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Creed III (2023)
The eye of the cat
Having greatly enjoyed the first two episodes of the Creed saga, I was very disappointed with the latest installment.
The first problem with this film for me is that there is no longer any emotion. I remember struggling to hold back a tear when Stallone gives an incredible performance explaining that his whole life is now behind him and he has lost everyone he was attached to. Or when Adonis admits that he fights to prove to the world that he is not just a mistake made by Apollo.
I didn't find that in the third installment. They awkwardly try to get us to shed a tear with Leon's story, but it's so underdeveloped and quickly swept aside that there isn't even time to be moved before it moves on to something else.
I also think that this episode disregards the first two. First, Rocky... A photo is placed in a corner, a little phrase from Creed 1 and that's it. We go from "Uncle Rocky" to nothing at all. Then, Drago... A rather interesting character from the second who hates Adonis because he holds him responsible for his miserable life and the fact that his mother abandoned him.
At the end of the second, nothing is resolved on that front, it's even worse because his defeat to Adonis only exacerbates his pain, causing his mother to leave him again, and there... No more Drago training in the streets of Kiev with his father, and hello the nice sparring partner who likes Adonis... Why? How?! And the worst part is that he's useless. It's as if he was only placed there because fans like the name Drago. You could have put another actor with another name and it wouldn't have made any difference to the film, so why resurrect such a charismatic character as Drago (completely amputated of his father, by the way) just to make him an extra?!
Another criticism I have of this film concerns the final fight and its preludes. All Rocky/Creed films have an absolutely iconic scene where the protagonist decides to train to win their fight. Always accompanied by motivating music with impressive training scenes... Here, they tried to do the same thing, but this scene isn't memorable. Just some flashes here and there with music I've already forgotten (even though I watched the film yesterday) and then it's the fight. And the fight, let's talk about it :-)
Before the fight, Duke explains to Creed that he has weaknesses that they need to turn into strengths so that Dame doesn't expect it, etc... And once the fight comes... It's forgotten... I wouldn't be able to tell you what weakness he worked on and used to win the fight. Personally, I just saw a rather bland fight with a completely botched staging that ends as quickly as it starts... In the other installments, fights often last a long time, but you feel it through the staging. Slow motion, successions of playmates carrying the poster with the round number, apparent fatigue in the boxers, etc... Here, we go from round 2 to round 11 without understanding anything...
Finally, the character of Dame... Personally, I don't believe it for a second. I think the actor they chose doesn't fit the role (but that's purely subjective). The development of this character is too light and too cutesy. After winning the title, he seems to hate Adonis, he blames him for running away when they were young, and the whole story revolves around that. And at the end, all it takes is for Creed to apologize for him to say "it wasn't your fault, it never was"... I guess the writers want us to believe that all he wanted was to hear an apology, but you don't do everything he did just for an apology, and poof, we forget everything, it doesn't make sense... And by the way... 18 years in prison because he pulled a gun ?! I know that American are not soft with black people but it might be a bit exaggerated here, no?
Anyway, all in all, I'm pretty disappointed with this third installment. It just feels like another episode of Creed from which all flavor has been removed... Almost non-existent emotions, the antagonist's motivations a bit bogus, bland fights, and the almost-ridiculing of iconic characters from the series... I don't know if it's because Sly is no longer writing or just an effect of fatigue, but I hope it gets better.
Bullet Train (2022)
Enjoyable movie
I personally had a very good time watching this movie. The acting is good and the story is more than decent.
I read the negative comments and they all looks the same : it's the poor man Tarantino/Guy Ritchie movie blah blah blah. What is wrong in being inspired by awesome directors like them ? I'd rather watch a movie like this that is trying to show something in a different manner than usual movies rather than yet another generic Marvel movie that looks like all the other movies or a generic Dwayne Johnson one...
Here, we have a funny movie, with great actors, with a story slowly unfolding until a pretty good climax.
Annihilation (2018)
Annihilation of interest...
That's this kind of movie where the tempo is very slow and not much happens...
To me, it looked like some guy had some random weird ideas and tied them up somehow in a movie. Stuff happens, you don't know what to why and you don't really feel anything about it because at the end, you simply don't care...
The characters are pretty shallow so when something happens to one of them, you're just like "well... Ok..."
And at the end you get a quick an vague explanation that actually does not explain anything but once again... You don't really care...
Prey (2022)
Good surprise
I have to admit that it's a pleasant surprise. I watched this movie by thinking upfront that it was going to be bad and at the end, it was pretty decent.
Okay, there are some stuff to talk about like the approximative CGI of the bear ot why did they chose to make the bad guys talk french when their french was so atrocious but there are also a lot of positive things to say as well.
Not a lot of actors but they are convincing, a story good enough for the movie and above all, some originality. I expected to see her crawling in the mud to kill the beast but they didn't fall into this and found original way to fight the predator.
In conclusion, I'm pretty happy that I didn't let my "a priori" preventing me to watch this movie.
Life (2017)
Way better than the rating
At the time of writing, the rating of this movie is only about 6.6/10 and I don't get really get why.
Of course, it's not a masterpiece, but it's a pretty good movie in its genre. Basically a group of astronaut intercepts a deadly creature that hunts them down the ISS. You won't find bright new ideas in that movie but the ones inside are exploited in a correct way, enough to make this movie pretty entertaining and suspenseful at time.
The actors are convincing, the music is very well balanced... Ok some of the choices of the crew are questionable but not stupid... In conclusion, if you like the themes "outer space" and "aliens", you should enjoy this one.
The Shallows (2016)
Meh...
First of all, I really think that Blake Lively is a very poor actress but I gave this movie a shot...
The thing that bothered me the most was the slow motion scenes. I think that the director struggled to reach the regular 90 minutes, so they stretched it as much as they could using slow motions scenes that account for at least 15 minutes of the movie.
There are some good scenes and the tension is quite good of some point in the movie but some important things are missing. For example, a clear explanation of why the water caught on fire at some point. I did a bit of research and apparently it's the fat of the whale or something like that but how could a lambda viewer think about that?!
I was also a bit "annoyed" by the fact that the shark skills seem to depend upon the fact that he's chasing the lead role or a secondary actor. Indeed, when it comes to expandable cast, the shark is very accurate... It cuts people in half, he does some out of water jumping to kill a surfer but when it comes to the lead actress, it struggles to bite her leg... that is wayyyyy thinner than the fat guy it cuts in two...
Then the way she gets rid of the very bad shark is pretty... well... absurd although I didn't pay too much attention to it for this rating because well... When you're alone in the ocean with nothing on you and an angry shark attacking you, there is not a lot of way to kill it so at least, kudo for the director to have found one :-)
In summary, this movie is very forgettable and does not bring a lot. Average one to kill a Sunday evening but not much more.
Men in Black: International (2019)
So bad...
Omg... That's a really terrible movie... The character of Hermsworth is so boring... Always trying to be funny but nothing he says is... The plot is shallow... The special effects are meh and often useless. What's the point of a transformer train if it's only taken by MIB? Man, I kept using my phone from time to time not to fall asleep.
Chaos Walking (2021)
This was not so bad
I'm surprised to see the low note of this title. Of course, it's not a masterpiece and yes, a lot of things are lacking from the movie but I don't see it deserving a note below 6.
My main bad point about this movie is that it feels like some scenes are missing. For example, when they arrive in the far branch, everybody hates him but he never tries to understand once why. I guess it's done like this to have the "emotional" book moment but it does not make sense, or the scene should have been placed before the one where people try to mug him.
And to be honest, the death of the black guy seemed a bit odd to me. That was the most calm man on fire I've seen in my life ^^
However, at the end of the day, I spent 2 pretty good hour watching this movie and I can only think that people hated it because it is based on a book.
Horrid Henry (2006)
Oh my god
Are we serious with this? This cartoon is about a spoiled mean kid that keeps on doing bad things over and over again without any consequences.. The kid keeps on saying his brother that he hate the fact that he's born and everyone seems to find this normal...
No wonder why kids are more and more mean to each other...
Under the Dome (2013)
Could have been good
I don't want to be too harsh so, I'll put a 5 out of 10, but I consider myself quite nice doing so... The first episode was not so bad but the first season went decrescendo. I didn't read the book so I don't know where are the differences but I find it difficult to believe that SK would have wrote all the egg-story...
Whatever, what bothers me the most is two things:
- In the first episodes, I was intrigued... What's the dome? Why is it there? Why bla bla bla? But quite fast, it looks like nobody cares anymore. Instead, it becomes a sort of one tree hill with more murders and we almost don't talk about the dome anymore. People tries to organize themselves to survive more than trying to understand what is the dome and how to get rid of it, meaning that we really get few answers about the dome...
- 90% of the people in this town is totally stupid. It goes from stupid decisions to even more stupid decisions. And their reactions are really not... real. I mean, Big Jim kills a bunch of people at the beginning, including the radio girl, he tries to frame Barbie and this one does not even try to say "Hi guy! It's not me". He almost get hanged and then, because the sky becomes clear, everybody forgot that he was accused of murder... OK... And a lot of time after that, he has stuff to do with Phil who is clearly mad about him killing Dodee and he never tries to say that he's not the culprit... And oh my god! Junior is so so stupid. Someone told him that Barbie tried to kill Julia and when she told him that it is not true, the kid does not even believe her, wtf boy? SHE'S THE VICTIM AND SHE SAYS IT'S NOT TRUE! WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT? Even worse, at some point in time, there is a sand storm, everybody stay in the bar and the only guy who decide to go out is an asthmatic one... During a sand storm... AN ASTHMATIC !
In summary, I'd say that if you are quite bored and you want to kill time, watching this TV show is not the worst thing to do, but if you have interesting stuff to do, don't postpone them for it ;-)
King Kong (2005)
Seriously ?
Yeah... Really don't like it... Maybe I'm too nostalgic from the first one or maybe I don't like to see a "hey I can do special effects" movies. Really, this movie is just there to show specials effects. T-Rex's and other dinosaurs in King Kong... Are we serious ? Besides... These actors... I don't understand how it is possible to take good actors and make them play so badly... I mean... Obviously we are used to see Adrien Brody playing badly but Jack Black is quite a famous actor and there, he's everything but credible... All this "oh damn, I'll do my big eyes and turn my face veeeeeeeeery slowly to make the spectator understand there is something sooooooo amazing and frightening to watch".
So yeah... In summary, this is a movie to watch in background just to focus on special effects but not on the story or speeches...
How I Met Your Mother: Bedtime Stories (2013)
Worst episode ever...
I remember few years ago when I came back from work... If I wasn't very happy or a bit tired, I really liked to watch an HIMYM episode. I was laughing all the episode long and after, I felt much better...
Now when I come back from work, if I'm happy and watch an episode of HIMYM, I end up shocked and disappointed... This TV show is worst and worst at each episode... Nothing is good since the end of the sixth season... I'm so looking forward the end...
This episode is the worst one... Nothing makes the story go further. Nothing is related to the wedding... It is clearly a filler but a so bad one... For now, I think it is the worst episode ever but hey... I guess I might change my mind in one week...