Boston Strangler and 65 (2023) – Movie Reviews

I’ve been wondering where Keira Knightley has been. Seriously, I haven’t seen her in a movie in years. And for this to be the triumphant return in my eyes, she’s pretty great in this. Boston Strangler is a clear star vehicle for her and allows her to show off what makes her such a great actress.

Most of the ensemble is great. I thought Chris Cooper and Carrie Coon were standouts, although some of the Boston accents were a little forced. The thrills were great. It never reached the heights of anything like Zodiac, but this movie does a good job of standing out with its story and making this real life situation a nightmare to live through. It’s got great dialogue, good stakes, and really well fleshed out characters.

However, I think Boston Strangler, like most political thrillers nowadays, lacks a really clear personality. The cinematography was incredibly dull, and I found the film’s structure to be very uneven. The first hour or so was genuinely unnerving. I was on the edge-of-my-seat, so excited for what would happen next. And yet, when the third act started, the film came to a grinding halt.

It made me seem like they were going to start focusing on her home life, as I believe the writers wanted us to think that was an important aspect of this movie. However, that didn’t feel fully realized, and instead, we arrived at the slow-burn portion of the film, and it wasn’t until the ending that I wasn’t bored anymore. Overall, a really decent thriller. Good performances, solid dialogue and tension building, I just think it needed more stylistically. I think it’s kinda like this year’s The Outfit—solid early in the year political thriller.

‘Boston Strangler’ Rating – 3/5

From the writer of A Quiet Place and starring Adam Driver, I’m always rooting for original content to flourish, but the content has to be deserving of praise in order for me to continue to believe that. I think 65 is an okay-ish movie. It doesn’t bring anything new to any genre and just feels like a tired concept that felt lazily executed. Adam Driver is pretty good in the film, as he so often is, but unfortunately he could not carry such a strange script. The young actresses are fine, they didn’t really bring much of anything of note to this project, but their inclusion was nice.

I think some of the action is decent, and it’s a fine-looking film, but it lacks any real heart. The family dynamic is so rushed that it doesn’t feel like Adam Driver is really fighting for anything. We get vague character motivations and not much else, making these storylines not very compelling.

The VFX is fine, sometimes it’s great and sometimes it looks strange. I think the inclusion of dinosaurs felt off, they never really felt present in a story where they were the focal point. I think this movie just had serious pacing issues, making any interesting idea feel rushed and incomplete.

I think this is a good outline for an interesting dinosaur survival film, but it’s a lackluster final draft. It’s a fine movie to have on in the background somewhere. Didn’t hate it as much as most people seem to, but it did not live up to my expectations.

‘65 (2023)’ Rating – 2.5/5

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