Change Your Image
![](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMjQ4MTY5NzU2M15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNDc5NTgwMTI@._V1_SY100_SX100_.jpg)
j_e_newman
Reviews
The Inbetweeners (2008)
Funny, different, mostly realistic, but extremely vulgar
The series follows Will, a 16 year old boy in the UK who due to a divorce of his parents is forced to attend a public (or state run) school instead of a private school. He falls in with three friends, Simon, Jay and Neil, and the episodes consist mostly of their attempts to be popular, have fun and get laid. I recognize the character traits these four portrayed echoed some of the same characteristics of some of the friends I grew up with half a world away in the US southwest. About 50% of what comes out of Jay's mouth is an exaggeration or an outright lie, and the other 50 is a vile insult belittling one of the other friends. I had a friend exactly like that at that age. And the tales of sexual frustration of being a 16 or 17 year old male are painfully explored in this series in a sometimes poignant way. There's a lot to like about this series, although I think the main character, Will, is the least believable and realistic of the four friends. And some of the portrayals of adults are also a bit over the top.
Be warned though, the language in this series is extremely graphic and crude, also some of the situations are gross and disgusting. Life is really like that though. A lot of people probably won't like having their face rubbed in it by something that's supposed to be entertainment.
That's why I only gave it a five. It was a bit much to take.
Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie (2010)
Un-Watchable!
If you like a bunch of heavily armed men standing around in a circle with their helmets off, or trudging across a featureless landscape and talking about death, glory, and battle in completely meaningless and entirely repetitive terms, you will LOVE THIS MOVIE! If you have a pulse, and more than two brain cells rubbing the sticks of thought together to build the fire of intellect, you will be bored to tears by this crappy, idiotic attempt at film-making.
Hello!! I have news for you, to make a movie, you need a flipping story. This movie didn't have one.
Everyone who likes this movie plays the game, and are so brainwashed by it, that they ejaculate in their pants when watching this complete piece of trash.
Everyone else hates it, and deservedly so.
The single good point is the CGI is pretty cool. The bad points are everything else. No plot, no character depth, no back story, crappy accents, horrible choices for voice actors, little or no way to differentiate from a bunch of faceless idiot characters when they are wrapped up in their helmets. Not that it would really matter, even when they are all standing around without their helmets talking about, glory, death, duty, honor, dignity, they are all bald and indistinguishable from each other anyway.
I can't tell you in family terms, how much I hate this piece of trash. Most of the reviews seem to be along the lines of, "well it came close to the feel of the game," or "it wasn't bad for a first attempt." Anyone thinking along these terms needs to pull their heads out and ask themselves how exciting it would be to watch a movie based on Pong. Sure endless hours of fun to play, but is there a story there? I think not.
Secondly, the idea that only a Warhammer maniac, could say something like, "Not bad for a first attempt!" just dooms the thought of anyone ever making a 2nd one.
Because if only a completely rabid fan could muster even a lukewarm review for this piece of garbage, there's no way anyone in Hollywood (yes, Hollywood) could possibly be stupid enough to invest a dime in a sequel.
Thank the Stars!
Boardwalk Empire (2010)
Very flawed, but still entertaining
There are a couple of minor spoilers in this review I'm about to dump all over this show for some arcane reasons, even though I enjoyed all 12 episodes of the first season and will probably watch the rest.
1. This show tries to be oh so authentic to the times, right? Then why have an electric bluesy/rock theme song that is obviously at least 50 or more years in the future to the period. Attention is meticulously paid to to make EVERY single detail of the show conform to the period. I don't understand the theme song.
2. The intro with the blues/rock theme song that is the ONLY thing about the show that doesn't match the period of the show, is also very metaphorical with the waves carrying in the whiskey bottles, crashing them against the pillars of the pier and washing up on Nucky's feet, Very allegorical, and foreshadows the crime that Prohibition engendered overwhelming everyone involved. Yet, the show portrays an established, successful figure like Nucky jumping in feet first into the bootlegging business. That just doesn't make a lot of sense, an established boss resists change to his empire, in this show, Nucky embraces it before anyone else. It's a narrative that doesn't make sense.
3. Tampering with history in what is primarily a work of fiction is walking a tightrope. This series uses historical figures like Al Capone (played superbly by Stephen Graham), Lucky Luciano (played incompetently by some idiot) and a few others, even Steve Buscemi's character is based loosely on real history. However, you don't ever want to rewrite history in a work of fiction. That's the line you can't cross, and this series flirted with crossing it repeatedly in it's first season, and it's only going to get worse. Better to just make up your own characters out of whole cloth against a tapestry of real life figures that don't ever really enter into the story. That's what the Sopranos did, and it worked. I don't know that this series can keep that balancing act going, and I'm not sure that I want them to do so.
4. Steve Buscemi, superlative actor that he is, is wrong for the lead role of Enoch Thompson. Don't get me wrong, I like Buscemi as an actor, this is a role he can't pull off. Watch all the episodes and tell me if you can't think of a hundred people better suited to this role than Buscemi. I can.
5. Despite all the attention to detail, there were a few odd things that stood out glaringly, perhaps, because of the attention to detail. Here's one, you're driving north along the Atlantic coast from Atlantic City to New York. What side is the ocean on? In this show it was on the left. Repeatedly. I just don't understand that.
6. Some of the plot sequences were absolutely laughable. Agent Nelson van Alden drowning the Jewish Agent Sebsoe in front fifty worshiping black Baptists and walking away from it unscathed? C'mon, how could that happen? The whole romance between the widow Schroeder and Nucky, in how it began, how it ended, and how it restarted is also clumsy and unbelievable. Oh, and how about the Al Capone character development seminar when a Jewish Rabi asks him why he's wearing a boy's cap, instead of a man's hat at a Bar Mitzvah?