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Reviews
The Dead Zone: Shaman (2002)
Just finished final season on DVD this is the best show of all seasons.
I just finished the final season of Dead Zone and throughout all of the shows season after season I have been waiting for one to be as good as this one. It didn't happen. Don't get me wrong, there were very few that I didn't like... at least a bit, but this show in particular was what I feel was the best of the best of an outstanding, truly wonderful, television series. Now don't skip ahead either. This one needs you to be fully familiar with Jonnie's abilities and his shortcomings for you to truly appreciate it for what it is. Having said that, I feel that the first season in particular was the best TV I have ever seen. The writing was second to none. The editing perfect. The acting, due to fantastic casting of very talented performers, was wonderful. Anthony M Hall, brilliantly embraced a new character as though he had played it all his life. His finest performance however came at the other end of the series. In the final episode of the final season when he is staring into the eyes of a long lost relative, there is no doubt whatsoever that he has become a brilliant actor.
Joe
Speed Racer (2008)
If you are under 12 or Liked Sky Captain, you might like this.
If you liked that 'Sky Captain' movie that polluted the screens a few years back then this review is not for you. You will probably love this movie.
As an adult movie this was pathetic. Weak story line, weak writing, weak acting. I can't believe Susan Sarandon was in this...
Defenders of this outrageously expensive 'B' movie like to claim that it was for kids. Well... I love kids movies. My kids and I see most of them at the theaters. We have stacks of them that we watch over and over. Monster's Inc... Brilliant, The Incredibles, equally brilliant, Over the Hedge, Ice Age 2 (not 1), Madagascar, Open Season... all of them wonderful... but this? What about originality, you ask. This is bold and original, you say. I gotta tell you that The Spongebob movie was definitely bold and original and vastly more entertaining than this.
After The Matrix, I was the Wachowski brothers biggest fan. I made all my friends and family watch it, sometimes repeatedly. That love affair continued through the other Matrix movies (yea including #2) and I was thrilled to extend it to V for Vandetta, with unforgettable performances and brilliant writing. I thought they could do no wrong. I thought they had the Midas touch. I was dreadfully wrong.
One of the most, if not the most, important elements of movies like these or any fictional writing for that matter, is for the writer/director to make the audience suspend his or her belief and be caught up in the movie. At this point the theater disappears and you are transported into another world. Conversely the worst thing they can do is burst that bubble of suspended belief by screaming "Hey this is a movie... look at the cheesy sets, look at the actors who can't get into their characters because everything is done on blue-screen... Just look at all of the stuff that couldn't possibly happen!" Even at the emotional parts you don't care because the characters are so cardboard you haven't developed any emotional ties with them. My wife (whom I talked into going to this movie) turned to me during what was supposed to be a heart-rending part and jokingly said, "Are you crying?" I said "Yes, but not for the reasons you think".
I'm sorry for writing such a scathing review, but as far as I'm concerned, after seeing that movie last night the Wachowski brothers owe me Twenty Bucks.