kmecameron
Lifetime Total
1+
IMDb Member
6 years
Reviews
The Fly II (1989)
Not as bad as it could've been
I can't in good conscious call The Fly II a good film. It's just not. Gone are the memorable characters realized by strong performances and intelligent writing that touched on rich ideas. Gone, effectively, is the humanity.
But with Cronenberg, Davis and Goldblum all gone, that's to be expected, isn't it? And as far as cheap cash grabs go, The Fly II is watchable.
Strip away all the things I mentioned in the first paragraph and what are we left with? Well, the director of this film did the remarkable special effects on Cronenberg's film, and naturally those are in equally fine form here. And though the central love story here is wooden as hell, there's a subplot involving a mutant dog I thought was surprisingly touching.
I went into this simply hoping for a fun, sort of trashy 80's b-movie, and those were appropriate expectations to have. The acting is dumb and dialogue is obvious in a sort of charming way.
Unfortunately, what holds the movie back from excelling on it's own meager terms is that it repeats too many plot points from the first film, when it should be distancing itself from it a bit more.
If you are in the right mood for it, though, it's a perfectly acceptable, not-boring, joyfully disgusting way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.
But with Cronenberg, Davis and Goldblum all gone, that's to be expected, isn't it? And as far as cheap cash grabs go, The Fly II is watchable.
Strip away all the things I mentioned in the first paragraph and what are we left with? Well, the director of this film did the remarkable special effects on Cronenberg's film, and naturally those are in equally fine form here. And though the central love story here is wooden as hell, there's a subplot involving a mutant dog I thought was surprisingly touching.
I went into this simply hoping for a fun, sort of trashy 80's b-movie, and those were appropriate expectations to have. The acting is dumb and dialogue is obvious in a sort of charming way.
Unfortunately, what holds the movie back from excelling on it's own meager terms is that it repeats too many plot points from the first film, when it should be distancing itself from it a bit more.
If you are in the right mood for it, though, it's a perfectly acceptable, not-boring, joyfully disgusting way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.
Rings (2017)
Aggressively terrible
Rings has some genuinely great cinematography, and almost no other positive features whatsoever.
There is not a single competent performance in the film, but the lead is particularly horrendous, giving what may be one of the worst performances I've ever seen. Not one word that comes out of her mouth remotely sounds like a human being talking. On top of that, all we get are dull, nonsensical characters with poorly explained motivations that are impossible to care about.
The score - something Verbinski's film used exceptionally well - is bland and lazily applied.
The writing is hobbled together haphazardly - the first half introduces a couple of potentially fun ideas, but handles them in the dumbest most possible way. Then it moves in a progressively more cliché direction, and ends with a twist that was spoiled in the trailer - but it's so obvious that it hardly matters.
There is not a single competent performance in the film, but the lead is particularly horrendous, giving what may be one of the worst performances I've ever seen. Not one word that comes out of her mouth remotely sounds like a human being talking. On top of that, all we get are dull, nonsensical characters with poorly explained motivations that are impossible to care about.
The score - something Verbinski's film used exceptionally well - is bland and lazily applied.
The writing is hobbled together haphazardly - the first half introduces a couple of potentially fun ideas, but handles them in the dumbest most possible way. Then it moves in a progressively more cliché direction, and ends with a twist that was spoiled in the trailer - but it's so obvious that it hardly matters.