Dakota99
Cinema Addict
Member Since: 21 Apr 2013
Location: USA
Bio: I look at things from a critical standpoint (most of the time)
*Known Fast & Furious shill*
*Known Fast & Furious shill*
Recent Ratings
Check out Dakota99's...
Violent Night (2022) - Rated 22 Dec 2024
"Violent Night wears its influences heavily on its sleeve, and its ability to own it does help convey the schlocky spirit of its theme. Harbour is clearly having a blast within this little world of his, and he mostly carries what is otherwise a barebones comedy slasher. Its lack of substantial substance or prevailing themes feels extremely noticeable and kinda defines how hollow this film really is because it lacks in every department that isn’t Harbour himself. Definitely expected a bit more."
The Covenant (2023) - Rated 22 Dec 2024
"The Covenant feels & plays like a bit of a departure from Guy Ritchie’s filmography. Much like all of his previous work, his quirky & quippy dialogue borders on being too much in some aspects for this type of film. At the same time, his execution of heroism & honor is quite enduring, if not a bit stylized for its own good with such a politically aggressive topic. Still, within the sandbox of the war genre, this is unfamiliar ground for Ritchie, and his own attempt a war drama is commendable."
Mufasa: The Lion King (2024) - Rated 20 Dec 2024
"Mufasa serves to continue the pros & cons of all these Disney remakes. While the visual effects are quite stunning in every technical aspect and its performances are excellent, much like its predecessor it lacks a specific punch needed to capture the legacy & nostalgia of its original. That punch being the lack of memorable musical notes and woefully lacking characterization in its screenplay, especially in the back half. For the most part, it does enough to be solidly entertaining at least."
Triple 9 (2016) - Rated 13 Dec 2024
"Triple 9 is one of the best examples of wasted potential. It’s cast alone should elevate even the most basic genre film, but it’s so painfully dull & uninteresting on any sort of narrative level. It’s a very safe thriller that doesn’t really do anything substantial in any sort of direction, good or bad, to really distinguish itself in the sub genre itself. That’s ultimately so much worse, because one way or another this film should be entertaining, and it isn’t somehow."
Kraven the Hunter (2024) - Rated 13 Dec 2024
"Kraven The Hunter perfectly encapsulates the state of Sony’s universe. Much like its counterparts, it feels outdated in most aspects when it comes to modern comic book adaptations. It’s dialogue bounces between cliche one liners or just straight up awkward & unnatural deliveries. Its pacing, specifically in its division between the 1st half and the back half, is crammed with slow & uninteresting exposition. It’s just a film that also takes such a failure of a universe, too seriously. Sheesh."
Den of Thieves (2018) - Rated 10 Dec 2024
"Den of Thieves is more of what you typically see from the Gerard Butler engine. The “B-rate, action thriller” seems to be his sandbox at this point for better and worse. To the actual creative’s credit, there is some attempt at a narrative that derives from the stander heist thriller, and because of that, it stays quite entertaining even through the exposition, useless subplots, & character cliches. However, O’Shea is quite impressive here and a real show stealer by its end."
White House Down (2013) - Rated 10 Dec 2024
"White House Down is everything it tries to be. It’s dumb B-rate nature is quite enduring within the relatively simple & contained structure of its narrative. Its set pieces are bombastic & ridiculous, as many of Emmerich’s projects turn out to be. Most importantly though, Tatum is solid playing the cheesy action hero, and Fox’s performance is peak popcorn summer flick level of cliche & fun. Overall, it’s really hard to out do or reinvent this sandbox, the great thing is it doesn’t try to."
Gladiator 2 (2024) - Rated 23 Nov 2024
"Scott’s tall task to matching his original masterpiece was gonna be interesting, and it definitely was. In many aspects, specifically screenplay & tone, feels a lot more modern & adaptive of the Hollywood landscape today. Its highs are still high, but in a dumb schlocky blockbuster kind of way and not in an epic historical throwback kind of way. It feels like Scott didn’t really intend to match his previous work, which is slightly disappointing. Still, I was entertained as one would ask."
Expend4bles (2023) - Rated 23 Nov 2024
"Expend4bles…if you will, feels like a franchise that lacked a whole transmission, let alone any sort of gas. Between it’s none existent narrative that would make even the most barebones narrative, look like Shawshank, and it’s lack of OG staples including Stallone himself, makes this feel like it a bargain bin-straight to video feature. Statham tries with this passing of the torch, but he couldn’t save it from its hideous green screen, let alone anything other of it’s extensive issues."
Heretic (2024) - Rated 23 Nov 2024
"Hugh Grant himself shows that he is a true leading man and his performance alone speaks volume to the quality of this new addition to horror. Heretic challenges and questions a lot of ideology in unique ways that I personally didn’t think were possible. Its approach to not overly indulging itself into a pretentious corner is impressive, and maintains a slight cheeky bone. However, it’s pacing & decision making in the back half of this feels slightly out of sync with its setup. Still damn good."
