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sonobor
Reviews
Awake (2012)
Trilling. The best I've seen in ages.
Wow. It's rare for me to get goose bumps watching television. This show gave me the chills twice.
The detective subplot is better than most crime dramas and the characters seem well presented. I like the fact that only a few characters are featured (but I'm easily confused). The acting is very good. Production values are closer to a movie than TV.
I found the leading character, Michael Britten, intriguing. His detective work made me gasp. It's actually smart and believable.
Is there a romantic future between Britten and his son's tennis coach? Might be the source of future father/son tension.
I hope I'm wrong but I can't imagine future episodes better than the pilot.
Transporter 2 (2005)
Action or Farce
Well produced and lots of action. However, you must suspend believe to the extreme. Nearly all of the movie is so outrageous you may wonder, "Is this an action movie or a farce? Transporter or Spy Hard?"
I found the movie more cartoon-ish than a James Bond flick. There's a scene where Jason Statham flips his car in the air, scrapes a bomb off the bottom of the vehicle with an industrial crane then lands upright. Amazing precision. Yes it's that silly.
To be fair, Amber Valletta's performance is quite good. Also I'm impressed that Statham never smirks no matter how silly the action. The production values and fight scenes are top notch. Not realistic but top notch.
Vacuuming Completely Nude in Paradise (2001)
Memorizing, Strange, Poignant, and Funny
A quirky flick but not odd for the sake of being odd. There were a few moments where I became bored with the pace but mostly I was captivated. This is truly an original; a non-formulaic film that kept me engaged.
I you're involved in sales, you will find the parody of the sales office and the caricature of a successful, bellicose salesman hysterical. Definitely worth watching but as an American, I occasionally lost the thread of conversation to strong dialect and colloquialisms beyond my grasp.
Timothy Spall as Tommy Rag (the unethical salesman) is one dimensional but fascinating. Michael Begley (Pete) seems the perfect counterpoint to give this film a conscience. Writer Jim Cartwright must be given kudos for a brilliant and complex dark comedy. Without Pete, the lovable and in-search-of character, this story would have no soul.
As a lazy American, at times I found it hard work to follow but overall memorizing, strange, poignant, and funny.
Escape from Atlantis (1997)
hee hee hee hee
My kids (14 and 11) laughed all the way through. Note: this is NOT a comedy. Some parts kind of grab you but this is really very campy. I was surprised to see this make the STARZ lineup. Still entertaining in an off sort of way.
The acting is mostly borderline amateur. Some of the lines delivered by Kristina Roper combined her hand gestures resulted in howling laughter. At times Kristina's acting was serviceable. She is stunningly beautiful. In one fight scene where Kristina is supposed to be attacking with a whip, her style looks more like she's doing a ring toss. Really great fun.
Speakman, the Dad, shows considerable prowess with swords. But most of the fight scenes are crazy low production. The action scenes being several levels below the original Lost in Space.