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cvogelaar
Reviews
First Reformed (2017)
Great acting and a good first half, but devolves into a contrived disaster
First of all, I want to say the acting is superb by everyone involved. Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried are great (as always). If I was a casting director I'd be looking at Philip Ettinger as he shined in his small role.
The first half of the movie is quite good and well-written. But the direction this movie takes...and the ending...you're either going to buy it (somehow), or you're going to hate it. Toward the end it becomes contrived, has a scene of transcendental pretentious nonsense, and goes completely against character and off the rails in a bad way. Seeing some compare this film to Taxi Driver, a masterpiece, is utterly ridiculous. It's the same writer, but if we're comparing the two, First Reformed is a complete wannabe. Honestly, it's a bit scary that many who watch this movie can buy the direction this takes, as if there's any logic to it. In addition to other third act problems, there is a huge moral bankruptcy issue here. Assassinating a single crooked politician (Taxi Driver) is entirely different from suicide-bombing a church full of people. I felt for him early on, and the global warming issue was presented in an interesting way, but how does anyone out there identify or empathize with him by the end? And even if we are not meant to empathize with him, if he is a symbol of the misguided futility of such an act, the film portrayal still fails to be convincing or believable. Beyond that, the script simply has an awful third act, one of the worst inexplicable turns I've ever seen in an up-until-then good movie. I have no more words.
Licorice Pizza (2021)
PTA's weakest film
I'm a huge Paul Thomas Anderson fan. Boogie Nights, There Will Be Blood, Magnolia...fantastic films. I was ecstatic when I saw the trailer for this one. PTA making a coming-of-age film set in 1970s Los Angeles??? Sign me up! But this was not a good one, a huge missed opportunity. Great style; very little substance. Critics rating this highly need to check themselves. Would not recommend.
Arcane: League of Legends (2021)
It's pretty good, but not THAT good
To preface this, being a 30-something I am not the targeted audience for this, so keep that in mind. I am not a LoL fan at all and I know nothing about the lore. However, I like the occasional anime and animated movies/shows.
When I saw the astronomically high ratings this show was getting, I decided to give it a shot. IMO, it's highly overrated at the moment. The highest I could see a reasonable person rating this is an 8/10. Is this due to Riot staff writing reviews? Seems an unlikely conspiracy. Or perhaps the reviewers are all quite young and inexperienced viewers? Can't say. Does it transcend its young adult genre to be an all-time great show worth everyone's time? No. But it's pretty good. If I was a teenage female, I would probably really like it.
The guest music spots were a lame negative to me, but I'm sure many teens out there particularly like that. And the Imagine Dragons intro is just...not for me, to say the least. A definite skip.
Animation can also be up to preference. For me, I don't like the animation style and it comes off to me as web series-ish. The quality is inconsistent; attention to detail is great in some areas, mediocre in many others. Though the quality does seem to step up after the first few episodes, and there are a few scenes here and there where the animation is markedly very good.
In fact overall, beyond just the animation, it's common for a scene in Arcane to feel like a web short. Story-wise, there are some good moments where it seems like the show might be turning a corner and a potentially great show could be forthcoming, but it always proves to be fleeting. The main negative is, despite being clothed in fresh ways, the writers use a lot of tired clichés as a crutch, especially early on. But there aren't any outstanding huge problems either. The show is good for what it is.
But hey, I'm not the target audience here, YMMV. It's a commendable effort by Riot and they should continue as clearly they are hitting a mark here for some viewers.
Space Jam: A New Legacy (2021)
Campy looney family fun. Reviews are too harsh on this movie
Yes, most of the live action acting was bad, including LeBron.
Yes, the movie was in some ways an expensive ad for Warner Bros and LeBron.
Yes, the movie over-idolizes LeBron to a conceited extent.
But didn't we expect all of this going in? "Epitomizes everything that's wrong with the film industry today"?? Really? Space Jam is the movie you use to make this statement? I'm confused, did people think this movie would actually be good?
I went in with low expectations based on the subject and LeBron. All of the bad aspects of this movie were expected and, to me, comfortably in the realm of CAMP.
The Looney Tunes themselves were fun and brought the movie up to being enjoyable at the end of the day and worth a watch.
If you come at this movie expecting anything but campy looney light-hearted family fun, you will be disappointed.
The movie is being underrated in the 4s right now dragged down by a lot of 1 star reviews. It belongs at 5 or 6/10.
Face/Off (1997)
This aged terribly, but it's fun
Growing up in the 90s, I had heard this movie mentioned by a lot of average joes as being an awesome movie, commonly revered in conversation. The core of my formative movie-viewing experience comes from this time period (late-90s to early-2000s). But I missed this one.
I often watch old movies and have no problem adjusting my expectations to the time period, almost all movies are timeless to me.
However, I first watched this in 2012 and...my goodness...the action is severely dated and so over-the-top and awful it comes off as campy. The single-sample-non-variant gunfire audio alone is enough to make me laugh; they should update these sounds if/when they make a 4K transfer. Watch it and you'll see what I mean. The above doesn't help when the main plot is already trying to walk a fine line between acceptable and ridiculous, and there are enough plot holes to drive a boat chase through. Throw in Nicholas Cage and John Travolta, who at the time were not both widely panned by critics (personally I like them sometimes), and you have something...epic. Not "epic" as in a great movie, but "epic" in an entertaining and different way.
I assume Hollywood will probably reboot this movie in the coming decade. Could be good.
The Usual Suspects (1995)
B-movie with one of the greatest twists ever and one standout actor
One of the all-time overrated movies for sure. It's a B-movie with an amazing twist ending and one standout actor, Kevin Spacey. You should watch it if you haven't, but only because of the unforgettable ending. This should be a lesson to all writers of how important the ending to your story is. Even if the rest of the movie is mediocre, if the ending is great you could win an oscar.