milesgreg Reviews

Greenland (2020)

Pretty good until the end

[2/10 · 18 August 2023]

1. The Earth would be uninhabitable for a very long time after that comet. I mean the stupidity of this is astounding. A 9 mile wide comet is an extinction level event we've never even heard of. It took 30,000 years for life to recover after a 6.5 mile asteroid.

2. No one would ever cheat on Morena Baccarin. Totally unbelievable.

3. Just end the movie when it goes black after the family is together in the bunker! That's the whole thing. They're together, that's all that matters. They say the lines. The ending is right in plain sight. Cut to black. You did it. Good job, now don't do anything else. But you did.

After Earth (2013)

After Earth > 65

[6/10 · 3 August 2023]

It's not terrible. Doesn't deserve under a 5. There are way worse movies out there. It's easy to watch. It's much better than 65, which is pretty much the same exact movie. I watched it again thinking I liked it more than most the first time and I stand by that. I've watched this movie twice! The quality is there, somewhere. The soundtrack stands out at times as well. And sure enough when the credits role M. Shyamalan was the director, who is capable of making a good movie and James Newton Howard did the soundtrack of which I had no idea. And that brings us to why it's got such a low rating. A general M Shyamalan hate. Watch it and judge for yourself.

The bad: Jadens acting, especially at the beginning, is horrendous but he does grow throughout the movie. Maybe the movie was shot chronologically and he was taking lessons during it because he does grow into the role. I can't get myself to say "better" though. Will smith is totally fine in this. Maybe a little phoned in at times. The production design of their civilization was terrible. And there are some awful plot holes. One: it gets freezing at night but there's a thunderstorm..? What, are we stupid?

But again, it's totally watchable and undeserving of a 4.8 while 65 has a 5.4 and that movie is actually stupid. I'd still give it a 4 though cause dinosaurs.

Lockout (2012)

Surprisingly ok

[6/10 · 28 June 2020]

This movie looked horrible from the previews that were out years ago but after giving it a chance it turned out to be pretty entertaining. You can tell in the first scene as it cuts back and forth between a flashback and an interrogation that it just might have some quality. The handsome man known as Guy Pearce almost pulls off his character but falls short. It wasn't his fault though. It's the writing that lets him down. It is nonetheless a solid quarantine weekend movie.

21 Bridges (2019)

Not bad at all

[7/10 · 26 January 2020]

I was slightly surprised by this movie. It was entertaining. Maybe a 6.5 more so this a 7 but it's definitely not bad at all. Sienna Miller is bad however. She didn't always have an accent and looked like she had never held a gun in her life. She couldn't pull off her role. And the whole shutting down transportation in and out of manhattan wasn't really part of the movie, just a minute montage. Beyond that though, it's a proper movie.

Bad Boys for Life (2020)

Not very good

[4/10 · 26 January 2020]

This movie was teetering just above bad for a while but it just kept going on and on. It feels a lot longer than two hours. And the change in the plot was stupid and cliche. It's the same thing over and over again. And the editing is awful. A lot of the time you don't know what's happening. The worst was when Martin Lawrence's character falls off a ledge at a hotel but you have no idea how because of all the cuts. Did they even try? This feels like a cash grab. I usually find Will Smith charming even in bad movies but he couldn't care less in this. Martin Lawrence actually had some laughs. The only other redeeming character was Alexander Ludwig.

Babe (1995)

Underrated

[8/10 · 6 January 2020]

My god, a 6.7 average score and nominated for 7(SEVEN) oscars?? It has been a very long time since I've seen this movie but it's great. Very original and wonderfully done.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019)

JJ Abrams knows how to make a movie

[6/10 · 5 January 2020]

It's entertaining and I didn't leave pissed off, even for a life long Star Wars fan. It somehow worked. JJ got me with his nostalgia and lens flares. And Babu. The scenes are insane, all over the place and not long enough to explain anything. The ending is a bit bizarre but maybe because my expectations were so low, I was ok with everything. I was dreading to go see it and waited to see it but I liked it. I mean it's still not Star Wars though.

I should probably even give it a 7 but they still hit on Jedi lore and, let's just say, things change in this movie which tells you they had no idea what they were doing in the first place. It's pretty much empty fun. There was a little charm to it. Oscar Isaac and John Boyega have very good chemistry together. Daisy Ridley just had shot after shot of her looking surprised/upset. It got tiresome after awhile. Adam, ya know, even if his character is poorly written he still brings some gravitas to his roles. So if you're on the fence about it, go give it a watch.

The King (I) (2019)

A work of fiction

[9/10 · 4 January 2020]

I kind of loved this movie. Very well produced. The musical score throughout was great. From the first panning shot on the battlefield with the setting sun I was hooked. And I don't understand all the complaining about historical inaccuracies. Isn't one of the characters completely based on a character from Shakespeare? It is over dramatic at times. The one instance that stands out is when Chalamet is arguing with an advisor and there's all this hair in Chalamets face for dramatic affect. Ohhhk get over yourself. There are other instances as well. Also, Chalamet is a good actor but doesn't ever quite pull off being a king. I thought the script was almost perfect but too modern at times which made no sense. Dropping the f word and some other phrases that were just out of place. Robert Pattinson was a great surprise. Pretty hilarious with his French accent but it worked. I did not like the script writers character, Falstaff. He was trying too hard. It was like he was trying to be Russell Crowe from gladiator, dropping his voice as low as possible. But I swear I really did enjoy this movie. The production value is fantastic. I just wish I could see a movie like this in a theater!

Marriage Story (2019)

One of the best in a down year for movies

[8/10 · 4 January 2020]

A very easy movie to watch even with its heavy subject matter. It will get an Oscar nomination for the script and probably best picture. Anyone complaining about the script needs to get off their high horse. It's certainly better than just about anything out these days. The characters are well established, even the minor ones. From the first moment and throughout you're reminded of Annie Hall, with the immediate voice over, the way it's shot and all the NYC v LA jokes. Also, Kramer v Kramer does come to mind due to the plot itself. It's not as good as either of those movies. It was funnier at times than I expected so Its not all sad and heartbreaking. It did get so heavy handed though every time they showed Adam and Scarlett being separated by a fence or pulling their child from both sides. I mean, we get it. They're separating. But overall a very good movie.

6 Underground (2019)

Awful

[1/10 · 17 December 2019]

I didn't make it very far into the movie. It's completely incoherent. It's way over edited. I had a friend tell me it was terrible before I watched it but even with that warning and these reviews on here I couldn't have imagined it would be that bad. Don't even try.

The Sound of Music (1965)

Wonderful

[10/10 · 16 December 2019]

How is this not higher than an 8? That's ridiculous. Think about movies that come out today that are above an 8, would they be anywhere close to this this? Absolutely not. And it's a musical which is tough to do. Technically it's gorgeous as well. This movie is timeless and apparently underrated.

Ford v Ferrari (2019)

Bale is a caricature

[3/10 · 4 December 2019]

I kind of, sort of, walked out of this movie. Not because it was terrible or anything but I just didn't care about the characters. The movie also wasn't very "cinematic" although I'm not entirely sure what I mean by that. Now, I am not interested in racing but if you compare this movie to Rush, a movie I waited to see because I wasn't interested in the subject matter, it's night and day. I really enjoyed Rush. It exceeded my expectations by far. This movie was not very good.

The thing that bothered me most was Bale's performance and it might be the worst I've ever seen him do, although that's a pretty high bar. He plays a caricature of someone, not an actual character. And he ruins it for me because the whole family dynamic is awkward. There's 0 chemistry and it doesn't seem real in the least. I couldn't take him or the movie seriously. The scene when his wife is swerving all over the road and yelling at him was weird and out of nowhere. The son barely says a word.

The movie is way too long. Every scene seemed to be the same after two hours. Let's have more shots of Matt Damon's character standing in front of the sun. Let's start every scene out with some classic guitar playing for nostalgia's sake to get you excited. The only good scene was when Bale's character talks about the perfect lap, that's it.

Hell or High Water (II) (2016)

Well written and easy to watch

[8/10 · 24 November 2019]

Another very good modern western. Taylor Sheridan(Wind River, Sicario) knows what he's doing. It's easy to see why it was nominated for best picture. Very well made with a little social commentary. Absolutely worth watching.

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007)

A gorgeous modern western

[10/10 · 24 November 2019]

I love this movie. It's top 5 all time for me and criminally underrated (although I think more people know about it now). I remember watching it with a group of people with the lights on in some random hostel in Croatia but after the first 10 minutes I had to walk away. I couldn't watch it in that setting. I needed to experience the movie fully after seeing how good the start was so I watched it later. I was not disappointed. The cast is unbelievable and had many actors earlier in their careers. It has scenes I still will watch to this day and a soundtrack I'll still listen to as well. It is long and maybe even boring for some but totally worth it. There's no reason it shouldn't have been nominated for best picture and original score but I'm glad it got multiple Oscar nominations.

Years later I ended up reading the book which was also great. I don't know if there's a better adaptation out there from book to movie. So many lines were straight from it and I would almost argue that you should watch the movie before you read the book(naturally so you can say the lines like the characters in the movie while reading it).

No Way Out (1987)

There is a way out. It's to not see this movie.

[1/10 · 24 November 2019]

This movie is ridiculous. If you want to completely waste 2 hours of your life, go ahead and watch it. I wanted mine back, desperately. It's an easy watch; an engaging thriller until the end. The ending completely negates all of what you just watched and expects you to be ok with it. The worst part is that the director treats the audience as if they are idiots. The "twist" ending makes zero sense. The motivations of the main character throughout the movie don't follow. And you can't just change everything just because it would be a twist. There has to be all least a tiny bit of reasoning behind it. This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.