Recent reviews

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  Tall in the Saddle 1944

  ★★½ Watched 02 Sep 2024

  Am I the only one that finds the movie absolutely bonkers?

  Supposedly western, the Duke throwing a punch or shooting a gun in every scene. But also a mystery with Ward Bond doing a Simon-Oakland-at-the-of-Psycho worthy exposition speech. 

  Add to that the completely crazy plot twists dependent on people hanging out and crawling through windows and Gaby Hayes as a Greek Chorus, and I’m reeling.

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  Fiddler on the Roof 1971

  ★★★★★ Watched 10 Dec 2023

  There is not one thing that does not work about this movie.

Popular reviews

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  John Wick 2014

  ★★½ Watched 25 Jul 2015

  This film has big tonal problems. It tries to have fun building a stylized culture of assassins, but its simple revenge plot is so banal and its fight scenes so gruesome that one cannot invest. John Wick is a merciless automaton whose kills literally dozens of people over a car and a dog. While that could work with some black humor a la Tarentino or Coen Brothers, this movie operates at face value and never offers us anyone to care about. The ending is laughable, but the movie does get some points for style.

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  Dawn of the Planet of the Apes 2014

  ★★★ Watched 25 Jul 2015

  Impressive in that they solved many of the dramatic difficulties - the apes are truly, fully realized characters without excess suspension of disbelieve. A bit disappointing then, that having set up a convincing world, the script is so predictable, repetitive and without subtlety. I think I counted half a dozen times that a tenuous trust was upended by a mindless hothead on one side or the other. Some lazy deux ex machina moments as well. Too bad, Could have been more, but still somewhat engaging.

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