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Reviews
Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)
Stunning and disturbing
I felt drawn into this movie from the very strange beginning. From there it got stranger and stranger and disturbing. As soon as I saw the "awards" I knew there would be something bad on the screen and I wasn't wrong about that. If I had known that scene was in the movie there's no way I would have watched it. I don't think the alternative lifestyle theme took the movie anywhere either and was more of a distraction than anything else. The actors themselves were absolutely fantastic. I really enjoyed all of them. I'm giving the movie a 5 out of 10 because it was very well made but ultimately disturbing. Time for some mental bleach.
Stitchers (2015)
Juvenile
Like most of the other reviewers I was disappointed in this show. The main character is incredibly annoying. She has a mental condition that makes it difficult to know how much time has passed. I'm not sure what that adds to the show. Most of the time she claims to be emotionless while simultaneously being very angry and mean to the people around her. The lead male actor acts very strangely and talks so fast he is difficult to follow. If he was aiming to portray a mentally disturbed person he hit the mark. The rest of the characters act as though they are 14 years old. There is no depth to any of them. Particularly disappointing is Allison Scagliotti from Warehouse 13. She has acting experience but you wouldn't guess it from watching this show. She is like an early teenager pretending to be popular in from of her mirror. The only good actor is Damon Dayoub who plays a detective and his role is far to small to counter the other bad actors. This show could have been great if they had made it with adults.I continue to watch it hoping it will improve but I suspect it will not survive the first season.
The Outsider (2014)
Indecipherable
As others have said the basic plot is simple. Daughter reported dead, dad says it isn't her, dad goes on rampage to find daughter. Not the same as Taken but obviously an attempt to vary the theme.
Starting with the actors there is the basic problem of being able to understand them. Everything they say is muffled and guttural sounding. Even when they can be understood their lines don't make any sense.
The plot also seems very poor. I know they were trying to ride the Taken wave but there's no way any father would react the way the main character does. One example is when he visits the office his daughter worked at. He talks to the boss, gets mad, and beats up the security guards. Why? The security guards are just doing their job escorting him out. He has no further business in the building. So why stop on his way out to beat them up and get arrested. Ahh, so he can meet the police working the case of the actual dead girl. Why didn't he go there directly?
The camera work also seems very poor. It's a rare scene to get a good view of an actors face during what should be intense emotional moments. Maybe I shouldn't fault the camera guy. The actors never varied their facial expressions so maybe it was an attempt to hide what poor acting jobs they were doing.
Over all you can expect random tough guy lines and violence that makes no sense. I made it part way though the movie and turned it off. It's just a loud indecipherable mess.
Robinson Crusoe (1997)
This is not "Robinson Crusoe"
I was very very disappointed in this movie. It fails to tell the tale of Robinson Crusoe. The only similarity between this movie and the book is a man getting shipwrecked. There was no build up at all. No explanation of the father explaining the middle life to his son and asking him to stay home. No description of initial journeys being a disaster and how he felt it was a sign from God. These are important elements to the story!
If I had to pick one thing that really bothered me it would be the relationship between Robinson and Friday. In the book Friday is ALWAYS the slave. Robinson does eventually give Friday his freedom in the book but he still remains a servant. This sanitized version fails to keep us in the time setting of the book.
The ending. Oh my. How cliché.
Death Proof (2007)
bizarre in more ways than one
Now I know that Quentin Tarantino movies are pretty crazy so I wasn't expecting "Pretty Woman" going into the movie but there is some pretty crazy scenes in this show.
The first half of the show was kind of a turn off to me because it detailed the adventures of several women with extremely loose morals. In fact I found it appalling. I know some might see it as "liberated" but I just found it to be slutty behavior.
The second half of the movie was much much better in my opinion. Excellent stunt scenes performed by women (I assume they did their own scenes, it looked like it). Great car chases.
It was nice to see Kurt Russel in action again also. He looks pretty "mature" in this movie at 56 he looks well worn but that may have been partially due to the way he was portrayed.
Zoe Bell is the star of the show in my opinion. Great stunts, spicy attitude, nice moves at the end.
Overall I'd say this is a good show to watch while having a few beers or late at night. Not sure I'd dedicate my full attention to it though.
The Mist (2007)
good movie, terrible ending
If you can watch the movie up to the last five minutes, turn off the DVD, pretend everything is OK, then you will enjoy this movie. What happens in that last five minutes was unspeakable and I wish I had never seen it. This is one movie that deserves an alternate ending version.
Back to the beginning. The character development is good. Very believable people and location. The progression of the "crisis" is well handled with things slowly ratcheding up. The special effects were flawless.
So good movie but that last five minutes...
Conan the Barbarian (2011)
watch it when you have nothing else to watch
I was pretty disappointed in this movie. Jason Momoa gave a very uninspiring performance. Most of the time it seemed like he just wasn't into his own movie. Not nearly enough attitude like a barbarian should have. Rachel Nichols? Did she even know what movie she was in? Acting like a new yorker in conan movie isn't the way to go. So there's the bad stuff.
The good news is there is a lot of fight scenes (even if they aren't all great). There was one good actor in the movie. Rose McGowan really brought personality and character to her role. Besides Rose the only thing that made the movie interesting was the topless girls.