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Andy K (10821 KP) rated Vox Lux (2018) in Movies

Sep 18, 2019  
Vox Lux (2018)
Vox Lux (2018)
2018 | Drama, Musical
5
6.3 (4 Ratings)
Movie Rating Watch
Black Swan 2: The Return of Durant
In 1999, a middle school teenager Celeste has survived a horrific school shooting which has left multiple students and teacher dead. Through tragedy, the wounded girl triumphs through the singing of a tribute song which goes viral and becomes an anthem for heartbreak throughout the world.

She achieves instant success with her song, so much so, she gets a recording contract and her and her sister are whisked away to Sweden to record it officially and make a music video. Her manager chaperones her time there, but does not have much success. The girls have a good time partying and choosing every excess including the consequences. The video is a success and she becomes a star.

Eighteen years later, the aging pop star is trying to make a comeback and show she can still keep up. Her relationships with her sister, teenage daughter and sister as she has lived the ego-driven life of a celebrity now for too long. One the eve of a concert performance, another massive multi-person shooting happens at a beachfront, the perpetrators donning masks used in one of her videos making her the target of paparazzi and media scrutiny at a pivotal time in her life.

She tries to salvage her relationship with her daughter who is going through her own teenage angst with mixed success. It seems she is her own worst enemy questioning her choices and continuing leading the lifestyle of a demanding celebrity.

The movie seems like a tale of two halves with the teenage Celeste and the "grown up" version even having screen captures saying so. For me the first half was way more interesting than the second. The teenage Celeste was more believable, maybe because you didn't know her, but the screenplay was more interesting for her as well.

One can only imagine the emotions of having to live through such a tragedy and having to rebuild your life afterwards. Then adding on top of it, her instantaneous global stardom could not have done well to heal her physical, but emotional scars as well.

I felt Natalie Portman seemed out of place and her acting felt very wooden and dry to me unlike most of her portfolio. She even was an executive producer on the film along with her costar Jude Law, so she may have been focused on that instead of her acting performance. She doesn't appear in the film until close to an hour in and filmed her scenes over 10 days. It is unfortunate, but I really didn't believe her and took me out of several scenes as a result.

It is hard to empathize with the celebrity lifestyle of excess and demands having never lived it myself. It has certainly been portrayed onscreen much better than it is here and it really felt like the two halves of the film were disconnected and not resolved.

I certainly don't mind, or even encourage, the vague open-ended type of film generally speaking if it is left you to think about the plight of the characters their decisions, and ultimate destinations; however, this film accomplishes this only through bad writing.

The concert footage was well done and Portman certainly delivered on transforming into a Madonna/Britney Spears type icon. I was just hoping for more of a payoff and felt disappointed in the end.
  
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Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Sharknado: The 4th Awakens (2016) in Movies

Jun 19, 2019  
Sharknado: The 4th Awakens (2016)
Sharknado: The 4th Awakens (2016)
2016 | Horror
6
7.4 (5 Ratings)
Movie Rating
In what is become an annual event for Sy the latest in the Sharknado series titles “Sharknado: The 4th Awakens”, delivers more of the cheesy one-liners, highly improbable situations, bad acting, celebrity cameos, and chintzy visual effects that have made the series a pop culture mainstay.

The latest installment picks up five years after the events of the previous film with star Fin Sheppard (Ian Ziering), in Las Vegas to meet his son. Thanks to a new technological breakthrough that dissipates the storms, there has not been a Sharknado in over five years which is causing fin great concern as he believes they are long overdue.

When the storm mysteriously emerges despite numerous attempts dissipated, the Las Vegas strip and several high-end hotels are subjected to the bloody carnage that is caused by a storm filled with all manner of sharks.

Fin and his crew naturally leapt into action to save the day and using all manner of material that is at hand from tourist attractions to fireworks attempts to save the day.

As the situation unfolds there appears to be more than just a random storm behind the latest outbreak which sets Fin on a breakneck mission to save the day.

If you have followed any the previous films in the series you know what to expect. There will be one outrageous scenario after another with multiple celebrity cameos popping up rapidly throughout the film.

The action sequences trip more cheese than the Stadium Nacho Bar and many of the one-liners and acting performances are so bad the groan inducing. The thing about the series is that director and series stalwart Anthony C, Ferrante knows what the audience expects and delivers it with a big wink and smile that lets them know that he’s in on the game.

While from a technical standpoint there’s much that somebody could find fault with in films, that would be missing the point of the series as it is an over-the-top and ludicrous adventure series that does not take itself too seriously and instead attempts to have fun in the most outrageous ways possible.

The film sets the next film in the series very well and don’t be surprised if next summer you find yourself glued in front of the television watching the next installment in what has become an absolute ratings gold mine for the network.

http://sknr.net/2016/07/31/skarknado-4th-awakens/