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magorilla
Reviews
True Justice: Family Ties (2024)
Why the brother?
I thought this had potential and the cast likeable enough. There were issues for me.
The first was that the brother of. McNamara's character, Casey, turns out to be pointless and unnecessary. Pay attention to when the girls first start to discuss his case in order to prove him innocent or you might miss why he took the victim's necklace. However, it's all a fake setup to give McNamara a reason to pursue her brother's innocence when they could have simply had her find out about the death of a friend who had become estranged from her. The brother, played by. Sam Ashe Arnold, contributes nothing of importance otherwise and the background story him and Casey seemed like an afterthought to fill out the script and screen time when they need not have bothered..
I thought McNamara was fine, but her cry face is not pretty and the bleached blonde hair was actually a distraction.
The attempt to pair the character of Liam with Sarah seemed an odd choice when PJ might have made more sense, but it's fine. However, it never really went anywhere unless it is to be followed up on in a sequel.
There is a peculiar goof when the gang first meets Liam in that McNamara is shown wearing a top.beneath her jacket that in the next two shots seems to turn into something with a plunging neckline then back to the more full covered top again. It's nothing to get excited about - it's Hallmark..
I do not believe there was any mention of getting justice for a second victim killed sometime before the main one in this story i.e. Reopening her case.
I will leave any other legal technicalities to others as regards these intern characters and their obtaining evidence plus the handling of it all being correct or not - probably not.
Finally, Hallmark seems to be having cameos of their so-called stars in movies mainly starring others. It can be clever, even cute to some, but Deloach.and Ayres could have had their supporting - guest - roles given to some actors who could have used the work more than they and be more believable as genuine characters in this story. It could also be that Hallmark did not trust the main cast to attract viewers, so they cast these two to do so, which is kind of sad that they would need to rely on these over-exposed channel regulars to do anything new and different.
Spoorloos (1988)
A disappointingly good film.
Just saw this for the first time and have to say it is a good film for what it is, but seems to be over-hyped to be greater than what it was. There is really nothing that suspense, thriller, and horror fans may not have already seen before and probably better in some cases.
The problem is mainly with the character of. Hoffman being fairly unlikeable and something of an idiot. There are a couple of odd over-acting type moments with him in this that felt forced by the direction, or script, if not him. By the end of the film, I felt I did not care what happened to him and he deserved what he got.
That stated, when you realize that what does happen happened to the character of Saskia, you do feel sympathy for her.
I find you have to care why a character is a villain to care about him in any way, but Lemorne is almost forgettable soon after the story ends. You might remember his beard more than the personality it's attached to. On top of being fairly ordinary - "it's always the quiet ones" - he might have been made too clinical and matter-of-fact to to be of any real interest. He is a sociopath - nothing more nothing less - and that's why he does what he does. No real reason for the choice of victim and none for the manner in how he deals with them in the end. He does it just to do it and that supposedly makes him one cold bastard, but I do not think the direction, script, and/or Donnadieu, the actor, pulls it off all that well to make him as horrific as he may have been meant to be. The family the character had did not really help in any way and were sort of just there.
There was no police involvement in this story. You kind of get they had nothing to really go on, so they skipped over the investigation leading to that conclusion.
What bothered me more was there was no mention of Saskia's family (that I noticed) or other friends wondering what happened making her disappearance more superficial and perhaps meaningless in getting the viewer to know and/or care more about her. I also did not get that Hoffman was deeply in love with her enough to care himself. We only spend a short time with them and they mainly had a fight when the car runs out of gas before they make up again at the road stop. Again, his emotions all seemed forced for the story.
It's not a great film nor is it a bad one. Boring? Maybe. Watch it so you can say you have seen it, at least, and if you love it, fine, but in today's modern world where it may be harder to frighten or shock you, be prepared to be let down, as Hoffman was.