Reviews

What? How unfortunate is this? A great cast is wasted. The movie features all the right elements but none of them are properly developed. Conor McGregor was was surprisingly good and I hope he makes other films. It is understandable that the film was never released in theaters. The movie would have bombed. Walking Tall and the original Roadhouse at least understood that villainous corruption is best served cold. This movie was written by those who figured a warmup was required, and an egocentric loss of vision ruined what should have been a cinematic delight. Hollywood too often says yes without an adequate script and time and time again this bites them in the ass. At least here, the audience didn't have to pay for the result at the box office.

There are many scenes in Saltburn that are unnecessary and lead one to believe that the writer thought they were creating one thing but the audience was seeing another. The big reveal toward the end reveals nothing and is unnecessary. The dialog is great. Keoghan is an actor I always admire and here, he and all the actors are marvelous. After A Promising Young Woman, I understand why everyone wanted to work with Fennell. Unfortunately her story is outlandish and what was potentially another masterwork becomes a disappointment as soon as the characters stop driving the story and the story is forced upon the characters. This is a disappointment. To watch it and then say, "Bummer". I suggest giving it a watch, many like this movie as I can tell by the 7.5 rating. I wish it all would have worked, I bet Fennell does too. So much was good but this is ultimately a big letdown.

Unfortunately, when something comes along that is out of the ordinary, many people dismiss it as a failure because it does not meet their ordinary expectations. This film is astonishing and beautiful. Ethan Hawke's performance perfectly captures truth of the inward genius we can imagine of Tesla and the ego of the man as well. The sets are wonderful and the story, at least for this viewer was clear and linear. The movie is outstanding and while outlining the highlights of Tesla's life, the depth of the genius is ever present and is the core of the movie itself. The film is never overstated and it is unpretentious in its simple telling of this story. Give it a chance, it is something a little different and generally well done.

David Fincher is my favorite American filmmaker. Zodiac is absolutely flawless and astonishing. Social Network, but for the cumbersome rowing match in England, is also seamless. Mank is also wonderful. Here, with The Killer, Fincher again fashions a seamless film but this one is hindered by Andrew Walker's failure to rein in his "hip" quips, once popular in the 1990s but now strike viewers as a distracting imposition, failing to serve the story as a whole. This problem aside, the film is engaging, Fassbender is well suited to the role and Arliss Howard again proves himself to be one of the best character actors working today. He simply disappears in each role he plays. I rate this movie with seven stars because while engaging, it does little to rise above standard action tropes but a great director and cast cause the film to be watchable.

A directors cut might be interesting, a couple of minutes off the opening sequence, drop all voiceover and cut the stupid pop culture tv aliases that do nothing to serve the story. Here it becomes a very good movie.

A great sad film is exhilarating to watch because it is a masterful creation and a delight to film lovers. Blonde is certainly not this. Blonde is nearly unwatchable and rather boring because one can't become involved with the story. Was this intentional? Unfortunately, it was not. It was clear to me that Dominik set out to make the greatest bio-pic ever made. The problem is that his sensibilities are not suited to meet such a goal. This continuum of sorrow is no misunderstood masterpiece, it is an insult and an act of cruelty to actor Armas as well as the audience. The blessing is that Dominik didn't know what he was doing. He thought he was creating something else entirely. Egoistically lost in the scenes themselves, he loved this film. Sadly human, lost in distortion.

This movie is a low budget delight! It reminds me of the best works of Paul Bartel (Death Race 2000). The writing is great, it is a little camp universe unto itself and it works! The direction is solid and there is a brilliant song sequence! I hope this movie receives the attention it deserves and becomes the cult classic status it deserves.

Rooker and Willis and the entire cast make the most of their goofy roles and bring this movie to the height of campy greatness!

A great performance by Copley in a fascinating character study. The script is a marvel as it effectively employs Kaczynski's actual writings as narration. I couldn't help thinking of Terrence Malick at times as I watched. Tony Stone did it better than Malick would have, I think. This film feels without contrivance. I can only suppose that the film failed to find an adequate distributor due to it's subtlety and perhaps a current overexposure of Kacynski. This is an award worthy film.

Because the film began with a 'why done it' rather than a 'who done it', I did not find the first thirty or forty minutes compelling. This lengthy buildup simply lacked suspense. Thankfully, then the movie takes off, masterfully employing a 'cat and mouse' formula that kept me on the edge of my seat for the rest of the film.

Alicia Silverstone gives a breathtaking performance. I was litterally in awe as I watched her act. While all are great in this feel good movie and I believe because she is the only white actress in the film, few have singled out Silverstone's performance. Queen Latifah is also great as to me this film is classic and delights ever year or two in repeated viewings.

Zola, amazingly, is something new in cinema,a horrifying story amplified perfectly by comedic tone. This has been tried by authors and filmmakers before but has always until now fallen flat. The film is hard to watch (fair warning), but it sickens in just the right way. The truth of it made me want to weep. I can't imagine a more devastating film. Bravo created a wonder, something absolutely original.

This film has a terrific story but has serious problems with exposition. These issues made the film nearly unwatchable for much of the first hour or so. I nearly turned it off before the payoff. The final 40 minutes were rather transfixing.

Horror fans will enjoy this film. It is above average but Wan and his co authors tried to do something with point of view which not only failed but ruined a potentially classic addition to the horror genre. Generally an embarrassment. Wan needs to grow up. He could be a great, given proper perspective.

Anderson has never made a bad film but he has made some duds. Fortunately, Licorice Pizza is not one of the duds. Parts of it stuck with me like a dream the next day. Still the film is inconsistent, some slices of this pizza are interesting, some are not. Some are astonishing! Technically, the film is masterful but I think Anderson has trouble coming up with his own stories and he struggles to fit all this into a coherent narrative structure. I hope he does another adaptation or looks into himself for greater scope on his next.

Disturbing as it is, Don't Look Up doesn't work because it is incoherent in tone. Stanley Kubrick understood satire like no other. Misanthropic posturing is essential to it's core. Don't look up meanders and hits one over the head with message after message. A more serious immersion in a terrifying story such as Kubrick's treatment of Clockwork would have served this great material and made it truly significant.

Sorkin has made a great film and written a wonderful script without distracting 'sorkinisms'. Technically, the film is seamless and rather astonishing. That being said, the story depicted on film struck me as a bit flat. There is no exciting buildup of dramatic tension and the story as told was not entirely fascinating.

Rarely have I seen a single performer uplift not only her fellow performers but work with a mundane script and make a film awesome - this is what Lauren Lapkas did in The Wrong Missy. What a gift. Watching her work was a thrill. Comedic genius is something rare. Amazing performer. Hats off to the director as well.

While not for mainstream hollywood fans perhaps, this film is well written and a delight to watch. What a cast. Waltz is a marvel! I only wish the film had a more ambiguous ending. Certainly it jumps to its conclusion.

Ben Affleck is a late bloomer. At last he is able to "give a performance' as opposed to simply acting in a role. Something has changed about him, some sort of personal growth has liberated more of his inner energies and allowed him to come to shine. It is astonishing to see him work and I look foreward to his future performances and the acting awards he may well earn.

Matt Damon always and naturally is stellar here. While successful, I rarely hear his name mentioned among the great actors of his time. His naturalistic style causes him to almost dissappear in each of his roles and this is no exception.

Jody Comer also shines in her role and Adam Driver is also awesome. While the film is not entirely compelling, it is a good movie, not great. It lacks sublety and does not build suspense. It often tells, instead of showing us the story. Neither does the story invest to build its romance nor friendships. This is a problem because it leaves the audience similarly emotionally uninvested. While the writers have an interesting intellectual time with narrative structure and themes, the movie does not deliver a captivation necessary to make it a hit feature. A bit of a dud really/

The original film had built in suspense because the target was a loved historic world leader. Here, the fundamental flaw is the lack of a target people care about and so the picture depends on superficial games of cat and mouse with some cheap thrills thrown in. It completely fails to captivate the audience.

This is an exceptional film, unfortunately the title and marketing of the film caused it to fly under the radar when it was released and perhaps continues to do so online. The film itself contains wonderful elements of modern noir soundly blended with a morality tale similar to but far more potent than Wolf of Wall Street.

The title of the film is unattractive and without inspiration. The way the film was marketed just makes me shake my head. What were they thinking?

I wish George Gallo would have helmed Mark Wahlberg's .film Pain and Gain. That would have been something special.

Lars von Trier's created a compelling, yet inconsistent film employing the same voice over (lazy) technique used in Nymphomania. Matt Dillon does some of his best work and really gets a chance to act here and this is delightful. The performance is masterful and award worthy. However, the overtly sensational scenes are hard to watch and a distraction to a story that seems to have been a stitching together of ideas rather than a coherent narrative leading to a rational conclusion. The idea that he is a robbery suspect, not a murder suspect fits an allegorical meaning but is not natural to the content of the film. Lars never tried to fix this issue with the script and this was careless to his viewer. So, while displaying his genius, Lars von Trier again spectacularly disappoints.

I have seen this movie three times and it is a favorite. I think the critics and the public missed the boat on this one. It celebrates differences and is filled with delightful characters and situations. I think Sandra Bullock plays the roll to perfection and was willing to take a risk with this material, co-dependency perhaps is an issue many do not understand. I saw this in theaters when it first was released. I loved it then and I love it now.

If one likes ideas and looking for allegorical meanings, this film may appeal in its entirety. Being an older viewer, I could not overlook how the film became so contrived as the author began bending his plot to fit his message during the last third of the film. I felt a bit disgusted in the end, while at the same time admiring what seemed to be said about the human condition.

This film is a beautiful and fascinating mishap because Anderson forced story elements on his characters. The result is misshapen and disappointing. I watched a masterpiece for over an hour and then it became something else, something untrue to itself and it's audience.

This film was a mishap. Even worse than I anticipated after reading reviews. Continuity issues and poor character development made the film even less than ho hum as what was meant to be buildup fell flat and left one scratching their head. What? A mess from start to finish. This is a terrible movie.

This movie is one of the greatest exercises in suspense I have ever seen, and therefore one of the biggest disappointments with the final plot point. Joe Wright is an amazing filmmaker, always experimenting with his medium. This film was a masterpiece until the climax which is a big letdown.

There was a better expository way to build to a conclusion of this film, unfortunately it just leaves me puzzled how it was initially scripted compared to the finished film. Tracy Letts did not write this ending, at least I hope not. I recommend the movie to anyone who loves film and studies it. A masterclass in suspense, derailed.