siderite Reviews

JCVD (2008)

A semi-biographical drama fiction with some real soul in it

[8/10 · 15 April 2021]

You think Van Damme, you think big explosions, action, round kicks, punches to the nuts and so on. Those would not be movies with character development about the essence of people and how decisions influence their lives and how they feel about it. Well, JCVD is like that. It portrays Van Damme as pretty much himself, trying to put his life back together and having a really bad day. It's a low budget film, it has no fight action one can speak of, but I think it was more cathartic and painful for Jean-Claude to play this film than any of the ones he got punched and kicked around in.

Everybody talks about the scene where he breaks the fourth wall and he explains how his life went on and how many regrets he has. It's a powerful scene that elevates the movie a lot. However, there are the smaller scenes with his interactions with people that hit me. Here is a guy who cannot go anywhere without people demanding things from him. He is trying to live his life and he just can't. The scene where the taxi driver admonishes him for not being in the mood to discuss with a fan and give her an autograph was both very real and so disgusting.

Anyway, there are a lot of good things about this film, one of them being Jean-Claude's acting in this Belgian film. There are quite a few bad things, too. The lighting choice was pretty terrible. I am sure there's a message in there, but it made for a hard to watch movie as I was not facing the TV directly. Making the film in French kind of make sense in the context, but it puts part of the audience off. I also don't think the interaction between the main character and the bank robbers was very realistic. They could have worked on that a little bit more.

I think as a fan of autobiographies or at least heartfelt confessionals, this was a good film and probably JCVD's best acting. I can't recommend it for anything else, though.

Doors (2021)

Not a film but an anthology of four different shorts set in the same world

[5/10 · 8 April 2021]

There are four low budget shorts, their quality varying, but the best of them is not good. I kept waiting for something to happen, but then it was either something underwhelming or the story ended abruptly. I liked the way the Doors were designed, especially in the first short. They could have taken that and made it a full feature with a story and it would have been good. Unfortunately other than the design it was all confusing and artsy while saying nothing clear. No closure, no actual action or agency, just "hey, this happened. The end".

What upset me most about this production is that both the Imdb description text and the trailer are failing to present this as a collection of short films. Instead you expect a full on movie with a lot of different storylines that somehow (they must, right?) connect to each other. But they don't! Neither do they reach any conclusion on their own.

Intersect (2020)

Overly long, but not a bad idea

[6/10 · 8 April 2021]

This movie will almost certainly bore you, because it takes two hours to say something that could be said in half that time. Also, I consider it a bit of a minus being set in the Lovecraftian universe, since most of the plot is completely unrelated. It felt a bit like 10 Cloverfield Lane, which had an OK story and then a five minute ending that essentially said "Oh, BTW, this is related to another movie. Just random trivia, carry on!". I guess that labelling it horror is both inaccurate and hurtful to the film. Just adding a few scenes of monstrous darkness to a film doesn't make it a horror.

The ideas explored in the film are not bad, though, and the creator spent a lot of effort to establish all of the characters and tell an intelligent story. This could have easily been an Outer Limits episode and it would have been awesome! As such there is a lot of buildup to an ending that is quite underwhelming. A bit of "it was Agatha all along" kind of vibe. Yet you feel for the characters and understand why they are doing what they are doing.

Bottom line: a decent effort, but ultimately a fail. Could have been good with better editing.

Power of Grayskull: The Definitive History of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (2017)

What a refreshing documentary!

[9/10 · 7 April 2021]

I am always interested in information, but most documentaries nowadays imply a narrator, usually some known actor or actress, who emotes in front of the camera while slowly saying boring things. Then you have whole seconds of some interviewee walking randomly on the street or stopping in front of the camera or other time wasting crap like that before you get to what is interesting. And that is if you are lucky and you don't get an outraged activist setting up scenes that would appear controversial while spouting angry and contradictory messages at you.

Not so Power of Grayskull! It is comprised almost exclusively from interviews with the people involved in the creation of He-Man and materials from the production. There is no narrator, no forced perspective, no one opinion shoved down your throat. It was amazingly refreshing. And yes, it is sad that I get so excited just because a documentary is well done and not blatantly sucking, but that's the market today, especially on Netflix.

I am sure the subject of the film is much more exciting for fans of He-Man, comic books in general or for collectors. For me it was interesting to see the history of the character, how it started and so on. Two things raised the level of the film: one is the quote that is being used in the beginning, something along the lines of "We were in the business of making things out of plastic and were completely taken aback when they sprung to life" - not an exact quote. The other one is Frank Langella's reminiscence of his role as Skeletor in Masters of the Universe. With his slightly angry, slightly bored, slightly annoyed calmness he recounted the whole thing in a few phrases that were just hilarious.

Bottom line: if you know who He-Man is or you are interested in a fascinating story of a character being organically created or you just want to see a documentary that is well done, this is the thing for you!

Archive (2020)

A stylistic mix of Ex Machina and Moon that yet provides none of the qualities in either

[6/10 · 6 April 2021]

The film might have been a decent one if it weren't for the ending. I don't want to spoil anything, but basically in the end nothing happens. There is no closure, no reason for what has happened already, it just ends abruptly on a note that is part of a different song. The location is great, the style is very reminiscent of Moon (for which the director worked as a concept artist) and the play on building your own girlfriend in a remote location feels like taken from Ex Machina. But Moon was an extraordinary performance piece and an innovation at the time while Ex Machina tackled (realistically) real issues of artificial intelligence. It's not like Theo James played badly, it's that his character is bland and sometimes inconsistent in behavior and emotions.

Bottom line: movies written and directed by the same guy are either amazing or they flop. This one is a flop, unfortunately. Great visuals, but no story whatsoever.

The Last Kids on Earth (2019– )

It didn't suck

[7/10 · 6 April 2021]

I liked the movie as an adult to which the interactive stories format is a novelty, but the kind of horror story sanitized for children vibe really threw me off. There are four kids that are walking cliches who perkily describe themselves as the last kids on Earth after a magical void turned everybody to monsters and zombies. They have fun, they drive a car around monsters or fight them, they die sometimes, but they are always commercial-like happy. It's creepy as hell!

I liked the badge system that kind of lets you know when you finished a particular branch, but there is no way to see how many badges you got or there are still to get, which makes it kind of pointless. I liked the fast-forward system that stops at a decision, but I also disliked that they show an entire scene before letting you choose, so for three choices you have to see the pre-choice scene three times. I liked how they combined the animation scenes in the different flows, although some were a bit off, like failing to get an item, but following with a scene where a kid puts something in the trunk.

Bottom line: a good effort, much more fun than Bandersnatch and more entertaining than Carmen Sandiego. It's still not working as it should, though, as it is hard to feel you are in a story from the moment one reaches the end and has to select from the latest choices backwards, otherwise they lose the choice tree.

The Yinyang Master (2021)

Chinese productions getting better all the time

[8/10 · 6 April 2021]

If you think about it, Chinese folklore has millennia of content, refined for centuries, to inspire movie makers. All they need is some computer graphics, decent acting and some experience and they are set to build fantastical worlds that the Western World hasn't even dreamed of. This film is part of a sort of thematic series, with another Yinyang Master movie from 2020 having absolutely no connection to this one, but set in the same world of Chinese mythology. And it was good!

Now, the scenes were not really polished, the actors and their dialogues not to the standards that we've come to expect from Hollywood productions, but that's as much a good thing as a bad thing. The CGI was a bit clumsy only with the "Red Devil" character and maybe the final fight, the rest being pretty spot on. But what I liked more was the story, which had complex characters, hero journeys, a big baddie and tons of fun fights that kind of made sense.

Bottom line: this is one of the most entertaining and accessible Chinese films I've seen in a long time and, what's best, it felt natural, not an attempt to clone a particular Western genre. It felt authentic as well as interesting. Keep up the good work, guys!

Love and Monsters (I) (2020)

Zombieland meets Daybreak, but without the comedy

[7/10 · 5 April 2021]

Nice and inexperienced guy in a world of insectoid monsters decides to go look for his girlfriend who he hasn't seen for seven years. Everybody tells him it's an insane idea, but he does it anyway. And instead of dying in the first 5 minutes and the movie ending, he actually gets to the girl and in the process discovers himself and the strength within. Who would have expected that?

It's a typical hero journey, the effects are not overused, but good quality when they are. It doesn't do much in terms of story, just a guy lucky to survive in a world that is not as monstrous as everybody thought. Perhaps if it were more monstrous then the movie would have been rated R or labeled "horror" and people like my wife would had automatically dismissed it, so win win, I guess.

It's not a great movie, but it's good fun, so if you need something light, give it a try.

The Dig (2021)

Beautifully shot, well acted and based on real events, but...

[8/10 · 4 April 2021]

The film is based on John Preston's novel with the same name and covers the story of the discovery of an anglo-saxon ship used as a burial site, possibly for king Rædwald of East Anglia. Fiennes nails it again with his understated yet very thorough acting (Suffolk people even credited him for his accent), Carrie Mulligan was great, but let's face it: it's an attempt to make digging in the dirt for two years dramatic and interesting. The movie is full of metaphor and in a way it tries to be also an archeological artifact, a snapshot of British life before the beginning of the war. You have your low class people working away from their family, the dutiful wives, the drama of having to hide your sexuality, the large inherited lands that rich people had, the beginnings of the age of technology, the excitement and fear for the future with the war coming and so on.

So, it was a clearly well done film, good production value, great acting, historical storyline. It wasn't meant to entertain in the classical sense of the word, so do not expect that and you will enjoy it. Not everything was good, though. Lily James' character felt like a side story that could have easily been abandoned or expanded, for example. As it was, it felt plastered on. Also the technical aspects of the dig were kind of in the same boat (pardon the pun): they felt both too much and not enough. I guess it is difficult to make archeology fascinating.

Bottom line: good film, have to be in the mood for this kind of take.

Yes, God, Yes (2019)

The Miseducation of Natalia Dyer

[8/10 · 1 April 2021]

If you watched The Miseducation of Cameron Post, this film is almost identical, only much more about hypocrisy and no lesbianism. The Kirkos christian retreat depicted in the film actually exists, only it's called Kairos, and the story in the movie seems to be rooted at least partially in an actual experience. I was really expecting this to have been a book adaptation, just like Cameron Post, but it wasn't.

Now the film is pretty good. I don't think they could have found a better lead than Natalia Dyer, of Stranger Things fame, as she seems to be the kind of girl that got forward in life by furrowing her brows and looking innocent. I mean, there is a scene when she claims to be 21 to get a drink in a bar and no one believes her, which I found hilarious as she's 24 in the film. Basically the whole premise of the movie is that most people are hypocritical, expecting from others what they themselves don't do. It's a whole film of people being phony, spreading lies, using terms they don't understand and then the actual "climax" is not the last scene, which was kind of pointless really, it was the bar scene, where the bar owner and the Christian schoolgirl exchange ridiculous Catholic reasons why they thought they're going to hell.

Bottom line: a film that is direct in depiction, but subtle in character emotions and development. Perfect casting choice for the lead and most acting was very good. Overall, a better than average film. I liked it better than The Miseducation of Cameron Post, to which it resembles way too much.

Moon Zero Two (1969)

You have to rate it relative to the films at the time

[8/10 · 31 March 2021]

I expected to watch this 1969 sci-fi and laugh at the outdated concepts and bad acting, with just a little hope that it would be a hidden gem that no one talks about. And guess what? Gem!

It's not a perfect film, but for its era it is great, even scientifically and economically accurate, to a degree. As many American science fiction films at the time, the script is basically a Western set in the future, but with so many details that felt real that I personally enjoyed the hell out of it: the greedy corporation that stops all space exploration to just the Moon in order to exploit the hell out of it, the psychotic businessman who would burn the world to make a profit and steps on the little people to get ahead, asteroid mining, the heroic male that has moral strength and just enough cynicism to keep him afloat in a bleak soulless world and who could resist beautiful Catherine Schell? And the ironic animation from the start that explains how the world has arrived to the point when the story is going on is hilarious: the US and USSR astronauts are battling for who plants the flag to the Moon and meanwhile the European nations under the U. N. build a city there.

Bottom line: probably if you go in with too many expectations you are bound to be disappointed, but for '69 this is a very entertaining and surprisingly smart film. The perfect combination of intellectual ideas and space Western pulp.

Beautiful Creatures (2013)

A movie that should have ditched the book

[6/10 · 30 March 2021]

What should this film have been? It's all over the place. It is a supernatural romance, but it cycles wildly between romantic scenes, high fantasy, violent almost horror scenes, comedy, history, highschool melodrama, religious bullying in small U. S. towns, family drama and so on. The acting was good, I mean even with the worst screenplays you can't go wrong with Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons, but I couldn't care for any character because of the jarring mood swings this film had. And then I find out it's based on some YA book. Wouldn't it have been better to just ditch the book details and just streamline this into a decent movie?

Bottom line: good supporting cast and a few good scenes could not save this film from mediocrity.

Illang: The Wolf Brigade (2018)

Why do so many Korean movies feel like they're in slow motion?

[6/10 · 30 March 2021]

This is a film about political machinations and twists and turns in how people betray each other. The sci-fi bit of the plot is merely veneer over the very Asian politicking. But everything feels like it's in slow motion: the predictable love affair, the speech patterns, they way everybody has to make weird faces to show how important their emotions are. Even the action scenes all feature some guy thinking a lot before getting shot stupidly a second later.

Now, this was not a very bad movie. I watched it to the end and I enjoyed some of the concepts in it, but frankly the idea presented at the very beginning in a short animated sequence was much more interesting than the rest of the film: the two Koreas reunite, not because they're one people, but because they have to band together against the muscle flexing of the big superpowers. The entire conflict in the movie is explained as sponsored by these shadow players who fear the unification and strengthening of Korea. Great start, mediocre everything else.

Alien Hunter (2003)

If you rip off from enough movies at the same time, you get a little originality

[6/10 · 29 March 2021]

Alien Hunter is a really low budget film. They took whatever they could from other films and tried to make their own stuff, though. The main character is grabbed, actor included, from Stargate while the setting and part of the music is The Thing, so that's why I think many people felt this was a ripoff. However there are things that are uniquely of this story: the civilian dynamics of the characters, more akin to European sci-fi than militaristic U. S., the more realistic threat which makes some of the assholes in the group react a certain way, etc.

By no means this is a good film. Some of the ideas are ludicrous, some of the acting is horrendous and some scenes outright hilarious without meaning to. It is a very forgettable film, too. I am sure I've seen it before, but for the life of me I can't remember when or any of the details. However, I can imagine a version of this film with a bigger budget and a little more care that would be quite appealing. Perhaps a movie is going too far and instead it could be an X-Files episode, but try to look beyond the cheapness of the production and see the good concepts there. You might enjoy them.

The Life Ahead (2020)

A story about damaged people living on the edge of society

[8/10 · 24 March 2021]

Sophia Loren, at 86, still got it. She plays an old Jewish lady survivor of Auschwitz who takes in a young boy from Senegal. He is just a child, but full of sadness and rage. Add to the mix an old carpet shop owner, a former boxer now a trans prostitute, a boy waiting for his prostitute mother to come get him and a lonely drug dealer and you have the whole pack. The interactions between these people are very emotional, the acting is great, even the children do a good job, and the story is bitter sweet.

It's not something that you can watch and feel entertained, but it makes you feel for these people, living their lives in the shadow of mainstream society, but still caring and helping each other. You have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy it, but it's a good movie. Nominated for the Oscar, too, if you care about such things.

News of the World (2020)

A snapshot of post Civil War America

[8/10 · 24 March 2021]

Tom Hanks has made a career out of playing kind and reasonable men and this film is not an exception. Set right after the Civil War, the movie shows the story of an ex captain in the Southern Army who now lives by travelling from city to city and reading the news of faraway newspapers. He finds an orphan girl who is blonde but only speaks Kiowa and takes her on a trip to her natural German family. Themes of human kindness, racism, the evils of civilization and "Texas says no!" are lightly touched as we explore the desolate landscape of the southern Unites States.

Now, the film is a bit slow. There are about five major things that happen in the entire film, which makes it feel a bit like a collection of anecdotes than a single story. Based on Paulette Jiles' novel with the same name from 2016.

Bottom line: it's not an action flick. You have to give in to the rhythm of the story in order to enjoy it. The acting is good, the landscape shots really beautiful and overall it's an informative movie that reminds us where the U.S. came from, while asking the viewer to consider where it is going, and also without being heavy handed in any way.

Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)

A huge improvement over the 2017 cut

[9/10 · 23 March 2021]

I don't want to discuss the Machiavellian machinations that led to the butchery cut from 2017 and then to this one seeing the light of day - suffice to say that I am not hopeful for the future - yet I am grateful for them leading to me getting to see Zack Snyder's cut. Other than being way too long, it was a pretty perfect film. It would have been a much better business decision to split it into two films and getting twice the money from cinemas than to cut and reshoot it into stupidity.

After watching this cut I knew why things happened, what the motivations of the characters were, including the villains, Superman's lip didn't make me cringe, new characters and story ideas have been introduced and I am hopeful for the DC Universe for the first time in a long time. Easter Eggs galore! And it also had a nice end scene that foreshadowed a possible continuation, but also gave enough so you understand what it could have been even if no film is being made of it. It's not a one minute Marvel post credit scene, it's a full on subplot about the future. Hell, it made me want to see more of Jared Leto!

Is it perfect? No. There were some scenes that I would have gladly had edited out: people bursting in song like in a Bolly film, people climbing stairs, Lois Lane talking to Clark's mom, Lois Lane talking to a random street cop, Lois Lane standing still thinking, etc. The character of Cyborg's dad was also weak, even if I really like the actor.

Bottom line: I thought that the 2017 cut had a bunch of characters that were not explored or otherwise pointless. The Snyder cut fixes all of that and adds meaning to everything everybody does. It's not mindless fun like the 2017, but has a shape and a place in the world and would have given me hope in the DC Universe if I didn't know only AT&T's desperation brought it to light.

The Farewell (I) (2019)

A biographical anecdote about a dying gran

[8/10 · 17 March 2021]

There is a lot to be unpacked from this film, but you have to be in the mood for it. The details are relevant, but only if you pay attention to them. In the basest of ways, this is a film about family dynamics. The entire family gets together and interact and talk to each other and then the film ends. But it is also about alienation, as so many of the members of the family have found life in other countries, with vastly different cultures and languages and at their deepest, they miss home. It is also about saying farewell to a beloved relative. It is also about cultural clashes. It's also about the whole spectrum of human life.

Thankfully, this is an autobiographical movie, so the script is very personal to filmmaker Wang, the plot is carefully crafted, but still everything is rooted in reality. There are no violent melodramas, there are no artificially funny scenes to push boredom away, it's just an honest snapshot of a wedding/farewell party in a Chinese family.

Bottom line: I was not in the mood, so I appreciated it much less than it probably deserved. The film is categorized as comedy, drama, but it's not that funny or that dramatic. You will probably connect to it more if you are an expat or have had relatives die of cancer. Very well acted and directed, though.

Coda (I) (2019)

A quiet bringing together of music, love, beauty and loss

[9/10 · 13 March 2021]

I quite frankly am appalled of the low rating of this film. I understand why someone might not enjoy it fully if not in the right mood, but this is a beautiful film, well thought through and excellently acted. Patrick Stewart shows why outside his roles as Picard or the poop emoji he is an excellent actor, but also the masterful melange (I swear not a Gurney Halleck pun) of piano music, intellectual romance, high art, fancy hotel life and beautiful Swiss scenery gives the film the feeling of an art work.

I could tell about the story: that it's about an old famous pianist, that is is about love, that it is about persevering in the face of terrible and senseless loss, but to me all of that was part of the piece, just another element that completes the art of the movie. I think the scene where Stewart's character explains the good part of getting old: your mind and your heart make peace with each other, describes the idea of the film best.

Bottom line: I really wish someone who knows how to play chess would consult in American movie chess scenes, but other than that, the film approached perfection for me. It doesn't lead anywhere, it is a feeling piece, something you need to experience and enjoy. I really hope you do.

The Fundamentals of Caring (2016)

Feelgood road trip movie

[8/10 · 11 March 2021]

It is a film you've seen before, but the details are what matters and in this they create a pleasant feelgood road trip. Paul Rudd actually played his role really well, with a depth that you only realize after the film is over. So what is it about? This kid has muscular dystrophy and needs care, so Rudd's character takes the job and then convinces the otherwise recluse kid to go on a drive to see some random sightseeing landmarks he was fantasizing about. On the road they meet some people that they take along and live life fuller, finding themselves.

What probably differentiates this film from so many others in the category is that there is no artificial drama somewhere in the third act, some threat or some unexpected catastrophe that makes it all tense. It just progresses naturally and makes the characters shine. There is no big moral at the end, nothing gets solved, it's just a story of personal growth. Probably the weakest link was Peaches, who had the potential to be a more complex character, but in the end had just a few scenes. Hopefully the book does her justice.

In the end, good job for a movie in a genre I usually care (heh!) nothing about.

Gretel & Hansel (2020)

A pretty mess, but I expected worse

[7/10 · 10 March 2021]

Lovely Sophia Lillis of It fame plays Gretel, the older sister of Hansel and the main character of the story. For several reasons they reach the house of the witch, played brilliantly by Alice Krige. Now, since they put the girl first they had to make it a little about feminism, refusing to be used by men, being brave, accepting herself and how men should fear her and so on, but it wasn't heavy handed enough to be annoying. The acting is very good and the visuals very well done. Unfortunately, the story is exactly what that of the very short fairy tale and nothing more.

One could say that the film borrows atmospheric elements from The VVitch, but it doesn't work. The witch's house is quite modern, Gretel uses modern words and is very confident, rational and feels educated, even when she claims she is not. The contrast makes the beginning of the movie completely superfluous and breaks the medieval feel that the sound kind of conveys, leaving us with the classic kids outsmarting adult plot.

Bottom line: better than most Hansel und Gretel adaptations, but other than the cinematic style, it brings little to the story.

His House (2020)

A messy combination of jump scares and social commentary

[5/10 · 9 March 2021]

I feel like I missed something, as so many people said this was good, but for me it was a really boring story punctuated by pointless jump scares. Probably the biggest issue with it is characterization, though. I couldn't care less about the quietly judgemental black woman, the angry black man ordering his wife around and the non linear story that predictably ends in them feeling shame or regret for something they've done in the past, like good poor god fearing people. And yes, the film hints at bigger issues, at the refugee plight, at how difficult it is to adapt to a completely different culture, but it touches them in formulaic and ultimately Western thinking ways.

There is always this silly morality in this kind of horror films, something to explain why it all happened, connect the special effects with some sort of human emotion that would make sense, a final twist that makes it all fall into place. But it just proves that until that connection is made, everything was pointless or at least unnecessarily obtuse. And it is thus with this film. It has about 15% of good quality stuff, but the rest is just filler and characters you can't empathize much with and the telegraphed jump scares.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020)

Great acting and characterization, no story

[8/10 · 8 March 2021]

This is a play adaptation written about a Black, probably lesbian, jazz celebrity from the 1920s and starring (soon after dead) Chad Boseman. It ticked all the boxes for an Oscar. But was it good? And the answer is yes! But only because of how each character told their story and how people were made to feel human, plus the flawless acting. It's a dialogue driven film with little to no story and it is painfully clear that it could have just as well been a stage play recording and not a movie, because nothing else matters except who the people in there are. I mean, I hated Ma Rainey and her attitude with all my heart, but I got what her character was about.

Bottom line (heh!): You will be tired of Black English at the end of this film. All people do is talk, talk and talk again. But you also feel them, which is why I liked the film. If you expect a story, though, a plot about jazz music or any type of journey from a clear point A to point B, then this is not the film for you. Also, if you don't like stage plays, you're going to hate it.

Sentinelle (2021)

Feels realistic, but it's not. And it fails storywise.

[5/10 · 7 March 2021]

I wanted to like the film and I expected to. It's a French film, and they usually don't pull their punches, then it's action and French action movies, when well done, are the best, and finally it starred Olga Kurylenko, who is a talented actress, not to mention really good looking. I mean, she's 40 and she looks 27.

Yet the whole movie is following this trained soldier fighting random people in order to get to her target. The entire story of the film is that one sentence. And the fight scenes were good, but far between, and too often they started from a careful and silent exploration of a building and some guy suddenly coming out of nowhere. The rest was boring and didn't make much sense. I do hope in France they don't take PTSD soldiers with an opioid addiction, arm them with Famas and let them roam wherever they want, even when wanted by the police and when they know where she's headed. The characters: all formulaic and most were superfluous. When they were not, they had a lot of extra characteristics not used anywhere. For example Olga's character knows five foreign languages - I expected her to put that to use, but it was just a random fact.

The worst, though, was the ending. In order to make it a bit longer, they had the bad guy escape once, only to be killed a few minutes later, when the target of one hour and twenty minutes was reached.

Bottom line: a failed film that doesn't know what it wants to be.

Coming 2 America (2021)

I want to say that it was an ode to Blackness, but I can't.

[5/10 · 6 March 2021]

Of course I was a lot younger then, but I remember I enjoyed the first Coming to America movie. It was silly, but fun. The sequel is not fun. They brought a lot of the original cast back, they expanded it with celebrities (past) of color, they kept the story similar to the original, but there is no soul in it. It all felt jarring and lame.

Not being American I know little of Black culture, but the scenes with the people from Queens felt really awkward to me, with their broken English and their self-centered loud irreverence. How are they not offensive to the audience, especially people from Queens? I remember I was once in this international setting and some of my countrymen started to sing. And they were the loudest people there, proudly shouting that they are Romanians. No one could stop them, no one else could join in the singing or sing their own music anymore, no one could do anything but leave or accept the noise. And I only felt embarrassment, just like I feel about this film.

P.S. If you're going to put Bella Murphy in the film to act with her father, why the hell won't you give her some lines?!