buggy3001 Reviews

Aquaman (2018)

A DC success story

[8/10 · 30 December 2018]

The bad:

• a few (arguably) bad writing choices to expedite the script and keep it under 3 hours
• costume design (mostly related to the cheese factor of enemy soldiers)
• discombobulated editing in a few spots that made some folks confused
• a few cheesy lines
• some unnecessary sequences that could've cut 10-20 minutes out (and not be missed)
• a bit of bad (over) acting (thankfully its very limited)
• the post processing of young-ification of Aquaman's parents (should've cast younger actors for the early years; the work felt a bit unnecessary)
• bad guys weren't complex or deep enough (don't expect to identify with any of them, like you may have with someone like Thanos, for example)

The good:

• good balance between a tad of humor and more serious story notes
• great casting choices for Jason as male lead and Amber as female lead
• very colorful & good quality vfx (felt like Pirates of the Caribbean meets underwater Avatar, with a pinch of Riddick & Star Wars? to go with a Blade Runner-ish soundtrack)
• no cheesy or forced love story
• tons of action mixed in with some slower paced sequences to allow for character development
• good supporting cast
• underwater sound fx and tracks were fun
• underwater shots were balanced very well, sometimes looking gigantic in scale, but feeling very claustrophobic when needed
• underwater hair looked great
• main character costumes looked decent and not as cheesy as the soldiers

Overall:

Went in with low expectations because it was DC and this wasn't Wonder Woman, or another Chris Nolan, Batman movie. Came out pleasantly surprised. Really fun flick. 8/10

Logan (2017)

No expectations going in...blown(slashed) away

[4 March 2017]

Imagine a combination of The Departed with a bit of older Rambo and a great job casting the kid playing opposite the "old man".

Awesome script, really good acting, and i cant even mention the action. Its ridiculously good.

OF NOTE:

The movie HAS kids in it, but do NOT take young kids to go see it. Rated R for a Reason.

This is NOT a Marvel movie. (otherwise nothing would happen, half of it would be a comedy, and no one would ever die)

Best X-man movie to date.

Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016)

Better than expected, thanks to negative critics

[8/10 · 26 May 2016]

If i could give half stars, this would be in the 7.5 category.

Like the title says, thanks to bad critic reviews, i went in with extremely low expectations and was actually surprised with a fun and enjoyable movie.

The movie is a lot brighter, sunnier, than the first one, and i think that's what made it more fun. Its not gloomy. There's a bit of whimsy to it.

There's a lot of action scenes with a few breathers in between to develop the story some more. Neither kids, nor adults, will find it dragging at any point in time.

The story isn't too deep, good for kids, a tad more boring for adults (who will probably enjoy the FX eye candy more, as per critic reviews); the dialogue is okay but has a couple of cringe worthy lines that you'd expect out of a 3rd grader, trying to write his first script, instead of someone in Hollywood.

I want to call the script, "simple". I personally find it lacking, perhaps shifted towards younger audiences more, on purpose, but in the end, it works fine.

The acting ranges from okay to great, thanks to performances from Sasha playing as "Time", and a few of the secondary characters throughout the story. Mia's also eons better than what she was doing in the 1st Alice movie, and she did her best with what she was given.

Thankfully, Depp's Mad Hatter wasn't the "lead" in this movie as much as before. His character is central to the plot of the movie, but takes a step back to Alice's performance, something the script got right for a change.

Its a good family movie that will entertain a wide range of ages, but lacks the depth of a movie like Titanic or The Shawshank Redemption, that critics seem to be looking for.

Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens (2015)

A New Hope Awakens...with the same plot lines (spoilers abound)

[6/10 · 22 December 2015]

The good: Fun, re-watchable, roller coaster type movie with very fast pacing. John Boyega was a standout & Harrison was as snappy as ever. Great action overall, fun choreography of lightsaber fights,etc

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The bad: The same story, EXACT story, as the original Star Wars. The big threat? A bigger Death star. The 3rd one. With the same easily destructible "tunnel" area. They even copied the exact same ideas for a "cantina" and a "team meeting around a holo table" to map out the rebel attack. Come on. I paid for a new movie, not a rerun of the original. Very uninspired.

Rey is Luke v2.o, almost to a tee, until the bad writing takes place and she goes from stick fighting 2 no name alien thugs on Jakku in the intro of her character, to becoming a Master Jedi within 20 minutes of her getting screen time.

Touching up on that note, Luke's character took 3 movies, 1 lost arm (to Vader), and almost dying a couple of times, until he BARELY defeated Vader (whose power diminished drastically after Obi kicked his butt and chopped him up). Not to mention, Luke was NOT able to kill the Emperor. Vader had to save him.

Rey takes on a trained(since birth, by Luke) Sith Commander, with little problem. They stop fighting in the middle of the fight for her to "look within" for 5 seconds (it was quiet for dramatic effect but failed quite miserably as the timing was "off" for that to even happen in such a dynamic duel), and then literally she becomes a Jedi Master with a lightsaber, proceeding to defeat him.

Another ridiculous Rey moment starts from the very start of her intro to the audience. She, out of nowhere, pilots the Millennium Falcon, as well as Han & Chewie in their twilight, with NO EXPERIENCE, while being chased by Tie fighters through the innards of a downed Star Destroyer. WHAT? HOW?

Horribly lazy & bad writing.

The pacing of the movie allowed for no character development, unless it was instant. She INSTANTLY knew what to do, without any knowledge of the situation or the ship, etc. He INSTANTLY thought of something that totally worked without any prior knowledge or education about the subject matter. Everything had to be instant, because there simply was no time.

The script is what irks me the most.

CG in some parts, was sub par. A lot of times used needlessly (unlike the originals). Characters which could've been cast as actors, and used prosthetics, were pushed to CG for no reason at all. Snoke & Maz specifically.

Cinematography was made for a Disney ride & feels video game-y. Lots of upside down, and side to side flipping camera angles that trail the action, all mixed in with GoPro's on XWings. For non action scenes, it was anywhere between mediocre to great, but very all over the place as a package.

The dialogue wasn't much better, but still a step above what Lucas was writing in the prequels.

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Final thought, a fan boy (JJ) and a big corp (Disney) teamed up to make a safe (unoriginal), toy commercial with park ride implications.

Lucas at least had the balls to explore new terrain, while making some screw ups in the process. ALL prequels were new, ACTUALLY new, movies. This is a remake with a new cast and more CG than needed.

Your kids will love it, and you will find it very re-watchable because it literally has no depth. I liked it in theaters as a joy- ride (much like i experience Fast & Furious movies), but i'm disappointed as a Star Wars fan.

6/10 due to lack of originality & badly written shallow characters

47 Ronin (2013)

Reviewing this because its better than its rating

[8/10 · 12 May 2014]

Compared to 70% of the garbage in theaters, this movie is both quite deep and fun to watch.

It is not a huge budget movie, it doesn't have a perfect script or story overall, but the acting was great and the overall fantasy feel to it mixed in with samurai lore was really enjoyable.

I expected this movie to be less than average due to overall scores. Don't pay attention to them. I'll be purchasing the bluray after seeing it just now.

It has a slower beginning but it helps give characters depth. The ending is also quite spectacular because you're involved with the ronin every step of the way. The last 1/3rd of the film is as usual where the major battles happen, but act two does not disappoint.

In my books this is a 7.5/10, gave it an 8 as its under rated on here. Approach it as a really good B movie and you'll love it. If you expect an Oscar nominations and a $200 mil budget for this, you should probably not be reviewing these sorts of films.

Sucker Punch (2011)

the last wicker man air bender

[3/10 · 27 March 2011]

that name describes how good of a package this movie is. Bad doesn't describe it properly, and this is coming from a guy in his mid 20s who loves movies that generally get rated horrible by critics and to a smaller extent people as well.

I came in waiting to see exactly what others here described in their 7-9 star reviews. That would be an "anime" live action flick, a bit of "Sin City" mixed with a a very lite "Inception".

Spoilers past this.

What i got was a story about the main character who wasn't at all about the main character but wasted 1 and a half hours on her. Also got horribly flat acting, extremely bad dialogue that makes fast and furious movies sound like the king's speech, sporadic action scenes where everything is shaky cam intertwined with fast cuts to hide bad choreography, absolutely no character development, a dream within 2 dreams only 1 of which actually has an "intro" that identifies going in and out of.

Now for the jist of the actual plot vs what actually happens on screen. Main character goes to asylum and immediately imagines it being a "gentlemns" club without any sort of transition into this dream state interpretation to let you know its started. Then when she supposedly starts dancing she is so "raw" that she mesmerizes all the men watching her while in the mean time her mind wanders around and we see 5 minute displays of nazi zombies, lord of the rings and i robot in her different dream sequences. The problem here is they also show no dancing, she just swings 2 centimeters left and then right and the dream starts...

When she comes to from those dance-dreams, absolutely every scene has girls crying in it and comforting each other, there's no difference to move the story forward.

Lastly i saved the visual effects for last because i love movies alone based on them, like 2012, even if its weak in other parts. There are very few movies that come to mind that have this bad and blatant CGI that i've seen. People saying its supposed to be a "fantasy" setting don't understand that fantasy is not a way to describe "bad".

Also, just as a side note for guys who thinks there's eye candy in this worth it enough to see, get your ticket money and go buy a calendar with random girls for each month. You'll get more out of it.

Rango (2011)

a story of self discovery

[9/10 · 6 March 2011]

Just to get this out of the way, do not take little kids to this movie. They wont get the subject matter a lot of the time and will get bored half an hour into it and start fiddling around with whatever else they can find around their chairs.

This is an animated movie with some humour, which comes as a secondary to the main storyline of self discovery. The character, through his journey struggles to understand who he is, and through that discovers what helping and loving others can give him in return.

Overall its a fun and dry humour movie made for an adult audience. This kind of flick is rare because you can tell it wasn't made to sell toys, it was made to tell a story; unlike anything Pixar churns out.

Jennifer's Body (2009)

Good comedy...wasn't it?

[6/10 · 19 September 2009]

If you go in with expectations of a serious movie of some sort of classical approach to horror,etc or good acting/storyline, save your money.

If you go in because there's no other movies out there to watch but the title might seem like fun, you might end up enjoying yourself.

I personally laughed for roughly half the movie as did most of the audience. The story is predictable and doesn't make sense at all, the dialogue is triple cheese with ketchup on top, and the "horror" is really funny looking.

That said, i finally got convinced that my $11 were worth it when the 2 girls started the kissing on the bed. I however wasn't the only one as the entire room started laughing really loudly when they heard me. The movie is great if you approach it as a B type with a scantily clad cliché bad chick.

Getting down to some acting, Megan Fox did her part just fine as expected (you know, look good, cheesy 16 yr old chick lines), yet surprisingly the other girl actually pulled off a decent performance even with the horrendous dialogue.

I wont even get into the storyline because its so ridiculous, i'm only giving this a 6 because, on the positive side it was funny, on the negative side its called Jennifer's Body but there wasn't enough of it...

Max Payne (2008)

middle of the road

[7/10 · 19 October 2008]

if you have played the game (i did it 5 times) and you know how dark it is (sin city meets well...shoot'em up without the carrots and humour) you'll know how sub-standard this really is.

Its decent enough to be able to watch it but Wahlberg wasn't convincing for half the movie. The other half was concentrated TOO much on secondary characters (which was not needed...title of the movie is max payne) on the bright side however, ludicrous did a decent job and was actually semi-likable in the role. The compositing and VFX were very well done as well by SpinVFX it seems also in Toronto. Camera work is very good as well and pulls you in. The whole look of the film is great, sets and locations especially.

The problem overall is however not enough action (for a movie based on a shooting game), not enough darkness in it (whichever executive had his hands in the PG13 rating should be fired...still hoping for an R rated DVD/BD release), some but not all characters were good and lastly....where is the MONOLOGUE? Half the game is Max Payne "talking"...you're INSIDE his mind as flashes of comic book pages go by with grim winter storms and New York with blood red skies in the background.

Bad decisions, a rushed production perhaps and i wish i wouldn't blame the director for this because it seems his hand might have been forced one way instead of the other but this JUST barely makes the grade as an okay movie for theater release.

If you're a fan, go see it, its the closest we'll ever get to a grade A movie done. If you've never heard of it, you can skip it.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (2007)

Nothing impressive

[6/10 · 21 July 2007]

yes its another harry potter film but it brings nothing new from the last one really (past storyline advancement) and with the exception of the 10 minute climactic fight at the end, you can literally sleep through the movie.

This film was the weakest out of all in the series thus far. Not for lack of acting or special effects, but everything else.

Wish we would've seen more of Tonks thats for sure and while the movie does have a few moments of laughter, they're too few, instead choosing to bore its viewers with dialogue that really didn't lead anywhere interesting.

Its an okay movie, definitely good enough to watch, but brings nothing new and everything, even if you haven't read the books, is very predictable.

X-Men: The Last Stand (2006)

Awesome

[10/10 · 28 May 2006]

It may be because this movie fits my demographic or perhaps because i love scifi and fantasy genre movies as long as they are good.

Any way you swing it however, if you do not want to go see X3 in theaters but wish to see only the DVD when it may came out you're missing the whole experience.

The emotional twists and turns that the film puts the viewer through cannot be summarized in one word...i don't think at least.

I laughed, i almost cried and i shivered as the movie reached its climax. The lines were told at the perfect time, the acting was on par and the special effects were right up there where they should be.

For the 1 hour and a half this movie has lasted everyone embarked a ride they have enjoyed throughly and to the end. Best money i spent this year and that's for sure.

PS: Make sure you stay after the credits...another emotion i felt. One which ill leave to you to discover.