DKosty123 Reviews

The Holdovers (2023)

Formula Film Seems Like A Redo

[6/10 · 11 March 2024]

When I watched this film, I got the feeling I have seen this type of movie before. The more the plot unfolded, students having to stay at a private school through the holidays, with a terse professor who seems above it all, the more it felt like it had been done before.

So I started searching my library of films looking for this. It turned out what I found were versions of this type of story that were done more effectively than this one. I am not sure why but this version seems a little flat compared to other films which portrayed this type of story. The emotion in this one seems a little trite too.

The recent reveal that the script was plagiarized from another move thus did not surprise me. The cast in this one bring it off pretty well. Trouble is they could not take a story that has been done in other forms before and raise it too the next level for me.

The film with authoritarian professor is a bit tired. This particular professor seems less knowledgeable. He is shown as a obsessive compulsive. That makes him cardboard, and the performances here can't lift that.

Poor Things (2023)

Strangely Quirky Take of Mad Science

[8/10 · 11 March 2024]

It has been a while since the Science of reanimation has been taken and redone in a different spin. This movie does it with a heavily made up William Dafoe doing things that are just off the wall. The plot is a pregnant woman jumping off a bridge to her death. Dafoe finds the body still warm, removes the baby and then the babies brain and installs it in the dead mothers head on the dead mothers body.

The body and head belong to Emma Stone whose performance in this movie makes it into a guilty pleasure. She gets pleasured and abused throughout the film. The comparison to Tom Hanks playing an child in a mans body in Big does not really compare though the acting does. It is not easy for an adult to bring off playing a minor inside an adult body. Emma Stone beings it off here with kudos. Her performance here makes it a guilty pleasure.

Even though it is nearly 2.5 hours long, what is going to happen to Stone makes this movie hard to stop watching. Every man and a madame take advantage of her. Yet she keeps coming through. She gets scammed on a ship by some cons who take money of her man to give to the poor, yet she comes through it.

Her life takes twists and turns.

Meanwhile, the mad doctor tries to duplicate what he did with anther woman and babies brain. This one just does not seem to work the same way. He develops Cancer and his best creation comes back home in time to see him before he dies.

While this movie is not for the kiddies, it brings a perverted pleasure to see Emma Stone bring this off. She is the show while Dafoes mad doctor plays second fiddle. This is the rare film today which twists science and makes it what it really is, absurd discovery of facts which make little sense. This reminds me of the mentality out there expressed by so many morons that we are going to stop climate change. Saying that is the same thing as saying we are going to stop the wind from blowing. Both concepts waste a lot of passed gas. Processes of nature will happen. To believe otherwise makes someone a mad protester. Unfortunately, the world is full of plenty of those.

Emma Stones great performance rises above everything in this movie.

Porn Star Zombies (2009)

Porn Stars Guts Not Glory

[1/10 · 26 February 2024]

I watched an abbreviated version of this on Crackle as it was less than an hour long (unless you count the commercials). The shortened version might actually be better than the longer one though I wonder what got cut. I was surprised by the fact that it featured cell phones as other than that, I thought it was made in 1969. Unfortunately, neither Captain Kirk nor Denny Crane makes a cameo.

This movie is sort of a home movie quality version of a porn movie with a simple script of zombies invading an adult film studio. Aptly, the studio is an old couple's rental house and the crew are squatters. Ironically, the studio is hiring a film editor for its productions. Even more ironic is it appears there isn't much reason to hire one. Who needs to edit a film that should have been burned at the stake.

I was thinking, if only Alec Baldwin was here in a stuffed shirt cameo, then we would have the perfectly tasteless porn film. The stunt and prop budget for this film do not exist and if it cost more than $10,000 to film it cost too much. They should have put 100 people in the cast and offered each 1% of box office. That would have saved the production some money.

Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

Long but for a reason and Well Done

[8/10 · 17 February 2024]

This film is a very well-done biopic which actually weaves a complex biography with an assumption that an intelligent audience will understand the story and stick with it. It works in more ways than seem possible given not just the man but the controversy and topics it covers.

When a modern person watches this, they should realize early on the difference between an FDR New Deal Democrat and todays Democratic Party which abandoned FDR's policies starting in 1983 if not sooner. Oppenheimer is well represented in this picture as the FDR guy. While he wound up in charge of a project so fated to change the world, he did understand the kind of strength needed to not just think outside the box, but why it was important to do so.

The controversy of his life is covered well, with the affairs, the people around him who were Communists. Then there is J. Edgar Hoover's FBI spys worried about where his loyalty was. As far as his personal life, he was more or less a man who shagged women successfully, and at the same time had to have other men's wives if he desired.

Then there was a aura of him which is established early on. His life gets to meet his science heroes. His complex relationship with Einstein is well represented. His opposition to Fascism is illustrated over and over by his actions.

Sadly, there is the controversial items of his later life. The press makes him into the father of the a-bomb which really is not the case. The film shows that while he was in charge of building it and the first test of it, he had nothing to do with how it was used. He regretted it being used later but we overlook 2 important facts about it's use. First is represented and that is too save troops lives from invading Japan's home Islands. The fact is that in less than a week from the surrender, US Marines were scheduled to land on Honshu and were expected to take 60% casualties. The ships were already fueled in Pearl Harbor and they were getting ready to board.

2nd is the fact that the Russians had already invaded Japan's territory in Asia and Korea and if the surrender had not occurred, within 2 weeks the Russians would have taken most of Manchuria and Korea and several other places. Stalin would then have controlled even more of the World which would not have worked out well for a whole lot of people. This point barely gets mentioned in history books, and overlooking it is a folly as considering the Russians already had knowledge to build an A-Bomb due to spies, Stalin having more territory and power would have put the world into a dire World War 3 situation if the bomb had not been used.

Oppenheimer was one piece of a complex project in a growing complex world. The expert weaving here of our government into his life and his own complex life are very well represented in this movie. Weaving those together into this long complex quilt is a modern masterpiece of biographic film. The acting and cast is superb. Emily Blount is outstanding as one of Oppenheimer's women who is represented as seeming to understand his complex life. I'd point out others in the cast but then I might get as long as the film. It is the themes, issues, and biography that are the most important items of this movie.

Frasier (2023– )

Back Again & Developing

[7/10 · 16 January 2024]

Dr. Frasier Crane is back and off the radio into a retirement job as a professor? If your a fan of the original series and especially of Grammer it works. Basically, this reboot has transplanted the main character into a different city with a new bunch of people to play off. It updates son Frederick into a dysfunctional adult. This actually makes sense as the original marriage that produced the marriage was strange and its train come off the wheels 2 series ago. It should produce a son with issues. Makes perfect sense to me.

A nice dedication to Martin Crane with an actual clip of the late actor is touching. He was the heart of the last series. The rocky transition to Frasier trying to replace his dad to his son is a good plot line. Bringing back Roz in the last episode is a good touch too though they have to give her something to do if they plan to keep her. While the conflict between Frasier and Niles is missing, Frederick fills that space quite nicely.

Given time to develop and maybe some more scripting might get this to the level of the last show, it is already on my level of 7 that is all Cheers ever was. In some ways it is better as Cheers tended to over do every relationship Sam Malone ever had. Frasier here is more humble though his ego trip is better because we do not have the annoying relationships of a Sam and Diane (which nearly ended Cheers years before it went off).

This reboot shows promise, and it could get back to the prior series of quality. It kind of depends upon where it goes after this first 10 episodes.

Night Court (2023– )

A Let down for many good reasons

[5/10 · 16 January 2024]

Kudos for trying to bring back a classic series. Sadly it falls short for a lot of reasons. The biggest one is times have changed. Dan Fielding had to change because we have a culture now that is sensitive beyond believe and pushing the envelope can only be done doing improv without scandal.

There are a couple of reasons this fail and it has to do with the original series larger than life characters missing. Bull has no replacement. His character was a great off the wall bailiff and the guy doing it here is like when he had a sub in the original series, and not impressive. The biggest hole is no Markie Post replacement. She was one of a kind and when they found her the original series took off. Harry Stones daughter is no Harry Stone, though it is creepy to think of Harry actually having a child. It just shows one of his magic tricks would have had to actually work.

While I think the replacement can work her way into the role, I would rewrite the script and make her not a daughter but an imposter who comically ruses everyone into think she is related to Harry. Replacing Markie Post we need an attractive woman with a lot of tattoo's to modernize her. Fielding needs to be given some of his teeth back. The replacement and him need some chemistry in the scripts which so far have been nowhere near the quality of the original series. Post always brought out the best in Dan Fielding.

One thing that is sad is this is way to late to get back the original series as so many folks are no longer with us. We could try to give the judge someone to idolize the way Harry Stone did the late Mel Torme. While I can't see her worshipping an idol from the past like the Velvet Fog, maybe she could be a fan of Jelly Roll? So far this reboot of Night Court is no Cream Puff (Puff Daddy).

Faraway Downs (2023)

Over The Rainbow Lands A Saga

[7/10 · 5 December 2023]

Screen power even small screen pairing of Kidman and Jackman works pretty well chemistry. There is a lack of great acting talent around these days but this pair has more talent than most of them. They make someone like Tom Cruise look like a bloody cardboard cutout.

This series is an expansion of the movie Australia, done on a much smaller budget for streaming. The story is told from a child's eye and the fantasy of a child is huge and makes this series an enjoyable story. It also gives us embellished views of Jackman and Kidman.

Kidman was with child while some of this was filmed. It is kept well hidden. For someone like me who has never been closer to Australia than an Outback Steakhouse the views are stunning and well framed. The Kangaroos running next to the truck is a fine sequence and there are many magnificent vistas.

The reason I am at this rating is because the last episode of war comes off rather flat for me. It is important as not many World War 2 depictions of the Japanese invasion of Northern Australia exist. The trouble for me is when the ending scenes come of Nullah, Kidman and Jackman, it is like there is an abrupt stop of the war and then a conclusion of the child's story clipped on like a sudden rush one would get like they just want to get it over. Despite this lack of transition at the end, this is a very watchable series.

Haunting of the Queen Mary (2023)

Alice Eve And Entire Cast Wasted By Poorly Written Script

[2/10 · 5 November 2023]

What is hard to imagine is this movie could be a great idea. In fact, if there was just a focus on the 1938 story or on the modern story so that the characters would be developed better it would be an improvement. Instead, this film tries to make the Queen Mary sinkable. Unfortunately, it succeeds to do just that.

The cast characters are never developed properly. Special effects and camera work are very good. Trouble is this good stuff does not overcome the a script that appears muddled with too many plots and switches between 2 stories that might have had late minute updates while shooting and nothing about connections of the plots.

The best thing is some of the history of the Queen Mary being brought into the film with clips mentioning some of the famous who were on the ship and Fred Astair dance clip is okay. Actor who plays Fred is way too tall, but that makes little difference as even his script is a little lacking.

I wish this was better as the ideas could be made into a good film. Even Alice Eve getting carted off in the police car at the end for murdering her son is not really handled that well as far as the writing and why she would have murdered him makes no sense.

The First Deadly Sin (1980)

Top Notch Cast So-So Results

[7/10 · 28 October 2023]

Did not realize this existed until I happened upon it on You Tube. To me Sinatra is always a good actor in search of a great script which he never quite got. In this one, that is the case as his acting is solid but he does not really get the script to work with. The script fails to flesh out his character quite enough to get great dramatic results.

What the film does do is tells the story of an aging detective who has an ill wife (Faye Dunaway) dying in a hospital due to a mystery that the doctor is unable to solve. The parallel is that at the same time he is getting a case about a serial killer and a new boss who doesn't care what he is doing in his last days prior to retiring.

While Dunaway gets to do a few scenes, she is basically wasted. James Whitmore is okay but with his talent, even his script lacks a bit for him to be effective here. Martin Gabel actually gets enough script to make this one of his better turns on the screen in support role.

As far as the story, it mostly makes sense and in a way the ending is perfect with the murderer getting what he deserves. Trouble is then the added scene of his wife's death might have worked better if it were put in before that scene. Her story is never fleshed out enough to be finished last. Her doctor, his role just does not come off effectively.

I do like Sinatra in this one. It's not quite the level of Manchurian Candidate, but he is effective.

The Irishman (2019)

More Documentary Than Most Mob Films

[7/10 · 17 June 2023]

This is one of the longest films in a single dose about the mob since the Godfather. It is based upon a novel written by Jimmy Hoffa's right-hand man who claims he actually murdered the famous labor leader and then his body was cremated and disposed of after he did it secretly by a couple of mob members. It is a reasonable explanation of why his body was never found.

The film does throw out some major hints that the mob might also have murdered JFK. This theory has been floated around by many conspiracy theorists for years, though the evidence of it is much thinner than some other theories. Sadly, it could be accurate as JFK definitely was a thorn in the mob's side from the election on.

There is also a broader hint of who actually might have done it. The main character is depicted driving a truck of guns and ammo to Florida to be given to the Cuban Rebels who tried to land and take Castro out in the Bay of Pigs incident. When he delivers the guns, he identifies "big ears" as E. Howard Hunt, who later would be involved in Watergate.

Hunt was a Nixon operative from the 1950's forward through this era. If Hunt was involved with the Cuban rebels, it is also possible that with the connections with Nixon, who had connections with the FBI, CIA, the Mob, and all levels of government, it was Nixon's organization Pre-Watergate that did JFK. Motive- Nixon had the most to gain taking out JFK, and if there was a conspiracy later RFK. Nixon wanted to be President and they were in his way. He got elected after their deaths.

It is also possible Nixon wanted Hoffa's help to get elected, another thing that the film broadly hints he got. In way all this time developing these characters might have gotten into what really happened in the JFK tragedy. I have not read the novel to see if there are any more details to this in it. This film makes it credible.

As for the acting the veteran cast does a workmanlike job bringing things to life. Unlike the Godfather films, women really do not get much of a role here. They are almost entirely in the background observing. Even the Wedding sequence has the bride present but is more focused on the male characters at the wedding than on her.

A fair amount of the action sequences happens off camera to save expense. A little-known trivia I know about is that 1 person who worked on this movie very briefly in the background uncredited (as far as I can find) who I spoke to while they were working on it is Rob Salamida. His claim to fame is in some grocery stores, State Fair Spiedie sauce.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Good Dog Bad Dog Saved The Day

[8/10 · 9 May 2023]

Guardians has a large cast. This one is no exception. The bad guys hurt one of the critical good guys early in the movie. Then the Guardians have to go find the bad guys to help cure the good guy.

Sounds simple, doesn't it? Only thing is in the Marvel Universe and especially in the Guardians there are plenty of twists and turns along the way.

One of the great twists are the new characters and some great humor. Taking the cake here is the new character any dog lover will appreciate. Then the new dog is a good dog but has a fight with someone about being a bad dog. As the film gets towards the finale galactic battle, we find out just how good and how powerful this pooch really is.

It's another great ride with the Guardians. If it is the last, they are going out on top. If there are to be more coming, it's going to be hard to top this one.

A Man Called Otto (2022)

Technically Well Done And Acted

[8/10 · 9 May 2023]

Tom Hanks knows how to take roles and make them his. He has done it so often in his career that there is no surprise he has done it again in this film. He has done this so often in his career that often we take him for granted.

The plot here is a seven rated plot but the performances including Hanks raise this film to an eight. Otto is the man whose wife has died, and who has tragically lost her and their child due to circumstances beyond their control. He took care of her, and she took care of him lovingly. Then one night she was gone and now he wants to go to be back with her. This plot has been done before but rarely this well.

The film starts with Otto's retirement party. It is a traditional one with some extremely rude ways Otto gets retired. This party shows perfectly Otto's mood and being alone as his work family is ejecting him out of the office.

Then, we find out where he lives, and why he is who he is. What is interesting is that he wants to leave by taking his own life, but new neighbors moving in help save him from himself, throughout the movie. The emotions put into this role by the cast makes it a bit of a tear party, and while there are comic moments, the serious tone overshadows the comic moments.

This is a good film because it does examine a character who has a mental health challenge, and how he overcomes it. Then after rallying to have a life, nature comes into play and takes him to meet his wife. Good drama but a sad story.

Ginny & Georgia (2021– )

Sort of a Cliff Hanging Look At Life

[7/10 · 6 February 2023]

Having gone through 2 seasons of this, the series has its strengths and weaknesses. Season 1 starts slowly and is kind of Ginny introducing everyone to Georgia. Like an onion, the more you get the layers of Georgia taken off, the more complicated it becomes. Ginny seems a bit off the first half of season 1 starting the saga.

The scripts are well written with only a few times that the rails slip away from realism. The slips are small and the character development of the cast is the strength. While Ginny seems to go backwards, and Georgia becomes more and more involved with other characters, the people around the two of them do often fall into Ginny's first statement about Georgia - "Whenever mom passes gas, 8 men fall in love with her."

While the early school stuff resembles many school scripts for teenagers looking simple, as the classmates of Ginny are developed, they grow more complicated with each episode. The script development is brilliant. Granted this is much more mature than Saved By The Bell (Thank God), we kind of get a look at how complicated teen lives are now with all the choices they are offered. Through the use of flashbacks, this offers a view of single mother raising kids that is rarely done with any view of life other than simplistic ones.

Georgia is a single mom with tons of things she regrets in the past but did them in order to survive. Despite her obvious beauty, it seems she is not the best at picking husbands and as a teenager starts off by falling into bed and having her daughter Ginny when she is only 15. Then as she moves along, she eliminates her bad choices by running away from them. This gives Ginny a broken childhood which mom staunchly thinks of as protecting her precious kids. After eliminating at least 3 husbands and changing her name, she moves to another town hoping to set down roots.

As an addiction, this is a bit like a soap opera, but the maturity and development of all the characters leaves efforts like Dallas even in the dust. It seems that Georgia can find all the right buttons to push in this town except for finding the buttons to make the kids happy. Ginny suddenly decides she can't live with the secrets Georgia has kept from her for years and demands a full accounting.

As we get into season 2 Georgia seems to have decided to have it all, marrying the handsome city Mayor. Only trouble is the complications that come. Ginny complicates them by helping Austin's father (Gil), fresh out of jail, find them. We find out Gil is the abusvie father Georgia runs away from.

Another ex-Georgia, Zion, Ginny's Dad comes into the picture too. Then there is fiancé mayor Paul. Georgia has a feud with Cynthia in the first season, and then turns fully about in Season 2 and tries to help her. This will lead Georgia to more trouble then she ever imagined, but not before she gets the fairy tale wedding she has always dreamed of, wearing white to cover up all her past sins she hopes.

It is all the characters and their interactions that make this series. The writers have the right motivations in mind. While this is way to adult for prime time tv, this series shows that reality series lack for this kind of drama. It is quite addictive while not perfect by any means. This sort of resembles the relationship between Ginny & Georgia, with Austin getting major maturing right at the end of season 2.

All lives can be complicated by who they encounter, the roads they choose get changed depending upon their feelings and routes they take. This series is an adult look at where those roads are smooth, and where there are huge gaping potholes.

Glass Onion (2022)

Fails Everywhere That Knives Out Succeeded In

[2/10 · 28 December 2022]

Knives Out was a great departure for Mystery films and Daniel Craig. Then comes this sequel which seems to leave everything at the train station. Since trains are no longer the principal means of transportation this off the rail sequel would be better off considered a sidetrack.

The biggest asset is the cast, and the main handicap is the plot. It appears to be trying to update Agatha Christie but does not even rise to the level of Jessica Fletcher. While there are a few amusing moments in a confusing opening which does get explained later, overall, this is a real let down. I got the same feeling when the Tonight Show went from Carson to Leno to this sad sack Fallon. The writer of this script must have been trying to make the audience see something they were blind to themselves when they wrote it.

The top moment in this is when Craig utters the line about the whole thing being "stupid." That not only sums it up, but when I heard the line, I realized I had just wasted a Fallon of my time to understand how stupid I am to have kept watching it waiting for a great ending.

Violent Night (2022)

Santa's Got A Magic Bag of Tricks This Year

[8/10 · 28 December 2022]

Going into this movie, I had heard that it was different. It surely is as a mature Santa movie had been done before called Bad Santa. This is not your Bad Santa, this is you Santa who doesn't know what his magic is, only that he has magic. I think of him as a sort of Marvel Superhero but not really a comic character.

This plays as an action movie on most levels. It does fill in background on Santa and the story is different from what you'd expect. He is given a human story like has never been done before. There is something about him that makes him human and yet impossible to defeat.

Trudy, the true Santa believer runs away into an attic and sets up some traps for the folks looking for her that resemble the Home Alone traps, though she is never alone. She is in touch with Santa most of the way. What happens is totally different.

Santa becomes an action hero who grants certain kids wishes due to his circumstances. While some of the humor is at a low level, there are some funny moments that are truly inspired in this action film. It's the pacing and the action ride that makes this work. The film rarely pauses to let the viewer catch their breath.

The secret of the pacing comes from the experience of writers with Sonic the Hedgehogs films. It is that pace and a solid script and acting which combine here to make this one of the most unusual but better Christmas movies in several years.

Perry Mason: The Case of the Killer Kiss (1993 TV Movie)

A Accidental Prediction Of The Future

[7/10 · 31 October 2022]

This is it, the last time Raymond Burr would play Perry Mason. By now all the details of his fate were in plae pretty much. In a way, it is great that a soap opera is used as the backdrop for the murder. Soaps were already in a major state of decline by 1993 and a murder at one seems to quite fit Raymond Burr's last effort.

Raymond Burr was the perfect choice to play Mason. It is hard to believe that when the original series was casting, he actually was being considered for the District Attorney role. He had played a defense lawyer in the 1956 noir Pleas Murder Me where he gets Angela Lansbury found innocent of a murder, she did commit. That is when he first uttered the words - "No Questions" on the screen.

In this last one, he has several people working against him while defending a young woman he knows very well. As usual she has been framed. With Della and Sgt. Brock on hand it pretty much fits the formula for most of the Perry Mason movies. It takes a lot of leg work to uncover the blackmail scheme that really is the motive for murder.

Overall, a very satisfactory last movie for an actor who did a lot more work in movies than I realized prior to the tv role. While most of his movies were forgettable the original tv series and Ironside and these last movies prove over and over again the great actor he really was. There. Really has not been a Perry Mason since Raymond Burr died, and there may never be another.

Faith Hill: The Lights Go Down (2002 TV Movie)

Great Music From Faith Hill & Band

[8/10 · 22 September 2022]

Watching this on DVD is a pleasure to the ears and the music is fantastic. There are only bits of Biography Information about Faith. One of the things not surprising is that she started singing in Church as a child. A lot of singers get their start that way. She talks about going to an Elvis concert when she was 8 years old inspiring her and this makes perfect sense. Elvis started singing in Church way back too.

The DVD contains some extra music and backstage materials. All of it is excellent. Carlos Santana makes an appearance on 1 song and Faith has a conversation with Carlos. Santana There is a bonus track in a way featuring the original orchestra backing Faith up doing the theme song from the movie Peral Harbor. There's lots of her music here.

The nice thing is at age 35 Faith Hill is doing music here when she is at the top of her career. She looks great and there are a few very quick glimpses of her children. There are quick takes on the members of her back-up band and they all get to do some outstanding rips and or back up singing.

Make no mistake about it, Faith is the star of this show. She looks as great as she sounds. It is hard to believe it has been 20 years since this came out and her kids are all grown up now. Her music has matured here 20 years ago. She claims she does not dance, though her vocals dance into the air with the greatest of ease. I could look and listen to it all night long. 20 years ago, I could have done more too.

Guilty of Treason (1950)

Story That Reminds Me Russia Has Not Changed

[6/10 · 2 June 2022]

With the exceptions of Bonita and John Banner most of this cast was largely unknown to me. I have seen some of Charles Bickford work, and being the Cardinal accused of treason here, his work is excellent.

This is Iron Curtain Budapest after the war. The story centers around the Cardinal and an American Journalist whose stationed there, both of who are concerned with the Russian Occupation of the country. The main issues that come up are how surviving the war and Russia's Liberation are central themes to all characters and how Stalin occupation is becoming more and more like the Nazi Occupation was. In fact, the theme at the end that is most prevalent is

Heil Hitler Heil Stalin

As this movie ends hammering home these themes, it is very current in the news. John Banner is excellent in a serious supporting role which is not a reminder of Stalag 13. Still, when watching this film as it goes through how Stalin's forces are basically squashing opposition, it is indeed a training film that helps one understand the current crisis in Ukraine better. In fact, just add this to make it current -

Heil Putin

Now that CNN has reported the reopening of the distant camps in Russia Stalin used to send people to make them disappear, this film based upon a true story is haunting in it's accuracy.

Highway Dragnet (1954)

Surprising Well Done Noir

[7/10 · 25 April 2022]

Roger Corman the Producer wrote the story for this one. It's a good story that does twist in a direction that the viewer can not anticipate. They do drop a hint or 2 as it goes along but this ride is a pretty solid film for a budget B film. Seems the more films I watch from the mid 1950's, the more films I find that are good stories.

The opening scenes of this film with old Las Vegas and the Apache Hotel are priceless to folks who remember that era when Bugsy and the mob ruled the strip. This film title threw me because when I see the word Dragnet, I think of Jack Webb tv series. This film is far away from it.

An aged showgirl, who used to be a model, is murdered on the strip. An ex-marine who was with her in the Casino is pinned for the murder by a Native American Vegas detective. The evidence is all set up to frame him but who done it? Richard Conte is excellent in a sort of role like the Fugitive on TV. The police keep trying to close in but he enlists the help of 2 women to help him escape several times. Only the women aren't quite what they seem to be when he meets them on the road.

What impresses me for low budget is the quality of the script and the quality of the cast as everyone seems to fit their roles well. The main thing is the plot makes sense as it runs through but am surprised that the cast did not roast to death shooting this. This is Hollywood magic. The beating the cars take is pretty amazing too. Conte works out to be a pretty good roadside mechanic who fixes cars and his life in the process.

I Can See Your Voice (I) (2020– )

Seein Is Believin

[7/10 · 26 January 2022]

Dear Dr. Ken,

While we like the show, there are not quite enough twists to it. To spice it up, it might help to

1 - put some comedians on the panel. The people who are there are way too serious when they should be having fun with this.

2- Create some different characters to have fun with singing. I am not sure about having a singer called "The Terrorist", but then again if you put a paper bag over one of their heads and call them the "Unknown Voice" maybe you can sell something.

3- Get rid of the Golden Mike. This seems to be a useless way to plug a cameo by a celebrity, but comes off flat.

4- Recent show had only 1 good singer. That was pretty cool, and almost a shut out. Maybe a show with all bad singers will prove if a contestant has the need for greed?

5- Don't forget the celebrity doing the duet at the end could also be a bad singer which could throw everything off?

This show is a lot of fun, and works because of RX Dr. Ken. Quite frankly, spotting bad voice's can be pretty fun. I think Putin has a bad voice, along with Kim what's his name, and mumbling Joe. There we have a real mess we have gotten into. This program is more fun than that.

211 (2018)

Predictable Action Film

[4/10 · 26 January 2022]

While the cast members are appealing, the setting and the film are very predictable. There seems to be a few things among the missing like-

Characters that have some depth. Everyone here is a card board cut out and difficult to relate with.

Interpol Agent who seems almost deleted on the final cut. This agent really seems to find their stuff coming in from out of the blue without a clue finding clues.

Ride along who you know is going to be a hero and though you root for them, trying to understand how they are so patient sitting in an suv for hours on end to get rescued?

Bank Robbers who go to the one bank named by a rich guy they kill when they could have gone to any bank, why?

Best dialog in the film- Cage talking to their ride along about school bullies which almost gets you involved.

Worst things about film- the pauses between the action, and the way it goes from day to night in like seconds. The strange powering up of a cell phone using a 9 volt battery. The way characters just pop into sequences from out of nowhere.

While the action is predictable the good thing is it makes the film move along. Another good thing, it is around 90 minutes long and in this case, the shorter is better. Problem is that the final cut appears choppy like maybe the best parts of the film never get into the movie. We wuz robbed?

Cold Sweat (1970)

Uneven Production Harms This Film

[5/10 · 18 January 2022]

Produced in France, this movie was first released in France, and then gradually in other countries finally reaching the United States in 1974.

The Commodore muscle car is unique, Bronson, Liv Ullman, James Mason, and Jill Ireland head up a pretty good cast. With Terrance Young directing, there is a lot of promise here. Unfortunately the film does not add up to the sum of it's parts.

The action and continuity are the problems, strange for an action director like Young who did some of the better Bond films. There are scenes where someone is shown holding a gun with 2 hands and then suddenly holding the gun in one hand and a brief case in the other with no logical explanation. There are hostage situations which make no sense at all.

Finally, every scene without action seems to drag. It's not the casts fault, and the novel this is based upon has got to be better than this film adaptation is. The nice thing is that the scenery is pretty good in Southern France. Other than that, any Bronson fan should be dismayed with the results. Even the Bastille Day Fireworks at the end can't save this one from being mediocre at best, and technically incompetent at it's worst.

The Great (2020–2023)

Wildly Inaccurate History of Script wasting Talent

[6/10 · 12 January 2022]

I do not understand why I'd take a great cast and good production values and sets, and then just misuse the scripts by ignoring real history. The real History has Peter leaving Russia and then being murdered immediately by Catherine upon return. There is a bunch of nonsense here with Peter coming back and being under house arrest and acting like a clown.

The real story is Catherine taking over the country and having a major affair with the General of the Armies. Now, if your really worried about keeping the actor playing Peter employed, why not recast him as the General having the affair with Catherine? It would align much better with the real story.

There are characters here are named and based upon real people, but the trouble is most of them are not living the way the real people did. While I guess you could call this comedy, it is easier to look at it as tragic. We have Catherine getting pregnant, supposedly Peter's child, while she has her own male stud who supposedly can't make her conceive due to a physical condition that I doubt would have been widely known about at this time in history? Call in Maury Povich and a DNA test to prove whose child this tyke really is? Huzzah !

Meanwhile, we have Peter the Greats son being written into the script and living on and on when he really died. Then we have to believe that Catherine has sympathy for him? The real Catherine and Peter The Great are both spinning in their graves.

The acting here reminds on of a cultured PBS series but the scripts have gone off the axis not just of good taste, but they do not even taste good. The only reason I do not mark this down more is at least Catherine finally does deliver her 2 season baby. She is a hot looking actress so if there is a season 3, it will be nice to see her natural curves back at last. She is a good actress.

For season 3, kill Peter, please. The real Catherine knew better than to even let him come back into Russia. It is an insult that he is still alive, much less he has been a stupid jerk the entire 2 seasons. Granted the actor playing the General really is too old for a young woman like Catherine, so I doubt he was cast properly either. He is a good actor but unfortunately unless we redo the series from season 1, the real affair and story will never see the light of day. That is a shame, as the real story would be much better than the farce.

I do credit some excellent acting by the woman playing Peter's mistress. It takes a lot to make me believe any woman would service a fool, but she makes it believable. At least she seems to wake up by season 2 and cuts off the affair with a man who should be dead. Too bad the scripts are wasting such talent as this could have been a great show. It's just not.

Criss Cross (1949)

Not Quite What I Expected

[7/10 · 6 January 2022]

I really expected with the loaded cast this would be a better film. To me it has aged badly. It's not bad, but in the film noir category, films like The Glass Key hold up better than this one.

It doesn't help that the story of a guy on the inside of an employer, an armored car company, has been done so many times in film that now the plot seems a bit trite. The cast does bring this off better than the average film. It's just that the sets look old, even when the film was made.

The Big Clock (1948)

More than Just A Drama Noir

[8/10 · 2 January 2022]

Kenneth Fear who wrote the novel wrote "No Way Out" and a lot of other suspense works. To simply say the plot here is a boss gets upset with his mistress (secretary) and kills her would really be selling this movie way too short. Besides being one of the better films in Noir, this film is not credited with being an exceptional "dark comedy." I think this has to do with Jonathan Latimer writing the script. Latimer wrote a lot of excellent tv and films including Topper Returns and The Glass Key. Because of this background, he was able to make this noir script a genius with some great touches.

The cast is great too. Ray Milland's George Stroud is amazing and is a great counter-balance to Charles Laughton's Earl Janeth. Maureen O'Sullivan's Georgette Stroud gets kind of overshadowed at times because there is so much going on. There is only so much screen time and the mistress whose killed hogs some of it very well before her death. It's kind of funny that George spends so much time with her, yet Georgette hardly bats an eye lash when she finds out George was with her.

The comic element here is that after Earl murders Pauline the chase he starts to find the man who was in her apartment prior to his killing her is one of the great masterworks of dark comedy ever put into a noir film. It becomes comical all the times George ducks witnesses who saw him the night she was murdered. Even George gets a subtle jab in before she is killed - Pauline York : You know, Earl has a passion for obscurity. He won't even have his biography in 'Who's Who'.

George Stroud : Sure. He doesn't want to let his left hand know whose pocket the right one is picking.

Milland delivers this line so dramatically, the humor is not noticed unless you turn on the captions and look for it. During the chase where George is being chased by everyone thinking he is the killer, there are some really dark comedy classic line that makes this one look pale. Yet the elements are here in what is basically a great film on many levels.

Granted the technology is dated, but the script and the cast so good, and Rita Johnson (Pauline) even has some movies that were the type of comedy that is snuck into this one.

This film does start off with a sequence late in the film and then rewinds to the beginning. Usually I find this annoying, but in this one so much happens that it is not a problem. Do not let the title or the category fool you, this film is a classic dark comedy too.