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Reviews
Insidious: The Red Door (2023)
Been there, done that
Clichéd right down to the red lettering on a black background.
Disjointed and convoluted with lots of jump cuts and cutting away from scenes in an arbitrary and clumsy manner. It gets hard to tell what's happening in real time, in the past, in his mind. Of course by this time, you've stopped caring.
Also baffling here is the obligatory "instant friend". You know, they just meet by chance. And while he exhibits all the traits of a demon-ridden psycho, she just knows he's pure of heart. She can see it deep down in his soul. After all, they've known one another for 2 or 3 days now.
The climax is as obvious as the sequel set up at the end. First we have to sit though a mind numbing CGI fest where real life, astral projections, visual memories from all involved, merged with hallucinations collide into a big mess that someone must have deemed exciting. It's not.
Where the Crawdads Sing (2022)
Only from Hollywood...
Ok, the girl is ostracized by the locals because she lives alone in the marshes. She raised herself in a shack after the family leaves one by one. She's illiterate but after a few reading lessons from Prince Too Charming, she's articulate and ready to become an author of books about the local marsh critters.
Now the town considers her another marsh critter. Here's the problem; she's perfect!
She's pretty, smart, clean and has perfect teeth. Just like you'd expect from a dweller of swamps.
The 2 male jerks look like the frat boys from Animal House. Everyone is too good looking. It's such BS. I didn't buy these actors for a second. It was like a rom com without the comedy. Oh yeah, there are very clichéd courtroom scenes thrown in at random. More courtroom and less kissing DBs would have helped but not a lot.
Men (2022)
Intriguing but ponderous.
First half moves very slowly. Then picks up a bit, gains some traction before going completely off the rails. As many have said, what's up with that ending?
I felt like I was being visually bludgeoned with a message the writer himself wasn't too clear about.
But the thing that really annoyed me was Harper's accent. Was she supposed to be Irish, English or American?
She must have traveled around a lot because her accent sure did. I found it way distracting.
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
Where's the story everyone wants to see?
I've never been one to anticipate future movie releases. This was one big exception! As a fan of the series, I was quite anxious to see Tony's transformation from a pudgy, shy, soft-spoken teenager to the hard-hearted sociopathic Mob boss we all know and love.
I'm still waiting!
What a wasted opportunity to portray a riveting character study as to how that seemingly benign teenager became the feared and respected figure that was his future. This movie offers no clue. I didn't think it was possible to outdo the disappointment of the original series finale. But it was.