EffMJay Reviews

My Son Hunter (2022)

Skip the Dough for the Crappy Feed & spend it on QAA's Movie Night Version

[1/10 · 16 September 2022]

No matter your political leanings this is just embarrassingly godawful. Incompetent, shabbily-streamed, boring, etc. Etc. Poor Laurence is a pale shell of the actor he was in Inspector Lewis and the rest are clearly in it for the money.

If you're really curious, don't waste your hard-earned money on the actual movie. Rather, spend it instead on a one month $5 buck Patreon subscription to podcast QAnon Anonymous's hysterically funny blow by blow of this atrocity, to be found under the title "Premium Episode 184: My Son Hunter." There's a a good sample on Soundcloud.

You might enjoy their other "movie night" adventures, but this was truly one of their best.

Game of Thrones: The Iron Throne (2019) Season 8, Episode 6

Absolutely brilliant. Thank you GoT for holding true to the story and not caving to fan service

[10/10 · 20 May 2019]

Wow. That was just terrific. Heartbreaking and moving and satisfying and fascinating and challenging and disturbing.

The best part of this series has been its ability to tell GRRM's epic anti-monarchy fantasy story in such a coherent thrilling fashion while keeping all the greater themes and ideas in play throughout. And brilliantly bringing everything full circle in the end.

Kudos. My only regret is that I hadn't waited until the whole thing was out so I could watch it in one fell swoop.

Game of Thrones: The Long Night (2019) Season 8, Episode 3

Classic! GoT Rule No. 1: Arrogance + Overconfidence = Doom (Spoilers Galore!!!)

[10/10 · 1 May 2019]

And, thus ends the Night Knight. Thankfully, not with yet another GoT mano-o-mano battle (especially after an hour of mano-o-wight battle) - a battle in which not a single living human could possibly win against the NK (not even Jon, folks) - but with a failure in character that seals the fate of all leaders in Westoros: hubris.

The last scene is brilliant. NK swaggers forth in the Godswood, easily dispatches poor Theon, oozes satisfaction and anticipation of the kill, his hive-mind Lords and minion wights all focused only on his ultimate target - Bran. So overconfident, that only one of his Lords barely registers the odd breeze sweeping in from seemingly nowhere.

Just brilliant.

The History of Time Travel (2014)

A Real Gem That's Finally Streaming

[9/10 · 3 March 2019]

I have thought about this great little film, on and off, ever since I saw at the Phoenix Film festival several years ago, and finally it is now streaming on Amazon prime. Check it out while you can and you will not be disappointed.

I don't want to say too much about it except that it's a little bit sci-fi in nature and very clever, but it's so much more than that really. That's it, don't want to give anything away. Enjoy!

Lady Bird (2017)

Best Comedy of 2017

[10/10 · 28 October 2017]

And definitely one of the best films of 2017, period. As a matter of fact, the entire film is wonderfully acted, written and directed. (If Laurie Metcalf doesn't at least get a supporting actress nomination there is simply no justice in this world.) The characters are refreshingly real, multi-dimensional, nuanced and fascinating, and the female characters, especially, are blessed with legit real dialogue and not the usual bogus generic tropes.

One of the cinematic delights of the year.

Working Girl (1988)

Delightful, satiric romantic comedy

[10/10 · 11 September 2016]

I just re-watched this and I was so pleasantly surprised at how well it stands up after time. The performances are all terrific, the chemistry between Melanie Griffith and Harrison Ford is very very sexy, Sigourney Weaver is very very funny as the villain, and every single one of the supporting roles ( Kevin Spacey, Oliver Platt, Joan Cusack, Philip Bosco, to name a few) are perfectly cast and performed to perfection. In addition, the writing is funny brisk and sharp and Nichols' direction is the same.

Although a light comedy, it captures perfectly the essence of the corporate New York office culture in the early to late 90s. For those on this board who keep writing this off as a "fairy tale," as something that simply couldn't happen, I have two words for you: Carly Fiorina :)

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)

Jackson Looked Too Long into the Palantir and Sauron Stole His Brain

[1/10 · 15 January 2014]

What to say about this godawful mess of a film?!!! I'm simply agog (or is that Azog?).

When he directed LOTR, Jackson trimmed down an abundance of material to create a gorgeous film experience. His LOTR was by no means exactly the book, but it worked as a cinematic experience of Tolkien's masterpiece. Beautiful, moving, funny, thrilling, profound and elegiac.

With this film, he's done the EXACT opposite. He's taken an enchanting, funny, thrilling story and inexplicably either cut all the fun moments out of it or overloaded them until they become dull and obvious. When not doing that he's busy glopping it up and weighing it down with elements from LOTR or the appendices or just crap pulled out of thin air as far as I can tell. It's hard to fathom that it was directed by the same person. Sloppy storytelling, dull, repetitive, messy to look at for the most part and, unbelievably, boring. Most disappointing, is that the film is practically un-Tolkien. I wasn't a big fan of the first film, but aside from the huge misstep of putting Orcs into it, I liked it for the most part. Desolation of Smaug, however, is irredeemable.

I guess one of the most fantastic coming-of-"middle-age" stories in English literature wasn't enough for Jackson and his crew. They didn't care to make The Hobbit. They preferred instead to make a movie that should be titled: "A Goddamned Bunch of Stoopid Orcs Swarming Around and Getting Killed for 3 Hours and Other Crap That Has Absolutely Nothing to do with Bilbo Baggins and His Journey There and Back Again."