Yummy - ★★★☆☆
- Lars Damoiseaux, 2019 -
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I wasn't expecting too much from this Belgian zombie flick, but it turned out to be a nice bit of schlocky, exploitative throwback trash with some good gore and pleasingly colorful visuals (no, not just the buhbiehs). Gotta love that undead giant toad. Creepy.
Wonder Woman 1984 - ★☆☆☆☆
- Patty Jenkins, 2020 -
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What the hell was that, then? I can't believe they had the nerve to release this, considering the state that it's in. I wasn't overly enamored with the first film, but it was at least able to present us with a decently paced story, at least until the final act. This moronic bloatfest of a sequel condescendingly ignores that, by not only doubling down royally on the original's weaknesses, but also by randomly adding layers of unwanted fat to the script and spacing out the (pathetically staged) action scenes to an obscene degree. The result is the one thing a superhero movie should never be: a blunderous, self-insisting hot mess that is soul-crushingly boring during even its best moments. I've heard rumors about this film having only one (major) deleted scene. That's sounds about right.
I kind of want to say that poor Gal Gadot deserves better, but I have to admit that her acting range does not appear to improve much over time. She certainly looks the part and she strikes a good pose, as always, but truly charismatic and emotionally captivating she is not. Chris Pine to the rescue? Well....Almost. He does what he can, but he seems uncertain what to do with the clumsy (and immoral) underpinnings of his resurrection story, at times. The Villains, then? One of them is Kristin Wiig, who gets herself I-wish-I-wish'd into the mousiest cheetah that ever walked the earth. Kinda cute, in a way, but far too inoffensive. The other villain is some corrupt CEO whose name totally escapes me right now and yells his kid's name a lot. I like Pedro Pascal, but his skeevy demeanor is indicative of a rather generic interpretation of a character we've seen a million times before.
So if even the performances can't save a film like this, then what can? Probably nothing. As far as I'm concerned, this movie belongs on the bottom of the DC barrel, along with, well, all the others. It's by far the worst major film I've seen this year, one that makes even
Tenet look like a masterpiece by comparison. Perhaps we'll have a "Jenkins Cut" to look forward to?