hopeseekr Reviews

The Beach (I) (2000)

Bad story carried by beautiful scenary and 3 good actors

[6/10 · 4 August 2024]

Leonardo DiCaprio, Rush (from Stargate Universe) and Tilda Swinton carry this movie with several intense acting scenes worthy of praise.

Especially in the first 2/3rds of the movie, the aesthetics of the amazing scenary make this movie amazing.

Unfortunately, the moral of the story occurred in real life to this very island: It is now permanently ecologically damaged because so many hundreds of thousands / millions of people visited it in the 25 years since this movie came out (finding out about The Island because of this movie) that the reef has been destroyed, the ecosystem collapsed, and the beach permanently polluted with human waste, suntan lotion, and other toxic trash and chemicals from the (literally) unwashed masses.

Thus, it goes full circle.

Overall, the storyline of this movie leaves much, much to be desired and was very weak.

Tyler Perry's Divorce in the Black (2024)

Best movie of 2024 for me

[10/10 · 13 July 2024]

OK, maybe it's because I (a man) lived in a horribly abusive and toxic relationship for 7 years myself. I know how useless protection orders are. I've had the ex break into my house, stalk me for months after. But this movie is great! When I saw 4.4 stars, I was like, what?!

Seriously, watch this. This crap happens. I thought all the actors were great! It's not too over the top, I don't think. This stuff really does go on, especially when the damaged partner suffers from Narcissism.

The antagonist in this film exhibits many of the characteristics of a man suffering from Narcissistic Borderline Personality Disorder, and is more of a PSA filled with a lot of dark and actual humor. Very well done!

R.A.D.A.R.: The Adventures of the Bionic Dog (2023)

Nice try, but RADAR is a Mary Sue

[4/10 · 27 September 2023]

I saw this yesterday in a cinema in New Cairo, Egypt.

Paul Wilson as Dr. Van Hook was the best live action cartoon villain ever! And made up all of the movie's funny moments. Without him, it'd be a 1 star. His henchman also did a great job, and the best parts of the movie are the two of them interacting hillariously.

The others acting was very subpar, except for the henchman, who was great.

R. A. D. A. R. Became a legit Mary Sue. Every time, the dog had some additional supermanesque power be revealed, solving every problem easily and without effort, including a really stupid stunt in the end.

Phony (2022)

Started out good, then major wokeism

[2/10 · 21 January 2022]

The first part, where they are showcasing how men basically have to lie about height and other things in order to get dates was spot on with my experiences and others, and I thought it was doing a good job as a social commentary on how honest, sincere and authentic men who are under 5'7" have a terrible time dating.

Then it morphed into something completely different and became woke. And became progressively more woke until the final second. If it was a satire of wokeism, it kinda worked.

Replicas (2018)

The Most Positive Sci-Fi Movie in Forever!

[10/10 · 13 January 2019]

This movie is *phenomenally* awesome if you step outside of the plot and look at the utter implications of it! Stuff I just can't go into because of spoilers.

But if you, like me, are both looking forward to and helping bring forth the mid-2030s / early-2040s and can deal with a not-so-actiony plot in the first three fourths of the movie and have an above-normal intelligence, YOU ARE GOING TO LOVE THIS MOVIE!

It's how Johnny Depp's Transcendence movie should have been scripted!

And John Wick is a bad-ass in any universe he's in, even if in this movie he is "just" a computer scientist / biohacker (like me!).

If you like Westworld and / or Altered Carbon because of their philosophy and tech, you should really enjoy this!

Altered Hours (2016)

Amazing take on time travel!

[7/10 · 5 April 2018]

I have -no- idea why this movie is ranked so poorly!

For low-budget Sci-Fi films, this is top tier and has an engaging storyline, likable characters I can relate with, and doesn't dumb things down too much.

It has great rewatchability. I wonder how all the nay-voters would rank Primer?? Especially the only other reviewer who said "the storyline is confusing." Um, this movie is **definitely** geared towards the genius spectrum.

Curvature (2017)

The Worst Time Traveler Movie

[3/10 · 25 February 2018]

Without giving away any real spoilers, this is the worst time traveler movie I have ever seen (which is probably the vast majority of them). Even the time-traveling building miniseries was so so much better than this. If this is all they could do with time travel, well, then they definitely do not deserve the tech at all. And good riddance! Do you really want these same folks mucking with the timeline?!

The Mummy (2017)

Great movie!! A Must-Watch!

[8/10 · 10 June 2017]

This is SOO SO SOOO much better than the original Mummy movies! Tom Cruise *killed* it!

This is one of the best thrillers I've seen in a few years! It's pretty non-stop action, the writing is very good, I REALLY got into all the characters, and I even empathized with the bad guys ;P

I stayed totally conflicted throughout, even til the ending credits on whether the "good" or "bad" guys should win, and, yes, I was very satisfied at the end :-)

I'm really waiting of the second movie!! This is SOO SO SOOO much better than the original Mummy movies! Tom Cruise *killed* it!

Hardcore Henry (2015)

Amazingly Awesome!!! New Genre!

[10/10 · 7 April 2016]

This movie is INSANELY awesome!!!

If I could rate it a 20, I would, just from the shear story telling, character investment and novel first-person POV, not to mention all the video game tropes, puns, and long shots!!

At least 90% of the movie are long shots, that's how well it was directed!

It contains a LOT of elements from Counter Strike, Modern Warfare, Half- Life 2, Portal and Mirrors Edge, so if you like those games, you should absolutely love this movie!

It has a LOT of gore in it, so I wouldn't recommend it to the squeamish, but if you're a high-octane true-blooded alpha male like myself, you should absolutely love it!

Subconscious (I) (2015)

Very Tedious C-Movie Shipwreck

[1/10 · 9 March 2015]

This was a very tedious movie. I checked it out because it had a 5.8 out of 10 rating, with just 16 people voting. I figured even if it were a 4 out of 10, it'd be OK for my purposes.

Alas! After the first 30 minutes, it dove off a cliff in terms of entertainment value and acting charisma. I have seen fantastically better performances from high school drama teams. Frankly, the soundtrack was a 4 out of 10, and I enjoyed it a lot better when the people weren't talking. The dialog *really* sinks the movie with the sub.

I cannot recommend this movie, however, I hope at least the actors and actresses got a semi-decent paycheck for their part. At least that'd be something good to come out of this shipwreck (pun intended).

Automata (I) (2014)

Weak, rehashed, poor acting

[4/10 · 13 October 2014]

I love Sci-Fi movies. I usually rank them a lot higher than the IMDb average. But this movie? I could barely give it a 4 out of 10.

The first half felt forced, but I gave it the benefit of the doubt: character building and all that. But by the second half, my date fell asleep against my shoulder, and my roommate and his girlfriend left us to hit the bar early.

I sat there waiting, just waiting, for some action, some meaningful plot, a reason to empathize with *any* of the characters.

I left the movie with a deep sense of malaise at having wasted two hours of my life. The movie was so utterly devoid of entertainment value, with the exception of a few deep philosophical insights, that I'd prefer the magazines in a waiting room.

The Lake House (2006)

Good acting, bad character development

[8/10 · 16 June 2006]

I loved all the actors in this movie except the younger brother. Sean from Nip/Tuck and the Old Man from the X-Files were pleasant surprises. The story really did move me but so much effort was spent on build up to the climax that I feel much was lost. Only two or three times did I really feel connected to the actors.

In the end, I liked the story a lot but I just couldn't shake the feeling that there was so much missed potential. Without giving any thing away, just think of all the things that could be done with a veritable contact two years in the past (or future). Think Superman, think scientists, think Hollywood, think Reality-Shattering discovery that what we do affects the past and future; and just keep thinking.