Reviews

I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that this is the greatest spy show in the history of television. The plots are gripping, there's just enough but not too much violence, and the acting is terrific. I like that the characters are multi-faceted, torn in different directions, and not one-dimensional. The idea of having to choose between your family and your country is mind boggling. As a viewer, you particularly feel the excruciating pain of choices the spy couple and their daughter must make. I think the plot on this show may be building up to an inevitable, explosive conclusion. I don't know what that conclusion is, but I can't wait to find out.

This program is slow paced, old fashioned, not too exciting or glamorous, with little sex or violence. All that aside, it may well be the best drama series on TV today.

Each show has several subplots, to some extent intertwined and usually with a common theme. The characters, including the midwives, doctors, patients,and nuns have decisions to make, and the decisions are often big ones.

The midwives go quietly and steadily - sometimes heroically - on their way through the fabric of life in late 50's and early'60's London. The plots are engrossing and the characters engaging in this plot-driven and character-driven series.

It reminds me a little of the '80's American series, St Elsewhere, although perhaps a bit grittier and less quirky.

Watch this high-quality show, and take my word, you'll be hooked.

This series has proceeded in a kind of ethical limbo throughout. Many people are killed, some good, some bad, but all as a result of the plot to kill the President. The attitude towards all this killing has seemed to be that some innocents died but most who died deserved it, and anyway, the end justified the means.

This episode at least attempts to rectify this ambivalence of morality. Wrong is wrong serves as the final message. Non-participants and those who strove to stay above the amoral fray win in the end. Those who did not, for the most part, receive appropriate punishment, or at least are haunted by their actions.

The final episode is very thrilling with a number of twists. The end is predictable, but how the episode got to the end is not. Clearly, the series is wrapped up, conceding that this is in effect the series finale.

I'm mystified by the criticisms of this movie. It's not a movie about "relationships" and hence not subject to a lot of character development. Nor is it a fictional action movie, where every plot twist has to be exciting and dramatic. It is a documentary style narrative - with some poetic license - outlining the main events which led to locating and killing Bin Laden.

I found the movie both realistic and compelling. Though I suspect the main character, Maya, played flawlessly by Jessica Chastain, is a composite of a number of characters, revolving the main plot sequences around her brings a sense of unity to the movie as well as putting a human face on it. And there is in fact subtle character development, mostly in Maya's developing relationships with her CIA chief, and with her cohorts, Dan and Jessica. Without giving the plot away, the story line involving Jessica has a particular and lasting impact on Maya.

The raid scene is so realistic, I still don't know how they did it. Obviously, there are actual shots from the air of the compound mixed in with an incredibly authentic set. The raid takes longer than one would think, with the time line shorter, increasing the sense of dramatic urgency.

This is the type of movie where, at the end, you feel like kissing both Maya and the American soil, while chanting U.S.A.

Don't listen to the naysayers. Although it is difficult to put together all of the segments of he movie, the segments of this movie are so interesting and inspiring in themselves that the movie is fascinating even if you can't form a mental synthesis of all the stories. I particularly liked the future world represented by Seoul, Korea. Without giving away the plot, suffice it to say that the combination of spectacular special effects and the ultimate underdog versus establishment storyline make for an exciting and enthralling viewer experience. The Korean actress Doona Bae as a "fabricant" is so convincing and likable that she steals the show. The interplay between this story and the story with Tom Hanks and Halle Berre in the "valley" in the post apocalyptic world is shocking yet totally plausible. This is not an "easy" movie to figure out and definitely not formulaic. Perhaps reading the novel, which I have not done yet, would clarify a lot. But the fact that I want to read the novel is indicative of the movie's strange and gripping hold on the viewer.

This is a highly underrated movie. It has a decent plot, exceptional acting by John Travolta, Debra Winger, Scott Glenn, and supporting cast, and toe tapping pop country music throughout. Although the emphasis on mechanical bull riding is a little silly, the main characters are plausible in their motivations, their jealosies, and in the end, their abiding love for each other. The popularity of the movie to a wide section of America is proof that it is more than just a movie appealing "country" or "redneck" types. There's something about Debra Winger - her change of moods, her expressiveness, her vulnerability - where you just can't take your eyes off her when she is on camera. And the movie is downright fun with the Charlie Daniels Band, Travolta's Texas 2 step dancing scenes, and mechanical bull riding contests. There's no deep message to this movie, but it has a certain simple honesty about it, and it'll entertain you for its 2-hour duration.

This highly enjoyable movie starring Dustin Hoffman, Andy Garcia, and Geena Davis is a modern morality play. To paraphrase the Andy Garcia character , we all have a hero in us if you find us at our best, and we all have feet of clay if you find us at our worst. Further, the movie emphasizes that appearances are deceiving and the person we look down on may in fact have heroic qualities that we are not aware of.

The movie is presented in a somewhat stylized way, hearkening back to Capra in its oddly old fashioned characters, the overlapping scenes, the symbolic lighting, the characters' constant quest for some idealized goal.

I thought that the trio of Hoffman, Garcia, and Davis played off of one another very skillfully and really seemed to be enjoying themselves in this movie. Joan Cusack and Chevy Chase steal scenes with their (deliberately) over the top acting, and the movie in the end is quite satisfying in its combination of humor and moral lesson.

I like this movie the best of the Jane Austen adaptations for screen. The acting is excellent, the movie is fast paced for an 18th century period piece, and the English countryside scenery is splendid. Emma Thompson seems so comfortable in her role as the older sister (as well she should since she wrote the movie's screenplay). The movie tugs at the viewer's heartstrings without being maudlin, and the serious themes of the movie are balanced by humor. In my mind, the movie succeeds on every level, and furthermore appears in hindsight to have been a springboard for a number of very fine actors and actresses. If you think English period pieces are slow or stuffy, you will find this intriguing, up-temp movie a pleasant surprise.

This is my favorite early Disney cartoon. The whole movie has a dream-like quality, which is apropos because Alice is dreaming throughout the story. A number of reviewers refer to the "trippy" quality of the movie. And indeed it is trippy, from the mad-hatter tea party to the opium smoking Caterpillar to the Cheshire cat fading in and out and whose smile is mistaken for a crescent moon, to the Queen of Hearts and the final chase morphing into a whirling, twirling swirl of colorful cards. I disagree with critics who say the action is too slow or that the songs are not up to par. The action, in my mind, is appropriate to "dream speed," focusing intensely on the strange characters Alice meets and then cutting away to a new scene. The songs are fine and perfectly in context - I particularly like "A very merry unbirthday to you." I highly recommend this cartoon to viewers old and young - sit down, tune in, and let your imagination run wild.

Mirror Image is the kind of creepy, nightmarish episode that delves deep into your subconscious and stays there for years, ready to leap out into your conscious mind and scare you when reminded of its terrifying premise. The idea that a "double" can steal your identity and replace you is inherently unsettling. Think Invasion of the Body Snatchers - a movie with a similar premise. And as in Body Snatcher, the idea that no one believes what you know is true and that you are viewed as "going insane" adds to the horror of the protagonist and the empathy of the audience.

I particularly liked the ending because, although disconcerting, it represents the expanded possibility of an alternate reality over the smug, narrow-mindedness of conventional wisdom and leads to the question, who's crazy now?

One of the truly classic early Twilight Zone episodes. A woman is lying in a hospital bed with her face covered with bandages. All hope lies in an imminent operation to restore her distorted features. The doctors and nurses attempt to reassure her that everything will be all right. The undertone, however, is that if the operation fails, the consequences will be very bad for the patient.

The camera direction plays with the viewer, who hears a lot of conversation but can't really see anyone's faces until the climax.

The episode combines a theme envisioned by the title, along with a kind of big brother overlay, and concludes with a glimmer of hope for even the throwaways of society. The twist at the end is startling if you haven't seen already seen it. and still very dramatic even if you have.

Rod Taylor and Jim Hutton give appropriately creepy performances in this tale which explores the tenuousness of perceived reality. Three astronauts are in the hospital after their spaceship crashes to earth. The spaceship had been out of communication with Mission Control for some time prior to its being found in the desert with all three astronauts alive.

As the astronauts are released from the hospital, the world as they know it turns upside down, one astronaut at a time. By the time the episode ends, the viewer is left questioning basic premises of our existence, such as memory, observation, existence itself.

Rod Taylor's character is strong and confident, then confused and unsure, and finally desperate and panicky as he tries to figure out what is happening to everyone's memory.

The story poses large, existential questions, of "another dimension," worthy of portrayal in the Twilight Zone.

I saw this episode when I was about 12 years old, and it is one of the Twilight Zone episodes which has been etched in my consciousness as an almost archetypal story. Without giving the plot away, suffice it to say that the combination of a large urban department store, darkness, and a plethora of life-like manikens would be frightening even without the added twists.

When our heroine, a young female shopper, goes to look for a present for her mother and winds up on the 9th floor of an 8-story department store, the real weirdness begins.

Anne Francis is both lovely and convincingly bewildered as the eerie plot unfolds. While the episode is creepy and scary, it also has a certain humor and "humanity" which in the end relieve the tension in an entertaining and ultimately satisfying way.

This is the Twilight Zone at its very best.