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Running Water (2019)
good lesson by unknowns
This story reminds me of stories like "it's a wonderful life", where God changes reality for someone to help them deal with their issues, in order to be able to get on with life and even start to enjoy it, etc. What's hard for me is that for me, instead, I am having to spend my life slogging through my childhood pain and issues, always wishing that something aberrant like this would happen, and cause me to just be healed and restored. Yes, it can be very weird to go through an alternate reality, but if you're guided thru it, you come thru with real change.
This story was done pretty well--if choppy--and it can be fairly obvious what's going on--two lost souls are being helped to finally become capable of living life. I'm a sucker for this kind of story, so I was forgiving of all the warts in the production.
90 Minutes in Heaven (2015)
good marks for a good story, bad marks for how it was done
Don piper's story is actually riveting if you read the book, so I come in with high expectations. Naturally, I was disappointed in how it was handled. It left me flat, and didn't really convey what was most important for Don to have gotten from having been thru all he did. But this was, in fact, almost a B movie, so, oh well.
The Phoenix Incident (2015)
watch it for the legit history, but be prepared for improbability
I didn't realize that this film meant to be combining fiction with fact, until I found myself asking" they're all supposed to be running away from this alien, but someone is still filming everything? Yeah, it seemed odd that the camera was always on, no matter what action was happening. So, it's like a "reality show". And when I saw the same alien as what they had on the movie "Alien", I realized, oh boy, I've been taken.
I still believe that the government/military complex has had a plan to deceive the public using "aliens".
Appaloosa (2008)
any time a shoot-em-up has no profanity, I'm for it
This is my husband's perfect movie--violence, a western, etc.; it's usually hard for me to listen to f words in every sentence. This one is refreshingly free of them, and people even speak eloquently, and know a lot of big words. It's an odd one.
Dragged Across Concrete (2018)
Gee, at least there wasn't any swearing
I found this film to be unusually, strangely free of swearing, except for the s word one time. It did feel like the director was trying to set high marks for a new "standard" or something, but I was so glad to hear articulate, intelligent conversation sans filth every other word. Other than that, the story tells the usual tragic ending of those trying to steal money.
Obscura (2020)
the two stars are cuz at least it had a plot finally
I hung in there with this since it had a somewhat interesting plot line; probably the book was quite interesting, but I'm sure the book didn't have:
slow, slow, meaningless scene-wasting,
inane background noise, meant to convey some kind of mystery, but only annoyed me so much that much of the time I turned the volume down; some time later, there was occasionally some actual music, and at times, the background "tone" was quieter, so that helped,
but I think the director thought he was all "artful" with his "tones", without realizing that they would soon become monotonous; probably not thinking of his audience, but only his "genius" directing......
So, basically, if you're hard up for a serial killer mystery, submit to this; otherwise, if you require good acting and wittier conversation, move along.
Druid Peak (2014)
Subtle but powerful life lessons told in a beautiful way
I don't feel it's necessary to describe the film's wonderful cinematography or its other lush, wonderful elements; others have done a good job; don't miss their reviews. Rather, I want to single out what I wish many people could observe-the process whereby people change, and how it was skillfully portrayed in this film. One reviewer was very cynical, and couldn't believe that "kids are all sweet and easily trained to the way we want them to be..." Yes, probably Owen deserved to be thrown in juvy or jail for his crime, but was he going to find redemption from that scenario? No, we know the trajectory of that route. Rather, the writer wants us to see how the preferred end is real change and true success in life, and how that fragile process happens.
We see how Owen's "relative" seems to know not to say much; He's a quiet man, with his own past wounds (and reason for abandoning Owen), and has just a few choice words that sink in, said at the right time.
And yes, we learn, again, that nature is a powerful healing force (read: God working incognito), and that more kids should be introduced to it as early as possible. I'd rather see a kid come to real repentance (which he finally does; he recognizes that he wronged his friend), based on the effect of grace and mercy rather than for "justice" to be meted out. And his newly found father handles his confession with a few simple words that change his reason for self-hatred.
What you see is the effect of authentic communications between strangers, rather than a lot of talking and parrying; their relationship slowly but surely unfolds-helping both the son accept the father and the father accept the son-- based on the father not putting anything on the son and letting him find his own way as he provides a mechanism by which the son can find himself.
This is the wonder of the storyteller, the director, and all involved in being able to put this together, in a beautiful way, for us all to enjoy, while we "learn" important lessons.
Last Days in the Desert (2015)
forget it if you believe in Jesus
This is supposed to be a creative interpretation of Jesus' 40 days in the desert. If you didn't have subtitles on, as we did, you wouldn't know that it was supposed to be Yeshua, but they so noted, when he spoke.
Many aspects of the story troubled me as a Christian. Firstly, the devil is portrayed as an exact replica of Jesus, such that often, you could be confused as to which was speaking. Was the author trying to say that satan is just the "counterpart" of Jesus?
Then, the devil had nothing but bad things to say about God. In the real story, he merely repeated scripture-truthful statements-to Jesus, in his attempt to tempt Him to use His power to meet His own needs. Jesus defeated temptation due to His faithful devotion to His Father God. Instead, in this story, satan appears to know more about things than Jesus does, including Jesus' power to heal, etc, and has to be the one to tell Him. the devil also knows the future, which Jesus seemingly doesn't, cuz He asks him about the boy's future. The only success Jesus seems to have in the desert is to be able to take the boy to freedom and a future in the city; otherwise, under His watch, a man dies and a woman is left to die alone; this presumably is meant to portray Him as not much of a success, or very powerful. In the end, you got the impression that the whole thing-His life on earth-was futile. I really dislike all the disrespectful ways hollywood depicts Jesus; better to stick with just getting to know Him yourself.
Bates Motel (2013)
very well done but disappointing ending
My main complaint about this series contains a spoiler, so don't read on if you don't want to know the ending.
The whole idea of this was that it was based on Psycho, which features Norman Bates as a murderous motel manager, and thus is meant to be a "prequel". However, amazingly, at the end of this series, Norman is killed by his brother. That's fine; it was best for all that he dies; however, that means it cannot be considered a prequel to psycho. So, why do they call it that? It's really just a revision of psycho, giving it a different ending. So, I felt really confused and disappointed; I really expected that Norman would live on, even if he was found out by the authorities; knowing him, he would manage to escape prison and accountability for his murders. It must be the "bleeding heart liberal" version.
Apostle (2018)
porn for satanists
I was stuck watching this sitting next to my husband. fortunately I was able to put on a headset and go to youtube. So I only got glimpses of al the usual torture and murder of humans that satanists love to see and do. It is no different than sex porn movies, who have extremely thin, implausible story lines just to give occasion for the main feature that they know you want. some reviewers mentioned the moral of the story is that "man destroys religion", but I saw that also one of the most important agendas of satanists was there, which is to discourage people from following God at all.
Cam (2018)
seemingly salacious, but reveals itself to be an important film
I found myself fascinated watching this story of Lola, the online cam girl titillating people for money. You can see that she seems in control, having limits and knowing what to do. When she becomes victimized by her site being hijacked, she reveals more about herself, and eventually you can see how this might be another one of those woman heroine things. It did seem somewhat hard to believe, though, that this girl from a lower-middle-class family, doing something you would expect her to do to make a living, turns out to actually be very smart and tech-savvy; it seemed paradoxical (sorry if I seem sexist or whatever; I myself am a female techy middle-class person). She just seemed more like the kind of silly, naive, young person that usually gets caught in traps and becomes a statistic. I guess she was the beneficiary of someone's good fantasy, cuz she manages to overcome her emotions and starts solving her problem, bravely going wherever she has to to get to the bottom of what happened-even figuring out that the girl that supplanted her was a virtual reality girl.
I figured after all she went through to rescue her account and then prevent its further exploitation, that she'd continue being smart and find a real job, but no, she goes under cover and back to the company as a new person. I suppose she may have been planning to try to expose the company and prevent the deaths of other cam girls-that would be consistent with her smarts.
Black Mirror: Nosedive (2016)
the implications and warnings this episode provides go far beyond social media
My rating of this black mirror episode-Nosedive- is not based on the acting or other aspects of filming, but rather on the important message and warning it delivers. I'm thankful for the insightful, forward-thinking talent of the writer, and I hope a lot of people see this.
Our world is careening madly toward political correctness, the stifling of free speech, and social control of the public. People are living in fear of some innocent thing they say that gets construed or twisted or misunderstood by someone deciding that they are offended by it, and the zeitgeist has moved toward extreme sanctioning of such "offenders" even when the person was innocent. Due justice is being trampled upon.
this movie demonstrates the power of social control as well as its inherent evil. In the future, people can enjoy privileges we all freely enjoy only if they have accumulated enough points as they have been rated by their fellow citizens. If you are a little bit rude or negative to someone, they get to dock points on you. So it amounts to everyone requiring to be phony nice to everyone else, and not speak their true thoughts. In so many of these futuristic fictional accounts, where there is some kind of "utopia" due to an enforced kind of system of control, they always have citizens watch and report on each other; this is the most effective form of social control; there are no individuals, and no one can be trusted. How lonely! This movie does a good job of showing how easy it would be to do this thru "smart" devices everyone carries, and also shows how one woman-Lacie (bryce dallas howard), unwittingly gets set free from her own slavery to this system, through a series of unfortunate events.
The Boondock Saints (1999)
This isn't the God I know
IMHO, this movie is just a typical hollywood excuse for violence and killing. It's almost like porno movies--just a thin plot line so as to mostly show sex. I must admit, though, that there was a bit more plot than in a porno movie.
Having said that, my main complaint is against the premise of the story--that God would have sent these men to kill off a bunch of bad guys. Folks, I know God, and I know that He doesn't go around killing sinners. Yes, He does let them reap what they sow, but He is always reaching out in love, and waiting for even the most vile of persons to turn to Him and repent, and receive His love. It is in reality Satan that is going around killing as many as he can, by taking advantage of their foolishness and sinfulness.
don't celebrate the killing of anyone--it was always possible for them to turn around and get saved, and that's how the Lord sees it.
Safe (2018)
typical, good bbc show
I am pretty fond of british murder mysteries like this one, and this one didn't disappoint, in terms of acting, story line, the complexity of it all, etc.; the evidence is that once again I binged watched the whole 8 episodes on netflix.
However, I take off a few points for having an american playing the main guy Tom; while his accent was okay, we all know he isn't british, and I found myself wondering why they couldn't find a british actor with similar calibre to Michael Hall. And after dexter, he seemed rather dull by comparison as Tom; let's face it-he's now typecast.
I can't help pointing out that a common theme in these murder mysteries is how there always is adultery, cheating, etc and concealing it that is what ultimately causes things to fall apart, although that didn't play as big a role in this story. But seemingly these secrets ultimately must be exposed, and we enjoy the merry chase to get to the bottom of them.
Sun Dogs (2017)
only enjoyable by the good-hearted
This movie can be difficult to watch; you are watching a quirky, obviously mentally challenged guy try to find his way in the world. a good-hearted person knows that everyone is different and unique and beautiful in their own way; of course, that was how I saw him! But that doesn't mean that it isn't normal for someone to want to yell at him for pretending to be someone that he is not. The movie shows the messy, chaotic, disheveled way that things evolve in people's lives-how they affect one another and subtly cause change in the other. Probably a lot of the interactions he had with some people were implausible, but that's what movies are for. Slogging through, he eventually makes it to the purpose in life that can work for him. This movie can be seen as how God's grace works in people's lives, and I enjoyed seeing an example here. Anyway, if you are not good-hearted, you will probably just get frustrated by him as well as the other seeming "losers" around him.
Black Mirror: Metalhead (2017)
scary, provocative but needed improvement
I went on imdb in order to try to make more sense out of this intriguing story by reading these great reviews. I love "Black Mirror", but one thing that I find difficult about the episodes is that there is usually little to no explanation of what's happening, etc-those minor details that help you to engage with the story and perhaps even identify somewhat with the characters. Of course, you are allowed to imagine your own details, but that doesn't work well with me.
This story starts out in the middle of an activity for which there is seemingly a thinly veiled attempt to explain what's going on, but without enough details to help you "hook on"; I could not tell who this person was that they were going to try to obtain something for or what that item was that seemed crucial, since they indicated that it would be dangerous to try to get it.
Only the ending helped provide a clue as to who that ill person was for whom they risked their lives, and surely that provides plenty of fodder for discussion about what kind of world that is that they're living in.
I felt that this movie was meant for those with "dog phobias" (like my husband); those robots could have been in any other kind of form, but the dog aspect provided more potential for terror.
Obviously, a smart, clever and evil mind designed them, since they took care of every potential scenario--even in the event they were neutralized (a parting shot that would continue the hunt); their creators did not want anyone to escape alive that dared trying to steal from them, no matter the reason.
T^here are the usual modern-day popular themes, with the woman being the (potential) heroine (even though her humanity becomes her undoing), versus the men, who had all gotten themselves killed, and people in danger from robotic and/or a.i. creatures.
Bella seems like a very mature, well-known and respected person, who may have even been the leader of some commune, as is hinted at, but since I didn't know who she actually was, it was much easier for me to let go of her at the despairing end.
I would have enjoyed this story more with more attempt to frame things--even like an announcement at the beginning of the date, place, etc., which is often done.