The Syndicate

Fifty Shades of Grey- As controversial as the books and film are, I was surprised at how boring this movie is. I never read the book and cannot envision myself ever doing so, given that the poor script is considered to be an improvement over the book's prose. I expected it to be either a guilty pleasure or like Showgirls- so bad it's funny. It was neither.

Poor and forgettable.

American Sniper- Holy cow was this movie intense. It's definitely not a pro-war propaganda-esque he-man war film. Clint Eastwood knows how to make a great film. I think it's a better depiction of PTSD and how war becomes something like a drug to some soldiers than The Hurt Locker. Hands down a great movie. Not sure how I'd rate it on my scale yet, but definitely great.

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel- Not quite as good as the original but it had me laughing pretty regularly. Maggie Smith and Dev Patel get all the best lines even though Judi Dench is sort of the film's anchor role. I'm usually not a Richard Gere fan but he was fine in his supporting role. The film doesn't do anything too outlandish, which is good. It's fun, thoughtful, and enjoyable. Just like the first one, this is a good date night kind of movie.

On my rating scale, I give a 3.5 out of 5

This is far from the last movie I saw but I finally got back into writing movie reviews. I'm woefully behind right now but I hope to write a review each week to get caught up. This was the first movie I watched in 2014...

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010)- 2.75 out of 5

It's the most complete story you'll get from a Twilight movie and is the best one of the series. Too bad being the best Twilight movie means you're just an okay movie.

Not sure this is the right place for this but why not. Check this out. Not that any of us need to be reminded that movies are awesome, but they made some great choices. I've seen 64 of the 101 films used.

Last movie I saw was Rogue One. I'd give it 3.5 out of 5, which is the same score I gave to The Force Awakens (though they each arrived at that score for different reasons).

As for Les Mis, it's my wife's favorite musical and I thought I was taking one for the team by going to see it with her but it was great. Hugh Jackman gave the performance of his career and deserved the Oscar. But no, the Academy loves Daniel Day Lewis and his selectivity. Lincoln was lukewarm Oscar bait and DDL winning was their way to make the Academy look like it cared about social issues.

Anyway, I too felt that Javert was under-developed. He came across as the flattest of the main characters, which is not something you want in a good antagonist. That and Crowe was the worst singer in the lot for me. A song or two and some scowls wasn't enough to convey the conflict he was feeling.

My wife and I hit Redbox for Sully last night. Very good movie but the sound mixing was dreadful at times. I like hearing the scripted dialog. Sue me.

I'll drop this here just for Rico:

Fifty Shades Darker? More like fifty shades less plot development.

Ricochet wrote: ↑Fri Aug 25, 2017 4:57 pm

G-Man wrote: ↑Mon Aug 21, 2017 7:13 pm I'll drop this here just for Rico:

Fifty Shades Darker? More like fifty shades less plot development.

Why for me? I skipped past all the, ahem, plot development, anyway.

Because you griped about me not sharing my thoughts on movies I've been watching in Discord last week.

Hidden Figures- It was good but felt like it was playing it safe.

Wayne's World

Party time? Yes.

Excellent? Not exactly.

I don't have a true favorite anymore. I have given six films my highest possible rating and I could watch any of them again, though not with obsessive regularity.

===

No.

I've watched every single one of Rico's SAW reviews, so I don't mind hearing his musings but I take movies more seriously than music. I want to avoid getting in a flame war with a fellow film snob. #KeepThePeace

My wife and I watched La La Land recently. I can see why Hollywood and certain demographics gushed over it but I only gave it a 3.25 out of 5. I’m not anti-follow-your-dreams but the wannabe actress and all-but-bohemian jazz bum pairing was never going to grip me.

I appreciate the ending though. At least they had the guts to go the realistic route.

My wife and I watched Dunkirk last weekend. I liked it for the science of filmmaking- the disjointed timelines and their eventual convergence, slick editing, sharp cinematography, and the marriage of music and film. As far as the story goes, I felt it was lean. It was a splicing of three short stories, only one of which (the civilians on the boat) had much of anything in the way of an emotional hook. Caring about the pilot and the soldier are presumed in the film simply because they are fighting for the Allied Forces. You can get away with that in most war movies and perhaps the British are more inclined to do so than Americans because it's a very British thing to do.

Anyway, it was a solid film, technically speaking, but part of me felt that Nolan realized he didn't have to try so hard to blow the audience's minds this time, so he didn't try to. I kind of missed that wow factor inherent to his other films though. I think it merits a 3.75 out of 5 based on my scale but it's also the kind of well-made film that I don't know that I'll ever find myself craving to watch again.

At my daughter’s request, we just watched The Emoji Movie.

We rented Soul from Redbox last night. Very good movie. The first half is pretty deep and mature, which was cool to see in a Disney movie. The second half lightened the mood a bit, and it all worked well. Excellent music too, though it’s not always smack-you-in-the-face Disney music. It was more subtle, but lovely.

This is one that I may have to watch again sometime, because it might deserve a slightly higher rating. For now, 3.5 out of 5.

The Big Lebowski

I finally got around to watching this thanks to streaming libraries. In my opinion, it does not live up to the 20+ years of hype. It’s pretty funny in an absurd sense, but I felt the ending was a bit of a shoulder shrug and fell flat. Perhaps that is perfectly in line with the character of The Dude, but it let the air out of the rest of the build-up for me.

3.5 out of 5

Then again, well, you know, that’s just like- uh- my opinion, man.

My wife is isolating from the rest of us right now, so I'm making the most of the opportunity and watching terrible slasher films she would never agree to watching with me...

Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives
This whole movie wouldn't even exist if the main protagonist would have just chilled the heck out for a minute and trusted in the fact that Jason is dead for good. But no- you had to go and impale him with a metal post in the middle of a lightning storm, didn't you? Now Jason is the walking dead and superhuman. Good job; gold star. At least this film showed an ounce of wit with some of its meta-awareness. The fact that it didn't take itself completely seriously like the last few sequels did helps it be only as bad as the first Friday the 13th movie.

1.25 out of 5




Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood
Mixing Jason with a storyline about a psychokinetic young woman sounds like an interesting idea. Too bad there's a stereotypical house full of horny teenagers making poor decisions involved as well. This might be the most sadistic Jason movie yet, with Jason going to some outlandish extremes to do some inventive killing. It all begs the question why anyone is even allowed to have property around Crystal Lake anymore at this point. With a ratio of 10% intriguing to 90% stupid, it's a losing battle from the start.

0.75 out of 5

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

How does Crystal Lake connect to the ocean? Why is there a high-voltage underwater cable running through Crystal Lake? Is it false advertising if Jason only reaches Manhattan an hour into the film? Will there ever be a coherent story again in this film series? These questions and more plague the brain after another stinker. It kills off likeable characters in the coldest of ways, but lets annoying characters linger for far too long. There's also a lot of backstory saved for the weirdest of times. It's like they made most of the slasher stuff, realized they didn't have a story that made sense, and added crap just to tie it all together somehow. I've actually seen this one before (it may have been the first Jason movie I ever saw). Thank God I only have Jason Goes to Hell yet to see (I'll probably just pass on the remake/reboot from a few years ago).

0.5 out of 5

From Here to Eternity

This won the 1953 Oscar for Best Picture, and I have seen it before. I thought it was more romantic, as it is widely remembered for its scene of two people kissing on the beach as waves roll up around them. It also won Frank Sinatra an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Despite all the accolades for this sanitized adaptation of a scandalous zeitgeist novel, my wife and I both felt that it hasn’t aged well. There are some cringey moments where men all but force themselves on women without hesitation, and the suggestion that the military tolerates some pretty sadistic stuff in their own ranks flies against the typical nostalgia of the day. The Pearl Harbor scenes come far too late to add pep if you find yourself indifferent to the overacting and slow pace of the first 3/4 of the film.

I’m inclined to keep my original rating for this one:
2.75 out of 5

The last two weekends, Family Movie Night included...

Turning Red
This was funny, though way over my 6-year-old's head. It was fine for my 10-year-old, as she'll get to go through all the fun puberty and teen angst stuff here soon enough. It was humorous and creative.

3.5 out of 5



The Jungle Book (2016 version)
This was very good, despite some obvious overuse of CGI in places. The jungle seems more dangerous in this film. I liked that, even though I love the original animated version.

3.75 out of 5

Crazy Rich Asians (2008)
This was a date night movie for my wife and I when the kids were away. It's actually a really fun movie, and probably up there with When Harry Met Sally for me. Most rom-coms are mediocre, but this one really keeps it fresh.

3.75 out of 5



The House (2017)
In theory, putting Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler together on the big screen should be a lot of fun. Instead, this film goes way too far with using violence and obscenity as its source of humor. It's an interesting plotline (suburban parents setting up an underground casino to pay for their daughter's college), but everything just gets taken too far. It was probably a lot of fun to make, but it seems like more could have been left on the editing room floor. That's rough considering the film clocks in at 88 minutes with the credits. Instead of something witty and funny, it makes the leads look like shells of their former selves.

2 out of 5



Lady and the Tramp (2019)
Disney had a pretty good run with their live-action remakes, but this one flopped. Some of the changes are nice, but they took a 76-minute story and stretched it out an additional half hour. It's unnecessary, considering there isn't a lot of deviation from the original Disney film's story. I did something that I hardly ever do while watching a movie- I closed my eyes and just listened to it for a bit. I didn't miss anything, because it largely mirrored the animated version during that stretch. Like several other live-action Disney remakes, I question whether this film was really necessary.

2.75 out of 5



Zoolander (2001)
I saw this in college and it was funnier then. My wife had never seen it, so it was perfect Friday night movie fodder (my wife crashes around 8:00 on Fridays unless we're watching something funny or with a lot of action). I love the lampooning of models and the industry, but it runs too long even at just 90 minutes. It's a perfectly suitable dumb movie to turn off your brain and laugh to. It knows what it is and doesn't try to be anything more than that.

2.75 out of 5

Pi (1998)
I really liked this one but my wife hated it. It's weird and eccentric, but that draws me in. It's Darren Aronofsky's directorial debut. It's low-budget, but that adds grit and intensity to the whole package. It blends science (math) and religion (numerology) in a very unique way. It might melt your brain a little, but it's a trip worth taking.

3.5 out of 5



Night at the Museum (2006)
I had never seen this before, so we watched it with the kids on Disney+ (truly a game-changer for our family). It's cute and fun. Dick Van Dyke plays a very un-Dick Van Dyke role, but of course he does it well. This isn't a deep movie, and there are a few gags and elements that either haven't aged well or were cliché already. For family entertainment, you could do a lot worse.

3.25 out of 5

The Bounty Hunter (2010)

Gerard Butler and Jennifer Aniston have very little chemistry. They also play two pretty rotten people, and yet we're supposed to root for them? Nah. The plot and storyline could be done very well in the hands of a different director and with a different cast so there's potential. It just goes untapped here.

2 out of 5



Footloose (1984)

I've danced to the theme song at weddings and other occasions, yet I've never seen this 80s hit until just this year. I was very neutral to it. Overzealous religious adherents as your antagonist(s) is a pretty lazy foil for me. The main female character is pretty unlikable and does a lot of stupid, dangerous stuff. Overrated due to weird 80s nostalgia.

2.5 out of 5

Die Hard (1988)

I've seen it several times edited for television, but this was the first time I have watched it uncensored. My wife had never seen it before, and she begrudgingly admits that it does count as a Christmas movie. Bruce Willis is great as an everyman action hero. There's a fair number of over-the-top moments that wouldn't actually happen in real life, but it's a lot of good fun.

3.75 out of 5



Girl, Interrupted (1999)

Some of the scenes in this movie were filmed in my hometown and in nearby Harrisburg, PA. There was a lot of buzz about it locally and it was supposed to be a big, Oscar-buzzy movie. I had never taken it in before now and I can't say that I missed much. Perhaps I am not the target demographic. The movie was adapted from a memoir about a woman's time as a young adult in a mental institution. The big problem I have with it is that there's not a noticeable trajectory in the main character's arc. She's surrounded by interesting inmates who have much more complicated and visible traumas and issues than she does. When the main character is also the most boring character, it doesn't make for a very memorable or enjoyable film.

2.75 out of 5

Way behind on catching up from being already way behind. Here are a few quick ones:

Marty (1955)
This won Best Picture back in 1955. It's about an average, unassuming guy who's just not had much luck finding a girl. Now in his 30's, he meets a nice woman stuck in a similar position as himself. Their connection forces Marty to make a few tough choices about finding love that add tension to his relationship with his aging mother, whom he still lives with. It's all very real-life, everyman content with a solid performance by Ernest Borgnine.

3.5 out of 5



The Wild (2006)
A lazy, half-baked computer-animated tale involving animals getting into trouble when they venture too far into the human world. Zoo animals band together to rescue a lion cub when he runs away from the zoo after having a fight with his dad. It's all very predictable and lackluster. One of the side characters is pretty funny at the very least.

2 out of 5



For Richer or Poorer (1997)
Creaky fish-out-of-water tale about big-money eminence-front type city folks on the verge of divorce getting a reality check and learning lessons about what's most important in life when they hide out amongst an Amish community in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania- pretending to be relatives coming for a visit. This was made in Tim Allen's heyday in the mid- to late-90s, but it's an inferior project that only delivers minor chuckles at the expense of sterotypes and clichés.

2.25 out of 5



Smallfoot (2018)
This was s cute fish-out-of-water tale about Migo, a Yeti, who gets banished from his mountaintop village when we claims to have discovered a smallfoot (a human) at the edge of their civilization. Determined to prove the town elders wrong, Migo heads down to a land the elders were keeping secret from everyone for generations. High jinks ensue. It's cute fun, but not as good as Abominable.

3.25 out of 5.



Tron: Legacy (2010)
A visually impressive but otherwise unnecessary sequel to the 1982 original. Whereas Tron felt longer than its 96-minute runtime, Tron: Legacy feels way too fast for its 2-hour runtime. It features a lot of cool VFX upgrades for the Tron lore, but the story is thin. The frantic pace feels designed at times to distract you from the thinness of the story. This could have been even better than the original, but it wasn't.

3 out of 5



Cruella (2021)
I didn't ask for an origin story for Cruella DeVil, nor does the world really need one. This film exists in its own universe, apart from any prior 101 Dalmatians product. Set in the late 1970s, the film sees Cruella adopting subversive punk aesthetics and attitudes to wreak havoc on her enemies. It also features a backstory that totally waters down the fur-loving, dog-killing wickedness from the original animated film. It works well enough as a sassy, modern character study, but it never truly justifies its own existence. The soundtrack is swell though.

3.25 out of 5