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jameswgarrity
Reviews
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023)
Monarch: Lots of Monotony
After viewing the first 10 episodes I can't really say that it was deserving of that amount. Would have been better less dragged out.
As many reviewers have stated, there is very little monster content here. What you'll find instead is most of the episodes consist of family interactions and inter-personal conflicts. There's some pseudo-science and wonky experiment scenes thrown in here and there to keep the science fiction element going, but for the most part it come down to a find-our-lost-dad story dragged out to the extreme. Too much of the content from the 10 episode season was completely unnecessary to further the plot.
Production value is very good. Acting more than acceptable. Just too much time not focused on the narrative.
This is NOT a show about Monarch, a secret organization trying to prevent another Godzilla type disaster. It's about the personal relationships of a group of people, some of which who work or have worked in the past for the organization.
There's also a sub-plot about MUTOs.
Not a bad watch, gave it 6/10. Just don't expect more than about 5 minutes of screen time for monsters over the whole 10 episodes.
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
It was well worth watching
Honestly was not sure what to expect from this. Was told it was good and to watch it, and went in without knowing much at all about it.
Well, heck. It starts out a little slow but builds non-stop and by the time it was over I didn't want it to end. I won't go into the details of the movie or voice my opinion on the acting or science. Who cares?
It was very entertaining and worth a look for quite literally anyone. That's saying a lot about any movie out there. Easily in the top 5 of movies I've seen in the past year and I recommend you watch it. Any issues that other reviewers will bring up simply cannot justify not giving it a view. Wanna watch a movie and not sure what to check out? Watch this one. It won't disappoint.
Willy's Wonderland (2021)
Exactly what you'd expect...
The movie is about a random guy fighting evil animatronic animals. Right there you know you're in for some cheese, chucky style. The script just goes with that and truly doesn't surprise or offer any shining moments. Dialogue is thankfully at a minimum and low brow. Character development is pretty much non-existent and honestly not necessary anyways.
While they probably spent most of the budget on the Camaro and Nic's hair, it looks decent enough and they happily went overboard on the spraying of guts and goo.
Some nice middle-of-the-road camp for when there's nothing else to watch or to view with some friends for a few laughs (at most). Would have gave it 6 out of 10, but too much camera shake and was really hoping Nic would have let out a really loud burp at the end.
The Invisible Man (2020)
Very watchable and entertaining
But nowhere near the achievement it's being hyped as...
The movie is well written and holds your attention well. It starts right into it and besides a noticeable lull midway, holds a steady pace.
The problem is the trailer definitely spoils some of the tension, and if you've seen it, there goes a good part of it. Sploosh.
The movie explores no new ground and is unfortunately painfully predictable. If you like the "Why Does Nobody Believe Me?!?" type of movies you know what you'll see. When the "plot twists" came up I could swear I felt someone pulling on my leg... haha.
I wholly recommend watching this movie. It's an above average scifi/thriller type. Just don't expect too much and you'll be pleased...
Lost in Space (2018)
"LOST" in space...
If you've watched the TV series LOST you will hopefully understand the reference. Dumb smart people, overused cliches/twists and some downright annoying plot developments are some of the flaws of this otherwise watchable scifi show.
It's still well worth a watch compared to some of the garbage that is out there and I would recommend it to any science fiction fan. Production values and eye-candy are superb and definitely tend to counter it's shortcomings. Cast does well with what they have to work with.
I give it a solid 6 out of 10. (6.5 if it was available, but not a 7)
I have not yet watched the second season, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the makers of this show have read reviews and adapted....
In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)
Flawed but watchable... (maybe spoilers within? Not really)
A passable if somewhat predictable time travel tale that doesn't quite get the mechanics (if you can even call it that) of time travel 'right'. So many movies forget the planet is orbiting around the Sun at about 19 miles per second. OOPS. Travelling 1 second 'backward' in time would be messy if I wasn't also travelling in space. Oh well... what do I know anyways.
Back to the flick: It's an alright watch that is decently acted and doesn't drag on too much, although the second half doesn't progress as well as the first. It still managed to keep my attention to the very end.
Not sure what the whole political thing was that other reviewers are ranting about... Besides some of the typical 'white people are evil' nonsense there really wasn't an agenda presented here. It's a movie, get over it.
Bumblebee (2018)
Bumblebore
Loaded with great snippets of 80s tunes and 80 year old cliches, this movie is mindless low-quality entertainment. The dialogue is cheesy, the acting is phoned in and the story is painfully predictable and unnecessarily drawn out.
An ultimately flawed attempt at making a Transformers movie that seems more like a robot movie that was not originally a Transformers movie but turned into one by throwing some Transformer elements in (horribly in both timing and execution).
Technically flawed and almost but not quite insultingly stupid, I watched the whole thing and the only thing I can say that's positive is there's not much fake lens flare....
In summary, it's not very good... watch it to kill time and don't expect much because it just isn't there.
Death Note (2017)
I haven't seen the original so....
Unlike all the anime (or whatever) fans who are disappointed this wasn't an exact duplicate of some other show, I thought it was an alright watch.
I couldn't help but notice most of the low-rating reviews were one-offs posted by people who haven't reviewed a darn thing else (and probably are uncomfortable talking to the opposite sex) who are pissy about the above "not the same" issue.
Yawn. Gave it a 9 out of 10 just to annoy the pimply fan-boys. It's an average flick and worth a watch if you have time to kill.
If you've seen the original you should probably go watch some more Asian cartoons instead of this...or that all-women version of Ghostbusters, you'll love that.
And no I don't know what a 'manga' is.... and don't care.
Black Mirror: Smithereens (2019)
No one giving this a low rating has missed the point.
A great deal of the high-rating reviews have been written by individuals who have never heard of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
I have to point out that probably everyone alive has already had the so-called "point" fired at them many times and is surely not entertained by having to deal with it yet again...and poorly done at that.
I never trust any review that insists that other people "don't get it".
I should add the point is also invalid. It basically comes down to as much accuracy as the statement, "It's all because of that darn Rock n' Roll music".
Yawn.
Get Out (2017)
Evil White People
Yawn. Cringe-worthy dialogue stereotyping everything it can. "I voted for Obama" is mentioned several times. Ugh. This would have been a good movie if they had only left out the stupid racial crap. Racism won't go away until people quit throwing it in everyone's faces. Why not let it die already?
Bird Box (2018)
My honest opinion...
Rather than bash other reviewers I'll just say what I thought of this movie, which is the point isn't it?
A fairly interesting, if unoriginal premise - unseen beings make you commit suicide when you look at them - starts off quickly, but unfortunately goes nowhere.
There are all the typical end-of-the-world cliches here folks. Do not expect anything new. The characters are the same generic group that you would expect and I swear they were yanked directly from the latest Dawn Of The Dead movie. The plot progresses pretty much as you'd expect with very little suspense and not even a single jump scare. While engaging, it never quite was enough to make me care about what was happening on the screen. And it moves slowly while it goes nowhere. When the end finally comes, it's pretty much what you'd expect and I even had a nice laugh at a very familiar hero name....
Worth a watch? Not really. There is far better fare out there for this genre that is better written, better acted and better directed. What should have been an average Outer Limits or Black Mirror episode is dragged out for over 2 hours and will leave you disappointed. Instead I would highly suggest watching an episode of the previous mentioned shows. Even an average one will only waste half the time this snore-fest will.
Aquaman (2018)
One look at all the fake 10/10 reviews should give you an idea...
...that this movie is NOT the "best DCEU movie so far!" or even close...
I was going to give it a solid 5 out of 10 after watching, but after seeing all the fake reviews my opinion of the movie DROPPED.
It is truly a visual masterpiece, but Jason Momoa's charisma and appeal cannot save a truly horrible script and direction that wanders all over the place and is usually too much or too little. Flashbacks are thrown in seemingly at random and practically give you whiplash. Character motivations are never quite explained. The movie plays out like a bunch of different cut-scenes from an Aquaman video game played out in random order. The cheese level at some points surpasses Power Rangers (the TV show!) levels and the dialogue drops down to the level of the bad guys yelling "RRAARRR!!".
While still entertaining, there are some awesome scenes, it definitely drops down a cog from the Aquaman we were introduced to in Justice League and left me disappointed. Whoever was responsible for Wonder Woman should have got final cut on this movie.
Radius (2017)
A great start goes nowhere...
This movie's premise is quite interesting and they get into it fairly quickly. Unfortunately once that is accomplished it really goes nowhere until the very end, upon which the movie completely derails.
The leads are excellent in their roles and visually the movie is exactly what is required. But besides a cheap shock at the end, the plot synopsis is all you're going to get out of this one. Much more effort should have been made to flesh out a very interesting idea for a movie. Still worth a watch (hence the 5 stars) but I was disappointed by the end by what easily could have been a much better movie story-wise...
Morgan (2016)
Well, that was obvious
Well shot. Somewhat well acted. Painfully predictable.
This movie attempts a lot of things, but does none of them well. The plot twist at the ended was far too easily predicted, as well as the general outcome of every situation in the movie. Therefore any suspense was completely ruined as well as any attempt at telling a story. Picture reading the last chapter of a book first, and then imagine how exciting reading the preceding ones would be.
Worth a look, but only if you have some time to kill.
Man of Steel (2013)
Too much of a good thing
This movie had a lot of potential. I really wanted to like it. Unfortunately as you can see by my rating, it barely did the job. Is this a bad movie? Not at all. But there was more than a few missed steps and far too many times it just fell on its face.
The revamping/updating of the Superman story/mythology was completely overdone. I found the beginning sequences over the top and while beautiful to look at, did nothing for the story and were somewhat confusing.
Later in the movie, what I can only describe as "WTF?" moments kept happening and each time I found myself wishing the movie would somehow redeem itself by showing some intelligence.
Unfortunately this did not happen.
This latest effort does no better than the last simply because it tried too hard to set itself apart from previous efforts. In doing so it lost its way and ultimately lets the viewer down in the storytelling department. It's new, but so far from improved that they actually made it worse.
Underneath all that polish I still found a turd. With plot holes instead of corn... meh.