A cringe filled waste of time. This isn't a blockbuster or a period piece drama, but popcorn action fantasy must have some standards. Whatever that standard is this is surely well below it.
This movie has banal terrible writing. It never fully lands into the realm of good cringe and certainly never comes close to good writing. The story is flat, weak and bereft of any world building. It is your typical unknown foe pushing to a once in a generation moment to let them rule the world. This an old as time story for this genre. What is below average, even for the unadventurous, is how utterly uninteresting the jeopardy turns out to be. A weak uninteresting villain and no character worthy of any care or investment.
You can usually tell you are in for a pretty weak ride when almost all of the story was filled in by flashbacks to characters you have never seen. The laziest possible fill in method. Outside of the predictably bad, but also sadly boring, story, is watch it and forget it action and run of the mill visual effects. If nothing else, you need to at least come up with some interesting kill scene or flashy moment, if that is all your film really amounts to. I do not recall even a good moment of adrenaline driven excitement.
Overall, an unimaginative waste of a film.
Good Will Hunting is to me a film of authentic experience. The soul of this movie is undoubtedly Robin Williams and his powerful ability to portrait genuine compassion woven with pain and hurt. Matt Damon is also no slouch in that department. That sentiment and barriers we all face accessing that virtue is the core of this movie. The narrative is pretty standard: someone greater than their class and start held back by the legacy of that life trying to find a way out. All the usual stages of psychological development play out: denial, anger, bargaining, depression and eventual acceptance of life's trauma. The formula isn't this story's big hook. It is how the characters manage to feel so real.
Everyone in this movie shows moments of honesty, failure and humanity. They all do it in ways that remain true to the characters they're cast as. This is not all moments of feel good triumph or acceptance, but people growing struggling and advancing with the materials put in front of them. I cannot think of a more satisfying way to tell this type of story.
Good Will Hunting is an excellent movie that falls short of the upper crust because it was maybe not daring enough. When you re-watch the movie, at least for me, I am struck how I stopped focusing on the narrative at all and really focused on the scenes, the bottled moments and witty dialogue. That is the magic in this movie and for that, it is a real masterwork
A brilliant film. I was, frankly, surprised by the divisive reviews. I am not sure if people were caught off guard because this was "supposed" to be a comic book movie. The previews evoke, in the most obvious ways, the inspiration of the story. It is not Batman, it is Taxi Driver and the King of Comedy. This is a character study that I, respectfully, think it is not supposed to be grand social commentary. It is blunt, raw and real. It is roughly two hours of watching one of the big screen's finest actors showcase his abilities. I suspect the one universal for this film is that it is maybe not exactly what you expected, but it stands out as a triumph.
The performance is this film's centerpiece without a doubt. A man who is different by a stroke of bad fortune both biological and largely social. The system does not really hate him for it, but it doesn't care for him. This is established in a matter of fact way. The world is broken. The narrative works because its all the character needs. I am not sure more is expected. Gotham is not some distance far away it's the heart of urban America right now, against the gritty backdrop of yesterday.
I think this is the brilliance of the movie. You parachute into a world you already know and watch the fierce reality of how it breaks people. No one in this movie gets your sympathy. Everyone simply gets what they deserve.
Escape Room feels like watching part 3 or 4 of a franchise where everyone starts noting the formula and idea has lost its edge. The idea is interesting and there's some clever twists and turns. This is really a more PG version of Saw with no moral compass. Ultimately, the movie went too big out of the gate. The story was way too elbaorte and far too much was revealed about the orchestrators of this torture world. Saw was brilliant because of what it pulled off in a single room. Escape Room fast forwards past the opening introductions to a good premise into the overblown attempts to keep it relevant. A pity, because it will very much limit future sequels, perhaps they could go with prequels to a simpler time and less intricate traps.
The actors did a reasonable job in their setting, rising above mere fodder for the machine. The sound track added to the film and the visuals were enjoyable rather than distracting. Overall a neat premise but really held back by missteps in scope and over explanation. Audiences do not need much why with this type of premise, it's all in the how.
A whimsical slice of sci-fi adventure. Reasonable acting and the polished visuals we all expect from Spielberg. I suspect I would have given it less stars if I wasn't fond of the 80s and 90s childhood experience. For better or worse the film draws extensively on childhood tropes and memories of that era. I think it would be a solid film without that notstalgia, but if that is your flavour of childhood wonder, you'll really enjoy Ready Player One.
The acting overall was okay. The villain was vanilla and I am not sure the script gives the emotional range needed for the protagonists to shine. What the film does do right though is that it is emmersive and fun. Oasis is believable and the rules of this not so far away future internally work, well enough at least.
The visuals are pretty and can go way over the top without being disruptive to the flow and tempo of the movie. It spoils little to say the movie is basically watching an 80s video game unfold. This combined with a thorough PG tone maybe limits the film's emotional pay off but I think it just made it more fun. This is movie that did fun well. A worthwhile watch and highly recommended for anyone whose inner child craves a flash back to their favourite 80s and 90s nostalgia.
