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Beautiful Boy (2018)
Great movie, could have been better without Steve Carell (sorry Steve!)
The movie itself is incredibly touching. Having teenagers myself it's hard to take the content lightly, and it makes you imagine your kids in such a horrible situation and how you'd react. Timothee Chalamet is phenominal as Nic. Everyone else is great as well, except I could not get past Steve Carell's performance. Not sure if it's the result of typecasting or what, but he exuded Michael Scott vibes through most of the flick, even in the most serious of moments. His whiney voice didn't help. Don't get me wrong... Steve Carell is a wonderful actor, but it's hard to see him in such a serious role. He didn't pull it off in my opinion.
Chalamet's performance is worth giving the movie a go. The story itself is amazing, and from what I read after watching, it matched pretty close to what the Sheff families went through in real life.
God Forbid (2022)
The inconvenient truth
The documentary explained things exactly as it is, yet the truth is deemed biased. Maybe Charlie Kirk called on his many sheep to come here and submit their BS?
Great documentary shedding a ton of light on what happened between this kid and a bunch of hypocrites. During the first 20 minutes, I thought "hey, live and let live." I didn't care what they did behind closed doors. But when it was revealed how twisted their true agenda was and how it impacted literally all of our lives politically, it made me sick. The Amerikan Taliban is thriving thanks to disgusting characters like the Falwells. It explains perfectly how their alleged faith plays third fiddle to power and greed. Their faith actually isn't even on their radar. This goes for all of them, not just the Falwells. They're in it for the money and the power, and nothing else. Gross human beings who will be remembered in history as the charlatans they are. And their supporters will be remembered by their children and grandchildren as nothing more than an embarrassing era in their family histories. We actually deserve this. I guess a society has to dabble in theocracy and fascism before it knows any better. I take comfort in knowing that I'll be able to look my children and grandchildren in the eyes one day and confidently say that I was not one of these idiots.
Body of Lies (2008)
Incredibly stupid
Not sure who thought this was a good idea, but whoever it was is an idiot. Pure jingoistic trash disguised as insightful filmmaking. Typical garbage from a society that sees itself as exceptional. Ridley Scott and Leonardo DiCaprio should have known better before partaking in this embarrassing project.
69: The Saga of Danny Hernandez (2020)
Not a 69 production
I'd never known anything about Tekashi69 other than his ridiculous persona and him being ridiculed on The Breakfast Club. Never heard his music. Watched this and it was genuinely interesting. It does not promote him whatsoever. Just tells a pretty crazy story of a kid from NYC who happened to create a not so great story for himself. Give it a whirl. It's very well done and worth watching.
Dangerous Lies (2020)
A movie about 2 dumb people
It's a movie about two dumb people who can't seem to figure out how to make a single good decision throughout the entire film.
Dark Net (2016)
Semi interesting stuff, but nothing to do with the dark net
Based on watching first 2 episodes of season one... Stories about anything but the dark net. Everything they show you can google. Reminds me of the words of a great philosopher, who's name I cannot remember... I don't think that word means what you think it means.
Animal Kingdom (2016)
Soap Opera for tough guys
This is what happens when you put a great classic like Point Break and a crappy soap opera like Sons of Anarchy in a blender. It's entertaining to an extent, but the silly drama quickly becomes unbearable. Watch it if you must, but don't believe the hype. It's sheiza.
Ozark (2017)
Ridiculous
Terrible writing, terrible acting, ridiculous and unexplained scenarios. Bateman 'washed' and delivered 7M to Morales by buying tons of AC units, carpeting and sort of building a church. He spent a lot, but no explanation of how the money was recouped.
And weird, pointless scenes... girl goes for swim, finds herself in big trouble, is tired and disoriented, drowns, but surprise! She's not tired. Doesn't drown. Swims home. Yay. Apparently they ran out of drama and had to insert stupid weird scenes to make up for it.
Dumb, weird show that tries way to hard to be weird and 'edgy.' And no, it's nothing like Breaking Bad. BB was good, this is terrible.
Sons of Anarchy (2008)
Embarrassing Doodoo
This show was promising in the first season, but it quickly showed it's crap colors. As others have said, it's nothing but a soap opera peppered with absolutely asinine scenarios. In this fantasy land, cops don't exist, at least not in the capacity in which they do in the real world. And in this fantasy land, everyone, and I mean EVERYONE, is a hyper-dramatic drama queen. Each scene starts with a silent moment where some dumb biker sits there with a contemplative look on their face. The dumb biker is usually surrounded by other dumb people mulling over the dumb biker's latest dramatic dilemma. Like these people have nothing better to do with their lives than sit there and feed the dumb biker's sappy ego.
The show is complete crap. The only reason I'm giving it 2 stars is because a few episodes of the first season showed promise. That quickly faded.
Rise of the Footsoldier (2007)
Terrible
Football hooligans regularly wielding axes and machetes and looking like frenzied zombies out of '28 days later.' Bouncers stabbing trouble makers in their bums with 9 inch blades. Gorgeous girls instantly bedazzled by a violent moron bar bouncer. You'd think bouncers were the MMA fighters of that era.
It gets a 2 for including every single "Violent English gangster hooligan genre" cliché out there.
And of course there's the "borrowing" from so many more successful movies. The first 5 minutes reeks of Trainspotting, and a poor attempt at that.
The Hurt Locker (2008)
Decent film getting a lot of flack for inaccuracies
This movie was not bad at all. I guess what helped is that I didn't go into it expecting an accurate depiction of life as an EOD tech. There were definitely scenes that seemed unbelievable. The one that stands out the most was the 'car on fire' scene. And there were others that left you asking 'is this really how things are done?' Specifically... why disarm vs. blow an IED up in place? And there's the minute specifics which nobody outside the military, myself included, would ever notice. Badges, hardware, etc, etc.
Seems most of the criticism on IMDb is rightfully coming from vets of the Iraq/Afgan wars. But I don't think the filmmakers intended on everyone focusing so much and on the factual inaccuracies of the movie. I believe their intent was to follow what was going on in the main character's head. They began the film with the 'war is a drug' quote. Just about everything that James did in the entire movie revolved around that quote. If the filmmakers had depicted exact military protocol in the film, they would not have succeeded in doing what they wanted to do. They portrayed James as a loose canon who was very good at what he wanted to do, which they would have had much trouble doing if they didn't take the liberties they did. Had they done otherwise, he would have been discharged about 20 minutes into the movie and the credits would have rolled.
The impressions I first got about James was that he was either so desensitized to everything around him that he foolishly believed he was invincible, or that he was genuinely nihilistic and didn't care if he died. The nihilist feeling never left. He did what he did well, but didn't seem to care if his next move killed him. Another sense I got was the video game aspect of the whole thing. It's as if he was playing things out in real life as if it were a game. He didn't recognize any potential personal loss, and rarely looked at the effects his behavior had on others in his group, hence his willingness to do whatever he wanted. The only time he seemed emotionally distressed was when he found the body of the young boy. As if he had a momentary pause where he realized it wasn't a game and people suffered. But he eventually snapped out of it and was back to his normal self. When he was trying to get the bomb jacket off of the man and couldn't, he offered a few apologies and started to run once he realized he couldn't win this phase of the game. He didn't seem too emotionally distraught immediately afterward.
And there's the final scenes of the movie where he pretty much admits in front of his very young son that he doesn't love anything but the game itself. Not his wife or even his son. And the scene that followed with him marching down a road in his bomb suit reinforced the whole video game thing. It looked perfectly like a video game scene with him centered in the road and a horde of soldiers and their vehicles slowly following.
All said and done, it was a good movie despite it's shortcomings in the accuracy dept. And let's not forget it was an indie flick that was initially released to DVD abroad. Not bad at all.
Dan in Real Life (2007)
Something amiss at the IMDb
-might contain spoilers... but believe me, this movie spoils itself from start to finish.
I walked into this movie with high expectations. It was my own fault. I had put too much stock in Steve Carell's record to date. 40 year old virgin... Little Miss Sunshine... The Office. And I also made the mistake of coming to IMDb and seeing a 7.5 user rating before going to the movie. It's always been a very good predictor in the past, but something is definitely off lately. The last time I felt this embarrassed and in this much pain in a movie theater was watching "Blue Steel" in 1990.
This flick fumbled from start to finish. The script was flunky material. Awful writing all around. "Murderer of love"? "Love is an ability"? Whoever wrote this crap suffered from the same affliction that struck American Beauty's writer(s)... trying waaaaayyyyyy too hard. The entire flick was peppered with Three's Company'ish moments like the awful and contrived shower scene. Or the pointless/confusing aerobics scene. Or the awful laundry room scene. Right when you think something serious and/or real is about to happen, they toss in one of these terrible moments. And it happens over and over and over again.
And what's with Carell's character? The guy meets some lame broad at a book store and is suddenly head over heels in love? Let's face it. Their conversation sucked. They both should have said their goodbye's after a few minutes. Pay close attention to the initial conversation when you have the misfortune of watching this movie.... Carell's character is trying to say something which is absolutely random and un-funny (I think the exact line was "this one time when I was a kid"... that's it. seriously), but both are laughing so hard that coffee is about to spout out of their noses. The actors themselves looked like they were in pain, wondering why they're being directed to do what they're doing.
Back to the IMDb thing... you guys need to figure out a way to keep a movie's promotional team off this site. I know it's impossible, but it's painfully obvious the first 20 or so ratings/reviews were either posted by 12 year olds, or by flunky's hired by the studio. Check out The Family Stone's rating... if that's a mid 5, then this absolutely has got to be a 2... and that's pushing it.
Baraka (1992)
very defensive reviews
i've noticed quite a few people are sick and tired of the message this film was allegedly trying to hammer home. you folks need to relax. it's nothing more than a collage of images showing an extremely broad range of subjects. i personally thought it was extremely well made and i did think it was visually stunning and the music was also excellent. so it included kids picking through landfills. so what? it's something that goes on in our world and the director wisely chose to include it. i never got the impression that someone was trying to tell me that technology is responsible. it showed busy city streets, and it also showed serene mountain and jungle environments. was it trying to convince me one should be chosen over the other? i didn't think it was. it was doing what the film's creators were trying to do.... show various aspects of life. different going on's in our world. what was the point of showing jews at worship in jerusalem? what was the point of showing monks going about their daily lives? how about the funeral pyre in india (i'm assuming that was india)? people walking down sidewalks? was the director trying to tell anyone "technology bad!". none of these subjects have anything to do with technology. if you got the "technology bad!" message, then you're probably a little hypersensitive and are trying to defend yourself against accusations that haven't been made (at least not by this film). reading way too much into a collection of predominantly neutral and stunning images from around the world.
the sheen
Monica in Black and White (2002)
very informative, overdramatic
A documentary style account of how the affair between Lewinski and Clinton came about and ended with scandal. All along the way, peppered with a Q & A session between a group of students and Lewinski. The explanation of exactly what and how everything happened was there in the documentary. I did like that aspect of it since I never paid enough attention to it when it was going on. The Q & A session was not much more than Lewinski explaining how scared she was throughout the whole ordeal and how she felt betrayed by Tripp, etc, etc. As much as I hate to say it, it pretty much came across as not much more than an appeal for sympathy on Lewinski's part. Neither the questions nor the answers to any of them provided anything of interest, with the exception of one young lady who happened to be a former high school classmate of Lewinski.
As a result of it, I pretty much found every player in the whole affair to be pretty pathetic. Clinton, needless to say, was (and likely still is) a pig regarding the whole thing. He undoubtedly, being in his position at the time, should have assumed 99% of the responsibility. He's the president, married, and has a daughter, and decided to carry on an affair with a 22 year old intern. Not very bright. Lewinsky doesn't come across as too bright either. I remember one instance where she was recalling Tripp pressuring her for information and Monica replying with something along the lines of "and I never even told her I thought the President was cute!" Monica is 28 years old now, but oddly sounds like a bantering junior in high school. She was no doubt the victim of circumstance in both affairs mentioned, but in any case, she was a willing adult at both times and must ultimitely look within herself for her portion of responsibility.
Her former high school teacher, Andy something, whom she had an affair with for five years beginning when she was 19, hands down, wins the jackass award. The documentary shows footage of "Andy" and his dimwitted wife in front of their house explaining to the press how he couldn't hold it in any longer and the world needed to know what kind of a person Lewinski was. He told everyone of a letter of support he had recieied, signed by all his students. The wife praised everyone for all the calls of support she received from people "she doesn't even know!". I had to check the channel to make sure I was still watching the same program. I thought this guy had been kidnapped by terrorists, or possibly overcome amazing odds against some terminal illness. Then it hit me, these were the two dumbest people on earth, sharing their stupidity with the rest of us. Andy, you cheated on your wife for five years. Nothing "happened" to you. You took advantage of your position as a teacher and used it to manipulate the mind of a young woman, and at the same time, cheat on your wife. And Mrs. Andy, please get a clue. You are married to a jackass with high potential for pedophilia.
Linda Tripp came across as a close contender for the jackass award. I had no idea her role until the documentary explained it.
In the end, I felt well informed, felt sorry for no one and have become very aware that both the left and the right can be equally ruthless in judgement (perfectly exemplified by Michael Moore on Politically Incorrect bantering "isn't she the one who said.. I'm going to get my presidential kneepads?!").
All in all, definitely worth watching if you don't know the story.