Change Your Image
carlosleyequienabarca
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Elevator Game (2023)
This has not one thing of what makes urban legends interesting
The elevator game, modern urban myth, there have been several stories of weird situations related to elevators, and this urban myth was made up of a mash up of those, but it is intriguing
The thing is that this and most urban myths have rules that you are supposed to follow to stay safe and people don't follow them and then they are dead.
First, the game is supposed to be played solo, but it is understandable, that would be no fun in a movie(It would, done right, but this move was not done right even with more than one person)
After you start the game, you follow through to the 5ht floor step, and if you look at her she will talk to you and try to convince you to go with her, she can be a beautiful woman or someone you know(and that ofc cannot be there in reality) but there is no mention of her killing you(At least not in the elevator, which is the safe space)
The rules can be read in the ghost machine website btw. But to finish, the rule is to press 1 and go down... but to be vigilant because you could still be in the other dimension, and if so, you need to repeat all steps until you are sure you are in your og one
Then lets talk about the acting, the whole side stories with the characters are badly put together, the acting is subpar, they are just not good actors
All in all a lazy attempt to make an elevator movie, want a relatively OK one? Go see "Devil" this one is not worth it.
Into the Dark (2018)
Cheap trills with 0 critical thought put into it
I tried, I really did, but I am not watching anything beyond the first episode
It started strong, and was strong until about the middle, but then it went downhill and the ending was cheap, and that is the problem with most modern media, they want to make a statement, whatever that is, and they focus on that and end up making a bad end product.
Now some little details:
Very light touch into what the darknet is in reality but that is ok
Silly blunders, many of them, but will just point these two:
The hacking screens are laughable, but that is the case in most movies/shows
When she alters the video from the server and decides to ditch the computer because it will be traced... she has her fingerprints all over that device, which will give her away in a second, and mr killer doesn't even realize, but ok, he intended to betray her, that makes sense...
Then she coming back was stupid af, a professional does not make that dumb mistake, and that felt much more like to check the mark of the super woman and made it all bs at the end
Then comes his super human reflexes, NO ONE has the reflexes to cover oneself like that when shot, so I call BS on that, plus a medical tray is not that thick, and will not stop that caliber at all.
And that is it, if the first episode turns to be half good half garbage, that means that the whole show will end up being a disappoinment and not worth the time.
Harper's Island (2009)
A good show that disappoints by the end
It is all awesome, really thrilling, keeps you on the edge, makes you wonder what it going on, really looking forward to next episode
The acting is solid for the main character, and some side characters like Sully, Danny and Malcolm, but it was abysmal in others, Shea and Madison were some of the worst, some people say "They were sociopaths as well" to cope with the fact that they just can't act, they don't know how to show emotion to make their parts believable at all.
Then comes the plot, people dying in every episode, that is a good plot, that and the "subplots'' (that by the end get screwed by turning out to be planned too from the beginning) but by half episode 12 this falls all apart and shows how the writers knew how to build the story but ran out of ideas on how to craft a good ending
And episode 13 is just an utter waste of time, if they had ended it with "There is no real reason for the killings besides him being a sociopath that wanted revenge" and then the police arrives and done, or even if Sully just can't take it and offs him, that'd been the best ending, they could've shown the aftermath as an ending to episode 12... but they had to try and do a grand finale with stupid twists that are total BS and destroy all that the past 11.5 episodes made
Such a shame, this show WAS great up until the reveal.
A Christmas... Present (2022)
It is a movie to reflect on how we see things in reality
I had never loved a movie and raged with it as hard as I did with this one
I am obsessed with christmas, I always love the decorations, the general cheer and family reunions, but never really plan, I let it all happen naturally, and this woman's obsession with planning every minute detail SHE wanted without being considerate of others, plus the two selfish teenagers that need to practically be coerced into doing stuff drove me crazy and made me laugh at the same time
As I said in the title, this movie is all about understanding that we need to be considerate and we can love the season, but we need to look out and not turn into monsters thinking we do what is best without considering other's wishes
All in all the message is good, and for christmas movies, you know that you can't go wrong with Candace C Bure, she is like the trademark christmas actress lol.
Noël (1992)
It is an under appreciated gem
This movie is such underappreciated, it should be a classic.
It is one of those movies that make you feel a whole gamut of feelings in the short 20 something minutes it lasts.
The movie is such a sweet movie, it has its cute start, its "Ugh, how annoying are the other characters" moment, lots of joyous moments in such a short span, moments that bring back memories of your childhood's Christmas, make you all nostalgic and bring both a smile and a tear to your face.
Then comes heartbreak, never put better by the movie, makes you miss those that are gone, and realize how short life is and that we need to enjoy it as much as we can while we can.
Then the "rebirth" of happiness, and a great end message.
All in all this should be as much a classic as the grinch cartoon.
Don't Blink (2014)
Most people come to watch this movie with the wrong idea
My personal opinion is, as with life itself, there are many things we do not understand, and some of them we never will, in these type of movies that is best(Again, just my opinion) and here is why:
This movie is not a slasher, obviously, so most people that come thinking this way are underwhelmed, but this movie is based on real life mysteries, like the Roanoke mystery, where villagers just poofed out of the map, with no real explanation even today, and a single word carved on a tree trunk "Croatoan"
Similar things have littered the map and became legends, like the inuit village that vanished on Lake Anjikuni, same in brasil(Hoer verde), and several other situations that have become modern myths(Missing 411, The vanishings and portals to other dimensions in La Mussara, Tarragona, that "lead to vila del sis", etc)
So this movie takes that approach, something happens that cannot be understood, and it is left to the viewer to make his own mind on if it was Aliens, Portals, or whatever, and there is a little nod to Aliens being to blame, as on the end we have the archetypical Men In Black that allegedly appear to shush people that have had any sort of "close encounter"
Of course, most people that just like watching movies but are not into paranormal stuff or conspiracy theories will not know any of this and the movie will seem like it is senseless, but it DOES really have the little things that point to that
(For example, many abductee accounts speak of total silence right before they are abducted, same thing allegedly happens when people dissappear as covered in Missing 411)
So the movie was made with a very small target audience in mind, but those "in the know" sure will appreciate it.
Extinction (2015)
It is an ok plot with some bad writing and so so acting(heavy spoilers ahead)
Of course, this being a zombie movie, not much is expected, the last zombie movie that innovated was World War Z, and the isolation trope had been used before, and failed here as well
The movie tries to use the flashback tropes but fails to apply them properly, so it feels like a badly applied trope and makes a bit of a mess of the movie
Now, coming to the drama, I guess I could be biased and also in the scenario, would end up being alone, because I would kill anyone, best friend included, who tried to take my kid away, wouldn't wait 9 years, wouldn't wait 2 minutes, so maybe I am not the best judge of character for this, but that subplot is so crappy
The movie tries to paint the whole situation as Jack trying to "protect" Lu, by technically kidnaping a child that is not his, and raising her with lies
Then the character who they want us to believe is the better man(Still talking about jack) shows his real character by letting his former best friend get killed and with that causing the dog to die(That'd been the second time I'd kill him)
Then from one moment to the other all is good, then it is not, then it is good again, and so on.
Wounds (2019)
Not very well thought movie
First of all, is a very slow movie, and it doesn't really have any scares
The plot makes little sense, they tried to make something mysterious and preternatural but they added a lot of things that they didn't know how to connect
There are more than a few scenes that feel forced or very badly applied plot devices
The acting is horrible for the most part, and the bad writing does not help at all
Overall if feels like a half baked idea made in a rush with a tight budget, which would be understandable for an indie movie, but this is a Netflix production, so the budget is there, but the trend of horribly made Netflix movies continues with this one.
The Open House (2018)
One of the rare ocasions where the score it gets reflect reality
It was a promising movie at the beginning, but man did it let down, oh my gosh did it let down
The acting goes from mediocre to middling
The absolute worst about this movies is its cheap writing, Netflix did not miss its chance to disappoint again, which has been more frequent lately, from the nonsensical beginning that can be forgiven because it is the start of the movie, to the cheesy and out of place conversations there are in the movie, everything goes from bad to worse quality wise
It is full of cheap moments with "Please" moments sprinkled here and there
There is nothing, excepting the initial trauma, that makes you connect to any of the characters, and the deaths are as cheap as the writing itself unfortunately
All in all, this movie was a waste of time.
Evil Dead Rise (2023)
Director had the wrong formula
If you want to waste almost 2 hours of your life, then watch this movie, but I am telling you, I have no clue why this movie is getting an OK score if it is so badly made.
The Evil dead movies have all(Excepting the remakes) been all about not taking themselves seriously, they are so bad that they are actually good, there is a reason why they are cult horror movies.
This movie on the other hand tries to play the family drama card at first, takes it self way too seriously, and has no substance, feels empty and devoid of both reason and passion
The acting is flatter than a tortilla, ALL, and I really mean ALL the main actors were chosen from the discarded bin, their acting is as convincing as a politician saying there will be no war.
The pacing of the movie is also the worst, beggining with the opening scenes that are actually the ending(If you have the lack of criteria to watch this movie, you will know what I mean)
Then it slows down to a crawl to add the family drama that intends to make you feel bad for the characters(Which it doesn't) and then it rushes everything again, then it crawls down once more and gets us to the finale that started the whole movie.
Cuando acecha la maldad (2023)
I have no clue how this movie has such a high ranking
This has got to be one of the dumbest, worst written horror movies I have seen
The acting of the 3 main characters, Pedro, Jimmy and Mirtha, is good, surprising for latin americans(I am Mexican, and have seen a TON of movies and shows from down here), but that does not save it
The movie is a mess, it goes from dumb thing to dumb thing
Rules they know but ignore, advise from an expert that goes unheeded, and all sort of inconsistencies on the story and actions from the actors(which is not their fault, it is the writing that causes this)
SPOILERS
For what they say in spanish(Saw it without subtitles, so cannot attest for the translation) is that this is happening more and more "God is dead" and mainly in the big cities there is a "pandemic" of possesions
Everyone around knows the rules, yet NO ONE follows them, as I mentioned. The police being corrupt and careless is no surprise, that is the same all over latam, so that, at least, is an accurate depiction
Mirtha and her husband, for what I understood from the half baked story she tells, are to blame for what happened, and she is an expert on getting rid of the demons that possess the bodies, and she states the rules, which everyone involved ignores time and time again
Then comes the finale of the movie, every single thing she says, is totally ignored by Pedro, then evil wins.
Black Summer (2019)
This took what could've been a great zombie show and ruined it
If you are looking for an interesting show, a suspenseful show, well thought and acted, this is not it
It starts solid, the introduction of the characters is ok, they make it like an anthology, and the characters seem to be solid, but every single episode goes worse than the previous one
Feels like it was started by an ok writer and then a 5 years old kept writing later episodes
The decisions they take are senseless even for clueless survivors, like the Vietnamese gal, she first seems to try to save people, then out of the blue she is out
The deaf-mute, he follows the girl's moves, but then they find something and he is off and leaves her, then basic stuff like mentioning "he is deaf, can't hear you" are not there just to add the saddness and action
They start stuff and never finish it, and ofc, the finale, out of nowhere, for no reason at all, beard dude gets hurt and then he is sacrificed, but ok, what is not, is that they could've ended in a high note(s1), they could've been like "people rose, took arms and joined forces now that they knew what they were going on about"
But no, what starts like a strong finale ends up being the s*******t s**t ever, they do not coordinate, start running like headless chickens, shooting at each other, not caring for companions, or for saving anyone that might be in trouble and it become a dumbed down brawl with people turning on each other, so yeah, they ruined what could've been the greates coolest finale
Not really worth your time, considering that it went downhill and that the sequel show(which was made before this one) is just as bad.
Three Wise Men and a Baby (2022)
This could've been a great movie if it had more of a realistic ending
I loved the movie at first, it was heartwarming and cute
The typical brotherly issues displayed on 3 adult men in a pickle, couldn't get better than that, and having had a sister at age 14 with an absentee step-dad and careless mom, many things hit on the right spots
This shows a truth, via comedy, about us not forgetting we can have fun even as adults, we never should let go the inner child, but we also need to balance it with responsibility and matureness.
The acting is great in all aspects, and there are truly awesome moments, the writing is ok
It has its middling things, like the contest, which was not the focus of the movie but could've been handled better
What made me give this movie a 6 instead of a 9 is the fact that for holiday points they did the most unrealistic thing they could, the way the mom just comes in out of the blue, the way there is an invented story here that there is no pointer to anywhere in the movie, that makes it a very bad development, they could've sprinkled some pointers about the origin of Thomas and it defo needed to actually be Luke's child
If a random stranger came to leave a baby even if it is to someone specifically, and one would not report it, one would be in SERIOUS troube, the hospital staff would not just willy nilly give the baby away after learning they are not the parents, an investigation would've been made
Then there is the aforementioned development, if the lady came out of the blue "That is my baby, oh, I missed him" I'd immediately be like "Nooooo lady, I am so sorry, but no... We are calling child services, because even if you WERE the child's mother, abandoning the child in a fire station makes you unfit to be a mother
I would then cooperate with child services and adopt the child if possible... Maybe it is my own childhood trauma with an absentee mom and being taken away from my grandparents by someone I didn't really know when I was 7, but I totally disapprove the theme treatement in that regard, hence the lowish score.
November Christmas (2010)
One of the most tear jerking movies I have seen
Seriously, I had not cried this much since "Instructions not included"
This movie is so sweet, and it specially hits those that have had a loss in their life
Goes to show the way communities should be, caring, compassionate, united and helpful and also how families should be united in the hard times, instead of breaking apart, how each other's strenght helps get through those times
Great movie for the season, and teaches you what a friend told me a long time ago, expect the best while preparing for the worst
The acting is good, this movie has a good actor ensemle, which is great, but it is not only that, they deliver the acting with passion, which is what makes this movie such a tear jerker
Highly recommended :)
The Christmas House (2020)
An underrated movie that really makes you feel it
It is impossible this movie is getting such a low score, this is such a good movie
It is especially meaningful for those of us that had so many christmas traditions growing up and hits hard to remember those and realize some have died off witht he grandparents
It is also a very refreshing change from the normal Hallmark christmas movies, that have all the same plot points of
-Person returns to X place after a long time
-Person falls for Y person from the town and starts a beautiful thing
-Y persona realizes that X person has a hidden plot(that they some times both didn't know about)
-Drama ensues and Y person dismisses X person
-X person renounces to whatever caused the grief and voila, happy endind
That is Hallmark xmas movies in a nutshell, but not this one
This one is all about the meaning of family, the movie knows how to press the very specific buttons on you that make you tick, and the family drama is not the average Hallmarky drama, but real and based, and the miracle at the end is not a miracle, but family working out things as they should
Really a must see for the season and now on my top 20 holiday movies for sure.
Christmas with the Darlings (2020)
A very nice story that highlights what Christmas is all about
The movie is really nice, it touches you especially if you had a similar family, or I guess any kind of family issue that is not "normal" by average standards, in my case it had me on tears(Of suffering at one point and joy at another lol)
The whole plot is well made, it is refreshing to see a Halmark movie that is not only about people falling in love at christmas but that centers more about family and its importance over work and duty
The acting is solid for the most part, the kids are stiff though, as if they were literally reading the script every five minutes, and they don't show emotions right(And yes, IK I might be harsh, but kids like Dakota Fanning, Macaulay Caulkin, Abigail Breslin, etc, have shown that kids can act as good or even better than adults, but I get it, these are cheap productions)
All in all this one has been added to my list of favorite holiday movies, up there with Love the Coopers, The Kranks, Xmas story, etc.
Highly recommended for this season.
Christmas Bedtime Stories (2022)
The worst christmas movie I have seen in my life
And that is coming from a person obsessed with christmas
The movie is ok, sends good messages, the happenings in the movie make you feel like it is all saying "Get your happy ending"
It has its cute moments, it has a lot of "You cannot let the past hold you down, you need to be happy" and such beautiful messages
The acting is subpar, but that is not surprising for a Hallmark movie
Then comes the surprise pulled out of the nether regions of someone, that send the message "Never move on, because you will be abandoning those you loved", and the movie really just blows with that ending
I know Hallmark is famous for its cheap extremely corny or outright bad movies, but this one seriously takes the cake, and if I could vote 0, then I would, because it fails as a love story, it fails as a movie with a good message, and it fails as a christmas story.
A Child's Christmases in Wales (2009)
This is one of those hidden gems that everyone should watch
This is not your common christmas movie, no Santa/Father Christmas, no big malls full of decorations, or shopping sprees, nothing like that, no, this is a movie to make you nostalgic, to evoke that REAL feeling you get around christmas with family
This is the christmas memories of a boy, now an adult(Never seen btw) and you see a normal family having normal christmases, and how they can get crazy without going into fancy stuff, just mundane stuff
The story telling in this movie is quite grand, being a simple tale, if you get my meaning, and it goes to show that no matter how bonkers a family can be, there is always good memories that can outweigh the bad ones, and some that we think of as bad, that looking back turn out to be not so bad.
Really recommended to watch this with the family and have a good laugh.
Ziggy's Gift (1982)
One of, if not the best christmas special ever
This has it all, nostalgia, comedy, kindness, an incredible animation and the bestmessage ever
The song, that song is the best, and fits the special perfectly
This follows the misshaps of Ziggy and kis dog while attempting to work as a Santa, and there comes the first funny bit, Ziggy's obliviousness to all the evil that is there but cannot corrupt him
No matter what happens to him, he keeps his kind spirit and behaviour, and teaches a great lesson to a crook and a police officer, and brings christmas joy to what I assume is an orphanage, making christmas a very merry christmas for a bunch of kids, who, as the caretaker says, are never visited by anyone
This is a must see in the christmas season, I could watch it every single day in the season and not tire.
eXistenZ (1999)
Boring and with such bad acting
I really do not get how this can have almost 7 in IMDB
This is an extremely boring movie, the plot is all over the place, the acting is mediocre even for what would be in a future very well known actors
The dialogue is so corny, it feels like a teenager with anxiety wrote it, and the deliver by the actors feels like they are actually ashamed of saying the lines, like they know is bull and they really don't want to say it but they need to for the paycheck
I fell like the only appeal of this and (any cronenberg movie tbh) is just the body horror, nothing else, and I felt like these were the worst 1.5 hrs I spent in a long time.
The Gracefield Incident (2017)
Everything about this movie is awful
I would give it a 0 if I could
The intro serves no purpose except to justify a ridiculous recording eye made by the MC in the apartment, and let me tell you, working in ICT as a local tech, that is not something that a software designer can do(Which is what he is, a gaming software designer)
That is not even used as a "Stranged couple" rekindling the love, they seem to be perfectly fine 10 months after losing the baby, so that is a missed opportunity
Then we have the trip to the cabin, this is the boss' cabin, he is lending it to the MC, and he decides to bring more guests... I guess it is possible some peopel abuse trust like that, and maybe I am just too honest and would never do that
Then there is the satellite that was destroyed in a collision with something(clearly a space ship) with no uproar and with the news saying for everyone to be vigilant for anything strange... As if that'd ever happen in real life, where the govt covers up normal stuff that we actually already know about, let alone aliens and monsters if there was any
I honestly could not get past the "Finding of the thing"
Why? The acting is awful, one could say that even if the acting is bad, if the writing is good, then it is salvageable, but in this case, the writing is also awuful
This literally sucks as much as the story us 3 perfect strangers crafted in 10 minutes for a casting in a mexican crappy "made up stories to teach a lesson to X person" horror "show".... like literally, it is that awful.
The House of the Devil (2009)
A yawn inducing faux 80s movie
This is what the title says, a faux 80s movie that lacks all what made the cult classics good
The movie is extremely slow, it is like watching a slug cross the yard
Nothing, and I mean NOTHING happens until after the 1hr mark, it is all "build up" that builds to nothing
The characters are bland, the acting is ok, the premise is sort of predictable, but it fails to capture the escence of horror
There is nothing in the movie that makes you either say WOW or OMG that was scary
There is no real master mind, it is all very simple, and in reality dumb as can be
The only redeeming quality this movie has is that the main lady is not a lost little lamb that cannot defend herself and cries for everything, but the "revelations" come on the dumbest possible ways, and the actions make no sense
On the end it was. 90 minutes totally wasted imho.
The Tomorrow War (2021)
An ok with a lot plot holes
Jul 24, 2023
I liked the movie, it is an ok one, but there are a lot of issues with it This movie was more thought as a man's redemption story and his fixing his past and future family issues rather than a sci fi or horror movie, and even then it makes little sense, and they really didn't think their science very well for this movie It has its funny moments and its tear jerkers, but then when you think of it, that stops on its tracks, here is why: First, what makes no sense about the father daughter story, if what is thought(And it is not science per se) about time travel would be true, then Muri telling daddy how he died and that he left them, would've erased that Muri(even if there are different timelines created, because it would be HIM the one that knows and can avoid that fate, so for him and Muri of that timeline it would've all changed) Now going about the aliens The dad is a super smart scientist, yet when the daughter tells him he is taking the toxin back to mass produce it so they can stop the white-spikes, he says he is coming back for her and won't let her die, if you are a scientist you would immediately deduce that if you change what caused the war, if you kill them, that future is gone, so he'd've saved her The way they come out to invade also makes 0 sense, they are totally unresponsive until they start to get inyected, so how did they go out to the surface and start the invasion?
Spectral (2016)
An OK movie if you don't have anything else to watch
This feels like is a better take on "Final Fantasy The spirits within"
The movie is good, it has its things but overall is good for being a Netflix production, acting is ok, and entertaining all around.
There are some plot points that kind of make no sense but they are forgivable, for example, the googles, what was their purpose before the ghosts? The googles are clearly named after paranatural events, so that leaves you with a tingling lol
Then the movie unravels and the plot is explained, or sort of explained, as the explanation doesn't make that much sense, they could've get 2 cents more and investigate a bit more to make it more believable
And then a minor thing but something that had no place in the movie... American exceptionalism "They don't stop do they?"... "They don't know how to"(First off, that is stolen from Battle los angeles and secondly that is not how soldiers are if they survive a massacre, not at all) but it was such a minor thing towards the end that even that is forgivable.
Mother! (2017)
Snail paced allegory that makes almost no sense
This was 2 hours of my life wasted, it is an allegory of the biblical stories, but the movie makes no sense, it is boring from beginning to end and actually frustrating at points
The dumb religious significance gets lost unless you are looking hard
This is marked as Mystery, Horror and Drama, and it does have drama in it but nothing of terror or mystery
All in all there is very little to like about this movie, and there are repeated themes in the movie on a nonsensical fashion
Both Javier and Jenniffer's acting is ok, but the rest is either bland or over the top, which makes the movie even less enjoyable
If you want something to cure your insomnia this here is the thing.