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kimdel
Reviews
Mixed Nuts (1994)
Missed out on 29 years of laughter!
How have I never heard of this movie filled with my favorites, Steve Martin, Madeleine Kahn, Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron, plus so many more? A slow beginning, but it was like a snowball goung downhill, picking up speed, sulliness, and hilarity (hilariousness?). A bit of Ruthless People, but oh so odd. Will be a Christmas standard for us now! Who knew Anthony Lapaglia could be so funny? Or Liev Schreiber?? This is like the comedy "who's who" like Its a Mad,Mad,Mad,Mad World was. I mean Jon Stewart as practically an extra? The world is missing Madeleine Kahn, it was great to discover a movie of hers I didnt know existed. If you love great comedians you will recognize each persons contribution to this ensemble movie. Might have to buy the DVD!
Law & Order: Survivor (1996)
Pesonally touching and informative, dramatized beautifully
A line in this episode caught my attention as it applies to not only Holocaust survivor's children, but to any child of someone who had a horrific life and carries that burden with them. "She displaces her anger at what happened to her parents into empathy" when explaining why Karen Allen's character breaks down at every horror she sees, reads about or is told of, because she can so easily identify with it.
This episode is one of the best there is, Karen Allen was not Karen Allen, she was Judith Sandler. The subject was handled well without sanitizing it. Well done and tragic.
That White People Shit (2019)
Funny to see how we see each other, goofy too
I stumbled across this on Fuse/Sling and thought the title was a mistake so I checked it out. Pretty cool to watch a black comedian try to make us the audience laugh while the white people standing next to him are just, wondering if and when they should say something. Everyone I saw seemed to be good natured and I hope it stays that way. Frankly I (am white, but grew up in the country) didn't know welding was a white thing. My stepdad and mom were both welders and they worked with a diverse group of almost all men. I hope we can all learn how each other thinks and understand it.
The Call of the Wild (2020)
cgi dog in the woods pretending to be real?
I'm sorry, but using a CGI dog for a Jack London story is like using yellow minions in a Godfather movie. I just could not take this seriously, and as a computer enhanced movie it made Harrison Ford look like he was talking to a puppet. I walked out of one scene and wished I had not gone back in. Completely backfired for me. Read the book and use your imagination and you'll be far ahead of this movie. And I feel bad saying this because the acting really was good and the scenery breathtaking. It was a merging of two opposites that didn't work for me.
The Lovely Bones (2009)
looks good, acting good, story weak (spoilers)
I started watching because of the cast, but it seemed a little like a made for TV movie, but hey, sometimes they are really good (Buried Alive with Tim Matheson is a notable from USA network). But 2/3 through I started seeing where it was going and I was bored and angry I'd wasted my time watching at all. By then I was so disgusted I lost that time of my life for this. Don't waste your time. The Movie looks great and there is a great cast, but that's it. If I really thought about the meaning of the story it's actually disgusting that somehow if you find your way out of purgatory to inhabit someone else's body to have sex then you'll be satisfied enough to go to heaven even though your murderer is still free and your body has been hidden forever, never to be discovered. Why on earth did anyone think this was worth of making into a movie to retell this is beyond me. What a waste of good acting talent and filming. They totally got the 70's down pat. But the reason I see movies is the storytelling and where it goes. This one went into the bizarre and completely unsatisfying off the side of the road direction. I went and read some reviews of the book and apparently it started there--so it's not the screenplay--it's the original story that is a waste of time. Why are film backers wasting money on stories like this when there are plenty of good stories out there. This didn't deserve to be made.
First Born (2007)
PSYCHOLOGICAL thriller means it's a thought movie, so...
it moves slowly, I will admit, but I was hooked and couldn't turn away. Perhaps it was because I had no clue what the title or plot was and missed the opening credits so I kept trying to figure out what was going to happen. Forget about which characters should have been written differently, or the "I would have said this instead" reviews. The characters were all believable and the plot and storyline were completely legitimate. The darkness and eeriness of the movie were reminiscent of those thrillers like Dressed to Kill and Gaslight. I loved the ghost/horror movies of the 60's and 70's, so perhaps that's why I liked this so much (Legend of Hell House, I Saw what you Did, etc.)
I enjoyed the psychological teases and found the ending appropriate and satisfying. For those who are used to movies spoon-feeding everything to you, don't bother. If you like thinking about things, you'll probably enjoy it. Elizabeth Shue was terrific. She was very convincing and made the movie completely believable.
The Pursuit of Happyness (2006)
Disappointing ending
Am I the only one who is wondering what happened to Chris's son? There's no way I can "spoil" this movie ending so I'll get to the point--the final scene which is supposed to show success after so much hard work and suffering shows one man (the real Chris Gardner), no son and the words of how much money he made selling his company. Makes me wonder if all he did was for his son or for himself, could never tell from the movie. The movie shows us 6 hard months of a man's life, very hard months and the eventuality that he makes a lot of money later. So? What does he do with his son? for his community? Am I supposed to read or watch talk shows to find out what really happened in the end of a movie? Will Smith was incredible, his acting is beyond reproach, I just wish there had been better screening of the ending, because the way it played to me was "success = money" and NOT family.