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My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023)
A terrible propaganda movie for tourists
Extremely bad script writing. If you were to insert yourself into the film directly, you would look at the people speaking and say to them "what's wrong with you? No one speaks or behaves like that."
The acting and the plot is very cringe-worthy.
The film is designed for the tourism industry. All smiles and a glorious fantasy world that does not exist.
Cheesy modern Greek pop songs are played in the movie that are not really popular at all among real Greek citizens.
The film does not reflect what is going on in Greece in modern times with the collapse of the Greek society and our landscapes being ravaged with climate change. Clearly, a perfectly designed veil is installed to make the Americans feel good. As a Greek, this is painful to watch, and is really an insult.
There are other ways to make a funny comedy based on the humor of the original, but this one involves the worst script writers that you can find. Comedic timing is pitiful. If Nia Vardalos thinks that this is a good film, then she is truly blind sighted. This is mostly a "hey, let's get the remaining gang back together and get a pay day with a new film since we've run out of money in our personal bank accounts."
The Nun II (2023)
A Vapid and Empty Plot
This film is no where near the mastery of a James Wan horror plot. Overall, this is a ridiculous attempt to continue a saga with a weak story layout. The main antagonist (i.e., Valak) is nothing more than an empty jump scare. You gain nothing about trials, tribulations, test of faith, etc. There is nothing scary in this film, nor is there any tension, or a sense of feeling of dread. You can't root for the protagonists since they don't know what they are doing anymore than the antagonist demon who likes to simply appear, growl, and throw people across rooms. Any close-up of Valak strongly resembles CGI and is not even remotely intimidating.
Overall, this is a non believable fantasy quest for a holy relic that will defeat Valak. Screaming and weak jump scares that you can see a million miles away. The second act of the film is mostly "Aaaahh! Eeeeeh! Grrrrr! Aaaaaah! Eeeeeeh!" that gets tiring very quickly. When Valak burns in the end, just like how Valak disintegrated in the Nun (Part I), you just want to end it all and say good riddance!
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Deja-Vu All Over Again
Avatar 1 (2009): Jake, the protagonist, faces human Quartich, the antagonist (villain) in the final battle, and Quartich is killed. Meanwhile, Neytari undergoes psychological trauma by experiencing her planet being ravaged and torched by the invaders, all the while grieving for her murdered father.
Avatar 2 (2022): Jake, the protagonist, faces Avatar Quartich, the antagonist (villain) in the final battle, yet Avatar Quartich survives (so that he can dreadfully reappear in Avatar 3). Meanwhile, yet-again, Neytari undergoes psychological trauma by experiencing her planet being ravaged and torched by the invaders at the beginning of the film, all the while grieving for her murdered son. At this point, her crying and screaming is beyond tolerable for another dreadful installment in this saga.
Now package a seemingly recycled plot with very expensive pretty CGI VFX with video game camera angles and higher resolution blue meerkats, and a James Cameron view of looking at the universe, and you have a vapid and mundane restrictive view of storytelling. When the previous film made close to $3 billion in the box-office, pray-tell, why would the writers and producers wish to change the profit-formula for the next film? Albeit, this CGI fantasy storytelling is popular among the masses, it does not contribute to the already oversaturated film selection that already has explored this theme time and time again. This film is literally a new interpretation and presentation of the first film, without the charm and authenticity of a stellar plot. Among the infinite avenues that could have been chosen to explore the world of Pandora, Cameron and company chose to restrict their universe and characters with an algorithm designed to pays the bills and remain predictable. As such, this film was an entire let-down, and I will not be wasting my time with parts 3, 4, 5, 6, and possibly 7.
Till (2022)
Stellar performance from Deadwyler, albeit an ephemeral depiction of a well known historical event
Chukwu's "Till" is the cinematic representation of the tragic and vile murder of Emmett Till in 1955. Prior to this October 2022 biopic, in late January of 2022, ABC released a six hour, six-part, limited series on the Emmett Till story titled "Women of the Movement". Arguably, it can be stated that the series is an immersive, comprehensive, and harrowing portrayal of the individuals, environment, and injustice that befell Emmett, his mother Mamie, Emmett's family, and an entire African American community. Albeit a strong and emotional performance from Danielle Deadwyler, the tonality and expression of Chukwu's film is very different from the ABC series, and is largely executed in the style of a theater production with scenes acted out in a manner that reflects actors delivering their scenes in a controlled and timed fashion without emotional and realistic spontaneity. For instance, the scene of Mamie fainting on the ground upon hearing that her child had been found murdered, played out like an on-stage performance with the support cast gathering around and reacting as a diorama scene without active realism to the event. Another instance of diorama scene configuration can immediately be seen in the following sequence of shots, where a camera is pulled on a dolly slider through two different households (one white and one black), in addition to Mamie's home, as they react to the televised and radio news of Emmett Till's murder.
Although creative from the standpoint of the director and the cinematographer, it does not playout like a traditional film's portrayal of immediate visual realism. Moreover, there is a lot of dead time spent in specific shots that does not add emotional or historical context to the development of the known story. Granted that this film is only a two-hour production, as opposed to "Women of the Movement", this is not an excuse for the shortcomings of support cast character development and their portrayal not being authentically written (i.e., superficial without true homage to the actual historical figures), nor fully executed in a manner that depicts timeless performances as opposed to simply a passing acquaintance or thought. Inconsistency in the cinematic framing of shots shows the lack the dynamic structure of positioning that builds tension or captures the emotional severity that is present in several critical scenes during the film. Additionally, the cinematic score from composer Korzeniowski, at times, subjectively choses the wrong tonality and expression in several important moments, which can detract the viewer from any tension that should be the focus of a particular scene.
Overall, the film lacks a timeless aura with the gravitas that can be found in the 1988 film "Mississippi Burning", or the 1992 biopic film "Malcolm X". Furthermore, the accuracy of the film's dialog in relation with historical dialog and context is flawed (e.g., the interaction of Emmett Till and Carolyn Bryant at the store, or the kidnapping of Emmett Till from the home of Mose Wright). A bit off-putting was the director's choice of quickly glancing over the evil expressions of taunt and sneering malice from the Bryant's and the overall racist culture of Mississippi in the town of Money during the trial, including the jurors, although it could be argued that the emphasis was to focus on Mamie Till-Mobley and not on the perpetrators. The story of injustice that her son faced was not fully realized in the second act of the film (i.e., following the murder), and quite frankly, the film ran out of time and steam, choosing to inform the audience of a complex life that Mamie led following the events of her son's trial through the epilogue.
Kalavryta 1943 (2021)
Directing, Cinematography, and Screenplay Clearly Miss the Mark!
Max von Sydow's character with the German auditor was fictitious and distracting to the main story with cut-scenes placed in the incorrect sequence (i.e., showing Max saying "500 (inaccurate) men were executed with machine guns" before showing the actual scene, while cutting the previous sequence of the men and boys walking up the hill; breaking the scene's tension). Clearly Max was brought in to bring the film some visibility to an international audience; however, if the Greeks had actually filmed the story correctly, it would have been able to stand on its own at any international film festival and audience. The machine gun massacre was very weak and did not depict the horror and nightmare of over 696 (actual number) men and boys being killed to show the inhumanity of what the Germans did to the Greeks of Kalavryta. The cinematographer only focused on a few faces in very tight shot sequences in order to hide the fact that they did not bring in enough extras for the film (a big mistake). After a few rounds of the machine gun firing, the scene was essentially over, with no cries of anguish. In actuality, many more priests and boys were killed than shown in the movie, and the full scale was not shown for the audience to immerse in the severity of the situation. The small scale of the number of women and girls locked inside the school during the film sequences was blatantly wrong, given that there were actually 1,300 in total! Additionally, the women's reaction to finding their husbands was also weak with inauthentic drama (too many close ups and not enough sequences showing the scale and anticipation of them going up the hill from the village). 13 actually survived the massacre, but none of the survivors were shown! The German soldiers were not authentic enough, nor were their 'accents'. In the credits, it states that "the massacre was...one of the worst crimes committed against a Christian population during WW2", however, they did not show the Germans burning of the Monastery of Agia Lavra, which is in the same region (5 km from Kalavryta)!
Spielberg's "Schindler's List" and "Saving Private Ryan", in addition to Klimov's "Come and See" properly display the horrors of war on the soldiers, Jews, and Russians, and the sense of realism and 'bone-chilling' dread throw a clear gut punch to those trying to emulate a deeper sense of reality and understand history's message. Director, Dimitropoulos, and cinematographer, Rahmatoulin, of "Echoes of the Past" failed to capture a fraction of the real harrowing story of the atrocities witnessed and experienced by the Greeks. Fundamentally, if only the production team had studied Klimov's (or even Angelopoulos') cinematic techniques of camera positioning and scene framing, they would have been a little closer to a true Greek film capturing the essence of a proper period piece. Clearly, the team behind this film failed to do their fallen countrymen justice by striving, instead, to create a modern "made for TV" drama! Consequently, and regrettably, this film will not stand the test of time.
*NOTE: As a Greek, I have actually visited the town of Kalavryta, the Monastery of Agia Lavra, and the sites surrounding the massacre.