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Reviews
He Played Me 2 (2022)
Somehow worse than the first one
I didn't think that it would be possible for the 2nd movie to top the awfulness of the first one, but here we are. This sequel seems to be dead set on pretending like Yazmin is much better than she is. Whilst also subjecting the viewer to endless scenes of Nadia getting beaten and abused (And violently r*ped, a scene that did not need to last as long as it did), it's hammered over our heads that Yazmin is supposedly strong, independent, mature, intelligent, and "a real woman" despite the fact that the entire movie is about her selling drugs with her two sons and dating ANOTHER drug dealer. This is the same woman who would chastise her sons for cussing in front of her. Now she's cool with them pushing drugs out of her home and going to strip clubs with them. The movie also wants us to be convinced that her new man is so much different from her toxic ex, whilst he acts the exact same way as him and Yazmin just once again ignores the red flags. At this point, they should just rename the film "How To Be An Idiot" because everyone, including the main character, are not the brightest.
He Played Me (2021)
Dumb movie with a dumb protagonist
Yazmin has got to be one of the worst female protagonists that I have ever seen. She made so many dumb decisions that I can't even name them all. All I know is that any woman with her mentality is ridiculously pathetic. I know that women like her exist in real life, but it seemed like the movie was trying to convince us that she's this strong intelligent woman while all of her actions said the opposite. Now, onto the screenwriting and directing. It was extremely amateur. The way that some scenes would jump from one plot point to the next was not cohesive at all and confusing. One minute Yazmin is working a regular job and then the next minute she's opening a hookah bar that was never mentioned before. Also, some of the lines did not sound natural and just seemed like they would not be spoken by a real human being. The best character was Yazmin's best friend and she unfortunately didn't receive a lot of screentime. It's also worth mentioning that the runtime was way too long for the predictable story. It could have easily been an hour long.
To be honest, I'm baffled that there's any positive reviews at all. This movie was mid in a bad way. Oh and here's a tip to the director: Second takes are not a bad thing. If the line delivery doesn't sound right, you can shoot the scene again.
Loves Spell (2020)
Had potential but ultimately fell flat
This is a film that could have been good if the director chose to focus on telling a coherent story, instead of padding the runtime. It felt like the filmmakers just said "It doesn't matter if this scene doesn't fit into the overall plot of the story. We filmed it, so it's going into the final cut." An example of this would be the scene of the main character's friend proposing to his girlfriend towards the end of the movie. Don't worry, that wasn't spoiler because it was already established within the first 5 minutes of the film that the friend was getting married in a week. So, why was the proposal shown *after* telling us this information? Idk. What's even stranger is that the shot was completely out of place and ruin the flow of the 3rd half of the film. It didn't even add anything to the plot, it just showed up out of nowhere. There were a lot of scenes like this, that just felt like they could have been left out or placed elsewhere.
Another flaw of this movie is that they gave away that the main character is cursed in the bio. So, I went in expecting for the character to find out about the curse within the first or second act and then the main conflict would revolve around that. Instead, the movie carried on, acting as if the curse was unknown by the audience and then revealed it at the end (To the main character), like it was some big twist that we had to figure out. That *really* made the story drag because I was just waiting and waiting for the main character to figure it out and he never did until the end. Even then, it was unclimactic and not worth wait.
However, I will say that the positives of the film were the acting and the camera quality. Usually, you expect really stilted performances and shoddy camera work from independent romance films, but it all worked surprisingly well in this production. The script definitely could have used some work, but the actors worked with they had, and their performances came out well.