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Reviews
Waco (2018)
Wonderfully done
Hard not to choose a side when making a film like this, but they did a great job. I found myself wanting both sides to "win" at various points, even though I knew the outcome. That's a sign of a well-done program. Taylor Kitsch showed Grade A acting. Just outstanding. But really, all of the acting was great. I was living in San Antonio at the time in 1993 and we watched this play out every night on the news, so it brought back a lot of emotion. Thank you for making this.
Shock and Awe (2017)
Another Reiner hit job
Surprised at how bad the acting was. Some of those actors I usually like. Almost like their rehearsals were not non-existent and Reiner did not care to do multiple takes, even when they needed to be done. There is a reason this movie did very poorly at the box office - it was a total hit job. One thing they did not mention is how many American lives were SAVED because America did choose to go to war after 9/11. Imagine if we had never found a target and the Mideast just kept coming at us - maybe we would have lost millions to an act that has actually been prevented through the wars. I don't think we'll ever know, but pacifists wait until death and tragedy, and even then they do nothing.
Seven Seconds (2018)
Good story and acting, missing some obvious justice options
The show was a little slow but I think everything was really a setup for something else down the path. Lots of foreshadowing and plenty of time on character development. I was disappointed, however, that the show ended as-if it's just another black boy who gets forgotten and mistreated by police and the justice system. I believe a prosecutor would have had obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, and felony hit and run charges all available to charge the officer and would have won. Making this story so much about race was a key element to the story and I understand why they did that in today's world, but they really needed to deal with some glaring prosecution gaps that I don't believe would ever happen in real life. Also - the detective, Fish, was awesome. That guy is one great detective actor, and I'd like to see him in more roles like this. The victim's Mom was also a powerful actress in this one - I wasn't sure how they'd develop her character early on (I actually thought they'd have her go completely bats**t crazy), but they held on to her character and she came out OK on the other side. Believable story and yet somehow we feel her pain will never truly end, but she will live on because of her inner strength.
I recommend this show to everyone who loves a good detective story and can empathize with character development needed in a story like this. I guess there won't be a season 2, so it is also painful that the scumbag cop Deangelo didn't get what was coming to him in the end. But that actually may in fact be how real life ends up in a case like his.
Hostiles (2017)
Acting solid, but political correctness damages the film
The slow scenes were dragged out to be too slow. The actors did well to keep viewers engaged, especially Bale. Cinematography was great, as are most mountain-based movies nowadays. Besides certain historical inaccuracies about train availability and the absurdity of the Army keeping a tag-along woman with them for the duration of the journey, the most offensive part to me was the story line that had the Army Captain eventually comes to respect the Chief and essentially forgives him. That would have NEVER happened. This is simple political correctness that is hogwash. Reality is they probably would have killed the Chief and his family 5 miles out of town. There is no way warriors like that would have ever come to see eye-to-eye about anything. This coming together was predictable early on in the movie and made for some very painful scenes to watch just knowing how it was evolving. Too transparent and too much accommodation for today's politically correct culture.
Turn (2014)
Critics may not like it as much, but I loved it
Because of the ongoing story, perhaps this show is best binge-watched on Netflix than waiting week-over-week for next episodes as many critics back in 2014 and 2015 surely did, but I was enthralled from about the 3rd episode until the end. I finished all the seasons in short order and I am quite sad there are no more.
I understand shows like this are never going to be perfectly accurate - after all, they want to make certain aspects more entertaining for viewers. But the whole idea of this story is thrilling to me, and it caused me to research the actual facts of basically every character in the show. The show strengthened the characters as the seasons went along and none of them really fell apart, which can be common when you have this many characters. The writing was superb and equally matched by the collective acting and their interpretations of the characters.
The final episode did very well to wrap this up and provide closure to the viewer on all characters, which many series do not. This show as a 10 for me.