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Leave the World Behind (2023)
Weak ending, flat characters and tedious, half-baked metaphors
Maintained a great buildup of suspense initially, but as the characters failed to progress beyond moronic, conventionally moralizing, two-dimensional caricatures (with the partial exception of George), and the conspiracy laden attack scenario is increasingly revealed (America divided allegory), it became clear they wouldn't be able to stick the landing.
Ideas are tossed at the wall to maintain suspense and mystery, but together they never manage to coalesce into more than a slop of tedious, half-baked metaphors by the weak ending of the film. Some things seem casually tossed in because the writers thought they were kind of interesting or cool, but without much narrative coherence, realism or depth beyond. Much of this would be far less of an issue if other elements of the film were better. They should have spent more time on the story instead of the Easter eggs.
65 (2023)
Only excels at forgettable mediocrity...
This film seems oddly reminiscent of something created by artificial intelligence, a mashup of familiar plot-lines jammed together into an incongruous science-fiction and action genre hybrid that plays out in a fairly predictable and derivative manner. It's a paint-by-numbers creation providing intermittent moments of deja vu from the superior works it imitates.
The dramatic and emotional aspects feel more like the faded echos of something only distantly human. No single element is truly that terrible, but conversely nothing really stands out as truly great or particularly unique and creative. It only excels at forgettable mediocrity.
A waste of Adam Driver.
H.H. Holmes: America's First Serial Killer (2004)
Filled with pseudo-history and exaggerations
This documentary simply recycles and regurgitates the most popularized information regarding the case while failing to provide any new insights or credible expertise from an investigative or historical viewpoint.
What's perhaps worse, is that it's also riddled with the same pseudo-history and exaggerations which have been perpetuated for years surrounding the H. H. Holmes murder case, ever since its original coverage by the sensationalistic and hyperbolic yellow journalism of its era.
Further, Holmes isn't America's first serial killer, no matter how many times it's repeated online, or in tabloid rags and subpar documentaries. Just a few of the many potential contenders which predate Holmes include: The Harpe Brothers, Lydia Sherman (the Derby Poisoner), Thomas W. Piper (the Belfry Butcher), the Bender Family (the Bloody Benders)...
The Pope's Exorcist (2023)
The true horror is its unrelentingly generic tedium.
Russell Crowe carries much of the weight with his performance (I'm not a good judge of accents, so I can't comment on that aspect).
The film seems well budgeted, and many of the purely technical aspects are fairly good, but the writing is mostly by-the-numbers, an adequate but rather bland facsimile. It tries to pack in so much, but most of the material lacks anticipation or tension, while many of the possession scenes border on outright comedy.
It's hard to do something truly original. The real problem isn't imitation itself, but rather imitation which fails to truly elevate, enhance or stand out.
Fear the Walking Dead (2015)
Milking the putrescent corpse of a rotting franchise...
It may never have been one of the greatest shows on TV, but its early improvement and subsequent decline are among the most steep and extensive contrasts in quality I've seen from a comparably budgeted series, even more so than its predecessor. My rating would be lower if it weren't for a couple of those earlier seasons where, surprisingly, it really started to drastically improve.
I actually feel a little disgusted with myself for watching it as long as I have considering the unabashedly lazy and moronic depths it somehow managed to reach. Regardless, they'll probably create far worse spin-offs to keep milking the putrescent corpse of this rotting franchise.
The Walking Dead: Dead City (2023)
Coasting off nostalgia...
I feel like the executives in charge of this franchise divined some dark equation and realized that investing far more time and talent into really trying to improve the writing of these spinoffs probably wouldn't earn a much greater long term profit. They may invest a bit more in production, CGI or VFX but they're not going to try recapturing any of that lightning in a bottle when they can just coast on the lingering nostalgia born from the creativity and talent of others from the past.
At this point most of the remaining but diminished base viewership will likely stick around, and each spinoff featuring older fan favorites as opposed to the generally poor and lazily written newer characters will also draw back some nostalgic former viewers hoping for a return to something better. Considering how utterly terrible some of the spinoffs and main series seasons have been over the last several years, many of these viewers will accept whatever bone they're tossed as long as it's not absolutely rotten, and even a fairly predictable and mediocre product like this will seem far better due to the comparison.
As long as this formula keeps turning a steady profit, why bother taking significant risks for quality when you can just keep churning out the same middling products as quickly as possible for a steady margin.
Come to think of it, this is probably just the standard model for most of Hollywood.