Jack.Machiela Reviews

Dave Brubeck: In His Own Sweet Way (2010 TV Movie)

What a mess

[2/10 · 27 April 2021]

An hour and a half of vague recollections, with inexplicable commentary from those towering giants of jazz, Clint Eastwood, George Lucas, and Bill Cosby(!). One of the few musicians invited to speak - Sting - gets half a word in edgeways before being instructed and corrected by Eastwood on the wise ways of jazz. Did not make my day.

I don't think I've ever seen such a weird collection of stars in a totally inappropriate context before.

There's an endorsement of Bill Clinton's jazz background for being the only politician to know the bridge of one the most popular jazz compositions ever, Blue Rondo A La Turk, and the "documentary" just never lets up on weirdness.

If you want to know more about Brubeck, just read the sleeve notes of his copious albums. This one is a waste of your time, and mine.

A Quiet Place (2018)

Don't waste your time

[2/10 · 26 March 2018]

I don't know what the other reviewers watched, but this was film writing at its laziest. Five jump scares in the first five minutes. No tension. All characters do implausible things you'd never do in a million years. Stereotyped characters that behave exactly like you'd expect. Typecast main actor and actress, who fill their typecasts exactly as expect. Obvious setups for later use. And jump scare after jump scare. Once is ok, but 5 times in 5 minutes? How about some character development. Plot advancement. You know, story telling.

The shame of it is, this was quite a neat concept (which is why I rated it as 2 and not 1) - a silent world where any sudden noise brings the monsters out to kill. But they live in a forest. For over a year. Have the film makers never been in a forest? There's a lot of noise in a forest.

We walked out halfway through, the boredom of utter predictability was seriously too much. I've seen a lot of movies, but I think I've walked out on maybe three movies in my life.

When I posted this review, there were under 600 ratings for this movie, and a full 65% scored it a perfect 10 out of 10. Seriously, IMDB - if you want your ratings taken seriously, don't let the film makers vote on their own movie.