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Zack Snyder's Justice League (2021)
Forget the rest of the movie, Gal Gadot is the best action movie actor ever!
I rated the movie only 9 stars because, as many other reviewers have said, it was just plain too long. I never did lose interest; however, I did keep checking to see how much longer it had to run.
It was a great DC sicfi action movie with great acting by the entire cast. The standout though, is Gal Gadot. Good grief, she is so believable as Wonder Woman. Her role is extremely physical and she is jaw-droppingly up to the task.
The other standout among the stellar cast is Ezra Miller as The Flash. His naiveté adds much-needed comic relief to the film. It would not have been the same without him.
Orpheus' Song (2019)
ZOOOOM -- That's the sound of this movie going right over the heads of some viewers
I just watched Orpheus' Song and came to IMDB to see what others were saying about the short movie. So I've been reading through the reviews, and apparently a lot of people didn't "get" it, apparently because the movie wasn't long enough to explain Orpheus's background. Either that, or the writer/producer Tor Iben knew Greek mythology and made the errant assumption that others watching his film would understand the film's premise.
The mysterious man who came out of nowhere in the woods (which wasn't accidental; more on that in a bit). That his name was not really Hercules as he averred was obvious -- because when asked his name, he hesitated before saying, "Hercules"; And he and certainly he did not have Hercules' muscles. Nor was he just a local con artist as someone suggested n another review. The name of the film is "Orpheus' Song". He was Orpheus. Orpheus said that the cave he lured them to was his home, And yet the cave was bare except for the pomegranates, the bottle of a special drink -- and the three shot glasses that he just happened to have on hand. It was planned.
If one pays close attention, there was further evidence of Orpheus' semi-divinity. When he was shown playing his charmed love song on his flute he was fully clothed standing on the bank of a pond., But when the camera panned down to show his reflection in the water, his "reflection" was wearing only a white loincloth and It looked almost as if he were IN the water or walking on the water-- which made one wonder if his story had been true about the pomegranate being charmed by a water nymph who lived in a waterfall. A charmed pomegranate that could make anyone fall in love forever.
Although not overtly sexual, the nearly naked men sleeping so close together while Orpheus played his enchanting flute music was a highly erotic scene in the movie. The last we had seen of them before this scene was when Orpheus was giving them a special drink that they loved and could not get enough of. Then they were shown sleeping close together in their underwear in their drugged state; their nearly bare bodies were touching and their heads turned towards each other, their faces just inches apart. Charmed by Orpheus' seductive song they began breathing heavily and touching themselves in their hypnotic sleep.
In Greek legend, Orpheus.was a Thracian with the power to charm anyone into falling in love with his music. And one more fact about Orpheus ... both Ovid and Plato wrote that Orpheus sexually preferred males -- and that he taught the "love of boys" to the Thracians.
Anyway, I really believe that if "Orpheus' Song" could have been two hours long and Orpheus' background had been explained, the film would have made a lot more sense to those who didn't quite understand it.
Everything I just wrote took place in the first half of the film. There is no need for me to write more, because the second half is built on that premise and falls into place.
Ride (2023)
PLEASE Give Us A Season 2!
The core characters of "RIde" are the McMurrays, a Wyoming family descended from generations of rodeo performers. The strong matriarch of the family is Isabel who is the glue that holds the family, ranch and all the other characters together. She has three sons: The two oldest, Austin and Cash are bull riders and the Tuff, the youngest is a "bull fighter" who distracts the bulls after the riders are thrown. Without divulging a spoiler, there is also a young woman, Missy, who lives on the ranch and is treated as part of the family; Missy is a former beauty queen who performs as an expert trick horse rider. There is a mysterious young woman, Valeria, who is also like part of the family; her relationship to them is not at first explained but becomes clear in subsequent episodes.. All of the other characters in the series are secondary; some protagonists and some "villains".
Although I hadn't planned on it, I ended up binge-watching all ten episodes in Season 1 of "Ride". I had originally given the series a low rating for much the same reason that many others here seemed to have, but with one important difference: I stuck with it through the complicated first couple of episodes which barrage the viewer with a whole lot of characters, situations and drama all at once (in fact, initially I was thinking that THIS is the show that should be called "Everything, Everywhere, All At Once). Yet by the time I had finished binging all the episodes I had changed my rating to a solid nine. When I initially watched the first episode, I kept checking to see if I had missed an episode because of the way the story jumped right into the middle of what seemed to be so many confusing storylines, characters and plot points. BUT... by the time I had finished watching the 10th episode I was completely hooked. It was well worth it to stick with it, because by the end of the first season all is explained and everything makes sense. As the story goes on, there is more and more action and the characters became more and more empathetic, and by the end all the loose storylines are neatly tied up and explained.
The storyline gets more dramatic and there is more conflict and more action as "villains" are introduced who are working against the protagonist core family.
I am an avid reader, and I could compare this first season of "Ride" to successful novels. As with all good stories, there is a beginning and a middle that builds to a climax and a denoument that wraps everything up.
On a final note, if anyone is looking for a shoot-em-up, action-packed Western, you will be sorely disappointed and will probably give "Ride" a low rating because it did not meet your expectations. After all, this is a Hallmark Channel original, and like all Hallmark productions it's all about the characters, the situations and the drama. For those whose expectations lie within the Hallmark genre, you will be very satisfied with "Ride".
I really hope that we see more of the. McMurrays in a. Season Two. But if not, the writers did a fantastic job of tying up all the loose ends in Season One so no one is left hanging.
Comme un frère (2005)
IT's hard to rate because it's very good. And it's very bad. And not much in between.
First of all, everything about the producer's promo material is like cinematic Clickbait:
- The promotional photo is very misleading. It's a photo of a main character with a minor character in a minor scene that has nothing to do with the title or premise of the film.
- The title of the film is misleading. I mean,no matter how much he had to drink, my brother never took my face in his hands and tenderly kissed me on the lips in a lingering romantic way as Bruno did with Sebastien at one point. Not at all "like a brother". Gay Bruno and straight Sebastien were weirdly all over each other throughout.
- The producer's brief storyline synopsis is misleading: "Sebastien is a small town boy who moves to Paris and begins to explore the gay night life there. When a friend from back home calls to announce he's coming to Paris, Sebastien confronts some unrequited feelings. (Actually Sebastien's friend came to Paris at the very end of the film,and that line makes it sound as if it's the whole basis of the movie. Not only that, his friend coming to Paris did not cause Sebastien to "confront unrequited feelings" -- unless that happened after the cameras stopped rolling at the end and it was left on the cutting room floor.
So having pointed out all that, I still rated the film a 7 out of 10. Because despite all the the "clickbait" promo most of it was pretty good. It seemed to be building up to a great satisfying, feel-good love story. I enjoyed it right up until the last 5 minutes or so. And then...BAM! Yet another film with gay protagonists leaves the viewers feeling let down and disappointed, if not downright bad.
I can't even say Like A Brother had a *bad* ending.. It had *NO* ending, as if the filmmakers ran out of money after they filmed a random scene and never went back to finish it. In fact, the very end of the film is what the Clickbait promo promised as.the whole premise of the movie: Friend of a small town boy comes to Paris and boy confronts unrequited feelings for friend, yada yada yada."
I was actually angry when the film ended because I felt cheated by a movie that finally got me hooked and interested after a steady buildup and then... just ended with no dénouement, no resolution, not even anything thought-provoking. The filmmaker should have made a sequel this movie to tie up so many loose ends, Similar to "Present Perfect", a great film that had a bad ending... but a sequel was made, "Present Still Perfect", that tied everything up with a satisfactory bow.
Young Royals (2021)
Young Royals Made My Blood Run Cold
I wasn't prepared for the impact that Young Royals would have on me.and the painful memories that it evoked.
YR begins as a beautiful story of forbidden love with incredible chemistry between the two protagonists Prince Wilhelm and Simon. The two teenage boys, one a member of the Swedish Royal family and the other a local commoner, meet at boarding school. Their friendship rapidly develops into physical attraction and then to love, and as we watch the touching relationship progress, the viewer is emotionally drawn in and roots for the two boys to overcome the obstacles thrown in their path.
The secret romance was already tricky enough, but when Wilhelm's older brother dies unexpectedly he becomes the Crown Prince, next in line to the Swedish throne. He is now under close scrutiny by the public and the press and is expected to maintain a decorum befitting future king.
But their romance is discovered when another boy at the school, a jealous distant cousin of Wilhelm, records them through a window making love and posts the video on the internet where it is picked up by the press. They are devastated.
This is a tale of classic moral conflict of two people torn between following their hearts and the pull of the reality of their circumstances.
The reason this series impacted me so deeply is that when I was an innocent young man, I went to work for a.nationally famous televangelist who regularly preached about the "evils of homosexuality." I met another young man at work with whom I had a mutual attraction and we fell deeply in love, sneaking covert moments of passion when we could. Very similar to what happened to Wilhelm and Simon, my lover and I were devastatingly "outed" at work by someone we had trusted with our secret. It was the most horrible moment of my life when I was called into a meeting with my boss and two ministers and blindsided with the accusations, and I was told exactly what to do and say to keep the story out of the press. It tore us apart. So when Wilhelm and Simon's relationship was coldly outed and they were devastated, my blood ran cold. It hit too close to home.
I hope that this is not the end of Wilhelm and Simon's story and that we will see another season.
Present Perfect (2017)
Have you ever watched a movie that has such an impact that it stays with you long after it's over?
Have you ever watched a movie that has such an impact that it stays with you long after it's over?
Yesterday I watched such a film, a 2017 movie, "Present Perfect" -- Thai with English subtitles -- that came up recommended on my Prime Video home screen. It started off slowly, but the writer/director built the story brick by brick until by the end I found myself emotionally drained and wanting more. It's a heart-wrenching love story, and as it develops you realize that at its core is the theme of a universal age-old struggle of one forced by conscience to choose between one's emotions and what one knows is right. With a contemporary twist.
The main characters, Toey and Oat, have wonderful chemistry and their portrayers are both good actors which helps make the story so real and believable. Toey in particular has such an air of naiveté and innocence, and at times the character projects such a doe-eyed vulnerability that it makes the viewer want to hold him, protect him, and fall in love with him. The same way that he affected Oat.
The direction of the film is both thoughtful and beautiful. There are times when Toey and Oat are talking and there is a long pause in the conversation. That is used so effectively, because those brief periods of silence between the characters itself speaks volumes and adds to the emotion and impact of the scenes. In fact, the way that the whole storyline is developed and woven into a beautiful tapestry slowly and inevitably draws us in and makes us care. The direction is really quite wonderful.
I love that the protagonists are gay (or maybe bisexual), but finally there is a film with gay characters where the focus is not on their homosexuality. Homophobia does not even enter the picture and their sexuality is not an issue. They are simply accepted for who they are by those around them; the fact that the people falling in love are two young men is almost incidental to the storyline. The challenges that they face in their relationship are the same that could challenge heterosexual lovers. in any movie about love and romance.
This film affected me. I felt the love, the joy and the pain. I think this is the first movie that I have ever watched three times in a row, and each time I understood more and more of each character's personality and motivations, and each time I was moved to tears by both the happiness and the sadness of the situations.
I was so happy when I found out that there was a 2020 sequel, "Present Still Perfect" which ties up many of the questions left by "Present Perfect", and which I also watched that three times. And taken as a whole, the two films are nothing short of stunning. Simply stunning
Just a note: Another reviewer said that there is hard-to-understand "unnecessary English spoken between Thai characters". I believe that reviewer misunderstood. In the movie, Toey is Thai and his friend Yuri is Japanese. English was the language that they had in common, ergo the necessity for their heavily accented English whenever they spoke to each other.
Hunter (2013)
Well, that was 90 minutes of my life I'll never get back.
If you like movies with pointless plots and undeveloped characters, this movie is for you. Otherwise don't waste your time; you'll be sorry you did just like I am.
Mario (2018)
It would have been 10 stars except...
It would have been 10 stars, except the ending was maddening. It turned what could have been an absolutely wonderful love story between two men into yet another clichéd movie about a likeable gay couple separated by homophobia and the resultant emotional tragedy.
The ending truly ruined the entire movie. I was angry at the filmmakers when I finished watching it. Would it kill these studios to give us a satisfying happy ending to a gay love story once in a while instead of building up the viewers only to crush us with negative societal stereotypes? I loved the first 90 minutes and was expecting the same type of happy ending that every heterosexual romantic film gives its protagonists. It left me with a bitter taste in my mouth and a little bit more cynical... not about society, but about filmmaking that seems to be stuck with the social mores of the 20th century.
Steam Room Stories: The Movie! (2019)
Dumb but fun
Chock full of dumb jocks tropes. The movie is so stupid that it's actually funny! Lots of great one-liners (e.g. "They're so dumb that if they were stuck overnight in a mattress factory they'd sleep on the floor".
The unabashed in-your-face humor along with plenty of beefy half-naked guys makes up for the ridiculous plot and lack of acting skills. Plenty of beefcake to keep my pause and slo-mo remote control functions busy.
Love Island USA (2019)
The Most Inane Show Ever Produced On Network Television
I can't even think of enough pejorative adjectives to describe this awful show:
Vapid.
Stupid.
Insulting.
Boring.
Pointless.
Stereotyping.
Mindless.
... are just a few.
I watched a few minutes of one episode,and I can't believe that CBS wastes money continuing to hype this dumbass show. When I go to my CBS All Access app, I'm greeted with a nauseating huge ad trying to push me to stream the episodes of this horrid production. I would rather swallow glass and gouge my eyes out.