megatom64 Reviews

Wiener-Dog (2016)

Just stupid, disgusting, cruel, and boring

[1/10 · 28 August 2016]

I know complaining about a movie being depressing often sounds like you just don't get the movie or you are more inclined towards movies with more conventional endings. But with this film it is simply depressing for the sake of being depressing. And it is depressing with this unattached quality where you don't even feel anything towards the subject matter, just "oh that's messed up and depressing". It is eyeroll inducing and feels like it is insulting your intelligence.

This is a movie that thinks it is smart but still resorts to gross out poop jokes as a means to grind in disturbing imagery.

To me this is the worst kind of indie film. It is one that thinks it is a lot smarter than it is. Or it thinks it is saying something complex when really it boils down to truths about life we are all aware of. It takes things to extremes for the sake of it without realizing why other movies push things there. It tries to be dark comedy without the intelligence, which just makes it feel cruel. If you want a smart film watch The Lobster.

Montauk Chronicles (2015)

Dumb, boring, new age conspiracy story

[1/10 · 4 August 2015]

This movie is basically just an overly long interview with Stewart Swerdlow. He recalls tales of torture, mind-control, traveling through time to collect Jesus' blood. It is all just very very dumb. Who really buys into this stuff? I sometimes like these kind of documentaries because they will have interesting reenactments or are able to create an interesting creepy vibe. This movie doesn't really. The "creepy" segments play out like a wannabe Nine Inch Nail video. Also they will usually have just like one shred of evidence. Really the only evidence shown in the film is a bunker that is on an old air force based. This isn't really evidence, they don't even try to go in there. Just really dumb stuff here, and not even presented in an interesting way.

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

Flawed and Pretentious but ultimately an interesting movie

[8/10 · 11 January 2015]

Spoilers in this film.

Birdman is an utterly strange film. A movie that decidedly lacks a strong form and replaces it with an ever flowing dream like perception of reality. Simply based on the acting and editing, Birdman is a triumph of a film. The performances are strong and nuanced, but ultimately it is the film's ironic self importance that causes it to crumble at times.

The movie ultimately would have been leagues better if it filtered its narrative down to just be about Riggan. Extending to all the other side stories IMO detracts from the film in a big way.

The opening starts off throwing 100 subplots at you, to the point where it almost feels like satire ala the film Airplane. When you have "everything going wrong" in the play then some unintroduced female character jumps in and says "I'm pregnant, and it's your baby!" The film feels very very melodramatic in a weekday soap opera kind of way. Or when a character says "I would take out your eye and put them in my head so I could see the way you see at your age" I can't help but roll my eyes.

Like previous efforts by this director it feels overly preachy, melodramatic, and at time eye-rollingly sentimental. Yet the core character is achieved so very well. The message is something interesting even if it bashes you over the head with it so hard, you can't tell if it is really being serious about that point any more. You can only tell every character and every element of the story that "it doesn't matter" so many times before you can't help but ask "then why am I watching this?"

This movie reminds me of some annoying tropes of fiction, like writing a book about how hard it is to write a book, or making a movie about making a movie. It makes all of these jobs and people to be so overly self-important that they just come across as irrelevant and difficult to connect with.

Riggan and his ex-wife were the only really sympathetic characters I found in the film. Edward Norton's character was detestably self-important as was Niomi Watts and Emma Stone.

Having said all of this, the movie is good and original. It just feels like it didn't land on the tone it should have to have been a really great film. It is interesting, funny at times, and something that you will think about for a while. I know what I was left thinking about was what the filmmaker's true intention was.

Over all though this movie feels really really overrated, don't go into it thinking it is a masterpiece like I was lead to believe, because it is a very flawed movie from a story and writing standpoint. The acting, directing, and editing help to elevate the average and at times outright corny writing.

Futurama: Bender's Big Score (2007 Video)

The horrible low point of a Wonderful series as well as the human race

[1/10 · 3 January 2015]

Spoilers: I recently re-watched this movie during a re-watch of the entire series. This movie is simply a travesty. I would say since episode I there has never been a bigger disappointment in scifi. I remember when this came out Futurama had been of the air 4 years, fans like myself had rallied to get the show back on the air, and then yes finally here it was. Then I watched it, then I broke the DVD in half and burned it, which I would prefer be done to all copies of this movie.

But why is this movie so horrible. It is just mind boggling stupid and insipid spewing vitriol all over the fans of the show and good writing in general. So put yourself in my place when first watch this, what do you want to see for a new Futurama? I'll tell you what I don't want to see is the characters I know and love just get S*%$ on relentlessly for 90 minutes. That is really all this movie is is just the main cast getting ripped off by "Scammer aliens" (they couldn't even give these characters a name, that is how lazy the writing is in this film). And none of this makes any sense.

The movie's central plot revolves around mind-control, which is the ABSOLUTE worst plot device in existence. Know any good mind control stories? No because it is just an insipid device to have a character do something with no real motivation or true inner conflict.

The scammer aliens themselves don't make any sense. They are just 3 people and yet they take over an entire planet? If I'm not mistaken there are at least 5 characters that could easily kill 3 measly aliens. I wouldn't mind if they made the scammer invincible somehow, like they regenerate or have some protective shield, but no, no thought went into making this part of the plot make any sense. Simply the scammer aliens are THE WORST CHARACTERS IN THE HISTORY OF MANKIND.

I would rather watch a Joffrey from Game of Thrones TV show 24 hours a day then watch these horrible creatures on screen for 90 minutes.

This movie is the equivalent of making Star Wars VII about Han losing the Millennium Falcon to that little laughing monster that Jabba has. Then somehow Chewie is enslaved and mind controlled and proceeds to kill Han viciously, melts C-3P0 alive, Luke is sold into slavery, and Liegha is forced to do pole dances at the cantina. And just image that like 90% of the movie is just Jabba's little creature laughing at the audience. That is what this movie is.

The writers of this show thankfully managed to make some decent seasons after this horrible piece of trash. Scammer aliens can burn in hell forever.

Predestination (I) (2014)

Logic jumps are just an insult to the audience

[4/10 · 22 November 2014]

This movie is just off putting in every way. It doesn't really establish its world well enough before diving right into a complex overly twisty storyline. I'm going to also delve into spoilers here in this next section as to why I really disliked the film.

The movie is just centered around two huge leaps in logic. The first and most obvious is that Jane HAD to get a sex change. She could have just left the hospital at any time but she stuck around to get a sex change that she didn't want. It made no sense, and is a central aspect of the story. I get that maybe this is some distopian society, although it plays it as our time line through most of the film. Also I just didn't get that sense from those scenes that she was forced to stay there.

I see where the Heinlein aspect plays into even though I haven't read the short story. To me is actually felt like one of Phillip K Dick's lesser stories (and yes even He has a few) with all the convoluted plot twists and genderbending.

Also the make-up in this movie results in sort of an uncanny valley territory. This seriously made me have less sympathy for Jane. There is no good way to do effects like this as movies with bigger budgets have tried and failed.

V/H/S Viral (2014)

A supremely disappointing follow-up to a great anthology series

[4/10 · 27 October 2014]

First I'd like to say, as with any horror film, the less you know about the film going in the better it will be. For those wondering if they should spend their money on this. I would say wait for Netflix, IMO it does not live up to the previous VHS movies, and actually seems to lose what the unique premise was. I love VHS and I liked VHS 2 a good bit, but this feels like a drop off of sorts. If VHS was a 9 and VHS 2 was a 7.5 then VHS Viral is probably an average of 5.5 (but the second segment is a MUST SEE).

The previous 2 movies have gotten many talented young horror film makers and collectives together to make interesting short films. VHS was probably my favorite horror film of 2012, some of the shorts fell flat (static monster and connecting story) but most of the others are really amazing, especially the last. VHS 2 lacked some of the originality but still felt like a solid horror film. VHS Viral just feels like it lacks the same vision and direction that VHS 1 and 2 had.

Whether you like it or hate it VHS is built around the idea of playing with portable cameras, experimenting with the "found footage" horror sub-genre, and really presenting a horror film from the POV of those going through it. It is basically like a haunted house on film, some with interesting stories and ideas. VHS 2 didn't really revolutionize anything but was still interesting. It stuck with the premise and kept it going in interesting ways. Probably my biggest issue with VHS Viral is that it ostensibly completely drops the found footage premise, but still sticks with the found footage type editing and shooting. This breaks the immersion, which is The whole point of found footage stuff.

As you can tell I didn't like the movie for the most part. The second segment is the ONLY reason it even has 4 stars out of 10. Ultimately though I am disappointed because they didn't really try anything interesting with the found footage format, especially the way that the previous 2 films did. Also 3 segments feels too short, even though this film has a lot of filler.

Escape from Tomorrow (2013)

If David Lynch did Disney

[8/10 · 25 October 2014]

I really didn't know what to expect with this one. I had heard good things, and the premise was interesting enough. The film is essentially a David Lynch style real world fantasy story. I don't throw Lynch's name around lightly as he is a very unique filmmaker and to really capture that essence is difficult. This film takes a stab at that and largely succeeds. The movie is dense with different references to urban myths about Disneyland/World. I feel like it straddles this very weird line of both satirizing Disney World but also an odd sense of reverence. It isn't just pointing at something and saying it's dumb. It delves into a real emotion that a place like Disney can illicit; how one can lose themselves in that world when it is created so richly. This is often listed as a horror film but I would day it is more a dark comedy some body horror-esque material but nothing too weird or gross. I would recommend this for people who like things like David Lynch, but are in a mood for not something so heavy as a Lynch film.