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Decentman
Reviews
Fargo (2014)
Season 4 - no compelling narrative tension
I was soooo looking forward to season 4. The pilot was intriguing...great cinemtography...production design, etc. The period look is spot on. It got off to a "okay" start, but then virtually nothing of any real interest happens. A few showy scenes of violence - and the setup of the gang vs. gang stuff is JUST NOT VERY COMPELLING....WHO CARES???!!!
Us (2019)
TRASH
Ok. Okay...OKAAAAY. This film is supposed to be provocative...challenging...thought provoking, etc. As the viewer watches the narrative unfold - he/she is supposed to be SO CAUGHT up in the "what does that mean?" mindset? The only way for that to work is for the film to have enough interesting stuff going on to propel us to want to "figure it out". Who wants to work THAT hard when the film bores us to tears. Nothing about it is interesting at all. Dull staging and direction. The only thing that triggers some interest is trying to figure out how Hollywood financed this drivel and how in the world did it make over 250 mil...
HORRIBLE AND A TOTAL WASTE!!!!
Shame on the pretentious self-serving Peele to try to infuse some sort of social message!!!
Beautiful Boy (2018)
Repetitive and not terribly gripping
Okay, so the acting was solid. Great locations, etc. But despite the clear attempt at depicting a "gut wrenching look" at meth addiction and its impact on the addict, family, etc., - it was strangely uninvolving. NOT gripping. Unfortunately just a pastiche of disjointed scenes where the characters do the same thing over and over again. Not compelling. Despite the obvious "oh wow looks what this drug can do!" tone...I did not care. So what?!
Hereditary (2018)
Creepy but dull
On the positive side: creepy atmosphere via exceptional cinematography. Nice direction. Decent performances. But the story....
All over the place. Rambles along with some creepy moments. But then...the sister gets her head chopped off along with the plausibility of the characters and the story arc. What is the point of this film? We are presented with a series of MISERABLE characters...who go through MISERABLE experiences...and some act like they're zombies (the son Peter). And the rest are either in some sort of odd trance (the weird daughter) or hysterical (the mother) or emotionally removed (the father). One serious problem is that they are ALL UNLIKEABLE. Period. From the beginning - when the lead mom (played by Toni Collette) spews venomous comments about her mother AT HER MOTHER'S FUNERAL...We are supposed to get behind her journey? And as the film progresses...we get a plethora of cliches: (1) the seance - by the way makes no sense in terms of the story structure and feels totally contrived (2) the ghostly apparitions pop in and out - also makes NO SENSE (3) the naked old people ghosts at the end - that takes the story into a final implausible area. The screenplay is a total joke. All over the place in terms of structure and focus. A buddy of mine (quoted here so I don't take credit) called in "misery porn dressed up like a horror film". And the audience certainly gets the misery part oh so well.
A Ghost Story (2017)
unbelievably boring
Painfully slow - I get the metaphorical stuff. But it's just not that interesting. Who the hell cares? The director should have done a pseudo-documentary where he can espouse on all the themes depicted in the film. Have a narrator, some interviews, some re-enactments of ghosts or something similar - teach us something about your beliefs in the afterlife, etc. - but don't believe for one minute that what you did was even remotely intriguing - I don't care what YOU as a filmmaker think about ghosts, mourning, grief, etc. - you chose the wrong medium to express it. Because it was worse than watching paint dry because in the end the paint no longer stinks...unlike this self-serving pretentious piece of ca-ca.
Snowfall (2017)
Horrible!
I had high hopes for the pilot - I love South Central as a cultural and visual backdrop as well as a story about the drug culture and "how the cocaine epidemic began", etc. But unfortunately, the pilot script was a dud.
No interesting characters, dull and predictable dialogue and no real narrative tension and drive. And - the characters are so thin with no real sense of conflict other than what the culture and environment contribute as a given (hint: NOT ENOUGH!!!). Also - the way the characters are introduced is confusing and boring. I not only had no empathy for anything about the characters...but NOTHING AND I MEAN NOTHING was even remotely interesting. Bad writing. Period. This turkey is dead on arrival.
The Killing Jar (2010)
Tedious and boring
Bad. Bad. No suspense. No tension. Graphic and gratuitous violence. Just dumb. Script sucked. Period. Michael Madsen - normally a fine actor - looks like he has no commitment to doing any real acting. He looks tired, bored, listless...apathetic. Hey Michael - you supposed to be an actor. You can't phone it in my friend. You gotta do more than just die your frock and stroll through the dialogue delivery.
Just a joke of a film. Believe it or not - some of the actors were decent. Jake Busey can emote. So can the black dude. But what a bore. I guess it was hard to pull it off with such a low budget. I get it. I like low budget films - with some degree of sense. Not this brainless bore.