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Schmigadoon! (2021)
The very definition of "meh"
This had so much promise. The cast was (and is) to die for, and I love a good affectionate send-up of classic musicals. It's doesn't have to be bad thing that all of your songs immediately evoke the various songs they parody. Alas, they botched the landing. The biggest problem isn't the fact that the musical characters are one-dimensional; it's that the leads are. We don't spend any time getting to know Keegan Michael-Key and Cicely Strong before they roll into Schmigadoon, and thus aren't invested in them or their relationship. When they arrive in town, courtesy of a Brigadoon-esque magical bridge (hence the godawful title), the only thing we know about them are: (1) what they do for a living, and (2) they're in a committed relationship. And that's just because we're told they're in a relationship.
Combine that with songs that generally (with a few exceptions) never rise above lukewarm parodies, and you've got the ingredients for a show that you watch and immediately forget ever existed.
(Seriously; one of the first big songs quotes entire bars from Billy Bigelow's big number in Carousel, and the dialogue preceding it is lifted almost word-for-word from the bench scene.)
I Can Only Imagine (2018)
Review
Loaded with cliches, one-dimensional characters, and stilted dialogue. It's not a good sign for the quality of your movie when the character that has the most depth doesn't appear until about halfway through, has about fifteen minutes of screen time, and then disappears. (For those wondering, it's Trace Adkins' manager. I just finished watching the movie and I can't even remember the character's name). Dennis Quaid, Madeline Carroll, and Cloris Leachman do the best with what they're given, but even actors as skilled as they are can only do so much.
Further straining credibility is the fact that the lead character is supposed to be in his teens for most of the movie, when the actor is 29 - and looks it. Even lampshading it can only do so much.
The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Undeserved acclaim
Somehow, this unabashedly manipulative film has become a runaway financial success, and I have to say I don't get it. All of the characters are nothing more than quick sketches that are never fleshed out, right down to the main romantic couple. Heck, even the characters from the blandest dime-a-dozen big-budget action film you can think of have more dimension and personality than the ones paraded across the screen here.
Make no mistake: This movie's screenwriters didn't set out to write a story about Hazel and Gus. No, they set out to write an Emotional movie with a capital "E." I have nothing against those movies; as a matter of fact, I absolutely eat them up. But the thing is, in order to be effective, you need characters that people care about and identify with, not cardboard cutouts with about as much depth as a single sheet of paper.