One Sentence Media Reviews
Deeply conflicted about this film, it’s quite clever, the casting, acting, dialogue, music, cinematography all top notch, I just don’t think the setting ever really connects with any of the rest of it; rather than a beautiful dark comedy set in the end of ww2 in germany it ends up feeling like a movie about the end of ww2 in germany, and also whoops someone turned up the “dark comedy” and “sentimental” dial really high but we’re not sure why.
Like most leadership self help books, this one is repetitive and under-nuanced, but on the other hand it’s about a nuclear submarine which is cool, and the concept of leading by helping your organization lead themselves is fun.
Decent action scenes, good casting, boring and obvious plot, real tear-jerker of an ending (I mean I didn’t actually cry but the vibe was there).
This is a light + serious christmas movie that seems designed entirely to give paul giamatti room to have fun being mr super character actor, and while it wasn’t exactly interesting to me, i can’t fault the good folk music and chill vibes.
This highly detailed, very contemporary account of the MAGA movement's takeover of the republican party will probably not retain its relevance as time passes, but at this moment it's super useful to see the machinations that lead to rising populism within a political party in piercing detail; I took away a few deep thoughts around people, intelligence, this country, its origins, but most entertaining from this read are descriptions of Georgia republicans fighting over how to vote in their own internal meetings so that they can elect new MAGA members so that they can fix voting at the national elections.
Strong sci-fi feast for the eyes, better than part one, tons of action, but above all, fantastic art direction for the bad guys (the harkonnens), like if the italian futurists took over russia and then found merged with the evil empire from chronicles of riddick.
I love a good space adventure but this one spends far too long on intros and character development and then runs out of time and budget for the exciting adventure bits.
Beautifully and cleverly shot, full of that mid 70s grit and verve that I love so much, but also deep, confusing, moving, with a couple very strong characters - this bizarro-detective film noir story should be famous!
The missed potential here hurts so much because if this movie had had dialogue/plot as absurd and huge and overdone as the premise and vfx, it would have been unstoppably cool - but instead we got shmaltzy focus-grouped generic pablum, probably chosen by committee, in place of interesting plot and dialogue.
Altho it’s sorta funny they didn’t manage to get this movie out on the centennial of its titular date, it is a pretty effective war story with a very technically interesting “one shot” technique that adds a bit of glamor to the whole situation.
Ingraham is at his best describing the minutiae of his move to Minnesota with his family, the little details that form a community are engaging and funny, but he’s at his worst bloviating in self-contradictory generalities, platitudes, and theories about modern america.
I think when this came out in the mid eighties it was probably refreshing and interesting; decades later, so much of the stuff in here has become standard operating procedure that the book itself feels almost remedial, altho on the other hand, getting back to the source can be fun for historical reasons too.
Absurd, fast-paced, crisp dialogue, excellent music, completely ridiculous, and overall just great to watch some young actors really stretch out and shine.
Big transitions are often really uncomfortable, and here Jeffrey Wright takes us thru a piece of the African American cultural transition from chattel slavery to [whatever you want to call what our society is doing now] in respectively uncomfortable fashion, and it works - it’s fairly funny, but also pointed and critical, with good music and acting throughout.
I guess I enjoyed this Alien rip-off altho it really was pretty derivative and only about half as deep or fun (altho tangentially, it is quite fun to pretend that everything jake gyllenhaal is in is just a donnie darko sequel).
I think you’ll like this movie if you like dramatic dialogue-driven money talk, it’s like glengarry glen ross but for hedge funds, and it’s pretty deftly done.
Criminally underrated - I hadn’t even heard of Bulworth until I looked up the origins of Pras’s “Ghetto Supastar” (made for the movie!!), and I may be a sucker for a political outsider fantasy play, but I laughed so hard, I thought all the racial commentary was way ahead of its time, and the cast (esp Halle Berry and Don Cheadle but really everyone) are masterful.
It’s cool that this ever got made, considering how infrequently we see a big budget movie this different and bold - so while it is disturbingly violent, with bafflingly bad music choices, and even tho the themes (growing up, journalism) have little to do with the ostensible plot (american civil war), I have to applaud the acting, the visuals, the vision, and the spectacle.
This - what is it, soft sci-fi romance adventure - damn book was the worst kind of bad because it was fast paced and fun enough to be hard to put down while being totally derivative, not really interesting, and mostly annoying.
I can see why this crime/revenge thriller got decent critical reviews but real people disliked it - interesting premise, guy takes revenge on the killers and the legal system involved in not bringing them to justice, do you support the revenge superhero murderer or the narcissistic prosecutor, but the movie really goes slapstick by the last third and bungles the landing pretty badly.
It had potential to be a fun jason bourne style dumb action comedy but quickly devolved into idiot plot.
I don’t know why I watched this… as a dumb background action comedy it works fine, which i guess is what i needed, but as entertainment it’s pretty uncreative.