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nicholaslance
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The Prince (2014)
I don't know what this movie is
It is bad, but they have big name actors in supporting roles. It is like they blew their budget on a couple big names, but how did a script so bad get a budget in the first place? You know it is bad when they put Bruce Willis front and center on the cover...and he is not the main character.
Every thing felt low budget, and poorly thought out. literally one of the worst car chase scenes I have ever seen, if not the worse, and I have seen a few bad action movies. It could be the chick that can't act saying nonsensical lines, the dubbed in "pull over" that isn't even timed to make sense, or maybe it was the bad camera angles. It would be hard to make a worse action movie with the budget and actors they had.
The Art of Self-Defense (2019)
A very strange movie
The plot twists tend to be very obvious, and yet often things don't happen the way you might think they will. Characters are over exaggerated in quirky ways. Many scenes are uncomfortable to watch, but they never quite cross the line. A very odd, and different movie. There are obvious inconsistencies, but due to the exaggerated style of the film, it is hard to tell what is intentionally inconsistent and what is for dramatic effect. In all I felt I was watching a low budget film written by somebody who deliberately wrote the script to cover some of the glaring problems of low budget films.
Warrior (2019)
Disconcerting and immersion breaking
I can see how some people might like this, but I just can't take it seriously. It is supposed to be a period piece about Chinese immigrants to the US in 1868. Except about 5 minutes into the first episode they drop the subs and make it all in English when two characters are theoretically speaking Chinese to each other. Not just English, but modern American English. On top of that, the actions and mannerisms are a blend of modern American and bad kung fu movies. However, other White American characters mostly speak and act as if they are part of 19th century America. There is a lack of consistency, and it comes off as disconcerting more than anything as the group that is supposed to be the furthest from modern Americans with their own culture and mannerisms, instead acts and speaks very much in a modern manner, while everyone else doesn't.
I am not sure if it was a creative decision to try and make the Chinese characters more relatable than the American characters, but I suspect it is because either they couldn't get a full cast of Chinese speaking actors, or some less than stellar intellect decided people would rather listen to disconcerting way of doing things than read subs.
Honestly, I watched most of the first episode, and couldn't finish it. The juxtaposition of the Chinese characters behaving and speaking like modern Americans that watched too many kung fu movies, and the rest of the cast acting like they were in a serious period piece ruined it for me. If you can get past that, then enjoy.
Revolt (2017)
Surprisingly good for a bad movie
The plot is weak, and the acting is often off, and there is a lot of filler shots of walking, and I am pretty sure they shot several scenes using the same props/locations but from different angles that are supposed to take place in completely different areas, but it still mostly held together. Except for the parts that made no sense, starting with the title. Because, well, there is no revolution. "Resist" would have been a better title, but seeing how another movie that same year had that same title...someone apparently decided "Revolt" would work. To whoever decided on that as a title, congratulations, you picked a title that makes absolutely no sense. There are is also a plot hole or two that an entire car could drive through, but I have seen far worse movies than this one.
In the Shadow of the Moon (2019)
A time travel movie for people that don't think too hard
This movie illustrates why time travel does not work. The movie ends with everything magically being fixed, but glosses over the fact that if the time traveler was successful, then it would erase the events that created the need for someone to travel through time to start with. Which in turn would mean the time traveler never traveled back in time, so then the events were never stopped, creating a never ending loop.
The loop can be solved by assuming that each jump back in time creates a divergent timeline, meaning that the baby being born at the end of the movie is not the time traveler that goes back in time, but the same person in a different timeline. This film uses the same timeline though, as the physicist's research is prompted by someone using his own invention from the future, which is based on that research. Which would be impossible, because the timeline in which he is prompted in that direction is the divergent timeline, and in the original timeline he would have remained blissfully unaware, and would have never developed the required technology. There are other problems as well with each death creating a divergent timeline, and by killing the people in 1988 it would have removed the need to kill some of the people later, and vice versa, and the time traveler is apparently moving only backwards in time so has no way to verify the targets which would change based on the previous alterations to the timeline.
In all it is just a logical mess, that makes no sense, which is probably why the film doesn't delve into the mechanics of the situation.
BlacKkKlansman (2018)
Too Heavy Handed
As other reviews have said the first and last scenes of the movie shouldn't be a part of the movie. The movie is a reflection of today's politics through the lens of yesteryear. However, the first and last scenes hammer home a singular perspective rather than the more complex reality the rest of the movie reflects.
The issue isn't as simple as white supremacists are bad and still present. Which is pretty much all those scenes say. It is not just one sided. There are the white supremacists, and there is ANTIFA...they are opposite sides of the same coin. The messages might be polar opposites, the attitudes, intolerance, and adhesion to nonsensical dogma is the same.
I felt there were some key scenes that showed how similar the two opposing groups in the film were. Particularly when the female lead calls Ron "the enemy" in the end because he is a cop, when in fact he accomplishes far more in regards to her goals than the entire organization she runs. She is narrow minded, inflexible, and unable to see the reality of what he has accomplished.
The entire concept that intolerance isn't unidirectional is completely obliterated by those first and last scenes, where it forces a one sided perspective. Racism isn't a one way street. Intolerance and hate for people that are different isn't just something one side does. The people on the far left, and the far right are the same kind of people, they just hold opposing views.
Soledad (2014)
Well at least the younger brother wasn't a terrible actor.
Bad bad acting, with scenes where it seems they decided dubbing over the original audio was a good idea. There were a handful of scenes where the two lead characters didn't suck. Mostly the parts without words. No real plot either, and there was dialog that was absolutely horrible that was supposed to give meaning to the film, but felt extremely contrived. The good part was, not the entire movie was garbage. The bad part is, it was still a waste of time.
Legend of the Seeker (2008)
Decent, but flawed
I would have given this show a 6.5 but IMDb does not allow for it, so I rounded down since I felt it was closer to a 6 then a 7. That being said I will now mention the positives and negatives of the show as I see them.
Positives: Mostly good choreography the fight scenes are pretty well done with only a few moves that strike me as odd, rather then cool (reverse grip on the sword, a knife maybe, but a sword?). Overall though its pretty good without blatant mistakes. Next is the costumes and props, which are very nicely done, although the costumes have that "too clean" look found in most shows (For once I would actually like to see villagers who inhabit a medieval village with clothes that don't look like they just came out of the dryer). The show also has believable main characters, no lack wit hero with a sword here. Probably the biggest thing for me is the large amount of action sequences, who doesn't like a good fight? Lastly, the lead actress is pretty hot, I am not going to lie about it.
Negatives: Well there is a lot of these....Starting with the time line, as far as I can tell its pretty messed up. Hard to say because it cuts from one place to another without any clue how much time was in between; an hour, a day, a week, maybe even a month, I just can't tell, but the season is still the same so who knows. Next is the acting, decent from the leads, but generally sub par from everyone else. Most of the "bad guys" act like generic bad guys, sure they should act tough but do they all need the same tough guy expression 80% of the time? The there is all the little plot holes that don't make sense when you actually think about them. Kahlan has at times mowed through 5 or 6 normal soldiers with ease, even taking out a few of the elite "dragon guard" without breaking a sweat. So why was she fleeing at the start of the first episode from a mere 5 men when she had her sister with her with the same confessor power? Also there are things that should in my mind be detailed in depth, but just get a side reference and no explanation, as if the script writers assume the viewer already knows. Like the quads, I know what they are because I read a few of the books, but it never explains anything in the show. Another thing I dislike is the number of episodes that don't really relate to the main plot at all just to introduce an object or reveal some non-crucial piece of info.
And finally there is the whole discrepancy between the show and the books. This is the biggest issue for many of the fans and its also a drawback for me, but I rated the show based on what I thought of it as a stand alone piece not comparing it to the book. If I compared the accuracy to the books I would probably have given it a 2. I have seen some posts were people say it more or less follows the books and it makes me laugh. Sure the leads names are the same, some locations are the same, the main plot is the same, but pretty much everything else is changed. Now I have not read the books in awhile but it seems I recall the opening scene should have had Khalan being chased by a Quad, that would be 4 not 5 men, and thats just the opening scene. Descrepancies range from little things like physical sizes being different to the entire circumstances in which Richards brother dies. I was also hoping to see some more of the mord-sith but was sorely disappointed. Probably mostly due to ratings, the show really should have been made for mature audiences not for kids and teens. And whats with the complete change on the role of the sisters of light? It seems like the second book of the series is pretty detailed on them, and yet the show jumps way off in a different direction. I really see no way of filming the rest of the series, if it lasts, without changing the whole plot for the T.V. version of book two completely.
All in all its not a bad show, nor is it a great one. Sometimes I will watch it when I get really bored, or I will go watch old kung-fu movies with subtexts. YEA! BRUCE LI, FISTS OF FURY FTW