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luisgentil
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O Rei da TV (2022)
Someone had to do it I guess
I've been away from broadcast TV and media in general these last few years. But at some point the only thing I'd watch was Silvio Santos' show. As a kid I'd be scolded for staying up late watching his Sunday shows. There's sort of an uncanny energy around him, in his bearing, his voice, intonation, looks, that is so unique you just can't stop watching, even if he's doing something as dull as pitching you to buy one of his lottery tickets.
That said, I only knew about this show because of an ad in the home screen of Android TV, and I just had to see what it was about.
I don't know many details of Silvio's trajectory. The show is supposed to dramatize one of the many climactic moments of his life that made national news. I didn't even know about this one in particular. But the story is interspersed with scenes from his past, how he started and how he made it into what he is, from street vendor to nationwide famous big shot entrepreneur/showman.
There's a change in tone between past and present. Past is more serious and thrilling, present is comical and goofy. Makes for a strange combination, no doubt. But the pacing isn't bad. The constant jumps don't make it particularly confusing, and as I was worried that the narrative would lose track in this back and forth, thankfully with time the purpose of this device becomes more clear.
But it bothers me a little that there are gaps in the story during the flashbacks, that sometimes jumps to a point months or years later, skipping past potentially interesting details and characters. I missed proper introduction of some of the characters in the story too. Some of them which are widely known in real life just pop up in the series out of nowhere. This might just be a strikeout or an editing thing, but I think the narrative should be self-sufficient and not rely on external context, as non-Brazilians or younger generations might want to watch this and not know what's the deal with those apparently random characters.
Considering that for many decades in Brazil a comedian won't see the light of day if he can't make an accurate impression of Silvio, the fact that the actors chosen (teenager, young adult, and middle aged) don't look or sound like him is also weird. They're fairly entertaining, but if you're familiar with the icon, you need a greater effort to be immersed and make yourself believe the actors are who they're representing.
But overall I found the narrative to be tightly knit and engaging. The series portrays Silvio as having a natural interest and talent for both showmanship and sales from a young age, more often than not becoming an instant hit the moment he opened his mouth, a keen eye for business opportunities, a genuine interest for the common folk, and with an astounding fluidity to turn almost everything around to his favor, which doesn't seem so far from the truth.
Apparently, the series is getting backlash due to inaccuracies in his biography. I wouldn't know about that. Maybe someday I'll pick one or more books to read so I'll be able to judge that
In the meantime, it's a fairly competent series about Silvio Santos and I'm on for that. If a better one comes out I'll watch it too.
A Menina que Matou os Pais (2021)
Interesting attempt at a crime thriller
Real life crimes aren't as well explored in Brazilian cinema as they could be. Which is why I think the idea to dramatize a famous crime was a perfectly valid attempt. And some of the details shown are very interesting, The choices made, though, fell flat in an attempt to maybe try a new formula. The choices I refer to are skipping the whole police investigation, not making any attempt to build up suspense and straight up spoiling all the facts to the audience in the first 5 minutes. The two-part movie was made with the only purpose of making a point that the testimonies of two perpetrators are conflicting in a few key points. The result is that the two parts are mostly redundant and feel like you're watching two slightly different cuts of the same movie. The conflicting testimonies aren't a strong enough premise to revolve the whole project around, and could be clearly shown to the audience in maybe 10 minutes in the third act. The events the movies are based on happened almost 20 years ago, but the script just assumes that it's useless to make a compelling narrative because everyone already knows how it ends. A sad waste of potential.
Child's Play (2019)
So deliciously trash
Looking for a movie to watch with my fussy wife and for some reason this was one of the few she was willing to give a try. She hated it and I laughed my ass off the whole time.
I don't remember much about The 1988 original but I just thought it was pretty weird (I guess B-movies are one of those things you have to learn to like). This new take is kind of a homage with a fresh take concerning technology that kind of reminds me of a Black Mirror episode, but without the slightest intention of taking itself seriously.
Don't expect a compelling atmosphere, plot, or any decent jump scares. Everything is very B-rated, so if you're into that just gather some friends, grab a bucket of popcorn and you'll have a great time.
The Lion King (2019)
Circle of Life made me want to cry, again
I've read and watched tons of critics to this movie and really wasn't expecting much. I'm fully aware about the discussions on emotionless animals and uncanny valley and so on. I think it's perfectly valid to address the choices made in this movie. But I'm sorry I can't jump on the bandwagon, as cool as it is looking right now. Disney spent tons of money so I can sit on a comfortable chair in an air-conditioned room, eat pop corn and be entertained. And I don't expect any more from them. The movie is stunning and colorful and the music is great. The animals are beautiful with lots of cute cubs, the landscape is marvelous. I'm fully satisfied with what I saw. The 1994 animation is still there last time I checked, so much so that it is trending in every platform. Nothing is lost, there's just two versions now, so you can go ahead and brag about liking the classic one better. You can even say you'd rather read Hamlet if you really want to try that hard. Bye
The Act (2019)
Like an ID show but with more spice
I thought it was pretty much on the lines of an ID show, but with consistently better dramatization and a few narrative features to create suspense and get around the interviews that would normally appear in these accounts.
Overall I thought it was extremely well made, especially the depiction of the psychological implications involved. It brings up a lot of interesting topics on psychological abuse, Stockholm syndrome and other things everyone can relate to some extent.
I agree that maybe it would be better if it was a movie. It's a little too dragging in the beginning, but the latest episodes completely make up for it.
Cobra Kai (2018)
A breath of fresh air
It's so good to watch something so exciting and entertaining and that doesn't walk on eggshells with its audience. The show strays from political correctness and brings us a compelling and believable follow-up to the events of the original Karate Kid, with two apparently opposing worldviews on dealing with life's obstacles. Cobra Kai's ruthless stride for your goals and Miyagi-do's search for emotional balance. You know a show is good when it completely hooks you five minutes in on the first episode.
The Orville (2017)
Astonishing
This series conveys so much a sense of awe, discovery and adventure, with humor sprinkled everywhere and at the same time addressing important issues of modern society. And it's visually beautiful. The effects, the scenery, the costume design, all really compelling. Great characters, funny, relatable and well developed. It's amazing how much value is contained in every single episode. This series that at first seemed like a spoof just for the laughs caught me so off guard that I'm not even sure I can point out any flaws so far.
February (2015)
Dollar store plastic knife
Incredibly boring. The static artsy tone definitely doesn't fit the genre. When something actually interesting was supposed to happen it was too amateurish to even hook me.
The Open House (2018)
No purpose at all
I don't remember ever watching a movie that doesn't try to make a narrative. Basically what it does is introduce the characters, put them in a series of random situations (that you might think will build up to something), and then it ends. It's like half a bridge built over a flatland. I can't say this movie has any redeeming quality when character development, acting, photography or whatever was made decently in the movie serves no purpose at all. I thought movies were supposed to tell a story.
Beauty and the Beast (2017)
Reviews here are overwhelmingly bad and probably shying away those who liked it
I agree with many of the negative points about the movie. Emma Watson is cute and charming but not the best character for the role, and the CGI beast is awful. Maybe I watched the original film too long ago, but I thought it was a touching and audiovisually gorgeous movie that definitely didn't deserve less than 5 stars (my rating is actually overrated to make it some justice).
In light of the controversy that surrounded the movie, it probably left social justice warriors disappointed. They added a new song in which Belle suggests that she lost her innocence and became a fully grown woman when she started to notice the kinder side of the Beast and grew feelings for him. And LeFou, one of the characters that caused the controversy, is one of the comic reliefs, and a very good one I might add.
This movie is definitely not in the same category as Maleficent, in which the original story was twisted and deformed to fit a political agenda and disown and make fun of Disney's own mythology. It is in almost every aspect a live action version of the original movie with a few liberties taken.
It is beautiful and family safe in every aspect (except maybe for a 2/3 second scene near the end that might raise eyebrows), and it is the same beautiful story of love and sacrifice as the original.
Get Out (2017)
Loved the premise, but hated the execution
I would say this is a thriller with a horror premise, since the story only develops in the last 30 minutes. During the first hour of movie all you get are two tiny jump scares and a few scenes that leave you intrigued, but not creeped out.
I spent the first 60 minutes thinking it would be SJW movie and seriously thinking about turning it off. The ending kind of made up to it, but a movie that fails at pace and genre shouldn't have an 8+ rating.
The Eyes of My Mother (2016)
Movie too dragging and ending too sudden
The black and white and the Portuguese fado really set a great atmosphere in this movie. It sets the stage for a horrifying and disturbing story.
But until near the end of the movie nothing actually happens, except for some background story. The few dialogues are monosyllabic, scenes are cut just when they start to get interesting, and the entire movie is interspersed with long dragging static scenes and exaggerated time leaps. Character development here is practically zero.
When the real substance of the plot begins, the movie is 20 minutes from the end.
The choices made here are confusing. The entire movie is about 75 minutes long, and although they abuse static scenes (making it feel a lot longer, by the way), they couldn't spare 3 or 5 more minutes to make a decent ending. The ending is clear to the viewer, but as with all interesting scenes, it is cut short just before the climax.
The Girl with All the Gifts (2016)
This is not a new take on the zombie genre. It's a bad adaptation of Star Trek's Miri episode
The movie is well shot, has great visual effects and a lovely main character. But the overall experience was deeply annoying. Practically no background story, a bunch of plot holes, and a sudden and anti-climatic ending.
This movie is marketed in many ways with a hint of drama. The title, the trailer and the first act of the movie all try to convey that. Not only this is not delivered, but the movie seems to mock you for believing that.
The ending of this movie looks like an inside joke made to feature in the blue ray as an alternative ending.
Arrival (2016)
Inconsistent
Okay, I'm going to make a hyperbole here: imagine that you are trying to intermediate peace negotiations and break the language barrier between humans and an alien race. At one moment you understand the aliens saying "death to all humans", but maybe this is not what they said. Maybe you got it wrong, maybe "death" has a different nuance in alien language. Then you turn to the US Army and say "They said they want to kill all humans". As the soldiers run to their weapons and tanks you try to stop them because you don't know exactly what they mean. If you don't want to start a war that was a great opportunity to keep your mouth shut!
All my linguist friends were talking about how excited they were about this movie, which revolves around a linguist trying to decipher the language of the first alien race to ever attempt to make contact with humanity. It all seemed very bold and creative, and the trailer images of Amy Adams taking notes on cool looking circular scripts looked very promising.
But it became obvious that cool looking scripts were the only good idea in this movie. It is filled with plot holes and fillers that try to convey a deeper meaning that does not exist.
I'm only going to talk about the part that first attracted me to the movie, which was the linguistic part. So a US Army Colonel decides that this specific linguist, Louise Banks, is the chosen one in all America to intermediate humanity's first contact with an alien race, because a few years ago she translated a Farsi conversation. Even if you ignore the fact that almost every university in the world have Farsi classes, Farsi belongs to the same language family English does, and is easier to learn than more popular languages such as Mandarin, Japanese, and Arabic. The only other thing we get to know about her is that she is a college professor. Is she a renowned and published scholar? Maybe... nobody cares, she speaks Farsi so it will have to do.
And so the Colonel shows her what appears to be the alien spoken language. And later comes a scene when Louise repeatedly listens to the excerpt of alien conversation, and it almost looks like she's getting somewhere. And the next day she comes and says, "You know what? Let's forget their spoken language altogether". It looked like the producers wanted to develop something in this area, but gave up, and this scene of Louise attentively trying to figure out alien speak slipped through editing. Eventually Louise finds out that the alien spoken and written language are completely disconnected. How the hell does she find that out if she doesn't even attempt to learn the spoken language? And moreover, using a written language that doesn't represent the spoken language is as exotic and alien as medieval universities publishing in Latin rather than the local language.
And so the rest of the movie revolves around Louise trying to decipher the alien written language. She is placed as the leader of a team of people, who I suppose are there to operate the printer that prints the alien letters for Louise to examine. And even ignoring the spoken language the producers fail to offer a cohesive theory about the script. At one moment they decide that one circle means an entire sentence full of complexity, and that every little blotch has a meaning. At other moments an entire circle actually means only one word. As exotic and intriguing as this alien script first seems, it's actually not very thought through.
Basically she learns the language by writing English on a white board and getting an alien translation in return. At the end Louise acquires the alien language, and with it entirely new cognitive concepts that allow her to see through time, which supposedly borrows from the Sapir-Whorf theory. Then you need a huge suspension of disbelief to connect the dots and imagine that, even though everything she learned from the aliens was based on her own input, she is very smart and managed to figure out all the alien's mysterious new concepts which gave her superpowers.
She is able to get a glimpse a future where she writes and publishes a book that teaches the alien language. So in the future everyone who reads her book will have superpowers! Many people, including many of the movie characters who were trying to bomb the aliens would in the future be able to see their lives from beginning to end and choose not to make the stupid decisions they've made! You know what, I shouldn't overthink about this movie.
Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)
I think fans need to understand movies are not entirely dedicated to them
Ask a friend whose first Star Wars movie was The Force Awakens if they liked it. For them many details will go unnoticed and they will be left with lots of questions, but it will still be a great movie. It is packed with adventure, action scenes, emotion, character development, amazing visuals, sound and cinematography. The effects, scenes and actors were very convincing and we are introduced to interesting new characters, plots and mysteries.
With less than a week of launch the internet is already buzzing with discussions and theories about the new plot and the new characters.
It seemed obvious to me that the producers didn't want to start the first chapter of this trilogy throwing at everyone's faces a bunch of politics and intrigues from the Star Wars universe the fans are probably used to from the novels, comics and videogames they've been exposed to for decades. A New Hope was launched almost 40 years ago, and people from all ages and backgrounds are going to see this movie now. Many people who have never been interested in Star Wars before have seen the repercussion of this new chapter and want to know what it's all about.
Of course the plot will be developed in further chapters, but the intention of this first movie of the trilogy was to attract new fans of the franchise while leaving lots of perks for the old ones. And in the end it left everyone in the dark and craving for more.
Reminiscence (2014)
A series of random scary scenes and apparently no one cares
I was also fooled by the synopsis and the trailer. I suppose if you read about a horror movie based on physics theories you expect an interesting plot. But this movie has no plot at all. All you get is one of the characters explaining some theory in an extremely broken English, so good luck understanding that.
There are a few good scenes like the ones showed on the trailer, but between those there are painfully slow-paced shots with two characters who are apparently unable to talk about what the hell is going on because of language limitations (why was it written in English anyway?). Halfway through the movie I wondered if it would end with them putting out a hashish pipe and coming back from a really bad trip.
Imagine you are having a series of visions so disturbing you cannot discern what is real and what is not anymore. Someone you know wakes you up and asks what happened and you say "I don't know, let's take a walk/get some rest". This dialogue repeats itself a few times until someone finally says "Uh, a bad dream...? Let's get something to eat."
I agree there must be something wrong with the positive reviews. They are trying to create an Emperor's New Clothes spiral of silence, implying that this movie is so sophisticated it will only appeal to a few select bright minds, when it's simply bad.
Drag Me to Hell (2009)
Painfully stupid and unconvincing.
Sorry for the mistakes, I'm not a native English speaker.
The story goes something like this:
For some reason, Christine felt in her heart that she had to help a swindler old woman who wouldn't pay her mortgage - and who had the strange ability to make horribly loud gooey sounds; but she denied help, and the old lady, who first seemed humble and desperate, showed insane aggressiveness.
After a fierce cartoonish fight between both, the old lady seemed unbreakable, but decides to take a long suck on Christine's chin - making her swallow some viscous yellowish saliva - stop fighting, take a button from her coat and curse her.
After standing hard strokes without faltering, the old lady went home and died, but left a stubborn handkerchief, who showed a very strong personality and had to be killed later on.
Christine finds out from a psychic that she had been cursed with a demon who looks like Baphomet but calls himself Lamia, and that the only way to convince him not to come and kill her is make a sacrifice, which she decides to do with her beloved kitty. But the psychic told her later that the method was not guaranteed (and in fact didn't work), so he told her of a psychic lady who had been waiting for 40 years to redeem a boy lost for this demon by helping someone else, but wouldn't find anyone willing to pay $ 10,000 for the job.
The psychic lady finally succeeds in expelling the demon, but dies right after the ritual with Christine's money. But, wait, that also guaranteed nothing, because the demon would still come back for the button's owner. Oh, God, there's no way to get rid of him!
Unless...
Oh, the scatter-brained psychic she first talked to forgot to tell her that she could have just given the button to someone else in the first place! She lost her kitty and her money for nothing!
Well, she put the button into an envelope and tried to give it to the old lady's dead body, but the corpse was worse than Bernie, and seemed to want some more fluid exchange and maybe a closer relationship with Christine.
Everything would have been fine if her boyfriend didn't have another envelope that looked exactly like the same as the one Christine had - even with a small round flat object inside.