amazedemon
Bio: "It's not what a movie is about, it's how it is about it." - Roger Ebert
Feel free to message me if you want to start a discussion.
I'm also posting my mini-reviews on letterboxd now: https://letterboxd.com/amazedemon/
Recent Ratings
Check out amazedemon's...
| 62 31% | Red One (2024) - Rated 21 Dec 2024
"Red One isn't a good film by any measure. Johnson has traded Hart for Evans but this makes very little difference to his performance. Shipka is underwhelming as the villain, and seemed to only be cast as the witch as she'd played one before. The 1st act feels like a bad film from the early 00's; very glitzy and kid-friendly with rubbery CGI action. It's cheesy and predictable, but I didn't hate it. There's some decent gadgetry. The exploration of other Xmas folklore is fun at times. A dumb film!"
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| 61 25% | The Trouble With Jessica (2023) - Rated 20 Dec 2024
"The trouble with The Trouble With Jessica is that film lacks the pithiness or definitive point of view to make the film worthwhile. Despite the combined talents of Tudyk, Henderson, Sewell, Williams and Varma; Winn's direction is middling and his plotting flimsy. The characters are vacuous and unlikable, save for the familiarity of the actors portraying them. The emotionally escalating drama gets banal before the end. Also let the bumbling PC finish his damn slice of clafoutis."
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| 65 62% | Conclave (2024) - Rated 14 Dec 2024
"Fiennes & Tucci deliver expectedly strong performances, but Conclave remains a mixed bag of purposefully slow suspense-building & unnecessarily lingering shots that are in desperate need of an editor for the film's 2h runtime. I enjoyed the set-up for the most part, though setting a jaded left wing against a prejudiced right wing, while topical, felt like it lacked nuance. The ending is where the film falters as I let out an audible laugh that I'm confident wasn't intended as a punchline."
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| 54 8% | Rumours (2024) - Rated 07 Dec 2024
"Given the cast I was expecting more from Rumours. While it's not the actors' faults (in this instance), the Johnson's & Maddin have made a political satire that leans too heavily into the absurd that the film loses any poignancy that it may have started with. If horned-up G7 leaders displaying comical ineptitude wasn't enough; bog-men, rituals & a giant brain don't add anything worthwhile to this despair spiral. The world burns & stupidity persists is all this Canadian satire amounts to. Bleh!"
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| 63 39% | Speak No Evil (2024) - Rated 07 Dec 2024
"Speak No Evil is carried by McAvoy's performance which skirts between captivating, endearing & creepy. While the reveal can be seen a mile away, the sense of foreboding that builds through the first 2 acts is pretty decent. Unfortunately the 3rd act fumbles the climax & resolution, slipping into generic territory with contrived actions & dumb decisions. The film plays with a theme of entitlement, but not very well. Franciosi is good. McNairy is okay. Davis is grating to the film's detriment."
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| 70 83% | A Man on the Inside (2024) - Rated 02 Dec 2024
"Michael Schur seems to be a reliable choice when it comes to picking comedies. A Man on the Inside definitely leans into the sappy drama aspect of elder care, but does so with enough humour to keep it watchable. Danson & Beatriz are solid leads, though at times their respective characters from The Good Place and Brooklyn Nine-Nine peak through."
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| 64 51% | Alien: Romulus (2024) - Rated 01 Dec 2024
"I'm torn between what I liked about Alien: Romulus and what frankly annoyed me. The cinematography is great; from the stark backdrops of the space exteriors to the close-quartered spaceship interiors. There's an industrial-futuristic aesthetic that gives nods to Scott's original Alien alongside the modern sensibilities that evoke Villeneuve. Unfortunately the characters and their drama are frustratingly clichéd. Jonsson was good, but a few creepy moments can't help the staleness of a mid-quel."
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| 62 31% | Douglas Is Cancelled (2024) - Rated 15 Nov 2024
"Douglas Is Cancelled is well-cast and acted but as the mystery surrounding Moffat's story unravels, so do the characters' motivations. The climatic speech is sanctimonious. In the end, greed, manipulation and fickleness seem to come out on top but presented in way that almost feels righteous. That said, the mini-series is reasonably well-paced and often witty, so despite the direction it takes still worth a watch."
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| 63 39% | X-Men: Evolution (2000) - Rated 11 Nov 2024
"I liked the animation, voice-acting and some of the story-lines, but X-Men: Evolution never makes a big enough impact to leave a mark. The characters are re-imagined as highschoolers tiptoeing back-and-forth being X-Men, and it all feels a little contrived. Despite reframing plenty of classic X-Men stories, this series isn't great at gradual character development which lets it down a bit. Watchable, enjoyable even, but missing the "wow" factor."
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| 55 10% | Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) - Rated 02 Nov 2024
"Folie à Deux is a meandering mess that highlights writer-director Phillips' pretentiousness and incompetence as he delivers a meta-narrative that tears down the character he built-up in his previous film. That alone would have been fine, but on face value this film is a tedious slog with a farcical trial, so many tepid musical numbers, and the lingering sense of a unreliable narrator that undermines any investment in the periphery plot and characters. A waste of Keener and Coogan...and 138 mins."
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