hermitofdhaka Reviews

Limitless (2015–2016)

Absolutely unwatchable (episode 2)

[1/10 · 30 September 2015]

Here is an intelligence test for you. Can you extrapolate the next number from the sequence?

8...6...1...?

Just like few others in this forum, while I found the pilot to be bearable the second episode is absolutely unwatachable. There was basically contrast and tension in the original movie. But the spin-off tends to use NZT as deux ex machina to solve basically everything.

Oh....cure cancer? No problem let me pop in a pill of NZT. Oh....Soviet nuclear disarmament or Middle-East crisis, let me pop in a pill of NZT. Oh....crash and side effects of NZT...let me po- scratch that, let me get some shot that will have no side effects.

Is this some sort of an insult to the level of audience intelligence? No plots, no subplots, no tension and there happened to be a Gengis Khan poster just when they were solving it.

Avoid. This show is killing the movie slowly. As for the number sequence, well they are gradual progression of ratings starting with the movie, pilot and then the episode.

I just found out that the geniuses behind Elementary are behind this as well. Thank God for that; will gladly avoid further episodes.

American Sniper (2014)

Modern day cinematic masterpiece!!!!!!

[1/10 · 31 January 2015]

Blown away by American Sniper. Not a single false stroke. Every swath reveals a perfection of monotone. Clint Eastwood is a modern day propaganda genius.

It achieves exactly where Still Alice fails but Green Zone and Zero Dark Thirty succeeds. It brings back watching paint dry or watch water boil as exciting as Call of Duty skirmish. But then again...this movie WAS A COD skirmish. Wait.

Cooper is a really favorite actor of mine and he did alright and in the tire repair shop when the man thanked him it captured the black-and-white tone of the film.

I do not know why it is Clint Eastwood's fault that his movie is interpreted as yin-yang tension between good and evil because all he did was take some of the most boring scenes of an army officer's life and increase it eight fold by letting camera roll and dragging on just like this sen...yawn ...tence.

I don't hate the message, but the messenger. It was extremely awful to watch, so dry and boring, and if I wanted to watch a film about sniper might as well watch an exciting documentary on Youtube if not COD footage.

The one-dimensional monotonous drivel carries on and on without a specific plot or structure. I know it is supposed to be a slice of sketch about Kyle's life and I actually read the book, but it is hard not to fall sleep.

I actually had to watch Andy Warhol's 8 hour "Sleep" to keep me awake. In fact THAT is a better art, that the propaganda strum-unt-drang conjured by modern day Goebbels: Clint Eastwood.

Bravo.

Whiplash (2014)

8 mile of drumming!

[9/10 · 21 January 2015]

Whipped to perfection!

Loved it! Just brilliant. JK Simmons might just as well walkaway with the Oscar for Best Supporting Role. I mean he was absolutely toned breathing life into his character with multi-dimensional value. He is funny, droll, irate, explosive, volatile, moody, and of course suave as come.

Let us not forget Miles Teller's character: soft and subdued but not overdone.

It is like Eminem's 8 mile for drumming. Feel good movie. Go and watch it by.....any means. Hope I didn't give much away with the last line.

Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

I tried but can't get past first 10 minutes

[1/10 · 21 January 2015]

It's a bore. It's a chore to watch. It's self patting undermining audience genius. If you wanna watch meta-movies go and watch Seven Psychopath, Eternal Sunshine or Stranger than Fiction instead.

It doesn't soar but ends up like rotten, poorly cooked meat. I tried to get past first 10 minutes twice but boy it's pointless.

Of course, it has its moments....such as getting nominated for a damned Oscar. That's a fast one pulled by the crew there.

I am not sure how can some people find it to be masterpiece with the director being hailed as Einstein of movies. Onus is movie makers to entice the viewers to watch it, and I can't simply be bothered to watch an utter and jejune drivel just cuz it got nommed for Oscar. Boo hoo.

The Theory of Everything (2014)

Redmayne murders it

[10/10 · 19 January 2015]

Redmayne first delivers, then destroys and finally murders the role by completely enveloping himself in the character of Stephen Hawking.

The violence was subdued, but the tension palpable throughout especially culminating in one final touching scene that I shalleth not giveth away.

I was watching it with my Mom, with whom I incidentally watched My Left Foot, and we don't watch movies too often for all you insecure kids out there, but she kept saying it reminded her of that flick.

While Daniel Day Lewis's character will remain a classic, but I think with this movie, Redmayne might have just not only have climbed acting's Everest being one of my all time Greats as favorite actors, but just have pulled out the heist of the century.

Question is not why he deserves an Oscar but why not. Did you for instance know that to capture the nuances Redmayne took dance lessons and Stephen Hawking felt he was staring at a mirror? While Cumberbatch's role was dynamic and original, this one was hyperrealistic to a different level.

The name says it all.

Edward John David Redmayne, ladies and gentlemen, is a cold blooded murderer.

The Imitation Game (2014)

Cumberbatch proves what it means to be human

[9/10 · 7 January 2015]

Can machines think?

"Carrots mussn touch peas. Carrots mussn touch peas. Carrots mussn touch peas." There is a scene in the film where young Turing gets bullied. For those of you don't know the entire biography, Turing WAS machine like. He took everything literally, couldn't get jokes as pointed out in the biopic, and even worked like an automaton.

Well if the entire premise of the movie is based on that thesis if machines can think, then Cumberbatch surely portrays what it means to be human. He blurs the line between acting and the real Turing in a virtuoso sfumatto which only a Sherlockian protagonist can pull out.

That is the real imitation game.

I mean heck if homosexual is a stigma, he makes being gay sexy.

A svengali voice draws you in, in the theater, with Cumberbatch exuding a brilliant genius with gossamer narcissism not to mention deeply tortured and troubled as well forcing you to pay attention.

This is perhaps the best opening monologue I have seen till Godfather and The Dark Knight.

He breaks the fourth wall. And in process of doing so had a literally breakdown at the end of the film.

But credit must be given to the sheer genius of the ensemble cast as well as well as a nod the young Turing brilliantly portrayed by Alex Lawther.

Oscar worthy or not is a moot point. Go see it.