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Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Really, really, really awful. And boring.
I think I spent at least 2 hours of the 2 hour and 20 minute movie wishing it would end, not wanting to say anything in case the people I was with were enjoying it. It is a giant mess, makes no sense, the sci-fi aspects are just dumb, the main character is almost likeable but no one else is, I felt like it must have been 4 hours long, but didn't want to look at my ticket or my phone to see the time so as not to annoy the people around me. The quality of effects and the acting are fine, but the story is just so near non-existent and stupid. I did think during the movie that the great reviews and ratings (the reason I chose it) were like an art critic praising a banana taped to a wall - because they don't want to admit the don't understand it - when there is nothing to understand. Staring at a banana taped to the wall would be about as boring, but not the same awful assault on the senses.
The Man from Earth: Holocene (2017)
The original was great. This is not great, not terrible.
It will p-off overly uptight Christians, the acting is quite average, and they could have done a lot more and a lot better with the story. But I think it was worth watching, especially being free. If you haven't seen the original run to see it, then watch this sometime when you've got nothing much else going on. Definitely don't watch this one first.
BTW, anyone rating it as less than 6 is being truly ridiculous, or is one of those uptight Christians, or is over reacting to being disappointed by the sequel, since the original is truly fantastic - or has watched very few films in their life. Anyone rating it as better than Shawshank is also being silly, or maybe wants to counteract the all ridiculous 1s.
The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
I enjoyed it.
If someone had told you this was the greatest block buster of the year, or a contender to beat out Star Wars or Alien for greatest sci-fi of all time, you'd be mightily disappointed.
And coming from J.J. Abrams and stupidly having had the "Cloverfield" thing jammed into it pointlessly, anyone would reasonably be very disappointed, or if you are someone who has to over think movies you would be too.
But if you approach this like an episode of Doctor Who, or Torchwood, or some other BBC type sci-fi series, (which is what it looks like given the actors), it is fine, and if you tell someone to approach it that way they might enjoy it even you didn't.
Camp X-Ray (2014)
Very good.
It is amazing that they make movies with literally 150x the budget that are garbage, while this movie made on a relative shoestring is a great credit to the director and the actors.
As for the theme, years of imprisonment without charge or trial in circumstances where it is inconceivable that no innocent men have been caught up in it and their lives wasted and ruined is a disgrace, and this film makes that statement in an understated yet powerful way.
It doesn't paint the soldiers involved as the culprits, and it doesn't make a strong statement, or point fingers, it just subtly implies that the situation is deeply problematic, and leaves it to viewer to figure out for themselves where they stand.
Bravo.
The Man from Earth (2007)
Very good. Probably not what you're expecting.
I think a lot of the reviewers who have rated this movie lowly have done so for a few of principle reasons. 1/ they see a "Sci-Fi" movie with an 8 rating and a lot of 10 reviews and think it will be something to rival Avatar, 2/ they aren't expecting something that is more like a stage play than an feature film, and 3/ a lot of religious people will think it is offensive for the usual "looking for a reason to be offended" reasons.
The Man from Earth is almost entirely set in a single room, and is a conversation among a group of people. Some of the acting, mainly at the beginning is weak, though in a "they should have re-shot it" sense, because for most of the movie it is much better, but like you'd see in a theater production, rather than a high production values block buster. The subject matter is intelligent, touches on many aspects of philosophy, theology, science, and history. It is thoughtful and well written, and I don't know why it has the label "Sci-Fi" attached to it at all.
It's not a Shawshank Redemption by any means, but it is very good, if you don't go into it expecting it to be something it isn't. If the themes it covers interest you, I'm confident you will like it too.
World War Z (2013)
Disappointing
It's almost impossible to do justice to a great book in two hours, but they could have at least tried, rather than simply using the name on a almost entirely different story. But I knew that going in.
So I say disappointing because the story was just dull and rather silly. Not much happened during the whole movie, nothing much developed story-wise or character-wise, the zombies were not very zombie like, and the cleverness of the original material was completely missing in action.
I'm sure they could make a good movie on a tenth the budget, instead of a not so good action blockbuster for hundreds of millions.
Prometheus (2012)
Very disappointing.
I've given 4 only for the impressive visuals in the movie.
As for the rest... the science is consistently nonsense, the Christian religious references make no sense in the context of Christianity. The creationism vs evolution references are lame and philosophically weak, un-thought-through and poorly presented. The acting is so so and does nothing to save the story, which is dull and unimaginative.
A few specifically ridiculous things...
Why hire such a pair of twits as the geologist and the biologist for such an expensive and important mission? Did they ask for volunteers at the unemployment office? Come to that, how could they have such a crew of unprofessional clowns for a $1 trillion mission?
Can a surgery be any more ridiculously fake? Spray on a bit of "anaesthetic" and perform a Caesarian on a struggling woman?
How can there be such a powerful storm of such large particles and no- one's suits or helmets have any real damage? And there isn't piles of the stuff building up everywhere? Did it evaporate?
I suppose David's ability to read and speak a 2000 year old language isn't 'too' ridiculous, though it is still ridiculous.
To enjoy this movie one must have to a good level of scientific and religious illiteracy, or an exceptional ability to suspend belief and ignore the silliness of the whole thing.
And the attempt to link it to Alien was pathetic. To compare the movie to Alien at all is an insult to a true classic and that they'd make such a poor movie today with its big budget should be an embarrassment to its makers.
Disappointed.
The Book of Eli (2010)
Full of holes and in the end totally lame.
There are large group of people who will love this film, since they would undoubtedly love any film about what the film turns out to be about.
But if you are not predisposed to that particular theme I think you'll find the movie leads nowhere and ends up nowhere.
For the first third I expected it to be leading up to something interesting, then it just became very predictable and obvious that that wasn't happening, and the plot holes made it obvious that the people wanting to get to their particular message weren't too fussed about it either.
Even though I'm not predisposed to the theme in reality, it does make for great fiction, but this movie didn't make anything worthwhile of it story-wise.
But in a certain way it reflects real life. People killing and dying over books. And ignoring the key messages of the books as they justify it. Quite apt.
Reading a little about Denzel Washington I understand why he did the film, but I can't see it being a plus for his career. Ditto for Gary Oldman. For two such good actors I wonder how they read the screenplay and thought it was something they should do.
I just ask myself why did they (everyone involved) bother?
Zeitgeist (2007)
Typical Conspiracy Theorist Garbage
If you are looking for a documentary, this is not one. It is conspirtainment, nothing more.
So if you enjoy conspiracy theories for the fun then there is probably something there for you. If you believe the government is hiding aliens, and conspiring in any number of other ways, then you will love it and find much to cling to.
As for Part 1 I would recommend you instead watch The God Who Wasn't There. It covers the same ground much more thoroughly without the tackiness of this presentation. There are many better quality sources of information covering this area -both of the real kind and of the entertainment kind.
As for Parts 2 and 3, if you make up your own conspiracies you'll be just as wise.
That so many people rate this film so highly is a testament to credulity of people, and a shame for the well respected rating system of IMDb, because it in no way belongs among the great films that share those high ratings.
Turistas (2006)
It's a pretty accurate portrayal of Brazil IGNORING the crime portrayed which is totally not!
So what I mean by that is that leaving aside what the baddies are doing in this film it's pretty representative of real Brazil. I've lived here for seven months, and in terms of the what the Brazilians are doing and saying, how they are interacting, drinking, how they dance, kiss, have sex, how some of them see gringos purely as money, the driving, the mountains, the hiking, the rivers, waterfalls, and forest - it's just like it really is. So if you are coming to Brazil it's worth checking out - just realize that like all of the rest of the propaganda out there about how dangerous Brazil is - the danger portrayed in this movie should be completely ignored (except the driving perhaps) - in the same way that if you watch Hostel you don't need to be scared to go to Europe. Having said that, if you're not coming to Brazil and not interested in Brazil then for the movie's quality I would find something else to watch.