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jonpovey
Reviews
The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023)
Boring & joyless
A Joyless, humourless, plotless waste of time.
The plot would be barely adequate for a 15 minute afternoon cartoon. Incredibly predictable and barely functions as a way to string together pretty dull set pieces from the games.
No emotion, no jokes, just nothing. Even seeing it on imax didn't help. There just seemed to be nothing new or imaginative here and certainly nothing to keep adults entertained.
But even 9 year old was bored and gave it a 5/10 before I even said a single thing about the movie.
I gave it a 3, which is probably too high.
Just stay home and play the games, a lot more fun.
Verdens verste menneske (2021)
Well made but cliched in the end
I came with high hopes and although this film was creatively made and very well acted, I found it ultimately unsatisfying.
I was fully drawn into the world of the characters, and although they're mostly unlikeable, (which of course is in the name of the film) that's not a problem for me. Some of greatest characters of all time are unlikeable,
But this was a film about seeing the errors of your ways because of a cancer diagnosis.... yawn. The biggest and most boring cliche there is. It just became dire and indeterminable, no matter how creative the film making.
To be fair if I was 20 years younger I might have found this to say something new, for me it didn't say anything I haven't seen 100 times before.
But great performances and some interesting film making.
Separation City (2009)
Fresh insight on relationships
Just saw Separation City in my home town (and where the movie is set) of Wellington, New Zealand. Wellington looks great, and overall it is a though provoking story, and refreshingly offers up the male point of view on long term relationships.
There are some great gags, the first half of the movie produced plenty of laughs. The second half delivers quite nicely with farcical elements, but with plenty of emotion as well.
The acting is pretty good, the direction good (if a little unimaginative), and the script does well to capture some unique male experiences that I haven't seen in cinema before.
The only thing I really didn't like were the terrible voice-overs. At times they worked, but other times they were completely redundant and spoiled the moment. I really hope that they edit out about 90% of the narration before this film is released internationally.
but those are only minor criticisms - overall, it's a good film, engaging and enjoyable, and with a fresh insight into modern relationships.