prhilmes-1 Reviews

Anyone But You (2023)

Didn't quite pull it off

[5/10 · 28 April 2024]

Anyone But You is based on a timeless classic love story - Much Ado About Nothing. It brings some fun modern elements to the story but in the end doesn't quite pull it off that well. Glen Powell does a decent job as a lead and is generally inoffensive and good eye candy. Sydney Sweeney's "plump chest" is on full display but so are her "sad eyes" and sad-influencer-sounding voice, which I feel make her not very good for a comedic role, though she does what she can with them (quotes courtesy of Bryan Brown's Roger character in the move). The other supporting characters do a decent job, but there aren't any stand-outs, which again is critical for a movie like this. There are some funny moments throughout, but a lot of other trying-to-be-funny moments are too forced as are some key plot points. I had to force myself to keep watching through these. In the end, it wasn't so bad, but it wasn't good enough either to be a successful movie.

Civil War (2024)

An unexpected take on

[7/10 · 12 April 2024]

Civil War is not an action movie but there is a lot of action in it. And it is always tense despite its many quieter moments. The movie offers up a group of photo + journalists' journey/road trip to the capitol when civil war has ravaged most of the US. The movie does well not to take any sides in today's deeply divided politics, and as such comes across as a good thought provoking piece of work for all political viewpoints. It doesn't even really take much of a side within the movie itself, except maybe a little towards the end. There's also no side for the journalists, but an extreme (probably unbelievable) focus on capturing the moment and sharing what is happening, which works well to tell the story. I didn't like how the movie handled the demise of certain characters, but overall, it didn't take away from the overall story and thought provoking points. It's anything but an uplifting story, but it's worth watching and thinking about if not discussing. Well done to Alex Garland and the cast and crew for making this.

Road House (2024)

Started off great, but didn't keep it together

[5/10 · 25 March 2024]

It's been so long since I saw the original Road House, that I didn't really remember much to make a comparison to this one. So, I went in with little in terms of expectations except that Jake Gyllenhaal usually delivers a good performance. In the end, that's all I got that was good.

The movie starts off pretty good introducing Mr. Gyllenhaal's Dalton character as someone who is struggling to deal with something in his past. But he pulls himself up enough to do this job at the Road House of dealing with their troublemakers. We find out he is a UFC fighter with a reputation. The owner, Frankie, is slightly mysterious as to why she is having trouble. Dalton gets to town and quickly discovers there is trouble in multiple areas. All this sets up for a good story, but then we get thrown overboard to the man-eating croc for the rest of the movie. The worst is Conor McGregor's Knox character who is more of a comic book villain at best and completely throws off the entire movie. I'm glad they tried to bring a real UFC fighter into the movie (and there is a lot of fighting in the movie - not all realistic though), but his character (and acting) were just all wrong. But it's not just him, I found myself not caring about what happened to Frankie's Road House either because she wasn't really seen fighting for it much or making a case for the audience to care about her - she just inherited it from her uncle and her character seems like more of an afterthought. Dalton's love interest was at most a distraction and at worst a forced plot device. The most sympathetic characters were the father and daughter of the book store, but they were more of a side story bit - maybe their story could have been combined with Frankie's or something. And Dalton himself doesn't really go through much of any character arc. He comes off as a Jack Reacher type, but maybe that's okay. Mr. Gyllenhaal's performance was good otherwise.

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Indy 5 is a fun ride and Harrison Ford is Great!

[8/10 · 5 July 2023]

Indy 5 is not the best Indy movie, but it is a lot of fun and I would argue Harrison Ford performs as well as the Indy character as other Indy movies, accounting for his age. So, if you like the other Indy movies, there is a lot to like in this one. The story is solid, the action is amped up a lot for modern times, the fun-loving and adventurous spirit is there as in other Indy movies, and best of all Harrison Ford is there doing his Indy thing - running, punching, and whipping his way through bad guys to get those precious artifacts to a museum. What's not so great, unfortunately, is some of the other main actors' performances. Phoebe Waller-Bridge unsuccessfully plays someone who is supposed to be both a scoundrel and a good person who cares. But instead of combining those two elements together in the right way into a single character, she ends up being one-dimensional where she is a scoundrel and then inexplicably becomes a good person who cares but is never both at once. A better actress would be able to have the character be both things. Mads Mikkelsen, seemingly a more capable actor, falls a little short of embodying a bad guy and instead at times just comes off as a bland guy. And I'm probably comparing Ethann Isidore's Teddy character too much to Short Round, but I thought he lacked charisma that could have made his character a lot more engaging. So, these performance flaws and poor editing that had things like car chases go on for too long kept Indy from being the best Indy movie, but overall, I still enjoyed it.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)

Lots of fun and a solid story

[9/10 · 2 April 2023]

I've never played the D&D game, but I don't think you need to even be familiar with it to enjoy this movie, which has a solid adventure story line, great characters, and lots of humor and action. It's the perfect movie to see in the theater too with sweeping views of beautiful landscapes and crafted scenes. The bad guys are original. The main cast is well differentiated and unique in their personalities. None are too annoying. Maybe it could have used more dragons and dungeons but those that it did include were very entertaining. It had some great side quests to go along with the main quest. And the writers did lots of smart things in the story. I highly recommend it.

Disenchanted (2022)

Great family movie, but they should have elevated it to a theatrical release

[7/10 · 26 November 2022]

The original Enchanted movie was excellent. This is a very good follow-up. It captures the same spirit of the original embracing an amalgamation of fairy tales while poking fun at them. The base of the story is very good and serves as a good sequel. But the movie does fall short in the overall quality of the original. It was clear this was made as more of a direct to video/streaming movie rather than a movie for the theaters, though I feel it could have easily been bumped up in quality with a little deeper story elements in the writing, a little better directing, better cinematography, etc. I'm not sure why after the huge success of the first one and such a long time between, Disney decided not to put more into this. They could have made it as big of a hit as the original. The world needs more good family movies like this. In any case, it's still a very enjoyable time.

The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022– )

Captures Tolien's writing well with a good story, but characters are a bit boring

[8/10 · 5 September 2022]

The first two episodes were very good. Don't expect a big action-packed adventure just yet like the movies. Expect something closer to the first few chapters of one of Tolkien's books. Lots of characters and story lines are introduced. And enough story has been told that I am very interested to see what happens next.

Overall, I think the show does an excellent job of capturing the essence of Tolkien's writings and so far it seems to have a really good story to tell. The characters (writing and acting) are probably the weakest part of the show. They all just seem too boring. I hope they develop better over the coming episodes becoming more interesting, engaging, and exciting. They aren't bad - they just aren't great. The best part of the show is probably how well it looks from the tiny details in the costumes to the elaborate sets and top quality CGI. It's even better than the movies. Thankfully, it is not just resting on its looks as I do find the stories being told to be compelling so far. We will see where it goes, but I definitely recommend it.

Also, I like that it is appropriate for most of the family (middle school and up). Too many shows these days are chalk full of profanity, sex, violence, drugs, etc. In this sense, it's very refreshing.

In the Heights (2021)

Great movie/musical with some minor shortcomings

[8/10 · 16 June 2021]

I really enjoyed "In the Heights" overall as a movie and musical. The best aspects were the overall story it told and some of musical dance numbers, e.g. The pool scene. The music itself was not at the same level as Hamilton, but it was still good. The characters were mostly very good with the best performed by Melissa Barrera and Olga Merediz. Anthony Ramos also does a very good job, but some aspects of the writing for his character were off. Also, some aspects of the side stories were too contrived and didn't add anything to the overall movie. But in the end these things mattered less and the movie pulls all of the important pieces together to still tell a great story. Congrats to all those who made this great film!

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

The "Terminator" Awakens

[7/10 · 9 February 2021]

This movie is to T1/T2 what The Force Awakens is to Star Wars - mostly the same story but with a mix of new characters and some old. I enjoyed it and thought some were good like Ms. Davis. Others not so much like Mr. Luna who was both forgettable and laughable for talking so much. Some of the action sequences were fantastic, but that does not make a great movie. Mostly though, it could have been great with a better story.

Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

Poor writing ruined this movie

[4/10 · 4 January 2021]

I really enjoyed the first Wonder Woman movie with Gal Gadot. It wasn't amazing, but it was very solid with a decent story, characters, etc. In this one, either the writers were not very smart and/or they assumed the audience was not very smart and made everything about the story predictable and obvious. There was no mystery or intrigue. Gal Gadot's performance didn't seem nearly as good as in the first one, but I think she was probably just bored and disappointed with the story like I was. Why is a strong woman like her pining away for ages for Chris Pine? Get over him. Even Chris Pine's character in the movie wonders why he got brought back - that's exactly what the audience was thinking. There were other issues with the movie too, but the core of it comes down to poor writing. Next time hire better writers and make sure they do a quality job.

Lost in Space (2018–2021)

Too many contrived plot devices in an otherwise great show

[7/10 · 2 February 2020]

Lost in Space is well produced and decently well acted. Dr. Smith is a fantastic character and really well done by Parker Posey in this series. Unfortunately, the writers while providing lots of good fast paced action and an exciting space adventure don't seem to be smart enough to figure out how to move the plot along without being horribly contrived a good part of the time. They take good characters and have them do stupid things that make no sense just to get to the next part of the story. I enjoy it but find myself regularly irritated too.

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

As good as the original trilogy!

[9/10 · 26 December 2016]

Like many others, I had lower expectations going into this given J.J. Abrams' Ep. VII and Gareth Edwards resume. But I too was pleasantly surprised. I had read Catalyst: A Rogue One story before seeing this movie, which I believe definitely enhanced my enjoyment of the movie. The book gave a lot of great background on the characters, especially Krennic. Krennic was a much better developed character in the book - very ambitious, clever, and having no morals or values. His character falls a little flat in the movie or rather just goes along with the story - this, however, is my only real criticism of the movie. The other characters, the art direction (I loved the 70's/80's retro look to a lot of it), the story, action, etc. are all very well done. I had a few other minor criticisms as well - I didn't like the computer generated faces for Tarkin and Leia, the movie jumped around a bunch of worlds initially, which was confusing, and it was too big of a coincidence that the Empire chose the same planet than Jyn was on to go after. But those are minor complaints of an otherwise amazing movie. The movie not only ties in well to the other Star Wars movies, it actually helps make them even better than they were originally (e.g. explaining why the Death Star was built with a flaw that allowed it to be destroyed so easily). Darth Vader and Governor Tarkin were really well done (despite Tarkin's face). Vader has a small part but nearly steals the movie - definitely left me wanting more, but Gareth gave him the right amount of time. And Felicity Jones does a tremendous job as the lead (and thank you Gareth for including more females in this movie not only with Jyn but the X-wing pilots and other roles too). My favorite characters other than Jyn and Vader were definitely the droid K-2SO played by Alan Tudyk and Chirrut played by Donnie Yen. They both in their own separate ways helped balance out the dark side of this movie making it a perfect balance and near perfect movie. I can only hope subsequent Star Wars movies are this good. But for now, thank you Gareth and team for delivering a most amazing movie and experience. It was awesome!

Jurassic World (2015)

From the writers of Sharknado comes Jurassc World!

[5/10 · 25 October 2015]

I had to check the writers' former credits just to make sure that this wasn't true because there were many parts in this movie that were definitely Sharknado quality, particularly in terms of some of unrealistically dumb or downright illogical decisions and actions some of the characters make. I just had to laugh at the stupidity of it all. Other parts are certainly a good mix of scariness and campiness, but otherwise it is just unforgivable because, unlike Sharknado, the movie wasn't in on the joke of how dumb it was being.

Chris Pratt does a great job with his character - very likable and probably the least dumb one. Everyone else is okay but suffers more from the bad writing.

Overall, it's a fun movie. The plot is predictable of course, but it's still a fun ride if you can laugh yourself through the absurdness throughout much of it.