gmsmith-4 Reviews

Ad Astra (2019)

High production values, seems to have been written by a five year old.

[2/10 · 2 October 2023]

I'll admit I only watched the first 20 minutes to half an hour. It was just getting sillier and sillier. Production quality and acting was great. It comes across a a very high budget movie. But when you have an obvious high budget why not actually employ writers that can function at a higher level than a five year old. That is really the level of the story for as much as I watched of it. I can quite understand why Hollywood is flirting with the idea of replacing script writers with chat gpt. If this is the acceptable level of script writing for a high budget movie, you might as well save the money on script writers and just have an ai write something slightly believable. It would be an improvement.

I Am a Killer: Rolling the Dice (2022) Season 3, Episode 5

It does show how the American justice system is quite broken

[9/10 · 16 February 2023]

They chose a completely unsympathetic individual as the example, which was unfortunate, I don't think anyone would come away thinking he deserved a lesser sentence. But the DA saying that plea deals are a warping of justice is quite right. When a justice system rewards and even promotes pleas of guilt, whether true or not, it stops being a justice system. You're guilty, make a plea deal and get half the time. You're innocent, still plea deal. Like the prosecutor said, you're rolling the dice otherwise. A legal system really shouldn't be comparable to a game of chance, a casino. But the prosecutor gave away his own understanding, that it can, is. Finding the truth is less important than expediency.

Blood Red Sky (2021)

An absolute gem. Very original scriptwriting

[8/10 · 24 October 2022]

This is probably a spoiler, it's a vampire movie. I went into the movie knowing nothing, but then looked it up on IMDB, and learnt it was a vampire movie.

If you are someone like me that enjoys original, well written scripts, then this is the movie. It is a vampire movie, but doesn't follow any trope that I've seen previously associated with vampire movies. It does a good job of telling a great story.

If I was to criticise the movie, it's not high, Hollywood budget. There are no big name actors. And the two shots of the outside of the plane, one was obviously a matchbox minature, and the other1980's level CGI. Other than that the acting was excellent and it was really a script based adventure. If you like a good, not predictable script, this was good. It's intelligent, but doesn't follow any of the standard 6-8 Hollywood green-lighted scripts (not being from Hollywood).

X.

I Am a Killer: History Repeating (2022) Season 3, Episode 3

She had her hands in her pockets

[8 September 2022]

I don't know if the guy is guilty or not, I suspect he is. But the most salient part of the episode was the police officer saying that she had her hands in her pockets, and then repeating it "she had her hands in her pockets, and he shot her. Who would do such a thing?". Wow. If the death row suspect was pointing the gun at her then her hands would have been up in a defensive position in front of her face. If her hands were in her pockets that means she wasn't aware she was about to be shot, giving credulity to the case that the gun went off accidentally. And if the investigating officer was this stupid, his participation could surely be argued to have compromised the entire investigation.

War Machine (2017)

Brad Pitt gets stoned and doesn't bother to act.

[3/10 · 11 May 2022]

I'm not sure if he was stoned the entire time, or that's just his general demeanour. I'm leaning on the ¨ he was stoned¨ side, but I've never met him so I could just be his natural self. But whatever, he decided not to do any acting, and just took the piss, and dialled in his lines. I'd imagine there is a fascinating behind the scenes story of why he did it. But it's never come out. Best summary of the movie would be to say that it was a character movie, based on one single individual, and the actor playing that role was trying to get a Razzie.

Adam: The Prophet (2017 Video)

Probably the best of the series

[9/10 · 22 October 2021]

Most of the series were scenes out of a greater milieu. They introduced the snippet of a story, but had no story. Just the sound-stage for a future story. This was the only episode that actually contained a semi-contained story within it, even if very short and blunt.

Black Mirror: Shut Up and Dance (2016) Season 3, Episode 3

Peak Black book

[10/10 · 2 June 2021]

This is almost certainly the nastiest piece of fiction I have ever watched. And 10 out of 10 for it. It is pure evil if you like that sort of thing. The protagonists are all very bad people, to varying degrees. But you can't help but think that their punisher is even more evil. Not an episode for those who like feel good endings.

The Man in the High Castle (2015–2019)

Absolutely brilliant despite the difficult cliched premise of the série y of the Berlin scene

[10/10 · 19 February 2021]

I'm on the last episode of series two. I don't think it is a spoiler to say that it is an alternative reality where Germany was the first to develop the Atom bomb, and as a result, they conquered the east coast of America, and Japan conquered the west coast. Ironically, because of its title it's only weakness is anything involving "the man in the high castle". Ie someone who has videos from multiple parallel timelines with different outcomes and alternate realities. So far the writers have tried to play down that aspect of the series.

What is really well done is the characterisations of the main characters. It's not PC, but the Japanese have strong cultural Japanese characteristics, the Germans likewise, and the Nazi Americans are your perfect next door American neighbour. This probably doesn't convey it, but the strength of the series is its characters, and they are all are products of their culture, but very deep. I'm hoping going forward the writers will try to play down the "man in the high castle' aspect and just continue with the current character development.

Another positive part is it's imagination of what would have been. Germania, illustrated by by the massive rotund in the background of most of the Berlin scenes, which was intended to be part of Germania, was a clever touch.

7500 (2019)

An incredible movie. How is this not rated around 9.

[10/10 · 27 December 2020]

There was one scene which came across as a little contrived. But the rest of the movie is incredibly intense. Despite it being slow paced, I don't think my heart rate dropped below 160 for the entire movie. Some of the best acting I've ever witnessed. JGL was brilliant, I've just thought of him as a another Hollywood actor, but in this he seems completely authentic. An Oscar worthy performance, with the caveat that the actor who played the 18 year old Turkish German kid outperformed him. His portrayal of a young kid who has got himself in too deep was absolutely perfect.

An incredible thriller.

House of Games (1987)

Terrible actors, interesting plot

[6/10 · 17 December 2020]

To say the acting in this was B-grade would be a huge complement. It's not even close. But if you take it as a story, it has a few holes, is a bit predictable, but is ultimately a really well telled tale. It's worth watching for the interesting story, even if the acting isn't exactly great.

Following (1998)

A $6,000 masterpiece

[9/10 · 17 December 2020]

Initially I was annoyed that the movie was shot in arty, grainy B&W. But the script and storyline is very clever. And for a first movie from someone who hadn't studied at film school, and presumably just had their friends as actors, if the $6,000 budget is to be believed, the direction and acting are superb, maybe better than some of his blockbusters.

The Thing (I) (2011)

One of the few good prequel/sequel movies

[8/10 · 30 April 2020]

Some have criticized it for not having the gradual build up, and not being as good as the original. Of course it couldn't be. I'd guess they made a movie assuming almost the whole audience had to have watched the original. And they did it really well, despite the limitation that almost everyone watching it knew exactly what the Thing was, and so they couldn't use the mystery and suspense of the original. That made a prequel really difficult, we all know exactly what the Thing is and does. But within those confines the movie is a classic in it's own right.

The Tall Man (2012)

At points very well done, but ultimately a poor movie with an extremely poor premise

[6/10 · 1 October 2012]

I gave this a quite high 6 out of ten. Flattering it. The first half of the movie is a mess, stupid and often non-sensical. The second half of the movie managed to hold itself together better, which is why I would rate it higher than I think it might really deserve.

I can understand why some people rate this movie very highly, it was very well done at certain points. And the premise was great if it hadn't been done so ham-fistedly in the first forty minutes.

Spoilers - the movie does seem to make the nauseous case that working class 'red-necks' shouldn't be allowed to bring up their own children and middle class couples would do a better job.

Thor (2011)

The script/story was quite good. But ruined by poor casting.

[21 September 2011]

For a Hollywood movie (albeit directed by an English actor) the story was interesting. I grew up reading and loving Norse mythology. And I quite enjoyed their 'sci-fi' modernization of it, although hated that Loki was made a completely recreated, Hollywood character. Also it was done very professionally - the music, the scenery, the CGI, the pacing, it was fun etc.

Unfortunately almost everything else sucked. The biggest problem was casting. Casting a male model with a rah-rah voice doesn't substitute for an actor. The Thor I knew from my childhood was rough, indolent, irrational and charismatic. This Thor is good looking and boring, completely overwhelmed in the role. I am being a bit to harsh. A bad director with just the right instructions can make any actor look bad. And to be honest, despite the all star case - Rose Byrne, Sir Anthony Hopkins etc. - there certainly won't be any academy awards coming to any actor.