The Leverton Review

Parts of this movie seem vaguely offensive, but Disney did do more in person research on this film than any other in his career. The movie plods along until the middle of the film, where it picks up speed, and it comes to a satisfying end. The special effects while not anything that would impress a modern audience must have been quite amazing for the time. The forced perspective work is also quite amazing. The best part of the film has to be Sean Connery's accent that can't be placed in any particular moment in history or geography. He does do a good job but not sounding Scottish though. While I didn't like it, the male lead is particularly charismatic and the scenes between him and the king of the leprechauns hold your attention. So while it's not for me, perhaps there are some who would enjoy it. 

 Metal Lords is a Coming of Age film that avoids cliché. It's about the relationship between three teenagers. Hunter is a boy who was devoted himself to the church of metal and while music certainly plays a part in the film it's more about the relationships between hunter, his best friend Kevin, and Kevin's friend Emily. The film is full of scenes that ring true to teenage life. There's lots of unfounded bravura, a lack of understanding of parents, and bullying. Adrian Greensmith's portrayal of hunter is raw and yet sensitive. Jaeden Martel as Kevin, and Isis Hainsworth as Emily act as great foils to Hunter's character while still portraying their characters with sensitivity. It's not a movie that's going to make you laugh a lot, but it's still an enjoyable film. And there are a few very smart jokes. I watch a lot of movies, but this is definitely one of the better movies I have seen in the past 10 years. It's the perfect Coming of Age film.

 This movie is a core memory for an entire generation of people. But I did not like it.  It had its moments. The evil brother and sister manage to perform songs which are interesting. And the choreography in some points is absolutely amazing, but the whole film falls and feels flat. There is absolutely no charisma between the male lead and the female lead, and their vocal performances are as interesting as a glass of tepid water. The plot is both asinine and chronologically confusing. The climax of the movie is an audition that the main characters need to perform, but it's been postponed even though there are only four students who want to audition for these parts, so you would think if you were a teacher you'd be a little bit more flexible about your scheduling. There are other things that happen around that time in the movie that are confusing chronologically, but it would take too much effort for me to explain why they are confusing, honestly I do not care enough about this...

 There are certainly things to enjoy about this movie. There are a few genuinely funny bits, and a bit of gross out comedy thrown in there for good measure. But I think this is one of the many movies where the best parts are in the trailer and then when you watch the film you find the rest of it disappointing. My favorite genre of movies is the talking animal genre, because I find it just to be really funny. But movies that do this well treat the animals as if they were animals and not people, with human voices emanating from the animals. This movie does sometimes give you the perspective of dogs as we imagine their perspective would be, but at other times it's just a human in a dog shaped form.  I enjoyed it, however, someone who doesn't share my love of talking animal movies would not enjoy this film at all and probably might even hate it. Like talking animal movies, you should watch it, but it's not the best out there.

 This is a dark, dark comedy. The comedy arises not from a series of witty lines or jokes, out of a very serious situation. I'm not going to spoil what happens in the movie because the movie is really well written, and I think this is a movie that you deserve to come in fresh. I've watched it twice, and I don't think it's a movie that you necessarily need to see more than once, but I was surprised by some details that I had not noticed before. Both of the characters are outsiders in Norwegian Society, one is Jewish, and the other is Swedish and at the beginning of the movie they are both objective failures in the society, and they are punished by the sins of the society that they live in. I can't go into further details, but it is remarkably well acted, and directed. Don't know why this movie is not more popular, it's probably one of the better movies to come out in the last decade.

Disney live action movies from the 1960s were, in a word, crazy. You have wild plots about pirate ghosts,  electricity transforming a teenager's brain into a computer, and you have over the top and wild acting. This movie really wants to be one of those movies. The problem is, it's star is a cat. There's nothing wrong with the cat, and I think for the most part the cat was just being a cat throughout most of the movies, so it probably had a good time, dean Jones who plays the lead needs a crazy funny man that can feed off of his manic straight man energy. The cat is not funny. For a much better performance from Mr Jones, please watch Blackbeard's ghost. The movie does manage to evoke a certain era of American life. I was also wondering while watching the movie who this was directed to. Because the main bad guys in the film say they're going to do horrible things to someone they have kidnapped. And there are a lot of jokes that are definitely aimed towards adults. So...

 This is an enjoyable romp from the 1960s. Peter Ustinov is great as the ghost of Blackbeard and Dean Jones is great as the much put upon straight man. After watching this, thinking when did the straight man die in comedy. It used to be a very normal thing to have an actor who was not saying specifically funny things, it was a foil that made the comedic actor even funnier. The plot is really flimsy, but these two actors are so over the top, one being comedic and the other being the straight man, it is a real delight to watch.

This is a documentary that expects you to feel something, likely outrage and disgust, but I admit I did not feel much of anything while watching this. It's the story of a man who ascended to the top of Korean Society by committing fraud, and because it was academic fraud, was not put in prison. Now it seems he spends his time on expensive projects to reanimate mastodons and long dead but very expensive prize candles. It seems he was touched by a bit of hubris, and promised things that he couldn't possibly deliver. But the science has left him behind, and even if he had been punished more harshly, that would not have been any different. This was a bit of a waste of time. 

 This is a review for the second season, previously I posted a review of the first season. This is one of the best k-drama out there. The acting is great. It is refreshing how well the production managed to capture the essence of male posturing. I won't reveal the ending, but it feels quite natural. When I was watching this, at one point I felt that it was going a little bit too slow, and I thought maybe it lacked the cohesion of the first season. It does not. There are a bunch of great action scenes that are integral to the plot of the story, but nonetheless are highly enjoyable. This drama takes all the flaws that many other k-dramas are prone to and excises them. There is no laughably obvious product placement, what's there makes sense in terms of the story. There is no forced romantic plot. And the episodes and the series are exactly as long as they need to be. It manages not just to be a pointed criticism of Korean society, but also a profound story.

 I think movies like this are definitely directed towards children, so when reviewing them that must be taken into consideration. We all have films from our childhood that we consider to be classics, but children really don't judge movies in the same way. They asked themselves, am I enjoying this, am I having fun, and if the answer to those questions is yes, in the movie is good for them. But are you as an adult going to enjoy this film? No. The CGI, while done to a high level, still seems odd. For example, all the guinea pigs in the film are for the most part bipedal. Which makes no sense at all. So when you watch the film, you have a feeling that something is off, that something is not quite right. Some of the jokes land. But for the most part they are very throwaway kind of things and in one part just plain baffling. There were three mice characters that I liked. But their scream time is under 15 seconds. The plot, dialogue, feel as if they were written by AI. Just a regurgitati...

Honestly, I don't have much experience with Chinese films, so you should take this opinion with a grain of salt. I did not like this. I thought for the most part the plot was entirely predictable, and even when it wasn't, it felt like it wasn't justified in terms of storytelling. The main idea of the film, isn't a bad one, but its execution seems very shoddy. And because it's a police drama, and is set in China, one is left with a bunch of questions about procedure. The police in this film act exactly as if they were in the United States, and I don't think that is entirely accurate. I think it's probably connected to the desire of the Chinese audience to see films, Chinese films, which act in a Hollywood way. But Hollywood movies are steeped in American culture, to put that into a Chinese context I think doesn't make a lot of sense. I think Korean cinema and dramas do a much better job of giving you interesting stories from a Korean perspective. But agai...

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 This was a biographical film about the band Wham! But really it's about the relationship between two friends who go through some things together that are really hard to imagine. I like how it undertakes to examine the creation of the band,  how it worked in the early days and how it fell apart. I like how the subject is taken seriously, but not reverently. I also like the fact that while George Michael would continue to be a pop culture phenomenon, this film is really not about the entirety of his life - just about his time in the band. So it's a pleasant watch for a music fan or a fan of pop culture.

 The film really hits you on the head with its central metaphor that the daily grind turns workers in to zombies. The plot is somewhat predictable, except for the last third of the movie. The last third of the movie I cannot talk about at all because this is one of those things you do not wish spoiled for you, however it is awesome. It's not a movie that will necessarily leave you with deep thoughts - it will leave you with wondering how you would actually survive a zombie apocalypse - and what you would do in a similar situation. It's not a great film, but it's a very enjoyable film. So if you want to have a movie night with your friends put this one on.

 This is a very bizarre film to watch, by the standards of Disney live action movies from the 1960s. The story is about the quest of three animals to return to their home. They have various adventures, like being attacked by a bear, the cat nearly drowns. But they meet many kind people along the way who helped them reach their goal. The film looks beautiful in an odd way. It manages to capture the glory of a Canadian fall in the opening credits, and the rest of the film is shot with really bright and audacious Technicolor. It also has a narrator who does a lot of narration, much more than would be in a modern film. It's not necessarily bad, but it doesn't make the film enjoyable also. It gives it a sort of sleep inducing effect. I imagine if you had problems falling asleep, you could put this movie on in another room and just drift away to the monotony of the narration. One wonders if animals were harmed during this production. After all, they do use real bears, real dogs and c...

 So I watched this with my son who is 11, and he was expecting a much more literal interpretation of the idea of a computer wearing tennis shoes. I kind of knew what to expect because I think I may have seen this film before. It is not a classic film by any stretch of the imagination, but it shows us an era of Disney that has been lost. When they made films that were clearly for children but were wholesome or entertaining enough to maintain the intention of adult audiences. Kurt Russell does a very good job in the main role, and this film is full of zany performances from the supporting cast. It's a real treat to watch the bright colors of the 60s and to think about the idea that a computer could be the size of a small car or large car for that matter. An enjoyable romp.

 I remember quite liking this film when I was a child. I was intrigued by the randomness of a boy pulling out a sword from a stone and then becoming the king of England. But that story is literally about 2 minutes of this movie. The rest of the movie is a series of strange adventures undertaken by a magician who can time travel and a young boy. They have weird adventures with squirrels and fish, and the plot is just meandering. And the animation is awful. In fact, it's the worst animated Disney film I have watched up to this point. I think what happened was Disney bought the rights to the story before the second World War, couldn't produce the movie because of that, and then delayed the project and delayed the project and then the musical Camelot came out which is also based on this story and so this was rushed into production. And you can tell. I don't think any adult or child would find this interesting when we have some many other better things to entertain us.

I have mixed feelings about this film. It does a very good job of world building right up until the climax of the film.  The setting is much different than any of the previous films in the franchise because it happens in a small town. The movie has the feeling of those movies from the '80s that are all about small towns, like for example the Goonies. But whereas those movies are usually centered on comedy, this movie isn't particularly funny. The actors do a great job creating believable characters. Paul Rudd has a role, and after watching him in the debacle that was the last Ant-Man movie, it's a relief to realize that he can actually act. The kids in the movie feel like kids. I think it's one of the first movies in quite some time that I can remember having watched where that is the case. And then it's all ruined by the ending. It's not a particularly bad ending in terms of Storytelling, in fact it makes a lot of sense. However, what happens is that the three ...

 Honestly, I thought that this would be more sensationalistic. But apart from one borderline almost graphic scene, this film focuses on the tragic story of what can happen when people's rights are taken away. We tend to think that human society evolves into a better and better form, but this film tells us the story that, ultimately, society is what we choose to create. And although the filmmakers only vaguely hint that the connection between the events of pre-order and what is going on in the United States now, the viewer ultimately is forced to make the connection. There are many connections between pre-war and the current state of American society. The rise of fascism, and the growing divisions within society. One can only hope that American society does not go down that dark road.

 This series has an interesting premise. A woman remembers each of her previous 18 lives. The female lead is charismatic, however the male lead has the charisma of a plank of wood. I have watched many k-dramas and I usually have one of two reactions. The first is that I can find something in a series that I really love. Then the series is great and even if it does have flaws those are acceptable. The other reaction is that I will absolutely hate a series. Because of the bad acting, the bad writing or something to do with the plot. But with this series, it's just boring. They take an interesting premise and do nothing with it. The things in the story that are supposed to provide conflict don't really. There's no real villains. But at the same time this is not a realistic story, so why do you need people to behave in a reasonable way? It's boring.

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 I think this is a good example of the fact that people do not have a superhero fatigue, they just have a limited tolerance for bad movies. This, along with its predecessor, are probably the greatest Spider-Man films of all time. My favorite actor playing Spider-Man, Toby Maguire, but this film shows a believable teenage boy going through the problems of having great responsibility thrust on him. And the animation is stunning. Not only is it breathtaking, but it's expressive. It's some of the best animation in a feature film since the beginning days of Disney. And by that I don't mean cute princesses, but I mean the Psychedelic horror of some parts of Fantasia, the dancing Pink Elephant sequence in dumbo, and the evil queen sequence in snow White. There's a great scene where Gwen is having an emotional moment with her father and the whole color and tone of the animation changes. There are two major flaws with this film though. The first is the ludicrous idea that someho...

 This is where the franchise has finally found its heart. And surprisingly the heart of the franchise is not the human character, but it's a raccoon. The acting is really good for the most part and while the movie is a tad too long, Rocket's backstory is devastating. They really went all out on the special effects budget for animating Rocket and his friends from his childhood, but it's clear that some of the other special effects are just big guys and rubber suits. It is a very good conclusion to the franchise, but I feel that it might not be the end because the movie was much more successful than other recent Marvel films. I think that Marvel, in Disney, need to learn that people are not going to go watch a movie just because of the character you also need a good story behind it, a good reason for it to exist. I think it's okay if a movie is not conventionally good as long as it is interesting, for example like Thor love and Thunder. It's a crazy movie. But the lat...

 Although the plot is very different to that of Snow White, it is helpful to see this film as a reboot of it. You have at the center of the film a young girl who is cursed and falls asleep, like in Snow White, she's awoken by true love's kiss, like Snow White, and she can even talk to animals, like Snow White. But honestly, I think this is a much better film than Snow White. Snow White doesn't really have any agency, but Aurora chooses her prince. Although the movie is great because that story is not actually the most important story in the film. The most important story in the film is the relationship between all the fairies and Maleficent. She's upset because she wasn't invited to the birth of the princess and all the other fairies were, and so her jealousy causes her to attack the unborn princess with a curse. And the way that she is animated and acted is superb. There's a great sequence where she transforms into a giant dragon and fights prince Philip. Some ...

 This true-crime documentary film starts off like any other. There's a series of sensationalistic murders and the film goes in depth to explain the investigation. The brief outline is that Mexico was shocked by a serial killer who was active in the late 1980s to Mid 1990s, and this serial killer prayed upon the elderly. Then it departs from that narrative to talk about three things that are very important. Firstly, it mentions that at the same time, in Juarez, nearly 300 women were killed, and this didn't attract any attention at all in the Mexican press due to the fact that these were poor women, and they were women. Second, it mentions the way the Killer was portrayed. She was a middle-aged woman who was killing elderly women for financial benefit. But because she was a fan of wrestling they said that she was super strong and super masculine, even though she was never actually a wrestler herself. The investigation went into a number of dead ends because of the conviction of t...

 I have always been fascinated with the dark Side of cults and cult leaders. This is a pretty much sensationalistic examination of the phenomenon. But if you have no knowledge of the topic, then it does do a good job of explaining some of the most famous cults in history, the people behind them, and their crimes. I did like that it didn't Focus on only famous cults but they did tell the story of one lesser known cult.

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