pinkfloydian Reviews

Silent Night (2023)

Not bad...

[6/10 · 4 February 2024]

I really enjoyed its silence premise. Interesting and well accomplished, never too forced. It worked!

If I was annoyed about something it would have been his wife murmuring a few words (as well as a few other characters). It spoiled the nostalgia of the black and white silent films era! :-D (lol)

Of course, I wasn't annoyed at all :-) This action-packed flick grabbed me right from the first scene, even if we might not understand what's going on... and that goes to say that it was interesting the way the narrative was presented.

The whole message of the movie felt... truly motivating. Truly inspiring! In the end it shows that humans - if they put in the work - are capable of achieving anything in life! :-D Even if all the preparation in the world is never enough (LOL)

If some might think this movie is not realistic (with scenes not believable) I'd say they have put a lot of effort so that it won't happen. Nothing that dreadful worth mentioning.

Have fun!... even if this might be very violent. A bit extreme, at some point... but always cool (says this maniac).

In the end I would put this level of violence as being Joel's regret in his Robocop :-D At some point, this raw violence felt like Verhoeven's Robocop. Very cool! :-D Great scenes!

So, don't forget: Always be prepared! :-D.

The Nightingale (I) (2018)

Unfortunately, still quite a contemporary subject

[9/10 · 14 August 2022]

Extraordinary Jennifer Kent. What an impressive job once again with this one. My short impression to "The Nightingale" would have been calling it (amusingly) a prequel to "Irréversible" - amusingly but with a meaningful intention. In the end, it got me wondering how us humans (mostly men) didn't learn anything along all these years. This thought that this movie left me made me feel much more disappointed with our species and how much we deserve every evil that we are dealing with.

Ego, power, narcissism - the worst diseases of the ages.

Oxygen (2021)

REAL sci-fi? Or CHEAP sci-fi?

[2/10 · 2 October 2021]

There are cheap movies made during the pandemic, and then there is this one. Indeed, a very creative one. A one-woman show. How could it have been done better than this during the pandemic? Couldn't.... right?

I can't help myself mentioning all of the positive reviews this movie has. WOW! It is soooo grrreaaaaatttttt! (LOL)

As a bonus, we have one of those kind of movies that were built (and growing) towards a plot twist in the end. Well, it is an interesting plot twist... and even in these circumstances, the pace throughout the whole movie is always engaging.

So why would I rate this movie with just 2 stars?

(one star to Melanie... and another to all the tech & visuals team)

• Because, in the end, I found a tiny detail in this movie that ruins the whole show. The M. I. L. O. - a kind of an hi-tech "in-flight entertainment" (IFE) system 😂

I mean, no matter how advanced our civilization is during this time, this simple question turns this whole movie into a meaningless crap. If the whole purpose of this movie is leading us - leading the sheep - towards a final plot twist, why the hell all of the 10.000 pods would have a built-in hi-tech IFE System that even allowed the clones to make phone calls to Earth? What?! And browsing internet... maybe playing Playstation... WHAT?! I mean, Liz is a clone. Something goes wrong and... BOOM!... she will be terminated with a needle sting. But, well, in the meantime, if the needle-thing goes wrong "Let's give her a super-hi-tech-IFES for her own amusement, shall we? The last thing we want is to bore a clone to death!"

WHAT?!

ABSOLUTELY RI-DI-CU-LOUS!!! CHEAP!!! I mean, M. I. L. O. is the only "tiny" detail in the script that allowed this movie to exist in the first place. So this is how much this whole movie is ridiculous. A shot in the foot!... and everybody loved it! HA-HA-HA! That's why mankind is doomed. This blindness...

Cheap! And everybody ate this like sheeps!

Cosmos (2015)

Dreadful to watch

[1/10 · 4 August 2021]

My curiosity about Cosmos surrounded its locations, at Sintra. In the end... it was basically just it. The surprising bonus feature was Victória Guerra (and other locations: Ericeira and Covilhã).

So, besides the travel documentary nature of it (LOL), it is mainly a French comedy with all of its clichéd loud family, crossed with some weird elements in the way David Cronenberg would do back in the days (but in this case, just pointless).

It interesting how this movie fits so well in Portugal, where this French style of overacting reminds me of Portuguese soap operas with a theatrical overacting that sometimes even spill over into some of their movies. I understand the orgasms that this type of movie might give to those arthouse pseudo-intellectual audiences... but this is just a piece of an eclectic absurdity. Is this "comedy" supposed to make you laugh? Even when I was hit with that "stain" scene, coming out from nowhere, I was like... 😮 (... nothing...). I mean, the whole movie was like... 😮 ("WTF?!"). Yup, Andrzej Zulawski really tried to "challenge the notion of narrative" but, unfortunately, to the point of making fun of the non-pseudo-intellectual-audience. What an absurdity!

Basically, around some cheap and pointless omen happenings (in order to add absolutely nothing to the movie) we follow the mental gibberish of a writer in a kind of cross-reality with his writings and a series of weird (or poorly drafted) relationships. In the end, this is a total waste of time.

Enjoy!

The Mandalorian (2019– )

This IS Star Wars all the way... in a new way, new story and Jon Favreau!

[9/10 · 12 May 2020]

I loved it. It was quite entertaining. A simple story and simple characters bathed in lovely values of compassion or benevolence packed in all of the action and visual effects to expect from a Star Wars movie. Jon Favreau never disappoints!

Bruno Aleixo's Film (2019)

I felt used and abused...

[2/10 · 16 February 2020]

I love Bruno Aleixo's character and João Moreira's craziness. Recently, I devoured Aleixo PSI and I think it fits perfectly as an example of something in between from the movie and the other short series by the way it successfully "goes out" from the natural habitat. The thing is... Aleixo PSI is shorter! 4 times shorter?

Although I don't think this movie shouldn't suffer from his length, it happens that it did and that "suffering" had been honestly revealed in every promotional interview I saw with João, as he tries to explain (or excuse himself?) this attempt of fitting this character in a 90 minutes movie. Maybe his not-too-proud-grinding-presence shown a backstage struggle to pull this off.

This shouldn't have been the kind of a aching struggle that I paid to watch on a theater. It was a shame to watch the total lack of creativity that fell upon this characters... and let's not confuse this with that good ol' nonsense! Definitely, João and Pedro Santo's "marriage" need some marital counseling... or the problem was just the pressure from the demanding opening doors to Brazilian audience? Or was it just the result of two guys not used to get out from their natural habitual? The thing is: no matter how fancy the birthday box is wrapped, it doesn't mean I should eat all its content. Basically, the only thing that I "ate" was what the trailer shown: the ADR work and acting (mainly) from Rogério Samora (cheers to Adriano Luz too). And they even failed to give it's best use to these actors! Would it make it to expensive, little "Johnny" boy? So you should get rid of ALL of the other actors because, other than that, are many meaningless acting parts... and many obvious attempts to gain some extra time just to fill the movie with some extra minutes. 90 minutes? They could even made it to 91! Bah! Laughable! Even more laughable is to hear a renowned Portuguese film critic, Rui Pedro Tendinha, praising this movie. The world is blind and doomed!

Normally, I see that this could have been interpreted as good nonsense humour but, let's get real: why the hell there is so many meaningless silences and so many meaningless scenes that end up going nowhere? Just miserable! So, with this lousy, poorly-laughable creativity exercise, I felt deceived in almost every scene because, no matter how many times João Moreira tried to excuse himself about this being low budget... instead of this typical Portuguese weeping argument he - more than everybody - should know that there's no need for a huge budget to do an amazing comedy short show. His job should have been to stick together several parts of great comedy shows as he is more than used to do. This was lazy and had nothing to do with it... not even with nonsense.

The Commuter (I) (2018)

What a surprise!

[10/10 · 12 January 2020]

I am so pleased with the viewing of this movie that I had to come to write my explanation of a 10 start rating. We all (at least we should) know that it is rare to find That Movie. You probably know what I mean. I don't think there's that many movies capable of leaving me with a feeling of having contemplated something simply... perfect (and I don't think I'm that picky). You may find me as if I'm surprised with my own rating. You may find this somehow contradictory. That's all very true. I think this it's due to it's genre, it's message (or the lack of one)... and these seem enough reasons for any very reasonable person never rate a movie like this with 10 stars. Let's face it, this is an action movie with its twists and turns. This is entertainment. I'm remembering T2 Judgement Day. T2 was an amazing action movie that was probably seen by everybody on the planet. Packed with many memorable scenes, incredible visual effects, great acting, an intelligent screenplay with an ever present message about humanity and to top all that... The Perfectness. It placed the genre in another level, like James Cameron do. I agree that The Commuter can never be placed at the same level... but it is incredible in his own way! From start to finish it surprised me with many beautiful cinematography technical details than enriched the whole movie. It may not have as many action scenes as, for example, a Taken movie but there are enough to make it's pace always intense and very bloody well choreographed! It was incredible how these guys took the best creative advantage of the tight space of a train to film this. Amazing! And the plot was quite interesting, keeping me glued to the screen throughout the whole movie. These guys should (and must) be very proud of what they did here. Congratulations and thank you!

Legion (2017–2019)

Amazing Series!

[10/10 · 21 August 2019]

I had to come here to write that this team is so damn creative! From season one to three, they never cease to surprise me whether it be the acting (Lauren Tsai, another great addition), the narrative, photography, effects, art direction, everybody! All of it's small details so carefully added... the musical funny parts. In Legion, there's no boundaries in creativity. It must be very enriching to be part of this amazing team. As a spectator, it's always a bliss to consume such a treat like this. What a delight! I'm very grateful to all of these Great Artists that we have here. Thank you!

Enemy (2013)

A shallow well made movie / A total waste of time

[3/10 · 29 May 2014]

Since this movie has 7.0, instead of "awarding" it with 4 stars, I give only 3.

My point for this is that although it is a 90 minutes movie... it is too loooong. Lets just face it, it should have been just a Short! What it has to offer? Almost nothing! Adding to this it is completely ABSURD the amount of mystery that these guys tried to sell us. I mean, it was necessary to reach to the 51m40s to hear someone finally realizing that "Maybe we're brothers". Yea, I was already counting the time. After that, well, there were some interesting approaches adding extra mystery but the movie developed just a few more steps until the end.

SPOILERS:

1 - At start we are presented to a bored lonely guy and his mom and another guy in a strange Club of perversions. The last one seems concerned while watching a show where a girl steps a pregnant spider.

2- The first has it's daily routine and is remembered to watch a movie.

3 - He recognizes an actor that looks exactly like him (the perverted "twin").

4 - He starts doing everything to find him until they arrange a strange meeting ("strange" as almost gay).

5 - He changes his mind and he doesn't want to know more about the other one. The pervert "twin" wants more... after having seen the his girlfriend.

6 - One f*cks his girlfriend (she started to appear as a call-girl but it is his girlfriend). The perverted doesn't seem to f*ck his pregnant wife and has a reputation of a past affair.

7 - The perverted arranged an exchange of roles where they end up switching "wives".

8 - It doesn't work well since one forgets the wedding ring small detail and the other one, the pervert, takes his wedding ring that leaves a white mark on the finger.

9 - The perverted wife, even though she knew, she wants to f*ck him.

10 - The girlfriend doesn't want to f*ck when she sees the white mark.

11 - The movie ends with a way to allude to the pregnant spider from the beginning.

Just that.

Bottom line. What a waste of time!

The Tall Man (2012)

A kind of a boogeyman...

[10/10 · 21 April 2013]

Indeed a perfect movie about a special kind of a boogeyman that no family wants to meet. It tries to raise awareness of parents or even to give them a big slap on the face with it's message. At the same time that it shows how many families may need it's "visit"... I believe that many parents don't even have the intelligence and sensibility to understand this movie's message. Maybe they were the kind of people that rated this movie with the poor 5.9.

While the movie presents us a very heavy and powerful subject, it was in fact very kind and soft towards the audience because it could have shown a worst (and real) case scenario from another Jenny. There are so many terrible cases out there in our supposedly civilized world with a system that doesn't work in trying to educate an ever-growing number of uncivilized people.

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance (2011)

People may prefer the first one but...

[9/10 · 10 March 2013]

I need to compare this movie with the first one. And by doing so, it becomes easier to draw a simple conclusion.

In the first movie, the characters were absolutely ridiculous. For example, let's look at the whole relationship between Johnny Blaze and his Roxanne and their meetings! In the scene were Johnny leaves the stadium, after the jump, looked like a version of the mating Wildlife in National Geographic. It seems a movie for dumb people. I didn't like! This Spirit of Vengeance had all the rest. A new approach to the characters as they already appeared consistent from start to finish. The pact with Roarke was reformulated (maybe even in the Comics is different :-) ) and I don't care. The Neveldine and Taylor, once again, gave us a handful of fantastic scenes! And the most interesting is that they managed to do it with half the budget. Hmmm ... what is that supposed to mean, huh? Best photography. Even the visual effects look better. Anyway, it's all a matter of taste. In this case, good taste!