mcrodgers2-951-806414 Reviews

Shadow in the Cloud (2020)

Starts out quite good then becomes aboard.

[5/10 · 30 April 2024]

This one was intriging up to the big reveal mid plot. Cloe Grace Moretz carries the whole film practically by herself, but deserved a better plot. The movie seems tries to mix sci-fi, WWII drama, action film & mystery, but that was apparently too ambitious for the writters.

I find so disappointing when a film is mysterious and intriging only for the big reveal to be an eyerolling groan. Sadly this is one of those.

The mystery package contents exposed mid film is enough to make you say "Come on! Really?" but that is only followed by several action scenes equally implausible. The main character begins crawling around the outside of a flying B-17, falls completely from the aircraft only to be thrown back inside unharmed by the explosion of a passing enemy fighter below. Give me a break!

I wonder if this script was started before the writters strike and completed by a replacement staff.

It is too bad. Particularly for actress Cloe Grace Moretz who is the only actor in 90% of the scenes. She does a great job with that as well. Somebody please give her a good starring roll in a well written film.

The Vault (2021)

Begins well then falls into many plot holes

[4/10 · 10 March 2024]

Heist movies are best when the plot elements are clever, the good guys are unlikable (the security team) and the bad guys (the thieves) are likable.

The vault fails at having clever intriguing plot details . In fact they are implausible at best, absurd at worst. That's enough to ruin it for me. Part of the fun is about all the smart security measures that make sense and seem impenetrable and then how the quirky "badges" outsmart it all in bold, clever ways.

But to work all that needs to make some sense. The Vault doesn't even allow the audience to suspend disbelief.

Spoiler Ahead: The security system that the vault is balanced on a scale and if accessed it floods then sinks into a but camber. Huh? Then how do the owers use it and put items into if without unbalancing the vault ? IDK they constantly rebalance the scales. Sound terribly impractical and unnecessary.

If the vault floods because of a breach, doesn't that destroy the contents? Okay only waterproof items can go in the vault, or there are water proof safe deposit boxes. LOL. Really? Isn't there a more practical, dryer, security system What a tank of water? How are the items retrieved after the flood? It sounds, in a word, stupid.

Likewise is the solution. Freeze the scale mechanism with LN2! A lot of it. Why not freeze the water? Hell! Why not just mechanically jon the mechanism? It is oh so convienienty accessable for the tunnel that the city built this vault on top of! LOL.

Nothing clever to any of those plot details. In fact they are stupid and absurd.

The crew of thieves are not very interesting or likable. They are just bland. Not even very cliche'. Not much fun at all and not particularly clever as written.

So I lost interest halfway through. I didn't even get to the absurd ending often reviews mention. Saved waisting even more time it would seem.

Total Recall (I) (2012)

Not as fun as the Original.

[1/10 · 5 March 2024]

I Lost interest halfway through.

This borrows from the original a great deal but fails to be anywhere nearly as interesting. Watch the original instead. It was made with half the budget but was and is a lot more fun.

This remake adds nothing new really accept long uninteresting car chases and boring fight scenes. There is little of the mystery and twists of the original.

This version just falls very flat. If you are going to redo a classic add something unique. This one just adds more celebrity actors and no new story. The colony, this time Australia instead of Mars, is hardly developed. You do not get much reason to even care about them.

Watch the original instead, especially if you have not seen it.

Hunter Killer (2018)

Good until the implausible ending.

[4/10 · 25 January 2024]

The ending wasn't just implausible it was ridiculous. Like so many other movies about going to the brink of nuclear war it's believable and well acted and well written until the absurd salvation at the brink of all out destruction. It's a shame, because I was enjoying it right up until. I was even willing to suspend my disbelief about some other absurd events in the middle of the film. But the ending was just insulting.

I can accept some technical absurdities such at the Seal Team sneaking into Russia from the air undetected. And a US attack sub somehow being able to see under water with passive sonar, likewise sneaking in to a Russian navy base. That as far as I know would require active sonar which would give away and subs position. Okay it's a movie.

But when the plot becomes ridiculous just to wrap up the ending I begin to feel like the writers just wasted my time. That is too much like Duex ex machina even if there is no deity magically saving the day. It just feels the same. Disappointing.

Willy's Wonderland (2021)

Chucky Cheese meets High Plains Drifter meets Tx Chainsaw Massacre.

[7/10 · 31 July 2023]

This is a bizarre film. Bizarre even for a Nick Cage film, but one I found thoroughly enjoyable. And I've seen more bizarre films that where really no fun at all. This one is very much a lot of fun.

Nicholas Cage hardly speaks in this film but he still delivers and his silent intensity is part of the thrill. Nick's performance reminds me of Clint Eastwood in High Plains Drifter and so does his character, albiet Clint wasn't going for the absurdity. Nick Cage plays it straight but you've got to believe he was laughing after each take when the cameras where not rolling.

Willy's Wonderland is great campy fun. Not for everyone but if you want to see something "different" this one IS different. Not great "cinema" but strange and engaging. It mocks the horror genre with funny nonsense and the typical scary jump at you spooks, but still honors that great Saturday nite at the movies thrill ride such films provide. Plus the demons in THIS film get way more than they bargained for.

I recommend this film but keep your tongue in your cheek and enjoy the ride.

The Old Way (2023)

Classic Western themes and story. Not getting enough credit here on IMDB

[8/10 · 23 June 2023]

This was an interesting and engaging old style (old way) western with a story line that isn't unique but fun and entertaining the whole way through.

All of the cast gave very good, performances without going over the top with their somewhat stereotypical characters. I found the tried an true character types to be a big part of the fun.

Nick Cage gives a very good performance as the bad guy gone good back to bad cold unemotional killer, Colton Briggs. The difference this time is that his character discusses how he knows he's unlike "normal" people and didn't ever even understand others who actually have emotions. But he also realizes that something inside him is dead. It sounds as if he does envy others who can actually feel. Only his wife was able to evoke in him what he could see others experience that he never could understand or experience himself. That is until he met her. This is a departure for the cold, unemotional anti-hero of most westerns that usually has no realization that his coldness is any kind of a problem at all.

An equally if not better performance is that of Ryan Kiera Armstrong as Colton Briggs daughter. She both very much like her father, but still a good deal of her mother is in there too. The dynamic between Nick Cage and Ryan Kiera Armstrong is well apparent. You cannot help but notice the talent is this young actress.

Yes many Western movie tropes are there but for me that was part of the fun. All of the cast played there characters expertly, sticking to the stereotypical western characters they were playing without going overboard such that you don't notice that yes, I've seen this character in countless Western movies. They still make it all believable and interesting.

This is a purely entertaining film with a small twist on the bad-ass tough guy who realizes there's something not quit right with himself.

Babylon (I) (2022)

Graphic, Dark, shock-value Theater, with some moments of fine acting. And LONG!

[3/10 · 1 May 2023]

I have to admit. I almost didn't hang with this movie for very long. Gratuitous isn't the word for the opening scenes. That would mean gratifying someone in the audience. Indulgent, vulgar and obsessively so, is more like it.

I got past the highly graphic scene where the elephant unloaded it's bowels on the poor guy pushing the truck it was in. Some of that shot from perspective of the recipient. Just so you get the point that having an elephant take a dump on you is a bad thing.

I got past the scene at the party where the prostitute pisses on the fat man who giggles with delight from that. Eww! Didn't need to see THAT! Yes, later she O. D's I almost gave up after the scene with the midget hopping on a phallus and then using it to shoot simulated semen at the crowd at the party.

All this occurs in just the first 10 minutes of this 3 hour tome. Had I been in a theater I believed I would have walked out. I would have considered it for certain.

Since I had it on Paramount+ I tried again the next day skipping past that disturbing first 10 minutes. I guess I thought it would get better?

It did, somewhat, once the film stopped trying to just simply shock me.

The scene after Margo Robbie's character visits her mother in the asylum in the cab with Diego Calva was touching giving a background to her character.

The sound stage scene was funny and interesting, with all of the cast and crew struggling with the advent of sound in film production.

Then the next scene, another debauched party, milder than the first, leading to a snake fight scene which made little sense. Prior to this Margo Robbie's character Nelly, overhears others mocking her & her father. So she decides to goad her drunken father into fighting a rattlesnake and likely get horribly injured. Other than the fact he often bragged about the time he fought a snake, this made little sense. Why would Nelly take her anger out on her father? It seemed all just like purposeless tantrum and a failed attempt at humor by the director.

Next a scene where Robbie's character Nelly tries, with much coaching, to fit it at a high class respectable party, this being vital to her continued career. Alas, her frustration at this gets the better part of her patience. In yet another over-the-top tantrum Nelly makes an even bigger spectacle of herself. As outrageously excessive this scene is, director Damien Chazelle apparently was not satisfied with how destructive that moment was for the character Nelly. No. Something more is needed for this scene. So she returns to the party in order vomit very graphically on the floor. Cut! Hmmm, still not enough. Action! Nelly vomits on the host as well will both characters in full view of the camera for, um, realism.

Margo Robbie's character Nelly comes off as unlikeable and it's hard to have sympathy for her with a few exceptions such as the cab scene after visiting her mother in the asylum. This does show the abilities of Margo Robbie to evoke some empathy for such a character. Earlier in the film she cries on cue, apparently an actually acting skill Margo has. However a good film this does not make.

Brad Pitt plays his character, Jack Conrad, with great skill as well. He is a star of renowned from the silent era that, for only reasons of changing public tastes, is no longer desired by the film industry. The scene between him and gossip columnist Elinor St. John, expertly played by Jean Smart, was a high note in an otherwise circus of shock-value scenes.

Enter Tobey Maguire's character, James McKay, the extra creepy mob boss who leads Manny (Diego Clava) and friend through an underground chamber of horrors he thinks contains film worthy fun! In case you didn't get that he is a serious ghoul of a human being his face is painted in the most grotesque over-the-top makeup that would perhaps be even a bit much for a silent era horror film. Perhaps that was the point, to evoke that homage but it seems far overboard and comes off hokey. Not that Tobey Maguire's acting is to blame. The whole scene like so many others goes overboard to disturb the audience and not in an interesting way.

Everything in this movie seems wildly exaggerated, often farcically so.

It seems the only point of this movie is not how decadent Hollywood was in the 1920s and 30s. It's that is was way more decadent than you thought you knew. Here let me show you in the most ghastly and graphic ways.

Perhaps there is one other point. All that you love about the movies and film is born of desire, decadence, abuse, exploitation, greed and debauchery. Nothing too new there. So have a nice day! And remember this next time you want to enjoy a night at the movies.

I still don't know why Diego Clava's character smiles at the end. If it was supposed to mean something profound at that point in the film I no longer cared.

In the end all I could think of was, when will this be over?

Andor (2022– )

Better more in depth acting and character development than many Star Wars fare

[9/10 · 18 November 2022]

This one is a bit different than most Star Wars genre. In the past there was more emphasis on action an cool special effects. Andor is more about the characters and the acting is more in depth.

I like that. Not that the pure fun of previous Star Wars movies and shows was bad. Quite the contrary. It's just that those looking for that kind of entertainment this time might find the plot a bit slow moving. An there is NOT so much in the way of special effects. I don't mind at all.

My only complaint, as it is with many modern dramas etc. , is that the actors mumble. They do. I really need the subtitles and even then I need to rewind and play a scene again just to understand the dialogue. Sometimes again and again. Such is the current fad in acting these days. Mumbling. It could also be these American ears struggling with British accents, but no...they are mumbling.

This isn't the first time such a trend existed. I'm thinking of Marlon Brando in his heyday. Yes unfortunately that is back. I think in mind of directors and actors at present mumbling equals realism. Maybe but you still need to remember your audience and that they need to understand the dialogue.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022– )

Only saw episode 1 so far. Lack luster story

[4/10 · 26 May 2022]

I will be giving this series a chance, but I found episode one rather poor.

The writing wasn't there. Seemed like a rather boring unimaginative plot. Pedestrian dialog, no suspense. I knew the outcome long before it happened and didnt care much about what was going on during.

It seemed to be simply an exercise in introducing all the characters, all of whom Trek fans already know, and then attaching a thin plot to that introduction to all the new actors. Just wasn't very interesting.

I sincerely hope the series improves. Most of the other Trek series, Enterprise, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine all started out a bit awkwardly. Hoping Strange New Worlds improves. Episode 1 was kind of a dud.

Holmes & Watson (2018)

Lame, Unfunny and Disappointing.

[2/10 · 21 March 2022]

So many talented performers and such potential. All wasted. All of the humor is juvenal and odd, but not odd in a funny way, just odd. The writing is awful and there is nothing clever, just one lame gag after another. I'm a big fan of Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly but not enough to like this unfunny mess.

Tales from the Loop (2020)

Slow, boring & annoyingly melancholy

[2/10 · 13 March 2022]

This looked so promising, but after trying twice to get past episode 3 I gave up. It a mystery that never gets solved. Not a series that leads anywhere just an anthology where each episode reveals nothing.

The dialog is drab and ever character is the same. Melancholy and dull. It gets on your nerves after a while.

The plots are so minimal and the twists are really not that clever or interesting.

This had seems like it had potential but ultimately a fail.

Battleship (2012)

One of the dumbest lamest movies I've ever seen.

[1/10 · 5 March 2022]

I don't even know where to begin.

Predictable stereotypical trope drivel with little plausibility.

Highly more advance interstellar alien fight US Navy. And the USN finds a way.

Harpoon missiles that can't and damage to the aliens suddenly can. Just have to shoot are a closer range.

Navy captains who leave the bridge in the midst of battle to physically carry off wounded and man sniper rifles on deck.

One single Navy destroyer captained by the misfit sailor coordinates with his girlfriend on shore to save the world.

Then the floating museum USS Missouri manned by senior citizens veterans saves both recommissioned to the day.

This movie is idiotic. Both in concept and execution. Insulting to the intelligence of any audience, even kids. That might be entertaining in a campy way but everyone involved is so serious it fails to do even that

Pass. Save yourself 2 hours and 11 minutes you will otherwise wish you could have back.

The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu (2009)

Thoroughly Enjoyable!

[7/10 · 8 January 2022]

This movie proves you don't need a big budget or expensive special effects to make a fun and entertaining movie. I laughed more during this film than many high budget comedies with famous stars. I also found the all the characters played very well by all the actors. How often can you say that? Not a major production but every bit as entertaining as any so called "A List" film, in fact more entertaining that many. Did I say that the movie was fun? I did. I just wanted to say it again.

Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald (2018)

Boring & Disappointing.

[3/10 · 7 January 2022]

I had a hard time staying interested. The plot moved so slowly and wasn't very interesting. Most actors mumble through their lines and whisper such that I needed subtitles. Not much of a story that was stretched out from scene to boring scene.

The Grinch (2018)

Visually Great but the Story is robbed of it's best elements that made it fun.

[3/10 · 25 December 2019]

I'm a huge fan of the original with Boris Karloff but who can even touch that? Well, Jim Carrey and Ron Howard, that's who. This one doesn't even compare to either the original or Ron Howard's production. The animation is excellent, but that's it.

Whoever cast Benedict Cumberbatch in this role likely did so for his voice, which he didn't use! Instead he sounds like Bill Hader from SNL. Nothing wrong with Bill, I love him, but why this choice?

Cumberbatch's Grinch comes off too normal, too comical, not scary, not evil, not the Grinch. He could have avoided being a copy of Boris Karloff just by playing it straight with his normal British voice, but sinister, nefarious and fascinating. It's such a shame.

Pharrell Williams' narration is passable, but lacks the limerick like rhythm you expect from a Seuss story. And his singing of the Grinch song is awful and just wrong. Not the jazzy rendition of the original and not even an updated rap version you might expect.

Max the dog doesn't even come off as adorable as in the original or the Ron Howard movie. He even seems to be a willing participant in the Grinch's thievery, not a cute loyal pup that we feel pity for.

The Grinch is too nice to Max the dog. He doesn't even make him pull the sled at first. He even releases Fred in an act of kindness. The Grinch! Kind before his epiphany! That ruins the ending!

The narrative about the Grinch's back story, meant to give the audience some sympathy for the Grinch, doesn't work, as the Who's in Whoville are partly to blame for not including the Grinch! He's not just mean. He's not the way he is because his heart is so small. He has social anxiety, is an orphan and has abandonment issues. The Who's don't even seem to notice the adult Grinch, green as he is and all.

So the Grinch has just gotten a raw deal and his social emotional issues and loneliness just never got addressed by anyone who cares. I get the social message which isn't bad, but it takes the fun out of it all.

Cindy-lou Who isn't even the innocent trusting and genuinely sweet person that even the Grinch could not resist being kind to, at least superficially. Nope. This time she even has a rather nefarious scheme to trap Santa Clause, even if for a well-intentioned purpose.

The whole point of the original story is that someone, anyone, no matter how hardened, how mean, how nasty can be reached, can be redeemed. This Grinch isn't that mean. In the original this comes from the essential goodness of the Who's and that Christmas is NOT about materialism but LOVE. Most of that is gone from this version, at least the sudden and surprise revelation that the Grinch experiences all from one magical moment when the Who's show him the true meaning. No puzzling of his puzzler as it were.

There are also very few genuinely funny moments, even for kids. The animation is strong and visually interesting but the story has been robbed and diluted of its strongest elements.

Treasures from the Wreck of the Unbelievable (2017)

Okay up to about half way through !

[2/10 · 15 November 2019]

It was fun and interesting until the movie began to look like one of those faked "In Quest Of" TV shows. They got lazy and it ruined it for me.

At first I was amazed that the stone artifacts were is such shallow water near a village and nobody found them before, But hay, the Atocha was found by Mel Fisher in 22 feet of water off the coast of Florida.

I also wondered, "Why haven't I heard about this before?"

But when they found the gold items, just poking out of the sand, looking like they were made recently and put there even more recently, I had to say "Oh come ON!"

The Medusa head was particularly too new looking and stylistically too modern and undamaged to be believed. Even the gold coin looked at least like it had been restored, but I wrote that off as maybe a reenactment. But why only one found?

This is what real unrestored shipwreck gold looks like. :https://hungarytoday.hu/lost-gold-treasures-of-the-danube-found-near-budapest/

https://www.ozarksfirst.com/local-news/gold-treasure-recovered-from-1857-shipwreck-to-make-debut/

Just got too silly and I lost interest. Felt a little insulted too. Well at least on Netflix it didn't cost me anything extra to watch. Just my time.

Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2024)

It is not Star Trek it's some awful knock-off. Avoid it you love Star Trek

[1/10 · 13 April 2019]

The only similarity to the beloved 50 year Star Trek franchise is the uniforms, which are only Star-Trek_like.

This is heartbreaking to Star Trek fans, so don't look if you are.

Vapid, uninteresting and the characters that are not flat are annoying (the cowardly science officer for instance). He doesn't seem to even be a very good science officer

Gene Rooddenberry is rolling over in his grave.

I'm going to ask Netflix/CBS for my money back, because I purchased the whole first session before watch episode one. That would have tipped me off to avoid.

Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2024)

It's miserable and it's not Star Trek.

[1/10 · 13 April 2019]

This is some really terrible science fiction show where the actors wear Star Trek -like uniforms.

Other than that there no similarity to the 50 year Star Trek series or any of the films.

It's like watching a phony knock-off copy of the name Star Trek...but like New Coke it's not Coke.

Gene Roddenberry is rolling over in his grave.

The Man in the High Castle (2015–2019)

Slow Moving - Not drawn in at all after 5 episodes

[3/10 · 16 January 2018]

I think after 5 episodes I'd be hooked, at least a little.

The plot seems to drag along. There is just scene after scene after scene where nothing much happens or is said that matters to the story. Seems the writers put in a LOT of filler to make this into a series.

The characters aren't very interesting. The marshal character seems way over the top and one dimensional and I'm a fan of actor Burn Gorman.

So the premise of the story: A film so dangerous to the Nazis that it could change the world. Huh ? Does it have some kind of world turning evidence ? No...just shows what the world would be like if the Nazis had lost in this world where they won.. Okay, how's that going to change the world.? Are Americans in this world suddenly going to realize, "Hey ! We'd be better off if we had won the war !. Who'da thunk it ! " This series itself is a film that shows what it would be like if the Nazis had won, so is it a world changing film ? Not even close.