danabunner Reviews

Dads (I) (2013–2014)

Much better than I expected

[9/10 · 27 October 2013]

I don't like many network comedies. In fact, I'm not regularly watching any of them. I accidentally tuned in to the first episode of "Dads" as it came on after one of the playoff baseball games. It had me laughing hard.

I had seen one commercial for it and hadn't been impressed. Had no intentions of viewing it. But now I'm going to try to catch some more episodes.

Yes, it was silly , and even juvenile in places. But the acting was very good and they pulled off scenes which lesser actors would have died on.

Along Came a Spider (2001)

Run of the mill kidnapping movie

[5/10 · 2 September 2009]

Just a few comments ...

The movie is watchable if not spellbinding. If you're looking for a late night suspense movie, you could do worse. At least there are a few interesting angles and twists, but nothing you haven't seen before.

My primary reason to leave a comment is to say what a terrible performance was given by Monica Potter. She played about 95% of her scenes with same facial expression. And I didn't hear her utter a line that was believable. Her performance would have been underwhelming in a high school play. I kept waiting for her to grow into the role, but it never happens.

It wasn't one of Morgan Freeman's best performances, but he was enjoyable and I could buy into his character. He pretty much carries this movie.

Survival Island (2002)

Stunningly Awful

[1/10 · 28 February 2007]

I don't understand why this movie isn't on the Worst 100 list. I've seen 7 movies on that list, and this one is worse than any of those. If I gave a 10th grade class an assignment to create special effects and they turned in the ones in this movie, I might feel sorry enough for them to give them a D. I hope they didn't pay the special effects team more than $500. Not only are they embarrassing poor, the animated figure doesn't look like the costumed figured used in the close ups.

Meanwhile the acting is so stiff that one is left wondering if the final footage came from the 2nd or 3rd reading of the script. Or if the script was simply being written an hour before the filming.

If you are looking for a silly horror movie to watch with a group of friends for laughs, this is a very good candidate. On that scale, I would give it an 8.

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

Disappointing

[3/10 · 24 April 2006]

I was very disappointing in this obviously distorted depiction of the last day of the life of Jesus Christ. I was left wondering about the sadistic mindset of those who brought it to the screen. Every opportunity to maximize gore and brutality was taken. Likewise for every opportunity to portray the Jews in the worst possible light.

Any studied reading of the gospel narrative, along with the best scholarly treatments of the time period, casts considerable doubt upon several aspects of the story told here, without necessarily disputing the claim that Christ was the Son of God.

This movie should have been named: "Nightmare on Elm Street: The Last Day of Christ." For this is a closer representation of the emphasis, and dare I say, the accuracy of this movie. I feel sorrow for those who watched it and felt deep sadness, for they now have suffered due to their belief that this movie was historical truth.

Nevada Smith (1966)

Entertaining western with ridiculous casting

[6/10 · 25 February 2006]

As 50's and 60's westerns go, this movie has better acting and better screen writing than most. In fact there are some great scenes and lines. I very much enjoyed Brian Keith's character and thought he was very believable.

Karl Malden does a creditable job as the bad guy and Susan Pleshette was captivating.

The plot was pretty typical of a western, shallow & thin in many ways, as it was just another revenge story reworked with some good lines. But still it held my attention.

Where I struggled with the film was with casting Steve McQueen as a teenager. Not only for a brief shot, like is seen in many movies and TV shows, but for much of the movie. When he first appears and is identified as a teenager, I thought, "You've got to be kidding me!" He looks like he is about 40 years old. So I look it up on the web and find that he is really 36, but he isn't a well-preserved 36.

Then Brian Keith appears as the wily, experienced older trader who proceeds to mentor McQueen (Max Sand). To my eyes, Keith and McQueen look like they are almost the same age. Keith is actually 45, but looks pretty good for 45, while McQueen looks older than his 36 years. At most they look about 5 years apart in age.

Well, I was never able to overcome this during the film. Over and over again Keith is teaching "the kid" how to survive in life. Completely unbelievable. So even though McQueen does a good job of pretending to be a rash, naive, untrained teenager, it just doesn't fly.