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Post by pupdurcs on Feb 1, 2021 2:44:07 GMT
Well, nice to realize that I woke up on the right side of the bed ( ), because I enjoyed the movie. It's nowhere near the greater examples of the crime procedural genre but I think it's an undoubtedly solid one. Denzel is wonderful in the main role, and I'm very happy that in between all the scenes of him driving there were enough moments where he got to bite into his character and do his thing, upon which he, in my opinion, fully delivered. Malek was okay - his offbeat nature seems to have at least brought something different to what could've been played as a typical goody-two-shoes kind of character. And I'm very surprised to say that I liked Jared Leto here. I fully expected him to totally sink the ship as I find him and his try-hard acting incredibly annoying, but I found myself really enjoying what he brought to the table here. I think he created a fun and memorable creep. But Denzel schools them both, of course. Apart from just finding the movie engaging, I did very much appreciate where it led. One expects these movies to end with some kind of a twist, or with a killer reveal or something, but this one's twist is that it shifts focus from an investigation itself to the characters' inner abyss. As I liked the movie, to me the real twist of it was that by the end the mystery remaining unsolved just didn't matter to me because by then I was caught up in the darkness that invaded the characters' souls. The way the final beats invite us to rethink our positions on the leading characters, reassess them and realize that the demons within them are as dark as the mystery itself was rather interesting to me. But again, for all of that to work one has to be on board with the film in general up to that point. I can't see this ending winning folks over if by then the movie did nothing for them. I personally did quite enjoy how it pulled the rug of sympathies from under those characters. I think it's cool that the twist here is not some gotcha shocker but instead is fully character-based. That's a very good description...."inner abyss".I found the film quite fascinating. And not in a "guilty pleasure" sense either. More in a this is an engaging, thoughtful film with something almost profound to say in an untypical manner. Also cool to see more people waking up on the right side of bed now.lol! I was reliably informed that nobody else here liked this movie.I guess don't have to get that sheep costume out now and join the herd And agreed, Denzel does great, lived-in character work here. He's played like a dozen cops in his career, so it's pretty incredible that he's not just redoing a past cop creation. Joe Deacon is a distinct character in his body of work. Gotta appreciate the effort he still puts in.
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Post by iheartamyadams on Feb 1, 2021 17:19:54 GMT
A slow burn thriller without good writing is usually a pretty tedious affair, and that was my biggest issue here. The actors are also mostly boxed in by their one note characters. Washington tries (and isn’t phoned in like I’ve seen some say) but there’s just much to the character. Malek is pretty awful here, initially going for some sort of hot shot detective that he drops about midday and reverts to his tight-eyed, lock jaw tics which drove me crazy. Leto was at least fun and sort of livened up the proceedings.
Hancock is also still finding his voice and style as a director.. He doesn’t have a good grip on mood or tone yet. This dragged in a number of spots and there’s hardly even a fraction of the atmospheric tension that Fincher has mastered.
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Post by TerryMontana on Feb 5, 2021 21:47:00 GMT
That was ok...ish I guess. Nothing special but not terrible.
It just tries so hard to be Se7en but with a much weaker script. Very slow burn, interesting and all but the last act... What a mess!!
Leto is pretty good and a deserved GG nominee, I didn't see that coming tbh. Malek and Zel are ok.
Oh, and that music! I thought it was flat out awful!!
I'd say 6 out of 10.
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Post by Mattsby on Feb 6, 2021 0:01:57 GMT
There's an unlikely source of amusement in Jared Leto's proud, parody villain with his Shirley-Temples-to-go but otherwise I think it's a botched, dryly done movie without a single great scene. Hancock doesn't make the mystery mysterious, to begin with. And there's a satisfied feeling restraint to it that backfires, it's edgeless and makes the whole third act feel wrong. It doesn't connect its intentions to what it's doing - that's true from the lame opening scene on.
Denzel gives an especially absent, off perf - he doesn't take the guilt anywhere. Where's the envy? or fear? or something? Idk...... but I'll take Columbo, Kojak, and Weegee references wherever I can get 'em.
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 6, 2021 0:27:10 GMT
it's edgeless and makes the whole third act feel wrong. It doesn't connect its intentions to what it's doing - that's true from the lame opening scene on. Denzel gives an especially absent, off perf - he doesn't take the guilt anywhere. Where's the envy? or fear? or something? Idk...... but I'll take Columbo, Kojak, and Weegee references wherever I can get 'em. You know, no one I think on MAR has talked about how bat shit stupidly that ending is on a moral level - forget the logic! - just morally. Lots of people love noir on this board and a first rule in noir - heck even mysteries in general - is never make what happens to a cop more important than what happens to a victim..........if you do, it's to make the cop a fool or a dupe .........this movie has THREE cops left off the hook entirely - DW, Malek, Kinney all so Malek [/spoiler] won't have a heart attack or go through a divorce or have to think (or eat?) too much Donald Westlake, David Goodis, and Jim Thompson are turning over in their graves at the implications of that ending .........when you stop to think about the implications within it it's baffling.....it's actually unjustifiable ........on a written level. I'm not even sure Hancock understands what he wrote tbh......
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Post by futuretrunks on Feb 6, 2021 0:34:46 GMT
it's edgeless and makes the whole third act feel wrong. It doesn't connect its intentions to what it's doing - that's true from the lame opening scene on. Denzel gives an especially absent, off perf - he doesn't take the guilt anywhere. Where's the envy? or fear? or something? Idk...... but I'll take Columbo, Kojak, and Weegee references wherever I can get 'em. You know, no one I think on MAR has talked about how bat shit stupidly that ending is on a moral level - forget the logic! - just morally. Lots of people love noir on this board and a first rule in noir - heck even mysteries in general - is never make what happens to a cop more important than what happens to a victim..........if you do, it's to make the cop a fool or a dupe .........this movie has THREE cops left off the hook entirely - DW, Malek, Kinney all so Malek won't have a heart attack or go through a divorce or have to think (or eat?) too much Donald Westlake, David Goodis, and Jim Thompson are turning over in their graves at the implications of that ending .........when you stop to think about the implications within it it's baffling.....it's actually unjustifiable ........on a written level. I'm not even sure Hancock understands what he wrote tbh...... My problem is how abruptly it all culminates. Match Point is *chef's kiss* amazing to me because of the balls of ending it like that - tension, tension, tension, and then BOOM, the most subversive ending possible is elaborated. Once that shovel does its thing in this movie, it's like the whole thing turns into the coda of a cheesy melodrama. The script is just incredibly underdeveloped.
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Post by The_Cake_of_Roth on Feb 24, 2021 10:07:42 GMT
I sort of liked what this movie was going for, but yeah it’s a total misfire. Kind of a slog until Leto shows up, and the third act is so mind-numbingly stupid that I really didn’t expect to be laughing through some of it. I’ve also realized that I really don’t like when movies withhold information about a character’s backstory until the end when it’s revealed through a character’s memories rather than a narrative occurrence that actually forces the reveal to happen in a more creative way. It just feels too calculated and too much like I’m being jerked around by the filmmaker, who is just selectively providing fragments of the character’s memories until it’s convenient to finally show us everything. Apart from the writing, this movie is also very bizarrely edited in spots. One example that stands out is a scene where Washington and Malek are sitting next to each other at a bar talking – they’re shot from the front and behind at times, and it’s cobbled together in a way that makes zero sense. It’s a simple scene, but I can’t remember the last time I noticed editing this jarringly bad (wait, maybe it was Bohemian Rhapsody ). Newman’s score was cool I guess.
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