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Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)
First was better
This one seemed a little more unrealistic than the first if that's possible but it's still decent. It's still tom Cruise and if you like him you'll like this. The action is good still, if a little bit more unrealistic. The premise is okay but the focus on the girl who might be his daughter drags it down a bit until the end where I think it improved it. Overall this is an easy watch and while I wouldnt recommend it I don't feel it's a waste of time or anything. It also has Robin from how I met your mother and she does a serviceable job. I'm glad I watched it but won't watch it again while I may watch the first again.
The Last Thing He Wanted (2020)
Bad writing
If you've read any reviews all of them say the writing is bad. Believe them, it's like something I would write and I'm a horrible writer. Not sure if the writer or editor to blame but either way it's pretty bad. The acting is decent by everyone involved and it actually has a star studded cast somehow. They just couldn't make this script not seem confusing/pointless. Not to mention all the ridiculous close calls that made no sense how the main character got away, such as when the newspaper place got raided and she ran out the front door scott free. Also it was super obvious Ben Affleck was the bad guy but somehow she didn't see. Ridiculous movie.
The Gambler (2014)
Not bad
This movie isn't bad by any means but was seriously one uped a few years later by the Adam Sandler film Uncut Gems. It's kind of unfair to compare like that but in both movies a guy has an uncontrollable urge to gamble even when he gets enough money to get himself out of trouble he just keeps doubling down until he's in it even deeper. This one had a more bow wrapped ending as he paid off one loam shark then had enough to pay off another but not the third. He puts all he has left on black in Russian Roulette and it hits and he's all paid off with everyone and he's good to go. Uncut gems had a darker ending which is probably more realistic given the level of addiction at play here. Mark does a pretty good job.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
Loved it
I'm not sure if it was nostalgia or this was actually a good movie but I loved it. It was exactly like the olden days and they actually got much of the original cast to return and reprise their roles. Then they had new blood like Joseph Gordon Levitt to round it out and freshen it up. I was giddy the vast majority of it. They did nothing new, it was just like the original that worked so well. Some may think it was lazy but I just felt it was paying homage to the good old days. I went into it with low expectations which may be why I was blown away by how much I enjoyed it but I did and that's why it gets an 8.
Damsel (2024)
Not bad
This movie is exactly what you'd expect from a netflix fantasy film. It showcases Millie Bobby Brown (their star from Stranger Things). She does a decent job in an uninspired role. The plot is her father marries her off to a foreign prince to help his kingdom that is struggling. Turns out that prince plans to sacrifice her to a dragon. The dragon looks pretty good and most of the movie is her trying to escape it's grasp. It should have easily killed her though but she's the resilient heroine. At one point she gets badly burnt on her leg. The next scene it's completely gone and she's moving around fine even as far as going back into the lair to save her sister. Ridiculously lazy filmmaking. Then they do the storybook ending and she recruits the dragon to get revenge on those who wronged her. The visuals and okay story gave it a decent rating but it was lazy and rushed in my opinion.
Jagten (2012)
Hard to watch
In the movie there's a man who's already going through it. He's in the middle of a divorce where he rarely gets to see his son and he also lost his job because a school closed so he has to work as an assistant at a kindergarten. One of his close friends has a girl who goes to kindergarten and her parents fight a lot so he takes her to school and is extra kind to her. Well one day she tries to kiss him. He tells her she shouldn't kiss people on the mouth. That hurt her and she told a different school teacher that she doesn't like him and he showed her his penis. His whole life falls apart because of a little lie from a five year old. Nobody substantiates the claim and it's all his word against the word of a toddler. Throughout it all he is always a good guy and doesn't blame the child. She didn't know what she was doing. It was really hard to watch although it winds up with a positive result.
Network (1976)
Pretty dang good
A failing station (particularly the news portion) puts all their eggs in the basket of one particular anchor. It all started when he said he was going to kill himself on screen in a week. They let him go but then saw the ratings. They were through the roof so they brought him back. He kept saying what he thought was wrong with America and the world in general and it caught on with the general public. They couldn't control him though so multiple times he put them in a bad spot but he was their cash cow. Eventually he exposed something about the station which made them want him gone again. In a wild move they killed him on stage. The desire for money and profits made these people do anything and that's what he was trying to say in general and they proved him right. Pretty dang good, and it was only semi-satire.
Per qualche dollaro in più (1965)
Same
This is the second of the "Dollars" trilogy and I felt about the same as the first. It's not bad at all. There's a bounty hunt and some teaming up that makes it more interesting. The action is 'old timey' but still pretty good. Clint Eastwood is a believable gunslinger. It doesn't do anything that the other one didn't in my opinion but it was still worth watching. Even though I gave the first two an average score I'm still looking forward to The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. That's the one everyone knows obviously and I had to watch these two to get to that one. I'll never watch it again but not bad.
The Third Man (1949)
Not bad
When a friend comes to town to take a job he finds out the man who offered him the job (Harry Lime) was just murdered. He's a murder mystery writer himself and things don't seem to add up. Stories from people at the scene are conflicting and his friend doesn't seem to be the guy he thought he knew. He can't help himself but to get involved. When he's told by a janitor or something like that that there was a third guy involved in moving the body, it clearly doesn't seem like an accident. There's an interesting twist in there too. Not a bad movie at all, especially for the times. I was intrigued even though some of it was a little dated for me.
Mou gaan dou (2002)
Pretty good
This is the departed before the departed remade it. Alot of people think this is better than the departed but I don't think so. The departed was essentially a perfect remake. I think the remake worked more for me due to the American side of it. That said this movie is still really good and had a ton of great ideas that the departed essentially copy and pasted but in a Boston accent. It didn't hurt that the departed cast was ridiculously loaded. Like guys like Mark Walhberg were a footnote when he himself is a genuine leading man. Overall I don't have any critiques of this movie other than I think the remake is better.
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
Excellent newer western
I really liked this flick. It was brutal and I really enjoyed the dialogue. Basically two thieves desecrate an Indian burial ground. They kill the one but the other gets away and involves a nearby town. These aren't regular Indians though, they don't have a language and are cannibals. Kurt Russel is the sheriff of the town and they apprehended the surviving thief for something else. The Indians raided to get that guy and in the process captured one guy's wife and a deputy. A few people included the injured husband go after them. There a brutal fight occurs. This movie just really surprised me and it nailed it.
Journey's End (2017)
Not bad
This movie isn't bad but it doesn't really stir me. The acting is actually pretty good. The captain of a company has to hold a trench when it's known the Germans will probably take it over while he's there. The British were rotating and each company has to be there six days. The Captain is a drunk because he's struggling to deal with all the loss, then his 2nd in command dies on a pointless raid he was directed to put together. A newer officer comes under fire by the Captain by implying he doesn't care. He clearly cares, and maybe too much. Overall there's zero reason I didn't like it more, good plot, good acting, good conclusion it just didn't fully resonate with me.
Justified: City Primeval (2023)
Better than some are saying
This isn't as good as the original by any means but it scratches the itch. Raylan is still a great character. It's dragged down a bit by his annoying daughter. That doesn't kill it though. The villain is pretty good, he's no Boyd Crowder but he's menacing and erratic enough to make a good story. It's in Detroit so it has a vastly different setting and the setting doesn't really work as well for me though but it's not bad. I heard it was a mini-series and was thankful for that because it scratches that itch then excuses itself. The very end they show Boyd Crowder though like another season is going to happen. If it does, I'll watch it but I'd rather they just end on a semi-decent note.
Relatos salvajes (2014)
Not bad
This is an interesting foreign flick that features six random stories of people in stressful situations and how they respond to it. There's two stories in particular, one featuring a road rage incident that spiraled completely out of control and the other is a guy who's basically against corruption. The road rage one is pretty straightforward and good. The other one the guy gets a parking ticket he didn't deserve and tries to fight it but sees how completely corrupt the system is. His whole life spirals out of control and he essentially becomes a "terrorist" fighting against his country. All of the others were decent as well but those are the two that stuck.
Money Shot: The Pornhub Story (2023)
Not overly interesting
The beginning where it explained why pornhub changed the way people could put content on it's site was semi-interesting. People were getting away with basically putting rape, revenge porn, or underage content which obviously needed to be addressed. They did but made it a little harder for porn actors/actresses to make money on their own content. That in itself doesn't really matter to me. To some people it does I'm sure. Somehow this was a whole topic about porn yet it was uninteresting. Not sure how you do that but they did. It wasn't horrible I guess but I wouldn't recommend it and I only finished it because I usually do.
Zero Dark Thirty (2012)
Intense
The main thing I'd say about this movie (others may not agree) is that it was intense. The whole plot is about killing Bin Laden. Well that's not entirely true it's about killing everyone known or associated with being involved in a high capacity of Al Quaeda such as Bin Laden. The main guy they were going for wasn't Bin Laden but it led them to him in a compound that was more or less completely off grid because nobody made calls there. It was very different than what I pictured in my head and I really liked seeing how it really was. Also freaking Tony Soprano was in it which I had no clue. Good movie, not great but I really enjoyed it.
Det sjunde inseglet (1957)
Meh
I kind of get why this was rated so highly but it was hard for me to feel the same about it. I don't know if it was just far too dated feeling (I watched in 2024) or I was missing something due to not being religious. That said I did like some aspects of it. For one, living during the plague is always interesting to me, it had to be so incredibly frightening and most people probably thought it was the end of the world. Why wouldn't they? In that case it's very obvious why they'd turn to religion. I don't blame them in the slightest. What I didn't love was the timeline of them playing chess. Chess doesn't take that long and like in between he was just living normally? It was a bit confusing. I can see how it'd be a hit at the time though but it didn't resonate with me.
Retribution (2023)
Watchable
This is short and to the point. Liam Neeson is still enjoyable to watch although nothing is probably going to beat Taken for him. He gets a phone call while he had his kids in the car that there's a bomb in it with pressure plates and everything and that the bomber can detonate wireless because there's a phone attached. He didn't buy it at first until he sees one of his business partners die. The idea is obviously for money and Neeson did okay acting wise but the whole thing is just kind of lazy. The kids' acting isn't great and I can't help but feel they just thought if they put Neeson in a movie they'd more than break even. Maybe they did, I don't know.
Our Friend (2019)
Good
The acting here is really good but I didn't like all the time hops, there were certain points where I wasn't actually sure which time frame we were in. It doesn't take away from the film too much but it bothered me. Casey Affleck is great like always and Jason Segal is an excellent actor in his own right. It's hard for me not to compare this to Manchester by the Sea, another Affleck film with a horrible tragedy though and frankly you cannot beat that acting. In that film Affleck was the most broken I've ever seen a man on film and it really can't be topped. If I had seen this before that though I might have rated this higher, especially as there's some comic relief here that doesn't exist in Manchester by the Sea.
Bosch (2014)
Very good
This show is great because it strays a bit from the normal police detective shows. Nothing is near as easy as they typically are. Bosch always pays attention to all the little things as well as his gut and manages to figure out most stuff but it's not like he's a superhero. One murder that was consistently eluding him was that on his own mother from when he was a kid. That's what got him into detective work and in his down time he still was trying to solve it. He also kind of plays by his own rules (which admittedly isn't bucking the trend but it works here). In the end he sabotaged his career to get a murderer even though the feds had already been willing to give the guy a deal essentially get off Scott free. That's why the sequel to the show was made because he went into private investigating right at the end.
Power (2014)
Addicting
For a show with a ton of flaws it was still very addicting. Some of the murders in New York are just a little too hard to believe they got away with in broad daylight. If you suspend belief it's still a good show. That said sometimes I thought Tommy was a good character and sometimes I thought he was a terrible actor. That was hard considering he's the #2 on the show. It got lazy and way off the rails as it went along but I still ran through the show quickly. It was a fun ride for 80-90% of it so I'd recommend it. I lost all interest in trying anyone of the 3 sequels/prequels though. One of them follows Tariq, Ghost's son which was a horrible storyline near the end for me. No interest in that. One is Kanan's backstory which I don't really care for either. The third one is Tommy going to Cali, that's the only one with slight interest for me but without Ghost I don't think it'll land the same.
Go-ji-jeon (2011)
Very good
This movie showed the absurdity of the Korean War. I'm sure not all the issues and the South succeeding wasn't absurd, just certain aspects of it that I read about when I was younger. There were peace talks for years and everyone thought it would end. Not only that but when they finally signed for peace it was 12 hours later, so the soldiers had to fight when the war was clearly over. It's just an absurd waste of life for a little leverage into where they make the line. The characters were great in this and that added quite a bit to it. There's a very young Captain that's seen a ton of loss and lost a little bit of himself as he stayed on the front. Then there's a Lieutenant who was sent to investigate the death of the previous Captain as it was under fishy circumstances. He saw many things go different than what he thought it should but he's always been a behind the scenes guy so not someone on the front line. There's a good cast of complimentary characters also, and they even show guys from the North but not in a negative light, just as soldiers like everyone else.
The Hunt (2020)
Better than expected
I went into this with low expectations but it was actually kind of good. I didn't even know it was a comedy but it had some really good satire of the elites and how they view normal people and vice versa. The violence was great with the exception of the last girl fight, it was over the top and great. It had some really good one liners too. Sometimes when you go into something with no expectations when it's actually decent it seems better than it is, that may be the case for this but honestly I don't know because I had never even heard of this movie. My wife and I found this because we were looking for the 2012 movie with the same name.
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Kept my attention
The movie kept my attention and maybe at the time it was groundbreaking but I'm not sure why this is considered like one of the best ever. The main guy is basically just a thug thief who takes and does anything he wants. He has some cronies following him around beating up homeless people and breaking into houses raping and pillaging. Eventually his crew is sick of him being mean to them so they set him up and he gets convicted on a murder charge. In order to get out early he undergoes some kind of therapy that is supposed to make violence and sex revolting to him. It has some pretty interesting elements but I didn't love it and maybe it is just dated to me, not sure. It is over 50 years old so that wouldn't surprise me.
Don't Worry Darling (2022)
So-so
The idea of the movie wasn't bad and I got it wrong. I thought it was a nuclear testing site or something and it was actually some kind of forced simulation for most of the women while the men leave the "town" and go to work to pay to keep them in there. Their memories are erased for the most part minus when they got there and they don't really know what's going on. That all changes when the main wife goes into the no-go zone and discovers something amiss. That messes with the simulation and allows her to have some memories. It's an okay concept but I thought Florence Pugh was terrible and she's the lead. The main guy wasn't great either. It was slow as well. Meh.