Change Your Image
Cornelus
Reviews
Attention Please (2018)
ADHD is a physical neurological disability
4/10 for seeking a medical professional, but then goes off the rails with an impractical & ineffective half-solution. One reviewer here (and this video) likened drugs to a bandage over a wound, but then diverted wildly to assert the causality & remedy are merely learned behaviors. And yes, I agree that ADHD is an injury that requires a bandage, because it covers a wound and allows scars to heal and the body function to compensate. It's a vastly-documented fact that 75% of adult ADHD patients have 10-30% less prefrontal cortex neuron density than other cortex areas ... in other words, the brain didn't finish "baking" while the fetus was developing in-utero ... while the other 25% arrived at ADHD presentations via Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) or a disruption in brain hormone levels. A correct & regularly-monitored prescription can assist the prefrontal cortex to "keep up" with the rest of the brain's activity, and particularly tone down the amygdala (emotional control switch), just like insulin carries a diabetic across low-glucose lapses. But prescriptions only last for 6-12 hours, and don't shield the person from ALL emotional disregulation, and that's where learned skills like Dr. Bob's can help. 30% of ADHD kids will eventually "grow out" of the condition through brain growth, but for Ted, it's likely his inability to concentrate for long periods, lack of impulse control, and ruminating on any past failures will hold him back from his fullest potential in work & life, whereas a correct & regularly-monitored prescription will give him the bandage he needs so the injury doesn't spill out, affect others, or re-route his attention. Drugs aren't the cure, and patients' lives will drastically improve when the "primitive reflexes" are strengthened through sleep, exercise, diet, and a supportive environment. This video helps show the chronic difficulties of ADHD, but without a prescriptive bandage to focus the person's attention into a single direction, then the patient's emotional disregulation (with the amygdala controlling the patient's impulses), will continue to drive the patient's attention in every direction but straight ahead where they WANT to go.
The Midnight Sky (2020)
Betrays all sci-fi classics before it
A science-heavy story written by a flowery non-scientist author and a schlocky zombie-movie screenwriter. A spaceship without proximity alerts until after the debris hits it ... and is guided not by astronomical stars / Sol / Jupiter, but by a single radio signal from Earth? The crew who don't do their assigned duties, including a pilot that can't orient the ship the first time the go through asteroids, nor get a visual of Earth until the HD visual fills a wall. There's the motion-sick flight engineer knowing nothing about the ship & not leading ops, a math captain that's useless, and a comms officer devoting very little time at her desk's rolling office chair. Then there's the whole fact our system's asteroid belt midway between Mars & Jupiter's orbits, not 12 days away from Earth. This isn't sci-fi, it's a romance novel in space, and aside from decent VFX, deserves to be forgotten. Avoid this & read/watch "On the Beach" for a superior depiction of nuclear extinction.
Stuart Little (1999)
Do not buy the Deluxe Edition!
Columbia has decided they'd rather not have people watch widescreen versions of movies, which is why you won't see the letterbox version either in the standalone Deluxe Version, or the new combo Stuart 1 & 2 DVD. Tell Columbia that you care more about movies than they care about you by holding out until they fix this blunder!
John Q (2002)
Worst movie of the year (so far, that is)
SPOILERS
Fooled you ... I could give spoilers like James Woods is greedy, Anne Heche is cold, James Thornton is a hick, and Denzel, well, he's unplausably likeable. Many people have mentioned Dog Day Afternoon is a better film already, so I guess you don't need me to tell you that. What you do need to know is that since it's a happy movie, you will guess the plot in 2 minutes. But then again, if you in were in suspense during this film, you probably didn't notice that it's just logistically impossible to do a heart transplant within 1 hour in an emergency trauma room (where they stock bandages, not gallons of spare blood), that hearts don't get shipped straight to hospitals, and that the heart isn't the only organ in the chest cavity (was that kid's chest just the worst prop you've ever seen?). Thankfully, the only casualty suffered in this film was your intellect.
The Adventures of Pluto Nash (2002)
People who are cutting-down this movie never saw it!
The movie is fine for a matinee comedy ... the story's a little weak, but I dare anyone who expects each action-comedy to be sidesplittingly funny to check out some of the "classics" from the 70's, and not come away disappointed. In the hands of a better screenwriter & director who know how to keep audiences from getting bored, this movie could've really had potential. As it stands, it's still better than most teen-oriented drivel coming out.
Kudos to Randy Quaid, who's about the only one entirely believable in his role (and to think he had the toughest part!). Eddie Murphy does an OK job, but its clear his best part is as a character actor, or someone a little more interesting (like Jay Mohr's character). Easily a 6, and I'll probably vote a 7 just to balance out those cast votes to movies sight-unseen.
Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & the Island of Misfit Toys (2001)
Crap-tacular!
You could tell this movie had it's heart in the right place, but just about everything else tells you this movie was slapped together without regard for visual appeal or even a good message for kids.
If you listen to the "director's commentary" (you'd think it would be a director's track, but instead it's only a 3-minute interview), they explain how this is the first time anyone on the team had done a computer-animated cartoon before, especially the B-movie director. And while this may have been cute as a bunch of student projects tied together, the whole mess just doesn't belong.
Can't be called a sequel if it has nothing to do with the first, can it?
American Movie (1999)
One of the best gems I've seen this year!
At times, you may think this film was setup to be absurdly funny (like Spinal Tap), and yet Mark Borchardt's world is what you see on the screen, nothing more or less. An outstanding piece of work! One important note if you rent the DVD version ... watch the included short film "Coven" first before starting into the main feature of the documentary. You won't regret it, and it puts things into much better perspective as to why Coven (pronounced Coh-ven, rhymes with soaken) is the way it is, and how much work goes into even half-hour shorts.
Miss Congeniality (2000)
If Sandra wasn't in this film, it would been made-for-TV
Truth be told, Sandra Bullock is the one person who keeps this whole movie together, from start to finish. Throughout the film, from her "rough" exterior to her inner "beauty", Sandra was the only one you really care about during the whole film, and equal praises go to Ms. Bullock, the scriptwriters, & the costumers for helping us get past the rest of actors who showed up for a smile & a paycheck.
In particular for Ms. Bullock, there are quite a few places where I found myself reviewing the film to see her wild expressions or magical smirky-smile. It was those moments, though, where you realize that the rest of the cast was placed in typecast roles JUST to make her stand out, and while that's not necessarily bad, it's hard to think Ben Bratt, Ernie Hudson, Candice Bergen, or Bill ... SHATNER! will ever carry a film on their own. Michael Caine pulls the ol' British card one more time, and it's great to see someone still keep his edge into the later years.
All in all, the film is good, because a few outstanding actors & elements have pulled the whole average up from blandness.
Gattaca (1997)
Easily one of the top 10 films of the '90's
A film doesn't need to be independent, nor DE-pendent upon special effects to shine a mirror back on society's future for what it is (and what it has the capability to evolve to), should the course of events proceed unchanged.
I think the film moved me so much since I guess I have lofty goals about employers myself, and yet would NEVER be considered genetically sufficient enough to work there, should the "entrance" requirements become so stringent as DNA testing. Perhaps I empathized more with Ethan's character, or just appreciated a simple noir thriller, but nonetheless, each character seemed as real to me as if they were sitting next to me. Uma in particular astonished me with her apparently dormant ability to appear "cultured" & restrained (so who was that in Batman & Robin?).
Some people may have concerns that the film has too many open questions, yet the only question I found myself asking was, "what do all these people do on the weekend ... or do they even get weekends off?". :-)
Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001)
Cris shouldn't keep his kids up so late
While there aren't any talking animals, big lavish song production numbers, or villians with half white / half black hair ... it does have 1 thing ... realistic people acting normally in a strange circumstance, and Walt & Roy did in their eras with the studio. If you thought think "The Castaways" or "The Island At The Top Of The World" weren't identical, or you hold them to a higher authority than Atlantis, then your idealism is just as whacked as keeping your kids up till midnight to watch a friggin' cartoon.
The Spanish Prisoner (1997)
Why can't people just enjoy a good mystery with no shootings?
Much like classic detective films, there's a serene suspense that I enjoy out of films like Spanish Prisoner that you don't often find in films of today. Unlike earlier comments, I don't consider Bond to be THAT suspenseful, or Mission Impossible to even be that credible (how many times did we see the 'face mask' gag in that last installment of crap?). What I do like are the more personal levels of danger, like losing your job, or when 1 person takes the fall, but the world easily goes by without them. That's why I like films like Gattaca or Usual Suspects so much, since the suspense & drama involve only a few people, but the stakes are high for those very few. Would Usual Suspects, though, have gotten such a big rating in IMDB if nobody got shot and violence was kept to an unseen reference? Nope, don't think so!!!
Give yourself 2 hours to be thoughtfully engaged, and think about putting yourself in the shoes of the hero, for once, rather than be merely entertained!
Had the ending not been so abrupt, it would've been a 10 to me, but a 9 is well deserved!
Dune (2000)
The only thing I can add ...
I completely agree with other comments ... the production, sets, camerawork, acting, script, and yes, even the score, are just flimsy cardboard pasted to emulate "art". The only thing I might add is just how non-suspenseful the whole thing is. From the pain-box all the way through the water of life, at no time do we feel like anyone will die for their actions ... it's all so bland, and only designed to fill us up with 6 hours of commercials, interspersed with some movie stuff. Sometimes, I almost expect a Pepsi can to come jumping out & attack Paul, just to make things more interesting.
The Matrix (1999)
You have to see it to understand ...
Although not perfect, the Matrix seamlessly integrates other classic scifi staples (Terminator, Aliens, Tron???) into a solid tale of paranoia and god-like transcendence.