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Jim-Eadon
Hobbies: Creator of Denn Starr comic strip.
Culica game inventor
Technologist
Writer
Ratings
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Reviews
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Political Correctness Ruins the Movie
This movie beats us over the head with it's white-guys-bad, ethnic-guys-good agenda/narrative. How very tiresomely wokist...
Over and over and over this narrative beats us up. >Rolls eyes<...
The problem with that is, it's so selfrighteous, so preachy... One starts to sympathise with the baddies, and, before long, I just wanted the bad guys to prevail. At least that would be a surprise. These movies are infinitely predictable, and, so, there's no tension.
The other issue is, it's far too long, and one has to grind through it. The CGI was fantastic, mind you, and the alien fauna was much more interesting than the humans. Yet the monsters were both too few, and not as interesting as they could have been.
I'm also not a fan of plot holes, like people being able to stay underwater, performing vigorous exercise, without drowning.
Other plot holes are more bothersome. The humans have spaceships and futuristic technology (presumably equipped with deadly AI), yet can't track and beat up a tribe armed with bows and arrows! Or blow up a whale creature with a missile / torpedo?
And, how come this tribe knows how to handle futuristic technological weapons, exposives, etc? And manages to blow up a ship without killing the infants on the deck? Etc.
The Menu (2022)
Miscast Actress, Unsatisfying Ending.
The two lead male actors were great.
The two lead actresses, by contrast, well, for starters, they couldn't act. Seemed to be there for PC reasons.
As for the ending with the burger, that was lame. Just horrible.
There were some great lines in this movie.
However the plot was implausible. They even lampshaded a plot hole. Why don't you just overwhelm us?
The actions of the guests seldom made sense. Why did they just sit there, and let the nutjob set them alight? I guess because plot required it.
The problem here was, this fails to satisfy.
And, to make it far worse, my least favourite character was alowed to escape.
Great first half, then downhill after that.
M3GAN (2022)
Miscast movie. Badly acted.
First the good. The apperance and animation of the AI doll was done well. It was the ONLY consistently good thing about this movie. Also the movie did have a few good moments, all featuring the doll.
The stuff that was bad: Woke casting, woke narrative (women strong, men weak cliche, mixed-race couple cliche, etc. Etc.), which sap all the fun from the movie.
How the doll managed to become so smart, and override its own programming, was unconvincingly explained. And the batteries in this thing are incredible! But, I can forgive such "mistakes" in a movie, if it is good.
The lead actress was terrible. She couldn't act (and was annoying) in Dexter, and she couldn't act (and was annoying) in this. Why on earth was she cast?
The ending was the worst part of the movie. No need to explain why.
When the doll is the best actress, you know you have a stinker of a movie on your hands.
The original Childs Play movie did it best. Remember when movies were fun, not wokist?
El hoyo (2019)
Fantastic first 40%, then tedious.
This movie was fantastic, and then it wasn't.
It went from horror with a reasonably subtle subtext about society. But, then it blugeoned us to death with preaching PC morality. Pretentious and tiresome, the second 60% of the movie was shockingly disappointing.
Sure, there are allegories, but these are not as clever as the movie makers like to think. What they should have done was stick to what made the first 40% of the movie fantastic.
Sadly, they went off in a different direction, and, well, what a pity. It's hard to remember such a contrast between fantastic and dreadful.
Sadly, relentless political correctness is the scurge of movies.
Extinction (2018)
Dull. Could have been good
This movie had no heart. It has an interesting twist, but then the twist is contrived. And it makes the movie even worse.
So, spoilers:
The twist is that the family are machines. But, in that case, why are we supposed to cheer them on? They're machines, running computer code, like a PC playing chess. Even AI's are mindless algorithims.
So, these machines, who have no humanity, just mindless computers on legs, are killing humans. Whose side are we on here?
And the plot holes of all this are huge? Why make these things so humanoid, even down to blood? Don't they notice the kids are not aging and will never age. It's weird, and these plot holes are not addressed.
Given the massive technology weilded by humans, why are we to assume they're safe and live happily ever after. Not that they can, they're machines. They'll break down and crash anyway.
But, worse, the cast don't carry the movie. Better actors could have made me feel something, but I did not care about these wooden characters.
The movie seems more about being woke than telling a good story.
And, we have shaky-cam, and mumbled dialogue. Horrible.
House of the Dragon (2022)
Kinda GoT minus fun.
As usual, excessive political correctness bedevils shows made since around 2000+.
I was hoping this show might be an exception but it isn't. No good shows are being made any more.
I've seen the first episode only, and the show doesn't have the heart and soul of the first four seasons GoT. (The last 4 seasons of GoT were less successful, with the final season... The final season of GoT was absolutely terrible.
The entertainment industry is broken. It fails to entertain these days.
I wish I had more to say about this show, but it's so empty, noting much stands out. GoT seasons 1 to 4 were so great, nothing else compares.
Dead Silence (2007)
Too many plot holes
The movie was so implausible I couldn't get into it. I don't mind horror being about the impossible. But stuff like the police investigation, the lack of correct interrogation procedure, leaving key evidence at the crime scene, the unrealistic detective, etc. But... OK, it's a horror movie...
But what really did annoy me was the relentlessly dark, and almost colourless cinematography. People wandering around in the dark without reaching for the light switch. Sure the movie is trying to be dark so it can be more spooky, but I was just craving for relief from the dark grey of it all.
Somehow, though, the direction didn't hold me. The scenery reminded me of Tim Burton's, but it was 10% as satisfying as what Tim Burton would make it.
I kind of fast forwarded through the 2nd half, having given up on the movie, somewhat. However, I slowed down at the end. The twist ending was really satisfying. Sure, it was as implausible as hell, and assumes the son would not try to do what he would probably do. But I loved the twist, it was fun!
The Conjuring 2 (2016)
Daft horror
The street lamposts are 1990s, not 1970s. Curious that the movie makers did not notice this, given they parked 70's motors all over the place. Maybe they intended to fix that with CGI post-prod, but ran out of time/budget.
This movie is flawed but watchable enough, if you don't mind the silliness of it all. As others pointed out, this has nothing on the brilliant The Exorcist movie. Or classic English horror movies such as Omen, come to that. Those movies have a heart that these Hollywood movies always seem to lack.
Seance (2021)
Too woke to be fun
I can kinda understand modern hollywood horror movies being burdened with cliche's, as new horror tropes are hard to come by. However, that doesn't mean a movie can't be fun. Here, though, we have the usual (nowadays) woke casting (of actresses who are, in addition, way too old for their parts). And, in my case, the wokeness factor actually gave away the solution to the mystery. Sad.
Here, the actresses were plain and dreary, and could not hold the movie at all. Avoid. In addition to this, the deaths were oddly lame, or otherwise unsatisfying.
The Batman (2022)
Batman? More like Batperson
A woke version of Batman. Dreadful in every way. Tries to be cool, but woke is not cool. It's lame.
Here we have a dreary bunch of characters trying to be cool. There is no fun, no style, no substance. It's empty empty empty. Tedious, pious, PC manure. Makes one realise, by contrast, how good, on a relative scale, the old batman movies actually were. We didn't know how lucky we were when movies were still good.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019)
Horrible casting - no soul
This is woke take on Godzilla. Like everything woke, the result has no heart, no soul. It's an exercise in box-ticking and taking as few creative risks as possible.
And when they copied the famous meme of the daughter grinning at a disaster... Ugh! She thought she was about to be burned to a crisp, and now she's not even breathing heavily, not shocked, just copying a meme?
This detail is typical of the film. None of it makes any sense. It's just about trying to achieve this image, or that SFX animation.
The SFX were pretty decent, but it looked computer-gamey, with 3D models seeming fairly weightless, like the hollow polygon surfaces they actually are.
And, besides, the effects are not so interesting when one is disengaged from the action. I disliked virtually all the characters in this nonsense, and was rooting for the dragon to slay all the cast.
This movie is junk. Avoid.
Zoe (2018)
Ending is misunderstood, the twist is clever.
The ending is NOT what it seems on the surface.
Apparent ending: the original Zoe was rescued, and it was a happy ending. But, I don't think that happened. The rescue did not happen, those memories were false.
When our hero goes into the hotel room, and meets a new Zoe, the new Zoe was weird, and he forms no attachment. But, her acting weird was just to fool him.
Our hero is then is seemingly reunited with the "original" Zoe. But, the original Zoe was destroyed. He was actually meeting a *another* new Zoe, but this one was acting the same as the original Zoe did. He fell for the trick, because the first new Zoe was acting so fake. So, he though the 2nd New Zoe was the original Zoe.
The clue was the tears. The movie made a big deal about tears. Our hero even said that it was *physically impossible* for the original Zoe to cry. Only a new Zoe could cry. So, when Zoe cried, at the end, that proves she was actually the new Zoe. Not the original.
Why the two-new-Zoes' trick? Well, the Zoe's are designed to make men happy. And, with this trick to fool him, he could now be happy.
The plot hole here is, he would surely figure this out. But, maybe he already did, but, this time, he decided to go with it. He had a second chance to do that.
Replicas (2018)
First half was good
The first half of the movie was interesting. Gripping even. But then but the second half fell flat, with a stream of even-more implausible scenes. It was a pity they couldn't sustain the suspense and creativity. That was probably down to studio meddling, if I had to guess.
Inheritance (2020)
Terrible casting, lousy plot
The actress did not seem at all plausible as the lead, and I did not feel any sympathy for her whatsoever. Ditto for any of the other characters, who all make glaring mistakes, because, plot.
I saw the twist a mile off, and the entire plot was implausible. Including a massive coincidence needed to justify the premise. And, even then, it doesn't.
The movie wasn't even entertaining, like some bad movies can be.
Avengers: Infinity War (2018)
An empty movie with CGI-looking CGI
The problem with this movie is, it has no heart. It's formula, amped up with effects. A movie designed by committee, hoping fireworks and "metaverse" (ugh!) characters will print money. How souless it all is.
Willy's Wonderland (2021)
Apart from casting of teens, pretty good
The teenagers were just horrible, unwatchable. This was dreadful casting. Hence the 4 rating, not a 9 rating, if the teenagers were good.
Also I hated the the ridiculous "product placement" mention of a burger-maker, whom I boycott. Glorifying energy drinks, which are extremely fattening, is also bad. Producers, please don't do ads-in-movies! It destroys the film for me.
Apart from the unwatchable teens, this was a great movie. I loved the animatronics, and their sinister songs were surreal and wonderful.
What a missed opportunity.
Dexter: New Blood: Unfair Game (2021)
Shot in leg usually means death
There is no place to shoot the body safely. The leg is extremely vulnerable: bones shatter, arteries & veins are cut, you name it. No way can a man shot like that outrun a fit male. No way could he even limp on that leg... Yet, inexplicably, the guy with two good legs cannot keep up with this superman... This series is unplausible in a thousand ways, this is only one plot-hole. But, it's an annoying cliche nontheless.
I wouldn't mind, but, apart from Dexter and the bad guy, the cast are just horrible...
Dexter: New Blood (2021)
Terrible casting
His girlfriend is annoying. Deb is ultra-annoying. His son and the teens are annoying. The blogger is ultra-annoying. The cops in general are dull.
The makers of Dexter went woke. The problem with going woke is, it kills the show, just to tick boxes.
Dexter himself is the only reason to watch the show, though Clancy Brown is also pretty good.
The way to watch this show is to fast-forward through most of the girlfriend scenes, unless it's police work with some plot. Fast-forward through all the teenagers scenes. Fast-forward through the screeching-harpy, sweary ghost-Deb scenes. Then it's actually quite good. The scenes with the charismatic Dexter himself in it are the only watchable scenes. I really miss the original Dexter. Especially the early seasons.
To repeat: shows are so woke now, they're absolutley dreadful. It's extremely sad, knowing 99.9% of the good stuff was made in the past.
No Time to Die (2021)
Where's the fun?
The first third of the movie is entertaining. After that, this movie is dreary. As others pointed out, there are no good one-liners, no humour. The cast were generally bad, especially the actresses and villain. Compare the tedium of this modern, lifeless, PC movie with the fun, un-PC Connery and Moore movies, which are great fun to watch, charming, and often very funny.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Woke Wars Rise of Mary Sue
What a depressing load of garbage this movie is. Truly it's a diaster that Hollywood went woke. Modern movies typically have no entertainment. They're just trying to tick virtue-signalling boxes.
This movie is truly awful. Avoid!
Oh, and they (badly) ripped off a great scene in Antz too.
Bad acting by unlikeable characters. Terrible dialogue. It's just awful.
41 (2012)
This is my interpretation
Spoilers
My interpretation fo the movie. This actually isn't a genuine time travel movie, no one travels backwards through time, as the movie itself points out.
First clue: if it's a real time-travel movie, then it's ridiculous and has tons of plot holes and absurdities that the script writers were surely cogniscant of.
So, what could make the apparent absurdities and plot holes actually make sense? For me, there's one sensible explanation.
In the middle of the movie there is a scene where the student chats with some lecturers about the idea of writing a novel with time-travel. They give him some advice. This is the key to the whole movie. Next what happens is what I'm guessing: that the lad went away and wrote his novel, which was bad, as most writing by amateurs (and even professionals) is. This movie was a film that very (bad) novel that he wrote.
This meta-movie plot is the only explanation that makes any sense to me. As the idea of a time-machine under a toilet in a hotel can only make sense this way. As can all the other absurdities.
This is the most satisfying explanation, but the movie was still bad. They should have hired a nice actress, whom we could believe he wanted to save so much. This one had no charisma at all. In fact most of the actors were uninteresting. However, its an amateur movie, so understandable.
Horse Girl (2020)
Dreary, no matter what the interpretation
I enjoy quirky movies with great twists, but this isn't one. The first interpretation is, she's schitzophrenic, in which case, it's not a very interesting movie. That does explain how she can't remember things she did. She obviously was the one who "stole" her car, for example, and she cannot recall conversations and initial meetings with people. If she has a kind of multiple personality disorder, then it's explained. But it's a pretty dull movie.
The second interpretation is more interesting. She was onto the truth, and was part of a game by aliens, including genuine time travel. That would mean the horse passing the shop window scene, at the start and end of the movie was real, she was travelling through time. It would fit with her posessing her granny's frock. It would expain the claw-marks (aliens did it). And, at the end, it means she genuinely went back in time to "be" her own grandmother (again). But then you get fridge logic, where nothing makes sense. Why would she act totally crazy? It reminds me of the joke about aliens only abducting crazy people, because no one would believe them.
However, this time-travel twist is a weak pay-off for such a laboured movie, with uninteresting characters. Sure it's a twist, but it was a twist that was revealed by her speaking her theory (telling before showing). So it was entirely unsatisfying. A time travelling granny is not very compelling, is it? X-files episode stuff without the charm of the actors.
Yes, that's mad, so then we must conclude that the movie was just about mental illness. Unsatisfying either way.
The movie also had weird dialogue preaching (left) political propaganda, so the woke-ness of it made it even more unenjoyable. Avoid!
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
The Woke-inator
This movie is absolutely awful, an attempt to tick all the woke tick-boxes. The characters were ALL irritating, and the villain terminator was neither here nor there.
The logic of the movie made no sense either. If a grandma "hunts terminators" then they must be pretty easy to kill, so what's all the fuss about?
Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)
PC lecture on the 60s
This is what I would expect from woke film-makers trying to make a cool movie about the 60s.
The opening was promising, but, as is so often the case, nowadays, the movie loses its way. The characters are unsympathetic, except for one who shows up early, but is not around for long.
By far the most annoying character was the singer.
Also there was no chemistry between the hippy sisters and the hippy who turns up later. In fact, there was no chemistry between any of them. The movie was dead, an exercise in copying Tarantino, who himself went drastically downhill after his second movie.
The movie does not resonate at all with what the magical 60s were about, it's trying to foist the PC 2010s onto the 60s.
Ready Player One (2018)
Great opening, then downhill
I was greatly entertained by this movie at first. Up to the point where the lad won the first key, it was fine, absolutely fine, and I enjoyed the manic rendering of the VR game and the race.
That exhilaration, was going to be hard to beat, and, sure enough, the movie fails to beat it. The lad was likeable, but the rest of the cast were so-so. There was no tension, and how are we supposed to respect a villain, when a women who works for him insults him so disdainfully.
This is an example of political correctness in movies destroying the movie. Yes, it panders to feminists, but it destroys the villain, who should be respected and feared, not put down and mocked.
We also get a tick-box set of nationalities as the cast, but there's no chemistry between the characters. All movies now are becoming the same.
Finally, there are a bunch of plot-holes, but I can forgive a movie like this for plot holes IF the movie is good, and sadly, after the first third, this was ho-hum.
The IOI corporation is mocked, but then again, but is corporate Hollywood any better?