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The Dead Don't Die (2019)
The zombies don't like this movie.
A clever, onion-skinned movie that reflects back on the audience the true horror of zombies.
We're all addicted to something, lost in a world of thought, each finding ourselves outside of ourselves while the world falls apart around us. And, on top of this we're all reading off a different script, all on different pages, a mess of half-opinions and echoed sentiment we're really not thinking through. We're sloppy and entitled, lost and confused, zombies one and all.
So, it makes sense that this movie would be lost on us.
A good movie. Whimsical, boring, strange, funny. Great characters that don't go quite where you want them to. Plot-lines and arcs you expect to manifest but don't. But... That's the point. Our expectations are what drive us, make us zombies... Our expectation of coffee or chardonnay, Wi-Fi and guitars.
Prepare to have your expectations woefully and beautifully trashed then. What else could us zombies hope for?
Nightmare Cinema (2018)
Not a fun or scary movie. Boring.
This movie was such a waste of time. The acting is terrible, the cinematography and writing are clumsy and feel rushed, nothing ties together in any meaningful way, and the combination of practical and CGi effects is jarring and just doesn't work.
Worse yet, this film is long, and boring. It's not scary or atmospheric. There's no sense of fun here, just a pervading atmosphere of nastiness but without any real story or reason. The characters all do things that make absolutely no sense - and this feels more like bad writing than an intentional choice to make the film intentionally cheesy.
Why each of the characters ended up in the cinema is beyond me, and why should I care? There's absolutely no arc to them, or reason to be bothered. Nothing is fleshed out, explored or developed, this is a shallow and pointless watch.
Avoid.
Anima (2019)
Beautiful, poignant, and heartbreaking.
This was a beautiful short; emotive and poignant. It's amazing that something with a runtime of approx. 15 minutes can convey deeper themes than most of the feature films I've seen lately. This was engaging and thought provoking in a way that will stay with me long after viewing.
As somebody who lost their twin sister; I live in a sort of strange dance with her, between life and death, guilt and light, longing and losing. This short reminded me fervently of my own dreams, and was especially personal to me. I had tears in my eyes during the closing scenes, intuiting it would naturally conclude this way.
Thematically this short lies in the lines between greats like 1984, Eraserhead, and Eternal Sunshine; my favorites blended here into something new and breathtaking.
Thom Yorke was great; I can't recall ever seeing him perform like this before, but I'd like to see more of him. The choreography was gorgeous, and communicated the narrative perfectly. The whole tale builds in pace, leading to what I felt to be a heartbreaking yet perfect crescendo.
A masterful work. I cannot recommend this enough.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
Fantastic.
I've been in a movie hole lately... And I'm admittedly late to the show with this one, but this was a fantastic film. Entertaining, great story, excellent character development, moving, fun, thoughtful - a thoroughly enjoyable movie experience. I even "wowed" out loud a few times.
This is how you make a superhero film, hands down the best one I've seen.
Pokémon: Detective Pikachu (2019)
I just don't know.
Ryan Reynolds reprises his role as Deadpool in Toho's Detective Pikachu.
I was entertained by this; it was fun to look at and actually aesthetically reminded me of Bladerunner 2049 at times... Which made me wish I was watching that instead. This film however, was only boring for a bit - but does that make it a good movie?
No. No it doesn't.
The Pikachu creature CGI looked pretty darn superb, but most of the other Pokémon looked lackluster at best - Mew Two had "hips" or something? It creeped me out, it was embarrassing, and had horrid CGI. Why on Earth the CG quality was not consistent across all of the Pokémon confused me - I missed much of any plot pondering that, it was jarring and surreal.
The acting was just about passable. I almost felt some modicum of sympathy for Smith's character. The plot and "twist" were painfully predictable, but charming enough. The jokes were actually pretty good - I'm not going to lie, I laughed quite a few times.
I (willingly) get dragged to all of this tripe with my kids, and out of all of the films I've suffered through lately (Avengers: Endgame, and Dumbo) this one was almost the least painful of the bunch. The crown for least painful goes to... *drumroll*... Lego Movie 2. Yup, I know.
But... This really isn't saying much.
It was (Sigh) fine. Just fine. I wasn't too bored, and there was lots of fun stuff to look at, it was mostly quite pretty and there were some laughs along the way. It's cheap and cheerful, an easy watch with the family. Shallow, but fine.
I probably liked this movie a bit more than I should have, but not as much as I wanted to.
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
I don't get it.
This movie was awful; the acting was abhorrent, the special effects looked like a spy kids movie, and the plot was verging on completely ludicrous. I was ready for a simple popcorn flick, but this movie committed the worst crime of all; it was horrendously boring.
This film had zero depth, the characters were two dimensional, and the jokes mostly fell flat for me. The actors looked bored, and at times there was more green screen than the Star Wars prequels. Worse still, there were times where it felt like certain actors weren't even on set at the same time as the others, and it was all edited together afterwards.
I wish I had the infinity glove so I could click my fingers and cut this movie by 50% of its runtime.
Bob Lazar: Area 51 & Flying Saucers (2018)
It's not a perfect film, but it's a very important one.
I'm not a review guy, but I wanted to weigh in on this important title. Like many, I'd written off Bob Lazar years ago without looking into his claims in any detail; "The guy who said little green men are at Area 51", and similar vague (and patently false) thoughts that probably made me feel that the whole matter was cut and dry, done with long ago. This documentary changed my mind, and it fundamentally humanized Mr. Lazar whom (as other reviewers have commented) comes off as being entirely sincere and credible. His claim is a simple one, yet profound in its revelations.
This film moved me to see the real Bob, the Bob that has friends and a family, lives his life in the shadow of what he experienced in the 1980's - I really empathized with him - his pain is written on his face, and you can sense very fervently that coming forward has not been easy for him in the long run. If I have one overt critique, it's that we didn't see even more of that - Bob is a character I could spend days with; he is gentle, deep, eccentric, smart - a rare sort. Bob is an inherently affable gentleman, and clearly stands out as a credible source despite well-traversed (and frankly tiresome) complications with his educational background, though I have no problem believing that his past employers have gone to some length to discredit him, especially due to George Knapp's assertions that he's spoken to Lazar's former colleagues and classmates.
At the end of the day, simple questions can not be answered unless Bob was actually at the S4 outpost at Area 51. The revelation that Area 51 was indeed a government site was not made public until the 90's, years after Bob's claims. Furthermore, it was reveled in due course that they DID in fact test "secret" planes at the facility - variations of the stealth bomber for example. Even if Bob had guessed the facility existed somehow, the exactitude of his claim that they tested craft there is too detailed to be guess work. Add to that his claim regarding Element 115, and the fact that this element wasn't synthesized until 2003 - it's remarkable stuff, and we are privileged to live at a time when this information is available.
There are so many details that make this a breathtaking case; the biometric scanners Lazar described at the outpost (another item later confirmed to be real), the fact he took people out to witness the craft actually operating... it's all too utterly vast to be put down to chance or creative invention alone. Mr. Lazar makes no claims about knowing fully where these craft originated - only that we did not build them. Furthermore, Mr. Lazar has not accentuated his claims over the years, and has remained steadfast in his story even when it definitely did not suit him to do so (during an unfortunate court-case for example where admitting this as a hoax would have reduced his sentence significantly).
This was a very good film. I just can't understand the slew of negative reviews? We're being given gold, and we're turning our noses up at it. It isn't a perfect film to be sure; but Jeremy Corbell is honing his skill at translating a very difficult subject matter into something with more of a narrative, he's trying to reach the widest audience possible and tell an emotive and compelling story on his way there. I am grateful to the filmmaker, Bob Lazar, and George Knapp for putting this film forward - you have changed my mind in the process. Thank you.