Change Your Image
cathycritter
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Oxygène (2021)
Suspenseful with lots of surprises
A woman wakes up in some sort of cryogenic chamber with no memory of who she is or how she got there. After a period of panic during which she tries to escape and unhook herself from various monitoring devices, IV lines, etc., she starts to piece things together with the help of a HAL-like artificial intelligence program called Milo, of whom she can ask questions and make requests. She learns of her life as a medical researcher (mice being her research subjects), remembers fondly her significant other and their life together, and is made aware that a deadly, rampant virus had been going around. Bit by bit the full realization of who she is, and what is happening to her, is revealed to her. Along the way the audience is kept guessing. At one point I thought her significant other, who has been shown sick and dying in various flashbacks, had perhaps arranged for her to be frozen until a cure for the virus was found, so she would not suffer the same fate as him. At another point I thought maybe her significant other had put her in a deep freeze against her will for some reason. And another time, it seemed as though she had put herself into a deep freeze for some sort of research purpose that she did not remember. The truth when revealed is shocking, disturbing, and thought-provoking. As well as somewhat hopeful. I read one review in which the reviewer stated that they knew what was going on very early on. I didn't watch any trailers and barely looked at the description before I watched the movie, maybe that helped me feel completely in the dark until the truth was revealed.
1899 (2022)
Please make it stop
This started out mysterious and kind of intriguing. However as the episodes wear on ,it's just getting more and more annoying. Where do I start? For one thing, during most of the movie, every character that is supposed to be scared-or I guess doing something physically taxing like walking down a hallway searching rooms-keeps breathing heavily all the time. I guess this is supposed to show how fearful they are, but it's ridiculous. No matter how scared they are, they wouldn't keep panting like a dog. Also, the character of the captain is just too lame to watch. He has absolutely no control over anything or anyone and barely says anything. For that matter, many scenes just involve characters staring at each other and panting. Rarely does anyone have any normal reactions like, what the hell is going on here? How can there be a trap door in the floor? Why do I keep appearing in different locales without rhyme or reason? Why do the tunnels out of the ship deposit me out into these foreign worlds? What are those weird black things sticking out all over the ship that seem to be destroying it? At most a character or two says calmly "this can't be real" or "that can't be happening". YA THINK? The captain and the other female lead barely talk, just stare at each other with fear and breathing heavily. Wherever the woman goes, the captain just follows along like a little lapdog. He has nothing to say, no theories, no plans. He might as well be a Lego figure standing there. And for some reason it irritates me that for several episodes now they never show anybody eating. A long time has gone by, wouldn't somebody be putting some food in their mouth? Wouldn't they worry about the food running out? Wouldn't the chefs or the cooks try to throw something together? And just now the most frustrating scene appeared. The female lead character -OK her name is Maura I remember now -is confronted with the guy in the black trench coat that apparently she is married to or was married to. He pleads with her -don't you know who I am? Do you remember? You must remember. I love you. It takes forever for him to tell her they were married. She says, you're lying! And shoves him into a room and locks the door. WHY in heaven doesn't he tell her the whole story right then? We were married 12 years ago, your father did this, your father did that, and what's happening now is this, and this is what we have to do to get out of it. Why doesn't he just explain it to her?? And how about telling her that it's very dangerous if she takes that little device he is always holding and pressing buttons on. Honey, give it back. You might screw up reality forever. But no ...he doesn't say a word. It is the same problem that I find with so many movies and series lately-aside from the bad acting and storyline issues-is that no characters act like any normal person would act given the circumstances, even allowing for variations in the type of people these characters are. Which makes the whole thing seem ridiculous, and you become less invested in the story. I will probably finish watching this because I've already invested so much time in it, but honestly, I'm not looking forward to the rest.
Five Days (2007)
So bad it's painful
The 1st episode of this contains so many infuriating elements I don't even know where to start. We have the stereotypical dour policewoman who immediately opines that a mom who has disappeared has simply "left her children on their own". There is no evidence to support that this mom would would do that. You've barely begun investigating. Then they have the stepdad. No less than 3 lingering shots of him staring blankly at the policewoman when she asks him routine questions about his wife. ( It's clear that he is not the culprit). I mean blank. Absolutely nothing in the eyes. I assume he is supposed to be frustrated or offended or something, but he just sits there like a mannequin. No acting visible here. Then we have the missing woman's babbling parents, who inexplicably leave the missing woman's home-leave the stepdad and their older granddaughter there, while all the hullabaloo about investigating the disappearance is going on. They leave as she chirps, "I'll bring breakfast" (when they come back the next day). Your daughter and 2 little grandkids are missing and you're leaving the house and you're thinking about making breakfast tomorrow? Why wouldn't you be completely freaked out? Again-they have nothing to do with the crime. It is just bad writing and bad acting here. Another ridiculous moment occurs when the police are talking to the stepdad and the teen daughter in the living room. The daughter is very upset, of course. (Earlier in the show they had very heavy-handedly tried to show that the stepdad and this daughter don't get along). The stepdad asks her, dismissively, can you stop making such a fuss. Make a fuss? Her mother and little siblings are missing and police are there! Kind of expected she would make just a teeny bit of a fuss. The teen daughter had been portrayed as somewhat rebellious before the disappearance. She is very worried about everything going on. Her best friend comes over to visit, comes upstairs into the bedroom where daughter is crying. "Go away!" she bleats. "I never want to see you again! You fat (something)." Friend runs off down the stairs. OK, I mean the daughter is upset and doesn't feel like talking to anyone. But would she really say to her best friend that she never wants to see her again, and that she's fat? It is just taking it too far. It's like the effort to portray every emotion or personality characteristic of each chatacters is taken so far that we wind up in crazy town. Nobody reacts normally whatsoever. Do yourself a favor and do not watch this nonsensical show.
Update: Five Days only got worse. When we finally learn what happened to Leanne, It's a total let down. Very improbable that some ex army guy pal of the dad decided to kill Leanne and dump her in the lake because she stumbled across his illegal cigarette smuggling business. And the weirdo mamma's boy guy who was arrested because he drove up to the location where the little girl was, and apparently Leanne had been held-it's not clear why he was involved at all either. Why would the army guy even deal with such an idiot? In any sort of business? Then there is the completely unnecessary and irritating addition to the character list, Sarah. By chance she finds the little boy hiding after the mom had disappeared and army guy/weirdo had taken Rosie. After that she insinuates herself into the family's life in a very bizarre way. Before you know it she and Matt are fooling around. And she's taking a motherly role with the kids. They seemed to adore her after about 5 seconds. I mean the investigation into Leanne's disappearance is still going on and Matt is supposedly upset, why the hell would he jump into bed with her, a needy and strange woman? In a weird and improbable coincidence, she has a murdered family member in her past also-her mom. I think this is supposed to explain why she has such a strong attraction to Matt. Why not, makes no more sense than anything else in this series. There are so many stupid aspects to talk about, but I'll just discuss one more. There's a female police officer who from the beginning has been pretty sympathetic to the family's loss, and supportive during the investigation of the disappearance. Before long, she is hanging around Matt's house-out of uniform-all the time, and taking care of the children, almost taking a nanny role or a motherly role, similar to Sara. Hello -she's a police officer, this is totally inappropriate. Then before you know it, she's arresting Matt for the murder of Leanne. Nothing up to that point would have indicated that she-or anyone else in the police dept.-thought he was guilty, and there's no evidence to support his involvement. But as soon as the body is discovered, she's slapping the cuffs on him. And then later on is apologetic about it to him and to her boss. No clue why she would do that. And the list goes on and on. Skip this show unless you want to watch a case study in how to produce a piece of crap.
The Anthrax Attacks (2022)
No tension or suspense
I know it's a documentary, but they telegraph who the perpetrator is so early on that there is zero tension or suspense or the feeling of a discovery unfolding. Also, the use of actors to portray the anthrax attacker and some others involved in the case, was a poor choice. They should have stuck to using actual footage and photos, along with interviews with real people involved in the case (at least they had those). The actor playing the attacker was just not very good- it was a very cartoonish portrayal. Interesting case though. Also no mention was made of using psychological profiling to catch the anthrax attacker. This seems to be a case that was absolutely suited to such a technique. Was this technique used and if so why didn't this documentary address it?
The Woman in the Window (2021)
So bad cannot finish
What are Amy Adams and Gary Oldman doing in this piece of crap? It pains me to even make a comparison to that masterpiece Rear Window (and Gaslight), but this movie obviously bears some resemblance- spying on the neighbors, seeing a murder, a character who doesn't leave his/her house, sleuthing to investigate the crime. Amy's character and Jimmy Stewart's character both have professional cameras pointed across the street. But in this movie, the story, the characterizations, the situations ....please. How about the tenant, who in the space of 10 seconds becomes this completely evil character. There's no buildup of suspense there or a slow reveal. I admit I have not finished this and I don't intend to, but no matter what happens, whether he is guilty or innocent of the murder-of course he must be innocent since they are so heavy-handedly implying that he is guilty-they make such a broad, cartoony change from him being just your friendly neighborhood tenant, to this angry parolee, it's ridiculous. Or how about the female police detective, who is also so broadly drawn, as the stock character of the sardonic cop who won't believe the poor person telling the truth. Even in a situation where both cops didn't believe her, I believe it's unrealistic they would be so openly dismissive and demeaning of Amy Adams' character and story. Maybe everyone is just in on some huge plot to get her to go outside the house. Who knows. Who cares. How about the people across the street who keep every window wide open with no shades or blinds. Because everyone in New York City does that, right?? What about video cameras? Couldn't the police at least take a look at that footage from her doorstep? Maybe the woman she thought was Alistair Russell's wife actually did come over. I can only hope before the end of this stupid movie that at least the TV footage idea comes up. Don't watch unless you want to yell at the TV every 5 minutes with frustration.
The Deep End (2022)
Another documentary that tells us nothing
On episode 3 and this is so poorly done that it is becoming difficult to watch. We're getting almost no information about Teal Swan's methods or philosophy. For example, we see 2 people doing an exercise in which one of them is pretending to be? Becoming? Channeling? -another person who caused trauma in the other person's life. Speaking as if they are the trauma-causing person, almost as if in a trance. We are not told what is going on here or how this person is supposedly able to do this. We're told that there is a "process". Desperate fans/followers go to a retreat and are supposed to be having this life-altering process. At no time are we told what the steps of that process are or how Swan developed them. We don't know what Swan's educational background is. We don't know how Swan's methods are different from a million other cultish methods that we have heard of before-purging trauma in dramatic ways in front of a rapt congregation, unearthing abuse both real and imagined, cutting off toxic people from one's past. We've heard all this before. We see what looks like sage burning, something about frog poison (which makes someone throw up), a follower blubbering in a pool held tenderly by Swan. Anything goes, it seems.
The episodes drag on. Way too many mentions of how the group is a "community", and a "family". Yes, we know, you just said that 5 minutes ago.
As for the subject matter itself, this "family"has every indication of being a cult. A narcissistic, controlling leader with no apparent qualifications to treat people with possibly serious psychological and emotional problems? Check. Methods that are ambiguous and possibly dangerous? Check. Followers urged to cut off off people in their lives? Check. Pandering, unquestionning followers who crave their leader's approval? Check. How about the woman from Germany who marries Swan's closest associate? She's being told by Swan that it's not acceptable that she keep up her relationships with friends and family. Why on Earth would this German lady accept this?? It's also so obvious that Swan is completely jealous that Jake got married.
And of course Swan's reaction to someone listening to one of her presentations, someone who merely brings up the possibility that someone might disagree with her-she reacts with obvious anger and derision. And if I recall correctly, she compares herself to the Dalai Lama. Nobody's higher than her. How dare anyone disagree with her?? Swan has bren drinking too much of her own Kool-aid.
As a documentary, it doesn't tell us anything or bring us closer to understanding who Swan is and what she's developed. And as for the person herself, she is a cult leader. Plain and simple.
Keep This Between Us (2022)
Too many unanswered questions
Obviously the filmmaker and the other victims are very brave for coming forward in this documentary. However, we are given very little information. For example, Heaven tells us little about the abuse other than a brief mention of what they did (hand job, oral sex) Where did it take place, always in the classroom? How long did it go on, did she tell anyone about it at the time? How often? How did it occur with such secrecy-was it during the school day always, or after hours? Did it continue past HS? Of course it's difficult to revisit these memories, I would guess, but It is a documentary. Details matter. Viewers cannot get invested in the story and truly feel how terrible it was, if we don't know what happened. Way too much footage is spent on the victims commiserating with each other and telling each other how they have had the same experience, but that experience is not sufficiently imparted to the viewer. Allison says several times how her college years were ruined by the abuse. How did the abuse impact her college years? What happened? Did she miss classes, do drugs, stay in her room from depression? Party too hard? We don't know because she never tells us. She doesn't give us too much detail about the grooming and abuse either. We know that he gave her a suggestive poem, he made her feel special, and they 1st kissed in his house. Then she moved in with him in Utah and stayed in the basement and they had sex. But questions abound. Where and when did the abuse take place during the HS years? ? Was it always in his house? How did the wife not have an inkling of what was going on? And when Allison moved in with them in another state, that didn't ring any alarm bells with the wife either? What about Allison's mom? The predator had managed to convince her that there was nothing going on, even though her gut feeling told her otherwise. Are you telling me that when Allison decided to move in with this guy, that this did not ignite any new suspicion in Allison's mom?? The scene at the kitchen table where Allison and her mom are talking about when her mom confronted the predator, why didn't Allison ask her -mom, but later, didn't you think it was weird when I moved in with him??
Other frustrating moments were when Allison went to meet with that guy Tom. He definitely seemed weird right off the bat. Even before they told us that he was being charged with abuse, I thought to myself, well, he looks like a predator himself! But why doesn't Allison call Tom on the thing her friend said-that Tom threatened her friend to not say anything more about the teacher abusing Allison, or else Tom would give the friend a bad grade. Allison meets him for a barbecue in the backyard and doesn't say a word. Why doesn't she ask Tom, why did you say that to my friend? Did you cover for my abuser? Why did you try to hush my friend up? Is it because you are an abuser yourself?" We see him on a zoom later, being interviewed by Allison's associate, I think, where he says "I don't remember that." The associate has no follow up , such as "It's odd to me that you say you don't remember it, rather than say, I would never say that to a student!"
I gave it a 6 only because it is an important subject to bring to light and the women were courageous in putting their story out there.