Reviewing Movies
A daunting task?
In the past 48 hours, I have watched a number of movies. From Neighbours 2 (also called Bad Neighbours), Bad Moms, Central Intelligence, Before I Wake to Don’t Breathe.
These four movies could not be more different from each other and for some reason I’m supposed to review them all (personal choice) and be as objective as possible?
First off how do you review a movie you do not like? How do you review a movie in the long scheme of things that personally makes no sense whatsoever and had such bad acting that you can’t for the life of you figure out why anyone likes it in the first place?
As my friend and fellow film critic Sarah once said;
movies are highly subjective…
And she couldn’t have said it better
I realise that people like certain movies simply because they do. No reason, no justification, they just do and they’re not happy when critics sh*t on those movies and feel said critics are being uppity about what they love so much.
I kinda feel that way right now. That’s the very reason why I’ve been able to review just one out of the five movies I’ve seen in the space of two days. They were all just averagely okay movies. I personally wasn’t blown away by any of them although I did like Bad Moms the most and Central Intelligence next.
Bad Moms has a stellar cast with over-the-top acting and language but it was mostly fine because of the message it was trying to pass. Then again if you watch “Daddy’s Home” or literally any movie about family, you’d get the point: “family is important” and that’s okay because sometimes a new generation that hasn’t seen (I don’t know) every other family oriented (albeit adult themed) movie will find it entertaining in the moment.
I know I did. Heck I’m still thinking about it now because I’m writing this but in a few days I’ll forget it until someone comes to my place and then I’ll put it up. For it’s “rewatchability”, I’ll give it a 7. Personal choice of course. Someone else might give it a 4 and another an 11 but this is my story so I’ll give it what I personally feel is appropriate.
The next is Central Intelligence. I already reviewed that, so all I’ll say about it is that if you’re a fan of Dwayne Johnson and Kevin Hart there’s no reason whatsoever not to seeit. You’ll absolutely love it. I kept it too to watch when I have friends over so I give it a 7 for that. Not much more I’m afraid, sorry.
Now that brings me to Bad Neighbours. Before I begin, let me get this off my chest: I very much enjoyed the first movie. That’s the only reason I decided to watch this in the first place.
I’m not a big Seth Rogen fan, I’m not into his brand of comedy but sometimes I jive well with them and can watch his movies. Maybe I don’t understand it, but like Will Ferrell, I’m not always looking forward to his movies, I just more or less stumble upon them unless of course there’s someone in said movie that I like.
So yea, I only watched the first movie in the first place because I heard it was good. Over-the-top and exaggerated but good. They were right.
I didn’t like the second one
I don’t know what message they were trying to pass off other than being “a strong woman” and that was sort of tiring especially with the process they took in getting there. The antics weren’t funny to me and the acting was just plain bad. The end was as expected as expected can be and that was it. A very linear story that makes you go “huh”. Am I too serious for my own good?
Now I understand that someone who reads this and who liked the movie would find what I’m saying here silly, but that’s just what it is. Same person might argue that superhero movies are linear and whatnot (especially if they don’t enjoy them and I know some people don’t) and I’d argue that said movies are fun! See what I mean. It’s so darn subjective that even if I can see the faults in a movie I like, I’ll still enjoy it if it touches me but I can’t say the same for a movie I don’t like even if I’m in the minority. I take it as a 3.
That brings us to the last two.
Before I Wake relies on jump scares and is good for a couples night out (she can jump on him when/if she gets scared) but not much else. The premise was good but the way it plays out is just hard to explain. When you get to the end you might say it all seems plausible (I mean it’s a horror movie) but you’d have to wonder what made this particular case different. Was it that the others didn’t try hard enough? It just feels convenient and that’s a feeling I’ve been getting from movies a lot these days.
Don’t Breathe has been praised as a really good thriller in a year of blockbusters and for the most part they’re right. A movie about a blind man whose house gets broken into doesn’t sound very promising on paper, but the way it plays out is quite tense and you will root for him at the beginning and then change your mind about him as the plot begins to unfold. It keeps getting better and better until the final act where it completely unravels. For me it did at least. Its been out for a while now but if you haven’t seen it please stop here as spoilers ensue.
SPOILER ALERT
Safe? Good.
Now the villain; played admirably by Stephen Lang (Avatar, Terra Nova) has a room in his house where a woman has been kidnapped and it would be quite impossible to clean up the room and the tube with semen in it before the police show up as the last time we see him, he’s on the floor of his cellar with a gunshot wound to his side.
So here’s my question: didn’t the police do a thorough search of the house? Now one could say that they simply discovered him and treated him and that since the movie ends suddenly, we could say that the police would discover all these things eventually. However to leave it as it is just feels unfulfilling. For that, I have to give it a 5.
So that’s it, the thoughts I have on the movies I’ve seen recently and why sometimes it’s so hard to review a movie objectively based on what’s right in front of me. If I did that, I’m sure I’d be a better critic. As it is right now, I can’t advise you to take any of these movies seriously (yes even the ones I liked) because they are just temporary fun.
Then again, maybe that’s the point though right?
