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Keilyn13
Reviews
Animorphs (1998)
Oh, what this could have been...
There was so much that could have been done to make this a quality show. For one thing, get rid of that Boris kid! Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the obvious choice, as his personality and appearance were both perfect! And Gregory Smith would have been amazing as Jake- he's always the actor I imagined in that part. That said, the other actors were all pretty good choices (and I loved the Tobias pick), so no more problems there.
Next issue: If memory serves me correctly (and it probably doesn't- I only watched the first episode before giving up on it), they did a weekly or nightly half-hour show on Nickelodeon. Wrong length, wrong station. If they had done what Farscape did and made it an hour-long special on Fox or some other channel, they'd have had a lot more flexibility to do it right. Nickelodeon is for brainless cartoons- they no longer know how to handle real quality programming.
They shouldn't have done it without better funding than they had- no sci-fi/fantasy story, even one for kids/teenagers, will work on a shoestring budget. Why not gear some of that book/merchandise revenue to the show, in turn getting good ratings and making more money as you increase interest in both sets of the series? Was their marketer on sedatives?
But even with everything as it was, I believe (and if anyone reads this who has seen the show will probably agree) what lost the fanbase was its nearly complete disregard for the books. It retained the characters, the aliens and the idea of morphing- and that was about it. And it failed utterly, being cancelled not long after it began.
Animorphs was an amazingly well-written series that hooked most of us by the mix of crazy humor and emotion-wrenching drama. Whether it was plausible or even entirely original didn't matter because the author (props to Mrs. Applegate) did such a good job. If anything, the TV show hurt that. From reading the posts, a lot of kids who got a glimpse of the show decided that the books must have been just as awful (or *gasp* unaware that there even were books). The show could have been so much more- it could have contended among the best preteen/teenager programming, and been a guilty pleasure for the adults out there. But it wasn't, so I bid it a wistful but otherwise indifferent farewell. I'll stick to my original sorrow over the book series ending.
Capturing the Friedmans (2003)
Still on the fence (spoilers)
I've watched the documentary, read the messages on the board, read the other user comments. Many have already sided one way or another; I, on the other hand, through my own experience, prefer to take a more moderate course. I want to say that I am giving both sides the benefit of the doubt, and here's why:
I don't believe there was enough evidence (at least of what they presented to us in the movie) to determine one way or another whether Arnold Friedman and/or his son Jesse sexually molested young boys. There is evidence suggesting the possibility: sodomy porn magazines collected by Arnold and his own past of early sexual experimentation and admitted pedophilia, and Jesse's admission in court (I'll touch on this later, also). And there was at least one interviewee standing by his accusations. However, there is also evidence that neither committed any said acts (at the very least, during the time/place that was being focused on in the trial): several interviewees and one accused victim's parent all denied allegations- some now-grown "victims" claimed to have been badgered or coerced into testifying for the prosecution.
Jesse contradicts himself in the movie. His lawyer (who I will admit came off as self-important and not so believable) said that Jesse had admitted being molested by his father and also molesting/manhandling some of the boys in question. Later, in his interview after his release from jail, he has recanted entirely. He claims the lawyer made up the story, and his guilty plea was only to bring him a lighter sentence.
Neither man acts scared to go to jail. The mother, who does not stand by her husband or son by any stretch of the imagination, does have some credence to her position (though she does also come across as very uncaring and angry at times). The charges against both men are so horrific and extensive that they are beyond the realm of feasibility, and Jesse makes a good point: take one boy, who claims to have been molested 31 times during the course, then re-enrolls and is molested 41 more times...and never tells his anyone?
My final decision is that it may have happened. But definitely not in the way and to the extent most claimed. There may have been one or two boys that Arnold may have been attracted to and flirted with- and he either went a little too far (though not necessarily sodomized them) or the boy(s) may have just perceived it. And then when police came questioning, they told. And it snowballed to ridiculous proportions, and more and more boys were drawn in. But ultimately, it may have not happened. I do not know; no one knows but Arnold, Jesse, and those who accused them. In any case, their trial was wholly unfair and during the "witch-hunt" against child molesters in the mid-80's.
I also recommend the Lifetime movie "Just Ask My Children" which, admittedly, shows a much more biased and thoroughly dramatized version of another true story, but keeps to factual events and testimonies.
The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
Not as bad as they say ((Some spoilers))
This was actually one of the better movies of the year, in my opinion. I really felt the tension in the Zion battle scene, I felt sad at Trinity's death scene. There are a lot of people who didn't like it and that's fine. But this certainly wasn't one of the worst films I've seen. It isn't even a bad movie. No, it won't answer all of the questions from Reloaded, let alone openly. But if you just go to watch and possibly enjoy this movie (assuming you've seen 1 and 2), then I don't think you'll be disappointed.
Grease (1978)
Huh?
I saw this movie for the first time in my Choir class in my Junior year. And I have since despised it entirely. It had so little direction- the only constant was it was set in a high school. It was just plain awful! What are we supposed to learn from it? Or are we supposed to just be entertained? I was neither, and I apologize but I couldn't see how anyone liked it unless they saw it originally around the time it came out. "Beauty School Dropout"? I'll pass.