Change Your Image
jim-laymon
Reviews
Sex/Life (2021)
Maybe it's a comedy?
I gave it a chance. The first few episodes were interesting. The characters were remembering old partners and I thought there would be something new, different, dramatic, believable, or even erotic. But it quickly devolved into the worst kind of soap opera. The writing and dialog were awful. The acting was mostly awful. The characters would say and do the dumbest things. Even the background music was unnecessarily sappy.
The photography was good, though, but that's not enough to save this.
And by season 2, the scenes starting looking more like a bad comedy. It wasn't really worth watching even for the sprinkling of sex scenes.
After Life (2019)
Genius
Gervais is the perfect actor to Play a character who cusses out everyone who crosses him. He does it perfectly.
But as you go along for the ride, you see his education of life, and his perspective changes.
I loved it.
Star Trek: The Mark of Gideon (1969)
Not Logical
The episode has its moments.
No. Actually not. It has no redeeming moments. The plot makes little sense. The planet is overpopulated but their only solution is to introduce disease instead of controlling the birth rate-even though they dislike birth control.
Somehow they have the power to create an Enterprise mock up with working computers, mechanics, and other systems.
They don't know what pain is yet they obviously have nerves and function like humans otherwise.
Capturing Kirk as an infectious agent didn't require a fake starship.
There are so many other ways the basic plot could have been implemented.
Half a Dozen Babies (1999)
Good performances, decent acting
I didn't plan on watching this but I stumbled across it and couldn't turn it off. It is an interesting story and I could relate to the sadness of the grandmother's illness. But the fact that the other grandmother (Doris) is portrayed as the opposite of how she apparently really is makes this difficult to watch.
I don't mind a few dramatic additions to a story to help it along, but when you take a real life person and portray them as evil for the sake of a more interesting story, that's just wrong. Its not necessary and is certainly unfair.
But I was able to watch it while keeping in mind it was fantasy.
Perfect Couples (2010)
A very funny show
I don't usually get attached to a sitcom (unless it is Seinfeld), but I can say that Perfect Couples was really an extraordinary show. The writing, acting, and editing were all Perfect. Kyle Bornheimer, who was also on Worst Week (which I liked as well) was terrific. This is one of those shows that, even if the ratings weren't great, they should hold onto because it will catch on. Weren't Cheers and Dick Van Dyke Show like that too?
The show was a very funny and smart show about relationships. Anyone who has been in a long term relationship can relate to it. The plot lines were realistic with simple twists that brought out the humor in all the characters. I loved it.
This is really a loss for TV and shows how some executives are able to do their own colonoscopy.
Crossing Over with John Edward (2001)
It's Impossible
How could a dead person talk to you? Their brain is dead and dried up.
As someone in the science field, I don't believe anything unless there is proof. Well almost. I do go to a Presbyterian Church and there really isn't any proof to that whole story.
So I've watched John Edward (not Edwards) for a few years now. I started watching as a challenge to figure out how he does this. I read about how microphones are planted and how "plants" are planted in the audience. I read about Cold Readings and Hot Readings and how people can be led down a path that only helps the reader to get more "hits". I read about how the show is edited to remove massive numbers of misses and show only the hits.
And if these things are true, it explains how he is able to get specific references, like names, places, descriptions of house interiors, relationships, suicides, fatal diseases and the like. Because otherwise, this would be magic.
Then I actually attended a show in New York in Jan 2008. I was called upon and John surprised me by telling me the beginnings of my name and a brother's name. He referenced a second brother's profession. He reference a fourth brother's non-conformist lifestyle. He told me my uncle was Mark or Mike (it was Mark). He told me he died of lung cancer (I found this was true later on). He told me about a father figure who collected antique cars. (The next door neighbor took care of us after our father died and he collected antique Corvettes). There were other obscure references that all made sense except one reference to "George" And I can tell you now that they only knew my name when I arrived. Nothing else. No address, etc. We waited in a crowded room with music playing and I talked with my friends about imaginary people that we made up just in case someone was listening. When John was reading me, I offered up no information, in fact, I drew a blank on most things under the studio lights. He gave me somewhat specific stuff and even more specific to other people. There were many more hits than misses for the whole audience.
I have no explanation for it all, but I know that this info couldn't have been researched or overheard. I know that the info was not a cold read or even hot read. I know I am not a plant.
I can't explain it. It is almost statistically impossible that these items could have been guessed and had meaning to me. So I am now open to some things that can't be proved, even on days other than Sunday.
John Edward Cross Country (2006)
A Critical Eye
How could a dead person talk to you? Their brain is dead and dried up.
As someone in the science field, I don't believe anything unless there is proof. Well almost. I do go to a Presbyterian Church and there really isn't any proof to that whole story.
So I've watched John Edward (not Edwards) for a few years now. I started watching as a challenge to figure out how he does this. I read about how microphones are planted and how "plants" are planted in the audience. I read about Cold Readings and Hot Readings and how people can be led down a path that only helps the reader to get more "hits". I read about how the show is edited to remove massive numbers of misses and show only the hits.
And if these things are true, it explains how he is able to get specific references, like names, places, descriptions of house interiors, relationships, suicides, fatal diseases and the like. Because otherwise, this would be magic.
Then I actually attended a show in New York in Jan 2008. I was called upon and John surprised me by telling me the beginnings of my name and a brother's name. He referenced a second brother's profession. He reference a fourth brother's non-conformist lifestyle. He told me my uncle was Mark or Mike (it was Mark). He told me he died of lung cancer (I found this was true later on). He told me about a father figure who collected antique cars. (The next door neighbor took care of us after our father died and he collected antique Corvettes). There were other obscure references that all made sense except one reference to "George" And I can tell you now that they only knew my name when I arrived. Nothing else. No address, etc. We waited in a crowded room with music playing and I talked with my friends about imaginary people that we made up just in case someone was listening. When John was reading me, I offered up no information, in fact, I drew a blank on most things under the studio lights. He gave me somewhat specific stuff and even more specific to other people. There were many more hits than misses for the whole audience.
I have no explanation for it all, but I know that this info couldn't have been researched or overheard. I know that the info was not a cold read or even hot read. I know I am not a plant.
I can't explain it. It is almost statistically impossible that these items could have been guessed and had meaning to me. So I am now open to some things that can't be proved, even on days other than Sunday.
Cellular (2004)
Just Hang up on this one
I've never bothered to add a comment on any film until now. I thought the plot and the acting (except for William H. Macey) was awful. The man who receives the call for help on the his cellular phone makes only a feeble attempt to notify the police, and then for the rest of the movie takes it completely upon himself to rescue Kim Bassinger, whose performance was really lacking.
I thought it was great when he was in a cellular phone store, and instead of contacting the police with any phone, he robs the store at gunpoint, for a phone charger.
I thought the story line was unbelievable and at every plot turn it got worse. I almost turned it off, but I wanted to see just how ridiculous it would get.