Great cast across the board and a lovely story carried by those convincing performances. It sways between romanticism and realities with mostly ease and it feels heartfelt.
Categories: Movie and Series Reviews, Drama
28 Days Later (2002) 3.5/5
I don’t get so pumped for the finale but it isn’t bad. It is a fun zombie flick with some cool presentations in its visuals and audio.
The young actor who plays Hannah seems to have trouble delivering believable dialogue. Like its really bad and I am surprised Boyle didn’t step in, especially at a big loss scene.
With Garland and Boyle, now more recognized both as directors, involved in a proper sequel, I am excited.
American Made (2017) 3.5/5
It is like a lot of Liman movies. It trades sense often for flash but it isn’t bad at doing it. When I think of dumb-but-fun-flicks, this is what I want. It beats sorting past 100 action hero flicks at a Redbox. Wow, Redbox. Are those still around?
BlacKkKlansman (2018) 3.5/5
I’m torn because I really loved some aspects but some liberties felt out of place. Starting there, I think the romance plot and the mustache twirling officer felt a bit hamfisted. To not go into spoilers, I will just say this reaches a peak at the end of the film.
That being said, the cast did wonderful and there was some really good writing. I also felt mixing in direct-life clips was handled well and that is not easy to do.
I ended up peaking the wiki page for this one after and I found a lot of the parts I had trouble with were the parts adjusted to fit a Hollywood movie. Kinda a shame because the movie is fantastic in so many ways. Obviously there was a way to do these things but as is I think they felt too from-the-script-to-the-screen. It didn’t feel natural.
Don’t let what I am saying deter you though. I feel I am being a bit picky and I will probably wish I had given another half-star later.
No Country for Old Men (2007) 5/5
Categories 5/5, Crime, Drama, Movie and Series Reviews, Thriller 
A movie you peel back again and again.
Atlas (2024) 1.5/5
There are a lot of neat parts here but it just doesn’t come together well, and I think that falls very heavily on the direction and the script.
Everything else ranges from serviceable to good. I am not a big JLo listener/watcher but I think I could see people wrongly putting it on her shoulders because her face is all over it. None of the actors felt like they were slacking off and the fx house did some neat work.
3:10 to Yuma (2007) 3.5/5
A good movie but a little too cleanly puzzled together. The scripts cleanliness takes front stage to character motivations. This makes for some admittedly fun one liners and impressive scenes, but it feels very Hollywood by the end. Even the wrapping up feels like everyone says the right thing in unnatural ways to get it to the overall cool idea. This leaves Dallas Roberts, as the money man, to just be super agreeable at every step.
This also may be the cleanest R rated film. I am not advocating for going Bone Tomahawk, but it detracts how every death is so visually polite. Especially when quite a lot of characters are motivated by dealing and avoiding death out.
If that seems tough on the film, it is only because I really like certain parts. Ben Foster is fantastic and chews what he can with his dialogue. Peter Fonda really nailed his holyer-than-thou role. Bale is awesome and lets scenes breath around him. It is always fun to see Alan Tudyk, even if his character felt very cut down in editing here or in need of some actual doctoring scenes along the journey.
MoviePass, MovieCrash (2024) 3/5
Categories 3/5, Comedy, Crime, Documentary, Drama, Movie and Series Reviews 
It was entertaining. I never had a membership and know nothing about it so I can only go off of how it was presented. It did feel like there was a little bit of padding with some of the people they talked to.