rjw999 Reviews

Tenth Avenue Angel (1948)

A Beautiful and Endearing Story

[7/10 · 27 December 2020]

An innocent story with a wholesome message so missing today. We need this more now than ever.

Where Eagles Dare (1968)

Excellent, actually riveting

[8/10 · 12 November 2020]

Watched this on TCM on Veterans Day. Very well done and tense presentation in a time before or CGI and all the green screens. I was surprised. Kept my interest. Glad I saw it.

Dark Waters (2019)

Disturbing Story

[7/10 · 10 December 2019]

Warning: Don't read if you want to be surprised by the movie. It is a good movie and worth seeing. I may see it again. Mark Ruffalo was very good.

True story about something quite urgent and concerns everyones general health. Teflon includes a dangerous chemical that may leach out of products made with it and thus be consumed or breathed. So it potentially affects us all - not sure if this is still the case, as this story takes place around 2000.

I'm shocked that this is not already known. Instead, it is the subject of a movie. I can't imagine the chemical in Teflon is at the lethal levels covered in this story, but to learn this dangerous chemical is/was in consumer products from cookware to carpets needs to be known. Shame on DuPont and the EPA for not adequately publicizing such an important health risk.

Ford v Ferrari (2019)

Solid, entertaining

[8/10 · 20 November 2019]

Well done movie. Great casting. The movie moves as fast as the Shelby Ford and I didn't notice it was 2 1/2 hours. If was riveted to the story. I wonder how true to life the story is because Ford and his minions came off kinda bad. In any case, it's a great flick. Nice to see a movie today without all that condescending PC/feminism polluting the story. This felt real, not forced into today's narrow PC Hollywood storylines

It Chapter Two (2019)

I walked out

[3/10 · 15 September 2019]

Expected more after the first one. It was quite boring and following a methodical pace. Recounting the backstories each group member. Once I had enough, I walked out. Didn't need to wait for the big finale. Boring.

The Dirt (2019)

Accurate portrayal of 80s LA rock scene

[7/10 · 24 March 2019]

I lived this era and this all looked so familiar. Right down to the KLOS tee-shirt. I wasn't a big fan of hard rocking hair bands. I was into alt-Rock playing on KROQ. Still I frequented the very bars and music venues featured in this film - Whiskey a go-go, troubadour, rainbow room. Just watching this film took me back to those days. Very cool. I feel like driving up to LA now. The crazy things this band did was always in the news. The music is iconic. Makes me appreciate it more now than I did while living through it. I miss that LA. It was crazy fun.

Mary Queen of Scots (2018)

Not factually correct

[3/10 · 26 December 2018]

This movie suffers from political correctness. Ill leave it at that. The story is confusing too. Hard to follow. Casting terribly unconvincing. The Queens? Imagine Helen Bondem Carter as the Red Queen from Alice in Wonderland vs the animated Scottish princess Merida from Disney's Brave.. that's what these two reminded me of. And so, how can you make a historical picture with this? Ugh. Terrible

The Old Man & the Gun (2018)

I miss Redford already

[7/10 · 14 November 2018]

Sigh. Another great actor hangs it up. Redford said this is his last. He wants to go back to his original love of painting.

Who can blame him. I applaud his Career. I was a kid when his came on the scene with Butch Cassidy & Sundance and all those star making movies he did in the 70s.

I remember how he was disregarded as a serious actor because of his boyish good looks (which Brad Pitt later got tagged). Redford was a truly disarming and deceptively good actor. And those movies. Watch them again.

This movie is a very fitting swan song. It feels like Redford is saying good bye. It feels like an homage to his early years too.

And I can't help put think of that Butch & Sundance scene where Neumann and Redford jump off a cliff aiming to hit the river way below and escape justice. You wonder did he? This movie kind of ends the same way. You wonder Did he escape?

Good bye Robert and thanks. Happy retirement.

A Star Is Born (2018)

Very well done retelling of a classic

[8/10 · 10 October 2018]

This one will get a bunch of Oscar noms. It's a small town girl makes it big mixed in with a falling star tragedy story. Lady Gaga has a beautiful perfect voice and turned in a great acting performance. Bradley Cooper delivers as well, but with a marginal voice, which is fine. I wish he didn't mumble so much, I missed so of his dialogue. Overall well done movie. Best I've seen so far this year.

Venom (2018)

Can Hollywood only make super hero movies?

[7/10 · 10 October 2018]

This is yet another one. You have to wonder if they are real digging deep to find more and more obscure characters simply because it sells.

It's not a bad movie. Mostly entertaining. A bit confusing, especially when they introduced the evil 'vemon' That looked like the good 'venom'. They sounded the same too. But the story was intended it seeolike they could have developed it better to follow where it was going.

Overall, nothing really new here, as all these moycover the same story with only a different character. It started to feel like transformers means alien/predator. Especially the voice of the venom character. Oh well, good enough for one viewing.

My Gal Sal (1942)

Pleasant music with a good story

[6/10 · 7 October 2018]

I think I heard of Paul Dresser and wanted to hear his music. Only song I can say I knew - faintly- was the Wabash song, which turns out to be the Indiana State song. So, yeah, I didn't know much about this story. It was interesting to see the 1890s period sets. Mostly I watched this to see Rita Hayworth. Never saw anything of hers (but I probably did). She is actually a good actress and dances well. Victor Mature seemed to be an odd pick for the role of Paul. But their chemistry on screen was apparent.

It's interesting that Paul started out singing at carnivals before hitting the big time on Broadway. I suppose that's similar to singers/songwriters who toiled away in bars before getting discovered.

Anyway, the movie was comfortable, pleasant, relaxing to watch and gave me a glimpse into a seemingly simpler happy world, even if it's idealistically presented. Thank you TCM for keeping these flicks on the air.

The House with a Clock in Its Walls (2018)

Wow. Objectionable Satanic-like theme

[3/10 · 25 September 2018]

I know this may sound extreme to write. But I was immediately struck by the imagery of the occult and demons that prevailed through the telling of this story. So this post is just my gut reaction to what I saw. I was shocked and concerned that this was not a movie I would want to sit through, let alone bring a child to see.

Certainly, Jack Black is an awesome actor and he delivers here. So this is hard to write for this reason. But his character is like the classic fairy tale story of the Pied Piper luring children with his music and bright outfit. And that Piper was actually leading the kids to their doom. This one introduces the occult as an innocent and normal part of life.

That's what I thought here. This seemingly children's story veiled the very dangerous occult themes. Long story short: it's really creepy. It's about a warlock, witchcraft, raising of the dead and has lots of satanic symbols: the pentagon, bloodletting, spells, conjurings, inverted cross, the eight ball, a spell book with pictures of horned devils, half goat / half man, etc. The movie is sprinkled with this imagery. And the climatic scene is the raising from the dead (through a use of blood and pentagon spell) of an evil warlock that gave me the impression he was Satan who was back to do away with humanity.

This is heavy stuff but people may not grasp it because it's masked as a kids movie and it presents the occult as something normal and acceptable. And on this basis, I cannot recommend it to children.

Uncle Buck (1989)

The Way Movies Ought to Be

[8/10 · 15 September 2018]

John Candy is perfect in this role. Such a likable character making it look easy. "Kevin McAllister" is in it too. Love this movie. Where has good clean family comedies gone?

Hollywood or Bust (1956)

A Favorite Martin & Lewis road picture

[8/10 · 6 September 2018]

I grew up a huge Jerry Lewis fan. I even "taped" these movies on cassettes so I could listen to them at night in my bed. This one was a favorite The music is decent and the comic shtick is what you expect. If that's what you like, this movie delivers.

Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

Enjoyable

[7/10 · 6 July 2018]

Pleasant fun movie. Good cast. Fun banter between characters. Very likable. Story basic but entertaining.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado (2018)

Solid movie

[8/10 · 5 July 2018]

I liked the first one and this movie delivers more of the same. Good pace, tense, interesting story. But it also made me realize the horrible situation going on at the border. Tough life living in that nightmare. Why can't there be peace and decency toward one another?

The First Purge (2018)

Embarrassingly BAD

[1/10 · 5 July 2018]

I was embarrassed sitting in the theatre. I eventually had enough and walked out! Worst movie of the year. The only positive thing is that, after I tuned it out, I had time to think about the TRASH Hollywood turns out. And I resolved to go to much less movies and be more discerning about the movies I go to. So I'm grateful I will stop seeing these random garbage movies and save some money.

Ok I'm ashamed I would see this immoral twisted movie. What is tragic is that so many people see this trash. What is wrong with us to not know better. We should not be seeing this stuff and maybe the will stop making them.

Deadpool 2 (2018)

Foul and self absorbed

[5/10 · 25 May 2018]

Foul movie with nothing new/different to add to the flood of superhero movies. It falls I. Line with other movies of this genre. Basic plot with the usual action to wrap it in. I couldn't sit through it, especially once I figured out how the rest of this movie would go. That was about at the halfway point. To that point it was a continuous riff by Ryan Reynolds of snarky, crass quips. And because this is the second installment of Deadpool, he was going for more shock value than in the first flick. It got tiring and offensive to me. I gave it 5 stars for production quality.

The Strangers: Prey at Night (2018)

Embarrassingly bad

[3/10 · 22 March 2018]

Really dumb. Dialogue so bad, acting worst I've seen in years. The dad especially. Sounded like he was laughing during his particular brutal scene. The audience in the theatre would surely be laughing except I was the only one! And I was embarrassed to be there.

Oh well, the seats were comfortable. And I caught up on some texting.

Thoroughbreds (2017)

Cynical view

[5/10 · 15 March 2018]

Indifference towards a life simply because someone annoys you. Robotic acting too.