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Reviews
Message Man (2018)
Quality. Like all good movies, worth a re-watch down the road.
I don't understand the low rating for this movie. Message Man is easily 10 times better than most of the action movies out there that get higher ratings.
The lead actor has great presence and a very intense disposition. You feel the weight of the life he's lead and how difficult it is for him to let down his guard. Despite that, you sense he has a heart.
Now when it comes to his craft, he is deadly and exceedingly efficient. You won't see any ridiculous 10 min fight scenes. He's gets it done quickly in a believable way. And against the well depicted vile and evil bad men, he is absolutely vicious.
It's just an excellent and solid movie, especially with the genre. Good actors and characters with an interesting take on the assassin/espionage world.
Halloween Kills (2021)
WTAF?! What a letdown...
The last one was so good (as far as Halloween movies go). It was at least mostly sensible (apart from the dad if I remember correctly). But as soon as this one ended I went straight here to IMDB to see if the writers had been changed, thinking maybe a Wonder Woman scenario had taken place. Nope. Apparently, like George Lucas, it's time to take away John Carpenter's pen.
This was a collection of some of the most nonsensical choices and circumstance you could dream up. It's like no one in this entire movie besides Jamie Lee Curtis had any comprehension of what a survival instinct is.
EVERYONE in this movie makes the dumbest choices; but even if they make the right ones, the writing takes all reason and logic out of the execution. For instance, one guy has a baseball bat and goes to hit a homerun on Michael's head, but instead of making the swing like everyone else would (including even a 3 year old on a piñata), from about 3-4 feet away, the guy lunges towards a knife-wielding Michael until he's about a foot away and then tries to complete his swing from there. And this was supposed to be the guy who knew how to kick some butt. Brilliant.
I feel like I could literally have a career in Hollywood as an Arbitrator of Reality, presuming of course anyone in Hollywood would be interested in reality checks or truth. But if they hired me, in my most humble opinion (lol), the quality of action/horror movies would go up and through the roof almost overnight. I would have a zero-tolerance policy on this kind of laughable BS. I would just go from script to script cleaning up the ridiculousness. But alas...
Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)
Inane dialogue..
Okay I'm giving this 5 stars simply because I didn't finish it and I want to give the cast of countless stars the benefit of the doubt that they actually read the script before signing on and found something in it that was redeeming. Who knows? But if I was rating it on only what I saw, It'd be more like 2.
I don't understand what the writers were going for, but it was just a series of corny, wink-wink double speak. Then as seems typical of the more pointless movies today, certain characters are inexplicably rude/hostile but it is passed off as normal and sensical, all the while the main character, who has hardly spoken a word and whose confusion goes completely unacknowledged, seems to be regarded as somehow giving offense. It's just some weak attempt at painting the picture of a secret, insider-only world where the rules are meant to be known without explicitly being stated; and DON'T YOU DARE BREAK THEM! Oh the audacity in being a lowly outsider.
These kinds of movies come off as lazily written, indulgent facsimiles of the esotericism inherent in the John Wick parallel universe. But unlike John Wick, these others are just gimmicky.
Munemoshune no musume tachi (2008)
Excellent!
******only the most minor of spoilers, and nothing that couldn't be guessed just my considering the concepts of immortality******
I'm blown away at the imagination of the writers. Not much in the mood to write a long review, so in keeping it *somewhat* short, I recommend watching this if you're at all interested in sci-fi and the concepts and consequences of immortality; as well as in seeing interesting and plausible views of what the future holds for us technologically.
The story line is completely original. The last show this original was Aeon Flux (not the crappy movie), though Aeon Flux was much farther "out there". Both have otherworldly characters and situations that won't disappoint, but WILL keep you in anticipation of the next episode. Each episode of Rin is a leap forward of about 25 years, so you get what are like snapshots of our planet/society from a photo album, but in reverse -- and by reverse i mean instead of glimpses into the past, you get glimpses into a future that seems to have already happened. It's very cool and very gratifying to see *non-immortal* characters suddenly 25 years further into their lives and carrying with them the same personality, but, as one would expect, filtered through 25 years of experience and experiences. They know and care for and keep the secrets of the two lead immortal characters; and continue to aid them while they can throughout their own finite lives. But they also are rooted in the life they are currently living and have cares and concerns of their own (like actual people would).
In addition to the cool story, there is also quite a bit of sexual content and there isn't much holding back on the part of the writers. The depictions of sex are much hotter and much more satisfying than any soft core porn flick you might catch on Skin-emax. But it's not really about the sex -- it's about the story and so the sex just fits in where it makes sense to the plot and to the characters. This is a show that is definitely for adults (in addition to the sex, there is much graphic violence as well), but it's for adults who haven't lost their imagination.
My only disappointment after watching this series, is that there wasn't more. I wish for the writers to continue this story with a new series. It certainly left off with much more to tell and much more I want to see.
Life (2007)
I will never understand why NBC killed this show.
I loved this show. It had everything i like in a TV show: it was smart, funny, edgy, quirky and had a lot of interesting characters (Charlie Crews being the most interesting of course). On top of that, it had the dark, well-conceived conspiracy always going in the background -- danger and menace were always lurking.
Though I was late to the show (I had to rent the DVDs for season 1 to see what I had been missing), by the time the 2nd season started I was absolutely hooked; and by the time the show got to the end of the 2nd season, I was already in anticipation of the 3rd. Of course NBC just had to frick (yeah, you know what i mean) that all up. I don't remember all the details, but the gist of things, from what I remember, is that for awhile NBC was being run by a bunch of gutless wonders who would lose faith in any show that wasn't among the strongest in its respective time slot. Well they screwed up and they screwed us, the millions of loyal followers of the show, when they canceled Life.
Everyone knows that reviewers on IMDb can be very discriminating when it comes to handing out high ratings. The 8.5 rating for Life is a testament to its quality and intrigue. I can't think of many movies or TV shows that have an 8.5 rating or better. In fact, the highest rated movie of all time (Shawshank Redemption) is less then one point higher.
I wanted to boycott NBC all together for cutting Life, but I have never believed in cutting off my nose to spite my face. Anyhow, check out Life -- you'll love it! P.s. it gets a 9 instead of a 10 because it wasn't as smart as "House", the gold standard, IMO. But it did measure up nearly every other way.