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Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
This is just plain awful
Ther are so many reasons on so many levels why this movie is terrible, I will give just a few reasons. Casting is the first. None of the leads seems to fit the parts they are cast to play. Donald Glover is the worst. Why Woody Harrelson? None of the actors had the humor or gravitas to carry their portrayals to a level of acting above a bad episode of Xena Warrior Princess. Chemistry between leads was pathetic. Villains lacked menace. Attempts at humor were lost in poor line delivery. Camerawork and color correction were disastrous. To say this film was bleak is an understatement. It was a brownish gray excremental mess. A 4K copy only reveals this more. I have never had a more unpleasant 4K watching experience. Hair and costumes looked like they were borrowed from a lot of other movies. There was a pony tail style on one of the female leads that looked like it was straight out of a stage production of Grease. Childish Gambino's Hawaian shirt was also a poor choice. There was also no sense of spectacle like in the other Star Wars movies. When there was a potentially interesting large set piece it was usually stripped of its impact with the extemely bleached out color correction. Obviously Ron Howard was a very very poor choice to direct this franchise. When you do not care about the characters at all, why bother? I could go on and on, but that would be wasting an enormous amount of time. The important thing is that you do not waste your time and money watching it. It does nothing to further the Star Wars canon unless you are an idiot fan boy who will watch anything and everything and have no sense of what a good film can be.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Disappointing at best
I admit I was not pleased when I heard about this project but I hoped for the best. Then the preview looked really boring and tedious. Watching the final film, I saw that it could actually be cut down to about 45 minutes. There are scenes that needlessly take forever. The look of the film was exceedingly disappointing. Too much dusty haze in different colors. The art direction made the original one of the most influential film in Fashion, Art, and Interior Design of the eighties. In this movie it is just a boring display of a lot of oversimplified flat surfaces. The grotty and baroque kitschy qualities of the original's vision are no where to be found. The old live action version of Cashern is a much more interesting watch than this. The clothes of this movie were abysmally simple like a bad Donatella Versace Collection. The hooker's outfit was even a pathetic knockoff of the the original Tris. I was so irritated on so many levels. The large set pieces of nudes reminded me of a bad homage to AI by Spielberg. Dramatic pacing was non existent. Casting was rather dubious with pretty boy Jared Leto's usual kinky villain not really working very well. Robin Wright was a complete bore. The critics who loved this must be a clueless bunch of SciFi fanboys. Aside from money, was there any good reason to make this thing?
Blade Runner (1982)
The 4K Version is atrocious
This film is a masterwork of science fiction. It deserves a better 4K presentation than the one produced recently. I got a digital download and was supremely disappointed by the horribly grainy overly polarized bleached out image. I know it is not my equipment because I have other 4K downloads and discs that are stunningly beautiful. This version is on a par with the disastrous Bluray version of The King and I (which includes a gorgeous digital HD download that points out all the flaws of the disc) Wait to buy it when someone actually takes the time to remaster it properly for 4K and not rush it out to coincide with the release of a bad sequel. I also have the five disc, five version set on Bluray. It shows how Scott has trouble knowing what the final version should be. It is advisedly a much better purchase. I remember seeing this film when it first came out and this 4K is a pathetic grainy shadow of the beautiful 70mm print I saw in the early 80s.
Interstellar (2014)
I tried but it failed, boringly
So much of this film is so mediocre on so many levels that even though my young film nut friends recommended it highly, I could not muster any enthusiasm for it. I had trouble just getting through it. Maybe it was the lack of originality. When you see lighting, camera setups and set pieces borrowed from other movies you could think homage, but this piece demands complete innovation. The acting was tedious. Maybe it was the casting of a big name Hollywood bore in the lead. Maybe it was because the music was so drab and ponderous. Hans Zimmer is over used but not particularly gifted. Maybe the visuals were OK, but I did notice a space ship or two that were a little too optically printed. This movie would have benefited greatly by being created exclusively in the digital realm. Christopher Nolan's pretentious use of dead pixel film grain make the image lose intensity at times. What made 2001 a marvel in its time (also the film that this film tries to elaborate on), was the extreme precision of its image. Stanley Kubrick used the then state of the art 70mm Super Panavision and the best lenses that he could borrow or steal. In this present era 8k imaging would have helped this film attain a much finer quality that would made its other faults almost bearable. If you want to see better "end of the world as we know it" films, there are a great number of them that are either ludicrously fun or serious and inventive. They are a pleasure to watch compared to this tedious mess of environmentalist propaganda. If Christopher Nolan wants to keep remaking other peoples films, great. I just don't think he deserves the bloated praise some people are giving him for his efforts. I love movies about science fiction, fantasy, outer space travel and special effects. I have enjoyed movies like Pacific Rim, Kickass, Star Trek and even Avatar with its bizarre messages. Call me a troll or a hater, but I was very disappointed with this thing.
Cuatro lunas (2014)
Why can't the Gay Films in the U.S be this good?
It amazes me with all the talent and money in Hollywood that Gay films are generally so lousy. Except for a couple of films like GBF and The Geography Club there have been almost no good gay films in the past year or so. There are big director pretentious movies like Philadelphia or Broke Back Mountain in the past, but we need something more real and less hysterically depressing. This film is sweetly wonderful and true to life. Watching is like hearing the stories of people I have known. The well chosen actors give beautiful performances. The story telling is almost perfect. Chemistry between the leads is excellent and believable. When someone starts talking up an American gay director who makes a lot of product that isn't very good and acts like people should settle for it, I would rather read subtitles and see a movie of this caliber instead. Some of the very best Gay films are coming from outside of our borders where gifted directors are making very good films without huge budgets or overpaid actors. I have seen some excellent Gay films this year, none of them come from Hollywood.
Plan B (2009)
You really need to watch it a number times
This small film with a microscopic budget has a few flaws, but after a number of viewings, you see everything it has to offer. Very romantic and emotionally gratifying, it is a film of subtlety and minimalism. Moving very slowly, the main characters grow towards each other and become quite intimate. Certain scenes have a more intense effect with each successive watching. It explains that being gay is about who you love and not who you just have sex with. Needless to say I really like this film and it is now one of my favorite gay films. No heavy message, it just tells a story about how two ordinary unpretentious people fall in love. That can be very rewarding in itself. So many gay films are such drivel trying to be cute and precious like a typically bad episode of Will and Grace that its nice to see something realistic and intelligent. I recommend it along with Wilby Wonderful and Patrik 1.5.