thegraydude Reviews

True Detective: Night Country: Part 6 (2024) Season 4, Episode 6

There is Nothing

[1/10 · 19 February 2024]

Despite all the negative reviews of the past few episodes, I really gave this season a chance. I thought it was interesting, I thought it might connect to season one, which it was obviously hinting at, and I found the mysteries to be compelling. My biggest complaint is that nothing really happened for the first five episodes, and episode six does NOT fix this.

The episode is the length of a movie, and I swear, nothing happens. It's just character discussing their feelings and it is so, so tedious, because we've seen this a million times already in this show. This entire show is just characters talking about their feelings. The show has plot, it just won't give it to you, and when it does, it is in short spurts that feel unsatisfying.

The mystery reveal is equally as disappointing. While the first reveal that the lady was killed by the scientists was an interesting reveal, we really lacked the motivations to understand it and appreciate the reveal. All we get is just that the scientists wanted to cover it up to "protect their project", and that motive isn't developed at all. After that, the reveal that a band of women all killed the scientists felt like a punch in the face. The motivation is there, but it really wasn't an interesting conclusion.

If you want to watch a murder mystery similar to this, with equally as important messages about Native Americans issues, but that is 100x better, watch "Wind River" (2017). The film is actually fairly similar to this, but it is far better done and way more interesting, with horrific realism involved. It is basically what this season wanted to be.

My main annoyance is that they purposely brought up all these connections to season 1, knowing it was gonna get people interested in the show, only to have it all not matter. There really was no mystery, there was really no reveal, it was all nothing; a pointless show where characters talk about their feelings and nothing happens.

Antlers (2021)

One of the most dull movies I've ever seen

[2/10 · 31 December 2023]

I'm a Scott Cooper fan. I loved his "Pale Blue Eye" Film. When I saw he made a film about a Wendigo, I was beyond excited, and knew I had to check it out. It has a great cast, great director, and an amazing cryptid from Native American Legend.

However, this movie might be one of the worst movies I've ever seen just because of how unbelievably dull it is.

The cinematography, soundtrack, story, characters, are all incredibly forgettable. Even now I'm struggling to remember what happened in the movie, but I do kind of remember because the plot is so painfully straightforward. NOTHING HAPPENS.

Nothing stands out in this movie, there's nothing to remember it for, besides maybe the creature design which is admittedly very cool but underused. The movie is incredibly predictable and becomes boring because we as the audience already know what's going on with the wendigo before the main characters do, so you have to wait an hour for the characters to figure out what you already know.

Additionally, the dialogue in this film is honestly painful. It's extremely robotic, monotone, exposition heavy, and filled with long, dramatic, but actually awkward pauses. Nobody has any charm or personality that makes them memorable, not even. Even Jesse Plemons, who I love from Breaking Bad and Fargo, is an extremely boring character.

I've seen a lot of reviews stating that the cinematography is good, but it really isn't. The movie looks very pretty, yes, but it's not really well shot and is actually incredibly boring to look at. There's a difference between a visually stunning movie and a movie with great cinematography, for example "American Psycho" isn't a visually stunning and beautiful movie but it has amazing cinematography. In Antlers, there's no variety of shots, there's no dynamic frames, or interesting movement within frames, they're all extremely static and don't have anything interesting happening within them.

Please make a good wendigo movie, I'm begging you. I gave this a 2 star because the wendigo design is very good.

Helluva Boss: Oops (2023) Season 2, Episode 6

Wattpad Level Writing

[5/10 · 11 September 2023]

Not sure why this episode is so highly rated. It has great animation, editing, and good voicework, and seems to be a slight improvement, but the writing is insanely lackluster and seems to be on the level of fan fiction. This entire show we've been wondering why so many of Blitzo's ex-friends hate him, and why he feels so much regret. But that's all undone in this episode, in which he and his childhood friend are captured together (the ultimate fanfiction trope) so that they'll work out their differences. However, there's no interesting conflict here. It's revealed that the "incident" that led the jester dude and Blitzo's sister to despise him was Blitzo entirely accidentally setting a circus on fire and killing his own mom/burning the jester dude. Apparently, Blitzo was never able to talk to the jester dude about this incident for 15 years and this led to them hating each other, but because of this episode, Blitzo explains what happened and magically they're friends again. This episode basically absolves Blitzo of all guilt (even if he feels guilty about it, as anyone would) and instantly solves their misunderstanding. This just feels like lazy writing and a way to make Blitzo not a bad guy, instead of putting in any sort of moral ambiguity. I hate to be that guy who compares everything (and some helluva fans get REALLY mad when you compare this) but take Lackadaisy as an example. In the comic, it's referenced that Rocky was kicked out of his home for some sort of "incident". Later on, it is revealed that Freckle was the perpetrator, but Rocky took the blame, and now Rocky is perceived as a bad guy. While Rocky seems like the hero here, he also is exactly what people say he is, a gangster, unstable, and manipulative person who takes advantage of Freckle and drives Freckle down a path into dark criminality. So while the incident isn't his fault, his current status is. This is interesting writing, and it creates an interesting conflict in misunderstanding. Contrast this with Helluva Boss, where Blitzo has this "incident" in his past that turns out was just a freak accident, that somehow took him 15 years to resolve with his old best friend. And now it's resolved instantly. It's just lazy writing.

Another thing this episode does is it continue to undermine its villains. This show has no intimidating villains, and when you have an interesting villain team up in this episode, both villains are insanely incompetent and pose no threat. How are we supposed to have reoccurring villains if they never have any sort of victory or chance at winning against our protagonists?

TLDR: The villains are weak in a "captured together" fanfiction trope episode that also has the "guilty over past accident that others blame him for" fanfiction trope that gets resolved instantly because this show can't handle conflict.

Helluva Boss: Exes and Oohs (2023) Season 2, Episode 3

A very well done episode that's brought down by its third act

[6/10 · 11 July 2023]

Exes and Oohs is definitely one of the better episodes of season 2 without a doubt, with wonderful animation, coloring, and a coherent story that feels like a good mix of both episodic storytelling and some more lore info. I don't really care that much for Moxxie's tragic backstory, but it does reveal why he doesn't stand up to Blitzo and adds some interesting details on his insecurities.

However, when you might expect this episode to finally give Moxxie an arch and have him stand up to his father (which he does, in a wonderful sort of 3D shot), he is instantly punished for it and becomes a "Damsel in distress" so that Millie can instantly save up and effortlessly save everyone. Not only does this remove the character development for Moxxie, but it also makes Millie feel like a shallow character designed to effortlessly destroy any threat that's built up in the episode.

The final fight, while visually appealing, is also pretty bad. The choreography is so quick that it is impossible to tell what's going on, and there are multiple weird cuts and animation errors within the fight that they probably thought would be hidden because of how incoherent it is.

Another note is that Moxxie and Blitzo seemed to have developed a sort of stronger bond after the masterpiece "Truth Seekers", where Moxxie revealed his insecurity on being good enough for Blitzo and Blitzo being insecure that one day Moxxie will have enough and abandon him. That subtext SHOULD be in this episode, since it reflects Moxxie's insecurities, but that opporuntiy for Blitzo being able to reflect on how Moxxie's father treats him is a huge lost opportunity.

Overall, while this episode is more funny, well animated, and coherent then many of the other season 2 episodes, earning it the 6/10 rating, I had to remove 4 stars due to the lackluster writing in the end and the overarching story, and the horrible ending fight scene.

Helluva Boss: Unhappy Campers (2023) Season 2, Episode 5

Better than the last episode, yet endlessly confused

[5/10 · 10 July 2023]

I was not a fan of many of the season 2 episodes, especially "Seeing Stars" and "Western Energy". They felt extremely rushed, bizarre, and inconsistent. So it is really great to say that this episode was not that, it was actually really beautifully animated, edited, and was coherent.

Not only this, but the general plot idea of this episode is one of the better written episodes of the show. Episodes like "Western Energy" and "Seeing Stars" have confusing subplots that have nothing to do with each other and feel out of character or random and meaningless. This episode has two subplots that actually converge at the end, making it feel fairly satsyfying (Even if the set up was pretty bad, we never see Blitzo's sister before the twist)

But, while the episode is well written in how the plot develops, this episode is so weird and confused.

One notable trait for Moxxie is that he's oftentimes way more mature and smart, even if he's bullied and quiet. So why do the writers put him in a bizzare storyline where he is insanely jealous of his wife's popularity at camp, making him childish instead of the only mature one?

The storyline at camp is so bizzare and feels like Moxxie and Millie lose multiple braincells to act like little kids for the joke of the episode.

Additionally, a common complaint for season 2 was that Millie got nothing to do and was just an unstoppable character to save Moxxie occasionally (like how all of Moxxie's development in standing up to his father is destroyed when Millie single handedly saves him from capture)

You can't deny that she doesn't have "more to do" in this episode, but just like Moxxie, it is so bizzare. Millie never expressed an interest in being famous and like Moxxie, she feels far more childish in this episode, since all she suddenly cares about is her fame at a summer camp and not Moxxie's feelings, which was often what she prioritized in one of the most healthy relationships in the show. Because of the "conflict" they have, their relationship is briefly at stake until Moxxie helps save it.

However, it's hard to care for the conflict when both Moxxie's and Millie's issues are so childish and stupid in this episode. In a great episode like "Ozzie's", Stolas and Blitzo have realistic, well written conflict that resonates with the audience.

Now, the conflict between Millie and Moxxie doesn't have to be depressing like Ozzie's, but it also doesn't have to be this overly bizzare and childish.

Blitzo's plotline is fine, just some more lore additions I guess. It doesn't help the complaint that we're getting too many new characters and not enough returning characters to help out the overarching story, which I'm beggining to agree with (though maybe it's for the best, since Western Energy rode on that concept and was terrible)

Overall, I thought the episode was very well animated and the story structure was FAR more cohesive, but the actual story with Moxxie and Millie was pretty bad, and this episode feels dumb at times.

Helluva Boss: Queen Bee (2023) Season 1, Episode 8

An enjoyable, if flawed finale

[7/10 · 25 June 2023]

I am one of the many people who dislike a lot of season 2 so far, due to the directing, editing, animation, and especially the writing. So to see an episode of season 1 is a breath of fresh air, since it's actually good! There is a HUGE contrast with everything I just mentioned with this episode and the most recent season 2 episode.

For starters, this episode looks AMAZING! The colors that go from blue, to yellow and red, really make the episode be one of the best looking episodes in the entire series. The animation is almost always on point as well. Again, a stark contrast to how rushed and unfinished a lot of season 2 looks.

The characters here are enjoyable, I liked Queen Bee a lot as an addition, she doesn't seem to be a super one-dimensional character like a lot of the season 2 additions and is actually fun to watch. I wish the whole center for furries was explored a little more in the worldbuilding but it's fine honestly.

What is odd about this episode is why is this the finale? It doesn't really feel like a finale especially after the last episode. It literally feels like a normal episode that doesn't really have much plot.

My other gripe with the episode is some story inconsistences, like how the episode kind of just "happens" with no set up, it just begins at the party with no context. The characters also act inconsistently, with Loona calling Blitzo to pick her up, as she wants to leave. Then out of nowhere in the same scene, she now is convincing him to stay at the party. I get that they wanted to write Blitzo into the situation, so why not do it in a better way instead of making Loona randomly switch up, like have him be a concerned father like he always is and be tracking her down to this party where she could get hurt, leaving her to have conflict with him over doing that, and its in character for both of them!

Besides that fairly minor complaint, I enjoyed this episode quite a bit and found it funny.

I've also noticed something in the credits for the episodes, and this might be why season 2 is worse-received. Most of the good episodes in season 1, like this episode, and Truth-Seekers are written by Brandon Rogers, whereas a lot of the episodes in season 2 that are controversial like episodes 2-4 are written by either just Vivienne or "Adam Neylan" and Brandon Rogers is just for the story. I think that might be part of the issue, Brandon Rogers is an amazing writer and I feel like they could use that talent again, possibly.

Helluva Boss: Western Energy (2023) Season 2, Episode 4

Another bizarre, inconsistent and incoherent episode

[4/10 · 21 May 2023]

Disclaimer: I am a huge helluva boss fan and loved the first season. I haven't enjoyed season 2 as much, especially the episode "Shooting Stars", but I did enjoy the episode after that.

However, while this episode isn't the filler mess that Shooting Stars was, it's also pretty bad.

The plot for this episode is essentially the catalyst to why it's bad. Blitzo is taking Loona to the vet to get shots, but Stolas gets kidnapped by an assassin, who was hired by his ex wife, and so Moxxie and Millie set out to save him.

Firstly, why does Blitzo and Loonas storyline even exist? It adds nothing to the episode and is just akward since Loona's VA clearly wasn't able to make it. It would've made far more sense for Loona to stay behind like last episode and have Blitzo more involved or doing something else. I think it would be better if Blitzo had gone to save Stolas, since it's revealed at the end that he does care about him, but doesn't??? It's weird.

Also, the plotline with Stolas and the assassin makes no sense. The assassin for some reason captures him and takes forever to kill him so that at the last minute, he gets called off the hit in a cliched way. It's lazy writing and it doesn't make much sense.

Then we get to the tonal inconsistencies... I mean, this episode cannot figure out what it is. Nobody treats Stolas's situation seriously, despite the fact that he is literally being tortured and dying. While comedy mixed with darkness works amazingly when done right, this episode doesn't know how to do it. We cut from Stolas being brutally tortured to a slapstick of Loona trying to not be vaccinated while also not being able to talk.

Finally the editing. This episode has some of the worst editing of the series. While it isn't nearly as hard to follow and over stimulating as Shooting Stars, it also has extremely abrupt cuts, incoherent fight scenes, and scenes that are just generally hard to follow. There are also numerous scenes that aren't important and that aren't funny.

I WANT this show to be good, I loved the first season and I just want to see it being good again. Don't take this as being too cynical.

TLDR: this episode is another one that is extremely hard to follow, with huge tonal inconsistencies, and two bizzare storylines, one of them being totally bad filler (Loona's).

Mr. Robot: eps2.1_k3rnel-pan1c.ksd (2016) Season 2, Episode 3

The most underrated episode of the series

[10/10 · 22 March 2023]

This episode is phenomenal. I remember not enjoying it that much on my first viewing, but on rewatch, this episode is SO GOOD. It involves a storyline with Elliot that, admittedly doesn't add much to the overall plot, but really gives us some entertaining fighting for control with Mr. Robot and some great trippy sequences. I also LOVE the opening scene with Romero, it's one of the series' best. The opening titlecard is also one of the best, with the amazing shots of New York that, in Mr. Robot fashion, are unconventional. Fsociety's plotline is fine, Angela's is pretty great. I love the scene with her and Price in this episode, once you know what happens later on, this scene makes a lot more sense. This episode also fully introduces Dom, and she's great. I just overall love everything this episode does.

Mr. Robot: eps1.9_zer0-day.avi (2015) Season 1, Episode 10

A build up for season 2, and a resolution to the characters, not the story.

[10/10 · 5 March 2023]

I'm not sure why this episode gets so much backlash. I loved this episode the first time I watched it, and even more when I rewatched the series. If you think about it, this episode really begins a major arch in the series where we don't know where Tyrell is and what happened the night of 5/9. This arch lasts about 16 episodes up until season 3 episode 3, so this really isn't a season finale story-wise. I would argue that s1 ep 9 is much more of a season-finale plot-wise. It's easy to see why, this episode barely moves the plot along, but it really does work for building up the next season. I guess because I watched this when all the seasons had already come out it didn't bother me as much that the story wasn't progressed. I thought the way they did the characterization and build up was great, it builds up that fsociety will now be on the run and that Darlene will take over as leader, it builds up that Angela will start a relationship with Price and become even higher-ranking at E-Corp, it builds up the massive 5/9 crisis, and it builds up Elliot's mental breakdown and how his dynamic with Mr. Robot will work from now on, which is an amazing resolution to this episode.

I LOVE the ending of this episode. The last 10 minutes or so are some of my favorite television ever. I think that Elliot having a complete mental breakdown is a brilliant way to end the season. After all this chaos he's gone through in about 2 episodes, him finally giving up in this massive spectacle created by him and only saying "I don't know what I'm supposed to do" is BRILLIANT. It makes him feel insanely human and interesting because we never really see Elliot break up until this point. He's constantly spiratic and has his thoughts disordered, sure, but having him go through a complete silent breakdown is pretty cool and insane. The last montage as he walks home is a 10/10 scene, especially knowing that the police answered the door (which is brilliantly foreshadowed by the opening scene).

Just an overall amazing season finale that perfectly sets up season 2 while giving us some great character work. Doesn't deserve the hate.

Mr. Robot: eps1.5_br4ve-trave1er.asf (2015) Season 1, Episode 6

One of the series best episodes

[10/10 · 5 March 2023]

This episode is really interesting to me. Is is a rare almost "one-off" episode that doesn't focus on the main storyline, but instead focusing on a much more personal battle between Elliot and Vera. I like how this episode ups the stakes, as before in the show there wasn't much risk of violence, this episode introduces a lot of guns and threatening and such. The other storylines are used well in this episode, Tyrell gets a few great scenes, as well as Angela getting to interact with Elliot's plotline despite not knowing what's going on, I thought that was great. This episode feels like an intricate game and therefore is very engaging, with new twists and opportunism being discovered by Elliot, and in turn, us, along the way. The ending of this episode is absolutely iconic as well, amazing direction.

Lake Mungo (2008)

A brilliant mockumentary that is existentiallly terrifying

[10/10 · 12 February 2023]

This film deserves far more praise than I see it getting on here. Lake Mungo is one of my favorite horror films of all time and I think it deserves a ton of analysis and such because there's so much to love about it and read into.

To all the reviewers that complained about plotpoints leading nowhere, I suggest you try to piece together the main mystery yourself. This film purposely leads attention away from who the murderer is. The first half of the film explores more of the murder, the second half more explores the supernatural. The murder is actually fairly easy to solve and I believe the brother did it, as he has random bruises appear on him which isn't mentioned ever again but could be aqquired from drowning a person and acts very suspicious (like faking her ghost).

Besides the interesting murder mystery side, the supernatural side to this film is absolutely brilliant. It's insanely creepy in the way that the ghost is done, especially the shots that continually hold on her distorted face. This movie uses bad camera quality to it's advantage, especially in the infamous doppelganger sequence, which scared the living daylights out of me on my first viewing. That sequence should be endlessly analyzed as it is a perfect jumpscare scene.

Once you realize the full story and you understand that the ghost remains (as seen in the final picture) you realize how depressing and existential this film is. The family believes that the daughter wanted them to find the recording of the doppelganger but never think to solve the murder, leaving the daughter to haunt the house forever.

What really makes this film brilliant is how the documentary tricks you. The documentary is wrong, that's what you need to realize when watching this movie. There is a story and the documentary doesn't cover it accurately. They skip over vital details like bruises appearing on the brother, they don't question him nearly enough, they gloss over the murderer towards the end and give the film a false sense of hope when we can see that the ghost remaining contradicts that.

All in all, this film is just amazing all around and extremely interesting to me.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022)

The best animated film of the past 5 years

[10/10 · 15 January 2023]

This film is extremely entertaining, hilarious, but also intriguing and can be genuinely intense. It has some very dark scenes and a surprising amount of violence, which is complimented by a ton of great dark humor (mostly brought on by John Mulaney's character). The characters are all very well developed and fleshed out (everyone has backstories for example), many of them get satisfying archs. On the technical side, this film is incredibly animated and every frame looks gorgeous. It has a unique style on the animation that really makes this movie its own, and it doesn't feel like a rip-off of spider verse to me at all. There's a ton of detail and symbolism to analyze with this film as well, especially in the battle scenes between Puss and the Wolf, which have a ton of interesting details and moves (as far as a cat vs a wolf goes).

I always complain about finales in animated movies being underwhelming, but this movie had an amazing finale that is not too short or too long, has some amazing battles, character archs, and satisfying moments (also the setpiece they use is AWESOME)

This movie is great for kids and adults. It's just that good.

Glass Onion (2022)

A disappointing sequel ruined by its ending

[5/10 · 14 January 2023]

I'm a huge fan of the first film which I think is a perfect movie in all ways. As a sequel, this film just can't live up to it.

Firstly the characters in the first film had a balance of realistic and comedic which made them feel unique and the entire family felt alive and filled with personality. In glass onion, the characters aren't nearly as compelling and often feel too comedic and not like real characters.

Secondly the mystery here is pretty lackluster and anticlimactic. The killer is very easy to figure out and while there's an unpredictable element to the mystery, it doesn't affect the main killer or anything.

Thirdly, I did not enjoy the third act. After a very interesting twist and a flashback that sets up the third act, there's a bunch of gaps in logic (one featuring a book) and the film ultimately ends in a very silly way that isn't nearly as satisfying as the first film.

Overall, the film doesn't have good characters, has a predictable and overly simple mystery, and a stupid third act.

The Bad Guys (2022)

Visually fabulous and highly engaging, but lacking any sort of depth.

[6/10 · 10 December 2022]

Firstly, the animation is absolutely phenomenal. I'm glad to see more companies are utilizing the spider-verse animation style instead of the overused pixar look. Also, this film has a really strong speed that makes the film very entertaining and engaging, especially the first act. It knows how to grab your attention and keep it for the entire runtime. However this film lacks any serious amount of depth in any of its characters or script. While this surpasses Disney/Pixar in animation, humor, and overall enjoyability from me, I think Disney/Pixar is still better at making something that also contains depth and often some really emotional moments. This film's extremely quick pace is part of the issue, as it rushes scenes that could've used more depth. I think this movie should've kept its first act as is, but slowed down in the second act and maybe add more to the overall script. I think the runtime should've been maybe 10 minutes longer.

Mr. Robot: eps1.3_da3m0ns.mp4 (2015) Season 1, Episode 4

Carried by Elliot's plotline

[9/10 · 24 November 2022]

This episode is 100% a masterpiece on rewatch, at least when it comes to Elliot. Tyrell and Angela's subplot is fairly dull like the rest of the early episodes, but Elliot's is a standout. The dream sequence is probably one of the best trippy sequences I've ever seen, with the best part being when the song "Queen" by perfume genuis comes in. Besides that, this episode has a phenomenal soundtrack. I don't understand the low rating though, I loved this episode even on my first watch, I understand that some people don't enjoy Anglea's and Tyrell's plot but my god Elliot carried this episode wonderfully.

Smile (V) (2022)

Great direction and a solid script watered down by lackluster scares and an underwhelming ending

[5/10 · 24 November 2022]

Smile has good cinematography, great sound design, great acting, and a good script that keeps you entertained. However, I expected this movie to lean into the uncanny valley a little bit, considering that the premise is built on a sinister uncanny smile. Instead the scares in this movie are mostly just predictable jump scares. The only scare I thought was somewhat effective was basically a retread of the grandma ghost from Hereditary. Along with this, the third act to the film is problematic. This happens to a LOT of horror movies built on the ideas of a curse like The Ring, where there is an obvious solution but the protagonist doesn't reach it out of stupidity, and the ending, while certainly unexpected, wasn't very satisfyingly and it was honestly abrupt. The entire third act was overly long and didn't make much sense, along with some annoying CGI.

Overall, I hope this director gets to make a less-generic project that is perhaps a little more scary because I really liked the direction and look of this film. High praise to the director here, not as much to the screenwriter.

Helluva Boss: Seeing Stars (2022) Season 2, Episode 2

A terrible episode of a great series

[2/10 · 24 October 2022]

I've enjoyed and loved every episode thus far, but man, this episode really bugged me. There have been fast paced episodes in the past, but this was just exhausting. There is constant stuff happening and insanely quick transitions, you never get a moment to breathe. Non of the story beats make very much sense and everything happens too quickly for there to be any sort of impact.

I liked the idea of this episode, contrasting Loona and her dad with Octavia and her dad but Loona and Blitz didn't really do any connecting in this episode. Instead Blitz goes on a random subplot where he goes on a talk show and has PTSD and starts just murdering people in front of the cameras all for a dog which disappears a second later. The other subplots didn't matter at all and were just insanity for the sake of insanity.

This episode felt like an acid trip and needed to stop overusing quick camera movements, fast transitions, and needed to slow down. I did find some bits funny though, but this episode was honestly a terrible one from a normally great series. It felt like fanfiction of helluva boss and there was no pacing at all.

Barbarian (2022)

Starts off amazing and genuinely frightening, ends as a badly written comedy

[7/10 · 24 September 2022]

This film does many things right, but it mainly has an absolutely incredible first act. It is very well directed, uses horror clichés to make you think one thing, and is smartly written. We follow two characters, as the guy is made to seem like a creepy person trying to lure the main woman into her demise. This is all instantly subverted in the ending of the first act when he goes into a weird passageway, and is found running away in a panic saying that "someone bit him" and a terrifying tall woman brutally kills him in front of the main woman.

After this we get a fairly good second act where we follow the owner of the house, having been accused of bad things and trying to make money, discovering this hidden passage and wanting to use it for profit. He too discovers the weird lady down there and gets trapped with our original woman lead from the beginning.

We then cut to a flashback in a different aspect ratio depicting the house many years ago right before Detroit hit it's insane decline, where we notice the owner of the house creepily eyeing a woman.

This flashback is when the movie becomes problematic for me, this flashback seems like it'll be revisited but this is all we see. It does add slightly more context, but is really just a guy walking to a store and back, not actually more insight on what he was doing to these woman in the house.

We then cut back to the present where the main lady manages to escape and gets the cops, but she follows the ultimate cliché of making herself sound crazy and not saying the right thing. If she said to the cops "Me and another guy went to this air bnb, you can see our cars right here, we both got kidnapped, he's dead, there's another person trapped in there, and I escaped through that window" they would HAVE to investigate, instead she says all the wrong things. This movie went from subverting clichés in its first act to relying off them.

The guy accused of bad stuff gets the opportunity to escape and finds an old man (the guy from the flashback) living down there, and finds VHS tapes of him doing presumably horrible things, but I was a bit disappointed as we never get to see what is on these VHS tapes. The old man then shoots himself, leaving the other guy with a gun.

When the woman goes back to find the guy in the basement, she gets shot by him on accident, but they end up escaping and are helped out by a homeless guy from earlier in the movie who is aware of the presence of this weird lady. Turns out this lady is some sort of incest weird animal thing that the old man created from lots of testing, and this is when the movie tries to become very campy.

The old man thinks he knows a safe space but gets attacked and killed, another big cliché, (also why was he the only one staying around the area if he knew this lady came out at night) and then the accused guy conveniently drops the gun, leading to him sacrificing the woman so he can hopefully escape. This doesn't work and he gets killed, so apparently that character development from earlier of him trying to help people meant nothing, he just only cared about himself in the end. The woman then shoots the lady and the movie ends.

Like I said, I like the pure terror you get in the first act, and how scary some of the second act is. But the third act can't figure out its tone. I like campy horror movies, X for example was great, Malignant was great, but this one felt off. It didn't have the proper character development and had a lot of plot holes.

I do think this was an entertaining movie, I probably just wouldn't rewatch it, unlike a movie that I think fully rewards rewatches in a similar subversion type way like Parasite, Malignant, etc.

Ozark: A Hard Way to Go (2022) Season 4, Episode 14

What were they thinking?

[1/10 · 19 September 2022]

This entire series is about the moral compass of the main characters, and the entire series we have been hoping that they would get out of this life of crime and choose the right path. So why make them villains all of a sudden?

There is no message here, there is no pay off, there isn't anything besides shock value and a rushed conclusion. Jonah for example never seems to be ready to do anything wrong throughout the series even if he had an itch to kill in defense in the first season. It is set up that he will finally be able to forgive Wendy for Ben's killing, but suddenly he's okay with killing an innocent man by the end. This character change makes absolutely no sense.

And then there's Ruth... Now I think it would be fine if Ruth died, I would be very sad about it, like Ben, but her death here is utterly insane. She acts like a character from an 80's slasher movie by walking up to a suspicious car with no weapon and then gets shot, pay off, nothing. She stands up for herself yes, but she has done that the entire series, nothing different. The fact that Marty just lets this happen is also insane. Why? This finale is SO INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING TO ME. Why do they all become evil all of a sudden? This isn't what we've been building to. What a waste.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part II (2022) Season 1, Episode 2

Downright stupid, but entertaining.

[4/10 · 1 June 2022]

The actions taken in this episode make no sense. The editing is terrible. The dialogue is very cringe. Certain scenes just make absolutely no sense. The villain is uninteresting. But at least it wasn't as bad as the first episode, due to it having better pacing.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: Part I (2022) Season 1, Episode 1

Boring, Stupid, Unnecessary.

[3/10 · 1 June 2022]

I'm all for dialogue heavy action light pieces, but somehow Disney always makes their shows super boring. Nothing here is interesting, it doesn't add much to the star wars lore, the acting is passable at best and there are tons of gaps in logic. Go back to the Mandalorian because clearly Disney is incapable of hiring any better writers.

Mission: Impossible (1996)

Clever But Sometimes Boring

[7/10 · 3 March 2019]

If your looking for a action-paced thriller you won't exactly get it. The camera work is dated, and there are hardly and fight scenes. However, the plot is still compelling, while on a smaller scale than the other films, and entertains in certain scenes. The whole movie isn't really that intense, but you will enjoy it if you love spy thrillers.

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Much Darker But Still Entertaining Threequel

[8/10 · 3 March 2019]

The Third mission impossible is an improvement upon the "Not worth watching" MI2, but it still suffers from plot issues. The story isn't nearly as compelling as the first, but is still more of a personal Mission Impossible. It went with a ton of action, using shaky camera movements (Which I hate, BTW), and is much more serious than the first two. It is worth watching, with some really tense moments.

Mission: Impossible II (2000)

Cheesy Action Flick, But Well Done Action.

[4/10 · 3 March 2019]

Mission Impossible II Doesn't live up to its predecessor's potential, and takes a new turn. Instead of being a tense spy-thriller, it decides to be a cheesy action flick, with Tom Cruise flipping every five seconds and over the top explosions, fights, etc. However I will say the car chase at the third act was entertaining, even though its ridiculous scenes and uninteresting plot doesn't make it worth it. Finally this movie uses masks way to much. They used them a few times in the last one, but they overuse them way to much in this. Not worth watching.

Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011)

This Movie truly lives up to its Name as another "Mission Impossible" Movie.

[9/10 · 3 March 2019]

This film has well choreographed action, a understandable and compelling story, and nice dialogue. You will be entertained throughout, with its tense moments and shocking plot-twists.