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Reviews
Breathe (2024)
This is a solid movie
I don't understand all the negative reviews. This movie is not a big budget blockbuster, but it has some really, really solid actors( I think Mila Jovovich is very underrated), an easy enough story to understand and follow and with enough plot twists to keep a viewer engaged.
Acting was good, not brilliant, but again solid.
I for one find it much more engaging and entertaining then most of the other movies I have seen in 2024.
I don't want to go into explaining a story as it is simple enough, but at the core of its - what would a person do to help a stranger, how far they are willing to risk and what could be the consequences of decisions made.
I would recommend this to anyone looking to find a 90 minutes entertainment.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
Boring beyond belief
This is the first movie ever that I walked out of cinema for.
Where to begin.
I enjoy the franchise, I watched every movie, and I really enjoyed the last one with Woodley Harrison. It had interesting characters, good story and plenty of action.
This last one has none of that, and I walked out after 70 minutes of this 150 minutes movie.
The story has been told a thousand times so far. Native tribe is living happily in the jungle, in the nature, until an evil, evil bigger tribes comes and destroys them, burn the village and in slave survivors.
Our hero barley escapes
Then he follows them, rescues all, defeat the evil tribe and revenge his father.
I get it, monkeys walk like monkeys, nature is amazing, well done on the CGI, but they forgot to make a story worthy of visuals.
Watch Apocalypto. Much better movie with the same storyline.
The Northman (2022)
Not for me, an incoherent mess.
Where do I start. For me the movie has to be either entertaining or engaging, or ideally both.
Unfortunately The Northman was neither, it was an ugly incoherent mess filled with scenes self absorbed with their on importance.
Every scene is filled with every cliche of grandeur, an epic tension or mystical importance that made the director forget about the people, actual characters that should lead us through the movie.
There is no care for any human development, its not important in the directors vision of grandeur.
It felt like an artist explaining his great vision behind his painting, while you are staring at a dot on a canvas and thinking wtf.
I sat through the first one and a half hour and gave up.
Not for me.
The Creator (2023)
Promising but incoherent
This is an improvement to a lot of recent big budget movies, its interesting take on AI and future wars.
Washington is as engaging as he usually is, making us rooting for him even when he is clearly a bad guy.
Unfortunately story got repetitive and for the last half an hour i completely switched off, no idea what has happened or why.
Ai even though they seem high tech, they are completely useless and dumb, lesser in capabilities to humans.
The US is attacking these rebels because they are making AI in secret labs underground yet all of the police of this country is AI, so presumably the army, so again presumably the government must have labs making them, yet the US is not in open war against this country.
The 'weapon' is incredibly silly, why not just make a high tech weapon that can actually hit the massive thing floating mid air.
Don't bother with last half an hour, no need for it, and it will be a decent movie to watch.
Pain Hustlers (2023)
This is a solid movie
People could say that this is yet another story about yet another dodgy pharma company and it has been done better before and they would be right in saying it.
But
This is a solid movie, it kept me interested in the story and interested in the characters. While the story is not original, the performance in it are strong. Blunt was engaging , I was really rooting for her Erin Brockovich character, her mother was brilliant in the scenes she was in, very solid performance from captain America and Andy Garcia was perfect in his roll as rich gangster type that he often portrais.
Maybe a bit too long, it could have easily shed 20 minutes from the end, nevertheless an entertaining and a solid movie.
Redirected (2014)
Surprisingly entertaining
This movie is not a Hollywood blockbuster, it feels like the good old fashioned 1980s straight to the video movie. And it's a gem.
The acting is not great and the production value is low, but it does the main thing that a movie should do, it is entertaining. Unlike many of the latest blockbuster movies, it is actually entertaining.
4 friends through their own stupidity end up having a nightmare trip abroad, with the home gangsters led by Vinnie in hot pursuit.
There is lot of stolen money involved and lot of dodgy locals who would not mind doing anything get their hands on it.
It's silly, it's straight to video blokes movie, but it is entertaining.
Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)
Soulless and boring
Like a lot of blockbuster movies of recent times, it lacks any type of new story, any type of dialogue and any type of character development.
I cannot fathom why are modern movies so soulless and soo boring. The story of the gang of renegades protecting the village has been done so many time before and better, this is just poor excuse to add some space ships to it.
The way director is trying to develop his main character is by her remembering her life through the movie, it's a lazy way of trying to make me care for her, which I didn't, nor did I care for any one else in the movie.. Main villain is parody white evil man, completely incapable of anything but pointless cruelty as all of the other white characters. All white characters are either evil and incompetent or just incompetent.
Main hero is minority women of course, who kicks ass even though she looks like the wind might blow her away and anyone good or capable is not white of course.
The 'rebels' that look like minor highway robbers rather than a formidable foe to a wast empire.
And as the famous saying goes 'pen is mightier than the sword' in this movie a stick is mightier than a massive ship described as world destroyer. I wish I was joking.
Typical failed Hollywood movie.
What Is a Woman? (2022)
Well made interesting documentary.
I have watched it yesterday after seeing snippets for months, and it is better than I thought it will be.
It's interesting and funny at times, but never farcical or in danger of making light the terrible situation some people are in. From father imprisoned for caring for his daughter, to children being surgically permanently scared.
I watched in disbelief experts in their field struggle to provide a basic definition, deflecting, lying and walking out.
A pro agenda Congressman walking out when asked a basic question on how he would prevent predatory man entering women spaces.
It is unbelievable the level of lying and experimenting on children that is happening.
For people giving it 1 star, it only shows that you either have not watched it, or that you your score is ideology based. Because even if you disagree with the author, you can not claim that the documentary is badly made or unwatchable.
You could point out to a different pro children surgery documentary who can explain your point of view, that is better made then this one.
The Suicide Squad (2021)
What is the point?
It's definitely improvement on the last one. But what is the point? What is the point of having any solders, when the 'heros' are invincible.
There is no danger to any of them. They might as well made a Superman movie. Superman lands on the island and slowly goes from one place to another killings soldiers on the way.
Ripping limbs, and heads, and bodies in half.
I'm going to film myself stamping on ants for two hours and call that a superhero movie.
Bad, bad, bad, pointless pointless pointless.
It's definitely improvement on the last one. But what is the point? What is the point of having any solders.
Air (2023)
Run of the mill movie about big corporation.
This is a story on how Jordan and Nike created the biggest trainers brand of the 90is.
Story is concentrated on the guy at Nike, played by Matt Damon, who made it happen.
Matt Damon was predictable and ok, and the dynamic with Ben Afflec still workes well. Chris Tucker did wonders with minutes that he got, credit to him.. Trouble with the movie is that it is predictable, and not just by the fact we know what happened, but by the way it was done.
Its run of the mill, corporate event, lots of men talking to each other, where only thing that changes is the office they are in.
There is no sports, no Michael Jordan, no mystery and no excitement. There has been at least a dozen of movies about corporate success done in exactly the same way as this one.
Chris Tucker steals the show for me, while other actors do not have much to work with, the least the guy who played MJ. There was absolutely no point for him to even be there.
The movie played it safe, ticked all the boxes of how to make a movie about a corporation and had big names in. Thats it.
Its watchable, but undeserving of the high ratings it's getting.
65 (2023)
I can't believe high scores for this movie.
I watched the trailer for this movie and was intrigued by the premise of what could have been on Earth 65 million years ago, something that modern science is not aware of.
If we can have a human alien on Earth 65 million years ago, what else exciting does the movie contains.
Answer is nothing. Disappointingly.
Adam Driver flies through space, has an accident and crash lands on Earth. Another surviver is a 9 year old girl, who for some unexplained reason is foreign, so she can't speak English or understand anything.
They have to walk 15km to get to escape pod.
That's the whole story.
The rest is ridiculous jumpscare fest of different bugs and dinosaurs, each easier to kill than previous ones, and each bigger than the previous kill..
In one scene he is completely buried in quick sand and barely escapes with his life. He emerged with nothing on him, covered in mud.
Literally in the next scene he has his gun again, backpack and rest of gizmos, all pristine clean and not lost forever in quick sand.
Last hour of the movie is utterly ridiculous. Highlights being dinosaur turning up to turn their escape pod right way up, so they could take off ( I kid you not ) and 9 year old girl killing a t-rex type dinosaur on her own, with a spear ( again I wish I was joking).
This movie is barley a 5, late night watch with nothing better to do, yet same has scored it 8.
For that reason, despite being a fan of Adam Driver, I can only score it 3.
RRR (Rise Roar Revolt) (2022)
Unfortunately barley watchable
As a non Indian I have watched maybe a dozen Indian films in the past. Usually blockbusters that people where raving about.
They where something else, but where entertaining enough to keep me watching for 3 hours. Amazingly colourful dances where highlights.
This movie left me disappointed, and it was the first Indian movie that I stopped watching after 2 hours.
It had none of the beautiful dances, story was utterly ridiculous, fighting was awful and the whole thing left me disappointed.
I haven't seen the ending, but a premise that 2 people can become and stay friends after doing so much evil to each other is ridiculous.
I was actually rooting for the army guy to be killed, as he was just evil and in the first 2 hours didn't have a single redeeming, nice thing about him.
Gold (2016)
Solid performance
This movie for me is a solid 7. Mathew has proven to be a very good character actor, and this movie shoved his acting skills.
He was very good, but that was also part of the problem with the movie for me, everything was about him, he was in every scene and no other character was developed.
Although the film has an interesting story and a great location, it wasn't used enough, the story took back seat to Mathew's one man show.
I liked all the twists and turns and I really enjoyed the movie, but I just feel that if they have let the story develop a little more, they could have had a box office gold mine.
Devotion (2022)
Boring bore fest
I refuse to sit through another one of the Hollywood bore fests movies.
The modern day film makers have forgotten that the movies, on top of being realistic, visually impressive, with good performances have to be entertaining or at very least bearable to watch.
50 minutes into the movie, and I haven't seen anything yet, nothing happens, apart from being bored. If the movie started at the 50 minutes point, nothing would be missed from the story, it is that mind blowingly boring.
Good filmmakers can tell the whole exciting story in an hour or so, while this movie is like watching paint dry.
When will it start?
Not for me, never again, and as long as movies are made to be this boring I will walk out and demand a refund.
You People (2023)
Unwatchable
I do not understand what is this movie trying to achieve, but its neither funny, nor slightly interesting.
It is downright cringe, like old folks, pretending they are down with the youths cringe.
The perfectly normal situation in most countries in the western world, of mix race couple, is presented here like a shocking, boundary pushing event, lazily pushing on with the most obvious stereotypes.
After one hour of watching this bore fest rambling, I am amazed that someone as capable and funny as Eddie Murphy has accepted to be in this film.
There are no redeeming features, there is nothing remotely interesting or funny happening and there is no point to this.
Avoid.
Zulu (1964)
Not stood the test of time
I can only imagine that when this film came out, it was a hit movie. But it goes from silly, unbelievable to down right ridiculous.
Zulus are depicted like weak warriors, who always loose 1 on 1.
The whole attack is silly, why would 4000 warriors retreat from the camp that cost them so many man trying to reach.
They finally mitigate defensive lines and British firepower, and are about to over run them, only to retreat, give the British time to organise, put up defensive lines and run at them again.
The reason why cavalry was so deadly in the past is the fact that they can close the gap quickly and then be at advantage of being on a big horse.
By retreating zulus where giving away their biggest advantage, numbers..
Im Westen nichts Neues (2022)
A slow burning masterpiece
All credit due to this movie, it is a slow burning masterpiece.
A young group off soldiers looking for glory only to discover the reality, brutality and pointlessness of ww1.
Trench warfare, mud, starvation and lives lost to gain just a few hundred metres of burned land.
There was no glory, they did not matter, there where no heroes return for a loosing side.
Cinematography was brilliant, battle scenes where gritty, dirty, muddy, chaotic bringing the audience right in the mist of the battle.
I would definitely rate this as one of the best ww1 movies ever made and one of the best movies of any genre.
The Gray Man (2022)
This is mostly bad.
I know once you pass the age of 30 you have seen most of the movies Hollywood makes.
At least 2-3 times.
But that is one of the biggest problems with this movie. All the good bits, like some decent fighting scenes I have seen done better several times before and all the bad bits are really bad, stupid and unbelievable.
Like starting a war with police and special units in European capital or most assassins forgetting to shoot the target on the spot, giving him the chance to respond.
Even though their orders are to kill him on the spot.
I gave up 1:14:04 in, im not watching yet another bland, paint by numbers, Netflix movie, that looks like its been made by board of finance managers, rather than artists.
The Umbrella Academy (2019)
This is a review of season 3 only
Season 3 is just terrible. It makes no sense, story is week, full of pointless time wasting fillers.
All of the characters are behaving like mindless idiots, including 5, which made it even more disappointing.
The whole Vanya into Victor change has been dragged too long that made it awkward.
I do want to see it into season 4, but if its made as bad as this season, I won't be watching it.
The Long Road to War (2018)
Very interesting documentary.
It expands on the notion that a simple assassination of a prince could not be the true cause of the ww1.
Historically very accurate and interestingly told through the eyes of the smaller nation, and by historians from both sides of the war.
Its done in very engaging manner.
After watching it again I came to see the reviews and have been really disappointed with political ratings.
This is not a 1 rated documentary.
Main objection being that is partly financed by Serbia, because to people objecting only the English or French or Germans can make an objective documentary, give me a break. There is more propaganda in the avarage documentary then in this one.
Black Hand, their strength in 1914 is debatable, could not lead to ww1 it's naive to think that.
Memebers of Young Bosnia included Muslim and Croats and not just Gavrilo Princip, the Serb from Bosnia.
Ivo Andric, the Nobel winning novelist was Croat and a member of Young Bosnia, their go.
Stranger Things (2016)
Much much darker episode 1
So much darker episode 1. Its almost a horror this first episode, to much for me. But well done for keeping it fresh every season.
Can't wait to wath episode 2.
The Pentaverate (2022)
Unwatchable copy of his past hits
Another copy of highy successfully Austin Power, where Mike Mires thinks that his ability to look exactly the same as he portrays 20 different characters is somehow still entertaining. It was original and funny first time around.
Its a mess and even at under 30 minutes long an episode it feels too long.
The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window (2022)
Offensive to all the senses
This is just awful, senseless use of every hook and cliche there is, I just cannot believe that anyone would stoop so low to make something like this.
And to abuse parents who lost their child with such a non story, I really wanted for this story to have a purpose, im actually angry.
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
Riding the wave of nostalgia
For me nostalgia and seeing them together again, played a big part in liking this movie. Its not a bad movie and has some great scenes.
Obvious issue is lack of any sense of danger, what original movie did brilliantly, killing off the characters, to show the dangers of Matrix, that battles and bullets in Matrix matter to the real world, that people actually die.
This movie totally lacks that
None of the battles or bullets matter as no one dies and there is no sense of danger, I don't know why, as very little has been done on character development of lesser characters.
Il still watch the next one.
Encounter (2021)
Great performance by Riz
Riz is slowly becoming one of my favourite actors, I am yet to see a performance from him that didn't impress me.
The movie starts with the great premise and its accompanied by another great performance by Riz and solid performance from boys, especially the older one.
The road trip interaction between father and its two sons is the one thing that holds this movie to be better than average for me.
What let's it down from being great is change of direction of the movie from about half way point.
From building brilliant suspense, to quickly resolving it, and disregarding it, towards the ending, that we have seen many times before.