I went a little off the beaten path for this one. This documentary has 27 reviews on imdb at the time of writing. I had to buy this from Vimeo because it was the only way to watch it. I was a little worried about the production quality of this film because there were no professional filmmakers involved in the making of it. This was Taylor Bybee's first (and probably his only) film to be produced. I think he did a really great job.
The documentary recounts the story of Fred Grubb as he attempts to start a successful company in northern Idaho. He started with the idea to convert old wooden coasters into steel coasters to increase their longevity and decrease maintenance costs. It took a couple years to get off the ground, but he got his break in 2010 when Six Flags contracted RMC to convert Texas Giant into a steel coaster. Since then, Rocky Mountain Construction has been building some of the best roller coasters on the planet. I was very impressed by how good this film was. When I first heard about it, I thought that there was no way Taylor Bybee could make an entire full-length documentary. I was very glad to be wrong. Taylor and his girlfriend spent an entire year traveling to different parks to get footage for the film, and it definitely paid off. To me, this film was very inspiring in many ways. For one, it gave me hope that I can get this close to the inner-workings of companies like this one. Also, the fact that a company can enter a competitive market like roller coaster manufacturing and work its way to the top in 10 years is amazing. I only knew this existed because I follow stuff like this, but this is something I would definitely recomend to anyone, even people who aren't into theme parks. 10 out of 10
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Why doesn't anyone ever talk about this movie?
This is a spinoff of the Madagascar movies that follows the penguins from those movies. I think this movie is better than any of the original Madagascar movies. First off, this movie is hilarious. The penguins are contrasted by another elite unit, the North Wind, who takes their job very serious. There were so many good moments where Skipper's personality would clash with "Classified" and I'd laugh every time. Skipper is such a well-written character. He has so many witty lines he says in such a nonchalant way. He has a false sense of confidence for the majority of the movie, so its funny to see stuff work out for the penguins even when they did something totally stupid. The first half of the movie was a masterpiece. The action scenes were executed brilliantly. The movie slows down for the last 30% or so. It degrades in quality slightly, but I'll let it slide because they had to end it somehow. I thin they tried to write it like the show and struggled to tie it all together. Best Moments Throughout the movie, Skipper forgets the name of the villain (Dave) and would always call him something similar like "Darrel" or "Dan". He does this several times throughout the movie, and I laughed at it a couple times. Near the end of the movie, Skipper goes way off and calls him "Ramirez" and I cracked up. Here's a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nC0LjIiC4tU The plane scene is my favorite scene in the movie. It's so rapid-fire and the penguins never miss a beat. When Dave bossed his minions around, his commands plus their names matched the names of some celebrities. Overall a seriously underrated movie and definitely worth a watch if you like to laugh. 8/10 Another sequel down. I watched the first Quiet Place around this time 4 years ago. I thought it was pretty good. At the end of that movie, the daughter figures out how to immobilize the aliens so they could kill them. That's where this movie starts.
This is going to be a pretty short review because I don't have many strong opinions about this movie. It met my expectations almost exactly. This was John Krasinski's 4th film as a director, and it was pretty impressive how he was able to tell a cohesive and easy-to-understand story with close to no dialogue for half of them. I came into this movie expecting a story that carried on the story of the last movie in the same way. I guess that's a pretty broad expectation for a movie sequel, but I can't think of a better descriptor. They ended the movie leaving it open for a third one, but it has the same problem as the last ending did where it just sets up a killing spree. I would recomend watching this movie if you liked the first one. You could probably watch it as a standalone film, but I don't think its as good as the first one and you'd lose some emotional value. I haven't seen many thrillers (or whatever this genre is), but I think this is probably up there in the genre. 7.5/10 The long-awaited sequel to The Shining is finally here, two years ago. I just now decided to give it a watch.
This really didn't feel like a Shining 2. It went in a totally different direction than the first movie, which I liked. This movie digs deep and expands on the actual "Shining" and follows middle-age Dan in a 2.5 hour adventure to save a girl's shine. This felt like a superhero movie with horror elements. I don't have much to say about this movie other than I liked it. There are some small things I'd like to talk about, though. The villain group was pretty well-done. I thought the struggle between Abra and Rose was cool. The fights show vulnerability in Rose and raise the stakes by giving a glimpse into the power that Abra wields. I liked how Flanagan kept us in the dark on what Dan and Abra were planning at several points throughout the movies. The forest scene was really good the whole way through. The deaths of the members of the True Knot were also really cool looking. The recreations of the original scenes from The Shining were surprisingly good. It seems that the only type of transition they could afford for this movie was a fade, because that was the only thing used. I think it was intended to show the passage of time between scenes, which is nice, but not needed. There were even some scenes that used the fade during the scene when changing camera angles. It got pretty annoying. I haven't read the Stephen king novel this movie was adapted from, so I can't judge Doctor Sleep by its accuracy. I can say that Doctor Sleep is a very entertaining movie and is definitely worth a watch. 8.5/10 This is the first movie I've seen in theatres since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker back in 2019. I had forgotten how good the sound was. My seat would vibrate with the bass and the sound was all around me. Anyway, Last Night In Soho was really good.
The first half of the movie, while intriguing, is very slow. I felt like Edgar Wright was trying to do too much with the setup, and a whole lot could have been cut out without much of an impact on the rest of the movie. The first 45 minutes of the movie are completely about Ellie's aspirations to become a fashion designer, but as soon as she starts having the dreams, that story just ends. It was like I was watching two different movies. The second half of the movie was VERY good. I would say the movie jumped from a 5/10 to a 10/10 the moment Ellie had her second dream. Ellie no longer knows what's real anymore, and neither do I. I can't really say anything about the second half of the movie without spoiling it, so I'm just going to say that the second half of that movie was nearly perfect. There was a Strangers on a Train- type ending. They should have just left that out. Thomasin McKenzie (Ellie) is a really good actor and she did a great job in this role. I recognized her voice from JoJo Rabbit and was very impressed at how much she had changed to fit this role. To recap, the first part was average and without much direction, but the second half was golden. This movie is probably going on the top-5 list. 9.5/10 I watched this because I was procrastinating on some homework and I saw it while scrolling through Hulu. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is loosely based on a short story by the same title about a man who daydreams all the time because he is bored with his dull life. The movie was listed as a comedy, but it didn't really feel like a normal comedy. It didn't have any of those cheap attempts at getting a laugh, which I was grateful for. In other words, I don't think the comedy aspect of the movie degraded the plot in any way. I really enjoyed the tone of this movie. It really does feel like I am looking into Walter's life, and the movie kind of feels like how he thinks. It was very calm and conservative the entire time, even if what was happening didn't match that. The movie follows Walter as he tries to think of things to put on his dating profile to gain interest from a girl at work, and also to find an image that a photographer had sent him to put on the cover of Life Magazine. He ends up going on a journey around the world and doing incredible things, resulting in a spiritual awakening. I did not expect this movie to make me think as much as it did. It had a very nice emotional payoff at the end and even some pretty good quotes at the climax. Walter taught us that anyone can become extraordinary if you just go for it. I thought that the e-harmony agent was a great character. He served as a spirit guide for Walter throughout his adventure. He pointed out to Walter what he accomplished because Walter didn't even realize how amazing those things were. I feel like the movie would have been better if he wasn't real though. I thought he wasn't real until the end. How do you get reception in the middle of nowhere in Greenland, let alone the Himalayas? Overall, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is a top tier feel-good movie. The acting is great, you get a couple good laughs out of it, and I loved the overall tone of the movie. "To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life." -Walter Mitty 9/10 I bet you're overjoyed to see yet another animated movie on this review. I was going to get into the Halloween spirit with Hereditary, but that didn't happen this week. I decided to watch this movie because I saw Alex Hirsch and Dana Terrace on the cast list, and they make good shows.
I thought the animation style was cute and neat. Whenever Katie was on screen she would get some extra flair with these little animations. It was interesting because it would give a glimpse into Katie's mind. Katie is getting ready to go off to film school in the beginning of the film, and her dad is desperate to squeeze in as much quality time with her as possible before she goes. The whole family goes on a road trip, where things inevitably go terribly wrong and the family needs to do a series of heroic things they thought they couldn't do. The family saves the world and, more importantly, learns valuable lessons about themselves and each other. The apple didn't fall far from the tree for this movie. Even though this was a cookie cutter plot, I did enjoy the movie. I laughed at a couple of the jokes and was pleased to see that it was half an hour longer than most animated films like this. It gave more room for character development and also made it so problems with the movie seemed like less of a problem. I felt like the antagonist's character was kind of weak in the story. It was a phone's personal assistant who sough vengeance for the way it was treated by its owners. It was very generic and underdeveloped. It was nothing more than something for the family to fight against, which I guess is good enough for this type of movie. I never do like the climaxes of these types of movies. Most of the time it comes down to a massive fight where the protagonists use the lessons they learned to defeat the antagonist in innovative ways. I feel like this is the point where they dumb it down the most for the little kids. Maybe it's just me, but I find myself cringing through this part in every single one of these movies because of how cheesy and cliché it feels. You've seen this movie a million times already. I went in and got exactly what I expected plus a little more. I would say this is on the upper end of family animated movies, but definitely not in the elite tier. 7/10 I watched this because it was nominated for an Oscar in best animated feature film and it was on Netflix. I was a little skeptical after watching the trailer because it looked kind of weird and far-fetched. Watching the movie reassured me that my skepticism was definitely called for. This movie was terrible.
Over the Moon felt like Netflix's attempt at making a Disney animated movie. It reminded me of Moana and Coco, but much, much worse. I have no idea how this earned an Oscar nomination. The movie follows a teenage girl who lost her mom a couple years ago (already sounding like a Disney movie). When her dad meets a new girl, she gets upset that he would ever love someone else. She goes on an adventure to the moon to find an immortal woman who, according to legend, never gives up on love. She thought that if she could get a picture with that lady, her dad would decide not to marry that other woman. This plot aggravates me very much. I would have been fine if her motivation was literally anything other than what it was. Even "I need to get this picture to prove my family wrong" would have been better. The whole movie I couldn't help but think that she was going through a lot more trouble than she needed to. The actual adventure was ok I guess. I was mostly bored by this point. The rest of my family had fallen asleep already. It reminded me a little bit of the second act of Coco. One thing I did like about this movie was the ending. It was predictable, but still good. If you can get over the setup and the entire first act of this movie, its decent. I couldn't get over it so I'm giving this movie a 3/10. 6/10I'm putting my rating first from now on so I can make this more of an actual review.
I watched this movie because of how many people have commented on how good the movie is. I had pretty high expectations for this movie, and they were sadly not met. I heard that this was one of the best musicals of all time. I can't argue with that statement, but I can say that the fact that this film is a musical makes it any better. I didn't like any of the songs in the movie. The movie would have been better without them. This is more like a good movie that happens to have music in it. I didn't feel like the characters developed during the movie. They got what they wanted and made some sacrifices on the way. There was nothing more to it. The ending was especially underwhelming. It just shows that they went on with their careers instead of staying together. The ending wasn't happy, but it wasn't sad either. It just left me sort of indifferent. Why should I be emotionally invested in their relationship when they aren't even invested in it? It left me nothing and nobody to root for. Overall, I didn't like it. I had to give it a six because it was a well-made movie. I just couldn't get invested in the story because of the long and boring song breaks in the beginning and then the flop ending. This is what I chose to watch as my German Expressionist film. I was originally going to watch From Morn to Midnight but the only video with English subtitles had no sound. I wish I had watched the Golem without sound, because the music was SO BAD. It wasn't as bad near the end, but in the beginning, some of the notes were held for so long that it was uncomfortable and distracting. There were a couple good ideas, like matching certain sounds with characters, but those sounds were so bad that they ruined it. Every time the female came on screen, there was a voice that would hit a constant high note for almost 10 seconds. When the Golem was on screen, some futuristic beeping sounds played. They sounded pretty cool, but didn't go with the theme of the movie or the golem at all.
I thought that the film itself was pretty good. It started a little slow, but the final act was really good. The Golem was a really good monster for a horror movie. I would recomend this to anyone wanting to watch a German Expressionist film. 9/10 6/10 (with sound) |
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April 2022
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