benkarkis Reviews

Beacon 23 (2023– )

Unbelievably Boring

[1/10 · 31 December 2023]

I really, really, really wanted to like this show. I love dystopic sci fi. But there is literally nothing going on episode after episode. I finally gave up the pain after Episode. So I figured I would try Episode 8 and lasted about 20 minutes and nothing has changed. Nothing happens. A whole bunch of talk about nothing. Don't care about the Rocks and the Artifact because it all became meaningless. Originally, the show seemed like an Expanse knock off but it doesn't even come close. You got 2 very good actors stuck in a land of complete mediocrity. So disappointing because episode #1 indicated some potential. Don't waste your time.

Captain Marvel (2019)

How the H did this movie make 1 Billion Dollars

[1/10 · 16 November 2023]

I have literally tried to watch this movie at least 10 times. I cannot get past 10 minutes. I watched the beginning, the mid beginning, the middle. There is no caring, no empathetic character, no plot. Samuel L. Jackson walks and acts around in a daze. Brie Larsen who I do like as an actress has literally nothing to act about. It is going through the motions of a movie. I get it that this movie came out at the absolute peak of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. That it was book ended between the final 2 chapters of the true MCU and that people would watch anything that said MCU. But this is simply gawd awful.

A Man Called Otto (2022)

Feel Good Story but Completely Unrealistic

[7/10 · 22 January 2023]

This is the neighborhood where everybody knows your name and your business. The whole Faux Cheers Bar theme is what makes this unrealistic. Of course, we wish we could live in an area where people help each other, where people go over for dinner every night, where a renter neighbor can become the kids and grandkids, you never had. Very nice intentions but a complete misrepresentation of our current society. Tom Hanks gives it the old college try and his son does a great job. Oh I forgot blame the evil real estate, bus, and construction companies rather than ourselves. A for effort but D for a reality check.

The Lost City (2022)

Horrible absolutely Horrible

[1/10 · 3 July 2022]

The running gags of making fun of Channing Tatum as the big dumb blonde aka the Ghostbusters reboot making fun of Chris Hemsworth. This is like college professor of English so called humor. The main character doesn't understand metaphors and synonyms so they constantly denigrate him for his lack of understanding. Even once it wasn't funny but it is ongoing. Besides that it is really really slow paced.

Anna (II) (2019)

Absolutely horrible

[1/10 · 1 November 2021]

Luc has lost his touch while continues to obsess over beautiful young women who are more than half his age.

You have seen this story before, SALT, Red Sparrow, Black Widow, La Femme Nikita.

This one of these joint French, UK, and Russian (funded?) movies that never works out. Also, the little things drive me crazy, the US Marine Guard at the Moscow Russian Embassy uses UK vernacular.

And of course the movie uses the tired techniques of future, past, and present sequencing.

Yes, Sasha Luss is beautiful, the rest is dreadful.

Ghostbusters: Answer the Call (2016)

Critics Loved it because..................

[1/10 · 24 October 2021]

It was a horrible, dreadful, unfunny female empowerment film.

Make men look dumb, no jokes. Female arrogance, oy vey.

Awful Awful Awful Awful movie.

The World's End (2013)

Don't understand the hate for this movie

[10/10 · 14 May 2021]

This movie is freaking brilliant on multiple levels. Analyzing Youth to Maturity, psychology, our society, and plain wit. And throw in Science Fiction on top of all that.

Frost, Pegg, and Edgar Wright are geniuses.

Thank you for being born.

Stormy Monday (1988)

What a letdown.

[1/10 · 15 February 2021]

Saw it back in 1988 with very high expectations, Melanie Griffith at her peak, Sting, Tommy Lee Jones, England, etc. Tried watching it again, today, to see if it was any better.

The answer, NOPE!

What you get is a movie that turns out to be soundtrack posing as a movie. Very, very, very slow. Sort of the Miami Vice vibe TV show set in Newcastle. It doesn't work. Any of it. You keep waiting for something to happen. Nope, more soundtrack and more bands.

In the end, the ugly Americans and Reagan/Thatcher lose out to the Brits and the expatriate Polish Community.

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020)

Lighten up people

[10/10 · 7 January 2021]

For those who gave this one star. This is not a fact based Romantic Comedy about Eurovision. Take it as a fantasy spoof film. Yes, they got all the Eurovision facts wrong, who cares.

Will Ferrell has gotten on my nerves for 15 years, so I understand, the we are sick of his shtick thing but he got it right this time. And, yes, I loved the music.

Ava (IV) (2020)

Gawd Awful Movie

[1/10 · 2 January 2021]

Boring, tedious, endless conversations, no interest in the characters. What a cast wasted. Who wrote this should never be allowed to write a movie again.

I literally fast forwarded through 60 percent.

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)

Unbelievably bad in 1978, worse in 2020

[1/10 · 2 October 2020]

I love the Beatles. Who doesn't. Saw this movie the first month it came out. It is a literally, inane horror show. The only redeeming song at the time was Aerosmith and Come Together.

So for first time in 42 years, I tried watching it on cable movie tv. Believe me, it is even worse now. RSO kills Beatles music, who would have thunk it. Careers did survive this movie, the Bee Gees, George Burns, Steve Martin, Aerosmith, EW and F. Barely.

What were the writers thinking, were they thinking?

Wit (2001 TV Movie)

A one hour story turne into a 3 hour horror movie

[1/10 · 20 September 2020]

This is a never ending movie of pain, sorrow, and anguish. This is a classic case of nobody telling Mike Nichols that hey, Mike, you need an editor to cut this down to size. Maybe it was a 2 hour movie but it was indeterminable.

Emma Thompson is a great actress but you cannot place the entire burden of carrying a movie on one person.

Blinded by the Light (2019)

Heartwarming, tearjerker movie but cliched in many ways

[9/10 · 27 August 2019]

Warning - if you don't love Springsteen songs from 1973 to 1984, skip the movie. It is a feel good movie of overcoming racism and finding one's own voice.

My one beef with the film and I think the haters didn't enjoy the underlying message that somehow Reagan and Thatcher were responsible for the UK racism and downtrodden economy of the 1980s. Both countries lost their manufacturing base due to globalization but it is easy for liberal writers to find the Tories as handy scapegoats.

I Am Mother (2019)

Boor fest to the max

[1/10 · 1 July 2019]

Honestly, I admit it, I fast forward through half of it. 2 hours that could have been compressed into 45 minutes.

A whole lot of nothing, I see there are allot of people who enjoyed it. Typically, I love dystopic sci fi but oy vey.

Yesterday (III) (2019)

I'm a sucker for British Movies

[9/10 · 30 June 2019]

Never in my mind would I write a glowing review of ____ Kate McKinnon. She steals the movie. Listen how can you not love Beatles songs and there are enough jokes to stop the movie from bogging down with the unlikely love story. Yes, you have to accept the premise that nobody has heard of the Beatles.

After Life (2019–2022)

The man is a genius

[10/10 · 15 June 2019]

Ricky can be hit and miss in his TV career. First, the negative, the whole dead wife thing and bring back video did nothing for me.

Everything else is brilliant, yes, he can be over the top rude, but the breaking down of life to who we really are and not the false faces we put on everyday is magnificent.

There is better write into the insight of human character when he is on his game.

Annihilation (I) (2018)

Classic Case of Movie Critics Being Avante Garde

[1/10 · 22 January 2019]

Annihilation is a total borefest but of course the MSM critics all loved it, liked the lemmings they typically are.

1. Long, slow drawn out conversations about nothing. 2. Moody, toney music 3. Off putting cinematography 4. More boredom and then some action. 5. It is not intellectual 6. It is not stimulating. 7. Annoying Natalie Portman 8. Very annoying Jennifer Jason Leigh

Into the Woods (2014)

Overwrought Borefest

[1/10 · 2 December 2018]

Just tried to watch on Showtime. Couldn't make it. This is a classic Hollywood situation where the Director and the Cast believe they are so damn good and talented and a "great musical" that how could anything be wrong. My god, we have Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Chris Pine, annoying child actors, James Corden, Johnny Depp, we have to be great.

Bottom line, the movie never ends and every song starts to sound the same.

American Hustle (2013)

Crash Redux

[1/10 · 29 November 2015]

This is deja vu all over again. The mainstream movie critics go ga ga (Rotten Tomatoes rating of 93 percent simply shows the never ending Lemming characteristics of movie critics). the Oscars go Ga Ga over a self indulgent, boring, basically a movie that is love with itself.

Take 5 super star actors and only one, Jeremy Renner projects anything indicating there is a tad of humanity and character and personality and not somebody mouthing words.

Tried to watch several times on cable TV and I cannot make it through more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time. The only bright spot is the IMDb user rating for this movies has dropped over the years and is now standing at 7.3 out of 10 so over time people woke up and recognized they had been Had by the Hollywood establishment and their media critic lackeys.

The Departed (2006)

The most over rated movie of 2006

[2/10 · 8 January 2012]

Scorcese has lost it, between this movie and Gangs of New York and the George Harrison documentary. The movie is way too long, poorly edited, dialogue ugh, I just don't get the hype. Must be the violence.

Nobody acts in this movie, it's Nicholoson, Sheen, Baldwin, and Damon being themselves. DiCaprio I give an A for effort. The female psychologist roles is the worst. I couldn't sit through this and I am from Boston. Unless you are a cell phone salesman. This reminds me of Crash all the mainstream media fell in loves with a "Scorcese Gangsta Film" how he can go wrong.

The Oscars, the media, the brainwashing.