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American Hustle (2013)
Most overrated film of 2013
I was really expecting a lot given all the hype. Wow, what an overrated movie. A lot of talented actors does not a good movie make.
First, the story itself is not all that interesting. You got this mayor in Camden, NJ who wants to invest in Atlantic City's casinos. Not really sure why he had to be from Camden as opposed to Atlantic City, but OK. Anyway, you end up with corruption, etc. but the whole thing looks to be engineered by the FBI. In the middle is a sleazy financier running a one-man one-woman what looks to be a Ponzi scheme. Why anyone would invest money with this guy I don't know, but I suppose it's barely possible.
Next, as uninteresting as the story was, you have a really weak script. The whole movie feels like going from scene to scene. It's disjointed and some scenes are way over the top. For example, in one scene Bradley Cooper starts screaming for no apparent reason, Amy Adams smack him with a picture frame for no apparent reason, and out of nowhere Christian Bale shows up with a gun. Another one: FBI guys partying like frat boys which felt 100% out of place.
Direction was generally OK except for the camera tilting to show Bradley Cooper's and Robert De Niro's hands when they were talking. Felt like something out of film school.
A little surprise at the end, but nothing memorable.
Luther (2010)
Almost Perfect
First, casting and acting in this cop series is excellent. I mean top notch. If you haven't seen Idris Elba's range, check out The Wire. The really creepy guys are really creepy; the a-holes are a-holes, and so forth to the tee.
Overall the plot is excellent in every episode except IMO the internal affairs stuff gets kind of old after a while. It makes you wonder if the Brit justice system is flawed or some of these IA guys are incompetent or more likely somebody didn't come up with a better plot. I like the setup: murder work and a side story like in the Mentalist, but like I said, there could have been something else besides IA (a la the Alice Morgan piece of the series which was brilliant).
What else? Well, how about expanding the series? This could easily have been a 12 episodes/season series, it's that good. Or even more - look at the Mentalist pushing the envelope with 20+ episodes.
Banshee (2013)
Keep it real
The first two things I tell my clients are: keep it real and assume the audience is smart. What does 'real' mean? It depends on the genre but generally it means believable as in, "oh yeah, that could have happened" within the confines of the story, year/era and place.
So here we have a guy who just got out of prison. The first thing he does is go to a bar, have sex with the waitress and steal a car. OK so far. But then he drives it - a conspicuous muscle car - into Manhattan, smashes up a salon, gets back in the car, puts the pedal to the metal because there's bad guy after him, gets smashed up, runs away (really bad acting here), gets shot at, a double-decker comes out of nowhere and flips over, he gets shot at again at an even closer range but doesn't get hit, the gunman (who looks like his twin brother) stops shooting for some reason, he then steals a motorcycle just as it's pulling into a parking spot and gets away while the owner gets shot. Meanwhile not a single cop to be seen, in Manhattan, in a city with 35,000 cops.
All of this took place in 6 minutes of the first episode. And that's as far as I got.
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Just great
I started writing this review before the movie ended. WoW! Where do I start? Acting -- perfect. Casting -- prefect. Dialogue -- perfect. Plot -- perfect.
I did not see Jennifer Houston in the Hunger Games but I read the book and see how she would be very good for that role. I now see why she is a superstar: in addition to her superb acting, I have to say she's one of the hottest girls on the planet! IMO the combination of brains and beauty is perhaps the most wonderful of spectacles in the universe.
We expect the big names to deliver and he did, I mean De Niro. I can confidently say that Bradley Cooper is now a star (in terms of acting versatility).
Shea Whigham -- great in Machete, Boardwalk Empire and here as well; a very promising future. Jacki Weaver, boy was she wonderful. Julia Styles, loved her in The Bourne Ultimatum -- smart and sexy -- want to see her in more movies. Who else? Anupam Kher!! 100% great!
As a side note, I think Jennifer's somewhat Gothic look in the movie better suits her than the most recent pictures I saw on IMDb from the Golden Globes.
I'm pretty sure this is my favorite movie I've seen in the past year. 10/10.
Elementary (2012)
Very Good
I've seen some other comments about the (new) British Sherlock Holmes. I watched an episode and in my opinion Elementary is better. The problem I have with the former is too much focus on deducing clues from appearance along the lines of "you have a dimple on your coat, therefore you must have been in an argument with a woman not long ago" and such improbabilities. I found it slightly annoying in the book as well at times.
What I really like about Elementary is the mystery. The twists and turns are excellent a-la the Mentalist. Great writing. Acting is good all around. I think Lucy Liu / Watson is limited in her role. IMO the show would be better if she were to contribute more to solving mysteries. She's cast as a smart former doctor so why is she not helping out more? There was actually a time or two when Sherlock made medical deductions and statements and she didn't say anything. Who's the doctor?? So, overall it's a good series and I hope to see many seasons in the future; just would like Watson to play a bigger contribution.
Django Unchained (2012)
Tarantino needs an editor
Overall great movie. No question Tarantino is in the upper echelon of movie makers. The problem is the lack of editing.
Let me start by saying that the star of this movie is Leonardo DiCaprio. Everyone else did their job very well. Waltz did fine but his mannerisms were tailor-made for Inglorious Basterds. Foxx -- yeah, not bad at all. But DiCaprio was just tremendous, as memorable as in Titanic. I wasn't sure, but now I'm certain he's a versatile and just awesome actor. Oh, and Samuel Jackson was also amazing. Wow!
That gets me to my point: the movie should have ended when DiCaprio was killed and have Jackson die at the same time. They were the standout characters. So all that shooting afterward was just pointless IMO.
Tarantino is perhaps a bit like Billy Walsh in Entourage where heavy editing is needed but Walsh always believes that everything he does is art and can't be tampered with in any way. Actually, there's not heavy editing needed here. I do believe Tarantino is a movie genius. It just should have ended earlier; everything else was perfect. Same goes for Inglorious Basterds -- perfect, but why have the 70s font for credits at the end? That needed a German Nazi font!
Would have been a 10 but can't go above an 8. Looking forward to the next Tarantino hit.
Skyfall (2012)
Roger Moore is still the best Bond
It was worth the ticket price but it didn't surpass my expectations.
There were a few clever lines by Bond and the motorcycle chase scene was very good. That's what I remember most about the film. The acting was fine, the cinematography and direction excellent, yet at the end of the film I still wasn't wowed. Why? It wasn't so much that the plot was bad, but rather too many of the scenes left me wondering, "Huh, how did he do that?", especially in reference to the bad guy.
As a side note, I understand that the Bond franchise is all about moving forward and I'm not saying that Daniel Craig or any of the new faces aren't good, but IMO Roger Moore brought out the best of what Bond is all about in a very particular British way. He didn't need to be buff, he was just more clever, with humor.
America's Most Smartest Model (2007)
Better than ANTM
Since America's Next Top Model starting getting too ghetto I was on the lookout for something more professional. This filled the void. The caliber of the contestants is much higher than ANTM although I think overall the women picked were deficient in the brain department compared to men.
Mary Alice is an excellent host and Ben Stein was surprisingly very good for this role (his monotone plays well here). I liked most of the contestants. Again, some of the girls are real bimbos. As for the guys, the biggest poser was Andre who keeps saying he is Russian and Soviet to appear tough but it turned out he is neither one (presumably he is ashamed to be Romanian).
Too bad there was only one season. Overall very entertaining.
Jeff, Who Lives at Home (2011)
Comedy???
Here I was getting ready to spend an evening laughing my ass off. What do I get instead? A drama with absolutely nothing funny about it. A gross misrepresentation of the stated genre.
And while on the subject, when was the last time someone made a good comedy without all the superfluous drama? The only recent ones I can recall are 21 Jump Street and The Dictator. The world really does need more of these types of films.
In any case, as a non-comedy, this movie is actually not bad at all and I would otherwise had given it a 7/10. The acting and direction are quite good but the story is just a bit too sappy IMO.
Super Shark (2011)
Laughably Bad
Another reviewer said it was not quite "laughably bad", just "bad bad". I disagree. It's so bad that it became a comedy, although admittedly that was not the intention of the writer or director.
I also want to add that after seeing this movie, whenever you think low budget, this movie will forever be IT.
Despite the horrendous acting from most, Sara Lieving and John Schneider actually do a good job. I am just kidding. The best actor is the shark.
So, the next time you can't find a good comedy, just look up the other work of this movie's writer and director.
The Apprentice (2004)
Used to be good
The entertainment value of Celebrity Apprentice largely depends on the caliber of the "celebrities". That's right, most of the these people, particularity this season, are not celebrities (although not quite as bad as Dancing with the "Stars").
Aubrey O'Day thinks she is the most famous of the group--which again doesn't mean much--but I don't know anyone who's heard of her. I did, however, google her Playboy photo: if she didn't raise her arm and two pounds of makeup and coloring had not been applied all around the fake smile, she might have actually looked half decent.
Who else? Lisa Lampanelli is an old hag. Like the cat lady, but far uglier, and to be avoided at all costs. Remember the fat girls that got picked on in school? This one never got over it. And unfortunately for Pizza Lampanelli, her comedy routine is outdated and just not that funny anymore compared to Amy Shumer or Whitney Cummings.
Arsenio Hall? Passive-aggressive. And grow some cojones, man. Clay Aiken? Obviously no cojones, and will go with the flow, like Penn Jillette.
Last season we had the class and mental acumen of John Rich and Marlee Matlin, the creativity of Lil Jon among others, and the comedy of Gary Busey and Meatloaf. This year, not so much.
Hodejegerne (2011)
Expected more
It's not a bad movie but from the rave reviews I expected much better. The problem is the plot: it's not credible. All the violence in the movie could have been avoided. If the ex-special ops guy really wanted to be the head of this company, the last thing he would do was revert to killing. Second, I expected more out of the thieving, like a big score at the end. Third, the nano-GPS technology seems cool at first until one realizes that it's quite laughable (the gel sticks to the hair even after a jump in the lake?).
My friend suggested that the Norwegian oil has made the people there lazy as of late (can we get a better plot please?) but I disagree and think it's just a matter of lazy writing.
Hugo (2011)
Good if British accents in Paris don't annoy you
Why is it that every single American-made "historical" movie that takes place outside of the English-speaking world is in British English? I get it that it makes sense for a Roman-era blockbuster like Gladiator (I'm sure I might fall asleep if I had to listen to Latin in that context).
But Hugo didn't need to have Brits and Americans with their fake British accents; Hugo could have easily been, for example, the kid of an American or Brit living in Paris and the rest of the cast could have at least spoken in English with French accents (since speaking French would have apparently tuned out too many people), which is just a bit appropriate given that the story takes place in Paris.
As a final thought, the mystery about the automaton was a bit disappointing.
The Grey (2011)
More like a horror movie
I went to the theater with pretty high expectations based on the ratings and thinking it'd be a thriller similar to Taken or Unknown. To be fair, it's not categorized as a thriller but nor is listed as horror and more than anything else, that's what the film is.
The whole movie is essentially crazed wolves going after survivors of a plane crash in the Alaska wilderness. The explanation we get from Ottway (Neeson, who plays his role well), who kills wolves for a living to protect oilfield workers, is that if they're in the range of their dens where the cubs are, they'll attack humans. Even if that's true, I find it highly unlikely they would attack a group of grown men out in the open especially with a fire going.
There you have it, that's it: one by one, the men are torn to pieces by wolves until Ottway is the only one left. I was expecting more human-human conflict of which there isn't much, despite a promising start: a good riffraff fight in a bar. In retrospect, the ending is a just ending to the storyline and even mildly poetic.
Entourage (2004)
If you watch two episodes you'll love it
I came across this show staying at a hotel one night. I thought it was stupid--a few wannabe stars trying to act cool. Then I watched another episode and the show grew on me. It's actually very entertaining if you're into hilarious s$it.
Casting and acting are excellent all around. Johnny Drama and Ari Gold are my favorite characters but they're all good; all the extras from episode to episode are top notch. Seasons 2-6 are my favorites, but after that it unfortunately goes downhill with the final season being a disaster: while Turtle still acts great, he doesn't look like Turtle anymore; Eric Murphy's job--what happened?; most importantly, Vincent Chase's relationship makes no sense whatsoever.
Nevertheless, for all the laughs I've had, I'm rating it a 9/10.
Un coeur en hiver (1992)
A bit too contrived
A typical French movie about love: slow-paced, elegant, thoughtful. Casting, acting, music--all very good. The problem I had with this film is with the central character Stephane whose reserved and detached nature gets old and annoying after a while. Perhaps I was supposed to feel that his persona is mysterious and that's all there's to it; instead, I got an inkling that his character was just a bit too contrived. And why is he always wearing a suit and tie, even to visit relatives? It seriously made me wonder if he sleeps in a suit and tie pajama.
By the way, the actress Élisabeth Bourgine who plays Stephane's friend is now on the BBC show Death in Paradise. She still looks great.
Boardwalk Empire (2010)
Another great HBO series
Why is it that all the best shows are on HBO? Apart from Mad Men, I can't recall a recent drama worthwhile watching on the networks or the non-premium cable channels. In my mind, it mostly comes down to viewers' perceived realness of the show. In other words, could this have happened in real life? Is the dialogue honest? Are the characters real? 99% of the shows out there today feel phony. I don't know if it's because of FCC guidelines (no swearing, violence OK, sex not OK) or the need to interject irrelevant political and societal proclamations or simply a lack of talent--whatever it is (I suspect it's all three), I avoid them even more than 'pop music'.
Boardwalk Empire, like The Wire and Sopranos, feels genuine. Great script, casting, acting, production... all of it. At the end of each episode, I can't wait to see the next one and for me that's the best barometer of a show's success.
P.S. The last two episodes of the second season, particularly the next-to-last one, blew me away. WOW!
Work of Art: The Next Great Artist (2010)
Interesting Show
I like this show quite a bit. In the first season I was really amazed at all the different materials and mediums the artists used. I happen to agree with the choice of the winners in both seasons. The winner of the first season hit it out of the ballpark with the self-portrait and his sculptures in the final show were amazing as well. Pure talent, which is why I think the winner of the second season deserved it as well. Those were some amazing pieces in the final. Overall I think the first season probably had more skilled artists.
I like all the judges. As much as I find Jerry's voice annoying, I always find his commentary the most constructive. China makes for a good host with her funky outfits and Simon is simply awesome. Looking forward to the next season.
Das schreckliche Mädchen (1990)
Compliance
A quirky and poignant film. It's human nature to try to fit into society--what is popular and convenient at the moment, whatever it may be. This movie delivers on this point very effectively. I think it's true that people in some societies are more susceptible to it than others for a number of reasons which I won't get into. Suffice it to say, Hitler was not an evil dictator as viewed by Germans at the time. Quite the opposite--he was their savior and chosen leader.
But I'm digressing. The Nasty Girl exposes the conceited nature in all of us. The question is, do you have any backbone when everyone is against you?
Survivor (2000)
Season 23 confirms Survivor is a flawed game
When Russell Hantz lost what the jury vote the second time around a few seasons ago, he said the game was flawed. He's right, whenever the fan (Sprint) favorite differs significantly from the jury vote, it means the jury can't think objectively. It comes down to who played the best game--who outlasted, outwitted and outplayed everyone else--not some petty jealously because they were voted off themselves.
In this season that just ended (23), Coach should have easily won given that Ozzy didn't make it to the final three. Sophie did absolutely nothing, she just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Coach played the best game by far but people but some of the jury were offended because he lied to them. I was shocked when Sophie won; probably the least deserving winner in the history of Survivor. I guess crying prior to the jury vote helps.
My top 3 players of all time are: 1) Russell Hantz 2) Rob Mariano 3) Ozzy 4) Coach, who really played an excellent game this season.
I wish the producers of the show would switch locations, it looks like Season 24 will be at the same place as the last five. They must be in cost cutting mode.
Also wish Jeff Probst could come up with some new lines. For example, instead of saying "Once again, immunity is back up for grabs." he could say "Once again, this is an immunity challenge." Not so hard, is it?
7/10
Margin Call (2011)
Excellent!
Even for someone familiar with the financial crisis of 2008, I really liked this movie, which is to say that the basis of the plot at this particular Wall Street firm--the way in which the dire situation the company was in was discovered--is a bit far fetched. Still, the rest of the story is very good and what really makes this movie special is the viewpoint of each character into the situation. It really made me think what I would do if I were in that person's position. In my book, that makes for a worthwhile movie. The casting is excellent: Jeremy Irons and Kevin Spacey deliver as always; Simon Baker should do more films; Tucci and Moore did well; and the three other guys I've never seen before shined, too.
Update: I was intoxicated when I wrote the review. I thought I was being clever but it turns out I was not; but, I stand by my 8/10 rating.
Drive (2011)
Most overrated movie of 2011
Wow!! Did I miss something here? The biggest drawback of this movie is the plot: it's barely believable and lacking in substance. While the soundtrack is very good, it also cannot save the weak dialogue which is mostly Ryan Gosling staring at people and things and not saying much at all -- we're supposed to think that's really cool. He also likes to wear that scorpion jacket even when it's been bloodied. Becoming best buddies with the neighbor's kid on the first try - really? And then willing to risk his life even after the neighbor's boyfriend comes back from prison even though she previously hit on him - really? Also, outsmarting a police helicopter in LA in the first chase scene - really?
The whole movie has that whole trying really hard to be cool vibe but it's really not. Overall an extremely disappointing effort. This movie just barely makes it above the big B.