Reviews

I haven't followed Maniscalco's stand up in general, but I caught a glimpse of this and got intrigued. The 'reservation' bit was hilarious, I reposted it, kept using it in a few of my general convos, and couldn't wait to watch the whole thing.

When I finally got around to it, I think the show started pretty well. The throw back to when people 'dressed up' to go out was nice and nostalgic, some good relatable relationship stories, and his demeanor for the show was pretty amusing. Laughs in the crowd, all was good.

By half way mark, he somehow lost the crowd. I think it was around the 'dog' story. From there on, everything became less and less relatable, and the crowd kept getting quieter and quieter. Couple of mild laughs here and there, but overall was very hard to watch.

Would def recommend watching the first half of this, but then go back to whatever you're doing and leave the second half to play in the background. Definitely interested in watching more of his previous material now though to see what I've been missing.

I've heard of extreme couponing but this takes things to a complete other level. The movie is based on a true story, some elements are changed but quite a lot of it is true to the actual events. Kirsten Bell is great, this girl has crazy range, Kirby (Jojo) does a nice fun job as her sidekick, and Paul Walter does an awesome job as the 'Coupon detective' who's obsessed with cracking the case. The only main disappointment is seeing Vince Vaughn; this role could have been funny as hell especially the dynamic with Paul, but his acting just feels overly dry, almost like he doesn't wanna be there. Everyone else in the movie picks up the weight though - overall a fun, exciting chase through making crazy money from extreme couponing.

Started this and thought it was a nice light thing to watch, especially judging by the trailer and the beginning of the first episode. It was pretty funny, very well shot, acting is great. Binged a few episodes and it seemed to get darker and darker until half way through the season and holy hell, that went a whole different way. This is an amazing show, it definitely isn't 'light watching' though. Had to switch it off and watch a few episodes of 'is it cake' just to clear our palette 😂 It's amazing but we really weren't ready for that, we really just wanted some light viewing, but it does grip you and reel you in to watch more. Probably needs a warning at the beginning because it was disturbia central up in here.

The beginning gave me 'Lost' vibes, haven't seen a show that had me so intrigued from the get-go for a while.

The twists and turns in the beginning were fun and borderline creepy, but while Lost kept throwing in new questions, it feels like Manifest just stuck to 'one thing' that drives the actions of all the characters. It's almost like the writers ran out of new ideas, got lazy and just relied on that for everything that happens. Watching to see how the rest turns out but kind of bummed out at how predictable most of the twists have become.

I was forced to go to the cinema with the guys, expecting this to be a flick where Godzilla shows up and destroys everything, then they kill it. Lots of explosions and special effects, pretty standard story, blah. Nope. I was actually surprised, and I enjoyed the whole thing.

The story was more intricate than I expected, and it kept bringing up surprises, the visuals were pretty on point, and it did give me quite a thrill.

Watched this in 3D, which was good, but nothing overly spectacular, it didn't add too much for me.

Don't read anything about this, keep an open mind. This isn't a movie about a monster that comes out of nowhere, destroys a city then gets killed. Lots of fun.

I haven't done a 'movie review' in a while, basically because we've had quite a lot of rubbish recently. Well, either rubbish, or clichés. Gone are the day's of the 90's, with great movies that were actually intelligent, like Fight Club, Pulp Fiction, Sixth Sense, and so on. Now all we seem to get is more of the same dumbed down movies, over and over again, and so on for the past decade (sure, there have been a few good movies here and there, but that's all they are, a 'few').

This year seems to have made a comeback, though; is this decade going to be a good one for movies? Shutter's Island at the beginning of the year with it's crazy multiple psychological twist, trailers for Salt showing a clever WTF plot line, and just yesterday, Inception.

Wow. It's not often I sit and watch a movie in the cinema gripping the edge of my seat, dreadfully anticipating the next few seconds. Not often that a movie ends and everyone in the cinema starts clapping.

So what is this Inception business? Well, to actually review the movie without spoilers is kinda tough, and even though it's kind of immune to spoilers (telling you the ending would not take away from the story, as it's the point of 'how they got there', and even if I tell you 'how they got there' it would probably make you more confused) so if you haven't watched it yet, read until the ---Spoilers--- tag below. The movie has a cast that basically drove it to perfection; Michael Caine, Joseph Gordon-Lewitt, Marion Cotillard, and stars the lovely Leonardo DiCaprio, who got famous from the cheesy "I'm the King of the World" scene in Titanic (well, that and getting it on with Kate Winslet in the back of a steamy car). Let's just say back then he was a little, what's the word, soft.

But over the years, he's gone from some young and pansy romantic actor into my top 10 list (along with Al Pacino, De Niro, Brad Pitt, etc), and again that's partly through his mind blowing performances in movies that again, blow your mind; from Gangs of New York, to The Departed, to the recent Shutter's Island, and now this? I must say, we're far off from that little kid back in Titanic.

Inception is basically about dreams, how you can actually enter someone's dreams (through a physical connection while you both sleep), and from there steal hidden ideas and thoughts from their subconscious. DiCaprio plays an expert thief at that game, and along the way is forced to take a pretty tough mission (details of which I can't discuss, see spoiler part below).

The acting was high quality, graphics amazing without making it seem over-done, and the plot-line way above anything you've seen in theatres over the past few years. This being said, it's not a movie most people won't get, but if you are a dumb viewer who can't grasp more than your typical straightforward storyline, don't bother watching this. I counted at least 8 people leaving the cinema half way through the movie. Many others would probably want to watch this a second time due to the complexity and number of levels this movie hits.

I've always had a fascination with dreams, and how the dream world works in comparison to the real world; dreams within dreams, the time aspect of it, controlling your own dreams, or even being aware that you're actually in a dream - I wrote about this a while back, read it here (http://www.ammaro.com/2007/08/dreams-reality.html)

It does raise multiple questions about your life, dreams, what is real and what isn't. I would go as far as say that it brings about that same feeling you get when you first watched 'The Matrix'. Everything in the real world seems kind of blurry for a while. And this movie makes you think, oh yes it makes you think. I couldn't find much to fault with it, except that even though the whole thing lasts about two and a half hours, I felt a few parts were rushed, and probably needed a little more development, while others dragged on a little. Overall, this didn't deter much from the enjoyment, I give this a 9/10, a definite must watch and so far the best movie of the year!

Continued with spoilers at http://www.ammaro.com/2010/07/inception-2010.html

Yup, a good 2 decades after the last installment of Indiana Jones, he's back, and up to his regular doings; running around caves and graves, beating up bad guys, jumping from one thrilling stunt to another, and giving us a good laugh in between.

He doesn't disappoint either; even with Harrison Ford at 64 years old, Indiana doesn't really look that much older than in his last movie, and he can still perform his good ol' action sequences.

Although not exactly an Oscar winning storyline, the movie is good fun to watch. The fighting and chase sequences are thrilling, and there's enough good old Indiana-esquire humor to keep everyone smiling in between. I won't spoil the plot , but it's set a good 10 years or so after the last movie, and the Soviets have captured Indiana, hoping he will lead them to a secret that could help them control the world (cheesy script, but it makes a fun story). There's also a whip, a snake, Indiana's famous hat (that he never lets go of, no matter what), an epic ending, and a few surprises in between.

The whole thing looks like it was filmed in the 80's, which is great in a world dominated by obvious CGI and digital filming.

(full review on www.ammaro.com)