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To Catch a Killer (2023)
I don't really know what to think...
This movie is really interesting...and profoundly weird. What did I like about it? It's different! It's surprising! I had no idea what was coming next for most of it - I was genuinely surprised. When the villain/shooter's mother kills herself - I was genuinely surprised by that choice - and I think it did make for a bit of an emotional crescendo. I'm rarely surprised by Netflix murder mysteries nowadays - it's usually "you've seen one you've seen em all!"
I actually like that this movie took a bunch of moments to Slow. Down. To drag out certain scenes - and to be kind of artsy in its direction. I had fun with that. It was genuinely an exciting ride that drew me in.
When you start to think about this movie....it really falls apart. I think it's trying to be anti-capitalist/anti-"system"...but it's also kind of pro-cop? It tries so hard to humanize Shailene Woodley as this "angel amongst devils" within the BPD. To me, the whole thing comes off as hypocritical...and (once again) weird to shoot for this unsteady moral middle ground.
I've also realized that I wish movies with the message "capitalism is bad and the US system is bad" showed us a GLIMPSE of the alternative - something we can work toward. I would've loved to have seen the shooter performing community service...maybe working with depressed and violent teens and providing them with a listening ear before they become killers like he did. Some form of restorative justice (rather than just getting shot at the end - which is realistic to be fair).
Even Eleanor could've started a foundation for intervening with-and supporting-teens who are at risk of becoming mass shooters...rather than essentially looking out for herself and her partner ...and that's it.
Maybe I'm taking this film too seriously.
It did spark thought for me - which is good.
Eh....my friend and I decided we're definitely gonna tell people about how weird and interesting this film is - but we're not gonna tell anyone they need to see it.
Uncharted (2022)
Uncharted is bad - but the best kind of bad! The kind where you're still happy at the end
All 5 of us came out of the movie "Our expectations were on the floor. We thought it was gonna be sooo bad. And it exceeded expectations!! We had fun" BUT there's no grit to it. No suspense. No point where you're ever actually worried for anyone or anything. It's just pure explosive action fun. Like a video game. Exactly what you would expect!! It's not a great movie - but I don't think it ever really set out to be!
Go see it in theaters - don't expect much - you'll really have a blast! Or pirate it!
Lupin (2021)
Just finished Part 2 - you gotta watch the whole show!!
I had rated the show a 10/10 after the first 5 episodes - Part 1 is EXCELLENT!! My favorite episode is probably still the heist that happens in the first episode!
I had to actually write a review after watching Part 2 - 5 more episodes that is sort of a Season 2 but could also just be thought of as more of Season 1. Part 2 absolutely lives up to the hype of Part 1 - it's definitely a bit darker in themes in the beginning - but the whole show has some really dark themes!
Part 2 has so many exciting twists and turns - more heist like/spy like tactics that you don't see coming until they're explained at the last minute! And Part 2 spends a lot of time on background information and flashbacks for most of the characters!! It really strengthens your emotional connections to the characters - so when they're in danger - you're rooting for them and you're on the edge of your seat!! It has a great ending - sets it up for possibly another season - tho it could end here!
Anyway - make sure to watch till the end!!
Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021)
Stream or skip? Skip
The more I watched this I was like....what the hell is going on. I SO wanted this to be good! I love pretty much all of the Netflix crime docs! Taking a recent example - Night Stalker was much better!!
I'm so fascinated by this case....but yeah all the other reviews said it - there's really not much new offered!! They're going round and round the same couple minutes of footage the whole show!
I literally enjoyed the Ghost Adventures episode about the Cecil Hotel MUCH better - and that might be a controversial opinion cuz many people don't believe in ghosts! I'm not saying get discovery plus to watch that instead....but don't watch this one
Palmer (2021)
About toxic vs positive masculinity! And gender biases!
I'll be thinking about this one for a while!
Justin Timberlake does a great job! He portrays a lot of emotions convincingly in this one!
The love interest is a little cheesy and expected - but you believe it and you're rooting for them by the end!!
Maybe not what everyone focused on but Juno Temple - Sam's mother - SCARILY convincing in her role - so well done!
Also Sam himself - I never really wanted to admit that there are some bad child actors - I wanted to be nice to them - but there are some bad one...this kid Ryder Allen is genius!! Hits all the notes and you just love the character.
So the acting was on point!
It's slow moving for a modern movie - I liked that about it - they really got to build up the characters before the final action/s
Definitely not a family movie - but if a former criminal from Louisiana can love and accept a boy who "acts like a girl" - so can the rest of us!! It brings conversations to the forefront that are worth having.
I watched it with my dad (I'm 21) - cool experience - but I guess it would be a good movie to watch a couple? I'll have to think about what the right audience is - but it's worth your time!!
Yearly Departed (2020)
A perfectly fitting end-of-2020 comedy event!!
I disagree with the reviews so far - I think this special was in good taste and that, despite the seriousness of the things we've lost this year - it is helpful to have a sense of humor and smile!!
It's a lot of my favorites - I was really looking forward to Tiffany Haddish, Natasha Leggero, Sarah Silverman, and Rachel Brosnahan from the beginning - but really everyone was great! They all had very specific topics to riff off - and a short amount of time to make their points and deliver the laughs - and they all nailed their segments - while adding to the overall theme and vibe of the special and generally poking fun at how crazy 2020 has been!
Having the comedians reacting to each other really adds - because I've seen some Zoom comedy shows this year where the fact that there was no audience laughing and feeling the jokes actually made it a lot harder to laugh on my end...
If it's a family with like adult kids - I guess you could say 18+ - everyone could enjoy this on New Year's Eve for example!! It delivers the point in half and hour and it's done! It's just fun!!
Anaconda (1997)
A much better movie in the last 40 minutes
Someone else said it gets good in the last 40 minutes - it's true!! I get pretty scared in movies - this was not scary. But it wasn't too stupid either. It kept me just the right amount engaged - and I really do like the stars in it - even if it's not their best work. Fun with some friends - maybe after some drinks.
We Are Freestyle Love Supreme (2020)
If you love Lin (and friends), it's perfect
I love Lin-Manuel Miranda (and Chris Jackson, and Tommy Kail - but especially Lin) so I want to watch anything he's a part of. I love behind the scenes stuff, I love hip hop, beatbox, freestyle - so it's a really good movie for me.
If you're just sort of coming to it fresh without any knowledge, my main critique is that there's slow, meaningful piano music as the backdrop to the whole movie - like they're telling a really thoughtful, serious story. I wouldn'tve gone with that style. I would've done an upbeat, fast moving movie - hip hop music in the background, lots of freestyle. I think they made the wrong choice to go so chill...
But I still loved it!! And I love the people especially.
The High Note (2020)
The twist alone makes it worth it - and the cast
There's a crazy twist that I loved. But it's really fun - the music is great, the romance feels real, and it's really a movie for and about music appreciators. It has such a great cast - Eddie Izzard appears, Bill Pullman (The Sinner), Ice Cube, list goes on - and of course the stars. Check it out as a fun time for the whole family!
Shooter (2007)
Much better than the TV show
The "romance"/rejuvenation scenes - where it's just Mark (Bob) and Kate (Sarah) are a bit slow - and fall a little flat - but the action is FANTASTIC. And that's all you really need to know!
The Night Clerk (2020)
Like others said - characters are great and that's it...
I really wanted to like this film. The portrayal of a young man with autism/Aspergers is incredible. That means the acting is also very good.
The one twist hits and the movie is way too short to have it be exciting. It heats up a bit at the end but it's still too short and there's not enough character development for you to really care. I'm starting to think maybe this movie would work better as a limited series or something - with a much better writer assigned to it. They really could've built it out but they failed.
So a bad script/bad execution failed really good actors and a good idea. I'd have to say skip.
The Last Days of American Crime (2020)
It's definitely bad...but I loved it
The whole movie we were asking "What?" "Why?" "How did that happen?" "What happened to the...." - continuity questions, logic questions. But we were having fun. You definitely have to suspend reality and disbelief for this one.
It is long. I won't put a judgement on that cuz I enjoyed it - but if you don't like it, like many people, it will probably be too long for you.
There's some scenes that I really liked - that I still think and talk about it days after the fact. Some are just plain weird.
If you're intoxicated, or high or something - you'll probably have a fun time with this movie. Just don't think too hard and you'll probably have a good time.
Reckoning (2019)
A 10/10 except for one line...
I love a good crime drama. I've watched so many. I wasn't sure about this one...but a close friend recommended it. I loved it. I binged for sure.
BUT
The title of the episode is "Rolling Thunder"
The detective, the main character, says to his partner "Do you hear that?" She says "What?" To which he literally says "Rolling Thunder. Means a storm's a brewing"
Brooo. I hate when they say the name of the episode in the episode. It takes me out of the experience/the show world and into the fact that I'm just watching on Netflix. And saying a storm is brewing when something sinister is happening or about to happen is also pretty dumb.
It takes a while to heat up/get going as a show, but I'm also really sad that I've finished it, so that says something! Watch, but just be ready for that cringe...literally enough for me to knock it down a point it was that strong an example of bad writing.
El hoyo (2019)
Maybe my favorite movie of the year
It is gritty, it is gory, it is well shot, it is never boring, it is believable, it is relevant....the list goes on
I want to write this without spoilers so everyone can read it: most people (I haven't read reviews here yet but like on Reddit for example) are upset about the ending. There are two ways you can understand the ending - one is at face value and the other requires some interpretation - but for me the point of the movie is not the end, the end doesn't matter so much, it's the story and the overall message of the film that is important - and they don't completely finish the story because it is a movie about society and society never ends (at least not for a long, long time)
Anyway, all the actors are kick-ass performers. People need to give foreign/international films much more of a chance. Must watch
After the Dark (2013)
Returned to this movie a couple years later and, even in a global pandemic, it gets worse....
It was kind of fun the first time-I like movies like this-that are about thought experiments, or play out in one or two locations, I enjoyed the attractive people and there are a fair amount of good actors and actresses in it that I really enjoy and respect. I knew I hated the ending.
The second time I hated the ending even more. In fact, I missed this the first time, or forgot about it, but it almost seems like they're suggesting that the whole movie, including the teacher (James D'Arcy) could have been a thought experiment inside the main character's (Petra's) mind. A complete cop out and bad writing
I like the message that everyone is important in society in some sort of way....it's definitely debatable but I like it
Anyway, maybe for a movie night by yourself if you want something surprisingly mindless (because the movie acts smart but doesn't think about a lot of the mistakes it makes)-but I wouldn't convince a group of people to watch this.
Atomic Blonde (2017)
What a beautiful movie!
So beautifully shot - it is based on a graphic novel and it "reads" like a graphic novel, every shot is thought out, the colors are beautiful, it's so stylized and that's part of what makes it so good
Some of the violence can get a bit gory but the fight scenes are exciting and very well choreographed.
It's cool that the only love affair is a lesbian one - there's no man woman classic spy love affair.
I think a bunch of people skipped over this one when it came out in theatres - Charlize is amazing, as always, I would highly recommend!
The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies (2014)
Unfortunately one of the worst movies I've seen
In exact opposition of one of the reviews here, I enjoyed the first of the three hobbit movies the most and then desolation of Smaug next. I'm actually watching that one again now! So, I enjoyed the first two - whereas this other reviewer said they were underwhelmed by the first two but loved this one...
Anyway, once I got to Five Armies, I was bored most of the way through, it felt like a bunch of zoomed out, CG fight scenes with no real emotion - just a money grab and an easy way to wrap up the story.
I love LOTR, Peter Jackson, all that - this could have been as good as Return of the King but it was so far from it. I like most movies I watch and I was really disappointed. When I think back on the hobbit trilogy, I remember the first 2/3 but can't really remember how it ended...a shame
The Time Machine (2002)
Not worth your time
The trailer makes it look good, kinda futuristic, light, and entertaining...but instead it's more dark and creepy, more bleak and less hopeful than expected, anticlimactic ending.
When we finished the film, almost all of us were upset that we had wasted an hour and a half on it and wished we had watched something else. Some of the practical effects and even the CG from 2002 is kinda cool but not worth watching for...acting is okay, not stellar
Maybe read the book, the people I know and watched it with liked that and the original movie but yeah skip this one
Joker (2019)
Film of the Year
A cinematic event to be remembered - with themes of mental illness, bullying, the subjective nature of comedy, mob mentality/political outrage, trauma, murder, rich vs poor and an Oscar-worthy performance by Joaquin Phoenix, JOKER makes for a disturbing, stressful, uncomfortable 2 hours that will leave you thinking about the blurred lines between good people and bad people, and the people who pretend to be good and the good people that become bad.
Out of this world sound design and cinematography make this a must-watch if you can handle it. Earns its hard R too.
9/10
The I-Land (2019)
Was so close to being so much better than it was!
I read the other reviews when I was 2 or 3 episodes in and I thought no way this is going to be as bad as people think and then I kept watching and I understand what they meant.
Just at so many instances it gets close to being really awesome, close to revealing another great plot point and then it just shows away from it and doesn't fully go there. Much of it feels unresolved and if it is resolved it's just resolved through dialogue at the very end of the show instead of being shown in the show.
There's a fair amount of, excuse my French, dialogue, some special effects, and the twists are fairly predictable.
The show is carried by the action sequences and the attractiveness of the characters.
It's like a weird version of Survivor expect I enjoy Survivor more!
If you'll watch pretty much anything that's kinda Lord of the Flies like and is kinda Black Mirror like, like I will, watch it, but if you have standards, don't.
The Hustle (2019)
Entertaining and funny - not as bad as people say
I watched it with my mother and sister (I'm a 20 year old guy) and we all laughed through it - Anne Hathaway and Rebel Wilson are both funny and believable and play their parts well. Tonight I watched Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Steve Martin and Michael Caine), the first remake of this story (both are based on Bedtime Story (Marlon Brando, David Niven)), and it's certainly good, but it's not necessarily leaps and bounds better than this one (The Hustle). Watching DRS, I got a greater appreciation for where the jokes and sequences come from in this movie and it's nice to see this remake pay homage while also updating certain things and flipping them - most importantly the fact that they are now con women conning men and not the other way around. I personally think a lot of people secretly have a bias against female remakes and believe women just aren't as funny as men and so they'll rate a movie like this worse and say why was it necessary? I say boo to that it's not about necessary or not to change characters' genders it's just funny and gives the story a new perspective.
TL;DR - Give it a try despite the bad reviews!
Big Ass Spider! (2013)
Scary at the beginning funny and stupid in the end
Wow I was ready to rate this a 5 and then I clicked to review it and had already rated it a 5! But it's not a mean 5 - it's what I expected and it's what it delivered. The beginning when the spider is big but a size that could still foreseeably be believable, it does some scary things that have stuff with me for a long time cuz I'm scared of spiders. Maybe this movie even helped me be more afraid lol. But then the spider gets too big and you don't believe it anymore and it's not scary it's just comical - i actually don't remember much after the beginning besides the defeat of the spider. Yeah it's not great but if you like B movie creature features and can handle some spider horror at the beginning you'll be good and enjoy
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
The War Movie To Start and End All War Movies
All war movies should be compared to this movie and this one is better, more intense, and more accurate than most of them. The fact that it came out so close to the end of the war and really shined a light on the horrors of war and how terrible a thing it is for all involved is groundbreaking. It is from the German perspective and although us in America might think the Germans deserved what they got and they don't deserve sympathy it shows a bunch of kids getting killed, injured, or mentally damaged and no one deserves that. The most memorable scenes for me are the first trench warfare attack sequence with a soundtrack of a constant barrage of explosions in the background, people being beat to death with shovels, stabbed, and more and the scene where the young soldier carries the older one on his back and he dies as he's speaking to him. It captures the fact that a lot of people just died and that was it and the war didn't pick or choose who lived and died - bad things happened to good people. Anyway, I've gone on long enough - watch at your earliest convenience for an important history lesson.
Murder Mystery (2019)
Pleasantly surprised - it's bad but that's what makes it good
I kept seeing ads for this film everywhere, Insta, Facebook, Netflix, and I was avoiding it cuz i'm not a big Sandler fan...nothing personal just not a big fan of his humor. 50 First Dates was great. Anyway, Mom suggested it first for a family movie night and after searching through a bunch of other movies we went back to it saying "Ok we'll watch it and turn it off if it sucks." I was surprised to say that I really enjoyed it! Aniston and Sandler are both individually funny and become really funny together, with believable chemistry. The script writing can be attributed to James Vanderbilt, another name I was pleasantly surprised to see in the credits, someone I really respect but who doesn't usually do comedy and really did well with this one. Most notably at least to me, he worked on Altered Carbon which was a Netflix show I really enjoyed. There are some star actors some more recognizable and some not - Luke Evans, the Bard from The Hobbit trilogy does a great job in a charming lead role and Terence Stamp (The Adjustment Bureau) is always fun to see despite playing a brief role and David Walliams, the judge from Britain's Got Talent plays another well acted, brief role in which he is almost unrecognizable! The most important thing is if you're not with it in the beginning, it gets better in the second half! Some twists I didn't expect! Watch it, have some fun!
Watched it a second time and laughed even harder! There are some jokes that fall flat but there are some really genuinely funny bits. Quickly becoming a favorite silly comedy