One Sentence Media Reviews
Aubrey Plaza as a serious actor is a little off-putting at first but it’s like sandler in uncut gems it turns out she can do it, and do it well, and altho this crime drama caper is stressful the whole way thru it’s also smart, and deep, and full of sharp social commentary.
Fun seeing all the young stars (especially my fav forest whitaker) and fun following along with their hijinks; early 80s representations of high schooler sex lives are fairly horrifying so be warned; overall was worth a revisit.
Considering how bad sequels usually are, I’m as surprised as everyone else to admit that this was a lot of fun - my one complaint is that a bunch of the dialogue from the first half was really obvious and throwaway, and more importantly my other complaint is that there are too many characters and they don’t get developed to any depth, so altho I do think that’s gonna be enough to keep this movie from achieving the cult status of its forebear, the practical effects and acting were really lovely.
I really appreciated this lengthy history of Magellan for its no-nonsense attention to detail, its use of primary sources, and its great readability and the excitement of its story; I’m glad to have filled in my mental picture of the early 1500s and I enjoyed it the whole way.
Serviceable entertainment for non star trek fans, heavy on the VFX and crappy costumes, somehow pretty fun anyway.
It’s probably just because I’m tired and faceblind, but this movie felt like a pastiche of barely-connected vignettes about spies, building up to a barely noticeable climax, which is funny because I loved the book and I think the movie faithfully captures le carré’s class and subtlety.
Didn’t know much about this classic sci-fi series going into it, and at first I was asking myself if this book influenced star trek or vice versa, but about halfway thru it turns up the difficulty, intensity, and depth significantly and just never looks back, it honestly ends up being a very satisfying novel, transcends its genre with ease, really just an all-round winner.