batiste-bieler Reviews

Hustle (2022)

Too many music montage

[6/10 · 8 December 2022]

I felt like a watched a series on Rocky style montage linked together with a little bit of character development and drama.

The drama with the "Bad Guy" was rather laughable and contrived. The character of the son is both mean, stupid, and over the top detestable that it is hard to believe any of his actions.

Adam Sandler delivers a decent performance if not a little low energy for this role. But I suppose that is his style.

All in all there is very little surprise in this movie. Everything plays out as expected by the formula. I was quite quickly sighting and fast forward in each musique montage... Still it felt like a long movie.

Tenet (2020)

Stylish, Soulless and too loud

[5/10 · 28 December 2020]

Nolan forte is not character development or dialog... Really he should get some help with that... Or he is doing it on purpose? Not sure.

The "Protagonist" is supposed to be a blank canvas for us to project ourselves into. At least this is what the painfully obvious name and lack of backstory would suggest. It doesn't quite work because the other characters need to be good to compensate but they are badly written and you do not know enough to care for them. You do not really want to be in his shoes interacting with those strange peoples as they act is caricatural and illogical ways. The world building and the concept might be interesting but this is not enough to drive a story.

The whole journey lake something essential. And some idea feels really silly like the whole "algorithm" lego that looked like piece of cardboard props. What the heck what that? The silliest looking plot device I have seen in a long time...

This is style and "cleverness" but there is lack of substance that some of his earlier had (thinking of the Prestige) .. Ho and as many have said: too loud.

The Kid Detective (2020)

Funny dark comedy

[9/10 · 15 December 2020]

Pretty simple story with a few twists. I chuckled quite a few times at the weird situations the protagonist find himself in. Quite enjoyable overall and good cinematography and score. I liked the script and the dialogs as well.

Breaking Bad (2008–2013)

Breaking Bad is surprising rewatchable

[10/10 · 23 October 2020]

It think this is at least my 4th run. It helps to leave a couple of years to forget all the details. Also a rewatching make you appreciate the little details. A true masterpiece of T.V. that helped me enjoy my time through the COVID pandemic. So many twist and turn to see Walter White's character metamorphose into another person. Rewatch it, you will not be disappointed.

Brainwash (2010)

Excellent series of documentaries

[10/10 · 6 July 2019]

This series goes into details on many touchy subjects, without taboo. This is highly recommended. It is crazy the amount of political correctness that seems to curtail real research in political science. One can an almost stats to think that the "science" political science has been completely circumcised.

Dunkirk (2017)

How can you make war sterile and boring

[2/10 · 20 January 2018]

This movie as too many flaws that draws you completely out of the story. For example the fishing boat episode that is so non-sensical that it disconnected me from the already disjointed story telling.

A war movie that seems weirdly unreal despite the little of CGI and also feels fake empty on so many other levels despite the reality of the events.

Ho and can somebody can send Hans Zimmer the nursing home where he belongs?

Le monde selon Monsanto (2008 TV Movie)

An anti-science movie from an anti science auteur

[2/10 · 13 October 2015]

Marie-Monique Robin is a journalist which has found the new source of all truth: Google and anecdotal evidence.

She is not new to sensationalist subjects. Some of her movies revolve around Urban Legends like "Organ Snatchers" and "Le Sixième Sens, science et paranormal" which present paranormal activities in a very complaisant manner. Who doesn't like a crunchy scary story once in a while?

This movie present Monsanto as the big bad bad guy in Walt Disney style.

One of her point about the big M. is the infamous case of the Indian suicide which I find disgusting to use: this a simple appeal to emotions using somebody else suffering without any proof whatsoever. This Indian suicide story has been debunked so many times. Today about 90% of the cotton in India is indeed GMO. Reality doesn't match the horror stories of Marie-Monique.

This movie doesn't stand the test of time because it is an ideologically oriented piece that falls apart under scientific scrutiny. Just a gathering of fears mongering and loosely tied together bunch of anecdote.

Gone Girl (2014)

Good premise, bad acting a and terrible plot

[1/10 · 29 December 2014]

The one is because the high score, the movie is not that terrible and some entertainment value. Maybe a 4/10 is more appropriate. I found Ben Affleck acting was quite bad. I didn't care much about any of the characters but maybe the lead investigator.. But not much time is actually spent on the police work anyway.

The plot is just to impossible/incredible and the twists are just too convenient and stupid. Ultimately you don't really care about what is happening because the Husband character is flat and Ben seems completely disconnected with the events that happen to him... He seems to not give 2 s****. Why would he have married this psycho without noticing anything? I don't know, and I don't care.

Interstellar (2014)

A boring, badly written, try to be Sci-fi movie

[1/10 · 13 November 2014]

I like Sci-fi movies. I loved the Prestige from Nolan. In the the other end I didn't care for Inception which I found really boring.

This movie is a disappointment and I was not expecting anything. The story line is the main problem. Many things don't make sense and/or are magically happening. You can buy into the premise the earth is dying. But then you also have to buy that the main character has been guided to NASA by a himself using gravity trough a black hole created by Aliens... All of that to send a message to his daughter so she can find whatever truth about gravity and lift humanity into space so they can have farms there.. What? WTF? It feels like the Nolans tried to hide the stupidity of their script by piling up a lot of BS together so we feel overflowed with information and give up.

Also, all the suspense and the drama feels fake and constructed and I didn't care about any of the characters, not even the main one. A character has to die, whatever I don't care. Die already. The side plot with the brother. I don't give a damn.

There is many other holes and illogical things in this movie that are annoying and really difficult to buy. Like the evil Dr. Mann. Can't the NASA screen out cowards psychopaths when choosing a hero to save humanity? I guess not when they choose the to send a farmer that used to be in NASA 10 years ago on their last chance mission because he happened to try to break in their complex yesterday night. It makes perfect sense.

Well there is many other comments here explaining the inconsistencies and plot holes so I will not go in more details.

Inception (2010)

Boring and insipid

[1/10 · 14 October 2012]

You quickly get where the story is going with the dream in a dream idea. The storyline becomes more complex as the movie progress forward. Sadly the same cannot be said for the development of characters. The main character is the only one that is treated and the only thing we see about him is that he miss his wife and kids. This is not enough to empathize with his character.

A young girl as the role of the protagonist but it's hard to identify with her character as she is annoying. The story is not engaging as we don't really care for those characters. Masturbatory special effect don't save this empty shell. All the levels of dreams were rather annoying and felt like a way to masquerade the absence interesting plot.

Disappointing. Such a movie shouldn't get such a high rating on IMDb.

Happythankyoumoreplease (2010)

A badly written unoffensive drama

[3/10 · 9 January 2012]

I watched this movie without knowing that Josh Radnor was involved in the direction and the script.

Josh's character is a writer that has had a moderate success with short novels but struggle to write longer stories. This courageous auto-critic of the author is a warning about what is about to follow.

This film is constructed with 3 parallel stories with little to tie them together. There is a friendship between the characters but it feels like a glue more than something that helps to develop the plot.

Then there is about 6 irritating music montage that try to smooth the angles between scenes. It feels more like the writer struggled to put the story together so he filled it up with some cool music and images.

As much as I wanted to care about the characters, I couldn't do it because they keep doing stupid choice about their life: Rosh should just go prison for abducting a child. The bald girl shouldn't hook up with stupid ex or go out with the obsessive stalker (the movie ends before she get sacrificed in a weird satanic ritual) and the couple should just break up because they are annoying.

On the positive side, there is a few good shots, a few interesting dialogs. But it will not save you from boredom.