pgancarc Reviews

The Holdovers (2023)

A surprisingly fun time!

[8/10 · 6 December 2023]

I heard great things about The Holdovers before it's release. I'm happy to say that I had a very fun time watching this movie!

I want to praise the phenomenal acting by Paul Giamatti. I think he did a great job portraying a disgruntled older gentlemen who so happens to get stuck looking after the kids he "somewhat" despises.

Everyone did a good job in their roles: I didn't feel like one was out of touch with the rest of the cast. I was conderbed about the younger actors in this film, however they all did a great job, especially Dominic Sessa.

The plot is a fairly simple. Nothing too groundbreaking. We've seen these types of movies before but it works really well here. There were some interesting points that they've decided to change from the normal formula and that added some nice and fresh flavors to the story.

The humor is definitely not for everyone, however I found it incredibly amusing. Don't go into this movie thinking it's a full blown comedy. It's definitely more of a drama story.

Overall, this is a great movie that has a lot of heart and humor to it to lift anyone up during the holiday season! I highly recommend it!

8/10.

Godzilla Minus One (2023)

The Best Godzilla Movie?!?

[10/10 · 3 December 2023]

I want to start off but saying that I went into this movie expecting the same amount of quality as Shin Godzilla.

I am so happy that this movie was even BETTER than Shin Godzilla!

Godzilla himself steals the show whenever he is on screen. Design is great and has an actual presence to him. Don't think it's better than the Shin design personally, but still a fantastic design!

The music in this movie is beautiful. Very epic and melodic and the score made the scenes so much more emotional and breathtaking, especially when Godzilla is on screen. I found myself gripping my seat a few times because of this.

What took me completely by surprise is the humans and the story. The US Godzilla movies have severely lacked in this department but I feel Toho, the director and the writers did an incredible job in making the human characters in this movie likable. You actually feel for the characters. There was several times where I was genuinely worried about them and whether or not they were gonna survive or not.

Overall, this is a beautifully crafted movie with an amazing score, amazing directing, beautifully crafted storytelling and Godzilla is super menacing, as he should be. Legendary really needs to take notes from Toho on how to make a GOOD Godzilla movie.

10/10.

Transformers: War for Cybertron Trilogy (2020–2021)

Was super hyped, but let down in the end

[6/10 · 30 July 2020]

Transformers Siege is the first chapter in the War For Cybertron Trilogy. I have to start off and say that I was really hyped for this show. It's the first time we're getting a more mature tone with the franchise since TF Prime. I'm sad to say, that I was left underwhelmed.

Let's start with the positives. The animation is incredible. It's very nice to look at and Rooster Teeth did an incredible job.

The plot is very good, all be it, it's nothing new and we've seen it before. They made some minor tweaks to the story to make it more interesting and I think they did a good job. It keeps you going cause you're wondering what other things they ch she's to spice up the sorry, even though the ending is VERY predictable due to us already knowing about the other 2 chapters.

Megatron's voice actor by far is the best one in the show. They got same man who did Megatron in the Prime Wars Trilogy and again did a great job.

Unfortunately, for me, that's where the positives end.

The voice acting for me was not great. Optimus Prime just didn't work with me at all. I didn't feel like this was Optimus Prime. The voice actor just tried way too hard to be Peter Cullen and there were some scenes where his delivery was just poor. They should've gone with The Epic Voice Guy for Prime. I think he does a much better Prime. Shockwave's voice was bad. Simple as that. He's supposed to be this cold calculating monotone Decepticon, but he came off as a subpar version of Starscream. Soubdwave's voice wasn't good either. The effect of his iconic voice sounded so bad. Even TFP's Soundwave( that only spoke 4 words) had a MUCH better effect on his voice. But the guy doing the voice wasn't bad. Ironhide was not good either. Way too high pitch for an Autobot that's supposed to be old and gruntled.

Some character choices in this show weren't good either. I admire some of the risks they took, and some of them worked, but others I thought fell flat on their faces. Ratchet for me was the worst risk. In almost every incarnation( including the movies) Ratchet has always been one of Optimus Primes's closest friends/ally's. In this show, he almost hates him and what the Autobot cause represents. Bumblebee I thought was a good risk. At first, I hated him and thought he was arrogant and annoying, but he grew on me as the chapter progressed.

Overall, I was disappointed. This show SO FAR, is not better then TFP or Beast Wars. Both shows after their first season cliffhangers, I was pumped to watch what happens next. With this show, I don't have that feeling, and I'm sad about it. While the show has great animation and very good plot, I can't get behind some of the bad voice acting and certain character personalities they decided to go with. Hopefully, the next 2 chapters will prove me wrong and they'll come back swinging full force. But for now, as I stated multiple times, I'm disappointed.

6/10

Bumblebee (I) (2018)

Best Transformers Movie Yet!!

[10/10 · 13 December 2018]

This by far is the best Transformers movie yet. It has great characters, a decent storyline, and the fight scenes between the Autobots and the Decelticons are fantastic. Even John Cena isn't bad in this movie. I highly recommend this to any who is a fan of the Transformers and also to someone who enjoyed those amazing 80s films that Steven Spielberg directed

Brad's Status (2017)

Ben Stiller delivers

[8/10 · 1 October 2017]

I've been a fan of Ben stiller for a while so I was excited for this movie. I love the fall season for two reasons: one, the nice crisp air, and movies like Brad's Status. This is a good movie. The IMDb user rating might say otherwise but this is good. Ben Stiller is great in this role. He plays a father who is taking his son on college tours and interviews, while thinking back on his life, going through kind of a mid life crisis. The acting is great, the camera work is actually quite good. It brings in a chill vibe to it and not a sci-fi action, blow up everything in your face feel. This movie uses the narration queue to move some parts of the story. Now, I understand that might be a cut off for some people if it isn't done properly. Good thing is that in here it is used well and isn't used that often. If you're looking for a nice movie, with great performances, especially from Ben Stiller, I highly recommended Brad's Status

Stronger (I) (2017)

A touching journey of a man who does feel like the man everybody thinks he is

[9/10 · 27 September 2017]

I went into this movie with the only expectation that Jake Gyllenhaal will give another fantastic performance, you now the usual with Jake. What I wasn't expecting was the incredible performances from everybody else. I thought that everybody in this movie did a fantastic job, especially the girlfriend played by Tatiana Maslany. The story is about Jeff Bauman ( Gyllenhaal) who lost both of his legs from the bombings, and the films revolves around him coping with the aftermath. This movie is about his struggles with having no legs and not about the actual bombings like Peter Bergs " Patriots Day" starring Mark Wahlberg. Stronger is a movie that I highly recommend to any fan of Gyllenhaal. He is easily the best part of the movie and definitely deserve an Oscar nomination for his performance.