Westworld [1973] review

I'm curious.  In 1973, was this considered a good movie?  Did people love it?  Either way, this movie does not stand the test of time, and frankly, it's just not a good movie.  The dialogue is minimal and uninspired.  The characters are very underdeveloped.  The movie is trying to sell you on the idea of Westworld as if the park itself is the main character.  The movie fails on all fronts.

With the recent HBO show as my only point of reference, I know the general idea of Westworld.  If you don't, that's okay as the movie begins with a commercial to introduce you to the land, kind of.  It's more of advertisement than anything - "only $1,000 a day!".  Once that is complete, the movie focuses on two friends - Peter and John.  John is played by a young James Brolin (who looks a lot like a Christian Bale).  John has been there before and literally smiles the whole time and that's about it.  Peter, as the newcomer, plays the part of audience member as he asks questions, is skeptical of who is and isn't a robot, and is in constant disbelief on what you can or can't do, which is supposedly nothing.  So what do they do?  - the bare minimum.

Plot-wise, the friends enter a saloon and the Gunslinger (Yul Brynner) insults Peter.  Peter shoots him and the Gunslinger is taken away.  Then the two friends have sex with two prostitutes.  The next morning, the Gunslinger is back and Peter shoots him again to "save" John.  This time Peter is sent to prison for it.  John breaks him out and they ride away.  They sit in the desert to do nothing, but they have to move the plot along.  For reasons unexplained, a robot snake attacks John which is the first sign that Delos, the company running the park, is losing control of the robots.  The Black Knight robot kills some random guest in Medieval World that we haven't been following this whole time so why would we care about him?  The Gunslinger is back again and is some how able to shoot and kill John.  It's explained earlier in the film that the guns don't work on warm blooded guests, but only work on the cold/no blooded robots, so I guess the guns have also malfunctioned along with the robots?!

The rest of the movie plays like the Terminator where the Gunslinger chases after Peter.  The music consists of what sounds like someone jumping on a diving board for the entire final act in an attempt to create tension and maybe give the Gunslinger a theme when he was on screen.  Peter makes his way into the Delos lab and tries acid on the Gunslinger's face.  It slows the Gunslinger down for a little bit, but he keeps going.  Peter makes his way to Medieval World and is able to use a torch to set the Gunslinger on fire and the movie ends.  Everyone else appears to be dead.  The other robots that revolted?  MIA.  So yeah, this movie is pretty bad.

Little [2019] review

If you're unfamiliar, the basic concept is that Regina Hall's character of Jordan gets a spell/curse put on her by a random little girl and she wakes up 13 years old again.  The intent of the movie is that hilarity will ensure as Jordan has to navigate life as an adult trapped in a child's body.  It's kind of like A Christmas Carol where adult Jordan is Scrooge and she gets a chance to re-learn a lesson that she didn't quite learn when she was young - that just because you were treated poorly as a child doesn't give you the right to treat people poorly when you're an adult and have money and power.  

Personally, I'm not a huge Regina Hall fan.  I didn't like her character in "Girls Trip" or this movie.  Obviously, you're not supposed to like her character, but I suppose you're supposed to sympathize with her.  In the end, I didn't really find that the case.  

As a comedy, thankfully there were some funny parts where I laughed out loud.  This was mostly thanks to Issa Rae who played adult Jordan's assistant, and Marsai Martin who played the young Jordan.  There's one or two tiny heartfelt moments, but they don't involve the main character, just a side character named Isaac that I later learned actually has real talent and was cast as the voice of young Simba in Favreau's The Lion King.

Overall, I get what this movie was going for, but the execution was lacking and the writing could have been better.  There was some tone issues where serious parts played more silly so therefore they didn't feel grounded in reality.  A better utilization of sound would have helped as some scenes felt devoid of any background music at all.  There were also moments that were supposed to play for physical comedy that just came off as mean spirited.  Lastly, there were two scenes with a child flirting with an adult where the first one was tongue in cheek, but the second was kind of uncomfortable.  

Twins [1988] review

Schwarzenegger and DeVito do not disappoint in what I consider a classic late 80s comedy.  Schwarzenegger naivety in the real world pairs perfectly with DeVito's abuse of it.  They balance each other out thematically, and almost comedically with Schwarzenegger taking the burden in the beginning and DeVito more in the middle with his side hustle.  In the final third of the film when it becomes more about family, the laughs do decrease dramatically so we can have a heartfelt ending.  I would have appreciated if they could have kept the laughs going, but I understand that the tone has to switch when things get serious so it feels like there are actual stakes.  (A similar thing happens in "Knocked Up")  Kelly Preston and Chloe Webb, playing the female co-stars, don't get too much time to shine as the movie focuses on the twins.  Maybe they could have been incorporated more in the final act instead of being sidelined but I'm not sure how you execute it without it feeling silly. 

Overall, the movie still holds up after 30+ years.  With rumbles of a possible remake staring Momoa & Dinklage, I think you may insult a lot of people making Momoa the "perfect human" and Dinklage the "genetic defect" so I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to swap the roles and change up the jokes completely.  In recent roles, Momoa tends to be more silly while Dinklage is more serious, so I think it would work.  It would would be interesting to watch if they did something different and didn't just rehash the original, in my opinion.

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood [2019] review

Walking out of the theater, I felt that I kind of got it, but I kind of didn't.  I talked it over with my wife on the way home and then I watched the RedLetterMedia review and understood what they were going for and it made a little more sense.

I don't want to spoil anyone, but if you're going to see this, I think it would help having a general knowledge of the real world events involving Charles Manson and Sharon Tate.  Detailed knowledge isn't crucial but the movie assumes you have some knowledge, because it won't be explained to you.  Those real life events serve as the movie's backdrop and what's at the forefront is story of Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Pitt).  From there, this movie is essentially Tarantino's take on a fairy-tale. 

The acting in this movie does not disappoint even when it's meant to be on display due to the meta nature when the movie is a film within a film.  The line between the actor's reality and our reality is walked with precision and expertise.  There are a few scenes that go on a little long where I was wondering what the point was, but I chalked it up to quality time spent with these characters so we end up caring about them, otherwise the final act wouldn't work. 

Also, I learned that from the aforementioned review that Tarantino took a lot of time to re-create 1960s Hollywood and use a minimum about of digital effects as possible.  Personally, I guess it felt like 1960s Hollywood, but as a non native I didn't appreciate it as much as maybe a native would.  I know "La La Land" got a lot of praise for its treatment of Hollywood and since I don't have that extensive background of that area and/or era, it was just that - background.  I cared more about the characters and plot than I did about Cliff driving around for 5 minutes.  Although, it was nice to see the driving and feel the time it took to get from point A to point B instead of it feeling like insta-travel.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite Tarantino film, but I have a good appreciation for it.  I loved the scenes where he expertly created tension as those sucked me in and had me at the edge of my seat.  He does that very well and the payoff definitely comes later so you have to have the patience for it going in hence why I didn't see this movie opening weekend and waited until I was prepared to go on the journey.

Aquaman [2018] review

Surprisingly, I enjoyed this movie.  There are some character name drops early in the film before you're introduced to said character which may cause confusion, but thankfully there is a scene that helps clear it up.  Specifically, late in the first act, a certain sequence flips back and forth between the past and the present which was welcome to give the audience background on how Arthur was trained and which character(s) is aligned with which people.  I'm also glad Mera name drops a certain character which lets us know when this movie takes place in the timeline of recent DC films.

With that said, there were other character names mentioned in reference to family trees and who was related to whom which I was a little lost on, but I'm sure a second watch would help clear that up.  I got the general gist and that was fine.  I'm glad there was an actual story and not just action scene after action scene.  I did like the way scenes were shot when there was action.  Getting that full 360 view worked well and made most scene flow.

I do admit that I did have to google, "Is Aqauman bulletproof?" as I didn't realize he was nor did I understand why certain characters needed water to breath, but I guess since they've never been on land before that they were out of their element.  This works at the time, but there were some inconsistencies that are kind of ignored in the final act.

But overall, it wasn't too campy, the tone was consistent with a good mix of seriousness and humor throughout.  There were a lot of set pieces with different rulers and such, again a little confusing on first watch keeping all of it straight when this was my first introduction to this world, but upon second watch I think things will make more sense.

The Predator [2018] review

I'm trying to think of something positive to say, but this movie was a mess. Nothing was explained / made much sense, everyone was over acting, Olivia Munn continues to showcase her lack of acting ability and also happens to be a combat biologist?, the main cast's plot armor was strong until the third act, the Predator dogs really had no point, and the mcguffin at the end to set up a sequel?...it was just a hot mess. There was an excessive amount of cursing that didn't bother me too much probably because the script/acting was so bad. I didn't mind the gore but the way it was used in the first movie was like, "Oh I can't believe they just killed [blank]; no one is safe." Well, spoiler alert, it turns out in this movie that everyone was safe until the third act so no stakes equals weak movie. Of the Predator franchise, I'd probably rank this one as the worst.

Orange is the New Black [2019] Seventh and Final Season review

In the extras section there is a 19 minute farewell video where the writer/creator of this show, Jenji Kohan, said this show was never about women in a prison, but it's essentially a social commentary on what's currently happening in the world and her soapbox to get the conversation going.  So with that said, I'm kind of glad it's over as it feels like, especially in the later seasons, that the message became the priority. It's not like it was too preachy or anything. The message was powerful and I get it, but at the same time I need a good story. There would be episodes, especially early on where an episode would end and I'd be like, "That's it? What happened after that?" and it would never be revisited again or it would be revisited in a later season when it served the message and not the story that was referenced so long ago that it's already been forgotten.

As for this final season, I was mostly okay with it. I defintiely thought it was a stronger season compared to most, but I probably should have re-watched season 6 first. Anyway, there were a few moments where it felt like it dragged, especially when focusing on the detainees verses the inmates, but I think the show did a decent enough job to give us a balance of the characters we cared about while they hammered their message home.

Kate Mulgrew (Red), Uzo Aduba (Suzanne), Danielle Brooks (Taystee), Adrienne C. Moore (Cindy), and Selenis Leyva (Mendoza) are the real stars of this show and they all gave great performances this final season. Special shout out to the writers for taking the characters of Caputo and Fig (Nick Sandow & Alysia Reiner) who I never thought I would give a shit about, and keep us interested in their story. Personally, I'd love to see a cut of this entire series without Piper (and Alex), or at least a diminished role, as I think the show would have highly benefited with their storyline as the minimal as possible.