rakista's Reviews

Knights of the Zodiac (2023)

4/10

27 June 2023

What do I mean by underproduced?

There is no overarching set of quality control for acting skills, special effects, and it makes the movie neigh unwatchable after awhile.

Want to be an indie film? Hire hungry actors and go cheap on effects. Want to be a blockbuster? Hire A-listers and splurge on effects.

This film is jarringly uneven in quality and even though some of the newly faced actors seem to be bent to pour their hearts into their lines and action sequences, others obviously seem to be there just for the check.

This movie would have been better if it had been run a budget 1/10th the size with actors who actually wanted to do their jobs.

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Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)

3/10

Three stars for CGI. The plot is nonsensical.

1 September 2022

Warning: Spoilers

Rian Johnson defiled the Star Wars franchise.

Luke spends three movies attempting to save Darth Vader who has killed billions of people and the very next time we see him he has become a homicidal hermit who almost killed a student for having a bad dream. A whole host of new characters ancillary to the main plot are introduced solely to convolute the main plot. The second act is resolved with a weapon technology in that hyperspace jumps can be used against other ships that if it existed in the previous SEVEN films would have been shown at least once. The movie is nonsensical almost from start to finish if you have paid attention at all to Star Wars - even in passing - in the past 50 years. Rian is a hack whose only success is in writing screenplays from books better writers have wrote.

From interviews afterwards it seems Rian Johnson wanted to ridicule certain types of fans instead of writing a cohesive story from the seven movies that came before The Last Jedi, which is the last Star Wars film I will waste my time on.

Shameful that Rian's vision was greenlit at Disney.

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Farzar (2022)

6/10

It is better than Paradise PD if you enjoy that kind of humour.

29 August 2022

This is not Shakespeare.

That being said, it is a passable adult cartoon that leans way, way, way too heavily on crude humour.

It scratches an itch though, and is fun to watch like old Beavis and Butthead is fun to watch.

Wish the writers for these shows including Paradise PD and the like would grow up a little, the crude jokes start falling flat about 3-4 episodes in. The hero's journey seems to be a scaffold and not a proper journey. A lot of loose ends start piling up because of the way the writer's introduce new characters to tell a single joke.

Still a fun premise, and decent animation.

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Boon (2022)

8/10

1980's style vigilante flick with some interesting characters

8 April 2022

Solid slow burn action flick that they don't make many of these days - think Bronson flicks.

Might be a little too slow burn for some, but the dramatic tension built up to the last 20-30 minutes is worth it imho.

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DMZ (2022)

6/10

50/50 but plus for decent acting and world building

28 March 2022

This is either being directed by committee, by someone who has never directed an action series before, or a combination of both.

Acting is generally above average, even good. Dialog is a bit cheesy in parts, but the actors carry enough scenes for you to overlook the unbelievable ones.

Editing is all over the place, and each episode flows different from the next. Needs a more coherent top end in directing and editing.

Worth a watch if you have binged all the old SyFy series beforehand, which is about the quality we are getting here.

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Miss Willoughby and the Haunted Bookshop (2021)

7/10

Worksman-like dialog aside the movie works for what it is

11 February 2022

This movie is better than any Hallmark Original that would come up with the same premise, and that is good enough for me to watch it till the end.

The chemistry between the two leads is believable, the pace of action does not stall once the 1st act is done, and the final act has enough surprises/turns to make the 95 previous minutes worth it.

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V for Vendetta (2005)

9/10

Not the perfect adaption but a great effort

17 March 2006

When the DVD contains some of the deleted scenes in the 10 "comic books" than I would rate this movie even higher. I read the novels as they were coming out in the late 1980's and this movie although it tries in spirit has a long way to go to equaling the philosophical, social and political import of the 380 page Alan Moore graphic novel. Without a doubt one of the most significant political movies to come out of Hollywood in decades. Natalie Portman was a surprising choice and was well-suited to the role even though I originally had doubts after the wooden acting in the SW trilogy. For all of those out there who liked Hugo Weaving in his many roles he is perhaps at the apex of his game in this movie without ever once showing his face. I am going back to this movie later tonight and taking 2 friends.

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