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eidolongrey
Reviews
The Family Plan (2023)
Did I get to half way..?
Goodness, I'm supposed to attempt six-hundred characters for a review... We'll give this pish a try.
Genuinely kind of attracted to this, seemingly, 'fish-out-of-water' but wait! Concept. The first action scene has a really interesting premise. The problem starts (& unfortunately continues) from there.
What are we watching?
Whalhberg & Monaghan can both perform for an adult audience. This film is not for that. Guess I, stupidly, ignored the key word in the title: Family.
It plots as though someone wrote a funny, dark, action flick, that was then sold & butchered by a studio to sell tickets: Film be damned!
Did Walhberg lose his ability to choose script when he found god? Who knows, but it's another dud!
Difficult to recognise how well choreographed the action is due to choppy editing (poor filming). Dialogue & comedy is obvious & unsurprising.
Seriously, give it a miss: Even patient, I only made 48 mins: Terrible.
It's a Wonderful Knife (2023)
Poor Attempt at Kitsch
Genuinely got quite excited as the film opened: Like Justin Long; his schtick is the best element of the film.
Tyler MacIntyre just can't seem to pull the same result from the rest of the cast, & as I just read in another review, the result is hollow.
Comedy-horror can work really well ...and is probably my preferred orientation on the scary movie genre. But let's look at both aspects.
Firstly the comedic: Regarding orientation, the film is LGBTQI+ friendly, an obvious boon & Katherine Isabelle who plays the aunt produces one of the only jokes that land successfully. I'm unsure who the comedy is aimed at - there is some swearing - but I'm maybe guessing early mid-teens.
Horror: My own shadow has given me more of a shock! But perhaps that's where I've misplaced my expectations. There's certainly sone blood, but compared to 'Martyrs' which I watched only days back, it's certainly not gory.
A safe, if disappointing watch probably aimed at mid-teens. Over-acted, under-scary & all rather twee.
Old Henry (2021)
Time Blake Nelson is a Star
Really kept it rough groundings suggesting a great later third. Unfortunately the director is clearly an idiot. TBN does a fantastic turn as always and there's such a potential for a great peak: Bad Direction means a spoiled & boring finish.
Tim; you are fantastic!
The Card Counter (2021)
Isaacs Outacts the Film...
Isaacs stoic 'closed' performance is typically outstanding. The dude could play a tree with integrity. Unfortunately his performance leads to the belief that there's going to be a payoff ...
Outside Isaacs the acting wasn't bad, but I do feel the performers were miscast.
It was very poorly directed; I think he might have been trying to reflect the generic blandness of casinos & the repitivity of the protagonists life, but there was no imagination used in the camera work whatsoever.
Oscar Isaacs is proving to be one of the best of his generation & I can understand his attraction to this script... but honestly, until looking, I believed this was a directorial debut regarding behind the camera decisions.
Watch for Isaac, but little else.
Naked Singularity (2021)
Sci-fi..?
There is no doubt that all of the acting talent in this film put in good performances. Skarsgård, as always impressed & Olivia Cooke, a girl from my own neck of the woods, is proving herself to be one to watch. John Boyega leads well, though the film skips over why he is so passionate about protecting the underdog.
This is really where the story is lacking; Tim Blake Nelson does a wonderful job of not caricaturing a stoner-genius-shut in, but what does the Singularity element have to do with the story..? Boyega & Skarsgård wax lyrical about philosophy, but it mainly feels like scriptwriter's pasting over a weakly constructed build.
If Skarsgård had been allowed to over-do it with the obvious risk taking flaws of his character; Boyega more broken by the system he's trying to serve (or the people he's trying to save) then we could have had a funnier darker film.
An attempt to be clever undermined the piece as a whole. Still enjoyable, but disappointing with the potential they had on offer.
Jungle Cruise (2021)
CG-obvIous!
Was it a decade, or more, ago that Indiana Jones & the my god it was bad was released? One of the key elements of that film that quickly wore thin was the obvious & over abundance of of CGI effects. This film suffers the same burden.
There are few movies, especially heavily budgeted ones that don't make use if some special effects, but the problem is over use. Foreground animals & characters become very obvious especially when sitting on top of, at times, an almost entirely rendered background.
The film is intended for a younger audience, but I'm unsure even with their excitable minds whether they will be able to ignore some of the more obvious faults.
All the actors are good; of course they're hamming it up, it's Disney. Standing out as always is Jesse Plemons, revelling in his bad guy uniform. Emily Blunt excellent as always; Dwayne Johnson solid in his 'cheesy' role. Jack Whitehall played well; cooler than expected which I preferred ... some of the 'joke' lines regarding his sexuality were more than outdated, not quite 'Carry on...' but not 2020s.
Overall, reasonably enjoyable, but still can't score it particularly high. It's a heavy re-serving of 'Pirates of the Caribbean.' There are moments; pretty sure the designer nodded to Herzog even if the director / Disney could not be so bold...
The kids will enjoy, but it won't light up their Summer.
Pig (2021)
Sometimes it's easy to forget...
Recently we've seen a wave of Nicolas Cage films that have been tidal to say the least. He's always made brave choices on the way he'll play a scene, or simply the roles he undertakes.
This film is strangely different. Still a unique story, but he plays the role much tighter; a quiet & more insular performance.
Although an odd concept, he plays well against its other lead; young actor, Alex Wolf: excited to see what he can do next.
The film is well shot; some really nice shooting: Good direction & cinematography.
An unexpectedly sober performance from Cage where the opportunity to play it with the bombast of his younger self was there.
I was impressed. Exceptionally quiet performances all round.