Jack_Brock Reviews

Satan Wants You (2023)

Great documentary

[9/10 · 5 November 2023]

I remember visiting a relative a few years ago and coming across a forty year old book called MICHELLE REMEMBERS. It was marked non-fiction, but it had a Stephen King sort of fiction feel to it.

The story was hard to believe. The story was over the top and had no secondary sources to back up many of the claims made in the book. The book made several serious allegations, yet there were no police reports referred to in the book. The Wikipedia article pointed out several inconsistencies with the book.

Satan Wants You picks up from there and gives a play by play account of the book and the subsequent events that followed. The movie gave more evidence that the book was a hoax, such as playing some of the original audio tapes and interviews with others related to the case.

The film seems to place the blame on the two authors who un-intentionally caused a lot of harm to others, some who spent years in jail on false charges. While much of the blame does rest on those two, some also rests on the people who believed it too easily.

While the original Satanic Panic died down, the film points out several repercussions felt today in the form of things like Pizzagate and several alt-right conspiracy theories.

A great film overall.

Dumb Money (2023)

OK Movie

[7/10 · 3 October 2023]

This David vs Goliath story is a by the numbers sort of movie. Though entertaining, the story is fairly predictable.

The pacing is fairly good. There is no part of the movie which drags. The movie could use more explaining in certain parts and could have gone in to more detail. The movie assumes you have some knowledge of the stock market and what short selling is. It could have delved more in to some of the Wall Street guys.

If you are looking for better movies like this that give more info, The Big Short or Inside Job are more insightful.

If you are looking for an entertaining movie that leaves you cheering for the little guy, this is it.

Heartstopper (2022– )

Great show but...

[8/10 · 8 May 2022]

I liked this show. There are a lot of good points to it. The acting was excellent, as was the pacing. The story was interesting and realistic.

The only thing that I could say was the story left no loose ends and it was rather saccharine.

House of Gucci (2021)

Good Movie

[8/10 · 4 December 2021]

I found this rather entertaining but at times it dragged on too long on the dysfunctional part of the family. The ending seemed rather sudden.

Otherwise a good biography of the family.

Young Royals (2021–2024)

I'm impressed!!

[9/10 · 8 July 2021]

Although this series is geared towards teens, I found this a well written and acted series. I was expecting a sappy happy ending to the show (Season 1), but it was well written to end on a bittersweet moment. The acting, makeup (or perhaps lack of it) the script and pacing are excellent. The characters seem very real and aren't cardboard cutout cliches.

To borrow a line from Game of Thrones, "Duty so often is the death of love". We see this when a fictional Crown Prince of Sweden comes at a new boarding school and falls in love with another male student. When a video of the affair is made public, all hell breaks loose. Themes of public image vs real identity are explored.

The series seems off to a great start.

The New York Times Presents: Framing Britney Spears (2021) Season 1, Episode 6

They call this a documentary ?!?

[1/10 · 28 February 2021]

This is definitely no documentary.

Instead of anything resembling a presentation of facts, what we get is 75 minutes of hard core fans/borderline stalkers giving an opinion on a highly personal ssue in Britany Spears life. There are no credible experts giving legitimate insight in to the case, but endless hakneyed pop psycological platitudes by fans and displaced former Britany employees and hangers-on.

Chris Crocker was right - Leave Britany alone!

Don't waste 75 minutes of your life - Don't view this trash.

We Are Who We Are (2020)

A bit of a turn off

[2/10 · 4 November 2020]

My first impression of this series is that they didn't make much use of a military technical advisor for this. I worked with the US military for four years and they seem to get many things wrong. Many who were actually in the US military would be able to spot more things - if you read many of the negative reviews you will see what I mean. A lot of things you see wouldn't fly or go unpunished.

Beyond that, the main character Fraser behaves like a spoiled brat who gets little to no discipline from his parents; hard to believe since he is the CO's kid. The storyline seems all over the place - fairly directionless - with Fraser and his friends doing stupid things that would turn most viewers off.

Overall, this season / series is really boring with no real strong acting that leaves viewers with the feeling they really wasted their time.

Hot Coffee (2011)

A excellent documentary

[10/10 · 24 September 2020]

By far, this is one of the best documentaries I have seen. It challenges what you know about all these apparent "frivolous lawsuits" you hear of.

It starts with the famous "spilled hot coffee" lawsuit that so much misinformation was spread about and gives the truth of what happenned. The movie goes on to explain other cases and how Corporate America has managed to manipulate the legal system to protect themselves against shoddy and unsafe products and managed to leave the consumer hung out to dry.

Informative and well paced, I found this thoroughlt enjoyable.

Blackbird (I) (2012)

Well acted film

[8/10 · 30 August 2020]

This low budget film stars Connor Jessup as Sean, a bright but lonely teenanger who dresses in Goth clothing. He makes the mistake of taking an interest in another schoolmate's - a jock - girlfriend. This leads to a confrontation which leads to Sean making an online threat. The police come to his house and find some disturbing material and some of his father's hunting rifles unsecured.

This leads to a misunderstanding of Sean's intentions - authorities assume the worst and Sean and his father deal with the fallout.

This is a good characther study of a teenager who is forced to re-evluate his life as it goes thru an upheaval due to changed circumstances. The film is uniformly well acted and well paced. One feels symapthy for Sean despite even as we see him make mistakes. The film leaves off with many issues not resolved, which is good in this case as we know life is never simple.

Run This Town (2019)

Dull and disappointing

[2/10 · 8 August 2020]

I watched this movie expecting a Rob Ford biopic. It focuses on two people -Bram a writer for a Toronto newspaper and Kamal, one of Ford's aides.

The story seems all over the place, telling the story of these two low level workers and how one is trying to bring down the Mayor while the other protects him. The story of the two of them really doesn't go anywhere and the movie drags on without coming to a point.

The movie finally ends and leaves you with a feeling that you wasted your time.

Showbiz Kids (2020)

Very good, but could be better

[7/10 · 20 July 2020]

I found this movie quite interesting as it interviewed several former child stars as they discussed their experiences in show biz at a young age.

The documentary covers a lot of familiar territory we have heard before. It does a great job of pointing out some stage parents who may have pushed their kids into show biz to live vicariously through them, how the constant interviews consume so much of the family's free time and how odd it seems that the kids would spend most of their time working instead of having a childhood.

It goes further discussing the pitfalls of fame and the effect it had on many young stars such as the uncomfortable invasion of privacy and problems finding true friends. It mentions briefly the exploitation that young stars could be exposed to. It mentions the effect that negative film reviews have on the child star as criticism can be taken personally. The film doesn't use this example, but think of Star Wars - The Phantom Menace and how Jake LLoyd was personally pointed out as the cause of the film's failure. The movie could also have mentioned the effect of overly positive reviews - i.e. When the stars believe their own press.

There are a few points where the film could have gone further that would have improved the movie; why do some become successful adult actors while others don't (think Freddie Highmore vs Corey Feldman)? The movie points out many child actors who run into problems later in life. The film could have addressed the issue of how Hollywood might, or might not be the cause of these kids problems. They don't bring up other factors, such as familly life, that would have an effect. Many child star's families had serious issues before getting in to show business, which the film doesn't touch on (when it could have gone in to more detail). Corey Feldman details this in his autobiography, which isn't covered in the film.

The interview with Todd Bridges mentions his family got torn apart by greed over the money coming in. I'm sure there could have been many other examples of how the money from show business and its influence on the family and young star could have helped the movie quite a bit.

A final topic could have been brought up - what about former child stars who felt it was a more positive than negative effect ?

Otherwise, the film is a somewhat insightful look at child stardom.

Jack the Bear (1993)

A dark but well done family film

[8/10 · 5 July 2020]

I found this film to be well done.

The film is told thru the eyes of the oldest son Jack, age 12, chronicling his family's life for the year after his family moves to Oakland from the east coast after his mother dies. We see his family trying to cope in their own way thru growing up and living life.

We see Jack's father John working nights and seemingly be more interested in being the neighborhood clown to the local kids than being a parent. The father's heavy drinking seems to add an extra burden on Jack of having to look after his younger brother like take him to his first day of school.

This eventually starts taking its toll on the family - John loses his job and his former in-laws take custody of the grandchildren. Jack seemingly is under stress feeling the strain all of this has taken on the family. The kids return home to their father. The film seems to take an unnecessarily dark turn with an unstable neighbor. The father stops drinking and becomes more of a good father to his kids.

The film I found slowly paced in some parts, though very well acted.

The Outsider (2020)

Great start, goes downhill fast

[6/10 · 29 May 2020]

This story started with a great premise and great acting that hooked you in. The first few episodes were done quite well. Then it started to delve too much in to the supernatural and that's where the story went downhill. The pacing of the story was too slow then and the series could have done well with fewer episodes.

Watch the first few episodes and read about the rest on Wikipedia.

Waiting for Anya (2020)

A war movie for children

[6/10 · 6 April 2020]

OK movie set in southern France during the waning years of WW2. Noah Schnapp stars as Jo, a young French boy who finds a man hiding in the woods while he is helping out with the family's sheep. He follows him to a neighbor's house and discovers that the house is being used to harbor Jews who are travelling to Spain for safety.

The movie is intended for younger audiences and many of the scary elements you would see in similar movies has been considerably toned down. Even the German army that has occupied the town seem oddly tame.

While the movie is well acted, the characters lack any depth and are rather cliched. Noah Scnapp and Anjelica Huston are oddly cast being American. The movie is OK overall.

Better movies in this genre are Downfall, Au Revoir Les Enfants; and Schindler's List.

Purge of Kingdoms (2019)

An unwatchable borefest

[1/10 · 21 August 2019]

This is one of those movies the actors must have done just because they needed to pay the rent.

This movie doesn't even compare to Airplane. The humor is unfunny.

Unmarked (I) (2018)

Great anti-bullying movie

[9/10 · 10 August 2019]

Interesting movie based on a true story about a school's severe mishandling of bullying. Disturbing and believable, we watch the protagonist and his family get bullied first by a classmate, then his mother. The school incredibly believes the bully ang his mother, then starts participating in being the bully and refusing to investigate properly.

The only issue I have with the film is the flashbacks which are distracting.

All Summers End (2017)

A well done movie about consequenses.

[9/10 · 29 July 2019]

This isn't your typical teen movie. It has a darker and more serious tone, which makes it leagues above other fare in its genre.

Tye Sheridan stars as Conrad, a 16 y/o who on a night out with his friends takes part in a prank which has serious consequences. Conrad and his friends make some bad decisions by leaving the scene.

The remainder of the movie deals with Conrad's conscience weighing heavily on him over the decisions he made over the prank. These decisions haunt him even after he comes clean.

A good movie dealing with coming of age issues.

Boy Erased (2018)

I liked this.

[7/10 · 28 December 2018]

Joel Edgerton does quite well in directing his second movie about a boy pressured to attend a gay conversion therapy centre. Overall it's a well directed nicely paced movie with strong acting, especially from Crowe and Kidman.

I suppose it's not hard to believe that there are places like this in the world; Unqualified people taking advantage of religious people's worst fears - that they might have a kid who's gay, and turn it in to a profitable business by claiming to have a cure.

Based on a real story, it follows Lucas Hedges as a teen who's sent to one of these places and is eventually is pulled out by his mom who slowly comes to realize that the place is a farce.

Well worth a watch.

Ben Is Back (2018)

A strong start

[7/10 · 27 December 2018]

This movie chronicles 24 hours in the life of a family after the oldest son comes home from rehab one Christmas eve.

The first part of the movie is good in it's illustration of the chaos and disruption drug addiction has on a family when one of their own is addicted.

The story starts out strong but delves in to unbelievable scenarios such as when the addict son goes after the drug dealer after a break in and theft of the family pet.

Good acting by both Julie Roberts and Lucas Hedges.

Freak Show (2017)

Good acting - average teen movie

[7/10 · 17 June 2018]

Alex Lawther's acting is the best thing about this movie. He breathed life into this movie that easily might have been worse.

Kudos to the writers for trying, but this movie suffers from what most teen movies do: one dimensional characters and weak scripts. Almost all of the characters are cardboard cut outs whose actions are predictable - The jock who hates being a jock, the bitchy cheerleader, clueless parents (including Bette Midler's overacted alcoholic mother), the secretly gay bully in love with the protagonist, etc...

There were some genuinely funny moments though.

Love, Simon (2018)

I thought I wouldn't ike this movie

[9/10 · 17 March 2018]

I thought I wouldn't like this movie. So many of these coming of age stories involve cliched plots, two dimensional acting and hackneyed dialogue. This movie avoided much of this.

The story revolves around a closeted gay teenager looking for love. Nick Robinson handles the subject matter very well and the rest of the cast is great as well. It has the standard happy ending.

Overall, a good film

Call Me by Your Name (2017)

A gay romance

[9/10 · 28 January 2018]

I find many romance movies involving young people tend to get very cliché ridden. The characters tend to be very two dimensional and often find themselves in situations we have seen a million times before. These things make for a very laughable soap opera type of film whether it's a gay or hetero pair of lovers.

Timothee Chalamet plays 17 y/o Elio and Armie Hammer is 29 y/o Oliver who fall in love over the summer of '83 in Northern Italy. Much of the usual clichéd plot lines in gay love stories are absent in this movie; there are no typical "bullying" or "I'm confused" subplots to cause distraction. The characters are multi dimensional and the story has some twists. I found the pace somewhat slow though.

The only thing that concerns me with the movie is the age difference between the two characters, despite their maturity Although both actors are adults in real life, the age difference is a little disquieting though there is no suggestion of force, psychological or physical. In the book, Oliver is 24.

The Journey (III) (2016)

Well acted drama

[8/10 · 10 January 2018]

I'm surprised this movie didn't do better in theatres.

The movie revolves around a fictional retelling of the Northern Ireland peace treaty. It tells the tale of the real life leaders Martin McGuiness and Ian Paisley finding some common ground after years of hatred. The movie doesn't choose sides in the conflict but presents puts the war in perspective: honoring the memory of your ancestors by continuing the conflict or giving your descendants hope by finding peace.

This is an excellent portrayal of two men who must look past themselves and their prejudices to build a peaceful future.

The End of the F***ing World (2017–2019)

A really interesting watch

[8/10 · 6 January 2018]

This modern day Bonnie and Clyde adventure is well acted and interesting. The main two actors have great chemistry and the plot draws you in and keeps your attention.

The subject matter isn't for everyone as there is lots of violence and bad language.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)

One of the oddest movies of the year

[5/10 · 16 November 2017]

This has to be one of the weirdest movies I have seen in quite a while.

Based on "Iphigenia in Aulis", the acting is excellent yet the plot and the ending is rather bizarre. The story revolves around teen aged Martin who puts a mysterious curse on the Murphy family because an apparent mistake the Murphy patriarch, a surgeon, made earlier on Martin's father who died during surgery.

All the characters' behavior in the story is odd and frequently unbelievable.