jonkun227-55-86655 Reviews

Flight (I) (2012)

Not the worst movie I've ever seen

[3/10 · 19 October 2013]

I didn't look this up before I grabbed it on a whim at Redbox. I have enjoyed most movies I've seen with Denzel Washington so I was relying on him to only sign up to do a show worth watching. I really should have done my homework.

This is the most heavy-handed morality lesson I've ever seen come out of a major movie studio. From the first scenes my wife and I were already remarking, "Well they aren't trying to be subtle, are they?" From the specific focus (camera angle & movement, for instance) on drug and alcohol use in the first (second?) scene to the soundtrack selection which is probably the least subtle part of the messaging, we felt like we were getting hit over the head with theme, plot exposition, and what passes for character development in this film.

I don't drink alcohol and I don't use drugs. I never have. I am not interested, and I don't think anyone else should either (by choice, not by legislation). I don't believe the benefits even come close to outweighing the risks. So I really have no objection to the concept of a "don't be an alcoholic/addict" type message in a movie. The issue is just the way it is handled.

There were numerous plot points that did NOT make sense and elements that did NOT seem realistic. I'll describe a couple that I remember now, a week after we watched the movie, but trust me when I say that there were MANY. I'm not a pilot or an aircraft engineer, but I don't think that plane could handle the stress of a barrel roll. I'm not an aviation incident investigator, but I don't believe the NTSB conducts official hearings in hotel banquet rooms. If they do it seems unlikely that they would take the time to mount a MASSIVE NTSB seal on the wall in the back, or go to the work of setting up live video feeds of the hearing to be shown to the people who are present in the hearing. I'm not an alcoholic or medical professional, but I don't believe someone who consumes THAT MUCH alcohol in an single night would survive, nor would someone who apparently drinks that much on a regular basis still have a functional liver. I also have trouble believing that the NTSB wouldn't interview the pilot of the aircraft early and often in an investigation, saving all questioning for a hearing. The 3 question formality they did in the hospital was not an investigation.

Again, I'm not an expert in these fields. I realize I could be wrong. But these kinds of issues were so frequent and disruptive that we could not maintain any suspension of disbelief. All we had was disbelief. We almost turned it off, but we decided to bet on the ending instead. I lost that bet. (I thought he would lie his way through the hearing, be let free, and not learn his lesson so the last shot of the movie would be him getting a drink. My wife, on the other hand, did not underestimate the heavy-handedness of the lesson and called his jail time.)

Basically this feels more like a bad after school special or "a very special episode of Blossom" than a major motion picture. I was floored at the end when I noticed that it was directed by Robert Zemeckis. That may be the most unbelievable part of this movie.

NTSF:SD:SUV (2011–2013)

So much potential, but all of it missed

[2/10 · 24 August 2012]

In an age where satire thrives in such forms as The Colbert Report and The Onion, I had great hopes for this show. Discovering an all-star (even if they are B-list) cast only elevated that expectation. But, as was already insightfully observed by another reviewer, this is more like a bad youtube sketch than good comedy.

Satire doesn't work without an understanding by the writer of the subject to be parodied. Referencing certain clichés isn't the same thing. Throwing in behavior that is completely inappropriate for the subject, like agents shooting anything that moves, takes this completely out of the realm of satire and lands it squarely in the domain of mindless comedy like Jackass and Fox News.

The great irony here, perhaps providing the only real comedy in the entire production, is that creator Paul Scheer is also the host of the popular podcast, "How Did This Get Made?" Paul, it's a good thing you're the host of that show, as that's the only insurance you have to keep this show off of that one.

Seriously, this makes Scary Movie look like Young Frankenstein.

Again, as another reviewer put it, the only funny thing here is the title. From there the jokes proceed swiftly downhill.

Skyline (2010)

Remarkable acting considering the poor writing

[2/10 · 23 May 2011]

I don't fault the actors. I think they did a superb job with a terrible story and script. This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. It would take longer than it took to watch the movie to discuss all of the problems because there are so many occurring simultaneously.

To the reviewer who said that people don't like this movie because ever since Iron Man (huh? where did you get that timeline? this problem has been around much longer than 2008) people have expected movies to make sense: The problem isn't that we can't accept strange alien behavior.

Not going to confuse you further by trying to explain it. Just going to put that out there for you to consider.

I watched this because I'm a fan of Donald Faison. I still am, though this did hurt his stock in my book. He can afford to be more selective about the projects he takes on.