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jpfortney
Reviews
Pushing Daisies (2007)
Best show on TV
This is a great show! It's a fantasy (obviously!) so it's easy to take without thinking too much. I like several aspects of the show; the narration in parts, the music, the premise, the script. I feel the acting is perfect in that there's no hamming it up but plenty of humor. Unlike the previous commenter, I enjoy the fact that the once dead seem rather non-chalant about their demise. It's dark humor in line with Lemony Snickets or a Tim Burton production. As a matter of fact Tim Burton is the first person who came to mind on the first viewing. The show has the same feel as "A Series Of Unfortunate Events" (I know, not Burton) or "Beetlejuice" or "Edward Scissorhands". All in all a really fun hour of TV. The one drawback... too many commercial breaks. All the more reason to buy a tivo. I don't watch a lot of TV, but this is one show I don't miss. Was truly sad to find the CMAwards preempted the show this past Wednesday.
Raging Sharks (2005)
Growling sharks????
This movie was a hoot! Bad stock footage, bad acting, bad story, just plain bad. Lots of opportunities for a laugh. I don't think they meant it to be a comedy, however. I especially enjoyed (was highly amused is a better term) the growling sharks. They appeared to be great whites in several shots, but sounded like 'tigers' (g). The acting was rather wooden which contributes to the overall poor production.
Basically, an alien space accident results in a module being cast into the ocean. A few years later, a portable lab is positioned close to the module, which we later find out triggered a signal into space. This apparently causes the sharks to go into protect mode and they begin killing off anyone coming close. The module contains a material which, when mixed with something (Deuterium?) produces cold fusion. The government (or military/special ops) knew about the module (how?) but had not been able to locate it until the lab stumbled upon it, thus setting off the signal (how was the signal detected?). Various action scenes ensue with many people being eaten (no truly great footage here, only a couple of good shots. One such shot of reporters falling into the water after their 25+ foot boat is attacked and sunk by a (as in one) 'raging' shark. The shark chows down and we see a camera with an arm from the elbow down still holding on.).
Many things to criticize. Ten minutes of oxygen left in the lab turns into several minutes of chase/fight scenes with fires blazing everywhere. The starring couple (Vanessa Angel looking rather pouty with her botox-laden lips) starving for oxygen at the end while sitting in a diving prep room full of tanks (and them in wet suits). The lab disintegrating at the end and yet the couple miraculously appearing in full scuba regalia and surviving the accent (several hundred feet in seconds?!?!). Many, many other such inconsistencies.
If you can maintain a sense of humor throughout it's a fun movie, however poorly acted/scripted. If continuity issues bother you I wouldn't recommend this movie.
2 of 10 - above a 1 only because I like Vanessa Angel, though not one of her better films.
The Santa Clause 2 (2002)
Very enjoyable sequel
This was a very fun movie! Easily as fun as the first. It had a great mix of humor, romance and 'feel good'. The first movie gave me the feeling of joy at the thought of grownups finding the wonder of Christmas again (Laura and Neal realizing Scott was indeed Santa). The second gave me that same feeling (the staff Christmas party). I'm kind of partial to these kind of movies because I like to take the Spirit of Christmas and share it throughtout the year. I liked the attitude of Bernard more in the first one. He seemed more on top of things, a little cocky, very in control. Other than that, I can't think of a thing I didn't like about this movie. And no bad language! Great for the entire family. 10/10