Categories: Movie and Series Reviews

Glass (2019) 1.5/5

Categories Movie and Series Rating 1.5/5, Movie and Series Reviews

Glass is so impatient with its characters that it feels detached from Unbreakable and Split. The camera jumps around, dialogue is fast and sometimes feels weak, and McAvoy is a delight to see again but even his multiple characters are shown very little patience of time.

Some strings are also pulled way too tight to get all of these characters together again, some not making sense as they are portrayed.

Shyamalan is not always balanced in his casting and direction of said casts either, and this is no exception as there are uneven performances.

Shyamalan also, once again, falls victim to having cool ideas and hamfisting his way to their execution. Ultimately it does what it always does, cool moments mixed with nonsensical ones and an overall feeling of “if only he had done a better.” The characters deserved so much better.

Woman of the Hour (2023) 2.5/5

Categories Movie and Series Rating 2.5/5, Movie and Series Reviews

Woman of the Hour tries to tackle a real life story, and in that regard it falls on its face. In trying to tell a specific story, the film makes up characters, completely reinvents others, and ultimately ends up downplaying the serial killers degeneracy and, like so many of these, give him a smoothness that is inaccurate to history. (the real life character Kendrick played never went anywhere with him, noting he was “creepy”)

The other issue is that Anna Kendrick herself comes across very contemporary and feels out of place. Wardrobe, dialogue, and acting choices could have done a lot to make the character more believable to the period.

I get what the goal was with focusing around Kendrick’s character, her relationship with men at large, and the show, but I think the movie would have been better served without her prominence. It all felt a bit heavy handed and like it took up too much space. There is a more gripping story here, and it is the real one.

Dear Santa (2024) 1.5/5

Categories Movie and Series Rating 1.5/5, Movie and Series Reviews

I am not sure who will be watching this once it disappears from feeds. It does not commit enough to any direction and turns its premise and in-world rules about wishes into nonsense by the end of the film, and it does so for no payoff.

Jack Black’s costume was cool though.

American Gangster (2007) 4/5

Categories Movie and Series Rating 4/5, Movie and Series Reviews

An overall pretty good movie with two things I took a little issue with. One, I would have preferred a less fluffed ending, it almost seemed like the close out of a buddy-buddy film. Second, and I know I would get a lot of push back for this, I think Denzel didn’t give it his best. Denzel is great, so his decent is still pretty good, but I think he could have leaned in more at certain beats to drive home the stories intent.

Free State of Jones (2016) 3/5

Categories Movie and Series Rating 3/5, Movie and Series Reviews

Undeniably entertaining, but Free State of Jones does not do so in any inspired way.

A swing at an epic that falls short when you start to feel the runtime.

Massive appreciation to director Gary Ross for trying to explain what is and is not real in the movie (http://freestateofjones.info/). I am amazed the site is still up and running all these years later.

A Quiet Place Part II (2020) 4/5

Categories Movie and Series Rating 4/5, Movie and Series Reviews

Building off of what came before, Regan, the daughter, is now empowered and her and the movie at large are reconnecting humanity. If the first movie was about grief, sacrifice, and survival, then this one is about hope and resilience.

I’m just going to make a list here because I don’t have it in my to explain properly why I like this movie and yet have a lot of issues with it at the same time.

• Multiple times adult characters just up and leave children when everything tells us they would let them know first, if at least so that they do not follow.
• There is also a blatant misunderstanding of how a basic amplifier works and I looked really close for a battery compartment. You cannot just cut the cord off and immediately use it.
• Then there is the use of a record player as a two parter issue, one being that it is convoluted way to get attention and two being records do not just keep playing nonstop like an mp3 would. The second I can let go and assume the station had some automatic arm that was able to repeat the record.
• Oxygen tanks do not explode. Oxygen cannot make a fire, only contribute to it.
• There is a bit where a young character suddenly explores, but the characters motivation doesn’t really exist for this, and I would argue it exists in the opposite direction. I think there is a reason this scene is cut alongside another: one is good and one is not.
• The first movie showed that the creatures seemed like good swimmers. It seems retroactive to now make them die in water. It is around the hour and four minute mark in the original, the basement scene. I went back to check and the thing lowers its head in the water and slithers into it. Shallow? Sure, but that thing clearly was comfortable with water. It was submerged for almost 30 seconds of screen time. Also, Signs did it first.

That all having been said, I still enjoyed the movie and a lot of the touching sentiment was not missed on me. The list makes it seem as though I am going super hard on the movie, but I only say something because I got invested. The only truly awful thing was the amplifier, that hurt my soul. My mind says it is a 3 1/2, but my heart says to give it a 4.

Wolfs (2024) 3/5

Categories Movie and Series Rating 3/5, Movie and Series Reviews

A mediocre story, pulled beyond that by its cast. The first act is the best, a lot more methodical, but it gets a bit too loose at times. I think there was an opportunity to keep momentum with the two exchanging more tricks, but all is not lost even when it loses itself a bit.

Would I rewatch it? Probably not. I also don’t feel like I wasted time though.