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jhenson-96275
Reviews
Inglourious Basterds (2009)
2.5 hours I'll never get back
I don't get it. At all. Yes, there's some great acting, but the whole plot drags SOOOOOO bad. The 2.5 hours felt more like 5. And there's the little issue of everyone knowing Hitler didn't die in a movie theater. I know there are lots of fake war stories in movies, but to completely change something that everyone knows happened in such a ridiculous way doesn't make sense at all. This may seriously be the most overrated movie I've ever seen. I had high hopes because it's so highly rated, but now I'm wishing I'd watched anything else this evening. There's obviously an audience for this sort of thing, but it isn't me.
Oppenheimer (2023)
A masterpiece, but not quite perfect.
Saw it in IMAX 70mm film and it's staggering in that format. Truly one of the most incredible movie experiences I've ever had. Visually it's beautiful, and the audio in an IMAX theater has to be heard (and felt) to be believed.
It's one of the most interesting movies you'll ever see, even apart from the spectacle of it. It was a 3 hour movie that didn't feel anywhere near 3 hours, to me. The performances were outstanding. Honestly, I know Cillian Murphy is supposed to get the lion's share of the plaudits (and for good reason), but Robert Downey Jr. Was equally as good, I thought.
However...
Florence Pugh's character, although acted well, serves absolutely no purpose whatsoever other than to have another female and someone to perform in a sex scene. The sex scenes do nothing other than fill Hollywood's quota for nudity, and they felt so out of place in this film. It seemed like Nolan went "Alright, we've ticked the 'sex' and 'nudity' boxes, now we can kill her off".
I also wasn't wild about Gary Oldman as Truman. He's a great actor who just seemed like a poor choice for that role.
Predictably, the military personnel and politicians are all portrayed as unfeeling, pushy, and manipulative. There's obviously some truth to that, but I would like to have seen them given a bit more nuance and their predicament more consideration. And McCarthyism is an old trope for anything set in this era. Another subject I'd like to see given more nuance than the almost cliche way it's always treated.
But having said all that and those complaints aside, it's a spectacular movie that I'll definitely be watching again. I hope Christopher Nolan continues making them for a long time, because he's the best there is right now.
Death on the Nile (2022)
Only Two Real Complaints
My biggest complaint is the blatantly obvious attempt to placate the wokies. I'll admit I've never read the source material, but I'm fairly certain there was no closeted older lesbian couple in it, nor was there a southern blues singer from America. All of those character changes served the sole purpose of ticking a box and meeting a quota. I realize it's an adaptation, but stories shouldn't be bent just to appease a small, but vocal, substrata of society.
My other complaint is that the story took WAY too long to get going. We were half way through the movie before anyone was actually murdered.
Apart from those two things, I really enjoyed it. I have no clue why people complain so much about Branagh's performance of Poirot. I think he's great. All the moaning and groaning about the CGI is something else I don't get. They're obviously going for a very particular aesthetic, which is one I like. All in all, I'd watch it again. Probably will. And I'm looking forward to the next one.