Change Your Image
Zehzahl
Reviews
Aftermath (2017)
An interesting story with THE WORST ENDING EVER
While I won't provide exact details, as a heads up, my critique might be considered a spoiler (while others may disagree that it is). So, I have to, at least, mention that possibility.
This movie, literally, had the worst ending I've ever seen. Ever. So much so, that I rushed right over here to pen a review. An ending that makes you throw your hands up in the air as if to say, "What the heck was that?"
On the positive side, the story kept my interest all the way through. The acting, I thought, was good.. believable.
But the ending made me proclaim out loud, "That's it? That's the ending??" Just terrible. If you choose to watch it, you'll understand exactly what I mean.
While the film had other redeeming qualities, the ending spoils it. There is no closure. As if either the writers grew bored and decided to head home early before finishing the ending, or they simply failed to film it. And without closure which wraps up the storyline, what's the point? Just a complete waste of time.
The ending is not creative or artistic... it's just empty and lackluster. Like a firework you're expecting to end with a bang but, instead, fizzles out with a sad, quiet, weak, little "pfffff" of a whimper.
This overshadows any other redeeming qualities the movie may have had.
If any book was written with this type of ending, critics and fans alike would rip it to shreds.
I cannot understand why anyone, after watching it, would give this film anything higher than a 2 out of 10. Anything higher than that is entirely perplexing to me. Some may disagree with me but, no matter. My rating stands.
A Fall City Christmas (2018)
Nice story, but the main character drove me nuts!
I liked the story; it had a Hallmark holiday movie vibe and a personal and cozy hometown feel to it, even while characters face difficulties.
The characters were enjoyable to watch. But the protagonist? Ugh. Look, I understand people make mistakes -- we all do -- and movie characters have to reflect that reality...even the ones that are in a really bad place in their lives for one reason or another. But the main character was such an incredibly mindless idiot who repeatedly broke the law, made dumb decision after decision, that after a while, I was venting out loud to the TV and stopped feeling sorry for him.
He had few redeeming qualities that would draw you in and get you to like or cheer for him despite his life being out of order. He was self-entitled, a poor decision maker, had stalker tendencies, made a little girl cry, lived at home with his parents and drove his mom's car, dropped out of college, was a thief, couldn't hold down a job, got in the middle of a wife and her husband, and on and on. He was a complete loser that made his own life unnecessarily miserable and harmed the lives of others.
After a while, the circumstances this guy found himself in became utterly ridiculous, especially considering he wasn't a drunkard or drug addict. (I'm surprised they didn't add that into the script, too.) I started to ask myself, "Who makes this many mistakes over the course of a week or so while sober? Talk about a glutton for punishment!
It's disappointing when writers make their characters so foolish that you nearly stop feeling compassion toward them and are glad when they suffer the consequences of their poor choices that never seem to find an end, but only because you want them to change! Sometimes it carries on too long and finally makes you think, "Enough already! Get your life together, dummy!"
In the end, nothing really changed, other than he had a singular moment where he felt a little more "up" than usual. The ending didn't leave me with much hope for this bozo. He was still fired from his job. He was still broke and driving his mom's car. He was still a felon. He didn't get the girl. He had no prospects. And he was filthy dirty after climbing out of a pile of dirt and leaves where he slept the night before. Absolutely no progression for the character. After all this, was I supposed to feel hopeful because he drove off into the grey skies with the window down and the wind in his face? Rather, I imagined he probably went off and robbed a bank or held up a 7-11 a few days later, ha!
After watching this, it was hard for me to feel anything positive about either the protagonist or the movie in general.
24 Hour Comic (2017)
Interesting story, but what's with the camera??
The subject matter of this film was interesting enough, and I won't provide any spoilers in regard to the storyline, but the camera work was just awful. The person behind the lens could not, for the life of them, focus their camera or hold it steady!
Every single shot either began or ended out of focus and, after a while, it started to give me a headache. From the repeated quick zooms in and out, the jerky camera movements, the countless blurry shots, and the barrage of shots that would begin out of focus only to quickly hunt back into focus and then back out of focus again--sometimes more than once in the same scene--ended up becoming so distracting that I could barely focus on the storyline and what the people in the film were saying; I was focused more on the poor camera work. In fact, I find it to be so bad, for me, it's now become the reference film for how not to shoot a film.
I don't know if the cameraman thought they were being creative or what. But the purpose of these types of camera movements and focus techniques is for creative purposes that are meant to be used sparingly--not for virtually every scene! Otherwise, it just becomes annoying and viewers end up paying more attention to the flaws than they do the story. That's just Cinematography 101. This cameraman doesn't seem to understand this, so the doc is left feeling like amateur hour for most of the shots.
TL:dr: If you can manage, for over an hour, to stomach the distracting and annoying camera work, then you might enjoy this documentary. If not, then that's too bad for all involved, including the viewers.
Knight Rider: Knight & Knerd (1985)
Enjoy Knight Rider series, but worst episode ever
I love the Knight Rider series. I grew up with it as a kid and I've hoped it would soon be remastered on Blu-ray (or on-demand) so I can re-watch it.
Prior to this, I've never posted a review on IMDb but, I just finished watching this particular episode of KR and, I'm sorry to say, it's just awful.
In this episode, the lines are cheesy beyond belief, the acting is poor, the supporting characters (not the main reoccurring ones) are uninteresting and annoying, and the story line and how the scenes are played out are the worst I've seen.
It ended with the most cringeworthy bits of laughter I've ever heard from the main actors. The whole episode was almost unbearable to watch. Was TV really this bad back then? It had me wondering whether I want to spend time re-watching this series.