For every good movie we saw these past few months, there was one that left us cold. Films filled with a lot of promise that on delivery lacked coherence, pace, or the elements just didn’t come together. These films would only be advised to watch if you go into them with your expectations low or you need something to fall asleep to.
Mary Queen of Scots (2018) – I wanted to love this film, but the pacing left me cold, as regally cold as Saoirse Ronan’s performance as Mary. The costumes were beautiful, the makeup for Margot Robbie going to the beautiful to diseased Elizabeth was fantastic, and the performances from the majority were okay, but it never captured the passion and verve I was expecting. While it followed the facts of history relatively well (but not entirely), it felt too modern in attitude. The parallels between then and now were drawn with the gentleness of a sledgehammer. She Said Rating: 5 (on a scale of 1 to 10)
Vice (2018) – She Said: I went into this one not expecting much but good performances from the actors involved. While I found the story more interesting than I expected, the performances were not all they were cracked up to be. It seemed the award nominations were more of the material & what the characters represented than the actual performances. Christian Bale’s physical transformation to Dick Cheney is amazing, and the vocal patterns are really good. To bad the by reproducing these vocal patterns at the speed of molasses slows down the whole film. And when I film is already long, don’t add in a fake credits rolling segment. This just makes the viewer even more aware of how long the film is. Really en.joyed this writers film The Big Short, but the style did not translate well to this slow, plodding, political film. She Said Rating: 5 (on a scale of 1 to 10). He Said: Terrible movie. Long winded. Poorly edited. Over blown and over indulgent. He Said Rating: 4 (on a scale of 1 to 10)
Cold Pursuit (2019) – She Said: After watching this film, I can only assume Liam Neeson made the statements he did in order to turn people away from this film so they wouldn’t see it. This revenge tale looked interesting, but it meanders and surpasses even the suspension of disbelief. While the film and cinematography make it seem like a serious film, the body count tallies throughout the film and comedic interjections are jarring. She Said Rating: 4 (on a scale of 1 to 10) He Said: Slow paced, poorly developed characters, you could have watched the whole thing in the preview. Don’t waste your time. He Said Rating: 4 (on a scale of 1 to 10)
Okay, that covers the truly bad, but the largest category of all is still to come. The mediocre…the just okay. Surprising entries in that category.
Middle-aged @ the Movies 