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Reviews
Up in the Air (2009)
An Underrated Masterpiece
Prior to this movie, I didn't know who Jason Reitman was. Little did I know that I had watched most of his filmography before without ever realising it. Movies like Thank You For Smoking, Kindergarten Cop, Twins, Tully, Juno, and Demolition, were nothing short of masterpieces. Often forgetten but usually becoming cult classics as time goes by. Up in the Air is no different. I was exactly 15 minutes into the movie when I thought to myself, "this is gonna be good." From the writing, to the characters, to the flawless direction, this movie has it all. We all know Clooney is a good actor, but Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick's performances were absolutely incredible. For a movie made in 2009, it still manages to feel refreshing and unique. If you look closely, the moral of the movie is one that we've seen since the dawn of time. But predictable isn't the word I'd use to describe this movie. It's a must watch if you're a movie fan.
The Age of Adaline (2015)
An Amateur Mess
Where do I even start with this. Maybe I could talk about how horribly written the script is. Or how every character is so two-dimensional that you can't even resonate with their feelings. But I guess I'll just start by saying how bad of a director Lee Toland Kreiger is. Just look at his filmography. For someone who's never made a good movie in his entire career, it should come as no surprise how bad The Age of Adeline is. This idiot has absolutely no respect for his audience. Any respected, or even mediocre, director would tell you that a mystery or a plot twist in a movie needs to be challenging, but not too challenging that nobody in the audience has no idea what's going on for most of the movie. This guy however, chose to write the thinnest plot I've ever seen in my life, filled with a ton of holes that make the movie end up being incomprehensible. You have to give the viewers a chance to crack it on their own. You can't spoon feed them the answers in the third act because your movie is horrible that it doesn't even bother explaining itself. Maybe Lee Toland Kreiger knew that if someone was stupid enough to watch his movie, they probably would need some help with understanding the plot. And I get that it's a fantasy, romance movie, but this is so bad that a toddler would call it too unbelievable. Just the amount of convenience and unexplained events in this movie makes me think that he came up with the script on the fly as he went on. You could argue that the romance aspects were well made, but that too is ruined by the horrible characters that Kreiger has written. Blake Lively's performance is the only saving grace of this mess to be honest. On the other hand, Michiel. Huisman is a dreadful actor, and Harrison Ford's character is so bad that it gave him no chance to do something with it. In conclusion, there are romance movies that are a million times better than this cesspit of bad writing and amateur direction. There are even a ton of better fantasy, romance movies out that there that won't insult your intelligence. So if you ever think you want to watch this movie, trust me, you can do better.
Napoleon (2023)
Incredibly Disappointing
I never thought I would say this about my predicted movie of the year, but I advise you not to watch this movie. Historical inaccuracies aside, we all know who Napoleon Bonaparte is. And we certainly knew that Ridley Scott never intended to make a documentary about him. Instead, his goal was to create a dramatised version of the life of the greatest general in history. The first 30 minutes of the movie are surprisingly lacking. Napoleon looks like a lost dog in the movie's first battle. The only time we see him acting tough is when he's not holding a sword. Not to mention Ridley's scene cuts which ruined the immersion for me so quickly. A horrible trait to have for such a prolific director. I know the movie had profanity and gore, but I had no idea it would be so crude about them. One minute we're looking at Napoleon staring coldly as his troops open fire at unarmed rioting civilians, and then 2 seconds later Ridley cuts to another inappropriate scene in the most horrible and abrupt manner. Fast, abrupt and annoying cuts. Meaningless scenes that serve as nothing more than filler as they add nothing to the plot and do nothing to push it forward. And more historical inaccuracies than the Cleopatra documentary. Ridley Scott does an amazing job in portraying the greatest general in history as an incel. A man, who in real life, led his armies fearlessly. A leader of men who pushed every one of his soldiers to their limits for their country. In addition to this movie's trailer that tricked all of us into thinking this movie would do Napoleon justice. Ridley Scott fails miserably to do one of the easiest jobs ever; making the bravest army general in history look good for the cameras.
Maestro (2023)
Solid 5 to a Light 6
I had high hopes for this movie, I really did. But as I eagerly awaited Bradley Cooper directive debut, I ended up not being that excited for it's release. Releasing on the tail end of the year, as well as it being the holiday season, is a recipe for disaster. Keep in mind that this movie is not a Christmas movie by any stretch of the imagination and you'll see what I'm talking about. A biopic like that should have been so powerful to the point where it pushes your emotions to the limits. So aside from the sub-optimal release date, the movie as a whole didn't really deliver on what it could have been. Take The Music of Silence for comparison. Not a critically acclaimed movie, but at least a satisfying one. The trailer alone for that movie almost brought me to tears when I first saw it in theatres. It was undeniably a powerful masterpiece that took you for a rollercoaster of emotions. And that's exactly where Maestro failed to satisfy me. The movie felt lacking and the pacing seemed off. I know I can't delve too much into these intricacies since this is Bradley Cooper's debut in movie direction, but I can't look over how amateur the direction was. Even Cooper's performance didn't feel as powerful as in A Star is Born. It really seems like Bradley should've focused his energy on either acting or directing but not both. However, it's clear that there is a lot of potential here which leaves me excited for what's to come.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)
A massive let down
Where do I even start? One of this year's biggest blockbusters, and certainly one of the most anticipated films of the year. Overshadowed by it's close release to Oppenheimer and Barbie, most people expected huge drop in box office sales. Nonetheless, I still went to watch this movie with an open mind and a considerable excitement. After all, the latest installment in the series before this movie, Fallout, was arguably a fan-favorite. Little did I know that I was in for a less-than-pleasant experience. I thought I had to start by talking about the plot and the casting. It is exactly what you think it is if you've read the short summary on IMDB. A goose chase for a dangerous weapon that everybody wants to control. As well as the risk being obviously the fate of the world which hangs in the balance. A recycled and overused premise that we've seen a million times before. The whole sequence through the streets of Venice felt pretty familiar for some reason. I soon found out, and I kid you not, that this car chase was set in exactly the same place as Fast and Furious X. And I'm not just talking about both of them being set in Venice, both car chases in both movies actually end up in the same place where the cars had to go down the flights of stairs. You've got to be at a new level of desperate if you need to rip an entire scene from the Fast and Furious series. Funnily enough, that doesn't even come close to how bad the casting was. Grace's actor, Hayley Atwell, is without a doubt the most unlikeable character to ever come out of the series. Backstabbing Ethan all movie only for him to completely forgive her every time with zero repercussions. She is literally the reason Ilsa Faust died, but on the very next scene, Luther plays it off by taking all the blame from Grace and comforting her by saying that "Ilsa died so she could save you". Like, am I missing something here? Another honorable mention is Vanessa Kirby's character, Alana, who honestly felt like it could have been played by any unknown actor and it would still have the same effect. Paris's character should have taken her place but even she had her flaws. We understand too late in the movie that she is working with Gabriel, simply because it genuinely seems like she's just a mercenary throughout most of the film. The only thing that saved her character for me was the fact that we find out that she isn't dead at the end of the movie, so who knows how that turns out. And finally, Esai Morales's character, Gabriel. Now, I'm not trying to blame that performance solely on Esai, but what in god's name was that? Talk about a villain falling short. The way the writers created him may have set him up for failure. But that still gives no excuses for how Esai missed the mark completely. Even Dante in Fast and Furious X felt like an actual, fully fledged villain. And that's saying something. Horrible cast, horrible plot, and sub-par performances all around to say the least. I was eagerly waiting for the ending, not just because I wanted the movie to end as soon as possible, but also because it was the movie's last chance at redemption. One redeeming scene at the end could've saved it for me. But alas, this is the way the movie industry works now. As expected, the ending left me feeling like I had just wasted almost 3 hours of my life watching an unfinished mess. Marvel was the first to do it with Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. But at least Marvel's writers did it the right way. Infinity war felt like a fully fledged and coherent movie on it's own. It captured your interest and immediately hooked you as well as leaving you begging to know what happens next. Then came Spider-man: Across the Spider-verse which couldn't quite accomplish the same feat. And now with this movie which also failed to do a two-part movie the right way. Moral of the story is, if you're going to split your movie into two separate movies, you should at least put some effort into making that first part seem like an actual completed movie. And not just what seemed like an unfinished project.
With all that being said, I can still confidently say that the cinematography and Tom Cruise with the help of his team are the only things that make this movie worth watching. The action scenes, however lacking in effect, are pretty enjoyable and should be enough reason for you to check out the movie for yourself. Only for Tom Cruise though.
The Meg (2018)
Surprisingly Horrible
Anybody who came to watch this movie was expecting a couple of things; Jason Statham being the same badass he always is, an exciting thriller with an exhilarating plot, and obviously a lot of gore. Well you basically end up getting only one of these things, which is just the gore. The script and dialogue are simply dreadful. I'm almost convinced that Dean Georgaris might be the worst writer on planet earth. Every one-liner is so cringey. Every interaction between the characters felt like it was written by a toddler. Non-existent character arcs didn't help either. DJ literally felt like they just needed to have a black actor so they cast a random black guy and gave him the most annoying, useless, and utterly irritating character. I actually had to skip a lot of the dialogue because of how cringey it was. I simply couldn't sit through 2 hours of this. Not to mention how the movie was supposed to end twice during it's runtime but the writers just wanted to fill out their 2 hour runtime to the point where it felt like they were just making stuff up on the go. After 40 minutes the movie had reached an ending. 25 minutes later and the movie reaches yet another climax and it looks like it's finally ending. Only to find out that all you've just seen was only an hour of the movie's runtime and that you had to sit through another hour of a forced plot. Horrible characters, horrible plot, plus a horrible script and writing. So logically I'm pretty sure this means a horrible movie as well.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)
An undoubtable masterpiece that sadly falls short of perfection
I don't know how to begin describing this movie and the spider-verse trilogy in general. It's a breath of fresh air and it personally made me fall in love with animated movies again. The art style is perfect. The dialogue, script, and actor performances beautifully compliment each other. It is without question one of the best movies of the year. But I have to admit that even such a great movie has fallen for the Hollywood sequel curse. To understand that, we need to look back at the first movie of the trilogy. Into the spider-verse was an amazing movie that felt like a genuine passion project that was made with love. But more importantly, it felt like a standalone movie with a cohesive story. Meaning that if the series ended with just that one movie then I wouldn't be mad. This is where Across the spider-verse falls short. I was surprised when I saw that I had watched almost 2 hours of it without reaching any form of climax. I was confused and I thought there was a problem with my digital copy of the movie. Until I reached the ending where I found out that they intentionally used up almost 75% of the movie's runtime just to build up for the last installment in the trilogy. Even though I was really enjoying the movie from start to finish, the ending left me greatly disappointed and utterly dissatisfied. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One did the exact same thing. A whole movie that means nothing on it's own. Which honestly makes me wanna tell you to not watch this movie until the 3rd part comes out. Otherwise you'll be in for an enjoyable but unsatisfying experience.
Asteroid City (2023)
All bells and whistles with no real substance
So, another Wes Anderson film for us to enjoy is released and the expectations couldn't be higher. A star studded cast, an infamous and eccentric director. What more could you ask for? Well that's what we all thought going into this one expecting another iconic Wes Anderson film that will be regarded as an innovative masterpiece. Suffice it to say it was unbelievably underwhelming. It literally feels like Wes had created this vast world and that incredibly satisfying aesthetic then didn't know what to do with it. The characters are too simple with no real depth to any of them. Not to mention the fact that they felt like they were written by the same man (Ironic, I know). Now you might be thinking how stupid that sounds when it's actually true, Wes did write all these characters himself in addition to story. But a good writer/screenwriter knows how to diversify his characters. He knows how to make each and every one of them seem like a genuine person with a cohesive, deep personality and compelling characteristics. And that's exactly where Wes failed because genuinely these characters are too shallow to be put in Wes Anderson movie. Which didn't help Wes' case when he got such an amazing cast and then completely botched their characters. The black and white flashbacks throughout the entire movie break the immersion and do nothing more than just confuse the viewer and the already thin as a rake plot. Which brings me to the story that was non-existent for the first hour or so of the movie, which is laughable considering the movie's runtime was a measly 1 hour, 45 minutes. I also love how he divided the movie into acts and scenes but then had the 10 first scenes be about nothing but a big wave of exposition all at once. Out of the entire cast of stars, the only people I enjoyed watching were the 3 little girls. I would finally like to add that the cinematography was top notch but that's really all the credit I can give this movie.
All in all, the movie is a flawed mess burdened with the Wes Anderson aesthetic that left it dull and uninteresting as a whole.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
A good time for anybody
Wow. This movie has really surpassed my expectations in a way I could never have imagined. I went into this one expecting a lazy remake with no meaningful plot in sight. Boy was I wrong. The Super Mario Bros is the perfect family movie. It doesn't matter if you're a die-hard Mario fan or someone who's only seen the character a couple times in their life. Simply put, this movie will leave you completely satisfied. The plot is fun, the characters are adorable, and the animation is the top tier. Even though I wished Luigi had more to do, I was still very pleased with how the story came together in the end. It's been a while since I've watched a family movie since I got my own place because I've always thought they'll just make me feel bad. But trust me when I tell you, no matter how you watch this movie and no matter who you watch it with, you will leave the theater with an odd feeling of happiness. Sincerely a must watch for everybody no matter their age.
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
A mesmerizing farewell to a fantastic movie series.
What can we even say about John Wick that we haven't said already. There was a lot of pressure on the 4th installment of the John Wick movie series, seeing as director Chad Stahelski has publicly stated that this will be the last installment of the John Wick franchise. Well it's safe to say that it has lived up to expectations magnificently. The action was nothing less than what we have come to expect from the franchise. The fight scenes are a thrilling, captivating, works of art that should be eligible for an Oscar on their own thanks to the jaw-dropping cinematography and direction. The characters and their overall storylines were clearly better than those of John Wick 3, but I have to admit I might be a bit biased as a result of some wonderful performances from Ian McShane, Donnie Yen, and Hiroyuki Sanada. Unlike Halle Berry's character in the last movie, these 3 characters that I just mentioned felt more alive to me. They felt real, each one unique in it's own way and style. And that makes me appreciate the writing of this movie so much more. The story, which truthfully felt a bit slow at times, was captivating enough to keep you engaged and on the edge of your seat throughout the entire movie. However, I have to say that the plot is in no way perfect. The movie has it's cons obviously, like some of the average dialogue and cringey one-liners. But trust me, that didn't stop me from having an enjoyable and emotional watch. It was an extraordinarily good series which got the end it deserved. I was crying my heart out by the end to say the least. A must watch for all movie kinds of movie lovers.
Men in Black (1997)
Great concept. Sub-par execution.
I wanted to rewatch this movie as part of a marathon of classics that I'm going through with my girlfriend and it was one of the first ones she suggested. I didn't remember much of the movie from the last time I've seen it but I knew it was good, or at least that's how I remembered it. So it was to my surprise that I found a ridiculous amount of plot holes, non-existent backstories, and many feeble attempts at creating a coherent and immersive world that would make you feel like it's actually real. It was especially shocking seeing as this movie is regarded as a timeless, iconic, classic, and that's I was left greatly disappointed. For example, Edwards, (or Agent J), had absolutely no back story whatsoever. We never learn about his family or loved ones or frankly anyone who even knew him. I mean the guy was NYPD for god's sakes. So it really felt like lazy writing when we were meant to believe that in order for Edwards to join MIB, he had to completely disappear from the world he once lived in. In addition, the ending felt rushed and the story, (which had the potential to be something special), came up lacking to say the least. But don't get me wrong, the movie had it's bright spots like it's humor and the chemistry between agents "J" and "K". However, it's really apparent how much potential this movie and it's story had so it's sad to see the final product not meet the expectations. All in all it was a decent watch a pretty good comedy to say the least. Would recommend if you're looking for a quick enjoyable watch.
The Little Mermaid (2023)
Disappointing
I was going into this movie with high hopes to prove everybody else wrong but I ended up with nothing but disappointment. Bluntly said, this movie is just a lazy remake that fails to capture the magic of the original. Waste of a Disney classic and definitely a waste of time. I had hoped to at least feel some kind of empathy or relatability towards any of the characters, but somehow they feel poorly written and with no sign of anything fresh to add to the classic. Simply put, it's a copy and paste job but the catch here is this movie is nowhere near as good as its predecessor. Wouldn't recommend if you value your time.