zany_beat Reviews

Midtown Madness 3 (2003 Video Game)

I keep finding new things to play with!

[9/10 · 11 June 2013]

I'm giving this 9 just because I lack the full experience of xbox live, being too late acquiring the game. However, I can put the multiplayer split level to umpteen uses ... even by myself, switching between controllers.

Just today I drove the DC school bus in the subway, being pursued by 4 Keystone Kops ...hehe.

It depends, I guess, on what one is after. I play the cruise mode rather than the rest of it, tho' I did win a couple of races. Like the other reviewer, the actual races and levels are unforgiving and annoying, so I stay away from them.

I DID manage to get the two secret cars, so that's cool. Four paint jobs remain and I think I'll just get one of my gamer friends to get them for me so I don't slam the controller down in frustration, forgetting that it IS, in fact, just a game.

Midtown Madness 3 is gorgeous! The redraw is smooth, the sense of weight and suspension in each vehicle feels so solid, and I literally stay up sometimes all night as I jump on roofs, hide in glitches, pit myself against said Keystone Kops, and 'loop them out' (they get confused, it seems) by diving in the water over and over; it's how I got my diva movie star back in one piece... LOL.

I know it's not to everyone's liking, but I'm a fan.

The Perfect Assistant (2008 TV Movie)

Most Dangerous Because She Believes She's Innocent

[7/10 · 23 April 2013]

Josie's portrayal of Rachel is riveting. Those ice chip eyes, maniacal grin and posh attitude all combine to produce a character who, since she's only doing what she feels in her heart (albeit a black heart), works better than a cardboard, intentional villain.

Rachel loves her boss ~ well .. 'love' may be too tame a word .. she yearns to POSSESS her boss and his daughter, Isabelle. There are some roadblocks: the sick wife who is 'getting better', the colleague who treats Rachel as - hey! imagine this: a secretary, and the fact that David, while he acknowledges Rachel's unfailing devotion to 'the company' (seriously?), has no personal affection for her other than gratitude.

Then we have Nora. Nora is Rachel's cousin. She's weird and chirpy, has trouble with boundaries, and is nosy to boot, but otherwise is just a plain-Jane who wishes Rachel were more like a friend than an obligatory housemate. I think Rachel is unthinkably snobbish where Nora is concerned, and Nora's concern is that Rachel's obsession with David causes the most conflict. The tragic fall downstairs garners nothing more than a faked anguish as Rachel calls paramedics. Here we see the utter void where anybody but David occupies Rachel's brain & heart. He is not just her boss. David is her skin, and she will not be separated from him. "This can't happen. ... This can't happen." (shakes head as she ponders Mrs. Wescott's recuperation).

David himself is understandably distracted or I think he would have clued in sooner to the cloying, effusive attention. He's a brilliant businessman, but apparently doesn't perceive subtleties in personal relationships. He's literally the last to know. It took a terribly inappropriate come-on to wake him up, then David was swift to deal with the problem as kindly and cleanly as possible, but she's been so invested and tethered to him to have deluded herself; when he fires her, Rachel concludes (after initially seeming to grasp reality) that he wants to date her without being improper.

Showing up at David's house with a huge stuffie for Isabelle, Rachel admits to David that she loves him and thinks he let her go to set a good example at work, but that he can love her since his wife is gone. He is livid at this point: not only has Rachel completely ignored every word he said, she intruded on his sanctity and insinuated herself in his daughter's life. Now that he has seen what Rachel's been up to all this time, he clearly wants nothing to do with her ever again: she is no longer welcome in his life.

..... Rachel ain't havin' that.

No Child of Mine (1997 TV Movie)

Thoughtful film addled by thoughtless hotheads?

[4 March 2010]

> And don't forget: every SECOND there are 5,000,000,000,000 young girls and boys getting raped by their parents, in South London alone... <

------------------ Just to comment that if you're going to accuse others of exaggeration, maybe don't lose track of your zeroes. There are about 4 billion PEOPLE on the PLANET, and you've just told us there are 5 TRILLION young girls & boys just in South London.

............who's exaggerating? It's good you've had your say, but it amounts to pretty much nothing of any lasting value. --my take-- Brooke is one of the most effective young talents I've ever seen. Her subtle expressions break my heart, particularly when she saw the teacher outside with a lady friend.. 'Kerry' had trusted him to be the one person who would never let her down, and he wasn't available for her either. At that point her entire emotional structure unhinged and she felt she had no reason to believe anybody again. She ultimately reveals her ordeal, but that doesn't mean it was over, just that the real pain would begin as layers upon years' torment had to be addressed.

Obsessed (1992 TV Movie)

Asborbing in a traffic accident way...

[6/10 · 22 March 2006]

Young thing falls for older man who's just having fun. She's in it for keeps, and will not let go when he's done with her ... This movie hit home for me in many ways as I have suffered from attachment disorder for many years. I felt everything she did, and now that I've done the majority of emotional healing (mainly by using this movie), I can only watch it for the cringe factor. Not to say it isn't very well acted because it certainly is believable (tho' Shannen seems to have it down TOO pat, if you know what I mean).. I'd recommend it for its pure psychological value. It's not on a par with 'Fatal Attraction' if you want suspense and mood, but the movie is not bad.

A Cry for Help: The Tracey Thurman Story (1989 TV Movie)

Abuse is insidious. Victims are not at fault.

[1/10 · 21 December 2004]

I also have been a wife of an abusive husband, even if in my situation the attacks were psychological, not physical. He presented a very respectable, responsible and generous personality to anyone who saw us together, which, in contrast to myself, resulted in having others treat me as dull and unstable. Initially, I was so incredibly flattered that anybody like Gus (who worked in a bank and was handsomely confident) would even give me the time of day, and I fell completely head-over-heels for the IDEA of him, rather than the person he was. If I'd had my head on straight, and gotten to know him much better first, there's no way I'd have married him. However, that's my mistake. It wasn't my mistake to be abused. I didn't deserve that, nor did I see it coming until I was embroiled in the mind games, criticism and isolation. He acted like I had no business holding an opinion that differed from his own - actually he went further. If I didn't agree, he assumed I misunderstood, and increasingly simplified his wording ... by the time I finally lost my self-respect, I was incapable of recognizing the predicament I was in, and I had to be jolted to reality by outside influence. My dad said Gus called me a bitch. Well ... it was still a half-year before the rage that began at that moment finally exploded and I packed some stuff while he was at work, and I left. .. and it was still another several months before I could grasp the fact that I had been abused, and that it wasn't my fault he was doing the things he did. ..... so please, anyone who assumes it's the fault of the victim, THINK!!! If a puppy is kicked by a cruel owner when, in an anxious situation it has an accident on the rug, do you blame the puppy? by the time the abuse in a relationship reaches an obvious violent level, the target of abuse has been so wounded and depersonalized (much like in Nazi concentration camps) that it's nearly impossible to judge the circumstance accurately, because by then, the victim believes all the horrible things spewed by the abuser. Have a heart, people. Labelling abuse victims as stupid morons is like kicking someone who's already terribly beaten. -------> and this helps how???