byanoski Reviews

Silicon Valley (2014–2019)

Great!

[9/10 · 7 April 2014]

Great pilot episode. I love entrepreneurship, silicon valley and that whole tech culture so I was really excited about this show. I was very impressed with it. Lots of laughs, really accurate to the geek world of programmers and the characters are normal. They aren't glorified in any way which I really like.

They really mimicked places like Google and other huge tech companies with the world of "Hooli" a tech company with a CEO that the whole entire company looks at like a savior, much like the obsessions people have about Larry Page, Elon Musk and Steve Jobs.

I'm looking forward to future episodes on this one. I've never been a fan of King of the Hill but Beavis and Butthead was awesome and of course Office Space is brilliant. I think Mike Judge has another hit on his hands for sure.

Inception (2010)

Beyond Brilliant

[10/10 · 18 July 2010]

I was beginning to think there wouldn't be a good movie in 2010. I was wrong. This is it. Honestly, this is probably one of the best movies in the last five years.

This film is not just an action movie, but a thriller, a romance and a drama all intertwined into one. The visuals are one thing but the script is phenomenal. Everything from the very beginning to the very end all makes sense and comes together in one finely crafted work of art. This film is most definitely a work of art.

The acting is fantastic as well. Leonardo puts on another great performance as always and some of the cast you aren't used to seeing in a movie such as this make it what it is. Ellen Page, who we all know from Juno, took an entirely different role and made it her own and she nailed the part. Her part in this film was crucial to its success. The last I had seen of Joseph Gordon-Levitt was Brick in 2005. I had not seen any of his other movies since then. Brick was another really smart film that he played so well. In Inception, although he had few lines compared to the other actors, his persona was so great that it was awesome just to see him on screen.

Few movies have been released of this caliber and I think Nolan is going to be remembered as one of the best directors of all time because although he has made few movies, they have all been amazing. This is no exception.

Go see it...and don't wait until it is out on DVD or Blu Ray. This movie HAS to be seen in theaters.

Splice (2009)

Unbelievably Terrible

[1/10 · 5 June 2010]

I am stunned that so many people on here are giving this high reviews. I assumed of all sites this one would give what this movie truly deserves...a 1/10.

I went into this movie with no expectations. A few friends of mine were going to see it so I tagged along. I hadn't heard anything about it except that it was something about genetic engineering, which intrigued me as I am interested in the advancement of genetic engineering.

I will start off by saying that this movie is very predictable. As an independent filmmaker myself, I could already picture how they were going to open up the movie by just watching the intro credits. It opened with a first person view of something looking up at a group of doctors. What used to be a great first shot is something that is way overdone.

Now when I saw that Adrien Brody was in the movie I was pretty excited because I have always respected him as an actor (until this film). He played a scientist with what seemed to be his girlfriend (maybe his wife, they never established whether or not they were married). They worked together in the lab to develop these "spliced" blobs that could be used for medical miracles in science...artificial proteins created from animal DNA.

They then decided to risk it all by splicing animal with human DNA. This created this animal/human hybrid that grew at a rapid pace, had lungs that could breathe underwater and could even fly. It also had a tail with this pointy thing at the end of it. Quite a complex combination of who knows what. This was another drawback...the "girl" just didn't make sense. She was part human and part like 3-4 different kinds of animals.

The idea was great but it fell way short. The dialogue in many areas was pretty awful with the most generic lines ever seen in a movie. For example, as predicted the brother of Brody and their boss shows up and the brother steps out and says something like "I had no choice". I saw this scene coming the moment the brother found they had a human/animal.

There was even a scene after Brody did something that took him from being a great actor to being a nobody in my book because anyone that would accept a scene like this has got to be out of their mind. I will commend them for this scene because half the audience turned their heads in disgust and the other half burst out laughing about how absurd it was. From then on the movie was nothing but a huge laugh. The whole theater was laughing...it went from a sci fi thriller to a comedy pretty quickly.

Probably the best part was the ending...because it was finally over. Overall I would tell everyone to wait for this movie on DVD because it isn't worth your money in the theaters unless you want to watch a comedy. It had a ton of potential but wasn't presented in a believable way.

I did however enjoy the opening credits...they were very well done. It' a shame the rest of the movie could not have been the same caliber as the opening credits.

Paranormal Activity (2007)

Fantastic Independent Film

[9/10 · 11 October 2009]

I would highly recommend reading the story behind the making of this film. It is great to see how this has become such a success for something done with a mere $15,000 budget.

The movie was good, but I can't say I got scared until the last 15-20 minutes. That is when it really amped up and scared you. I don't watch many horror movies because 90% of the time they're plot less and stupid. This did have a plot and had some meaning and wasn't focused around gore to make it "scary." This was a film that used genuine scare tactics to frighten the viewer and I commend them for this.

The last bit of the movie is worth watching the whole thing because I guarantee you won't expect what is coming.

Also, something else ironic, at the very end, you'll notice them mention a date of October 11th, 2006. It just so happened that I went to see this movie on October 11th, kind of ironic!

Lady in the Water (2006)

Great!

[9/10 · 1 February 2007]

M. Night Shyamalan is amazing. I myself do films as a hobby, at age 17, I can't really say it's a profession or anything but I work a lot on creating movies/films. If someone were to ask me "Who is your favorite..." my answer would probably be M. Night Shyamalan for both writer and director. He's brilliant. I've seen all of his movies, except for, ironically, The Sixth Sense. Each movie I've seen, although some not as good as others, were great for the way it was done. Plot's aside, the composition of each scene, the angles used, the acting expertise and his trademark of including himself in every movie...it's great. I can't say that there is another person in the film world that is as talented. Steven Spielberg is great, I love his movies, but they're all too Hollywood. I love Jerry Bruckheimer as a producer, he's one of the best but again too Hollywood.

M. Night has this way of making a movie look great while not making it too "Hollywood" and I love his work for that.

This movie continues this tradition, it was composed well, and has an excellent story with great acting, great composition and more. It's well worth watching.