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The Blackening (2022)
This film is like POTATO SALAD with RAISINS
This movie is should have and could have been a more enjoyable experience, but the 'raisins' in this potato salad were off putting and greatly diminished the enjoyment.
GOOD (potato salad) :
- a few laugh out loud moments
- genuine chemistry between the actors
- passionate believable acting
- relevant satire
- talented cast
- a few 'sprinkles' of positive black history
BAD (raisins):
- black characters constantly use the offensive "N" word (both with hard "r" and with soft "a". Totally unnecessary and distasteful.
- constant reinforcement of negative black stereotypes (always looking to get high/drunk, no vocabulary but constant profanity/always loud and combative)
-poor judgement in making light of some of the more sensitive racial elements, although most satire was relevant and funny.
I am sure I am not alone in wishing they had not filled this movie with the N word and made the characters always loud with nasty mouths and trying to get high. They could have made the black satire work and be funny without those things. Not all black people identify with those things and consider those things a part of "how we are".
But with that being said, I look forward to the young talent in this film maturing and learning and in the future producing films with better overall quality and more substance, without relying on offensive stereotypes for humor.
Family Camp (2022)
Really Enjoyed This Movie!
At first I was concerned that this movie might feel too long. I thought a runtime of almost two hours might be a bit much for a 'campy' comedy.
But Family Camp did not disappoint. The actors had natural chemistry, and I experienced genuine laughter. It is rare these days that actors are able to deliver the comedic spirit of a film to the audience without senseless profanity, vulgarity, or sexuality.
This film had none of that and was enjoyable throughout. It also had some useful life lessons and relatable family dynamics that the audience is sure to be able to draw something from.
SPOILER HERE:
I ALMOST subtracted one star from my 10-star rating due to the over the top 'husband guilt trip' at the end. But what the heck, even with that, it was still a great movie. And there will be many husbands/fathers who can relate to that scene, though it would not apply to everyone.
Definitely worth the watch for any family. 10 Stars.
Me Time (2022)
Shameless Vulgarity with No Screen Value Added
Although ME TIME did offer a few scattered giggles for those in the mood for comedy, the film's comic value was offput by the unnecessary crude and vulgar elements that stained the already shaky screenplay.
A movie with this type of plot doesn't have to be Oscar-worthy to be enjoyable. It can have a silly plot and some flawed dialogue and still be gobbled up by the audience as long as it delivers the promised low-stress comedic escape. In fact, most people don't expect as much 'fine art' on screen when they are just looking forward to a simple relaxing time of laughter.
However, when a producer feels the need to sprinkle totally inappropriate and at times even despicable crude elements into scenes involving children, and thinks this somehow adds to the comedic value, then they are horribly misguided and terribly mistaken.
A few scenes in question were shameful and embarrassing to watch considering there were child actors involved. I can't believe even K Hart thought this would be ok and would come across as harmless humor to a general audience.
So 3 stars from me, just for the few giggles that did emerge. But the other negative elements make the film too trashy to retain its intended value.
Kolskaya sverhglubokaya (2020)
If "Alien 3" and "The Thing" had a baby - but with issues.
SUPERDEEP has an interesting enough plot, and an engaging screenplay, but the execution of it all is where this film falls short.
Although not original, my interest in how the plot would play out is the only reason I watched this entire film. However there is something amiss with the acting and directing and their chemistry (or lack of).
Almost all of the main actors seem as if they are struggling to speak coherently. The cadence of their sentences and phrases is so slow, it is annoying. It is like there are unreasonable and unnecessary pauses between each phrase in dialogue, causing a 15 second chat to stretch out to 2 minutes. The entire movie could have been about 25 minutes shorter if they had just TALKED FASTER and without so many unneeded pauses. This seems to have been an issues with direction and not an editing snafu.
Unfortunately, it also seems the slow awkward disjointed patterns of dialogue in this film are part;y to blame for the storyline becoming somewhat convoluted and murky at different points throughout the film. Some key elements could have been setup so much better, and some backstory info should really have been better explained to the audience.
Also the soundtrack was strange and annoying at times, and the weird music was not a good fit for tor scene/scenario. It was like an obvious 'cringy' attempt to make a scene appear more profound than it was by under-laying it with strange music that did not seem to be mixed well.
There was also some unrealistic science, but in my opinion that wasn't a major flaw in this film.
Without the above stated weaknesses, Superdeep, would actually have been a very good.thriller/horror. But alas, with all of its potential, the less than average rating this film has earned is a fair and accurate one.
Nancy (2018)
100% Drama. No suspense. No horror. No point.
Nancy is not a bad movie to watch if you are expecting to watch a drama about a woman who perpetrates identity fraud on strangers online, but who actually feels somewhat lost about her own true identity and where she really came from.
But if you are expecting suspense or thrills, an exciting plot, a shocking twist, or dynamic ending, don't hold your breath.
Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
I ain't gonna lie, they had me in the first half.
This movie was actually good for the first 51 minutes. It kept me engaged and in suspense, wanting to know what would happen next. The introduction of the sci-fi element was actually intriguing and I was interested to see what would become of it.
Then suddenly, much to my baffling amazement, the entire movie suddenly takes a complete nosedive (pun intended) into a death-spiral of mind-boggling absurdity. The shocking departure from reality hit me like a punch in the gut. I was so shocked and in disbelief that I almost turned off the movie.
And by 'departure from reality' I am not referring to the sci-fi element which was totally acceptable for this movie, but I mean suddenly at about 52 minutes the most unrealistic scenes began to occur on screen, and I do mean laughably unrealistic.
The things that happen from this point are not only highly unlikely, but they would be utterly impossible and are not in the least believable, and although they are obviously intended to make a certain character seem 'strong and heroic', they are so absurdly unrealistic that I was insulted that the writers would put me through that.
Although woefully distracted by the shocking sudden dissonance of the plot, I proceeded to finish the movie to see if the plot would ever regain it's former integrity. Alas, it did not. To the every end, it was cartoonishly detached from reality, and not deliberately so.
Even as I am writing this review, I am still in shock and awe at how bad a turn this film took. I watched it mutate from gripping science fiction to a ludicrous hard-to-watch creation born from the imagination of a kindergartener. The first 51 mins would easily have earned 8 or 9 stars from me, but from that point on it barely gets a weak 2 stars, with a total of 4 stars overall for me. So disappointed.
The Dark (2018)
An Atmospheric Allegory about a Disturbing Topic.
WARNING SPOILERS:
The dark uses a "horror" veneer to tell a story that would otherwise be classified as a drama. In fact the assigning of a "horror" genre to this film is indeed itself a brilliant part of the allegory, because the very subject of child abuse and recovery from trauma is its own version of horror for those that experience it.
"Mina" is introduced as an undead, heartless monster, roaming the woods, hunting and feeding on victims that she traps by setting spikes in the road to flatten their tires. Through flashbacks we learn that Mina was molested repeatedly by her mom's boyfriend, and that her mom was at least somewhat aware of the abuse. When Mina decides to try to fight the boyfriend, he beats her in the face and head, disfiguring her, and then takes her outside to bury her alive. She rises later as a scarred, angry 'undead' zombie, and begins a rampage of violence and murder to any she can trap in the woods.
But the story behind the allegory is of a young girl becoming an emotional-less, heartless, bitter, violent monster after suffering horrible sexual and emotional abuse. Unable to feel sympathy and compassion. Trapping people who get close to her, abusing, murdering, and disposing of them, using their remains to satisfy her strange appetite, an appetite that only exists because of the horrible circumstances she had previously survived.
When she meets "Alex" and begins to feel compassion for him, she instantly begins to "heal" and become less 'undead', emotion-less, and devoid of compassion. The scars and discoloration of her skin even begins to heal and she slowly returns to human-like form again, until finally by the end of the movie, she is once again, her old self.
This part is an allegory shows the damaged, emotionally and psychologically injured, "monster" of a girl beginning to find healing and the ability to care again. The more time she spent with Alex, the more her "humanness" returned to her
Alex himself was blind in the movie, not born blind, but having been blinded by his captor. This is the allegory of a young man unable to see how to escape his abusive captivity, and even having been brainwashed to the point of believing it was his own fault that his abuser had robbed him of his sight.
A very powerful drama hidden under layers of cinematic suspense, much the way the true heart of an abused person can be hidden under layers of trauma responses and defense mechanisms that are not really their true self.
Kate (2021)
Jane Wick
Good story. Yes similar plot lines have been done before, but MEW does a superb job of bringing her assassin character "Kate" to real life. You actually believe she is the person you see on-screen, and by the time the credits roll, you find yourself saying "Wow, that was good."
Be ready for raw graphic fight sequences, both with guns and with close hand-to-hand combat.
Doubting Thomas (2018)
Why are you villainizing Tom?
The plot was interesting enough I thought. Sure the acting was somewhat stiff, but the most APPALING element of this movie is how Tom (who is white) was villainized by the other characters to the point he felt the need to apologize profusely and beg for everyone's forgiveness for becoming suspicious and upset after his pregnant white wife gave birth to a black baby.
Keep in mind, their close family friend/colleague, Ron, is black, and he frequently makes himself at home at Tom's house even when Tom is not there. Also keep in mind Jen (Tom's wife) regularly spends time alone with Ron and sometimes talks to Ron about things she "can't talk to Tom about ".
These factors alone are more than enough to make any normal person suspicious, but then when the apparent 'explanation' for the black baby is finally revealed in the movie, Tom is suddenly villainized by both his wife and his friend Ron, and he's treated like a pathetic insecure lowlife who should be ashamed of himself for suspecting infidelity between the two of them.
This is LUDICROUS.
I am a black man, but I feel no sympathy AT ALL for Jen and Ron. If I had been Tom, I would have been EVEN MORE LIVID than he was. He had EVERY RIGHT to be furious and suspicious of Jen and Ron. The baby was born BLACK!?!
How could no one understand why Tom was upset? How could Jen act so 'hurt' by Tom's suspicions?
How could Ron act so 'offended' by Tom's questions? Any reasonable person would have felt the same way Tom did in that situation. I surely would have.
And by the way, we see in on scene, Jen and Ron appear to actually kiss on the lips one day while having lunch together without Tom. So there's that.
Tenet (2020)
A Dizzying Mental Obstacle Course That Will Require Multiple Viewings To Be Able to Appreciate.
The it frustration of you sense experience make reading and this movie sentence this is follow the to same trying frustration experience you will will you experience frustration trying same to the follow is this sentence movie this and reading make experience sense you of frustration it the. (reverse entropy?)
TENET was to James Bond and Mission Impossible films, what a knock-off Luis Vuitton bag would be compared to the real. It looks a LOT like the 100% genuine piece, but there are certain fine details and compromises in workmanship that make the knock-off fall short of the quality of the authentic piece.
A 2.5-hour film should not feel like 2.5 hours when the viewer is immersed in the story, kept on the edge of their seat as they follow the twists and turns of the plot and find a resolution to the actions, dialogue, and motives of the characters.
But while watching TENET I felt every minute of that 2.5 hrs, and I found myself wishing the movie would go ahead and be over so I could go try to read something to help me understand what I had just watched. The director did not invest enough time and patience into deliberately breaking down the plot science so that viewers like you and me who appreciate story immersion could at least be able to comprehend what we were watching without feeling confused and left out of the loop.
This feeling of confusion and being 'lost' created an aggravating distraction from the movie experience. Even the car chases, fight scenes, and gun battles did not compensate for how the movie's fuzzy execution robs you of immersion.
When you also add that the actors' lines could barely be heard most of the time, and they hardly parted their lips to articulate their words, which made it a challenge to even read their lips when you couldn't hear their lines.
Overall I give 5 stars for the valiant effort to create an epic sci-fi blockbuster. And with more time and effort invested from the directors and editors, it very well could have been, but instead, it fell far short as a noisy complicated, convoluted rough draft that needs someone else to go back and do it better.
Term Life (2016)
Incredbile Waste of Talent... but at least they all got paid.
The $16.5M budget for this film boasts the large number of high caliber actors that make up the cast, but the $250k worldwide box office gross is the shame of the poor quality with which it was made.
In case you're wondering, "How could a film that includes the likes of Vince Vaughn, Hailee Steinfield, Terrence Howard, Bill Paxton, Mike Epps, Tari P Henson, Jonathan Banks, Jon Favreau, all together in the same movie be such a bomb at the box office?" Well...Here's what you need to know.
***MILD SPOILERS AHEAD***
1. PLOT SLOPPINESS: The marketing draw of the film is that a crook who is being hunted must stay alive at least 3 weeks for his life insurance to kick in for his daughter. However its almost like the writers and director totally forgot that this was the plot.
It is only scripted one time near the beginning of the movie, after Nick (Vince) discovers someone might want to kill him. We see Nick go and purchase a policy that will take 3 weeks to go into force, but then...that's it. As the movie continues, we never know if days have passed or weeks, or if the 3 weeks is almost up. NOTHING. Its like they forgot they even said it.
2. WEAK DIRECTING: There were many times throughout this film that I wanted to yell "CUT! Say that line again with more passion." But alas, I am not the director. Even with high-aliber actors, most scenes in this film were lacking chemistry. The actors said their lines, but they needed quality directing to bring chemistry to the human interactions and the plot flow.
Since this was lacking, this mood of the story was inconsistent and unbelievable. You almost never believed the characters actually even felt or thought the things that were coming out of their mouths. It felt like they just said their lines and went home for the day, never really becoming the characters they were playing.
3. UNREALISTIC ADOLESCENT SCREENPLAY:
-Nick, the Heist Peddler, meets with the Cartel Leader's son to discuss a potential heist IN THE MIDDLE OF A CROWDED RESTUARANT WITH NO PRIVACY, and discusses obviously criminal detaIls with a loud normal voice, as might be expected in a crowded cafeteria/restaurant. Ridiculous.
-The 'gun fight' scene at the brickyard looked like some kids throwing spitballs at each other. They were literally ten feet apart, shooting at each over bricks, and somehow not hitting each other or the bricks. Might as well have just been tossing insults at each other instead.
-There is NO WAY you would get me to believe that a High Stakes criminal who is being hunted by the head of a Drug Cartel and who believes his daughter's life is in danger, would continue driving the SAM CAR that the Cartel has already identified as his, and then spend 75% of the movie OUT IN PUBLIC strolling through neighborhoods and amusement parks with his daughter, as if they are out for a Sunday walk. No one fearing for their life would do these things. Unrealistic and unbelievable.
4. POOR EDITING: There is an entire scene where the dialogue is spoken in Spanish for about 2 whole minutes, with NO SUBTITLES OR INTERPRETATION. What were they saying? Why was he frowning? Where are they going? I DON'T KNOW BECAUSE THERE WERE NO SUBTITLES. We kept waiting for subtitles to pop on screen so we would know what the characters were saying. They never came. It was laughable. Cannot believe that was not handled in post-production.
Overall it seems the actors did the best they could with their roles and scripts. Unfortunately, it was the under-performance of the other professional aspects of the film that caused it to be such a bomb.
The Dustwalker (2019)
I feel like I don't deserve my eyes after watching this movie.
How could I do this to myself? How could I allow myself to watch a movie this bad? Is this a manifestation of a deep-rooted self-loathing that I have not addressed?
I am almost half a century old, and I have seen a LOT of movies in my lifetime, but this was THE #1 WORST movie I have ever watched to the end.
The acting is so horrible that it seems the characters themselves don't even like this movie...and they're the ones in it! Have any of them ever had acting lessons? I am convinced the producer just picked random people while walking through the grocery store one day and asked them to play these parts, and they said "Sure, why not."
The plot is nonsensical and incomplete. It's like someone just taped all the scenes together with Duck Tape and forced it to be a movie against its will.
This movie is so bad that it is protesting against itself. It doesn't even want to be a movie.
It feels mistreated and abused, and it is still harboring anger and resentment against the producers and studio for forcing it to be a movie. It never even wanted to be made, but they made it anyway, and now this movie is ashamed of what it has become.
It knows it's not its own fault, but yet it still feels guilty and dirty for becoming a movie, and being seen by actual people. It's just that bad. So bad, in fact, that the movie itself has become depressed and traumatized, and is now a troubled film with lots of baggage to work through.
I hope no one ever does this to another film. I hope no one ever again picks random people from a Wal-Mart parking lot, shoves a script into their hands, and then records their lines on film 3hrs later. I hope no one ever again writes a screenplay while under sedation lying on the operating table waiting for surgery. I hope my eyes and brain forgive me for watching the entire 90+ minutes of the abomination.
I honestly meant well. I thought it would get better. I thought there would be some big twist, reveal, or climax that made the initial mind-numbing torture of watching the film a fair and reasonable price to pay, but alas, there was not.
I have violated myself by watching Dust Walker, and I hope I can live long enough to forgive myself for this. But one thing is for sure, I will never do that to myself again, because I love myself too much.
And for everyone reading this review, my hope for you is that you will love yourself enough to not watch this film. Skip it, if not for yourself, then skip it for your children, and for your children's children. Why add more embarrassment and shame to this movie's shattered self-image. It already feels horrible for being what it is. Please do the right thing...and never, ever watch it. I beg you.
I See You (2019)
Pay close attention from the opening scene to the very end.
Cannot believe this movie was not marketed better, and that I have not seen it before. It is much better than some of the currently better publicized more popular high-budget 'thrillers' recently in theaters. If you enjoy a good mystery/thriller with suspense and twists, it is DEFINITELY worth your time. You won't regret taking the time to watch it. Just make sure you pay close attention to the details, and don't make up your mind too quickly about what you think is unfolding before your eyes.
The Invisible Man (2020)
A gripping Sci-fi premise with highly effective tension ratcheting, tainted with non-stop unrealistic human behavior.
This INVISIBLE MAN would have been an excellent thriller bringing fresh suspense and edge-of-your-seat tension to the big screen, but you can hardly enjoy the movie due to the blaring non-human-like responses made by almost every character in each 'frightening' scene. Only one character performed with genuine emotion that truly reflected what was happening onscreen, and that was Sydney Lanier (Storm Reid). Other actors reacted to their circumstances in a totally unrealistic manner. None reflected the type of behavior, reactions, or even reflexes that a normal person would have had in that same situation. This weakness in the screenplay was so blaring, that it was a distraction and greatly subtracted from the positive traits of the movie.
Here are just a few examples of unrealistic human behavior that did not reflect how a normal person would have acted in that scenario. WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD!
1. Cecilia has taken EXTREME measures to meticulously plan her middle of the night escape from her dangerous husband, in Mission Impossible fashion, down to the very last evasive detail. Yet when she gets to the very last step of her escape, instead of simply walking out of the open garage door, she decides to stop and talk to the large family dog and waste time trying to remove its tightly latched proximity collar, which results in the dog bumping the car and activating the noisy car alarm. NO REASONABLE PERSON TRYING TO ESCAPE WITH THEIR LIFE WOULD HAVE DONE THAT.
2. Cecilia is in the house alone in the kitchen, and thinks she hears a noise, and turns around to notice the front door chain has been removed and the front door is wide open. It is freezing cold outside. So what does she do? She takes a short stroll outside the mysteriously wide-open door and just stands there like she is about to take a smoke break or something. NO REASONABLE PERSON WOULD HAVE JUST STROLLED BLINDLY OUTSIDE INTO DANGER WITH THE DOOR WIDE OPEN. (This scene was obviously just written that way so they could show the invisible man's breath in the cold air.)
3. Cecilia hears the sound of Adrian's vibrating phone coming from the attic and she decides to climb up the ladder to investigate the dark attic...by herself...WITHOUT CALLING ANYONE ELSE FOR HELP BEFORE GOING UP.
4. While in the attic, she finds his phone, and a butcher knife, and a set of keys. She then suspects the invisible man is waiting below on the ladder, so she tosses a can of paint downward and terrifyingly discovers that he is. She then, with two phones available, decides to jump down out of the attic to the floor, and try to pursue the invisible man with the butcher knife...INSTEAD OF TRYING TO CALL FOR HELP FROM THE SAFETY OF THE ATTIC WITH ONE OF THE TWO PHONES IN HER HANDS.
5. Cecilia visits her sister to discover that someone has sent her sister an ugly email and made it look like it came from Cecilia. Her sister accuses her and slams the door in her face. She spends only about 2.5 seconds trying to defend herself, and then just leaves. NO REASONABLE PERSON WOULD HAVE LEFT WITHOUT INSISTING THE EMAIL DIDN'T COME FROM THEM.
6. When she gets home, she logs in to her laptop and reads the ugly email that was sent to her sister. She breaks down crying and lies on the floor for hours. SHE MAKES NO ATTEMPT TO CALL HER SISTER AND PLEAD HER INNOCENCE.
7. While Cecilia and her sister are sitting in the restaurant talking, a butcher knife begins to float in mid-air next to Cecilia's head. The sister sees it and just sits there watching the floating knife and NEVER REACTS TO IT OR SAYS A WORD ABOUT IT.
8. After the invisible man murders Cecilia's sister with the butcher knife, he immediately places the bloody knife in Cecilia's right hand. SHE NEVER TRIES TO DROP THE KNIFE OR LET IT GO, OR MOVE AT ALL! SHE JUST HOLDS IT FOR ABOUT 45 SECONDS, LONG ENOUGH FOR EVERYONE IN THE RESTAURANT TO SEE IT AND THINK SHE KILLED HER OWN SISTER.
9. WHAT RESTAURANT ON EARTH PROVIDES A GIANT BUTCHER KNIFE AT THE TABLE instead of a steak knife or dinner knife?? THEY HADN'T EVEN ORDERED ANY FOOD!
10. When Cecilia is in the hallway at the mental hospital struggling with the police officers, the invisible man attacks and injures 4 police officers. Officer number 5 runs up on the scene, after having witnessed officers 3 and 4 being literally knocked around by some invisible force, AND HE DECIDES TO JUST STAND THERE AND POINT HIS GUN WAY DOWN THE HALL AT CECILIA, WHILE YELLING "STAY DOWN CECILIA" 7 TIMES???
11. At the mental hospital, Cecilia attempts suicide by jabbing a sharp pen into her wrist, and then pulling in downward, tearing the veins. After that... NO BLOOD? NO AGONY? NO MEDICAL EMERGENCY? NO NO DYING? WAS SHE ACTUALLY A CYBORG??
12. At least 10 characters throughout the movie are physically assaulted by this invisible assailant, and these people just stand there and stare into blank space. NOBODY YELLS, SCREAMS, PANICS, OR CRIES FOR HELP DURING THE ATTACKS?? ARE THESE PEOPLE EVEN HUMAN??
The list goes on and on, but I believe this is enough to show you the frustrating 2-hour pattern on unrealistic human behavior that ruins this movie experience. The INVISIBLE MAN would have been so much better if the characters had at least reacted to their circumstances with genuine emotions or reflexes that any reasonable person would have shown.
Future (2011)
Dumbest most senseless movie ever.
Not even an abstract meaning behind the nonsensical plot and screenplay. Utterly horrible.
The Silence (2019)
A promising "A Quiet Place" prequel, but these plot blunders won't let it be great.
Gave this movie 5 stars just for the valiant effort of establishing a prequel to A Quiet place, but science fiction aside, there are several nonsensical directoral blunders that are difficult to ignore;
SPOILERS
1) Why on earth would the mother and fretful baby exit the train and slowly walk toward where creatures may have been resting, fully exposing themselves to obvious risk and almost certain death?
2) After the military brother crashed and rolled over in his SUV trapping his leg, Stanley Tuccis character really said "Call an ambulance"?? Really??? Did you forget that quickly that you were just stuck on a Hwy in gridlocked traffic?
And EVEN IF the ambulance could get through the gridlocked traffic (which they could not) how are they gonna find you on that off road secret trail detour you took to get where you are??
And EVEN IF they could find you, the entire plot premise is that any loud noise triggers attacks from the creatures, so then there's that.
3)After the crash when they hike and finally arrive on foot at the gated property, you mean to tell me the woman who lives there is the only person on Earth who has no idea these creatures have the entire country in a panic??? So she comes barging out of the house weilding a shotgun and yelling at the top of her voice "Get off my land!"??? Not even asking who this family is and what they need?? And not trying to keep her voice down to avoid noise???
4) After the crazy loud shotgun lady is attacked by the creatures, you are able to just crawl through the huge drainage pipe and enter the yard easily because even thought the property has 8ft locked fences, somehow both gates at both ends of the drainage pipe, big enough for a human to crawl through, were unlocked????
5) The creatures have only been terrorizing the population for a matter of weeks, yet this strange cult has formed and the cult leader has cut out his tongue???? Does anybody else realize that cutting out your tongue won't silence you because your vocal chords are where sound is produced???
Again, I really like the attempt to provide us a prequel to A Quiet Place with this movie. Nice try and could have worked with more careful directing, but unfortunately these preposterous plot blunders are too loud to ignore as you try to enjoy The Silence.
Cuando los ángeles duermen (2018)
90 minutes of horrible decision making.
Such a parade of dumb decions can only occur when deliberately written into a script. There is no way the events in this movie would have progressed in real life the way they did on screen. The horrible decisions were incredibly annoying.
However I did endure the entire movie because I was curious to see how the plot would wrap up. Overall, I don't regret watching the film, but I certainly would not be interested in watching it twice, nor would I recommend it as an enjoyable movie.
Tenderness (2009)
Not meant to be entertaining. Watch to understand, and it will be crystal clear by the end.
TENDERNESS is a brilliantly done movie, and I would certainly watch it again.
But be warned, it is not a popcorn film to sit down and enjoy with the family, expecting to laugh, smile, and be entertained.
Rather it is a very serious film that marches boldly down a dark and twisted path while shining a candle of insight, allowing the viewer to vicariously experience a very tragic and painful journey that has resulted from exposure to unrelenting abuse, ignored cries for help, and suffering mental health that has slowly and painfully degraded over time and is now in crisis.
You must pay attention to what you are watching onscreen in this film. The writing will not come right out and bluntly tell you exactly what is unfolding, but if you pay close attention throughout, you will discover in the end that everything you needed to know was, in fact, revealed along the way.
Watching TENDERNESS is like assembling the pieces of a puzzle without knowing beforehand what the finished picture should be. But by the time you are done, you sit back and look at the finished picture, and easily recognize what it clearly is.
One point of brilliance is that the plot is so perfectly paced and developed, and the screenplay so skillfully arranged, that you cannot possibly receive the full impact of the plot until you see the final scene of the movie, but only after having watched everything that transpired along the way.
It is only the twist of this final scene that will bring every preceding detail into crystal clear focus, and fully reveal the meanings and purposes behind everything you saw and heard up to that point.
After the final credits have rolled, you will be left stunned by the reality of what you just witnessed, feeling helpless, wishing you had known in the beginning what you now realize at the end, and that somehow you could have done something about it.
I recommend you watch this movie. Not with popcorn, candy, and soda. Not expecting comic relief. Not to unwind or decompress and escape the everyday hustle and bustle of life.
It is not that kind of movie.
It is a very serious film, that allows you to become a fly on the wall of a stranger's trauma, witnessing an unspeakable crisis unfolding right before your very eyes, and it leaves you feeling empathetic and helpless because as you reflect, you can think of 100 ways you probably could have intervened, but by the time you fully understood what was happening, it was too late, and you were powerless to change anything you had just witnessed.
Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)
Waaaaaaaay too many F-Bombs. About 20 minutes too long. Also silly and goofy.
I enjoyed the original Kingsman, but this one was disappointing.
The amount of repeated unnecessary uses of the F-word was not only distasteful and offensive, but just downright annoying. The excessive, over-the-top, profanity was not at all entertaining. It was instead an un-ignorable distraction from any remaining entertainment value the film hoped to possess. Such intelligent, highly-trained, and refined 'gentlemanly' characters, unable to utter two consecutive sentences without the F-Bomb...poor judgment by the script writers.
Also this sequel could easily have shaved off about 20 minutes of silliness and vulgar crude attempts at humor that were more of a turn-off than an opportunity to laugh. There were also random rogue scenes that left gaping plot holes with no follow-up after that particular scene was over.
I read in the trivia that the original cut of this film was 3hrs and 40 minutes. Really? Who does that? It was finally edited down to 2 hr ans 21 minutes, which was still too long. If you removed all of the gross, vulgar, profane, silly, goofy, random, or preposterous filler content, you would easily have a prime cut of premium Grade-A Kingsman Spy Entertainment movie in under 2 hours. I would rather have enjoyed a better quality Kingsman film with a shorter run-time, than have to swallow all of the useless junk in this film just to finish the movie.