InTrippyEntropy

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

Begins with a woman dancing provocatively with the camera focused on her crotch, a [too] long shower scene followed by a murder followed by another shower scene. And after all that cleaning up, she has sex with a car. Seriously. Can we please stop trying to depict this in movies? It's been tried before and is never convincing or realistic. Just silly. I love nudity. I love cars. I love murder. I love women. But not this way. There is nothing sexy about this. Not interesting or memorable. And the murder was strictly amateur. It's competently made and acted . And I guess it's going for different or shocking. But the level of sophistication is like a 90s movie. It could have been more over the top. Or darker and depressing. But it just sort of lies there. Summary: Nudity. Murder. And brutality. But boring

It took me awhile to figure it out, but for years I asked myself why I didn't like the Godfather. It's obviously well made. Good sets costumes and acting. Great music. I finally realized, like the Irishman, that it just was not very interesting. It's difficult to say about a well-made movie. But if the Godfather is a 7, the Many Saints of Newark is a 5. It's missing the good performances, has a generic storyline, and embarrassingly, budget songs from the Rolling Stones and Van Morrison that you've never heard of. Perhaps the biggest crime of all, it ignores the most interesting storyline of all: a black underling of the mob named Harold (Odam Jr.) decides to Branch out on his own and comes into conflict with the crime family. Now that would have made a great movie.

I probably watch 10 movies a week. Maybe that sounds pathetic. And I definitely am not looking for a movie to be a certain thing. But I really love the naturalistic dialogue in this movie. They got the interaction between men and boys just right. They characters and the core issues are written in such a way that it could have been a zombie movie, Syfy or really anything. It's it seems like this is gotten very rare. Either the director is spending too much time on the special effects or trying to be too weird or killing off a character every 5 minutes. But this should be a master class in script writing. And halfway through, I realized I didn't care if the ending was bad. I just enjoyed watching these people try to figure it out.

Michael Shannon is always good. But you can definitely see him get better in later films. And I know you have to set the atmosphere. But nothing happening for 35 minutes is a bit much. There's a lot of uninteresting conversations between bored men without many options. There's a chubby friend that seems to exist only as comedy relief. He does goofy things like trying to put a house air conditioner into his van. Not funny. Not pathetic enough to be sad. Then there's a goofy guy named shampoo. Another silly aimless young man. With no prospects. The movie seems to shamble slowly from one generic Country Boy scene to another, setting up the final showdown. It's hard to say all these things because of all the good reviews. It's not bad. But it's also not worth watching.

I liked it better when it was called Deadpool. In fact both Deadpools are better than this movie. Same superhero character. With worse jokes. And uninspired kills. For instance, they stole the lame Girl-shooting-while-riding-backwards motorcycle stunt from Knight and Day. And the Antoine Mogul character, tries way too hard to be clever / edgy but ends up just being annoying. The leads are supposed to be in love. But have zero chemistry. The dialogue is strictly after school special. Sorry to sound so negative. But it could have been so much more.

I barely noticed it was PG-13. Good acting all around, especially the kid was effective at being different. But the last 5 minutes felt corny, unnecessary and killed the mystery. Should have ended when the boy walked into the field by himself and looked up. But then there was a bunch of other stuff that ruined the momentum. Highly recommended though

You know there's a problem when every review starts out gushing about how beautiful Greece is. 3 people died in this movie. And for no good reason. Maybe just to make it more thrilling? The real problem is not the acting. Everyone's great. But you never really know the motivations of the three main characters. You never really find out if they're good or bad. Of course they're both. But the movie does not make it clear what is causing them to act the way they do. One scene seems to show something about their personality. But then the next scene shows just the opposite. We see anger. We see dishonesty, reactions. But we never quite see the thought process. And the last 5 minutes feels like it was prescribed by a Committee of studio executives.

Oscar Isaac plays a former Army interrogator who is playing with the idea of getting revenge on a cruel man from his past. Isaac is great as always. I can't say the same for Tiffany haddish. She doesn't quite, but almost ruins every scene she's in. When it comes to Comedy, she's the best. But when it comes to drama, she's too twitchy and doesn't seem to know which way to play a scene. This movie is so low-key that it barely has a heartbeat. What we want to see is a story arc where a man who has come to terms with his bad deeds, slowly convinces himself to do justice to a bad man. But most of the movie concerns itself with his quiet life as a card counter. And his relationship with the young man who is pushing him to violence. It's not bad. But you lose interest about halfway through.

It's okay. But spends too much time on technology and corporate Intrigue. Which is not as interesting as questions like, what makes us human? Solaris and ex machina does it Better. Or even demon seed. Which is not about demons at all.

El Angel tells the story of a real life robber / killer / rapist. It's a sort of sunny roll rock and roll filled Tale of Two young men on a crime spree. It's entertaining and the performances are good. But do not read the true story of who this man really was. He was a vile cruel heartless Criminal. If you can separate the two, you will enjoy it.

A gathering of people who feels compelled to kill discusses how they came to be that way. One talks about how he killed his best friend and in a supposed hunting accident. " the smell of gunpowder went into my nose and up into my brain and stayed there." Another is a doctor that watches people die so that he can feel unafraid of death. Right now, you are probably rewriting this movie. Because you can see how this could have been very interesting. We all want to know what brings people to this horrible deed. But alas, no satisfaction is to be offered. Visually, it looks good. Reminded me of the 70s Earth Tones of Bad Times at the El Royale. You look forward to Gary Oldman and Jessica Alba. But they're barely in the movie. It's not good. But it's certainly not 0%. Maybe 20 or 30?

I love the idea of Hellboy. I love monsters and Gore. But I need a story. I need a little bit of logic most of all, I need to understand and care about the characters to some degree. This is the story of Hellboy and his father running a sort of Men in Black assassinate all monster Enterprise. There are lots of special effects. Back-to-back-to-back. Lots of monsters. Unfortunately, a lot of them look like Muppets. Which is not scary. It's also not funny. There's lots of decapitations, stabbings and Gore. But none of it is very interesting. There's a scene between Hellboy and his father where he talks about wanting humans and monsters to live together in peace. It's probably the most real moment in the movie. And it lasts about 30 seconds. Is that had been the focal point of the movie, nobody would notice Milla Jovovich and her subpar acting or the bad dialogue. Here's hoping for yet another reboot

At one point during "youth", directed by Paolo Sorrentino, a character says, "focus on some insignificant detail." And that's sort of sums up what's wrong with this film. Beautifully shot, well acted, you don't want to quit watching, but the simple-minded dialogue keeps interrupting. And Harvey keitel's character seems to exist for no other reason but to annoy, with his disagreements and dogmatic utterances. I like watching Michael Caine, who plays an accomplished but retired composer, talk about the past, his regrets, which are interesting, but not inspired as it thinks it is. I was really looking forward to a short scene with Jane Fonda as an aging Diva telling off a long time director friend. But even though she's good in it, it's not very good. The dialogue is cliched and shallow. There's a great scene near the end where Harvey Keitel imagines all of his leading ladies speaking lines of dialogue. From all different time periods. It's interesting and cool and meaningful. But you'll probably reach the end of this movie feeling like you didn't get it. But maybe there wasn't really that much to get.

Superman origin story with a Twist. He turns out to be an angry murderous 10 year old super powers. 2 stars for a great original idea, 2 stars for innovative interesting kills and 1 star for good performances. Especially young actor Jackson Dunn. When I first heard the premise, I went oh yeah! I guess I'm suffering from Superhero burnout like a lot of people. But it didn't take long to see the flaws in the actual movie making. The first time hour is disjointed and confusing. It should establish the gradual transformation of a normal child into a raging homicidal maniac. It does not do that. One minute he's throwing a lawn mower half a mile away with a flip of a wrist, the next minute he's killing someone slowly with quiet sadistic glee. This transformation is the single most important part of the story. We must be interested in this family and this child. It must break our heart when the warning signs begin to pile up. I'm not sure who to fault, first-time director David Yarovesky, or screenwriters Mark and Brian Gunn. Previous Works include Journey 2: the Mysterious Island and Bring it on again. Not an auspicious beginning for 3 people with such mild credentials. The young man's acting as the titular anti-hero is good. Expect a lot from him in the future. Elizabeth Banks and David Denman as his parents are adequate. And our bad boy anti-hero kills people in some interesting ways. I don't think I have seen things down in this way before. And it also points to the fact that the director may be good at horror movies. Or suspense movies. But even genre movies need well thought-out framework . This would have probably been a very really good 30 minute short film. If you must watch it, fast forward to the last half-hour.

First the good. The blind boy, a mad scientist and Claire, the scientists collaborator are all good actors. The idea is interesting. A rich doctor brings his beautiful young bride home to his amazing modernist house. Although I have to tell you, the mostly empty immaculately decorated Ikea house is getting a little old. She wanders about the house looking at the expensive and beautiful furnishings . She treats her not as his wife, but more as his child. About a half-hour in, she opens the door that he told her not to, and the horror begins. What does it mean to be human. Is a robot human? Or a clone? I thought of the self-aware robot in alien and the replicants in Blade Runner. Can you experiment with them or kill them? As a viewer, you're expecting a lot from a man with unlimited wealth, great knowledge as a doctor exploring these Timeless subjects. The not so good. But what you get instead is a talky brutal nudie muddled sci-fi horror movie. There are very few conversations in this movie that seem like they would ever happen in real life. There's lots of killing and nudity. The women in this movie are both beautiful. But seem to have forgotten to get dressed. A lot. It's very unnecessary. And you begin to feel sorry for the actresses. Director Gutierrez certainly has talent. Looking forward to his next work

It's probably not fair to review an 11 year old movie. But this one is standard cop vs drug dealers. Nicolas Cage, who I love, plays a corrupt cop, but nothing you wouldn't see on CSI. The violence was neither very violent or interesting. Filming in New Orleans was a great idea but underutilized. Same with Eva Mendes as the junkie girlfriend. There's one interesting scene involving lizards [! ] that seems to have no point except, hey, lizards! It's sort of a crazy movie. But not crazy enough.

There's a legend about Devil's Den, a forest haunted by the ghost of a young woman that kills anyone that enters. A bad man on the run from the law, presumably a pedophile, brings a kidnapped boy to hide there. The ghost girl, befriends the boy and they start an uneasy friendship. This camaraderie between the two teenagers is the heart of the film. But the logic of it and the progression isn't done very well so it loses some of its power. It's a twist on zombies. It's a Twist on Justice served. And there's killing. Lots of Senseless killings. Not just bad guys either. The makeup is half-baked but the acting is solid. They keep you waiting for over an hour to figure out what she is. And also, what the boy is running from. The pacing is sort of jumbled. It wasn't great, but I couldn't turn away

Was really looking forward to this one. Add to that the all the good reviews, and I guess I set myself up for disappointment. Many are using words like, innovative! Game-changer! But most of the humor fell flat. Seems like more a collection of skits than an interesting story. A young man is hired as a telemarketer and does well. There's one sort of funny joke about him using a dorky white man's voice to increase sales. He becomes very successful and is invited to come upstairs to make real money selling over the phone. Turns out he will be selling the equivalent of human slavery. Not sure who the director and writer were trying to lampoon. So not a real satire. And the disorganized direction and hit or miss script makes it a below-average comedy.

8 months ago The police invade an apartment building filled with criminals trying to take down a Crime Boss. Stylish but amateurishly made action movie. The script is weak and the set pieces are unimaginative. If you like violence, there's plenty of that. But nothing very interesting.

I love South Korean crme thrillers. But the Chaser is by turns gruesome and amateurish. It is not redeemed by the foot chases or gore.

Grieving man tries to forget about his dead wife. But she keeps visiting him in his dreams. The premise is okay and the ending is great. But everything else is strictly lifetime. The lighting is off. The acting is odd. The script is indecisive. It's a struggle to hang in there for the payoff.

Disgraced former special ops officer is hired to protect a rich man's child. He grows to love her like a father and vice versa. Then she's kidnapped and he sets out to get revenge. Great cast. Denzel is always good. Dakota Fanning is smart and adorable as the rich man's daughter. Christopher Walken is good but doesn't have much to do here. The film is split in two. The first half showing Denzel getting Redemption because a child has faith in him. The second half is all Revenge. Which of course we want to see, but it's far less interesting. I think it would have been better to see some pain and loss in his vengeance. But it's mostly just generic killing.

A gang member with the Indonesian Triad mob turns on his fellows to save a young girl from murder. Starts out promising, like the professional or The Man from Nowhere. Hard guy has tender thoughts towards youngster and goes on the Run to save her. From then on it is a Non-Stop slash stab Festival. And not in a good way. There are many many movies that do ultra violence better. More interesting, more meaningful and more nauseated. It seems like everyone involved is a non actor. Or an over actor. The violence is repetitive and silly and completely unoriginal. The entire cast needs acting and Kung Fu lessons.

7 months ago Upgrade is about a tech genius that is going to solve the world's problems with his invention of a implanted chip that turns you into a super man. It stars Logan Marshall Green as Grey Trace, who's always good, and Harrison Gilbertson as the crazy billionaire inventor. First off, he does not seem to be a genius. He does his best to seem odd . But it isn't unconvincing. Maybe more like a model male model reading from a teleprompter. The movie tries to show you that his house is amazing. But it just seems confusing. More like a bland government building then a mansion. He says obvious and inartful phrases like, "Never has a biomechanical fusion been asked to do so much." Our hero says, (Said as a 30 year old man doing his best to sound grizzled) "Here's the thing kid. I'm not looking to restart my life. I'm looking for the off switch." Then abruptly turns his head to the side as if to say, "Leave me now!", Like a daytime soap. After the implant operation, Grey struggles to walk for the first time. He stands and the camera zooms in on his crutches as they fall to the ground amid a crescendo of church organ. It's hard to know what they want us to think: Are they trying to be different? Winking at the audience? It was laughable. Taken as a dumb bloody action movie, there are a few bloody scenes. At some point it seems like they were going for ultraviolent but never got very inventive or quite nasty enough. I had the same problem with the premise here as I did with ex machina. If you have a priceless invention, a sentient robot or all-knowing embedded chip, who would you choose to test it out? Someone you knew and trusted, who is knowledgeable and responsible? Or an angry suicidal crime victim? Fisk, the nemesis, who's also upgraded, turns out to be the most interesting character in the movie. But just as he says a few sentences that would have made this worthwhile, our hero kills him. It is written and directed by Leigh Whannell whose credits include a long string of crappy horror and supernatural movies. The dialogue and direction would need a lot of work before this could be described as interesting or moving.

7 months ago This is the familiar story of a criminal Youngblood Priest, a coke dealer played by Trevor Jackson, who wants to make one last score and then get out of the **** is handsome and stylish, but the role calls for charisma and a commanding presence. But he's not there yet. He seems like just some ordinary guy when he walks into a nightclub to collect a debt. And that giant pompadour is distracting. Not cool or interesting. At the beginning of the movie, he has a showdown with a generic villain with an equally goofy hairdo. The bad guy has parked a Lamborghini in the middle of a nightclub and is blasting tunes for everyone to dance to. Superfly big entrance culminates with the line, "Give me the keys." Not well thought-out. Then there's a fight scene that looks clumsy and unconvincing. And the rest of the movie follows suit. Director X was a music video director and it shows. Here's hoping for more next time around.

7 months ago The first 20 minutes is good. The setup, when everyone realizes there's a problem and wants to solve it. The rich guy puts up the money, then calls the park manager, who now seems to be in some sort of dinosaur charity. She then goes to get Owen, Chris Pratt, who plays hard to get. It's all people we know and love from last time, and it's pretty entertaining. But when the dinosaur action starts, that's a little too much. The CG creatures look pretty good. But there's just too many of them. There's one particularly ridiculous set-piece where everyone's running from the dinosaurs. And also some lava. There's also giant lava bombs exploding around them. There's also dinosaurs running away from the lava. If that's not bad enough, they all get inside that rolling glass bubble machine and which promptly goes off a cliff into the ocean. And then they're drowning. And then someone's shooting at the glass bubble to try to break it so they can get out. No kidding. I suppose it's exciting. The director seems a little confused. Or not confident in the material. These are good characters. They're conversations are fairly interesting. Let's focus on that. I don't think we need dinosaurs and lava and runaway glass machines and drowning and shooting and stabbing.

7 months ago If you like watching a timid semi heartthrob teenage boy learning to be a man in the wilderness, watch 2015's excellent "Slow West". In the 2018 film Alpha, the story is similar. But it is far less authentic and moving. KODI SMIT-MCPHEE plays Keda, a prehistoric Hunter going for his first kill with his tribesmen. He gets lost and must learn to survive on his own. He meets an injured wolf and they hit it off and begin to help each other on the long grueling journey home. The best scenes are in the middle of the movie between the boy and the Wolf. It's the usual, you know, wolf is afraid of boy and vice versa, they slowly begin to trust each other, boy tries to chase the wolf away so that he can go back to his pack, Wolf refuses to leave, and follows at an adorable distance. Nothing new here, but entertaining and heartwarming. And teenage girls may enjoy looking at McPhee with his puppy dog appeal. Unfortunately, director Hughes doesn't get much in the way of acting from McPhee. Also, the CG backdrops and wolf expressions don't look very good. The rocks and cliffs look like they were formed out of concrete and painted. Somewhat enjoyable for adults, more so for tweens.

8 hours ago About five minutes into this movie, I thought of Woody Allen. I've decided not to watch his movies any longer. Nevertheless, at one time he was a very gifted filmmaker. This movie appears to be have the same general feeling as one of Allen's. Uptight New York intellectuals worrying about everything.. it's low budget and it shows. Jason Schwartzman plays struggling young writer who is endlessly distracted by his near-fame. As a consequence, he's rude and dismissive to everyone around him. Most of the dialogue consists of characters making dogmatic statements or trying to outdo each other. I love neurotics and writers and New York intellectuals. But the cold tone, unlikable characters and familiar territory make this movie hard to get through.