All Day and a Night

POSITIVES…

  • Ashton Sanders has got that stoic, simmering rage, acting in spades.

  • His character of Jahkor has an interesting story, and I was invested to see how the film ends.

  • Highlights some cultural and socio-political aspects of living the inner-city life as a black man.

  • This film really gives us a taste on what everyday life is for Jahkor, in an almost slice-of-life kind of way.

  • It’s not often I get to see Jeffrey Wright play a gangster tough guy, so that was entertaining.

NEGATIVES…

  • It’s a familiar story you’ve seen before.

  • Kinda slow moving, and boring at times.

  • Meanders a little too much for my taste.

  • Not exactly a feel good movie.

P.S….

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Inside The Rain

POSITIVES…

  • What an odd premise for a movie, but it actually worked marvelously. It was hard not to be invested in seeing through the story, and with the characters.

  • Writer, Director, and Actor, Aaron Fisher, made this movie. Literally, and figuratively. His character of Ben Glass is easily the most engaging element of this film. His journey here takes you to random places you may not expect.

  • A comedic factor in this dramedy are the sometimes outrageous things Ben would just blurt out with no reservations and that’s quite entertaining.

  • The other comedic factor would be the almost sitcom level situations Ben would find himself in.

  • Another winning factor in this film are the scenes where Ben interacts with either the firecracker that is Rosie Perez, the always solid Paul Schulze, and the enigmatic Ellen Toland.

  • Humorous, charming, heartful, and even inspirational. Kudos to Aaron Fisher for making this movie.

NEGATIVES…

  • There are some obvious plot tropes that does in fact happen, and makes me wonder if the movie would have been better off without that.

  • I think there were at least two other better titles that could have been used for this movie, instead of “Inside The Rain,” although I get why that was used. Alternative obvious titles would either be “Recklessly Extravagant” or “Odysseus.”

P.S….

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The Lovebirds

POSITIVES…

  • As a comedy, I highly enjoyed this movie’s fun sense of humor, comedic timing, running jokes, and visual gags.

  • The dialogue is excellent! You know how I complain when movies do banter and bickering just for the sake of the fact that it’s supposed to be automatically entertaining, and then it’s not? THIS is how you do good bantering and bickering, that is actually fun to listen to! Well done movie!

  • Fantastic use of pop culture references and social commentaries. The way the conversation just randomly segue into them are really fun.

  • Far and away, Kumail Nanjiani and Issa Rae makes this movie so much fun to watch, as Jibran and Leilani. It’s really entertaining to see these two work so well together here.

  • Part of the fun charm of this movie is seeing how Jibran and Leilani react to the situations they encounter.

  • Speaking of situations, there are a lot of set pieces that really knows how to work in that comedy to make the most obvious scenarios into a fun time, like some particular chase scene, diner scene, interrogation scene, and more.

  • With the story being so fun as it is, it was easy for me to get invested in where the mystery was taking Jibran and Leilani, and to see what’s going to happen to the couple.

  • Despite some familiar grounds covered, it seemed to have that self-awareness to know what it is, and used that to its own advantage. This is a well made fun movie to watch! I shouldn’t have expected anything less from Michael Showalter; the Director of “The Big Sick.”

NEGATIVES…

  • There’s a sense of familiarity and derivativeness to the plot.

  • Remember, comedy is subjective.

P.S….

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Burning Dog

POSITIVES…

  • Enjoyed “Hardcore Henry” like I did, and want something else like it? Well this is similar to that, in that it’s a first person perspective movie. So the uniqueness of this filmmaking style is an experience you don’t normally get. There’s that.

  • The convoluted rabbit-hole of a plot might interest you enough to want to see through the whole story.

NEGATIVES…

  • This is nowhere near the quality of fun that Hardcore Henry offers, and does not really justify the first person perspective gimmick.

  • Bills itself as an action-comedy, but there’s hardly any action, and the attempts at comedy just falls flat on its face.

  • Tries real hard to be clever, with it’s quirky dialogue, jargon, flippant humor, random situations, and over thought world building, but nothing really sticks it’s landing.

  • Banter and bickering does not always equal entertainment!!!

  • Felt like solid actors like Greg Grunberg, Salvator Xuereb, Adrienne Wilkinson, Matt Bushell, and Eddie Jemison, are just doing this movie a favor by being in it. What a waste of talent.

  • You can only go so far having a joke that two cop characters are named Smythe and Wesson. Oh, and a lead character nicknamed “Five.” Really?

P.S….

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Scoob!

POSITIVES…

  • The classic Scooby-Doo characters in this animated movie are a lot of fun to see here, whether you were already familiar with them or not.

  • Despite the fact there’s a comfortable familiarity to what makes a Scooby-Doo story a Scooby-Doo story, the premise still offers a lot of welcome plot scenarios that fit well with the “bigger than normal” expectations of a feature film.

  • Overall an enjoyable animated movie, with a story that’s entertaining enough.

  • I liked the certain subplots involving Shaggy and Scooby, Dynomutt and Blue Falcon, and Fred.

  • Thematic-wise, there are some positive good lessons for the kids to be exposed to.

  • All the Hanna-Barbera cameos and easter eggs were all fun to see. I get that there’s a ton of winks and nods that are clearly made to patronize the audience’s nostalgia factor, but I didn’t care.

NEGATIVES…

  • I have to remind myself that this is purely a non-serious cartoon aimed at a young audience, and I should ignore the logical flaws, plot conveniences, the derivative story, and basic humor throughout.

  • I can already hear the complaints about the changes to traditions, plus the new voice actors behind those very familiar characters.

  • Don’t roll your eyes too much at all the winks and nods that are clearly made to patronize the audience’s nostalgia factor.

P.S….

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The Skywalker Legacy

POSITIVES…

  • For those who like behind the scenes documentaries of blockbusters, then this one’s for you!

  • If you liked the Rise Of Skywalker, you will find a lot of interesting facts about the making of the movie.

  • If you didn’t like the Rise Of Skywalker, you will probably find the documentary’s theme of tying in the whole Star Wars franchise; along with archival footage, worth the watch.

  • The section dedicated to Carrie Fisher is alone worth the effort to check out this documentary.

  • Seeing how all the practical effects and puppeteering were achieved is pretty cool.

  • Stunt Coordinator Eunice Huthart, you are awesome!

NEGATIVES…

  • The complaints regarding the Rise Of Skywalker being nothing more than a fan fueled project that steers toward a fanfic like storytelling, kinda applies to this documentary as well.

  • It’s still basically a behind the scenes featurette, so it’s only as engaging as you are interested with it.

  • I wanted more Adam Driver.

P.S….

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The Wrong Missy

POSITIVES…

  • The first 5 minutes is the stress test. If you enjoyed that, then you’re good to go!

  • Lauren Lapkus is the tornado of outrageous loud entertainment that perfectly represents this movie’s brand of comedy. You got to admire how much she just swings for the fences here.

  • David Spade plays the “regular straight arrow” as well as can be. It’s easy enough to relate with him as the audience surrogate.

  • I thought certain set pieces were creatively entertaining enough to see play out.

  • There’s a certain fun charm to the familiar simplicity of this comedic premise.

NEGATIVES…

  • The first 5 minutes is the stress test. If you did not enjoy that, stop watching!

  • Lauren Lapkus is the dynamo of over-the-top crude comedy that might just annoy the hell out of you in this movie.

  • David Spade plays the straight man in this comedic duo. What’s new?

  • Unsurprisingly, there were some scenes I really really really could have lived without.

  • The plot is as predictable as you expect it to be.

P.S….

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Murder In The Front Row

POSITIVES…

  • If you were or weren’t familiar with the East Bay Area Trash-Metal scene of the 1980s, then this is the documentary you need to watch.

  • I love that there is a huge focus on the band “Exodus” as they were the kings of that scene.

  • Of course you can’t have a documentary like this without talking about Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, etc… and there were good highlights that focused on them.

  • All the video footage, photos, audio interviews, memorabilia, are all a treasure trove of history that I loved seeing in this movie.

  • There were some great interviews about what these bands did at that time; be it on stage or off of stage, that were so entertaining to listen.

  • The bands and music aside, I love that this film also covers all the tangentially relatable aspects of that Bay Area Trash-Metal scene that are not as well known to most metal fans. Like specific locations and specific people involved.

  • As a fan of Heavy Metal music; especially Trash-Metal, it’s hard not to be engaged with this documentary, from the very beginning all the way to the end credits.

NEGATIVES…

  • There were tangential highlights about the East Bay Area scene that I wish were given more than just a couple of minutes of time to. Could be an editing reason or lack of original footage, so it’s not a huge negative.

  • This documentary unfortunately can’t avoid the “it should have spent more time on (insert trash metal band name)” complaints.

  • Also can’t avoid the “what is this, another documentary about Metallica, they are in it too much” complaints.

P.S….

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The Half Of It

POSITIVES…

  • With just the first opening minute or two, this movie immediately gives us this quick beautiful poetic visual sequence. It’s a great start that perfectly sets the tone of the film’s premise.

  • As charming and poignant as romantic movies goes, this one has a lot it does right.

  • I really loved the screenplay for this. The clever dialogue and humorous situations that are peppered throughout, really gives this film a light-hearted touch that keeps it from being too trite or too familiar.

  • Sequences and montages! This movie’s got a bunch of good ones.

  • The three leads are really good, with Daniel Diemer as Paul, Alexxis Lemire as Aster, and of course our primary character Leah Lewis as Ellie; who is pulling off such a stand out performance in this!

  • I love how the movie builds their characters into well rounded individuals that I easily found myself attached to.

  • The heart of this movie and the main thing that makes it shine, are the interactions Ellie has with Paul, and with Aster, and with her Dad, and with her Teacher...

  • This movie just has all the right touches as a story about Love, from the famous quotes, the references to particular novels, certain films shown in this film, to the soundtrack.

  • It’s Cyrano de Bergerac but with a modern progressive take, and I like it!

NEGATIVES…

  • It’s Cyrano de Bergerac but with a modern progressive take, and some of you might not like that.

  • Sure, it’s a familiar plot and premise, with some cliche trappings, but it’s a very slight negative on the film’s part.

  • I could have lived without the derivative caricature classmates that we are clearly not suppose to like.

P.S….

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Dangerous Lies

POSITIVES…

  • This movie’s plot is one of those human interest stories that reliably plays well.

  • The mystery that gradually escalates as the movie goes is surprisingly more intriguing than expected. I was entertained by the rabbit hole that is this story.

  • There’s a reason this movie is called “Dangerous Lies” and I like how the themes and plot turns of lives up to that.

  • Good primary acting leads in Camila Mendes and Jessie Usher, as Katie and Adam. How their characters react to their situation in this movie is very fascinating. Sasha Alexander is also excellent as Detective Chesler.

  • Don’t know if it was because of my HDR TV or not, but this movie comes off very colorful. The colors just POP!

NEGATIVES…

  • As perfectly fine as the story is, I can’t help but admit that it still plays off a bit like one of those TV crime drama.

  • Moves at a very leisurely pace, and the 96 minutes run time actually felt longer than it had to be.

  • Some people might get easily frustrated with some of the decisions made by the characters in this movie.

  • It’s easy to say that the plot turns and plot reveals are very contrived and too coincidental.

  • The final act kinda felt like such a predictable dud.

P.S….

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