My first Tarantino film where I felt bored. Talk, talk, talk, talk, kill. Once you get the rhythm down it becomes repetitive. I have always felt that Tarantino the director has done an excellent job of editing Tarantino the writer. Not this time. Feels like a play in almost every aspect. Great performances, great score, great cinematography. All take a back seat to the overly verbal screenplay. I think Tarantino would make a brilliant Broadway writer. He is very suited for it. But as film it is less than the sun of its parts. He rebounded nicely with Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. The only other film of his that was similar was Reservoir Dogs. It basically took place in one location, a where house. It was also overly written.
Reviews
8 Reviews
Lioness
(2023– )
The Taylor Sheridan universe gets a female hero
4 August 2023
Like most of Taylor Sheridan's series this one has more plot than it can handle. It combines politics and most of the elements that were created in the much better show, The Unit. The good: Zoe Saldana takes a break from the Avatar universe and plays a military/CIA handler type here. She is very good. Laysla De Olivier plays the title character. Their relationship or lack there is the heart of the story. When it sticks to them, this show is very watchable. But it doesn't. Sheridan wants his cake too. He combines political
Intrigue in the form of Nicole Kidmans character. Kidman, a very good actress, is wasted here, always looking steely eyed and conniving. Is it me or not, but every time I see Kidman now I am distracted by her plastic surgery. It looks like someone has put
Plastic over faced and stretched all the life out of her. She just looks weird. It is distracting. Morgan Freeman who is in every marketing photo op for this production is nowhere to be found. Let me guess, he shows up later and has a very important role. If you are a Sheridan completist than by all means watch this. If not, take the good with the bad. Definitely not as good as The Unit, Tulsa King, Yellowstone, or 1888.
The Son
(I) (2022)
Stupid is as stupid does
31 May 2023
The unforgivable sin that the script for The Son commits is that it treats the parents in this movie as complete idiots. The parents are supposed to be stand ins for most of us in society who are apparently according to this movie are either completely oblivious to the obvious, have never seen or met a mentally ill person, or have never seen a movie or read a book about such. Zeller's The Father was interesting because it presented an empathetic view from the first person of someone with dementia. I think this movie would have been more credible and frankly better had it been shown from The Son's perspective, instead of his parents who make dumb decision after dumb decision to the point that this movie lacks credulity. If you have ever spent time with a mentally ill person the first rule of thumb is they lie. They lie to you and themselves. The second rule is they need professional help that we as parents can't give them. A blind and deaf person knows better than the parents in this movie who come across as caricatures in a badly written movie.
The Terminal List
(2022– )
Rambo Redux
14 July 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I really wanted to like this. In the end it just kept me at a distance. There was something that was bothering me. The Terminal List is so long, so joyless and lacking in humor, but most of all it just takes itself way to seriously. When I watch Stallone in the Rambo movies at least I have something to look forward to. It was always about the kills. There was thousands of them. That is the point of any revenge story. How does the hero kill the bad guys. James Reece has many things in common with John Rambo. Both men are veterans who suffer from PTSD. Both man have been wronged by their governments and the institutions that made them killing machines. Apparently, both men can't be killed either. At least John Rambo didn't have a brain tumor. That's right, you guessed it, Reece does. But that tumor will not stop or kill him in the course of this never ending series. As a matter of fact Reece survives landslides, exposure, dehydration, bullets, bombs, the whole US government in fact, and the betrayals of his bosses and his "brothers" in his SEAL ops team, multiple military contractors, and the loss of his family. It strains credulity that the man is still alive at the end. With suicide rates at all time highs now among veterans it is disappointing, that this series doesn't address that fact until near the end when a key figure throws out the suicide rate in defense of actions. When Jesse Ventura famously exclaimed that he didn't have to time to bleed in 1987's Predator we knew that his time was up. He had the decency to die. With Reece we aren't so lucky.
Tin Star
(2017–2020)
2/3 of a really good show.
2 June 2022
Of the three seasons the first two are by far the best. The Canadian wilderness, turns out, was the shows best friend. The isolation and suspense that is there, works largely because of the setting. By the time the abridged third ends you realize the show had run out of ideas. The ending, part Thelma & Louise, part any Guy Ritchie movie you can name, is frankly just lame. I will remember the first two seasons fondly and forget the third.
The Forever Prisoner
(2021)
See For Yourself
11 December 2021
A very good and important film. Do not listen to to right or the left in reviews on this. See for your self and decide. This film has nothing to do with Marxism or leftist politics. It also has nothing to do with conservative conspiracies. Rather it dissects what has happened over the last twenty years in our reaction to 9/11. This film also doesn't believe all terrorists are innocent. If you believe that than you are just stupid. People watch films through their own filter. Leave the politics at the door.
Misfire WS99
26 July 2021
The director seems to be saying the original Woodstock didn't show you what was really going on behind the scenes. Who cares? What do think happens when you put 500,000 strangers together in the hot sun at a rock concert? The only thing that matters is the music which is why everyone gathered in the first place right? I am sure there were some great performances and it would have been nice to see those. Just rewatch the original Woodstock for great music or even the Live Aid shows and ignore this garbage.
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