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Juror #2 (2024)
A thought-provoking demonstration of cinematic mastery
This is not news, but Clint Eastwood is a genius. And, with this film, he demonstrated his mastery again, defeating also the effects of his advanced age. An example and motivation for all.
Without need of CGI, sound effects or contrived space-time stories, here is a thought provoking and compelling story presented with great care to detail, in both the script and screenplay, and supported by the extraordinary work of all cast. The story shows several layers of complexity in his proposal to the viewer of resonate with the decisive moral dilemmas that some of the characters face.
Mr. Eastwood shows his genius in a very subtle manner, as only a genius can do it. He can turn a simple shot of an actor into the door of a house in a work of art. A story that, in the hands of a lesser talented director, would be a standard courtroom drama TV-movie, in his hands is a cinematic masterpiece. Some people would argue that he didn't show a lot of style signatures. He did, but are subtle and well integrated in a story very well crafted by the writer J. Abrams.
All actors, and I mean all, are doing an extraordinary work. Hoult was great showing to the viewer the inner horror and torment, without any overacting. Ms. Collette and Mr Basso are just impressive and JK Simmons is charming, smart, likeable and equally great, just to name those who impressed me more. An special mention to Kiefer Sutherland in a supporting role. He was great also, but I would have love to see more development and protagonism to his character. He has been so good for the few minutes on screen that one wanted more. I think that the three lawyers involved in the story worth a spin-off show or something.
Hence, this movie worth a view and a discussion. And I recommend to the viewers to watch it with the least information possible. Just flow with the story and the inner debates and doubts of its two main characters.
Also, enjoy the fantastic locations at the beautiful Georgia, carefully selected to add to the verosimilitude of the story (from the size of the city, key to make the story credible, to all the places depicted). Georgia is another subtle character of the story, even at the final scene, as all we lived there know well.
Spoilers from here.
To me this movie is a multilayer criticism to the jury trial system and a warning on how easily an innocent man could be sentenced, based on the prejudice and biases of people that are not whasoever prepared to take this type of decision. I see a lot of connections between this story and Mystic River, maybe a superior film, but with a lot of common.
Here, the story is a moral tale that warns us about the risk of make vital decisions contamined by prejudices, fallacies as the confirmation bias, lack of thought due to hurry (the jury wanting to end quickly to go back home to their lives is a key moment), and too much thought unsupported by facts also. The story warns also about the risk of quick and biased police investigations, and a hot topic now: the domestic violence and the tendency to prejudge guilty to the boyfriend/husband even when the proofs are just weak and circumstantial. Also, there is another warn: the question about who has the burden of proof should be clear in a healthy judicial system.
It is a story with no villains at all. No bad people here, no criminals, no psycopaths. Just normal people. Normal people that must face an extraordinary dilemma: to chose between their well being (to live a life with the family, to have a sucessful career) and to prevent an innocent person from going to jail in a life sentence. And it is not, of course, an easy decision at all, due to the ambiguities and subleties presented.
Finally, the question remains: we have a non perfect system, but maybe it is the best we can. And all depends on how think and behave all the people involved.
The final scene, with just the classic sound of cicades, characteristic of the Georgia's summer, is magistral.
Tú también lo harías (2023)
Once again, another failed Spanish thriller
Over and over again, Spanish producers are making thriller shows like this one, and over and over again are failing in exactly the same. The only explanation I have is that showrunners have an unrealistic perception of their own talent and capabilities.
In this case, the premise is good. It is a noir or police/crime thriller, with a commercial vocation. They do not try to discover the wheel, just to create an interesting story, and unexpected twists where no one is what they seem to be.
The problems: The script is really bad. The dialogues are sometimes ridiculous and the behavior of characters are always moving between unrealistic to stupid. The lack on internal logic, the inconsistencies, and the lack of a minimal realism in the characters' behavior make difficult to suspend disbelief. Moreover, are trying to add so many twists and subplots that add nothing interesting, to the point that the thing turns to boring and ridiculous after the first two episodes, the best of the show.
As usual in Spanish shows, the depiction of police work and interactions is sometimes poor or even ridiculous and offensive. Clearly, a story or characters cannot be more intelligent than the writers. And the writers seems to be very limited and lazy. They even didn't document or checked the most essential police procedures. The main female character doing the part of a police inspector is just not well suited for that role, being ridiculous sometimes. So, we can add the bad casting decisions to the fails that plagued this show.
The actor's work is lamentable. Actors are really bad. They cannot even talk clearly, to the point that you want to switch on the subtitles, because is very difficult to understand in their poor diction. Two main characters, both well known actresses in Spain, are constantly overacting. I think that spanish productions should care that. When you rewatch old movies and shows, the actors talk perfectly well and intelligibly. What happened?
It is always the same. They have good ideas, the production and resources are good. But they ruin it failing always in the same points: not so good acting, poor scripts, unbelievable and illogical behavior of characters.
La última noche en Tremor (2024)
Yet another failed try to imitate foreign thrillers
I just watched the first episodes of this show. Well, the screenplay is not too shabby, very professional compared to the average Spanish shows. Clearly they invested resources and effort.
The story, on the othetlr side, yet again is plagued with the usual problems: not very good acting, script wishy-washy, story too slow and not really interesting, with characters even less interesting, falsely serious, depressed, pretending to be deep and intellectual, but are shallow and boring, and too cliched.
As an example: during one and a half episode the story does no advance at all. You just know that the protagonist has some kind of sleep disorder.
Everything is slow and boring. The main character, aside of being unbearably disagreeable and boring, is performed by a very bad actor. Even it's hard to follow what he is saying, because he just whispers almost unintelligibly. Why current Spanish actors speak like that?. Only Pilar Castro are doing good in this mess.
The story is poor, and I don't know if it is unintentional, but the synopsis was entirely stolen from an episode of the famous comedy show "aquí no hay quien viva" about "super-agus". The difference is that this show is boring and pedantic, and, the end, disappointing.
Overall, a boring and slow show. Slow in a bad way, not like those slow burning stories. It is just slow. And it seems that Spanish actors only know how to perform in comedies. When they pretend to be dramatic, they fail miserably. You know who I am talking about.
Alien: Romulus (2024)
A mix of a fan-film with a teenager's slasher, plagued with poor scripting
This movie summarizes the current state of the film industry. First of all: the absolute lack of originality and new ideas; secondly, that persistent recourse to rummaging through the past movies.
Even some dialogues and phrases were reused here, in an appeal to the nostalgia from one side, and an obvious intent to reuse with younger audiences the stuff that worked with the people who enjoyed the original movies in the 80s.
I think that it is, precisely, the target of this movie: teenagers and young adults. It is a cliché: the typical bunch of annoying kids of every slasher movie, who enters where they should't (a house with a killer for example). That's it.
This also reflects the infantilization of the society. The main role actress, Spaney, has 26yo when this movie was released, and Sigourney Weaver has 30yo when Alien was released in 1979. It is not that much difference. But, just compare the two characters: the strong, impressive, powerful, full of character, likable and mature Ripley, with the bland, insubstantial, average teenager of this movie.
All the characters of the original Alien movie were great. In this movie, we do not care at all if they are killed, because the most interesting character of the story was the xenomorph, even when it was not well exploited. In fact, the human characters lack development, personality and interest.
They are just meat to be killed by the real protagonist of the story. The story progress too fast to create the proper eerie atmosphere. We just know what will happen, and it happen fast.
The worst of the movie: the strong inconsistencies. As a fan film, it incorporates elements from Alien, Aliens, Alien Resurrection, and the obnoxious Prometheus, trying to give a place to the last in the lore created by the originals.
But it fails. First, In the original Alien movie, Ripley expelled the alien far away from the Nostromo's explosion, while her ship was moving at full impulse. Moreover, she expelled it using the afterburner of the ship. Well, the alien desintegration is not explicitly show in the movie, but presumably, that hot stream was not good for it. Anyway, the alien remains should float in the middle of nowhere to eternity. How it comes that the cocoon with the alien in cryptobiosis were found just in the Nostromo's desintegration site?
Second, the kids go to a space station in the orbit of the planet hosting the company's mining colony. So, a big, and expensive space station, with an extremely important R+D project going on there, just lies abandoned by the same company, in the near orbit of their own planet, just waiting for scavengers to vandalize it? The space station was not lost somewhere in the deep space. It was orbiting an inhabited planet, ruled by the owners of the station! And, somehow, nobody noticed it was there...
The premise of the story is utterly absurd. It is impossible to suspend disbelief with that idea.
Overall, the story summarizes the main problem of current film making: the lack of ideas, borderline intelligence and poor and predictable scripting. In fact, I would not be surprised if we found out that the script was created by an IA.
Nevertheless, the film is watchable. Even with its complete lack of originality, it is better than Prometheus and way better than Covenant, although inferior to every other Alien movie.
The best of the movie are the use of nice practical SFX (which contrast with the poor deepfake of a legendary character exploited here) and the nice settings and atmosphere.
Pájaros (2024)
What is this failed pseudo-profound road movie?
I just watched this movie, a true boredom fest and, possibly, a treatment for sleep disorders.
I do not know what is this. For sure it is not a comedy, as there is barely no humor. It is pretty much a drama, but not too much drama either.
It is kind of a road movie, telling the story of two loser idiots with some mental issues or something like that, across Europe chasing some birds.
The losers spent the movie in a nearly wrecked car, talking about nothing and about their boring lives, in a totally insubstantial and uninsteresting story (and being generous calling that a 'story'), yet pedantic and pseudo-profound, in which it is impossible to feel any empathy with the main characters.
I give it 2 out 10 points thanks to the solid interpretation of the three main characters. It is incredible what they do with the material they have. It makes me think that the problem with Spanish movies is not actors, but the writers/directors, a bunch of subsidized, hollow, pedantic hipsters overstimating their creative abilities.
Recommended only if you are a midwit, thick-framing glasses hipster with high self-steem, or in case you suffer from insomnia. Even the music is bad.
The Last Ship: In Medias Res (2017)
Americans still don't know where Spain and Greece are?
This was a very entertaining show. Ok, sometimes silly, sometimes ubelieveable, but still fun and entertaining. And I like how they developed a solid bunch of characters and you are willing to kook at their next adventure.
But, at the beginning of the fourth season, the show begins to show extensively its fatigue, and the lack of ideas and attention to detail.
To me, the most outrageous fact in the intelectual sloppiness of the showrunners at the fourth season, is that they do not even care to take a look to a map.
Sirs, Spain is an European country, not a Central America country. Spaniards are europeans. They didn't even tried to show someone that looks like that. Accents and looks are like Honduras or somewhere like that. Uniforms that doesn't look even remotely close to real spanish uniforms, and so on. Looked like they recycled extras and material from the set of another show.
Same with Greeks. The portrait of Greeks with italian names in a island that are not Greece is funny at best. With shows like this I understand why the average american thinks that Spain is at Latin America and that Italy and Greece are the same.
And these are just a few of all the intelligence-insulting facts that diminishes the merit of this, otherwise, entertaining show.
La chica de nieve (2023)
Another failed and cliched thriller.
Spanish producers don't stop trying to produce low quality thrillers, and it seems they never learn. Or maybe the writers and directors are so overconfident they think they are great artists. The problem is that they don't be good.
The show is slow, boring and the acting is embarrassing. Overacting and a really poor script at service of a cliched thriller.
Seriously, what is the problem? The actors or the direction? Even Jose coronado, a great actor, look here lacking luster and credibility.
Another problem usual in Spanish productions is the poor depiction of police work. This show also fails in that. It seems that the writers do not took the effort of gather information about police work and procedures. The actors doing the police officers and inspectors parts are possibly the worst here, together with one of the main characters.
In conclusion: disappointing, boring and embarrassing. Avoid it.
Infiesto (2023)
Very bad, failed and pointless thriller
Avoid this bad,boring and failed copro-duction. It is bad in every way: a outrageous acting, uninteresting and plain characters, uninteresting story, weak script and a formulaic and unoriginal story. Only success in creating a depressing atmosphere. They try to save the thing using the Luis Zahera card, but didn't work: his part is secondary and even him did not seem convinced and convincing. As usual in Spanish substandard productions, the depiction of police work is so inaccurate that is even offensive.
Does not worth a watch. If you are really lazy and bored, will find better options: just staring the wall, watching birds, or try to see the grass growth.
As a chemist, it cringed me when they talk about "tartric acid". It is tartaric, damnit.
Leave the World Behind (2023)
A great film, but you must watch it under the correct perspective
I was surprised by the low rating and bad reviews I read about this movie. How is it possible that a film that is original, tense, very well played by all the actors involved (all are doing really well, but
Julia Roberts nailed it), with a good storytelling and filming, even a nice music, original credits and so on, collected so many bad reviews?
I think that people, accustomed to the regular apocalyptic blockbusters, haven't watched it under the right perspective.
Folks, the ending is perfect, the plot holes are not holes, are just what should be, and the movie shows just what they want to show. After watching it, I felt myself kind of scared and with a bitter feeling, because it is showing exactly, and it is one of the points of the story, how fragile and dependent we are of the technology.
It is just the story of the end of the world as we know it from the perspective of a group of completely normal people: no information, confusion, tension, waiting, hope... and the realization that the world just changed irreversibly. I think it is a very smart movie, showing the beginning of the end of the society, but neither because extraterrestrial causes, nor it falls on the easy climate-environmental stuff. It shows how the world ended for a couple of families in a really scary and realistic way: by the beginning of a big scale war using the newest modern warfare, in the last place a common american family could imagine a war would begin. As one of the characters said "I cannot barely take a step without my cellphone and gps". Suddenly, all our daily gadgets are garbage, there are no state, security and law enforcement anymore, and we are totally alone.
Of course there are some weird things. I still do not understand the thing with animals, specially with the deers. That kind of supernatural thing, I do not know if it is conceived as a trick to deceive the viewers, who are just as confused and clueless as the main characters (and it is one of the points: you know exactly the same as the characters during all the movie).
Also, the scene with the tanker, although very impressive, it is quite unrealistic: a tanker of that size would have run aground way before to reach the beach.
Anyways, this movie worth a watch, definitely, and could spark an interesting conversation about what we would do in that situation and what would happen if suddenly all internet, cellphones and communications fell. It is really scary.
Road House (2024)
Way inferior to the classic in all aspects.
This is a remake of the 80s classic, Patrick Swayze's Road House, but lower in all aspects, to the point I needed to watch the original movie to recover myself and not ruin the memory of that average eighties action movie, which became nowadays in a cherished classic.
This new version, with Gyllenhaal in the role of swayze, is a remake that follows the original story almost literally. The problems are: a dumb script. What happened with the IQ since 1980? It seems people became dumber, and the movie is plagued by really stupid and flat dialogues, absurd situations and plot holes; the main and the villain roles are way less charismatic and interesting; the bar is less interesting in every way; the music is really bad. I missed the blind guitarist from the original movie. And, finally, is boring! An 80s style action movie being boring because soulless action, dumb dialogues and uneven rhythm.
At least Connor McGregor seems to had a great time filming this low quality and unnecessary remake.
Conclusion: unnecessary and almost unwatchable.
Mano de hierro (2024)
The best non-comedy Spanish show of the decade
Do not get me wrong: it is still mediocre.
Just, compared with the usual low quality, and the terrible acting and scripting of Spanish thrillers, is probably the best show of latest years.
The show benefits from a high budget. Sceneries, the port, the ships, resources. All this contributes to a solid staging and a professional appaerance.
The action scenes are well done, specially comparing with other Spanish productions. Still quite amateurish, but I think not because the way they filmed it and the actors and extras done it; it is a planning problem: writers and directors have no idea how weapons work, how people behave in close range combat, and so on.
Eduard Fernández is an extraordinary actor and nailed it. His performance is largely the best in the show, and he single handedly saves the entire show. He is gritty, dark, complex. And, overall, the actor is very natural: the way he speaks, the way he moves, he is very credible in the role of the port kingpin.
We cannot say the same of the other parts. And it is a common problem in non-comedy Spanish shows: from plain bad acting to overacting, people not talking the way people talk in Spain, expelling from their mouths poor or ridiculous dialogues.
Another problem is the lack of attention to detail. It is not fault of actors or production, but writers. It is like that scene which begins with a cargo ship navigating and a caption that says "Pacific Ocean". Suddenly, a speed boat with somali pirates or alike appears from nowhere. In the Pacific ocean. Quite a leap for somali pirates. The subsequent action in the attacked ship could have been really good, as they had the resources to do it. What they lack is attention to detail, knowledge of stuff necessary to giving it a little credibility and the classic overconfidence of writers in their own knowledge.
The lack of professionalism in the depiction of police work, how drug dealers and sicarios work, how weapons should be used, and even the incorrect geography, takes the shine off what could have been a great show.
The show is plagued with all these things; together with the bad acting (aside of the extraordinary work of Eduard Fernandez and a few small parts) and very poor dialogues, makes watching it a bit tiresome and difficult to suspend disbelief.
Spaceman (2024)
Warning: this is not sci-fi!. A dull, boring drama about psychological issues.
To be honest, I cannot comment the movie as a whole, because I fell aesleep during the second half of the movie and I do not want to keep watching it.
So, and advice: if you have imsomnia, maybe this extremely boring movie could help you a little bit; just try to watch it and stay awake.
A warning: this is not a space sci-fi story. It is a psychological drama.
I have no problems with the work of Adam Sandler. Furthermore, I think that here he performed a solid interpretation and he did it very well, specially after realizing what actually the movie was about.
I was attracted by its premise: an astronaut is kind of alone in the space during an exploration mission to a misterious cloud that appeared around Jupiter. I realized then that this was not a sci-fi movie when the astronaut gave kind of a live press conference, and responded questions from some kids...instantaneously. After that, he was in constant contact with the mission control, and he simply called his wife on the phone, like if he were on his office; If he were in Jupiter, a message would take between 30 and 50 minutes to be delivered on Earth, and, of course, you do not have any mobile phone provider or internet in your spaceship. Furthermore, how it comes that someone would think it is a good idea to send a one-man mission to Jupiter, selecting for said nearly-suicidal mission a married man with evident mental issues, and whose wife is expecting?
Given that it is impossible that writers didn't think about that, I realized that all the movie is just a fantasy, or symbolism or something artsy like that, very "clever", of course. And the space is just a metaphor of the isolation of a broken man. Or even an hallucination of the main character, who, actually, is in some mental institution or something. Later, I realized that, indeed, he was trying to call his wife from the phone of some mental institution where he was inmated, and that the "mission control" and conferences were actually his doctors and caretakers. There is a specific moment in which, during the conversation with the guy at "mission control", that was revealed more clearly.
So, the movie quickly shows its true nature as a drama about a man isolated by his mental issues and dealing with the guilt, confusion and his broken marriage.
This impression was confirmed by the "alien", obviously an hallucination created by the protagonist to cope with his reality. An imaginary friend with whom the protagonist talks endless conversations apparently deep, but insubstantial in reality.
So, this is again a tricky story, in which the drama is hidden under a superficial layer of space science fiction that is not such, but an imaginary context. I say again, because it happened something similar with 'Ad Astra'. In this case, a key difference with "Ad Astra" is that, I think, everything in the movie is an hallucination.
I do not think the idea is bad. The problem is that, overall, this movie is extremely boring.
Reina Roja (2024)
Poor imitation of Millenium
Here we go, with another try of Spanish producers to compose a credible noir/thriller. This time, using as starting material a novel of the same title, which has a moderately good success.
I haven't read the novel, so I cannot say if the show is accurate or reproduces well the written story.
What I watched is a good try, given the usual poor quality of Spanish productions. This time, the production looks more worked and serious and less amateurish than in other cases.
Anyway, since the first episode and ridiculous introduction of the female main character, the story is boring, the characters are weak and the acting questionable, with one exception: Hovik Keuchkerian, who nailed it and it is the soul of the entire show.
The portrait of V. Luengo of the other main character is, on the contrary, plain and weak. It is like a mock-up without substance and appeal of Lisbeth Salander.
Supposedly is extremely smart, Holmes-like. The problem is that a character cannot be smarter than the writers. And the overall writing is poor. They say she is smart, but she did not transmit that at all. I think the writers confuse intelligent with impertinent.
The other parts of the show are formulaic, a bit of cliché. Another typical problem in Spanish shows: people in Spain does not talk like that. To me is very difficult to keep inside the story with people talking with that affectation and even overacting.
Another cliché, as usual in Spanish productions, is the police work. Police in Spain is not like that, the police stations are not like that and so on. Again, it is another try to imitate american detective series.
Overall, is predictable, formulaic, boring and, albeit one of the main characters is really good, interesting and well played, the other is plain, lacking substance and the actress didn't do a good job.
It is one of the best Spanish shows of the latest years, yes, but not that good. And I fell aesleep in all episodes...
Dune: Part Two (2024)
Too much hype for this overrated sequel
I tried not to feel conditioned by the hype around this movie, but I was quite dissapointed after watching it.
After a superb part one, which was a magical exhibition of cinema and an aesthetic pleasure, this second part is quite pretentious. Looks like the style exercise of an artist in love with himself, and seems that the story is a secondary factor here.
It is like, "ok, did you like the scenes of the thumper calling the sandworm?, here you have like twenty scenes of a thumper calling sandworms, and even a scene with twenty thumpers calling sandworms at the same time; did you like the beautiful faces of Zendaya and Rebecca Ferguson in the desert, with great Hans Zimmer music?, ok, here you have fifty seven shots of the beautiful faces in dramatic moments of all the extremely pretty actresses we have been able to recruit for this". The problem is that quantity does not compensate for the loss of the surprise effect.
In fact, the story is just an excuse for an interminable exhibition of close-ups of the incredibly beautiful faces of the female cast, no less beautiful desert sceneries, and an interminable succession of sand worm ridings.
Flat and hollow aesthetics, with a really poor storytelling. The story is confusing, with a first act focused in the Fremen, but with no real advance of the story, just Fremen in the desert, Fremen worshiping the mesiah, Fremen riding worms, worshiping again, Chani frowning at the inmensity of the desert with deep music, and so on (actually, Chani spent all movie frowning). Actually, the first act was terribly boring.
Then, the abuse of ellipsis makes the story rush forward, to the point of losing sense sometimes. It is really difficult to follow it without any previous knowledge of what happened in the original novel.
This rush lead to weird situations, as when suddenly Chani shows up out from nowhere in a ornithopter, and you ask yourself why and how she ended flying that thing.
The rush to close the story causes the last act to be resolved hastily and sloppily. The expected final battle is resolved very quick and lacking epic and glory. The supposedly powerful and fearsome Sardaukar appears in the last battle as a few random guys without any combat abilities. The formerly powerful emperor and Harkonnen, are now weak and do not stand a chance against the new dark mesiah and their fundamentalist troops.
Overall, the movie lost all the magic and mistery of the first part, and it is just an exhibition of style from a director that seems to be more in love with himself than with the story he is telling.
About acting, all the cast are doing a great job. Special mention to the superb Javier Bardem, who, together with Zendaya, support all the movie on their shoulders. All the Harkonnen are doing a great job and are the most interesting characters, both in acting and aesthetically. To me, Paul Atreides is the worst part, plain and lacking substance and the you could expect from the leader of a holy war against a galactic empire.
In summary, a pretentious sequel larguely inferior to the first part in all aspects.
Prey (2022)
Overrated prequel.
This recent installment of the Predator franchise has its merits: a good atmosphere and not bad storytelling. The CGI wild animals are maybe too much obvious. The return to the basics that made the original film a classic is a good strategy.
Unfortunatelly, we know too much about the creature and the movie lacks suspense, is totally predictable, no surprises, and that does not add up to the Predator mithology.
Furthermore, while the first act of the movie is fine, gradually it is impossible to keep with the suspension of disbelief, when the main character, a young girl, begins to develop somehow incredible superhuman powers, making her able to bare hand fight a way bigger, stronger to the point of kill a grizzly with a single punch, smart creature with advanced technology.
The alien is inconsistent: at a given moment can barehand kill a bear in just seconds, and at the next moment a few guys can fight against it, and even injure it. At least they lost...
It smells too much to the nowadays zeitgeist: female, preferably non-white (of course, white guys in the movie are bad guys), empowered main character, outsmarting any men or alien around, and able to fight like a mix of Hawkeye and Wolverine, with minimal training and no resources. To me, the character of Naru is to this franchise as Rey is to Star Wars, or even more unbelieveable.
The movie could have been better if they hadn't put all the weight on the protagonist and more in the collective effort against their otherworld enemy.
Anyway, the movie is entertaining enough for a watch.
Que nadie duerma (2023)
Terribly boring and disgusting cinema verite
The original title for this is "let no one sleep". It is ironic, because the movie is a true boredom fest all its first half. In fact, it was very hard not to fell aesleep.
It is kind of a Spanish take on cinema verite, but less artsy and more dull, extremely slow and boring. Overall, it is something like a documentary, with regular to ugly people just talking and doing their everyday stuff.
The performance of the main character is remarkable, largely the best of the movie. She is very natural and credible and the only good point of this horrible movie.
Sure, some 'artists' could consider this movie some kind of 'art' and feel excited by the 'reality', the slow pace and so on. I do not see the point of exploring a movie style the French explored already decades ago. All in this movie feels outdated: the style, the credits, the story...
To me, this is not art; instead, it is just a hard to watch movie due to the uninspired dialogues, uber-boring story, uninteresting characters and disgusting moments.
Only recommended if you have insomnia. It is a plain BAD movie.
Silo (2023)
Good sci-fi soap opera, but too long for the story
Good ambientation, good visuals, cast are doing a good job, and an intriguing and engaging story.
Do not expect a lot of action, this is not that kind of sci-fi. No pew-pew.
Overall is entertaining, but there are too many episodes for that simple story, which is quite predictable as well.
The problem is that they need to fill up the chapters, so they do it telling characters details and story, flashbacks, predictable twists, and side stories, which do not add too much to the overall plot. In that sense, the show is quite boring abd slow from chapter 4-5 to chapter 9.
In chapter 10, the story recovers its pulse and the season end is, together with chapter 1 and 2, the best of the season, ending in a big cliffhanger. This could be a problem for ones and good for others, but you have the feeling after chapter 10 that they did not clarify anything and you know almost the same you already knew at chapter 2.
If do not have time, you can jump from the episode 5 straight to 10, and you will perfectly follow the story.
Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)
Dull, boring, total lack of originality
What happens when you make a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy? Same with this pathetic production. It's a lousy imitation of Denzel Washington's "The Magnificent Seven," which, in itself, was a copy of Yul Brynner's "The Magnificent Seven," which, in turn, was a copy of "Seven Samurai."
Throw in some half-baked Star Wars elements, let AI half-heartedly piece together the script, and concoct embarrassingly awful fight choreography, abusing slow motion to the point of nausea. The fights are reminiscent of those cringe-worthy 80s kicks-and-punches, karate action movies.
Top it off with uninteresting characters, forced, ridiculous and inconsistent situations, even the overall idea: An habitable Earth-sized moon, orbiting close to a giant gas planet it is impossible, but ok, I accept it because it creates beautiful images. But, the planet is inhabited just by a small village of peasants. Ok.
And what about the abysmal acting?.
The overall look is cringeworthy and painfully campy. Totally lacks emotion, suspense or any interest. Every scene, situation, and idea is painfully unoriginal, leaving viewers with the sensation of having endured déjà vu ad nauseam.
The highlight: Anthony Hopkins' voice and the poor spider-woman, clearly the better characters in this show.
The low point: Everything else.
Avoid it. You will find better sci-fi in the 50s movies.
Memento Mori (2023)
Good try, but not good
Classic in Spanish productions that are not comedies: bad acting, poor scripts, extremely unrealistic depiction of police work and behavior, how university professors work, and so on.
The show pretends to be a formulaic thriller with the classic maverick detective against a mysterious serial killer (one of the few good points is to show the killer from the beginning).
The story is classic, but not really bad (in fact it is based on a novel) but the execution, in spite of the investment of resources, unusual for Spanish productions, is poor, because the terribly bad actors (the detective is the only that could be saved in this mess), the horrible script, poor action scenes and the plot holes.
Do not worth the time. Spanish producers should give up trying to emulate American noir or thriller productions, and, instead, to spent their effort in the comedy, the only genre in which they are proficient.
Sisu (2022)
Good try. But not good.
It's nice to see Finnish cinema pulling off a film with such international impact in the action genre, which isn't easy and demands a lot of resources.
So, considering its origin, it's a decent attempt. But honestly, the movie is plainly bad.
It's like a Tarantino-esque mashup of John Wick, original Rambo, and Mad Max, but it lacks the finesse of the former. The result is kind of lackluster and even silly, making the movie boring despite the easy, gory, cartoon-style action scenes.
Maybe by Finnish standards, it's an hilarious comedy, but it's not funny enough to be engaging. The clichéd/stupid Nazis, the half-baked subplot involving the girls, and the absence of a strong storyline and compelling dialogues don't do it any favors.
The best: the main character. He's inspired by those unbeatable, no-name characters from old Westerns, along with his 'lines'.
The worst: pretty much everything else. Certain detail threw me off the movie: the gold... oh boy, gold doesn't appear and look like that, and gold panning isn't done that way (and the pan, is it an adamantium pan or something?).
And then there's the tank; the bad guys are rocking a T-55, a Russian tank from the 1950s. Quite a leap for the 1944 German SS. These might be seen as minor things in a cartoony action flick, but they highlight the lack of attention to detail in the production.
Overall: a waste of time.
Fireflies in the Garden (2008)
Boring dysfunctional family melodrama
This is not a bad movie. Well done, effective storytelling and actors are doing their parts very nicely. The main problem I've seen in the realization is that Emily Watson and Hayden Pannettiere are very different, and it is quite confusing at first in the uneven dance of flashbacks.
Aside, the movie is boring; the story is so uninteresting and the characters are so unlikable, that I even feel bored writing about the movie.
Slow and boring movie, with boring, sad and disagreeably, dead inside, main characters, specially the Michael Taylor and his abusive father, portrayed respectively by a Ryan Reynolds very far from the fun characters he accustomed us to watch, and by an extraordinary Willem Dafoe.
If you want to feel bored, sleepy, but with a bitter taste, this is your movie.
Oppenheimer (2023)
Telling the life of a scientist (almost) without science
This is a good movie. With the typical non-linear narration of its director Nolan, and despite certain self-indulgence, also classic in its creator, the film never bores at any moment, although I believe it is a challenging watch and it's not for everyone.
It's a bit disappointing in the scientific aspect. To tell the life of a scientist and the scientific and technological epic of the Manhattan Project without touching upon science is odd. The movie focuses on the humane and, above all, political aspects, completely leaving science aside, perhaps in line with the current times.
The problem with such a superficial approach is that it fails to convey the magnitude of the events: watching the movie, one gets the impression that a group of scientists set up a holiday resort, spent four meetings scribbling on a chalkboard to solve the problem of fission, and the rest of the time, they partied, talk politics, be weird, and had children. The moment of the Trinity test doesn't show how that explosion must have been, it looks like quite small and it seems more like any action movie explosion with Dwayne Johnson badassesly walking in front of it.
Once forgotten the epic of the scientific quest (and setting aside the fact that it portrays physicists as weird beings, and Physics is reduced to some kind of hallucination), the movie uses courtroom drama and political intrigue to build tension and emotion in a story that would have been rather lackluster otherwise - just the intimate view of its protagonist.
Although the scientific part is superficial, the details are quite well taken care of, like the Fermi stack, the Gadget, Lawrence's cyclotron, all shown without explaining anything, which means nothing to viewers unfamiliar with the subject matter.
Anyone who watches the movie without knowing anything about the history of the Manhattan Project will likely get lost in the rapid succession of events and characters. Many famous physicists pass fleetingly, remaining as secondary characters with barely any development, except for a few exceptions. Even Oppenheimer's wife, Kitty, appears overly simplified; the focus is on her role as a non-vocational mother, dealing with her alcohol addiction and suffering from Oppenheimer, overlooking her role as a biologist and her work analyzing blood to monitor the possible negative effects of radioactivity.
Therefore, I would recommend either reading the book on which the movie is based (The American Prometheus) or consulting any of the many internet sources before watching the movie.
For those with some knowledge, there are many easter eggs and references: Richard Feynman's bongos, Kurt Gödel's paranoia, the 100-ton test (which in the movie gives the impression of being kids playing with big firecrackers) and some more. The most curious one is that digital countdown clock, which is a Soviet model from the 70s-80s and didn't exist during that time; perhaps given the movie's attention to detail, it might be a strange paradoxical message, as if they wanted to include a Soviet timer for some reason.
The movie also takes many liberties: the apple story was not as the movie tells it, or the involvement of physicist David Hill wasn't as depicted, for example.
All the actors are incredible, though. Even Gary Oldman, who appears for 2 minutes playing Truman, but it's enough; he's impressive. All of them are fantastic. It smells to Oscar for Murphy and maybe others. Murphy and Emily Blunt deserves it for sure.
The Covenant (2023)
Not the typical war movie. Excellent story of men that do what they have to do
Another extraordinary work of Guy Ritchie, this time quite contained in his characteristic stylistic touches, but maintaining his essence; still, it is easy to recognize his style in some scenes, in the way he shows the personality of the characters, even secondary ones, the quirky dialogues, rhythm and action scenes, being those the less important (and sometimes quite weak, showing maybe budget limitations) in a story focused in the ordeal and relationship of their main characters.
Are precisely the characters the strength of this long, two-movie-in-one story, which begins as the usual, even topical, war movie, quickly turning to a impressive, moving and epic story of survival, commitment and redemption, without exaggerations, facile sensationalism, wokism or jingoism.
The two main characters are absolutely glorious. Gyllenhaal gives a great performance, as expected. But Dar Salim's portrait of a hard-boiled tough, serious guy on the surface, but with a deep inner story, able to do something few people would do just because is the right thing, steals the entire movie. Both shows incredible chemistry and make an epic pair.
The secondary characters are also remarkable, and overall all of them do a great work. I would have liked that Antony Starr and Alexander Ludwig had bigger roles, but both are very good in their parts.
It is better to watch the movie without too much information, so I would recommend not to read much about the plot. Simply enjoy the different acts and let you surprise by this entertaining, almost flawless film from one of the greatest and unique filmmakers we have right now.
Bliss (2021)
Don't understand low ratings. It is not SCIFI. Worth watching under correct perspective.
If you watch this expecting a science fiction movie, you will feel confused and maybe utterly disappointed, because from this perspective is a horrible movie. Of course it is: because it is NOT a science fiction movie.
It is a solid and original drama about addictions, mental illness and homelessness, from the perspective of his main role, an Owen Wilson, who did an extraordinary work here.
They are successful showing the viewer the suffering and confusion of the people in this condition, without forced sentimentalism, unnecessary violence or easy tricks to appeal the feelings or compassion of the viewer. Just show how the protagonist see life and situations, and it is effective translating his confusion.
The other main character, Isabel, portrayed by a great Salma Hayek, who also was very credible as a crackhead homeless, a condition clearly revealed at some point, during her interaction with street sex workers in a key scene of the movie, in which finally all reality is revealed and the situation precipitates to its ends, but, this time, and end full of hope for the protagonist.
A movie worth watching. Of course, it will not be a classic, but a good film for a one-time view. Again, Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek, who both perfectly understood what they were doing, did a nice work. Owen Wilson should have more dramatic roles, I think. He is good.
A side note: great cameos here.
Undone (2019)
Beautiful but boring and uninteresting
Nice original animation, good actors, good dialogues, superb Bob Odenkirk, who supports the entire show with his great acting.
But
boring. A complex, quantum tunneling of boredom, because the characters and situations are uninteresting (aside of Bob Odenkirk, the more interesting in the show), to the point that simply one does not care with the protagonist; but, the worst is the lazy and awful ending that ruin the entire show. After the fourth episode I lost interest, but I kept going just to know what happens at the end.
So, seriously you ended like that? All that was a dream?.
Other flaw is the constant virtue signaling. We reached the point in which ti is eye rolling.