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rabbitunleashed
Reviews
True History of the Kelly Gang (2019)
Surprisingly Amateurish
I saw the ads on Stan for a long time, and had looked forward to watching it. As it included Russel Crowe I had expected it would have been a reasonably professional movie. Unfortunately I didn't even finish watching it.
The first problem movie is at the very beginning where it says something to the effect that nothing in the movie is true, then it muddies the waters by saying something to the effect this is the true history of the Kellie gang. Obviously some if it relates to truth, but with major creative distortions e.g Neds father being a cross dresser, or Ned Kelly being sold to a bush ranger for 15 pounds. These are creative distortions that are a bit offensive to the reputation of long dead historical people.
The story itself was a little boring and unrealistic.
Acting was mixed (Crowe was good) but often poor, a number of times a scene cut from one to the next and I was left thinking "how did we get here" there had been story progression with little explanation. Often that happens naturally and smoothly in films, however in this one it did not feel that way.
The challenge remains open to the film industry to make a good Ned Kelly, and I hope I see one in my lifetime.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Entertaining and well made but not very original
Reminded me a lot of return of the Jedi. Having read negative reviews I can see it both ways, on the one hand the movie is problematic in that it borrows and resurrects too much from the past. It feels frankly ridiculous to still be watching the same old rebels vs empire in the same ways as before.
Of course the empire and the emperor were destroyed again, but they were utterly destroyed in Return of the Jedi too so who could say if anything in that movie will stand. Or will the writers just find it to convenient to resurrect/recycle again?
It gets an 8 because it was actually very entertaining. And I enjoyed it a lot when I started to just think of it as a standalone film inspired by Star Wars (of the 70s/80s) but not part of the original series. If you go in with this mindset I think you'll find it interesting.
Pink Flamingos (1972)
Boring, disgusting
A friend showed me this movie yesterday and I viewed it with no expectations or knowledge of what it was. It reminded me of a movie that middle year high school kids would make, there are no funny jokes, the plot line is lame, the acting is unashamedly bad - for very large stretches it is boring, but that boredom is interspersed revolting elements - like a guy showing his naked rear end on screen for a long period, someone torturing a chicken to death during a sex scene, divine eating a piece of fresh dog feces. I don't understand what anyone could get out of it, and I don't like seeing animal cruelty. What offended me was not that the chicken was killed, but that it was tortured.
The Cove (2009)
Mixed thoughts about this
This wasn't overly entertaining although I think it is good that it was made, because it exposes the killing of dolphins in a cruel way. The cruel way that the dolphins are killed is to me more concerning than the fact that they are actually killed. That said, as the documentary correctly shows, dolphins are very intelligent which in my view makes it morally problematic to eat them at all. The fact that they are cute is morally irrelevant.
Other than not being overly entertaining, the problem I have with this movie is that I think they were spinning a fair bit of bull****, like when that guy said that dolphins are voluntary breathers and can choose to commit suicide via choosing not to breathe. I looked this up on the net and there are researchers saying this is proved to be factually incorrect. Knowing that the film makers were prepared to portray bull**** like this which runs against science, you wonder how objective the whole thing is in some aspects, such as how the movie portrayed the Japanese people.
Trust (2010)
A well made film that is not enjoyable to watch
This film was utterly devoid of entertainment value. It was hard to watch, anti- enjoyable even. Its a black, depressing, bleak, grim film. It's like a roller coaster with only low points.
Why I rate this film a 7 is through its production quality, good acting and notably, its ability to powerfully convey it's messages. It shows a plausible story of a naive girl, meeting someone (a peodophile) online, which then leads to a chain reaction utterly destroying her and her family.
It would probably scare the hell out of any teenage girl and increase her weariness of stranger danger.