Change Your Image
yakimuckus
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Louis L'Amour's Down the Long Hills (1986)
Not great, but family entertainment
This film isn't the best. The whole time the kids' pursuers are "right behind them" but they keep walking and trotting along. But it's family-friendly and decent fun. It celebrates resourcefulness, friendship and family. And it stars Jack Elam and Bart the Bear, so you can't really go wrong.
Black Mirror (2011)
Too much sex
Black Mirror is a fairly interesting show, I'll give it that. I made it through two seasons, and I'd probably continue watching if it weren't for the sex. I know there are a lot of people who like sex in their media. There are more that don't specifically like it, but don't mind it either. Personally, I find it offensive and distracting, whether it's gratuitous or whether it's important for the plot (I'd rather watch a plot for which sex wasn't important). Given, it isn't graphic and the show's not saturated with it, but it's in just about every episode, which for me pinpoints it as a series theme and a central interest for the writer.
Most will probably disagree with me. That's okay. I'm mainly just warning people who have tastes more like mine.
Anne (2017)
Not faithful in content or spirit
I think I can understand why some people like this. Dissociated from its (supposed) source material it could be an enjoyable series. I can't really say, because I can't dissociate it. I'll give it a few stars for production value and acting as I try to pretend it's not Anne of Green Gables.
You can't really blame us naysayers who expected some semblance of faithfulness to the books, both in story and in spirit. The first episode showed considerable promise, but after that it deviated grossly. Characters were completely changed or added. Plotlines were completely changed or added. It became a very different story. I get that you can't expect it to be completely the same, nor does it work well to keep it the same when putting it into another media. I also get that it's necessary to add some content for an ongoing series. But I can't emphasize it enough that both the plot and tone here is utterly different. Some other reviewers have praised it for not deviating much from the books, and I'm flummoxed. Apparently we aren't reading the same books.
As for tone, as many have pointed out, it's considerably darker. One reviewer claims that "they've taken the much loved character of Anne and turned her into a bi-polar teenager with PTSD." Yes it's true. And no one in that time period or in the books would have put up with the brat she is in this series. But they cater to her here. In all, the story is very much more dramatic and less fun.
Many people love the dramaticism. That's fine, I get it. But it should have been given to us under a different guise. The makers really shouldn't have butchered a classic and beloved story to give us something more gritty and "relevant".
[Edit: This review concerns season one. From what I read about season two, it goes downhill even further.]
Carousel (1956)
Good music, but awful, awful story
I'm having a hard time understanding all the positive reviews on this movie. Was the musical supposed to be a tragedy and I just didn't get it? Was I supposed to sympathize with the characters in any way whatsoever? Did it have anything more than drivel to say about love or redemption? I can't think of any positive answers to those questions.
Begin with a girl who falls in love with a total bum because he puffs out his chest a lot, a loser who makes no secret of his utter lack of respect for women. Throughout the song, "If I Loved You" (which was a nice song, btw, if removed from its context) I couldn't get her stupidity out of my head. Next a marriage where the guy treats her with utter disdain and abuse, and somehow she still loves him, even though he has yet to show a single redeeming quality in the movie.
When he finds out she is pregnant he actually pauses for reflection on his life. During "Soliloquy" I thought perhaps this would be the beginning of a redemption story. Alas, he turns to crime and gets himself killed. When in heaven (or whatever it is) he puffs out his chest again and declares that he won't apologize for anything at all. This is one of the most awful characters I have ever seen.
So finally he is given a chance to go back and make things right for his now-grown daughter (and needs to be brow-beaten into taking that chance, btw), how does he do it? First he ends up slapping her, which apparently brings fond memories for her mother. "It is possible, dear," she says, with wistful smiles on both their faces, "for someone to hit you, hit you hard, and it not hurt at all." What?? The ghostly bum then goes to his daughter's graduation and whispers into her ear to believe the graduation speech, then walks away self-satisfied. Oh job well-done, man!
One reviewer said that the characters had emotional maturity of five-year-olds, and this hit the nail on the head for me. There was nothing redeeming about them, except perhaps that the wife - like me watching this film - patiently suffers and the complete loser of a husband never cheats on her as far as we can see. Was this supposed to be a love story? I don't get it.
The music was good, though, and because of that I regretfully gave the movie as high as a 3-star rating.