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angrypancho
Reviews
Killer Women (2014)
I've never seen any other woman do the job Helfer has here
I was just writing someone about how my wife and I enjoy this show and I came onto its IMDb page to check on spelling when I find out this excellent show has been canceled!! This is a disaster and a sign the people at ABC haven't got the brains God gave a goose.
The plots were not at all bad for this kind of show, but by far the truly special thing about this series was Tricia Helfer's performance. My wife and I tuned in, but when I saw the story revolved around a woman Texas Ranger, I was sure I was going to have to leave it to my wife to watch by herself. I've been watching TV for about 50 years and I've never seen a woman successfully pull off the attitude that kind of law enforcement role demands. I was truly shocked to watch Helfer do exactly that and immediately became a fan. Do you people really not realize how unique her performance is? I remember her from Battlestar Galactica but never really got into that show. I'm now sorry I missed it as this woman is phenomenally good. She kind of reminds me of a slightly better version of Famke Janssen which is saying a lot as I've always especially liked Famke's work.
But it wasn't just Helfer's work that made this series a gem, all the supporting cast was in it 100%. No, I'm going to miss this show and find myself dying to vent at ABC for canceling it.
Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)
Easily my worst movie experience of the last 12 months
It's going to be tricky trying to describe what's wrong with this film. It'd be best to point directly to my big complaints, but I'd have to speak about specific plot elements and that would limit this review's utility.
Suffice it to say that there are a couple of sadly outdated notions that are key to the underlying story. No doubt that was to be expected since Tom Clancy hasn't been writing Jack Ryan novels for some time now. But I seem to recall there being other instances where people took similarly burdened novels and updated them quite successfully for the screen. In this movie, near the end when they're trying to prevent a catastrophic event from occurring, I was actually thinking I'd feel much better if they'd just let it happen.
Now is this reaction going to be limited to people of my particular political persuasion only? I sincerely hope not. Anyone paying attention to the financial news over the last decade should feel ill at ease at the basic premise here. But obviously a lot of people out of Hollywood were unable to see how offensively misguided this movie would seem to a lot of us.
The acting and directing were adequate, but the plot itself torpedoed the entire project to my mind, and it really speaks badly of the producers and even the actors that they weren't able to see that and nix this project before it got off the ground. You get the feeling someone had sunk a certain amount into acquiring the rights and were determined to recover their investment come hell or high water. I suppose that's understandable, but I'd be very surprised if the proposed reboot of the Jack Ryan franchise were able to survive this turkey. This movie is best left to rabid Tom Clancy fans who miss their old feelings of gung ho nationalism.
Lone Survivor (2013)
Very well made movie with a couple of quibbles that I will not bring up
I've always had a lively interest in combat. I've even cornered those who have seen it in person to get a better handle on it. After much contemplation, and a stint in the Army that did not involve combat, I've come to a rough, but accurate, notion of its reality, only to have it all superseded in one fell swoop by this brilliant movie.
My wife doesn't like war movies, and I, therefore, had to offer to see it by myself. At the last minute she changed her mind and we both went. I feared she would spend most of the movie turning away but that didn't happen though there are some harrowing scenes that she disliked. I had explained that the story was essentially revealed on '60 Minutes' and was able to prepare her a bit. However, the story as told on that TV magazine was only a sketch. In the end she appreciated the movie and the adherence to duty depicted in it and that's as much as I can ask for.
The story is about a small group of Navy Seals tasked with abducting or killing an Afghani who was a Taliban leader with many American deaths to his credit. Their intelligence wrongly informs them that the small village in which the target has been spotted has only about 10 soldiers. In fact the number is quite a bit larger. We follow the mission from its insertion to its bloody end but not once does this movie fall into an excess of movie pyrotechnics to make its point.
Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch and the others all honor the men they're portraying by not over-doing it and staying real. But it's probably the director that deserves the most credit. Peter Berg does what I've always wanted to do, create a highly accurate picture in my mind of a single battle in all its inglorious mess. I was particularly happy to see and hear how they handled the bullets flying around. There's no sign of Clint Eastwood shooting a cigarette out of an opponents mouth. It's more like an evil shower of deadly metal.
I could visualize myself there in the firefight having to force myself forward and that is something every war movie I've ever seen has dearly wanted to achieve. I don't know about others but this is the only one that's done it for me and I highly recommend it. It's an education you'll not soon forget.
Fish Tank (2009)
What's it going to take to get Katie Jarvis back on screen?
I imagine it's no small thing even for someone as obviously talented as she to choose a movie career as a young mother, but the UK movie industry would certainly benefit from someone of her charisma and talent.
I just now saw this movie on satellite and have no recollection of its being shown around me back in 2009 when it was released. Checking several sources to see how it had been reviewed, I'm glad to see it was critically acclaimed in several movie festivals. Andrea Arnold in particular, its writer-director, should have been proclaimed a cinematic wizard. There are so many brilliant choices in this film that I wonder whether the problem was too many industry people were rightly intimidated. Jarvis, for example, had never acted before.
The plot of 'Fish Tank' borrows from Arnold's and Jarvis' own experiences growing up in working class England, I think. A young girl dreams of being a dancer while navigating a mother who can barely keep herself afloat and her unexpectedly attractive, and yet fatherly, new boyfriend played by Michael Fassbender. The movie follows Mia, at 15 and quite spirited, as she struggles to find a foothold in the rough world that's molded her and promises to entrap her.
This is an overlooked film that you will never forget; the scenes are so true to life, they're hard to see as fiction. I'm only sorry I didn't see it when it was circulating.
Mortified Nation (2013)
One guy calls this a roto rooter for the soul
There's a lot of high anxiety involved in being a teenager. I've a grand daughter going through it right now and it's frustrating trying to connect with her. And, wouldn't you know it, just as I was pondering what I could do, this documentary comes up on the Sundance Channel with a partial answer. Have her watch this movie! Now this will hardly be a risk-free or even acceptable ploy for many parents. There's some very graphic talk about explicit sex in about an eighth of this movie and some parents will want to 'protect' their children from it. The genius of this raw language, though, is that it's not that important to the movie though it definitely belongs as it's in the words of a hormone addled teenager. The heart of this movie and the phenomenon which it documents is in its title, mortification, not some sexual titillation. It's about being extremely embarrassed to reveal, years later, to an audience what you wrote to yourself in your diary or journal as a kid.
As one of the participants explains, there's a precious moment won in doing so that's been lost to you since you were that anxious teenager. Almost without exception everything you thought you were the only person on earth to feel or think is shown to have been experienced by a wide number of your fellow citizens. The resulting laughter is quite genuine and somehow extremely therapeutic. This is not anything I'd do, for sure, but I can't help admiring these brave souls for doing it on our behalf, and I can't help thinking there isn't an adolescent in the country who wouldn't benefit from hearing it now, while they're going through it, for the solace it offers.
I've never seen anything more likely to break through to teenagers whether straight or gay, male or female. I've given this movie a very high rating, not for its cinematic niceties but for its message which is: the mortified movement is quite unique and valuable.
Gravity (2013)
The director Cuaron must have been born under a lucky star
I've read both Angelina Jolie and Natalie Portman were ready to play Sandra Bullock's part. Neither would have reached the delightful heights Ms. Bullock does. Trust me, out of the three she is far and away the best choice; halfway through this arresting movie I was thinking how completely perfect the casting was, and that casting is of Clooney and Bullock. Apparently this movie was blessed from the beginning in being able to land the one star who was capable of lifting this movie way beyond even its lofty ambitions.
The idea of bringing a story like this to the screen is a completely reckless one. There are so many obviously impossible shots in this story only a madman would have agreed to tackle it. And yet it works. From the moment it started I was physically engaged in the action. For once, it paid to watch it in Imax and 3-D, but I'm not sure the movie's impact would have suffered if I watched it low tech.
The story is a simple one of survival in space. But that's enough to make it utterly unforgettable in the way only the best basic science-fiction used to pull off when I was a kid. There are leaps of logic here, but you won't mind them, if you have any heart.