand this) .

Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2003)

Lukewarm is the best way to put it

[6/10 · 10 April 2024]

This show is definitely a product of its time and the only reason it seemed popularized at that time was the fact that shows just needed likable cast people saying 90s things and being a "strong" character. The story seems absolutely meaningless and i think in 1997+, people were still in awe about things on TV and it didn't require much cinematic work to get people glued to a show like this.

This show is as milquetoast and lukewarm you could possibly be. The characters are just normal 90s teenagers, the monsters are barely formidable, no puzzle is intellectually stimulating, and the drama is about a teaspoon away from not being a drama at all.

I personally thing a lot of shows like this in the 90s were made to not offend anyone at all and I think this show does a good job of that. Everyone is nice to look at, the sets are not striking, the dialogue is not worth turning up the volume for, and you could easily leave this on in the background while doing a task.

You get the picture.

The Staircase (2004–2018)

Very well made and a template for other docu-series

[8/10 · 3 April 2024]

I will try to make this short for all you readers and also preface that I personally don't care about the bias the documentary has. It is from the perspective of Michael Peterson and his court trial team.

With that being said, what I like about this docu-series the most is that the way it is filmed. They really do the "fly-on-the-wall" approach with this one and make you feel as if you are just another body in the room going through the defendant process of Michael Peterson's trial and pre-trial.

I personally do not like the over dramatized, testimonies, and narration style a lot of documentaries do. This one is purely a by-the-process documentary over a very long period of time and I truly enjoyed it.

Grey's Anatomy (2005– )

Gotta love how people perceive TV.

[5/10 · 28 March 2024]

I've seen so many reviews on this show and most people will say, "What happened to this show? It used to be good and went downhill". But let me tell you. This show was starting off on top of an ant hill. There's not much nose diving that needs to happen to make this show bad.

This show is 1/3 ER, 1/3 scrubs, and 1/3 HIPAA violation and fraternizing with will they/won't they. You'll get about 30% decent medical terminology and about 70% actions in the workplace that are for me, cringey, as well as get you automatically fired. Grey's anatomy really set the bar for how "Jerry Springer" they wanted medical dramas to be that one could even argue, became the death of ER due to them trying to compensate for people's taste in the low-brow after Grey's Anatomy's release.

ER tried to up the ante with the amount of ridiculous "pearl-clutching" drama they could fit into a hospital. Mass shooter there, pedophile here, malpractice sprinkled here because of ethics. Grey's Anatomy puts the brakes on that a little bit and full throttles on the sex, sex, sex. Penis envy everywhere, gender role jokes, STIs, Who's hot, who's not, Sex everyday, and literally makeup kissing and sex at the workplace every time someone has confused emotions. If women truly are the demographic here, they have no right to ever say anything bad about super macho demographic TV ever again.

With all of this said, I can let some of it go to watch even the first few seasons as I've seen many medical dramas. But I personally don't get any reciprocation from this show besides the fact that semi-attractive people are saying sarcastic and sexual quips. Even the camera work, outside work scenes, patient care, and everything else DOES NOT TAKE A BREAK from this. I'm starting to think you really have to have your hormones in a bunch or think sex humor is top-tier comedy to really not feel emotionally drained from this show.

The Originals (2013–2018)

A spin-off of Vampire Diaries that is better but still riddled with poor written hamster wheel

[6/10 · 19 February 2024]

I will keep this simple, but this show The Originals, in a nutshell is the same as Vampire Diaries. Similar casting with attractive actors, same lighting / camera work, almost the same writing, especially with the characters except some of them are a little more complex compared to vampire diaries and definitely pulls back on the Tweeny character whining, though still there.

The problem with this show and every other show like it is the fact that all characters will die and come back or be resurrected in some way, shape, or fashion. This reduces any true drama or demise within the show's characters and well within season 3 or 4 will run you thin. All of the finales and ends of episodes will always have a well selected emotional song or ballad that will show many attractive actors crying only for them to come back to life an episode or a season later. With this, the show will become a hamster wheel of sorts and character development barely exists. It will take more than half the show for some characters to completely change. Viewer beware.

Blade: Trinity (2004)

A Diluted shadow of its former self.

[5/10 · 18 February 2024]

This movie is a movie, a Hollywood movie at that. But Blade: Trinity is a perfect example of the degradation of American cinema at the turn of the millennia. The first Blade was an authentic and dark pinning. Blade 2 decided to be addicted to the CG fight scenes and "choose-your-character" anime power fantasy. But this movie, took that, and upped the ante even more so.

This movie is just Marvel getting its feet wet trying to build up the animesque aspect of what was to come when the MCU was starting to take place. Wesley Snipes and Kris Kristofferson looks like they are so done with this film and I doubt they wanted anything to do with Ryan Reynolds and Jessica Biel. Everyone in this movie is too smart for their own good, but look like they have no clue what they are doing while being too emotional and don't want to carry on. Then we are forced to swallow bad comic relief to remind us that these bad ass humans are merely goofy emotional children deep down inside.

It's 2024 when I wrote this review and I shouldn't have to really elaborate any further. If you have seen Blade 1 or 2, you will know what Blade Trinity will have in store for you.

Supernatural (2005–2020)

Nothing to see here folks, but if you insist, Watch until Season 5.

[5/10 · 6 February 2024]

A show that I skipped back in the early 2000s. I figured it was the same as many other pre-CW shows as I seemed to be mostly right. The show's success shouldn't be summed up by how many season it has. The weird sexual obsession with the two brothers and the aspect of fangirlism is really what made this show go on for 15 seasons. Don't believe me? I even google "wincest" and the first thing that popup is Supernatural.

If you truly want to get a show that is a shallow supernatural pseudo-detective show, watch this until season 5 if you really want closure. I feel there are a plethora of supernatural type shows that could easily be replaced on this depending on your demographic.

The show more focuses on the idea of the two brothers. Their problems, turmoil, dealing with death, and disagreements. I personally found them insufferable and hard to watch. The extremely cringe fake detective work was also hard to deal with.

Eastwick (2009–2010)

I was sad that this show got cancelled until I saw the final few episodes.

[5/10 · 23 June 2023]

The show is exactly what you'd think it would be if you know your cable network Tv shows. It has the tropes and the humor where everyone involved has a nasty secret hiding. The casting isn't bad and the acting is nothing to write home about but also not jarring. Some of the over the top fawning or smitten comments can get tiresome or a little cringey, but I can understand that it is in the spirit of the Witches of Eastwick and a product of the times that the show was made.

I am not the one to watch shows like this so for it to keep my attention through its small town with secret charm was great. Unliked Charmed they take a long time to understand they really have powers and the show is more of dealing with social issues while inadvertently using their powers. (No Demon fighting, cult power usage).

However towards about episode 9 or 10 the show really started to fall off for me. I don't know if they knew the show was getting canceled beforehand but they seemed to just let everything go into overdrive and become overwhelming and lose the charm the show once had. Which does make me sad since Jerry O'Connell shows up in episode 12 and I like him as an actor.

All in all, the show is a cute little watch, nothing to write home about. It might be hard to find or get your hands on these days but it does show some potential for another show to come around like it. If you are looking for something similar the closest would be Witches of Eastend but that show takes an extremely different show compared to this one. In conclusion, middle of the road 5 out of 10.

About Time (I) (2013)

An endearing story about life that later became a thorn in my side.

[5/10 · 16 February 2023]

Ahh this movie. A movie that is, in a way, well written and directed to a point. A film that captivates you in the first 20 mins and then starts to become a drag. I will also say that even though this film has some very strong romantic trope parts, it is not a romantic movie per se. The film is essentially about time (get it) and about taking things for granted in one's life.

What are my problems with the movie then you ask? Well, the first, is I find the lead actors character to be utterly insufferable for most of the movie. Almost seen as a socially inept mess with the most forced cringey scenes I could ever cook up. He wasn't relatable in the slightest for me and I found the way he went about life to be unrealistic. He felt like human MacGuffin just to have the movie kept alive.

Which brings me to the next point of what I didn't like about the movie, the length. The movie is a tad shy over 2 hours which isn't the worst. But the problem is is that they try to tie in at least half a decade of life development into these 2 hours. So it felt contrived and it felt insincere. Too many people came in and out of his life that didn't need as much screen time as they did. They could of told the overarching philosophy of this film in a more concise short film or they could of turned this into a miniseries that no one would of watched.

I recommended the short film idea cause this movie is a character piece. It is a movie that is trying to be self aware but it doesn't do it as well as I would of liked. A great build up into a rushed ending like a show that was on its 10th season that needed to end.

Everything else was fairly normal for a film. I would maybe recommend this film to someone who does like slice of life films or likes hopeless romantic tropes. But for me it was hard to swallow past the 50 minute mark.

Karen (I) (2021)

A director who doesn't understand the source material

[4/10 · 10 February 2023]

So I'm confused that the film isn't listed as "comedy". If this movie is supposed to be serious, it doesn't have good enough acting nor the full understanding of the source material including the psychology of these types of things.

The script and writing isn't even on the nose. It compliments itself for being woke and aware and full of deep intelligence that white people aren't aware of haha. I'm not even worried about them being black in this neighborhood. The fact that they are super woke and don't do any line of work that would result them in living in an at least $500,000 house already sets me up for some questions and then later in the film talks about not being financially stable, way to also bring in black stereotypes into the film and destroying any hopes of this being a serious movie.

Wednesday (2022– )

Unnecessary but may be "cute" to some.

[5/10 · 28 November 2022]

Truly I wondered what this would have in store when I first heard about it. The first glaring problem I saw was the fact that it didn't even seem like an Adams Family edition. It did seem quite contrived for what it was. Almost all Netflix shows I've ever watched are beautifully shot, well casted, and has decent action. The only thing that they lack in is the writing department. This is no exception to that.

It truly just seemed like another Netflix teen drama that is an unnecessary dissection into Wednesday Adams only to repaint a feminist icon into the new geist of what is today. A twist to add in all of your political criteria while bringing in the ethos of what many younger women feel they are today; intelligent, self-sufficient, witty, sarcastic, and with a little bit of angst and cynicism. I know this is how the character is in a nutshell more or less, but this rendition seems more Gen-Z and contrived compared to the nuance I think the character should have.

If it was done in a film or mini-series format it might have sat better with me, but them turning it into a Tv show is where the unnecessary dissection really comes into the foreground. I'd give it a 5 for me but maybe for people who are actually less like real personality of Wednesday Adams, you might enjoy the watch.

Outer Banks (2020– )

Great for the first 5-6 episodes and quickly fell off.

[5/10 · 8 August 2022]

When I started this show I was expecting a typical show with teenage angst and stupid decisions. It had many tropes and stereotypes but it had a dark vibe to it with a lot of adult themes and it wasn't so potent and in your face. There was a form of mystery to the show with a very small dab of intellectualism and history.

I'm guess this was all a ploy though as after you understand the beginning cog of the story they drop it almost immediately to just up the ante for over-the-top drama and stupid decisions. So many things going wrong back to back, I couldn't even breathe and I felt that I was watching 5 episodes crunched into one. There is really nothing more to what I need to say. If you're okay with the smallest amount of character development and nonstop drama just to have something to scratch your gossip itch, this might be for you. I gave it an attempt and I can see it for some people but not for me.

Don't Say a Word (2001)

Decent early 2000s thriller that took a huge nose dive at the end.

[6/10 · 11 July 2022]

An interesting movie that gives you the late 90s / early 2000s thriller vibe with Michael Douglas playing his normal upper middle class/rich good-at-his-job character and Britany Murphy playing a character that is similar to her part in Girl Interrupted (1999) and Jennifer Esposito playing another by-the-books captain/lieutenant detective/cop like she did in Taxi (2004). Together they are working together indirectly to get a 6 digit code out of Brittany Murphy's characters head that is trapped away in a repressed memory riddled with PTSD to give to Sean Bean's character who is a super-cunning criminal that spends 10 years of his life for a measly gem when he seems to be just fine on money to do his criminal biddings.

The movie had some cute writing, decent dialogue, and stern characters of their tropes and by the end of the movie, turned into a wrapped up stereotype of its decade. Some people will find this annoying, others will find it just a movie. It didn't take away much from the movie, but it will forever be a good one time watch. 6/10.

The Witches of Eastwick (1987)

A film about Witches that has set the template for many to come but came with a plethora of problems.

[5/10 · 5 July 2022]

This film is as 80s as they come. The tropes, stereotypes, looks, and undertones is all there. Reading the history of the filming of this I can now see why it is difficult to watch this now. A movie that had great potential to me but gave me questions marks above my head for I was confused if it tried to be a horror, drama, comedy, or a parody of itself. The three actresses that portrayed the witches did a great job and Jack Nicolson played, well..... Jack Nicolson. The pacing was very grating at times and the weird, in my opinion, unnecessary scenes that didn't help the film in anyway didn't make it any better.

Half the movie is a great template for films to come after it like Easy, Witches of Eastend, Practical Magic, Charmed, The Craft, etc. But it seemed that the movie had internal conflict and was a hodgepodge of ideas that only confuse audiences, which makes sense as it seems George Miller (Mad Max) had a difficult time communicating with Hollywood for this film to be made.

The film is still charming in its own way. If you enjoy the modern take of Witches in a small town of being misunderstood, you might want to give it a watch. But it seems this one might be the most out of touch and out of time witch movies. I would give this a straight middle of the road 5/10.

The Bear (2022– )

Similar to shameless but difficult on the senses

[6/10 · 23 June 2022]

Essentially Jeremy Allen White is playing Lip as a well established cook in a downtown sandwich shop. The pacing is that of shameless but it's very difficult to follow because the "comedy" aspect of the show comes from the deplorable and insufferable personalities of everyone while being disorienting because of how edited and zoomed in the camera is on everyone's faces as they are bickering. I understand that it can be artistically seen as the feeling of anxiety and pressure in the restaurant business but it was difficult to keep interested. Though if you like shameless, you like the raunchy and harsh razor-edge personalities of downtown lower middle class, and the stress of good acting mixed with restaurant business, this show might be for you.

Sonatine (1993)

This film is not what you expect.

[5/10 · 18 June 2022]

I don't want to waste time and beat around the bush here. I was expecting a 90s aesthetic praised film involving the Yakuza. I did receive this for a good maybe 20-25 minutes of the film. The reality of this movie is a rated R movie that is actually a lighthearted Japanese movie about being a child when you're an adult gang member. It essentially very cheaply shows the violence and morbidly stoic life of the Yakuza and clan disputes and then completely does a 180 on you and turns into adults finding peace, tranquility, and entertaining their inner child while at the beach.

This film will be for some people as it does have good cinematography, decent music selection, and atmospheric 90s Japan aesthetics. But this is what you would call a "character piece". The normal idea of plot and story telling is hidden within symbolism, metaphors, and aesthetics with a very small hint of lighthearted comedy.

Fresh (2022)

A weird mixture of American Psycho (2000) and The Perfection (2018)

[6/10 · 24 March 2022]

The directional debut of Mimi Cave. Because of this, the movie does have some unique and interesting takes that are, dare I say it, Fresh. The film does give me very 2022 vibes, of course. The evil white man, women can overcome any obstacles (girl power), and the evil 1%. I felt the movie was heavily influenced by Patrick Bateman from American Psycho as the main man showed jubilance in doing morbid things as well as have an affinity for dancing to some kind of poppy 80's music while doing the most grotesque of things in the film. While mixing the digital sheen and manipulation of women beyond repair with a hint of new age vibrancy from Netflix's "The Perfection".

If you find films of the new that portray the over the top, unstoppable, quirky, yet soft serial killer with a glaring weakness as a glimmer of hope, you will like this film most likely. The acting and cinematography is pretty good and it was nice to look at, though some scenes did seem very boring at certain angles. This movie is by no means a masterpiece or a must-see film of its genre. You can live without seeing it, but its a good watch if you know what you're about to get into. It kept my attention, it didn't make me want to turn it off, but it didn't make me feel at the edge of my seat as well when I could see most of these developments coming from a mile away. The cheeseball music references of what was happening in the movie did seem to turn me off the most, but I'm a big music head and I feel it won't affect anyone.

All in all, solid, forgettable, and easily passable if this is not your type of genre. 6/10.

Party Monster (2003)

An art of cinema and storytelling that is not understood anymore

[7/10 · 14 March 2022]

This film is about Michael Alig who was a club promoter during the early 90's that pled guilty to first degree manslaughter for killing his drug dealer over drug debt.

Some people believe Macaulay Culkin's acting in the film was misplaced and campy for his portrayal of Michael Alig. The film was oddly directed and it was definitely low budget, but the film had a gritty and uncanny truth to it. I feel Culkin's acting was.well-placed for a character and setting of the movie. I don't know the whole story of Michael Alig and I'm not saying he was accurately portrayed here but Culkin's character shows that he is a narcissistic and unrelenting self-centered man mixed with diva characteristics and drug culture.

The Diva back-and-forth banter and strong stereotypes of narcissistic gay men can be off-putting to some, but I do feel there is some truth to the character portrayals. Mixed with the 2003 film grain and odd directing and muddled drug perspective camera work I feel the film is fine for what it is portraying. Truly this film comes down to the viewers personality of whether they will think it is a waste of time or not as it flirts within the boundaries of being objectively passable and subjectively confused or unnecessary.

House M.D. (2004–2012)

A show that describes the American mentality

[5/10 · 17 December 2021]

Let me just say this because I've always felt this way and never said anything. But House / House M. D, I could never get into it because every time I saw pieces of the show it reminded me of the hidden ugliness of American culture. The show is essentially about a misanthropic "medical genius" doctor who figures out bizarre medical events while being an asshole and dependent on his pain medication.

The hypocrisy of his drug addiction was not strong enough in the show to excuse its ugliness and that's why I never liked it. It was almost like a show that showed how many Americans view themselves secretly. Where they hate other people but love animals and they seem to know everything. Its almost like dunning-kruger the show. But in House's case he did the right thing "most of the time" and to people watching the show, it made it alright.

The show is essentially a hamster wheel of quips, banter, taboo patronizing insults, and a contrived way to put in some kind of cynical underhanded comments where they show had no real meat to it. Its like people watched the show to take notes on things House might say with no real story going on in the background. By the time the show tries to add new story arcs and problems within the characters lives, it was too little too late.

Short Term 12 (2013)

A good....monotonous film.

[5/10 · 14 December 2021]

If you enjoy movies that try to show the intimacy of the human experience, this film might be for you. It has a ring of realism to it but to make it a movie and drag out poor directing style to me was very grating. The acting is great and the situations are for the most part very believable. But something about it felt so contrived to me that I didn't get the full feeling of intimacy. The other movie I can think of that did something like this better would be Manic (2001).

Black Friday (III) (2021)

It will grind you down to a halt

[3/10 · 25 November 2021]

A film that is supposed to be a campy comedy horror but the comedy is lacking majority of the time. Bruce Campbell doesn't even bring his charm into this movie as much as I was expecting.

The whole film is about a meteor shower that brings an alien lifeform from space that infects people and makes them "Gather". The whole movie threw me off from this point on because all the acting seemed non-human and all the reactions to do things were so slow everything seemed misplaced and poorly timed.

And to just throw gasoline on the fire, the ending was just dropped off. Nothing was answered in the end and the film closes with something left to be desired.

Finder's Fee (2001)

A movie that could of been a short & sweet gem but instead was a drawn-out forced anxiety trip.

[6/10 · 10 November 2021]

In the movie a man named Tepper finds a wallet on the street in the rain with no connection to the owner (Avery Phillips) except a number to the name Viktor in which he calls to leave a message. Avery Shows up to get his wallet, makes sure everything is in order except the audience is to assume he knows the lottery ticket is wrong after Tepper switches a losing one with the winning one in Avery's wallet before returning it. After this, Avery asks to use the mans phone and starts to overstay his welcome while he is having a guys night out. The movie is then an hour of unnecessary, unanswered, over-the-top, small deception, forced tension as Tepper tries to get this man out of his apartment and hide the fact he has a winning lottery ticket from his friends.

The movie then begins to not make sense as Ryan Reynolds figures out that (Avery) uses his daughters birthday as the 3 numbers for the lottery ticket everytime with the smallest bit of onscreen information. (We don't really find out how he knew the winning numbers or why he knew his.) This is where it gets hectic and people starting breathing down each others neck because almost all the friends are in some kind of debt or financial trouble and want the money or at least split it.

But with some sleight of hand and a call-in with the police. Tepper tells the officer the true story of what is going on and gives the police officer the winning lottery ticket and tells him to make sure it is given to Avery Phillips (The rightful owner). After everyone leaves the apartment and its only Tepper and Avery left he shows him he still has the winning lottery ticket and he lied in front of everyone and the police officer to finally give it back to the rightful owner in peace. 5 minutes after Avery leaves. A knock on the door of the apartment is the REAL Avery Philips and the man we are to assume that left the apartment was actually Viktor.

But this is the part that really doesn't make sense. Why would he call Viktor, Viktor show up as Avery Phillips to claim the winning lottery ticket, and then the Real Avery Phillips know Tepper called Viktor (his Brother-in-law). Did Viktor just tell Avery Phillips real quick, "hey I'm going down to this guys apartment for some fun, Ohhh, and someone left a message on my phone for me, but its actually for you". Ending didn't make any sense.