cregox Reviews

Lucy (I) (2014)

still spreading 10% rumor in 2014?!

[1/10 · 31 March 2020]

I literally gave up the movie songs 20 minutes in when Morgan Freeman said "10%" but i did spend another half an hour skipping to try and understand what Benson was trying to say.

since the first scene, it's clearly a philosophical movie. and the second one sets the tone for the action and timing. but the attempted science in it is completely intolerable and unreliable. it ruins the whole experience.

there is, still and indeed, an interesting philosophical question about the meaning of life. i say question because the movie does claim to answer it but it actually barely scratches any real answer. it's just spoiled beliefs around what's time and life.

reason i give it 0 stars is because of wasted resources. so much potential thrown away. if you want a good action philosophy, try Matrix or Deadpool. there aren't that many action movies that can do philosophy... but this one just hit a hard rock bottom!

The Escort (2015)

terrible story but still a great film

[8/10 · 5 July 2017]

the reason this flick gets such a low average rating is probably because the story is very weak. a dead horse beaten to death repeatedly. way too much covered by mainstream movies.

meanwhile, almost everything else is flawlessly done here. okay, maybe not the best performance by all actors, but this doesn't really impact how we can enjoy watching it.

good timing, chemistry, jokes, bashing pseudoscience, you're never hanging in a single moment even while you can always know what's going to happen in the "plot" (if you can call this a plot).

in short: a brainless laying back experience and, perhaps above all, both a quite realistic and uplifting optimistic romance. touching indeed.

Strictly Sexual (2008)

22/24 on IMRS - This is a little underrated jewel and almost perfect in every sense - consistent, caring

[10/10 · 15 January 2016]

Not sure why I rated this 7 when I first watched it, about 6 or 5 years ago. This is now the first movie I'm rating according to this brand new movie rating scale I just made precisely because I wanted to properly rate this flick - and it's a definite IMDb 10 for me, even while not perfect.

I think the ending was a bit (spoilers) and there was this (spoilers) near the ending, which could have been better stitched. Other than that, all I know about the movie is what I read in the one review quoted below and here are my many kudos to Stevie Long! Really a piece of art. :smile:

The Little Prince (2015)

10 is not enough for this!!

[10/10 · 9 December 2015]

I could predict the movie ending by the first few minutes or so and I told my wife "okay, let's see if it can still be entertaining on the details...". Oh boy, I may never been so glad to be so wrong. I mean, of course I was hoping for it to be good, but I was expecting very, very little of it. Most animations I've been watching in the past 2 years or so, including Pixar's, have not being able to move me at all. At all. And IMDb score was just below what I'd expect from a good one.

( Okay, Inside Out was an exception: great and cute. Maybe my hopes for that one were too high but I was hoping for a better neural representation there, and it had some weak science behind it ( don't take my or Steve Novella's word for it, do your homework ). I would argue it is even harmful, because it will certainly create new bad myths about the mind and the brain. )

Anyway, Little Prince at least isn't about science - because else they'd get it wrong at very least on the lucid dreaming there... But it's perfectly done. Perfectly. Every little detail. Right near the beginning the girl gets a new friend and starts to wonder how his stories could be possible. While she is thinking, the wind in the background is moving engines. That's art. And science, even if only subconsciously. Even if.

The symbolism there is exquisite. I have watched a few french movies, I do know a little about the culture there, I've toured through France more than any other European country in my 2013 tour... I haven't seen anything like this before. Maybe I will need to take my french classes back again, eventually.

Here, let me tell you about 2 math formulas that appear in there (not the only ones, the first book she does open is about math, probably algebra, but in french sorry), for a few seconds: first one is about analytical geometry, and got an Escher picture in it. Now, in Brazil we don't learn any of that in school, not even Calculus, but I've gone to first year of Statistics and 1 got semester of Math in there... That shoot is complex! The only thing I can say about the first picture is she got a great compressed writing and thinking there. This to me means more than anything that whoever wrote the script (I haven't read the book) was an avid math enthusiast (like myself) at very least.

On the second one, however, she gets on to some Calculus, which to me was one of the funnest parts in school (after geometry, and I didn't really enjoy Math in college). Math was always my favorite topic in school. And that's a "simple" 3rd degree expression. All I can say is it's not being properly resolved, at first sight. But I bet there's a meaning there I just can't see yet. This is how this movie was made. Filled with tiny little details at every single second.

I'm very good at Math and at counting, but I can't even understand what the 6 year old is doing in her book there and those are images that just don't matter to the plot or for anything else, really. They're there on their own!

I'll make a real bold guess here, but I think this have became instantly my favorite film of all times. On top of Forrest Gump, Matrix, any Pixar's, Bedazzled, Terry Gilliam's, Huckabees, Stranger than Fiction, BttF, 2001, Interstellar, The Martian (still unwatched), Terminator you name it. I know almost nobody would agree with me here, but that's just how I felt having just watched the movie less than 8 hours ago.

It touched me deeply, and it did so by touching both my heart and brains, like no other one ever did. 34 year old, happily married, with no kids due to life issues, no job and lots of work to do. Specially after being this inspired. =)

-- Caue

Balas & Bolinhos (2001)

Why I loved it, as a self proclaimed film amateur myself

[10/10 · 5 October 2015]

I'm highly biased and giving random stars from 0 to 10 is way too subjective. But I loved this film despite not being able to understand much of what they say - even if my mother language is Portuguese (from Brazil).

The scenes and photography are well chosen, despite the limited crew. They had nobody dedicated for this (or any off screen job, on the credits) and, yet, did a superb job as a side job there.

The camera movement and rhythm is just in time. It does get slow sometimes, but it is apparently all on purpose because the slowness is spread in moments across all the movie.

I heard their budget was around €1500. Now, that's even more amazing. It means every actor there were doing it for free. Sure, all amateurs, but enjoyable and entertaining never the less. Have you tried gathering people for filming? Just try it.

I never thought it was possible to achieve a long film with such a low budget in such a country with no culture for it. Amazing. And really well accomplished feat.

I sure enjoyed watching it, and I may even watch again eventually. Yes, I think it has enough value for re-watching.

True, the film doesn't stand too good by itself, as a story telling. But, again, it's still quite enjoyable. I also love how the dialogs don't really matter, as the images speak for themselves. That's how movies should be done, in my humble opinion. Not soundless, but the video must always speak for itself.

Ghostbusters (1984)

A 5 star great story

[10/10 · 23 February 2006]

Dan Aykroyd, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis might not be perfect in this movie, but that was most likely their biggest hit. And if you know better any of other works from those 3 guys, you'll know what I'm talking about.

They are 3 little genius, one in each aspect of making movies, and the collided together in this one. It couldn't have resulted in anything better, it was just perfect, for the time.

I'm not gonna talk about the story, there's enough reviews and knowledge over this big hit. Instead, I want to talk about intertextuality.

The movie was made in 1984, same year of some movies I've watched, such as Terry Gilliam's Brazil, Starman, Amadeus, Karate Kid, The Garden of Eden, Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom, Dune... And so many others I wish I had seem... It was a hard competition for prizes, I guess that's the reason why it didn't get so many awards.

Hell, not even former Monty Python's award winning from 12 monkeys Terry Gilliam could win something with his movie, mostly because of poor production (not his fault, at all).

Anyway, this movie has so many deep inner meanings, every time I watch it again it gets me surprised with something I haven't seem before. And I have seem a lot.

Later works from Harold Ramis are my favorite. Every one of them. I think my favorite would be Bedazzled (2000) and, please, don't overlook this amazing movie. It was first written by Peter Cook and shot in movie on 1967 by the same Peter, yes the same Peter who inspired Monty Python and probably most of Terry Gilliam's works.

But I can't get enough of all of Harold R. like Analyze this and that, he only gets better and better in time, maybe going too far and then heading back to earth, hehe. To me, he resembles a lot Calvin & Hobbes (a.k.a Harold) for some reason... I just miss few of his works, like Cadyshack and maybe Stripes.

He also makes appearances like in Orange County or As Good As It Gets. Always playing a really good and smart person, just like in Ghostbusters, but always different sides of himself.

And now he is doing a new work with the also amazing, although weird, Owen Wilson. I think he was best seem with Jackie Chan in Shangai Noon.

Anyway, this first Ghostbuster is amazing, a great story and at least 5 star merit. Worth way more than watching it just once. 5 times might not be enough to fully understand it, and I keep hoping I've had enough at same time I keep getting really good surprises when I watch it again, over time.

Hard to decide the vote between 9 and 10, but since the score right now is 7, I made my mind for a 10+. :)

Bedazzled (2000)

nonsense or overlooked?

[10/10 · 18 February 2006]

Do you know what is a slob? For real? This movie is way overlooked. Harold Ramis did a genius work in it and I can't even put it in words. That's why he made the movie, he was probably tired of trying to write books.

I just must say, I've seem all kinds of movies, my favourite movie use to be Forrest Gump and I didn't even know why. I still have just one thing I haven't figured out about Forrest Gump, a movie made for people who lived everything in their lives already. I still wonder how the soundtrack composer could do that music be so perfect. It tells all the movie story in just one song with no words at all. That's just another genius work.

But, Bedazzled have that, and even more. I don't even know how many movies I've ever watched. I did missed some big names such as Schindler's List or half of Hanibal trilogy or even Dogville. But I've watched most of the big ones and a lot of small ones as well.

I do watch animes, Full Metal is a work greater than Matrix. Azumanga Daioh reminds me of Seinfeld a damn lot. Ranma is the best anime comedy I've seem and Akira is almost childish, like Forrest Gump, but it's so nice.

12 Monkeys, Brazil, Monty Python and all Terry Gilliam work is way too pessimist. I love all of them, but being pessimist make them incomplete to me, as I'm an optimist.

I also have watched some European movies and most Brazilian movies. Those I won't even try to cite names, since they're not international, and some don't even have a name in English.

No story that I've ever seem, not even Peter Pan, Neverland, Hook, Spiderman, Batman, Hulk, Superman or X-Men have ever beaten Bedazzled. Ever.

Not even old movies I don't even know names, such as Ben Hur, and some that keep telling Jesus stories, Maome cartoons, or Greek novels.

This is by far, today, my favourite movie as "best movie I've ever watched". I just need to watch Chaplin again to be able to better compare, and more Steve Martin.

Erin Brockovich (2000)

smart, simple, touching and motivational

[10/10 · 23 January 2006]

It's always good a little introduction about the writer to put things in perspective. I've watched about 20 movies in the last 2 years. Before that, 1 movie per week. I've missed big movies and I'm from somewhere between Generation X and Y.

Every actor plays a great role in it. I don't know much of each one past works, but even Julia Roberts seems like she is playing the first role in her career this time. Except she is now 30 and not 20 anymore.

It starts showing, quickly, how bad she was in life in that moment. Not one second she gives up, but specially in the beginning, not one second she stops smiling at life even while life throw her away to the dump. That's until she gets of a job interview, broke, with 3 kids, divorced twice and suffer a car accident. Now she can't smile that easily anymore... But, that's one thing in the movie... She doesn't know what's going to happen, but definitely never give up. And that's just the first 7 minutes.

The movie has 2 sides. At one side, there is a big case of corruption in PSE&G, the American supplier of gas and electricity. At the other side there is a bright woman, fighting to stay alive and getting life to push her in the hard way into solving that case. And she proves to be able to do the job and still keeping herself as a pretty woman, as she likes that.

Along with that, there is, in each part of the movie, smart words being used. It starts pretty fast, then it slows down a little to normal to show details about the story itself. But while it slows down, it still keeps with some details about how's a good way to live life, specially added by Charlie, who seems like an angel, plus the smart way how Erin moves her life, almost unconsciously.

--- spoiler --- While watching the movie I've cried, without knowing the reason, for the first time in my short 24 year old life. Other than that, I've only did it in funerals. It was when her child asked what was going on, why she was out of home for 18 months, and they could understand each other by using just a few words. Amazing kid.

Despite of how real the story evolving PSE&G really is the movie gives one feeling of evil company. But I rather see it the other image the movie also shows which is PSE&G just acting as a big company who has human making mistakes, blinded by money and by keeping distance from reality. There's no specific scene showing that, but the movie as a whole does.