Movie Reviews

2023 JenEric Movie Reviews

by

Hello Movie Lovers,

This year I seem to have watched, and reviewed, 48 films. Not bad considering I was too sick to watch movies for most of December. Below is a list of them in descending star order. Within each catergory, they are in alphabetical order.

5 out of 5 Stars

4.5 out of 5 Stars

4 out of 5 Stars

3.5 out of 5 Stars

3 out of 5 Stars

2.5 out of 5 Stars

2 out of 5 Stars

1.5 out of 5 Stars

2024 Reviews will start next Saturday.

A Knight’s Tale – JenEric Movie Review

by

How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2001 film A Knight’s Tale.

Story

Someone thought that a sports/underdog movie should be done with jousting. It works, but it’s a paint by the numbers of all other sports movies.

The love story is trite and despite vaguely hinting at feminism, doesn’t feel authentic.

Score: 0

Characters

With a combination of fantastic actors and well written dialogue, the film is filled with likable characters. From the trustworthy Roland to the hothead Wat. The addition of Chaucer was a wonderful nod.

The only disappointing thing was how utterly white the movie was. All the main characters and all the crowds.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

Anachronistic, like the rest of the film, but filled with great little gems that I still quote today.

Score: 1

Visuals and Music

Again, I’ll complain about the lack of colour. Not just race but lack of bright vibrant colours. Other than Jocelyn there’s no vibrant colours. It would have made the joust easier to follow and been more historically accurate.

However the cinematography and sets are fantastic.

The music was a great combination of rock and sports score.

Score: 1

Fun

This is an exciting movie, but it’s a little long and my kids got bored. The jousting could have been done better with more colours and less early 2000’s shaky-cam.

It was, however, a lot of fun.

Score: 0.5

Overall

Oddly dated to the 2000’s aesthetic of jock and sports culture, lacking any sort of diversity. The movie has a boring love story with an exciting sports story arc. In the end, it’s the quality of the actors, the emotion, and the dialogue that stand out.

Final Score: 3 Stars out of 5

2020 JenEric Movie Reviews

by

Hello Movie Lovers,

This year I seem to have watched, and reviewed, 73 films. Wow. Below is a list of them in decending star order. Within each catergory they are in alphabetical order.

5 Stars out of 5

4.5 Stars out of 5

4 Stars out of 5

3.5 Stars out of 5

3 Stars out of 5

2.5 Stars out of 5

2 Stars out of 5

1.5 Stars out of 5

1 Stars out of 5

0.5 Stars out of 5

What do you think? Do you disagree on any films?

Éric

Sleeping Beauty – JenEric Movie Review

by

How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 1959 film Sleeping Beauty.

Story

This is a classic. It’s now 61 years old and the 16th animated feature by Disney.

The story is pretty standard fairy tale with a little less death, rape, and horror in it than Grimm liked. A lot of the hour and seventeen minutes is spent of the set up to the big song number in the woods.

Other than some cringe-inducing grabbyness on Phillip’s side and some alcohol jokes that haven’t aged well, it held up pretty well.

The major difference with it and the more modern films is how simple the story is. Something that can be said about a lot of 1950 movies, not just the animated ones.

Score: 0.5

Characters

Poor Aurora had little to no choices in the movie. She was literally tossed around by the forces of fate and faerie.

Phillip was a nice strong hero but also felt young and less 1400 more 1950’s, which I suppose was the point.

The fathers, as is usual, were useless; and Aurora’s mother had almost no part.

Maleficent was a lonely, angry witch who could have used more motivation.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

On average, the dialogue was simple, easy to understand and very forgettable. Maleficent didn’t need to call herself the Mistress of Evil for us to know she was the baddie, but she did.

The narration at the beginning felt over exposition-y and could have been done in dialogue or visually instead.

Score: 0

Visuals and Music

This was an absolutely gorgeous movie. Colourful, clean lines, no choppiness in animation. There are plenty of movies that don’t look half as good that came out in the past 10 years. The change in colour with the change in light source was beautiful, if a little over done.

The music was fantastic and catchy. If you don’t get Once Upon a Dream stuck in your head I’ll be surprised… and a little jealous.

Score: 1

Fun

This movie didn’t drag and if I found myself annoyed at the characters, there was always something visually stunning to look at. I had fun the entire time and wasn’t even tempted to look at my phone.

Score: 1

Conclusion

Overall, the movie was fun and beautiful. Some of the jokes fall flat after 60+ years but I didn’t need to pause and talk to my kids about what terrible thing was going on.

Final Score: 3 Stars

Spies in Disguise – JenEric Movie Review

by

How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2019 movie Spies in Disguise.

Story

The movie starts as a standard spy thriller reminiscent of older James Bond. It even has a Bond-style intro sequence. There’s a car chase, stakeout, and they add a great twist by inserting an awkward and slightly out there scientist and gadget maker.

The movie exploits the tropes of Spy Thrillers, Accidental Spy, and buddy comedy in a way that could have easily been cringe worthy but wasn’t.

The themes of the movie seem to be a combination of violence begets violence and to challenge tradition. Which is pretty subtle and backed up with some spectacular action sequences.

That being said, it was a little predictable.

Score: .5

Characters

The tough guy scared by loss who’s a super spy is a tired cliché and is used to make you dislike the character to start with and redeem him in the long run. Will Smith does a great job with a character that could have been less likeable than Daniel Craig’s Bond. Unfortunately the character spends far too much of the movie on bravado and complaining. It gets annoying.

The geeky scientist who is driven by a sad backstory is normally the villain. He has every earmark of turning bad, but the writers never even let you think it a possibility. He’s a stalwart believer in a non-fatal form of justice. (Spider-Man, is that you?)

The secondary characters are entertaining but the villain is utterly forgettable.

Score: .5

Dialogue

Quipy, intelligent, and delightful. The movie shines in it’s dialogue and visuals.

A nice bonus for both an animated movie and a spy story was that the techno-babble was coherent and based in real science.

Score: 1

Visuals

It was a beautiful movie. Using visuals to move the story forward and add humour. It’s a beautiful movie that would be hilarious even without sound.

Score: 1

Fun

Other than a few times I wanted to slap the Spy character or the spy agency people, I really enjoyed this movie. There’s action, adventure, humour, and a feeling that everything will work out.

Score: 1

Conclusion

This is one of the better spy spoofs that I’ve seen. It avoids a lot of the pratfalls of awkwardness and really delivers some clever laughs. Dragon laughed a lot and sat the entire time.

Final Score: 4 Stars

Trolls – JenEric Movie Review

by

How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2016 movie Trolls.

Story

The basic concept for this movie is that the Trolls are being hunted as food by Bergens. The unreliable narrator tells us that it’s the only way the Bergens can experience happiness. This is a dark concept that had me extremely interested. It’s probably the best part of the movie.

The theme of happiness runs throughout the movie with the inevitable, “Happy was inside you the whole time,” ending.

The humour is fun when they go a little psychedelic, but mostly relies on fat jokes, fart jokes, and a super awkward romance.

The film’s message ends up falling flat in it’s complete disregard for diversity and blatant misunderstanding of depression and trauma.

Score: 0 (I can’t believe anyone sober could approve this script.)

Characters

Ripped straight from an 80’s high school drama, these characters manage to have less depth than the dolls they’re based off.

Sad geek/loner/weirdo pines for beautiful/vapid/popular girl. His entire journey is to realize it’s okay to be happy. He’s finally accepted when he changes colours and starts to sing, effectively conforming to the group.

The king Bergen and scullery maid love story is so shallow they need four separate romance tropes to prop it up.

Score: 0

Dialogue

Overall the dialogue is pretty bland. A lot of, “Be Happy,” and the music is mostly used as reinforcement of the themes.

Forgettable overall.

Score: 0

Visuals

The visuals are pretty decent, even though they looked ripped from Little Big Planet and Kirby. They’re used to great effect to show the contrast and texture of this horror world, where there’s always a bigger fish to summon.

Score: 0.5

Fun

At the ten minute mark after the 3rd fart joke, I started to get worried.

The movie was fun when it concentrated on the contrast between joy and horror, but mostly I found myself wishing I was watching the new Cats movie instead.

Score: 0.5

Conclusion

This movie is offensive, awkward, and downright boring. Save yourself the pain and watch something else.

Final Score: 1 Star

JenEric Movie Reviews

by

Hello Cinephiles!

I love stories, and movies are a beautiful and engrossing way to tell stories. Since I watch a lot of movies, I’ll be dedicating my Wednesday’s column to reviews.

Criteria

I’ll be judging movies on Story, Characters, Dialogue, Visuals, and Fun. Each will be worth 1 star (.5 is allowed).

This should give my reviews a standard that will allow me to compare them.

Qualifications

I have watched movies my whole life.

Not enough?

I have a degree in Communications specializing in media creation and analysis. I worked as a videographer and as a video lab technician. I have 4 published novels and have been writing in this blog for over a decade. I help host Nights at the Round Table for Silver Stag.

I also used to work at a video store. For my younger audience, that’s where you could rent VHS tapes to bring home and watch movies.

Philosophy

Movies, like all stories, are meant to make us feel and experience something. They are entertainment and emotion. A good movie can make you feel something, a great movie can make everyone in the room feel the same thing.

Disclaimer

If you think the acronym SJW is an insult and that political correctness is a bad thing… move along, these reviews aren’t for you.

I consider representation, punching up, and social messages to be essential in a good film.

Well that’s about all. See you Wednesday for the first film review.

Good watching,

Éric