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jasivillo-00544
Reviews
Anyone But You (2023)
Cute enough, but where's the funny?
There's nothing too offensive here. It follows the formula to a tee... cute enough to pass the time without me wanting to turn it off, but I really was just waiting for some (ANY!) really good laugh-out-loud moments and just didn't find any. Besides a slight chuckle here and there, the absurd moments were more cringe-inducing than genuinely funny.
In recent history I can't help but compare this to No Hard Feelings. Both intended to serve the same purpose... but NHF was better acted, had more heart, was far more clever and had me laughing hard more than a few times. This movie, loosely based on Shakespeare, might have the pretense of some higher purpose, but other than some well placed quotes (in print, not spoken by anyone) it comes up way short. A little sad because I had fairly high hopes for this one.
Man of Steel (2013)
Good and Fun for 90 minutes, obnoxious for the rest
I should have known when krypton looked like something out of star wars prequels that subtlety would not be this movie's strong point, but that's not the major issue here. A great cast and solid performances all around
in this story reboot are ruined by the final hour plus of Michael Bay-esque prolonged battles between the kryptonians (seriously, they never end! How many times do we have to see buildings fall? How many times can our heroes and villains be thrown through buildings? We get it! They punch real hard and no one gets hurt. Bo-ring). Stranger was seeing that Christopher Nolan was partly responsible for this story. It's almost like he has a hand in the setup but gave up trying to influence half way through. Great effects but nothing really original or clever in this "epic" conclusion.
Also, I know superman will avoid having to kill at nearly all cost, but in this case judging by the amount of damage, 50 million people probably died. Would he really be that upset that he finally had to terminate zod once he got the upper hand?
Sunset Blvd. (1950)
Wonderfully overacted!
Billy Wilders work setting the stage for more modern cinema here almost acts like a passing of the baton. Swanson's performance is so crazy over the top that it is certainly absurd by today's standards. But she owned it. She was a silent film star descending into madness in the age of talkies and in that context her performance is justified and stands out against the more realistic portrayals elsewhere in the movie. I have to admit... I'm a latecomer to this movie and I knew Kristen wiigs impersonation long before seeing the movie. This resulted in some unintentional laughter as I thought back to the Vincent price Halloween skit on SNL. But this did not lessen my enjoyment of the movie, maybe even enhanced it. I continue to enjoy my trip through the Billy wilder portfolio (double indemnity, 7 year itch, some like it hot and sunset).
Boksuneun naui geot (2002)
If the Coens did horror...
I couldn't help but think of some coen brothers movies (fargo) here.
Other movies like A Simple Plan come to mind too. Or even psycho, when you consider how far the movie goes from its initial setup.
It's a very slow motion train wreck early on as the main characters hatch their plans. You know it's all going to go wrong somehow, but you just have no idea how horribly horribly wrong. Once they hit the point of no return things get out of control and gruesome. Brutally sad story ultimately.
"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the people" is what I like to say when trying to hit the character limit.
Unstable (2023)
Enjoy the quirks, groan at the absurdity
Right now I am about six episodes into season one
This show generates some pretty decent laughs and characters you want to root for with a good premise, even though the office environment on display is akin to the stuff of fantasy. On the down side it really falls flat when they're trying too hard to be absurd (e.g. The gospel singers at the birthday. What the hell? Would rob Lowe's character have them sing a song about how his son is there to save the company from himself? Then the whole Fred armisen storyline which started out interesting and is now just weird and not funny). I could see (and hope to see) this becoming a better show if it gets another season and finds its voice. Right now it's stumbling and inconsistent. It's an easy watch at sitcom length so worth a shot if you haven't seen it and enjoy something quirky.
Firestarter (2022)
Lame. Boring. And weirdly so much screaming.
Might be the most uninteresting book adaptation ever. Rushed. Entirely plot driven, zero character development. Almost makes me appreciate the original movie, which was terrible.
And just stop screaming. Everyone that uses their powers (and apparently everyone has some in this version) just feels the need to scream. It's a 90 minute trailer. And not a good one.
There was a slightly interesting twist on the original ending, but that wasn't enough to bail this clunker out.
Also this last part here is a bunch of words just to get my review to the minimum number of characters, which is more thought that was put into this script.
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Amazing visuals, too long, lousy villain (again)
Ok so the first movie was an amazing visual achievement. The worst thing about it was probably the zero-dimensional villain. Someone with no internal conflict, no humanity. Just a muscle-bound douche bag. Beyond that, he's just completely uninteresting. Not funny, not clever, not even crazy. Soooo... let's just bring him back for more of the same? 3 looong hours more?
I won't kid you. The visuals especially in iMax 3d are truly amazing and almost redeem this even at 3+ hours. Ignoring the glaring plot holes, and the cringey conversations with pandora's whale population, it was mostly fun, before watching the whole thing devolve into an hour long machine gun battle on the "titanic".
Mr. Mercedes (2017)
8 stars for season 1, the rest... ?
S1 was a very well done adaptation of the first book. S2 was a serviceable adaptation of the third, and easily worst, book. S3 was a very disappointing adaptation of the second, and best, book.