This "film" is full of lies, misinformation, cherry-picked sources, and a lack of even the most rudimentary scientific knowledge. It was made by a man who lost his license to practice medicine due to fraud and his own lack of integrity. This is a mockumentary -- it flies in the face of everything we KNOW about medicine. It's a disgrace. The people behind this thing and the people who support it want a return to the good old days -- when children weren't vaccinated and people had a dozen children in the hope that at least a couple of them might make it to adulthood. They invent fictitious "vaccine injuries," deny germ theory, don't understand science, and dose themselves with the contents of their spice cabinets and pantries rather than go to an actual doctor. They are responsible for the return of diseases we had nearly eradicated. They are disgusting, and so is this waste of film.
Reviews
5 Reviews
More finger pointing, no solutions
31 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
I was working at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston in the days after Katrina, which is where the government sent the NOLA people once Reliant Stadium filled up. I've lived in Houston for over 30 years and am a longtime member of Second Baptist Church, which was mentioned in the documentary.
Yes, Louisiana suffered cataclysmic damage from Katrina and the surge. No one is denying that. But it has been five years now, and many of the people in this documentary still haven't gotten their lives back together. I realize many of them are poor and never had much to begin with, but the constant finger pointing and complaining about the government is tiresome and simplistic. I know plenty of people who lost everything in the storm. They came to Houston, got jobs, got their kids in school, and started over. And these aren't rich people. If they could do it, why can't these "activists" and "poets" do it? I'll tell you why. Being a "Katrina survivor" is now their job. If they had gotten on with their lives, they wouldn't be featured in documentaries and have a soapbox on which to cry about racism.
And in this documentary, even those who have gone on with their lives still complain. The two sisters who now live in Humble, a suburb north of Houston, talk about how the autistic son of one of them receives a far superior education here than he ever did in NOLA. But then the other sister, the one without the son, talks about how she "hates Texas" and "no one lives out here where we do." I strongly suspect that when she says "no one," she means "no one from New Orleans." They now live in a very nice neighborhood in a lovely brick home. Talk about ungrateful! Perhaps if she stopped going around telling everyone how much she hates Texas and sporting such a bad attitude, she might make a few friends. Just a thought.
The venom aimed at the federal government is misplaced, too. Did the government do a good job dealing with the situation? Hell, no. But the LOCAL and STATE authorities were the immediate culprits. Nagin refused to use available buses to move people out of harm's way; Blanco spent her time worrying about what she was going to wear on-camera rather than enacting a mandatory evacuation; Landrieu sat around in D.C. and did nothing, then used Katrina as an excuse to get hundreds of millions for pork barrel projects rather than using it to help those who needed it.
The documentary spends a lot of time castigating Haley Barbour for using his connections to secure money for Mississippi in the aftermath. Perhaps if the politicians in Louisiana had spent less time complaining about everything and more time working the system, they would have gotten more help. If you slap someone with one hand while holding out the other for money, don't be surprised if you come up empty. Not only that, but much of the money that was funneled to NOLA was wasted on special projects and lined people's pockets. They mishandled the federal aid they received, but that doesn't stop them from whining for more.
In other words, no new ground was covered here. It's all been said before, ad nauseum. Those who refuse to move on continue to blame the government and racism for all of their problems, and Spike Lee eagerly gives them a way to spread their hate.
Yes, Louisiana suffered cataclysmic damage from Katrina and the surge. No one is denying that. But it has been five years now, and many of the people in this documentary still haven't gotten their lives back together. I realize many of them are poor and never had much to begin with, but the constant finger pointing and complaining about the government is tiresome and simplistic. I know plenty of people who lost everything in the storm. They came to Houston, got jobs, got their kids in school, and started over. And these aren't rich people. If they could do it, why can't these "activists" and "poets" do it? I'll tell you why. Being a "Katrina survivor" is now their job. If they had gotten on with their lives, they wouldn't be featured in documentaries and have a soapbox on which to cry about racism.
And in this documentary, even those who have gone on with their lives still complain. The two sisters who now live in Humble, a suburb north of Houston, talk about how the autistic son of one of them receives a far superior education here than he ever did in NOLA. But then the other sister, the one without the son, talks about how she "hates Texas" and "no one lives out here where we do." I strongly suspect that when she says "no one," she means "no one from New Orleans." They now live in a very nice neighborhood in a lovely brick home. Talk about ungrateful! Perhaps if she stopped going around telling everyone how much she hates Texas and sporting such a bad attitude, she might make a few friends. Just a thought.
The venom aimed at the federal government is misplaced, too. Did the government do a good job dealing with the situation? Hell, no. But the LOCAL and STATE authorities were the immediate culprits. Nagin refused to use available buses to move people out of harm's way; Blanco spent her time worrying about what she was going to wear on-camera rather than enacting a mandatory evacuation; Landrieu sat around in D.C. and did nothing, then used Katrina as an excuse to get hundreds of millions for pork barrel projects rather than using it to help those who needed it.
The documentary spends a lot of time castigating Haley Barbour for using his connections to secure money for Mississippi in the aftermath. Perhaps if the politicians in Louisiana had spent less time complaining about everything and more time working the system, they would have gotten more help. If you slap someone with one hand while holding out the other for money, don't be surprised if you come up empty. Not only that, but much of the money that was funneled to NOLA was wasted on special projects and lined people's pockets. They mishandled the federal aid they received, but that doesn't stop them from whining for more.
In other words, no new ground was covered here. It's all been said before, ad nauseum. Those who refuse to move on continue to blame the government and racism for all of their problems, and Spike Lee eagerly gives them a way to spread their hate.
The Vampire Diaries
(2009–2017)
Formulaic
22 October 2009
This show has all of the stereotypical vampire bits -- the moody, wealthy, impossibly romantic and gorgeous hero who instantly falls in love with a girl who reminds him of his Dead True Love, the teenage girl forced to grow up too soon because of tragedy, the vampire who revels in his inhumanity who nonetheless shares a past with our hero that makes it impossible to kill him, the spooky manor house, the complete stupidity of everyone in the town, etc. It's all been done before -- this show is a mash-up of Twilight, Angel, Buffy, and Dark Shadows. Everyone is very pretty, but no one here is more than a passable actor, and the scripts are laughable. I've lost count of the times a purported teenager says, "It happened a very long time ago." Please, they're supposed to be 18, tops. Nothing happened to them a very long time ago. None of the actors look remotely like high school kids, and having a black girl playing the descendant of Salem witches is ridiculous. I was really hoping for better.
Cat Dancers
(2007)
Disappointing, jarring ending
18 December 2008
Warning: Spoilers
I happened to catch this documentary this morning while I was getting ready to go to work. The archival footage isn't of the greatest quality, but as most of it is home movies, that's to be expected. I love cats of all sizes, so I really enjoyed seeing the video of the cats performing as well as hanging out at home.
As anyone watching this will figure out long before the end, two of the three main characters in this documentary are no longer with us. That leaves just one to tell their story. It's interesting, but I found myself so distracted by Mr. Holiday's hair and plastic surgery that I couldn't really pay attention to what he was saying some of the time.
The main problem I had with this documentary isn't its style or quality -- it is the actions of Mr. Holiday. At the end, a screen card comes up saying that the place where he boarded his last two tigers evicted everyone, so rather than turn them over to a refuge or investigate other boarding places, he had them put to sleep. These were older animals, yes, but they appeared to be in good health. After listening to Holiday talk for an hour about how much he supposedly loved the cats, I found it horrible that he chose this option for them. Animals should never be put to sleep unless they are a danger to others or are very sick. That wasn't the case with these two. I found it jarring and unexplainable, and immediately lost any sympathy I might have felt for Holiday.
As anyone watching this will figure out long before the end, two of the three main characters in this documentary are no longer with us. That leaves just one to tell their story. It's interesting, but I found myself so distracted by Mr. Holiday's hair and plastic surgery that I couldn't really pay attention to what he was saying some of the time.
The main problem I had with this documentary isn't its style or quality -- it is the actions of Mr. Holiday. At the end, a screen card comes up saying that the place where he boarded his last two tigers evicted everyone, so rather than turn them over to a refuge or investigate other boarding places, he had them put to sleep. These were older animals, yes, but they appeared to be in good health. After listening to Holiday talk for an hour about how much he supposedly loved the cats, I found it horrible that he chose this option for them. Animals should never be put to sleep unless they are a danger to others or are very sick. That wasn't the case with these two. I found it jarring and unexplainable, and immediately lost any sympathy I might have felt for Holiday.
Gross misrepresentation of the South and Southerners
10 August 2005
This movie clearly was made with an agenda, and that was to depict the South as being a place full of dirt poor, stupid, inbred rednecks with more fleas than sense. Everyone depicted in this film is a slack-jawed yokel. This film is no more representative of the South than Grosse Point Blank is representative of Detroit. The Southern people, while often retaining their traditional values of faith in God and a deep mistrust of the government, have largely evolved into a cosmopolitan, technology-driven population. Why did this film only focus on rural areas? Why did it completely fail to visit Houston, Dallas, New Orleans, Atlanta, Miami, Nashville, or dozens of other places? Because the filmmakers wanted to make a point, and they couldn't have made it if they had actually visited places that are spread out across the South today.
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