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brian-mcintire
Reviews
Gemini Man (2019)
Great idea. Poor Execution
I've always been a fan of Will Smith. Hes a good Actor with great charisma. I wanted to love this film and as this genre goes I tend to be a little forgiving. I did enjoy seeing Will Smith in another movie and there were certain aspects of the film that were entertaining.
Unfortunately, I struggled with the piss poor CGI rendering of Will Smith's younger self. So much so that I found it difficult to enjoy the movie. It just seemed silly. Also, I'm not quite sure I would rate the writing as bad as some of the other people here have but it is true that it lacks depth. Also, some aspects of it were highly predictable. Perhaps written for people who Get easily confused. No idea.
You want to love the characters, but the way it is written and directed its hard to really grow an attachment to them. The characters felt emotionally shallow. I found it difficult to really care what happens to them.
Nobody's Fool (2018)
Unrealistic story - Tyler Perry at his worst
This movie was supposed to be about a successful, but confused black woman's journey as she discovers that her relentless pursuit for what she always though a "perfect" man should be has made it impossible for her to find happiness.
In steps a rare but imperfect man named Frank (portrayed by Omari Hardwick) with wonderful qualities, Frank has made mistakes and he has learned from them. He's a caring and loving person who works hard to help others who have struggled in similar ways. .
Danica, played by Tika Sumpter, is torn between her growing attraction to Frank and the seemingly "perfect" man she has been chatting with for a year, that she has never met. We are meant to believe she is a successful ad executive. Unfortunately, all of her work scenes portray her as someone who is somewhat disconnected.
We can appreciate this and even forgive it to some extent. However, we have to wait until the very end of the movie to even see a glimpse of the hard working intelligent woman we were led to believe she was. Meanwhile, what we are left with is a woman who seemingly can't compartmentalize the pain she is going through in her personal life. We want to forgive this. We can identify with how difficult it can be to be successful at work when our personal life is a mess, but successful people do it all the time. Instead, we are left with a completely dysfunctional woman who seemingly only works when she is forced to go to a meeting.
I wanted to enjoy the story. I wanted to see her grow and become the woman she was always meant to be. Unfortunately, the journey is muddied with ridiculous way over the top acting and writing of multiple characters who are meant to bring comedy relief as our heroine compleye's her journey.
Tiffany Haddish plays Tanya, Danica's sister. She was funny at times but her over-acting often made me cringe. Whoopi Goldberg, who played their mother, was almost always high. Chris Rock was ridiculous, and Charlie, played by Mechad Brooks, was completely unbelievable as Danica's so- called "perfect man." She had been talking to him for a year! They meet once and any shred of credibility for his character or Danica's is lost. She's supposedly head over heels in love with him but there is no chemistry. Charlie is thoughtless, inattentive and ridiculous, and the sudden revelation that his penis got stabbed by a pencil is pointless. It's not funny. It's not useful in any way. After a short interaction we are left wondering how this so-called intelligent woman could have ever believed this man was even close to who she thought he was. We all make mistakes. Sometimes it takes a life to learn what's important, but not seeing who this man was would've made her completely clueless. A woman of nearly 40 years would have to have at least a small clue. It just made no sense at all.
As she continues to flip back-and-forth and disrespect Frank we are left feeling sorry for Frank. No matter how much she hurts him he keeps coming back for more. We can't help who we love but we are led to believe that Frank is a man who knows who he is and is proud of it.. A man with self esteem. It's impossible to believe a man like this would so easily forgive her deplorable behavior.
In my opinion their final reconciliation should've happened years later after a well deserved break up. This would have given credit to the strong man we are led to believe Frank is. It would have also given time for Danica to reconcile all of her thoughts and feelings and to truly discover who she is.
Ultimately the timeline is unrealistic. Danica's acting is weak but the writing and direction was ultimately what killed this movie. It's clear Tyler Perry has either lost his ability to connect with people or no longer cares. He's made over half a billion on low budget high profit films. Unfortunately, we keep rewarding him by spending our hard earned money to see his increasingly insulting and less and less funny movies.
Tyler Perry is an intelligent and very talented person who has the resources to make a truly inspiring movie that we would be as proud to watch as the actors and actresses are to play their roles. What happened to smart comedy? Why do we keep having to see black women portrayed so unrealistically?
Ask yourself, why does he keep churning out nonsensical garbage. It's lazy. Tyler Perry seems to be far more concerned with quantity than to take the time to write a realistically livable and funny movie that we know he's capable of.
What Men Want (2019)
Very Disappointing
My girlfriend and I were looking forward to seeing this. We walked away very disappointed. Teraji P Henson's is a favorite of ours but we found ourselves not even wanting to root for her character.
I like slapstick or over the top humor in measured doses as much as the next guy, but the way her character was portrayed felt more like a mixture of over acting, completely unbelievable behavior in the workplace, and borderline psychotic behavior.
In fact, it was a near perfect portrayal of a psychotic disorder. Through most of the movie she almost completely lacked guilt or remorse, was narcissistic and severely lacked empathy. She was dishonest and manipulative and superficial and reckless.
There's a scene with her father, played by Richard Roundtree, where he attempts to explain her behavior as an unintentional side effect of him not trusting people after his wife left. It just doesn't wash.
We could have forgiven some of this but other issues abounded. For example, the majority of the cast came off as hugely unintelligent. And the affection and loving reaction of her would be love interest, portrayed by Aldis Hodge, to her unfeeling, unloving, selfish behavior, makes no sense at all, unless you fancy imagining a man with no self esteem.l whatsoever.
What happened to movies with believable, identifiable, and lovable characters? Why couldn't her character be portrayed as someone you can honestly believe is real? Or decent, for that mater? Someone who is having real life problems, not just that she's crazy?
We felt insulted just watching the various scenes with her. Also, why did 90% of the men have to be portrayed as dogs, completely unfaithful to their ladies? It's one thing for a man to have thoughts about another woman, like noticing her features, but it's quite another thing to consciously plan adultery or cheating.
The movie makes fun of straight men and homosexuals, but often does it in a demeaning way.
There was just nothing endearing about most of the characters. This movie was painful to watch. We barely made it through it.
She repeatedly demonstrates a complete lack of empathy. She shamelessly uses people. It's clear from the beginning that she is unstable. Her work relationships are unrealistic. She's unprofessional. My girlfriend and so actually felt embarrassed for her.
Look, if you love her like my girlfriend and I do, you will forgive some of these problems and laugh and enjoy some of the movie, but it will test your loyalty to her. It's a horrible movie. She should be ashamed.
Hush (2016)
OK Thriller if you have low expectations
This movie is not horrible, but it is very predictable and the victim does one stupid thing after another after another.
She turns her back on the villain multiple times including secluding herself in a bathroom with her back to a window.
When she finally makes choices it's always too late. I can see how extraordinary fear can paralyze a person. In the hands of a great actress, her slow decision making and even some of her bad decision making could be passed off as a byproduct of being completely terrified. I really do think Kate is a good actress but the writing and direction was average at best, and as much as I like Kate she is not capable of rescuing a subpar movie purely with acting chops.
Kate and her husband wrote this part for her. I know she thought she could deliver but I walked away feeling like I had just seen another movie portraying women as stupid. She could have written a much smarter character for herself or simply paid a more talented actress to elevate the script. Some changes in direction could have also made Kate look less stupid and led to the whole film being more believable.
Frankly, the villain was meant to be believed to be completely unhinged but other than his psychopatic tendencies there was no real vibe from him that could help you understand why any of this is happening. I know. I know. Sometimes it's better when we have to wonder ourselves. Easier to accept if the actor is believable.
Also annoying, is there are multiple scenes where we are expected to believe she has no peripheral vision at all. I've always thought the absence of 1 sense heightens others. Not in her case.
As short as this movie is it seems to drag out far more than it should. I'm not saying don't watch it, but go into it with the understanding that it is an average movie, at best.