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Picture of Beauty (2017)
With a little more work it could have risen to the level of good.
This movie is full of beautiful shots, interesting set dressing and beautiful girls. Lots of eye candy. It's really unfortunate that it has a terrible script and some rather poor acting. Some of the actors are passable, but others can't speak a single line convincingly. Also I have to disagree with another reviewer about this, it does not project the period very well at all. The early 20th century had women who wore layers of underwear and foundation garments. You would never see a woman in public in the nigh-diaphanous little nothings the leading lady favored.
All that being said, this film is a forgettable little bit of inoffensive fun, but with a stronger script and better acting it would look a lot less like a high school play.
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (2015)
A girl show that guys will like too.
I discovered this show recently because I had wondered what had happened to the "Fuck Me Ray Bradbury" girl and learned that she was now something of a big deal because of this show! So I go and binge the first season. Very pleasantly surprised. Given that Ms. Bloom was the force behind it I expected laughs. The laughs are there for sure but there is more.
If I had been pitching this show I would have said it was The Mindy Project meets Curb Your Enthusiasm.
One thing I like is that Rebecca, train wreck though she may be, is also the smartest person on the show. She is a *very* good lawyer. We are given the impression that she is way sharper than anyone in town. Her big failing is her various traumas from her upbringing and certain unrealistic romantic expectations. The whole thing is blown further out of proportion by her overbearing enabler, Paula, who is enraptured with her quest for perfect love.
There are also tons of other fascinating characters. I notice an interesting pattern in that all of the female characters are pretty smart except for one and all of the male characters are on the dumb side except for one. There is a whole lot about intellectual differences going on here. Rebecca's quest for Josh is odd considering that she is an academic overachiever hand he has likely never cracked a book in his life. In the show that say he has been to college, but we get the sense he spent it mostly going to parties.
The songs are not always great, but they are mostly apropos and advance the plot or character like the songs in a good musical should. I am impressed that they were able to stage two or three numbers per episode. That must be pretty hard to keep up.
The characters evolve nicely and mostly credibly.
A lot of guys might not think this is the kind of thing they could get into, might see it as strictly a "chick show", but let me tell you guys, it would be a shame to deprive yourself of this inspired madness.
John Carter (2012)
Made by someone who loves the book.
There are some spoilers.
O.k. We resolve that to a fan of the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs, no movie treatment of A Princess of Mars can be perfect or even close to perfect. The best we can hope for is that the film be made by someone who lives and breaths the material as we do and honors it properly within the limitations they are constrained by, be they financial, cultural or simply those imposed by the medium.
POM was published 101 years ago. It is in many ways an Edwardian relic that is bound to be difficult to adapt to 21st century sensibilities. Further, it is freighted with a century of expectations of what it should be and what changes to the story or setting would be unacceptable. In this version there are what I would have considered major changes. John Carter does not arrive on Barsoom baby naked. Dejah Thoris is not a sheltered young thing, all but defenseless. Here she is a scientist and a trained warrior. The Therns are a major presence here when in the books they didn't show up until later in the series. I could go on, there are many divergences from the book.
The difference between this and the 2009 Asylum feature are not about money to spend so much as they are about understanding the story and the characters and what made generations love them. The difference is that Andrew Stanton gets it and the makers of the 2009 film simply didn't. Someone who gets the essentials of A Princess of Mars, could produce it on a bare stage with minimal make up and make the story work.
This is finally the film that needed to be made of ERB's first and greatest work.
Enterprise (2001)
Better than the hardcore fans say it is.
For one reason or another, I ended up sitting this series out when it aired but heard much of what the Trek fandom establishment had to sat about it and thus didn't hurry to catch up.
I recently had the opportunity to watch the entire series over a few days and was pleasantly surprised.
I understand that there is the whole issue unmentioned alien races and major historical events in supposedly later series and that would be a problem for an obsessive Trek historian.
Here are some of the thing I really liked about this series that was missing from earlier Star Trek series.
1. We get to see a lot of how people on Earth are reacting to this voyage and the captain and crew are all pretty big celebrities. The voyage isn't taking place in a social vacuum.
2. They make a lot of mistakes that are not reconciled or fixed in some way. For instance accidentally wiping out the population of a whole planet or screwing with the social system of a tri-sexual race who were clearly far advanced from them. That kind of stuff is very credible.
3. For most of the series the Vulcans are the bad guys. Seeing them as less than perfect was refreshing and, frankly, very believable.
4. There was a strong story arc that runs throughout the whole series, particularly in season 3.
5. The Andorians. Interesting folk. They have been in the Trek universe from the beginning. Why are we getting to know them at this late date? Also, the Klingons are quite interesting at this point in history before they were at total odds with humanity. This series shows relations with them starting on a good note.
6. T'pol's incredibly screwed up psyche. It us hard to imagine how the Vulcan High Command would allow someone as sensitive as her to rise to the position she attained and trusted her to keep an eye on the humans. She would crack under pressures that merely half-Vulcan Mr. Spock would have dealt with easily. I sort of enjoyed her regular meltdowns. Also, of course, she was played by arguably the hottest woman to ever be a major character in Star Trek history and that is against some reasonably stiff competition. The producers made sure there were plenty of excuses to show her in her underwear too. A-plus for that.
There were horrible blunders also. It was a *HUGE* mistake to do Borg and Ferengi stories. It just requires too much contextual suspension of disbelief. I would recommend just bypassing those episodes. Also there was no context for the Mirror Universe" story, no excuse for why we were seeing it.
Even with those flaws, I think it compares quite favorably with other Star Trek series. Way better thought out that the original series. Less confusing than Voyager. I even like it better than DS9.
Easy A (2010)
Way better than I thought it would be.
This film is well written and well acted. Ms Stone puts in a fine performance and just about everyone else really gives their best, particularly Stanley Tucci, Patricia Clarkson, Thomas Hayden Church and Lisa Kudrow. Also thank you Amanda Bynes for rethinking your decision to retire from acting!
One reviewer said that the characters were not fully fleshed out but I find myself disagreeing. The writer and director got a lot out of some characters that sometimes had only a minute or so screen time. Some of them we learned a lot about their private anguish or history or relationships in only a few lines. Solid writing.
Others have said it, but what the hell I will too...this film is a loving tribute to the '80's teen films of John Hughes including many of the implausibilities. It's a comedy that actually veers into some fairly sophisticated satire at a few points, plausibility isn't the issue here. Like the Hughes films, it isn't about what teens would actually do or say, but what we *wish* they would or what we wish we would have in our own high school days.
One thing. What John Hughes did in his films was work with real teen aged actors whereas Mr. Gluck has chosen to return to the old cliché of having actors in their 20's play high schoolers and that is a mistake. The kids in the Hughes films *look* young and vulnerable and the viewers are reminded of that. When older actors are used something is lost, that's all I'm saying.
Princess of Mars (2009)
The elephant in the room
The elephant in the room is the man whose name is nowhere credited on this film. Perhaps that is a good thing. That man is Edgar Rice Burroughs. 99 years ago he wrote a story called Under the Moons of Mars. He wrote it strictly for the money and for the fun of writing it. After that story achieved some success, he went on to create Tarzan of the Apes and many other memorable characters. Over the last century his dedicated readers have suffered time after time the hackneyed interpretations of Tarzan while this, his seminal work, has been left un-filmed. In the old days, it could not have been done justice because of the low cinematic technology, and the mores of the times, but we had finally entered an age when this tale could have been done justice. What we have here just makes me sad.
In fairness, this is an adequate and mildly entertaining b-movie, but it is not the movie we who love this tale wanted. This is NOT the movie that we have waited almost a hundred years for. Not by a very long shot.
Otesánek (2000)
Brilliant black comedy
What can I say? I laughed as I cringed. Svankmajer again delivers wit seasoned with alarming imagery, or is it the other way round? While all of the acting was superb, I must single out Miss Adamcová for special notice for her subtlety and humor.
Little Otik himself was a remarkable vision, the stop motion animation lending a sense that he existed outside of ordinary space and time.
To my fellow Americans: yes, this is a "foreign" film, an "arty" film, but do not be put off from seeing it because of that! This is an amazingly funny film that will evoke squirms as well. Actually, of the films of Svankmajer's that I have been privileged to see, this one is the most mainstream in general feeling.
The Future Is Wild (2003)
Flawed, but an interesting idea
The process of evolution is well enough understood at this point to speculate about future directions and not seem totally ridiculous.
In his book, "AFTER MAN", Dougal Dixon attempts to model a possible world some 50 million years hence and does so reasonably convincingly. He also worked on the series "The Future is Wild" some twenty something years later and the scope is much more ambitious. I would have given it more time and attempted to show greater depth than the makers of the series did. Much of it seemed glossed over and the rational for many of the various creatures was sketched out a little too loosely. If anything I would have liked to see it projected still farther into the future as changes in the sun cause the Earth to become very different.
While I don't think comparisons with Walking with Dinosaurs are totally fair, the difference in production values between the two is evident, but so far as depicting the habits of animals that have never been seen alive, their intent is pretty much the same. The future shown here is plausible.
This series is better viewed on DVD than broadcast because a lot of little points go by quite quickly and many of the comments from scientists are somewhat subtle and deserve closer scrutiny. One will realize that many of them are in disagreement with several of the models presented in the series.
RKO Production 601: The Making of 'Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World' (2005)
This is the King Kong documentary that you have been waiting for!
The special edition DVD of King Kong is a must have for any fan of this movie or of classic films in general.
The best part of that DVD (save for the movie itself) is the lengthy making of documentary that goes into considerable depth on every aspect of the making of the film from the conception and writing to the special effects and exhibition and everything in-between. A standout sequence is where Peter Jackson and an effects crew recreate for demonstration purposes some of the film's animation and special effects and even restore a lost sequence to the film. A must see for any stop-motion buff.
There are equally in depth segments on casting, music, writing and direction. This film is the best look the average person will ever get of the process of creating an epic film in the 1930's.
Cesta do pravyeku (1955)
Childhood memories
My father is a film maker, an American who has lived in Prague for more than 40 years. He would bring back things from Eastern Europe in the early '60's. One of them was a 16 mm print of a film titled "Lost River". It had poor English dubbing but the stop motion animation of the various prehistoric creatures was pretty spectacular for the time. This was not the English language version of Cesta do praveku that was distributed as Journey to the beginning of time in the States, but just a dubbed version of the original Czech film.
My brothers and I ran that film time and again and that as well as repeated viewings of King Kong was responsible for giving me a lifelong interest in both dinosaurs and stop-motion.
Surface (2005)
Dull punctuated by moments of stupid.
I still can't believe that I have sat through two episodes of this. Lord what a mess. I don't fault the director or the cast, this rests totally on the shoulders of the writers. This isn't surprising seeing as the redoubtable Pate brothers who gave us the alarmingly bad Battlestar Galactica remake script.
The science in this show sounds like it comes out of a 50's monster movie. I get the impression that not only did the writers do no research whatsoever, but they have a really poor education as well. The behavior of both the military and scientific people in the series leads me to believe that the writers have never met anyone who has either worked in the sciences or served in the military. The series is dreck, plain and simple.
In short, it has HUGE HIT written all over it. I would say that it will become fabulously popular and last for many seasons making many millions of dollars.
Alien Planet (2004)
Barlow's book brought to life.
Some spoilers in the following text.
For years I have been trying to get people to read Wayne Barlowe's EXPEDITION as an imaginative and entertaining view of what an alien world's ecosystem might be like. In the book there were actual human explorers. I thought that the use of robots was both more interesting and more realistic. The commentary from scientists, artists and film makes was interesting, but lacked depth. I don't think George Lucas, talented as he may be, is an expert on anything involving the hard sciences. The program needed to be at least twice as long as it was. There was a wealth of material in Barlowe's book that wasn't even touched in the show. The amazing Butcher Tree was shown briefly but not discussed at all. The icecrawlers and rimrunners were among my favorite of Barlowe's creations, but they went unmentioned in the show. The Floaters were not shown or discussed at all thus making the Eosapiens seem less obviously related to other life forms on the planet. The brevity of the presentation left the creators less able to paint a picture of a vast and complex biosphere. Perhaps this material might have been better presented in a mini series as was The Future Is Wild.
By all means get the DVD of this program, but also get the book. Check it out at: http://heh.pl/&1yk
Katherine (1975)
This *is* available on DVD
although not a very full featured one. I got it at a bargain shop for $1.00. I bet that you would be hard pressed to find it at a higher price. It is not a particularly good transfer, but still better than most VHS. It is published by Digiview Productions (www.digiviewus.com).
I liked this film. It was thoughtful, unpretentious and well acted. I must admit that I had forgotten what a great beauty Sissy Spacek was in her youth and what a terrific actress she was from almost the very beginning.
I guess this was right around the time Henry Winkler was playing Fonzie and some of those mannerisms come out in his performance.
Diavolo in corpo (1986)
Slow, but has its moments.
As others have noted, Ms. Detmers is high quality eye candy and IMO doesn't embarass herself as an actress either. I found the plot a little confused at times.
At one point, the young protagonist escapes from a dull class in school via the window which was a big fantasy of mine when I was in school.
I was suprised to see that in some countries there are actually jail cells in courtrooms. That's a new one on this yank.
Watch out for the best reason to make up a silly story about Lenin that I could ever think of.
Magnolia (1999)
Little bit of Charles Fort, a whole lot of scenery chewing
Everyone gets their chance to overact in this one. Jeremy Blackman, Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore,William Macey, John C. Reilly, Philip Hoffman, really the lot of them just get to go off at various points in the movie. It can actually be a little exhausting. In spite of that, it doesn't feel particularly affected. In fact just about everyone pulls out their A-game. The occasional narrative digressions owe much the the books of Charles Hoy Fort including the peculiar weather that breaks the general tension at one point. What's it about? It's about *connections*, man.
La guerre du feu (1981)
Paleolithic costume drama
Emotionally over aught and suddenly displaced Neanderthals lose their carefully guarded bit of burning ember because they have entrusted it to the most intellectually challenged member of their band and no one in the tribe knows how to make fire from "scratch" as it were. Bummer. Three set out to discover a new source of flame and have an adventure that brings them into contact with a number of tribes in different stages of development. They rescue a damsel in distress who quickly becomes the brains of the operation. Brilliantly written and acted, I cannot recommend highly enough. A must see.
The Time Travelers (1964)
More unique that it at first appears
Warning: may contain spoilers. I remember being totally knocked out by this film in its first run when I was a wee tad and actually now in the 21st century it's still a unique piece of cinema. The story is a convoluted pulp science-fantasy treatment, but the presentation is remarkably original. It contains numerous special effects that are actually stage illusions given a sci-fi dressing and work very well. No camera tricks, mattes or any of that stuff is used. Both close up hand effects and grand illusion. It's all done with magic. This is how Houdini would have directed a science fiction film. There is also an instance where they used someone with real deformities to play a mutant rather than use make up. The goofy androids are pretty obviously the source for the robots in Woody Allen's "Sleeper".