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Poor Things (2023)
Not crap at all
I expected another Lanthimos crappy movie, but instead, it was an interesting (poor) thing. The reasons for this change are many:
1. Lanthimos and his writing partner didn't write the scenario. They didn't forced us on a unexplained movie condition like Lobster of Sacred Deer.
2. No more crazy violins, just some camera show offs - better that his last movie.
3. Sureal cities guide the audience on a slightly different than ours, world.
4. So many smart changes. For example, on Frankenstein's monster, Frankenstein is NOT the monster - it's the scientist who created the monster. But on this movie, the creator is like more of monster.
5. So many things that will make you question the morality of our world.
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
Dissapointement even for those who knew it would just be just milking
Why resurrections is so bad?
Well, at first it's the story. It's not only the fact that it is fast paced. It's the fact that it's sloppy and repeats everything already being said. Also, it distorts the original trilogy.
Even the writer pretty-much admits inside the movie what this is all about: The studio wants a sequel and will do it with or without the original creators/actors.
Secondly, the effects have zero originality. Nothing mind blowing like first movie and worst of all, some of them, are pretty bad (I guess that 'bullet time' didn't worked the way was intended).
Thirdly, it triers to activate some nostalgia by bringing back old characters Problem is that this can never work well if you don't actually use them for the plot for a good reason. It's like Star Wars latest trilogy, bringing back all the original cast just to kill them one by one. Take a look at Top Gun: Maverick and take lessons of how and when you can do it!
Even Matrix II or III had something to offer. Who can forget the staircase fight?
Matrix Ressurections is a bad movie made from people who just wanted the money. Badly.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)
Mediocre
I feel that Quantumania tried to copy things from Thor: Ragnarok's script (visiting a new magical place, cooperate with a foe in order to save the day, encounter strange new characters etc) but failed due to a number of reasons. Movie was kind of boring to me and the worst part is that Paul Rudd pretty much ridiculed the whole thing. On a couple of particular scenes in which he supposed to be worried and screaming for his daughter, the acting was SO bad, that I thought it was an intentional joke to behave like he was playing on a B-movie or something.
Kang the Conqueror was the only character that had some nice lines and depth, all the other thing will be forgotten soon.
The Boys (2019)
A modern Greek tragedy unfolds beyond the parody
You will probably start watching this to have some good laughs on the superhero genre. And you will indeed laugh with all the action, portraying how our world would be if we actually had superheroes.
Slowly but steadily, something else unfolds. The real tragedy of every character, good, evil or neutral, who follows his destiny without being able to change, to stop, to exit. Simultaneously, the show doesn't afraid to parody on taboos like cancel culture or political manipulation in a way that will make you process it again and again. Every single social and political problem on modern west world is mentioned directly or indirectly and that's incredible for a show that at first glance seems shallow and cheap. It's not. Want some more info? The Boys is marvelous mix of humor and sadness and you must watch it asap.
Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)
Funny but with many flaws
The initial Thor movie introduced the Marvel hero to the cinematic masses. It presented a bit arrogant prince, his family and his world. Thor 2 is one of the most underestimated movies of the MCU universe. Thor is now more mature and his relation with with brother is developing marvelously. Thor Ragnaroc was the best Thor movie, with great plot, music, CGI, and a main hero who was reaching the peak of his wisdom and power.
The first problem with current movie, is that it doesn't seem to belong somewhere. It seems stray like the rest of the MCU movies after Endgame. It's behind Ragnaroc in almost all aspects, except from humor which may be good, but it starts to destroy the recipe for a balanced movie.
The second problem is the backs and forths on Thor's character development. By now, he should be wiser and stronger than ever. Instead, he seems to be as naive and arrogant as in Thor 1 and as strong as.. Thor 1. That's not good.
I think Watiti falsely let his protagonists to be so relaxed and silly on the shootings, and this applies both to Chris and Tessa.
On the other hand, if you want to simply get entertained with some good action and want to have some good laughs, well - with the exception of the sad substories - the movie is hilarious and I caught myself unable to breath on a certain fight scene with certain sounds from certain animals.
I just hoped to see something better, and maybe a small Loki appearance.
For the rest of the cast, Christian Bale as a consumable 1-movie villan is great, and as a Greek, I surely wasn't offended by Russel Crowe's accent. I was only offended by the trailer describing and promising a different movie than the one I saw! But it's still good!
Cannonball Run II (1984)
Interesting lesson of how NOT to make a movie.
The only interesting part of the movie is the marvelous intro with the Lamborghini chase. After that, the movie fails on every single aspect not because it is a low budget story, but because the directing/editing is so bad.
I would never rate a movie comparing it no another genre. If you watch a comedy, you can't compare it with drama and it equally deserves a 10 if it is good.
So, Cannonball II could be great, but instead, it fails to improve all the bad things of the first movie (pretty much the lack of script). In fact it managed to get worse than the first movie.
Dialogues (specially the leading roles) are all improvised and frequently, people interrupt each other's lines. The pace of the movie is terrible, the stunts are stupid and you can even see the wires on some of them.
Worst of all, most of the story line is a copy of the 1st movie. The action for a car movie so SO slow due to editing and directing. The fighting scenes are a joke, except from Jackie Chan's solos.
One example of how bad this movie is, is the whole monkey story which is just boring, slow and frustrating. Same goes for the Don Don story, sames goes for everything.
If you compare Cannonball II with similar movies like "Rat race", you will immediately realize how bad this is. Gathering a ton of stars doing guest roles doesn't make a movie special.
It really seems that the filmed the whole movie on one shot and that Ed Wood was the real director!
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
And tha's how you make a great movie.
Top Gun is a successful recipe of nostalgia and action. Although it relies on a slightly altered version of the original Top Gun story, it still is a unique movie on so many perspectives. The surest thing is that Tom Cruise knows what the audience wants. People don't want fake airplanes and pilots acting like space cowboys. People want REALISM. They want it to be as real as possible. As few green screens as possible, as less CGI as possible. Actors struggling to breath, feeling the G powers on their body.
I've seen lots of fighting airplane movies claiming to be the next Top Gun. None delivered this promise until this one. Yes, the next Top Gun movie is a Top Gun movie too! ;)
To mikro psari (2014)
Very strong and touching..
It's dark, full of verbal and physical violence, but down under all those things, there's nothing less than the perfect portrait of a damned person. A person whom one action defined his whole life, a person who found and lost his purpose, an empty person, but still, a person gracefully showing a last act of humanity, before leaving.
Around him, the dark world of crime, a parallel universe that lives side by side with our "normal" one. A universe that is very different to leave, a universe with unspoken laws that bend or break depending on the situation.
Great film, great leading actor, very sharp and intense directing when required. Must see.
The Mandalorian (2019)
It has that Disney feeling
The Mandalorian is a nice relaxing series to watch, it always gives you a warm feeling that everything's gonna be alright in the end, and personally, I liked it.
BUT it has one flaw: It looks like a cartoon world. Or a cartoon micro-world. It's like Masters of the Universe, in which He-Man always had those same 2~3 friends/sidekicks that follow him on his adventures. There's a whole galaxy, but Mando keeps visiting the same friends/partners again and again, in order to get help:
Cara Dune.
Peli Motto.
Kuill.
Greef Karga.
One other issue, is that it has that Nickelodeon feeling: Characters get bonded together quite fast with no reason and without any on-screen interaction. Fennec Shand is bonded with Dune, Boba Fett wants to help the Mandalorian for no reason and even the bond between the Mandalorian and the... young Yoda, has very little development and the protagonist grows conscience too fast and in a sloppy way.
Still, it's fun to watch, plus the fact that you get 1 episode of Bill Burr doing serious stand-up comedy and that thing, surely wasn't scripted! (and I loved it).
Eternals (2021)
It could be way better and quite less boring....
I've seen all the MCU movies. The main problems with Eternals are:
(a) Salma Hayek had a very weak performance. She doesn't look so strong or wise or anything tbh. And the CGI effects of her (healing, fighting), a bit silly. She couldn't convince me for a second that she even tried. Look at Angelina Jolie on the other hand: She's an established actress but still tried hard to give a good performance, trying to show all the angles of Thena.
(b) Movie repeats several aspects of a previous MCU film (Captain Marvel). Main heroes fighting for the wrong side without knowing it, amnesia preventing protagonist(s) knowing the truth, mother-figure dying and this makes the protagonist to become something bigger, protagonist's lover/caring person is actually a bad guy.
(c) Movie copies a whole scene from another MCU film (XMen: Apocalypse): Makkari punches at fast forward Icarus before being countered, which is exactly what happens with Quicksilver beating En Sabah Nur before get countered too.
(d) Movie repeats some of.... Marvel's TV series theme (Loki): The heroes send to earth are working on a plan they don't understand, a plan that was conceived by a mastermind. Again there's a plot twist with amnesia while there's also an unsolved ethical pseudo-dillema about life, that masterminds asks everybody to solve. On Eternals, they have to choose if they want new worlds to be created or they want earth to survive. On Loki, they have to choose between free will or total chaos.
(e) Characters act very differently compared to their backstory:
Ajak is growing conscience after destroying inifinite number of planets over the aeons. It's like Darth Vader being a saint because although he committed genocide with the Death Star, he changed his mind in the very last moment.
Kingo seems to be the person who interacts the most with the human race, but still he's the only one who chooses to be neutral on the dilemma to save or not the earth.
Phestos has a child, and still prefers not to fight for its survival until his partner tells him to do so. Very unrealistic.
Sprite backstabs Sersi, but literally 15 minutes later, they are best friends without even mentioning the incident!
Those are minor and major glitches, but ofc, this doesn't mean that the movie is bad. It has entertaining moments like the Kingo/Karun interactions (an immortal with his human friend) which reminded me a bit of the Highlander franchise. Nice graphics, not a great plot twist (I hoped the monster who sucked the superpowers from everybody to be the hero that would have saved the earth). In general, a very nice part of every superhero movie, is the part that shows the birth or the skills of every individual. Robocop saving a random woman by shooting between here legs, Superman saving a bus with laser sight or so, etc. On Eternals, even with different abilities, all heroes look the same. They are boring, they lack real personality and ability to take initiatives. And the pace of the move, very slow... Not good for MCU movie...
Dune (2021)
Not THAT epic
Dune is not a bad movie, but imho, it suffers from a variety of issues like:
1. The music composition is just irritating. Hearing every 10' the "aAAaaaaaaAaaaa" screams on every single vision is plan stupid.
2. Too much slow motion, too little story telling. For a 2.5h movie, it shows very few things in order to makes us understand who is who. The House Harkonnen is a bunch of bad dudes, so what? What guilds do and why, what is this universe we live in? You want me to see another movie to understand this? Why? Even if someone read the books, he wants to see a movie version of it, not a movie addition of it.
2. I don't like anymore, movies that break a book or a storyline in 2 or more movies. You just can't narrate half of first book on a 2.5h movie. I want a freaking movie that has a beginning and an end, not a post credit notification saying "you just watched part 1, just wait until 2022 for part 2."
Having said so, even with primitive effects, Dune (1984) is better to watch. It's a complete story, even with occasional bad acting with funny visual fxs.
Cobra Kai (2018)
First season was good, third season is a joke.
One of the most popular movies of our childhood. Then "funny or die" mocked it, then someone on YouTube "analyzed" why Larusso was the bad guy and later, someone decided that nostalgia sells. And he was pretty right!!!
First season was really nice. The introduction of two poles, how (and why) the "good" and the "bad" guy progressed with their lives. Wait a minute. The main star of the series is actually the former bad guy! Cool! Loved all the references, loved the continuous joke of John's lack of technology skills (even when his main job was to install TVs).
Third season is a total disappointment to me. Why?
- Lots of backs and forths.
- Directing is a joke. Don't they have some kind of Martial Arts assistant? I don't expect 50y old guys to fight like ninjas, but even the child fights are a joke. It's like someone directed it for Nickelodeon or Disney Channel for audience under 12!! A total joke! The core of the series is the freaking KARATE! :D
- The direction of the music event John and Miguel attended, was a joke.
- Really, REALLY sloppy/annoying/STUPID script! Larusso, visits Japan to save his company, fails to do so, then he listens to a.. wise comment from a bartender, decides to visit Miyagi's hometown, blah blah, he sees the little girl he saved before 100 years, and this girl happen to be a high executive for the company Larusso came in Japan at first place. True story! :D
- Continuous sloppy script: Stolen car appears magically in front of Larusso and John! Business going bad after a school fight (yeah, sure). Amanda slaps John Kreese and gets instant restraining orders. But when a mob of kids invade into Larusso's home and wrecks it, nobody thinks calling the police is a good idea. Let's solve this thing on season 4 on a karate event! Who though of this script? Former Star Wars writers?
- The change of feelings of the two senior stars (Miguel/Robby) is like they have a 3-day period cycle. And Robby for the needs of 4th seasons, abandons all those things he learned before? It's not normal for a minor to almost kill someone, and when he sees that person walking again, first reaction: YOU STOLE MY GF - ATTACK! Samantha's character, dozens of backs and forths.
- Nostalgia is nice, but it cannot carry the whole show forever! Producers brought back everyone related to Karate Kid I,II,III, even Ali (I feel E. Shue agreed to appear only on one episode so as to get rid of producers crying on her phone). I guess Terry Silver is next, after Kumiko or Chozen. After that, the only thing left would be to split the timeline and introduce Jackie Chan or Hilary Swank.
- One one episode someone has a lvl30 karate skill, on the next, he's acting like he took his first lesson yesterdays.
Restoring Johny's character integrity was good, but do we need EVERYBODY be bad and good at the same time? Ok, John has a sad story explaining why he was an ass 30years ago, but now, Tory has a story, even Kreese has a sad story and remember, he's the guy who couldn't learn a lesson for 3 freaking movies in a row! No need for all this, really.
To sum up, it needs better fighting scenes, characters that don't change opinion or feelings every 30", less nostalgia or Miyagi, more of a logical story that has a start a middle and an end.
The Favourite (2018)
At least, on his previous movies, Lanthimos was bad.
Let's review Lanthimo's career so far:
* Dogtooth: A story of a totally disfunctional family, ok, not bad at all.
* Lobster: A story based on a totally illogical thing that never gets explained, in order to show to the audience, the real nature of relations. Ok, I can bite that too.
* The killing of the sacret deer: A story also based on a totally illogical thing that never gets explained, in order to create a parallelism (?) to a ancient Greek Tragedy. I've eaten before the same food!
* The Favorite: A boring movie.
I can't stop thinking that the ONLY new thing the movie can bring on a hill of previous movies, is:
- Freaking scratching of violins or whatever is this terrible sound, Lanthimos wants to put on all of his movies.
- Wide lens experimentation like he's a 19y old art-school student on a project.
The story is very similar to dozen of other stories, photography is good, acting is very good, but boring pace, irritating sound and no meaning, makes this movie, idk, boring? At least there's not a supernatural rule or ability on it. So I'm guessing, after 5-6 movies, Lanthimos will stop using violins and he will get bored using all of his lens. Who knows, he may even steal time from self-admiration and use his powers to write and direct a decent interesting movie!
Gisaengchung (2019)
Parasite is not a valid title for this brilliant movie
It's a nice-to-watch movie and nice-to-think afterwards of what you've just saw.
At first, it feels you are watching a single-sided comedy, in which a family of poor-devils manage to build a scam against naive rich people. But, 45 minutes later, you see something different.
It is a very strong contrast to see the father of the family on the same scene, trying to save everything he has from his flooded house, while on the next scene, he has to pretend that everything is ok.
The ending is not the best I could think of, I guess, rich people will keep living and poor people will keep dreaming.
Very strong and meaningful pictures, painting a country that is supposed to be of the wealthiest in the world, showing that the barrier between rich and poor people is opening everywhere. The main characters is like they're living in North Korea if you think of it!
Finally, I think the description of all characters wants to show that nobody is good or evil, nobody is right or wrong. It's just the situations that make us react the way we do. I am not even quite sure who's the parasite. Poor people who discover a window for (a better) living or rich people who take advantage of lower-class people in order to obtain their wealth, not knowing how it is, to be poor?
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
Typical Lanthimos
Some things in Hollywood always stay the same.
For example, Shyamalan will always try to create a plot twist on his movies and this removes the magic from his creations.
Lanthimos on the other hand, continues to direct movies that make no sense at all and promote them as food for thoughts.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a very bad movie indeed. Why?
1. The ideas it promotes about family or about 'justice' based on Greek mythology are weakened by the boredom of the film.
2. It is based on the VERY SAME concept as the lobster: Lanthimos builds a universe where things doesn't works as in our own, and no questions should be asked, no explanations should be given about this. On Lobster, the whole animal-transformations was a defacto fact, that the move doesn't want to explain. You have to accept it, even if it makes no sense. Ok.
On this movie, a boy has a supernatural ability of divine justice on a usual world but nobody seems to asking the real questions or being impressed. They very easily accept it!
3. It only serves the purpose of some blockbuster stars who desperately need to be taken seriously and a director who needs A-listers in order to make his movie and his work, famous.
4. "The Killing of a Sacred Deer" is the cinematic adaptation of "The Emperor's New Clothes". It's an interactive movie. You talk with someone about it and he says "I like its meaning". It's the very same guy that on the tale, he admires the Emperor's new Clothes. I can write a script 10^8 better than this joke!
Avengers: Endgame (2019)
It was good, but not as good as Thor 3 or Infinity War
There was so much hype about this movie. The social media made a good deal of fuzz about the ticket records it broke, its length etc, etc.
To start with the obvious: It's not a bad Marvel Movie. But it's surely not the best. Regarding the script and the pace, I think it reminds me something like Avengers 2 and Thor 2 and that's not the best movies Marvel made.
To me, Thor 3 is the best movie of all Marvel Universe, because it has a super good balance between action, dialogs, script, and humor. You never felt bored, you never felt you knew what's coming.
On Endgame, sometimes I felt bored. It was a combination of medicre editing, script or acting. For example, fat Thor joke wasn't halve as good as bad haircut Thor. The scenes that should produce laughs, were between average and good.
Although 3 hours long, it failed to show the extension of misery the planet has fallen into. In the opening scenes they easily kill Thanos, next scene misery, third scene hope, fourth scene Stark rejects the idea of time travel, next scene he finds the solution, next scene, the machine is ready. It's the very same Tony Stark that on Iron Man 2 spend half a movie trying to figure out how to create a new element.
Time travel movies are always problematic because no matter how much mumbo jumbo terminology you add, the truth is that no matter how the heroes avoid to interact or change the future, their own existance on the past will change their universe. So, Endgame can laugh about Hot Tub Time Machine, but the truth is, it is still a HTTM movie.. ;D
Also, it's disappointing to continiously upgrade Thor's powers and on the final battle scenes, to take them back without a proper explanation. Thor easily defeated a Thanos that was on the maximum of his powers using the Infinity Gauntled on Infinity War, but on Endgame, he's unable to beat him even without Thanos having full power! That's silly.
Yes it's a huge movie and even with 30 second cameos from top actors like Robert Redford or Michael Douglas you should need 1 hour for all characters but in the end, it's not about how many people you will squeeze into the movie. It's about how you will build a good pace with balanced action and humor.
Maybe it's about the fact that everybody pretty much knew how things would end while on other movies like Thor 3, things were a bit more chaotic. Maybe it's because there wasn't much time about showing the details of a 5 year period. Maybe it was the fact that the first memory that jumps into my mind every time I recall the movie is Black Widow standing on a desk and coordinating x-avengers. Maybe is the fact that Thor from an arrogant young person, became super-strong in 5 movies (Thor 1,2,3, Avengers 1,2) and then, back to mediocre again. Maybe is the fact that Hulk was portrayed like the Beast from X-Men now. Maybe it was because we never got answers from the previous movie, like what Loki meant when he talked about the sun rising again, or why Hulk refused to help Banner. Even on this movie, Hawkeye becoming a renegade, makes no sense. All heroes that presented a second chance (Stark, Thor, Hawkeye) react like "Nah, I will pass" instead of be super-excited about it. I know 5 years passed, but the movie fails to show how this period changed our heroes.
Thanos final fight on Infinity War, much inferior to that of Endgame.
Humor much much inferior to Thor3.
Of course it is not a bad movie, but it could epic - and despite all those Anchorman cameos, it's not. But I guess, when you have limited time to repeat a wordwide success, surely you will have fails now and then.
Endgame was destined to be an epic ending. It was. But only 8 out of 10.
Glass (2019)
Close but no cigar
There's a tendency in the Hollywood world for bad repeat. Let's make a 3rd StarWars Trilogy, and in every new movie, let's kill a hero from the original one. Let's make a StarTrek movie and recreate older dialogues between Spock and Jim. Let's swap them so as people to think we did something great.
Tron, Indiana Jones, BladeRunner and the list goes on.
Glass continues this Hollywood tendency.
I don't really care if the casting is exactly the same as before 20 years.
The real problem is that M. Night Shyamalan tried to once more to apply some magic to his movie, but the days he surprised us again and again has long gone.
The same boring "cinematic" scenes, are being repeated and tbh I hated watching Sarah Paulson's face trying to fit into the whole screen again and again.
As all of Shyamalan's movies, there's always a mystery that needs to be explained or a mystery that nobody cares why it exists on a realistic representation of reality. It's like watching Lanthimos over and over again.
Nice acting, but boring/lazy script. Why not allow fresh ideas to take over Hollywood?
Noah (2014)
Such a bad script..
This is a terrible movie, and there's a reason for that:
The director/writer/producer tries to mix religion, fantasy and science.
The outcome is a stupid movie that when it manages not to bore you, it makes you wonder who the hell wrote such a confusing script!
On older epic movies like '56 "The Ten Commandments" at least there's a theatrical performance that follows the Bible story. In this movie, it's so idiotic to show the Big Bang and try to convince your audience that this is explained in the scripts. Also stupid is a dialogue inside the Arc that tries to pass the message that some species are extincted because they were eaten by some guy.
There are some imaginary characters that has nothing to do with the bible, so now you have serious narration of bible combined with absolutely imaginery situations!
If the editor had cut all the science references and time-lapses or the out of the bible characters and storylines, this would be at least a 5/10 boring movie for me. But they managed to mix religion with fantasy and science and this makes this movie, a 1/10 plan stupid attempt.
The Lobster (2015)
Pure crap
(Humor): The true story behind the movie is this: Director Yorgos Lanthimos was sitting on a tavern with his close friend and writer Efthymis Filippou. They were eating lobster. Suddenly, Lanthimos started to talk about how art is overrated and that people tend to pretend to understand as art even the weirdest nonsense just in order to show off and blend with the other intellectuals. Filippou on the other hand, strongly disagreed with his friend.
At the end of their argument Lanthimos said that: "Eftyhmi, I will show you that I'm right. I'm gonna make the stupidest movie you ever saw and people will love it". Eftymis agreed to participate on this social experiment by writing part of the script.
So they started planning on how they would make the stupidest movie ever, and present it as a masterpiece.
- Let's bring a Hollywood star who wants to play on a European production so as to add it to his "to do" list.
- Bring Colin Farrell - we will get Irish support from that!
- Great idea, but how will we convince him to play on such a silly film?
- Tell him that it is a very deep film with a European perspective and things like that.
- Who else?
- We need a famous guy who plays cheap comedy roles. Audience loves transformations.
- Bring John C. Reilly, he will beg for this!
- OMG. This is gonna be huge! Who else?
- We'll bring actors from all over Europe, some Greeks some English, you name it. Don't forget we need money to produce this thing!
- OK! But won't they have questions about the script?
- I'm #$@%# Lanthimos, If I ask them to jump as kangaroos in front of the camera they will do it without second thoughts. And best part: They will be the firsts to believe that is art at its best.
- LOL! How about the script?
- Write whatever crazy boring thing you can think.
- I have a great idea!
- Hit it!
- At a strange futuristic world, people have to be on a relationship or else must be transformed into animals.
- Man this is pure gold!
- ..and our hero just broke up, so he goes on a special place where he is forced to find a new partner in 40 days or so, or else he will be converted to the animal of his choice.
- This doesn't make ANY sense. It's f... awesome!
- He chooses Lobster, because, well, we eat one right now!
- LOL Mate! We will build a secondary story around this part, later.
- OK. Now the matching process should be a bit complicated
- Right, so as the audience starts wondering the real meaning.
- Exactly. Let's say that the people on this dark world need to have same characteristics in order to mate. Also, as a daily activity, they go hunting for people who prefer to be single, because, why not?
- And then?
- Let's make a plot twist or something. Our hero fails to mate with a woman, and joins the free people who don't like relationships.
- Dude, my mind is blowing up!
- He fails there too, finds a girl, they try to escape from this madness and in the end...
- What??
- I don't know. Let's make an end that nobody understands what it means so as to start theorizing about it.
- Or even better, let's not write an end at all. Let people wonder.
- Done?
- Done!
After a year "Lobster" is presented to the world. The result?
23 nominations and 14 wins. Lanthimos had successfully laughed on the back of the whole world.
On a more serious note, the movie is bad. Very bad. Quite bad. It makes "Highlander: Source" to look like masterpiece. Makes no sense at all and everybody has an opinion on how to translate this awful thing they just saw.
Suicide Squad (2016)
Trailers promised too much, that movie couldn't deliver
Suicide Squad is not a bad superhero movie. But it's not the best. I think the first trailer promised too many things but the movie delivered too few. Sometimes you think it's the DC curse - those people seem to be unable to make a good movie while on the other side, Marvel makes blockbuster hits even from unknown to the general public super heroes like DeadPool.
So let's start with the movie: One of the best parts of superhero movies is the initial introduction. See how beautifully every superhero was introduced on Avengers. on SSq. the introduction is weak and somehow tries to be psychedelic and funny but it's not. It's just, too badly edited.
Then the "dark" part every superhero movie has nowadays: The ethical dilemmas are somehow lost between serious dialogues and comic relief lines. In the end, it seems to be more of a movie for small kids.
As for acting, surely Harley Quinn is the star here, and with her partner they seem to give some color to the story-line, but again, that's just not enough. For example Willy Smith is a veteran, but he's forced to make the STUPITEST come back ("I will help you accomplish your mission because I was touched by.. something") and that's not bad acting, it's just bad script.
I think the problem is on all aspects of the film (editing, script and directing) and it's a common DC movie problem, the fact that they are REALLY in a hurry to unify their universe like Marvel does, but it is SO irritating the way they do it.
Even on Avengers 2, there were script problems and stupid ethical dilemmas that intended to make the movie a bit darker. S.Sq, tries to make everything dark in a ridiculous way. It's a mixed messages situation, and in the end you can't take any part of it seriously. Btw, same problem was present on "Batman vs Superman". I am not sure why writers want nowadays to paint heroes so dark while they are not.
Spoiler: The SuicideSquad talks on the bar about killing people. Harley Quinn is so sensitive about the death of the family of her fellow soldier, but in the end, a dozen of prison guards die so as she can escape (and a whole bunch of others die on Joker's first attempt). Yes she's psychedelic, but people miss the point here - if a point was intended to exist.
The biggest worries is that the next DC movies (with the Aquaman being introduced twice so far) will continue this bad bad tactic. DC movies get worse and worse.
Interstellar (2014)
Great movie but not a masterpiece
First of all I need to say that it is quite rare to see a decent sci-fi movie. Interstellar is a great movie because it tries to be as accurate as possible regarding scientific facts.
But it's not a masterpiece because of small glitches left and right on the movie. For example, the "Lost Pilot who - by almost an accident - got back to NASA (and they accepted him because he was the best)" looks like a cheap TV show rather than good script. I know that this gets explained later, but still, not good overall impression.
The other problem is that the Director repeats the same effects from previous movies, like Inception. And the scene where worm-hole travel is explained is actually stolen from Alien.
Ofc those aren't huge script problems, and there's still originality on it. For example, Prometheus was terrible IMHO, because it followed step-by-step the same things that happened on previous Alien movies. On the other hand, there are even better (=you don't know what to expect) scripts like District9's.
Imho, the problem is not the fact that Interstellar steals sfx or ideas from Contact or Inception. The one thing that keeps this moving from being a classic sci-fi is the fact that it has a clean and absolute happy end. Did anyone understood what happened to "2001: A Space Odyssey"? On Contact, did we communicated again with Aliens? Did Neo liberated all people on the original Matrix? (no). Bladerunner? You need to let something to the imagination of people (like the end of Inception) instead of trying to reach the absolute and not disputable happy end.
Mikra Anglia (2013)
What's the fuzz about?
OK, it's Pantelis Boulgaris, but how about the rest of the package? I think that the director should choose a different - more interesting - story/script in order to build his movie.
Story is weak and not something we haven't seen before. Acting of main character (Tsilika) is weak. In couple of occasions you may feel that you are watching a play and not a movie. Of course this is not entirely her fault since the script asks her to perform those non-realistic monologues while make-up and photography are just too realistic and doesn't help someone who is not a doctor to understand certain conditions. To be precise at least twice people laughed at the cinema, and both occasions had to do with makeup and photography of her.
Part of the story made me feel I had a Deja-Vu with the movie "H timh this agapis" (1984), but without a clear message this time. Anyways, I think that "Mikra Anglia" has a decent story to tell, strong emotions, some good performances (Aneza Papadopoulou, Constantinou) with very good representation of life on a Greek Island on the ww2 era. But it's not a masterpiece, nor something you would like to see a second time.
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Screenplay not original and somehow irritating for the older fans
Star Trek Into Darkness is a nice movie to watch. Additionally, teenagers that weren't even born when "Revenge of Khan" movie was released, won't notice anything bad about the screenplay.
*Spoiler Alert* In my point of view, repeating two of the most famous StarTrek scenes in reverse mode, is irritating, sad and without a bit of originality. It's like trying to paint Mona Lisa again with a slightly different smile. You just can't do that! Producers could choose a really original script with new material, they should avoid some long boring scenes that you know how they will end anyways, and could focus on moving forward. They've chosen to go back instead - and that's not positive.
So, using the same evil guy from older StarTrek movies, reversing the roles on key scenes, using same action scenes (the jump from Enterprise to the other ship) as previous movie is not a positive thing.
Technically speaking, movie maintains high levels of special effects, but the whole package won't make you leave the room with a smile on your face - at least if you are a fan of the StarTrek universe..
Death Proof (2007)
Tarantino gets worse and worse
It's the curse for a bright young talented director/actor, to compose some of his best masterpieces at the early stages of his career, only to start experimenting against his fans, later on.
The latest Tarantino movies, seem to be QUITE tedious.
Death Proof is some of the movies you don't want to see for a second time (not even for the first time, to be honest). Although the movie producers claim that it recreates some of the old-era B-movies, the truth is that the movie has ridiculously long (soooo long) and boring dialogs, and only a few action scenes.
The only one who has nice moments, is Kurt Russell, but the scenario is just too bad written, the imitation is simple, the final result is bad, bad, bad..
There are three kinds of people: (a) Tarantino's fans who will say "hurray" no matter if they watch trash, (b) non-Tarantino's fans who pretend to find everything they watch, exceptional, and (c) all the other people (no matter if they love or hate Tarantino's style), who will find this movie, bad. Really bad.