kboi Reviews

Outback (2019)

Very frustrating but I still watched it until the end. Why?

[4/10 · 3 July 2023]

This is a tough one to review. I can't give it over 5-star. It is more like 3-stars, But being that I did watch it until the end makes me feel guilty giving it that rating. I'll settle at 4-stars (but do feel that is pushing it).

I find survival movies done well to be really interesting (e.g., 'Castaway', 'The Martian'). Many of them take place in scenic areas, or can be situations I would never wish to encounter (e.g.,'Unbroken'). This movie take place in the Australian Outback. A beautiful, expansive, partly desert-like country very much in the wild. This movie has that wilderness attraction element, although scenery alone is not enough to save this one. The decisions and actions the couple involved make in this film are tough to watch. And yet, I was hooked on finding out what the final outcome would be. Oh well.

What bothered me so much about this movie is just the plain stupidity of the young couple. It's one thing to go into a populated urban area without a lot of preparation as long as you have some money or a credit card. But when you decide to enter an expansive region like the Outback, you need to do some preparation such as bring food and water. These two people basically decided to just wing-it and figured they could stop at 7-11s along the way. Hey knuckleheads, oasis stops may be many, many miles apart. Think ahead!

Then they get lost. Okay. That can happen in the wild. Now it becomes how do you deal with it. What does explorer-want-to-be Wade suggest? Let's hike over to that ridge and look around. The open desert is like Las Vegas. Everything looks much closer than it really is. By the time they finally get there, it is dark. Okay, time to return to the car. Which way is the car? The stupidity just continues which makes it awfully difficult to watch. You may find yourself cursing at the stupidity of these two.

Should you make it to the end, you will find out how these two end up. You will also find out what transpired on the plane ride to Australia that caused an 'emotional edge' between these two. This 'rift' was apparent near the beginning of the movie. So you now have another reason to watch until the end,

My suggestion is take the rest of this adventure lightly. After all, It is only a movie. Sleep well and acknowledge that the unprepared should never wander into the wilderness unless on a paved, well-marked mapped trail..

Oh, this movie also claimed it was based on a true story although others have pointed out this might not true. I do not know either, although the movie captions did make it appear it was from real events.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

Weird, boring, waste of time.

[3/10 · 16 March 2023]

I was suspicious of a movie that won so many Oscars and I never heard of it. It also peaked my curiosity as I felt it 17TRACK must be really good to recieve such Oscar accolade. Sadly I was disappointed. I watched until the end just to make sure I didn't overlook what the academy felt was so great about it. It just never happened. I found myself pausing the DVD player multiple times just to see how much boredom remained. In fact, there is an actual 'The End' moment on the screen. I felt glad, but then discovered there was still an hour left. Oh brother! I just don't get it. With other rather pretty good movies this past year and this one wins out? Sad. Really sad. I did give it some stars because it was directed well and had some decent special effects. Unfortunately it left me unmoved and bored.

Endangered Species (2021)

This family shows how some people become endangered

[2/10 · 4 March 2023]

I like movies in the African wild. Beautiful scenery, wild animals in their natural environment. What ruined this movie is the absolute stupidity of the family. Maybe the wife had some brains but she was out-of-action for the most part. We have two spoiled children and some weird hippie-dude boyfriend on safari with the family. All, except the mother, had annoying personalities. Then the daughter had an odd boyish haircut and I didn't know she was a female until a third-of-the-way into the movie. The father was a total over-pride jerk who couldn't admit to ever being wrong.

So here we have a very unlikeable family and then these morons decide to take their own wild-safari trip without a guide due to money reasons. They start the trip totally unprepared, even leaving behind precious water bottles because they were plastic bottles. Instead they take a meager supply of glass bottled water. Did these idiots ever hear of re-cycling plastic bottles, just like glass bottles? So they go out on the trip totally unprepared thinking like they are at a Disneyland safari adventure. Are people actually this stupid in real life?

Everything that happens to them was brought on by their stupidity. I found myself guessing who was going to be taken out first, and actually sort of rooting for it. It was hard to feel empathy for anyone in this movie (except for the wild animals) and felt a shock ending of the family disappearing forever might have offered some gratification. Darwin's 'survival of the fittest' was on full display in this movie.

I gave it a couple stars because the scenery was good, and there was some hope in the beginning it could have been a decent movie.

Nope (2022)

Better than expected and I liked it!

[9/10 · 5 November 2022]

I didn't really know too much about this film. I saw previews of it at the theater before its release but it didn't offer much in the way of interest. Now that it is out on rental, I took a chance at it. I was quite surprised and it was very entertaining. It had a certain Quentin Tarantino style to it. You feel something strange is coming but not sure when or what. The entire Western horse-country theme was great. I recommend this if you like sci-fi and some horror. Not '2001 Space Odyssey' type sci-fi. More like 'Alien', or 'Mars Attacks!' (1996) type sci-fi.

Dislikes:

• The beginning (actually about the first 30-minues) was rather slow. Just hang in there is my advice. It gets better so the rest of the movie makes up for that.

• O. J.'s sister was tough to bear. She was annoying, although there is some redemption as the movie progresses.

• I did not like the alien transformation at the end. They should have stayed with the original.

Overall entertaining. Nicely filmed. And an excellent audio effects soundtrack for those with surround sound systems!

The Card Counter (2021)

I liked it but wanted to REALLY LIKE IT

[5/10 · 17 September 2021]

I so wanted to like this movie. And I did up to a point. The gambling topic and casinos are always an interesting topic to me. Seeing the Martin Scorsese name associated with it, I expected greatness. The movie had an interesting look to it. It did move slowly at times as the main character (William) was a moody, thinker type the entire film. That character trait did add drama to the story because you just didn't know whether he was sane, insane, a good guy, or bad guy. As the storyline progressed, we started seeing the dark, hidden past that haunted him. Where it fell apart for me was the final 15 or so minutes. Time and distance realities seemed to go into fantasyland and the viewer was expected to just accept the unbelievable in order to get to the movie finale. For a serious drama, I found that unacceptable. This movie can be considered a deep thinker movie and I can see some people truly liking the ending. I just felt disappointed and was hoping for a better climax to what was an interesting lead up to it.

(BTW: Blackjack card counting, assuming no devices are used to do it, is not illegal or cheating in the U. S. as someone alluded to in their review. Casinos don't like it because it can hurt their profit margin and if they suspect a person is doing it to their financial success, they can ban them from their privately-owned business property. It would be difficult to prove someone actually is doing it anyway).

Light of My Life (I) (2019)

To be fair, I couldn't get past the first 10-minutes.

[1/10 · 14 January 2020]

Why would a director allow the opening to last as long as it did? I like conversational movies, but they must be interesting. The opening bedtime story as presented by Casey Affleck was horrendous.The story wasn't interesting. It wasn't interesting to watch. Rarely do I turn off a movie, but this one I did. I gave it 10-minutes and switched if off. It gave me the impression of a low-budget movie that did not have much to offer. Nothing wrong with low-budget, but this one did not seem to be going anywhere except low. Maybe I will try it again someday and change my review but this bad first impression is going to take a lot to get over.

Unbelievable (2019)

Excellent

[10/10 · 21 September 2019]

Took a chance on watching and so glad I did. Acting is superb, but very subtle. Plot is intense. You really feel for the young victim and the hardships she endured. I kept reminding myself that this is based on real events. Highly recommended!

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018)

Great movie.

[10/10 · 17 November 2018]

Great scenery. Some humor. A nice surprise. Recommended!

Skybound (2017)

So bad it becomes a comedy

[1/10 · 29 March 2018]

Absolutely one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It got to the point that I actually started to like it because of it being so bad. How others can give it even a 5 star rating and have good comments is a total mystery for me. Wake up people. Watch some good movies.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Was hoping for better

[6/10 · 7 February 2018]

The IMDB Storyline description mentions this as a 'darkly comic drama". Personally I didn't get the 'darkly comic' part. It is a serious topic. Yes, there were a couple comedic moments, like when McDormand's character meets the billboard twenty-something office manager. Or some of the interplay between Mildred and James (Peter Dinklage). But overall, this was a serious movie regarding a serious topic.

I will say it did keep my interest and from that perspective is a good movie. But it also deviated form reality which is where my disappointment came in. It is one thing to go see an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie where you expect reality to be broken and pushed to the ridiculous (think 'Last Stand'). I expect that from Arnold's movies. But this movie started in a serious note and I expected it to remain believable. For examples, it went off track when the former deputy miraculously recovers in what seemed like a day from his burns. Or the African-American sheriff that comes in and takes over. What did he do and what was the point? And then the fact 'someone' burns down the town's police department headquarters and there appears to be no manhunt to find the culprit.

And this movie also included those subtle intrusions of political/social commentary, which seems like the norm now days (e.g., the black replacement sheriff, the dwarf prejudice, the bad-ass female-mother).

So overall, it was interesting but left me hoping for the better that it could have been.

Oh yea, on another note, then there was the ending.....

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

A sleeper (in a bad way)

[3/10 · 18 November 2017]

A real sleeper (literally). Is it fair for me to write a review where I drifted in and out of wakefulness? I think so. Cruise is fine as Jack Reacher. The very beginning of the movie was the best part. The problem with the rest of the movie is the story line was just plain silly. A very typical plot. Bad guys chasing the good guys. Good guys trying to find the answers. Big boring fight scenes. Enough said. At least I feel rested today.

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

Dang kid with his Slurpee.

[7/10 · 18 July 2017]

I guess I enjoyed the movie, although it was a basic revenge movie, just with apes (e.g., DiCaprio's 'The Revenant' comes to mind). The look of the movie was excellent. The apes looked great, and I liked the forest environments. As some other reviewers have pointed out, I am a bit mixed at how us humans are portrayed as violent jerks. Maybe this is accurate. Oh well, it is just a science fiction movie anyways.

My biggest complaint was not with the movie but some under-13-year-old (it is a PG-13 rated movie) who ended up sitting next to my wife and I and had one of those frozen Slurpee drinks. PARENTS, teach your youngsters that you can't keep sucking air on the straw when you are getting towards the end of the drink! It is impolite and rude to others around you. Let the drink melt first. Dang, this kid went on for a half-hour at least. I guess I am just too much of a wimp to yell at some strange kid next to me who was probably around 10-years old. I hope this did not affect my movie rating as it is not the movie's fault for this distraction. But it did distract me enough to miss the part where the Colonel explains to Caesar why he does what he does. Grrrrrr!

A Dog's Purpose (2017)

I wanted to see a nice movie (and I did).

[9/10 · 21 February 2017]

The movie is sappy no doubt, but so what. I wanted to see a nice movie. Especially one where the main actor has the same name as our oldest dog (i.e Bailey. I did not know that going in to see the movie). The re-incarnation plot I am not sure about as I can't say I believe in it. But it did make for a nice story, and afforded us a look into each of the dog's lives and how they are different, and unfortunately not always good. The lowlife couple that left the dog alone and outside the house was disturbing. Overall, it had very touching moments, sad moments, and humorous moments.

I did not see the TMZ piece on this movie, but would doubt any animal abuse was done in this film's making. I don't see any reason for it to occur. Unless one was to call taking repeated scene shots as animal abuse. If that were the case, then the human actors would need to start filing complaints with the film industry also on their own behalf. Bottom line, it was refreshing to see just a nice movie and leave the theater feeling good.

Taking Chance (2009 TV Movie)

Very touching movie.

[10/10 · 28 December 2016]

I was unaware of this movie until the end of 2016 when it appeared on Amazon Prime Video. Kevin Bacon being a great actor, and having done very good movies, I figured let's give it a go. I wasn't sure what to expect regarding the movie plot. I also did not realize it is based on true events. It was very moving, and very eye opening in regards to the respect and tribute given to a fallen soldier. I highly recommend a viewing but will forewarn that it is a sad movie. Nonetheless, it is also sort of inspirational knowing that a fallen soldier is not just passed off with a courtesy call notifying the closet kin. It is the least our government and militia should provide when a tragedy of war does occur.

Amber Alert (2012)

I made it through the end

[5/10 · 3 September 2016]

I watched this via my cable service On-Demand feature; just a random search and watch. On the plus side, I do have to admit that in spite of my hate for the characters, it is one of those movies where once you get hooked you have to watch until the end to see what happens. As I titled this review summary, I did make it through the end. But what an effort that was.

The story premise was not bad. But have I ever hated two characters more in a film than these two main characters? Never. I cannot recall such despise and hatred. The guy was an absolute narcissist in spite of his apparent affections for the female lead. His constant fighting back and lack of concern regarding the situation just grated to where I wanted to reach in the movie and punch the crap out of this dude (in spite of my non-violent nature). As for the female lead, unfortunately I felt likewise although I would never condone violence against a female just because she is stupid. Aaaargh! I have trouble writing this when I think about these two numb-skulls in action.

One last point that I have to criticize is that this movie insults our police forces. I cannot believe they would be as lax as they are portrayed in this movie. While not always perfect, I prefer to think the police response to an Amber Alert situation would merit a much quicker response. Unfortunately the movie premise would not have existed. Maybe that would have been a good thing.