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davelocke
Reviews
Eyeborgs (2009)
In sum, it's a better than average science fiction movie
A sleeper. I really liked it for how they handled the SF elements, developing a reasonable What If scenario which they spin off from the surveillance aspect of our governmental enthusiasms for security theater.
Even without that, the characterizations and action sequences would be enough to place this movie much higher than what you'd normally find by frittering away the same amount of time on, say, a SyFy channel original movie.
I doubt there were many $$$ involved in this. For one thing, the only actor I recognized was Danny Trejo in a very brief role. It's good to see a SF movie which starts with a decent story and is handled with enough care to show that the makers don't think they're looking down on the audience.
A Serious Man (2009)
Dark humor. Lovely, lovely dark humor.
I just finished watching the Coen brothers' relatively new A SERIOUS MAN movie. One of the best movies I've seen in a while. One of the Coen's best movies.
It's a Jewish comedy. It starts off in an understated manner and, while everything about it is quietly underplayed, it keeps getting funnier and funnier. Not, at first, laugh-out-loud funny, but it keeps building toward that. Just as I got to the point where I was totally happy with that it reached out and grabbed me and I was freaking howling with laughter for ... what ... maybe the last half-hour of it.
Dark humor. Lovely, lovely dark humor.
It's a jewel. Don't miss it...
The Last Hit Man (2008)
Nicely paced, understated, and well-performed by everyone involved.
While there's enough action to sustain the drama, this is not a shoot-em-up production. A father, the hit-man, has brought his daughter into the business. He must then cope with failing health, and the dangers presented by a failed hit, by bringing in a partner.
Not at all what anyone might expect in a hit-man movie made with today's thud and blunder styling. This is actually about the interactions of people, and is done with a lot of care. Excellent low-key drama with top-caliber acting and touches of black comedy.
Loved it. I definitely have to check out all else that this writer/director has done.
The Man from Earth (2007)
Intellectual gourmet popcorn
Have watched science fiction movies since the mid-50s, and I've never encountered a *better* one than The Man From Earth. It's extremely faithful to the nature of Jerome Bixby's story, and turns a talking-head movie into the SF equivalent of My Dinner With Andre. Astonishingly, it appears to have been made on somebody's pocket change. With the decent cast and screenplay, it shows that SF as idea and concept can be mesmerizing. As opposed to what we usually get when a well thought-through SF story is translated to the screen: an 'A' budget thrown at what is rendered as a grade 'Z' story. I can't recommend this movie enough to a true fan of science fiction, especially one who laments that SF in the cinema rarely holds a candle to written SF.
Meltdown (2004)
A real sleeper
Greenwood is a good actor with excellent screen presence, and this role gives him a chance to shine. Although the movie has some crudities and unlikely minor plot devices it also has numerous strengths, best of which is displaying the government being capable of saying and doing most anything not just in a crisis but as a way of life. A 2004 movie based on what's happened since 9/11, the numerous government responses and actions and general thinking-out-loud deliberations are all too believable. This is not just background to a story of terrorists taking over a nuclear power plant, but actually becomes the story. Recommended, but this is definitely not a feel-good action movie. It takes you places you really don't want to go, but it leaves you with a lot to think about.
Final Notice (1989)
Only amusing if you're familiar with Cincinnati
Local author Jonathan Valin, who lives over in the Clifton section of Cincinnati, from 1980 to 1995 wrote eleven novels featuring Harry Stoner, private investigator in Cincinnati, Ohio. He won the Shamus Award for best mystery novel of 1989. His second novel, published in 1980, was FINAL NOTICE, and it was made into this movie in 1989.
The novel made rich use of local color, with particular attention to Eden Park where significant elements of the story took place. Lots of movies, before and after this one, have been filmed partially or totally in Cincinnati. This movie was filmed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Now, Toronto is a beautiful place but it isn't Cincinnati. Had they changed Harry Stoner to a Toronto detective, instead of attempting to pass off Toronto as being Cincinnati, then anyone who did have a familiarity with this city wouldn't have been eye-stumbling and the movie wouldn't have been nearly as amusing to partially offset the fact that it was a pretty lame B-movie.
In the first scene to supposedly take place in Eden Park, which has no hedges, we're greeted with ubiquitous giant hedges so large I flashed on the topiary scene in THE SHINING.
The thing which got to me, though, was the Romulus and Remus statue. In Eden Park it's a little thing, not even chest high, dedicated to Cincinnati by a sister city in Italy, and unfortunately now marred by vandals. In Toronto, apparently, they too have a Romulus and Remus statue in one of their parks, but seeing it for the first time in this movie brought back memories of Fay Wray's character first laying eyes on King Kong. At that point I cracked up and had to stop the videotape while I cleaned coffee spew off the television screen.
Terminal Invasion (2002)
A good bad movie
Bruce Campbell and Chase Masterson provide the watchable talent, and some occasionally witty lines which at least feel like they were ad-libbed into some otherwise very poor script dialog. The production values are actually quite good for something which apparently was made on somebody's pocket change. There's certainly nothing new here, but it's all pleasant and amusing enough (though often unintentionally). Recommended only if you're already a fan of the sub-genre and the two lead actors.
Law & Order: Criminal Intent (2001)
One of the very best dramas on television right now
L&O splits the focus between the detectives and the prosecutors, L&O:SVU keeps the focus on the detectives, and L&O:CI shares the detectives with a bit of attention to following the criminals and the victims.
L&O:CI is one of the very best dramas on television right now. Everybody pulls their weight, but Vincent D'Onofrio carries it the extra distance from very good to excellent which, by the way, is about how much the scripts vary.
L&O is stumbling this year, in overly predictable storylines and in Jack turning into a parody of himself and in the annoying new Assistant District Attorney (ADA) poorly portrayed by Elisabeth Rohm. L&O:SVU has always been at the bottom of my acceptable list, but it's enjoyable enough, usually, despite the almost inevitable deus ex machina ending.
L&O:CI presents a worthy supporting cast with Kathryn Erbe as D'Onofrio's partner, Jamey Sheridan as the Captain, and Courtney B. Vance as the ADA. Sheridan, who has always had screen presence to spare, still needs to have his character developed as much as they've rapidly done that for Erbe's and Vance's characters since the premiere which didn't give them their share of screen time. (The premiere, by the way, was merely intriguing and promising, and having seen only that goes far toward explaining some unfavorable premature reviews).
There's a mystery to D'Onofrio's character. What is his background? Not the average detective's, certainly. He has some of Sherlock Holmes' DNA, a connection with the counterculture, and a depth of knowledge in psychology and the arts. New bits and pieces of background fall out from time to time, slowly aimed at adding up toward explaining the most interesting detective on TV today.
L&O:CI and CSI are the two Top Caliber crime dramas on network TV so far this season. I highly recommend the both of them.
Star Wars (1977)
It's good to know that science fiction in the cinema has caught up to where Edmond Hamilton was at in 1939.
I really have nothing but contempt for the Star Wars franchise. They threw an "A" budget at "F" material and created a juvenile hit which lowered the bar for science fiction in the cinema, aborting the prior ("2001") trend upward in story qualities and thus depriving us of who knows how many *good* science fiction movies. These days they reach back for sf classics like Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters" or "Starship Troopers", and trash them to the point where little more than the title remains.
This is not generally a movie for the fan of adult level written science fiction. You'll need to look elsewhere for a movie which is.
A Slight Case of Murder (1999)
Prepare to shelve your critical faculties and emit a loud, bipartisan "wheeeeee!".
Co-scripted by William H. Macy from, arguably, Donald E. Westlake's best and hardest to find novel, "A Travesty". *Very* faithful to the story, the movie stars Macy as a hapless man who gets in way too far over his head after attempting to cover up an accidental death. Costars Adam Arkin and James Cromwell in good supporting roles. The strength of the movie is in the intricate twist-after-twist storyline and in the acting, particularly by Macy who routinely and delightfully breaks through the 4th wall here and gets away with it every time. A good storyline with much dark humor, this one engaged me enough that I've watched it three times in the week since it came out. Prepare to shelve your critical faculties and emit a loud, bipartisan "wheeeeee!".
Army of Darkness (1992)
Wild, silly, laugh out loud funny
The first two "Evil Dead" movies contained far too much gore and were basically Dead Teenager horror movies with a bit more stylistic verve to them. The third, "Army of Darkness", was a magnificent departure into fantasy and humor. S-Mart employee (Bruce Campbell) gets sent back through time to Merlinesque days while wearing a chainsaw prosthetic on his severed hand and packing a shotgun, and does battle against a monster, a zillion little Lilipution versions of himself, an evil twin, and an army of skeletons. Many esotericisms, including one from "The Day The Earth Stood Still" which gets him in deep trouble. Wild, silly, laugh out loud funny, and the best thing I've ever seen Bruce Campbell do, and I've enjoyed him as a character actor ever since he was in "Crimewave" in 1985 (written by the Coen Brothers and directed by Sam Raimi).