leonegrao Reviews

Roman Holiday (1953)

A solid movie, from a different time

[8/10 · 3 July 2019]

I really enjoyed every bit of this movie. It was my first experience watching Audrey Hepburn and I got to say, I get it now...

The movie without her would probably be a little less magical, but nonetheless its story is a great tale of love, with a sad ending that gives a special feel, something really innocent but still close to the ground.

However, I wanted to see a little more of the princess side, what was going through her mind. I do understand the decision to focus on the journalist and near the end trust in facial expressions and silence.

Truly a masterpiece and for anyone that is young and watches movies from now, these old gems are really important. These are the original stories. From 1953 to now, a bunch of movies used similar plots, but with better image, better sound, better structure, more public... and still, this movie may beat all of them, depending only on your opinion.

The Umbrella Academy (2019–2024)

Interesting, but not quite

[5/10 · 2 March 2019]

This could be good if it was made decades ago. Now is simply predictable. Another group of superheroes with unnecessary secrets and incapable of listening and talking. That's your Batman, Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Daredevil and many others. So you get a good story, but the way they build it is so boring and expected that you don't really take the personality this show could have.

Basically another powerful superhero, that supposed to be smart, is in fact an idiot, and make it everything worse. But seven of them.

You will definitely watch it all if you start. However, the parts you enjoy end up being parts that are not that important to the story.

I, Tonya (2017)

A solid film, but not thrilling

[7/10 · 25 January 2018]

Have to say, I am a little disappointed.

The cast is good, with solid acting (that's why Margot Robbie is on the race for an Academy Award) and very impressive visual changes. Every actor did something for their characters and the universe of the '90s decade was really visible in every frame of the movie. But the visual is only a small part of quality.

It's an easy movie to watch, that was my first feeling. I could watch this and re-watch it easily, I didn't ask myself how much more it had until it end, and that is something hard for me, as I'm a very anxious person. But, the movie escalates for a long time, the peak is "the incident". And from there, everything is disappointing. I was waiting the whole time to sit apprehensively, but nothing happened, the plot slowly went to the conclusion living me with the question "that's it?".

Even thought I know that this is a true-story and I hate when movies try to change the past, I still felt like something was missing. The acting was there, the story was appealing and the direction was very nice. But, thinking about the movie, the best part I can think of is how they filmed the ice skating. When you see a movie as big as this, you expect to remember something more important than the way the camera behaved in some scenes.

Now, about the facts: is she guilty of something or isn't she? The film is very clear about their opinion: it was not her fault. There are scenes where some hypocrisy is shown in an almost comic way, but looking back at the way she was raised, and how valuable that Olympic moment was for her, how could we expect that kind of honesty? In the end, she is just not a very smart girl, but a very persistent one. The movie perfectly show how absurd is the media coverage nowadays (even if tells something from 2 decades ago), how people idolize, both hating her or loving her, when actually, nobody knew her. It also shows how unfair the justice can be sometimes, as she suffered more than other individuals just because she would benefit more than them.

In conclusion, if you lived the polemic story of Tonya, you should watch this movie, it will be fun and it will make you think. However, don't expect something memorable, it's a solid movie, like many others, that is only as successful because of the weight of the plot.

Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999– )

A Good Show Turned Predictable and Annoying

[6/10 · 25 January 2018]

When a show loses the main chemistry, it's not easy to go back to how it was. The right thing to do is try, and if the new plan doesn't work, give up. Unfortunately, SVU still tries things that were already done a long time ago, done better.

The main problem with the show started when they lost their main character, the partner of Det. Olivia Benson. They tried several times to recreate that chemistry, but they failed. So, the new strategy was to focus on Olivia.

Now the show is completely different from what it was ten years ago. Back then, it was a show about police cases with a little bit of background stories for the detectives. Today, the show puts the cases in second plan and focus too much on the detectives. I'm tired of watching Olivia, or those other characters with weak stories. I'm also tired of the cases that are so predictable. All of the Law & Orders had a very basic plot: a crime happens, the detectives go see the crime scene, the investigation starts with a very good suspect, some other suspects are shown and they find the guy, but then, in a plot-twist they find out that the one who did it was the first suspect all along. Now, when you do that for almost 20 years, even a kid can find out how the story ends. And there's only a limited number of ways to rape and hurt women and children.

If anybody wants to watch this, go to the first seasons, they're amazing. Since 2012, the show turned into a circus, it's everywhere and too much is happening for us to actually care.