Change Your Image
richieblac
Reviews
Deadfall (2012)
Decent. Simple entertainment.
Nothing special, but nothing terrible. A straight-forward popcorn flick thriller. All of the familiar faces in the cast simply did their thing and felt type-casted. But they're all pros, and kept everything moving smoothly. As usual, though, Bana and Hunnam's performances were pretty stiff.
For me, Wilde was the stand-out in this one. Spacek was a close second. I swear Kate Mara has the same 5 facial expressions in every performance. Anyway, all of the focus in this review is on the actors, because the cast is really what this was all about - and it worked out alright.
Film ends in an awkward spot, but it sufficed.
Far from perfect, but decent and entertaining.
Adopting Terror (2012)
Nope.
Screenplay: 3/10 Awkward. The writer just felt lost and unsure of himself. It's one of those things where he seems capable, but botched it anyway. So many things could have caused this, right down to him just being a lousy writer.
Casting: 0/10 Absolutely nothing redeeming about the casting. Zero chemistry, and actors that look far too uniformly plastic. 1 or 2 model-looking actors is fine, but when everyone looks cut out of a magazine, there's absolutely nothing to relate to. Let's not mention that the pairing of actors for the couple was a joke.
Cinematography: 3/10 Very by-the-books shots and zero creativity. So much opportunity here to create some redeeming quality by having some stylish framing, but nope. Nada. Nothing. 3 points for "just doing your job".
Grading: 6/10 Made this a category simply because this was the one thing I thought was decent in this film. The colors had a very natural feel and didn't come across as overly-stylized, which many good movies seem to over-do. But still, points are lost, because the colors did tend to beg for something more. What we get is something a bit too vibrant and "normal", like the way you'd grade a comedy film.
Directing: 1/10 Director, you alone could have saved so much of everything else's inadequacies. You were there, every step of the way, approving what was going on and guiding it along. What are you doing?! 1 point for getting the gig.
Sound: 6/10 Again, just "doing your job". The mix is good and well, but nothing really stuck out. Nothing was particularly bad though.
Music: 5/10 Starts off far too melodically heavy, easily to the point of feeling corny and forced. Later on, the composer seems to realize he should tone it down a bit. But the early portions of the film, especially, are a mess. That's significant, because this is when you're making your first impressions.
Now, I don't know who really had the biggest hand in making this suck so much. Was it an issue with producers? Did you guys know this wasn't good at all, but just wanted to "make a movie"? Or did you really think this was good in some way?
And who thought it was a good idea to give the biological father that stupid look with his hair combed back?
Blah.
The Imposter (2012)
Absolutely fantastic!
Man, was it a breath of fresh air to discover this on Netflix! Absolutely captivating from beginning to end. The layers to these real characters & situations are endless. I'm speechless. Do yourself a favor and watch this film.
Frédéric Bourdin completely steals the screen as he "recalls" every detail of the events that transpired. But after the film, you find yourself wondering how much of it was a lie. And you'll never know. Because he's a master liar. A deeply disturbed and deeply fascinating person.
Watch this film!!!
Amber Alert (2012)
Welcome to the film industry, guys! K bye.
Yeah, look at the full cast & crew. Look at the last names. Yeah. So are you guys happy? Your film made it all the way to Netflix! Happy? Good. Good for you. Now goodbye.
--With the cops slacking the entire time, the girl would've been calling them NON-STOP, every step of the way.
--Nobody. Nobody. N-O-B-O-D-Y is as clueless as the fat guy.
--We can see right through your "realistic" writing. You had them bickering so much because you thought it was "realistic". It wasn't. Mostly because of how unrealistic the fat guy's stance was in their bickering. From there, it was beyond obnoxious.
--They pull over and talk to the guy, and the fat guy is still being a non-human. Not a "moron". A moron is a type of person. They were not behaving like people. Period.
--They find an arsenal of loaded guns, and nobody grabs one. LOL.
--They're trying to break the locks, and nobody grabs a gun. LOL.
--They hear their friend get shot, and nobody grabs a gun until it's too late. LOL.
You guys had a couple opportunities here. The gas station and the off-road encounter. These were golden opportunities to create tension and conflict in realistic ways. But you completely skated by them and opted for NON-HUMAN things.
You thought, "Well, that's what we had to do. We had to navigate away from realistic things the whole time, so we could move the story forward." No. That's only true if you SUCK.
Go away. Too many truly talented people are struggling to get somewhere in this industry, barely affording to eat and having their applications/reels completely ignored among the bundle of other applications, to deal with watching this heresy make it to Netflix. Just spit in our faces.
This is an okay portfolio piece for the actors and whoever worked on post. Everyone else: no.
Frayed (2007)
Bad, bad, bad
We're lead to believe that a single freak with a screwdriver can scare away and/or overpower multiple people at a time. Please. At one point, FOUR people are deathly afraid of this guy - again, armed with only a screwdriver - as he lurks around outside of the house. Absolutely absurd.
I could write a better screenplay in a single night while drunk.
The number of high reviews are obviously staged by friends of the crew or the crew themselves. This film follows a cliché formula from mediocre 80's B-movies. For a film beyond the 90's, that's really, really, really bad. And the twist at the end just make it worse, leaving plot holes wide open that any half-decent writer would've seen coming miles away.
3/10 for decent production value, a somewhat cool villain, and the totally shocking opening - which was the only good part of the film.
The Killing Jar (2010)
Not bad. Not too great, but not bad.
Some real bad acting, lots of cheesy lines and situations (especially the ending) - but it's all delivered in a way that you feel like you're watching a small play, and it just manages to let you kick back and see where the story goes. You're simply watching a movie, finding out what happens next. It's a very basic and "by the books" film experience, and it seems to know it.
What really saves it is nearly perfect pacing and editing.
It won't impress you, but it won't drive you nuts. "It's just a movie." That phrase actually fits this film really, really well.
6/10
The Tree of Life (2011)
A goldmine for pseudo-intellectual hipsters.
I granted the film the 5 of 10 stars for three things: 1) The actors' performances were fantastic.
2) Absolutely gorgeous - and I mean GORGEOUS - visuals.
3) Despite the absolutely laughable results, really, A++ for effort. There's an immense amount of love put into this film and it shows.
Unfortunately, there is such a thing as over-doing it, and this film is the epitome of that ten fold. Anyone can take their sweet time trying to convince you to feel a certain way, but it takes an artist to bring you to your knees with a simple phrase, a single stroke of a brush, a simple melody - or God help us, that one perfect shot.
But take a song with the perfect chorus, and repeat the chorus 20 times, and you're left with genius work repeating itself so much that it completely loses its impact before you're a quarter of a way through.
The kids with a nubile eye think the film was "too deep" for us, when in fact it was far too shallow - and obnoxious. Believe me, we get what it was trying to do. We got it within the first 5 minutes of the first 20-minute stretch of natural imagery - and like hearing a great chorus to a song, it really was great the first time, but not the next 15 times. This film is gorgeous, lovely, awe-inspiring, masterfully-crafted, mindblowingly pompous drivel.
It's a tech demo, a display of craft across multiple fields, a mirage of wondrous light & sound - but it's a terrible movie.
Season of the Witch (2011)
About as mediocre and mediocrity gets.
Talk about formulaic. Literally everything about this production is rigid and lacking substance. Yeah, you can tell everyone "did their job". But that's hardly enough to recoup what this production probably cost them - which I really, really doubt it did - and no one's surprised about that.
What really did this film in, as what typically does in projects of this sort, is that they opted for sub-par CGI when they could've achieved awesome practical effects with the same budget.
In the end you get "another one of those movies" that follows every cliché in the book. Whether it's shameless fun or accidental is a mystery, because yeah, some people are dumb enough to make stuff like this and think it'll actually be a hit.
5/10
War of the Worlds (2005)
Complete garbage.
The only thing that looked great in this film was the color correction done in post. Some very nice palettes, especially near the end. The writing was just occasionally "okay" but mostly cheesy. Quite literally EVERYTHING else was uninspired, uninspiring, and a complete waste of everyone's time. Nearly all of the visual compositing was a COMPLETE joke. The sad excuse for "cinematography" made me quite depressed while watching. Don't get me started on the sound and music. Should've hired me ;)
The pacing was terrible, most of the acting was terrible - came off like a crappy project by film students who happened to be rich enough to make their little project LOOK like something more than what it was. But you didn't fool me.
Very, very bad film.