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Reviews
Sleeping Dogs (2024)
Well done RC.
Good to see Crowe making good movies again after all he's been put through. His acting in this film is top notch. Good story. Good script. Good, although a somewhat predictable ending.
Some complained they couldn't understand the movie and gave it a poor rating .. they should be more concerned about their own cognitive shortcomings.
The supporting cast were fresh faces and pretty good.
So much garbage coming out of Hollywood. Call it a strong B+ or A-.
Congrats RC.
Recommend. Recommend. Recommend.
The big question I still have is... why did Laura do it? Well, who killed J. R., right....?
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Surprisingly Bad - Even For A Sequel.
Surprisingly Bad - Even For A Sequel.
The first Avatar was groundbreaking and the script was well written. I, Avatar 1, time was taken to develop the characters. They had depth and we invested ourselves in them.
This sequel has a poor script, the main characters are not developed at all - single dimensional, uninteresting. The special effects never improved. Nothing new was brought to the table. This is purely a modern Hollywood cash grab with a story that doesn't even meet the standard of 2023 Hollywood mediocrity.
Here is a perfect example why people are reluctant to invest $60 for a couple or $100+ to take the family to a movie. Imagine, dumping an afternoon and a bunch of money on this and greasy popcorn.
The Father (2020)
Genius. Hopkins Best Performance.
I've never given a 10 rating. What else is there to say except.... what are you doing in my flat?
The Midnight Sky (2020)
An unmitigated disaster of a film.
An unmitigated disaster of a film. Perhaps many people can float through the endless brutal flood of implausibilities given science ignorance in 2020 but then the story... is dreadful, laughably predictable, poorly depicted, one dimensional, strewn with unoriginal bits and pieces of sci-fi scenes that only poorly mimic their progenitors. The acting is soooo bad. Who'd fund this garbage? Oh, straight to Netflix is it? Say no more.
Bird Box (2018)
Epitomizing Hollywood's Slide To Cinematic Garbage
The (former?) A-list actors in this move, including Sandra Bullock, actually just make the movie more pathetic with their simplistic single dimensional characters. That they signed on to this project is baffling.
The script could have been made feasible and the movie maybe interesting if the globally marauding killer 'entities' were somewhat realistic, perhaps a little explainable through science and maybe had a little bit of a back story. Instead, our dopey writers give us some ridiculous magic nebulous invisible evil creatures/ghosts/alien/somethings that somehow turn rational humans into delirious suicidal psychopaths if a person merely glances in their direction. Thanks to leading edge Hollywood magic (swirling vortex of leaves) we can tell where the things happen to be (accompanied by some vortex'y evil wind sounds, of course). These magic entities however, cannot, for some inexplicable reason, go indoors, even though they appear to have come from another dimension or outer space or perhaps from across the river Hades (who knows!). So the few surviving humans can stay indoors (with window shades closed) and be impervious to the nefarious nebulosities. Well, until they must go outside to search for food. But the writers needed something more, something to bring it into line with the ever-popular Zombie/Vampire/Possession genres. A few of the humans don't self-annihilate but instead are infected and roam the landscape looking for survivors... so they can force survivors to look at the magic creatures.. and either die or if they are lucky, join them. Ugh. Children could come up with better more plausible scripts.
Along with the huge slide in the quality of Hollywood cinema, goes the quality of the viewer. Perhaps a nice break from the endless assault of superhero movies. But the vicious cycle of lowering the bar to try and find the beefiest cross-section of paying customers is killing modern cinema faster than a planet filled with ineffable mystery entities causing everyone to off themselves.
If you have any self-respect, stay away from this trash and seek out & support good cinema. It's going extinct.
And to the current crop of pandering Hollywood producers, directors, script writers etc... please find one of these mystery entities and look at them. Thanks in advance!
BAH
Tin Star (2017)
Awful Script Set In Bizarre Alter-Canada
I tried twice but pulled the plug on this viewing adventure. Most viewers are probably not Canadian so don't care that the Alberta town in "Canada" where this series is supposedly set is bizarrely American, like some sort of alternate timeline where America had invaded Canada early in it's history. As a Canadian, familiar with Alberta, it's pretty much impossible to get by this Americanized "Canada". Regardless, the script, which looked like it might be interesting (although it's completely implausible) bares itself as being hideously absurd by the second episode. Even by today's really low viewing standards, it's just not making it.
Bon Cop Bad Cop 2 (2017)
Doesn't Stack Up To The First BCBC But Mostly Fun To Watch
In A Nutshell: The story was NOT as good as with the first movie and really fizzles at the end BUT the interplay between the Anglophone and Francophone Canadian cops is LOTS OF FUN. If you liked BCBC 1, then it's WORTH THE WATCH. If you have not watched BCBC 1, then correct that immediately before watch episode 2 - it is hilarious!
Visitors (2013)
Classic Reggio/Glass
It's been a real privilege to have followed Godfrey Reggio's work from Koyaanisqatsi (1982) until his latest, Visitors, a bold and profound continuation of his cinematic vision and dialogue.
Some of the readers of the reviews of this movie will hopefully see the particularly relevant irony of those who lividly complain about this movie being "boring, "slow", "uninteresting", "pointless", "a waste of time", "worst movie ever", "watch in fast forward mode!". They may never appreciate that the long takes of people's faces, seemingly in trances, are simply reflections of their own faces in the Reggio mirror. They are looking at themselves as they spend most of their awake time - visually plugged into their Wide Screen TVs, computer screens, video games, movie screens, smart phones, etc.. Immediate gratification, exuberant sensory stimulation and simple short answers frustratingly pervade these commentators as it does our now screen-based civilization.
With the ubiquity of screen-based existence, humanity has changed drastically in only a few decades. It's up to you to decide if that's good or bad but if you are familiar with Reggio's work, it can pretty much be summed up as his artistic rendering of the impact industry and technology has had on us - our species - spiritually, culturally, socially, individually, artistically, commercially etc, and importantly, the parallel impacts these changes have had on nature. The continuous visual juxtaposition between humans and animals, between dead buildings and dead landscapes are pure Reggio, beautiful yet deeply dark, illustrating this parallel both literally and in layers of metaphor and symbolism. The inability to sense or comprehend these layers is, as always, a limitation of the viewer, not the artist.
The movie itself, is bold in a number of ways.
Style-wise, it is Reggio's first all black & white feature with all or much of the background transformed to black and foreground detail replaced with blown out whites - visually stunning. The underlying themes are so effectively brought out with this style. The complete lack of colour further emphasizes the addiction of our culture to sensory extremes which induce pleasing and intense moods/mental states that do not require physical motion (other than to actuate a mouse or remote control) and only require our eyes to be open and lock into the screen interface.
But the true boldness is that the focus of his "critique" is not generally towards modern human civilization (industry, war, human exploitation, environmental exploitation, poverty, etc..) as in his previous work but this time, there is a personal element mixed in with the more familiar artistic diatribe against technology. This time, you look into the Reggio mirror, and you see yourself staring, blankly, quasi-comatose, right back at yourself. You are watching yourself.. watch yourself, and it's not pretty. An unsettling realization for each and every one of us.
Relax, perhaps a glass of wine, settle down for an hour and a half, douse pre-expectations, open your mind and experience another Reggio masterpiece. Ask yourself what 'Visitor' means
Buddhists already know.
Apart (2011)
10/10...? Yeah, right!
Based on the first review, this movie has an Oscar in it's future. Yeah, right. 10 out of 10 eh? On the same level of Apocalypse Now, Taxi Driver, Avatar, On The Waterfront, Citizen Kane, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Artist, Bladerunner, Fargo, etc, etc, etc... very plausible!
IMDb should not allow ratings for the first 10 reviews a movie gets since many will be 10/10 plants.
This is the worst movie ever - on the level of Killer Tomatoes and The Blob and the Ratings Manipulator. IMO anyway.
I recommend that you watch the movie and write a genuine review for it so that the public can come to their own conclusions as to whether they may choose to watch.. or pass up this 'gem'.