drew1116 Reviews

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Hero Worship (1992) Season 5, Episode 11

Weak episode with nothing of interest

[2/10 · 13 January 2024]

I'm a TOS fan, but I recently read Patrick Stewart's biography and thought I would try a few episodes of TNG.

Honestly, there's nothing in this episode. It's just a boring who cares, non-science fiction soap. There's no tension, no drama, nothing compelling, just straight up storytelling that belongs on the Hallmark Channel.

An episode about a traumatized boy. That's Star Trek? What am I missing?

I'm 200 characters short. Although I've only seen about 10 episodes ever of TNG, one of the things that I was turned off by was the lack of difference between the lead characters. They all seem so similar except for Data.

Oh, and the acting comes across as very wooden. I'm sure this is because the actors themselves aren't given anything to work with. I suspect that some of them are probably very good in the right roles.

Maybe TNG isn't for me.

The King's Man (2021)

I thought so

[1/10 · 22 May 2022]

I watched 20 minutes and quickly realized if I don't stop, I'll just waste a lot more time, so I came on this board to read user reviews. Well, I agree with most that this film sucks so I won't be watching the rest.

If you're ok with woke, virtue signalling, low IQ nonsense then by all means watch it. But frankly, I'm getting sick of the "don't expect much and you'll enjoy it" movies. Where are the "I expect a lot and I'm getting it" movies?

The Batman (2022)

Just 15 minutes

[3/10 · 22 April 2022]

Well, I watched the first 15 minutes and boy did it suck. You would think when rebooting a franchise that they would try to knock your socks off from the get to. But no. I'll watch the rest in pieces as it is doubtful that I could sit through the whole thing.

15 minutes in, the writing was weak already. As others have mentioned, extremely dark and hard to follow. Really, your best bet is to watch it in the dark, otherwise you will probably miss a lot.

The first action scene, Batman claims he is vengeance but then doesn't mete out vengeance. Maybe trying to keep the kiddies from getting too frightened.

Then the Batman monologue which is tiresome and not particularly interesting. It's like these directors are concentrating on all of the wrong things. How about crafting a compelling scene?

I'm not saying anything that is new here, but there is one thing that is new and that is the reviews. People complain that there are too many 10's out there and that may be so, but once you get a feel for the writing style, you can tell they are paid shills most likely. Broken English, always a call to go see the movie asap. Very generalized statements without specifics. Overuse of the word "gritty", which was taken from other reviews. I doubt the reviewers actually watched the film. Read a few of these 10's and you'll see how easy it is to spot the fakes.

Dune (2021)

What am I missing?

[4/10 · 14 April 2022]

I never read the book, but have been eagerly anticipating Villeneuve's version to come out. Unfortunately, I waited too long and watched Dune on a 50" screen. Maybe it would have been better in a theater where I would have accepted the movie more as a visual feast.

That said, I agree wholeheartedly with the negative reviews of Dune. Slow, uninteresting, boring, with a dash of who cares? I won't reiterate what others have said, but here is my take:

This movie fails in the way a lot of poor movies fail in that the characters and as a result, the scenes are just not compelling. I can't think of one scene in the film that I would want to see over aside from maybe Marlon Baron in the tub or the first meeting with the Bene Gesserit. The actors aren't bad, but they appear so lifeless. Mamoa, Zendaya and even Chalamet just seem so uninteresting. Javier Bardem does his best as always, but even he can't do much with the material he has.

Honestly, this one is not much of a step up from the superhero movies we have been deluged with. I'm not sure if this is bad directing, bad writing, bad acting or maybe the art of creating an interesting scene has been lost.

No Time to Die (2021)

Bo-Ring

[4/10 · 20 October 2021]

A big letdown. James Bond with boring action, mostly just gunplay without the fantastic choreography we've seen in other Bond films. A couple of decent scenes mostly including Ana de Armas who is the best part of the film but barely in it.

I saw it at an iMax and couldn't wait to get out of there.

The Tomorrow War (2021)

Action Film that bores

[4/10 · 4 July 2021]

I'm a big sci-fi fan and this one just bores.

Forget about the plot holes and all of the other things reviewers have been complaining about which are legitimate. For me, the action scenes themselves are underwhelming. I can't think back to any one scene that I thought was really well done and visually interesting. There's just no cool factor.

I think one of the problems is that the protagonists fire thousands of bullets and they have no effect. It deadens the effect of the fight. Why not just run away, which they do anyway. There are so many ways to make these action scenes more interesting to the viewer, but the director seems to not have any creativity in setting them up.

As an example, later in the movie when the base gets overwhelmed, the aliens just appear and take over. Why not set this up just a bit more slowly to create fear and dread, more excitement. It was rushed and loses its effect.

Anyway, this movie feels overly long at 2 hours and 20 minutes. I was waiting for it just to be done already and frankly have not watched the last 30 minutes yet. I was bored last night and will watch the rest tonight.

If you really want your sci-fi fix, then by all means watch it. However, if you want a similar movie, just watch Edge of Tomorrow. That one is also flawed, but far better and the action is head and shoulders above this film.

Greta (2018)

Weak, not worth the time

[3/10 · 17 November 2019]

Others have fleshed out most of the issues in the movie. My take:

The dialogue is poor throughout, although there is some good banter between Huppert and Moretz.

I'll usually let the absurdity slide if there are other parts of the film to save it . The cellphone scene early on is just absurd and is a poor reflection of the director who put this in to begin with. There are plenty more though where that came from.

People doing really dumb things. Turning their back when they shouldn't, that sort of stuff. Just lame and indicative of weak direction.

This one felt like a money grab from the director whose best days are long behind him. If you want a mindless, overly long, brain drain type of evening, this one fits the bill.

Watchmen (2019)

Not For Me

[5/10 · 7 November 2019]

I've never read the comic or seen the movie. However, I am a comic book guy and was looking forward to a story with new characters not set in a Marvel or DC universe. It seems like writers recently are all too willing to jump on the bandwagon, thankful that they don't have to come up with something original.

And where were the super-heroes? I only saw one episode, but I couldn't tell if anyone was enhanced in any way. Maybe the silver masked guy or the other guy in a red mask. But I haven't any idea what their powers are.

Lastly, at times it felt like I was watching This Is Us. A show I've never seen but can hear when my wife watches it. This just isn't for me. It's not something I want to see for the umpteenth time and really, I would like some escapism. Not a reminder of how things are/can be in real life. I can see how many people would like this show and probably have been waiting for it for a long time. That's fine, I'll pass.

I gave it 5 stars, because I can't say if it's good or bad. Just not my cup of tea and really, nothing in it for me.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

Take the first hour off

[3/10 · 27 April 2019]

I'm a comic guy from way back and don't particularly like the movie versions, so take that for what it's worth.

My mistake was seeing it at a midnight showing. I didn't think I was tired, but I guess I was as I ended up falling asleep for about 30 minutes.

So here's the bottom line for me. I really don't care about the plot holes. Many reviewers have mentioned them. For me, it's about the scenes. Are they done well? Realistic dialogue? Interesting or exciting action. Actors who are fun to watch. Is this a movie I would watch twice? That is my baseline for any movie to be what I consider "good"

Unfortunately, Endgame fails on all accounts really. It starts off extremely slowly. You could take off the first hour and you wouldn't miss much at all. The action? Nothing really clever or compelling for me. The big Ant Man was kind of cool. Massive amounts of political correctness was expected and delivered, but that will lower ratings for any movie that I watch. Too many wooden characters, however I expect that.

In conclusion, I couldn't watch this one twice as it's simply too boring and I like slow paced movies. Too schmaltzy at the end. Yes, it's over, but don't worry though, almost all of these guys will be back, just with different actors playing the roles.

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

Bland Action Fare

[3/10 · 15 November 2018]

Textbook by the numbers action movie with no imagination. There's really not much to say as we've seen this all before.Honestly, this is straight to video without Tom Cruise in it.

I'm not sure if Cobie Smulders can act, but she sure can do serious face well.

I'll give Zwick a break on this as he has made movies I have liked in the past, but Pawn Sacrifice and this one are just plain terrible. Maybe he's just getting old and needs the paycheck.

Life (I) (2017)

Incredibly bad

[2/10 · 31 October 2017]

This movie is horrible for all of the reasons mentioned by other reviewers and they are spot on. I'll just add a few thoughts.

Personally, I will give a movie wide latitude on believability as long as said movie is enjoyable to watch. I remember watching The Revenant a few months back and nitpicking here and there, but you know what? We don't have a movie if the director/writer isn't allowed to venture out a bit. Unfortunately, Life just tosses all reason out the window and then the complaining starts...during the movie.

I've seen one other film by this director and it was terrible as well. Child 44 from the book which I thoroughly enjoyed. He managed to turn that one into a snooze fest and inexplicably deviated from the book plot line which I thought was very original. How this guy keeps getting directing gigs, I don't know.

I say this over and over in my reviews, but good movies are just a giant collection of great scenes...memorable scenes. This one literally has not one. Just complete lameness throughout. Prometheus was a weak movie, but it was pretty grotesque and horrifying. Not here. I think my favorite scene is the Soyuz smashing into the ISS. Go figure.

Life is rated R. To me, that means you can dispense with the schmaltzy story lines meant to captivate all viewer groups like we see in most PG films. I couldn't care less about the pregnant wife, daddy lines, etc.

The creature has to be one of the lamest aliens ever in a sci-fi movie. Yes, later on it's a direct ripoff of Prometheus. Everyone is afraid of tentacles, so I can let that go. But watching a white banana peel chasing the crew members around looks just stupid. This is unforgivable in my opinion, because the makers of Life could have gone in any direction and they chose the wimpiest looking alien I've ever seen. Of course, if you make the alien indestructible, incredibly strong, intelligent... you get the idea.

I can go on and on, but just wanted to say a few different things about Life other than how unbelievable it was, which is very true. Seriously though, give me two A-list actors and a $60 million budget and I could beat this miserable garbage into the dirt.