daytamod-38118 Reviews

The Matrix Resurrections (I) (2021)

Another Franchise Throttler

[5/10 · 28 December 2021]

Matrix excellent, Reloaded very good, Revolutions good. We all feared Ressurections would follow the rating trend, but hoped it would be something special. Sadly it followed the trend.

It was nothing more than a means to make one last earnings from the franchise. The trailers gave the plot, and left nothing for you to guess.

The plot was slow, not very sound, it left more conflictions than solved questions, and for me simply was an uneccessary story to tell. It simply wreaked of money grabbing from a great Franchise. Maybe Lana should sell it onto Disney, they'll sell it in their Franchise brothel along with everything else.

It was great seeing Keanu and Carrie pick up their roles, along with a couple of others. The acting was good, the action scenes were on par if not a little more tame compared to the other movies.

It was not a bad movie, but if you are going to jump on the back of a successful trilogy, sit at the table with the script for a little longer.

Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)

Pity we did not get this version in the first place

[9/10 · 30 March 2021]

I'm not really a DC fan. I'm more Marvel, but I do love a good super hero movie. This is a good super hero movie, eventually.

The first release of this film was just disappointing. Joss Whedon added humour that did not deliver, was not appropriate, and killed any momentum. The editing was poor and left so many important aspects. I'm so glad Snyder did not give up on this. He was determined not to let his hard work go to waste.

Recut and re-edited, with a vastly improved atmosphere and feel throughout and with 50% of content restored that nobody knows why it was left out in the first place. The missing content is so important to the rhythm of the plot as well as backstory.

Set yourself 4 hours of free time to watch this. It will be worth it.

Hard Kill (2020)

Hard Sell !!!!!

[2/10 · 8 September 2020]

I don't know what made me cringe more, the awful dialog, or the cardboard acting. Even Bruce Willis looked wooden. I was looking for the biggest plank actor in the movie, I think Sergio Rizzuto just marginally beat Natalie Eva Marie to the title.

Throughout the movie the dialog was so pathetic it made passenger 57 look professional. Jesse Metcalf tried is best to hold up the rest of the muppet crew, but this is the worst movie I've seen in years, and I watch B-movies. Watching it in 2020 during lockdown just made it a fitting watch for anyone with depression - you're too numb to care.

The plot is so thin and dragged out I was skipping minutes just to get to the next stage of the plot. As for the combat scenes an the military bravado with such experts in the field, my 5 year old does better scenes with those mini plastic soldier figurines.

All in all, it was dire.

Every Time I Die (2019)

Intriguing plot, slow build, Worth a go

[6/10 · 14 August 2019]

The plot is quite clever. It revolves around a character Sam and his relationship with his friend Jay and Jay's sister-in-law Mia and their partners. Sam keeps having blackouts, something that has affected him since his childhood. His relationship with his friends takes a turn when a big secret is revealed that defines what happens for the rest of the movie, but more importantly, what happened to Sam as a child and what happens to him at present. There is a big revelational twist at the end. You can work out the twist quite early if you pay attention to the details (I got it about 25 min in). The opening story was a little slow but I can see they were trying to build the realtionships between the characters so you know who is connected to who. The film direction and editing is a little querky, but for a low budget film, you can't complain too much.

When the action starts, you are drawn into what is going on, but itching for the pace to pick up a little. All in all it is a good film with a few minor slow bits. If you like sci-fi / supernatural and low budget films, this is worth a go.

Iron Fist (2017–2018)

Nice idea, bad execution

[4/10 · 28 July 2019]

I pondered over this series on Netflix for some time. However, it got so much negativity, well, I like a challenge, so I gave it a go.

Finn Jones would not be my first choice as Danny Rand but he's done a good job n The Defenders, and other appearances as the character. However I have to go along qwith the vast majority of reviews on this one. The script writing is bad, the pace of the storyline is very slow. Whilst trying to build the characters over time for the audience to judge who's good or bad, they practically put you to sleep.

Some of the actor choices were not good, and so there is a lot of cheesy acting. All in all I did get through season 1, but season 2 just got worse.

Such a shame, there was so much potential in this TV series, it was never taken advantage of.

Good Omens (2019– )

Clever, funny, and totally enjoyable

[9/10 · 2 June 2019]

Having read the book (one of very few) a good 20 odd years ago, and being a fan of the BBC Radio 4 audible adaptation of it, I was looking forward to this finally coming to my TV screen, I was not disappointed.

Despite being "based" on the original, it followed it very well whilst keeping the storyline fresh. A great range of well known actors of whom all were superb, and complimented the series wonderfully, especially the partnership of David Tennant and Michael Sheen upfront which was simply inspiring. Sam Taylor Buck did really well as Adam Young.

All-in-all, it was well worth the entire Sunday I spent watching through them all. Thank you for making this happen.

Alien Predator (2018)

No Predator, No Alien, No Point watching!

[1/10 · 23 September 2018]

After I saw the trailer for "The Predator (2018)" I saw this try to jump on its coat tails and slip through with a trailer of its own. What the heck, I like watching B-movies, some are worth doing the time for. Sadly, the director of this movie should be doing time as well as all the staff at Global Asylum.

Within 5 minutes of witnessing bad directing, and bad acting, especially the poor Dwayne Johnson wannabe acting of Xavi Israel, I realised this was going to be 90 minutes of my life I'm not getting back.

To be fair the acting was only dragged down by the poor script, awful dialogue and the research which made them look ridiculous. Seriously, what Lt Commander, breaks rank, disobeys orders risks his career in order to drag enlisted troops into enemy territory to look for a gunned-down experienced black-ops team, without any intel? Who writes garbage like this and expects the audience to be sucked in? Really?

As for the alien predator(s), it's not worth wading through 70 minutes to get a glimpse of them. They stole some of the recognisable predator gadgets we know of, but for most, the equipment and effects were "alien" to the franchise and the aliens themselves, well I've seen better Papier-mâché masks on Halloween.

The effects and set were so bad I don't think there was a budget for this movie except for a cheap laptop and one copy Adobe PhotoShop (tm). They could have saved themselves some cash and used paint.net with the same quality effects. The alien sets were a lot like the inside of a warehouse, strange how their structures are very similar to human design.

This movie is "Russian roulette" with one bullet and two chambers. If you are going to watch it, there's a 50/50 chance you are going to kill yourself.

Occupation (2018)

A good movie that could have been a great TV Series

[7/10 · 12 September 2018]

Occupation tells a story that is cut together across almost a years worth of action and tells the tale from the first invasion to the first major success of the war.

I enjoyed it, and a big thumbs up to the Australian film industry. The acting and direction is great.

The script covers many months of activity and reveals the personality of characters at quite a pace. The backstories are raced through so you only get a small background about them which needs to carry the characters personlaity behaviour that drives their actions through the movie and you don't quite get to feel immersed into the conflicts of characters as much as could have been the case.

I think this story line alone could have been turned into a successful TV series of at least 4 or more seasons. This would allow each character's backstory to grow and allow the audience to be captured by the potential depth of light and dark sides of each character. There is plenty of story line in between everything you see in the movie. As a TV series, I would have certainly watched it.

Good movie, that could be a great TV series.

Interstellar Wars (2016)

Independence day on a very very very low budget

[1/10 · 15 July 2018]

It starts with a modern version of a 1930's spaceship coming from behind the moon, a guy at a space observation facility picks up the signal and informs the facility boss who's in bed asleep. Some kids come across a loony as a spaceships looms overhead, and he claims he was abducted by aliens and they experimented on him. One of the kids happens to be a USAF pilot and heads to his base and tells the other to pack their things.... I'm sorry is this sounding familiar? That was just the first 13 minutes, the rest of it is very much the same as "Independence Day". Out of desperation to convince people it is not, the writers added the plot of aliens zapping people and turning them into zombies every 20 minutes, and when I say zombies, I mean regular looking people with a bit of red-eye.

Story plot - ripped, and filled with so many inconsistencies there were a page full in the first 15 minutes, Actors - terrible, including surprisingly Brian Lally who plays a senior representative of a space facility who is so mind-numbingly dumb a 6 year old could work out the obvious quicker than him. Poor Brian.

I cringed, and laughed throughout, until the end when I regretted wasting 90 minutes of my time.

Shortwave (2016)

Slow, slow, slow

[3/10 · 3 June 2018]

This is a slow, drawn out movie that combines essence of "The Outer Limits" weirdness to a very slow and painfully drawn out conclusion of what seemed to be an intriguing plot. You learn very early about why Isabel and Josh have moved out to a location in the middle of nowhere, and the fact Josh is involved in a science project, but that's about all you know about for 25 minutes as the movie drags on and reminds you of these facts over and over again. The music does not help. The ambient backing track is hypnotic in places, and with the slow pace of the movie you'll be forgiven for falling asleep in places. I began to start skipping 10 seconds here, and 20 seconds there waiting for something to new happen.

The acting was OK, and there was a needless scene of Juanita Ringeling masturbating (there you go skip to 22 minutes in and enjoy). This is not a spoiler as it has very little relevance to the plot if any. The movie did not need it, but I suppose its one way to keep viewers from switching off at this point. I'm sure the writers will give you plenty of excuses for it being in the movie.

On the whole the movie was painfully slow, the writers struggled to make the plot stretch for 80 minutes. I had to turn on subtitles on halfway through because the actors were talking / shouting over each other and areas that were scary were only made so because of the very loud sound effects, otherwise, nothing makes you jump. How can I get these 80 minutes of my life back?

The Man from Earth: Holocene (2017)

How do you follow such a highly rated first movie?

[6/10 · 30 January 2018]

When you follow a script by Jerome Bixby, you have to be at your best to live up to the job. Sadly I think this is where this movie fell down most - the script and the fact everyone was bound to compare this movie to the first.

The first movie ended with so many unanswered questions which to me was the beauty of the script; it left all the possibilities and outcomes to your own imagination. This must have made it much harder to write a sequel with everyone comparing the storyline to how they had imagined the next 10 years would be.

For me this sequel did a poor job bridging the 10 year gap. Instead you see John Oldman, now know as John Young at the end of the next 10 year term of his life, ready to be "moving on" yet again. At this time a group of college kids stumble upon his secret, and the movie focuses on the students more than the protagonist. I was eager to see other actors from the past 10 years reunited with John. I love the acting of David Lee Smith. Sadly we did not get to see him at his best with this storyline, nor William Katt who I also found his acting drew you in with the first movie. Instead we saw younger actors who did not create any level of captivation that was such an appeal in the first movie.

I think a TV series could have picked up far better after the first movie than a sequel. It would allow for a more diverse range of stories, topics, and you could see John Oldman walking off into the sunset after a group of episodes like David Banner in the 80's TV series The Incredible Hulk :-) However, when you watch this movie to the end, you can see they are hinting at something to see how the audience reacts to certain possibilities.

What captivated the audience so much in the first movie was the fact you were involved in a long intellectual discussion. I don't blame Holocene for being so bad, more so that the first movie was probably too good to attempt to follow.

The Man from Earth (2007)

Intellectual, engrossing, captivating

[10/10 · 30 January 2018]

When you've seen a movie an untold number of times you know you're hooked. I am hooked on this movie for so many reasons. I've never really come across anything like it. Eight actors, in one location talking about whether or not a man is 14,000 years old. The way it grabs you in from a very early stage and intrigues you with the very thought of it.

The actors for me do a superb job of keeping your interest in the subject. Some parts feel a little wooden but I liked the line-up chosen for the movie and I think they worked well together to keep you intrigued. You can relate to the reactions of any one of them, or you are enticed to draw your own conclusion on how you would react, but you are encouraged to make your decisions on the topics and revelations that arise.

As well as the wonderful acting, the enticing storyline by Jerome Bixby, I love the music arrangement from Mark Hinton Stewart. The music for me supports the scenes beautifully.

All in all, a great sci-fi movie, and without one hint of CGI anywhere. This is one I will continue to watch for a very long time. Love it.