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An error has ocurred. Please try againIf anyone has more suggestions for indie directors/movies, please leave in comments. I am a fan of indie cinema!
Reviews
Freaky (2020)
Stopped watching at 1 hour mark. I had enough
(NOT marking as Spoilers because the plot points I discuss have already been shown in the promos & trailers.)
Good actors. Good acting. But the plot and direction is atrocious. The draw of this movie was the body-swapping. So, why was there a need for the extended scenes where the "butcher" stalks his victims slowly, in a campy way? I mean, he is in the body of a meek teenage girl who no one bats an eye at. 'She' could have easily used that to get close to her victims and stab them in the guts. No one would have suspected a thing until the knife was well inside their guts.
All the time spent doing this campy stalking could have been used to further the comedy that comes from the body-swapping concept. Anyway...after 1 hour, I just couldn't any more.
3/10 is generous.
Shadow in the Cloud (2020)
Good enough budget movie to pass the time
It's a good enough movie. The plot is pretty simple, and typical itna budget movie that takes place in an enclosed environment - in this case, a plane. It's a series of hurdles to overcome one after another, sometimes concurrently.
But I liked the unique twist that's set up right at the beginning and pays off throughout. The background score is my kinda music. The acting, or in most cases, the voice-acting was pretty good. If you survive the initial phase where our protagonist is 'trapped' in the turret, then the movie holds your interest all throughout and delivers some good enough action. It's not 'Kick-Ass / Hit-Girl' level of action from Grace Moretz but it's good enough for the setup of this movie.
However, there are two parts that distinctly drag on. First is her stuck in the turret, and the second is where she is rescuing a 'package'. Those parts could've been cut down a little to keep the pace brisk, and still could've effectively conveyed the messages they were trying to convey.
But other than that, I liked the movie overall. IMHO, has repeat viewing potential.
8/10 for me.
Goliath (2016)
Shallow series with good performances, but bad plot and dialogues
Sure, the acting was good by a few people, but overall the plot is what let me down. It was thoroughly predictable, there were a lot of sub-plots that went nowhere, and the dialogue was not that good. Billy Bob Thornton is not even half as effective as he was in Fargo Season 1. Maybe he was asked to act half bored all the time, but still. Some of the performances I did love were Olivia Thirlby as Lucy Kittridge, Tania Raymonde as Brittany Gold and Molly Parker as Claire Senate.
There are a lot of things that are done half-assed, which is what really bugs me with this Season. Like, if Lucy was being used as a prop only to humanize the corporation in the eyes of the jury, she would have been kept on the panel throughout the case as a constant reminder to the jury, not fired mid-way. Like, what was Maria Bello's Michelle McBride doing that contributed to the overall plot? Her daughter keeps referring that she is losing her mind over this case, but she was never an active part of it on or off screen. Speaking of Denise, the daughter, her sudden request to Billy about dropping the case also came without any precedent whatsoever. Karl Stolz's name is bandied around throughout the season but it never plays any significant role in anything. The one thing the series did not have was a sense of revelation. We do not learn anything about anyone or anything in any effective way; most of it are throwaway lines. Same with character motivations or characterizations in general.
The whole incident that kick starts the series is never explored in any depth. The relationship dynamic and history between Cooperman and McBride is never explored in detail. And the case itself is handled in the most 90's way possible. They keep losing until the closing statement and then they win! That was done to death by series like The Practice way back in the 90's.
I love Billy Bob Thornton but I disliked this series.
Dracula Untold (2014)
All CGI, no substance. Not a good start to a movie-verse.
Universal Pictures are trying to build a movie universe on top of this pile of crap!? Good luck to them! The whole thing looked like a poor man's version of Van Helsing, released over a decade ago. That movie also tried to "reinvent" the monster genre as an action movie, and while I personally liked that movie, the audience at large disagreed then, and I am not sure they will agree now after watching this one. I don't.
The one thing I noticed, and could not forget afterward about it was that they tried to paint Vlad as a humane person, doing what he did to save his family and his children. That is like some movie a couple of centuries from now, making Hitler out to be a humane person, because the movie industry has run out of ideas about Hitler. I found this disturbing, and could not enjoy the movie after that. Vlad even explains that impaling an entire village was necessary to save ten. Now imagine this same argument being made by Hitler in a movie 2 centuries from now! Revolting!
There is nothing new in the story, its the same old crap of conquerors at the gate, ruler tries to save family with odds against him, epic fight, blah blah. Dracula suddenly had powers that he never ever had before in the mythology, like able to make a herd of bats form precise fist like shapes in the air and punch the massive Turk army with said bat-fists, controlling the weather so there is cloud cover during daytime (how convenient!), and so on. The mythology within the movie itself is not adhered to, like Vampire-prime being able to be free of his curse after turning Vlad, but Vlad unable to do so after turning tens of people. Makes one wonder how they plan to stick to an over-arching mythology across the entire planned movie-verse. Heck, they could not even nail accents correctly. Why are ROMANIANS talking with British accents!? Why are Turks talking...unlike Turks!? The presence of certain characters are totally unexplained, like the dude who first tries to cajole Vlad into drinking his human blood, and then revives Vlad again after the finale battle. Neither his motivations, nor his intentions are made clear. Heck, we don't even get his name.
Universal needs to take a lot of production cues from Marvel if they really want to make their movie-verse successful. Like, do not mess with powers associated with long-established characters, do not try to force a sense of mystery, and more importantly have a cohesive story, with special effects only aiding said story! I think I have ranted enough. Just one more thing....anyone feel that the Queen's death sequence was totally channeling Gwen Stacy's death sequences from The Amazing Spiderman 2?? Originality, people! Please!
Kesäkaverit (2014)
Good for a view
Its not a bad movie. There are some funny moments and some emotional moments and some romantic ones, all well done. But at the same time, one cannot fight off the feeling that the movie would have done better if it were a bit shorter. A little more than one hour into the movie, it already felt like it was stretching the story. Making it a bit concise could have worked in its favor. It felt like it was trying to fit every Hollywood cliché about this genre of movies into a single movie, which would have been OK if they had made it slightly more compact in terms of running time.
I liked the leads, but it is the two actresses in the supporting roles of Eeva and Iiris' big sister that really kill it in their respective roles.
The male actors are little more than props in the story, which is fine by me. This is a story around female characters and Hollywood has marred many such movies by casting prominent actors in lead roles, which actually take away from a female-centric story.
Good for a one time watch.
Sunshine (2007)
Well-told story, but for one aspect
I liked the movie as a whole, even if the whole dying Sun is an impossible phenomenon and sending a bomb into the Sun and coming back from it is an even bigger impossibility. But, in movies such as this, the set-up serves to tell a story of the decisions various people would make under difficult circumstances, and how the loneliness and confinement of deep space affects psyches in different ways. In that, it succeeds absolutely.
However the biggest flaw for me is how Pinbacker is always shown as a blur once he enters Icarus II. That part just kills the movie for me because it rings false and forced. Its like the director thought it up as a means of not making it look like a slasher movie, instead of embracing the fact that extreme insanity, especially religion-based one that Pinbacker suffered from would indeed make someone go on a killing spree, and his obsession with viewing the Sun in all its glory would have lead to his skin being the way it is. There was no need to blur him. That made it look cheap. Instead a full-on visual would have been more successful.
Other minor gripe is the event that lead things to go astray, which is the solar panels failing because of misalignment. During repair, the crew indoors repeatedly asks the mainframe, aka Icarus, to adjust/align the paneling automatically, and that leads to one asking the question, "why did Icarus not do the same automatically during course change?" Finally, it was fun to see Captain America and The Scarecrow duke it out on a couple of occasions. :P
Hercules (2014)
I'll pass
Why does The Rock have problem finding movies with more A-list directors than Brett Ratner, the bane of the X-Men franchise?
It tries to show Hercules as more of a man than a demigod and fails at it. The sets are false looking, the fights are false looking, and in the end it all comes down to Hercules' superhuman strength to win a fight. So where is the frigging reality, again? The plot is threadbare thin, and very cliché. In fact, it reminded me of the plot of Gladiator = Emperor has wife and children killed, hero gets betrayed, hero avenges and gets accolades of the public at the same time. Oh, and there is no payoff from all the emotional moments that are set up with the supporting cast.
Good for casual viewing on a lazy day when you have run out of ideas for good movies. But even then, I'd watch a Marvel movie.
Autómata (2014)
Horridly pace movie with an equally horrid plot.
A horridly paced B-movie with plot elements that make no sense at all, and characterizations as thin as toilet paper.
All that the robots wanna do is cross over to a cliff to the other side and inhabit a radioactive zone that no humans can inhabit anyway. Where is the "profound consequences to mankind" in that? Fine, the robots are self-aware, but its not like they wanna take over the human settlements, like the NS5s in I,Robot! These are actively trying to get AWAY from humans. If there is any danger in that, then it should have been explained. At no point do any of them show any hostility against humans either. They just realized that humans are doomed sooner or later, and that robots will inhabit the Earth, and they are going about it PEACEFULLY! Bah, its useless arguing plot points, cause this is a DOA movie with no pickup, no pace and no legible story to tell.
I don't know what portion of this movie resonated with Blade Runner for some people, except maybe the pace. And, just because there are protocols shown in the beginning of the movie that a Rbot must follow, is no reason to compare this to Asimov.
Prometheus (2012)
Amazing prequel that stays true to the mythology and still goes in its unique direction.
This is a great movie that serves as the perfect prequel to the Alien series of movies. What stands out about this one is that it goes beyond just the mythology surrounding Alien and the xenomorphs, beyond just the CG effects, the jump-shots and action pieces, and asks some real interesting questions. It is rare that you see a movie that has enough references to its predecessors while still managing to be a unique story in itself.
Great work by the director, Ridley Scott, as well as the actors involved, especially Noomi Rapace. Can't wait for the sequel! P.S.: Given that the story mostly revolves around Christian theories concerning creation, as well as the fact that it takes its own direction independent of the preceding movies, I don't find it surprising that it has invoked a "Love it or Hate it" reaction in most people.
Pandorum (2009)
Faulty marketing spoiled it for this classic.
A truly underrated Sci-Fi that will surely remain a cult classic. I think its downfall was not the movie itself but the promotions, because I definitely remember it being called a horror movie with a vampire theme, which is far from what it is, and ended up creating the wrong expectations for the audience.
Great acting by all involved, including the mutant child. The only criticism I have about the movie itself is the way in which the final plot twist regarding Lt.Payton's character was handled. It did not give the audience enough time to let it sink in before moving on to the final confrontation. The final confrontation itself could have been handled better. But, all in all, a good watch.
The Avengers (2012)
8 Degrees of Awesomeness
The Avengers displays Joss Whedon's flawless comedic timing, and his ability to balance fun among serious situations perfectly. One can see why Buffy & Angel were a huge success, & Firefly/Serenity a huge cult hit. Welcome to the big leagues, Mr. Whedon.
As for the movie, I like this movie's Hulk more than the two stand-alone movies. This movie showcases why the Hulk can work best as a supporting character instead of the lead. Hawkeye, in my opinion, was an odd character to add, and the movie could have done just as well without him. The other characters perform their parts well, but Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark steals the spotlight every time he is on-screen. The chemistry between the cast is seamless. I also loved seeing Coby Smulders as a bad-ass action chick, although its a shame she did not see much action.
The only downsides I can think of is the sometimes cheesy dialogs, mostly by Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury, and some very loose usage of technical slang.
Other than that, here is a toast to The Avengers, and I am surely up for seeing The Avengers 2, Iron Man 3, and (a man can dream) Coby Smulders in an action movie.