With the emergence of Electro, Spider-Man must confront a foe far more powerful than he. And as his old friend, Harry Osborn, returns, Peter Parker comes to realize that all of his enemies have one thing in common: OsCorp. From: IMDb.com

Directed by: Marc Webb

Starring: Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Jamie Foxx and others

Current release date:  May 2, 2014

"All Is Bright" is a pretty ironic title for this movie in which nothing is ever very 'bright'. It perhaps is one of the 'darkest' and most depressing Christmas movies out there, which normally isn't something I would complain about but I strongly believe that the movie was still trying to be an uplifting one as well and in that regard I just can't call this movie a very successful one.

I think I can see and understand what this movie was trying to do and achieve with its story and approach but it isn't ever really working out. It of course really isn't anything that weird or uncommon for a Christmas to feature some heavy and dramatic themes in it. They however usually feature these heavy and dramatic themes in them to create a contrast with its usually happy and uplifting ending, in which everything gets resolved and the characters often redeem themselves. Movies about the classic Christmas spirit and the magic of it. This movie however has far too many downs in it, even right till its very end and even when it's trying to feature some ups and become an uplifting movie, it still mostly feels like a dark and heavy, serious movie, despite all its hard efforts.

So basically all this movie is is one that features a bunch of dramatic moments and depressing characters in it, to say things simply. It just isn't the most interesting or engaging thing to watch and the movie is offering little else with its story. Every time you think that something is going to develop into something interesting and potentially heartwarming, the movie is going into a completely different direction again with things, or it just simply decides to drop certain plot lines.

The movie is also trying very hard to be a quirky one at times and feature some relieving comedy in it as well. But again, this isn't always working out, due to the dark and overall serious tone and atmosphere of the movie as a whole. It isn't a very well balanced movie unfortunately.

I'm still not hating too much on the movie though. Even though it fails at what it's trying to achieve as a movie, it still isn't a terrible or even remotely bad to watch one either. It still has plenty of quality to it and it's obvious to me that director Phil Morrison is a good storyteller, even though he made some poor- or at times simply no decisions with this particular movie its story. The movie still has a pleasant flow to it and despite the fact that not always an awful lot is happening in it, it absolutely never becomes a tiresome or overlong movie to watch.

Also nothing wrong with the acting in this. As you would expect, Paul Giamatti is great in his role as a frustrated and slightly depressed man, who is down on his luck. Paul Rudd is also quite good, though he's really just playing second fiddle in this. It's all about the Paul Giamatti character really, which I'm not complaining too much about though.

Not the type of movie to get you in the Christmas spirit but it's nevertheless watchable enough one, if you are into dramas.

6/10

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Everybody more or less assumed that this was going to be a good and interesting movie, considering its subject and the approach to it, myself included. However, the end result is far from anything great or interesting, shockingly enough!

This movie is going for a realistic and insightful approach, only problem is that this never feels like a realistic or insightful movie. It feels like a telling of events but without any emotions or heart behind any of it. It instead feels like a very shallow movie, that isn't telling anything new or ever dares to go deep into things.

It feels very random with all of the people that it's following. It doesn't have one main character in it, so to speak and therefor it feels that it's lacking focus as well. Besides, are all of these people really worth following? Surely there were some far more interesting people to follow, on that fateful day when Kennedy was assassinated.

This really truly is a movie that still could have worked out but it's Peter Landesman's directing that prevents this movie from ever turning into anything good or interesting to watch. I'm sorry to say but the directing is quite horrible at times! For instance the way the Kennedy assassination itself was shown in this movie....my goodness, it felt like I was watching a bad comedy skit. It's all very obvious that this was Peter Landesman's directorial debut and he just didn't know how to set up, tell and show certain things. I really believe that a more experienced director still would have been able to make something good out of this movie and who knows, maybe Peter Landesman will turn out to be a great director someday but with this movie he really doesn't impress much yet.

It also really doesn't matter or changes much about this movie that it stars some big name actors in it. Sure, they are all still great actors (well, most of them) but none of them ever gets anything interesting to do and their characters, that are of course all based on real life persons, remain some very shallow ones, since we basically learn nothing about their lives or personalities, by watching them in this movie.

This is a pretty pointless movie in my opinion, made to impress and to provide some new insightful information, by telling things from different perspectives. But it completely misses the mark, by being a very flat movie instead, that never feels realistic, emotional or interesting enough for you to invest yourself in this movie.

4/10

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In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. From: IMDb.com

In the antebellum United States, Solomon Northup, a free black man from upstate New York, is abducted and sold into slavery. From: IMDb.com

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A recounting of the chaotic events that occurred at Dallas' Parkland Hospital on the day U.S. President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. From: IMDb.com