Change Your Image
benraddon87
Reviews
Clambake (1967)
I'm sorry Elvis.
This movie made me feel sick, not because of Elvis, I may not be an Elvis fan but I respect the king of Rock & Roll. It made me feel sick because of all the girls falling over themselves at the rich, lacking any depth obnoxious guy played by Bill Bixby.
It seems that these girls are very naive and don't have a clue that marrying for money doesn't make you happy, it's ironic but true. Bixby plays a guy whos head is up his rear and the girls drooling over him (honestly ladies, get better taste in men will you) seem oblivious to his arrogance. When the main girl of focus falls into the water and looses her bikini top, Bixby, who has of course been noticing her despite all the other girls falling over him, because you know, rich guys like their more challenging conquests, has her bikini top (of course he does) and won't give it back unless she agrees to go on a date with him, which also makes Bixby's character a creep, it's not like she had much choice but to say yes to a date. Ugh. Even when you see them together you can tell their shallow relationship has no substance and that of course she would be better off with Elvis' character.
She does say no to Bixby's proposal though, I'd hope so considering she had known the guy for less than 5 minutes, and couldn't she see how he talked down to others, especially Elvis?
The songs aren't very good, except for when Elvis sings about marrying for money without love, because what he's singing is true, but you'd think the ladies in this movie would have more sense. I find that the supporting actresses in these movies are usually mostly airheads, and the main actress who is the love interest for our hero is hot headed, fiesty and independent, the sort of lady who gives me a headache, though that wasn't the case here so props for that.
The plot is basic and acting is meh, the funny thing is, this was only put on the TV for my young niece, I watched most of it because I try to give most classic oldies a chance.
I won't be watching this again. Give me characters who aren't pretentious and have proper personalities.
While You Were Sleeping (1995)
Hey Luc, nice...sweater.
This is a really annoying and tedious movie, from the characters to the soundtrack, it's so typically 90s. So many moments that made me cringe in this movie. That short, annoying piano score which constantly plays through the movie, ugh.
The plot is fairly original but also frustrating, as it revolves the whole family (who are one of the most annoying families in a movie or TV show period) not knowing that one of their sons, is in a coma through most of the movies runtime, and is already engaged to a woman who is pretty much a mystery, you don't really care about her, and because of one thing overheard by a nurse but misinterpreted, the character Lucy played by Sandra Bullock has to deal with being pushed into their nuthouse. The funny thing is, all Lucy has to do is tell them it's all a big misunderstanding, and we could have avoided all the frustrating stupidity that happens after. Why doesn't she tell them it's a misunderstanding? It's simple, because then we wouldn't have this dumb American movie.
Also, because she doesn't bother to tell them about the misunderstanding, she almost ends up marrying a guy she doesn't even know because she doesn't say anything, and because of infatuation, also because the dumb family push them together. Oh, and she's also fallen for the other brother by the time the (horrible) and unromantic wedding comes. Honestly, even if you were attracted to someone, if you didn't know them at all, would you let others keep thinking you're engaged to them because of a misunderstanding, or would you think 'I should probably tell them what's really going on before this gets out of hand?' I know it's just a movie but come on.
Sandra plays her usual and typical character in this. As for the side character Joe Jr (seriously, they couldn't give him a better name?) who also keeps trying to get Lucy's attention, poorly I might add 'Hey Luc, nice... sweater.' That's where I facepalm, he tries too hard to be cool but fails miserably. As for the families annoying teen who tells the family some major news about Lucy which isn't true because she doesn't get her facts straight first, well she's a typical and annoying teen. Despite a few sweet moments, this isn't a very good movie. This is a movie which hasn't improved with age. Also a movie that shows infatuation isn't smart.
I'm not against romantic movies, but at least make the script good and give me characters who don't make me want to shoot myself.
Andromeda (2000)
I thought it was pretty good near the beginning but...
It slowly got more violent, more sexual and more annoying.
I've already watched some of the original Star trek, most of the movies, and all of Deep Space nine and the Next Generation, so this was a change. It was a mix of cool science fiction, visual effects, despite the effects being quite weak in several places, and fun characters. Or so I thought. What I'm after is well written entertainment without strong violence or sex, which the Next Generation did deliver, along with some excellent writing.
When I saw that Andromeda was on Amazon Prime in HD, the whole series, I thought, sure why not, I'll give it a go, having it in HD was a nice bonus, and for the most part it looked pretty good. I liked the characters interacted, and most of the writing and humour was pretty good despite the hit and miss CGI.
I did however notice that there was slowly more and more sex scene, and the violence slowly got more and more intense. Some of the episodes were also average. By the time I got to near the end of season 2, I skimmed through the beginning of episode 21, and low and behold, Dillon Hunt was once again in bed with another random woman who hadn't known him for more than 5 minutes. That was after a few other times he had slept with other women, one woman who was supposed to marry someone else straight after Dillon had slept with her, he could have said no, I mean come on, that right there is dumb writing. I don't suppose she would have told her husband-to-be that she had just recently had a lover? Of course not.
It was also at that point that it occurred to me that Dillon Hunt seemed to be worshiped by more or less every woman who comes aboard the Andromeda, at the very least he usually gets kissed on the lips. He's not even really good looking for crying out loud, and yet his character in the show is written to be more or less irresistible to the opposite sex. Even for a science fiction show, that's very unrealistic, oh look, Dillon is in bed with another woman, or at least kissing her, why am I not surprised? I read that the show continues with that, he continues to sleep with more women as the show goes on, I'm glad I know that in advance, because I was fed up with that, it wasn't necessary, and it had already gotten tedious and really cliche, and the last thing I need is to keep watching knowing it will be more frequent.
That brings me to another unrealistic bit of writing, Dillon never loses. Good writing is where the characters go through really difficult times, but the problems may not be fixed straight away, but in this show, they win, and the next episode goes on all fine. Case in point, Dillon Hunt is basically an unbeatable womanizer, and what's really sad is, the women he sleeps with her fine with it. It just makes me want to facepalm.
The ladies of the show are fun to watch for the most part, though Romie (I'm not sure how you spell her name, I couldn't get subtitles to work on the Amazon Prime player) pouts, she pouts a lot, that was pretty much her character trait. It was fun to have 3 versions of her though, on the computer screens, as an Android, and a hologram, telling the small crew when they are going to be attacked, and her more personal conversations with them, appearing anywhere in the ship (since she IS the ship) at will.
Harper never shut up and was often full of himself, though he could be funny, and the others were kinda meh. Becka was sexy, but I didn't find her backstory that interesting.
The religious themes are typical, DS9 had the same sort of thing with the Bajorans. The arrogance of the Nesians (if that's how you spell it) is tedious, as well as plot holes and villains doing cliche things, e.g being exactly where our so called heroes are at the same time as well, I'm referring to the episode where Becka wants to go after the world engine, and there is typically another trio who are evil who also want it, but of course they do.
I wanted to keep watching and like it, I really did, but I just found it frustrating, the main reason being Dillon Hunt's predictable and apparently just too good for his own good character.
The stories and characters in the Next Generation and Deep Space Nine are a lot better, and I don't recall TNG having any bedroom scenes, and the characters are portrayed as realistic and more relatable. For a show released from the beginning of the 2000s, after Star Trek, without today's pc nonsense, I expected better. I'm not even that hard to please, TNG managed it, and it even looks better than this show in HD.
Maybe it's just me, but this show feels more like a violent, live action cartoon. I'm going back to the original Star Trek movies and the Next Generation and some Deep Space Nine. I have a feeling that Gene Roddenbery himself wouldn't be very impressed with this effort.
I've given it 2 stars for the episodes and moments I did like.
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Cash grab.
This isn't close to Jurassic Park's greatness. Too much stupidity, annoying characters I didn't connect with or care about, predictable moments and clichés, I didn't care about any of the new characters at all, there is no way I'm sitting through this movie ever again, ever. And I thought the first Jurassic World was bad. Once again, we have some political correctness, things which make no sense, and other nonsense forced down our throats. The classic original Jurassic Park was an excellent film and a different/better time. Hollywood have been getting worse and have run out of ideas.
Incredibles 2 (2018)
Typical sequel of the lousy modern day.
I was mostly entertained by this. On YouTube there is a video which talks about this movie and the video was called the Rise of Feminism, I figured it was just someone trolling. Nope.
Some of this movie was entertaining, 'some', but after watching it and thinking more about it, and looking at other reviews, I saw that it was right. Only if you're not paying attention at all, even when you're being bashed over the head with this would you not notice.
The action was impressive, but Elastigirl feels like a Spider-man rip off, she pretty much just does what he would do, and men who are made to look useless and stomped on.
In a way I'm glad I have watched this so I can from my own opinion, but it's unlikely I'll be watching this again. I'm done with movies which force political agendas instead of just giving us qualify entertainment, that's why I've stopped bothering with the new Star Wars franchise, and I'm sticking with the classic originals.
Anything else wrong with this movie has already been covered in other reviews.
One last thing for any ladies who are reading this to think about...if a movie was released with the deliberate underlying message that woman are idiots, would you watch it? I highly doubt it, chances are you would be deeply offended.
Limitless (2015)
Limits
Overall it's fairly entertaining, but they aren't exactly pushing this as far as they could. There are some parts which are sadly more silly than they are funny which brings it down. I'd say 7/10 for now is a fair rating. I hope it gets better and has another season or 2. The main character is quite childish most of the time, very much a big kid if you will, don't get me wrong, most guys are like that, but it can get irritating here and there. Most episodes so far have been good and it's nice to have Bradley Cooper (even though I'm not a fan of the guy) in some episodes to connect this with the movie from a few years back. The overall plot for this series so far is also good. Let's see where this goes.