gypjet-1 Reviews

Years of Living Dangerously (2014–2016)

ridiculous

[1/10 · 5 June 2014]

I don't know why people think that celebrities know anything. This series is just a big piece of political propaganda as preached by a bunch of people who didn't study past high school (if they even graduated). Not one piece of actual scientific evidence in this.

Yes, the climate varies over years. Yes we should all do better at keeping our air and water clean, but when you think that the best thing for the planet is for people to die or quit living, then don't haul out a bunch of celebrities with a huge "carbon footprint" to prove to me that we should all just commit suicide so we don't impact the planet anymore. This crap is just so much hogwash.

The Stone Roses: Made of Stone (2013)

Documentary style weak- band awesome

[4/10 · 3 May 2014]

I'm a rare thing, an American fan of the Roses. I know the songs, but I don't know much about the band (I didn't even find out until recently they gotten back together). So, when I saw there was a documentary, I had to see it.

It was obvious the director was a fan, not just because he keeps showing up in the film to tell us, but because he tries to stay positive, and shows snippets of songs. However, the content is weak when it comes to telling the audience about the band. I wanted a typical 3-5 act story. I wanted to see them form, get famous, fall apart, and get back together. That stuff is in there, but it's scattered, you have to piece it together yourself and it's weak on original footage from the 80s-90s.

I wanted to also know more about the music, and I wanted to hear more music. At the end of the day, that's what the fans want. The Stone Roses music is amazing and the songs timeless. That's what it's all about. Plus I wanted more of my favs!

The weird Hitchcock thing was just bizarre. The Roses aren't about film Mr. director, they are about music, good rock music.

Killing Them Softly (2012)

Horrid

[1/10 · 30 March 2013]

Horrendously boring. The constant political interjections of the presidential debates by Bush and Obama have zero point. It's like Brad Pitt and his Hollywood cronies have to be political although they are too stupid to know what's going on. Endless movie, political seeming, but no real point.

The dialog in this movie consists of a few words interspersed with profanity, the only two characters I could identify were Pitt's (because he's Brad Pitt!) and Liotta's only because they said "Marky" a million times. Extremely violent for violence sake while lacking story or point.

Save a buck or two and avoid this stinker.

The Presence (2010)

Weird unexplained ghost story

[5/10 · 30 March 2013]

I'm giving this movie a 5. As other reviewers have stated, it was beautiful, filmed in Oregon with all that natural scenery as a backdrop. However,the director tried to hard to make it artsy fartsy.

We have large stretches of no dialogue and the characters staring off into space. We have zero explanation of why this girl is important enough to have both an angel and a demon in her life, and even though we get the idea her father was abusive sexually and physically; we have no explanation of who the ghost is. Is it her father? Is that why he needs to ask for forgiveness to receive redemption? Nothing in the story is there to support or refute it.

Another point lacking explanation is the bizarre outhouse. Why does a bird kill itself against it every time she enters? What was beating on it when the boyfriend went in? Is this the spot the abuse took place? Zero explanation. It felt like a random scare to make this seem more like a ghost story! Poor storytelling.

Anyway, my complaint is that although the director understood the visual aspect of story telling, he forgot the story part. So 5 points for a beautiful cinematography, zero points for plot/characterization.