abbyadams1976 Reviews

Psych: Lock, Stock, Some Smoking Barrels and Burton Guster's Goblet of Fire (2014) Season 8, Episode 1

The Return of Elwes

[10/10 · 25 February 2022]

Lots of comedy. The episode goes back and forth on the concept of Elwes' character. Is he a mild mannered Interpol employee, or really Pierre Despareaux, International Art Thief? Whichever, Sean loves getting involved in his schemes while a reluctant Gus is dragged behind (though I think he really enjoys it) .

Lots of Harry Potter references.

Monk: Mr. Monk Is on the Run: Part 2 (2008) Season 6, Episode 16

I'm So Angry With This Episode!

[4/10 · 5 February 2022]

Why did Natalie turn STUPID? She knows Monk faked his death to avoid going to jail for life. So she leads them right to him?? She's worked with Monk for years! She of all people should know how dangerous it would be. She knew he was safe, why risk it?

Dumbest thing she could have done!

I just don't believe this one.

Flight of the Phoenix (2004)

Mediocre

[5/10 · 18 January 2022]

The actors weren't particularly involved in this film. It shows. I think Ribisi may have been into it- he definitely stole the show- but I had a hard time connecting with his harsh, muddy-European, narcissistic character. And why would anybody hitchhiking through the desert bleach their hair?

Because the visuals are so bland (sand, sand, more sand...) you'd thing the producer and director would have tried harder to make the proformances stand out or the characters more interesting. Instead we get tropes like the cynical leader that everybody hates and the token woman who decides she likes him after they fight a lot. Hugh Laurie is misused as a golf-loving English twit. Nobody is particularly likeable.

As far as the storyline is concerned it doesn't make much sense. Why overload the plane with what is essentially trash when you know the extra weight is dangerous? Why is Ribisi's character there? Where do the nomads come from and why don't they have any visible source of water, a human necessity? There are a good deal of holes in this story.

I'm rating it 5 out of ten because that's the middle.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)

Very uneven movie.

[6/10 · 18 January 2022]

Let me start out with the pros: The movie is very visually appealing. Cumberbatch, as usual, is a great actor.

The movie is tonally up-and-down, though. I felt from the trailer I was getting a movie with lots of cute cats. And I did get that movie, but I also got a film about depression, mental illness, poverty, and death. So- I don't know how to feel. The movie goes from whimsical to dark depression in seconds flat. Maybe if I'd known what I was getting into I would have a more favorable review.

That said, there are definitely reasons to watch this, and if you're into art history you probably will anyway despite what I have to say about it.

Drowning Mona (2000)

Quirky for the sake of it

[4/10 · 18 January 2022]

I was about 2/3 of the way through when I gave up on this tedious comedy.

The premise isn't bad- A woman dies, but she was so awful, nobody cares. Danny Devito's character, the Chief of Police, is the only guy who wants to find out what really happened.

You could definitely make this premise work in a snappy, stylish way.

Unfortunately whoever made this decided that having nearly all the characters be totally unlikeable was the way to go. Big mistake. I couldn't get invested in the brainless son or his spineless business partner, the bland fiance, the cheating and henpecked husband, etc. Jamie Lee Curtis was cool, but she's barely in it.

In the end I decided I don't really care to find out who drowned Mona either.

The Watch (I) (2012)

Shame on you, Stiller!

[3/10 · 18 January 2022]

The first few minutes of this movie were great. Had it continued that way I would have loved the movie. Unfortunately it was all downhill from there.

I don't mind a little "bro humor" if it's done well. Here, it isn't. The plot drags, the dialogue is not tight and the "jokes" are almost all of a sexual variety. I'm talking every different possible euphamism for the male genitalia. What isn't about that is about drinking, smoking pot, or scatalogical humor. It's nonstop, but makes the plot just crawl.

I clicked for Richard Ayoade but besides from a few quips he's hardly utilized. Definitely not to his potential. I get that Stiller and Vaughn are the big stars here but they're both trying to out-gross each other. Hill's character is pointless, so this leaves Ayoade to naturally be the dry, witty counterpoint to the general insanity, right? But whoever put this mess together apparently just decided to make him the literal token black guy. Insulting.

I also think we're probably over the "men are terrible parents" trope. It hasn't been true for years, if it ever was.

Just skip this whatever-it-is. You're not missing anything.

Hercules Saves Christmas (2012)

So Incredibly Strange

[3/10 · 30 December 2015]

This is so strange. A "homemade" type movie. Looks like something you could make with your friends at home, assuming all your friends are little people. The plot is all OVER the place. The green screen effects are obvious. The dialogue is so weird it almost seems like it was translated from a foreign language, but it wasn't. There's a lot of background noise which drowns out the dialogue. Most of the characters act goofy, creepy or high.

The villain is hammy and wears the same greasy makeup kids wear on Halloween. Props are things like squirt pistols. I won't say it isn't entertaining, but for all the wrong reasons.

101 Dalmatians (1996)

Didn't Keep My Attention

[4/10 · 18 December 2015]

First of all, I was hoping that they'd give Cruella better motivation since they had the opportunity. But, no such luck. She still just wants to make a Dalmatian fur coat simply because she's obsessed by the idea and doesn't seem to realize or care that she'll just be arrested for stealing and killing puppies.

Glenn Close does make a perfect Cruella, and she overplays it even more than the original. It's one thing to see a cartoon screaming about killing puppies, but with a live action human it's just bizarre.

Less than halfway through it seems to become a Home Alone clone, with the two bumbling villains being injured in slapsticky ways by determined animals.

The animals do not talk in this movie. They probably decided it might make the movie too corny but I don't really think that's possible. It actually makes the movie more boring. A lot of the shots are of dogs barking or running, bunnies running, etc. In other words, animals not really doing a whole lot. The puppies run everywhere en masse but do little otherwise. There are a few named and recognizable pups, but because they don't have voices you can't tell if they really have different characters.

Someone called this a pointless remake. I think they could have done a lot better if they'd made it less cartoony. After all, we already have the cartoon.

Jack Frost (1979 TV Movie)

Strange But Interesting

[7/10 · 17 December 2015]

I was thinking "This is odd" pretty much through the whole thing. But it kept my attention and I didn't want to turn it off.

Buddy Hackett plays the groundhog, which is a hoot. It's better than his Chinese waiter routine, I guess. The guy who plays the villain sounds like Boris from the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoon, but it isn't the same guy.

There are many questions here. Why did Jack Frost choose the name "Snip" if there already was a character named snip? Why is it nobody noticed that the villain is actually a genius with clockwork? How did Jack Frost learn how to tailor?

That doesn't really matter, though. It's about as believable as any of the other stop-motion Holiday specials.

Mandie and the Forgotten Christmas (2011)

A Little Creaky But Good For Kids

[6/10 · 8 December 2015]

This is more of a play than a movie. Would probably be great for young kids who are not sophisticated enough to notice the many inconsistencies.

For one, there is a lot of plastic and man-made materials. I'm pretty sure they didn't have artificial Christmas trees back then. Some lanterns are obviously battery operated. The boarding school itself doesn't hold up well. Girls just basically wander around and no classes are taught. We do get to see some new (reprint) McGuffey's readers. The kids obviously don't know how to use a sad iron or any of the other things they pretend to be using, though young kids won't notice. Other inconsistencies: Someone making a pot of stew in the kitchen that might feed a family of four, but not a whole school. I guess it's the biggest cast iron pot they could find. Also, the referral to the "Civil War" so close after the event. It would have been called The War Of The Rebellion or The war Between The States. But then kids viewing wouldn't have known what they were talking about. There are more of these little things but I'll leave it at that.

On the other hand, there are horses, miniature ponies pulling a sleigh, a really cool old house they found to film in, and the really terrific Uncle Ned, a Native American man.

The storyline doesn't hold up so great, and you'll wonder about certain things, like why you'd need to know "the right kind of people" to write an acceptable ending to a play. Yet, on the other hand, I'm sure I would have liked it when I was a kid. It has a sense of pretend that young kids like. Just be prepared to resist pointing out obvious mistakes to your kids when you watch it.