siderite Reviews

Maquia: When the Promised Flower Blooms (2018)

Beautiful anime, but a bit overdramatic for no good reason

[8/10 · 10 March 2023]

I understand why so many people loved it. This anime plays like a good piano song, inviting you to love and cry and say life is beautiful, yet in the end it's just some guy playing an instrument, pushing all of your buttons and teaching you nothing that isn't inside you already. So yes, it is touching some real emotional themes that most of us are sensitive to: the love of a mother, the love for a mother, the continuity of life through children, the meaning of destiny, the illusion of power and how individuals are just threads in a bigger tapestry. And it also has a nice refreshing idea behind it: a medieval world in which the main character is a centuries living girl that interacts with "our world" for the first time, experiencing both its beauty and horror. Yet in the end the characters feel bland, just threads in a tapestry that is, frankly, a bit bland.

So, good animation - although the hypersaturated colors and the never ending loud music lacked subtlety, good acting - although the characters were not that well fleshed out and most of them childish and annoying, a refreshing idea - but put in a story that had many gaps and a rather superficial view on life. Of course, that could have been the intention of the film makers, to give the viewer the kind of aloof perspective that a quasi-immortal person would have on life, while at the same time focusing on the hardships and beauty of life. If yes, then they succeeded. I've seen anime that have achieved a lot more with a lot less, though.

Bottom line: an above average anime, but a bit overrated if you ask me.

Jung_E (2023)

Another AI related movie from South Korea, but ultimately not that interesting

[6/10 · 9 March 2023]

This film had several things going badly for it even before I started watching it. First of all, the name looking so much like Jungle, which together with the poster suggested a robot in the jungle fight movie. I wasn't that interested in that idea. Then It was the annoying Korean director who goes through all of the annoying tropes for Asian movies annoying people: fake, psychopathic, overdramatic, choleric. It does make sense within the story, but you get that guy in your face before you even get a whiff of the story.

And then there was the movie itself. Very slow building, trying to touch important concepts like the root of identity, the soul, inherited trauma, yet in an overly CGI shooting action film. This resulted into jarring pacing issues and inconsistency between what one scene conveyed and another brought in.

Now, I liked the acting, the action was pretty good, the effects quite cool. It was clearly a well done movie. I also liked the idea behind the story. I just feel that it was a simple idea more suited to an episode of a sci-fi anthology than a full length feature film.

At the Earth's Core (1976)

Really bad by any standards, but so bad it's funny

[5/10 · 8 March 2023]

I don't know why Netflix decided to put on the Amicus movies, probably because they got them for nothing, but it provided an entertaining window into the time that TV forgot: the cheesy 70's movies. There are three movies that I know of in this "series" of Edgar Burroughs adaptations on Netflix: The Land that Time Forgot (I didn't see the sequel The People that Time Forgot in the list... or maybe I did and then forgot about it), this one and Warlords of Atlantis. And I know Warlords of Atlantis is not actually adapted from Burroughs, but it might as well be, since it has a very similar script to At the Earth's Core, only under water.

It's impossible not to cringe and laugh at Peter Cushing's "eccentric professor" routine which even for that time must have veered strongly into ironic satire. When he sees a bunch of eerily clean humans (with make up on) chained by a gang of man-ape things, he exclaims his fascination on how mentally inferior creatures have captured their intellectual superiors. He does make this assertion before speaking to anyone, just because the captors look human. He then cheerily says about the ape people "They are so excitable, like all foreigners". It only goes worse from there, which forces one to guffaw at random throughout the film. I was particularly amused by the princess doomed to not have a mate until someone defeats our hero in battle, since he inadvertently defeated a suitor of hers and now "it's the rule".

The costumes of the creatures are ridiculous rubber things and I commend whoever had the courage to film scenes dressed in those. The character dynamic is so streamlined as to be non existent. The science... what science? It actually made me think of how wonderful it would be to remake those old sci-fi stories now, embracing the complete nonsense that they believed at the time and even make it more hyperbolic and acid trippy.

Bottom line: I think a bunch of totally wasted friends watching these films one after the other would have a total blast. Other than that, it's amusing at a cinefil level, I guess, but I couldn't recommend them in other contexts.

The Pale Blue Eye (2022)

A boring and pretentious slugfest

[5/10 · 7 March 2023]

I surely did expect the long winded era style of talking and the gothic mystery, but I feel like the film was... just that. There was no substance to the story at all.

The mystery went all directions at once, without providing any excitement or proof of the investigator's prowess, the characters were slow talking bores, there was no chemistry between the actors. And "the young Poe" could have been just anybody at all, really. There was no connection to writing or literature, police procedure or true mysticism. There was nothing era related that made it interesting. Indeed it could have been set up in any time. Characters like the expert in mysticism were added just like that, when it was need for them, discarded later. Just a whiff of something that could maybe have been a little exciting, in just as little amount as possible to pretend they made an effort.

And then there is the unnecessary twist, which is both surprising and obvious, adding another half of hour of people talking to the film. This thing lasts for over two hours! And it says nothing.

Bottom line: I heard nothing about this film, even after getting released on Netflix. The reason is that there is absolutely nothing worth talking about in it.

Magic Mike's Last Dance (2023)

Still love the physicality of the dance, but the movie is just bad

[5/10 · 28 February 2023]

I enjoyed the first film a lot, the second a bit less and this one almost didn't. The dancing saved it, of course, and Channing's charm, but the rest was just... bad. The script and even some shots felt generated by a machine, Tatum looked embarrassed in most of the scenes, Salma was phoning it in, all of the other actors were either bad or actually phoning it in (the action is in London, so the only time we see the other guys from the previous films is on a video chat), the jokes were flat, the plot seemed to have been written in the 90s.

All in all it did nothing good for the franchise. The previous film was quite satisfying of an ending and this one felt exactly like what it is: a quick cash grab. There was no chemistry between the actors and most of them were not even fleshed out.

Plus, I am not trying to be PC or anything, but can you imagine the same story with genders swapped? A man 14 year the senior pays for a lap dance which leads to sex from a female bartender, then offers her to come with him in London for a "surprise", that being making a strip dance show in the family's antique theater as a rebellious gesture against an overbearing wife who wants things to "remain the same". And can you imagine a film about directing a strip dance show with people you also recruit and train on the spot where not any of the dancers actually say anything? They just dance at the end and that's it.

Bottom line: skip the dialogue, enjoy the physicality of the dance, forget you saw it.

Mojin: The Worm Valley (2018)

What a terrible devolution from the first film

[3/10 · 14 February 2023]

Xun long jue (2015) was the first film from this series and, with all of its faults, it was entertaining and even enjoyable. Not so this film, which is a sequel in name of characters only. The actors are different, the dynamic of the group is different, the special effects and magical imaginary animals are the only attractive thing about the movie. The rest is all completely awful: the characterization, the acting, the dialogue, the editing, the plot, the story, the motivation of the characters, the ending. There is no explanation on who anybody is and how they got there or why the world seems to be our current one, but be inhabited by magical animals residing in areas managed by particular clans.

And none of it makes any sense to the point where it gets absolutely ridiculous. For example: they leave on rafts on a quiet river or lake, then the water starts to move faster and faster until it gets to a huge waterfall. The heroes survive that, only to be surrounded by some lizards so they have to jump (heroically) on a slope filled with rocks on which they all hit themselves repeatedly to no actual consequence. Here they go slightly up on a tree trunk over a precipice and reach a floating island. Now read that again, carefully: they drop huge distances twice from the level of a lake and they reach an island floating at great heights over a large valley. Even Avatar's Pandora makes more sense.

The general feel of the movie is that of a really bad video game. They just move from stage to stage, without any concern on how the stages are connected , why they are in this order and why the hero didn't take a more convenient road to get to something lying on the shore of a peaceful lake, but the graphics are great. Some characters die - mostly pointless deaths - and you can't possibly feel anything because no one made the effort to make the audience care for anyone involved.

Bottom line: this has absolutely no real connection with the first film. There is no reason to watch it at all. It is barely a film and as such, a terrible film.

Mojin: The Lost Legend (2015)

Chinese Indiana Jones, yet entertaining

[7/10 · 14 February 2023]

The visuals were very nice, the acting was decent, it was an entertaining action-adventure. It also made fun of mindless communist youth in the 60s and took pride in Chinese history and mythology. I am sure a lot of things were lost in translation, but I enjoyed the watching.

The plot is simple: a team of heroic grave robbers return to the place of their first major traumatic event. They explore a weird underground tomb guarded by zombies and curses and flames and in the end find closure and unity as a team. The acting was probably the worst part of the movie, or maybe the main character, who was an arrogant idiot telling everyone what they need to do and forcing them to do it if they didn't want to, while he attempts unsuccessfully to sacrifice his life when it actually isn't necessary. I liked that the story was focused on the characters, even while they go through endless (and mostly non-sensical) action scenes.

Bottom line: it gave me a feeling of hope for China's pop cinema. After all, we just need a steady stream of good accessible movies to start understanding their culture. Americans did it and look where it got them.

Fritz the Cat (1972)

Anime for the beat generation

[8/10 · 9 February 2023]

This animated film has it all: the deadbeat hypocrite who likes to get laid by spouting whatever fake thing people are into that day, the drugs, the racism, the misogyny, the dumb women who fall for the guy or want to set him straight, sex, music, nazis, jews, police pigs, anarchist bombers, dope dealers, racial rioting, murder, rape, violence. If you read/watched On the Road and you kind of felt the main characters were complete a-holes and felt bad for everyone around them, here is a film about a cat who thinks he's cool, but only cares about himself while causing all kinds of trouble. Yet it's also fun! It's both politically incorrect and satirically woke. The animation seems rough, but it's very expressive. The music is great!

Bottom line: a real trip! If filmmakers ever complain they are not challenged enough, try convincing them to remake this today. I am going to watch other stuff from Bakshi for sure.

Blank (II) (2022)

Decent one actor movie, but had two ideas the entire length

[6/10 · 9 February 2023]

This film should have been called Writer Blocked and be an episode of an anthology like Outer Limits or Twilight Zone. Then the fact that it only had two ideas the entire length would have made sense and the titles should have been funny. I have no problem with the actors, direction or production values. It was just stretched too much to fill a feature film (much like the lead character should have done).

I can't even mention details of the plot because I can't avoid spoiling those two basic premises of the story. Given that it is either one of those Covid-made films or another thing inspired by Moon, the entire cast is one actress and four supporting roles. It really is barebones.

Bottom line: it might be entertaining if you are doing something else at the same time. Otherwise it drags a little too long.

Vesper (2022)

Bleak, atmospheric, freshly original movie.

[10/10 · 9 February 2023]

Is there a special cohort of people who just rate bomb anything not Disney? Because the IMDb rating for this film is criminal. If you want a truly sci-fi movie, Vesper is it. It has good acting, subtle but very good effects, a future world that feels both plausible and completely alien, but most of all: a story! Characters act according with their surroundings and situation and develop during the story, things happen for a reason, there are no McGuffins, Red Herrings, gratuitous action or sex or jump scares. It's something that can affect you emotionally and intellectually as well.

I had no idea what gem this film was until I finally decided to watch it. And I blame this visionless anonymous mob for complaining about the wrong things. It's not that smart a film that people wouldn't get it, it's not complicated in plot or characterization, there are no obvious continuity errors or bad acting. It has great production value. The only reason why someone would think it's not a good movie is because they felt something that they didn't expect to feel. And that's the hallmark of good art.

Bottom line: if you like sci-fi, this is a must see.

Guardians of Time (2022)

"Let's do Narnia, but with no budget or people who can act!"

[3/10 · 8 February 2023]

Four formulaic female characters are thrown into danger by... their grandfather? He manipulates the girls into going into a magical forest, against their parents' wishes, and then cheerfully says "and so it begins". Five minutes later, giant creatures are trying to squash our heroines. WTG, grandpa! Well, in a way I do understand the guy. None of the actresses know how to act and the script doesn't help them either. Each character in part reaches levels of annoying that are hard to comprehend. Stuff like "I have to go back to my little sister" "Nah, she's fine, she's with a nonhuman magical character we met 2 minutes ago". The effects are ludicrous, too.

As a student project it's a great achievement, but as a movie it's unwatchable. I rated it "so bad it could be funny, if watching properly intoxicated".

Bullet Train (2022)

There's too many MFing hitmen in this MFing movie!

[7/10 · 8 February 2023]

I don't know how Samuel L. Jackson was not in this movie. He was probably occupied elsewhere because I know people have to had called him in. Everyone else was there: Brad Pitt, Channing Tatum and Sandra Bullock - repaying Brad for the cameo in their movie, Ryan Reynolds (because that's how nice Canadians are), Andrew Koji and Hiroyuki Sanada (frankly I expected more of them), Michael Shannon, Zazie Beets (in withdrawal from Deadpool movies?), a quirky Black and White duo of fast talking and philosophizing Brits, even Masi Oka was there, apparently teleporting around for no good reason. Many others, too.

The film is a Quentin Tarantino homage from beginning to end, based on a Japanese book, set in a bullet train with some Guy Ritchie stuff sprinkled in and many cameos. The whole moral of the movie was that fate makes all actors meet eventually (paraphrasing here). Was it good? Don't know. I was entertained, that's all i can say. It made little sense, logically, but it didn't matter. It was like Train to Busan with known actors instead of zombies.

Clerks III (2022)

A nostalgic sendoff for the Clerks series

[7/10 · 7 February 2023]

If the first Clerks was a mumblecore experiment and the second Clerks was a more rounded film feeding on the love for the first, the third is a loving goodbye to the series. I like that each film in turn was different from the one before, but fully acknowledging its existence. One might not see it immediately, but there are few situations like this, where the sequels are not just cash grabbing opportunities, clones of whatever came before, but evolutions of both story and characters. Clerks didn't really have a story to begin with, so anything is an evolution from there, though, right?

OK, trolling aside, I loved Clerks III. It wasn't perfect by any means, a bit too meta (why does everything have to be meta these days?!) and I felt like Kevin Smith inserted himself as a filmmaker in the story a bit too much. Also some changing of pace and character development was way too abrupt. However, for someone having seen (and grown up with) the other films, it felt like a bittersweet farewell to an old friend.

Bottom line: if you haven't seen the other movies, it makes no sense to watch this one, but if you did and you enjoyed them, I can't see how you're not going to like the end of the trilogy.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

A dump-all-in film

[7/10 · 7 February 2023]

Black Panther was a great success for Marvel and Chadwick Boseman had a great future as an MCU hero, but then he died. In order to somehow fix this broken continuity, Wakanda Forever was born, but it feels like a movie made by committee (which it probably was). It has good acting, but choppy plot. It has things appearing out of nowhere when the story needs them and characters that behave inconsistently throughout the film. It has problems in editing! At one point the music just glitches because they removed a scene late in postproduction, probably. It has women of color running everything: Black female Panther, Black female Ironman, Black female Black Widow, Black female Queen. It's not that it hurts the story in anyway, but it gives the impression that they dumped everything they had in this film just to make it not suck. I mean, they added Mexicans, too. They were trying to take the Wakandan jobs. Ok, bad joke, but the whole concept felt more racist than whatever I can say.

It's not a totally bad movie, taken as a standalone, but in the context of so much source material and so many previous good MCU films, it does suck. The best part was Lupita Nyong'o. Her character weas interesting and she is so beautiful!

In the end they drop a post-credits scene that ensures the possibility of a replacement for Chadwick, but I don't see how, unless they add some "go to ancestral land and return 20 years older" plot.

Bottom line: compared to the first Black Panther movie, this film was accompanied by overwhelming silence. It's easy to find things to make fun of in it, but the fact that not many people even bothered says a lot. This is a run of the mill, committee approved flatliner.

Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn (2012)

Good for a web series, but rather inconsistent

[7/10 · 6 February 2023]

Hard to rate this film, which is actually a web series, which is actually a promo for the Halo 4 game, which then became a Netflix film. It had a small budget for a film, but huge for a web series. It had good special effects, but just a few. It had good acting, but also really crappy one. It had good scenes and really bad ones. At least two well known actors played in it.

But what is important is the story, and the story was good. I can imagine it as the seed for a Halo series, one that wouldn't suck as much as the one we got. Probably the weakest part of it was Master Chief, who was just bluntly inserted into a story that had nothing to do with him. It wasn't that bad, though, because the lead actor was actually the second weakest part.

Bottom line: if you are into Halo (which I really am not) you probably have seen this already or you would enjoy watching it. As such, it was a decent story that ultimately went nowhere and it could have been better.

Legion of Super-Heroes (2023)

In an era of extraordinary good animation, this is horrible

[4/10 · 2 February 2023]

DC animations are fine, adequate cartoons, but they never excelled at anything except perhaps the occasional voice acting, but they are decent. Legion of Super-Heroes is NOT OK.

The lead character is Superman's female cousin who, as a spoiled and entitled teenager two months on Earth, cannot adapt to the primitive ways of the 21th century. So Superman uses a gimmick to send her to the 31th century, to train in a hero academy. Wait, what? Don't think about it, just go with it. In this academy there are only other teenagers, all speaking and acting exactly like teens today. After 1000 years of history!! Don't think about it, just go with it. The villain, then, is a shadow organization that exists in both timelines, known to no one, but exposes itself completely for the sake of the plot. Then there is some side-plot about acceptance regardless of relatives or origin and a ridiculous ending.

That's it. Everything is telegraphed tens of minutes ahead and that's saying something for a 80 minute film. There is nothing special in this thing except for how bad the story is. It's as bland as a corporate hallway. So if you want to spend the time to watch a completely forgettable hero in a made-up inconsequential pocket world that has nothing to do with the characters and universe you know from other DC stories, go ahead.

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

Very well crafted film, amazing acting, about a village in the middle of nowhere

[9/10 · 14 January 2023]

I have to agree with most people that this movie was great. The plot is simple: one taciturn guy in a remote Irish village decides to not accept any contact with his best and oldest friend, with no explanation whatsoever, and the friend can't accept it. It is a deeply sad story, dealing with personal identity, despair, codependence, love - unrequited or otherwise.

Like with "In Bruges" before, the triangle of Martin McDonagh, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson works perfectly. And it feels kind of similar too: deep scenes about people, but not much story. The movie feels like a landscape painting where you admire the care and detail on it, but you don't really care what it is about. And it is about a village in the middle of nowhere, after all.

Bottom line: the best film I've seen in quite a while, but it doesn't cover all bases. Nor should it. It's like "In Bruges" had a child with "The Lighthouse". If you liked either of them or both, you will like The Banshees of Inisherin.

Stutz (2022)

Couldn't shake the feeling of fake

[7/10 · 26 December 2022]

The film is overtly about Phil Stutz, Jonah Hill's therapist, a person who is more hands-on than most other therapists - if he can say so himself - so much so in fact, that he encourages his patient to express love and reciprocates it. That's not bad in itself, I don't subscribe to the idea of the detached guidance-only role of the psychologist, but to watch an entire production dedicated to the strong bond between the two men, masquerading as some sort of sharing with the world of great healing instruments, was uncomfortable to me. It was pretty obvious that, while presenting a lot of things about Stutz, the film was not really about him, but about Hill.

Don't get me wrong, I am sure Hill and Stutz were very real in their intentions, but the production itself, the way the patient-therapist relationship turned out to become, the specific (buzz) words and terms both people involved used and so many little details made me distrust the reality of what was presented. I am sure they believed in it and that they also felt it helped a lot, so I am not accusing anyone. I am just unsure they were honest with themselves to the degree displayed in the film.

A good effect of the movie was that it generated a lot of honest self-reflection and discussions with my wife, which is something I will celebrate. And I also believe that "the instruments" they talked about are real, have power and can be turned to very good use. The overall feeling that I got, though, is that this is a little vanity project for a Hollywood celeb and that most of the stuff they said was bull.

Bottom line: I rated it average because it did prompt some introspection and honest conversation, but I would not recommend it.

Burning (2018)

Carefully crafted film, but you need to be in the mood for a slow paced psychological drama to enjoy it

[8/10 · 23 December 2022]

First of all the source material: Murakami and Faulkner short stories with the same name, but different subjects, were merged together to create the script. Second was how the movie was built: from very careful scenes, to the casting of Steven Yeun (American raised) as a kind of aloof out of society Korean individual, the soundscape, the locations, the metaphors and small clues that kind of link together to forge the chain of the narrative. The acting was great, too, coming from actors who one would perhaps not expect that from. All of this points to the quality of the filmmaking.

On the other hand, you have the slow burning pace of the film, the obvious "countrysideness" of the main character and the vague subtle social commentary, all of these part of the message that Lee Chang-dong wanted to convey, but maybe not what the viewer is prepared to accept.

Did I like the film? I dare say I understood where it was coming from, without having had the attention and focus to emerge myself in it and notice all the good parts in it. And for what I did understand, I also liked. But I did not _enjoy_ the film. It is not one of those things that you watch with half a brain and then feel better about yourself. And even if you use all your focus on it, you might like it a lot, but you will still not feel better when it ends.

It is clearly an art film, a more accessible one for sure, but still one of those things designed to be studied rather than consumed. Be prepared for that and you might have a more pleasant experience than me. And yes, it could definitely have been shorter.

Troll (2022)

It wasn't bad

[7/10 · 7 December 2022]

Trolls are a new favorite export from Scandinavia, with wonderful stuff like Troll Hunter and Hilda, but as with many successful ideas, it will get copied and abused sooner or later. Troll is not a bad film, but it's not that good either. And worse than all is that when it ends you get no actual satisfaction because none of the characters in the movie are very relatable.

The hero is a young blonde paleontologist who is shown from the very start to be headstrong, firm in her beliefs and - more importantly - vindicated in them by finding exactly what she was looking for exactly when she needed it most. One completely unexplainable casting choice is her male counterpart played by Billy Campbell who will defer to her strong will and immediately disappear from the film. You can't even say it was a cameo.

Later on, a troll appears. Immediately our hero will say what needs to be said, ignoring the status quo, any personal status or status in general, will do what an entire nation state cannot and will even explicitly forbid it and save the day with a bunch of men who are immediately (and unexplainably) enthralled by her.

I don't want to spoil anything, so I will stop here, but enough to say that the ending is kind of... disappointing. There is no sense of victory or relief, just a generic feeling of failure.

The actors were not bad, the effects were seamless, I liked the troll and the general idea of the film. Alas, I couldn't empathize with any of the very formulaic and mostly unpleasant characters.

Warriors of Future (2022)

Potential lost in a ridiculously scripted film

[5/10 · 7 December 2022]

The basic plot of the film is a team of soldiers going to use a macguffin to disable an alien megamonster that can also heal the planet. Conflicting interests and monsters and aliens and robots and weapons and heroic people, world being polluted, politics, megalomania, meteors, team dynamics, old comrades conveniently placed next to the target, little children, all of these play a role. And that's the catch: they really were not needed. The movie is bloated with ideas that have almost no relevance to the story.

If they kept it lean: weird plant starts growing exponentially in a very populated third world country area and soldiers need to either use it for whatever or find a way to sterilize the area, everything would have been fine. The clunky visual effects would have had more impact, the characters and the dynamic between them could have been explored, the road to the inevitable victory of the team of braves paved with emotionally and morally poignant moments. But no, it all feels like a video game cinematic from start to end.

And it's a shame, because I liked the lead actors, all of them having played in more than 100 movies each. With a good team of writers this could have been a great hit, a triumph of Chinese cinema. Instead it feels like a very cheap knockoff of similar Hollywood movies that no one can actually remember because they were bland to begin with.

Bottom line: within the same budget this could have been good. Instead it feels like watching someone else playing a video game from the 2010s.

April and the Extraordinary World (2015)

Finally a good movie!

[8/10 · 28 November 2022]

After attempting to watch some light movies with hope that they will be entertaining and stumbling only upon terribly bad or plain offensive stuff, I had the pleasant surprise to try April and the Extraordinary World, a French/Belgian/Canadian animation. Don't worry, it has both French and English soundtracks which were actually both good. The animation is pure 2D, the story is steampunk dystopian alternate history and it feels fresh, although it is firmly rooted in twentieth century sci-fi. I enjoyed it a lot!

The one negative thing that I have to say is about the English translation of the title. The French one refers a "rigged" or "fake" world and it evokes the kind of steam powered mechanical world that the story is about. The English title evokes just a little girl in a fantasy world, which is NOT what this film is about. I think a better choice of words for the English translation would have benefitted the movie.

Now, the story is about a world where all important scientists disappear and the remaining ones are shanghaied by authorities to build weapons, therefore technology stagnates at the level of coal power. Somehow, a family of scientists are the cause and the salvation for this situation and we follow April, a girl who tries everything to continue her parents' work, while being followed by both authorities and a mysterious power. I don't want to spoil it. Enough to say that the animation is good, in that artistic sense where it is not perfect, but it is hand drawn and very expressive, the story is captivating and very human, with social commentary that is both powerful and subtle.

Bottom line: I think kids would enjoy this as well, but I feel adults would understand it better. It was refreshing and entertaining.

R.I.P.D. 2: Rise of the Damned (2022)

Bad movie from every direction, then agenda driven

[3/10 · 28 November 2022]

I am used already to get some Hollywood agenda shoved down my throat, so it has become a fact of life, an annoyance that doesn't really affect me in any way, not being American. Yet a movie still has to have a shred of decency in it to be watchable and this film does not. I vaguely remember the first film as fun, silly but fun. This is low budget, badly acted, badly filmed, badly lighted, badly written, badly directed, conceited and only then agenda driven. I could watch 20 minutes of it before I decided I have better things to do with my time. I can't believe this piece of crap was ever made. It's not even so bad it is funny, it's just completely lackluster. No effort was made by any of the participants in this film. Releasing such films should be punishable by law.

Black Adam (2022)

Fun film, but impossible to not cringe at the underlying message

[7/10 · 24 November 2022]

If you are not American, you might suddenly feel something very strange happening while you are watching this film as the premise of the movie becomes evident. That's because, in short, American superheroes are sent, by Amanda Waller, to subdue a superhero emerging in a Middle Eastern country which has been under the occupation of mercenary military units that speak English with an American accent for decades. And the super team are not the Suicide Squad or something weird like that, they are "the good guys", tasked to maintain "International stability". Three quarters in the film there is the first ending, before the twist. I don't want to spoil it, but imagine that that would have been the ending of the film that would have suited the heroes best. That was "the good ending".

Once you get around the horror that the premise may instill in you, then the film is kind of fun.

The movie introduces a Justice Society (I know it probably comes from the comics, but what a dumb name!) which seems to be a poor man's Justice League, a new fictional country, a few new magical new elements that have magical powers. So basically Wakanda, but darker (no pun intended). The effects are fine, the story is more complex than what superhero movies have habituated us with and I enjoyed most actors, although I have to say Sarah Shahi was at best miscast and at worse a bad actress. Character wise, Pierce Brosnan's one was the most interesting, while the two "junior superheroes" were completely pointless to most of the plot. I also laughed out loud at stupid phrases like "I inherited my powers from my uncle" or "threat detected 100 miles from here! Get us there, now. Ok, give me 20 seconds". I know it's all make believe, but the most basic laws of genetics and physics should still function.

Another thing that kind of threw me off is Dwayne Johnson trying hard to NOT act. His choice of character was a stone faced person, when he has one of the funniest and expressive faces around. A bit of a miss there.

The end credits scene shows Superman (Henry Cavill) - apparently also sent by Amanda Waller - coming to make sure Black Adam behaves, completing the bureaucratic imperialistic theme of the movie.

Bottom line: it's not a masterpiece, but it is entertaining to watch. Might signal a new phase of DC films that don't suck.

The Wonder (I) (2022)

An interesting, yet terribly slow story

[8/10 · 19 November 2022]

I will have to say that everything in this film was good: the directing, the cast, the acting, the sets, the trippy music. The only complain I have is that it lasted for 2 hours while everybody spoke and acted at half speed.

Now, the story is very interesting and the way the actors play it makes it compelling. I can't talk much about it, though, without spoiling it. I recommend you do NOT read any more comments, see the movie, because it's a good one, and only if you don't like it or feel like you have to see it at twice the speed, only then come and read what it is about.

At its core it's an exploration of societal norms and religion in poor Irish communities, but it is told through a very human perspective that makes it relatable. What I could not understand is the beginning and the end and a scene in the middle, where they break the fourth wall, for no apparent reason. The movie could have gone just as well without those scenes. I know it's about exploring belief, but it felt quite unnecessary.

The story is based on a book, but from the reviews I can say that probably you're better off watching the film. Again, it's very well done, but nothing happens except for the obvious.