dave-is-where Reviews

The Midnight Sky (2020)

A Sci-Fi Apocalyptic Movie with a Character Arc

[8/10 · 25 December 2020]

It was never revealed what happened on Earth, but the end result was a crew was left in orbit, communicating with two surviving people isolated in the Arctic.

I thought the acting was very well done, and the science was believable. I would put this movie on the same scale as Contact in terms of exposing how us humans react to the unexpected.

I was not a rock-and-roll thriller, but the story and the good CGI kept me interested for this somewhat long sci-fi movie, that might have drawn some story ideas from the pandemic we are now experiencing.

I enjoyed the movie.

The Vast of Night (2019)

8 for the Character Development and Effort

[8/10 · 31 May 2020]

So the ending borrowed some aspects of Third Encounters of the Close Kind to portray the UFO, but the rest of it was an homage to the Twilight Zone, sort of what an extended episode would look like in if was shot using newer cameras - still grainy in spots but easy to watch.

The plot was simple, but I thought the writing, though simple, allowed the characters to portray how things might have really played out had such a thing happened in their era.

Yes, low budget, but there is nothing wrong with that when the acting and the story can sway your imagination. It was very watchable, IMO.

Ad Astra (2019)

Ad Nauseum with the Heart of Darkness cliches

[4/10 · 22 September 2019]

Uh Oh the Colonel has gone rogue. True, he killed his "army" but he is still very much out there operating on his own, and he has to be stopped. I was waiting to hear the helicopter blades when Pitt let loose with his platitudes.

And the science sucked. Here we have, once again, people and objects that are pushed through space by the force of bombs; in this case, a nuclear bomb apparently pushed Pitt's spacecraft at close to the speed of light to get him from Neptune to Earth with about a 7 days growth of beard.

Watch it if you just can't find anything else.

The Red Sea Diving Resort (2019)

Saving Refugees... we are out of time

[8/10 · 5 August 2019]

The movie ends with a message that there are over 65 million refugees in this world.

The Red Sea Diving Resort is akin to Schindler's List. Whoever saves one life saves the world entire. In this movie it is Ethiopian refugees. I had not heard about this particular story. It was a great movie, I really enjoyed it. Good for the Israelis, again. Although certainly not as good as Schindler's List, it was worth watching.

As far as saving refugees now - we are out of time. Climate Change is here, and there will be millions more refugees trying to escape droughts, war, famine and fear. Yes, watch the movie; but think about what we are going to do now. Can we process refugees and humanely and professionally as portrayed in this film? The answer is pretty bleak.

Escape Room (I) (2019)

Juvenile at best

[3/10 · 7 April 2019]

Meh. I gave it a try, but it was just too far-fetched, no real suspense because the scenarios were just too unbelievable. It was not an escape room, it was more like escape world, where the "escapes" would have been impossible to engineer unless they were made in the holo deck on Star Trek. I might have liked it when I was 12.

Clara (III) (2018)

I Cried a little at the End

[10/10 · 18 February 2019]

Yeah, I'm a sap. But I also enjoy good story telling. Especially within a SciFi film.

This movie started slow and ended just a bit faster, but not by much. This is not a bang up action movie, it is all character development and a slow build. The main characters are easily identified with, especially if you have gone to a college or university. Scientific discoveries are usually found after time and hard research, and this is what the movie builds up to - a momentous discovery that would bring our planet into a sense of cohesion, giving us a purpose.

Give the film a chance and take a slow ride for once, and then enjoy the conclusion of this movie. I did.

The Man Who Killed Don Quixote (2018)

Entertaining AF + Oscar Material

[10/10 · 14 January 2019]

Not a movie for everyone; if you have read Don Quixote or seen the Man of La Mancha, you will get this movie. I have, and I was thoroughly captivated for the whole movie. I can see why it got a 15 minute standing ovation when it first screened. If you read the trivia here, you will see that this movie has been trying to be made for 17 years!

Jonathan Pryce excelled. He deserves an Oscar, flat out. Adam Driver was good too, but I am sure the directing had a lot to do with both of their performances, and an Oscar should go to the director, too.

If you have a good imagination and appreciate good storytelling and good acting, you are sure to like this movie too!

Hunter Killer (2018)

Technicalities sure to make Submariners Cringe

[3/10 · 23 December 2018]

Wow. If you have ANY knowledge of anything how could you not notice when the Captain of the submarine (Butler) gives an order "60 degrees down bubble" when they are being attacked and his officer replies "60 degrees up bubble, aye sir"!!

There is one part where the sub is stuck on the bottom and it shows them hammering out the dings from the inside out, and it appears the surface of the sub is springing back into shape from their efforts.

Cheesy VFX, shoddy writing, Gary Oldman complaining in a loud tenor voice, Gerard Butler talking out of the side of his mouth, and total disregard for trying to adhere to the laws of physics. Mindless actioner that gets lost in time 30 seconds after you finish it.

Bird Box (2018)

Best movie in 5 years for me!

[8/10 · 17 December 2018]

I don't suffer fools, nor do I suffer mediocre movies.

This movie with Sandra Bullock kept me firmly entranced for the duration of its 2 hour running time. Bullock demonstrated that she has a flair for dramatic acting as well as her comedic skills here. The story arc was executed well, switching from the past to the present well.

It tells the story of an unknown entity that, once seen with the naked eye, prompts people to kill themselves. We never see the entity, but the film portrays its presence without having to do so. There are some gory scenes, but not over the top. The two kids she has in tow as she seeks sanctuary did really well too! In Fact, everyone does a good job in this movie (John Malkovich is still John Malkovich) and it was shot and directed well.

The ending has kind of an ending reminiscent of The Book of Eli. I really enjoyed this movie, it shot to my best 250 movie list.

A Simple Favor (2018)

Even though you can figure it out, it's a good movie!

[8/10 · 7 December 2018]

I don't like comedies unless they are good. I liked this one. I think most people will be able to figure out that (spoiler omitted) as the premise here has been done before, murder mysteries with huge insurance payouts...well, you can get the picture. Anyway, I did not feel like I wasted my time watching it, and I actually found myself chuckling at quite a few parts. Good quirky acting, good direction. And I loved the French soundtrack too.

Damascus Cover (2017)

Serviceable Spy Thriller

[7/10 · 26 July 2018]

I was able to watch it all the way through without regret, which is more than I can say for most movies these days. Nothing great, but not that bad either. I found the sound track kind of weird, the dialogue was so crisp and clear I almost thought it was looped, but I am not sure. It sounded like the mics were almost in the mouth of the characters as they spoke. Kind of off-putting.

Den of Thieves (2018)

Started off OK, then lost its way.

[5/10 · 21 April 2018]

I was liking the portrayal of bad-ass cops and robbers. Gerard Butler produced it, and he tailor-made the role of a cocky cop who is so hard and mean that his wife can't stand him. The character development is good for the first hour, then the movie devolved badly. It seemed as if they were trying to emulate "Heat", with Pacino and DeNiro, but the action got far-fetched and unbelievable. When one of the bank robbers pulls out an EMP device that is made of plastic with glowing LED lights on it, it got silly. Then the cops start a shoot-out with the robbers on a street that has motorists bumper-to-bumper stopped in traffic; all the citizens in their cars were between the cops and the robbers. Everyone starts shooting, riddling all the cars with the people in them in the mayhem. No police officers would ever start a shoot-out with automatic weapons with innocent people in the crossfire. They just caused numerous civilian fatalities. Ridiculous! I liked it up until the second half, then it just got plain stupid. Fifty Cent sucks as an actor, as well.

The Magnificent Seven (2016)

A Pale and Poor Remake

[3/10 · 7 December 2016]

Character development - minimal, at best. I felt no connection with any of the characters. I did not care if they lived or died; in the 1960 version by director John Sturges, I felt some empathy and sadness when characters died; here - nothing.

Film Score: Horner's score - I can't remember anything but snippets of boring music that sounded like it was trying not to sound too much like the great score E.B. did back then.

Also, I just didn't buy Denzel's squinty-eye looking into the camera shots; he just ain't a cowboy type to me. Maybe I'm just too biased with Lancaster Eastwood Wayne types.

A Woman Under the Influence (1974)

Who is the craziest one in the movie?

[10/10 · 4 August 2016]

Gena Rowlands is cast as the woman under the influence of some undefined mental disorder. Her acting is superb; when the camera is in a close-up of her face, her chops are just better than anything I have seen. Her facial gestures, the eyes, furrowing of the brows, nose twitching, everything - is the best I have seen in an actor portraying emotions and thoughts without having to say too much. Wow.

In my opinion, it was her husband, Nick (Peter Falk) who was the one who needed to be put away. He portrayed a man who was angry, and he was angry and violent throughout the movie, for the most part. Poor Mabel (Rowlands), she was at the mercy of his anger and emotionally did what she had to do to cope.

But this was a different era; it was shown, through Cassavetes' writing and direction, that it was acceptable then, in some American blue-collar homes, to slap women around, threaten people, give children alcohol, as long as it was the man of the house doing it.

How times have changed, and it was through movies like this, where bizarre social behavior that was on the borderline of acceptable in that era, may have been a catalyst for the audience to examine their own emotions and mores.