timcain81 Reviews

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Not as good as Afterlife

[6/10 · 24 March 2024]

I like most 80's kids am a massive fan of GB. I still remember seeing part 2 at the movies and the first one brings back a lot of fond memories. I got really excited when I heard about the sequel that was "Afterlife" and really enjoyed that one.

As for Frozen Empire it kept me somewhat entertained but didn't quite live up to the previous entry.

There are numerous flaws and I'll start with the beginning. The CGI looks very cartoonish and bad. The first 20 minutes gave me Wonder Woman 1984 and Superman 3 vibes with its silliness and I started having bad thoughts. Thankfully they were short lived.

I'm not convinced with the new cast members and I just can't take it seriously whenever I see these kids driving around with proton packs busting ghosts. At least the OG's were Doctors and scientists and half believable.

Speaking of the OG's they do get more screen time this time around but I find it extremely frustrating that we just didn't get a proper sequel with them as the leads. Although the great Bill Murray still looks bored throughout and the only one who looks like he's having a good time is Dan Aykroyd. I loved seeing William Atherton reprise his role as Walter Peck but he was criminally underused and poorly written.

Out of the new characters, Paul Rudd plays himself and is the only likeable one. Though the girl does a good job as the nerdy daughter.

The movie could have done with a more fleshed out villain and some comedy as most jokes fell flat for me. Oh and for the love of all that is holy can we please move on from those little Marshmallow Men! They are not cute, they're just gimmicky.

Overall, it passes the time time but director Gil Kenan's campy tone shows. It doesn't know whether it wants to be a legitimate Ghostbusters movie or a Scooby Doo episode.

Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)

Bland

[5/10 · 22 December 2023]

Bland is the only word I can think of in describing this (as with 99% of modern Hollywood). It is about 30 mins too long and some scenes tend to drag.

First of all is the blatant Star Wars ripoff. Yes I know this was originally intended to be a Star Wars entry but the references to the franchise are so obvious they become distracting. From a character wielding light sabers, blasters, references to dreadnaught, droids, a blatant re-enactment of the Cantina scene and the main villain even referring to his boss as "Master".

It should come as no surprise that the main character is a female mary sue. Weighing about 50kgs at most is still able to defeat every bad guy who comes at her, and launch fully trained bounty hunters and soldiers who weight twice as much as her across the room with one kick...yeah we've seen it all before and we're getting tired of it. We can only suspend our belief to a certain point. If Hollywood insist on these mary sues at least bulk the actor up to look the part of a soldier, instead of the skinny waif physique.

The acting is very average at best and the fight scenes are terribly choreographed. The Zack Snyder influence is here with all his usual traits including gratuitous CGI, dull colour palette, lens flares and endless slow motion sequences.

In terms of originality there really isn't any due to the Star Wars feel and borrowing bits and pieces from other movies such as Seven Samurai, Dune and Battle beyond the stars.

Disappointing as this had the potential to be something so much more.

The Babadook (2014)

Depressing

[4/10 · 22 October 2023]

I went into this movie not knowing a thing about it apart from it being an Australian horror. I usually hate Australian films but I love Wolf Creek so I went in with an open mind.

After seeing this I was left with a sour taste and not really knowing how I felt about it.. Im not even sure this was a horror with an actual monster, or was the mum just hallucinating the whole thing as a result of grief and exhaustion?

On the plus side I thought the acting from the main Actress Essie Davis was on point. I could feel every ounce of frustration and exhaustion through her portrayal as the grieving widow.

That brings me to the other characters, they were absolutely insufferable. The kid was getting under my nerves the entire movie and the mother's sister was terrible! The only character I cared for was the lovely old lady and the poor doggo..

Despite sitting through the entire movie I feel I was not entertained at all. It was depressing and at times annoying and feels a lot longer than it's 90 minutes run time..

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Pretentious drivel

[1/10 · 15 October 2023]

Tripe like this is the reason why I have lost all respect for the oscars. I could only get through an hour of this but that was enough. Too many jump cuts and noises, like that horrible Elvis movie was extremely distracting and downright annoying.

I thought the acting was absolutely atrocious from the 3 main leads, yet the academy awarded them all oscars.. huh? I must be missing something. I know the multiverse thing has been done to death but I was still willing to give this a go but it got just too much for me.

If this is the standard for "Best Picture" these days then I fear for the future of the movie industry..

The Flash (I) (2023)

Terrible CGI was distracting

[6/10 · 16 June 2023]

I really didn't know what to make of this.. I was surprised by the tone, it is much less darker than the other DCEU movies and is tonally similar to Wonder Woman 1984.

The opening scene for me rang alarm bells.. the CGI is absolutely laughable with utterly ridiculous scenes bordering of complete silliness. Superman 3 comes to mind. It literally features the worst CGI I have seen in a long time, it felt like I was watching an animated cartoon.

The tone then shifts to darker territory briefly when the plot moves along, before suddenly jolting you back to the lighter silliness.

Ezra Miller does an ok job in the titular role. He seems to be having fun with the character as does Michael Keaton, who steals the scenes when he finally appears on screen.

There are many clever cameos throughout, however brief some may be and it feels like a nice homage to the DC movies of yesteryear.

Overall, yeah the CGI was terrible and it tries hard and fails to deliver what Spiderman NWH did much better, but it's a fun ride nevertheless and I did enjoy it.

Elvis (2022)

Austin Butler saves it.. just

[5/10 · 24 March 2023]

I love Elvis Presley and was waiting how long it would be til they could find an actor able to pull it off without being comical. Austin Butler does a fine job.

I first had fears about this movie when I found out it was being directed by Baz Lurhman. I've never like any of his movies, they're too showy and ritzy and this movie is no different.

My fears were realised when I felt like having an epileptic seizure in the first 10 mins such was the chaotic direction and editing. It jumps from scene to scene without having registered what the previous scene was about. The camera zooms around everywhere and the silly split screen overkill was distracting. It was like the director was tripping on cocaine the whole time.

This is more a music video than a proper biopic but it could've been so much better under a more structured director. The scenes seem to quickly jump and skip so quickly over Elvis's life and career to focus on Tom Hanks's awful character.

The soundtrack is terrible. For a movie about Elvis, why is there horrible rap/hip hop noise scattered throughout? It is so out of place I thought I accidentally changed channels and started watching something else.

Butler is the only redeeming thing about this movie but he could've been so much better if Baz focused more on him without the quick jumps and edits and let him flesh the character out more.

Average at best.

Werewolf by Night (2022 TV Movie)

What did I just watch?

[2/10 · 28 October 2022]

Even with a run time of just under 1 hour this felt like it went forever. I was hoping for something dark, original and new from Marvel but no it's just the same old usual tripe they've been trotting out for the past few years.

Michael Giacchino should stick to scoring movies rather than directing them, this was a mess. The acting was absolutely atrocious.

The effects were garbage. Ive seen better special effects on a snap chat filter. And what was with the werewolf costume?? You'd think the titular character of a show owned by the same company that gave us Endgame and Guardians of the Galaxy would come up with something better than this. He looks like a guy dressed in a silly halloween gorilla suit with face paint!

Werewolf aside as he's hardly in it, the real star of the show is of course the random young female. This is your typical modern M-She-U feature so of course the attractive tight leather clad femme kung fu's her way through every male henchman twice her size, without breaking a sweat or facial expression.

I mourn what has become of the MCU. I used to be excited for every new announcement of the next movie now I just cringe. It just isn't the same without the great Stan Lee.

I'm giving this 2 stars. One for each minute of screen time the so called werewolf has in this snoozefest.

The Walking Dead: What's Been Lost (2022) Season 11, Episode 20

Enough with the Commonwealth already!

[1/10 · 24 October 2022]

Only a few episodes to go. We do not care about the Commonwealth and the boring, bland, irritating side characters.

I was hoping they were going to set up an epic finish to conclude what was an awesome show but sadly it looks like that's not going to be.

Seriously where is Rick?! Michonne? The garbage lady? We know they are coming back so where is the build up? The tension? The explanations? The tying of loose ends? Instead we're punished with soap operas like the adventures of Yumiko and her weird sounding Dr brother. We're bored to death with talk of an impending court room drama, the boring Governess with her political drama and bratty son.

I yearn for the early days of this show with characters like Rick, Shane, Glen, Dale, Daryl, Herschel, Carol, Maggie and Negan and the struggles they all went through and how tense it all was.

Watching this show for me now is like watching your favourite pet die a slow death hoping that someone will come alone and put it out of its misery to spare me from seeing any further suffering.

Stranger Things: Chapter One: The Hellfire Club (2022) Season 4, Episode 1

Wake me when it's over

[1/10 · 1 June 2022]

Stranger Things would have to be the most overrated show on TV at the moment. And this episode proves why.

I just can't see what all the hype is about. I really wanted to like this show, it came across as original (which is a milestone these days), I love the 80's vibe, it has horror, sci fi but Nothing happens! Boring!

Bland characters blathering on and on about anything and everything but the actual plot for an hour and a half. The novelty is over, I waited so long for the next season, I couldn't remember what happened in the previous one.

In fairness I stopped watching this show about an hour into this episode and maybe it picked up after that I wouldn't know. Nor do I care to.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

The Wonder Woman 1984 of the MCU

[6/10 · 5 May 2022]

Spoilers here!

I wasn't expecting the best MCU outing but I definitely did not expect this to be the worst. It has overtaken Ant Man as my least favourite.

Dr Strange 2 is a mess lets face it. The tone is all wrong for starters. I do like Sam Raimi but his style is just not suited to Dr Strange. It doesn't know if it wants to be a superhero movie, horror, action, romance, drama or love story. It fails at all of them.

This is not necessarily a bad movie, the special effects are actually quite good and BC is good in the title role.

Of course they have to include the obligatory woke nonsense (which is getting nauseating). We get it, LGBTI diverse people are the greatest in the world! We get it now, stop preaching to us already and get back to making good movies.

Now for the cameos. Again, spoiler alert!!

As expected Patrick Stewart does appear as Professor X, as does Agent Carter as diverse female Cpt America, there is also diverse female cpt Marvel and the first appearance in the MCU of Mr Fantastic. This is all well and good but then They are only in it for 5 mins before being killed off! WTH?! What a wasted opportunity to finally do what everyone was hoping for and introduce the X-Men into the MCU.

Finally, don't bother waiting around for the end credit scene, it is the most dumbest, pointless and cringiest scene ever and I'm a massive Bruce Campbell fan.

Loki (2021–2023)

I'm lost...

[2/10 · 8 July 2021]

5 episodes in and I have absolutely no idea what this show is about. I was lost halfway through the first episode. Why does every show these days seem to have these annoying convoluted time travel/alternative universe themes? Back to the Future, Terminator even the Avengers did it well but please just stop, its giving me a headache!

This version of Loki also appears a bit off. He is meant to be the same Loki who just tried to take over the world from the first Avengers, i.e a homicidal maniac. The maturing of his character that occurred in Ragnarok and Infinity War hasn't occurred yet, so he should be the same conniving, jealous and maniacal Loki, considering the new timeline and the fact that this show takes place over a period of days following his escape with the tesseract.

This show depicts Loki as a warm hearted, mature and boring Loki, who doesn't even have his powers for half the time. Even when he does, it's just to conjure up a snuggly blanket for him and token diverse female character so they can talk some confusing dialog about some giant cloud fart that's trying to eat everyone or something, the TVA, alternate dimensions and love.. how very exciting!

This is not the the show I was looking forward to seeing. It's just so boring and confusing. It's 90% standing around talking. There's also some subplot about token diverse coloured female timecops chasing Loki and Hansel through magic doorways or something..I don't even know anymore!

At least crocodile Loki is a better actor than the majority of this cast.

If these recent Disney shows are anything to go by, this may well be the beginning of the end to the fun ride that has been the MCU after all these years..

I'm giving this show 2 stars, one each for Tom Hiddleston and Owen Wilson.

Don't Breathe (2016)

Don't fall asleep!

[5/10 · 2 September 2016]

Is this what passes for "horror" these days? At least the cheesy horror from the 80's never took itself seriously and was still scary! Don't Breathe has no right to call itself a horror even if it was created by the guys who made the Evil Dead.

First of all it's another one of those movies that are billed the "scariest movie ever..." Blah blah blah, they've been saying that ever since the Blair witch project. This movie wasn't the worst thing I've seen, Stephen Lang does well playing a blind guy but the movie is mostly annoying people sneaking around the house, it gets old fast!

That brings me to the rest of the cast, namely the 3 other leads, who seem to be the most cliché characters ever! The trio consist of the token hot girl, the asshole and the nerd! (Guess which one lives and which one gets killed) hmmm ... What's more these people are playing criminals growing up in a poor run down neighbourhood and looking at them you would think they are models in a Calvin Klein commercial! Very realistic Mr Director!!

The other thing that annoyed me to tears was that horrible sound effect, you know the one, its in just about every movie you see these days, it sounds like a low pitched long metallic metal scraping sound! I think it was in every damn scene!

This movie had potential but then they made the viewer feel sorry for the criminals and made the poor old blind guy the villain, that's where it lost me.. One thing I did appreciate however was the homage to Cujo at the end, I'm not sure if this was intentional or a rip off but I noticed it.. The dog attacking the woman inside the car (which was the same make and model in both films by the way)..

In summing up, the movie started off okay but then got worse unfortunately.. It was actually boring, there was no gore surprisingly and the characters were cliché..

Arrow (2012–2020)

Is this show a spoof?

[4/10 · 4 February 2016]

What the hell is going on with this show?! It started out good, I quiet liked the first season, the second was okay but the third...? I don't know whether I'm watching a comic show or some kind of comedy.. How many bullshit superheroes can you fit into the series? In what is typical of Hollywood these days, we must have our quota of female heroes regardless of how ridiculous these people are.. Why must these characters be skinny tight leather clad martial arts experts? The character of the yellow canary or whatever the stupid name is is the dumbest character ever! Somehow Sarah plugged herself into the matrix after she "died" and gained super hero powers, which are for some reason or other passed onto Laurel who also picked up her super fighting skills after only a couple of martial arts lessons from some ex super hero whatever guy.. The show then seems to change genre from unintentional comedy to action to heavy drama, to soap opera with all the brain dead luvvie duvvie romance that Im sure every comic book fan loves to watch (not)! And then we're back to the leather girls and all the "heeyah" beat em up bullshit that gets old really fast. Finally I must mention the flashbacks.. This show is starting to remind me of "Lost" in that there are just too many episodes with too much happening that we the viewer get confused and lose interest.. The flashbacks are getting more and more ridiculous Im still waiting for a flashback where Oliver goes back to the island, slays King Kong, retrieves the ark of the covenant and flies away to downtown Metropolis. Enough already with the flashbacks!! For me, this show better start getting back on track otherwise I'm done with it! Let's hope The Flash does not repeat the mistakes made here.

Under the Dome (2013–2015)

What the hell...?!

[2/10 · 27 January 2016]

Well I must say I was excited when I first heard they were bringing this novel to the screen, as a massive Stephen King fan and constant reader I feel it was the last great book he even wrote. However! What has transpired here with this show is a travesty! The really great thing about King's novels is his character development and chemistry. This show has none of that. I did however like the casting of Dean Norris as Jim Rennie though, which is why I'm giving it only a 2.

There are 2 things I HATE about Hollywood these days, they being political correctness and censorship. In regards to the former, there was so much politically correct mumbo jumbo it was as if it was trying to appeal to the Sesame Street crowd! Starting off with the inter racial lesbian parents or whoever they were.. It's as if the makers were trying to prove a point in casting them, they weren't in the novel! And even the final episode when Rennie makes an innocent comment referring to Eskimos to that army general, whoever guy, who subsequently corrects Rennie by saying that its a slur and the correct word is Inuits.. Im sure this neo Nazi soldier really doesn't care what they're called but hey the makers need to show the world that they're show is educating us all..

There is no swearing, gore, sex, nudity in this show.. It was akin to watching something on the Disney channel, lastly the casting, what happened there?! They were all annoying! I was actually hoping that the dome would kill off all these people. That red headed girl and her pretty boyfriend were terrible as was the guy who played Rennie Jr! And don't get me started on Marg Hengenbotox!

King's work has never really worked out well on the screen but at least they mainly stayed true to the books. This garbage veered so far from the book they tried to be creative and created some alien pod nonsense.. Anyway, thank goodness they axed this pos as I just couldn't take it anymore!

Crimson Peak (2015)

Crimson Boredom

[5/10 · 24 October 2015]

What can I say about this movie? It was not what I expected. I am a big fan of Del Toro so I was pretty excited going in to see it.. First of all, this is not a horror! By referring to it as such is an insult to horror fans. Its more like Shakespeare in a creepy house! The acting is as wooden as the floorboards and Jax Teller was ridiculously miscast as the pretty boy Doctor. I think the best performance belonged to Jim Beaver as the protective father, but then I'm a Supernatural fan. I was so bored watching this I kept wishing it would end! Even the violent finale was boring! And the ghosts? What was the point of them?? They had nothing to do with the plot and the cgi was terrible. Then there is the performance by Jessica Chastain. She seemed more bored than I was! I get that she was meant to be a dark character but she only had the one facial expression throughout. I am giving this 5/10 because i was actually impressed with the cinematography and sets, even if there was far too much red. This one is for fans of Jame Austen, not horror.