bruce350 Reviews

Saltburn (2023)

Just too weird

[3/10 · 27 January 2024]

This will be short. I started watching this film and was immediately annoyed that, for some reason, it was formatted 4:3, like Standard Def video. Why, oh why did they do that? I thought it was pretentious and wrong. It took me out of the film. Then, I started to get over it and just watched the film unfolding. The plot was not apparent to me at mid-point, but I kept watching. There were some unusual characters at Saltburn, so I thought something fun or menacing might happen, like please, something has to happen! Then, things got weird and terribly gross and I had to turn it off. I'm not a prude by any means, however, I could not go on. It was not worth being annoyed and then grossed out. So, hope you enjoy this film.

Jury Duty (2023– )

Jury Dud

[4/10 · 22 July 2023]

This seemed like a fun idea. Everyone in on the goof but one guy. Well, it started out ok, but soon devolved into a moronic mess. The non-actor would have figured out in a few hours that this was a spoof. I turned it off after the second episode. I couldn't watch the foolishness, any longer. It was truly cringeworthy and not in a clever way. Not like Candid Camera, for example. The characters were way over the top and unbelievable. The fake jurors were too stupid to be real people. It just wasn't funny. I've seen many spoof shows like The Office that were truly funny. This show falls flat on its face. The premise of the show was good, but the execution was quite poor. The one guy who was a real "juror" should have been the focus, but he soon becomes an afterthought. Guilty of nonsense, on all counts your honor!

You People (2023)

A hot mess!

[2/10 · 29 January 2023]

This was possibly the worst film I've seen in the past 30 years. The plot could have worked, but the writing is insipid. I've seen High School-level Tik Tok videos with better story lines. The plot is ridiculous. It's stocked with talented comedic actors who are made to say insulting and pathetic dialogue. Jonah Hill's character is a mush-mash of different personalities, none of which are the least bit honest or funny. Terrible. This must have been written for The Comatose who live among us, I don't know? Who green-lighted this? I hope Jonah Hill can recover from this and didn't Julia Louis-Dreyfus read the script before she accepted this role? Yikes!!

The Bear (2022– )

I am enjoying the series, but...

[8/10 · 25 July 2022]

While I've never worked in a restaurant, I've eaten in quite a few. I've been to Mr Beef where the show takes place and numerous other sandwich shops in Chicago. I have never known any such restaurant to open at 3pm!! 99.99% open for lunch or even breakfast. This show's place opens at 3pm, I mean, WTF? This makes no sense and it's very distracting for the cred of the show. Also, the two CIA culinary school trained cooks are constantly going on about "Fine Dining Options" like risotto with braised short ribs served on China plates(!!) which have no place at this type of sandwich shop. Otherwise, I like the show since it's a made in Chicago thing. The acting is good and the characters are fun to watch.

Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

This film is a mess!

[2/10 · 29 May 2022]

It started out ok, but quickly became unwatchable. We were lost after the first 20 minutes. Maybe this movie appeals to young teenagers whö are gamers. Not good.

The Gilded Age (2022– )

1st Episode was weak tea (or coffee).

[6/10 · 25 January 2022]

A story of Old Money meeting New Money in New York circa 1880. So, episode 1 is ok but not great. I find the acting to be stiff and the dialog stilted, even for a "period piece". The dialog feels perfunctory, as if being merely read-off-a-page and comes across at the level of a Community Theater play. The casting is fine but the nouveau riche husband, Mr Russel, seems out of place. He is of another class, dark and swarthy, not your typical fat and fleshy wealthy White guy of the era, so he appears differently than the other wealthy Old Money men. Maybe this was deliberate? I'll give it another chance before hitting the kill switch.

Don't Look Up (2021)

Satire done up well

[9/10 · 28 December 2021]

I had fun with this film. It's got all the proper characteristics of good ol' satire on our cultural wreck of a country. This story captures the insanity of our vapid political and social life in the US. We value fluff over substance and don't listen to top scientists and economists, but rather listen to blathering idiots who cheer on their "cult" team against the other team in a mindless game of put-downs and one-ups-man-ship for no other reason than to divide us and score ratings points. This film points to all that with good intelligent humor.

The Beatles: Get Back (2021)

Get Back is brilliant!

[10/10 · 26 November 2021]

As a big Beatles fan since I was a kid and the anticipation of a new Beatles album was still a reality, I was transported back in time. As you watch the 4 lads come up with new songs, seemingly out of thin air, you get the feeling these guys are pure geniuses. The one part that blew my mind was a scene from 1966 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. It was just 3 years earlier yet the Beatles had changed so drastically, from 4 MopTops still in the thrall of Beatlemania ('66) to 4 transformed and more mature, wealthy individualists on the verge of solo careers ('69).

I just love this documentary.

No Time to Die (2021)

Go back to the beginning

[6/10 · 10 October 2021]

Go back to Dr No, From Russia with Love, Goldfinger, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice and Diamonds are Forever to see great plot development and tight storytelling in the spy genre. This latest Bond film is pathetic. It is missing the elements that made earlier Bond films enjoyable and endure the test of time. Ian Fleming was the genius who wrote the original films. Then the Fleming imitators started in the 1970s. They were never as good and James Bond got pulled in different character directions. Even On Her Majesty's Secret Service was better than later Bond films, some of which were just silly.

No Time to Die (2021)

My name is Bond, dull Bond

[6/10 · 10 October 2021]

OK, I love Bond films, but this one was wayyyyyyyyy too long. The plot is too complex to understand. And why are the guards for Spectre such bad shots? Dozens upon dozens of heavily arm bad guys can't touch James Bond with machine guns blazing. Anyway, we are introduced to the evil madman kinda late in the story, yet we find out we met him at the beginning, in a disguise, years earlier, as a young evil guy. Huh?

In the early Bond films, the writer, Ian Fleming, used a narrative expository device to explain what 007's next assignment was going to be. In this one, since Bond has retired, we do not get that exposition from M to help the audience understand what they are after. Then later, M is vague, so I was confused. So the story took too long to develop. Good action sequences. The 1964 DB-5 Aston Martin is back with it's weaponry. So, that was fun. Overall, not as good as hoped. I noticed a goof. In Cuba, the local agent woman gives Bond a cigar for his friend, Felix Leiter. She hands him a cellophane-wrapped cigar. No Cuban cigars are cello wrapped!!

The White Lotus (2021–2025)

Fantastic comedic/dramatic show about class issues

[9/10 · 10 August 2021]

We were uncertain about this series after the first episode. We decided to watch the 2nd episode and we are hooked! This show is a master class in abnormal psychology, but the characters are great to watch. There is humor, weirdness and drama. Beautifully photographed and edited, the pace never slows down without a reason, like expositions content and it's perfect. Can't wait for the finale.

Help! (1965)

Remember the culture in 1965 before criticizing.

[10/10 · 10 August 2021]

So, I was a little kid when this movie came out. I didn't see it until like 1972. However, if you were not born in the 60s (or 50s!!) you cannot get the culture in which these films were made. A Hard Days Night was fantastic and pure in its form. A faux documentary in the Beatles early years, A Hard Days Night was earnest in its portrayal of the Beatles circa 1964. Help was just a goofy fan-boy film that was like eating whip cream. All fluff as a vehicle for fans to see the Beatles doing stuff and performing. Yes, the story is a silly contrivance, but in 1965, the fans didn't care, neither did director Richard Lester. Watch it for its goofiness and understand by 1965 Beatlemania was wearing the Beatles out. They were tired of it. So, they agreed to make this film knowing it would be a gag, a joke, fluff so they got high during most of the production. They didn't want to do the film. They might have been under contract to do it. But enjoy seeing the Beatles at the height of their creativity and popularity. That's all.

Mare of Easttown (2021)

Not bad, not great...

[6/10 · 2 June 2021]

This episodic started out sloooow, then got better. Mid way through, I actually enjoyed it even as I was occasionally confused by the sheer number of similar looking characters and tangential plots and sub-plots. There are twists and turns with lots of "red herrings" thrown out like so many banana peels to slip on. The plot got interesting and more intense but then crashed through the thin ice it was resting on at the end. Note to screenwriters: sometimes less is more. Good story worth watching but it could have been better.

Nobody (I) (2021)

Movie made for teen boys

[1/10 · 19 April 2021]

Incoherent mess. Plotless and pointless. Bob Odenkirk is wasted on a testosterone-fantasy, pseudo revenge film in a town with no police or firefighters, apparently. A waste of time.

Midway (2019)

Stupid action movie

[2/10 · 13 April 2021]

My first reaction was, this is terrible! Then, it went downhill from there. Stupid dialog, terrible CG. Planes being flown with canopies open which is horrible aerodynamically, not to mention a wind storm and noise that would prevent communications. Just pathetic.

The Father (I) (2020)

An honest look at the ravages of dementia

[10/10 · 5 April 2021]

Wow! This film blew my mind. Having just dealt with the death of my dementia-ridden elderly mother, this story cut a bit too close to my own experience. While Alzheimer's is a horror story for the victim, this film shows us that the family and caregivers need sympathy, too. So true! Anthony Hopkins is brilliant as is Olivia Coleman. First-rate performances and fine filmmaking. A must see. Bring a box of Kleenex. Hope for a cure for this terrible brain-wasting disease.

Your Honor (II) (2020–2023)

The empty streets of New Orleans

[1/10 · 3 January 2021]

Ok, is it possible to be involved in a deadly car/motorcycle crash and nobody is around and curious enough mill about to look at the scene? Even after 5-10 minutes of a kid bleeding to death in broad daylight in as dense urban neighborhood in N.O.L.A? Nobody drives by? Nobody emerges from a house? A Kid crawling in the middle of the street...no cops, no pedestrians...nobody? That's how the whole thing is written, like a rank beginner who has never read a crime novel or watched a crime show wrote the story. It's slow. Poorly acted. Not believable. Even the wonderful Bryan Cranston seems out of it. How did this get produced? I stopped watching it because it's too insipid.

The Undoing (2020)

Why bother?

[2/10 · 14 December 2020]

This is the result of HBO trying to be Netflix and doing a belly flop in the shallow end of bad TV.

Mank (2020)

Nicely made, but a snooze

[6/10 · 5 December 2020]

I was swept into this film with hope for a great experience. It is beautifully photographed in luscious B&W, like classic Robert Surtees or James Wong Howe cinematography. The sets look true to period. The costumes, the scenery all looked accurate. But, after 30 minutes, I fell asleep. I woke up, then fell asleep again. The story was laborious and told in mostly ponderous blocks of static dialog. The plot got lost. It was boring to me. After an hour, I didn't care about Mank. Oops! I think the director got caught up in the technical stuff and forgot to tell a compelling story.

The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

Good story, historically accurate.

[8/10 · 18 October 2020]

I was lucky enough to have gotten in to see a day of this trial in 1969. I was just entering High School in Chicago and a friend's aunt was a courtroom artist for WBBM-TV CBS Channel 2.

I can say the entire film was fun to watch and brought back memories of a crazy time during the worst days of the Vietnam War. The Chicago police were brutal and Chicago Mayor Daley's famous malaprop "The police aren't there to create disorder, they are there to preserve disorder" came during the riots.

Sasha Baron Cohen did a good job with Abbey Hoffman. Judge Julius Hoffman was much smaller and more maniacal in person. So, I highly recommend this film. Sometimes the dialog seemed forced and melodramatic, but there was a lot of info to get out and this is an Aaron Sorkin script!

Da 5 Bloods (2020)

I'm not sure what I watched

[3/10 · 21 June 2020]

Just watched this movie and I gotta say it was just too weird! I'm not sure what I was looking at. The script was horrible. The acting was cliched and stilted. Phony emotions upon nonsensical musical score made this film almost unwatchable. Spike, I loved your last film "Blackkklansmen". Sorry. This 5 Bloods sucks!

Harriet (I) (2019)

Bad filmmaking, poor directing, stupid script

[2/10 · 8 December 2019]

Watching this film reminded me of bad 1980s made-for-TV mini-series. Tubman was a real person who accomplished great things for African slaves in the South. But, the surrounding characters were poorly written and the acting truly subpar. I am not a historian, so I would be open to discussion on the portrayal of mid19th Century Blacks in the North, in this case, circa 1855 Philadelphia. To me, it seemed to be a shown in fantasy-like scenarios. Free slaves or free Blacks still we're not treated well by White society in the North at that time. Yet, in this film, we see them portrayed as Upper Class Society movers and shakers. This struck me as odd and made me question so much of the script.

Vinyl (2016)

Strange days

[4/10 · 16 February 2016]

I am a big Scorsese fan, so I was quite disappointed by the first go at Vinyl. If the first hour of this show was a train, I'd still be sitting at the station. It went nowhere. Things got slightly better about half way through the second hour. This story is so confusing and cliché ridden, I found it stupefying when it should have been exciting. The one-dimensional characters go about their business, but who cares? Scorsese found a way to make the early 70s drug-fueled music scene, dull. There is just one implausible scene after another. Even Richie Finestra's wife, played by the gorgeous Olivia Wilde, has nothing going on and speaks in clichéd sentences. There are so many slow moving scenes, I went to the bathroom and came back and they were still in the same set-up! The entire show has been flat, uninteresting and predictable.

That's How We Build a House (2003 Video)

Great for kids and adults

[10/10 · 28 January 2008]

I would consider this half-hour DVD for people who want to learn more about house construction. It is fun and educational. Children will really like it because it contains scenes of real, live construction workers, not animated characters like Bob The Builder. Adults will enjoy it because it shows the details that go into building a real house, from the ground up! Gwen and Danny, are the hosts. They take the viewer on a journey. They show the empty lot or property where the house will be built. Then, we meet the architect and watch as he designs the house (briefly). Then, all the steps that are taken to build the foundation. We see concrete poured into forms, the trucks keep rolling in with more concrete. Anyway, we see the finished house at the end. The steps in the process or made clear with good illustration and dialog. I recommend this DVD, which has a Spanissh language track as well as English.