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soopergrape
Reviews
Spare Parts (2015)
A sad reality of potential hidden in the stereotype.
If you as re familiar with the story of this film there can be no spoilers, you know how it ends. Until I find the actual video of the awards this will have to do. I am up late watching my favorite scenes from this film for perhaps the fiftieth time!
I don't care how many times I have seen it, there are several moments that crack me up and get me teary eyed every time!
Oh yeah, Ok, I do skip over a lot of stuff now that is important to the story but that I don't want to see over and over.
The thing that I like the most anout this film is that it is TRUE! (The base story is. I am not sure of the details.)
I don't have to suspend my disbelief because I know that it really happened.
I explain to my son who is high functioning autistic that this is an ideal demonstration of functionality over form.
The least elegant design won. Perhaps overcoming problems created by the inefficiencies made the design more effective at accomplishing the task?
Watch the whole film the first few times through, then you can always play the parts I like when you need a pick-me-up.
The end is definitely worth a serious run all the way through.
Griffin & Phoenix (2006)
I am SO glad I pulled this film up! It probably should get a 10 but who would believe that?
Ooh boy! If you have any idea of reality this will require some tissues, or hankies , or maybe a towel!
This is a great film if you don't know how to approach some special person who does not already think you are a jerk.
It is at times so real that it is hard to remember it is just a film. The funny bits are really great.
I am 68 and was supposed to die once already, so it does feel very real as far as I'm concerned. These people have a very special chemistry together!
The almost first part is cute and funny and feels right. There is just the right mix of wondering. Then it takes a hairpin curve. If you will not watch till the forty-ninth minute Don't even bother!
It does get very real.
OK, yeah that is almost exactly where I am right now...
I know things will get more "real" but the end is supposed to be good so I will finish it after everyone is asleep and I will have that towel handy.
I just think that if everyone lived like these people do things would be a whole lot MORE everything! I don't think I have spoiled anything that people didn't get from the official blurb, but watch it anyway!
The Christmas Wife (1988)
How much would it be worth to change your outlook?
This is a bit of a sleeper. It is late and I did nod off for a second about 2/3 the way through. This is just that comfortable a film to see. It is very subtle in the lesson it teaches, right to up to the end.
Both the characters are pleasant and it is easy to just see them as people interacting as people might just do in such a situation.
You know one person's side and you imagine enough to fill in the other and you just watch things go on their pleasant way.
Then they start to drift into the way of films about a man "renting" even platonic companionship for the holidays. And then they don't and you are a bit distressed to find out why.
Then, by way of a little encouragement you are gifted with a pleasant pick me up at the end and you see that it really was all worthwhile after all.
This was a good little film about loneliness. And how a tiny adjustment in our sense of risk assessment has the potential to repay a substantial reward.
I do like happy endings and I don't to think it is a spoiler to say that this has one, it is just not quite like I thought it would be.
When Time Expires (1997)
An understated gem for time travel fans!
OK, I'm well over half way in. This is a very well nuanced film. It does have a slow pace but it is rich if you pay attention. I have not seen anyone I didn't feel fit the part.
(Later)
It's wrapping up now. I have to say that this was one one the most understated sci-fi films I have ever seen!
I was surprised to see "Luke" but now I understand what he saw in the screenplay.
Don't remember the names of any of the other actors, but I thought everyone was exactly who they were supposed to be.
I especially thought the interplay of lead and love interest was cute and funny without being forced.
This was a low budget masterpiece! It accomplished all of the dynamics the futuristic plot required without the budget requirements of fancy effects.
I really enjoyed the ending. If you are into time travel DO NOT miss this little treasure.
Like Sunday, Like Rain (2014)
Shaved 55 years off my life!
For a little while I remembered what it was like to love someone as only a 12 year old can.
This is a very clean presentation of the message it brings. There are aspects that fall outside of the relationship between this mature minded boy and his older nanny, but they are presented almost as they would be seen by him, as trivial distractions.
Some say that this is melancholy, to me it seems almost more like nostalgia. I felt once again like I was too young for someone but also that I would do anything to show them that my affection was more than they ever would believe it could be.
The fact that you could believe that his feelings were as true as if he were old enough for her, and that he was mature enough to feel the pain of losing someone who understood him so well made his loss a tangible thing.
I can't help but think that when she is thirty...
I would recommend this to anyone who desires to remember the freshness of first love. But I warn you it also brings the pain of first loss. Focus on the music and feelings. That is all that really matters.
UFO (2018)
Very interesting
This would have been better with subtitles. I watched it early in the morning with the sound down low. I don't know any of the actors except for the obvious one. She played the frustrated professor very well and has an exceptional moment near the end.
It comes across almost boring, but there is an undercurrent of something. Realism? I don't know. I couldn't understand a lot of what they were saying and I STILL got involved in it! I haven't a clue about the (spoiler?), but it seemed a logical way to look at it.
I don't think that is a spoiler, but it was an intriguing way to look at a sighting and a hopeful outcome. Of course now I will watch it again until it goes off this channel!
Meteor (1979)
It's worth a watch just see Natalie Wood speaking Russian!
I passed this a few times while I'm sitting around being sick. I finally did pull it up if only because YouTube was being cheap and most everything else from even fifty years ago was pay only.
After a little while the Russians meet with the US. (No spoiler, is in the description) I see the Russian guy and he has a Russian woman translator. She looks familiar but I have not seen who is in it yet. Her eyes are very very familiar, but she is very plain faced...Natalie Wood!
I came here to confirm it. I didn't know she did this. Well now I'm hooked! I love the dialogue scene where she and the American translator are both translating the same things at the same time. And I love the look on her face when she translates that Connery says that if there is a choice he wants the pretty one!
Yeah it is so-so in the technical stuff, but if you were in love with Natalie growing up like I was and have not seen her in this it is worth your while to see it.
The Astronaut Farmer (2006)
So much better than I thought it would be!
I risk being an outlier by giving this an 8. I liked the Texas aspects of it, but knowing that it glossed over things a bit was not near as big a take-away as I thought it would be. It still got to me several times. It was so much better than the score it had that I may have added one star. But the fact that I was so involved in what was a very very low budget production, having liked films easily costing ten times or more of this type is impressive.
If you're from a small town you will see things you know are true. And maybe hope things you hope are still so. I didn't think a single character was not played well, and never really thought it was not really possible if it was something you had the skills and determination to do. A little cash helps too.
Remember Sunday (2013)
This is so good I watched it again, even though I knew it would get to me!
This is a take on something I have seen before. What if you had to start each day almost from scratch?
This guy remembers everything that happened up until a certain point in his life. Now, not only does he not remember anything that has happened since, he doesn't even remember why.
He meets the love of his life and is franticly trying to figure out how to keep her in his life, but he knows that all they will have is the things he can save.
It is touching how this guy convinced me that he falls in love with her every time they meet.
Spoiler:
It is heartbreaking how she decides to do it too.
Alienated (2021)
Light and quirky yet technologically intriguing!
This is an interesting film with a few sections that are less "professional" in appearance. It is however a a cute film that is very much worth the watch. I loved the "My eyes are down here!" gag. The alien is cute enough to imagine falling for.