twi1609372 Reviews

Dog Pound (2010)

Ultimately pointless

[3/10 · 16 June 2023]

So while the movie touches on and briefly expounds on some of the more interesting aspects of youth incarceration, for the most part it falls flat. The charechters are so unremarkable its easy to forget who's who. It tried to reach for Lord of the Flies type vibes but it never quite made it there. It never put a bow on anything to give it actual meaning, not even an easily discernible theme; it was more like a series of random events, how do they relate to other parts of the story, where do they take us? Nowhere, you are spinning your tires but you aren't actually going anywhere.

The climax of the movie, if you can call it a climax, occurs about 90% of the way through. One of the guards who was experiencing marital stress over his being required to work on a day he had tried to have off, missing a family function. After arguing with his wife, while supervising a group of boys who were painting a wall, he sees that one of them has drawn a depiction of a makes woman. One of them admits he was the one who drew it, as the officer is directing him to remove it, a struggle ensues, the boy bites the officer on the arm, he pulls his arm towards himself while pushing the boy off of his arm, the boy hits the wall and falls to the ground. He doesn't get up and it's obvious he suffered a neck or head injury and is in need of medical care. The boy is taken by ambulance but later dies at the hospital. The rest of the boys stage a hunger strike the next day, refusing to eat and this lead to a riot and the movie abruptly ends. Of course the officer never meant to kill the kid, but he was doing what he had to do to get him off, i guess the movie tries to imply there should be some measure of more guilt over the death.

Ultimately a colossal waste of time.

The Caine Mutiny (1954)

Overall a good movie

[6/10 · 28 May 2023]

Well acted and shot, there really isn't a lot to criticize. It used copious amounts of stock footage but that wasn't uncommon for its time.

I didn't care for how they tried to square the circle at the end and offer an alternative prospective. After their acquittal their attorney meets with them and he more of less says they are bad officers and sailors and although he got them acquitted, that wasn't the just result. He was almost digusted with himself because to get the acquittal he had to get Lt Commander Queeg to manifest the symptoms of his poor mental condition in court for all to see what the officers of the ship were dealing with that lead to the execuofficer relieving Queeg as mentally unable to command.

He reaches this conclusion that the officers were all in the wrong and thus truly guilty of mutiny because at one point Queeg asked the officer of they had any input or suggestions as to him or his performance as Capitan and none of them were willing to speak up.

The thing is, it's not the job of a Jr officer to instruct a senior officer as to how to do their duty. Perhaps it would have been polite and even commendable for them to have addressed the concerns with him, but I don't see now they would have a duty to do so.

That said, it was without question that at the time Queeg was relieved of command, he was no of sound mind to do his duty. You wouldn't look back to something that happened days or weeks prior and say since they didn't take action then they are permanently prohibited from ever taking action and they must now blindly follow orders even if it means certain death for the crew.

400 Days (2015)

A poorly planned trip...

[2/10 · 19 May 2023]

At the outset of a trip you know your destination and you know the stops. The only thing up in the air for this movie is the order, how you get to the inevitable ending that isn't really an ending.

If you haven't watched dozens of these kinds of movies you might bit on the bait the movie throws out that makes you think it's getting somewhere. Don't take the bait, it doesn't go anywhere and it never was. It's just too easy to wrote a movie like this where you can do literally anything you want, there is no ending, no loose ends to tie up, just some very mild suspense for its own sake but it's not even enjoyable because you realize it's all pointless, you know none of it means anything.

Blacklight (2022)

Nothing to see here, move along

[4/10 · 15 November 2022]

Just too full of cliche to be taken seriously.

A secret agent, Liam Nisson, who surpise surprise wasn't maybe the best husband to his wife or the most involved father in the life of his daughter but he really cares and he's really sorry about that and wants to make amends and wants to be an active grandfather to his young granddaughter, he's a good guy.

Another secret agent Liam Nissons character is trying to stop, but he's really good and Liam Nisson's character will discover that and be "so angry" with those working against him.

Head of the FBI who is friends with Liam Nisson's character, but he's really evil, like to the core, no redeeming qualities.

Throw in an edgy uber woke reporter and you have a cliche salad. Did you guys see? She saves the sides of her head?

Nothing new here, nothing noteworthy. Just a script thrown together very haphazardly, aside from Liam Nisson, the acting is just ok.

Memory (I) (2022)

Overall, ok.

[6/10 · 1 October 2022]

Yet another iteration of this type of movie that Liam is known for and has made the staple of his career. He does it well and the and movies are usually pretty good. They feel like they have to do something a little diffent, so they throw in the memory issues. Liam and Guy's acting was good, the rest pretty mediocre.

The writing was likewise lackluster. The directing, the layout of the movie seems almost haphazard, the editing and final compilation just feels off.

The backstop was not compelling. The whole angle with the alzheimers wasn't even really done well. The human trafficking and extortion elements were much more compelling but they could have been done much better.

Goodnight Mommy (2022)

It's just ok, not the worst far from the best.

[5/10 · 1 October 2022]

Suspense for it's own sake, an artificially suspenseful trip to nowhere. This type of story with similar plot lines has been done before, done well and done poorly. Both paths have been well traveled, the oath where the person actually is something other than what they appear to be or where the protagonist is mentally ill and much of the story is hallucination, they went with the latter this go around.

A good, well scripted movie can take that twist, take the plot to sowhere not anticipated, but without being deliberately deceptive. It presents you with certain scenarios and situations, some vage and let's you fill in the blanks and make certain seemingly reasonable assumptions, the twist is that one or more of these assumptions are wrong. The movie didn't directly lie to you, it may have given you incomplete information, and took advantage of your intuition. I feel like here they crossed the line into deliberate deception to get you to buy into one scenario of what was happening, only to take you somewhere else.

The movie is just ok, there are worse for sure, but also far better.

Interceptor (2022)

Very bad, a waste of time.

[2/10 · 16 June 2022]

Not so much a movie as an assortment of woke political troupes and stereotypes woven together in a semi-coherent story that comes across as more of an afterthought.

The plot was not very good but the bad acting really took this from bad to terrible.

The Weekend Away (2022)

Meh not worth the time

[4/10 · 8 March 2022]

As other reviewers have said, this is a sort of hodge podge of well used troupes in the genre. They really went with the "heck this is a movie, we can do whatever we want". We can fly somebody out of nowhere to commit the murder when there was never any indication they were there at the time of the murder and some good indications they were not there.

Fairly predictable, the best friend is briefly cast as the bad one, only to rehabilitate her at the end. The briefly cast patient loving husband will have all the blame dumped on him at the end.

Plot continuity was not at the top list of priorities. The writers were so eager, looking for the next chance to throw in a "twist" they didn't think a lot of it through and parts just don't add up.

The acting is at least more or less good so it's not a complete waste.

The Guilty (2021)

Overall fairly good

[6/10 · 3 October 2021]

This was not a bad movie overall but certainly not the best. We had a very solid performance from Jake Gyllenhaal even if he's really the only character we see. This movie uses several tropes we've seen quite often: Dirty cop comes clean Person confesses to wrongdoing in an attempt to help another.

Presenting a perpetrator and victim and then swapping roles where the victim becomes the perpetrator and the perpetrator becomes the good guy.

If you are somewhat familiar with movies of this ilk, the movie becomes predictively predictive. Very similar to a 2010 Movie Devil.

Inspire of being predictable, it's still I interesting.

Elizabeth Harvest (2018)

A suspenseful ride to nowhere.

[3/10 · 14 July 2021]

In the modern model of suspense movies, this is actually fairly typical. A suspense filled roller coaster ride to nowhere, suspense for it's own sake. I get it, you have to be a philosophy major to understand the 5D chess the movie is playing, all the wonderful hidden messages and symbolism, and we're all just chunks of meat in a can of cat food on a store shelf.

The movie vacillates back and forth from live action suspense mode to backstory mode. The live action modes are at least watchable, the content and scifi explanations in backstory mode were less than compelling. They spent so much time trying to perfect the symbolism and hiding meaning under various nooks and crannies, the actual storyline seems almost ad hoc, it's not really important, and it suffers in several areas.

It's really just not that well put together, but I guess if you are intrigued by the philosophical messages, you might not care so much about how the story actually unfolds.

Goodbye World (2013)

Not really a disaster movie.

[4/10 · 11 January 2021]

This movie is false advertising. If you are at all perceptive about 30 minutes in you will probably be asking yourself: Is there going to be anything about a disaster or is this just going to be about the interpersonal relationships of people in their early/mid 30s reminiscing about and questioning the decisions they made 5-10 years earlier about their choice of partner. You will almost surely know that the latter is true, but may pioneer onward in hopes that you may be surprised. Make no mistake, your fears will be confirmed. The disaster is a small plot element and it does provide for some conflict and tension, but the entire movie could have been made about a group of old friends just meeting together for a weekend at a cabin in the woods. This hypothetical movie could be nearly identical to the actual movie. No real need to be cut off from the world or in a struggle for resources, it's really just window dressing and not at all pivotal or essential to the story being told. Let me just sum up the message of the movie and save you 90 minutes: Often times in youth people make foolish choices relating to their interpersonal relationships. They may opt not to be with someone they love and problably should be with go silly reasons. They then move on and get into new relationships with others, there will almost always be nagging questions about prior partners and the reasons why the relationships failed. You may even regret prior mistakes and want to rekindle an old romance notwithstanding your present relationship status, you may even take an opportunity to do just that if the option becomes available. Once abandoned by your present partner so that they can once again try to make a prior relationship work in spite of past failures, you too then may opt to rekindle an old flame or you can look for someone new, perhaps even someone else in similar circumstances to you. That's really it. It would have been better if they just omitted the entire disaster narrative, since it was obvious they weren't going to do anywhere with it.

The Last Full Measure (2019)

This movie had potential but came up a little short.

[6/10 · 27 June 2020]

Not a bad movie overall but not as good as I should have been. It's a good story, it's supposed to be a feel good movie. I didn't really care for how they did it. Chopping up the action scenes and sandwiching them between some at times very long and dry scenes of dialogue. I understand this wasn't meant to be an action movie, but I think it would have been better if they just told the whole story of what happened in Vietnam first, then went through the rest of the plot with investigating the merit for the previous award to be upgraded to the Medal of Honor. I wasn't terribly impressed with Sebastian Stan's performance, it didn't seem like he bought into the role very deep, he was kind of just there collecting a paycheck. Overall most of the other acting was good, just the writing was mediocre so they didn't have the best to work with. Shorter but more powerful dialogue scenes would have been better, you could easily trim 20-30 minutes from the movie and not really remove much of consequence.

Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023)

The best Star Trek that you will ever see.

[9/10 · 3 February 2020]

I don't mean the best ever, but there will never be another Star Trek made better than this. Look, I would like nothing more than a next generation reboot, with all the original cast who were willing; if I was a billionaire, I'd probably fund it myself. Unfortunately I am not a billionaire and the people who run TV for a living have decided that the TNG cast is played out and it's time for something new, I don't agree but that's where we find ourselves.

This is far and away better than discovery, better than Voyager, and it's not saying much but it's infinitely better than the JJ Abrams movies.

I watch negative review videos and read the written reviews and comments etc and I see a lot of grasping for straws, people being hyper critical and but picking any little thing they can find to complain about...and I get it. TNG was so good and Captain Picard was such a great, larger than life character..the standard is very high..it would be almost impossible to meet the standard we hope for.. knowing this and knowing a lot of people would be highly critical, they decided to try anyway.

On the most important element, the critical element, they got it right. Picard is still Picard, unlike Disney making Like Skywalker not be Like Skywalker, Picard is still Picard. We know that Picard would have fiercely advocated for aiding the Romulans, he would have opposed harsh and draconian restrictions on synthetic life. If the Romulans were facing a cataclysm and needed help and Starfleet told Picard to go pound sand, he absolutely would have tossed his combadge at them and told them to shove it. Picard would absolutely be bored sitting around the vineyard. Picard would absolutely want to get to the bottom of this story and find out what's going on with the synthetics and the Romulans...This is the same man we know and love.

Unfortunately things have changed from the 90s, you can't put out the same product and expect it to be a success. People today have 0.4 second attention spans, at any one time they have 2-4 screens competing for their brain's attention.

While this is not perfect and doesn't quite meet TNG or DS9 standard of awesomeness, it's as good as it's ever going to get. Enjoy this because any future series, if there are any, will be worse.

Don't Blink (2014)

Very predictable yet disappointing,

[1/10 · 10 October 2019]

So in the modern mantra that movie goers today demand and expect, this movie delivers! For the generation who wants suspense for it's own sake, this is a home run. I'm not saying I'm a genius or anything but anyone who understands how modern movies work could see this from 25 miles away: Yes, there is suspense, something unusual is happening. That's it. We will exploit that suspense for about 90 minutes, then just end the movie. I get it, its very easy to just come up with a suspenseful plot, if you don't have to tie anything together or have any of it make sense you can do whatever you want. You can have pink unicorns pop out of the necks of crows, and it doesn't have to be explained or make sense, it just is what it is, suspense for it's own sake. People are just going to disappear at random, for whatever reason and that's just that because the movie said so.

Cube (1997)

A waste of time.

[3/10 · 11 July 2018]

If you have a good amount of experience with movies you see patterns emerge and you get feelings as to how the plot is going to unfold. So if when watching the movie, 5-10 minuities in you get the distinct feeling that there is not going to be a resolution, nothing will be explained or make any sense and that the character development, which isn't great but its still irrelevant and a waste of time.

The movie attempts to be a trendy flick exploring the depths of human nature. It fails abysmally. Any suspense the plot might generate is also a waste and it's purely suspense for it's own sake. It's a kind of prequel to the maze runner movies, except this is worse in every way.

The Broken (2008)

Empty, waste of time.

[1/10 · 18 October 2017]

Here we have a standard film of the modern era. This movie is like ordering a pizza for delivery and when it arrives finding no piazza in the box. This is just a celebration of suspense for it's own sake. It goes out of it's way to be vague and reveal as little as possible. After watching you will know roughly the same as someone who had never heard of the movie. This is just cinematic junk food, It's only 88 or so minutes but I'd like them back, I could have been doing something much more productive like reading a book in Chinese, no I don't speak it.

Eden Lake (2008)

hard to imagine worse

[1/10 · 10 October 2017]

A total waste of time. If sheer brutality and somber gore, or suspense for it's own sake is your fetish then perhaps this will appeal to you. The movie provides suspense, but it's empty in the end. No meaning, no resolution, no conclusion; just a fest of meaningless suspense and brutality.

The Strangers (2008)

Worthless cinematic junk food for horror fans

[1/10 · 15 July 2017]

If you simply like horror movies because you like the fear and suspense, this film delivers on them to a moderate degree. In all other areas this movie is simply unsatisfying. Like eating an overcooked steak because it's stake, but almost all the enjoyment has been burnt out of it. OK so the bad guys are supposed to be regular people who terrorize and kill just for their own amusement, and have randomly selected this couple as their victims. The movie hints to us that this may have been their first such attack. The bad guys whom we see little of, are two females who appear to be in their mid 20s and an older male who may be early 30s. They all demonstrate near super human abilities and execute their plot with precision akin to military special forces. They are able to be wherever they want whenever they want and absolutely silent if they so choose.

Despite their super human abilities, the victims hold the trump card in the form of a shotgun. I am by no means a master of tactics, but when they located the shot shells in the closet, they had absolutely no need to leave the closet. They could have simply let the crazy killers play around outside and in the downstairs, let them sit downstairs and watch old married with children reruns for all you care. There is only one way in and one way out of the closet and the only thing they will get by attempting to enter would be a massive infusion of lead into their body. This is called a choke point, its a very simple concept to understand.

Even disregarding this easy way out, the decisions they do make are dumb. I wont go into them, but it's bad; and the near supernatural abilities of the bad guys continue.

At the end when they finally killed them it was a relief like finally.

The Captive (I) (2014)

Perfect example of a bad movie

[4/10 · 8 April 2015]

Movie starts with promise...seems interesting. It soon after disappoints. As is customary with modern movies of this ilk, not much is explained, the plot progresses albeit slowly and then bam, it's over. As also is customary with modern movies, the film jumps around in the timeline constantly and without notice, you can be in the present, near past and distant past within just a few moments and you have to follow all this on your own. I hate having to constantly think, "wait, is this the present or? when did this happen?" Yes I think it's popular and cosmopolitan but i still don't like it. I prefer a straight forward timeline and for a movie to clearly announce when it's showing a flashback to the past and to clearly announce when the flashback is over and time has resumed to the present. Call me old fashioned. Characters are not well developed and neither is the plot, it's a modern "here it is, take it or leave it" film. Were not really told much about the kidnapping, the investigation or the syndicate, I guess for propel who prefer that kind of movie, this will be gold.

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

This is just sick....

[1/10 · 5 October 2009]

There is just nothing good about this movie. Of course those who worship Tarrentino will say he can do no evil and would kiss his boots, hence the good ratings on IMDb. This is the pits for Brad Pitt. "Aldo Rayne" is one of the most unbelievable characters ever.

This movie changes the history wildly and that is something you just don't do...sorry.

This movie blurs the lines between the good and bad. Any movie that can make the "heros" far more evil than the Nazis is sick. This movie is no different than making a movie about the fun exploits of the concentration camps.

You are treated to murder, torture, disfigurement, and mutilation....done as a good thing..by the "good guys"......all while teens in the theater are cheering. People locked in a room, being burnt alive while psychopaths fire machine guns into the helpless crowd.

There is just no redemption for this.

Operation Repo: The Movie (2009)

TruTV?

[1 September 2009]

If anyone was was wondering if this show was real or fake, it has been answered. The newest member of the cast, "Frankie", played by of Yaniv Madmon, who is a movie producer and low budget actor is one of the most unbelievable characters ever. Yes he is poorly disguised with a mustache, glasses and a hat, but the bad shines through. Was he needed for comic relief? Lets see some of what has been on the show and ask if it's real...

A man dressed as a ninja wielding nun chucks. A psychotic midget out for blood. An older man/cowboy wielding a tazer. A man who throws a bowling ball at a car. Frankie pulling out a bottle of liquor and drinking it in camera view. A man who gets in a repo car as it's being towed (where was he going.

This is a joke of reality TV.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)

A real "American Hero"?

[6/10 · 9 August 2009]

First, the GI Joe franchise is good, but I won't blindly love everything that comes out of it. By modern standards and even traditional standards this wasn't a bad movie; but it was far from great. As the other comment noted, the animation is so prevalent, it is a wonder why it wasn't simply all computer animated.

First, what was this movie and what wasn't it. It was not a well thought out story. This was an introduction to a film series. This was all the characters and toys being introduced to give somewhat of a back-story for the upcoming movies. So much so it seems like they forgot that this was a "movie" also.

If you want planes to crash into the grand canyon, killing all persons on board, except for the main character; who seem to be able survive falling head first into a volcano, then this is about what you will see. If you don't mind being able to predict each and every move each person makes, well then you won't mind this movie.

Not horrible overall, but far from great.

Body of Lies (2008)

not Good

[2/10 · 18 May 2009]

This was a complete waste of Russel Crowe's ability. Anyone could have plaid the character and been OK, he kind of sleep walked through the movie. Yes it's true, CIA agents cannot use the toilet without permission from a low level bureaucrat in Washington DC. Surprisingly DiCaprio was a bright spot, he did his character well,he had little to work with, but he had done much worse. The plot fails because it was not set up to tell a good story, it was set up because they had political points to address and the plot molded to fit that, a bit confusing, not mission impossible level though. Lessons: 1. America is evil. CIA agents use, abuse and kill innocent people at their whim for any reason or no reason. 2.America is evil.The CIA works with other countries who are not very strong on human rights issues. 3.America is evil. The war, enough said. 4.America is evil. Guantanamo bay they had to slip that in. 5.America is evil. Terrorists kill people suspected or cooperating with the United States, it's the US's fault. 6.America is evil. The government will fake terror attacks to further their agenda, I was waiting for the "9/11 was an inside job" truck of loons to pull up. 7.America is evil. America supports Israel, and there are Palestinian refugee camps, all innocent victims of America or Israel. 8.America is evil. The best place to pick up women in the middle east is in hospitals, and America is evil.

Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

interesting but overrated

[6/10 · 18 March 2009]

Yes, while this was an interesting movie, it is not one of the best of all time. What is good about this movie is that it shows a descent film can be made without lots of animation and special effects, the acting was what made it an above average movie. The fatal flaw in my opinion is the lag, the detail and side stories had some parts that just drug. I think the editing could have been better as it seems that some parts were excluded, and others included that were backwards. A lot could have been edited out, yet there were just some topics that were glossed over I would have liked to have had some of those topics at least covered.

Saw (2004)

Not bad

[6/10 · 20 November 2008]

For what it's worth this movie isn't bad. It was a sort of new idea, it did have a lot of crossover elements from other films but it did present it in a different way so, at least it was something different, there was suspense and it did sort of make sense, that plot line I mean. The events seem in line with some notion of reality, the extreme but not predictable. A movie can be too predictable or just have so many twists it makes no sense, this movie is one of the few that meet the happy medium. I was surprised to see more than simple gore, oh that is there no doubt, but that wasn't all there was. Not a big fan of horror movies, this is at least new and interesting, the plot was interesting is the best I can say.