normano's Reviews

Berlin (2023– )

1/10

Undisciplined people conducting a heist?

31 December 2023

Money Heist was a favourite of mine with all the smart twists and turns keeping me invested in watching. The Professor was so disciplined and so focused on the goal. In this series, the heist is an inconvenient subplot. Everyone is making mistakes you'd expect of a teenager who just started going through puberty. How could you trust flaky minded people like this to pull off a multi million dollar heist?

Four episodes in and I was constantly rolling my eyes at all the love scenes and drama. Everyone was calling in love with each other. Some other characters i wonder what their point was other than being a distraction.

I really wanted to like this but it's just not as well written as Money Heist.

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Coming 2 America (2021)

2/10

Adding the Junson family ruined it

5 March 2021

I'm a big fan of the original. I've watched it over 6 times and it never loses its magic whenever I re-watch it.

There were some inconsistencies here. Akeem in the original was brave. In this he seems to have turned into a wuss, afraid of Wesley Snipes' General Izzi. The rest of the original characters seemed to be true to the original. Except Lisa. She was always the proper one in the original. In this, she goes ghetto for a moment.

General Izzi had the best entrances in this movie. Loved them. Far better than the wanna-be pimp ones of Lavelle.

All the cameos from the original made this worth watching. But the re-watch value isn't there.

That said, the visuals are beautiful in Zamunda. Some parts are obviously CGI but still beautiful to see. The ending was predictable but still satisfied, seeing some old friends to close the movie.

Stay to the end during the credits to hear an amazing rendition of a song from the original by John Legend.

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Gabriel "Fluffy" Iglesias: One Show Fits All (2019 TV Special)

1/10

Fan from the beginning

21 June 2019

My wife and I were big fans of him since Last Comic Standing. Some of his jokes from that show made it onto his earlier specials and he's still reusing them in this one.

As always, he finishes his shows off by redoing the jokes that made him famous. What baffled me was how surprised he looked when the audience started finishing off lines of his jokes as he told them. When we saw him live several years ago the audience was doing the exact same thing. It happens in every show we've seen.

About 75% through this, my wife and I looked at each other. We hadn't laughed at all. I think a lot of jokes were more like drawn out stories. Most of the stories are him patting himself on the back for being so successful.

The localized jokes were a bad call. Sure, if you're just performing in Houston then local familiarity jokes are great. But this Netflix special goes to a much wider audience. Anyways, eye-rolls galore. But as he said, he's got the money already so he doesn't care.

The part about his mom was nice.

His comedy is still quite clean compared to others. It would just be nice to hear fresh material.

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Mission: Impossible III (2006)

2/10

Great but Cruise's off-screen antics spoiled it for me

5 November 2006

I quite enjoyed the story and action in this movie. Philip Seymour Hoffman is brilliant as the villain - so cool yet nasty.

Beautifully shot, fast paced story - there's not much I can fault it on. The only thing that really ruins it for me is Tom Cruise. Every time I see him I can't get the image of him couch jumping and acting a fool on Oprah. I just don't buy his acting like a serious person. Kind of like seeing Weird Al Yankovic in a romantic drama.

Part of the reason I rated this so poorly is because of the ridiculous ways Ethan gets himself out of ridiculous situations. What should I have expected from a film of this title I guess... It got to a point where I just thought that it was too much. No one person could always have luck on their side.

One point for the beautiful cast and one point for Philip Seymour Hoffman's acting. I think I've had enough of this series - and of Tom Cruise.

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Barnyard (2006)

1/10

a gang bashing and funeral in a kids movie?

7 October 2006

Warning: Spoilers

I went to see this by myself first to make sure it was suitable for my little boy to see.

Thank goodness I did because I certainly would not allow any young child to see this. Why? The violence, death, the funeral. If you are not ready to explain these concepts to your kids then keep them away.

Why on earth are these topics covered in a kids movie - especially one that has a tag line of "The original party animals". Might as well put a gangland execution in a Hello Kitty cartoon.

As for laughs there were very few and far between. Speaking for myself there were none. The cows looked remarkably similar to the cows in the The Far Side comics. I guess there isn't anything original about this movie apart from the addition of ridiculous violence and antisocial activities for all the young kids to enjoy.

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Superman Returns (2006)

7/10

Sets the foundation for sequels...

18 July 2006

I just saw Superman Returns today, curious how Brandon would compare to Christopher Reeve.

Being a new actor, I think he did a good job. He has an intense yet somewhat caring stare which is what Christopher Reeve had.

The opening sequence with the plane and shuttle was amazing. I think to liven this up it needed more jaw dropping sequences such as that. However upon more thought I realised that this is called "Superman Returns" for a reason.

This movie is to set the foundation for the upcoming sequels. He disappeared for five years and everyone has learned to cope without him. This whole movie is mainly about him repairing his relationships and re-establishing himself into human society. The whole Lex thing is more of a side story which I didn't really enjoy but Kevin Spacey does do a good job as always.

The music was awesome. It brought back memories and emotions from the original.

Now that Superman has returned and everyone has accepted him back, it will be exciting to see (hopefully) some action packed sequels to build on what happened in this movie.

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Cars (2006)

10/10

Excellent movie for the whole family...

8 June 2006

This movie opened here in Sydney, Australia today and my son was eager to see it so I took him as soon as I picked him up from daycare.

I knew he was going to love it but I also found myself enjoying it very much. At times I couldn't control myself and burst out laughing aloud. I think it loosened up some of the other adults in the cinema and they started laughing as well.

The graphics were awesome. The amount of details such as reflections in each scene, etc was amazing. I need to own this movie. If only they were taking advanced orders for the DVD already.

In a nutshell, the movie is about Lightning McQueen's awakening from being a selfish, arrogant person/ car to one who realises the value of friendship. A truly feel-good movie for the whole family.

The only thing that bothered me in regards to my son was the one part where there was name calling - the part where someone referred to McQueen as a moron/ retard (can't remember). I just didn't want my son picking that up and referring to other kids in that way. But that was very slight. One word, two seconds. The rest of the movie was amazing. For the first time my son sat still for a whole two hours!! Well done, Pixar. An amazing movie that I want to own already. I hope they make a sequel and put as much effort into the story and character development as they did in this one.

Do yourselves a favour and see this for yourselves and if you have kids, take them along. It's not just a boy movie. Being a cartoon and not overly macho all kids should enjoy it.

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Guess Who (2005)

10/10

Heartwarming comedy about multicultural relationships

28 September 2005

I saw the preview for this movie and it didn't really make me want to see it. From the preview it seemed to me that it was going to be one of those 'white boy gets introduced into a black family' stories with all the usual stereotypes and situations.

Fair enough, there was some of that. But having a mixed-race marriage myself I found that the talking points that came up between Ashton and Zoe's characters were some of the same ones we went through. The usual fear of meeting the in-laws and also the fear of being accepted by a tight-knit (in my case) Italian family.

Bernie Mac and Judith Scott were wonderful as Zoe's parents. Strict but funny in their little ways. Being a parent I can see where almost each and every main character was coming from. This movie has become a favourite of my wife and I and we'll definitely be buying the DVD.

If only they didn't market it when it first came out as just simply another '(culture 1) boy meets girlfriends (culture 2) family' kind of movie it might have been viewed by more people. The story was much more than that.

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Meet the Fockers (2004)

8/10

Better than the original!

30 December 2004

I saw this with my wife and was pleasantly surprised. I thought it was going to be more of the same from the original but after seeing a preview of the "footy ball" scene on Jay Leno I thought we should give it a try.

With the original I found the grilling of Gaylord by his potential father-in-law funny and amusing. But when the whole movie is full of it, it gets very annoying very quickly. Fortunately for this sequel, it has a saving grace in the form of Gaylords parents, Bernie and Roz. What a breath of fresh air. I feel stuffy and uptight while watching DeNiro (maybe cos DeNiro's character is stuffy and uptight) but when it switches to Bernie and Roz I relax and the laughs came out a lot easier.

Maybe I felt for Gaylord after going through the same thing when I was in the process of marrying my wife.

I have a 1.5 year old son but the baby in the movie just annoyed me. The baby in the movie though was quite smart in baby signing.

This movie is good fun. A more balanced experience than the first movie and my wife and I definitely enjoyed it more. Unfortunately after this movie my wife and I saw the ridiculous Oceans 12. Maybe we should've just gone home after seeing Meet The Fockers...

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Ocean's Twelve (2004)

1/10

What the ...?

29 December 2004

Warning: Spoilers

Man I loved Ocean's 11.

Smart movie. All eleven characters were crucial to the heist as each had their own specialised skill that was necessary to pull of the grand finale.

What on earth was Oceans 12? What was the purpose of the twelfth person? I assume it's supposed to be Zeta-Jones but she wasn't really a part of the 11 as she was trying to trip them up and working against them the whole film?? It was more like the story of Brad and Zeta-Jones' characters boring relationship with some bits from the original movie thrown in just to get some bums on seats to watch the movie.

With O-11, the gang were always a step ahead of Benedict (Garcia). They were always able to outsmart him. What happened here? He catches up with them after a tip-off and suddenly they're all wusses? The whole movie is so that they can raise the money they stole plus interest to repay back Benedict for the heist they pulled on him 3 years earlier. So next movie they're going to develop courage and brains again and get him back for making them pay him back for the first heist? Puh-lease...

This movie could have been achieved with just Brad Pitt, Zeta-Jones and 5 mins of Matt Damon for the switcheroo scene.

Slow moving movie, not the energy of the first one. I tried hard to like it and I'm usually very easy to please but I'm really disappointed.

SPOILER!!! The twist - the whole movie didn't need to have been made as the real heist was done before everything you just saw over the past 2 hours.

END SPOILER.

Wait until it comes on TV or if you're a fan of the original from 2001 please don't watch this.

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The One (2001)

10/10

nice movie

17 February 2002

I can't understand why all the Matrix fans are claiming a special effect as their own and that no other movie can make use of it.

The Matrix copied the Chinese movies that used those pulleys to keep the actor in mid air after jumping and doing all those kicks before they land back on the ground. And using those pulleys to fly backwards thru the air after getting hit.

I think that once a technique or special effect has been created then everyone's allowed to make use of it.

This is a nice movie to watch. Jet Li's English is such an improvement on his past efforts and you can feel the affection in his voice when he talks to/ about his wife. Jackie Chan, as wonderful as he is, still hasn't mastered English to Jet Li's level.

The action was great. I'm not looking for realism in a sci-fi movie. I had no expectations. Just watched to see what I'd get - and for the 1.5 hours, I was entertained. It's a simple story, simple concept.

I wish people would go to see this movie and not try to compare it to Matrix. Matrix itself is not innocent of "borrowing" special effects already used in other movies. As for the "there can be only one" theme, look back to the old days of Astroboy. There was that robot war thing where they had to kill each other so there would be only one winner. Big deal.

I will definitely be buying the DVD. But then again, I do have most of Jet Li's movies on DVD :-)

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normano

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