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You People (2023)
Uncomfortable. Unfunny, because it's not true.
I can definitely understand how awkward it can be intermingle with people from different backgrounds. I have been in interracial relationships and have siblings in interracial relationships. I have had the meeting with the families in each of those instances. I still could not relate to most of the movie. I have friends from all different backgrounds and have met their families--who I was prewarned about them being discriminatory--and this still didn't connect for me.
With one of the funniest comedians alive who is also in an interracial marriage--Eddie Murphy--they had such a good opportunity to bring out the differences in a fun or even compelling way that so many of us could relate to. Instead they kept it pretty aggressive almost the entire time. It's 2023 for goodness sakes! This occurrence is a more normalized than it was in 2005 when "Guess Who?" came out. I'd gather it's even more common in places like Los Angeles, where the movie is set. But no, most of the main characters made it seem very bizzare and unheard of that Black and white people could unite successfully.
The Ezra (Jonah Hill) and his parents had to constantly apologize or had to be very blatant with their stereotypes. Mind you, this was done better in "Get Out," which this movie seemed to steal jokes from. The parent's didn't make the Obama joke verbatim, instead they made it and switched the famous Black person and thought no one would notice. The parents were more so in the territory of "microaggressions" and honest ignorance. This has happened in so many movies that it's easy to brush off and make a joke of it, but since this movie was 2hrs long, it seemed that they piled on every single stereotype and they just kept them coming. Instead of anyone really speaking up, it was allowed to continue for 2hrs.
Akbar's (Murphy) prejudice, on the other hand, was less blatant. He simply wore a scowl for 95% of the movie and his anger over some "honest mistakes" was made out to be justified. He seemed more concerned about catching Ezra being awful than anything else. I know the car scene with n_ in paris was supposed to be the big funny moment, but I just couldn't enjoy it. I just could not understand why the Black characters were being made out to be so aggressive and defensive, further playing into the awful stereotypes. They could not take a joke or misunderstanding at all. Everything was just flat out offensive to them.
In reality this is rarely the case which was why they had to make Amira's(Lauren London) parents over the top, to show an extreme situation and milk it. However, as someone from a family with cousins who have similar beliefs to Akbar, I still could not relate to anything that was happening. My cousins are more likely to crack a joke, than to get upset when someone in the family dates interracially.
All in all, w families don't act like this, b families don't act like that. So perhaps that's why I couldn't laugh that much, because there wasn't enough "funny because it's true" moments. Instead I was laughing awkwardly and pausing it so I could get past the cringe of it all. When is Kenya Barris going to be stopped?
I only enjoyed Amira + Ezra scenes, or Ezra + Mo's scenes. Those felt real and were effortlessly funny and added to the conversation about b/w relations. Though I must note, Amira and Ezra didn't have a lot of chemistry. Their entire relationship felt like the first 3 months of a real interacial relationship for the most part. They never got into any deep conversations or had any talks to address stereotypes/racism/microaggressions like every interracial couple must do at some point. Amira's character just did a bad job of explaining things to Ezra, she kept everything bottled up, from her family to her work, so things were unhinged when the family finally makes an appearance.
Keep Breathing (2022)
Missed opportunity and basic survival skills
A few things really grinded my gears. Ignoring the poorly written plot, flashbacks, and the creators dilusions that they created enough back story (before the accident) to make us care or invest in these characters... can we take a minute to focus on the very obvious flaws the writers chose with her being stuck out in wilderness?
I get it, humans are stupid, I know. However, she's made out to be a highly intelligent lawyer, who had enough calm under stress and knew how to save herself and another from an airplane wreckage. Surely she knows some basic survival skills?
As soon as she realized no one knew where she was, she should have used rocks to create an SOS sign at the rivers edge/clearing in case any planes flew by.
Next:
1. She should have built some sort of shelter instead of staying out in the open almost the entire time.
2. There's no way you spend that much time outdoors and NOT feel, smell, and see when the rain is coming.
3. Boiling the water. Okay great, let's believe that's possible that she found everything she needed for that. Why not use her jacket to remove it from the heat? Why put out the fire you struggled to start and haven't even collected enough wood for, to wait until metal cools down?!
4. Why use stacks of money to start the fire instead of using a few bills and preserving the rest? She had no clue how long she'd be out there or alive for, so why waste resources?
5. Food. I'm sure after a few days she would have starved to death. There's no way a handful of berries per day did it. Hasn't a full grown adult heard of mushrooms? Nuts? Dandelion salad? Why give up on fishing after 2 poor attempts?
There's so much more I could mention, especially her constantly getting soaked as she's dressed head to toe. September nights in Canada are not kind. And her looking perfectly clean each day.
The writers had the opportunity to show us how an intelligent person would make it work with their common sense and book smarts, even if they hadn't spent much time in the wilderness. I've never been camping and I've never even been out in nature for more than a few hours at a time, yet I could think of a thousand ways to improve my chances at surviving if I made it out unscathed.
Audiences love seeing characters use their mind to get through challenges, this is why apocalypse and zombie shows are popular. People put out in situations they never have been in and figuring it out as they go through trial and error, and making it through.
They had an opportunity but missed it massively!
The Hating Game (2021)
Started so strong
This movie started off so strong. It felt so realistic and nothing felt forced. I was really enjoying the witty and mean banter between the two leads.
I even enjoyed the chemistry of the side character with Lucy who went on the date with her. It just felt so grounded in reality for me, especially because I had worked with someone who was very similar to Josh, who I had a love/hate dynamic with at work. Outside of work, we were just always kind, respectful, and flirty with each other. So I could completely believe how these two characters interacted under the guise of their strong interest in each other.
However, after they admitted their attraction for each other, beyond their heated actions, it seems like the screenwriters didn't know how to continue to convey their chemistry or interest in each other on screen. It suddenly started to feel forced because we were being told they cared, more than we were able to see it. We were being told there was firey tension, more than we could see it on the screen. The dream Lucy had, contained more fire than their reality, where they rushed to have sex with no "foreplay" so the speak.
Before they admitted they had feelings, Josh was holding Lucy's hair while she puked so I knew he had more feelings before we were told. In comparison, I was taken aback by the entire wedding scene and how many good things the two had said about each other, because we didn't SEE them admire these things about each other in secret. We didn't even see Josh being this amazing leader at work, so it was all so hard to believe. We never saw Josh being a complete mama's boy, calling her about Lucy. It would have actually been nice to see how he had become so tender and nurturing.
And then of course, the third act conflict almost soiled the film for me. The transition from love, back to hate, back to love again was too rapid in those last 15 mins of the movie. We were being told that Lucy loved the company and books, but we didn't see enough of her being this big book worm. So again, everything felt forced. And the kiss in the office in front of everyone?
Chicago Fire: What's Inside You (2022)
For those in the back...
This episode isn't meant to garner "sympathy for a criminal." Instead, this episode challenges the viewer to imagine the life from someone else's pov for a short 45 minutes.
Boden is a man of patience. His calm patience and quick thinking is what got everyone out of a bad situation in this epsiode and for just a moment we far removed viewers who could never imagine ourselves in this situation, either as the victim or the perpetrator, were given an example of what we could possible faced with if we ever were. With the growing number of active shooter situations, this might save some lives seeing how a first responder would react if they were caught up in it as well.
Of course, it's frustrating to see the very capable Chief Boden get constantly thrown into that same storyline over and over, with a whirlwind between his duty and compassion for fellow man who happen to share nothing else in common but his skin-tone. Regardless, there were still things to be gained for the viewer, as with all other episodes. At the very end, we saw what truly mattered to Boden. It wasn't some invisible brotherhood, but saving a life, no matter how worthless everyone else thinks that life is. That is the job of a first responder. At the very end of it all, the only thing he could think of was the one person he couldn't save.
On the other hand, just what makes a man risk his life and the lives of those around him? For everyone it's different, most people are compassionate and selfless enough to never risk that, but the man in this story (whom some could call a monster) did it all to escape a tortuous existence. Could YOU live with being chopped up everyday for being young and dumb enough to help your friend rob a place?
Could YOU live with the mistakes that other people made, which you are now responsible for just for being in the vicinity. That is why Boden had compassion but no one expects you as the viewer to see it the way he does. It only asks you to challenge yourself to see an existence outside of your own.
No matter how you feel, the line towards the end was correct, all it takes to save someone's life is the right person being there at the right time. If that kid had a Boden in his life sooner, he could have made better decisions. Now that he had a Boden, he can now work towards rehabilitation, which is supposed to be the point of locking people up for a certain amount of time.
Can you go on to be the right person at the right time for someone you care about? Anyway, that's my take away.
No need to get so deep into your politics that you miss the real messages in this episode.
Dexter: New Blood (2021)
You Expect Me to Believe...
The one thing we loved about the original Dexter was that is was smart, witty, and saavy. It never belittled the audiences' intelligence and it always kept us on our toes. This new show just smacks the audience in the face and calls us idiots. I was able to predict the entire thing except that Dexter would die at the end.
Firstly, I understand this idea of Dexter getting this new identity and running away, but this master mind who hid hundreds of murders wasn't keeping tabs on anything in Miami while he was away? He wasn't keeping tabs on Hannah? Batista? Some amateur child finds him easily and this mastermind doesn't think for a moment to get a DNA test, he just instantly believes him? He doesn't go deeper to figure out how he was found so it doesn't happen again? He doesn't keep his guard up around this clearly evil child like he does around other people with murderous intent? He doesn't dig to see if anything questionable happened to Hannah?
Next, We get it, he's been out of practice for 10 yrs, now he kills on impulse and so he's sloppy. We got the point with the Matt Caldwell murder, but someone with his mind wouldn't be THAT sloppy. After all of his active years, it would all come back quickly and he'd be on top of it. He wouldn't go after small time drug dealers even if his awful son was involved. His killing was always more systematic than this and we're to believe that 10 years in a small boring town made him... somewhat erratic, impulsive, and irrational? I feel like after 10 years of living with his demons he'd be even more controlled than he was in the original show, just as an addict is if they've made it 10 years sober. 10 year is just a long time. He'd have time to think a lot differently about his past and even have reached out to his son before he showed up. Instead he seems more timid and emotional as we watch him unwind. He doesn't seem too much like himself at all, but that's the point right?
To make it all even worse, they expect me to believe that a small town detective who couldn't find one single missing girl and didn't notice Kurt picking up runaways once in 25 years, cracked the Bay Harbor Butcher case in 8 episodes, when it took SEASONS for anyone to suspect Dexter in the original? You expect me to believe this small town detective is suddenly the best cop in the universe, when she had none of these sudden hunches and clues about Kurt in all this time? The detective who tries to solve every case in town with zero evidence, just suddenly cracks it all and finds evidence that no one else found or that never even existed to begin with (the tranquilizer in the bay harbor murders)?
If I get started on Harrison, this review will be too long. He was insufferable from start to finish. I gave this review 6 stars because it was done just well enough to keep me watching. It was nice to see Michael C Hall again and I liked how they represented the Senecas in this. Otherwise, what was the point of this new limited series? It didn't really answer any question, just left a lot more and actually killed off the titled character this time.
The Wonder Years: Independence Day (2021)
So far this is the funniest and more heart warming episode
I hadn't laughed so hard the entire series until this episode. I also related so much to having to live with older parents who had to go through similar struggles that the grandpa in this episode had. Seeing the bonding between grandson and grandfather in such a realistic and authentic way was great. Hearing his old time stories was enjoyable and something I could imagine my grandfather telling me. This is what the Wonder Years is about.
The Rest of Us (2019)
I'm not sure if I watched the same movie everyone else did...
This is a film about what happens to "the rest of us" when someone important in our lives pass away. What do the "rest of us" do now and how do we carry on and live with the mistakes we may have made with or in regards to that person. It sounds good concept on paper but it is quite empty on screen when the true plot and "twists" are quickly revealed. Perhaps that is a reflection of the empty stillness we have immediately following someone's death, but we aren't made to feel anything during the duration of the film.
The film starts off slow with a woman (Heather Graham -Cami) waiting in a motel and a teen girl, her daughter Aster, frolicing by the pool with a teen boy. Then things escalate rather quickly as the family cat dies, immediately followed by the death of estranged ex-husband of Cami and father of Aster. The timing and pacing of both death announcements are offputting to say the least. It's completely unbelievable writing filled with unwitty dark sarcasm, thus we're given lack luster performances by both actresses. We are to believe a woman and her teen daughter have zero reaction to the death of their cat and ex-husband/father, Craig, who they learn have both died in the same hour? Heather Graham's character, Cami, is driving a car while on the phone and has minimal reaction to his death. She only pulls over and shows a small ounce of visible impact when she tells her daughter and shakes once. Of course, they are trying to give the illusion that these women can care less about this man, Craig, because he left them and broke up the family and later we're supposed to find out just how much they care. But no one can control their emotions _that_ well when they secretly truly care about someone.
The empty story continues as it creates no picture of the deceased man for the viewer or audience to cling to. He's not in any flashbacks and the 5 memories people mention about him have nothing to do with the mans character, personality, or impact, and that explains the complete lack of emotion all of the characters in the story reveal to have towards him.
Why did we even need a cat in this movie, other than to pretend that was the last connection the women had with the ex-husband/father?
As the "twists" are revealed we slowly find out that the teen girl, Aster, is sleeping with her bestfriend's boy friend, we learn that the estranged husband and father got that way because he cheated and married a new woman, Rachel, and started a new family. We learn that the ex-wife, Heather Graham/Cami, was having an affair with her ex-husband while he was with that new wife. So it turns into a blaming match as all of the mistresses blame each other for being mistresses. Who are we to feel sympathy for? They all reveal themselves to be awful unlikeable women, not because they sleep around with taken men, but because they mistreat and blame each other rather than own up to their own faults and realize they all have issues that they could all use work on.
Heather's character is most likely the most understandable because she doesn't outwardly attack anyone, she welcomes strangers into her home and treats her daughter with respect, except when she intentionally decides to be the "other woman" after knowing what it's like to be scorned by a cheater.
But it all feels very superficial because we only have the faintest of ideas of who these people are. Heather/Cami claims she loves her ex Craig, but we don't get any flashbacks to give us a clue why. Rachel never expresses love and is in absolute survival mode, which overshadows her grief or feelings. We have only brushed the surface of who the 3 main characters are. We have no idea what "Craig" is like. We have no clue what the best friend or boyfriend are like save for 3 lines from each, so how can we feel sympathy for anyone? We are told everything, rather being shown, and much of it is completely unbelievable so it's hard to commit to the story at all. A widow who doesn't qualify for the life insurance money at all because it wasn't paid in 6 months? Given no warning before her home is locked and items are sold? A teenager you just met runs off with your young daughter and is gone for 24 hrs and you high-five her when she returns with your daughter?
And then after the minimal drama, everything wraps up in the last 6 minutes of the movie with the wives deciding to "call it even" and now everyone is happy and life is good. More emptiness and a happy ending unearned. There were no deep conversations or big break throughs and no lessons learned. They just all decided not to be angry anymore after the daughters ran off for a day.
Overall, we're given this empty box in pretty sparkling packaging (movie is set in a beautiful huge home). As these woman's lives revolve around the hurt they feel because of a man, and not actually about what they truly feel for him or any other aspect of their lives that makes them individuals and human and women. So overall it is disappointing.
A Cinderella Story: Christmas Wish (2019)
I watched this whole thing...
Autotune, the cringey step mom & sisters and all, and was cheated out of seeing a kiss. What kind of romance Christmas movie has no kiss? I feel bamboozled. The people deserve to know. 2 stars given to Greg Sulken, who can make it look like he's in love with anyone. He could literally look at a tree the way he looks at his costars and I'd think he really cared about it.
Braceface (2001)
I used to love Braceface as a teen...
And as I've been going through the nostalgia bug for the past 5 yrs, I have been rewatching shows from the 90s and 00s. In most of these shows, such as "Hey Arnold!" & "My So Called Life"... even "Parker Lewis Can't Lose," each show has stood the test of time and had a relatability to it despite some if the kiddy lessons and outdated issues.
The main characters are always cool and help to highlight the side characters around them and connect with the viewers. I expected Braceface to be the same. I love Alicia Silverstone and loved Braceface as a tween, so this was a no brainer. After rewatching the entire thing, however, I see just how annoying and lackluster Sharon Spitz and the show is.
While she desires the things that every teen girl wants, making her incredibly relateable, she highlights the worst parts of every teen girl.
1. She has no talents. While everyone around her (including the mean girls) has things they excel at, she cries every few episodes about how terrible she is at everything, instead of finally learning to be good at anything.
2. Did I mention, she cries literally every few episodes?
3. When she is not busy making every mistake in the book, she's intentionally breaking the law and dragging her friends and siblings into it.
Next, despite being an average student, being terrible at interacting with boys, and not being remotely athletic we're supposed to believe that that she gets the most popular guy at school to be her bf and the attention of other "hot" guys, becomes class president, gets the attention of celebs, is the competition of the talented popular girls, has the smartest friends, becomes a camp counselor before she's old enough and so on?
Since it is all unbelievable, we have to assume Sharon always got her way because she's good looking. That was the only thing I could think of to explain why a pretty, popular, talented mean girl would be jealous of her and why celebs/talent agencies would fawn over her.
The only thing she truly stands for is not letting anyone shine over her (not even for a moment), meddling, and animal activism.
The only misfortunes she truly has to deal with is her magical braces. If they didn't do mystical things, Sharon would have zero problems because there's nothing wrong with braces. In fact, people thought they were cool in the 00s.
The animal activism, her family, and friends are probably the only interesting things about her and the show. However, it's not enough to carry it and I'm honestly surprised it got 3 season's, while many classics didn't get the same. Then I remember if I loved it, other little girls did too.
The Umbrella Academy (2019)
Oh Great...Ellen Page
She is the absolute worst part of this show unfortunately. I wish they would recast it.
The Passage (2019)
I just have one question
So I'm only 3 episodes in, so I'll need to update my review later but I'm enjoying this thus far. Had no clue it was based off a book but I don't understand why everyone gets upset that TV and movie adaptations are made. I love books, I love TV shows. Some fans want this whether it's good or not. For a complete stranger to the books, so far this is some good television...
So everyone is after this little girl because she has no one. They act like she is the only girl in the USA or world they could find with a similar back story. So my question is if this "cure" can heal everything, why didn't they find a kid with cancer whose parents are willing to try anything? Or since they are into kidnapping find a foster or orphan with cancer. One shot of that cure and she'd be healed right? I need them to explain why this won't work on someone who is sick. Hopefully they do at some point.
Insatiable (2018)
I'm incredibly picky about comedy's but....
This is a guilty pleasure that I am so glad I found. I haven't laughed this hard in a while. It's not a perfect show, I thought it would be a silly teen drama, but I was proved wrong. It's definitely not a show for everyone. It can get too sexual at times, but there are memorable moments. I hope this gets a 2nd season.
Hard Candy (2005)
She Didn't Do IT
After reading many reviews, I just came here to say that she did not castrate the guy. I can understand if anyone missed the part where Jeff says 'I'm all here,' because the movie was just that god-awful and that was a good time to turn the 'film' off, but he did in fact say it after removing all the 'medical' stuff off of his junk...if you want to call fake blood, a melted bag of ice, and a "big clip" med gear.
She pretty much pretended to castrate him and they did it in a way that the viewers would think so too. The entire thing was disturbing and still disturbing to this day even though we come to realize she was just playing a sadistic game with him.
I agree with all of the one star reviews here. There is zero plot or motive revealed unless you want to call it a revenge story...even if you're one to call it that, no one knows who this girl is and why she wants revenge and why she is so disappointed when she can't find kiddie porn and how she or anyone would even come up with the idea of being 14 yrs old and interested enough in biology that you just suddenly become qualified enough to scare someone into thinking you're actually castrating them to get them to confess to something they didn't do... then it not working at all. Fail.
But yes, talking someone into committing suicide...not convincingly, I might add...is also perfectly noble. Such a heroine this backstory- less girl is.