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Frank Swietek
Tomatometer-approved critic
http://www.oneguysopinion.com
Movies reviews only
| Rating | T-Meter | Title | Year | Review |
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PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie (2023) |
The Paw Patrol gives youngsters a super-hero movie much less mighty than the subtitle suggests...the super-hero business gets tiresome, especially in the multiple crises of the last act. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 28, 2023
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The Creator (2023) |
Is notable for some impressive visuals achieved on a relatively modest budget but is otherwise derivative, chaotic, often politically cringe-worthy and, in the end, sloppily sentimental. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 27, 2023
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Dumb Money (2023) |
Odds are you’ll...like “Dumb Money.” It might simply have been a real-life helping of Capracorn, but thanks largely to Dano it’s more substantial than that. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 27, 2023
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Cassandro (2023) |
While one can criticize the film for not tackling the edgier aspects of Armendáriz’s life and times, as a pure underdog (or undermole) story it’s a winner. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 26, 2023
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No One Will Save You (2023) |
Despite its repetitiveness...and a last act that overindulges Duffield’s penchant for quirkiness—the movie remains fascinating as an imaginative take on a genre staple...helped enormously by the virtuoso performance of Dever, - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 24, 2023
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Canary (2023) |
As a work of environmental activism, “Canary” is sober and somewhat slow-moving but insistent, and in Thompson it has a protagonist it’s impossible not to like and root for. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 16, 2023
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A Million Miles Away (2023) |
A version of Hernández’s life story that minimizes the darker aspects of poverty and prejudice in order to present his biography in a relentlessly upbeat fashion as proof of the American dream at work. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 14, 2023
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A Haunting in Venice (2023) |
Christie purists will probably find this “Haunting” maddeningly unfaithful to its source. But even those who care little about that will likely judge it an oddly bland, far-fetched, lumbering thriller. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Sitting in Bars with Cake (2023) |
An odd hybrid in which the book’s rom-com spirit is overwhelmed by a melodramatic story of a tragically shortened friendship—a recipe that, however well-intentioned (and well-acted), turns out rather ill-proportioned. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 14, 2023
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Freedom's Path (2022) |
Not without flaws, but its earnestness, better than average execution and excellent lead performances make it more effective than you might expect, even if the message it delivers is hardly a new one. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 09, 2023
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You Are So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah (2023) |
[A] frenetic Sandler family misfire...enervating rather than exhilarating, and far from entertaining. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 09, 2023
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My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 (2023) |
A genial clutter...less a finished movie than an inchoate idea for one,...like a ninety-minute montage of bits and pieces of plot that are resolved without ever having been developed. The scenery and cinematography are pretty, though. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 08, 2023
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2022) |
The film’s sincerity and tenderness make up for its structural deficiencies. A first-rate cast, including two remarkable young leads, is an immeasurable help. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 07, 2023
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Perpetrator (2023) |
Reeder’s blood-splattered movie raises multiple issues around women’s struggle against male oppression within the context of a giallo-type horror film, but fails to articulate them intelligibly or meld them into a coherent whole. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Sep 02, 2023
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The Good Mother (2023) |
A dreary mixture of crime thriller and domestic melodrama...intended to be surprising and sobering but is instead predictable and ludicrous. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 31, 2023
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Miguel Wants To Fight (2023) |
Likeable but a little unsettling...its pizzazz and engaging young leads can’t entirely conceal that the movie conveys some mixed messages it never manages to sort out. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 31, 2023
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Vacation Friends 2 (2023) |
It follows the general rule of such follow-ups: it’s worse than the first, so uninspired Tarver hasn’t even bothered to provide a subtitle. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 31, 2023
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The Hill (2023) |
So formulaic that you might be inclined to call it “Field of Clichés"...yet it will probably meet the expectations of viewers who like this sort of cannily manufactured uplift. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 24, 2023
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Golda (2023) |
Isn’t a great movie...more of a sober, often stilted TV-quality docudrama about the Yom Kippur War.... But Mirren gives it her all, and it’s nice to see her apply her talent to something meatier than “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” or “Fast X.” - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 23, 2023
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Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story (2023) |
Though it’s based on a real-life story, it’s as clichéd as any underdog sports movie written from scratch in accordance with the most basic screenwriting formulas [but] a fine advertisement for the game and Nissan. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 23, 2023
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Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023) |
Though tonally inconsistent and weighed down by taking on too many satirical targets at once, [it's] redeemed by a loose, limber style...an oddly engaging if somewhat perplexingly episodic ride into a dystopian future. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 21, 2023
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Passages (2023) |
Highly charged but, like all of Sachs’s films, acutely observed, it’s also heart-wrenching...a film that confirms Sachs’s mastery in fashioning intimate dramas that are at once equally insightful and utterly distinctive. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 17, 2023
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Red, White & Royal Blue (2023) |
An extremely old-fashioned take on a scenario that could have had a lot more edginess....But if you’re willing to accept the movie on its own toothless terms, it’s reasonably tolerable fluff. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 17, 2023
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Blue Beetle (2023) |
There’s a measure of charm, some goofy and some sentimental, infusing the domestic dynamic...[but] emerges as a rather undistinguished example of the genre, marred by a rote origins plotline, a boring villain...and mediocre CGI. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 17, 2023
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Heart of Stone (2023) |
A bombastic action thriller that feels like a patchwork of bits and pieces recycled from other, better movies. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 17, 2023
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Medusa Deluxe (2022) |
Less a narrative than an exercise in snappy dialogue and cinematic style, both of which overwhelm what might have been an enjoyable riff on formula in an unusual setting. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 14, 2023
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The Last Voyage of the Demeter (2023) |
A surprisingly handsome picture, but not an especially invigorating or frightening one....the repetitiveness extracts the tension from the stately-paced movie as surely as Dracula drains the blood from his victims. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 10, 2023
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King on Screen (2022) |
An interesting approach to King on film, even if the result is necessarily scattershot and its tone relentlessly adulatory...fans of King and the adaptations of his work should find the documentary enjoyable if not terribly enlightening. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 10, 2023
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Jules (2023) |
An “E.T.” without that undefinable touch of magic that would have made all the difference...an oddly pleasant but rather undercooked dramedy about aging that seems at a loss about how to wrap things up. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 10, 2023
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River Wild (2023) |
Less a remake of the starry 1994 film than a simpler, bare-bones take on the premise of malevolence during a white-water rafting trip, “River Wild” is an efficiently-made but flimsy potboiler about a berserk killer that’s notable only for its location. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 05, 2023
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Shortcomings (2023) |
“Shortcomings” has a few, but overall it’s a droll dramedy that’s also surprisingly incisive as a character study. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 04, 2023
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Dreamin' Wild (2022) |
Imaginative and affecting.... Pohlad approaches the Emersons’ story as a tale of the American dream deferred, but always with respect for the family dynamic behind it and the environment that acted as a crucible for such spontaneous creativity. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 03, 2023
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The Passenger (2023) |
This oddball combination of bloody thriller and peculiar therapy session...doesn’t make an awful lot of sense, but Kyle Gallner and Johnny Berchtold make its odd couple pairing compelling [despite] illogical narrative underpinnings and lethargic pacing. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 03, 2023
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Mob Land (2023) |
A ponderous attempt at a hayseed film noir that insists on italicizing its nihilist view of life in dialogue as well as narrative. A solid cast struggles to keep its pulse going. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 03, 2023
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Til Death Do Us Part (2023) |
While not exactly a horror movie...certainly a horrible one, given its abundance of violence and gore, as well as its groan-inducing attempts at dark humor. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 03, 2023
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (2023) |
While the picture...is no great shakes in narrative terms, overall it has a jovial (if juvenile) vibe and a look that’s distinctive.... Overall, the pluses outweigh the minuses. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Aug 01, 2023
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Theater Camp (2023) |
Until a “let’s put on a show” finale, it’s pretty much a helter-skelter, hyperactive movie in which the bits that don’t register outnumber the ones that do....What rescues [it] in large measure...is the obvious affection it has for its subjects. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 28, 2023
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Susie Searches (2022) |
Its radical shifts in tone and perspective as it turns from sweet to sour are jarring....You can admire the ambition of the concept, but overall it doesn’t come off. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 27, 2023
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Sympathy for the Devil (2023) |
If you enjoy watching Nicolas Cage in full bonkers mode...this efficient but dead-end road-movie thriller is for you....Whether it’s worth going along for the ride is another question. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 26, 2023
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The Beanie Bubble (2023) |
On its own loose terms “The Beanie Bubble” is an amusing take on one of the wackiest examples of American dreaming gone amok the country’s seen in recent decades...its very ephemerality encapsulates the phenomenon it’s all about. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 26, 2023
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Haunted Mansion (2023) |
Just another Mouse House misfire...[a] blandly inoffensive CGI extravaganza. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 26, 2023
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Mother, May I? (2023) |
Like watching an extended therapy session tricked out with melodramatic revelations and suggestions of possible supernatural forces at work...talky, ambiguous and ultimately not very satisfying, despite the effort of its two committed leads. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 22, 2023
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Cobweb (2023) |
Commendably atmospheric but grows increasingly far-fetched as topper after topper is added to the mix. In the end the logical lapses become too much for the flimsy structure to bear, but the ride is surprisingly engaging from moment to moment. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 20, 2023
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Oppenheimer (2023) |
At once admirable and frustrating, remarkable for its ambition but only fitfully compelling in execution...never lands the emotional heart punch you might expect, remaining chilly, cerebral and curiously remote. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 20, 2023
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Fear the Night (2023) |
A mediocre home-invasion thriller, more revolting than frightening and sadly lacking in all the major categories–conception, writing, direction and acting. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 20, 2023
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The Out-Laws (2023) |
Good moments from some of the supporting players in this frantically unfunny farce only highlight the inadequacy of the overeager DeVine as a comic leading man. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 15, 2023
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The Flood (2023) |
Hamstrung by poor writing and mediocre effects,...“The Flood” is the sort of cheesy creature feature that the SyFy Channel used to specialize in—so bad that it’s almost enjoyable. But the operative words is “almost.” - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 14, 2023
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Gray Matter (2023) |
Comes across like something retrieved from Stephen King’s wastebasket given bargain-basement “Twilight Zone” treatment. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 14, 2023
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The Miracle Club (2023) |
So intent on warming our hearts and teaching life lessons that even an estimable cast can’t save it from drowning in a sea of schmaltz. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 13, 2023
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Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part One (2023) |
Fleet and propulsive....While “Dead Reckoning” may not equal its immediate predecessors, it’s still great fun. - One Guy's Opinion
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| Posted Jul 12, 2023
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