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Road House (2024)
Run of the mill revenge flick
This movie started off good and about 30 minutes in I was starting to think this was a good movie, then it went off the rails with more plot holes than an 80s porno movie.
This movie misses on any kind of character development, awful cardboard villians, and tries to force in a terrible sub plot with some unrealistic girl in a book store.
Everything that you may have enjoyed in the first movie was gone and replaced with just plain stupidity by the 3rd act.
I only gave this 5 stars for the fight scenes that were pretty good and one or two one liners that landed.
In the end, go watch the original because it's 10 times better than this movie that stole the name in order to get us to watch.
65 (2023)
Boring and predictable
I must caveat this review with the fact that i gave up on the movie about halfway through when I realized I just don't care about the characters and was bored to death.
I'm not sure what was worse, the awful acting across the board, or the most predictable "scare scenes". Adam Driver was absolutely atrocious and completely miscast. He had no chemistry with any of his "co-stars", and looked like he was as bored as we were watching this. You could almost see the light going off in his head to fire his agent for getting him this movie.
The only reason I'm giving this 3 stars is the dinosaur CGI was done pretty well.
Vengeance (2022)
Well written movie without trying to be preachy
BJ Novak should be applauded for this well written and directed movie that sees a self pretentious New York writer/blogger end up in rural Texas trying to find a story, but ends up with new outlook on life.
What I really enjoyed about the movie was Novack's even take on his character that he rarely spun into stereotypes. It first he portrays the Rural Texans as perhaps simpletons since that was the character's view of them as he arrived, but soon he finds out the complexities of the people and the area may be a lot more than he expected.
Without giving away spoilers, a shoutout as to go out to Aston Kutcher who absolutely steals the show in every scene he in with Novack. Throughout Kutcher's line, he give commentary (Novack's commentary) on the world around us, particularly the echo chambers many of us live within our cultural, political, and even Familia confides.
There are genuine heart warming scenes, funny scenes, and shocking scenes. All of which turn what could have just been a dark fish out of water comedy into something just a little bit more.
Not sure why or how this movie is rated so low unless it's getting bad votes from the super hero movie crowd. If you are looking for a good movie that stays away from being preachy, but delivers an interesting message, this is the movie for you.
Bullet Train (2022)
If you don't think too hard, this is a fun movie!
If you are looking for an all-time classic or an Oscar winner, go ahead and look away. If you are just looking for two hours of action with some humor built in, then this might be for you.
Let's start with the positives of this movie. First, it's a stylish movie with the colorful Japanese city and bullet train providing an interesting backdrop despite being mostly shot within the confides of a train.
Next, you have to give credit to some interesting characters, highlighted by Brad Pitt (Ladybug), Aaron Taylor Johnson (Tangerine) and Brian Tyree Harvey (Lemon) and brought home by Hiroyuki Sanada (the Elder).
While the dialogue and direction were certainly trying for a Quentin Tarantino vibe (ok, maybe outright rip-off) they were not up to the par of such movies as Kill Bill or Pulp Fiction. Some of the jokes were fine, but others fell flat, but at the end of he day, you were rooting for at least he four actors mentioned previously to succeed, even if they were all killers or former killers.
The action is non stop and the fight scenes brought some uniqueness to them so it wasn't like the same thing over and over, a downfall of many action fight movies.
While the end of the movie turns into a CGIfest, there was some funny deaths and although you definitely have to suspend your belief in physics and reality for a bit, it did at least come off as at least fun to watch.
So what were the downsides to the movie? Some of the cast choices were pretty odd, non bigger than Michael Shannon who for some reason chose to do a "Spanish" accent on a guy named White Death who lives in Japan. In fact, Shannon looked to be disinterested, and brought absolutely nothing to the main villain which made his ultimate death a shoulder shrug.
Joey King as the young girl on the train was pretty bad as well and they totally underused Andrew Koji. In fact, I'm not even sure why Koji would take this role besides a paycheck.
All those things considered, I liked the movie overall as long you don't try to think at all. Just try and sit back, enjoy the gory violence with a twinkle of one liners mixed in, and just enjoy the ride.
Samaritan (2022)
Bland super hero fare
I wanted to like this movie, but it was just so bland and predictable. Stallone is fine in this, but he doesn't have a lot to work with and there is absolutely no threat to his character the entire film because he's apparently indestructible. In fact , why random henchmen keep attacking him after he's dispatched about 85 before their attack goes beyond any kind of reality.
Sure, there's the twist in the end, but by the time it happens, who really cares? Did it change anything? The "bad guy" Sirus is played effectively by Pilou Asbæk of Game of Thrones fame, but he really lacks any kind of threat to the protagonist throughout the movie.
The kid is just a cardboard copy of every kid in these movies but his run-ins with the "gang kids" led by the dumbest non-scary guy/kid with face tats ever put on screen pretty much some ups this fare.
Heck, even the ending with the overly CGI-d building on fire that would have burned the kid to a crisp was fairly ridiculous.
I mean, if you like mind-numbingly boring super hero far, then I guess this will be up your ally, but I would not recommend.
The Gray Man (2022)
Ok, but unoriginal action flick
If you decide to take your brain off for two hours and just try to enjoy an action flick, The Gray Man will scratch that itch. Ryan Gosling is in prenominal shape and pulls off the quiet, but ultimately caring hit man character. He probably adds a star with his performance alone.
Chris Evans was outstanding as the psychotic bad guy, but the concept behind him being a "Contracter" who failed out of the CIA program is a little farfetched, even for a mindless action flick.
The plot has been seen before and there is nothing very original about the story line, but my biggest problem may have been the cast decisions with the heads of the CIA's operations department. Both Regé-Jean Page and Jessica Henwick were way too young for their positions and seemed like diversity choices vs what would be expected in those roles. The roles very well could have been an African American or a woman's role, but not at their ages. It was just kinda silly how they acted throughout the entire movie as well.
But again, if you wanna take your mind off and enjoy Gossling kicking some butt for two hours, then you won't go away too unhappy.
Burn (2019)
Quirky low budget fare
A quirky low budget fare that finds a way to keep your interest mainly through the performance of Tilda Cobham-Hervey. The script, while underwhelming, was able to build up enough suspense to keep things interesting even as it became less and less believable.
And when I mean unbelievable, I mean unbelievable. This movie is a little bit like driving past a car wreck in that you want to look away, but your curious enough to keeping looking.
Luckily it's a pretty short movie so I stuck around to see how it ended. I thought it was building up to some crazy ending but alas, what we got was very little other than her feeling like someone told her the truth for once.
BTW, if anyone can explain the "biker gang" angle and the scene where they show up and then just leave "to look around for their friend and then come back if they don't find him", please let me know.
This movie honestly had some potential if the writing was a bit better focusing on a "night getting out of control" aspect, but even the whole initial "hold up" was over written an unbelievable.
I'll give it 5 stars because I made it to the end and the fact it found a way to have some suspense even though you never really feel for the protagonist.
The Aeronauts (2019)
Beautifully shot, good acting tried offset the decision to change history
I watched this movie without knowing anything about the situation. The first thing i saw was "Based on true events." As soon as I saw that the woman was going to be the sought after pilot, I kinda figured something was up considering this would be very strange for that day and age.
I ignored it and tried to just watch the film for what it was and overall, I liked the movie for it's beautiful cinematography and though the acting of the main two characters were solid.
Once I finished the movie and then went and looked up the history and that's when I found out that the filmmakers replaced an actual person (a man..gasp) with a woman for no other reason than to make a fake heroine. I could understand if there was a woman who made these trips and they choose to combine them, but when you take actual events such as climbing a balloon to let out air that was done by one person and totally credit them to a fictional character just to make them fit a narrative that you want to force is where I gotta draw the line.
I originally rated this a 7 but switch my rating to a 5 for forcing their narrative instead of being factual. I have zero issues with a fictional story having woman as heroines, but you shouldn't just shoe horn them in while having them take credit for another's actual deeds.
Triple Frontier (2019)
Poor writing and Slow pace doom movie
I wanted to like this movie, I really did. Great cast was limited by some sometimes humorously bad writing. plot holes and general confusion at times.
Started out well, but never gets better. Seemed like the writers just used used frequently used video game action scenes for all of their action scenes.
No character development means you never really care if they make it or not.
Best thing about this movie, the soundtrack and the cinematography.
The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)
Boring kids movie
My son wanted to go see this movie so with trepidation I decided to take him. It ended up being two hours or mostly non-entertaining fare that was more about the CGI effects within the house than anything else.
The story is what I would call hokey, but more importantly, there just seems a be a lack of charm going on this movie. Cate Blanchet's character was probably the best in the whole movie and even she spends 3/4 movie doing little of consequence other than going back and forth with Jack Blacks character with G rated putdowns.
The movie moves along slowly, really at a snail's pace, making you wonder when things were going to pick up. There's really no plat in the movie until at least halfway through and once it's established makes you scratch you head with, "Really?"
As for the acting, Jack Black was ok overall and kept himself calmer than usual, Cate Blanchette was fine, but no offense to the little kid, when he would cry I almost had to laugh it was so fake. I honestly thought he was fake crying to get something from Jack Black but then i was like, "Nope, that kid just struggles to cry act!" Overall he wasn't awful, but I doubt we're looking at a future Tom Hanks.
I guess if you like "magical house" things and that keeps you interested you might like this, but this is definitely one of those movies that I can't think of one scene i'd want to watch again.
Jack Ryan (2018)
Some headscratchers, but a lot of fun!
Although the finale was a bit of letdown, and there are a few headscratchers and plot holes, let me start off by saying I really enjoyed this 1st season.
From the 1st episode, this series grabs you and won't let you go. We started off ready to watch a couple episodes and ended up watching all 8 episodes in a row, a first for us.
Let's start off with the great. Wendell Pierce as James Greer is absolutely the best thing about the series. This is no James Earl Jones' version of Greer, but rather a hard core, smart-assed, veteran field operative who was on his way back down the CIA hierarchy after an incident in Pakistan. He works great off the more stoic John Krasinski's Jack Ryan.
Speaking of Krasinski, he was also very good. He has the ability to be the guy you pull for because he's trying to do good, but he also can still mix it up and be the tough guy when needed.
Ali Suliman and Dina Shihabi were also very good as the main terrorist and his wife. The writing did a good job of not making them one dimensional characters, but the acting by both helped them be believable.
The show also did a great job of not making anything political by creating a fictional President in this "fictional" world of today. I'm always concerned that Hollywood will eventually use a show like this to push an agenda, but I didn't get that vibe as all and seemed to give multiple views of controversial programs like the drone program.
The show was a 9-star show for me until the final two episodes including a finale that left you satisfied, but asking you to take some serious leaps on the reality scale.
******spoilers ahead********
The writing was pretty good overall with a ton of excitement, but after Sulimon is tipped off on the impending US Raid, the show seemed to lose it's way a bit. My biggest problem is with Sulimon deciding to come to America for his biologic attack. I mean, this guy had to be a famous as Bin Laden after he used a video to credit for the Paris chemical attack on the church during a funeral.
He just steals some Ambulances, and walks into the hospital with a bunch of middle eastern looking guys (outside of the Chechen) with no disguises except some paramedic uniforms and we're supposed to just believe no one questions them? On top of it all, why would he bring his 12-year old son to the attack? And when they take his son into custody after killing the middle eastern guy with him, no one questions the two middle eastern paramedics the 12-year old is staring down while he's being taken into custody?
Honestly, that's just lazy writing in my mind. I know they were setting up a Jack Ryan vs terrorist ending, but c'mon, that's a little too much to ask from us to suspend our reality that much.
I wasn't a fan of the Air Force drone pilot taking a taxi from Turkey to Syria to say he's sorry to the family of the man he killed. That was just utterly ridiculous. Honestly, that whole story line seemed forced, out of place, and outlandish.
Lastly, as a Marylander, if you are going to have a crab eating scene, you can't use a Dungeness crab for a Maryland Blue crab. Oh, and military members don't wear hats inside, even the Air Force knows that. ;)
So despite these shortcomings, I enjoyed the show and will look forward to season two.
Bright (2017)
Disappointing movie with so much potential
The concept of this movie had promise, but the overall delivery, the acting, and overall writing was just sub par.
I guess they were trying to say something about racism, but the ridiculous over the top hatred of the orc cop by everyone was almost comical. I realized halfway through the movie that everyone in this movie was a jerk besides the orc cop.
Will Smith looked tired and uninterested throughout the film and never really is very likeable.
They never really explain the whole world as the viewer is not sure if they are watching another world, the future, or something else as a LA-like city has orcs and elves and humans all living together. Blacks and hispanics are given gangster stereotypes and all the cops are just racist jerks and even become attempted murders as one point because of there racism.
I can't tell if this is some kind of social message wrapped up in fantasy, but if it was, it was done poorly and the over exaggeration of the racism against the orc made everyone unlikeble.
The only thing that saves this movie are the elf bad guys who are like super ninjas killers until they meet up with cop buddy duo, then they predictably becomes less lethal.
Hickok (2017)
One of the worse Westerns you will see
Sometimes you take a chance on a movie you never heard of and you find a little gem. Other times, you end up wasting an hour and half of your life like you do when you watch this movie.
It's rare that I watch a movie where the writing and direction is so bad that I actually looked up who the writer (Michael Lanahan) and director (Timothy Woodward Jr.) were for no other reason than to make sure I never watch anything from either of them again. It's almost like the director read the script, knew it was going to suck, then decided to see if he could one up the script by directing a jumpy movie with no flow.
The writing was so bad that you could almost feel the actors not wanting to say the lines. some of the scenes were so stupid you had to actually laugh, like when the bad guys shoot up Wild Bill's house, throw a stick of dynamite in there, then when the dynamite gets thrown out by Bill, one of them goes, "We must've got him!" Sure buddy, most dead guys throw dynamite back.
Then there was the rip off of Gladiator where Trace Adkins' character brings his fiance and son in for a little questioning before eventually smacking them both. The makeup person, who may have also been the director based off the ridiculous "black eye" they put on Cameron Richardson after getting smacked, seemed to want to one up the other ridiculousness by putting on a "black eye" that basically made it look like she got hit by a 2x4 across the side of her face.
And who did the casting? Luke Hemsworth looks nothing like Wild Bill Hickok and I'm telling you, he's definitely the worse acting Hemsworth and that's saying something. Kris Kristofferson has a look on face in every scene like he knows he's just phoning this gig in and Trace Adkins just is not a very believable bad guy. Maybe it's those commercials he does for Wounded Warrior. It's hard to take him as a bad guy and he doesn't have the acting chops to pull it off.
Bruce Dern? His yellow teeth were the best part of his role. He was also involved in one the dumbest scenes of the movie and that's saying something. Hickok tries to distract the kid (who was randomly shot when some guys come into town shooting their guns) by telling him some dumb story while Dern (the doctor) takes the bullet out. It might have made more sense if the doctor actually took the bullet out while the kld was being distracted but no, he waits until the story is over and then the kids screams in agony as the idiot takes out the bullet.
Want to know why the movie gets two stars vs one? There's a nice sunset scene with a train in the beginning that fools the viewer into thinking this movie might be decent, but alas, it's mirage as you soon enough will be inundated with dialog a 10-year old might write for his school play. Oh, and there's a nice side boob scene with Cameron Richardson. That's about it!