monticellomeadow Reviews

Bullitt (1968)

Time Has Not Been Kind

[5/10 · 7 December 2016]

I hadn't seen Bullitt in at least 30 years. Looked forward to viewing it again. But I ended up mostly disappointed. Take away the famous car chase - and while ground-breaking in its scope and drama, it had since been surpassed many times - and there's not a lot here. McQueen is okay, but it's not one of his better roles. He's caught in that awkward 60's transition of the cop drama. Too late for straight procedural or even film noir stuff, but too early for the anti-heroes like Eastwood's Dirty Harry. McQueen wears paisley pajamas, for crying out loud! And, dead giveaway, a lot of the men wear hats. Jacqueline Bisset sort of wanders through the movie, to no purpose, complaining about the dead bodies and awful scenes McQueen lived with. Dear, he's a cop! Supposedly McQueen wanted Peter Yates to direct this. Not a good choice. Yates was fairly inexperienced at this type of movie, and it shows. Absent the car chase, this moves very slowly. It could have been a lot better, but it's reflective of its time.

Bloodline (2015–2017)

Nothing Ever Happens

[4/10 · 12 July 2016]

What a disappointing effort! Production values are very good, the acting is above average. But the writing? Ugh! The entire two seasons - can't believe they are considering a third - move at a glacial pace. Nothing ever happens. Full of hints and innuendos, there is never a payoff. But you can see what's happening from a mile away. And even then the writers don't deliver. They just string you along, never concluding anything. They just write to induce you to watch more and more. The 23 episodes of the two seasons could have been told in about half a dozen. And, personally, I need to have at least one character in shows that I have some sympathy/empathy to identify with. This show has ZERO that fit the bill. The whole Rayburn clan are portrayed as the biggest bunch of losers in the history of South Florida. You just don't care about any of them or what happens to them. And, if you haven't gotten beyond season one, be forewarned that season two is even slower and more boring. Should there be a third season, I'll definitely take a pass.

Columbo: Murder by the Book (1971) Season 1, Episode 1

Not the best writing

[5/10 · 13 June 2016]

One of the rare misses in a Columbo episode. Fortunately this early weak one did not derail the many fine episodes to come. Jack Cassidy is a wonderfully smarmy villain. Peter Falk is great. But the writing, especially at the end? Not so much. Columbo says he initially suspected Cassidy's character when he chose to drive from San Diego to L.A. rather than fly. Really? That set him off? Flimsy, and Cassidy explains it. And then the conclusion - wow! A man who has murdered TWO people gives up and confesses on the weakest bit of evidence imaginable. Just poor writing, no matter the interesting byplay between Falk and Cassidy.

The Man in the High Castle (2015–2019)

A Frustrating Movie

[3/10 · 2 December 2015]

First, up front, if you haven't seen all 10 episodes and you don't want to know plot points or the outcome, stop here, because there are spoilers.

What a missed opportunity for a great series! It came out as an incomprehensible mish- mash. The plot made zero sense, mostly from beginning to end. The acting was no better than adequate, frequently worse by the leads. Where did they find these people? As I understand the plot of the book this was based on - I admit that I have not read it - it had a central character/conceit that involved a book-within-a-book that helped establish another "reality,". That would have been helpful. Instead, we only see glimpses of the title of that second book - The Grasshopper Lies Heavy - on mysterious files and films in the movie. They are never explained! Plot lines start down a road and are then choked off, never to be revisited again! The Bounty Hunter, aka The Marshall, chases Joe and Juliana around Canon City for two episodes, kills a couple of people, brutally, then completely vanishes from the story. Huh? What was that about? (And Joe, what kind of training did you receive? When you knock the bad guy down, take his gun and shoot him!). Then we have the weird plot line about the fatal illness that Obergruppenfuher Smith's son has contracted. We learn, inferentially, that the Nazis will require he be euthanized. But that's it. Nothing more. The boy's mother isn't told, the mercy drug is never injected. It just peters out to nothing. What about the so-called resistance? Talk about ineffectual? They seem to do nothing except botch acquiring the mysterious films. Certainly laughable idiots to the German and Japanese occupiers. At one point the Trade Minister says he will send Juliana into the Neutral Zone to help the army find uranium sites because she had studied geography! OK. Then that's the last we ever hear of her doing that. Why was it even brought up? On-and-on with this poor writing. You never acquire any sympathy for our three lead characters. They have zero chemistry among them. You don't care what happens to them. At least the thugs were interesting!

I've only touched on some of the maddening inconsistencies and plot lapses. They just never stopped. I can't remember being more enthused about a TV show and then more disappointed.

Wayward Pines (2015–2016)

Not a Good Show

[2/10 · 13 June 2015]

Johnny Carson used to have a saying about his jokes - or any jokes: "If you buy the premise, you buy the bit." Well, the same could be said of Wayward Pines. Unfortunately, it took me four-and-a-half episodes before I realized I couldn't buy the premise. Or, more importantly, I didn't care! Typical of so much of television writing these days, there is a lot of tease in Wayward Pines, interspersed with very long, boring stretches, and then very little or no payoff. I see from other reviews and comments that the cat-is-out-of-the-bag. But I won't reveal what happens. Only to say that you will have a thousand questions at the end. How could this have happened? What about X doing that? I don't understand how... Really not that well acted a show. Poorly written. Not entertaining in my view. I had my doubts going in (the book wasn't all that good, either). I'm sorry I wasted four hours on it.

Person of Interest: If-Then-Else (2015) Season 4, Episode 11

This Show Gets Worse Each Week

[2/10 · 7 January 2015]

A once good series has gone rapidly downhill. Finch and Reese have been marginalized. The women have taken over. But they killed off the strongest woman character in Carter. Shaw and Root are just caricatures that aren't very appealing. But it is really the writing that has gone into the tank. I suppose the writers felt they had run the "take a number" bit into the ground. And they milked HR for all they could. But who thought Samaritan was a good idea? It's terrible! Suddenly the premise of the show from its inception - that though small in numbers, our merry band had the huge advantage of The Machine - has been inverted. Now Our Gang is running for its lives, barely surviving, hardly doing good at all. At best just pinging away at Samaritan with slingshots. Ugh!

And last night's episode was among the worse. After the first 10 minutes who didn't see that there would be several unsuccessful "simulations" before Our Gang would wriggle out of the jam? Just filling up the hour with the obvious before leaving us with the false thought that Shaw is dead. (She isn't. "Next week" immediately showed she's still alive.). Again, the writers have inverted the original premise. Survival is all that our heroes can hope for. It's really in decline, rapidly.

Person of Interest: Deus Ex Machina (2014) Season 3, Episode 23

A Very Weak Finale

[3/10 · 14 May 2014]

I have always liked this show, from its inception. What drew me to it were the characters of Finch and Reese. For, I guess, ratings, over the past two years they have introduced two female characters, Root and Shaw. Fine. I could live with that. But now they completely dominate the show! And never more than the season finale. Finch is a lost little boy now, his machine gone into the ether and no longer speaking to him. But it DOES speak to Root! What???? Reese is only brought in when they need someone shot. Root seems to be the star of the show. She is the only one the machine speaks to, and she, alone, orchestrates the actions and fates of the other characters. Finch and Reese are minor characters, depending on the "strong" women, Root and Shaw. Ugh! Poor Fusco is a tiny sideshow now. They ran him into the show for a cameo a couple of times in the finale, but that's it. He has no role anymore. Just terrible writing in my view. And then, to top it off, Evil Triumphs in the finale. Not the way it should be. We were led down a garden path with Root - and Shaw - doing some elaborate work seemingly to destroy Samaritan. Nope! Turns out all of the elaborate work will not put a virus in Samaritan that will end it. It will only do the tiny job of making the fugitives (Finch, Reese, et. al. with new names and identities)safe from the prying eyes of Samaritan. And then we end the season with the preposterous Big Brother-like scenes of the now-totalitarian police, empowered by some dense but all-powerful Senator and a throughly corrupt Washington, running around shooting people who Samaritan tells then should/must be shot. Pleeeeezzze!!!!!!! Completely unbelievable. I enjoyed the first two-and-a-half seasons of POI immensely. But about half way through this last season, the train began to wobble on the tracks. I was assured, here and elsewhere, "give it a chance." I did. And now, with this awful finale, it has completely jumped the tracks. It will be back in the Fall. I don't think I will.

The Following (2013–2015)

The Show Has Gone From "Huh?" To Awful

[1/10 · 13 March 2013]

When I first saw the plugs for The Following back in the Fall I thought it held some promise. So my wife and I watched. And watched. And watched. And, wow, is it awful. Monday night we turned to each other halfway through the latest snoozer and agreed we were saying "No More!" to The Following.

Here's what's wrong with the show: NOTHING ever happens! The writing is so bad that each week the FBI in particular and authority in general is made to look like a bunch of drooling idiots. Anyone with a pulse can see what's happening or about to happen. But not the FBI! Please, come on. It strains credulity beyond the breaking point every single week. Johnny Carson used to have a line about his jokes - You buy the premise, you buy the bit. Well, after a few episodes of The Following, you simply can't buy the premise. A convicted serial killer (14 victims?) is allowed to have such contact while in prison that he recruits and launches "the following?" His conversations aren't monitored/recorded? Somewhere there are people at the Bureau of Prisons falling on the floor laughing. And then this execrable villain escapes not once, but TWICE from a federal prison facility? How can you possibly buy this premise? And every week there is absolutely zero payoff for viewers - unless you're a fan of serial killers. The awful writers of this show, typical of what passes for "talent" in Hollywood these days, throw the viewers a small bone each week by killing off one or two of the ancillary, newly-introduced bad guys. But they are truly characters we don't know or care about. The "real" villains prevail, seemingly multiply, and prosper. And each week the authorities are made to look Dumb and Dumber. This past week, the final straw for me, a new "supervisor" from the FBI was introduced. He did such dumb things you wanted to scream, "Haven't you been watching the previous 6 episodes!!!!!" Kevin Bacon wanders around with a "My career has come to this?" look. The show is boring, poorly written and unbelievably bad. Stay away.

Code of the Saddle (1947)

They Ran Out Of Time?

[6/10 · 21 January 2012]

This is an enjoyable, predictable western. But, as always, the fact that they filmed it outdoors, on an actual "ranch" (Melody Ranch) adds to its enjoyment. "Thundering hooves" are what drew me to westerns as a boy - and still does. There are plenty of horses running hard in this one.

Monogram was cranking out these westerns by the handful and it seems as if the film reached its time limit. It ends very abruptly. Bam! While we could all surmise that the two "orphan" ranch kids, their fathers having been killed by the villains, would get together at the end, the Bill Stacey and Bess Bentham characters are nowhere to be found at the quick conclusion. Johnny Mack Brown corrals the evil sheriff, wounded, and says, "You'll live to be hanged." The End!

A couple of observations: The quality of the DVD (Netflix) was awful. Bad sound, mediocre picture. It's good that there is a saving of these legacy westerns from the '30s and '40s. Too bad there isn't money to preserve them properly.

Ray Hatton was 59 when this movie was made. A great character actor, he looks like he's 79!

V (2009–2011)

One Of The Worst Shows Ever

[1/10 · 18 March 2011]

ABC has done it again, similar to the way they led you on with Flash Forward last year. They have a show that truly only lends itself to a single season - V really only had a single season's worth of episodes over two years - and then they completely pull their punches, in hopes that if there is another season, they can lure the gullible into watching the next season. If V comes back, I will NOT be among the gullible.

Let's see, how to sum up the fiasco of a final episode? How about ANNA WINS! Viewers lose. After developing characters and some fairly insipid plot lines over two seasons, they blew it all up on Tuesday night. They kill off Diana, Ryan Nichols and Tyler. They marginalize Lisa, Chad Decker, Kyle Hobbes and Father Landry. In Hobbes case they simply walk him out of the show! What happened to Bret Harrison, the "science guy?" Just gone. No explanation. What happened to the world-wide Fifth Column that Erica supposedly inherited? Gone. No explanation. And then, the height of ludicrousness, at the 11th Hour they introduce the "real" Fifth Column, the "Aries" organization, which makes it seem that Erica and all her two-season Fifth Column efforts were simply "amateur hour!" Apparently the ABC writers and producers think we'll fall for anything. What an absolute mess. If you watch this show in another season, you deserve to be bred with The Visitors!

The Man Who Never Was (1956)

New Information Available

[8/10 · 13 September 2010]

There is a book out this year (2010) by Ben Macintyre that sheds new light on Operation Mincemeat, based on some declassified documents. The movie does a good job of portraying the story for the screen. Macintyre reveals that the "body" that was dumped in the sea was a young impoverished Welsh coal minor who, either as suicide or out of hunger, ate some rat poison spread on bread in a London tenement as a vermin trap. When the body was recovered by the Spanish fisherman, the "papers" were almost given back to the British. They had to fabricate radio traffic on "compromised" lines to draw the attention of the Germans to the documents. "Oh, yoo-hoo! Look over here!" Lastly, the "papers" had the good fortune to fall into the hands of a Colonel in German intelligence who was a member of the German Resistance. He doubted their authenticity, but sold the Nazi hierarchy on their genuineness. He was hung by the SS in July of 1944 after the failed plot against Hitler.

Just some interesting historical amplification for a fine 50-year old movie.

Madigan (1968)

Not a Good Movie

[2/10 · 21 February 2010]

I saw Madigan when it came out, some 40 years ago. Revisited it again recently on DVD. Wow, what a disappointment! As others have pointed out, above, they just didn't know what they wanted to do with the film. The story is absolutely atrocious, full of loopholes and lack of exposition. The notes on the DVD said that Henry Fonda's Commissioner character was supposed to be the lead - and why he took the part. Then they changed it to Widmark's Madigan character. They had to force the two to have some relationship to make any sense of the story, but it was thin, very thin. A quick note about the music. It was, indeed, awful and inappropriate. But at least it was jarring enough that it woke you up during the numerous dull parts! What you can see here is the struggle to make the transition from the heroic cop/detectives of the previous decades (though clearly not the film noir types)to what became Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry. This "struggle" in Madigan was painful to watch. It was never clear why Madigan was considered such a rogue. (Can you say that about Harry Callahan? NO!) Just an offhand remark that he had an incident or two in the past, quickly countered by James Whitmore's character saying "He's a good cop." And the opening scene where Inhat's (SP?) character gets the best of Widmark and Guardino made absolutely no sense. Why was the villain so bad? Why all the scorn for Widmark and Guardino when they were just "doing Brooklyn a favor" by picking up this guy? And never explained why the villain was so heinous other than that he shot some guy. They had to have him shoot two cops later to make you think, "Ooooooooooooh, he is very bad." Come on! And inserting all of the women into each of the character's lives, then giving them the most shallow of development and no explanation of, say, Sheree North's character, inserted into one scene so you know Madigan once had a mistress but now "loves his wife." On and on. Absolutely terrible writing. A high school level. Fonda (59) and Widmark (54) were too old for their roles. But again, it was a transition time in Hollywood. Still trying to use the older stars until the next generation - and a very different style of detective films - came along. Ugh!

Das Boot (1981)

Short Version Is Better

[7/10 · 10 November 2008]

I agree with the recent comment that the short version is better. I saw the movie in its theatrical release 27 years ago and enjoyed it immensely - if that can be said about a claustrophobic, depressing submarine movie! I recently rented the DVD director's cut version. It is an hour longer than the theatrical release, coming in at three and a half hours. Too long! The shorter version - itself two and a half hours long - does a superb job in creating that claustrophobic, hopeless atmosphere that infuses the movie. The longer director's cut just makes you want to shout, "Stop, stop! I get it!" Actually became a bit boring. If you have an option, go with the shorter theatrical release version.

Also, whichever version you watch, do not turn on the English subtitles. They are simply awful! At the start, I had the English-language dubbing AND the English subtitles turned on. I quickly noticed that whoever did the subtitles did a terrible job. They were in a late-20th century vernacular that made no sense for a WW II movie. What you were hearing the actors say and what was in the printed subtitle were substantially different "interpretations" of the German. Terrible! I turned the subtitles off and enjoyed the rest of the movie in the English dubbing, only.

The Battle of Midway (1942)

Courageous filming of part of a key battle of WW II

[8/10 · 14 August 2008]

This is a great, short (less than 20 minutes)film of one part of the key battle of the war in the Pacific. Keep it mind, the Battle of Midway was fought in early June, 1942. The darkest days of the Pacific War for America. Pearl Harbor, the Phillipines, Bataan, Corregidor, Wake Island; all American defeats. It is, indeed, a "propaganda" film. Or, at least it was turned into one after John Ford shot it. But the film of the combat itself is no propaganda piece. It took a lot of courage for Ford to stick his cameras out and film while hundreds of Japanese planes struck the island. Many Marines died in the bombing. Ford could easily have been killed. Of necessity, Ford could only film the land portion of the battle, which was an attempt by Japanese naval forces to reduce the island's defenses and then conduct a landing, possibly eventually putting Hawaii in jeopardy with a new, forward Japanese base on Midway. The major part of the battle was a naval battle between carrier forces. An "incredible victory" in the title of the Walter Lord book. Four Japanese aircraft carriers, miles from the filming on Midway itself, were sunk. It was the begging of the end of Japan. The stiff resistance put up by the Marines on Midway, captured by Ford, forced decisions by the Japanese High Command that ultimately led to the sinking of their carriers. Historically interesting film.

Whispering Smith (1948)

What's Not To Like?

[8/10 · 17 July 2008]

This is a very fine western. Great Technicolor, decent acting and a nice plot. As a fan of the western genre, I appreciate the snappy way the story moves along. Modern westerns (and most films, in fact) drag the exposition out. Here, for example, when Robert Preston's character meets up with his old friend Ladd and mentions Preston's wife's name, the look on Ladd's face instantly tells you "oh-oh, there's a history here." Very quick, but well done and you know what's coming.

This is a "railroad western." It's nice to see a western that emphasizes the importance and power of the the railroads in the settlement of the west.

The Scarlet Clue (1945)

Not One of the Better Chan Efforts

[4/10 · 11 October 2007]

The Scarlet Clue could have been so much better had the writers written a tighter plot. First, in 1945 why be so indirect as to who the bad guys worked for? They were, obviously, German agents. Yet all we had to go on were some references to name changes of the spies from German to English. And one of the plotters seemed absolutely clueless as to who he was working for and what was going on. The ending lacked punch - why did we see one of the agents fall to his death in the trick elevator, but not the Dark Mistress who was behind it all, at the conclusion? Audiences always want to see the "Most Evil One" get his/hers, even in 1945! Not just, "Oh, yes, she's the one. Here's her body. She fell down the elevator shaft." And the "cigarette + gas" thing had me going "huh?" Now Foster and Moreland were excellent, reprising their vaudeville routine. And Sidney Toler did a decent Chan. But overall this plot and writing left much to be desired, even for a Charlie Chan picture.

The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

A Real Stinker of a Movie

[2/10 · 25 June 2007]

My wife and I saw this movie in a theater on its 2004 release. I can only surmise that we slept through it, because renting the DVD this week for a second viewing was a HUGE mistake! What an awful movie! First, as commented upon elsewhere here, director Greengrass must have had a nerve problem because the camera is whipped around so fast for any scene where the characters are actually moving as to make it almost unintelligible as to what is occurring. What was he thinking? This is NOT the way to film a motion picture. The characters and the cars, etc. are supposed to do the moving, not the camera! Second, the writing was pitiful. Did Matt Damon ever utter more than three sentences at a time? There was a plot in there somewhere, but the writing was so poor that nothing any of the characters said did much to advance that "plot." An hour into the story you were still wondering "what is going on here?" And soon that changed to, "I really don't care what is going on here." Pick up the pace guys, this is supposed to be an action/thriller movie, not a sleepwalk! Third, the cinematography was extremely underlit for every indoor scene. This is NOT a film noir, yet it was lit as if it were one. No matter how I massaged my TV and DVD video controls, the indoor scenes seemed as if they were shot in a coal mine. You combine that with the camera whipping around and you wonder how Paul Greengrass ever escaped television directing, let alone do something as acclaimed as United 93.

This is one of the most disappointing "big name" movies I can recall. Avoid it like the plague!