Actor Jesse Eisenberg, wrote, directed, and stars in the new movie "A Real Pain", also starring actor Kieran Culkin, who plays Benji Kaplan, who is arguably one of the most annoying, abrasive, and hard-to-watch characters I have ever seen in any movie.
Eisenberg plays Benji's cousin, David Kaplan. David is newly married with a child and a well-adjusted normal adult. Unfortunately, Benji is a disaster who in this story is depicted as someone who likes to hang out at Airports and might even be homeless - a possible fact that was never completely resolved in this story. Benji is portrayed in this story as a free spirit, emotionally complex who also has problems with constant guilt and depression.
This story takes place within a group trip to Poland with four other travelers, including actor Jennifer Gray in an unexpected role, to visit historic mostly Jewish sites in Poland including a concentration camp that has been preserved intact from the day it closed at the end of World War II. During this entire tour, Benji continues to make himself as annoying as possible to all the people in the group including the tour guide. As these interruptions and annoyances continue, David tries to calm Benji down by distracting him from one tirade of rudeness and anger after another throughout the entire tour, and over these two hours, this becomes tedious and hard to sit through because it is way overdone.
When the group tour through Poland ends, David and Benji visit the home of their late grandmother's home in Poland which includes more conflict with her neighbors as they try to leave rocks on her front doorstep.
The acting and dialogue are good throughout, with a story that overall is surprisingly light and seems more like a travelogue of Poland with David trying to calm down his cousin way too often than one would expect from a solid screenplay.
The extremely high ratings on Rotten Tomatoes of 95% are once again, incorrect, with my rating in agreement with the audience ratings of 81% and a moderate recommendation.
Movie Reviews From a Screenwriter
Movie Reviews and Opinions From a Screenwriter's Perspective
Saturday, November 16, 2024
Saturday, November 9, 2024
Movie Review: The Heretic
The new movie "Heretic" reminds us of the dangers of being a young woman while knocking on doors, as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, also known as the Mormon Church, trying to spread the word of God. We learn from this story that no woman representative of the church is allowed to go inside any house with a man unless there is another woman present in the house with him. For this story, they are tricked when the man of the house says his wife is in the kitchen making of all things, blueberry pie. This is the first example of an event that would definately not happen in real life.
This story is about an evil and insane man, Mr. Reed, played by Hugh Grant during a rain storm and there is a knock on his door by two young women, Sister Paxton played by Chloe East and Sister Barnes played by Sophie Thatcher. Unfortunately this is the wrong door and the wrong time, with an insane man who has his own thoughts about what religion really is. This includes comparing life and religion to board games like Monopoly within long speeches to two terrified young woman who then realize they are trapped in a very old house during a rain storm with someone who is criminally insane.
The rest of this story are about a series of events that are typical of all horror movies like this. A person or persons trying to escape from attempts by an insane murderer who is trapping them in a house or a building, being chased, shot or stabbed as they try to survive and come up with desperate plans to kill their attacker or escape. There is nothing new with this part of the story, despite several too crazy and illogical twists and turns at the end. What is mostly memorable about this film is the acting of Hugh Grant and his speeches about the truth behind all religions in the world.
The Rotten Tomatoes critic reviews for this movie are a way too high 93% with my rating the same as the audience reviews at 77%.
This story is about an evil and insane man, Mr. Reed, played by Hugh Grant during a rain storm and there is a knock on his door by two young women, Sister Paxton played by Chloe East and Sister Barnes played by Sophie Thatcher. Unfortunately this is the wrong door and the wrong time, with an insane man who has his own thoughts about what religion really is. This includes comparing life and religion to board games like Monopoly within long speeches to two terrified young woman who then realize they are trapped in a very old house during a rain storm with someone who is criminally insane.
The rest of this story are about a series of events that are typical of all horror movies like this. A person or persons trying to escape from attempts by an insane murderer who is trapping them in a house or a building, being chased, shot or stabbed as they try to survive and come up with desperate plans to kill their attacker or escape. There is nothing new with this part of the story, despite several too crazy and illogical twists and turns at the end. What is mostly memorable about this film is the acting of Hugh Grant and his speeches about the truth behind all religions in the world.
The Rotten Tomatoes critic reviews for this movie are a way too high 93% with my rating the same as the audience reviews at 77%.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
Movie Review: Here
This year marks the 30-year anniversary of one of the greatest movies ever made, "Forrest Gump," released in the summer of 1994 and directed by Robert Zemeckis. The powerful and emotional ending of Forrest Gump had an impact as strong as "Terms of Endearment," released in 1983, including audible sounds of sobbing within the audience I was in 30 years ago. Forrest Gump won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay for Eric Roth, Best Director for Zemeckis, and won Tom Hanks his second best actor Oscar.
The main marketing for the new movie "Here" is the 30-year reunion of Forrest Gump with screenwriter, Eric Roth, who co-wrote "Here" with director Robert Zemeckis, Tom Hanks who plays the lead character Richard and Robin Wright who plays Margaret and who co-starred with Hanks in Forrest Gump.
Here is based on the book of the same name, written by Richard McGuire about a non-linear story told entirely within a single room over hundreds of thousands of years. There are random scenes about different lives and events, never told in any sequential order. There is no doubt that this might be a good idea for a book, but unfortunately trying to adapt this idea to a major movie was a bad idea. Possibly after purchasing the rights to the novel "Here", and later realizing that this unusual concept was not going to work as a highly regarded movie, the idea of bringing back the writer, director, and actors for Forrest Gump for the 30-year anniversary was an attempt to save the box office. With low ratings of 40% on Rotten Tomatoes for this film, a profitable box office is highly unlikely.
Attempting to review "Here" is very difficult because this is not really a movie. This film is more like a a deck of 52 cards representing different scenes and each card is just thrown at the audience at random. We are in the present day, then back to prehistoric times, then we are in the Revolutionary War period, then the Civil War, back to 50 years ago, then revisiting the 1920s, 1950s, present day, and then back to the time of the American Indian. All of this is shown in front of a bay window inside an old house or looking out into a forest during prehistoric times. Making a film like this has never been attempted, but is something like this watchable or even mildly entertaining? The consensus is clear that this film based on a famous book, just does not work as a movie. "Here" is the second film within the last month when a great director missed the mark. The last one "Megalopolis" directed by Francis Ford Coppola was a complete disaster, one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 40% are accurate and only this high because of the acting of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. This one is a surprisingly big miss.
The main marketing for the new movie "Here" is the 30-year reunion of Forrest Gump with screenwriter, Eric Roth, who co-wrote "Here" with director Robert Zemeckis, Tom Hanks who plays the lead character Richard and Robin Wright who plays Margaret and who co-starred with Hanks in Forrest Gump.
Here is based on the book of the same name, written by Richard McGuire about a non-linear story told entirely within a single room over hundreds of thousands of years. There are random scenes about different lives and events, never told in any sequential order. There is no doubt that this might be a good idea for a book, but unfortunately trying to adapt this idea to a major movie was a bad idea. Possibly after purchasing the rights to the novel "Here", and later realizing that this unusual concept was not going to work as a highly regarded movie, the idea of bringing back the writer, director, and actors for Forrest Gump for the 30-year anniversary was an attempt to save the box office. With low ratings of 40% on Rotten Tomatoes for this film, a profitable box office is highly unlikely.
Attempting to review "Here" is very difficult because this is not really a movie. This film is more like a a deck of 52 cards representing different scenes and each card is just thrown at the audience at random. We are in the present day, then back to prehistoric times, then we are in the Revolutionary War period, then the Civil War, back to 50 years ago, then revisiting the 1920s, 1950s, present day, and then back to the time of the American Indian. All of this is shown in front of a bay window inside an old house or looking out into a forest during prehistoric times. Making a film like this has never been attempted, but is something like this watchable or even mildly entertaining? The consensus is clear that this film based on a famous book, just does not work as a movie. "Here" is the second film within the last month when a great director missed the mark. The last one "Megalopolis" directed by Francis Ford Coppola was a complete disaster, one of the worst movies I have ever seen.
The Rotten Tomatoes rating of 40% are accurate and only this high because of the acting of Tom Hanks and Robin Wright. This one is a surprisingly big miss.
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