Jamie Lammers
Stories (150/0)
Hearts, Keys, and Puppetry Review
About a decade ago, legendary fantasy author Neil Gaiman asked his Twitter followers to help him with an intriguing idea. He tweeted out a single line and asked his followers to help him write a full fantasy story based on that opening line. What followed was a huge selection of these 140-character lines that were eventually created into an official BBC audiobook, and after hearing it for the first time all these years later, I personally believe that Hearts, Keys and Puppetry is a charming feat.
By Jamie Lammers2 years ago in Humans
Slumdog Millionaire Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I write reviews about every movie I see. This is the kind of movie I can see a lot of people reflecting on today and thinking it's overrated. It won a ton of Oscars back in the day, including the coveted Best Picture award, and this is one of those films I can see being more scrutinized today than it was back then. However, to me, Slumdog Millionaire is still a total blast of a film with legitimately visceral direction from Danny Boyle. His style is very particular, and when it works in the stories he's trying to tell, it works. Usually, I hate that kind of choppy slow motion that is manually created by the editors instead of filmed using slow-motion cameras. It's been done in films like Lord of the Rings, and it always puts me off every single time... except in the case of 127 Hours and now this movie. For whatever reason, whenever Boyle utilizes the technique in his films, it feels natural for his particular vision and actually fits in the film's structure. I don't know how he does it, but honestly, I'm not complaining about it.
By Jamie Lammers2 years ago in Humans
Wolfwalkers Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review all of the movies I see. This. This, this, this, this, this. This is the film that I'm going to be using for years, if not decades, as an example of masterful and unique storytelling. This is a film that embraces its culture, appeals to everyone, establishes stakes early, uses every second of its runtime to its advantage, and uses familiar and cliche elements in a unique and stylized way to create their own voice, their own character, and their own unique experience. I genuinely believe that Wolfwalkers is a modern animated masterpiece, and I don't usually use that kind of hyperbole right off the bat. Yes, I'm good at hyperbole, but not to THAT extreme.
By Jamie Lammers2 years ago in Humans
Four Weddings and a Funeral Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review the movies I watch. Happy New Year, everyone!! For my first movie review and new movie of 2020, it's time to take a look at one of Hugh Grant's most famous movies that I didn't even realize he was in until tonight. Yeah, I didn't know anything about this movie before tonight. In all honesty, I thought it was a comedy released in the 60's in the light of Breakfast at Tiffany's or something like that. Clearly, that's not the case, but I am completely okay with it.
By Jamie Lammers2 years ago in Humans
Arachnophobia Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd page, where I review all of the movies that I see. Barely anybody ever talks about this movie anymore. Heck, the only mention I've ever heard of it was Chris Stuckmann briefly talking about it in his Rupture review, and the only reason I decided to watch it was because a discussion of the condition of arachnophobia on a Matthias Dope or Nope video churned my memory and inspired me to check it out. I watched it, not knowing what I was getting myself into. I finished watching it and I came here to Letterboxd, shocked by the number of three star reviews this movie has. Seriously?! Three stars?! Because of all of these factors, I think I am willing to say that in my personal opinion, Arachnophobia is one of the most underrated movies of all time.
By Jamie Lammers2 years ago in Humans
A Heist with Markiplier Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review the movies and limited series I watch. What a weird thing to put on Letterboxd. Not that I'm complaining. It gave me an excuse to finally sit down and go through every single ending of this awesome adventure. I spent a good chunk of last night and this morning trying to get everything, and I have to say, I had a blast. This is probably one of the most ambitious projects any YouTuber has undertaken, if not the most ambitious of all time. This thing has action sequences, animated sequences, special effects, musical numbers, spastic editing, awesome costumes and make-up, cameos from other YouTubers, and 31 different and very strange endings to choose from. This thing is crazy, this thing is fun, and I loved pretty much every single minute of it.
By Jamie Lammers2 years ago in Humans
HTTYD: Snoggletog Log Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review movies I see. I didn't think I was gonna do this review because I didn't know I could easily find this thing, but it's on Hulu, so what do I know? I'll be honest... I didn't sit through this entire thing and I'm not going to. I refuse. You know why? Because this is literally just a virtual fireplace with HTTYD characters and skins. That's it. That's all you're getting here. I just skimmed through this thing to watch all of the short moments that the characters and dragons have so that I didn't have to sit and watch the fireplace or listen to the music in the background for half an hour. This is something you're supposed to put in the background and let play and I understand that, but it's the most pointless HTTYD thing I've ever seen in my life. I'm angrier than I should be about this, but I'm still in shock that this thing is available as a program to watch on Hulu.
By Jamie Lammers2 years ago in Journal
Zootopia Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review all of the movies I see. I think this movie has kind of gotten a reputation over the years. I saw a YouTube comment about La La Land that said that movie was basically so overrated that it became underrated, and I think that same terminology applies to this movie. This is a movie that people praised and praised and praised, and then after a while, people starting collectively agreeing that this movie wasn't as great as critics hailed it. Well, I personally still believe it is worth that praise. Zootopia is an excellently animated, incredibly fun adventure that takes a surprisingly in-depth look at so many topical and political issues today. I don't know how many times I saw this thing when it initially came out on Blu-ray. I just loved it.
By Jamie Lammers2 years ago in Humans
In The Tall Grass Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review all the movies I watch. Before we get started, I wanted to mention that I apparently saw an extended version of the movie. Apparently, there's a 90 minute cut somewhere in existence, but the one on Netflix is 101 minutes, so... I don't really know what that says. I also wanted to mention that this is my 200th movie review on Letterboxd. My, how far we've come.
By Jamie Lammers2 years ago in Humans
The Nightmare Before Christmas Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review all the movies I watch. I saw this movie for the first time a couple of years ago on Halloween. At that time, I probably would have given it a solid 3.5 stars. The animation was fantastic and the design of the Oogie Boogie scenes was enough for me to say that it was worth watching, but I felt that the character arcs were incredibly underdeveloped. I felt that the chemistry between Jack and Sally was forced, I felt there wasn't enough backstory given, and I was ultimately disappointed by the way this movie told its story. Now, however, I see all of the small nuances of how they built each of those arcs up. I see how the filmmakers weaved in Sally's desperation to escape, which is so strong that she is willing to poison her captor/creator multiple times in order to do so. I see the way that Jack's enthusiasm for Christmas makes sense given how many times he's had to do the same exact thing for God knows how long, and I see all of the other little story elements that ultimately build to the final crescendo being set up so much better. They're subtle, but they are absolutely there, and I actually kind of love that about this movie now.
By Jamie Lammers2 years ago in Horror
Barry Lyndon Review
This review comes from my Letterboxd profile, where I review all of the movies I see. Look, I'm sorry, I went into this movie hoping to love it, I went into it excited to see a film that I never would have checked out had I not asked for people to suggest movies for me to see. Unfortunately, this movie bored the ever living daylights out of me in every single way. Now, this film isn't completely terrible. The cinematography is absolutely gorgeous, the lighting is great, the film is crafted really well in general, it catches its time period well, and the performances are overall really good. Everything else about this movie felt tedious beyond belief. There's a difference between slow-paced and straight-up slow. For me, this falls under the latter category.
By Jamie Lammers2 years ago in Humans
