debie

Entertaining. Well acted. Good cinematography. Slow paced, character driven, decent script that does have several historical inaccuracies, but also portrays some informative historical facts on the 1887 Dawes Act, the Sioux Bill, the treatment of the Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux and their leader Sitting Bull, and the unrest in the Dakota Territory. Not sure why it has the R rating, no blatant nudity or language with 2 mildly violent scenes. If you watch, not for historical accuracy, but purely for entertainment value, this is a compelling and enjoyable movie worth 7 stars IMHO! (to get the historically accurate info, I suggest looking up Sitting Bull and Catherine Weldon after watching the film) /April 2021

.Very difficult to review. Waves is essentially 2 movies in one. The film is about a suburban, middle-class black family and focuses mainly on the teens. The acting is undeniably great. The story is relevant and deals with how teens navigate in today's society, the pressures, and decisions they face, family dysfunction, poor choices, consequences, first love, forgiveness, and healing. The first half follows the older son Tyler. He's outgoing, popular, athletic, and living the high life until some poor choices start making his picture-perfect life unravel. The second half focuses on his younger sister, shy, introverted, Emily, who is having to deal with the fallout of her brother's choices and basically her coming-of-age story. (I preferred the second half.) The emotions are raw and real. The problem is the way it's filmed. First, the movie is way too long. Second, they try to be so "artsy" that it's annoying and pretentious. There are tons of long scenes just driving in cars with music, showing scenery glide by or psychedelic colors, long moments focused on characters just sitting, contemplating, worrying. They show close-ups of people throwing up like 4 times. Although the cinematography and music are good, they overly focus on them (the soundtrack is about 30 songs from oldies to rap) If they cut this movie by 40 minutes, taking out or shortening many of the long extended artsy scenes it would be more engaging and focused and would have added more tension, In My Humble Opinion! august2020

This B-movie thriller's title is more clever than the movie itself but it does have an interesting plot: a rich white couple who flip houses hires 4 Hispanic day-laborers to do all their upgrades but, it's not long before the men discover how twisted and racist the couple is and that they have more in mind than just cheap labor. The main problems with this film are the heavy-handed political messaging, over-the-top acting of the rich couple, and a poor script. The movie has failed attempts at dark comedy/morbid satire but it does have some tension to pull you along into wanting to see how it all plays out. Some people hated the ending but for a thriller/horror film it was satisfying enough for me. It definitely could have been a better film but, IMHO, I've seen worse! 10/2020

This is an enjoyable movie that is perfect for the whole family to watch. Yes, it's not going to win any awards but the acting is decent and the story was uplifting and entertaining. Jenna Ortega plays the adorable, and spunky, Dawn, the 14-year-old daughter of a circus owner. Dawn is determined to rescue her elephant friend Flora from being euthanized now that the elephant is too old and arthritic to perform. Flora and Dawn have quite an adventure on their 300-mile journey to an elephant preserve. As Dawn's worried father is searching for them, the pair have an eventful trek making new friends, running from (some cheesy) hunters, and dealing with nature, all while teaching us about love, trust, and not giving up on what you believe in. Great for family movie night IMHO. 12/2020 (no bad language)

Bad acting. Worse script. Poor direction. Slow. Not cohesive. Decent effects. Not true to Marvel's X-Men franchise, and not scary enough to be a stand-alone horror/thriller. Most of the characters were written so as to be unlikeable and dull. Throw in an under-age lesbian romance that's out of place, and not true to the original characters in the comic. Sadly, even the beloved Maisie and Anya couldn't save this one, IMHO!

Of course these type films are supposed to be cheesy fun and aren't to be taken seriously, but this one has way more negatives than positives to be enjoyable. Freaky steals bits and pieces from every other comedy/horror/teen romance movie, without an original thought of it's own, and not in any kind of intelligent homage way either. It's not near as clever as Scream, Happy Death Day or even Freaky Friday. This movie takes the low road with way too many F-bombs and vulgar slurs (yea, I know they're teens but it's little much) and these characters are boring, poorly acted, stereotyped teens. To top it off, the slasher and gore scenes were low budget and not very creative. On the plus side, Vince Vaughn was surprisingly adorable playing a teen girl and there are a few, very few, fun moments IMHO. April 2021

Disappointing! I liked the message but the delivery wasn't as entertaining or clever as we are used to from Pixar. This was definitely geared toward adults, and almost at the expense of kids. Unlike 'Inside Out', which had an adult theme but was fun and enjoyable for children, I can't see this movie holding the attention of the younger audience. There was very little humor or fun to this movie. It was slow and matter of fact, and I doubt kids will decipher the moral of the story. This movie probably won't be one your kids will ask to watch over and over. I also think the ending came up short... it would have been nice to see how the lessons affected change in the 2 character's futures...a "12-years later" scene would have been nice, IMHO!! 4/2021

A little cheesy with a lot of charm! It's not perfect but an enjoyable film that kept us engaged throughout. The acting was good with some delightful characters and an adorable dog. Scenery, cinematography, and CGI are well done. I thought some of the "monsters" were a little corny but it did get nominated for an Oscar in Visual Effects and Best Sci-fi/Fantasy for Critics Choice. The basic story line wasn't anything new but there was some creativity along the way, and the ending was satisfying, but also left the possibility for a sequel. There are definite plot holes, silly scenes, and obviously requires a willing suspension of disbelief... I mean it's sci-fi, where bugs become ginormous in 7 years LOL! It might be a bit intense for younger viewers and there is some mild profanity, but this movie is lots of fun IMHO!! / April 2021

Not historically accurate but entertaining enough. They took quite a lot of liberties with the beginning and end of the story, making up details of Shields Green's life and completely changing the outcome of his plight. But besides all the historical inaccuracies, if you just wanted to watch it for pure entertainment... the script was a bit weak, which made it hard for the actors to shine. Even though there were some big named actors, many performances were average due to the poor script, lack of character development, weak direction, and lackluster sets. While watching, I was drawn into wanting to see the outcome of Shields' trek to freedom (but I was disappointed to find out after the fact that most of what happened in the movie did not happen in real life.) It was watchable but could have been so much better, IMHO! 2.3 stars