The Couch Critic
The Couch Critic is your laid-back guide to movies and TV shows that deserve your attention—or maybe don’t. Nathan dives deep into storytelling, character development, and cinematic style with a sharp eye and a wry sense of humor. Whether it’s a blockbuster hit, a hidden gem, or a cult classic, Nathan’s relatable approach ensures every episode feels like a cozy chat with a friend who just happens to love film. Perfect for casual watchers and cinephiles alike, The Couch Critic brings thoughtful critique without the fluff. Grab your favorite snack, settle in, and let Nathan guide you through the world of screen entertainment.
The Couch Critic
Surprise Saturday: Kraven the Hunter - A Predator's Tale
Is it possible for a film to have a stellar cast yet still miss the mark? Join us as we critically examine "Kraven the Hunter," a cinematic endeavor that attempts to unravel the complex dynamics of vengeance and family. Russell Crowe's performance might evoke nostalgia, but does it redeem the film's shortcomings? From inconsistent accents to a plot that seems to wander, we candidly discuss why this movie failed to meet even our modest expectations, while questioning Crowe's choice to be part of this muddled Spider-Man villain spin-off universe.
As we transition to "Kraven," another attempt to captivate audiences with edgy ultra-violence, we can't help but compare its lackluster execution to the charismatic success of "Deadpool." Despite its efforts, the film falls short with a script and CGI that leave much to be desired, garnering a mere two out of six stars from us. With the end of the year in sight, we're setting our sights on a review of "The Shawshank Redemption," the illustrious top-rated film on IMDb. Skepticism in hand, we're eager to see if it lives up to the hype. Don’t miss our upcoming episode of "Natey & Katy: At the Movies" as we wrap up the year with our honest reflections on these cinematic ventures.
Surprise Saturday with you Time parade One stop Flip today. One move and we stay Burn. I stared death in the face and for the first time, I saw my true self, my son. They are prey. We are predators. Why do you hunt? My father puts evil into the world. I take it out, just the children of the night. Power is about strength. Tell me about this hunter. Once you're on his list, there's only one way out who's next Embrace who? You really are, son, and you will become the Weds. You are exactly like our father, just another man hunting for a trophy. There is an animal in each one of us. Don't you want to know why they call me the right?
Speaker 1:So, media, you know that we're taking the show in another direction. A few more announcements are about to come up about how we're going to do that, but one that's already been announced is that Saturdays will henceforth be known as Cinema Saturday, starting next season, and just a couple of weeks ago we announced that Katie will be joining me on our Saturday episodes. So we're going to do what we've done before Katie and I will both go see a movie and then we'll come back and we'll review it, just like the good old days Not really the good old days, because we've been doing that this whole season too but I'm really excited about starting that back up with katie in the new season. So let's just get right into the movie I'm going to be talking about today, and that is craven the hunter. But before I can go into my likes and dislikes, I gotta go over the synopsis. Craven's complex relationship with his ruthless father, nikolai kraov, starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences motivating him to become not only the greatest Heinekeniger and Alessandro Nivola. So this is probably the last Sony Spider-Man-less Spider-Man villain movie. It was just recently announced that Sonyy is gonna stop making these movies because they realized that they're not that good.
Speaker 1:And I went into this movie with very low expectations. I wasn't expecting much and I was not disappointed. I mean, I was, but I wasn't disappointed because my fears were realized. This movie isn't good. I will say it's better than Madam Web, but that's not saying much, because Madam Web was to replay and I believe I reviewed that movie. So you can go back, search Madam Web, and it should be there for your listening pleasure or displeasure, because that movie was terrible too.
Speaker 1:See, I'm not a comic book person, and so, right there, you might just shut off my opinion automatically because you might think well, if you don't read the comics, then why are you so critical about the movie? Well, because I'm looking at it as a movie and not necessarily is it true to the comic book lore. I really don't care about that. I care about the fact that the acting in this is just not good. The script I think it all comes down to script, because Madam Web had some pretty decent people in it, like acting wise, but the acting was terrible and I think it all comes down to the script. Is the script bad? And and in this movie, yes, the script is bad, and so it's hard to deliver lines that are written bad in a good way, and so that's what this whole movie was.
Speaker 1:I will say I'm very surprised that when I listed the movies, when I listed the actors in this movie, russell Crowe is not one of the top billing actors. Russell Crowe is in this and I'm like why are you in this, russell Crowe? You're so much better than this. But he's in it and I actually enjoyed his performance. It kind of reminds me of Gladiator 2 when I reviewed that movie. Now, gladiator 2 isn't as bad as Kraven the Hunter. But Denzel Washington carried that movie. Russell Crowe carries this movie. I think his performance he's taking it seriously and he's enjoying it and he just comes off as a professional actor and his line delivery was really, really good. And I remember when I watched the trailer of this movie. I do know that Craven usually has an accent, like a Russian accent or something, and Russell Crowe's character does Craven's father, but both Craven and his brother, dimitri, do not have accents and it threw me off and it reminded me of the Morbius movie, cause everything I remember about Morbius is that he also had an accent as well, and so it kind of threw me off and it still did and I didn't like it because he could speak Russian and he speaks Russian with a Russian accent, but he's American, I don't know.
Speaker 1:And this movie tried to hint at different characters. It has Rhino in it. People were showing pictures of Rhino and how bad he looked. He didn't look as bad in the movie as he did in the pictures, not saying he looked great, but there were other things in the movie that were terrible CGI, like the animals. Again, going back to Gladiator 2, the CGI in that movie just took me out of the film. Now, in a comic book movie it takes more than just bad CGI to take me out of the movie because it's a comic book movie, so I'm not expecting it to be realistic and things like that. But yeah, the animals looked pretty bad the lions, the bisons, they, the. The cgi was just terrible and basing it off of that. Then rhino shows up and I didn't think he looked that bad, I I again, it's a comic book movie, I'm not expecting it to look chef's kiss and so I wasn't disappointed when it came to that.
Speaker 1:But movie as a whole, just the acting was just like I said, all over the place. The plot was all over the place. You know, one second they're introducing craven and then they go to ghana and introduce this random female character and then she's connected with craven. It was just the pacing was weird, the editing was weird. You know, there's, there's always those scenes where like it's like a two-second scene, like something happens, something happens and then it goes to a completely different location, completely different part of the story and you're just like why was that two second thing in there? Just it. And and that's how all these marvel, sony, marvel movies have been just random, the pacing and, like I said, this movie was better than madam webb and I just think all the sony marvel movies have been terrible, except the into the spider-verse movies.
Speaker 1:Those movies were good and I really hope we get third part, because they could do so much amazing things with that and they could actually redeem themselves. I think that's the biggest thing Is that they try to do these movies Without Spider-Man and nobody cared and nobody it seemed like nobody In the production side of things and the writing side of things Cared. They were just doing it to make money and they did make money. So yeah, kraven, it's not good. They were just doing it to make money and they did make money. So, yeah, craven, it's not good.
Speaker 1:Because I also think they tried to lean on the fact that it was just ultra violent and they thought, hey, if we make this a really hard R movie, just like Deadpool, then people will like it and you could tell that's what they were going for when they, when they have those scenes of him fighting people and their reactions in the audience, like people were like oh wow, oh ah, people clapping and stuff. So I mean it did its job, I guess, in that point. But I think that's what they were going for. They were going for the fact that everyone loved deadpool and deadpool's crazy violent. So hey, let's put a crazy, violent craven movie out there and people will watch it and ignore the fact that the script is terrible and the cgi is poop. They'll ignore all that. So that's why I'm giving craven a two out of six stars, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but the last movie review of 2024 is coming up, folks.
Speaker 1:This tuesday, katie and I are taking on the number one movie, according to imdb, out of 250. It's been a long journey. Obviously, we didn't watch all 250, because that would have been insane. But we are taking on Shawshank Redemption, which I already have a feeling is not that good of a movie and if you like it, I'm sorry but I just have a feeling. Compared to all the other movies we've watched and all the other movies I've given, given sixes to, I really am doubting that I'm going to give Shawshank Redemption a six out of six. But we'll see. I could be, I could be wrong. I could be wrong. So that is this Tuesday on Nadine Katie at the movies, the last movie review of 2024. Check it out. Outro Music.
