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Stillwater (2021)
Unlikely, Unlikable and Unnecessary
The only redeeming quality of this film is that Matt Damon, as one would expect, portrays the role, as it would seem as intended, as well as one could. The character itself is unlikely; too many poor character traits, which would be nearly impossible to find in in one person in the real world. It seems like there was an intention to create a plot twist, however, there is none. The film doesn't really express any worth while lesson nor is it enticing in a more light hatred fashion. It has all the bad traits of a film taking itself too seriously, without the emotional or moral depth one would expect. What adds to the disappointment is that every engagement is sprinkled with or drowned in political motivation - the recipe for unlikely and unlikable plots, arcs and characters.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Good for its time - Overrated
For a movie produced in the 1960's, this is well executed cinematographically, in fact it is hard to believe it was possible. As one would expect with something from that era, the film is incredibly slow paced and there is quite significant time spent on irrelevant events.
As for the story it self, it is a mixed bag. Especially the last 30 minutes could have been better. The setup is intriguing, especially in light of how humanity's own creations could become a threat to our continuation. That said, this is a reasonably good film, however, it is slightly overrated considering some of the events, the general character development and the last 30 or some minutes of the film, which could have been executed better without the need of outlandish technology.
Gold (2022)
Message of Stupidity - not Greed
To create a story that conveys a strong message regarding something like greed could be challenging. It's usually difficult to ensure the characteristic doesn't get lost in a different characteristic like stupidity or ignorance. This one failed miserably.
This is a story of bad luck, ignorance and stupidity. Also no character development, so it's just a terrible movie.
The movie starts off with little information about the main characters, which is promising. You would then expect to learn something about them, to develop some connection - this never happens. The characters remain foreign and unrelatable. Apart from the fact that greed is so over shadowed by the stupidity and ignorance of Virgil, the setup doesn't provide enough context to know whether this is pure desperation or greed.
Wander Darkly (2020)
Well executed and daring
Although this film successfully pulls off a twist and a half, that is not where its main strength lies. The brilliant execution leads you to such depths of empathy where you want to die with the character.
It is challenging yet the writer pulled off character development in the strangest of ways.
Dexter: New Blood (2021)
Destructive to the Dexter Character
As you might expect from a modern Showtime - too many woke elements. What is less expected is that the series destroyed the carefully precise character, which is Dexter. A random small town cop is able to piece together what Miami Metro couldn't do in 8 seasons, which is really a slap in the face of those characters.
It was important, perhaps the most important of all factors to protect the image of Dexter and that was destroyed. It is not that it is just a bad series, it is that the world is worse off because of its existence.
2:22 (2017)
Wasted Potential
The movie, seemingly about a guy, good at pattern recognition, but really about a guy with the worst pattern recognition ability you can expect from a human with average intelligence. That said the somehow surreal scenario could have made for an interesting movie with unexpected plot twists and character development.
If someone accuses this movie of having plot twists, they missed half of the movie - it is all really really predictable. The characters for the most part remain incredibly flat.
The movie suffers from a lot of telling vs showing, the audience is not left with an enticing mystery to solve. Finally the movie is like a train in one direction and even with ample warning to the lead characters they go to the most expected bad situation, which is most likely just lazy writing. The cinematography is not bad and the acting is meh. At least the actors are reasonably attractive.
Our Friend (2019)
Profound masterpiece
Many stories deal with expressing circumstances and their accompanying emotions, however, the value can easily get lost in the noise of superficial elements.
Care was taken to truly bring forward the value of relationship and to emphasize true love, in that shared among friends and lovers, in contrast to the more superficial and forced interactions we all endure.
Such a profound and important message carried to the audience - so delicately executed.
Oldboy (2013)
Worst movie ever created by mankind - Time waster
Imagine the worst movie you have watched.... its way worse than that. The character starts off as the worst possible - weak minded and selfish. During the capture it at least shows that he cares for his daughter. Then when he gets free it's as if he undergoes very quick cognitive decline.
In the way of problem solving you would regard him and his peers as having some cerebral disabilities. He also becomes progressively weaker physically, however, more notably mentally. He quite literally does not succeed at saving anyone or anything and recedes into nothingness.
There are no lessons to learn, there is a whole lot of character decline and the person that wrote the plot must have the emotional intelligence of an abused 4 year old.
The Revenant (2015)
Missed opportunity - not bad
Apart from displaying the incredible mental & physical barriers that can be overcome, the story seems to focus on a circle of revenge, ultimately leaving the viewer with only a thought surrounding the futility of survival. Rather than emphasizing and using revenge as a driving force, the importance & value of truth could have been made the center piece.
This is by no means a bad film and the cinematography is effective in communicating, and in some cases immersing the viewer into, the perils of the protagonist. It just seems that a great opportunity was missed to carry across the value of a time relevant and universal moral.
The Laundromat (2019)
Wilfully Misleading
The idea of the story is great, in the sense of how corrupt people can be in the financial sector and how laws can be averted, especially by moving abroad. The story is however misleading and I rate it low because of the deliberate deception.
Somehow they imply that tax havens cause this issue and even snark at the idea of tax cuts, where in-fact it is a result of high taxes that led to external tax havens opening the door for companies to function outside the regulated ecosystem which is the US. If you lower taxes and thereby retain businesses, you will also retain your regulatory power over them. It's not rocket science, don't fall for this politicised idea please.
Just to be clear, I'm less attacking the story, than the comments made by the Meryl Streep character, which are false and very specifically & deliberately aimed at misleading American voters.
Lo imposible (2012)
...probably the performance of the year...
This might be one of the best stories ever told; although to whom do we give the credit? The mood setting and atmosphere generating techniques utilized in this film were excellent. The acting performances and believable emotion between characters are almost unequaled. Hard to say much more than its an excellent story and beautifully story depicted by excellent actors in a film with great cinematography.
This is a story that brings the viewer to the hard reality of how things could be with help of natural disasters and what uncertainty can do to anyone, no matter how strong. The film then provides the answer to what is important in any situation in life, love.
The story itself cannot really be judged critically as it is a true story, although it would have been one of the best ever written had it have been a human who wrote the story. The execution of the film accompanied by a very well-constructed script makes this probably the performance of the year, at least.
I fully advise watching this film by any audience, age above 12 years. The story has within it useful life lessons and induces an overwhelming appreciation for the people in your life.
City Island (2009)
...true moral and actual lesson...
The plot and problem to be overcome is set very clear from the start of the film. The communication problem faced by everybody today and which is responsible for so much pain is a very actual issue in modern times, where we do not listen and our minds are clouded by our own professional struggles and occupations and that is why we need a film to express this issue and provide some hope and this film does not disappoint at reaching this intended goal.
Character development is truly prominent and accompanied by already well defined and somewhat comical but tasteful characters. At early stages it seems impossible that any meaningful flow of emotion can occur between the family members and yet it changes in a very believable way. This provides so much hope to people of today struggling to communicate.
As a whole the story is constructed very well, with little to say about loose ends, although Vince Jr. remains excluded and the ultimate adhesion of the family could have extended to him so as to indicate to his progression. A last minor critique is maybe the slight discomfort the confrontations may give some viewers, sensitive to verbal insult and argumentation, although the expression of their dysfunction empathy, understanding and confidence was important so as to state the issue, also it is solved by the end of the film, thus it may be excused.
The performance of Emily Mortimer as Molly was brilliant, what a lovable character played by a lovable actress. Molly is truly the advocate of expression here and supports the principle and motive of the story as if she could be a poem on her own at the side of the prose(the story).
I can truly advise this film to anyone, just sit tight and don't let the arguments put you off, as the character progression justifies any early discomforts and the existence of a true moral and actual lesson makes it all worth while, it gives hope in a time where family relationships are under immense danger from modern day threats.
Hats off to Raymond De Felitta and all involved for this well accomplished story, screenplay and performance.
Being John Malkovich (1999)
...a bad moral lesson.
The idea of being able to experience all the senses of another person is a quite intriguing thought, combine this with being able to be a celebrity is even better and in this case John Malkovich, being a mysterious and slightly odd guy but still an interesting and famous star provides an attractive juxtaposition, easily drawing the attention from all parts of society.
So the title and basic drawing factor of this film is well covered. The characters remain constant and does not feel schizophrenic, although they don't seem to develop either and none of the main characters are easily related to. The film seems to try and center around the frailty of man, but it fails to do so it rather succeeds in centering around a pathetic character in Craig Schwartz and his lustful obsession with Maxine, whom is just a truly rude and unrefined person and then focus shifts to the competition, which the 'love' Lotte Schwartz and Maxine share, provide to Craig's pathetic attempts at keeping Maxine. All of this could have been forgiven if only the audience had been able to relate somehow to those that were in John Malkovich, but there were very little of being in John Malkovich and the audience remained separated from the characters, the main attraction of the story then did not deliver and this almost single handedly steered the film to the side of total disappointment.
The story really only accomplishes to cheapen the human condition and Love, it shows no sensitivity to what a life is and what separates lust from love. So although things happen on screen the film seems to only accomplish the opposite of what the puppeteer attempted to express. I almost want to call it a bad moral lesson.
Sofia (2012)
...don't expect anything great.
First of all this is not some Hollywood blockbuster and it is surely not intended to be one, so we judge it for what it is.
The idea of the story is actually very good and somewhat ambitious. It is apparent though, that the writer did not know exactly where to go with the story and the execution of the film seemed hesitant. The one character(the psychologist) in the film appeared to play a key part in the development of the film, but his developments remained secret and had no effect on the outcome. Also the plot did not really seem to develop it remained difficult to stick all the information together to see where things were going although the part which should have remained hidden until later in the film became clear as daylight in the beginning minutes.
As with most lower budget films the connection with the main character remains difficult and he is somewhat undefined. The chronological progression of the film is sound though and the characters make sense. With less unnecessary snippets and more adhesive parts to the puzzle this could have been a much more accomplished action film.
Interesting and creative plot not well executed, so it is worth to watch but don't expect anything great.
The Cold Light of Day (2012)
Not a well thought out film.
I found it hard to define what emotion this film was tempting to build in its viewers, until I watched it for about 15 minutes and then the movie never stopped giving me the same emotion throughout.
Disappointment combined with extreme irritation was all I experienced and it increased up until the last frame. The film has no character development, which is fine in some 'hero spy movies', but this is no hero or spy movie. The only part which may have saved the film was keeping the main character attractive or likable, but the sheer combination of stupidity, clumsiness, his lack of staying calm and collected and mostly no indication of 'heart' destroyed all hope for keeping viewers involved.
Although the movie was set to fail out of the previous factors, the writer probably felt compelled to torture his audience. It took longer than necessary to indicate who the bad guys were and then you do get angry at these bad people, which is all good for a action film...but you never get the release of this buildup it just has this blunt ending with no answers and accompanied by irritating characters.
The failure of 'The Cold Light of Day' goes down only to the story and script, the acting was no showstopper, but no acting or special effects or even a love seen or whatever could have saved a horrible plot and story line...it was just not a well thought out film.
End of Review (would have said enjoy, but...)