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zaphod71828
Reviews
The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972)
Dispels romantic notions of the wild west
Watch this film. It will dispel any romantic notions you might have about cowboys in the wild west. It portrays them as the ignorant wretches that they were. It is equally unkind to religious zealots and capitalists.
The film is relatively slow moving, but that is likely a successful attempt to capture the boredom of the life of the cowboy. The sense of isolation in an unforgiving, vast expanse of territory is also brought out well.
From a human/ensemble perspective, this film fails to convince. Personally, I did not bond at all with the set of characters whom I was obviously supposed to. The acting is somewhat better than mediocre. An exception is Anthony James, who evoked in me quite an infuriating response, but who has a minor role.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Hardwired (2009)
Overall not very realistic
I'm not generally a viewer of this show, but when you're stuck inside with 25 inches of snow... I've seen it a few times, and it seems that Stabler punches someone out every time. His anger management is a recurring issue. Still, someone should take this Stabler guy and throw him in jail. That's only slightly more realistic than pedophile rings - now there's a hackneyed old chestnut to fall back on when you're out of fresh ideas. I hope that they way the cops subject the boy to their irresponsible sting operation and otherwise put the screws to him is also unrealistic, but I'm not so optimistic about that. As for the mother, in real life she would have lost custody. We never do find out why she can suddenly be off to Florida, having somehow disposed of two assault and battery charges.
Acting: the guy who plays Stabler is always good, putting forth a very convincing despicable character. The female lead is OK; she tries to pull off this thoughtfulness that doesn't quite work. The female guest star was OK. The boy was OK, too, before disintegrating into one of those cry-on-demand kids. Since this ep is about exploitation, I wonder if the boy is himself an exploited child actor with pushy stage parents. History dictates that this is more often than not the case.