Reviews

Clint plays (himself) as Earl Stone, a 90-year old horticulturist who traveled around and lived it up while alienating his wife and daughter - but somehow not his granddaughter? He goes out of business and is destitute. (Was he supposed to work to 100?) A random guest at his daughter's pre-nuptial asks him out of the blue to be a drug mule, since Earl mentions he has a perfect driving record. Okay, but do folks drive better as they age? No hidden compartments, just toss the drugs in the bed with his golf clubs. After a few runs he has enough to buy his house out of foreclosure, a $70K pickup and fixing up the local VFW. No one wonders where all this money came from? The cartel doesn't warn him about being so ostentatious?

Meanwhile a parallel story about DEA agents tracking the cartel stays parallel for way too long. Clint gets to show he's out of touch with no texting, and the 'dykes on bikes' and 'Negro spare tire' scenes. It's the same old man humor from recent Eastwood film. A couple scenes are WTH, including the cartel boss - who somehow appreciates Clint's orneriness - gets offed. Worst is when Earl stops in the middle of nowhere to inspect his load for the first time - why? - and when he turns around there's a trooper with a drug sniffing dog. Earl fends off the dog's scent using Brylcreme. Where did he learn that? These runs are paying way too much considering it's all domestic drives. No real action, just lots of driving while Clint sings along to old tunes on the radio. Why does the cartel tail him the whole way on one run? That's not suspicious!

Earl tries to use his new wealth to reconnect with his family. Meanwhile he's randy enough at 90 for two sessions with two hookers each. Clint being Clint! He misses a drop to attend his ex-wife's funeral, and both the cartel and DEA close in. Eventually the DEA closes in and he's busted. Oddly the family forgives him, again despite how he gained the money. Daughter's line after the verdict that "At least we'll know where you are." was painful. Cut to Earl growing day lilies in prison.

There's some real message here about how invisible the elderly are in our society, but it's lost in Clint's total package control. His old man run should have stopped with Gran Torino.

Starts off well enough as a stock WW2 film. A platoon in December 1944 somewhere near the front lines (geography is a big issue) is being told the war is over, by who has to be the oldest LT in the Army. (He was in WW1,so has to be 44.) On an easy mission to deliver food they are attacked, and uncover the armor columns massing for the Battle of the Bulge. They lose a lot of men. So far, so average. Can they get back to warn their superiors?

Then there's a weird explosion in the sky. They decide to investigate. Turns out the Germans are testing an atomic bomb - right near the front! Thing is, the town doesn't look THAT bad. The strutting caricature of an evil Nazi officer is strutting around blaming the German scientist - Prochnow, how sad - and his hot daughter for the failure.

The troops arrive in town to find a dying OSS officer who tells them they need to complete his mission to Stuttgart. No matter where they are, this is WAY behind enemy lines. The contact is at the opera. Yeah, really. They decide to do it?! So after fighting with a Soviet POW who joins them (anyone suspicious?) they just hop on the train with the Nazis in pursuit. Um, and they can't stop the train?

Train is full of Allied POWs including a "British" Air Force brawler who joins them. Germans are waiting in Stuttgart, but somehow four of the team escapes. After a brawl (lots of fit fights for a war) they steal German uniforms. They go to the opera and chat in English a few steps from the guards. ?? The leader goes in with the ticket, then uses another to pick up a coat. When he does, the daughter appears, kisses him and they leave. She's the contact, trying to sabotage her father's plans for an A-bomb. When it's done, they'll kill him. (I mean, won't he still be a brilliant scientist?)

Bomb is being built in a factory using POWs as labor. Uhh. No real plan to break in, but they do, escape with the bomb just as B-17s swoop in at rooftop height (??) to bomb the place. Brit grabs a walkie-talkie to direct the P-51s to destroy the vehicle chasing them. He has the exact coords and everything. Yeah, just like that. Tom Sizemore, playing an officer busted to cook, dies at the end just like Private Ryan.

Leader gets away, where old LT thanks him but says its all top secret so don't expect anything. Hot daughter shows up his hospital bed but then ... what? Brit somehow has his flight jacket back and drives the US Army vehicle away. End scene with lead at his dad's WW1 grave.

So, so many problems here. Geography is all over the place. No problem getting from wherever they started to Stuttgart by train, then driving to Strasbourg. Weaponry is all over the place; everyone has a machine gun. Plot is unbelievable on multiple levels, starting with an infantry squad taking on a covert mission deep behind enemy lines based on two minutes with a dying OSS officer when a warning on the buildup is the obvious action. A gratuitous but much appreciated nude scene. (Let me take a bath in this house full of horny soldiers. Shut the front door.) Air raid is ridiculous and poor CGI. Lots of anachronisms, e.g. Cojones and 'nuclear' facility. Acting is okay; lead maybe a bit more than OK. Daughter is yummy.

Maybe the video game was better.

Coming in, I expected a Death Wish/Breaking Down type film where an average guy is pushed beyond his limits and fights back - hard. That is kind of the plot, except the average guy is just an act and Hutch is really the kind of retired government super agent that we've seen in countless other films. He even has a "very particular set of skills". The result is a bloodbath for the bad guys with Hutch and family of similar supermen - geriatric dad busting out of nursing home to wield shotguns galore and a mysterious, all-seeing black (?) brother - eliminating dozens and dozens or Russian baddies with barely a scratch in return.

The fight choreography is Wick-ish. Odenkirk does do great as the everyman ne agent. And the Home Alone setup at the end is interesting. There's even some quirky humor. But plot disappears for shoot-em-up with no consequences. And - surprise - Nobody 2 is all teed up.

Hadn't read the books or seen the Cruise version, so came in with no pre-conceptions. Struggling to get through season one, and likely won't make it.

Where to start? Poor acting, convoluted plot, either lots of talking or total unrealistic action, weird characters. Reacher shows up in a random GA town with nothing and is suddenly in an investigation of major crime syndicate including his Secret Service agent brother dead??

Reacher is a hulking time bomb whose Sherlockian observations are supposed to offset his assaulting anyone for any minor reason. Flashbacks to his youth with his brother show they've been like this all along; psychos. But somehow he became a decorated Army major criminal investigator?? The fish-out-of-water black Boston cop who's the lead detective in constant tweed three piece suits is unbelievable, as is the scrawny, mousy female cop "Roscoe". And the characaturish Southern mayor.

What tore it for me was when his brother's SS boss, who constantly cries about his death, had to print out all his files (?!) then physically carry them to Atlanta, where - in an airport that looks nothing like ATL - she is grabbed and killed between stepping off the train and the top of the escalator???

A schizophrenic stinker that can't decide if it's a Hallmark movie, a Gothic thriller, or a straight-up vampire film. Trying to be all means it's none.

The one thing it IS though is 21st century girl power. There's an early scene where Evie, the biracial American who will go to England to shake up an old family (Hello Meghan M!), is catering an event where the totally white crowd not only declines her appetizers but dismisses her. Later when she and her sista are counting their ample tips and complaining about being hit on, their white male boss tells them in a thick Eastern European accent that other girls would kill for their job. Foreshadowing?

Anyway, there's a DNA kit in the swag bag she mooches and, depressed, she sends it in. Instantly she connected to every possible relative and a 2nd cousin from England ("whitest man ever") invites her a family wedding there. And we're off.

What the film is is really a moew girl power battling toxic white masculinity, here embodied by a family of old white people. Evie meshes with the staff better than her family despite their very warm welcom, in part because some are WOC. She becomes the "strong female character" for the "modern audience" and in the (rushed) ending manages to take down all the evil white men. Then back with her sista to deal with the cousin.

Nearly every person involved in making this film is female. Ironically, it therefore lacks real diversity that would make this better. Missandei from GoT as Evie is formulaic. But the nose ring (really?) tells us she's a tough, modern woman. The other actors are unremarkable, even metrosexual Dracu-, er, de Ville. Production values are okay, but limited, as are the FX.

Nothing to recommend this.

Brendan Fraser plays an LGBTQ person with a eating disorder 'handicap' trying to do one thing right in his life by reconnecting with his teenage daughter before he eats himself into oblivion. That he should stop overeating to extend his life and thus do multiple good things apparently never occurred to him.

Watched this because of the rave reviews he got for the role. The two character points noted above probably locked this in with the Oscar crowd. He does okay in a role that demands both physically and emotionally. The problem is that it's hard to root for him when he's doing this to himself. Plus every other character is unlikable in a major way, particularly the daughter whose 'amazingness' seems to stem from an 8th grade essay on Moby Dick (whale!) that Fraser reads over and over. And wants to die reading. The caretaker is unbelievably devoted, the missionary stereotyped, and the ex-wife nearly as annoying as the daughter.

The setting for the whole film is a dark, dingy apartment. Play-bound films like this suffer so, but Fraser can barely walk so where else can it go.

"Bond is going to die at the end so throw everything possible into this, even if it's not entertaining or makes little sense."

It was interesting when Daniel Craig took Bond in a slightly different direction. However, after multiple films that slight divergence has taken Bond far from the character that most expect. Mopey, introspective, bland, etc. Etc. When he puts on a tux, we expect class, wit, bon vivantry, etc. Here, the tux was merely a costume change.

After an overlong intro that wasn't the set action piece needed, we find Bond seems ready to settle down with Madelaine Swann - except she feels he's not over Vesper Lind. Huh? On a tomb visit that is supposed to let him move on, an explosion that should have killed him does nothing. He immediately blames Swann and sends her away forever. Making no sense.

Bond then lives off the grid in Jamaica for 5 years until old pal Felix of the CIA tried to enlist him for one more mission. That trope? A saucy but pointless Ana de Armas helps him at a Spectre convention which wipes them out. Felix is killed (end all things Bond) so he visits MI6 to find a charmless black female has taken the 007 designation. (see previous comment) M designed a DNA-based weapon that is now amok. Swann and Blofeldt are involved, but the real villain is a bland, weird Rami Malek. You can watch the rest, but the ending on the villains secret island complex (!) has Bond mowing down baddies like the lawn while they constantly miss him. The extra 007 (who gave that back) adds nothing here. (How did Bond get from Norway to somewhere between Russia and Japan just like that?) Extra woke points for gaay Q.

Craig sleepwalks through the film. He clearly wants to be elsewhere. There's very little Bond left in him. Tearing down white male heroes is de rigeur in films these days. Done and done.

I wasn't a follower of the books or video games, so came in taking the series for what it was. Cavill made this work. While gruff and stoic, he was clearly a more complex character than appeared. As a "mutant monster hunter", he roamed the continent dispatching dangerous beast for pay - like a Western gunslinger. This alone could have made for an interesting storyline, with a broader storyline tying individual things together so it wasn't formulaic. That story though didn't need to be world-breaking one that developed.

Production values are good, and while some critiqued the CGI, it was serviceable. The Witcher doesn't aspire to be GOT, or at least it shouldn't have.

The problem is that the back story keeps building up in the foreground, introducing so many characters and interactions that it's hard to keep up. You're never given the real geography involved, so it gets even more muddling. Throw in tons of magic, that is never really explained despite all the training going on, and you can have lots of WTH moments.

Series needed more eps like the Witcher visiting an old friend who's now under a Beast-like curse - who happens to have a vampire as a castle mate.

As the story evolves, Witcher starts fading as two other characters - Yennifer and Cirill (Ciri) take over. Yennifer isn't a likeable character at all, so hard to root for her even as she evolves and starts a love-hate relationship with Geralt. Ciri comes to epitomize girl power: besides being a princess/queen of a powerful kingdom (albeit in exile) she's also a super powerful mage with unknown abilities and - because she spent a few months (?) training with Geralt is a kick-a$$ warrior. These would be tough roles to play, and neither actress seems fully up to it.

Even into season three things seem okay. Then Geralt is barely in the story as the girl powers take over. The "Brotherhood" dwindles to a few women. The all-female dryads. LGBT sex shows up (a non-binary?) with other sex/nudity disappearing. Jaskier the bard deserved better. The medieval Europe setting with strong Slavic influences becomes as diverse as central London. Big events like the battle of Sodden and the crumbling of Arethuza don't really register. Season three is more like 5, then 1.

Cavill leaving says it all. Ride off, Witcher, ride off.

This film must have looked much better as a premise: a runaway train carrying toxic chemicals has to be stopped by two ordinary railroad workers before a catastrophe happens.

Lots of problems after that. Washington and Pine are opposites thrown together on day one. Both have personal issues that don't have much bearing on the story but get lots of time. A schlub does everything possible to get the train rolling in the first place. The geography is all over the place so we never have a good idea of how serious things are. Despite news helicopters being right at the train, no one seems to know where it is. The news handling is ridiculous. They report the story like a sporting event, with details that - even if known within minutes - would not be broadcast, like the names of those involved.

Several of the train actions are similarly unrealistic. Trains oncoming at over 100 mph get on side tracks with no problem. Hitting a train? No problem. Somehow they can't drop a guy from a helicopter onto the train? Well, they do but then another train bucks him off. Why don't they just speed match the train from the front, then have someone step onto the runaway to stop it.

The biggest cheat is that the train takes the deadly and unrealistic "Stanton curve" at twice the rated speed with no problems. PLus there are way too many places with miles of asphalt running right next to the tracks. Thing that would be a driving problem. Also, there are multiple fade-outs that end scenes as if going to a commercial.

Next time, take the bus.

The basics are there for a solid series. An American group in Vichy France is trying to save various people with visas to flee to America.

The cinematography and scenes do a great job of 1940s Marseille. Costumes are well done. Other than that, problems about.

Everything is quirky mix of the serious and the silly. The music and titles reflect this. No one really seems too concerned about leaving, even after a huge group relocates to a villa that the authorities are well aware of. Everyone is partying, has plenty to eat and drink, look great in those costumes (too great).

The dialogue and themes are all 2020s not 1940s. Click all the necessary tropes: gay love, interracial love, a black female British SOE agent who acts as a deus ex machina in her extravagant outfits. Spies are supposed to blend in, right?

The acting is rather wooden. Jacobs is particularly unbelievable as a Chicago heiress funding it all, falling for every guy, all while porting the newest outfits. Two prison escapes are never explained; guys just walk out. And they just walk over the Pyrenees too?

Historical, not.

Based on the true-life story of a family flying from Florida to Louisiana in a small plane whose pilot dies shortly after takeoff. The father, with one pilot experience, needs help from his family, air traffic controllers, and experienced pilots to make it.

Seems compelling enough, but it's a thin basis that quickly gets bloviated out of control. The faith-based component is heavy handed and the CGI is poor. Worst though are all the extra parts thrown in as filler. The father's brother dying (then showing up as a ghost after landing), the annoying two kids who track the entire episode via computer then race to the field to get ON THE RUNWAY - despite a security guard in a car seeing them immediately, the 'no cell phones' here drama, a peanut allergy (really?), the one flight controller's bar experiences before and after, racing to get an expert who does nothing, the Air King expert building a mock-up in his garage (who apparently can't function without his wife), a tropical storm that they can't avoid but then leave in seconds, etc. Etc. Etc. Even the technical parts are muddled, as at one point the ATCs are telling him he's too slow while the expert pilot is saying he's too fast.

Dialogue is poor, characters change race from their real-life equivalents, the little girl tracker being feminist ("I'm going to be a pilot because my teacher Mr. ___ said I couldn't), and one guy RUNNING to the end of the runway because the responders are in the wrong place are just more examples.

Avoid.

There's a reason Brigadoon was a box office bomb. It has a lot of the parts for a hit, but they never come together. The stagy staging, changing from a song-based musical to a dance-based one to suit Kelly, the need to fill the Cinemascope screen with breadth and color, dubbing the female lead's one song, cutting others, the excessive cheeriness of the Brigadooners, etc.

We get the idea: everyone's looking for their perfect someone, who may only come along once and so you may need to risk it all for love. This is just the wrong format for it. Two Americans grouse hunting in Scotland (with no apparent clue about what they're doing) stumble upon a magical Scottish village that only appears for one day every hundred years. Neither group seem particularly curious about the out-of-time aspects of the other. Remember, to the Brigadoon folks this is only their 2nd day since the "miracle" happened.

Maybe the real problem is the "miracle" itself. To keep the village safe from 'witches', their saintly parson prayed that Brigadoon would have their one-day-per-century appearance. This would keep them so little in 'that' world that it couldn't intrude. There are some very specific requirements though, such that if anyone ever leaves Brigadoon will vanish forever, and an outsider can stay if he/she really, really loves someone in Brigadoon. Really loves, in just one day? And how was all this communicated to the village, since the pastor went outside of town for the miracle and was never seen again? The miracle seems more like a curse, imprisoning everyone inside the village forever. I mean, the one "rebel" just wanted to go to college! Someone leaving could end their existence in what to them could seem like only a few days later, when they could have kept truly living for years on without the miracle. Surely there was some outside contact in 1754, including trade in all those multi-colored fabrics everyone is wearing. What about just food? Why not just prevent the witches from entering Brigadoon, miraculously or otherwise? It's just hard to get around the premise.

Throw in cynical, alcoholic buddy Van Johnson - whose only shot, at night, kills the Scot trying to escape the miracle/curse (which is covered up totally) - who manages to talk Gene Kelly ("shiny" as ever) out of the love of his life in few curt sentences, and the result is a WTH? And yet there was another miracle clause that let's everyone live happily ever after. If you make stuff up, please be consistent.

A big budget 1950s blockbuster that doesn't age well. There's very little battle in "Battle Cry", taking up only the last part with only an average depiction of combat.

The rest of the film is about a stock list of 'types' from the tough CO to the wise sergeant to naif, lumberjack, bookworm, hillbilly, Navajo, 'Spanish Joe', etc. A lot of time is spent on mundane military matters, but much more on their seemingly amply leave time when they pursue women. This includes a married woman for the naif (who's torn for his girl back home), the lumberjack with an accent-less Kiwi war widow, and the bookworm who's ferry-mate turns out to be a hooker. (She becomes a 'good girl' and he's killed off-screen and offhandedly.) It's pretty sexy for 1955, but today it's like having sex fully clothed.

The major drives his men unbelievably hard, but somehow is a 'troublemaker' whose men get only mop-up roles. Why is never explained. He risks insubordination to get them into combat and, perhaps appropriately, gets killed. His own wife is only mentioned as a dutiful military wife, and he makes a play for the Kiwi himself.

Whitmore follows his "Battleground" NCO performance (superb!) with a similar role here,but comes off as too much particularly with all his narration. There are some historical errors to include the black Marines and Tarawa ranking with Gettysburg.

Big screen, big score, big cast - but a fairly big disappointment. See it for what it's worth.

Season 1 was great. Ryan was true to Clancy's character. An analyst who uses his smarts first and his actions second. The villain is an Osama bin Laden type with an extremely complicated plot for world terror. Jack thinks ahead, and outwits him. Tight and tense.

Season 2? Yikes. Jack is now a combination of James Bond and Rambo. He never does as directed, but since it (usually) comes out right, it's all good. Think a little, but shoot and punch a lot. He's immediately sleeping with a random woman (not a great looking one, either) that he meets in a bar? What happened to Cathy? (And his bad back?) S2 takes place shortly after S1. Jack is a total straight shooter, so this it completely unlike him. That she later turns out to be Harriet the Spy (really!) and working the same 'case' as him is totally implausible. Too much filler, like Uber's back story. The villain is wan, but was Jack really ready to kill the president of Venezuela? Plus that helo flies right to the president's palace in the middle of rioting with no problems. Want to topple him? Show the video of the candidate's kidnapped/tortured husband, now free.

Hope S3 is more like S1.

On paper, "Hail Caesar" had all the ingredients: Coen brothers, a bevy of stars, crisp cinematography, great sets and costumes, etc. Etc.

They just forgot a coherent story. Is this satire or comedy? Not biting or funny enough for either. Eddie Mannix is a Hollywood fixer who between quitting smoking, daily confession, and being wooed by Lockheed (none of which added to the story) he's solving a kidnapped Charlton Heston, a pregnant Ester Williams, a can't-act cowboy star, all while fending off twin (?) gossip columnists.

Mannix is great at what he does, so the juggling seems easy. Heston was kidnapped by communists, then decides to get in on it himself. Plot is masterminded by gaay Gene Kelly.

Many of the stars are barely in it, while many of the scenes serve no apparent purpose. E.g. Cowboy being trained to act by prissy director. It's here, there, everywhere - and ultimately nowhere.

Worth a watch, but set expectations low.

Disney takes a minor, albeit intriguing character from the original Star Wars trilogy and tries to make us all care about him because, well, its Star Wars.

Fett was a bounty hunter who never spoke a word and was last seen in Return of the Jedi being dropped into and presumably eaten by some toothy pit on Tatooine. We see him again in The Mandalorian as, apparently, a clone wearing his father's Mandalorian-type armor. I think that should have been enough.

Now he's back, and takes over Jabba the Hutt's criminal empire on Tatooine. Why? Well, just because he's tired of "idiots telling him what to do" as a bounty hunter. The gaps between the toothy pit are filled in with flashbacks, as he's captured by then adopted by the Tusken Raiders, aka Sand People. The old western trope of being taken in by the Indians. Eventually (spoiler) they're wiped out by, essentially, a biker gang that Fett then wipes out himself once he regains his ship - which is one of the most ridiculous craft ever designed. Might work in space, not in atmosphere. He's assembling a crew of reformed criminals starting with his Mary Sue assassin sidekick from Mandalorian (she never misses any shot, and takes down multiple experienced fighters twice her size every time without a scratch - all in her late 50s), a rogue Wookie, two pigmen, and a youth gang of part-droid humans who ride Vespas.

Most of the series he appears to say, "I am Boba Fett." Expecting everyone to immediately know/fear/respect him. Or else he kills them.

As with Mandalorian (who shows up to boost the series, and show how it pales in comparison even though picks up a one-seat speeder - for bounty hunting?), the production design, costumes, and special effects are superb. The acting remains wooden and the plot is thin as Boba's coif. No one really cares about a minor character taking over a crime empire. It's almost like the plot is there just to show the great production values. It has way too many mindless fights where the good guys don't get a scratch and every bad guy dies. This series better find some heart/romance or it's just a well-designed cartoon.

Mandalorian has outstanding set design, costumes, and special effects. Truly captures the "Star Wars" feel of things. Although it's odd that the galaxy seems to consist of barely populated planets with a vague central Asian vibe.

The plotting though reminds me of old TV westerns. Mando (he has a name, but never uses it so how do the Mandalorians distinguish each other?) is a bounty hunter (but seemingly also kidnapper, assassin, or whatever needs doing) roaming the galaxy/West bringing in bad guys but also helping regular folks along the way. He's got his own code ("This is the way.") and never takes off his helmet, like the Lone Ranger's mask. He's a crack shot, master fighter, ace pilot, and wears Beskar steel to shrug off blasters.

Like those westerns, most of the general plotting is breezy: bad guys need taking down. Mando's the guy for the job. The larger plot is protecting baby Yoda, whom he brought in for the bounty but then saved from the taker. This turns the guild against him, so he's an outcast bounty hunter. Fair enough.

Beside Mando himself, who does pretty good considering we never see his face, the acting is pretty stiff particularly Gina Carano who should stick to action vice acting. Disney does their usual stunt/demographic casting to make sure it sells in world-wide markets.

The real problem is most episodes have plot holes or other unbelievable aspects that are hard to overlook despite the action quickly pinwheeling to the next point. I mean, did Mando forget that every bounty hunter was still tracking baby Y when he thought he could leave him in a peaceful village? By himself he can fix his ship when it crashed deep into an icy cave? Worst was in season 2 when he needs "imperial codes" to track baby Y. "Hey, I know a guy." Who has the codes because he was in the imperial army years back? They have to get to a "terminal" to use the codes, and the only one they know of is on a secret imperial mining planet. Huh? This ep was particularly bad because Mando had to remove his helmet because the terminal needed to scan his face. What? He's never been seen by anyone. What is this scan going to do except say, "I don't recognize you." There are a lot of macguffins besides baby Y, with lots of "You need to see this person, who will lead you to the next person" incidents. The stormtroopers remain the worst shots ever, never hitting anyone - except Mando who's protected. Meanwhile they get mowed down in every case. Does that armor do anything? For Star Wars sake, there are several "race down the canyon" moments.

It's a decent show if you can overlook 2-3 "WTH?" moments per episode.

A typical suburban family starts experiencing odd events. A midnight mess in the kitchen. Then all their photos vanish out of the frames. The kitchen contents stacked up in impossible precision. Everyone having bad dreams. A security system that can't capture anything - but goes to static when the events seem to be happening. Hundreds of birds crashing into the house. Youngest saying the Sandman bothers him at night.

At this point, you'd probably be thinking ghosts. But no, it's aliens. The parents find an expert who lays it all out, saying they've been chosen for no particular reason and to expect an abduction.

He then gives them the standard approach that they might make it if they stick together as a family, as the Grays try to break you down mentally. Huh? That sounds like good advice against spooks, but against aliens who can walk through walls and have unbelievable technology. Dad boards up the house (??) and gets a shotgun. They're coming. How will it end?

Basic flick without many scares and no decent "reveal" of the bad guys There's a twist at the end, but not much of one.

Of movies have ingredients like this one.

Aliens are supposedly visiting all sorts of people in Nome AK. They're seen as owls outside their windows every night. A psychologist tries to help the cope with this via hypnosis, but the repressed memories give way to a bout of possession followed by insanity and suicide. The psychologist herself becomes affected. The over-the-top sheriff tries to bully her into confessing her own role in this, even after witnesses corroborate the worse of it. An expert in ancient Sumerian shows up to add color. (!) In the end, her blind daughter is abducted - in front of a deputy. The still-unbelieving sheriff finally (!?) reveals that the psychologist's dead husband wasn't killed by an intruder but committed suicide. How she didn't know this is never revealed. Film ends with a "The truth is out there moment.".

There is nothing to recommend this film. The acting is banal, even for the characters as written. Sheriff is ridiculously obtuse, the other psychologist is unbelievably passive and unhelpful. Jovovich appears as her character talking about the "real" doctor, who we see separately. Nome in October looks no worse than Seattle.

The hook is supposed to be the "real life" aspect with much of this shown in "true" videos taken from the actual events. This was in line with Blair Witch and other "films from recordings" popular at the time. That videos of patient sessions where they go insane would ever be released to make a film is ludicrous.

The recordings all conveniently get disrupted at the key moments, so we never see the aliens in any form. Even their speaking through the possessed is garbled Sumerian. Which we get garbled subtitles for. The scariest part is the "real" psychologist seen in interviews describing events as they transpire. She is one creepy doctor, filmed in the worst possible light - literally.

The question you'll have at the end is not whether aliens exist, but why you wasted 1:37 on this movie.

With Cooper and Bergman to star in a Hemingway-based story must have seemed like can't miss. Sorry, but it missed.

The story is so basic: Cooper teams up with some guerrillas to blow a bridge during the Spanish Civil War. Bergman was badly abused including having her head shaved so has taken in with the guerillas.

Other than blowing up a train to open the film, there is no action or much else before intermission. They all sit in a cave talking and talking and talking, and not about much. Bergman is there only to fall immediately and deeply in love with Cooper. What a one-dimensional role compared to her just completed Ilsa in 'Casablanca'. Cooper is pretty stiff about it all, telling her how shameless she it.

In the second half the action picks up as they're found out by the enemy and betrayed (or not?) by the brutish Pablo. His makeup and Pilar's look like paint! (Why so many Russian actors?) Some nice mountain cinematography helps the film advance to it's climax. With that title, do you really have to wonder what happens? When the bridge blows up, it's nowhere near where Cooper placed the dynamite.

Cut the run time by a 1/3, add some real passion between the leads, and you'd have that winner.

Rebellion Season one tells the story of the Irish Easter Uprising of 1916 revolving around a small group involved in various aspects, particularly "Three Little Maids" of Lizzie Butler - a medical student and daughter of a wealthy Protestant banker and his Catholic wife (GOT alums) who secretly supports the IRA, Frances the uber dedicated IRA supporter and an "orphan bastard", and May who works in Dublin Castle and is having a complicated affair with her British boss. Another focus is the Mahan family. Arthur is a British soldier back home on leave from WWI who is ordered to put down the rebellion and his native Irish. His brother Danny is another fervent IRA member pulled romantically and otherwise to Lizzie. He lives with Arthur's wife and family including teenage tart Minnie. Rounding out the main cast is a caricature as wastrel son Harry Butler, and Lizzie's fiancé an English officer also back on leave with plans for to be wed.

There are several historical figures as well including Patrick Pearce, Eamon deValera and Michael Collins. The show gives a pretty good overall depiction of the Uprising, if not 100% historically accurate. It's well set and well acted, although Danny doesn't quite carry his weight.

It has a strong allegory to the Uprising as part of women liberation and the suffragette movement to come. Lizzie does it all: near doctor and IRA aide who spurns her fiancé the morning of her wedding (no one gets married on Easter) to spend the rest of the rebellion (and imprisonment) in her wedding gown, running off with Danny. The mannish Frances is nearly psychotic in her IRA support, saying how the Rebellion truly put her in charge of her life. That and, as May pointed out, killing someone. May's story is the most complex, as her affection appears to be returned in kind until we meet her boss' ice-beyotch wife and is forced to live with her for a time. This then gets particularly soapy, in a pregnancy/want the baby angle. In the end she too triumphs trading baby literally for advancement. The men mostly end badly: dead, disgraced, or shipped out.

Season two starts as if no further season was planned, jumping forward four years into the Irish War of Independence. Few of the characters are carried forward, most without any explanation including the three "maids" of season one. Only Danny, Harry (now running the bank), and Minnie are still around. It's rather jarring, and part of why this season takes time to get going. Danny is put in charge of IRA counterintelligence, to find and eliminate English spies among them. He flies around Ireland like, as another reviewer put it, Batman in his flowing coat solving IRA "rats". Miss Sweeney, a savant with a head for codes, is a key new principle operating from Dublin Castle. Her turning using her illegitimate small son as leverage is a main thread. There's an American senator covertly supporting the IRA who seems to be whatever he needs to be to advance the plot, working with Harry's wife. There's also another Mahan brother as a Black & Tan expected to keep the peace among his native Irish through brutal means. The plot does keep you guessing about who knows what and who's on what side. The latter can change quickly, or be both. The season ends with the Treaty that gave Ireland some autonomy, but immediately led to the Irish Civil War. Perhaps a season three will get the viewer through that.

All in all, entertaining and worth watching.

Another adaption of Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw", which created the trope of the new nanny in a huge, creepy estate in the English countryside. If those didn't get the story right, this version surely didn't.

Long, slow, and boring, with lots and lots of backstories including an needless telling of the whole story itself (at a wedding rehearsal dinner in Napa?). Yes, that's in the actual story but this just provides a narrator to keep things going, which is rarely good.

The lead actress is not good, with her constant starts seeing her dead fiancé in mirrors getting old real quick, as does her strutting around stiffly in her mom jeans. The two children could be from Mary Poppins, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang or numerous other English tales, except much more annoying. The nanny/au pair gives them very little actual instruction. Here she's mirrored by the fashion forward housekeeper, who does little housekeeping and spends most time praying in the chapel, and a cook for three people (plus staff, but the housekeeper never eats). The casting is ridiculously diverse, double for rural 1980s England. Besides the token American, you have Black, Indian, Black, lesbian: check, check, check, check. All the white men are depicted as evil/stupid.

The plot is supposed to build psychologically, but there are too many "Did I see that or am I crazy?" moments (many seen only by the viewer, not the characters) with nothing actually frightening. This and the aforementioned cuts back and forth in time and place build anything except tedium. Okay, the house is haunted. And...?

I don't often give up mid-season, but do yourself a favor and do so pre-season.

On tiny Crockett Island somewhere 30 miles off the east coast of the US mainland (non-specific New England), a new priest replaces the longstanding monsignor for the population of 127. Most of the population are Catholic, but like the island itself are slowly fading away as the fishing falls off due to a petroleum spill three years back. It's a place without cars or paved roads, but with dial landline phones, CRT televisions, and record players - but also cellphones.. Reilly Flynn - who left the island for the fast life of an investment broker - also returns after four years in prison for a DUI that killed a young girl. Soon after, miracles large and small start happening, drawing more to St. Patrick's church and the pastor with the miraculous means.

MM is a very interesting mix of mystery, theology, philosophy and eventually horror. Catholicism is a particular focus with many of its rituals in detail. Several are integral to the plot While the priest is initially a rejuvenating force for the tiny parish (which would never warrant have a full time priest) you know that has to change since priests in the modern media are rarely portrayed as positive. He tries to help Riley get over his past and find a new purpose, as has has become a hard core atheist. The actor portraying Riley is so low key and unemotional that it's hard to relate. Meanwhile another island returnee, the unwed, pregnant school teacher, is trying to help him and maintain her own faith. These two and other spend large blocks of time in esoteric monologues that really drag the pacing. There's probably a full episode worth.

Mysterious events including the priest's large locked chest (which knocks back when he knocks) and a huge winged ... something swooping over the town at night let us know things aren't all right. A mass of dead cats washes up after a storm. A paralyzed girl rises and walks to take Communion at the priest's request. The doctor's aged, dementia-ridden mother gets better, then actually younger.

SPOILER: It's finally revealed that the priest is actually the old monsignor. During a trip to the Middle East, he became lost in a sand storm that opened a hidden cave that harbored a, well, vampire. (Although that term is never used.) First drained of blood then fed the demon's own, the monsignor is returned to his youth. Convinced this is a miracle performed by a winged angel, he brings the creature with him to Crockett Island and has been mixing his blood with the communion wine. The islanders are slowly being converted to vampires themselves. Particularly important is Bev the island busybody/sacristan/principle who is more devout than even the priest. (Most Catholics will recognize the Bevs in their parish.) She aids and abets the priest, figuring out who he really is first then recruiting others.

The last episodes become more conventional horror, as the vampire demon reveals himself. Riley is turned, then gives himself up to show the teacher the reality of things. On Good Friday the priest obliquely reveals how the parish will become the 'army of god' - like himself, as he has not fully turned and feasted on the town drunk and Riley. By the Easter Vigil, nearly the entire town shows up to mass where the demon vampire is revealed to all. The priest literally has them "drink the kool-aid" (rat poison) so they will die and then rise as vampires due to their wine-blood infusions. Things go awry though and the last ep kind of turns everything on its head as he sees the error of his ways. His explanation is that the doctor is the product of his affair with her mother (way too late in the story), and he wanted that to go another way.

MM is well made and worth seeing. There are some good jump scares, and the demon is particularly scary. As are the Bev-inspired townsfolk sealing off the island so they can create a colony to spread their contagion to the world e. Catholics in particular should have a lot to consider, as there are strong overtones of Church scandals where the faithful chose to look the other way to enable it.

Several things thoug hdetract from the believability, even giving suspension of belief:

• The island is unrealistically diverse including the Muslim sheriff, the mixed race mayor marriage, the lesbian doctor, etc. And yet they're all Catholic. The writers seem to realize this with constant references to the Crockett Island "Crock Pot". The sheriff is particularly unbelievable, even when his back story is revealed near the end. P. S. How did is son, who never took the blood-tainted Communion wine, turn into a vampire when he died?

• Speaking of, on Ash Wednesday they hold a huge "Crock Pot" spring festival that day. WTH? Ash Wednesday is a stern one of fasting and prayer. It's not for partying, particularly not with hot dogs! The even call it a 'spring festival' when literally it cannot be spring. Not sure why a story so steeped in Catholicism would miss this.

• This story would have been more realistic set some time in the past, when the island's isolation would have been more acute and religious faith stronger. The sheriff could have been merely a Protestant. The modern viewer wouldn't handle that as well though.

• The denouement of Bev and crew burning every building on the island made no sense. Even 30 miles out, someone will see that inferno. All it did was supposedly deprive them of places to hide during the day. Huh? They can't get out of the sun in a cellar, under some boards, or bushes. Bev trying to bury herself in the sand at the very end seems to cover the writers here. "Oh, she thought of it but just too late."
• The final coda, of the paralyzed girl who was cured saying, "I can't feel my legs." To show that the poison in her blood was undone only makes sense if, per vampire lore, the vampire who infected here had died. However, if that were true then killing the main demon vampire would have saved everyone else. Too bad they'd all been turned to ash already! P. S. No sequels, since her being returned to humanity can only be because the demon vampire - last seen flapping off with shredded wings, is dead.