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benbriere
Reviews
Leave the World Behind (2023)
Watch it for what it is... don't expect Marvel 24th release....
This is a different movie and that in itself is sooo worth watching in a market full of remakes of remakes, prequels and sequels
It does not stick with any specific genre playbook so you're always wandering what type of movie you're watching and for those who like this, it's a fun ride.
The acting is a bit off at the beginning and strangely gets better toward the ends. Same for the caracters decision making.
All in all, it is a slow fun ride.
But again, this is not the next capitain america or final destination 12. It is a DIFFERENT film, for film viewer who like to be presented with a flavor they are not accustomed to.
I wanted to compare it to another movie but it would be misleading. It is NOT a supernatural movie, a science fiction movie, an adventure movie, a thriller, an horror movie, an end of the world movie ... yet it borrows from all these genre...
And it is relatively slow burning but in a good way.
There... watch for yourself ! Lolll.
White House Down (2013)
Bad writing, bad story, bad directing bad CGI... poor actors
I do not often write reviews but I think it is a public service to warn people about wasting 2 hours of their lives watching this.
You might be lured into watching this film by its very stong cast.
DON'T !
The plot uses all the clichés in the book.
The one line zingners are neither funny or clever...
The rest of the writing is as mediocre.
Every choices made by the caracters are stupid stupid stupid, especialy the bad guys, making the whole thing not credible.
The complete lack of basic security in the white house is completely unbelievable.
The motivations of all caracters are either stupid or weak.
The CGI used in the action scene are intrusive
This movie shows you can lure a very very good cast of actors into a very very bad movie. I am sure all of them dearly regret appearing in this "gem". They must have been glad to collect their pay check and move on to the next project to put this behind them as soon as possible.
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
I feel for the pregnant women....
Great story, great acting. Plus every thing about the movie feels very real and you can imagine the far west being what is depicted in the movie, including medical treatments, cities and building, etc. The main caracter starts the movie with a painfull broken leg and that pain is "contagious".
Like the petty stuff that seems very true to life, so is the gruesome stuff. So like a lot of people say, "not for the faint of heart" since the violence is very real and "mater of fact", like it must have been in the "old days".
So movies show a lot worse but in this one, it's the way it does it that makes it hard to watch sometimes.
And for those of you who saw the movie, I feel for the pregnant women left alone....
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Maybe if you have not seen the 1st one...
If you have not seen the 1st TopGun, you might like this. My problem is I did see the 1st one.
1) The awe of seing jet fighters filmed like that for the 1st time is obviously not there.
2) This version is almost a scene by scene copy of the first one, and every duplicate scene did not give me nostalgia, it annoyed me. Leaving me saying to myself "this is a copy of this and that scene" time and time again. It's just waaay to obvious, lile following a recipe.
3) The whole mission felt purposely designed to make and release a videogame, and felt very unrealistic.
4) The "beige" caracters never really take shape like the original and you don't really care about them.
5) The writing is very basic, even for such a movie.
If I compare this to Star Wars, none of the subsequent movies could reproduce the wonder inspired by the 1st one, but at least, they had different plot that took you somwhere else, and the brought interesting new caracters. TopGun Maverick does not do that, unfortunately.
Centauro (2022)
Stupid basis for the plot... but bike scenes are good, thus 2 stars instead of 1
Stupid plot.
If you are carrying drugs across the border, you don't want to attract every cops attention by speeding when there is no time real time constaint for the drug dealers. Stupid.
Rule #1, obey the law !!! No speeding, no running stop/red light, no flashy car and have it in perfect running condition ...
The people who wrote this script should have watched Clint Eastwood "The mule (2018)".
They lost me there at speeding while delivering the drugs, which is the basic premise of this movie. I stopped watching. Too stupid.
Line of Duty (2019)
Might have been good... but terrible
The script is terrible so the actors had nothing to work with.
It seems to have been writen by kid who was thinking "it would be super cool if ..." then wrote a useless improbable scene.
The things that hurt this "film" the most are:
1. Situations that are just too far fetch from what is expected/normal, even for an action flick. Cops standing completely out of cover to fire their gun and getting hit, the "bad guy" never getting hit despite WALKING in the open, the bad shooting is just ridiculous in this movie... And the main caracter running around the mayhem with the young reporter is just to hard to swallow.... and the list goes on and on.
2. The plot is just too out there to be believable (no spoiler here but believe me ... it's stupid).
3. The two main caracters dialogs are completely out of touch with the "tone" of the movie, which wants to be very intense with two "regular" people, yet they constantly make snarly remarks to each other (Iron Man Tony Stark style), which fall flat while being out of place/tone in this movie.
This movie was too unpleasant so I just stop halfway and zip to the end to watch the ending... which is both predictable and badly done...
The actors are not to blame here... just the writers and the directors.
There are sooo many movies out there... Do yourself a favor and don't let this one take the place of another movie in you "watching time".
Doomsday (2008)
Bad foundations...
This movie is well shot and money was definitely spent on it. It does not look or feel like a "B" movie.
However, the foundations for the whole story are soooo unbelievable that it ruins it. Too many things to "swallow" blindly that do not make sense and shock the viewer. Multiple moments where you go: "that can't be right", or "this is stupid", or "why didn't they do this ?"
At one point, you stop caring.
It's takes place on "earth", not in space or on a foreign planet... and the protagonists are people, not aliens, animals or robots. That imposes limits to the director. Characters' decisions have to make sense. I "go along" very willingly with all the far out premises required by sci-fi movies... But there are just too many in this one that just obliterate common sense.
Such as: (without giving the plot away for people who did not watch it... ):
- How come England knows so little about the "quarantined zone" with satellite technology that can provide so many images. Maybe send 200/$ drones to explore ?
- No food but cattle of cows ?
- and so on...
This is a poor reminder of all Mad Max flicks or Escape from New-York/LA. But the plots of these other movies are such that idiosyncrasies are expected, even built into the story. Not the case in this one. The multitude of them just kills the experience.
Not worth watching.
If you still do, I bet you'll "speed watch it" pressing +10sec and sliding that scroll bar to the right...
Don't Look Up (2021)
Mark Rylance composite ... priceless
Mark Rylance performance alone is worth the watch, with his character (a composite of Jobs, Musk, Bozzos, Gates, Zuckerberg, etc). Priceless... loll.
All the other stars also deliver great performances. GREAT cast.
One of the best satyre I've seen in a long while. It's "in your face" and you don't need to dig deep to get it. The metaphores and references to current events are super obvious by design and not because McKay thinks we're stupid.
It successfully gives you a deep urge to slap characters (back ?) to reallity.
The editing could have been thighter for my taste but it's nipicking.
6 Underground (2019)
two stars because if special effects
Too much of nothing...
The #1 rule about a good movie is a good story.... and there is nothing original here, as expected.
Ok... If you don't have #1, try to have characters viewers will sympathize with.... Strike two here. You don't care about any of these guys...and that is usually Ryan Renolds strength to make you like his character. But not here...
So yes... I hit the fast forward a lot during this and ended up regretting watching it at all. And I am an easy audience for action movies.
The FILMING of the action sequences was great... I mean the technical aspects of it and the special effects... but when you don't care about the outcome...
So if you are debating between watching this vs another movie, pick the later. Chances are you'll be right.
Final Girl (2015)
Realy really Baaaaad NIkita ripoff...
The inspiration from the characters in "NIKITA" (French movie by Luc Besson) is so obvious it is plagiarism.
However, DON'T expect anything from the original... The writing is terrible, the acting is atrocious, the dialogs stupid, ... well ... don't bother watching this, even if you like the genre. Life is too short. And I've already spent too much time writing this review. I just hope it will save some people from watching this.
Escape Room (2017)
Very bad... especially the acting
The plot is subpar.
You don't bound with the characters
Major "Over acting". Terrible terrible actors and dialog.
Simplistic and disappointing ending
The only thing that is HALF decent is the setting. Even the puzzles are unsatisfying.
Do not waste your time watching this. There are better half good movies to watch if you have time to loose.
The Meg (2018)
Not credible....
Most sci-fi / horor / adventure movies require a certain amount of "playing along" from the audience, who is more than willing to do. Still, that does not allow characters behave way more stupidly and/or differently than an average person would. Also, we see a lot of shark shows nowadays. Everybody is pretty knowledgeable about these creatures. So just make the shark (and all other animals) behave A BIT like normal creatures would.
In a nutshell, because the above rules were broken again and again, the movie is not believable and you end up not caring for the characters.
Jaws and the reef were 10 times scarier and better.
Insidious (2010)
Nothing new
Very few new ideas in this movie, if any. And the "steals" from other films are very obvious to the point of being distracting, since you start to mentally compare scenes between movies WHILE watching. The means (read budget) were there so it looks professional but take out the money and this could be the school project of a not very inspired art student. A bit sad.
Alien: Covenant (2017)
It's usual to "play along"... but to what extent ?
Most of the time, watching a movie involves a certain level of "playing along" since most of what we watch (scifi of not) is "inflated" versus "normal" life. Car stunts, fights, emotions, beauty, ugliness, etc. And in general, viewers gladly lower their skepticism level to "get into a movie"... But this only goes so far.
When the actions and decisions of "normal" characters are so remote from what the viewer would do or decide, that's when he stops caring for characters, the plot and its outcome. Unfortunately, that's what happens in this movie. Like several others wrote, there are SO many instances in Alien:covenant where the protagonists make incredibly bad decisions that NOBODY would, let alone elite/professional/trained/ crew members. Ya know..."It's dangerous... let's split the group to investigate" kinda decisions you see in Friday the 13.
I give this movie a 4 because of its Xeffects and its look (big budget).
Under the Skin (2013)
I guess you need to read the book first...
If you haven't read the book first, this movie does not make much sense and you don't develop any feelings (good or bad) for ANY characters... And the story is just too thin... A good movie has characters you care about or a good story. A great movie has both. Unfortunately, this one has neither if you haven't read the book first. The acting is good and so are the photo/look but it is not enough to make you care. And the (very) long still sequences do not add drama, anguish, curiosity...just boredom. And please, do not mention Kubrick in your reviews of this film. It is not on the same level as his work... at all. Although it feels like it tries to emulate it without success (contemporary music, strange camera play, sills).
The Happening (2008)
You have to buy into the movie
Good story, good actors, good ideas, bad dialogues.
Movies are "make believe" as kids say. So in my opinion, the cardinal sin of a movie is when characters do not act or say stuff "normal people" would in the point of view of the viewer, even under extraordinary circumstances.
In this movie, I felt the acting was slightly "off key" in that regard. I think the problem is the "fine writing" of each scene. The general story line is good but you feel the acting is bad because actors are saying stuff that does not fit the particular situations. They were scared, emotional, joking, angry, worried, calm, etc at the wrong times. So no matter how good or bad the acting is... it's an uphill battle... and the viewer has to force himself to "play along"... but it is annoying and gets in the way of a basically good story and creates a distance between viewers characters. As a matter of fact, I think the actors themselves were struggling with delivering lines that did not feel right for each scene/situation.