Movie review: Barbie (2023)

[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]

Nota bene: for other movie reviews, click for the dedicated page with movie reviews.

Barbie (2023)

[IMDB; en.wikipedia]

Crazily stupid.
Stupidly crazy.

Shutting down my brain (in order to watch it) feels good, maybe I should do it more often?! :)

Ok, fine, it's not that stupid... it does have some supposedly smart lines / take home messages from now and then... but not that many and they do reveal as superficial if you carefully dissect them.

Sorry, but their approach against capitalism and patriarchy and everything else supposedly wrong with the world we live in... is sort of wrong by itself... but, hey! that’s good marketing for the movie, sells the product, keeps the industry going... :) so it's ok, can we please have some more?! :)

Entertaining overall.

No romance?! Nothing?! Oh, come on!
You have Barbie, you have Ken... and... nothing?!
Are they brother and sister or something?... or is Ken in the friend zone or something?!
That chemistry between Barbie and Ken, that relationship leads to romance either way you take it!
This is not a movie for kids, but for grown ups... right?

Instead of love we get friend zone from Barbie's side and envy & frustration from Ken's side...
...which is toxic both ways...
...but surely explains how & why the storyline develops once they reach the real world...

The original plot - i.e. the mother playing with the Barbie doll and projecting her anxiety & frustrations (regarding being a woman & mother, and cellulitis, and suicide thoughts etc.) on the Barbie doll - leads Barbie & Ken to the real world, which then leads to nothing really... but it's the very toxic relationship between Barbie & Ken which actually builds a real story!

What’s the excuse for the lack of romance?!
They are plastic dolls which have no genitals?!
Oh, come on! Go to a DIY store and make some genitals: just buy a drill and a wooden stick (preferably Pinocchio style if you know what I mean!)

If Barbie had offered Ken love & sex they wouldn’t end up in that mess in the first place.
If Ken weren’t an incompetent & worthless & idiot blonde doll they wouldn’t end up in that mess in the first place...
For the record, the fake plastic sand that Ken walks on on the fake plastic beach is worth more than Ken himself!, in fact that fake plastic sand is worth more than all of Kens combined! :))

Good acting overall.

I really liked Michael Cera as Allan and Kate McKinnon as Barbie - these 2 I enjoyed the most! I wish they had more screen time!

You can safely watch it on TV.

I expected better songs & soundtrack given it’s a musical, right?

However, it's a better musical than Ryan Gosling's La La Land (2016) [Liviu review], which I didn't like at the time and still consider it really bad. So, if that one earned so many nominations and Academy Awards, then this one surely deserves more :))

It will get some Academy Awards nominations nevertheless... and probably some Awards?!
Later edit: got some nominations, only won the Best Original Song - fair.


Spoiler 1: in the end, Barbie becomes human and moves to the real world... (1) to embrace & enjoy her vagina (she has an appointment to a gynaecologist at the very end, ok?!)... and then (2) probably also fully embraces the cellulitis and suicide thoughts she has already got a taste of... and then (3) probably turns on the TV / radio / Internet... that would be new! :) and disappointing?! :))
Oh, well, then Barnie can say “Hello, real world!... Bye, real world!... I really wanna go back to Barbie land!!! :(( Can I go back to Barbie land now, please?!”


Spoiler 2: that mother & daughter & father relationship is weird... Given the way the mother behaves at first I could swear she’s a single mom also having to deal with her daughter’s adolescence... but then the husband/father pops in as an immature & castrated idiot trying to learn Spanish?! I suspect they’ve rewritten that relationship so many times that they’ve lost track of it!


Final thought: I’m not sure whether this movie shall get little girls interested in Barbie dolls, but it shall surely get little boys interested in Stereotypical Barbie! :))

Conclusions

I liked it.
Entertaining, that's for sure... although it displays/exhibits a very superficial message.

Movie review: Oppenheimer (2023)

[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]

Nota bene: for other movie reviews, click for the dedicated page with movie reviews.

Oppenheimer (2023)

[IMDB; en.wikipedia]

It’s an... epic biographical thriller drama film... not an action movie, ok? :D

Great script and great movie directing...
It slowly and thoroughly develops the story and patiently builds the tension... through minor plots and twists... and by playing with the narrative threads... and by focusing on changes in characters’ feelings... and by letting the passing of time itself have its own impact on the characters...

I’ve been misled by the trailer to think there would be more focus on the science part or the atomic bomb part...
Truth is there’s very little focus on the science part or the atomic bomb...

Admittedly, the movie feels more like (and is :D) a soap opera :D with respect to its approach to characters’ love life & work life and politics in general... an excellent & expensive soap opera if you ask me, but a soap opera nevertheless! :D

Science in general and the atomic bomb in particular only serve as plots & twists to keep this beautiful & excellent & expensive soap opera going and basically sell/market it to moviegoers...

Entertaining for 3 hours straight.
Never drags.

Really good cinematography.

Interesting soundtrack & sounds - there's not much music to it, but rather an intense & deep & low noise, sort of an uncomfortable continuous noise at times... which makes perfect sense!

Great acting.
Lots of actors, some famous, some not famous - yet, all of them deliver a perfect performance! Congratulations to all of them!

There's just a bit of explicit sexual content perfectly timed, just to make the point and keep the story going.
They could have inserted more, but I guess they tried to avoid hurting their rating or something.

The cinema experience is a must.
TV and/or streaming would ruin the movie experience.
IMAX?! What for?! I don't see the point to it with respect to this movie.

Oppenheimer is gonna earn a lot of Academy Awards nominations, that’s for sure...
Later edit: it has, it deserves them.

Conclusions

Time & Money well spent.

I just wish the trailer would have been more honest:
(i) Truth is there’s very little focus on the science part or the atomic bomb...
(ii) Science in general and the atomic bomb in particular only serve as plots & twists to keep this beautiful & excellent & expensive soap opera going and basically sell/market it to moviegoers...

Movie review: Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

[Post published by Liviu, on Liviu's [Personal] Blog]

Nota bene: for other movie reviews, click for the dedicated page with movie reviews.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One (2023)

[IMDB; en.wikipedia]

Pure action.
Lots of action.
Old school type of action.
There certainly is some cgi there - there must be some cgi, right?! :D - but I can't see it: D I suspect there is some cgi but can't quite put my finger on it : D
I think I got a bit of a headache at times :) due to the rapid scenes of old school action :)... but I don't mind :) since I'm both an action fan and a Tom Cruise fan!

The story is... complex... lots of twists and turns... it's complicated...
Admittedly, I couldn't make a summary of what happens and what each character does at a certain time... that's how complicated it is :))
All I can tell you is "everyone wants to put their hands on both halves of the key and I'm not sure who's in control, the A.I. or some human?!"

Entertaining, be sure about that!

They keep a fast pace throughout the movie, all those 160 something minutes!
The movie never drags.

It's dense... lots of twists... lots of details... carefully delivered confusion/ambiguity...
In order to keep track of everything during the creation process - i.e. write the script and/or direct such a movie - one requires discipline, being incredibly organized... and also being a bit crazy :)... which is exactly the kind of people I admire & enjoy following!

Tom Cruise delivers a really good performance as always.
...but each of all the 4 supporting female actors deliver an even better performance, I'd say - Hayley Atwell, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Pom Klementieff - congratulations to whoever handled the casting!

The cinema experience is a must.
IMAX probably delivers more than regular cinema (which I've watched) with respect to this movie.
TV and/or streaming would ruin the movie experience.

Conclusions

Great movie. Time & Money well spent.

Looking forward to part 2 :)

You know what's the real Mission Impossible?!

Releasing Oppenheimer (2023) [Liviu review] and Barbie (2023) [Liviu review] - right after _this MI movie_ in order to bite into its earnings, which they've succeeded...
...and then marketing those 2 movies as 1, i.e. Barbenheimer [en.wikipedia], in order to bite even more into MI's earnings, which they've succeeded...
...and also have Oppenheimer compete against MI for IMAX screens, which they've succeeded... yet it's unfair since MI certainly benefits from (and needs more) IMAX while Oppenheimer can do just fine in regular cinema :))

These 3 victories against MI are the most real life _Mission Impossibles_!!! :D