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Reviews
Falling for Christmas (2022)
White Christmas with bad acting
This movie had so much potential and couldnt deliver. The acting felt terribly forced with the young girl doing the best work. Over and over I saw pregnant pauses in conversations almost as if the main characters had to read a teleprompter before delivering.
Add to this that it is literally a poor knockoff for White Christmas so even the plot is about as unoriginal as possible (rich socialite saves nice guys ski resort).
The plot itself does work and it is somewhat saved by the most gorgeous setting in any recent Xmas story. The lodge is drop dead gorgeous tho there are some inconsistencies with scenery with obvious backgrounds of massive mountains typical of the Rockies alongside of beautiful Vermont type hills. Either of them, on their own, beautiful enough without trying mix them together.
Despite all of that this movie couldnt be saved due to the worst acting Ive seen in a long time.
NCIS: Hawai'i (2021)
It started out good but went woke
Keep up the poor work.
Just like NCIS NOLA you are losing your audience with all the politically correctness and woke diatribes.
You're only at you 5th episode and we have had to suffer with a lesson in American imperialism, hate the rich and tribal environmentalism.....in just one episode.
Keep it up and NCIS NOLA will be a long lasting series compared to this.
The Green Knight (2021)
Remember the end of 2001 A Space Odyssey?
This was a terrible movie and VERY unsatisfying.
A few observations:
The island of Great Britain is not as gloomy as this movie portrayed it. We saw it at a Cinema Movie Cafe. It was so dark I couldnt find the packets of mustard for my hot dog. Very depressing settings.
I am not a fan of meddling with original stories but if the story is good then I am OK. This one not only took liberties but it wasnt even entertaining.
Arthur was not old and feeble when this occurred. He was at the height of his power. Gawain and many of the knights were almost his contemporaries. He literally went to war at the end of the Morte D'Arthur where he died AND killed Mordred in single combat so was not even close to being an old decrepit man.
There are characters that show up over and over whose relationship to the plot are NEVER revealed or even minutely developed.
Last, WTH was that ending? You would have to have read the story to read in to how this had ended and if you didnt then you will have no idea. Either that or once again the writers took liberties with the story. HUGE liberties.
When will Hollywood take a story and write a movie from it that follows the original which has already stood the test of time for centuries (sometimes millennia ie. Troy).
Their attempt at artsy-fartsy in this movie was a major fail.
It was plodding, pretentious, depressing and boring. The only bright spots were the beginning when the challenge was thrown out/accepted and the Green Knight himself.
Marines, Let's Go (1961)
Fairly Good Movie
I enjoyed this film. The weakest aspect was the acting. The plot for most of the movie (the Japan holiday portion) was entertaining with plenty of comedy relief. That comedy relief was tempered by a healthy dose of 50s stereotyping for both the Japanese and the Marines.
It was less predictable than I expected.
The battle scenes showed some great action shots of early jet launches (in color) from the aircraft carriers which were well done and the Air Force air to mud scenes with the fighters were good.
Overall I had few problems with this movie after taking in to consideration the time period and obviously low budget. Sit back and enjoy a few laughs
Designated Survivor (2016)
Stop pushing the progressive agenda
We really enjoyed season1. Good plot trying to solve the event that is the premise for the shows title.
Season 2 there was a definite creep in the narrative. The show started working in progressive sub plots to what was essentially a good main plot.
By Season 3 the staff took advantage of the viewers desire to see the main plot resolved and bombarded them with every progressive talking point available.
They were not just subplots but were the motive for the main plot (right wing white supremacists).
As someone who stays VERY up to date on social issues I caught them literally lying to the viewership on news events and social issues.
This was no longer entertainment but was full bore propaganda.
It was my last season anyway so I was not going to watch anymore of it but I am glad that they will no longer have the platform with this show to make entertainment into an agenda.
Jesus Christ Superstar Live in Concert (2018)
Much good but a lot poor.
There was a lot about this production that was excellent.
Sets were great.
Loved the scattering of the musicians throughout the set. Very innovative.
Choir was spot on.
The resurrection scene was spectacular. That was the most impressive version I have seen and I have been to a few live professional productions as well as performed in one amateur production since 1976.
Sara Bareilles sounded so much like Yvonne Elliman it almost broke my heart even down to the catch in her voice when she sang her first number.
Well done Jin Ha (Anas). That voice rings like a bell.
Brandon Dixon did mostly a great job and the parts that I though were sub par were most likely director interpretation issues because there was no doubt of Dixon's talent in the rest of the show.
And Alice Cooper as Herod? OMFG pure genius.
However:
Seriously, John Legend? Legend has a great voice but this is just about one of the dumbest choices to play this part which requires a vocal range that is WELL beyond what Legend can provide. All they had to do was edit the highest notes that he was required to sing and substituted something that is still part of the melody so he didnt have to sing in a weak, breathy and forced falsetto. Terrible choice of either the performer or choice of melody editing. Gethsemane was a huge disappointment and is THE most dramatic point of the entire opera. Eric Gronwall (Simon Zealotes) would have been a better choice for this part. At least in his solo piece he demonstrated that he could hit the notes without sounding like a little girl. John Legend falls well short of Ian Gilliam or Ted Neeley.
Same issue with Norm Lewis (Caiaphas). Another terrible choice of a star who couldnt reach the notes. Except they were on the opposite end of the scale. He was struggling so hard to hit those booming lows that he could barely be heard and that's pretty hard to do when you are wearing a wireless microphone.
Ben Daniels did mostly a good job. I expect a performing voice to be more clear than rough but it was the part of Pilate, however, WTH happened at the end of the trial? That part is desperate man turning his pleas to a damning shout that slides into the realization of his own fate but in this case it was a screeching gasp that fell flat. I didnt see an exasperated bureaucrat but a raving lunatic that couldnt hit the notes.
Overall I saw this magnificent piece of art as being a showcase for politically correct choices in celebrities that should not have been chosen for these parts. This is what happens when art is subsumed by both identity politics and personalities instead of required talent.
Black Panther (2018)
Can we please get a movie with out a social agenda?
Look, I stopped watching about half the DC comic TV shows (ESPECIALLY Supergirl) because I am tired of being preached to.
The victim mentality is WAY too over the top.
This movie was beautifully done with great cinematography.
The story was...meh with predictable plot (tho Gorilla man proving to be a class act was a surprise and a real bonus) with lots of scenes that I saw as...why?
Acting was melodramatic and trite.
But what ruined it the most was the regular victim mentality theme that has just turned me off to most of Hollyweird and the media in general.
Up until now Marvel has taken the high road with this but they have dipped their toe into the politically correct cesspool that is losing Hollyweird millions of fans and dollars.
This movie so far has been financially successful but I think it will be a niche viewership and its real success is that it had little real competition.
Seriously Stan, you allowed this?
Supercarrier (1988)
Jusy Awful
I had the good fortune to have worked with the crew for the movie "Final Countdown" and managed to get a couple speaking parts and several visual scenes. One thing I can tell you is that the crew of the Nimitz edited a lot of dialog that would have been....un-realistic. Peter Douglas (producer) and Don Taylor (Director) were onboard for this and in fact encouraged our participation in the production of as authentic scenes as we could without taking away from the story line. THAT'S why the Final Countdown has become a favorite cult classic. We also enjoyed working with this crew. They treated us with respect and seemed to enjoy working with us as much as we enjoyed working with them. Peter Douglas was like a kid in a candy shop and his dad, Martin Sheen and Farentino were the same. It was a blast. I was in this show as well (right place right time......again) This show????? Not so much. The acting was weak and there was not a single big name in the cast that could hold the show together. The cast were all snotty wannabes who at no time seemed to genuinely enjoy what they were doing or working with us. The one guy that even talked with us was playing the part of an enlisted sailor whose job was similar to ours but even then I felt like it was mostly condescension rather than an interest in what we did. The premises of how the ships systems, crew and the Navy in general worked were ludicrous. I remember one scene in particular where the lead, sh!t hot, Ops Specialist had diagnosed a radar contact as being a Russian bomber and when the captain (who was in CIC despite the fact that the captain's job is on the bridge) asked "how do you know that". The dialog had the actor telling the captain something like "Do you hear that 'ping, doyng doot' sound that we're getting on the radar? That's the sound that this Russian bomber makes." First of all radar doesn't make sounds in the radar operators headset. Second only Electronic Warfare techs "listen" to RF emitters, not Op Specs. To add a humorous note to that episode: The consoles we worked from had intercom communications between them. We were all manned up making CIC look like we were on an underway footing and we all kept activating our intercom to this actor's console and telling him "ping doyng doot" over and over. We were driving him crazy and it was pretty much the only time we enjoyed doing this show. We hated this show and we hated being associated with it because it was stupid. And as was correctly pointed out in a previous comment/review the Navy did eventually pull their endorsement BUT it is important to understand that the ONLY episode that was actually filmed on the aircraft carrier was the pilot show. There were 8 episodes and none of the other 7 episodes were filmed onboard the ship. They were filmed in sets to emulate the ship. So just because the Navy pulled its endorsement there was no reason they couldn't continue to film the show. There are lots of military shows that have no military endorsement. But it was just an awful show and they knew it.
Supergirl (2015)
From mediocrity to don't bother
I was never impressed by this show from day one. The acting was forced and never seemed to show that anyone was doing anything except acting. The story line was not half bad however and there have been so many new shows over the last several years where the acting was "forced" and improved immensely that I decided to see what happened. Season one was OK. In season two I started to say "Uh oh" and in season three this show has gone full-on politically correct leaning heavily left so that the last episode I watched LITERALLY had a screaming rant about a country that wants to kill immigrants just because they aren't here legally. In that episode alone I was subjected to over half the show being a demonstration on the left's agenda with only part of the show being about superheroes. I'm out. This show has become a progressive medium to push their agenda and it is not even done very well. That's not why I watch TV.
Mother! (2017)
Waste of money
Two hours I can never get back. The most pretentious movie I've ever seen since the plot made less sense than "The Witch" and was far less entertaining. Further proof that hollyweird has little clue about what real viewers want. You would think that after one of the worst summer movie seasons in decades they would have shelved this for a rainier day instead of shooting themselves in the foot.
The VVitch: A New-England Folktale (2015)
Historical Realism, Suspense and Disappointing Excuse for a Plot
This was my wife's choice for our movie entertainment this weekend which was surprising since suspense has not been a traditional choice of hers if at all. I think that the historical realism as regards costume, setting and language was what baited her in. Those characteristics were available in abundance but they certainly didn't save the story. In fact the language was as much a detriment as a bonus. You end up trying to figure out what is being said more than following the plot which for this movie might be a good thing. Suspense was mostly characterized by spooky music with zero action to accompany it and depressing sets/scenery. You come away thinking that 17th century colonial life is gray, cloudy and dismal. The plot is characterized by a couple of gruesome actions that are barely related to each other and do nothing to build much of a story line. I felt like I was watching short stories from "Creepy" magazine that the writer tried to tie together but didn't quite succeed. The historicity disclaimer at the end, telling us that the movie was based on period records and dialogs, were poor attempts to document and pretentiously justify a shambling, depressing fantasy whose finale is a talking goat and chanting naked women floating around a bonfire (which are not DOCUMENTED as ever actually happening in any source I know of). When the credits came up my wife looked at me and said, "Really?". Apparently, to many, this bit of pretentiousness is meat to the large number of people who have jumped on the bandwagon of the even more pretentious Cannes Film reviewers that thought this was a good movie. I mean c'mon, did you really enjoy this dog?
Leverage (2008)
Stay away from politics
This could have been a great show had they not constantly been beating the anti corporate drum. The message was tedious and disingenuous. It got worse each succeeding season. We enjoyed the show when it first came out. I am a big fan of Gina Bellman from her Coupling days on the BBC. The interaction between the characters was good but there were many instances where the acting seemed forced. It was especially noticeable from Timothy Hutton. The plots seemed designed to support an anti free market agenda and it's message stopped being "Lets go after bad companies" to "All big companies are bad". We stopped watching at the end of the 2011 season and I am not surprised it was canceled due to lack of interest.
Red Tails (2012)
Go for the CGI
This movie, as they said at the beginning, is BASED on historical facts. That alone was not the reason that I was disappointed in this movie. Historically this movie did little justice to the tens of thousands of fighter pilots that did their job and saved countless bomber crews lives. To portray all the fighter pilots EXCEPT the Red Tails as glory hounds was repulsive. To state that the other fighters left the bombers on their own just so the fighters could chase Germans was sleazy pandering. The acting was terrible. Any emotional scene seemed forced and phony. The CGI was amazing. Beautifully rendered aircraft. The story itself was good but at no time ever seemed tied together cohesively. The ending was abrupt and forced. Wait for this to come out on blue ray.