This movie is awesome. I honestly haven't seen another film quite like it. I enjoyed the Frankenstein elements, the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland elements, the Wednesday Adams influences, the Scissorhands influences, and the black-and-white beginning that reminds me of Lynch's absurdist Eraserhead, among other influences.
Despite these influences, it's hardly derivative. I found it brilliant and novel. It makes me want to find out more about the book that the movie is based on.
I hoped they would save God(win's) brain by placing his brain into the awful husband's body, but maybe God(win) wouldn't have wanted it.
I already watched it twice and I might rewatch it a third time. I noticed that upon rewatching it, everything is so much less weird. I know what to expect now. It was so strange the first time that it felt like a fever dream or something.
I guessed the ending before it happened, but I still mostly enjoyed the film.
Spoiler:
It grinds my gears a little when a movie pretends someone dies instantly from a single gunshot wound. Sorry for the macabre topic, but I've seen quite a bit of footage of real gunshot victims, and they lie awake in agony for minutes most of the time. Hardly any of them die quickly and peacefully. Frankly, I think it's lazy and wimpy writing when the filmmakers skip over the reality of gunshot wounds. Perhaps they want to show other things than trauma. Rant over.
Solidly good. Like other people said, it reminds me a little of Cube (1997). More recent is Silo on Apple TV. Cube was more universal. It wasn't a society that stuck "us" in the Cube. It was an indifferent universe that people naturally found themselves stuck in. Silo has more to do with self-censorship, secrets, and mystery than survival. Overall, El Hoyo was a brutal story of how societal structures can rip individuals apart.
One of these days I'll get around to reading Don Quixote. It seems like a very wonderful book. It's too bad Goreng felt compelled to eat a few pages.
It's much more like a drama with some medical horror mixed in. There is a little talk around the topic of god, faith, religious idioms, and so on, but there isn't any supernatural stuff happening in this story.
I like to compare it to Shelley's Frankenstein (novel, 1818). Frankenstein is frankly a better version of this story; however, both the doctor and the monster are male in that story. On a tangent, I always wished Victor could have loved his creation instead of naming it "fiend", "spectre", "the dæmon", "wretch", "devil", "thing", "being", and "ogre". In stark contrast to Victor,
Celie (the mom) and Dr. Casper name their resurrections: Lila (Celie's daughter) remains Lila, and Muriel the pig is named after Dr. Casper's mother.
This shows the women have a strong sense of love and compassion for their resurrections.
I'm not a woman. I'll never be pregnant, possibly have miscarriages or abortions, give birth, be a mom, possibly grieve as a mother does, and so on. A lot of this story and film works with the fears & dreads of being a mother. Perhaps if you're a mother dealing with dreads and fears of motherhood, then perhaps this film works better for you. I'm not sure.
Overall, I didn't like the film. I always appreciated Judy Reyes (Celie), but I kind of wish she found a better movie to be a strong character in.
Jon Hamm, known for playing Don Draper in Mad Men, appears in another office drama, but this time he is disguised with a moustache (season 8 of Mad Men, Don Draper also has a moustache, but I digress). Funnily enough, Hamm's depiction of Orson reminds me a bit of Sam Hyde's absurdist comedy—without the weird political takes. This film reminded me that I should really get around to finishing Mad Men and Severance.
On one hand, I wish Orson could have made his Corner Office a reality, and on the other hand, I wish he would have let go of the dream and do something else other than serve a corporate behemoth. I realize these are conflicting wishes. In fact, Orson chooses a limbo, middle option.
Some people's personalities demand that they ambitiously seek out the top of an available hierarchy, and for 99.99% of them, this inevitably leads to their tragic, absurd downfall. They go tumbling down that hierarchy they tried to climb up, and for what? "One must imagine Sisyphus happy." Orson is definitely happy in his Corner Office.
There's more to this film than a simple Punisher, Taken, Taxi Driver story. At times, there are oddly beautiful things happening. The burial scene sticks in my mind as perhaps one the best burial scenes I've seen in a film in a while. A few scenes of simple, human empathy despite violent situations are interesting, too. Despite being an abused, traumatized veteran, Joe seems to have a deep love and empathy for everyone around him. I feel it. I'm not as messed up as Joe, but I can understand a little of how messed up and horrible the world is or can be, and despite that, we can find each day beautiful, and find life worth continuing.
It's a little fun to watch, but in the end, it's not all that great of a film. It's interesting to read about how Netflix tries to measure the viewership for this movie: it's generally measured in millions of minutes or hours watched, or millions of people who viewed it. I honestly didn't expect the small twist near the two-thirds mark, but it made a little bit of sense. It feels written by a kid having fun. Netflix announced there will be two sequels. I hope Inspector Das (Ritu Arya) shows up again. She's tough and cute.
I hoped she was the second Bishop, but I guessed wrong.
I enjoyed this one a lot: there's a sense of humor about the whole messed up situation. Yes, tests of all kinds have been done on our fellow human beings in the real world, and could be ongoing. Unfortunately, we will likely never know what's going on (unintentional Marvin Gaye reference?) until 30 to 60 years have passed, and worse, some truth stays buried forever. This film was well worth the watch.
I'm kind of split between liking the small, perverse universe and not enjoying the execution of the story. The ending was very rushed feeling. I enjoyed the moody darkness present in 95% of the film. It's a predictable film.
"The Entire History of You" from Black Mirror's first season; Remember Me (2013, video game), and the Ghost in the Shell franchise do a hell of a better job than this film. The "job" is produce a dramatic story about the near future and how our memories could be formed or controlled. There's great potential—I think the universe they built in this story is great—but the writing flopped.
Like everyone else said, it was a fairly awful sci-fi movie. The AI, Tau, reminds me of the AI characters from Portal 2 (2011, video game). In such an advanced house, we would think that the evil scientist would have video recordings of everything going on in-and-around the home, and who would leave the gas line so conveniently available for tampering? Dude could have used people who elected to dontate their bodies to science instead of kidnapping folks. Also, I didn't miss that the first dead guy was black. Lame.
I played this "choose-your-adventure" style movie soon after it arrived on Netflix. I was aching for more Black Mirror content because I'm a fan. It's not the worst addition to Black Mirror, but it's kind of mediocre. My favorite ending was the one where
he died while under hypnosis, and experienced a new timeline of reality where he died as a kid with his mom on the train
. That was probably my favorite ending because even though it's a bit hamfisted, it brings up interesting questions about antinatalism or perhaps existentialism.
It's fun to compare Pearl with Baylon (2022). Both have a female protag who ruins their lives with the film industry of the late 1910s to mid 1920s. Perhaps these girls were destined to ruin their lives? Did society, their personalities, or what cause their lives to fall apart or not to "make it big" in film? I almost feel bad for Pearl and Nellie. They're like Icarus or moths drawn to a flame.
It's as if we placed the protagonist of Valhalla Rising (2009) in WWII Finland and he gave himself the mission of delivering one hundred pounds of gold to a bank 500 miles away through a troop of Nazis. There's no moral quandary here: killing Nazis is shown as comedic enjoyment & complete justice for the audience. Overall, the acting, sound, visuals and intensity are well blended together to make this an entertaining film. I appreciated the dog, too.
And to approach Viccc's comment: the Finnish and Nazis weren't full allies. They were more like frenemies of convenience against the Soviets. This movie takes place during the Lapland War. This is seven months (1944 to 1945) when the Finnish expulsed the Nazis from Northern Finland based on an armistice agreement with the Soviets. All said, Finland wanted no one in their country except the Finnish. Also, Finnish and Nazi ideology didn't overlap and the two were never formal allies. Finland fought so hard to keep the Soviets out (yes, with some Nazi help), and when the Finnish brokered peace with the Soviets, then the Finnish worked to push the Nazis out, too. The Nazis made an organized withdrawal from Northern Finland into Northern Norway, and they lost a small amount of forces during this withdrawal, aka the Lapland War. I hope this isn't confusing. I'm sorry that I'm not a better history teacher. Read about it on your own. Thank you.
Not a great movie, but it certainly helped my girlfriend feel happier or lighter hearted after we watched A Man Named Otto together. Secret Obsession was at times so badly written that it is absurd. I don't know how much suspense of disbelief we are supposed to give films like these. I laughed several times at the absurdity of this film.
I wait for a sequel to this version of Dredd. The slowmo elements; the beautiful yet at times grimey & dark visuals; the Stoic Dredd; the depiction of a crumbling, choking society; the sound work, too; everything blends together perfectly to make an action sci-fi that's almost as great to me as The Matrix. This movie has a cult following, but it gained less than half the recognition it deserves, IMO.
My girlfriend works at retail pharmacies, and a patient recommended that she watch Dopesick. Also, I had a very close friend who OD'd because of his opiate addiction.
This show is a very good documentary about how Big Pharma, Purdue Pharma in particular, abused everyone in the world with their toxic marketing that led to the deaths of many good people. This show does a great job of being a drama mini-series that depicts a lot of perspectives of opiate abuse & addiction.
Perhaps I will read the book that this show is based on. I still have 1.5 episodes to complete with my gf.
RIP "R" (1978-2017), my dear friend. His father said, "He was poisoned," at his funeral. I will never forget this. I will always wish that I could have helped you more. This world was better with you in it. Damn Richard Sackler and folks like him.
This movie beat my expectations by a longshot. I might rewatch it later. I'm not a movie expert, but this is the best movie about race relations in the US that I've seen in a while.
I saw snippets of this on YouTube for a few years. I finally got around to watching it. This film is well worth my time. Most of the characters are so naive or stupid that it leads them all into this absurd situation. It's overall a fun movie with a few dark comedy moments.
If you like Kung-fu Hustle then you will likely love this film too. I had a great time watching this. It's silly, sad, full of action, and gives the gift of a little bit of enlightenment.
This is a very remarkable film, and I wish that I could see it in theater and not on a 17 inch laptop. Maybe i will watch it again on my 65 inch tv and sound system. I'm a 29 year old movie watcher, and I just now got around to watching this great film. This film really deserves to be seen in theater whenever I or anyone else gets a chance. The cinematography is fantastic and this story is real and heartfelt.
This 2000 film falls short for me despite the film having a small cult following. Its plot, characters, and tropes are sickly derivative in the eyes of a 2022 viewer like myself; however both the alien races, and the general art direction are enjoyable. Maybe for 2000 this film was special, and it sparks interest in sci-fi media for kids and young teens of that time. I was 7 when this film debuted, and I probably would have enjoyed Titan AE if I had seen it in theaters or at home on VHS.
The cast and voice acting are high quality. Also, some of the CGI is great for 2000, but it seems misplaced or misfitting a lot of time. Somewhere about halfway through the movie the plot falls apart like a fraying rope. There are so many possible directions the story could have led, but the writers chose a bland and uninspiring path.
As of Nov 27, 2022 this film is free to watch on YouTube. Alphabet likely has exhaustive, digital libraries containing nearly every film, tv series, book, song, album, recording, scans of art, and so on. If only they could flip a switch and release the torrential waterfall of media without copyright and license laws gouging them for legal fees. What a world we could live in. At least we have this for free on YouTube.
I feel like there was a tremendous potential in the concept of the film, but it falls short in many ways. Too many times my suspension of disbelief felt like it was broken by bad, lazy writing. Noomi Rapace was wonderful. She helped me feel connected to the sisters despite most of the sisters being hard to differentiate.
Two things stick out as oddly poor writing to me. First is the lack of overwhelming force from the "bad guys" early on. Second is Glenn Close's character's rationalization about hiding the fact about the existence of 30 year old septuplets from the public. Whatever, guys. It's just a poorly written sci-fi movie.
This series is very rich and positive in a humanitarian manner. It's like "How It's Made" (tv series) is for manufacturing things and Explained is polite discourse on cultural topics. Vox made this series. I highly recommend this series if you're a Humanist who wants to understand yourself and the people around us.
Comments 1 - 25 of 38
Movie comment on Damsel
HebrewHammarMan
The writing isn't so great, but it's a pretty film with a scary dragon and a feminist hero.Movie comment on Poor Things
HebrewHammarMan
This movie is awesome. I honestly haven't seen another film quite like it. I enjoyed the Frankenstein elements, the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland elements, the Wednesday Adams influences, the Scissorhands influences, and the black-and-white beginning that reminds me of Lynch's absurdist Eraserhead, among other influences.Despite these influences, it's hardly derivative. I found it brilliant and novel. It makes me want to find out more about the book that the movie is based on.
I already watched it twice and I might rewatch it a third time. I noticed that upon rewatching it, everything is so much less weird. I know what to expect now. It was so strange the first time that it felt like a fever dream or something.
Movie comment on Sharper
HebrewHammarMan
It's an okay con movie.I guessed the ending before it happened, but I still mostly enjoyed the film.
Spoiler:
Movie comment on El hoyo
HebrewHammarMan
Solidly good. Like other people said, it reminds me a little of Cube (1997). More recent is Silo on Apple TV. Cube was more universal. It wasn't a society that stuck "us" in the Cube. It was an indifferent universe that people naturally found themselves stuck in. Silo has more to do with self-censorship, secrets, and mystery than survival. Overall, El Hoyo was a brutal story of how societal structures can rip individuals apart.One of these days I'll get around to reading Don Quixote. It seems like a very wonderful book. It's too bad Goreng felt compelled to eat a few pages.
Movie comment on Birth/Rebirth
HebrewHammarMan
It's much more like a drama with some medical horror mixed in. There is a little talk around the topic of god, faith, religious idioms, and so on, but there isn't any supernatural stuff happening in this story.I like to compare it to Shelley's Frankenstein (novel, 1818). Frankenstein is frankly a better version of this story; however, both the doctor and the monster are male in that story. On a tangent, I always wished Victor could have loved his creation instead of naming it "fiend", "spectre", "the dæmon", "wretch", "devil", "thing", "being", and "ogre". In stark contrast to Victor,
I'm not a woman. I'll never be pregnant, possibly have miscarriages or abortions, give birth, be a mom, possibly grieve as a mother does, and so on. A lot of this story and film works with the fears & dreads of being a mother. Perhaps if you're a mother dealing with dreads and fears of motherhood, then perhaps this film works better for you. I'm not sure.
Overall, I didn't like the film. I always appreciated Judy Reyes (Celie), but I kind of wish she found a better movie to be a strong character in.
Movie comment on Corner Office
HebrewHammarMan
Jon Hamm, known for playing Don Draper in Mad Men, appears in another office drama, but this time he is disguised with a moustache (season 8 of Mad Men, Don Draper also has a moustache, but I digress). Funnily enough, Hamm's depiction of Orson reminds me a bit of Sam Hyde's absurdist comedy—without the weird political takes. This film reminded me that I should really get around to finishing Mad Men and Severance.Some people's personalities demand that they ambitiously seek out the top of an available hierarchy, and for 99.99% of them, this inevitably leads to their tragic, absurd downfall. They go tumbling down that hierarchy they tried to climb up, and for what? "One must imagine Sisyphus happy." Orson is definitely happy in his Corner Office.
Movie comment on You Were Never Really Here
HebrewHammarMan
There's more to this film than a simple Punisher, Taken, Taxi Driver story. At times, there are oddly beautiful things happening. The burial scene sticks in my mind as perhaps one the best burial scenes I've seen in a film in a while. A few scenes of simple, human empathy despite violent situations are interesting, too. Despite being an abused, traumatized veteran, Joe seems to have a deep love and empathy for everyone around him. I feel it. I'm not as messed up as Joe, but I can understand a little of how messed up and horrible the world is or can be, and despite that, we can find each day beautiful, and find life worth continuing.Movie comment on Red Notice
HebrewHammarMan
It's a little fun to watch, but in the end, it's not all that great of a film. It's interesting to read about how Netflix tries to measure the viewership for this movie: it's generally measured in millions of minutes or hours watched, or millions of people who viewed it. I honestly didn't expect the small twist near the two-thirds mark, but it made a little bit of sense. It feels written by a kid having fun. Netflix announced there will be two sequels. I hope Inspector Das (Ritu Arya) shows up again. She's tough and cute.Movie comment on They Cloned Tyrone
HebrewHammarMan
I enjoyed this one a lot: there's a sense of humor about the whole messed up situation. Yes, tests of all kinds have been done on our fellow human beings in the real world, and could be ongoing. Unfortunately, we will likely never know what's going on (unintentional Marvin Gaye reference?) until 30 to 60 years have passed, and worse, some truth stays buried forever. This film was well worth the watch.Movie comment on Level 16
HebrewHammarMan
I'm kind of split between liking the small, perverse universe and not enjoying the execution of the story. The ending was very rushed feeling. I enjoyed the moody darkness present in 95% of the film. It's a predictable film.Movie comment on Anon
HebrewHammarMan
"The Entire History of You" from Black Mirror's first season; Remember Me (2013, video game), and the Ghost in the Shell franchise do a hell of a better job than this film. The "job" is produce a dramatic story about the near future and how our memories could be formed or controlled. There's great potential—I think the universe they built in this story is great—but the writing flopped.Movie comment on Tau
HebrewHammarMan
Like everyone else said, it was a fairly awful sci-fi movie. The AI, Tau, reminds me of the AI characters from Portal 2 (2011, video game). In such an advanced house, we would think that the evil scientist would have video recordings of everything going on in-and-around the home, and who would leave the gas line so conveniently available for tampering? Dude could have used people who elected to dontate their bodies to science instead of kidnapping folks. Also, I didn't miss that the first dead guy was black. Lame.Movie comment on Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
HebrewHammarMan
I played this "choose-your-adventure" style movie soon after it arrived on Netflix. I was aching for more Black Mirror content because I'm a fan. It's not the worst addition to Black Mirror, but it's kind of mediocre. My favorite ending was the one whereMovie comment on Pearl
HebrewHammarMan
Perhaps Pearl is better than X.It's fun to compare Pearl with Baylon (2022). Both have a female protag who ruins their lives with the film industry of the late 1910s to mid 1920s. Perhaps these girls were destined to ruin their lives? Did society, their personalities, or what cause their lives to fall apart or not to "make it big" in film? I almost feel bad for Pearl and Nellie. They're like Icarus or moths drawn to a flame.
Movie comment on Sisu
HebrewHammarMan
It's as if we placed the protagonist of Valhalla Rising (2009) in WWII Finland and he gave himself the mission of delivering one hundred pounds of gold to a bank 500 miles away through a troop of Nazis. There's no moral quandary here: killing Nazis is shown as comedic enjoyment & complete justice for the audience. Overall, the acting, sound, visuals and intensity are well blended together to make this an entertaining film. I appreciated the dog, too.And to approach Viccc's comment: the Finnish and Nazis weren't full allies. They were more like frenemies of convenience against the Soviets. This movie takes place during the Lapland War. This is seven months (1944 to 1945) when the Finnish expulsed the Nazis from Northern Finland based on an armistice agreement with the Soviets. All said, Finland wanted no one in their country except the Finnish. Also, Finnish and Nazi ideology didn't overlap and the two were never formal allies. Finland fought so hard to keep the Soviets out (yes, with some Nazi help), and when the Finnish brokered peace with the Soviets, then the Finnish worked to push the Nazis out, too. The Nazis made an organized withdrawal from Northern Finland into Northern Norway, and they lost a small amount of forces during this withdrawal, aka the Lapland War. I hope this isn't confusing. I'm sorry that I'm not a better history teacher. Read about it on your own. Thank you.
Movie comment on Secret Obsession
HebrewHammarMan
Not a great movie, but it certainly helped my girlfriend feel happier or lighter hearted after we watched A Man Named Otto together. Secret Obsession was at times so badly written that it is absurd. I don't know how much suspense of disbelief we are supposed to give films like these. I laughed several times at the absurdity of this film.Movie comment on Dredd
HebrewHammarMan
I wait for a sequel to this version of Dredd. The slowmo elements; the beautiful yet at times grimey & dark visuals; the Stoic Dredd; the depiction of a crumbling, choking society; the sound work, too; everything blends together perfectly to make an action sci-fi that's almost as great to me as The Matrix. This movie has a cult following, but it gained less than half the recognition it deserves, IMO.Movie comment on Dopesick
HebrewHammarMan
My girlfriend works at retail pharmacies, and a patient recommended that she watch Dopesick. Also, I had a very close friend who OD'd because of his opiate addiction.This show is a very good documentary about how Big Pharma, Purdue Pharma in particular, abused everyone in the world with their toxic marketing that led to the deaths of many good people. This show does a great job of being a drama mini-series that depicts a lot of perspectives of opiate abuse & addiction.
Perhaps I will read the book that this show is based on. I still have 1.5 episodes to complete with my gf.
RIP "R" (1978-2017), my dear friend. His father said, "He was poisoned," at his funeral. I will never forget this. I will always wish that I could have helped you more. This world was better with you in it. Damn Richard Sackler and folks like him.
Movie comment on Luce
HebrewHammarMan
This movie beat my expectations by a longshot. I might rewatch it later. I'm not a movie expert, but this is the best movie about race relations in the US that I've seen in a while.Movie comment on Burn After Reading
HebrewHammarMan
I saw snippets of this on YouTube for a few years. I finally got around to watching it. This film is well worth my time. Most of the characters are so naive or stupid that it leads them all into this absurd situation. It's overall a fun movie with a few dark comedy moments.Movie comment on Xi you: Xiang mo pian
HebrewHammarMan
If you like Kung-fu Hustle then you will likely love this film too. I had a great time watching this. It's silly, sad, full of action, and gives the gift of a little bit of enlightenment.Movie comment on Lawrence of Arabia
HebrewHammarMan
This is a very remarkable film, and I wish that I could see it in theater and not on a 17 inch laptop. Maybe i will watch it again on my 65 inch tv and sound system. I'm a 29 year old movie watcher, and I just now got around to watching this great film. This film really deserves to be seen in theater whenever I or anyone else gets a chance. The cinematography is fantastic and this story is real and heartfelt.Movie comment on Titan A.E.
HebrewHammarMan
This 2000 film falls short for me despite the film having a small cult following. Its plot, characters, and tropes are sickly derivative in the eyes of a 2022 viewer like myself; however both the alien races, and the general art direction are enjoyable. Maybe for 2000 this film was special, and it sparks interest in sci-fi media for kids and young teens of that time. I was 7 when this film debuted, and I probably would have enjoyed Titan AE if I had seen it in theaters or at home on VHS.The cast and voice acting are high quality. Also, some of the CGI is great for 2000, but it seems misplaced or misfitting a lot of time. Somewhere about halfway through the movie the plot falls apart like a fraying rope. There are so many possible directions the story could have led, but the writers chose a bland and uninspiring path.
As of Nov 27, 2022 this film is free to watch on YouTube. Alphabet likely has exhaustive, digital libraries containing nearly every film, tv series, book, song, album, recording, scans of art, and so on. If only they could flip a switch and release the torrential waterfall of media without copyright and license laws gouging them for legal fees. What a world we could live in. At least we have this for free on YouTube.
Movie comment on What Happened to Monday
HebrewHammarMan
I feel like there was a tremendous potential in the concept of the film, but it falls short in many ways. Too many times my suspension of disbelief felt like it was broken by bad, lazy writing. Noomi Rapace was wonderful. She helped me feel connected to the sisters despite most of the sisters being hard to differentiate.Two things stick out as oddly poor writing to me. First is the lack of overwhelming force from the "bad guys" early on. Second is Glenn Close's character's rationalization about hiding the fact about the existence of 30 year old septuplets from the public. Whatever, guys. It's just a poorly written sci-fi movie.
Movie comment on Explained
HebrewHammarMan
This series is very rich and positive in a humanitarian manner. It's like "How It's Made" (tv series) is for manufacturing things and Explained is polite discourse on cultural topics. Vox made this series. I highly recommend this series if you're a Humanist who wants to understand yourself and the people around us.Showing items 1 – 25 of 38