Its taken over 50 years but they have finally made a movie based on this 1960’s series. Well the series was not that good and neither was this movie. This movie looks like it was shot and created in fragments and the audience has no way of knowing what is going on from one scene to the next or how the scenes are connected. I always wonder how movies like this are made and how someone could cut and direct this film, never realizing that the sequence of events are not explained and the reasons why things happen in this movie make in many instances, no sense at all. The film also is trying to make itself look like it was shot in the 60’s which just makes the movie more difficult to watch.

The female lead in this movie, Alicia Vikander is the only positive part of this whole movie because of her acting and presence on screen. She also played a Robot in the movie Ex Machina which is a movie also reviewed in this blog. Alicia Vikander definitely has a great future making movies, she can act and she looks great on screen.

As far as the Man from U.N.C.L.E. avoid this movie because unless your a huge fan of Alicia Vikander its mostly a forgettable waste of 2 hours.

Bad Screenplays

This movie reminds all of us about one of the main reasons why we all go to the movies. Its because we want life to work like the movies do; a happy ending or a love story, some laughs a temporary escape from reality but most importantly we want the evil people in this life to get what they deserve, but unfortunately real life rarely works like we want it to and like we see so often in the movies.

The movie “The Gift” is an excellent and very well written thriller about bullying and how it might come to a conclusion years later in adulthood. This movie is about the fact that for the most part there is “no measurable lower limit” as what some people will do to get ahead or to destroy the life of someone who has done nothing to them. The human phenomenon of some sick people in this life who derive pleasure in humiliating or ruining the life of another human being and from that somehow feel better about themselves is the central theme of this movie. It is very clear that people like the main character in this movie (played very well by Jason Bateman) do not believe in God or in heaven or hell and they have never bought into the concept of doing onto others as you would have them do onto you.

This story was told very well with many surprising twist and turns and in the end the point of this movie is that most bad people never change and that at least in the movies sometimes, “what goes around comes around”. The ending of this movie was very surprising although some of the action that comes at the end was predictable at parts earlier in the movie. The acting was excellent throughout and all the actors do an very convincing job; most especially Bateman who plays at first the good family man but in the end his true colors are finally revealed.

I highly recommend this excellent movie.

What makes a movie a great one

This movie answers two main questions. How do you make a 1 hour movie last almost 2 hours and is it possible for Meryl Streep to be in a very bad movie. The answer to the first question is; if you want a 1 hour movie with a very bad script to last two hours you insert about 10 very bad musical numbers to drag on the movie 50% longer than it should have been. The answer to the second question is; this has to be without a doubt the worst movie Meryl Streep has ever been in – in her entire career.

You have to wonder why Streep took this role. Perhaps it was because she wanted to sing or perhaps because she thought that because Diablo Cody wrote the script and she is the same writer who won best original screenplay for Juno in 2007, that this movie just had to be great. Unfortunately Merrill was wrong on both counts because this movie was extremely bad across the board. From the horrible and long musical numbers (and there were about 10 of them in this movie) to the soap opera-like story and badly written dialog, this movie was very hard to sit through. The only good scene in this entire movie was the argument that Streep had with her x-husbands current wife and this argument had to do with the current wife being there for Streep’s daughter while Streep’s character was off trying to be a singer. The only upside to this movie is that it shows some of the real life of so many people who want to be famous or rich in show business and never make it. Streep’s character is bankrupt, living in a bad apartment and lives the life of someone who gambled on a dream and now almost 70 years old, lost that gamble.

Do yourself a favor and miss this very bad movie.

Why are there so many bad movies?