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California Dreaming (1979)
Sneaks up on you
This movie starts out like some light hearted goof. I thought it was going to be like caddyshack or meatballs or something. Then about half way through, I'm getting into it. It feels like a bunch of people I know, and its almost like hanging out with them.
As the movie winds down toward the end of summer, you can feel it like a kid who just wants 20 more minutes before he has to go to bed. The drama starts to creep into the comedy and you never see it coming. Finally, you get blindsided and before you know it, you're moved almost to tears.
Someone said it felt more like 75 than 79. I agree. It actually felt older than that, except for the cars.
Great movie.
Daybreak (1993)
Propaganda!
While the movie is interesting, this is as close to propaganda filming as I have seen this late in the century. If michael moore made dramas, this would be one.
The US is a crumbling third world country, and the local street gangs are part of the government's fascist enforcement. Can you say Nazi? If this were a blog, they would have envoked Godwyn's law and be done with it.
OK, so Cuba gets sick and has to go to a "camp" where the government will make him very comfortable while they look for a cure. But everyone knows thats not what happens. Can you say "Concentration Camp" and "AIDS"?
This movie was made to make a point about how AIDS is killing people and the government is not doing enough, but instead it comes off like the psycho nut liberal fanatic at a party that you wish you hadn't started a conversation with.
That said, it is certainly memorable, and the movie, while intentionally frustrating, is interesting enough to watch... if you can keep from rolling your eyes ever five minutes.
Snakehead Terror (2004)
Nut just crap, bad crap
First, as mentioned above, there is no place close to this in Maryland. Let's pretend that there is. Now there are these VERY slow moving snakehead fish that have zero agility and are noisy as hell, and they manage not just to sneak up on people, but in packs of ten. Even when someone sees them coming from a distance, they repeat the steam roller chase from Austin Powers, yelling "NOOOOO!!!!" while the fish crawl towards them at about 2 miles per hour.
OK, suspend the location discrepancies, and assume that the non-existent town is full of very slow deaf people. Now you still have to deal with the drawn out suspense scenes where one person is in trouble and another person has to do something to save him. The saving person inevitably takes forever to do the simplest tasks, with no explanation. Person A is suffering and person B is just about to help. Then more suffering, then person B is no closer. Back and forth, back and forth until you start rooting for the fish.
Add huge discrepancies in reality to annoyingly poor writing/editing and you have Snakehead Terror. It was so bad, I had to log on just to write a review.