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Benjiffy
Reviews
Ambulance (2022)
Stop 10 minutes before the end.
The ending completely ruined it for me. Then the credits started with "Directed by Michael Bay", and I went "that explains a lot". And why I kept thinking of Transformers throughout the film: the terrible framing, cars exploding and crashing for no good reason, the weird shootouts, etc. Michael Bay should retire from directing. Even Jake Gyllenhall's acting couldn't save this film from its ending. I was enjoying it until the frankly bizarre final gunshot, which I can only assume was solely to give a twist to the audience, without any consideration whatsoever for its merit. And then the weird loud music and crappy cinematography Michael Bay loves punched in again, and it just felt insultingly stupid and frustrating in its short-changing of a very likeable story and characters, and nothing really happened. It's thoroughly disappointing.
Role Play (2024)
A feel-good movie.
This is really a very competently made romantic thriller. The cast do a great job, and I was pleasantly surprised by how good Kaley Cuoco's performance was (I have only seen her in the Big Bang Theory, but she was clearly wasted there). The writing is also good, it's not held-down by any social commentary (which can be good but sometimes feels aggressively forced. It was good to avoid it for this, as I think it would have detracted from the story), and I do feel like this is an original and well-rounded take on a frequently-used story: the "assassin trying to get out" works nicely with the devoted husband and family to take care of. The relationship with the previous boss is again much more interesting and compelling than is typical. This film left me feeling good, and that's rare.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)
Tense. Smartly written. But rushed.
This film is quite faithul to the first two games, but I feel like it would have been far better to make this film as two. The director does a great job with creating tension and suspense, and this film is very atmospheric. The production looks very much like the original games, which I assume means the costumes look strange if you haven't played the games!
I also found the writing sharp, and the acting was similarly on point. But, the two games are crushed into one, and I would have loved this director to have made the two games as separate films. A whole film dedicated to the mansion, and another to the police station, and I think they could have been brilliant cinema. I hope he makes a sequel!
Alias Grace (2017)
Beautifully produced nonsense
I can't fault the acting and production, but the writing is either incomplete or the show edited in such a way that it is simply nonsense. The pace drags from episode 2, which could have led to a great pay-off, but that just never happened.
Paul Gross's hilariously awful Scottish accent is an absolute delight, however.
I have no idea what Nancy or Thomas did to deserve being killed, for some reason it's left entirely to our imagination. I wondered how many times they strangled her on camera for all the different takes and angles in the show. It appears the entire ending is vague solely because the writer enjoyed the idea, or perhaps they felt viewers might like it.
Last Action Hero (1993)
That premise
I really enjoy this movie, but the premise (ticket) is such an original an expansive idea, that I can't imagine why no-one else has stolen it.