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Reviews
Once Upon a Time in America (1984)
Good, but to long
The plot of the movie is really solid and De Niro and James Woods were great in their roles, but the movie is really slow and, in some parts, Leone could've benefited of speeding up the narrative.
There are also some pointless scenes, like the one where the kid buys that cake to give to the prostitute, but ended up eating it. It's 4 minutes and doesn't lead anywhere. The same goes to the scene where they jump with the car on the river. Some scenes also could've been shorter, thus removing a bit of time. There are some close ups and scenes focused on the actors standing in silence for too long, and a bit of hurry would've not killed the art. If the movie was about a half an hour shorter, my review would've been extremely higher, because the movie also has a lot of good moments.
With that, some could raise the objection that the movie was brutally reduced and critics didn't like. But my problem is not so much with the long story, but the lack of hurry to move the plot forward on some moments. Maybe if the movie had a better rhythm, Leone could've added some extra scenes that had to be cut.
Besides that point, the movie is a little confused. It has a lot of back and forth in time, and it takes you a while to understand the timeline. On a few occasions I lost information, because I was so busy trying to understand the timeline in my head and lost couple of dialogues.
There are a couple of other problems I saw in this movie. The first one was the fact that the first women DeNiro's character violated came back. This would not have been a choice I would particularly made, because my suspicion that a woman that was violated during a robbery would've not acted like that on that type of situation.
The other problem is something that probably only bothers me, and it may seem contradictory, since I praised the performances, but the age of the character was a problem to me in the movie. Here you had Robert De Niro, that was 40 years old when the movie premiered, but his character (on the prohibition era) would be in his late 20s, if you consider that he was around 16 when he was arrested. James Woods was also to old for playing a 28 year old (as it is shown in the grave of Max), but he had a more youthful vibe and could pass as a 25~28 year old, but De Niro just didn't look that at all. Add to that Elizabeth McGovern (that to my shock was only 23) is 18 years younger than De Niro, but their characters are supposed to be the same age. I would've casted a different actress for the role.
I would also like to point out that I liked the ambiguous ending, where it could all be an opium hallucination or real events. Both those things sound reasonable to me.
In the end, it is a shame that I can't give it a better rating, because I really liked the story, picture and actors. But those problems were to big to look past and kept removing me from the movie.
High Noon (1952)
Don't get what the fuss was all about
The arch of the characters of Gary Cooper and Grace Kelly are all very interesting. Gary Cooper is decided to do the right thing and not live his life in fear, but is confronted by his wife, a pacifist Quaker, that also has a past experience that justifies her reasoning. Both those characters have interesting conflicts and a satisfying conclusion. Lloyd Bridges also presents himself as a good character, but for personal reasons didn't want to help the Sheriff and has an internal conflict, however, there's no redemption arch or anything to conclude his passage in the movie, he's forgotten about in the end.
This movie has a major problem, which is the plot. The city was full of young men, and they had to fight against only 4 men. I found that extremely hard to believe, especially considering many of those people could be civil war veterans. It's honestly rough to watch every single guy (specially on a crowd) pretends there's no real problem in the whole situation and are ok with the Sheriff just facing the thugs by himself.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: A Cricket's Tale (2017)
Terrible episode with continuity problems
This episode shows Cricket on a new low and besides the fact that it doesn't have many funny moments. Also the whole plot of the episode didn't make much sense.
This episode has also a big continuity problem, which is the fact that Cricket had a family and they only choose to offer him help at this point of his life. Why they didn't do anything when he became homeless? He only became a drug addict after sometime living at the streets, so why not help him in the beginning, when he was still trying to get his life together?
Cricket is a good character, but his whole arc depended on the fact that he didn't have anyone to help him.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Easily the most overrated movie ever
This is one of those movies I simply don't understand how people tend to consider it a masterpiece. My guess is that people in 1968 were so glimpsed by the special effects of the movie, that they kept recommending it. The special effects are really good, even for today's standards, but that's not enough to carry a movie.
The narrative is really slow and the movie doesn't justify it's duration of 2 and a half hours. The first part with the monkeys lasts about 15 minutes and could've easily be done in 5. There's also a lot of time wasted with sequences just showing the ships, planets and space (my guess is that Kubrick was also so glimpsed about the special effects that he felt the movie would benefit from a lot of it's use). Aside from that slowing the movie a lot, there's no character development, the dialogues are shallow and don't give us much. The movie only starts to get interesting, when the scientists arrive at the moon and see the monolith, but it's still very boring, as the movie wastes a lot of time showing the spaceship land. The next part with the mission to Jupiter is the high point of the movie, where we believe we might get some answers Hal reveals himself as an interesting villain. But what this basically means is that it almost takes one hour for the movie to actually show some promising stuff. That part with Hal is also a bit slow, but watchable. But at this point of the movie, you are so tired, that anything that doesn't go straight to the point can be annoying.
Unfortunately, after that, everything quickly goes south again when the spaceship arrives in Jupiter, where we have the worst part of the movie. After it goes into the monolith, we get nearly 10 minutes of colorful stuff being thrown on your face. Then we got some more 10 minutes of him trapped on a room where he lost the notion of space time and saw himself getting old. And then he comes back as a baby...
How can anybody enjoy those last 20 minutes of movies is beyond me. I was expecting some answers or at least a direction to what was the monolith, and what did it represent. But we got 20 minutes that could've been summarized in 5 and no clear answer. The movie simply doesn't have a conclusion and we are left wondering about what we just watched. Your guess of the monolith is as good as mine.
To condense everything. This movie lacks character development, doesn't have an ending, could've easily be at least one hour shorter and has a lot of pointless scenes. It's a mystery to me how this movie is still so revered.
The Graduate (1967)
All depends on your interpretation of the ending.
I would say that the first half of the movie is very solid and interesting. However, the secund part is where things go south for me.
After Ben comes clean to Elaine and after only one date, Ben decides that he's going to marry her, and doesn't even care about the fact, that he has played a huge part on breaking up her parents marriage. Also, I never got why she still talked to him even when she thought her mother didn't consent to the affair (a factor that almost plays no role after she mentioned). That's to much to overlook in my opinion.
Besides that, the characters made a lot of decisions that didn't make much sense to me, but then comes the ending of the movie. It was not a happy ending, but very subtle. They don't know what life is going to look like from now on and the worst part, is that they burned a lot of bridges. That's what make's me not give 3 stars for this movie. It can be very much be looked as a satire. But at the same time, a lot of people still view them as the "heroes" of the movie, because of the subtle ending, so maybe the point of the satire was not very well put, which is a negative point for the director and the writers.
Anyway, even facing it as a satire, the movie still has those problems I mentioned above, and if you don't catch the irony in the ending (which I didn't at first), the movie is just weird. Far from being the masterpiece people usually consider it to be.
I also have to talk about 2 very positive things about the movie, that definitely elevated it's status. The soundtrack is probably the best a movie ever had, and probably being a big contributor to the movie's status in pop culture. I am a fan of Simon & Garfunkel and they did an amazing job. The other thing would be Dustin Hoffman's acting, because here's where he showed the world what he was capable of. I usually don't like actors playing characters much younger (Hoffman was 30 and his character was 21), but here, not only he can look the character's age, but show us exactly who is the character, a very strong start for his career at the time.
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Good, but overrated
This is a rare occasion where I had to watch a movie a secund time to form my opinion, because as soon as I finished it for the first time, I wasn't sure what I thought about it. But after a rewatch, I realized the movie is good, but has some major problems.
The flashbacks are annoying and overdone, a lot of them could be avoided and a lot of stuff we learn via flashbacks, could've been told on a different way. The scenes where the characters are fantasizing are also annoying and none of them makes any sense.
Also, I've got a major problem with the part where Joe kills the old man to get the money. I get that the film was trying to point that he would do anything for his friend, but I thought that was very out of character and unnecessary. At no point he had to kill the guy and this kind off removed me from the movie. He had other events happening to him, where he should've do something more extreme and ended up letting it be.
After that part, all the sympathy I could have for those characters on a possible redemption arc in Florida was lost, and at this point I didn't feel sad in the ending. This whole thing actually passed me the idea that they were indeed irredeemable and the bad guys in their own movie. And I don't believe that was the intention of the movie. He could've just robbed the guy, or found a different way to get the money. Without the implied killing, I believe the ending would have been stronger.
So, excluding those parts that for me devaluated the movie, the rest is actually pretty good. The acting is fantastic and their dialogues are very powerful. The story itself also has a lot of value, but those problems will not let me give a better rate to this movie.
Also the soundtrack is terrific. Definitely a high point of the movie.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: The Gang Turns Black (2017)
Probably the worst episode in Sunny
I Lov this show very much, and I'm not one of those people that think the show is dead. That's absolutely not the case. However, this episode marked the beginning of a shif. The episodes discussing social issues, they didn't use to be preachy. This episode in the other hand feels very much like they are preaching, and this oppened the door to other preachy episodes.
This episode also oppened the door to a different format, where the gang doing stupid stuff was not the main format anymore.
Don't get me wrong, great episodes came after this, like the very next one "The Gang Goes to the Water Park", or "Time's up for the Gang". But some terrible episodes, completely disconected from what the show used to represent came, such as the laddies reboot of the gang beats boggs.
Still about the episode, besides feeling preachy, it's also a musical episode. They already did a musical and it was one of the best episodes.
Anyway, the premisse is interesting, but it was poorly executed.
That '90s Show (2023)
Could've been so much better
The cameos from the old cast were great and the only thing that saved the show and they should've been more used. For example didn't make sense Leia's parents weren't at her 15th birthday. Also doesn't make sense that Leia and Kelso's son didn't knew each other... So Eric and Kelso had this much contact that their kids only met for the 1st time at the age of 15?
I particularly was much more interested in seeing how were the lives of the original cast, and that could've been done introducing new characters as well
The problem with the new cast is that the majority of them lacked personalities. Also the chemistry between them feels very forced and uncomfortable sometimes, and it gets worst if you compare them with the original cast... They also pass a very Gen Z vibe instead of the 90s vibe
Also, being set in the 90s was also something I disliked, the math doesn't add up, the actors were now to old for the age of their characters (something that was already a problem at the original later seasons). The other problem is this would mean that Eric and Donna were parents at the age of 20, right after the end of the original, something I find a little inconsistent with their personalities.
Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Mormon Advantage (2021)
Melancholic end to a melancholic season
The whole premise of this season was very bad, and this finale really was in the same tone.
I got more interested on the plot of "Young Larry" than this season.
Curb Your Enthusiasm: The Mini Bar (2021)
An improvement compared to the 1st and 2nd episodes
This episode was a litte bit better, but still could be better.
I can't take anymore that whole blackmail situation, doesn't make any sense and it's not funny
And also, maybe it's time to pull the plug on that Cheryl and Ted thing, it was funny when it started, but now doesn't work.
Young Sheldon (2017)
Could be more
The show is good if you analise it ignoring TBBT
But it is not good enough as the show that gives it origin
Sheldon's father specially is the thing that most bugs me, he was described in a total different way in TBBT, I always pictured him as a texan Red Forman, based on Sheldon's stories
The other characters are alright, so as the casting
The other thing that anoyed me was the fact that he is from a ficticious town and goes to a ficticious college. And also, the timeline is a little messy
In a nutshell, if the show wasn't about Sheldon, but about another genious growing up in Texas with a religious family, my review would be more positive, but since they give conflict information about a established character, they lost some points with me.