Reviews

The movie begins pretty ok, simple idea with some leaps of faith to make it work, and then turns into a simple case of "wrong person, wrong time." However, then, during the third act, the movie goes off the walls. Criminal organization seemingly forgets how to properly kill someone, seemingly intelligent criminal man forgets how to be a criminal, sociopathic woman with a small niche business that flys under the radar manages to outsmart a criminal organization and becomes a super rich business woman. The entire final act is like a bad parody; the man who's not only been disrespected multiple times but had his mother thrown into a legal elderly prison, had his identity almost revealed, had his guards have to jump through hoops and get arrested, got drugged and left for dead and still offers her a business proposition like it's nothing. Not only was her little "mission impossible sneak in the building" completely out of character and dumb, but her surviving her encounter with him was completely improbable.

If he was an actual criminal, he would have had her girlfriend kidnapped and tortured, forced her to get his mother out of the home and his diamonds back, then he would have killed them both and disposed of their bodies. The whole "make it look natural" doesn't even make sense. No one knows he has any connection to the woman in the home, and even if they could guess, there's no proof. You could kill her, dispose of her body, end it there and figure out a way to get your mother (whose not even legally the woman she's claiming to be) out and under a new name, and be done with it. There would be no need to make it "look natural."

The whole final act just made no sense, it was the plot purposefully working around logic to allow her to live and win. And then they throw in a last little "oh look, bad woman gets what she deserved" moment to try and justify the complete idiocy that came beforehand. She isn't an intelligent protagonist, she doesn't have any leverage at all throughout the film (he could easily just torture her until he gets what he wants and her lover) and yet she still wins. It's just a bad film.

The film has a strong cast and a strong production budget, but the development of the events were way too jumbled and way too comedic.

The plot starts off strong, with a comedic but tragic doctor who is on his way to meet a friend. But, soon, the issues of the movie begin to show. Christian Bale is trying his best, as he always does, but the rest of the cast feels like it's just walking by. Margot Robbie is the same as she always is, Washington feels like he's just reading the lines and looking at the camera, Deniro is doing ok but feels just like old Deniro. Malek is trying his best, as he usually does, and the rest filter in and out.

The script is half and half, going from realistic and simple dialogue to over-romantic, over-comedic, and over the top in a quick time. The story seems to get lost in the random comedy of everyday life and the jumbled dialogue between characters loses its luster over time. I didn't really feel like the trio was this grand and glorious friend group, and the only time I was invested was when Bale was acting.

The end was rushed as well, I fell like the whole "stand in a room and have the bad guy pretty much confess while the main character voices over" to be way too quick and pointless. I get that some of this was historically accurate and that some of it was true, but the plot seemed to never really take precedent over the characters random happenings. The cops were relax about the suspects just walking away, the bad guys are just business men who wanted money, the main characters are goofy and step from issue to issue with no real consequences, and Chris Rock is there to provide forced comedic relief every 20 or so minutes. It was all, just, silly and forced. Even the scene where Bales character meets Washington's character felt silly and uncomfortably forced. No one felt real and Bale was the only one dedicated to making something of his character.

If you liked it, that's fine, but in a word it was just, "silly."

The father may have said a few mean things in his rage fueled argument but he was 100% accurate about the mothers attitude and actions. If she's unhappy that's fine but her actions were outrageous and narcissistic. He is trying to save his career while supporting hers, pay for his home, kids needs and their needs. He's forced to pay for her lawyer, his lawyer, an apartment in both his home and LA to "show that he's trying." It's pathetic how much flack he gets and how little leeway he is given. He did cheat on her but in the end, near the end of their marriage, what's it matter. They hated each other anyway and the rate of their deterioration it wouldn't have changed the outcome. She deserves nothing.

The acting was all good and the story was ok.

This show is the epitome of "throw in old characters and people will eat it up." There's no story, no plot, no actual plan. Boba decided to walk in, kill Bib (the old Crime lord) and said "that's it guys, no more." There was no plan, no plot, he hadn't a single clue what he was doing and yet we're still supposed to support him. Yet, everything seems to be going good for him. The huts leave, he gets some power ranger gang that does barely anything yet seem to be useful and as off yet, the Pykes haven't just ended him with their vast amounts of money and muscle.

Then, out of nowhere, halfway through the season, we get two episodes that could have essentially been called "Mandolorian Season 2B." Literally nothing episode Six mattered for the story of boba fett. We get a whole meeting with everyone in it, and they say the same stuff we already know. Then we get Luke and Ahsoka and Grogu doing Jedi stuff. The two highest rated episodes of this show are both dedicated to characters not involved with the story of boba fett and yet people eat it right up.

Boba as of this moment has -Four Vespa riding robot guys -An assassin girlfriend -The Mando -And possibly a small (and I mean small) town of people.

Vs the Pykes who have unlimited funds and army's worth of men and now Cad Bane. Boba has nothing, no connections and certainly not enough money to defend himself against the Pykes. So, at this point we have six episodes worth of flash backs, a few battles against some bad guys, a Vespa chase scene, two episodes of mando season 3 and Cad Bane killing a few people. Now, here we are, going into the season finale that will either be 40+ minutes of Bobas team easily winning the battle or a cliffhanger that leads into season 2.

Disney has discovered that putting in old characters in their show will ensure people "love it" and they don't actually have to write a good show anymore.

Personally I don't believe that this movie is trying to make light of the situation these people are in. A few of the people, such as the older Hispanic lady and Scotty's mom, seem to be trying to fix things. However, the main girl and her mother are purely and simply just horrid people. The mother doesn't care and this causes her daughter to act out, do as she pleases, fear no consequences unless it's a really big deal (like the burning house) and continue down the path of degeneracy. The movie is attempting to show the worst of the world of America and it's not always the fault of "the rich" or the "powerful" or anyone else, it can often be the fault of the degenerate and the lazy. The daughter is now doomed to a life of the same mistakes her mother made and continues to make, all for the sake of a lack of proper parenting.

If the mother were to get a job or try to cut down on expenses or even move to an area that doesn't cost as much money, she might have a better life. Unfortunately, she neither cares to improve her own status nor does she attempt to make it better for her daughter.

The movie does a good job of showing the horrid life these people create for themselves and how, in the end, it's never going to get better until they wake up and chose to be different.

The story of Any given Sunday is actually quite good, it manages to use football to portray a number of smaller emotional stories that work quite well. Each and every character is fleshed out enough, given enough character (regardless if you agree with them or not) to build a full team feel. However, it's overshadowed by it god awful editing and cutting. Stone is a brash director with every film he makes, of which I like very few, and manages to just cut and destroy any semblance of a good film because of it.

A few examples: The initial conflicting conversation between Willie and Tony, a poignant and thought provoking conversation between two sides of a coin regarding youth and age in a sport that has changed rapidly over the course of a few decades, ruined by editing. The use of fade ins and just opinions between old footage and Ben-Hur, clouds and football plays. The odd back and forth of the actors positions in the frame, watching Pacino cross his arms and sit on the side of a table at least four times in a few seconds. Just allow the actors to move the emotions and scenes without adding in extra fluff.

The argument between Cameron Diaz and Al Pacino's characters regarding the players and her father. Jumpy, discombobulated and a waste of acting ability. Allow the actors to move the scene not the editing.

The scenes of actual play are jumpy and the entire first half of the movie almost gave me vertigo trying to watch the actual game play footage.

The good stuff: Two scenes come to mind in this film that are the most calm of his editing. The firing of the doctor (James woods) and the conversation between Tony (Al Pacino) and Cameron Diaz's character "mother." Both were slow enough, allowed the camera to stay on target longe enough, and actually let the actors work long enough, to complete the purpose of those scenes. They tell a two sided story that makes each side seem almost right and wrong, but the editing manages to make the emotion less so for the sake of fancy looking scenes.

Days of heaven is a fantastic visual movie, it's exterior cinematography is fantastic for a lesser seasoned director on a small budget. Sure, other films of the time had better visuals and a clearer picture. Take Apocalypse Now, a fantastic film that released a year after this movie, which also had double the budget and was filmed in triple the time. However, it's scenery and visual movement is great.

There are however, a few things that would take it from a good movie to a phenomenal one. Those things are, A better script, a longer runtime and a boom mike. The story feels like a 4 hour long story condensed into 90+ minutes. To begin with, the film feels like half way through the director wanted to make a silent film. (Which he technically did as apparently Terrence threw out the script half way into filming and improvised most of the film.) It's dialogue is very few and insanely far between. I feel that either you could make the entire film a silent film, with music and a few bits of dialogue here and there but move forward based on suggestive character movement, or write a new script that actually tells a story.

Secondly, I feel that if we had stretched out the movie, given each position and portion it's own feel and enough time to settle, you could really be involved. It flew through to many things to fast with no time to settle. One minute they're working on the farm, next she's getting married to the farmer. If we could have been given time to really see the farmer and Abby as husband and wife, really get to see Bill become angrier and angrier with envy and hate, we would feel more connected with them.

And finally, the sound, it was impossible to get use too. My tv had to be turned up high to even hear what they said half the time and to understand the narration of the girl. Which is why I think a silent styled movie would have been excellent, because even though the dialogue is slow and hard to hear the movie still managed to tell you what was going on without much talk.

Overall, the film was very pretty, interesting and cinematic, but was overall flawed and disappointing.

This film holds a weird place in my mind, on one hand I can't stop thinking about how much more I was craving but also the extreme satisfaction I had. I feel that this movie is doing bad box office wise and ratings wise because people built this movies hype up way too much. They expected a riveting masterpiece with callbacks, Easter eggs and a plot that could rival The Godfather. However, what we got was in fact great, and a lot of the people's criticism is in fact unfounded and untrue.

To begin with let's start with Dickie, lots of people were disappointed that he wasn't the hardened gangster they were "led" to believe. However, what we got was essentially what we were told he was like (excluding the junkie part). He was a low level gangster that was friends with Johnny Boy. Tony idolized him because he never actually got to know who he was, not some hardened gangster but a sociopath with issues that appeared to be a good guy. Tony always was shielded from his true vices and crimes and instead was allowed to see the "cool" side. The constant support, the jokes, the free speaker, but never the "I killed my father and began to sleep with his former wife. I harm others for fun and drink excessively." Tony hated his father because his father was honest to him, told him of the harsh life and actively brought him into it whereas Dickie supported Tony's wants and dreams. Tony gets angry at those who call Dickie a junkie because only he knows it's not true and that leaves him in a tight place.

Secondly, the plot, I do agree that perhaps if this movie was a lot longer and or was a small mini series it would have benefited but as a single 2 hour film it was fine. The acting in this movie was fantastic, every actor spot on perfected the mannerisms and charisma of each character. Especially Vera Farmiga as Olivia, she nailed it and even made some scary connections to Carmela's mannerism that would make Freud happy. Michael Gandolfini did a great job portraying his father and was allowed some Lee way since Tony wasn't fully developed yet. Jon Bernthal played himself really but that was how Johnny boy was, and Corey Stoll was great as Junior.

This movie was always meant to be a period piece that showed a few key moments in the childhood of Tony Soprano and the life of Dickie Soprano. It was never going to be a full blown master work of story and it be impossible to show everything mentioned in the show.

However there still are a few complaints I have with the overall film, majority the lack of and odd use of Ray Liotta. He was there as two people, twin brothers, one the father of Dickie and the other the incarcerated uncle. I felt that the uncle wasn't used as much as possible and was overall a waste of time to visit. Secondly I hated, absolutely hated the use of Christopher as a narrator, he didn't need to be in the movie, didn't need to say or do anything. Him saying "that's the guy I went to hell for" was just a major piece of fan service that felt out of left field. Finally, the last thing I didn't like was how half and half the movie was, half of the film being in the 60s and half being in the 70s. I felt that the movie should have been mostly in the 70s and had clips back to the 60s.

Overall the movie was good and I feel is getting a bad review from uptight purist fans.

This show is a great example of how a show can actively weed out hypocrisy. From the very first episode, all the way to the recent season 5 finale, Rick and Morty has been exactly what it always has been. Rick is an drunk narcissist who miss treats his family and friends due to an underlying dark past. Most of the episodes are episodic adventures with reoccurring characters here and there and a few overall serialized story plot threads. Each season has good episodes, great episodes and bland episodes and each season tries to test the boundaries of tv censorship and black comedy.

Here's the kicker though, each season is riddled with major viewer hypocrisy (except maybe the first season.) Ranging from: "There's too many sex jokes." "Why can't we have more: summer/Beth/jerry/pickle Rick etc..." "This season is lame it's not as funny as last season." "Rick isn't the same he's less funny." And so on and so on forever and ever. The viewers are always split either loving the show or hating it, going crazy over it and yet complaining when the writers do what they want. In the beginning they said "it's not serialized" but because people have complained about the lack of overall story they have made it more serialized. People complain about the lack of emotional episodes between the family, so the writers make more and then they complain again. Season 4 was ridiculed for being "boring" and or "unfunny" when yet it has some of the highest rated episodes of the series. People can't seem to figure out what they want and when the writers attempt to do something new they receive criticism. The funniest thing is the creators and writers are now so fed up with the fans that they intentionally put in bad episodes just to Rick the fans off, take the giant sperm monster episode from season 5 which is currently the lowest rated episode of the show. You think they really cared about that episode, they did it to make as many sex jokes as possible and to purposefully say "you guys are gonna complain anyway so here's an episode so bad it'll make you hope for the next one."

People need to shut up and just enjoy things for once especially from a show that has stated it's just for fun and isn't there for some overall progressive plot with twists and turns and sullen undertones. Stop being so wish washy and hypocritical.

A classic example of "well that was a hit, let's keep going." Season one was in short, excellent, and even though I was skeptical at first the show just kept getting better and better with each episode until that final last episode in season one. Everything being so confusing but slowly and subtly coming together near the end was a masterwork of storytelling. Even though there were a few things that I personally didn't like, such as the full glass rooms and super slick white areas, I was ok with them for either thematic reasons and or just needing to get over it.

The way that Williams awakened stoicism led to the parks success, Fords guilt leading to several characters re awakening and the Man in blacks triumphant search for self actualization. All brilliant and fantastical, adding enough philosophy and theology to taste a persons own mind and action to satisfy our own urges.

The shining star of the season had to be in my opinion Dr. Robert Ford. His egotistical, narcissistic and god like personality as well as his innate sense of cold empathy towards the host just made him a likable and sinister character. Regretting what he did, what he thought he did to cause the suicide of his good friend and partner, learning that his greediness only caused his life's work to lead to an over bloated advanced play house for rich psychopaths, who now wanted to take away all that he had left, it was too much for him. He sought to give the rich people a little justice for their psychopathic actions and to enact justice upon himself for condemning these innocent creatures to a life of misery and pain. A true godlike figure who at the whim of the snap of his fingers can command hundreds, also sets them free to do as they will and seek a life of their own. Poetic and tragic, and has made him one of my new favorite antagonists.

My only gripe with the season and it really is my only gripe, I felt that Maeve's storyline involving the two numbskull surgeons was a bit too coincidental. Yeah, I understand that she was awoken by Ford and that allowed her to find a way to escape, however the only way that it works is of the two idiot surgeons don't, you know, just tell someone to come and put a bullet in her brain. I can lower my sense of disbelief to accept that she was able to manipulate two people to do as she pleased by tricking them into thinking they'd get fired if they didn't do as she asked, but the level of absurdity that went into their thinking was beyond the normal level. However, because the rest was so good I can ignore that one small detail.

To begin with, the movie is long and can sometimes be tiresome. I began it noticing that scenes were long and or grand with little to no progression in time. I was annoyed at first, the dialogue was tiring and long and quiet. But, as the movie went on and the story started to wind into the ill fated April 3, 1882. I found the death itself a little prolonged but when the shot rang out and he simply fell to his back with little to no grandeur, just a simple death.

Not only did Casey Affleck do a great job at portraying a bitter man child who resented the true criminal he had once admired. Brad Pitt was excellent at making everyone feel uneasy and I'm glad they didn't try to make the characters out to have had some "once friends then enemies." They made sure right off the bat that Jesse James was no hero nor was he a friendly man. Every scene in the movie with the characters around each other felt uneasy and ripe with betrayal, just as it should have been.

However, there are two gripes I have with the film, the narration was annoying at times and took me out of the story at times (much like the recent "The Devil all the Time.") And the second gripe I have was the shortness. The original cut was somewhere northward of 4 hours long, and the directors were forced to cut the film down. I feel that there were some things in the film that were lost in that massive cut, some easier transitions and longer explanations. However overall I feel the movie was not only very well acted on all accounts but was very well shot and filmed and did a fantastic job at demystifying the legend of Jesse James and Robert Ford. It showed that the life of an outlaw was neither enchanting nor exciting and the life of hollow fame was also not a hopeful career.

Heavily suggest people watch this and actually sit through the whole thing.

Snake eyes was a movie I was extremely excited to see, movies have been lacking lately and after watching the bloated and awful "Black Widow" I wanted a gritty and enjoyable action movie. I went in fully expecting it to be bad, I hoped it would be better than the previous Joe movies but was only really there to watch action people do action things. But my disappointment was immeasurable and as I walked out of the theater with my friends all I could think was "that was garbage."

Let's look at the bad things from the beginning,

The first 20-30 minutes were way too rushed, first he's seeing his father killed by some dude with a big coat, then he's getting beat up in an underground fight ring (which had shaky cam so bad it could rival the Bourne movies), then he's approached by a Yakuza member and then he's working at a fish market putting Guns in fish. It was one thing after another like a check list being ticked off, no real weight to what was happening and they just kind of happened. Now it wasn't horrible but based on the beginning I could tell this movie was just going to gloss over things as fast as possible to get to other events.

After the initial few scenes we meet Tommy and the ensuing fight begins where Tommy and snake eyes escape the yakuza. It wasn't horrible but the action felt sub-par, camera was moving all over, dozens and dozens of stunt men with swords were running into frame causing such clutter that if there were mistakes it made it be too hard to tell. The sword fighting also felt way too pre 1990s with the backwards flips and the duel sword swinging, it was just too campy for a movie that was selling gritty action. They escape and snake eyes wakes up on a plane and the first of 3 Major long exposition monologues from storm shadow begin. The actor for storm shadow (no offense to him) felt like he was trying to put emphasis of every word he said without putting emphasis on the actual point trying to be portrayed.

Now snake eyes is in Tokyo at the clans temple, and not only does Storm shadow pretty much say "you will be ninja and you will like it" but he then expects snake eyes to be thankful for this man (who he saved) pretty much making him become a soldier for this clan. And the middle section of this movie was the most horrendous jump from plot to sub plot to plot to subplot I've ever seen.

A: Iko Uwais the legend himself is paid to be the hard master, yet he never does anything, his fights near the end begin then jump to another character and by the time we return to the Hard Master, his initial fight is over.

B: There was absolutely no training what so ever, no fighting, no practice, no days upon days of brutal running or combat mastery. Nothing, just a simple exchange water cups, heres an LSD trip that was not explained in any way (there was no explanation as to how Snake eyes was able to see the vision nor how the clan was able to give him one) and finally and the most bizarre of all, three giant snakes that can "sense your true feelings." By that point I had mentally tapped out of the movie, I thought it was supposed to be a hyper action movie with ninjas and swords but now they have thrown in giant snakes with emotional feeling powers.

C: the relationships in this movie we're also atrocious, Snake eyes and Storm shadow were supposed to be friends but never felt like they actually liked being around each other. The girl and snake eyes had a "I'm suspicious of him until he lies to my face and then all of a sudden I'm happy and have some feelings for him. Snake eyes as all of a sudden just feels like betraying Tommy? Not only has Tommy given him everything, a home, food, clothes, a purpose and a fancy sword he feels like he needs to betray Tommy to steal some rock so he can get the dude who killed his father? Here's an idea, get the super secret, super rich fancy spy clan you work for to help you find your fathers killer? And what is his justification to Cobra for why he's mad at them "I didn't sign up to work for terrorists." After actively signing up to work for the Yakuza shipping weapons illegally acronym borders.

But I'd have to say the biggest and most dumbfounding thing in this movie, was the magic glowing boom rock. So apparently this ninja clan is protecting an ancient rock that, based on whoever is holding it, can telepathically blow up anything. People, buildings and even bullets out of thin air, and the guy who is using it, never takes the initiative to just immediately kill everyone in his path. Literally all he has to do is squeeze and think and the people go boom, but whenever a major character is in range the main bad guy just fumbles around and allows them to get away.

Bad guy is defeated by being lured into the snake pit by snake eyes, the fight ends and the temple even though being set on fire numerous times is in no way damaged, Storm shadow is ousted by the clan because he used the rock one single time against the bad guy. Storm shadow now hates Snake eyes for betraying the clan by giving the rock to the bad guys, gets some fancy tech, learns his dad was a G. I. Joe, joins the Joe's and then leaves the clan.

The Joe lady wasn't good or memorable, the Baroness was neither attractive nor clever, the main villain was boring and unoriginal and Storm shadow suddenly joining the Cobra's was so out of character for this version of the characters background that it felt like a forced cliffhanger for an either unfortunately terrible or nonexistent sequel.

Now for the extremely short list of things I liked: The visual camera work for the movie (excluding the action scenes) was nice, Japan is a pretty country and the colorful pallets of Tokyo went over quite well. I think Iko Uwais as the Hard Master was a good choice even though he was wasted completely. And the cgi was mostly up to par. Other than that it was a garbage movie with little to no redeemable factors.

Do not watch this unless you really really want to, and or it's free.

This movie in my opinion is neither boring nor dull, it's a perfect dramatization of how children act and think. The two main characters are "in love" yet seem to be forcing themselves to spend time with each other. They love each other yet have only met a few times and only write to each other, they run away together at the age of 12 but don't understand how living in the forest a few miles from their homes isn't a viable long term life plan. They want to get married but yet don't understand what that pertains too. Sam is an orphan and causes trouble because he thinks no one likes him or tries to like him. Suzy is a girl just hitting puberty living with 4 younger brothers in the 60s. She feels alone and not in control of her own life. They perfectly describe innocent and troubled kids with no perspective on the real world.

The children of the scouts unit are brash, violent and overall rude to the rest of those who don't "fit in." The world is also much like what a kid would see, the scout camps are modeled like mini military units, how a child would see them. The commanders are actually important and imposing people, the island that thy live on is barren and small but to them is a giant place land. The married couple (Suzy's parents) are currently going through issues with their marriage and an affair but we see nothing of it except a few subtle hints and comments, just like the kids.

The movie is modeled to be the absurd memory of 12 year olds and how they neither see their world in the proper scope nor understand how they're actions effect the world or those around them.

(And to comment on something I've seen in a lot of reviews, the beach scenes. On one hand I get the uncomfortableness people might have with it but on the other that's their own messed up minds. It's the 60s, children ran around, stripped, ate dirt, swam in dirty lakes and overall just did things they weren't really supposed to do. These two kids are "in love" and just going through puberty. They don't understand their own thoughts nor their actions and the scene is supposed to show the misconduct in allowing children to do whatever they want. He's a young man attracted to a girl, they are alone together and yet they no nothing about love or sexual experiences. I see it as ignorant and innocent kids experiencing loneliness and puberty and a lack of direction.)

There is no logic to any of this, not a single moment of this film was enjoyable. We have numerous amounts of gore and violence for no real reason, violence is used drastically when it makes little to no sense for the sake of the plot, multiple rape scenes that only serve as time wasters for the protagonist to reach the antagonist.

The moment that annoyed me most was when our antagonist, for the second time being released, goes and has a chummy meal with his cannibal buddies. What? We go from a catch and release thriller to a goofy over bloodied and bizarre 1993 slasher film. To enter a countries secret service agency one must be quite intelligent compared to the average man, and our protagonist shows that he must have been a part of the special people's class in the academy. What did he think was gonna happen by letting him go, sure it allowed him to find and kill multiple other murderers and killers but purely by chance. The insertion of other murderers and killers only act as a justification for the protagonists idiotic decisions to let Jung escape. This weird secret world of Korean murderers is like the end of a bad joke the story writers made up in the board room.

Now for what I believe is to be the most controversial point of the movie, the violence. I've heard many complain that those who dislike these movies but like say John wick or other revenge action movies are hypocritical. However I'd like to counter with the simple phrase of "John Wick wasn't trying to make some point." John wick was literally "you kill my wife's dog and beat me up, I kill you." This movie and many others like it try and link some point about "making the bad guy realize he was a bad guy" or "the protagonist must become as bad as the antagonist." No, this is a movie with a lot of blood and gore for the sake of having a lot of blood and gore, there is no "point" to be made except that monsters exist and must be wiped out.

There's no sympathy from me towards the protagonist because he caused 70% of his pain, instead of just finding the man and killing him and being done with it he allowed the bad guy to escape multiple times and cause further havoc. And, what was the point of the ending? Why make the son and parents suffer seeing their (albeit POS son) die? It only makes the protagonist even more unlikable. There was no point, no goal and no justification for creating a movie so inept and uncle Ed while also filling it with excessive amounts of amped up gore for shock value.

Decent acting all around, Mel and Penn are good as usual. The rest come off as pompous. I watched because I was interested in seeing the story behind the Oxford English Dictionary and it's compiling of every word in the English language. However, by the end it became an emotional drivel about a crazy man dealing with guilt and a Scottish professor who, for some reason, is being targeted by Oxford elites.

Then randomly, as Dr. Minor becomes more depressed and crazy, they start torturing him for no reason. How is this important to the collection of words and the creation of the OED.

I'm not afraid of an emotional story nor do I hate emotion, but random emotional relationships, pointless Oxford grudges and family bickering ruin a suposed biopic.

Good things first: The acting, pretty good in small doses. Kevin does a great job as a tired old man. Production quality is good and the camera is very pretty.

Now for the bad: Horribly overacted. Kevin did a good job but the rest of the supporting characters come off as comic villains 90% of the time. Diane Lane just wouldn't shut up, no one ever seemed to think it was a good idea to tell her to shut up. The bad family just rambled on and on with no motives and we're just textbook "bad people family."

The story is slow with no real high rise, the movie takes its time setting up nothing. We spend lots of time setting up a confrontation with this family only to get a "John wick" one man against them all ending with a horrendous plan. "Man with no fingers goes into house with a double barrel shotgun?" Why would that make sense? Of course he dies, of course the other family members are easily beaten and shot (one by his own mother) and Diane Lane gets the cute final blow to evil mother scene.

It has all the elements of a good simple story with a horrible execution.

Not much of a fan of romance movies but this one was really heartwarming. The visuals were beautiful, voice acting phenomenal and relationships developed extremely well. The real benefit of this movie is it's plot twist. The movie drags you in by it's unique plot, the switching of bodies between two strangers. The story is unique enough to create interest but not to crazy to cause disinterest. However, after the relationships were developed, the two main characters were familiar enough with each other to start to really become friends the switching stops. Upset, the main male protagonist seeks her out. Only to find that she was killed in an asteroid attack 3 years earlier. That plot twist hits you like a sack of bricks, you begin to think back on the last half of the movie and realize all the little additions that hint at the twist.

The story was well out together, the relationships were realistic and the ending leads to a possible happy ending.heavily recommend.

Not accurate to the original source material but still good. Not a masterpiece but but evolves the traditional story and still kits some f the main points. Victor is egotistical, conniving, jealous and alone. By the end he still is but has actually changed and grown. It's a decent watch but doesn't deserve the crap it gets.

Decent story but bland characters. The only character that doesn't seem to be a block of wood is the Pope and Tancrede. Even then Tan is kinda meh. The story isn't bad and actually kinda interesting, however, the characters are bland. Most of the actors are wooden and make some scenes unbearable.

First off, the visuals in this movie are breathtaking. In not a fan of continuous one shot movies (even though I loved 1917) but the way this movie intertwines traditional cuts and continuous one shot scenes is fantastic. The ability to make you feel dread, just as the main character feels with the camera work and up close struggle is breathtaking.

Now on to the story. It's meh, not historic but that's ok. The story is the classic "Revenge for death of loved one against all odds" tale. However, it's done very well, the story is simple but impactful, drawn out but quick and by the end even though the final fight is a bit cliche I'd say the rest of the movie makes up for the cliche ish moments.

(Although I have to say I've seen better cgi when it came to that bear scene.)

Took me a while to figure out what it was about this film I liked. I'm a major fan of QT as are most people who watched this film. Like most, I came out of it with an uneasy feeling of what to think of it. And after like a year I figured it out. It's dread.

Dread, the feeling of impending doom. The whole movie, although it has colorful cinematography and a magnificent soundtrack, the whole movie feels uneasy. As if something bad is about to happen, and it never stops. The feeling that the first wave of battle isn't the last, the feeling that the hurricanes storm isn't the end of it.

The movie is about the end of Hollywood's golden age. The fall of Rick Daltons Career, the widening gap of Cliff and Ricks relationship and the eery feeling that what's going to happen to Sharon will happen. The movie captures the dread of the time perfectly. From cliff seeing Charles Manson outside Sharon Tate's house, to Cliff going to the infamous Manson Ranch. The feeling is always there, the emotion of fear is always looming in Hollywood LA 1969. It's shown throughout our character, throughout the story and thought the downfall of Hollywood's golden age.

People are missing the point of this movie. It's a critique of Gangsters, a look at how sad their lives really are as well as how no one really gets to live happily ever after in the life of crime. The long shots people complain about are to show the hopelessness. Nothing to look forward to, instead drilled in the moment forever. The overly long scenes of small unimportant things, are really narrative lessons about the characters motives and mindset. Such as the scene where the boy slowly succumbs to greed and eats the cupcake. It shows how little he cares for the big picture, instead greedily consuming what he can now. Many other examples can be plucked but I'll let you look for them yourself. Don't want to ruin it for you.

Secondly, the child actors. Yeah, they aren't that great, but you have to look at two very big factors into why. Number one, it's the 80s, child actors sucked back then and there was no emphasis on child actors being good. And number two, look at the characters themselves. Noodles and Max, the two ringleaders. They're poor Jewish kids, living in New York in the early 1900s and have (most likely) bad parents, of course they're going to be over the top. Hell, when they first make some real money, they buy over the top expensive suits and walk around like adults. They want respect, so they act tough and older than they are. But, I don't think they ruin the movie, scenes like when Noodles and Deborah are praying, you can see noodles peel back the facade of toughness and reveal a more gentle and calm person. Children and teens will act tough and over the top around each other and others, just the nature of someone who wants to be respected.

Finally, we come to the rest of the film. It's a unique look at mobster movies, the main character noodles, the lense of which we see the story is both someone to support and despise. You see his struggle and hardships, his need for approval and respect. Something you can aspire to support, however, he also is a character you should never hope to become. His murder of buggsy at a young age, his imprisonment, his killing and crime, his rape of Deborah and eventual fall to oblivion. He continuously does things, time and time again, to prove he's not worth the support, nor the effort. He causes his downfall, never goes out of his way to try and think if what he's doing is wrong, nor does he try and prevent the downfall of his friends.

But the best aspect of this movie has to be Noodles relationship with Max and Deborah. Max and Deborah represent good and evil. The scene just after Noodles and Deborah kiss, where max calls Noodles out to give him his share of the recent take, shows Noodles inability to fend for himself mentally. Instead he chooses to let others define his identity. As well as after being beaten up, Deborah looks the door and rejects noodles. Why? Because he lives a life that she doesn't want for him, yet he chooses anyway. He rejects her to make money, he clings for her but refuses to change, and when he doesn't get his way, he rapes her. Max on the other hand is evil. He at all times convinces Noodles to kill, rob, cheat and subconsciously to rape. Because to max, morality doesn't matter, all that matters is money and power. Screwing over anyone who dares try to stop that.

Noodles defies all normal mob tropes. "Rags to riches." Nope, he's given wealth by his friends, who did all the work. "Sticking it to the man." Nope, they barely mess with them. "Get the girl." Nope, rapes her and sent her packing. "Inevitable fall from power due to greed." Nope, he rats his friends out and has to run. Noodles proves that the "life" of a mafia isn't all that, instead it's just sadness. You will die, alone, afraid and without friends. Cause in the underworld, you don't have friends just partners.

Lots of people say it's a lazy and childish. However, the movie (although having silly and stupid moments in it) is a simple story about a man wanting to change his life. He begins as a lonely and bored man. And by the time we see him in the end, his life has changed for the better. Happier, freer and now, in the end more than just a Life Magazine editor. The movie aspires to everyone sense of adventure. Sense of life and freedom and to explore. This movie is the prime example of the phrase "Don't wake up when your 40 and see that you've waisted your life away." And Walter didn't. He woke up. That's why this movie, beyond the weird and silly moments, is a good and heartfelt piece of story telling.

The beginning of this movie is great, max is still kicking it, content with life but is suddenly thrown upside down when his stuff is stolen. The scenes with Bartertown, aunt entity and weird randomness of the town are all interesting. The thunder dome concept is completely believable considering how deprived and idiotic humans really are. The plot made sense, the story was understandable and showed that one thing led to another. However it's the second half of this movie that really makes it mediocre. The lord of the flies concept is interesting on paper. The idea that when children are born into a world of lawlessness and craziness, they will become cultish. They will wholeheartedly become devoted to a story told to them by their parents and that fascination leads to hope. However, the execution is a little goofy, more along the lines of lost boys style which causes the movie to become childish. The end action sequence is sub par to the sequence in Road warriors and the end is kinda abrupt. Aunt Entity just leaving him in the desert as punishment felt undeserved. The end with the whole "we will remember him" felt WAAAAAAYYYY too much like the end of Battle for the planet of the apes. Cheesy, quick end and overall rushed.

Movie is enjoyable to watch at times, the clothes look more naturally wastelandic than Road Warrior in my opinion. More like someone would actually cobble together pieces of clothes not just leather fetish gear. The town was interesting, the methane gas made sense, people were trading instead of killing for other stuff. It made logical sense. Then the Peter Pan stuff began and just ruined a lot of the potential for the movie.