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john-brocato
Reviews
The Exorcist: Believer (2023)
A Major Disappointment
I saw The Exorcist: Believer the day it opened, and, as a longtime devotee of the original, I worried it would be disappointing but still hung onto some hope that it would be OK. Sadly, I was thoroughly disappointed. This movie felt like someone arguing frantically for two hours that "movies are supposed to be entertainment" as a way of drowning out their conscience telling them (accurately) that they have, in fact, made a crap movie. Obvious and pointless jump-scares, amateurishly written soliloquies about good v. Evil, uninspired and thus desperate-feeling callbacks to the original, attempts at pulling your heartstrings by hands that evidently don't know where the human heart is located in the body - yes, this film has it all, and it's all dumb.
I do applaud David Gordon Green's decision to make a direct sequel instead of attempting a reboot (or, far worse, a "reimagining"), but in so doing he made a big mistake: he pandered. Movies like this feel for all the world as if the filmmakers - instead of you know, doing some actual writing and working hard on the story and script - gather everything they think you love about the original and modern horror in general and cram it all in at twice the volume and one-tenth the quality. That's pandering. It's like a barter-system version of someone pleading with you to please love them.
My suggestion: skip the overpriced cinema ticket and just re-watch the original Exorcist, which is still terrifying 50+ years on, followed immediately by Exorcist III, which has somehow gotten worthier over the years.
Revolutionary Road (2008)
Terrible
This movie is terrible. It tries to make grand statements about the hopelessness of cookie- cutter suburbia and attempts to provide insightful character studies, but it fails miserably on both counts. The dialogue is particularly bad; as brilliant as Kate and Leo can be, they sound like cut-rate community theatre actors. The flashbacks and flashforwards are poorly handled and not only add nothing to the story but also detract from it. The pacing is way off, the score is a nuisance, and the subplot (such as it is) of the secretarial other woman almost seems poorly edited, as if the initial scenes were forgotten until the creators needed another bump in an overly flat narrative road. The only meritorious part of this movie is the character of John, the institutionalized neighbor son. His role is creepy and thankfully less monotone than the rest, but even this is not nearly reason enough to put up with the remaining mediocrity. Don't forfeit two hours of your life for this film.