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The Old Man (2022)
Gratuitous violence
The show is basically a history of a anti-hero that doesn't respect any other living being except his dogs and his daughter.
And when he has the option to spare a life, he never does that.
That's it. Oh, and the show finds interesting to focus the camera on people diying violently, because nowadays a lot of people like this kind of entertainment.
Well, it's weird how Western entertainment goes. Maybe it's a sign of problems with a society that believes and nurture violence and selfishness, and usually, violence is caused by selfishness, so they walk together.
To sum up, I tried the show because of Jeff Bridges, a great actor that has some great acting as in Wild Heart and Great Lebowski, but, this is another kind of "show", this is a homage to violence, and nothing more.
World War Z (2013)
The best zombie movie that I watched
This is the best zombie movie I've watched, together with 28 days and 28 weeks later.
Brad Pit is a great actor and is acting very well in this movie, as usually.
All the tension, ferocity and fear that comes of the situation is present in the movie and the pace is frantic until near the end, when the paces slow down, even though remaining tense.
The worst problem in a zombie movie, in my opinion, is to be credible, because the subject is something that doesn't exist in the real world. In World War Z they had success to deliver a credible plot, credible behavior of the "alive" people (with some small flaws, little dumb choices) and a credible outcome. The scene at the traffic is simply impressive, for example.
So that's it! Watch if you want a good action movie with a good plot and and if you like zombies movies, watch too.
Serenity (2019)
This is not a conventional movie
Serenity is a movie that shows a metaphor about the place where people go after the death, and also about the questions about the "creator", in a theistic point of view.
Matthew McConaughey is a great underestimated actor and I hope that he shows up more on the screen. In the movie, he is a fisherman living in a heavenly island that is obsessed by a big fish that he's been trying to hook for some time, and by the memories of a son that he is not able to see for some reasons that are explained later.
The movie is good, not deserving in any way the 5,3 rating that is showing in this site at this moment. The question is that the plot twist was explained in a rushed single moment and if the viewer wasn't paying attention and didn't see, the plot twist or the revelation of the reasons became less believable.
When Matthew jumps in the sea for the second time there's like some radio stations playing in the background and one of the radio stations or voices captured says that if the container has the neural structure of enough complexity it can be able to receive consciousness, and that would explain how a avatar or a virtual person in a videogame could receive or acquire conscience.
So if the son of the deceased Matthew character created a place that matches perfectly the wishes of his father, it could be possible to attract Matthew's conscience to the island and to the virtual character in the videogame.
The problem is that all of this was rushed and for people not paying enough attention (a nowadays problem), that bridge just wasn't built.
To sum up, if you like movies that aren't obvious, with good actors, photography and makes you wonder, I recommend Serenity to you.
The Cloverfield Paradox (2018)
A good sci-fi movie
People got too critic nowadays. The movie is good, has a good dose of action, a good story and a fair good ending, with some elements from the "The Mist", without being just a copy.
I like space movies, there is a specific atmosphere filled with silence and loneliness there that some movies are able to emulate very well, like the masterpiece Alien.
Talking about that, The Cloverfield Paradox brings a good atmosphere, it's believable that that ship is really floating in the space.
I gave a solid 8 to the movie, specially because it's really hard to watch a good sci-fi movie after some very good titles that have been created. The sci-fi genre it's not like the action genre, for example, where you can watch the same dumb story again and again and (for some people), get entertained every time.
In sci-fi genre, when an idea is used, it becomes really unlikely that that idea will work again.
So, in my opinion, if you like the genre, go and watch it.
The Leftovers (2014)
The third season was a let down
The first and the second seasons were very interesting and worth watching, but everything that the two first seasons pointed to were undone and the final season followed a different way and adopted a boring rhythm with lots of flashback memories that were misplaced, because they almost exclusively "explained" some background histories of the characters.
And, finally, when the last chapter arrived, there wasn't a single drop of an explanation about the reason why 2 % of the world population simply vanished. Nora went there, didn't like to see her children and husband happy again with another woman, so she went back to this side and lived a life drowned in sorrow and self-pity, until Kevin arrived and "saved" her from herself.
We need to Talk about Kevin (sorry for the joke). He was a character that changed from a badass policeman with doubts about his own goodness. Just a very interesting complex character, that became a stereotyped good person suffering in a bad place. Poor guy...
In the end, we had a lot of questions unanswered, like what were those dogs following the deer? And why and how those 2% went to the other side? What is the connection between those people in the past (Stone Age and maybe 17th century)? And so on.
It's still worth watching in my opinion, but the best is to know in advance that it will leave the major questions unanswered.
Captain Fantastic (2016)
A spiritual movie about altruistic love, wisdom and education
The plot is about a dad who is raising his six children without Television, smart phones, hypocrisy, no lies at all, and the challenges that come from that.
His wife is sick and his step father hates and blames him in all ways because of the choices the couple has made.
Meanwhile, one of his teenage sons start to confront him and his choices. So, against all the common sense, the Captain Fantastic (a Fantastic Viggo Mortensen) must struggle to keep taking care and giving the best education to his family as he believes.
And, when his wife dies, a fantastic adventure starts, when the Captain and his crew must struggle against the rest of the family to be able to fulfill her last wish, even if they must trespass the law to do it.
One of the gifts from this movie is that it makes us rethink our choices as parents and remember how hard and precious is the mission to raise children.
This movie is a rare jewel that sometimes arises from time to time, to remember us that cinema is still an art.
Jupiter Ascending (2015)
A below average Sci-fi movie
A below average Sci-fi movie
Before finally watching it, I've read some reviews here and my expectations weren't high. After watching, I can sum up in five points:
1 – A noticeable number of plot holes;
2 – They've made the movie shallow to gather more viewers;
3 – The directors relied on special effects to mask the actors' and plot' flaws;
4 – The (bad executed) tentative to make the movie teenager friendly to attract the public of successful franchises;
5 – A rich universe was created, but impossible to explain in two hours. Probably the initial plan was a trilogy, after being condensed in one movie. The result isn't good.
Making a good Sci-fi movie nowadays isn't an easy mission to accomplish. Viewers are addicted to a frenetic and mindless action, and the history isn't crucial to the masses.
And, to make a movie is an expensive enterprise, and the director must entertain the crowds, so the point of equilibrium is to make a movie with loads of action without forgetting the plot and, in the case of a Sci-fi movie, science is needed also.
In the Jupiter Ascending, I couldn't see much of science, but only a lot of impressive things that looked more like magic than science to me, because absolutely nothing was explained how was possible, like the teleport, the tattoos, how they extracted the "essence" from humans, how people was killed in the gatherings or harvests, haw they created the protagonist and who created him, where and so on
Why there were dinosaurs? Why did they speak English? And about the "reincarnation" thing, another "dust in the wind". How a girl born from a woman from earth could've be the reincarnation of a empress born almost hundred thousand years before, some light-years beyond?!
And, despite she was the reincarnation, she didn't have nothing to do with a empress. The behavior, the lack of courage or intelligence
.just weak in all matters.
So, Titus kidnapped her family to force her to abdicate, but if she abdicated he would gather all the earth population, and she only realized that in the moment she was about to do that!
In the end, everything lacked of credibility and watching the movie was a painful experience, specially when remembering that came from the Wachowskis brothers.
About Time (2013)
A Great story about love and life
Yes, this is a romantic movie, but if you aren't found of love stories it's still worth watching.
It tells us about how important is to cherish the simple moments in life and how they are *in most cases* the most important parts of our life, if we pay attention to them.
The actors are very well suited for the movie and it feels that everything is just in place, making every piece of it just very pleasurable to watch.
Even if you don't believe on that culture-imposed information that everybody needs someone to be happy, you can take out all of that and just enjoy the trip.
Man of Tai Chi (2013)
A very good action movie and a lesson about spiritual principles
Congrats to Keanu for this movie. He directed and also acted and played a good role in there.
The movie is also about Buddhism, meditation and spirituality in general. I feel very happy to 've watched a mainstream movie talking about meditation and a true spiritual path in the right way.
The fighting scenes with master's protagonist were poetry to me and made me very happy and content.
Another good point is that it escapes the obvious and boring places that we often see in Hollywood movies and the actors were mostly all Asians and the spoken language was mandarin.
Sure is a must see for action movies lovers and spirituality lovers too.
Other than that, the movie has a lot of subtle messages that I leave to you to find.
_/\_
Xi you: Xiang mo pian (2013)
This movie tells a Buddhist story - don't listen to bad reviews
The movie is a wonderful experience, for Buddhists and for the general public that is able to enjoy fantastic stories.
It is about the first part of a very long story of the monkey god Wukong, a very powerful entity that used to annoy meditation practitioners at Buddha's time.
The special effects are above average and the overall experience, too.
There's a lot of action and funny moments, also. Nevertheless, I don't think that's a movie for children, after all. Please, don't listen to the bad reviews, they really aren't fit for this kind of movie.
Enjoy, being or not a Buddhist.
Kick-Ass 2 (2013)
Watch until the end of the credits
I'll try to go direct to the point. The first is far better than the sequel.
Sometimes the movie is very boring and lack depth, and I felt like kick-ass was "downgraded" and became a dumb and coward nerd teenager again, like he was at the first movie, and that director's choice is one of the major reasons for this "low" rating to a sequence of a very good movie.
Some acting is worth commenting though: Jim Carrey, John Leguizamo, Chrisptopher Mintz and obviously Chloe Grace are very good in their roles.
The movie becomes better near the end, but better is not good as expected. Nevertheless, there are some pearls of wisdom here and there and one occurs near the end, so pay attention when watching the movie for them.
After all, some surprises (again) near the end make the movie worth watching, so in my opinion they really tried to create a "crescendo", and we can say they failed even though they succeeded because the final is good, but maybe just because the rest of movie isn't so good as expected.
Don't get me wrong, watch the movie, because it seems there's something more (and better) coming in the future.
The Road (2009)
This journey is not for the weak
This is not an easy movie, and that's my tip if you aren't sure if you should watch this.
The world is dying, and it looks like the nature is doing the job, so people just make it worse by fighting and eating each other.
And there is a father and his son who are trying to still on the right side, and it isn't easy, to say the least.
Well, there is a world with no hope, but real good people keep being good till the end, right?
To sum up, humanity is the real tragedy on this movie. Take a look if you dare.
8.5
The Quiet Earth (1985)
What makes us what we are?
Nice and original sci-fi, and weird too.
The movie has an atmosphere of strangeness all around it, and the protagonist question himself if he is alive, and that's a logic question, because the earth without people it's just another thing, some unknown piece of land.
And above that, what we are It's a LOT based on what people think and judge about what we are, so without the "judges", we have to face the question to discover that we just don't know the answer.
For me I felt the protagonist's loneness, specially when he finds another "survivor", a very attractive woman (for a 80's perspective) and he starts feeling attracted by her when he finds another survivor, and the girl fall in love with this other guy and they stay together.
Besides, the protagonist do what is right in the end, forgetting about himself in the name of humanity.
Good movie!
Dredd (2012)
As Dredd should be
Dredd is the guy. A personification of justice and the bitter medicine that is needed in Megacity 1.
He doesn't hesitate, never, because there's much more work to do.
And he is incorruptible, and doesn't care about rising in crime rate despite his efforts, because he is doing his part and doesn't have time for theories and chitchat.
He is ruthless, also. And he applies the sentence the way the criminals kill their victims, to show them the pain they caused.
Right or wrong, leave to the theoretical, because Dredd will keep cleaning the streets.
The Fountain (2006)
Thank you for bringing the most precious spiritual principles to a Hollywood movie
For me the movie is perfect and one of the most successful (if not the most) in bringing spiritual teachings to the screen.
The message is so subtle as special and compassionate; that you don't need to cling to "this" life or to "that person, because you don't need "to" love someone, but just to let this limited conscience dissolves, so you can become compassion and love and shines upon everyone.
Dissolution - the letting go of self - that's what the movie is about.
So, the protagonist's quest; to stop death, changes to a worth quest - to stop suffering, and everything just begins to flow again.
Thanks Darren for this rare gem.
John Carter (2012)
A good sci-fi movie
It's a considered long movie (more than two hour length), but I didn't feel that. It's has a lot of action like 99% of the nowadays sci-fi, what's not a problem for me, even though it's not a quality, too.
It's starts as a story about John Carter, a former soldier in XIX century who is sick of war, lost his wife and child and starts to search for gold, when he discover and kill an alien, getting his medallion and being transported to Mars, where two races fight for the control over the planet.
Besides that, we have a group of evolved aliens that watch over the progress of civilizations and manipulate things the way they want over thousands of years.
And the aliens choose the "evil" side, and John Carter chooses the other side, which one has a beautiful princess (an obvious Hollywood fishhook that most of us love to get hooked by).
The rest of the movie is the obvious, the John's heroic choice of fighting the righteous war (subliminal propaganda anywhere?) and saving Mars from the "bad" people.
Near the end, there is a surprise that was nice; but not enough to make me forget that the most interesting thing in the movie, which is the story about the aliens and the manipulating plan behind the curtains.
And because of that, and the feeling that was left on me similar to when I've watched Prometheus, of something not properly explained, that this movie deserves "only" a 7.
And in this case is worse than on the other movie, because on this there isn't a sequence planed.
But still, it's a worth seeing movie.
Obs: I didn't red the book.
Jack Reacher (2012)
It deserves a 8.5 for several reasons
Good action movie with a decent overturn, nice action scenes and a story that fits well into the genre.
But with some very welcomed differences when comparing with almost all other movies, action or not.
OK, there is a romantic couple, but even though it seems they like each other, they don't stay together in the end, and thanks for that fresh air.
The hero (Reacher) kill the bad guy in the end, avoiding an annoying prosecution and any chance of Zac getting away. If this is right or wrong it's up to you, but he did what thought was right.
Reacher just used a gun in two scenes, and because it was necessary. I'm not against weapons, but I'm against movies trying to brainwash us telling we need guns almost all the time and to solve every tricky situation we might get in.
And I liked very much the scene where Reacher talk about real freedom and points out some office workers. That was nice, because usually Hollywood tries to make us believe the world we live in is a wonderland, when we know nowadays it's just the opposite.
8.5 for all these reasons.
Wristcutters: A Love Story (2006)
Achieved a good result with little money
Like most of the movies I've been watching lately, I searched here at IMDb before watching this, and this one has a 7,3 average score and the plot caught me, so it was enough for me.
The story is about people who commit suicide and the place where they go, what seems to me a lot like the purgatory from catholic church.
Even though the special effects are very bad, the movie itself is not bad, because this is not some mindless action movie, so that's OK if special effects suck.
What concerned me was that, for a "different" movie, with a "out of the box" story, it just ended like all the other movies, with the protagonist staying with the beautiful girl.
I'm so tired of that kind of brainwashing about a romantic couple, doesn't matter if we are talking about a war on Mars or a suburban family trying to pay the bills, it's like a recipe people follow just to reach some final goal, that is the approval of the audiences.
About the acting, it's average, with some highs and downs. The Russian guy was very nice, but the protagonist was just around average.
Nevertheless, it's a funny movie with some good ideas that show creativity and makes us think.
Concluding, for a overall average movie, 6 seems a just score.