Cherry (2021)

Cherry (2021)

 

4/10

Starring

Tom Holland

Ciara Bravo

Jack Reynor

 

Directed by Anthony and Joe Russo

 

This movie has one great thing going for it, it is easily forgettable so I know, the dread of seeing it will not last long.

Like the movie’s portrayal of Tom Holland’s character Cherry, a drug addict – I think many people have a high of Tom Holland. Because I am seeing this film based on the numerous good reviews, but after seeing it myself I wonder what was it about this film they like?

It is not believable, if it is that easy to rob banks everyone will be robbing a bank. He literally just walked in and no guard tried to even stop him. Then his relationship with his wife and their whole drug addiction bends is so silly. Then the movie sticks to a formula we have seen playout numerous times. Add to that, this movie is way too long and not a single moment in this movie captures your attention and makes you go, “hmm.”

Even though the movie does carry a lot of visuals, this first take of the Russo brothers after the Avengers: Endgame (2019) is a complete dud. I do not get why the movie is over two hours long, telling us a story we have seen playout numerous times and what the hell is with the whole forth wall breaking thing, that did not last.

The movie plot starts with us seeing Cherry holding a bank cashier at gun point. We then get to see what led to him being in that situation. We start with his life as a young man, falling in love and when she broke his heart, the moron enrolled himself into the army. The movie then drags us, with wasted endeavor to sow the seed of trauma. We are supposed to feel sorry for Cherry after seeing all he went through when he enrolled. Then he got out of the army and became a drug addict, he is however married to his love who jilted him, they got back together and he drags her into his drug habit.

Soon, every money they had goes into drugs and one day when high they freaked out of their minds and got rid of some expensive drugs and were owing lots of money. Cherry then resulted to bank robbery to clear their depth and further drown himself and his wife in drugs. How their tale turned from bad, to worse and to good again is what this movie tries to make you think is entertainment.

One thing I give Holland credit for is, wanting to diversify his acting career. Taking different acting jobs that put him in a different spotlight from his MCU spot and his solo movies playing Spider-man in 2017 and 2019.

That said, I will not advise anyone to waste their time to see this film.

The Pianist (2002)

The Pianist (2002)

8/10

Starring

Adrien Brody

Thomas Kretschmann

Frank Finlay

Maureen Lipman

Emilia Fox

 

Directed by Roman Polanski

 

The Pianist is one of the best films you will ever see. It is highly regarded as one of the best works of Roman Polanski and one of the best war movies you should see, this is something I totally agree. The movie is a true artwork, a masterpiece drawn from the autobiographical book The Pianist (1946). The book is a Holocaust memoir by the Polish-Jewish pianist and composer Władysław Szpilman. Szpilman survived the Holocaust.

The art of directing reached its peak in this movie, and I believe Polanski deserved every award and praise for his work here. The way the movie takes you through the challenges of one man who just wanted to survive. All his hope of survival is tied to a series of good luck from non-Jews who could have turned their back on him, at any time – but instead helped him through his trials.

What I totally admired about this film is the depiction of the character (Szpilman played by Adrien Brody), he was no hero (in the sense of leading an armed revolt) or carried a gun to shoot anyone. He lost everything and everyone he loved, had it all taken from him, while he spent years moving from place to place hiding and just trying to survive.

The movie starts with Szpilman a Polish-Jewish pianist, playing the piano at a local Polish radio station when their station was attacked during the German invasion of September 1939.

We see him head home to his family as they all gathered and rejoiced to hear that England and France have declared war on Germany for their invasion of Poland. Their hope was soon dashed when they realise that help was not coming and Germany has taken over Poland and was hell bent on wiping out the Jews.

The family stuck together and did the best they could to survive, when they were about to be transported to Treblinka extermination camp as part of Operation Reinhard. A friend sees Szpilman and separates him from his family. If you have read about the Holocaust, you will come across the Operation Reinhard, and know how lucky Szpilman was to be separated from his family.

Things did not go great for him from then on, numerous incidents had him escape death by just a hair.

One thing is certain, war is not something anyone wants to live through. In this 2021 during this raging covid pandemic there are still war-torn regions. When I read about the war devasted zones like in Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq, I just wonder how the people are surviving and why are such things happening. I am fortunate and grateful that I am not witnessing or have ever witnessed a war. I do hope in the future I never do.

The Pianist premiered won (at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival,) the Palme d'Or. The world also saw the fantastic work of Ronald Harwood screenplay and the movie was both a critical and commercial success.

At the Academy Awards, the film won for Best Director (Polanski), Best Adapted Screenplay (Harwood) and Best Actor (Brody). At the BAFTAs it won Best Film and Best Direction.

If like me you delayed to see this movie, I advise you squash that delay and see it now.

Monster Hunter (2020)

Monster Hunter (2020)

 3/10

Starring

Milla Jovovich

Tony Jaa

Tip "T. I." Harris

Meagan Good

 

Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson

 

The movie has nice fight scenes whenever the humans take on the monsters. The CGIs are cool when you look at the $60 million budget they had to play with. That’s all the movie has to offer, other than the fights and CGI the whole thing was a bore. The story is very glitchy and movie itself feels like you are supposed to have known something about what is going on.

To make it worse, the dialogues are dreadful. Where the dialogues are supposed to fill in the blanks, they instead made room for more questions. This movie is written, produced and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, and I believe he got carried away by his fascination of the game he is adapting from. Because me and am sure other people who have never played or heard of the game are unaware of the origin tale of what is happening.

If you are unaware of the origin tale in detail this movie becomes incoherent. That thing you are supposed to know is the why and how? There is a new-world – how come? Monsters are present there, especially at the gate from that world to ours – from where comes these monsters? Were these monsters created by the first civilization or were the monsters there from the get go? Who are these first civilization?

The plot starts with a group of men in the New World where humans co-exist with a lot of large and savage monsters. A hunter got separated from his team when their ship is attacked by a horned monster.

Later on, in the real world a group of army soldiers led by Artemis (Milla Jovovich) go in search for some soldiers in the desert when they get sucked into the new-world. There they had to face a monster which led to a sting of events and the death of all Artemis men.

Artemis met the hunter, while she and her crew were trying to survive. Artemis and the hunter became a pair as both did not understand each other’s language and they continued their survival together, until they ran into another group of people. They joined these group to try and stop the portal from opening and allowing people/monsters to move from one world to another.

I know this plot sounds like there is something missing, but I tell you this is the plot of the movie as it is so I beg your pardons.

The release of this movie back in 2020 faced a lot of push back and forth because of the pandemic. There have been both digital and home video release which I will ask you should miss.

Dragon Rider (2020)

Dragon Rider (2020)

3/10

Starring the voices of

Thomas Brodie-Sangster

Felicity Jones

Freddie Highmore

Patrick Stewart

 

Directed by Tomer Eshed

 

This movie is absolutely missing the point when it comes to entertainment. It dots all the “I” and curves all the “C” when it comes to being a cliché. From the moment the movie starts, you get the feeling of how low bar the aspiration of this movie is. Then when all the plot is laid before you, all you can see is you watching a movie which the end is so clear after 15 minutes. Do not seek depth when it comes to why the silver dragon was so paramount in taking down the bad guy. The movie writer/producer and director don’t think you will be smart enough to notice that little gap, but we noticed.

This German animation does not cut it close to being in the likes of Disney/Pixar. The animation itself was basic, the voice casting not so superb and the whole story is just a long boring ride.

Where was this ride heading you may ask? Well, it is to a place called the “Rim of Heaven.” Which is supposed to be like a dragon utopia.

The why we are searching for this place is simple. Humans and dragons had a little problem with cohabitation many, many years ago. So, the humans created a gold metallic monster called Nettlebrand which eats dragons. Nettlebrand got out of hand and became uncontrollable. The dragons fled the lands where the human’s dwell to hide away from them where they cannot be seen. We also discover many other mythical creatures, who have also left the land of the humans to stay close to the dragons. In this fantasy world, some of these creatures including the dragons can speak fluent English.

The humans constant need of deforestation led to the dragons having to prepare to flee again to hide from humans. One of the dragons a silver dragon named Firedrake has heard of the myth – Rim of Heaven and believes it exist and he now needs to go find it. He is on this search with his best friend Sorrell (she is like a chipmunk). She informed him that there is an oracle who knows everything called the internet which lives in the human world so they need to go find it, as it can tell them where the Rim of Heaven is.

It was going to the human world that they met Ben, a thief whose selfish ways centers around him stealing from others and trying to get one on them. They met and Ben who was on the run at the time lies to Firedrake that he is a dragon rider who has the ability to tame dragons and is best suited to help them find the place they seek. Firedrake bought into the lies and took Ben with them on their adventure to find Rim of Heaven. Someone saw the trio and reported it to Nettlebrand who for many years has not seen a dragon to eat, so he begun his chase of the trio while the trio face numerous battles and adventures on their way.

This movie is a waste of time, please save your children and yourself the heartache of seeing this.