JamieWJackson Reviews

Man of Her Dreams (1997)

not bad, but could have been better

[5/10 · 5 June 2017]

This movie kept my attention all the way through, waiting to see what would happen. The only problem is that there wasn't any real lesson to be learned here, other than "don't have an affair", which should hardly need saying. What would have earned a higher score from me would have been to showcase some sort of syndrome or personality disorder and illustrate something about that. As it is, the villain doesn't seem to match anything. He acts like a psychopath some of the time, but shows some emotions which appear genuine at other times (and they occur when he's alone, so it isn't that he's faking them; he had no audience). He just appears to be a semi-generic Really Messed Up Person.

The acting is pretty good and the entire production is sufficient for a low-budget psycho-thriller. If you just need something to watch for an hour and a half, this will do. Just don't expect anything terribly deep from it in the end.

Timelock (1996)

oh come on

[1/10 · 4 June 2017]

I made it past the low budget "special" effects and poor acting and was still willing to give this a go, until... SPOILER ALERT... a guard decided to use his finger as the means to probe what was inside a suspicious prisoner's suspicious tooth. At that point I had to stop watching purely out of defense of my (remaining) brain cells.

Maybe the movie got better after that, but I don't see any reason to hope so.

Even a no-budget movie can be worth watching if it brings something else to the table, but with writing that bad, this one belongs in the trash.

Rorschach (2015)

cheap but entertaining

[6/10 · 24 May 2017]

Figured I'd write one more review since there are only 2 so far. :-)

For a micro-budget movie, this is pretty good. All the acting is very natural; it really does feel like we're watching real people going through some actual creepy experiences. The way they handle things isn't strained or contrived. Each person has their own personality and each of them seems like someone I might encounter in real life. The minimal budget means there are no eye-popping effects (or other standard movie fare such as chase scenes or bloody violence), but it doesn't hurt the sense of immersion into the paranormal, thanks to the smart choice made by the movie makers to focus (a la "Blair Witch Project") mostly on the people and their emotions rather than the spookies.

Ultimately, I can't rate this as a great movie, but I can say that if you like creepy movies and you're in the mood for a cheap one set in modern suburbia, this one should entertain you.

Beerfest (2006)

lost in translation?

[3/10 · 3 May 2017]

"Super Troopers" made me laugh a lot. I had to force myself just to get halfway through this snoozer before giving up. Maybe it's funny if you get -- or, better, are -- drunk; as a non-drinker, I just didn't find much of this material amusing. I will say that, for a comedy, it was done reasonably well, so there's that. Maybe ST2 will be better.

Pan's Labyrinth (2006)

heavy propaganda couched in fantasy veneer

[5/10 · 2 May 2017]

The high marks this movie has earned are well deserved on the technical side, but the real point of the whole thing seems to be yet another strong dose of "eeeeevil fascists are ugly nasty beasts and yay for the poor, noble communists fighting to survive their reign of terror" in our faces. Everything outside the labyrinth element of the movie is designed to convey that message, and that's the majority of the screen time.

This eye-rollingly one-sided presentation is the only way such topics are ever treated in the movies we see since WW2. It seems that the hot war ended but the propaganda war never did. Reality was rather different, so I have to dock the movie several points for that dishonesty.

Star Crystal (1986)

really bad, mostly in a bad way

[2/10 · 22 April 2017]

Very mild spoiler (of something which happens in the first 20 minutes): So in our cast we've got 2 slightly past-their-prime shampoo TV commercial models, 1 foul-tempered missing linkess, and a heart-poundingly cute goddess named Emily Longstreth. What's a movie production to do but kill off the goddess straight away and take our chances with the rest after.

.......huh??

There are many things to be said about this alleged movie. Like "in space, no one can hear you crawl". Or "why act when we can just sit here?" Or "hey, you know... tying these random scenes together doesn't actually require an explanation, just some splicing tape". Or "glowing dot showdown Survivor -- in SPACE!"

Only watch this if you have a strong tolerance for junk and your life is simply 91 minutes too damn long. (So... why did I watch it? Schlock OCD, I guess. That and Emily Longstreth! Even if only for a scandalously few minutes.)

Phoenix Point (2005)

the down side of low budget film-making

[3/10 · 19 January 2015]

This movie is wildly overrated on here, at present sporting a misleading 5.1. I'm giving it a 3 and I debated giving it a 2; what saved it from that was that, for all its faults, it did ultimately tell a story and the story was a little bit interesting. The trouble is, there's almost nothing else good about the movie. The only other reason I kept watching was Kelly Williams, who is sleek and sexy and barely dressed (at most).

Brion James did a lot of good work in his career. This won't go into that category, mainly (I think) due to the under-written script. The story had potential but the script wasn't up to the challenge of doing it justice. All the actors could have used more writing of their parts to give them some good lines to speak, and to make the scenes more dynamic and give them better flow. Instead we get stilted dialog which is obviously being improvised. If you're going to improvise, rule #1 is: be good at improvisation! These people are not -- or else they did not get properly prepared for it.

I can only give this a 3, and it's a low 3.

Raspberry Ripple (1988 TV Movie)

great fun

[8/10 · 19 January 2015]

I'm astonished that there are no reviews and no plot submitted yet for this excellent movie. It's got a 6.8 rating, so I'm not the only one to enjoy it. I guess all 12 of the other voters were in a hurry. ;-) I just submitted a plot, so hopefully that's taken care of now.

As for a review: I liked everything about this movie, and some things I liked a lot. The cast was all new to me aside from Dunaway, and everyone was perfect. All the people in wheelchairs seemed like real wheelchair-bound people (and I suspect that at least some of them really are), and also had enough acting ability to portray interesting and believable characters. The plot was simple enough to follow easily, yet we aren't entirely sure just where things are going, either.

Particularly fun are the wit of the main character and the gleeful paranoia of the would-be snitch. There are also bits of drama and pathos in which we're not quite sure how serious things are between some of the characters; they all clearly know each other well, and we spend lots of the movie catching up to whatever the situation is. That process is handled very well here and provides for plenty of laughs and some poignancy.

This is a movie anyone can enjoy. There is nothing in it beyond a PG rating, and it might even qualify for a G rating, aside from some bloodless imaginary gun-play (and meanwhile, there's graphic violence on TV every day). The writing, acting, directing, editing, and production quality are all solid. Young viewers might get a little lost at first, though; it's not clear at the outset just what is real and what is not. Anybody making it past that murk should find "Raspberry Ripple" taking an immediate place amongst their favorite quirky movies.

Over Exposed (1984)

skip this one

[4/10 · 18 January 2015]

A partial list of the obvious problems with this movie:

* mic'ing poor during opening sequence; voices become louder/softer depending on direction of actor's head (toward/away from mic)

* opening credits hard to read (color/contrast)

* lousy, loud music during opening credits drowns out audio, including answering machine messages (are they important? we can't tell)

* the "look" of shots (light levels? calibration?) is inconsistent

* weird audio in the bus/gun scene, like another track is on FF play along with the native audio

* boom mic visible in several shots

The movie feels a lot like a porno movie, but (mostly) without the porn (there's some nudity in a few scenes and some implied sex, but no explicit activity). The result is a lackluster movie that definitely does not deserve a 5.9 rating, which it currently has. I was tempted to rate it a 3, but I gave it a 4 because somehow it did (as the other reviewer also said) hold my interest until the end, despite the plot being thin and cliché-ridden. Maybe it was just morbid curiosity, or maybe Monique Gabrielle does have some charisma to accompany her fabulous figure. It isn't due to acting prowess -- from anyone.

Frankly, I can't recommend this one to anybody, but if you're a fan of someone involved with it, just don't be expecting much, and hopefully you'll at least be entertained by the intentional and unintentional humor and foibles of this low-budget melodrama.

The Debt (2003 TV Movie)

very engrossing complex tale

[8/10 · 17 January 2015]

I may actually watch this one again, and I almost never watch anything again.

We love Martin Freeman, right? But in this one, he's not so likable -- except he's still sympathetic because he's him. So it's hard not to root for him. The very end... nah, I won't spoil it. :-p

Warren Clarke doesn't look like a movie star, but he certainly fit this role perfectly. He was entirely believable in every way.

The continual shifting between narrators was a bit confusing once in a while, and I sometimes found myself trying to recall what situation a given narrator had going on. The device is clever, but is it good movie-making? Alternatively, is it good in principle but stretched too far with 4? You tell me. It's the main reason I might watch this again: to "get" all the angles.

Finally, I just have to say that Nina Sosanya with those dreads is unbelievably enchanting. What a fox!

Alien Species (1998)

so bad it's... really bad

[3/10 · 15 January 2015]

This is a bad movie. There are many things wrong with it and not much right. Here are the few bright spots:

* Attractive female leads

* Occasionally decent (albeit incoherent and inconsistent) effects/props/sets

* Plot holes and cheesiness so extreme that you will get some laughs at the movie's expense

Um... that's about it, really.

I won't list the shortcomings. That includes pretty much everything else, and others have done that already. I will note one thing nobody else has yet: Charles Napier's character inexplicably vanishes from the plot roughly halfway through the film, leaving us wondering why he was there in the first place. He gets enough screen time in the first half that we think there's a purpose to his existence. Oops.

The beauties in this should have gotten more work; its badness wasn't their fault. Lana Parilla did that silly alien spider movie (nearly as bad as this movie) early in her career, and she makes a fine "evil queen" in "Once Upon a Time" now.

Basically, if you enjoy bad movies, or are simply obsessed with seeing all sci-fi movies ever made, knock yourself out. Otherwise, this is not for you. If you do watch it, under no circumstances attempt to take it seriously. The modest amount of enjoyment I derived from watching it came mostly from laughing at it.

The Coming (2009)

doing a lot with a little

[8/10 · 13 January 2015]

This is one of those movies that spoil you for Hollywood fare, because this is almost as good, yet was made by a rookie on a low budget. Throw 10 or 50 million bucks into the mix and the result should be far better... but here, it wouldn't be. Sure, a few things could be improved on, but you don't miss them here because the storytelling, editing, and directing are so good.

The acting was B-grade in a lot of places, but that's OK. Most of the leads were solid and the movie was about what was happening more than it was about any individual, so the acting didn't feel like the point.

My one complaint is with the ending, which confused me. The whole movie was leading up to... something, but I'm not sure what it was. Maybe I'll watch it again sometime to try and figure it out. Despite its low budget, it is enjoyable viewing. Very impressive debut!

Bones (2010)

good, but less could have been more

[6/10 · 12 January 2015]

I enjoyed this movie, for the most part. However, I wanted to love it, and it didn't rise to that level.

*** SPOILER ALERT ***

The main problem I have is with the ongoing deaths. What I mean in my summary of "less being more" is that with each death the story felt less real to me. I was increasingly expecting the next one, and the impact of each successive one was lessened as a result. "One death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." So I would have preferred fewer deaths, to make those which do happen mean more and to keep me emotionally engrossed.

Also, I guessed the "twist" revealed at the end as soon as the rifle was mentioned, because nobody else would have had the motive to kill both of the boys, and a rifle is a distance weapon, which fit in with the killer being someone the boys didn't know.

*** END SPOILAGE ***

Aside from that, I liked pretty much everything here. Zakk's acting was sufficient, if not impressive. Everyone else did well, and some moments were genuinely moving. The story, the above complaints notwithstanding, was engaging. I cared about the characters. Classic rock is my favorite music, and heavy metal is up there too, so the soundtrack was great for me and fit the movie well.

If what bothered me about this one doesn't bother you, you'll probably really like it a lot, as some of the other reviewers have. There is a lot to like.

Hostage (1988 TV Movie)

quality drama with minor flaws

[7/10 · 12 January 2015]

There are some Hollywood clichés in this (does any villain's usefulness to the plot ever outlive the villain?), but a lot of it feels pretty fresh, too. Carrie Hamilton really shines in a role where I never knew what she would do next and all her actions seemed, if not entirely likely, at least plausible. (Sad to see that she died before age 40!) Carol Burnett, her real-life mother, was also very good, and very dynamic as well, as her titular hostage. Rounding out the trio of leads, the menacing dad was perhaps a bit over-the-top, but only a bit. He had his role to play and played it well.

Some of the settings and elements are dated, but that's OK. Every movie eventually shows its age. A good story, though, doesn't suffer (much, anyway) from outliving its contextual setting. It doesn't matter that this story takes place a few decades ago, now; the themes of familial love, abandonment, heartache, quiet desperation, helplessness, abuse, redemption, etc. are timeless and transcend smoothly.

"Hostage" works well over all and overcomes its minor flaws to deliver an engrossing story told by talented actors.

Full Eclipse (1993 TV Movie)

werewolves with guns -- fighting crime!

[5/10 · 9 January 2015]

I really enjoyed the first part of this movie. It seemed like a really solid action thriller up through when the partner departed. After that, it felt like the production value, acting, directing, editing... all went down a notch. The rest of the movie seemed cheaper. It still had some fun ideas, but it didn't impress me very often. There was a lot of posing and it felt like posing.

Patsy is slinky, Mario is suave, and Bruce is sinister, but that's about all I can say for this one. I just got done watching it and I can't even remember what ultimately happened to Patsy's character.

On the whole, I still enjoyed watching the movie enough to give it a 5, but the letdown after the opening part prevented me from going higher.

Project: Metalbeast (1995)

"unstoppable CIA werewolf"? um...

[5/10 · 9 January 2015]

I'm not sure exactly where that phrase comes from, but when I saw it attached to the YouTube video description it made me laugh so much I just had to watch the movie. Turns out to be a watchable farce with some fun aspects and a few genuinely good moments.

There is a lot of cliché here, but from the opening moments it's clear that the movie was meant to be very much tongue-in-cheek while simultaneously preserving some degree of "serious" horror environment, and it works pretty well at that level.

The creature effects are solid enough to sustain a fair amount of screen time. Most of the shots don't linger very long, which is probably for the best; some of the scenes with the soldier/creature strapped to the table suffer from showing us the obvious makeup/prosthetics for too long. However, the action shots tend to be more fleeting and the creature looks pretty good in those.

The women look pretty good too. :-) Kim and Musetta are visually similar enough that I wondered why they didn't cast one of the two roles differently, but they're both beautiful so that's forgivable. They can act, too, so that helps. :-D

I liked the setting in the facility pretty well; there are enough different locations that the visuals don't get too stagnant, while still having some feeling of cohesion. When we go from room to hallway to room to wherever, it seems plausible that this all could be one large facility. The few exterior shots are good, although it seems odd (at least, to me) that there's a swimming pool right outside a military research facility. Oh well.

The pacing and editing were good. The directing was fine. The acting was good enough from the leads, although the continual varying of Musetta's accent was distracting. Thankfully, the lousy Mexican accent guy departs quickly (as noted by an earlier reviewer).

I was hoping for a bit more exploration of the whole "metal werewolf warrior" notion; mostly this is a fairly standard "experiment gone wrong, trapped in installation with monster" story, and the unique(?) angle is only partially explored. However, for a B-movie, it's entertaining enough. They probably would have needed a bigger budget to do more, like turn the guy loose on some test mission somewhere, or something.

Check this one out if you like the genre and are up for some fairly well-done silliness. If not, skip it.

Genuine Risk (1990)

good and gritty

[8/10 · 7 January 2015]

"Genuine Risk" surprised me by remaining very engrossing throughout. Yes, there are lots of clichés, but they didn't bother me. There are some really fun bits as well, and the movie keeps you guessing as to which will be next. It's true that "the girl" gets just about zero character development, rendering her a walking (or should I say slithering?) cliché in both name and substance, but so what? Everyone here is at least somewhat of a cliché. The movie embraces that.

Berg is very well cast in this role, being quite believable as a small-time loser with more heart than brains who gets sucked into things beyond his control. His friend Jack brings a huge dose of life to the story, strutting his way through scene after scene with flamboyant ambiguity. Stamp's Paul is perfect, as we would expect from him. (I guess that could be considered "faint praise", but can it be any crime to be good at something and do it?) Johnson does what she can with the admittedly shallow role she's given, which is to say she looks sexy. Everyone else are minor characters, but each does well with them. The pacing, editing, and directing are all solid.

What I enjoyed perhaps the most here was the sense of reality Berg's character brings to the backdrop of the tapestry of clichés which make up the story. He is a splash of "the common man" across that tapestry, and the contrast creates the tension. He clearly doesn't belong in Paul's world, so we want to see what happens as he gets drawn into it.

Ultimately, I gave this movie an 8, which is probably too high, but for what it is I really enjoyed it a lot. It knows what it's about and it spends its time on exactly that. It's certainly better than its present 4.8 rating, at least for those who enjoy noir -- and if you don't, then shouldn't you pick something else in the first place?

Demolition High (1996 Video)

ell oh ell

[5/10 · 7 January 2015]

"Demolition High" is ridiculous on many levels. However, it made me laugh a bunch. It seemed less like a fully thought-out movie and more like an exercise in putting actors into scenes. "Hey, we could have Corey shoot something out of a fire extinguisher!" "Yeah, and Melissa could walk menacingly up these stairs!" "Wait, we could use this circular saw for something..."

What surprised me was that somehow the movie managed to include the absurd as well as occasional moments when the actors and the writing made me care a little bit about the characters. I've always like Corey Haim, for whatever reason, and even though this whole film was a transparent vehicle for him to play a role (and not a very convincing role), I still rooted for "Lenny Slater". I also liked a few moments with some of the supporting cast, certainly more than the shaky script and acting would suggest.

Ultimately I give this a 5. It's laughable in many ways, but that was part of the fun. When Corey grabs a machine gun and runs *past* the injured Melissa, out of the room, down the hall, and *then* turns and fires randomly back at the room they squared off in, you can't take this seriously and you can't believe any of them did either. So just relax and enjoy the comedy, be it intentional or not.

P.S. I had to "fix" this review because my original summary of "LOL" was interpreted as shouting -- even when I added periods. :-)

Aftershock (1990)

Afterschlock!

[4/10 · 7 January 2015]

This is a ridiculous movie. Thankfully, it doesn't take itself too seriously -- or, if it does, it does it so absurdly that it's impossible to tell the difference. Most of the action is just silly, the plot is convoluted, the characters preposterous... what is there to like about this movie?

Well... intentionally or not, it made me smile a lot. I liked the gorgeous Elizabeth Kaitan, regardless of how bland her character was. I liked the always-rowdy Matthias Hues, even though his character's death was shockingly cheap. I liked John Saxon, who is his usual menacing self here. And I really liked laughing at all the silliness and B-movie mistakes. Throw in some Richard Lynch and Michael Berryman and you're bound to have a few good moments along the way.

Take this for what it is; sit back, relax, and laugh at/with it. You won't learn much, but if you like post-apoc B-movies, you should enjoy this one.

The Babysitter (1980 TV Movie)

bizarre editing, poor sound mixing, and other problems

[4/10 · 5 January 2015]

This had potential, and it actually did realize some of it. However, the dialog is hard to hear in places, and the editing is just bizarre, several times jumping from a tense moment straight to another scene without resolving anything.

My biggest objection, though, is more fundamental: for the first two-thirds or so of the movie, the fascinating "babysitter" seems to have some kind of supernatural... something. It's never clarified what, but she seems to be almost mesmerizing people on occasion; at another moment, she is unfazed by a car nearly hitting her, almost as though she is in control of the situation more than the driver is. Then in the last third or so, that "something" seems to vanish and she is just a crazy young woman.

Zimbalist is captivatingly beautiful here and seems game to bring her character to life, and the other players are all fine in their roles. However, the story just doesn't quite make sense in spots and the relationships feel hurky-jerky. A bit more time invested into the writing would have helped, as would a better job on the sound mixing and the editing. Lacking those things, I can only give this a 4, as I ended up just wondering what the point of this was. Still, if you're a fan of stalker/psycho movies, or of Shatner or Zimbalist (or anyone else here), you will probably enjoy this at least a little bit.

Deserter (2002)

a moving look at man vs. man

[7/10 · 1 January 2015]

Sometimes it helps to step outside of the familiar. In "Deserter", my American perspective gets broadened by looking at an Arab country through the eyes of a young Brit placed within the French Foreign Legion. With my own country removed entirely from the scene, I thus start with no default "side" here. The movie does start off following the FFL, but of course expands before too long to show us (some of) the Arab side as well.

I'd like to know, but don't know, how true to reality the movie is. Most of what we're shown seemed very plausible to me. A few bits did feel "Hollywoodized" but perhaps were reasonable distillations of multiple events.

What made the biggest impression on me was the discomfort of Murray as he came face to face with the inexorable underlayment of the whole situation: that military occupation is fundamentally wrong because it is not consensual. That's a good lesson for everyone.

I'm surprised this only has a 5.3. I wouldn't call it a great movie, but it's well done and involving and deserves a higher score.

My biggest complaint is that the accents were hard for me to understand, especially near the beginning. With the mixture of different national origins of the characters and some of the dialog being in French with the rest in (mostly) French-accented English, a lot of the early lines were lost on me. I almost stopped watching after about 10 minutes due to this. I'm glad I didn't.

The Cheating Pact (2013 TV Movie)

well made, no big surprises, but enjoyable

[7/10 · 25 July 2014]

There weren't a lot of plot twists here, but still, not being familiar with whatever real events were behind the story (at least I think there were real events; not fascinated enough to go look it up ATM), I didn't know exactly what was going to happen. Like any disaster movie, we watch to see things go horribly wrong, because somehow we get something from doing so. Are we just glad it's not us? Are we vicariously enjoying the thrill of the danger, safe in our seats? Maybe we like watching people be worried and scared. Why would that be?

Whatever the reason, there are plenty of movies to scratch that itch. "The Cheating Pact" is one. What starts off as a relatively minor case of cheating on college entrance exams spirals out of control, and we get to watch all the kids and their parents and friends reacting to a situation they (for the most part) don't even know is happening.

The film-making quality is pretty good. The production values are fine; this isn't a giant explosions and cars going over cliffs type of movie, so it really comes down to story, acting, directing, and editing, all of which are sufficient to make this an enjoyable watch.

I think the question a movie like this should inspire is "what would I do?" in the shoes of one or more of the characters. There are some good questions to ponder here. Would you cheat, if your parents were pressuring you to do better? Would you help someone else cheat, for money, if you needed the money? Would you trust your child if they said they didn't cheat? There are other, bigger questions which this movie begins to raise about the importance of college, social pressures, intergenerational expectations, and more. However, it focuses its energy on the individuals and relationships directly in front of us, and by doing so it stays tight and avoids coming across as pretentious or overly preachy.

7/10 for me.

Muggable Mary, Street Cop (1982 TV Movie)

1970s-style drama

[6/10 · 25 July 2014]

The main thing that stood out to me about this movie was the way it handled everything kind of "flatly" by comparison with how super-dramatic things are in more recent movies. It felt like a 1970s movie, or even TV show. That isn't necessarily bad or good, just different.

The story seemed a bit random, so I'm guessing this is based on a true story. Life is never as smoothly-planned as fiction.

There's not all that much to be said here, really. It's a story, and you can guess what's going to happen and be mostly correct. The performances are good, though, and it's very watchable.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation (2013)

not great, but fun and good at what it wants to be

[7/10 · 23 July 2014]

This is a rock-'em, sock-'em romp. Don't go looking for much beyond that, and you'll have a good time. The plot is enough to keep things moving along, and the interaction between the characters, while somewhat stilted and greatly contrived, is a good match for how it was back in the days of the TV cartoon. Fans of that should feel at home here; I was one, back in the day, so I'm not just guessing.

The first GI Joe movie had a few more light-hearted goofball moments; this one is a little gloomier and grittier, but still mostly within the parameters of GI Joe. What is different here is there's a substantial body count. The deaths are fairly clinical; it's not a gory movie, but still, very young kids might be affected by them. I don't recall much of a body count in the first one, but it's been a while so forgive me if my recall is failing me there.

I give this a 7 for those who are looking for an action movie. If you don't like them, you won't like this, so just skip it. If you're up for explosions, fights, and lots of tough stares and macho one-liners, with a little humor too, this is your movie. Also worth seeing for the epic cliff rope battle! LOL.

A Walk in My Shoes (2010 TV Movie)

a good movie from my old home town!

[8/10 · 21 July 2014]

It was fun seeing so many bits of Portland in this movie. (Umpqua ice cream is really good stuff; be sure to get some if you're ever in Oregon!) I think all of it really was filmed there.

That won't matter to most of you. Was it any good?? I sure liked it. There were some clichés, but they were handled rather off-handedly, almost like the filmmakers were winking at the audience and saying OK, we all know we have to do this bit here to set up that other part later on, so let's just relax and not take it too seriously. That worked. The important parts of the movie were the inspections of how we treat one another, and why, and what we might be missing by not really listening to each other. The clichés were just there to hold those moments together in a storyline.

It's clearly a small-budget film, and the only name I knew was Nancy Travis, but the movie doesn't seem bothered by any of its potential hindrances, and none of them bothered me either. Intelligent, respectful writing, acting, directing, etc. can atone for a lot of shortcomings in the budget, special effects, casting, etc. departments, and that's what happened here.

Face your flaws, play to your strengths, and don't let your weaknesses steal your grace or your confidence. Along with the message of listening to others, those were the lessons of the movie's story, and they are lessons which the movie-makers exemplified in crafting this movie itself.