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Reviews
John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)
incredible
A friend from my poker game invited me to go with him to see this film. I was stunned. It came very near getting my rating as the stupidest film I ever saw, though, in the end, I decided "The Blair Witch Project" should keep that title.
The guy must have killed a hundred people in the story, almost all of them with one quick snap shot with a handgun, while all of them were shooting at him, sometimes with submachine guns, but never managed to hit him!
It is astounding to see such films attracting an audience, and sickening to see the high ratings given to it by contributors to this forum. Sad, so sad!
The King's Speech (2010)
An absorbing view behind the scenes of the royal family in a critical time
This is a great film with an amazing performance by the star as King George VI of England. It is very convincing and you can't help straining to try to help him get through very important speeches despite his tendency to stammer.
But there is one glaring fault. In his climactic final speech at the start of England's part in World War II he says the war effort is a crusade against an evil system based on the principle that "Might is Right." The trouble is, as he walks toward the room with the microphone he passes bank after bank of huge vacuum tube transmitters that will send his message out to the various places in his dominion: South Africa, Kenya, Burma, Australia, etc. Each of those places was invaded and conquered by the British Army based on that same principle that "Might is Right." The hypocrisy is glaring.
All Is Lost (2013)
Just silly!
The depiction of the Indian Ocean, one day raging in a storm, and all other days as calm as a millpond, was so absurd it was amusing. That was almost as silly as the depiction of him "navigating." He supposedly studied a book, then would point the sextant quickly up and take one reading, and from that work out his position. Comical!
Hero Dog: The Journey Home (2021)
Pretty story, but...
It's a rather preposterous story, but should be appealing to children and families who aren't too particular about a film making sense or being well edited.
A particular example is when he goes to shoot a flare at the cougar, the gun is clearly seen as being unloaded.
Lone Star (1996)
Very authentic feel of Texas
I love this film, even though the ending is a little disturbing. I didn't give it a 10 because of a curious error. When Enrique shows up at Mrs. Cruz' house with an injured girl and another man, and she agrees to help them, the man says "You are very kind" in Spanish. But he uses the verb form "eres," which is the familiar form. Using that with an older stranger who is helping you would be a serious breach of manners.
A Quiet Place (2018)
Utterly stupid!
OK, you are expected to suspend intelligence a little when watching a horror film, but this one goes too far. The people are hiding out from aliens who track them by sound, so they have to be totally quiet. Yet they managed to plow and plant big fields of corn somehow without being heard. To muffle their footsteps they cover all footpaths with sand, but the aliens somehow didn't hear them moving or spreading all that sand. When the children sense they are in danger they move off to hide in a thick corn field. Ever try to walk through a corn field silently? It's so stupid it should be classified as comedy!
The Gentlemen (2019)
waste of time
I like Matthew McConaughey, and I was intrigued by the trailer, so I went to see it. I thought it was one of the stupidest films I ever saw.
Knives Out (2019)
Stupid--just stupid
I wasted an afternoon watching this because I had to kill some time and it was the only show in the time window I had. I didn't like it at all. The wildly improbable plot (a girl who pukes if she tells a lie? really?) was comical.
Stuber (2019)
I was hoping for a laugh
The only thing funny about this "comedy" is how utterly stupid it is. You feel sorry for the actors after a while, trying to make that script actually amusing.
Best in Show (2000)
Hilarious send-up of the big time dog show world
This delightful mockumentary follows five dog owners and their handlers getting ready for, and participating in a big time dog show in Philadelphia. It's a sort of theater of the absurd about something that's pretty absurd to begin with. It's full of laughs. I only give it 9 stars because I thought the woman's abuse of the Latina maid in the hotel was a little over the line.
Unplanned (2019)
Valuable look behind the scenes
The most telling aspect of this film is the way almost all advertising for it has been suppressed. Media are afraid to become the targets of the gigantic, sinister abortion industry. The film skillfully and honestly tells the try story of that industry, by someone who was part of it for many years.
The Mule (2018)
If you've read the synopsis you've pretty much seen the show
This movie was very sad for me to watch. Rowdy Yates wasn't supposed to get old! Dirty Harry wasn't supposed to get old! Hell, I wasn't supposed to get old! But, even assuming there was extra makeup used, Clint Eastwood got old.
Interesting that it is based on a true story. I couldn't feel much sympathy for an ornery old cuss who brought all his troubles on himself, often at the expense of his family, not to mention the millions of addicts he supplied. It's just wall-to-wall sadness, with a little improbable forgiveness at the end.
Heartland (2007)
Beautiful setting for a bad story
This series is set on a horse ranch in Alberta. It is centered on three women, the usual Earth Mothers who know everything. Except one is more of an Earth Brat who seems to be carrying some baby fat, and sleeps with a stuffed animal.
The basic plot of each episode is the same: one of the men does something stupid, or says something stupid, or displays the wrong attitude, and one or all of the women have to jump in and correct him, get his mind right, and put him back in his "place." Strangely, the brat, when she's disciplining one of the males, suddenly sounds like she is reading from a freshman college psychology textbook.
The setting is gorgeous, the horses are beautiful, and, if accurate, the details about training and caring for horses are interesting. But the sexism is so pervasive that it gets monotonous very quickly.
Das Boot (1981)
problems with the story
It is strange that the description above describes the crew of the U-Boat as "raw recruits." Whoever wrote that must not have even seen the film. It is obvious that they were mostly veteran submariners.
I was surprised to see in the credits that they had a technical adviser from the German Navy on this film, because the many errors (that could have been easily avoided with a little attention) detract a lot from the film. I mean things like the sound guy calling out a bearing to a target when his indicator dial is pointing in a quite different direction. Still, it is a gripping story that really makes you feel the desperation of a submarine crew struggling to keep their boat (never call one a "ship") and themselves alive after a severe attack.
The biggest flaw is included in the film from the book. I guess the writer must have thought it would be sort of poignant to show something of how the "brotherhood of the sea" has to be abandoned in war when he had the boat surface at night to observe the burning tanker they torpedoed two hours before, and shoot another torpedo to "finish her off," then having to back away leaving the surviving crewmen in the water to drown.
One big weakness of the German U-Boats was their fairly small load of torpedoes. No competent U-Boat commander would have ever wasted a precious torpedo sinking a ship that was already doomed. But even worse was the act of surfacing at all. In a calm sea, with a brilliant tower of flames from the sinking tanker, the sub would have been easily spotted by any enemy vessel within many miles of there, while their own lookouts would have been blinded by the light of the fire. The whole scene was dramatic, but utterly absurd. In reality the sub would have had to get away from there as quickly as possible in order to surface and recharge its battery.
Still, I have the DVD and enjoy watching it now and then. It is fun to play it with the English subtitles and notice how they sometimes differ from the German being spoken. Note also, for English speakers, that the title is correctly pronounced "Das Boat."
Some posts have called this the "greatest anti-war film ever made." It certainly has a strong message about the futility and waste of war, but I think when it comes to the many fine anti-war films out there, one special film stands alone above all the rest. It is called "Johnny Got His Gun." If you can find a copy of it, see it. Then you will have a proper basis for judging anti-war films.
The Sopranos: Members Only (2006)
One thing seemed out of place
I thought the episode of the soldier who wanted out of the family brought up an interesting topic. But I didn't see the point of showing all that agony of his hanging himself. It was just gratuitous pain with no point. They could have shown his feet writhing around, and not for so long, and accomplished the same thing. It also didn't ring true. He was a pistolero. He would surely have shot himself. There remains the intriguing question of who is going to run things while Tony is laid up (shot in the liver, I think, not just the "rib cage")? Will Sil be able to hold it together, or will Christopher or Paulie make a grab for more power? Will Phil seize the day and launch an attack? If there is a running theme to this excellent series I think it is that Tony is a fundamentally evil influence and whatever he turns his hand to ultimately turns out badly. From the beginning I have predicted that in the last episode Tony is going to get whacked, and his last conscious thought is going to be about those ducks, a la the ending in "Citizen Kane." It is going to be interesting finding out.
Joan of Arcadia (2003)
Consistently sexist show
The running message woven through each episode of this show is that every male character is defective in some way, and all female characters are automatically empowered to detect this and react to it by either rejecting them, punishing them, humiliating them, or, sometimes, repairing them. This was kept between the lines until a recent episode in which the former nun character walks out on a date with Kevin and says "All guys are broken in some way, it's just that with you we can see it." The hypocrisy of the show was most evident in the episode where Joan introduces the new black student in gym class. The (female, naturally) gym teacher knocks the Jewish male student, Feinberg, to the floor with a medicine ball to the gut. Grace tells the new girl that it's "OK to step on him." Then one of the girls knocks him down again, and so the teacher, in this environment that surely condemns all forms of violence (except the kind they like), admonishes him by saying he isn't allowed to lie on the floor. What happened with Jews? Apparently it is now politically correct to abuse them, I suppose because they stopped being victims, hence are no longer useful to liberals. Of course, there is the character, Grace, who is also Jewish, at least sort of. At first in her butch outfits she was depicted as an apparent lesbian. This made her the ultimate role model for females, so she became a sort of Greek chorus, or oracle, in the show, keeping up an acid, running explanation of what the others were doing. But this year romance reared its ugly head for Grace, hence she fell from "grace," and is used much less often as an oracle. But the new oracle, the former nun, doesn't go to Joan's school. So the writers still have to resort to Grace on occasion. This year the father, Will, fought off the romantic advances of his pretty boss while balancing his need to please her on the job. The result? He has to grovel in apology to his earth-mother wife. For what? To feed the prejudices of this show's audience, of course. But the premise of a kid trying to do God's will when faced with obscure messages (aren't we all?) is interesting, and the blatant bigotry of the first season has been toned down a little this year.
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003)
A British captain pushes his ship to chase a French privateer during the Napoleonic wars
This was a terribly disappointing film. A good old swashbuckling fight, true, but the seamanship was so phony it was actually comical. Examples: over and over Crowe caught up with a ship that was clearly described as being the faster of the two. Then off Cape Horn he brings his ship 90 degrees to starboard in a gale wind, and nobody touches a brace or changes the setting of a single sail! Obviously Crowe knew he was making a film for an ignorant audience who had never seen a ship not driven by an engine. In another place the ship was gliding along at about five knots on a smooth sea with all sails hanging loose on the yards, obviously using her diesel engine. Of course it would have been expensive to tie up the ship and wait for a wind, and the film must have had a high shooting budget already. One can understand cutting such corners, but it makes a sea story that is more cornball than memorable.
T Is for Tumbleweed (1958)
A charming short about a tumbleweed
A tumbleweed is blown around the southwestern desert, through a small town. It interacts with the people and animals of the area until it takes on the stature of a character. Very reminiscent of "The Red Balloon" that way. I loved it. At one point it falls into a trench where men are digging. There is a long pause and then it rockets straight up into the air. You know the men threw it out of their way, but by then it has taken on such a personal character role that you feel like it jumped out by itself. The end is a little sad, though, as it gets snagged in a fence line with a thousand other tumbleweeds. It struggles to get away but (I'll stop with that.)