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Along Came a Spider (2001)
Boring ... couldn't finish it
The pace is slow and the « twists » were quite boring.
Too many plot holes.
I watched 1h of the movie before stopping.
Morgan Freeman acting is good as usual though.
So for the first hour, they investigate the kidnapping of the girl.
Until they figured out he really wanted to kidnap the russian president's kid.
Why didn't he just kidnap the russian president kid directly? This doesn't make any sense.
The villain just gives out his home address so the police can go there to find his « elaborate plan ». Why would he do this?
If the guy is so clever, persistent and disciplined... Why would he not check Megan's hands or pockets before letting her go to the toilets? He would have found the battery pack.
And his cell in the boat is not sound proof and secured?
Anyhow, this was boring. It uses classic « kidnapping movie scenario » recipe, no surprises here. I didn't see the rest of the movie but it's probably not worth the time given how boring the first part is.
Too many plot holes and stuffs that don't make any sense.
« Gone girl » or « Memento » are better thriller movies.
La La Land (2016)
Beautiful photography, disappointing musical
I was expecting a lot from this movie, from the reviews and everything people were saying about it ... it was quite the disappointment.
I liked "Moulin Rouge" or "Mama mia" way more.
The photography of the movie was beautiful. When scenes fade to black to put the main protagonists at the center of the pictures, these are well done. Emma Stone is extremely photogenic and looked great in that picture. Ryan Gosling has the charm he is known for. Color, contrast, visuals, these were great to see. Some of the scenes almost felt like paintings or work of art.
Emma Stone range of emotions and acting are that of a great actress. She gave life to the movie. I wasn't really convinced by Ryan Gosling acting though. He always seem to play the same guy in all of his movies :s.
About the songs and the pace of the movie, they felt really really dull. I kept looking at my watch and waiting for it to be over. Maybe a second screening is necessary but that was the feeling I had while watching the movie.
The songs didn't feel full of energy, they mostly made me want to sleep.
The main issue I had with the "story" of the movie is that it goes in messy plain delirium sometimes.
The instrumental parts, without any people singing, were really good. Especially the piano parts. These were the parts that lent the most emotions and getting us to dream in my humble opinion. I could close my eyes and just feel the music.
All in all, beautiful photography, disappointing musical.
Iron Fist (2017)
One word ... boring
I kept watching the series with an open mind, but I couldn't help but feel being bored all the time while watching "Iron Fist".
There is a huge pacing problem, of course all TV Series have pacing problems but here it is critical. We have to wait until episode 5 or 6 before things start to become interesting before being dull again.
Even the fights felt boring too. "Into the badlands" fight were waaaay more impressive. He's the ultimate warrior, blah, blah, blah, then his fist glow yellow and then he can't do anything. But still boring.
Luckily there is Colleen Wing to save the picture. She's cute, she's earth grounded, she seems like a real human being that doesn't go bipolar every seconds. She's an interesting character that makes Dany Rand bearable enough to watch.
The hero whines all the time. He's got anxiety, insecurity issues while he's presented as this super zen guy meditating at the start of the series. Maybe is the hero a bit bipolar? Who knows. During the whole series, there is the flash of the plane crash with that weird special effect. It doesn't help the story go forward and this flashback is used way too much. Dany Rand is more than arrogant, bipolar, act before he thinks type of guy, impulsive, whines all the time, etc, I don't see the hero as a likable character at all.
All characters are unpalatable, unlikable and not plausible. Only likable and plausible characters were Colleen Wing, Ms. Gao and Claire Temple. The Meachum are asses, then they become cool and nice, then they become asses again, etc, they need to decide what the hell they are ... Davos has anger issues, and he lived as a monk his whole life? Non believable.
Harold Meachum stays in his penthouse 15 years after his supposed death. But his penthouse is under his name? He uses electricity? How the hell does a penthouse like this get ignored? Then Harold just goes back to Rand after stopping Rand being used as a drug front. He just go back to the world like this while his main reason for not going public was "the hand". "the hand" is still in play and he just growed balls or what? He's presented as a villain or a vicious creature ... but another bipolar guy in a whole series of bipolar characters in "Iron Fist".
The dialogues felt boring as hell as well. A lot of them felt repeated or rehashed. "I'm the iron fist, the ultimate immortal weapon, etc", which is repeated thousands of times. Very little is said about how he got his power (fight Shou Lao the undying). Davos tried to explain it to Claire, but it was like a couple of seconds ... Half-baked origin story yeepee ...
Another issue of "Iron Fist" on top of the other issues is balancing its act and piece it all together. We see some bad guys, like "the hand" and "the hatchet men" during the series. But we are not presented a villain until really later in the series. And even this "villain" (Bakuto) is "meeeh, boring". Nothing is really at stakes here. OK Gao is making drugs that she propagates in the city, but we don't see all the impact it has like in Daredevil. Wilson Fisk was a way more interesting bad guy than the bad guys in "Iron Fist". "Iron Fist" bad guys are boring.
Then the season end on a cliffhanger? Really? Come on ... Not only we had boring dialogues, boring fights, no high stakes, no real super villain and then we get a cliffhanger? This series felt really unfinished, unfulling and a half-baked origins story.
Daredevil made much more sense, the fights were impressive, there was a real bad guy and the season felt fulfilling at the end. Just forget about "Iron Fist".
Flesh and Bone (2015)
Artistically pleasing but thin story and characters are quite dull
This is series that wants to portray ballet, that's not a bad idea. But as we know, a proper TV series is not really about it's main subject, it is mostly about human interactions and stories. It's about character development and their evolution.
Well, "Flesh and bone" properly show us part of the ballet world, the dancing is good, the dancers suffer (from anorexia, physically, etc). Problem? The plot is rather thin, the characters are quite dull and there is no identification, dreaming or attachment towards these struggling characters. Okay there is only 8 hours, but still, the plot move at a rather slow and weird pace. It feels like some random stuffs happening without any end goal or logic. Characters don't have enough dirt on them to make them interesting. The character development is limited to say the least. It feels like botched and fast writing for producing fast.
Claire? She's whining and crying throughout most of the series. She does some striptease, she kisses the mirror with blood on her lips and make us believe she's a virgin then has sex with her brother ... why? It doesn't make sense. She hates her home, her brother and her father, it is shown at the beginning of the series. Why else would she leave in a hurry? I would have loved to see her getting more confidence more quickly instead of her insipid whining and crying. There was a part which was interesting when she gets to embrace the darker part of herself then it suddenly stops then it's back to whining and crying before saying the final "No!".
Trey? I'm gay, black and I'm happy about it. Talk about preconceptions. Isn't there more to this character than this? Really, there are better and more interesting portrayal of gays, I almost found it offensive for some of my friends.
Mia? Dull. There is nothing there but a whining b****.
Pacha? Mia's confident. There is nothing else about him.
Kiira? She could be even be more interesting. She's an aging prima who is getting replaced. She doesn't put much of a fight for her last dancing season. She could at least be darker and more manipulative. We see some intent to manipulate the artistic director but she kinds of give up without much of a fight. That's not what I would have expected from someone who worked really hard like hell for decades to get to such a level of dancing. After all, it is better to end a beautiful career in a bang rather than in a duh.
Daphne? She is the most interesting in all this cast of characters. Crazy apartment, troubled relations with her father, which she kinds of replaced with Sergei who she works for. She does this in order to afford her lifestyle. She is pretty confident about herself, manipulates Jessica to get to be soloist knowing there are some moves she doesn't master. She gets to do her thing. She really fights and go till the end of what she really began.
Sergei? Happy and "nice" mobster. He's kind of okay as a character.
Romeo? Weird crazy guy. He doesn't make sense most of the time and is quite irritating. Then for whatever reason, he gets to kill Bryan. Whaaat?
Bryan? He's a PTSDed soldier who's incestuous with his sister. OK. Something else about him? That's it? Well ... like I said, limited character development.
Tony? Nothing to say about her. She's a cool dance teacher, there is not much else about her.
Paul? He's a sadistic and abusive art director. OK, is there a reason for that? Why isn't it more explored? It could be quite interesting.
The rest of the characters are always whining and b*******. They are all jealous of Claire, that's it. Nothing to see there.
All in all, it was pretty disappointing for a TV series even though it portrays magnificent art.
Lucy (2014)
Good start, long stretch and fail miserably
The main plot line is interestingly a fallacy. Throughout the movie, there is some philosophical gibberish buffered to the viewer in order to anchor the main plot-line.
Anyhow, it starts well with Lucy getting forced to do a deal for a "boyfriend". Johansson is good at simulating a terrified woman at the prospect of getting killed by Korean criminals.
After this good part (like 15-20 minutes in the movie), it all goes to sh*t. The movie doesn't make sense anymore : "Let's shoot guns and kill everyone in the path of Lucy!". You get a looong stretch. Lucy lose all empathy, there is no more character development. It all gets boring seemingly fast. Only good thing : some specials effects are not that bad.
Throughout the movie, she gets to unlocked bit by bit the capacities of her brain. The writers just give Lucy whatever powers comes to their minds ... Like controlling signals, telekinesis, mind reading, mind control, time travel (wtf?) or even synthesis.
If you've got 1h something to lose, that a good movie for it. Otherwise, no point in watching it ...
The Switch (2010)
A movie for when you're bored and don't know what else to do ...
The actor plays is good but the movie itself is not that good ... it's okay if you're bored and don't have anything else to do. Jeff Goldblum was actually really good and is the most funny I guess.
It has its moments but there are too few of them to really appreciate "the switch".
There is no real twists to the story. We know it's been a long time they've known each other. Aaron is not even a challenge to Wally: - the boy likes him as a father - the girl love him The main problem what that he (Wally) did not have the courage to tell her the truth. Until he did ... then finally!
Also, in the whole movie there are like 6 characters: - Wally : The guy - Aaron : huh? Not even a challenge to Wally. - Kassie: The girl - Debbie: The girl's weird friend - Leonard: The guy's friend - Sebastian: The weird son Aaron and Debbie are extremely boring. The characters relations and personalities are under-developed as well.
The story telling is also a lot about rushing : "the timeout? what timeout?", "oh my relationships? resumed in 10 seconds", etc. It could have been a better movie.