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The Dead Don't Die (2019)
Don't bother
Starts slow and only slows down from there... a one "joke" movie that is simply an incredible waste of talent and resources on the scale of "Movie 43", and it even cops to its own pointlessness by the end.
Happy I didn't pay to watch it, but wish I had my 1:44 back...
Vox Lux (2018)
Vox Stunk
Multiple set-ups, no payoff. Dreadful.
And what the what was up with Natalie Portman's accent? The only way she could play "tough" was to sound like a reject from the Sopranos?
The positive reviews are just rationalizations to come to terms with why viewers wasted 2 hours on this.
Catch-22 (2019)
Competent, but adds nothing...
The Mike Nichols 1970 adaptation is a masterpiece in virtually every way. Amazing cinematography, innovative de-constructed screenplay, absolutely perfect casting, and most importantly genuinely conveys the dark insanity of the war as Heller's novel portrays, the absurdity of the military, and the banality of evil. Spectacular in every respect.
Despite being 6 hours rather than 2, this really adds nothing, while falling short of the original film's concise storytelling. It's very pedestrian and TV movie in its approach looks more like an Abercrombie & Fitch commercial than a serious film. Interchangeable pretty boys that fail to differentiate themselves as characters.
It's competent and very watchable, but to me it falls well short of the film to an almost embarrassing degree. Not quite as bad a comparison as the TV version of "The Shining" to the Kubrick film, but damn close...
Equals (2015)
How many times can this movie get made?
This is SUCH a tired theme... sterile emotionless future society, yet two people are different, fall in love, and fight the system... When George Orwell did it in "1984" it was still reasonably fresh, but that was almost 70 years ago.
"Equals" stars Nicholas Hoult (the creepy kid from "About a Boy" grown up, and even creepier) and Kristen Stewart (known catatonic) really have no chemistry and the movie gives them no reason to be together except they're both "different."
Watching on DVD, I saw a lot of visual "banding" issues, and the audio was largely, well, inaudible. And this universe is all touchscreens and barcode scanners that constantly ping and whoo, which becomes really grating even 10 minutes in... ick.
Instead of this, I'd suggest "Gattaca" -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119177/ -- That was 20 years ago, and the premise was already getting threadbare by then, but at least there are some interesting stakes and twists and performances from Jude Law, Alan Arkin, Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke.
Or maybe "The Island" -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0399201/ -- yes, Michael Bay, so plenty o' 'splosions, but at least it's a decent premise and has lots of good twists.
Even good old "Logan's Run" -- http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074812/ -- handles this material in a more interesting manner -- it's pretty cheesy in terms of effects and costumes (it was 40 years ago so cut it some slack), but much more fun.
The commentary on the disc tries to position the film as some great love story that just happens to be set in this cliché future, but there's almost nothing there. Skip it, or at least lower your expectations.