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Reviews
Gravity (2013)
Pedestrian
The great virtue of Gravity is that I will be very unlikely to ever spend several hundred thousand dollars on a tourist space travel ticket, even if I had the money to burn, which I do not expect to have. The views may be out-of-this-world (although not in this movie!), but space travel is awkward at best. Cramped quarters, disoriented floating, most inhospitable and unforgiving environment just outside the door (hatch), unpleasant flight home. The only justification would be vanity: "Hey, look at me, I'm an astronaut!"
What else about the movie? The plot is lame, the acting ordinary, even the "views" are pedestrian. There is heroism, but that plot twist is a rehash of several space movies dating back to at least the 1950s.
A Summer Place (1959)
Soapy
I was only fifteen when ASP was released so I'm sure I wasn't allowed in the theater since, for the time, the themes were decidedly "adult": alcoholism, teen sex, marital infidelity. (The language was course, but mild by modern standards.) So now as a senior citizen, i've seen it for the first time on the small screen (TCM).
I thought the acting was serviceable, even the struggling Ms Dee. Mr. Donahue I thought quite believable as a late teen who translates hormones into love. (As a hunk, he's no Jon Hamm, but blond was the style in the 50's.) The adults play the soap opera roles quite well, especially the alcoholic father of the groom.
As the soapy, strained plot played out, I couldn't help wondering if the climax would attempt the ultimate possibility: that the Dee-Donahue characters were actually brother and sister since apparently his mother and her father had been intimates before they were born. But that would have been way too shocking then and perhaps even beyond the pale today.
Avatar (2009)
Cameron pushed my buttons
If you like science fiction, victory of the underdogs, love stories, extensive and clever computer graphics, western-like bad guys and good guys, then Avatar will entertain, and you will be uplifted. The theme is as old as David and Goliath, and of course has been repeated ad infinitum. It's cleverly crafted entertainment, sure to please most in the audience.
However, if you demand a modicum of plot originality, subtle acting, and intellectual depth, then Avatar will likely not satisfy.
Me? I'm a sucker for science fiction plots and computer graphics, so I left the theater feeling slightly satisfied.