Velvet Buzzsaw

POSITIVES…

  • No surprise here, but Jake Gyllenhaal once again completely throws himself into his character, and steals every scene he is in.

  • The rest of the cast is great in this as well, and it’s a fantastic set of actors. Rene Russo, Zawe Ashton, Toni Collette, Natalia Dyer, Daveed Diggs, Billy Magnussen, plus John Malkovich. Each one of them added some nice touches to the overall story.

  • I like the premise that Writer/Director Dan Gilroy has given us here. It’s uniquely fun, weird, fascinating, and has some thrilling plot turns.

  • There’s a thematic idea that’s worth discussing about.

  • The horror aspects are also nice additions to moving the plot along.

  • I’m sure people in the art-community will get a kick out of all the satirical inside jokes that other movie goers won’t get.

NEGATIVES…

  • The art-community doesn’t exactly get a glowing image by what we see in this movie.

  • There’s definitely a sense of pretentiousness and obnoxiousness with the characters, which isn’t exactly an appealing thing to sit through in the movie.

  • Sometimes the plot feels all over the place, with no real sense of proper storytelling.

  • For a movie about a visual medium, the look of this movie feels un-cinematic for some reason.

  • No matter how creative the ideas in this may seem, this somehow still feels like a throwaway movie that isn’t completely fully developed.

P.S….

  • I can only imagine what this premise would be like if done with comic books or graphic novels… unless that’s already been done…

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Watch It On NETFLIX

Miss Bala

POSITIVES…

  • First reason to bother seeing this movie for… Gina Rodriguez. She’s pretty good in this as Gloria, and absolutely carries the whole thing.

  • Second reason to see this movie. Ismael Cruz Cordova as Lino. The whole character dynamics between Gloria and Lino is one of the more interesting things about the story.

  • Third reason to check this out. The premise itself is worthy of attention. Especially considering it covers subject matters about drug and weapon smuggling, corruption, kidnapping, sex trafficking, plus other topics worth talking about.

NEGATIVES…

  • Being that this is already a remake, this isn’t going to win any originality awards.

  • Despite the fact the movie tackles some tough subject matters, the overall tone feels a little “too safe” for some reason. The tension needs to feel more ramped up than where it currently is.

  • Marketed as a big action thriller movie, but it really isn’t.

  • Some typically expected plot tropes, and conveniences, only emphasizes how average this movie really is.

  • Not a big fan of the last plot resolution.

P.S….

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Reign Of The Supermen

POSITIVES…

  • Fans get to see this comic book story and the four specific “Superman characters” brought to animated life here.

  • There’s a lot of bits involving the Superboy character that I thought were really fun to see.

  • The scenes involving Wonder Woman were definite highlights.

  • Lex Luthor had an interesting character arc.

  • Had some generally entertaining moments.

NEGATIVES…

  • It being generally entertaining doesn’t save this movie from being somewhat average to below average.

  • Remember how I said that Superboy had a lot of good stuff? Well there is one particular scene involving him that I thought didn’t make sense at all, and one other particular plot point that felt like a wasted opportunity.

  • Speaking of characters. Lois Lane was just poorly written in this.

  • I question the direction that they are taking Lex Luthor here. Especially by the end of the film.

  • Plot conveniences and some plot points that goes nowhere, ruins the movie a bit.

  • The whole thing overall just felt like a typically uninspired superhero comic book story, with not much to say, and not enough to make me care about what happened.

P.S….

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The Death Of Superman

POSITIVES…

  • I found this particular story to be better told than the original comic book version that it’s adapted from.

  • Part of this movie’s strength comes from the relationship between Lois and Clark / Superman. That’s the emotional core that drew me into this.

  • The pacing worked for me here, with its gradual build-up of the Doomsday character, and the things he did before he eventually encountered to Superman.

  • Successfully includes the rest of the Justice League heroes into what is essentially a Superman-centric story, with some choice highlights involving Wonder Woman, and Batman.

  • Lex Luthor gets to shine here, being all Lex Luthor.

  • The fight sequences were also good, and they properly conveyed a sense of danger.

  • Wasn’t scared to be all hard PG-13 here.

NEGATIVES…

  • The final scene showed that this movie was too scared to end it the way it should have ended. Kinda ruined that final emotional weight that this movie earned.

  • A couple of scenes took some suspension of disbelief, with me scratching my head as to why certain things had to happen.

  • Another movie that has to have some plot conveniences to move things along.

P.S….

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The Kid Who Would Be King

POSITIVES…

  • As a family friendly fun fantasy adventure movie, this is absolutely top notch!

  • Writer / Director Joe Cornish pours out a lot of creativity into several scenes that were just wonderful to watch on screen.

  • The cast is great in this, with Louis Ashbourne Serkis (Andy Serkis’ son) doing a great job in a very charismatic leading role of Alex.

  • Extra props to Angus Imrie! This actor is such a big scene stealer, and is hypnotizing to watch his portrayal of the younger looking Merlin. Patrick Stewart is expectedly great as the older looking Merlin, but Imrie is just simply brilliant in this and one of the main reasons to see this movie.

  • I could never get tired of scenes involving the sword being stuck in stone.

  • The plot progression and pacing is excellent in this, and never once did I feel bored. If anything else, I was constantly filled with wonder and excitement, as I anticipate what’s going to happen next in the story.

  • I really appreciated the overall theme of the story. It’s very apropos to modern society, and only makes me want to encourage everybody; especially kids, to see this film.

NEGATIVES…

  • Not exactly the most original idea of a movie. Derivative in ways that you expect it to be.

  • Blame it on the fact this is suppose to be family friendly, but during scenes that depict danger, you never really feel like the characters are in real danger.

  • There are moments that definitely force you to suspend your disbelief.

P.S….

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Polar

POSITIVES…

  • Mads Mikkelsen is cool, badass, and not afraid to show some vulnerabilities here as well. He’s easily the best thing about this movie.

  • The rest of the cast has some good moments to showcase their talents, with specific highlights coming from Vanessa Hudgens, Katheryn Winnick, and a Matt Lucas who looked like he was having way too much fun hamming it up on screen. Even Richard Dreyfus has a nice role in this as well.

  • It’s hyper-violent and has decently good action set pieces. There’s definitely a specific target audience that can appreciate that.

  • I really liked the final scene of this movie. It made me like the movie more than I would have without that scene.

  • This movie is almost like a throwback to the simple action thriller flicks of the past.

NEGATIVES…

  • Unfortunately this movie retains most of the bad elements from those past action thriller flicks.

  • Comes off more like a 13 year old boy’s juvenile fantasy from what he believes he wants from an action movie. Lots of bloody violence, plus lots of nudity and sex. Tired tropes that do not necessarily make a movie better.

  • The commonly used adage of “all style, no substance” would describe this film pretty well.

  • Let’s just say that this doesn’t exactly have the best use of women characters here.

  • I’m generally disappointed by the fact that this should have been better.

  • I also found myself frustrated and annoyed by certain scenes that came off as obnoxious, unnecessary, and embarrassing.

P.S….

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You Can Watch This Now On Netflix

Serenity (2019)

POSITIVES…

  • It has Matthew McConaughey. McConaughey is being all full blown McConaughey here, and that’s the kind of McConaughey you want to see. You even get to see him butt naked! Unless you consider that a negative.

  • The rest of the cast are good in this as well, but it was trashy fun seeing Anne Hathaway and Jason Clarke chew the scenery with their characters.

  • The first scene involves some intense fishing. Intense fishing, I tell you!

  • Speaking of scenery. This movie does have some beautiful looking shots.

  • At one point in the story, McConaughey’s character has a plot revelation that really changes things up, and makes the movie far more interesting than it deserves to be.

  • Kudos to the marketing department for trying their hardest to not spoil certain important aspects about the movie, because I really appreciated the ambitious surprise.

NEGATIVES…

  • There will definitely be people who wished the trailer spoiled the movie, because this “ambitious surprise” may completely kill the story for them.

  • I understand if somebody says that the movie’s plot is contrived, ridiculous, or just plain bonkers.

  • Your suspension of disbelief will absolutely get challenged here, and that will determine whether this movie is for you or not.

  • The Jeremy Strong character was annoying to me 75% of his screen time.

  • Some people will not like how the characters are written in this movie, and the dialogue that are given to them.

P.S….

loveditenjoyedit LIKED IT itsokayitsmehitsterrible

Glass

POSITIVES…

  • As the proper superhero movie entry to this trilogy that started with “Unbreakable,” I liked all the little winks that this film makes in respect to the genre.

  • The premise is overall sound, and I really liked most of the plot ideas that this has to offer. Shows some good ambitions and world building.

  • In regards to the story, there are definitely some plot developments during the second half that screams “This is definitely an M.Night Shyamalan movie!!!”

  • There were some truly stand-out scenes in the movie that usually involves James McAvoy’s character. Although, I thought the best moment in the movie actually involves a monologuing speech that Samuel L Jackson’s Mr. Glass makes towards the end of the movie.

  • Despite the excitement of seeing Bruce Willis and Samuel L Jackson reprising their characters from “Unbreakable,” James McAvoy absolutely steals the movie from them with his multiple personality performance. Incredible work by McAvoy here, that improves on what he did in “Split.”

  • Despite some personal expectations not being met, I can’t deny that the movie completely kept my attention, and made me really anticipate wanting to see how it all plays out in the end.

  • I appreciated the fact that by the end of this story, the movie absolutely justifies why it’s title is “Glass.”

  • One of the biggest compliments I can give this film is that it made me want to see more installment to this series of Shyamalan’s superhero universe of movies.

NEGATIVES…

  • This will just not meet people’s expectations, especially if they are expecting a similar superhero movie experience akin to the Marvel or DC entrees.

  • It feels like a superhero movie from the bygone era of the ‘80s or ‘90s, when the production budget just could not handle this kind of genre film.

  • There’s definitely not enough superhero action sequences in this one, to satisfy today’s movie going audience.

  • I’m sure people will accuse this movie for being frustratingly slow for a good chunk of it’s time.

  • Quite frankly, there also just wasn’t enough of David Dunn and Mr Glass in this movie.

  • Speaking of characters, this movie does not do any favors to the character of Casey Cooke, despite Anna Taylor-Joy doing her best to rise above the shoddy writing that she had to perform here.

  • Some of the plot developments and plot conveniences absolutely broke my suspension of disbelief, and ruined the overall experience a little bit.

P.S….

  • Some people might be wondering it, but yes, Spencer Treat Clark as Joseph Dunn and Charlayne Woodard as Elijah’s Mother are the same actors who played those roles in 2000’s “Unbreakable.”

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Replicas

POSITIVES…

  • Are you familiar with those low budget straight to video science fiction flicks that are more ambitious than the movie could actually handle, but manages to have some entertaining value anyway? This is one of those movies.

  • The main science-fiction premise is by far is the best thing about this movie, even when it goes bonkers during the final act.

  • I actually liked that the movie dedicates a huge chunk of it’s time to scenes about the process of making replicas. Those scenes produced some thought provoking ideas and situations, that Keanu Reeves; and Thomas Middleditch, has to make believable.

  • At a certain plot point, I found myself impressed that the movie actually tackles a very real world situation that other films would have just conveniently ignored or left as a plot hole.

  • Keanu Reeves “acting like Keanu Reeves” is a positive thing in the most entertainingly ironic way right?

NEGATIVES…

  • Keanu Reeves is expected to not be the most dynamic actor around, but what’s Alice Eve’s excuse for her poor performance here?

  • Going back to the final act… It is pretty bonkers, and goes from being a movie that have interesting ideas, into being the derivative standard fare that you expected this to be from the beginning.

  • A good chunk of this movie is actually not really dedicated to the parts where the replicas don’t know they are replicas, and the entertainment value that goes along with that kind of a plot thread. I’m pretty sure that’s the selling point that people will be looking forward to after seeing the promotional trailers, and I’m sure they’ll be kinda disappointed when they realize that’s not as prominent as they would have wanted it to be.

  • Some stupid and unbelievable things happen. Suspend your disbelief if you can.

P.S….

  • Filmed in Puerto Rico, and the plot does acknowledge that the story is taking place on the island. I was a little distracted with that fact, especially considering the current real world situation with the place.

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A Dog's Way Home

POSITIVES…

  • Are you a Dog lover? This movie is made for you.

  • I’m legitimately saying this, but I’m very impressed with how the Dog actor who plays “Bella” absolutely carries the movie, and gives you enough justification for seeing this.

  • The best parts of the movie was the roughly 400 Miles journey of Bella trying to get herself home.

  • Bella’s adventures in the wild, encountering other animals, and humans, absolutely kept me invested in the well being of this dog.

  • There are some nice parallels, metaphors, and social commentary, of comparing rescue dogs to War Veterans. At least that’s the impression I got out of it.

  • Happy moments, Sad moments, Funny moments, this hits all the necessary marks for a movie such as this.

NEGATIVES…

  • Yes, it can easily be argued that the movie is derivative, manipulative, and unbelievable.

  • The subplot involving the cartoonishly evil Animal Control Officer was just obnoxious to watch.

  • I would say 85% of all the scenes involving humans were my least favorite parts of the movie.

  • CG cougars and other animals! Yeah, it can look pretty bad, or unintentionally humorous to see that on screen.

  • If you’ve seen the full promotional movie theater for this movie, then yes, it does indeed spoil the ending of the movie. Although I’m sure you predicted that particular plot point was going to happen anyway right?

P.S….

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