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Movie Reviews, movies

YouTube Movie Review: A Good Woman (2004)

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I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It has a solid cast who give great performances, and the writing is excellent. If you like romance movies, this is a complicated one full of wit, drama, and misunderstandings that’s easy to enjoy. If you are a fan of the 20’s era aesthetic, there is enough in it to satisfy most audiences. If you are only looking for something to watch, I can promise you that you won’t be disappointed.

A Good Woman is about a newlyweds trip to Italy. All seems fine until gossip and desire place a strain on their relationship. The movie focuses on a group of social elites who have too much time on their hands. The overall message isn’t wholly universal, but it does address some important topics. The film is an exploration of the relationship between man and woman. What is acceptable differs based on gender. Men can cheat and have mistresses, while women must accept this fact and hate the mistress. A man can’t be friends with a woman, things of that nature. It doesn’t go deep enough, but at least there is an attempt. This movie is framed as a fantasy, so expect a lot of the lessons learned to be superficial. You can only do so much with out-of-touch characters.

That said, it is a good movie full of lots of witty banter. I recommend it, and you can watch it for free on YouTube.

Watch it Here!
Movie Reviews, movies

Movie Review: I Want You Back (2022)

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Despite what you may think about romantic comedies, “I Want You Back” is one that you should at least consider. Jenny Slate and Charlie Day work spectacularly together! This movie is well-written, well-acted, and delightful at its worst. If you have an Amazon Prime subscription, you need to see this now.

Something to think about before going into this movie is that the characters’ morals are a bit hazy. This movie features two heartbroken characters who find comfort in each other’s company. They have recently gone through a hard breakup and are learning to cope with being alone. This movie does a great job of showing how difficult heartbreak is to overcome. The two plot to help each other break up their ex-partners. This plot is problematic because the main characters are set to ruin relationships and lives for selfish motives. This genre tends to have these problematic immoralities because love makes people do crazy things. In this case, I can excuse it because the journey is well worth the immorality.

The best part about this movie is watching the relationship between the two leads blossom. The chemistry they share is the reason you should watch this movie. The supporting cast is nothing to scoff at. Together they tell a very entertaining story that I must recommend to everyone. As a bonus, this movie has a great musical number. It is beautifully performed and perfectly woven into the plot. I enjoyed it thoroughly. If you have little interest in this movie, that moment is very much worth your time, but it makes more sense in context.

Watch this even if you don’t like the genre. This brings new life to a genre that has been a bit stagnant as of late. It is a nice date night movie, but I would argue that it is a fun anytime movie.

Movie Reviews, movies

Movie Reviews – Cyrano (2021)

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I have never been a huge fan of musicals. This form of storytelling never resonated with me. I will watch them if I have to, but I never actively search for them. Cyrano is the first movie in recent memory that has challenged this view. This movie has dug a special place in my heart; I can’t recommend it enough. The cast is amazing, the music is great, and the choreography is pretty cool. I am saying this with little knowledge of the source material or even much experience in musicals so take my recommendation as you will.

The filmmakers use the setting and the music in a way to properly tell a tragic story that will keep the audience engaged till the very end. The charisma Peter Dinklage brings to the table is intoxicating. The charisma between the characters is palpable. If you are not in tears in love with these characters by the end of this movie, we didn’t watch the same thing.

I suggest you watch this in theaters. The music in this movie is amazing, but you need a proper sound system to experience it as is intended. It is in theaters in February. Go check it out!

Movie Reviews, movies

YouTube Movie Reviews: Just Friends

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As far as Romantic Comedies go, you can’t go wrong with “Just Friends.” It is a light-hearted story about a guy trying to win over a girl he was in love with in high school. You have a charming Ryan Reynolds, a crazy Anna Faris, and one of the best ending credits scene out of any movie. I recommend this movie if you like Romantic Comedies. Heck, I even recommend this if you aren’t because it has a certain charm that I believe anyone can enjoy.

My only issue with the movie is the idea of the friend zone. The friend zone is such a gross concept because it suggests that women are prizes to be won. They aren’t, and I think this movie does a great job dealing with this issue by showing the audience that the feelings of love didn’t materialize because Ryan Reynolds won, but rather that the feelings always existed. The love interest in this movie is still a bit one-dimensional, but she is not as bad as others in the genre.

If you are looking for a movie to watch on your next date night, or just browsing for something to watch, you can’t go wrong with this. You can watch it on Netflix and it is also free on YouTube.

Watch it Here!
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New to Town (2009) Review – A love story they should have told better

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I will not sit here and try to sell you on a movie that is mediocre at best. The plot is generic and contrived and there is no chemistry between the main characters. It is hard to watch a love story about two people who only seem to only tolerate each other. The movie does try to address some deep issues like how corporate America can ruin small rural towns, but it does not go deep enough. It shouldn’t, it is a rom com, but these scenes are more thought out and impressive than the romantic plot that seems to be thrown in there out of necessity.

The biggest problem with this movie is the pacing. They mix so many plots that they leave very little time to flesh any of them out fully. When she shifts from hating the town to wanting to save it seems to come almost out of nowhere because it is so sudden. I wish they would have abandoned the romance plot, that being the weakest in the movie. I wish movies like this would stop defining woman’s happiness by their relationship with me and instead focus on the deeper non-romantic connections they could make. If you take out the romance plot from this movie, it could turn into a heartwarming film about a woman who wants to save a town because of the friendships she has made in the process.

I would argue that it is the relationship that Blanche forges with Lucy that ultimately saves the town. The character Blanche is the only reason why I enjoyed this movie as much as I did. I Stopped following Lucy’s narrative early on because she is a generic character. Instead, I chose to follow Blanche closely. Blanche starts out the movie as this almost overbearing presence. She doesn’t stop talking and she is always inserting herself into Lucy’s life. But as the movie progresses it’s clear that Blanche is going out of her way to make sure Lucy feels welcomed in her town. I believe that her motives are altruistic and Blanche’s kindness is indeed genuine. This overbearing presence she has slowly becomes normal and scenes without her seem lifeless. I think the film does a great job at showing this progression of from annoying to friendly not only for Lucy, but for the audience as well. I think this friendship was the most important aspect of this films plot and I wish they developed it a lot more.  

My main issue with this movie is the love interest. They could have dropped him from the movie and it would not have changed the plot. He has such little impact in this movie that I forget his name. Instead, they should have taken more time to develop Lucy’s relationship with the town. They could have shown her slowly building a rapport with the townspeople and maybe even start developing a routine. They could have shown her going into a shop and the owner knows her by name and what she likes to order. I would have rather seen a heartwarming scene between Blanche and Lucy instead of the messy fight she has in the factory with the workers. This movie should have been more about her relationship with the town and factory.

If you are looking for a good romantic comedy, you have already seen better. Go watch those instead. If you are looking for a dumb movie to put in the background while you do chores, this is a valid choice. It could make a fun date night movie, the plot is simple and you do not need to pay attention to the movie to get the gist. There are worse ways to spend an hour and some change, but you probably won’t remember watching this movie.

Movie Reviews

The Greatest Showman (2017) Review

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Recently re-watching The Greatest Showman I can say that this is one of those movies that you can only see once. The first time watching it, I was mesmerized by all the pageantry, the singing, although the plot still leaves me unimpressed. The plot follows a young boy who grows up poor that falls in love with a girl who is a different social class. Because of his own status, it makes this love one that is frowned upon and now Hugh Jackman makes it his life’s goal to become a man that is worthy of his love’s affection. To do this, Hugh Jackman’s character gathers a group of “misfits” and creates a show of oddities. A circus if you will. But, as he becomes more successful and is no longer poor, he is never fully accepted by high society. This need for acceptance becomes an obsession for Hugh Jackman’s character and we get to watch as his motives are no longer to earn the affection of the woman he loves, which he has from the beginning of the movie, but rather to gain acceptance in a society that he doesn’t really want to be a part of. Because of his obsession, he ends up forgetting why he started the show in the first place and hurts the only people that had faith in him.

As plots go, you aren’t watching this movie for the plot. You are watching it for the singing, so I will excuse all the holes and some of the bad dialogue in this film. And as far as the singing goes, I have seen way worse musicals. The issue is that on second viewing, this movie lost all its charm and I was bored with it. Maybe it was watching it on a smaller screen with weaker speakers, but it didn’t hold the magic that I remembered it having when I watched it first.

I wish that they had gone a little more over the top in this film and not try to be as serious. I wish that they didn’t use so much CGI in this film. And I wish that Hugh Jackman’s character wasn’t such a dick. I get it, the premise was clear, but I didn’t spend enough time with his character to forgive him being a dick when he turns into one. My biggest issue is how quickly all of the drama in the this film is solved. Again, I can excuse this because of the genre of the film but it doesn’t change the fact that this is one of those movies that you can only view once or twice. I don’t see this movie having a long shelf life like other films of the genre because the story and the songs aren’t extremely memorable. Maybe I am not the target audience, maybe I don’t know enough music to fully appreciate it but I couldn’t get into it the second time around.

If you haven’t seen it, I recommend watching it. It’s a good sit the first time around. If you have already seen it, you should know where you stand. Check it out.

 

Movie Reviews

The Package (2018) Review

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The Package is a raunchy buddy comedy that comes to us from our good friends at Netflix. As far as plots go, this movie doesn’t have one. The premise is simple enough, a group of friends go into woods for a camping trip and one of them cuts off his dick. The rest of the movie involves shenanigans as they the group of friends try to reunite the penis with its owner.

If you are looking for a movie that is engaging and with a narrative, look elsewhere. This movie feels like a series of improvised skits edited together. They do not feel natural and almost seem improvised. The dialogue is iffy in this film. Sometimes you will get decent banter, but most of the time it was unnatural, forced, and awkward, almost as if there was no script. At least not a good one.

As a comedy, it doesn’t always work. The jokes are easy and a lot of the time I knew the punch line to the joke before it was even set up. The movie spends more time trying to gross you out and make you uncomfortable that I at least lost interest a lot of the time. You will see a lot of penis. That being said, I had a couple laughs out of this, so it isn’t a terrible comedy, I just wouldn’t recommend watching this sober.

Because of the genre, every scene must involve the group and shenanigans. This becomes forced as they just move from one mishap to the next. There is no plot, there is no story, just a bunch of slap stick. There also is no character development. There is no growth and all the characters end up where they started in the movie, but this time with girlfriends. I can’t tell you a single name from memory because they were so generic and bland.

Overall, I wouldn’t recommend this movie. Although not terrible, it is one of those movies you will forget you watched. Even if you do watch it and enjoy it the first time through, the film loses the little charm it has the second time around. As far as Netflix releases go, this is not the worst one by any means. But it does feel like a Netflix film. Cheap, easy, and forgettable. At least this one wasn’t offensive.

Final score, I give this a 4 out of 10. It wasn’t bad to sit through, but I wouldn’t watch it again.

Movie Reviews

Blended (2014)

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Blended (2014) is another romantic comedy brought to us by our friends at Happy Madison. Now this is a movie that was made so that Adam Sandler and his friends can take a vacation in Africa. You can tell because of the weak plot, the lazy writing, and the scenes looked like they were taken during their breaks from their vacation. That being said, as far as Adam Sandler movies go, you can do worse.

                The plot is simple enough, a seemingly mismatch couple meet and through some sort of quest find out that they are meant for each other. It doesn’t get any more generic than that. The movie starts off with the couple on their first date, and it is a bad one. We learn that each is a single parent struggling to fill both rolls. As they try to struggle between being good parents and their careers they find that they keep running each other. There are scenes where the Adam Sandler struggles to fill the roll of the mother and doesn’t know how to deal with some of the issues his girls face, suggesting the need for a new mother. This is superimposed with Drew Barrymore’s character struggling to do the same but with her boys. Maybe what they are missing is each other?

This movie tries too hard to show that this couple should be together. They own the same car and they both like their coffee with no cream and some sugar. If that isn’t love, I don’t know what is. Despite despising each other, Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore keep running into each other until they stumble upon the trip to Africa that would change their lives forever. Not only becoming a real family but also learning to love again.

                As generic and simple as this movie is, you can do way worse. I did get a few laughs from it so if you have nothing better to do, I’d say go for it. The plot does have some holes, but it’s a movie that was filmed from a vacation, so you shouldn’t expect too much. Of course, not all of the jokes land and I wouldn’t say it is a must see, but you can at the very least put it on as background noise.

                Overall, I wouldn’t say I’d recommend it as it is really generic, and the plot has been done better in other movies. I’d say, if you are looking for something to watch and have nothing better to do, go for it. This movie won’t hold and in fact I’ve already forgotten most of what happened in it already. It won’t win any awards, but you can do worse. 4/10.

Movie Reviews

The Kissing Booth (2018) Review

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The Kissing Booth (2018) is a Netflix original, written and directed by Vince Marcello. The film is based on the novel Beth Reekles. The plot is about two teens that are best friends. It doesn’t get any deeper than that. The main characters, Elle and Lee, are born on the same day and they are best friends because their moms were best friends. Lee has a dreamy older brother, Noah, whose only characteristic is that he is dreamy. Since this is a high school drama, well prep school, of course the dorky main girl instantly falls in love with Noah. You can clearly tell from the opening montage that Elle’s love for Noah is merited by his good looks and…that’s about it. And there is something about rules Elle and Lee make up as kids. They have multiple rules that they quickly gloss over because they aren’t important, but the one they do constantly remind you is that Elle can’t go out with Noah.

The rest of the movie revolves around annoying high school drama, if you could call it that, and their genius plot to make money for the school by hosting a kissing booth. If you are wondering why the movie is named after this plot point, it doesn’t matter. As much as the movie attempts to help you make the connection and symbolism of the kissing booth, and they try way too hard, it doesn’t matter enough to name the movie after it. Maybe the book did a better job creating this connection, but for the plot, as generic as it is, it doesn’t matter.

So the main character Elle, who if you don’t hate her by minute 13 you will learn to, is tasked with organizing the kissing booth and even get Noah and the popular girls to participate. Then there is more high school stuff that doesn’t matter until finally the day of the fundraiser. The kissing booth is a success, maybe that is why it is the name sake? And Elle ends up kissing Noah without knowing. The rest of the movie becomes annoying couple stuff where the two try to keep their relationship a secret and you get to see their love grow as they just bang. It’s a generic high school drama, you know how it goes.

This film is dull. The main characters are such bad people that I stopped caring about them instantly. Noah is hyperbolically perfect to the point where he isn’t even real and this all feels like a dream of some awkward girl. But I’ll give them credit. The awkward scenes are extremely awkward. Other than that, it was too generic to hold your attention. They try to fake you out a couple times where you believe that the two best friends would end up together, and I would have probably like it better if they did because Lee was a little more real than his brother, but they don’t, and you end up hating yourself for sitting through so much of this film. At an hour in I couldn’t believe I had made it this far.

My favorite part of the film is the ending credit scenes. They had such confidence in their final product that they believed people would stay till the end. I only made it that far because I had to, and the credit scenes are awkward and unimportant. They aren’t even bloopers, it is just awkward scenes of the actors being “silly” and at that point I just turned it off.

This isn’t worth your time. The side characters are forgettable. The plot isn’t good. The acting is ok but the concept doesn’t help in the slightest. I didn’t care about this movie. Maybe it’s because I’m not the target audience but it did a poor job grabbing and holding my attention. Netflix needs to stop spreading itself so wide and focus on making more quality content, as of now it is becoming the “strait to VHS” bargain bin crap you skip at Walmart. I’d say skip this and watch something else. Final verdict: 3 out of 10.