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philthurlby
Reviews
Don't Breathe: No Escape (2016)
Couldn't see the opportunity
This is a good horror but it could have been a masterpiece if the writer had just had some more guts...
Kids break into a mans house to rob him and are soon faced with the reality that they'll have to choose between the money and survival... do they have to choose between the two at the end? No, the survivor gets the money...
The "bad guy" has his house broken into, and so defends himself. Does the movie have the guts to pose the question: is he right to do so? Are the kids the aggressors, and perhaps they deserve what happens? No, because the tacky writing gives us a side story where he is nothing but a monster and so we aren't allowed to empathise with him.
With a few tweaks this could have been a morally ambiguous deeply philosophical study into human survivalism, as well as a deeply tense thriller. Instead we just get the thriller part... which is fine, but it could have been so much more.
Jurassic World Dominion (2022)
That is one big pile of...
If you want a (at least) decent Jurassic film it needs to be based on a Michael Crichton novel and directed by Spielberg; if it ain't, don't waste your time.
Especially don't waste your time with this one, unless you like loud pointless dinosaurs and actively resent character, plot, story, atmosphere, intelligence, wit, tension, humour, or any other acceptable currency of entertainment.
Men (2022)
Allegory over substance
Insidiously creepy, this movie drip feeds the suspicion and horror at a patient pace, but it strays from ambiguity into confusion and incompleteness a couple of times. Films should ask questions and not necessarily give answers but with more than a couple unpulled threads I didn't feel confident Garland had a good enough grasp on all the answers, himself. A good ride but more Annihilation-level than the dizzying heights of Ex Machina.
Operation Mincemeat (2021)
Pleaspionage
A tamely content handling of a fantastical story. The fact that the events are true and ludicrous do a lot of the heavy lifting for this film. The performances, direction, pacing, and music all compliment each other nicely and are competent but they're not going to win any awards or leave an indelible mark in your mind. Kudos for the lighthearted tone that does justice to the whimsical madness that was Operation Mincemeat, but the whole things just a little bit vanilla.