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The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
Forget the challenging Philosophy you used to know
The original films were about challenging reality, drawing heavily on philosophy, but this film was just a (spoilers ahead) love story. That's it, just Neo rescuing Trinity because they got caught. No real Morpheus--a new fake, no real antagonist--Hugo Weaving replaced by actors I guess they didn't have to pay much. And as precious as Doogie Howser is in everything he does, he's far too cheesy a villain. He should stick to musicals. No real plot, no real challenge to the establishment, or the mind. Just a way to reboot the franchise to those who were in diapers when the originals were made. # boring.
Dracula (2020)
Moffat Ruins A Classic, Yet Again. News at 6
Steven Moffat ruins an entire novel, series, anything placed before him etc... , yet again. Though the first two seasons start off over done, over-gore and orgy-sexualized, yet completely void of intimacy, but still intriguing, the third season is what kills this show. (spoilers only in the next sentence:) I ended my viewing once the beleaguered Mycroft Holmes...no wait... Renfield lawyer entered a sealed scientific laboratory to get the serial killer out. Because let's face it, Moffat likes his sociopathic, intellectual serial killers on top. I'm tired of the "I ran into a psychopathic lover once" story lines that have to be re-written, over and over (Dr Who, Sherlock, now Dracula) as if the writer is eternally re-examing their own personal loss, and what perpetuated it, to us, the audience, ad infinitum.
Long gone are the days when any story line flowed smoothly and logically whenever Moffat's in control. For sure he wants to show his seemingly intellectual prowess by creating over-baked, over-thinking, hyper-sexualized male characters out of what was asexually and intellectually based 18th or 19th (Dr Who) century creations.
It's noble to try to bring these creatures into a modern existence, however, in realizing that the sexual revolution sexualized everything--not every lead character needs to sleep with everyone else, and be over dramatic, and whiny, but attempt to be portrayed as some sort of sociopathic intellectual superior to his fellow man/alien--Dr. Who, Sherlock, and now our poor Stoker's Nosferatu.
Moffat again exploits naturally flowing story lines, in favor of his own agendas, and puts forth ideological assumptions that his audience, much like the "human other" to the characters of Dr Who, Sherlock, and now Dracula, are intellectually inferior to himself, and how he wants the story told. He still believes that the intellect of his viewers is non-comprehensive enough that we would "buy" his force fed characters and story lines, out of a tragic psychology of the misunderstood creeper genius. We can see this for ourselves in such films as 'Twilight," and even Victorian Tragedies like "Wuthering Heights." We're tired of the misunderstood hateful man child the strong female has to save, only to wind up being abused herself, or killed, in the end. The sociopathic outsider who just needs to be loved to be fixed story line is sickeningly over done. It went out of style ages ago.
This series is tragedy itself, Not tragedy, as Shakespeare's form was brilliant, but simply the tragedy of a director/producer with an agenda, and not the gift of natural story telling. Yes, where Shakespeare will be known for comedy and tragedy, Moffat will forever be known as simply, "tragic."
Another Life (2019)
Space Garbage 101
Did they have monkey's sitting at type writers writing this?!... No...that would insult the monkeys. From the start of the first episode, you come to understand that whomever put the 20 year old, sex starved, inappropriate, narcissistic, childish crew together must have been smoking the crack.
NO government ever would hire a bunch of self-aggrandizing 20 year old actors, in skimply clothes, and perfect makeup, to go into space. Don't get me wrong, the "Actors Workshop" has it's place. Stage plays have their place. But please, do not even try to confuse sci fi with some modern play where everyone has to wear matching magenta sweaters, and 80's cargo pants, and boho scarves. I mean, first of all, who the fudge hired actors to play in sci fi, who should NEVER be cast in sci-fi. It feels like this is little L.A. on screen. "Lookit me, lookit my makeup and my Alexander Mc Queen heels, look, I'm in space, oh, and I can have intimate relations with everyone.
This is not real sci fi. This is, in no way, how any government agent, or military trained being would act--anywhere in the universe. The whole cast and crew are stupid as crap. They make the same dumb mistakes over and over again, and it's like they took "housemates from hip LA" and threw them all in space together.
This is literally the dumbest tripe I've had to sit through, ever... and the anthropologist hired to decode the giant alien crystal can't even do his job--yes, I meant both acting, AND solving the riddle. Instead, he puts it all out in public and then gets told by his commanding officer that he'll be jailed ONLY if no one else can solve the puzzle, and then some boat-swamp dude solves the puzzle?!...
DO NOT WASTE YOUR LIFE ON THIS SHOW--watch real Trek, go to a convention, hug a bear, crap on your lawn, do anything else but watch this crap. What WERE the actors "smoking" when they agreed to be cast in this crap?!?
The Exorcism of Molly Hartley (2015)
One of the Worst Horror movies ever. I mean...ever.
This movie was horrible, but hilarious. If the writers had just taken a few steps further into the "ether of hilarity" they could have wound up with the "Evil Dead," instead of this tripe. The sheer lack of knowledge that any of these writer's actually has about the Catholic church or demons makes it funny to begin with.
For starters, no priest would be cast out because the host died during an exorcism. He wouldn't be sent to jail, or prison, or hell--lol. Secondly, an upside down cross in Catholicism actually means you follow St. Stephen the martyr, who was crucified upside down out of reverence for Christ's crucifixion, there's actually nothing Satanic at all about an upside down cross. I could go on with all the terrible plot holes and plot writing in this film, but really, it would take me five hours and five pages to write it all down.
Just don't bother with this film, as the acting is as terrible as the writing. What kind of cops actually show up 8 hours AFTER someone called to say that screaming was heard in the apartment? What girl, having just committed mass murder of two dear friends, is just gently escorted into an asylum with no serious restraint? No demon is going to say, "hey baby, want to have intercourse" while it's in a host body that's all slimy and puked on etc... Give Satan a little credit for taste, at least.
If these producers had just bothered to take the stupidity of this movie and turn it into "hilarity" by tweaking the lines a little (not even that much) they could have had an excellent horror-comedy on their hands. That I would have loved to watch, but this film is laughable only because it's just that terrible. Save your $, don't watch this piece of tripe.
Uncanny (2015)
Better than "Ex Machina" by several Petabyte's
This was more amazing than "Ex Machina." The story line was intense and illustrates the perils of our human race rapidly evolving toward sentient cyber life. *SPOILERS--Do NOT read ahead if you have not yet watched the movie* Spoiler ALERT, Spoiler ALERT!!! Rainn Wilson's character was brilliant and vile. It was harrowing to watch the last few scenes of the movie and the almost psychopathic rendering of the antagonist was amazing. Plot twist was somewhat expected, but not to the extent it was carried out, and the lack of moral compass that it unveiled in those who would use technology, and people, and emotions, at all costs. Loved it.
School Spirits (2011)
Totally fake, and I think the writer was a teen horror novelist before this junk.
This is the most terrible show of all the "ghost shows" out there. I know they are trying to tag teen girls into these shows, by the very subject matter, but it's so horribly written. I'm pretty sure the writer was a teen horror writer before writing these "screenplays" for this TV show.
First of all (*SPOILER ALERT*) NO self respecting mother is going to go down into the basement of the sorority house her daughter lives in, and when she sees a mans face down there, doesn't call the police AND then okays her daughter still living there. I knew it was fake after I saw the first episode.
The stories are supposed to be based on real events, no people, listen to me, this is from a writer. It's terrible writing too. Also equally horrible acting--everyone in this is an actor. Do not waste two minutes of your life on this show because you will regret it. If they had started this show and called it, "A novelist tells you fake ghost stories from college campuses around the world..." Then I would probably watch it because that description would, in the very least, be honest.
Hannibal (2013)
Why Mads Mikkelson plays the most effective "Hannibal Lecter" to date
I'm a HUGE fan of Thomas Harris' novel's "Red Dragon," "Silence of the Lambs," and "Hannibal." I'm also a desperate fan of the movies.
In "Silence of the Lambs," we follow a young FBI trainee (enter our Miss Marple) as she tries to solve a gruesome series of Serial Killings by a killer known as "Buffalo Bill," because he "skins young women's hides." During the course of this two hour thriller. We are introduced to the character of Hannibal Lecter, a one time surgeon/doctor and trained psychiatrist who ate his patients. Because he decided to make pate a foie gras out of clientele we get to see him behind cold glass. We are introduced to Dr. Lecter through a series of epithets from other characters, characters that tell Clarice Starling, "You don't wantHannibal in your head," and "He once ate a nurse's face off..." Through a series of well-played, subtle interactions between Starling and Lecter, including amazing facial acting and intonation from both Hopkins and Foster, we come to see how dark and deep this Dr. really goes--but here's the problem--Hopkin's Lecter goes a leetle bit over the top at being truly "creepy." I mean, you have a Serial killer here, who eats people, that's creepy enough--but he hisses, and slurs words and overacts just a "wee" bit. To the trained eye, you can pick it up. Hopkins comes off sometimes subtly as more of a "mad man" than a psychopath. One could make the argument that Hopkin's version of Lecter is doing a "mad man" performance for Clarice Starling- However the real Lecter would consider that beneath him. In the movie "Hannibal Rising" we get the same type of Lecter from actor Gaspard Ulliel.
Currently-to-date in 2013 enter a new Show on NBC, Thursday nights, 10,9 central, and it's definitely not for children, or the faint of heart. Here, we have Mads Mikkelson, a Danish actor, well known for playing an Antagonist to James Bond, Le Chiffre, in Casino Royale, 2006, Metro- Goldwyn-Mayor. The new show follows the follies, foibles, and amazing abilities of Will Graham in the first novel, "Red Dragon." Hugh Dancy's amazing portrayal of natural empath Will Graham, plays a very stark contrast, with Graham's own moral compass aggravated by his ability to completely connect with a killer and their motives, or lack thereof. This creates an amazing dimension between a character with true moral and conscious depth against how Mikkelson is portraying Hannibal Lecter- -as a pure psychopath.
Mikkelson has put a slightly different spin on the character of Hannibal Lecter, and I like it a lot, and I think audiences will too. You can see it in the way he is exceptionally subtle with all affect and outward emotion. He is distanced, he is predatory, and he has no affect. It is as if Mr. Mikkelson is portraying the character from the side of someone who has studied psychopathy all their life. We don't see a brutal "madman" at all in his character. We see cold, studied, calculated death in human form. And here's the other amazing thing Mikkelson does with the character, he only "subtly" reacts with a very slight smile, or upturned lip, when someone complements his abilities as a killer or an artist. Mikkelson also only subtly reacts with a slight grimace when someone is onto him. It is as if this actor has subtle nuances down to a science, and as if he knows, instinctively that a psychopath would not portray himself a "mad" man, but rather a complete and total gentleman, complete with suit, tie, cleanliness, and disturbingly amazing culinary artistry. Mads gives audiences what they've been lacking--a true "Satan" of a character, in his portrayal of Hannibal. I cannot wait to see where the producers take this series. Thank you for giving us a truly frightening version of the darkest serial killer in modern crime novels.
A Haunting in Salem (2011)
Pretty Bad Film, Absolutely hideously ugly main actor...and dumb, boring plot line
I will save you a lot of time: DO NOT watch this film. Wasted 2 hours of my life. I have loved horror movies since I was a child, but the main character in this "joke de cinema" has to be the ugliest actor working cinema, and they have you believe he is married to the hottest wife ever, who actually wants to curl up with him and flirts with him in the bedroom. I do believe I vomited no less than 3 times. His acting was dull, and everyone else seemed to convey something akin to the worst acting and inappropriate facial/bodily emotions throughout the film. Think: mixture of William Shatner's bad acting classes with "Kristen Stewart's inappropriate emotion/lack of emotion Theatre workshops." It was THAT bad. They could find a better looking main character. For craps sake, hire Stephen Hawking--at least he'd have a wider range of emotions, even in his computerized voice, than this guy did...also, at least he's brilliant and looks better than the main character. Yuck... 2 thumbs down and -2 stars.