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Reviews
A League of Their Own (2022)
The baseball isn't real...
The CGI baseball...I'm subtracting 2 points for that alone. Seriously disappointed in the fact you didn't let these women throw for real. I would say 95% of them can actually throw.
ALL OF THEM CAN SWING.
So, please...use a real ball in the future.
As far as how "real" I believe this to be, I don't care. This show is a slug to the chest of all traditional baseball purists (except for the CGI ball) because the locker rooms are foul mouthed, horribly offensive to the nasal passages, and literally the place where you feel untouchable by all the worst thing this world offers. I believe this show captured that.
Men and women are gay, straight, trans, ... so what.
Get over it and don't let others dictate what makes you happy.
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
Jumping on the bandwagon with everyone else
Yeah, disappointed. Completely. I wish some of these actors would read the script and say "this isn't good enough." I think, however, that's part of the deal - they get unknowns who can't say that. They get older actors who can't get anything else. They get fanboys because they just want to say they were in it.
It's all a crock. May the force be with you has changed into "may we force this on you?"
Because that's what it feels like.
Emergency (2022)
More tension than I anticipated
I thought this might be more comic but it actually seems more of a drama with good comedy writing embedded within the framework.
Really, really good movie though. I would rate this higher but I was turned off by the copycat plot of Superbad wrecking the story for me. That was unnecessary. Literally hundreds of ways to avoid that and it feels like you got walked right into it.
Plus, I find it somewhat lazy writing when a great cast of strong, black actors who can stand on their own story, are forced to walk the plotline of an iconic white movie.
If you can overcome that, however, then you can enjoy this because it really is a punch in the gut. It opens your eyes and gives you a look at college life through the lens of young black men.
Licorice Pizza (2021)
What the Christ?
This movie is billed as teen love in the 70s. It should've been billed as a rag-tag, hodgepodge of scenes that are incongruous to any plot whatsoever. I cannot believe this movie was nominated for any award, let alone an Oscar.
A monumental shame.
The Harder They Fall (2021)
One of the best...
From beginning to end, tremendous story, tremendous acting, and tremendous authenticity.
I will be upset if this film doesn't win any awards.
I think Majors was perfection, Elba was actually the Devil, and King, as always, was the scene stealing mega-star without apology.
Stanfield was my favorite. The kindness of killers is hair raising when performed well and he did not disappoint. In fact, Stanfield's performance is something the Academy should take notice of and nominate accordingly.
I long for more Westerns that grip you outright and don't ever let go. This is one of the best.
IMDb on the Scene - Interviews: Tom Clancy's Without Remorse (2021)
Not Happy
This is a bad movie. Then it gets worse.
Throughout the entire cast, overacting seems like the norm. Any of the US Special Forces team members do not need confirmation from anyone that they are tough men and women. This movie stepped over that line and tries to force you to accept so many unrealistic behaviors.
There is also a truly inept depiction of events that makes you wonder how the producers gave their approval to allow the movie's release.
For example, when an airplane is shot down and subsequently crashes over water, you don't survive that. The director wants you to believe that not only did the majority of the team survive, they did so without injury.
THEN...after the heroic gesture by Kelly diving deep to "save the gear" that was going down inside the sinking fuselage (not bothering to account for team members first, as the gear was necessary for the mission, but not "people"), the surving crew just boat races into a busy, open, and populated Russian Shipyard undetected.
And that's just one of several situations in which I picture military strategists rolling their eyes at.
Tom Clancy's books were never meant for children but this movie may have been made for them. No depth of character development, unbelievable scenario of plot, and poor execution of bringing a master storyteller's book to the big screen.
Describing this movie as a "big letdown" would be a compliment.
The New Mutants (2020)
Missed opportunity
Your wise, beloved father just died a gruesome death in front of you, and after waking up in the aftermath, in a strange hospital bed, handcuffed to it no less...
...you'd think a teenage girl would be more traumatized by all of this.
But, no. You're good with a stranger claiming to be a doctor sticking needles in your arm the next day and the explanation that you might be a prepubescent mutant is plausible.
This movie moved on way too quickly from something a reasonable audience would be gripped by. The anticipation of finding out the cause of the first scene's events had me invested in the story. But the lukewarm response from Dani turned me off rather quickly. I can't buy that your father's wisdom was something you treasured and would eventually lead you to "saving the day" if your reaction to his death, a gruesome, unexplained death, has about a half a day's grief attached to it. This literally doesn't fit into the timespan of the movie.
If you don't have the time to make a movie that doesn't match emotional response with tragedy, love, loss, etc., then expect negative responses when tell the audience to go long in the beginning only to fake the throw and hit your check down.
This is a good idea, the movie plot, but missed out on being a great movie because of an early and monumental letdown in storytelling.
Cherry (2021)
Cause and effect meets Romeo and Juliet
I believe this all could've been prevented if ...
That's the "Butterfly Effect" or cause and effect. Had Ciara Bravo's character not feared for being loved, she would not have lied about moving to Montreal, and Tom Holland's character, thus, would not have joined the Army leading to the PTSD and drug addiction, etc.
Such is life. But, what caused her to fear love? Who knows...but it's where these two meet, and the strength of his love for her, that breaks he fear and allows her to be loved. That's the most beautiful part of this.
Because throughout the entire movie, up to the end, it never fails. Neither he, nor her, from being apart for great periods of time, in the face of death, drug addiction, prison, they remain committed to one another.
The end of the film was a happy ending no question. And fitting for the story. I don't think any other way would've been acceptable after selling true love with such tenacity.
I can only say that the part of the movie that I criticize the most was the military aspect. It felt a bit like I was watching "Jarhead" again. Too many nuances between branches of service are available to utilize when describing how they operate so I think that could've been done differently.
But, the R and J reference is undeniable. To fall so deeply, but do something so irrational as young lovers might, that ends up in tragedy...I think that was well placed here.
All around great performances by the actors here. I enjoyed and bought each of the main characters. Well done.
The Right Stuff (2020)
Left me wanting less and more
The romanticism of the feature film compared to the character flaw expose in the miniseries set this up for an experience I wasn't expecting. As a Veteran, I don't know that the 7 most capable pilots in the entire US Military would behave in such exaggeratedly childish manners as captured here. It's not plausible. Yes, from time to time, any service member can commence with libation, and possibly overdo it. But not like this.
The acting was decent, although a bit forced at times from the males. But Mumford as "Trudy" was phenomenal.
I would've liked the "Race" to have been more the rub of this story as it seemed to be lost in the background of the childishness between Glenn and Shepard's characters. But that was the whole point of the training, money spent, innovation, and advances in equipment construction.
But the starting gun never fired and the race never really got started.
It was a decent series but I think it could have been better.
The Umbrella Academy (2019)
Lot of Rip-offs
Too many to name so I won't try. It's a huge turnoff because iconic moments from other movies keep appearing. When you are hoping for something original from writers, it seems lazy to keep loading the script with music and scenes from hit movies that don't need homage. The story idea is solid but the end result is you becoming more angry every time you say to yourself "That's from 'X' movie..."