jp-450 Reviews

Midway (2019)

Woody Harrelson as Admiral Nimitz - Need I say more?

[4/10 · 20 February 2020]

Look, I'm a huge war movie buff, and always look super forward to seeing the next one, especially when they are called "Historically accurate". This movie was a bit of a mess. I know that it was covering a long period of time and attempting to cram in a lot of history, but it was almost unwatchable due to the cadence of the film. Mostly, the character portrayals were just terrible, not one made to be likeable. I've watched "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific" each a dozen times, and that is because the characterization of the men who served in this horrific war was amazing and realistic, and truly honors their sacrifice. Somehow movies like "Band of Brothers" and "We were Soldiers" seems to truly capture the feeling of what these men went through. Midway falls short of doing those who served justice. It felt more like a bad history lesson, that was not completely understandable, filmed without care of the sacrifices of the actual servicemen.

I don't mean to mock Woody Harrelson, he's a great actor, but it just throws you off to be watching the pot smoking sex guru as one of our nations greatest Admirals. It's an indication of how superficial this film feels. Sorry Woody. The rest of the characters, specifically Dick Best, were too mouthy and anti-authoritarian to be a soldiers in the 1940's, no less be promoted to commanding officers. Just not realistic, and I don't feel an honorable representation of these men.

In the end, there are so many movies that young people should see to get as close to understanding and feeling something for the great sacrifices of the millions of Americans who came before them. But sadly "Midway" is not one of them. Watch it, because the history is important, but be prepared to be disappointed.

Forever (I) (2018)

It's hard to rate or recommend, but I watched the entire 1st season

[7/10 · 17 October 2018]

This show is the slowest moving snail of a series that I have ever seen, but at least it's well acted and artfully done. I watched the first episode, and sort of had to continue thinking it would get more interesting... it really doesn't. It just plods along at the exact same pace the entire 1st season. In that way, it was very consistent, with good acting and directing, and due to the mood it creates, I would call it more of an art piece than anything. I really had trouble trying to figure out how many stars to give it, and that's unusual for me. My 7 star rating is for the overall production quality and excellent acting.

As far as "deep" and "existential" mentioned by other reviewers, I would have to give it a big fat NO. The representation of the afterlife is too similar to being alive, with food, sex, clothing choices, activities, sleep, etc., therefore one cannot expect to be elevated to a higher plane of understanding if we are still burdened with the same feelings, possessions, and even spouses. There can be no transcendence of our natural lives if we are to simply suffer the same burdens and feelings "forever". However, it is an artful view taken with the writer's own poetic license, and the quality of the production is top notch. I think it could be mildly thought provoking, but I'm sure that the lack of real depth would cause some to miss the pleasant ride and would polarize reviewers to give it 10 stars or a 1 star.

I think that if you are looking for something that's very different from anything you've seen, with great production and acting quality, then I would recommend this to pass the time with a good cup of coffee on a cloudy afternoon. If you're looking for something to move you and carry you through, having to watch the next episode because you cannot get enough, this is not it. Perhaps the only reason to continue with the story is mild curiosity, and that will not be satisfied. But it will not be unpleasant.

I, Tonya (2017)

A great surprise how excellent this film is!

[10/10 · 16 April 2018]

I was in college when this whole thing was happening, which means I only heard the headlines but never had time to digest the story. I believed the conventional wisdom that made most people dislike Tanya Harding. I was looking forward to seeing this movie just to get a new perspective of things that I was too young to pay close attention to, so I was expecting to like the movie for it's historical review. However, I was blown away as to how well acted, written, directed, edited, and produced this movie was, and it is certainly the best movie I've seen in years, if not a decade.

The acting and characterizations of the people involved in this story is possibly the best I've ever seen. I think every single person in this movie deserves some sort of Oscar nod. In the closing credits they show the real people that the actors were portraying, and you will be amazed at the likeness each actor was able to convey. Amazing.

I was a little worried that the story may be a bit boring about what appeared to be a fairly two dimensional event, but I was totally sucked in and enjoying every morsel of gourmet movie "food", and it never stopped delivering. You'll laugh out loud right from the beginning of the film, sometimes uncomfortably so, as this story is much more bizarre than I ever thought possible. The writing, directing, and editing of this film will reward you with a new experience in movie watching. This was truly groundbreaking in it's artistry and delivery.

I won't conclude by telling you how you will see this event at the end of the movie , but suffice to say anyone that has a critical thinking mind will change their view about Tonya Harding and the "Nancy Kerrigan event" at least a few times while watching this film. You will be brought to the sad conclusion that no matter how guilty or not guilty that you feel Tonya is in the end, that the news media loves the headline and the sound bite too much but never cares to "right" the story once they've made money with the headline, leaving millions of people with hatred for things that may have never happened. This is a must see film, if only to adjust our national conscious and to correct the black and white feelings that media leaves us to deal with. If anything, this film will leave you filled with empathy and a renewed perspective of understanding of Tonya Harding, and perhaps a new mistrust of blind conventional wisdom.

It (I) (2017)

Extremely Disappointing

[2/10 · 16 April 2018]

There are so many things wrong with this movie, it's difficult to know where to begin. I wasn't expecting much, but considering I typically respect IMDB ratings, and since this movie has a rating of 7.5, I thought it would be fun to watch on a rainy day. Nope. Let me begin by saying that this is really a teenager themed movie, in other words the maturity of the story is for kids maybe 16 and under. Think "Stranger Things" and "Super 8" mixed together with a whole bunch of other incongruous ideas, and you have the general story and feeling of this movie. However, the "F" word rears it's ugly head every 15 seconds or so, as well as talk about genitalia (both male and female) throughout the film. You actually get tired of how often the F word is uttered, it's annoying. ...especially considering that the story would only appeal to younger teenagers. Then there's the whole idea of the movie; is this really a horror movie?? There wasn't one moment that the film seemed scary, in fact, it was so predictable as to not even make me even slightly flinch, not once. The story line was all over the place, and constantly left you thinking "what the hell did that have to do with the story?". The music and mood changes so often, you think something that will make you like this movie will come along, like comedy or a really bizarre twist that ties it all together. Nope, nothing. I would give the overall movie zero stars, but IMDB requires at least one, and I had to give one more for production value since it did evoke a feeling similar to how "Super 8" had a unique feeling to it. Otherwise, the disappointment is real, and I can only think that the IMDB rating is driven by paid reviewers, not real people who spent hard earned dollars to watch this. Although I do not think this next sentence is a spoiler, don't read on if you want to be totally surprised. The way the film ends without wrapping up all the open issues and subplots will make you want to point a flamethrower at the screen, and immdeiately log in to IMBD to give your one star review.... the closing shot is a title screen that says "IT, the first chapter". Arrrghhh! When that screen appeared, I yelled "Is that it?!!!" and everyone laughed because the word IT was on the screen. Afterwards, I was told by co-viewers that my shout out was the only entertaining moment of the film!

Shorts (2009)

Very Engaging

[21 August 2009]

This is a masterful piece of movie-making, something typically missing from non-animated kids movies. I took my kids and thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. Although the story sort of lost strength (fizzled) in the end, the characters, cinema-photography, and editing fully engaged me and my children right from the beginning. Robert Rodriguez masterfully weaved this movie going experience into something bigger than the story itself. Jolie Vanier who plays the antagonist to the young hero is such a joy to watch that the weakness of the storyline becomes less important, and we all laughed all the way through.