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Ahsoka: Part Eight: The Jedi, the Witch and the Warlord (2023)
Painfully Anticlimactic
This was like all of Game of Thrones S8 in a single episode. Painfully dense plot armor. Promising storylines with no resolution. A baffling conclusion that is somehow held up as a "victory."
I had really enjoyed this series right up to this episode. The lack of any satisfying conclusion just made me regret the whole thing. So many cliffhangers I feel like they're just trying to force the studio into a season two rather than prioritizing the viewer experience.
As it stands, I wouldn't recommend the show to anyone. To anyone who hasn't seen it: don't bother until season two is finished. This didn't feel like any kind of finale.
Inside Man (2022)
How to write plot holes: the series
The first ten minutes are the best of the series. The dialogue starts off sharp and the characters seem intriguing. By the end of the first episode, everything falls flat. The plot is painfully contrived from the beginning.
The message that the story attempts to convey is interesting: that no one really knows what they might be capable of if everything goes wrong in just the right way. I'm sure that this is the angle that sold the production, along with Moffat's name, and signed on a talented cast.
Sadly, the telling of the Vicar's decent into madness relies on a laundry list of narrative and character plot holes and incredibly convenient devices.
Edgar inexplicably hands over his CP. Janice doesn't question anything. The Vicar who tries to take the fall for everything at every opportunity. Doors through which no sound can penetrate. A journalist who appears to be perpetually confused and doesn't question anything (she even does as she's told when she's to take the widow's hands). The genius who is apparently a genius because he's so cryptic about everything. Google searches from the home computer that would implicate them for everything. Adults being completely oblivious to the dangers of using a gas burner in an enclosed airspace.
There are moments of witty dialogue, but they feel very put on once the characters have lost any believability. There are points where it seems the cast has trouble believing what they're saying. Who could blame them? This feels like it was half a script when it went into production and they did a patch job wrapping it up.
Maniac (2018)
Polarizing, but for the right person this is a must see.
I'm in the camp that considers this a criminally underrated series. I don't know how this one slipped by me, as I've seen most of the internet at this point but I never heard a thing about it when it was released.
My wife, on the other hand, found this show very dull and uninteresting until the last few episodes. I was hooked from the very beginning.
The universe that's been imagined here is pretty quirky. Imagine if the allies lost the war and there was never a splurge in technological growth aimed for the consumer market. Computers are still using green screens and dot matrix printers, although advances in programming are still ahead of where we are today.
Owen (Jonah Hill) is a schizophrenic who's been abused and taken advantage of by his family. He tries to keep his distance from his family but lacks the stability to support himself without their help.
Annie (Emma Stone, who puts in an incredible performance) is dealing with her own childhood trauma, where she had to play the emotional role of mother to her little sister, but remains and emotionally stunted adult. After more trauma in her adult life, she no longer knows how to be a functional human being.
Justin Theroux as Dr. James K Mantleray takes a smaller part, mostly appearing in the second half of the series, but creates a character so off kilter that every line he delivers is hysterical.
Sally Field as Dr. Mantleray's estranged mother (and as the artificial intelligence GRTA which serves as the operating system for these dream like experiences) delivers a lot of heart and more hilarity.
This is mostly a drama. There's a good amount of comedy. There are sci-fi elements. But at the end this is a story about people moving on and learning to leave their pain behind. For those who get emotionally invested in stories like these, the last few episodes hit pretty hard. The writing through some of the "confrontational" scenes is pretty spectacular.
The entire cast delivers but Emma Stone really takes it to another level in this series. The sets feel cohesive and keep you immersed in this alternative universe. I enjoyed the soundtrack so much that I've started listening to it on my downtime.
I'll remember this one for a long time. I plan to watch it again. Highly recommended.
Nine Days (2020)
For those who need it, this is a very therapeutic film.
I have a tendency to get emotionally invested in movies, so there have been some movies where I find myself holding back a tear at the end. Maybe I'll permit myself to shed a few.
No other movie has ever broken me down the way this one did. I couldn't restrain my tears.
I can see why some people might find it boring. There's no action. There's a lot of talking. Really, this movie is for a very select audience. It will probably never get the recognition it deserves because it won't have the marketing or mass appeal (although the number of masses it would appeal to may sadly be growing).
If you find yourself jaded, going day in day out without much excitement for the next, feeling like you're just going through the motions and not sure why you're doing it at all, and need to be reminded of the beauty in the world, the beauty that's all around you and you've forgotten where to find it, and of how very precious this life is, then this film is for you.
Hypnotic (2021)
Please don't watch. You'll only encourage them to make more..
One of a very few movies I wish I could unwatch.
This script. This freaking script. Just incomprehensibly bad. Imagine Inception without any of the good parts of Inception. No budget. No effects. Even flimsier premise. Who knew a single hypnosis session could render people into mindless, brainwashed zombies.
I don't know how this happens. I try to imagine the order of events. Someone writes this and they think, "Okay. I'm done." They hand the script to another person. To read. They actually read it, and they say "That's pretty good."
On the upside, a fair number of people were employed making this film. There were a lot of crew members who put in good work here. Camerapeople. Grips. A guy holding a mic. They did a great job.
This is solid work for people in the film industry. They took home a paycheck. It's another credit on their resume. Maybe the next project will be something interesting. Who knows? I imagine they'll try to forget about this one.
I don't mind "bad" movies. Movies that have the heart but didn't have the means. This is so low effort its an insult to it's audience. Like when you go to Taco Bell and you get a soggy taco. But I ate it anyway.
THE pOwEr oF hYpNoSis!!!!!!!1¡!
Ted Lasso: Rainbow (2021)
Castrated.
Season one had real heart and real emotional stakes - a story about a man struggling to save his marriage, coming to terms with the fact that it's ending, taking risks against the odds, in the face of great adversity, and doing whatever he can to move forward with his life.
None of that exists now. This is just Hallmark, saccharine, cookie cutter nonsense. Who's their target audience here? The audiences of Love Actually and Jerry Maguire? Has Apple done market studies and taken creative control?
The second season has been neutered. Literally.
Ted Lasso: Carol of the Bells (2021)
A Fall From Grace
It's clear that the writers have heard the praise this show has rightfully been given. They heard what the show was being praised for - wholesomeness, sincerity, being "feel-good" without being cheesy.
This show worked because of it's subtlety. Nuance. It's was able to incorporate all of those elements in balance with the comedy because it was never too heavy handed (unlike This is Us). It had composure.
After this episode it's clear the writer's room has lost that sense of balance. They've lost their identity. This episode was way over the top.
Hopefully they find their way or end this thing in a hurry.
Aftermath (2021)
Unoriginal and uninspired.
SPOILERS following.
A film following the theme of The Boy and I See You, but not as well executed as either. The sister's disappearance is totally blown off with "She's probably out shooting up," and the discovery of her death is a non-event. Plot holes abound. If you've seen everything else, go ahead and watch it, but don't expect to be impressed.
Secret Obsession (2019)
Sigh ... To call them spoilers something would have to be spoiled.
This review contains SAVERS. Of your time.
A movie is kind of the sum of it's parts. If the acting, directing, cinematography, direction, script, etc. are lacking it's going to drag down every other part of the film.
This thing has a lot of sandbags. This plot has been done before quite a few times. Anyone who has seen a horror movie before knows exactly what is happening withing the first 5 minutes. Nothing novel here, except perhaps for the amount of allowances made for the characters' incompetence. At one point a detective asks if anyone has run the victims prints, to which a deputy responds, "We didn't have to. The husband identified her." Yeah.
Maybe that's not fair. Criticizing stupid behavior in horror films is an offense against the genre. How else are you supposed to advance the plot? Everyone has to let the bad guy get the better of them for a while. The problem is when you have a really mediocre bad guy. The script just doesn't deliver any real menace here. The first murder that comes along isn't surprising or even interesting.
It amazes me that studios continue to churn out movies like these. Do they make a profit? What is the purpose? Does the industry allow these clunkers just for amateurs to hone their craft?
I'd like to say that Dennis Haysbert is the redeeming light in this film. I'd like to. You can't out act a really bad script. I mean good actors do, I guess, and a good director will recognize a miserable script and give them freedom to make the character their own. Some other directors know their script is rock solid and build a team that can really bring it home (Corn Brothers). Neither of those things is happening here.
However, the very worst part of this project was the music. My God the music. I feel like they brought on someone who had spent the last 15 years working for the Hallmark channel and was taking their first stab at a horror/suspense thriller.
It very much has that "made for TV" movie vibe that absolutely should no longer exist. Take away the cell phones and laptops and this easily could have been produced in 1996.
Honestly, it just gets worse and worse as the movie progresses. Be prepared to witness the most incompetent police force and hospital staff ever conceived.