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Reviews
Mrs. Worthington's Party (2007)
A pretty well-written, cozy & non-formulaic Hallmark type Xmas movie
Mrs. Worthington's Party (Alt Title: Noelle) is a movie that rises above its flaws. I found myself becoming invested in the characters despite its very low budget. It has a spiritual message but isn't heavy-handed about it. It has some amateurish actors that struggle but the more seasoned actors easily carry them. It's very professionally filmed and the music score by Andrew Ingavet punches above its weight, with a haunting & intimate main theme that sells the opening sequence.
David Wall, who indeed bears a striking resemblance to Robert Redford, is great as the bristly & bitter Father Jonathan. Sean Patrick Brennan as Father Simeon doesn't seem comfortable in front of a camera but he makes do & his chemistry with Wall was good enough to find his character believable. I wish I was more like Father Simeon, Father Jonathan snipes the girl he wants to marry & he's just like "meh, what's next", lol. Kerry Wall, the "love interest", is married to David Wall IRL and their chemistry helps overcome the movie's biggest flaw - that their characters needed a couple more scenes together to sell the final act. You'll also find the lead singer of renowned Christian hair-metal band Stryper in this, a nice little Easter Egg.
All said, it's a good Christmas movie and I found myself wishing David Wall was in more productions. It's worth turning on the subtitles to understand what the little girl's ghost says to the Father at the end, it really makes the movie.
Werewolves Within (2021)
Like watching a bad improv troupe at a Community Theatre. Wherewolves
The writing is terrible millennial fare..."that happened", "not to be all heteronormative", etc. Cringey Tumblr fan fiction dialogue. The characters are almost all annoying & say stupid things, mumble a lot, and often blurt their lines over each other...it gets grating very quickly. Many scenes feel like they were ad-libbed by actors who are not good at improvisation. There's a chuckle or two, but no belly laughs. It's just not funny, it's not half as clever as it thinks it is, and it certainly has no scares or good gags. Sam Richardson tries his best, once again being typecast as a meek emasculated protaganist. My man is becoming the black Michael Cera. Guillermo from What We Do In The Shadows is in this but is given no good material to work with. Milana Vayntrub has a couple good moments like the Ace Of Base scene, but just isn't a good comedic actress. The key to good comedic acting is not being self-aware. To be fair though, nobody could've made this awful script work. Mishna Wolff should've had her screenplay thrown back in her lap & told to do it over. If you're going to make Knives Out with 3 minutes of werewolf, make it good.
Twisted Metal (2023)
1 part Blood Drive, 1 part Zombieland, 100% Twisted fun
I was expecting this to be the usual game adaptation dreck, but I'm so happy to be wrong. Aside from one trailer that didn't really get across the essence of the show, Peacock were smart about this. Hiring writers & a director with action-comedy experience and a love for the source material was a wise decision. Whoever is in charge of programming at Peacock now is doing a great job at playing to the platform's strengths. They now have originals that can compete with other platforms', from Killing It to Pokerface to the very unique Mrs. Davis...and now Twisted Metal.
If you're expecting the series to immediately go into the tournament you'll be disappointed, but this was the best approach. With no world building & characters you care about, the tournament would just be a sequence of fever-dream action scenes. With protagonists and even antagonists that I'm invested in, the followup will be that much better. There's easter eggs for fans of the game, but my family who never played the games enjoyed this as much as I did.
Anthony Mackie does his best Will Smith impression but it's all good, he's better in this than anything he's done and he has great chemistry with co-star Stephanie Beatriz (Quiet). Thomas Hayden Church hams it up as the season's primary antagonist & commands attention in every scene he's in. Will Arnett & Samoa Joe are the highlight as the psychotic partyclown Sweet Tooth. Rounding out the cast is a solid selection of colorful supporting characters including Neve Campbell, who must be a vampire because she's still gorgeous. Jason Mantzoukas also stood out as Preacher, the leader of a goofy religious cult. Filming in hot, dilapidated Louisiana really adds to the gritty post-apocalyptic feel of the show & the performances of the actors. My only complaint with Twisted Metal is a few of the effects were lackluster, particularly the CGI explosions. Perhaps NBC Universal will give them a bit more money to work with in the future.
This is a show I would highly recommend to anyone who's a fan of 90's/early 00's aesthetic, SciFi channel before it was SyFy, and media like Blood Drive, Z-Nation and Deathrace 2000.
The Quarry (2020)
Solid little noir film that doesn't shove things down your throat.
Michael Shannon & Shea Wigham both pick interesting movies & having loved them both in the movie Take Shelter I was keen to watch this. While it isn't quite what I hoped it would be, it was still a fine picture.
This movie doesn't play by the rules. What I thought Wigham's mystery man to be, isn't quite what he was. What I thought would be a pivotal scene wasn't, and what I didn't expect to be was. I enjoyed this kind of subdued emotional teeter-totter, the symbology that pops up, and Shannon, Wigham & Bobby Soto's performances. I think a better ending though would have been for Wigham's nameless character to stumble away from the "climax" of the film, walking in a stupor for awhile before collapsing on the side of the road where the preacher again picks him up in his van, revealing him to be either in a purgatory where he's being tested or a self-directed hell.
Edge of the World (2021)
Historically Loose, Weak Third Act, But a VERY Good Film For Its Budget
If you need lots of big-budget action or want a documentary on the first White Rajah of Borneo, this movie will likely disappoint you. If you like good narrative and dialogue, chemistry between actors & magical cinematography, you will like it. I really dug how this movie was framed and edited. I've not seen any of Michael Haussman's work other than his music videos, but he has a very good eye for composition.
Edge of The World is like a lower budget mishmash of The Man Who Would Be King, Lord Jim, Apocalypse Now and a dash of Terrence Malick's 'The New World' (which also triggered the same insufferable lot you see whinging in the reviews). The internal monologues by Rhys-Meyers are derivative of Terrence Malick films, except I like the way it's done in this more than I did in The New World. It's sparser & less pretentious here. One line that stood out to me was something like "I had arrived in a world where I was not only a stranger but a stranger to myself". It's a well-written, engaging film.
Rhys-Meyers has never been a great actor in my opinion but he's pretty good here. The cast all have good chemistry & the political jousts in the first act between Brooke and Prince Mahkota (played by Bront Palarae) are great. Palarae & Samo Rafael, who plays Mahkota's cousin Prince Badruddin, are the standouts of this movie. Badruddin is thought to have been a bisexual lover of James Brook, but Edge of The World skirts around that for whatever reason & gives Brooke a made-up Dayak princess as a love interest. The mutual love & admiration between Brooke & Badruddin still comes through strong though, and Samo Rafael's warm & sensitive performance adds so much to the story.
I read about the White Rajahs long ago & it was an interesting read. I can't say if James Brooke was a good man or a bad man, only that his life is fascinating. However, he could not have been what some in the user reviews are saying or he would not have had the support he did from the local populace & tribesmen of Sarawak. Nor would the traditional council of Sarawak have been so opposed to his dynasty's abdication. Whatever the case, I love Southeast Asia and historical films, so I don't care if this is more fantasy than reality.
The film's only major flaw is the 3rd act is a bit weak and undewhelming. The climax is satisfying enough though. For a budget of $14M, it's hard to fault this film for much, they made good use of the money & it deserves my 10 rating. It definitely doesn't deserve these ridiculous 2 & 3 ratings. At the least it gets more people interested in Borneo and SE Asian history.
High Ground (2020)
An aimless waste of a good cast.
TLDR Version: I can't fathom all these 10 star reviews, this movie is a mess. High Ground is beautifully filmed with a cast of solid actors like Simon Baker, Aaron Pedersen & the gorgeous Caren Pistorius, and good performances from the less experienced actors, but the script & screenplay utterly fail them. They & the subject matter deserved better. This is not Sweet Country, which is an infinitely better movie set in the same time & place that also deals with colonial injustices toward Aborigines. There is really only ONE good scene in High Ground, where Gutjuk's grandfather parlays with the police commander and tells him they should be following the natives' laws since he & his Queen's laws came from across the ocean. That's it. Everything else is forgettable, cliched & often stupid.
The Long Spoiler-Heavy Version: A good Director would have completely overhauled this screenplay to be less nonsensical with more character development, especially Simon Baker's character Travis, who shoots other whitefellas with no hesitation and somehow gets away with it in the first act. Seriously, there's a bit of dialogue that amounts to "we found your rifle rounds in our guys but not in any of the abo's, heh heh, but we'll send you to apprehend this Baywara that's terrorizing settlers, prove yourself ;)". Imagine a US cavalryman at Wounded Knee getting away with shooting two of his fellow soldiers and no Lakota. He'd be dancing at the gallows, but here's Travis The Sniper walking free for 12 years. Anyway, in Act 1, WW1 veteran Travis is a sniper in a police squad that's bringing a missionary or something to convert a tribe of aborigines. I think. It's wasn't clear to me WTH they're doing & why they need a sniper for it. Travis's war buddy "spotter" Eddy walks up to a boy named Gutjuk. Gutjuk starts screaming & screaming hysterically and Eddy tries to calm him down to no avail, then Gutjuk's idiot uncle Baywara runs towards them with his spear arm cocked at Eddy (who could've killed Gutjuk ages ago if that was his goal). Eddy naturally defends himself & shoots Baywara in the face, and in the confusion a massacre begins. Gutjuk's mom takes him down into a nearby pond, shows him the old reed-snorkel trick and pushes him under some lilypads. Instead of doing the same though, she decides to run back into the fray for some reason, flails her arms wildly with no attempt to be stealthy at all & gets shot. Travis teamkills two of his own guys to stop the massacre, then walks down and pulls Gutjuk out of his underwater hiding place after his comrades have seemingly killed the whole tribe. Travis & the preacher for this outreach of christian brotherly-love take the newly orphaned boy back to the mission where Claire (Caren Pistorious) greets them. Later, Gutjuk's grandfather Dharpa comes back from walkabout & finds his whole tribe dead except for his unconscious son Baywara whose stupidity got everyone killed. Go figure.
Act 2. It's 12 years later. Baywara has a badass facial scar & is raising hell against whitey, so the provincial police chief Moran (Jack Thompson) calls Travis out of retirement & sends him and a now adult Gutjuk (who the Aborigine-sympathizing missionaries renamed Tommy for some reason) to locate Baywara and his merry band. Why, I don't know...the motivation for sending Travis & Baywara's nephew out to find them made no sense. Any tracker could've done that. Travis's war buddy Eddy is also there but he doesn't go with them for some reason, he stays behind to wait for a "half-caste" Aborigine named Walter (played by Aaron Pedersen). The shady Walter could have been an interesting lynchpin character but of course this film did nothing with him. Then for some reason Eddy & Walter go after Travis & Gutjuk, but get disarmed by them and sent back. I swear, I paid total attention to this movie but it's such an eye-glazing slog, expect me to say "for some reason" a lot. After Eddy & Walter leave, the renegade aborigines pop up & take Travis prisoner. Then Gutjuk's grandfather Dharpa takes them all back (minus Baywara) to negotiate with police chief Moran about Baywara, with Gutjuk translating. Gutjuk, who's been learning english for 12 FREAKING YEARS, translates all this very badly. The kind of bad translating that causes international incidents. Nothing is resolved, and Moran and the others just let them leave. Now, a truly shrewd colonizer with 20th century weaponry would've just taken these primitives hostage until Baywara turned himself in. But...again *for some reason* they're allowed to just leave.
Act 3. Gudjuk listens to some metaphysical mumbojumbo from his Grandfather while making spearheads (the subtitles for the aborigine scenes in this movie are badly done). The next day the provincial police raid their camp, and Baywara flies into a rage at Gutjuk for being in league with the soldiers who killed their homies. Baywara then acts like he's going to stab Gutjuk, and is shot dead by triggerhappy Travis who's watching from far away through his rifle scope. Then Travis starts teamkilling again, shooting some raiding police & shooting Walter in the head. Travis then comes down to help Gutjuk escape, but for some reason Gutjuk not only knows he's who shot Baywara but that he was involved in the massacre (though from what I recall Travis killed no one but his coworkers). Gutjuk then shoots Travis in the abdomen & runs away. Travis is taken back to the mission, bandaged up & told that he's going to hang this time for his teamkilling. Gutjuk and the surviving renegades go on the offensive & attack the police camp at the mission. Thus begins a reenactment of The OC series finale. You know, the much parodied Imogen Heap song "Hide&Seek" playing while everyone shoots everyone? Police chief Moran is about to kill Gutjuk, Travis shoots him in the head (MMMM WHATCHA SAYYY) then Eddy appears and is about to kill Travis but Claire shoots him in the back (MMM THAT YOU ONLY MEANT WELL), then Moran's nephew tries to shoot Gutjuk but Travis jumps in front of it (MMMM WHAT'D YA SAYYY) Travis dies as he says "Gutjuk" over and over (MMM THATS IT ALL FOR THE BEST OF COURSE IT IS).
Longest review I've ever done, because I'm flabbergasted at the virtue signalling 10/10's this film is getting on IMDB. I can think of several better movies that tell you how bad aborigines have had it...Sweet Country, Rabbit Proof Fence, Tracker, The Nightingale, etc.
Gods of Egypt (2016)
Deserves at least a 7 for its boldness.
I enjoyed Gods of Egypt.
Was the CGI bad? Sometimes. Did I care? Not really.
I'm not enough of an expert to say if it does Egyptian mythology entirely right, but I know they got many things right, like Ra dragging the Sun in his chariot, the scales for weighing hearts in the afterlife, Set's murder of Osiris, etc. Things like this it got right, the plot is what deviates from Egyptian mythology.
The usual "woke" social justice warriors whined a lot about the mostly white cast (you'll see some in reviews here) but there are some POC actors in the movie, like Chadwick Boseman as Thoth (best thing in the movie, he was flamboyant & refined R. I. P.) Yaya Deng as Astarte & Elodie Young as Hathor. There were production limitations that prevented Egyptian actors being cast, such as a lack of English speaking Egyptian actors, studio pressure for box office draws that'd been in fantasy blockbusters (Gerard Butler from 300, Coster-Waldau from GoT) & Australian Film Board requirements that most the cast & crew be Aussies. So shut up, it's a fantasy movie about gods, not a documentary.
The production design is awesome. Great creature designs, awesome costumes reminiscent of Stargate, gold gold GOLD everywhere, it's a beautiful unique movie with lots of flair & originality, fantastical set pieces. And a solid cast that sells the story even though they're likely usually on a green-screen set.
I would give it a 7 because sometimes it looks like a videogame & there's some narrative issues. But I'm giving it a 9 to offset all the unfair reviews. It's something you rarely see nowadays, a big budget movie that's daring & takes chances. I'd compare it to another maligned movie I liked that also took a myth & did something daring by upping the fantasy elements, Darren Aranofsky's 'Noah'. Gods of Egypt however is more of a colorful romp than the much darker Noah. Both are larger than life films & worth a viewing.
Imawa no Kuni no Arisu (2020)
Very amped!
Super kinetic series that loses it's way towards the end but brings you back in with a nice finale leaving you wanting season 2 now! If you love manga & Japanese action thrillers like Battle Royale & Tokyo Gore Police, you'll like AIB. I've not read the AIB manga but this makes me want to.
It's like Cube meets The Running Man. Highly recommend.
Dragonheart: Vengeance (2020)
An all-ages fantasy adventure that does the original justice. I really enjoyed it
I did not have high expectations for this movie, considering the pedigree of the cheapo fantasy flicks usually found on streaming services.
Well, I was pleasantly ambushed! Some of these low ratings make me sad & I feel these reviewers are either too jaded or too addicted to spectacle. Yes there aren't many "epic battles" or savage dragon attacks. The CGI effects are inconsistent at best. Sometimes the dragon looks believable, sometimes it looks bad.
If you can see past its shortcomings though, Dragonheart Vengeance has what really counts - a good story, a good screenplay & HEART. Simple enough for kids to grasp but with enough quips & twists to keep adults interested in what would otherwise be a standard revenge tale. Writer Matthew Feitshans delivered a good script here with some memorable lines.
The cast are great and genuinely seem happy to be involved. The complaints about the acting hold no water for me. The actors are fine, especially Joseph Millson's rakish Darius and Helena Bonham Carter who could deliver a solid performance from a bathroom stall.
Ivan Silvestrini's direction and editing choices did a lot to make me forget the low budget. This is a good looking movie that I got lost in, sometimes reminding me of various fantasy games I've played (like Skyrim). The director and crew must also be fans of RPG's because I noticed a couple of easter eggs only gamers would catch. There's also a cheeky reference to a classic 80's swords & sandal film that made me chuckle.