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brenmains
Reviews
Stranger Things (2016)
Great '80s homage, but if you're not already excited by that you may take a while to warm up to it.
I found that I didn't really enjoy this series as much as I was hoping to.
It was obvious the creators had put a LOT of thought into the entire thing, it really shows, but if their intention was to create a show aside from the whole '80s thing, a lot of the effort was misplaced.
While it does do a great job of being an '80s homage, if that's not something you're already excited by, this show may be a little disappointing. While interesting to see an '80s world on TV ~30 years after the '80s, if you don't really care about the '80s that much or have a heap of nostalgia for it, it may feel like the show is dragging on a little.
I will say that this eases up after the first 2-3 episodes, and a lot of this could be regarded as "World building" or "Setting up the plot", but a lot of it DOESN'T contribute to the plot, and as such, it feels like there's someone following you around saying "... hey.... guess what..... this show's set in the '80s." in literally every moment of every scene.
While I enjoyed the final 2 episodes very much, I feel like the things that occurred in the plot would have had just as much impact with about half of the build up... in about every story line that was followed. I also feel like it would have played into the whole '80s homage a lot more if there was much more "Spielberg Kiddie Flick" action outside the final 2 episodes as well.
One thing I will commend the writers on is the characters themselves. Unlike the plot, the balance between character and '80s trope has a really good balance, with the joys of modern standards written in really well. No character is overly stupid or overly smart, they're all stereotypes of another era, but they very rarely actually feel cliché or annoying. Props to them for that! Probably one of my favourite viewings in regards to characters.
In the end, I did enjoy it, but with much of the plot ignored for nostalgia-tugging, I don't feel this is as much of a watch as others are saying it is.
Hangar 10 (2014)
Do not watch this film.
This may just be, hands down, the worst film I have ever seen. There is nothing redeeming about anything in this project, and I don't say this often, but I honestly feel robbed of an hour and a half of my life.
The plot could be summed up in 3 sentences on its Wikipedia page, if anybody could be bothered making one, the dialogue is bland and the camera work is a shoddy mess. A small voice inside of me cheered when there was a change of shot because hey, at least something, even in the most minor of ways, happened.
I honestly feel bad for the people involved in this film. I wouldn't be surprised if the actors involved asked for their names to be taken out of the credits due to hoping nobody ever finds out they were in it, similar to how you wouldn't want anybody finding your baby photos. The acting was okay-ish but I say that because there's honestly no way to screw up characters they decided to write into the script. I wouldn't be surprised if they weren't acting, just reciting lines and being themselves. There was that part where one guy has to act weird by laughing and throwing a stick but even then it's not clear if that was intentional or not. I'd like to say that there are worse things to do for money, but honestly none of them come to mind right now. I know that sounds bold, but if you'd seen the film, you know you'd agree with me.
I don't like people who criticize films in the cinema, especially at the debut, however if somebody stood up as the credits began and shouted "What the f--k was that sh-t?" and walked out, I would have envied that person for the rest of my life.
I really do try to take whatever lesson I can from a movie, regardless of whether I liked it or not, so I can take some sort of knowledge from it. But after the non-existent plot, the boring whale sounds and "jump scares" (and by jump scares, I mean you could tell what they were meant to be, but they just failed at it) and to top it off, anti-climax after anti-climax, this film may just be the worst film in existence. I actually felt angry when it finished. I felt like I had the chance to do so many other things with my life in the time I saw that movie, and I saw it around 11pm during a f-----g blackout.
Please, if you're considering watching this movie, watch something else.
Anything else. It doesn't matter what. There is nothing more I would like to get across in this review is that under no circumstances, should anybody watch this film.
I am giving this film 1 star because I cannot give it a 0.