Change Your Image
catmmo
Reviews
Touch (2012)
Disappointing
I was surprised to see so many 10 star reviews for this show - until I read some of them and it appears most of them are from people that only watched the pilot.
With all the hype and previews for the show, as well as it being a Tim Kring (Heroes) project I was really looking forward to watching it. I did enjoy watching the pilot and thought the idea behind the show was intriguing. However, by episode 2 I was already seeing so many holes in the story lines. By episode 5 I was thinking the show would make a great drinking game where everyone drinks whenever there's a huge plot hole or Kiefer's character yells "Jake!".
Actually, what I find most annoying about the show itself is in fact, Kiefer Sutherland. As another reviewer mentioned, he always seems to be panting or out of breath, even when running after Jake who is usually just walking and should be easy for a grown man to keep up with.
He also comes up with some ridiculous excuses and lies that aren't needed if he'd just tell the truth. I suppose trying to tell someone he was late for an appointment because of an accident is more believable than the truth that he was being held at gunpoint on a bus. But then again, he probably wouldn't be late if he wasn't grocery shopping when he was in such a hurry.
Spoilers - First of all, the boy is taken from his home because apparently Martin Bohm doesn't keep a steady job; at least that's the impression they give. But still, he has a nice home and everything due to his wife dying on 9/11. Apparently it's also okay for the kid to take off everyday while in custody of social services but not okay that he took off a few times from school while he was living with his dad.
It seems that every episode has some continuity problems. For example, the social workers mother kidnaps a child, takes the child to the park and then decides to get him some cold medicine. She gets arrested for stealing, then when they find she's mentally unstable, she ends up in the hospital. Her daughter goes to get her, and then they run around trying to figure out where she took the boy. All of this must have taken hours, but yet the little boy is still sitting there in the park when they find him. Technically I suppose this could happen, but seems very unlikely.
And then there's just the ridiculous. A man survives a plane crash that happens near take off, he just gets up and walks off and no one notices this. He goes to work then goes to try to stop a building from being demolished never realizing that he has a fatal wound. Really!
I really wanted to like this show, and I have continued to watch it wishing for it to get better, but I'm not getting my hopes up. All of the happy warm fuzzies it is striving for just don't add up to a great program.
Revolutionary Road (2008)
Great Acting
This was a story that left me feeling a lot better about my own life compared to these sad and desperate characters. Kate and Leo did a great job in their roles, as did the rest of the cast.
The movie had a feel to it of watching a stage play, and could likely be adapted for the stage very easily. The dialog is the strong suit in this movie by far.
Far from happy, the movie is really quite depressing as you watch the characters never seeming to find any joy and only growing more bitter. I found myself saying several times, "Wow, their life stinks."
An odd quirk in the movie is the lack of mentioning where their children are throughout most of it. There was only one part near the end where it's said that the kids are at a friend's house and then it's only more obvious that something is going to happen.
Book of Blood (2009)
A bit slow at times
This movie probably could have been trimmed down a bit more since some parts definitely were quite slow. I really like watching horror movies, and this one had the bonus of being more about the paranormal than just a slasher-type. The acting was a bit dull, and sometimes hard to understand with the way they mumbled their lines.
Some of it was typical fare, where you find yourself talking to the screen and telling them to "Get out of that house!" and other such things.
The oddest part I found with the movie was (spoiler)the professor getting upset that the student was faking the activity in the house *after* she herself had a strange experience, and making a comment like "I wanted it to be real". Did she not trust her belief in her experience enough?
The movie wasn't overly gory in my opinion - not necessary - but the parts that were, were well done. Still, those could make some people squeamish. It also had a fair share of sexual content.
The Elephant King (2006)
Enjoyable
I enjoyed the way this movie portrayed the relationship between two brothers; and the way they each dealt with their individual problems. The actors who played the brothers both did a fantastic job. Unlike other reviews, I didn't find the showing of different places in that area of Thailand to be overdone, much of it was during the scenes where the younger brother is getting to know the girl, Lek, and play in well to the the story.
One problem with the movie was lack of subtitles during parts where they weren't speaking English. I'm not sure if that was a flaw because of watching it on a DVD or not. It made certain parts of the movie a bit difficult to understand, but it wasn't too hard to get the gist of what was going on.
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past (2009)
I would have walked out if I saw this in a theater
I wasn't expecting much from this movie since I think the whole 'Christmas Carol' theme has been beaten to death already, but hoped at least for a few laughs. I think the only thing that made me chuckle at all was the very end of the movie when Michael Douglas' character is hitting on the other 'ghosts'.
I'm not a big fan of Matthew McConaughey, usually I'm just indifferent to him. But I found him and his character extremely annoying in this movie. He was very unlikeable, and I couldn't find myself rooting for him at all. He didn't even look attractive - most of the time looking like he hadn't slept in days, and looked just plain horrible during the flash back to a time he had long hair. It really made me question why so many women wanted to sleep with him.
I like Jennifer Garner, but this was definitely not one of her better movies. I think a lot of it had to do with the writing of the role. When she first sees Conner (Matthew McConaughey)at his brother's wedding rehearsal, she comes across as a nagging wife to him before the audience even knows they have a history. It was just a tad bit overdone. And as many others have mentioned, there was just no believable chemistry between them.
I was sick of the whole story before the first ghost even showed up. The sexual wisecracks sounded like bad pick up lines, and the attempts at special effects were lame at best.
I found myself wanting to scream realizing that two more ghosts still needed to make an appearance if it was to follow the 'Christmas Carol' theme. Luckily it looked like they edited the heck out of it and both were really short sequences.
I would have turned the movie off if I wasn't watching it with someone who did chuckle a few times. She was rather surprised that I disliked it so much since I usually like romantic comedies, but I would rather watch "Made of Honor" than to ever watch this one again.
The Reader (2008)
A Good Film
I read the book this movie is based on about 10 years ago, and as I watched the movie, it came back to me. I am not a Nazi sympathizer - very much NOT so - but at one point during the trials when Kate Winslet's character (Hanna) asks the judge, "what would you have done" kind of sums it up a lot. By reading the book beforehand, there is a lot more insight that perhaps the movie doesn't clearly give. From the beginning in the book it seems obvious that Hanna is illiterate and so later she on more apparent that she could never have possibly written the reports she was accused of.
Why she allowed it to happen that she got put in prison, one does not really know. Was it to help with the guilt she felt for what she knew she had done even if she did not write the reports?
Whether this story is really true or not, it's an interesting look on the other side to the Holocaust. Hitler did not just enact a huge amount of genocide, he also brainwashed even his own to a certain *ideal* and it was an obey or be killed. Orwell's 1984 is a fantasized yet so true of this way of thinking.
Please read the literature and books and everything you can find on the Holocaust. The brilliant minds we lost during that time will never be recovered.
Jersey Girl (1992)
Lame
It might have been nice if this had been a romantic comedy, but it wasn't funny at all, and pretty much just lame - Jamie Gertz/Toby is basically this stalker that goes after Sal/Dylan McDermont. The wholemovie leads you to believe that anyone that lives in Jersey is just anobody that needs a man to make life better while working dead-end jobsand not being able to make anything of themselves. This movie may have been made in 1993, but the girls in it all dress like the 80s with crazy bangles and big hair, and Jamie Gertz's accent made me want to slap someone. The only thing memorable about this movie is that it made me not want to remember it at all - I wish I could take back the amount of time I spent watching it and go watch something else ...