thegirlchuck

To preface this review, usually I love a good rom-com. But this movie had a thin, senseless plot and a really bad case of overacting that it just wasn't very enjoyable. Sophie Cookson, playing the lead and unlucky character Minnie, was unfortunately so dramatic and squeaky it became annoying. The actor playing Quinn, Lucien Laviscount from Emily in Paris, was slightly more understated but still was exuding borderline school-play level acting. I would hope it was a result of poor direction, as I don't remember this poor acting in their previous works that I've seen. The supporting cast were just okay.

Beyond the acting, I just don't think the plot translated very well into a movie, like it couldn't create a balance between whimsy and realism. It definitely wasn't nailing being a comedy. I haven't read it, but perhaps the book was better.

Either way, maybe the film just wasn't my cup of tea and others will enjoy this type of cheesy acting and direction. If you don't though, I'd give this one a skip.

This was truly terrible. I was expecting a documentary that explained crimes that happened to have taken place in the same location. Instead it's a four hour exploitation of the death of a 21 year old woman that is filled with youtubers, journalists and 'web sleuths' who think they know more about solving a case than professionals. They drag out the story of Elisa Lam's disappearance, purposefully excluding crucial information and filling the episodes instead with ridiculous conspiracy theories by random youtubers, some of whom are shamelessly capitalising on her death as they go and have a giggle as they visit the site of her death, pretending it's haunted while filling the video with a million ads. It's pretty disgusting. The documentary only gets logical towards the end when the detectives finally detail their investigation, and the dumb youtubers have a retrospective look back at their even dumber conspiracies and realise they were embarrassing. This acknowledgment is why I raised it from one to two stars. Furthermore each episode is incredibly muddled. They switch between Elisa Lam, downtown LA and life on the streets, and occasionally the night stalker and don't bother to talk about it in a logical or chronological way that flows. I get it's all about the Cecil hotel but since the majority focuses on Elisa Lam, the rest feels irrelevant. In conclusion, this documentary is embarrassing. It indulges in the haunted reputation of the hotel at the expense of a young woman and her mental illness. As someone who occasionally reads true crime in what I hope and believe is a respectful way, I felt guilty watching this show. Conspiracies can be harmful to cases and the families of people involved, and this documentary embraces these conspiracies and capitalises on them. Also John Sobhani the 'web sleuth' felt super obsessive in his attachment to Elisa Lam, and by the end made me very uncomfortable.

This movie was the first time I've actually thought "I want my two hours back". I was expecting it to be at least decent on the gushing reviews but in my opinion it was terrible. Disney romances had more chemistry than the relationship between Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga's characters. I found it really hard to care about them and their relationship. Ally's rise to fame was uninteresting, the dialogue was awkward, melodramatic and half the time incoherent, and to be honest the soundtrack was mediocre. By the end I was just waiting for Jackson's inevitable downfall and man, did it feel really poorly done. It just felt like a really soulless way to end the movie and the character you're supposed to care about. I know this most likely sounds cynical but I'm usually very positive when reviewing movies, I just genuinely don't understand how anyone likes this, let alone raves about it. Two stars instead of one though for the dog, lady gaga's brown hair, Jack's guitar and I did sometimes like the gritty tone of parts of the movie. I just wish I found it anything other than tear jerkingly dull.