Gretel & Hansel

POSITIVES…

  • Atmospheric. Eerie. Foreboding. Disturbing. Creepy. This is a movie that emphasizes the tone and look of horror, as opposed to just trying to shock and scare you. I say it works rather well for this stylish film.

  • The visuals are simply magnificent to look at. Even the more disturbing scenes. Fantastic cinematography, with picturesque imagery.

  • Production and set design are also spot-on for this film. Helps sell how vulnerable and isolated the characters are.

  • Gender-politics and coming-of-age themes are infused into the narrative, and I kinda appreciated this take on the classic Grimm Fairy Tale.

  • The plot progressed well enough, and contains some good world-building elements.

  • I liked what they did with Gretel’s character here, and we’re all lucky that this movie had Sophia Lillis in the role. Amazing young actress. Incredible performance.

  • Not to be outdone, Alice Krige is really good playing the witch Holda. The presence she brings on the screen is just top notch.

NEGATIVES…

  • The story might come off unsatisfying, as it either feels incomplete, too short, or just a big tease to what else it could have been.

  • For those looking for big scares, this one doesn’t really have that.

  • For those looking for horror, this one has some elements, but not a lot.

  • The concluding climax kinda just happens, then ends. I wanted maybe a little more than what we got there.

  • There will be people that will say that this movie is “too artsy,” boring, or too slow.

P.S….

loveditenjoyedit LIKED IT itsokayitsmehitsterrible

The Rhythm Section

POSITIVES…

  • Blake Lively is amazing in this as Stephanie Patrick. She brings the appropriate amount of vulnerability to her tragic character, but is able to show how strong and brave she is as well. It’s an intense role that she plays wonderfully.

  • The action sequences are also quite something to experience. There’s a sense of realism and grittiness to the physical combat and the chase scenes, that I really appreciated.

  • There are some amazing cinematography and picturesque imagery found in this movie. I loved the look and style of this film overall.

  • Director Reed Morano set out to make an “unglamourous” espionage drama and she succeeded. The tone and pacing is perfect in establishing that this isn’t some fantastically over the top hero adventure, but a you don’t really want to be in her shoes kinda drama.

  • As far as action thriller revenge flicks go, the premise is engaging enough to see it through until the end. Each of the revenge scenes were done rather well.

NEGATIVES…

  • This is not what would be called a “fun” spy action thriller revenge flick. Some might argue that it’s too serious, melodramatic, and dour, to be entertaining.

  • There are sequences that could be described as “tragedy porn.” Some might say it’s a little exploitative.

  • Then there’s the conclusion that kinda just happens… Don’t know how satisfying it would be for you.

  • Jude Law also plays a role that has a little bit too much intensity, and was also somehow underdeveloped for me to be completely onboard with the character.

P.S….

loveditenjoyedit LIKED IT itsokayitsmehitsterrible

The Lion King (2019)

POSITIVES…

  • Just from the fact that this is practically an exact remake of the original 1994 version, automatically gives this movie an entertainment value.

  • The story and premise are still engaging.

  • The key scenes and set pieces are still memorable.

  • The musical score are still amazing to listen to.

  • The songs are still catchy as heck.

  • The characters are still awesome, and has a good voice acting cast.

  • The scene stealers are still Timon and Simba.

  • The visuals are a technical marvel to watch on screen. Seriously, for an animated film that is 99.9 percent CGI, it all looks real.

NEGATIVES…

  • Despite the modern “upgrades” and the longer run time, this is still not as great of a final product as the 1994 version was.

  • It may be unfair to compare the two, but because the story and premise are pretty much the same, it’s really impossible not to pick which one did it better, and that’s the 1994 version.

  • There are also key scenes missing from the 1994 version that I frankly wished were included in this newer version.

  • Not a complete slight, but the songs were sung better in the 1994 version.

  • The “Can you feel the love TONIGHT” scene somehow ignored the fact that the whole montage was set during the DAY TIME?!

  • As good as the CGI are, the facial expressions (or lack thereof) of the animals don’t work as well with these visuals.

P.S….

loveditenjoyedit LIKED IT itsokayitsmehitsterrible

You Can Watch It On Disney+

The Last Full Measure

POSITIVES…

  • It’s worth acknowledging this movie’s worth purely for bringing the story of Airman William H. Pitsenbarger, Jr. ("Pits") on the big screen. If you don’t know who he is, you should. Go see this film.

  • You know how you are able to be enthralled by somebody just verbally telling you a good story? That’s this movie. It’s filled with scenes after scenes of somebody telling you a really powerful story, without much need for all that visual flourishes to keep you enraptured by it. The stories are that strong, they stand on their own. That’s this movie in a nutshell.

  • Features a fantastic cast of actors, with a good lead in Sebastian Stan.

  • There are some very emotionally moving scenes in this, that showed some great dramatic talent from Christopher Plummer, Ed Harris, Peter Fonda, and William Hurt.

  • The war reenactments were very engaging to watch and didn’t shy away from the violence and death.

  • I appreciated how this movie doesn’t romanticized the notion of being in combat.

  • This movie only proves the point that we should honor our war veterans, support those who are enlisting, and emphasizes the fact that countries should avoid going to war as much as possible.

NEGATIVES…

P.S….

lovedit ENJOYED IT likedititsokayitsmehitsterrible

The Turning

POSITIVES…

  • Amazing visuals and set design. Great cinematography. This film’s visuals are quite something to look at.

  • The slow burn of the pacing, and the dark tone, are perfect for the narrative.

  • Mackenzie Davis had the stand out performance here. Finn Wolfhard was excellent playing the incredibly creepy kid. Brooklynn Prince and Barbara Marten were also good in their roles as well.

  • With the way the story is going, you’re going to want to see how the movie ends.

NEGATIVES…

  • A lot of people are going to hate hate hate how this movie ends.

  • Maybe they’ll just generally hate how the whole final act plays out.

  • Then the end credits sequence is like a knife to your gut, in how it seems like the movie is blatantly mocking your reaction to that ending.

  • While this has the excuse of being yet another film adaptation of Henry James' novella "The Turn of the Screw," it still doesn’t help that there’s a certain level of familiar plot tropes and cliches that keep this movie from feeling fresh.

  • Established premise aside, I couldn’t help but feel a little unfairly manipulated by how the narrative for this story goes. I suppose this is one of those stories that just isn’t for everybody.

  • While this film technically knows how to create good tense build-ups and anticipations for the scares, the actual scares themselves somehow felt unsatisfying.

  • There’s a certain level of frustration when it comes to having to watch annoying characters in this movie. Let’s just say that between Kate, Miles, Flora, and Mrs Grose, I found three of those characters annoying. I hope you have the patience to put up with them.

P.S….

loveditenjoyeditlikedit IT’S OKAY itsmehitsterrible

The Gentlemen

POSITIVES…

  • You like Guy Ritchie making movies about organized crime, crooks, cheats, tough guys, violent men, and all that? Well, here’s a new one for you.

  • I thought this was very Entertaining, with a capital E.

  • There’s a lot of charming and clever narratives, set pieces, scenes, plot turns, and dialogue, that I really enjoyed.

  • Solid writing and engaging premise aside, the huge ensemble cast is really what makes this movie shine.

  • Matthew McConaughey is the epitome of a cool cat here. Also, he’s a powerful lion as well, in this role of marijuana king Mickey Pearson.

  • Charlie Hunnam is absolutely great as Mickey’s right hand man Ray, and is likely the character you will find yourself the most attached to.

  • Hugh Grant is delightful as Fletcher, the “narrator” to this story that’s also a very sneaky devil you’ll love to hate.

  • Henry Golding is fantastic as Dry Eye, the antagonist you’ll enjoy rooting against.

  • Colin Farrell is just the best as “Coach.” A crowd pleaser of a character, and I feel for him in how he gets involved with the rest of these criminals.

  • Michelle Dockery. Do not mess with her!

  • Say what you will about romanticizing the lifestyle found in this movie, but from the very beginning, and all the way to the credits, I had a lot of fun watching it.

NEGATIVES…

  • Doesn’t really add anything much new to these types of films.

  • People looking for huge action set pieces and big shoot outs might be disappointed.

  • Some might argue that the story is too convoluted for its own good.

P.S….

lovedit ENJOYED IT likedititsokayitsmehitsterrible

Color Out Of Space

POSITIVES…

  • This is HP Lovecraft cosmic horror put on film rather well by Director Richard Stanley.

  • It’s like watching a descent into madness, with imagery that I won’t be forgetting anytime soon.

  • Creepy. Disturbing. Icky. Frightening. Horrifying. What happens to the characters (and animals) in this movie, I do not wish on anyone.

  • The creature work and the body-horror elements were just the stuff of nightmares.

  • With all that said, this is a fascinating movie that kept me in suspense at what I was going to witness next.

  • Successfully made me feel helpless and hopeless for the characters on screen, which is a key element in creating a good horror movie.

  • It also helps that we got stand out performances by Madeleine Arthur, Nicolas Cage, Elliot Knight, and the rest of the cast to keep us invested into what happens in this movie.

NEGATIVES…

  • First act felt kind of clunky with the whole setup to the premise.

  • Can there be too much Cage? Maybe. Especially when it starts to cross over into self-parody, which can be argued happens in this movie.

  • There’s an unexplainable aspect to the narrative that might not work at all with some people.

P.S….

lovedit ENJOYED IT likedititsokayitsmehitsterrible

Dolittle

POSITIVES…

  • Despite how silly they are, I found the animals quite entertaining, along with the voice cast that brings them to life.

  • I found the fact that Robert Downey Jr seemed very natural and convincing interacting with the animals to be one of the strengths of this movie.

  • Michael Sheen was also a good antagonist as Dr. Blair Müdfly. I give him kudos for looking like he was having fun playing the role as broad and over the top as he can.

  • The story itself is perfectly adequate and held my interest until the end. I did in fact wanted to see where it was going.

  • At its heart, the movie has some good lessons to teach the kids that this movie is clearly targeted for.

NEGATIVES…

  • The comedy in this movie is far too conventionally “kid humor” for my taste. On that note, a lot of the humor just didn’t work for me. Some were even kind of obnoxious.

  • This movie is filled with characters that hardly get much development, and are really just there to fill a plot point.

  • The character that really should be fleshed out more is our audience surrogate “Tommy Stubbins” played by Harry Collett. Unfortunately, despite some backstory and motivation, he’s still more or less a cypher.

  • Many overly ridiculous plot development in this movie, expected us to just take at face value. Hopefully they don’t completely break your suspension of disbelief.

  • Much has been said about the climax ending of this movie, but go back and see my point about how it leans towards the conventional kid humor.

P.S….

loveditenjoyeditlikedit IT’S OKAY itsmehitsterrible

Just Mercy

POSITIVES…

  • It’s worth acknowledging this movie’s worth purely for the true story it’s covering.

  • Premise itself and the plot is definitely engaging enough to see it through until the end.

  • The themes and several of the things that is shown to us in this movie are definitely worth further discussion.

  • There were some powerfully moving and heavy dramatic scenes in this film that really grabs your attention, like the court scenes which were very effective.

  • Several highlights of this film however are truly the simple looking scenes of two people exchanging some words, having a conversation, or an argument. Some strong material there.

  • Michael B Jordan is incredible as Bryan Stevenson, and it’s really hard not to be completely behind this man who is facing all the challenges thrown at him in this story.

  • Jamie Foxx gives us some truly remarkable scenes as Walter McMillian, that showcases what a talent he is.

  • The rest of the cast were also great. Rafe Spall, Brie Larson, Rob Morgan, O’Shea Jackson Jr, and especially Tim Blake Nelson.

  • I really have to give kudos to Co-Writer / Director Destin Daniel Cretton, for having a sure hand in giving us the narrative to this story that’s based on real events.

NEGATIVES…

  • Based on a true story aside, it’s still a relatively familiar drama that might come off as predictable at times.

  • Considering the fact that this movie is advocating a particular opinion, people might accuse it for being too one-sided.

  • I wasn’t completely satisfied with how the character that Hayes Mercure plays was handled.

P.S….

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Weathering With You

POSITIVES…

  • Beautiful. The visuals are so beautiful to look at. Amazing imagery. Awesome animated work.

  • The premise is interesting and fascinating and overall entertaining.

  • Once the movie gets going with its primary story, it completely hooks you into it and won’t let go until the end credits start rolling. You’re gonna want to see where this tale goes.

  • Some of the story set pieces found in this animated film were quite moving.

  • It’s hard not to root for our protagonists of this movie.

  • The premise keeps the young adult teenage romance plot from being too derivative.

  • Can be accused of being too melodramatic and too earnest, but the movie justifies itselfs for openly wearing it’s heart on it’s sleeve.

  • It’s got a good sense of humor too.

  • I LOVE the soundtrack for this movie!

NEGATIVES…

  • The first act was so clunky in exposition and set up, that I would like to just skip to when it gets good.

  • Some people might take issue with a major decision a character makes towards the end.

  • There are plot conveniences that seemed to get right on the edge of going too far.

P.S….

lovedit ENJOYED IT likedititsokayitsmehitsterrible