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glennrhoads
Reviews
Star Wars (1977)
The biggest film dissappointment of my life.
There was a lot of hoopla about this movie when it came it. I saw it in the theaters and found nothing to like about it. The movie has no plot and the so called acting is the worst I have ever seen. Everybody was reading their lines in a flat monotone. Even the robot sounds more human than all the actors.
For some reason, it appeals to the lowest common denominator audience; namely, the stupid who think that anything with furry creatures must be good.
It's hard to say anything more about the picture because it is so devoid of substance that there isn't anything to comment on. Science fiction isn't my favorite genre but there are much better science fiction movies out there. For example, The Terminator and The Matrix were both far superior to this garbage.
Before Sunset (2004)
No plot, No storyline, and No Character Development
I heard good things about this movie so I decided to get a copy and watch it. I can honestly say I have never seen a more pointless waste of film than this movie.
It is easy to sum up this movie. A man and woman who previously spent one day together meet again nine years later. The guy has a plane to catch so they decide to spend the intervening time together. They talk about a few things that happened to them during the previous nine years and a number of random unrelated topics. She notices that he has missed his plane and the movie is over.
Sounds like a thriller doesn't it? :-) There is no plot; nothing happens. There is no story line; just a bunch of random conversations. It is not a character study. In fact, character is completely irrelevant. You could pick the character of any random John Doe and Mary Jane and the movie would be exactly the same.
In short, I wasted one hour and twenty minutes of my life watching this film.
Altered States (1980)
A largely forgotten sci-fi classic
This movie is about "reverse evolution." Our DNA contains lots of "junk" DNA that is residual left over genes from earlier forms in our genetic history. In the movie, the main character discovers a sacred mushroom from a Mexican tribe that augmented with a sensory deprivation tank accesses this junk DNA causing him to regress to earlier and earler forms in our evolutionary history, ultimately ending at Darwin's proposed "primordial" being from which all life on Earth evolved (it is an open question whether there was a single primordial life form or multiple independent primordial life forms).
William Hurt in his first movie role is absolutely terrific. In fact it is the best performance of his entire career despite the fact that it is rarely mentioned when speaking of William Hurt.
John Carigliano's score excellently supports the movie.
The special effects are spectacular for its time period. The earlier hallucinagenic sequences contain a number of religious symbols such as the shroud of Turin and a seven eyed goat mentioned in the book of Revelation.
At the end we encounter the amazing power of love. The primordial life form has no meaning. It is a consuming terror of hideous nothingness and yet, love is able to overcome it. It is scary when you think about it.
As long as you understand the story and aren't put off by the weird imagery of the hallucinagenic sequences, you will find this to be a surpringly excellent film.
Daddy (1987)
Surprisingly realistic portrayal of teenage pregnancy
Very realistic and accurate portrayal of the difficulties teenagers have dealing with pregnancy and a baby without being the least bit preachy. No teenager is prepared for the emotional and other challenges of raising a baby. To those who think the emotional difficulties were overdone, I can assure you that they were not. Growing up, there was a teenager just down the street for which this movie could serve as a biography for his teen years. His girlfriend became pregnant. They had to drop out of school to raise the baby. He worked at a low paying menial job (in the movie the job was a busboy). He was stuck at home and couldn't go out with his friends nor go to college as most of his friends did.
In the movie, the couple went on welfare which again is quite common among teenage parents. Most teenage parents never escape poverty. Let that sink in for a moment. It's not that teenage parents initially struggle before achieving some financial success; most teenage parents will live in poverty their entire lives. Statistically speaking, teenage pregnancy is the surest path to poverty in existence.
I also liked the fact that the movie dealt with two sexual myths which gives the movie some educational value. The first, which I never understood, is the myth that you cannot become pregnant on your first time. No, as long as everything is functioning correctly, you can get pregnant the first, second, third, or potentially any time. In the movie, they got pregnant on their first time which they didn't know was possible.
The other myth is that the "pull and pray" method is guaranteed to prevent pregnancy. "Daddy" was perplexed as to how his girlfriend became pregnant when he always pulled out in time. He asked one of his teachers whether it was possible to get a girl pregnant when you pulled out in time. He correctly explained that sperm is still present before ejaculation and hence, it is possible to get somebody pregnant even if you "pull out in time."
Night of the Living Dead (1968)
Low Budget Cult Film
This film has a small cult-like group of extremely devoted fans who can watch the movie umpteen times and act like the movie is some kind of masterpiece while the rest of us know the movie stinks. It's similar to the Rocky Horror Picture show in that regard.
It's easily one of very worst films I've ever managed to sit through entirely and that only because I was an undergrad and there was absolutely nothing else to do that evening. The only nice thing I can say about the movie is that the decision to make it in black and white was the correct one. There are few scenes that would have been too gross in color. Also, grossness is not horror. If you watch a war picture for example and see a body get blown apart, that is not horror, that is just being gross.
The ending was particularly bad. If the movie had actually been half-way decent, then ending would have ruined the movie. But there is nothing to ruin so the ending becomes the capstone to a thoroughly stupid, boring, unentertaining movie.