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Reviews
Lessons in Chemistry (2023)
Good for what it is
A romantic drama mixed with lots of social commentary of the US in the 50's. It was a white men's world with women and racial minorities subjected to all types of abuse and discrimination. The show is predictable in it's portrayal of the sort of characters we're all familiar with. Nevertheless, it is an enjoyable and interesting watch. Just one side note. Whomever made the choice to include the voice of a dog as the mutt ruminates, was a complete dope. A talking dog, really? It sounds like something their 8-year-old came up with at the dinner table. Such a cheesy story telling technique. You have to be a real hack to sink to that.
Banggwa Hoo Jeonjaenghwaldong (2023)
Dumbest bunch of HS seniors you"ll ever see
I have a hard time believing these are HS seniors about to enter college. I hope real South Korean teenagers are not this helpless. The girls are stronger than the boys. The episode in the prison was all I could take of these idiots.
At some point even the weakest kids should understand when your back is to the wall you do what you need to do to protect yourself and your people. I mean, what's the point in aiming weapons at people when you don't have the nerve to shoot. I started to root for the aliens after that episode. Kids in the US are a world apart when it comes to self-preservation. At first I thought maybe this is supposed to be comedy, but there is too many drama and loss of life. Then I tried to understand the kids as all a bunch of nerds who've been sheltered all their lives. Even given that generous take one would have to believe at some point basic human survival would enter into the picture. Not these kids, They remain in their little kid world, refusing to acknowledge their world has changed and so they need to change.
Peaky Blinders (2013)
Teenage girl gangster series
What could have been a gritty gangster show went off the rails in the first season as it turned into a romantic love story with the gangster stuff as a backdrop. What a jip. I can't figure out who gets hired to write this cheesy crap. I call it a gangster series for teenage girls. One thing you can be sure of, once a show gets fixated on the love story, it will become predictable as hell. I don't know why this show gets such good reviews. At best it's a middling show with one dimensional characters whose next line you know before they say them. It's a show with weak secondary characters. Tired flashbacks. The worn out bad guy whose really a good-hearted good guy, if only he hadn't been traumatized in the war. Yada yada yada. By the time you get to the end of season one if your still interested it's because you can't find anything else to watch.
Barbarian (2022)
If What Then
At some point in every horror movie we all say the same thing, how stupid can they be to...or, why didn't they just..., We all know this is a necessary ingredient in the scary sauce, but it's just so unbelievably stupid that anyone could be so unbelievably stupid. The question then becomes, can we overlook this and enjoy the movie. Well, sometimes yes and sometimes no. This is one of those movies you can enjoy despite how dumb it is, watch it to the end, and then file it away as what it is; a stupid horror movie that is worth sticking around for until the end. If you care to look deeper into this film, you can find some social critique on the abandonment of neighborhoods and white flight as a cause, and a scene where the cops are portrayed in the way many people have come to view cops. Over aggressive when unnecessary and completely useless when actually needed. I would recommend this movie for a saturday night pizza flick.
Vengeance (2022)
Up Up Up then stumble and fall
The main character arc was interesting until the end when it hit a 90 degree bend and fell flat. At the start of this film I thought, oh my god, they are going in swinging. I could imagine many people being offended
by the condescending flavor of this movie. There were some cringe moments that I had to steady myself for, but fortunately they were brief and not over the top. B. J. Novak leaned hard on the emotionally challenged, selfish character he played in the Office. It almost made the ending believable, almost. It was gratifying to see Ashton Kutcher in a role that played to his strengths for a change, instead of falling back into cueless hero or charming goofy guy. I would watch this just for his performance, however brief. All in all not a lot new here, but I did appreciate some of the more thoughtful insights even though the characters were rather shallow the story was creative and interesting, right up until...
The End.
Nope (2022)
Good story bad directing
JP is probably a nice guy, and he is a great storyteller, but when it comes to bringing the story to life with actors he seems lost. How old was Keke's character supposed to be. She seemed to be either a child or an adult on drugs. Daniel's character seemed to be suffering from overwhelming depression, the reason of which is never explored. In short, the two actors were given poor directing. There was no nuance or subtlety which made them both appear one dimensional, cartoonish. It's a shame because they are booth good actors. The flashbacks seemed forced and haphazard. The editing was almost college level. I'm sure this was a good story on paper and in the hands of a good director and a good editor this film could have been something special, instead it's just a bad movie.