torbern

torbern
Film Freak - 651 Film Ratings
Member Since: 15 Apr 2013
Location: USA

more Recent Ratings

70 36% Predator (1987) - Rated 17 Sep 2020
"Not one of my favorite Arnold movies overall, but it's got a lot of great individual scenes and moments. The ending showdown in particular has a kind of surreal zaniness to it that's hard not to love... and, the muscles. My god, the muscles."
90 87% A Fistful of Dollars (1964) - Rated 17 Sep 2020
"Stylistically magnificent. Leone loves taciturn faces—so much of the tension in this film is built with glances from one wild-eyed, grizzled visage to the next—and almost no one has a better face than Clint Eastwood. The performance he gives here is brilliant, oozing sardonic charm and determination with nothing but stares, and poncho flips, and cigar adjustments. The cinematography, the music, the setting... all unimpeachable. With some slightly-tighter editing, this would be a perfect movi"
35 3% Alita: Battle Angel (2019) - Rated 17 Sep 2020
"What a drag! I'm a huge fan of Rodriguez's early stuff, but it seems like he's gone full George Lucas here: comfortable in the sterile confines of a green-screen studio, and with flat, superficial performances from otherwise-talented actors. The source material doesn't seem all that great to begin with, but still..."
95 96% Encounters at the End of the World (2008) - Rated 17 Sep 2020
"Through Herzog's lens, the arctic appears foreboding, bleak, and unknowably vast (there's an underwater shot that I swear looks like the eye of Cthulhu); and so whenever he interviews a scientist talking about studying some single-cell organism, or geological specimen, or the milk of certain seal species, they seem absurd, almost petty. He's far more interested in the personal stories and idiosyncrasies hidden within Antarctica than in the scientific potential (which makes for a far better f"
55 16% American Ultra (2015) - Rated 17 Sep 2020
"Wouldn't be a bad little flick, excepting the TERRIBLE ending where the two heroes literally join the evil agency that hunted them like dogs the entire film. Is there some sort of political commentary there I'm not getting? Preceding that, Eisenberg and Stuart are pretty great together in their roles; wish there was more of them, and less dumb CIA in-fighting shit that I didn't care about. Also, how're you gonna have real squibs and then do CGI weed smoke???"
95 96% A Serious Man (2009) - Rated 17 Sep 2020
50 12% The Jerk (1979) - Rated 17 Sep 2020
"One of the better entries in the Uncle Comedy canon."
70 36% The Platform (2019) - Rated 17 Sep 2020
"An adept, philosophically dense debut from Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia. The plot can feel contrived, but Iván Massagué‘s performance lightens and humanizes it beautifully. I wasn't 100% sold by the ending..."
30 1% The Invention of Lying (2009) - Rated 17 Sep 2020
"It's too caught up in pathos to have any real fun with its premise—but even more shameful is the sheer amount of talent it wastes. Gervais is cast as an unfunny, simpering sad sack. Phillip Seymour Hoffman floats by in an unremarkable bartender role; Jason Bateman plays a straight doctor for some reason; Tina Fey is relegated to using the ‘F' word (not that one, the other one) repeatedly, in an utterly painful display. The list goes on. Just a weird total-misfire of a movie."
45 9% Black Is King (2020) - Rated 17 Sep 2020
"The songs are, of course, good—Beyoncé pays impassioned tribute to African music, blending it seamlessly with her brand of empowered pop to create an album that, while not as deeply personal as Lemonade, or as anthemic as her S/T, is certainly enjoyable. As a film, however, it feels wayyy too Disneyfied. Dialogue from the Lion King randomly pollutes the spaces between songs; and there's just not any real bite to any of the imagery or message,"