I didn’t get peoples issue with Dakota Johnson until this movie. Surrounded by everyone giving their best and every one of her scenes was near identically flat.
That being said, there is a lot to like here. It is an enjoyable noir film with a large pool of people feeling out themes of redemption. Jon Hamm and Cynthia Erivo deserve special praise for carrying out their roles.
I am probably going too easy on the movie, rating a little higher than maybe I would on another day, but I enjoyed it. My interest was kept throughout and I found the acting mostly good to great. The movie isn’t perfect but it also is not a bad flick.
The twists aren’t so twisty, overly telegraphed to the point of being easy to see. However, the movie stays afloat above its necessity for subterfuge with careful direction and captivating atmosphere.
A house/hospital full of stuck people, literally and figuratively, makes a strong setting.
It is funny that you can walk away from the movie thinking Poirot gives some credence to mysticism or that you think he gives zero and everything can be explained. It makes for a little extra engagement.
I have a real soft spot for these movies. Even flawed, Hercule Poirot and Branagh are an attractive pair.
A classic movie for a lot of reasons. Eddie is great and so are all of the supporting cast, even down the smaller roles that elevate the film. The soundtrack is rightfully iconic. A lot of tropes keep the story very basic, but it dances around it in an enjoyable way.
There are some lulls in the movement though and not every scene is timed well, but overall it is a lot of fun.
Copley deserves all the praise he gets for his role. The movie is certainly unique and gets a lot of love for that alone. A lot of the parts waver in quality, hitting highs and lows. Overall though I think its worth any science fiction fans time and probably from a lot of people who aren’t.
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.
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?
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.
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.
End of Watch dances all over the line of over-the-top and plausible reality. Its characters are immensely watchable, even down to the supporting cast like Frank Grillo and David Harbour.
The character-perspective camera work captures the chaos in a unique way and furthers character development. However, it is also a distraction as the film explains in unbelievable ways why various characters are recording things. Ultimately though it feels unnecessary as the film mixes this documentary style with regular camera work.
Some of the script is really good, genuinely eliciting laughs, and some feels written with a hammer. The hammer can be said for a lot of things though, even outside of dialogue, with a movie that starts off with its lead cops immediately breaking their cover to walk up in a shoot out for the cool guys factor.
A really rough spot is the curbside gangsters, a constant villainous element throughout. These characters were comically mustache twirly. That could have worked fine, but they got too much screen time and it only greatly detracted.
It would be hard to have a bad time with End of Watch, just be ready to suspend some disbelief.
