Mini-Reviews #4
And another opinion piece about the stuff I’ve seen over the last couple of weeks.
(Update 2023: Added five-star-ratings [may diverge now from what I had in mind, years ago, when I wrote the text…].)
Film
- Stoker (2013)
- Interesting psychological thriller. The first act is a bit slow but then it grows into a dark tale
with a very distinct visual appearence.
4/5 stars - Identity Thief (2013)
- Pretty bland mainstream Hollywood “comedy” (that’s actually a minsnomer, if not even an insult to
every other real comedy out there); do not waste your time on it.
1/5 stars - Iron Man 3 (2013)
- Another sequel that looks like it was more driven to be made by the producers and accounting clerks
than by the need to tell a good story. Sir Ben Kingsley is great (in both roles *cough*),
Rebecca Hall’s arc is superfluous, RDJ shows again that he’s got the role down — but despite this:
Story’s all over the place, a lot of WTF?! scenes (not in a good way) and a laughable showdown.
3/5 stars - Lovelace (2013)
- Looks and feels like a made-(very cheaply)-for-TV biopic. Yes, you can gaze at Amanda Seyfried (who
I felt was miscast for this role, she was better in Chloe,
but everything else is generic, below average drama without any impact on the viewer.
2/5 stars - Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013)
- First off, I’m a Trekker, not as hardcore as I used to be, but still. Second, I really like well
made popcorn-action movies. Third, other than the TV shows, the ‘Star Trek’ films were almost never
anything to write home about. That all being said, it boils down to this: I didn’t like the previous
instance of J. J. Abrams’s version much, it didn’t have much relation to the show I grew up admiring;
it was just a more or less acceptable time waster, nothing memorable.
And this one is more of the same, just worse. By now I have the opinion that Star Trek doesn’t fit well on the big screen — a snooze fest like The Motion Picture or explosions-before-logic like Into Darkness being the worst variants one can expect.
2/5 stars - Kick-Ass 2 (2013)
- The first one was a welcome and entertaining alternative to the recent surge in superhero movies, this second part feels unnecessary.
2/5 stars - Hell Baby (2013)
- Saw the trailer, liked it. Saw the film, didn’t like it. It had a couple of cheap laughs, but that’s all.
(And man, what was the budget on this thing, $10?!)
1/5 stars - Hello I Must Be Going (2012)
- I honestly can’t explain to myself what draws me to these kind of US-american indie films time and time again,
especially since they very seldom pay off emotionally. Like in this case: The premise sounded interesting, but the result was not.
1/5 stars - R.I.P.D. (2013)
- *Yuck!* I like the actors, but this one was so much crap (and that’s not even taking into
account the horrible visual effects). Skip it — better yet: Kill it with fire!
1/5 stars - 11:14 (Elevenfourteen) (2003)
- Rewatch – Watched the DVD again: It’s still an interesting little flick.
4/5 stars