chris-musico Reviews

Informer 3838 (2020)

Not bad

[7/10 · 2 February 2021]

I think this mini-series makes more sense to Victorian or even Australian residents. It is the latest of the Underbelly cash cow spins offs and although not as good as Underbelly it still managed to keep me interested and engaged enough. Partially because I complemented it with ABC's podcast Trace - the Informer.

Let's face it, Carl Williams (Gyton Grantley) and Tony Mokbel (Robert Mammone) are amongst some of the best locally grown actors but in this mini-series they did look tired, worn out and not as engaged as in the previous series.

Nevertheless, I still found myself enjoying the series all the way to the end mostly because in the end of the day it's true crime and as such, I found it still hard to understand how our modern justice system allowed this level of corruption to go on for such a long time.

Anyways, I do recommend this to any fan of true crime but you'll need to do your own research to better understand the story behind it as the main Underbelly series, due to at time's ongoing court proceedings, did not cover Nicola Gobbo's story.

The Beach Bum (2019)

Good casting....

[1/10 · 12 June 2019]

20 mins in and still no signs of story line or plot. Maybe I just did not get the writer/director's intent...

To be honest I'm not a big fan of "loser" movies; the character who is always wasted. But, I do like the cast so I decided to give this a good shot only to be disappointed with it.

It is supposed to be a comedy but it failed at delivering even a smile out of me with the incomprehensible script and poor acting.

I would give this a zero if i could.

Tag (I) (2018)

Bad

[2/10 · 16 August 2018]

I enjoy a good comedy but this movie just does not fit the bill. It's a try hard action/comedy with a good cast but it fails to deliver a decent story that in the least keeps you interested. The funny parts are old and tiresome. Definitely no belly aching lol worthy moments at all. Super hot reporter chick that just decides, very randomly, to follow the group, no plausible explanation given. Main untagable character has like superhero/action hero powers, but, this movie is based on a true story... the flop goes on and on. The worst part is that I was looking forward to this movie. Do your self a favor and skip this garbage. Score: 2

Nothing But the Truth (I) (2008)

The wrong way of reporting the news...

[4/10 · 12 November 2014]

I will start this review by saying that I do enjoy law/crime related movies and that I believe that the acting and the directing of this movie was well done, but...

The story although it started strong, with the right amounts of drama and mystery, it quickly lost my appreciation mainly because the values that Rachel Armstrong was trying to defend when she reported the story, although they were admirable to a point, they led me to believe that it was nothing but for her own professional gain rather than having an informative value to news readers.

Honestly, throughout the movie I found myself wanting to know what was the point of releasing information regarding the ID of a CIA covert operative in the newspaper but the movie failed to deliver that important piece of information, leaving me confused and disappointed...

Then the great ridiculous finale just strengthened my overall dislike for news reporters in general. The agenda of reporting the news at any cost, regardless to what damage they might cause to family members, friends and other innocent bystanders always comes first and this movie clearly stands by it.

I give it a 4/10 just because the acting was solid. And because Kate Beckinsale is very hot :)

Dredd (2012)

Not too bad.... But still bad...

[5/10 · 20 September 2013]

The first Judge Dredd movie with Sly Stallone was pretty bad so I wasn't expecting much of this movie until I saw the ratings in here. So I decided to watch it and even though the story line and action was more solid, the CGI effects and the green screen action footage was really bad and very low budget. All the blood was poor quality CGI, making what could have been an awesome movie into a low budget B grad straight to DVD movie.

Not good enough guys....

Giving it a 5 out of sympathy towards the original comic books :)

Peace

Out!

Redbelt (2008)

A Martial Artist's opinion

[1/10 · 12 September 2013]

I have watched this movie when it first came out and by the end of it I was left with a sense of emptiness and confusion, like, what the hell just happened??

OK, to be honest I am not a big fan of cheesy dramas with plots were the main character is basically a washed out loser like Mike Terry is portrayed. But, because I am a big fan of martial arts movies and since I practice BJJ, I decided to give it a shot.

The movies starts with the typical drama plot but somehow keeps me interested because I am curious about the character development, that is until Mike starts preaching his "no colored belt philosophy", that a black belt is given to the people he thinks deserve it… wow, where do you come up with this? Lol…. And, after only a few classes, not years, classes, Mike gives a black belt to his new protégée!?!

Honestly, any person that trains martial arts for a long time can't help but feel mad about the complete disrespectful message this movie sends regarding every black belt in the world that trained long hard years to achieve it. On average it takes 10 years of hard continuous training to get a Jiu Jitsu black belt. About 5 years for Karate. Not a couple of weeks like the movie implies… No wonder that more and more MacDojos are just giving them away like lollies just to get students…

Anyways, the movie goes on, blah blah blah, more rubbish dramatic philosophies; "Oh, but why won't you fight??" Asks the wife. " Because it goes against my principles" Says the husband…

SPOILER ALERT!! All this builds up for the great finale: The worst fight ever against one of the best BJJ masters, 6th degree black belt John Machado. Mike Terry easily wins the fight, wipes the dust off and is given a Red belt which in REAL LIFE is the highest achievement in Jiu Jitsu and Martial Arts in general. Roll the credits.

What a joke!!!

iMurders (2008)

WoW!

[1/10 · 27 October 2009]

I always trust Internet Movie Database for user comments and ratings and therefore before I rented this "movie" I read some of them and was like...; cool, this looks like the kind of movie I like and looks like I will enjoy it. Well... What a disappointment, I mean, I know this was gonna be a low budget B grade movie but all the comments in here that claim this movie to be good and that it is a "refreshing thriller", please! Are you serious?

As I sat down with anticipation to watch the movie I was straight away greeted by an horrible group of soap opera actors.

The script was obviously written by a 5 year old child and the whole movie budget was spent on the main actress' huge LCD computer screen.

"Facespace"?! What?! This terrible attempt to rip off internet 2 of the most famous internet social networks shows how good this movie is.

Well... everyone has got their own opinion and taste and mine is that this movie doesn't even deserve 1 star

Once Were Warriors (1994)

Shocking reality ...?!?

[1/10 · 10 February 2009]

I went and rented out this movie because while living in the UK I made lot's of Kiwi friends who raved about this movie and told me it was a New Zealander master piece.

Well, what I have to say is that I was extremely disappointed as I was expecting it to be a good quality drama and was faced with a low budget graphic violence and child abuse movie that made me sick to the stomach for months.

Watching a child being raped for about 15 minutes is just not my idea of good entertainment when it comes to movies and honestly the scene was totally unnecessary. If the idea of the director was to depict how low human behavior is when they are faced with poverty and their culture is stolen then I think that the numerous times that we were forced to watch the husband beat his wife violently was enough to prove a point. So yes, I was actually furious that I had to watch such vulgar display of senseless violence and sexual abuse with no proper story line or purpose.

I was left with a huge sense of emptiness and hatred for the people that continuously try to sell violence as entertainment. That's the sole achievement of movies like this, to generate hate against each other and that is very sad.....

Juno (2007)

Another major disappointment...

[1/10 · 2 February 2008]

I watched this movie only after reading the comments posted in here, IMDb. Since most comments raved on how good the movie was I decided to give it a shot and surprise, surprise...

Although the plot has a good moral story behind it with modern day subjects that touch the heart of teenagers and parents alike, Ellen Page plays the main character "June" in the most poor, lifeless and boring way imaginable. Not sure if I should blame her or the script writers, I mean... her pretentious approach to "coolness" is barf material, the one liners attempts to humor are like just plain stupid.

All this combined with a sound track that sounds like... actually I have no words to describe the sound track apart that it was the most horrible music I have ever heard.

Overall the movie, in my opinion, is very bad and I don't give it 1 (score)just because of the story line.