pmomailme-49635 Reviews

The Christmas Card (2006 TV Movie)

The original Middle East Veteran's Christmas

[10 December 2020]

This is a feel good Christmas movie. I have seen it many times and I will continue to see it every year. Why? Because it has several characters that I care about. That is what is missing in so much of what passes for movie 'entertainment' today. Ed Asner is in his element as Luke the patriarch of a Northern California lumber mill operation. His daughter Faith, with the international wine broker boyfriend who is rarely around as he travels the globe, is a knockout who loves working the mill with her Mom & Dad & her Mom's brother Uncle Richard. Faith & several members of the local church send Christmas cards to soldiers in war zones every year. Sergeant Cody Cullen, a career Army soldier gets one of Faith's cards. It tells him if he is ever in the area to stop by & visit Nevada City where the lumber mill is . This becomes helpful & inspirational when one of his troops dies in a mortar attack. He reads the card over & over and eventually he takes mandatory leave & delivers his fallen mate's dog tags to his widow. As he wanders in to Nevada City he meets Luke and Faith and the fun starts. This is a very nice movie that happens to have a Christmas theme. I highly recommend it.

Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid (1948)

Fun Old Hollywood Yarn

[22 September 2020]

I saw this as a child sometime in the late 50s or early 60s & I fell in love with Anne Blyth. William Powell still has it. He is just a charming guy who was the same guy 20 years before. It is okay not to believe in mermaids but you want to when you see this movie. Just an old Hollywood yarn with decent dialogue & characters That you care about.

Finding Bigfoot (2011– )

Really?

[6 October 2017]

I just had to remark that I am amazed that this show is in it's ninth season. My wife watches this occasionally and I have seen parts of a few episodes. These guys put so much effort into laying out ways to "corner"or capture a photo of Bigfoot. They stomp around, make silly noises and, 9 years later, have yet to "find" Bigfoot. I will go out on a limb and say that 9 years from now, if this show is still going, they will not have "found" Bigfoot. Silly,

Flipped (I) (2010)

Boy meets girl from age 8 to 14

[9/10 · 24 August 2017]

Bryce is the new kid in town and the girl, Juli, across the street has a severe crush on him. She pursues him tirelessly and he continually rebuffs her. This is a great piece of scripting, directing and editing, as you see significant events between the two twice. Once through the eyes of each with often different recollections. The younger Juli is played charmingly by Morgan Lily. The older one, around 13-14 played by Madeline Carroll steals the show. Carroll has true acting chops and one would hope that there will be opportunities for her in Hollywood. Callan McAuliffe is an absurdly handsome young man as Bryce, Juli's obsession. He conveys Bryce's feelings well and he takes you back to that age convincingly. He is a confused adolescent, trying to fit in and please everybody. The rest of the cast is first-rate led by old pro John Mahoney of "Frazier" as Bryce's grandfather. Juli's parents are played nicely by Aidan Quinn and Penelope Ann Miller. Bryce's mom is Rebecca DeMornay and his unlikable dad is played well by Anthony Edwards. How nice to see a movie with characters I care about. A nice little yarn.

Walter (I) (2015)

Nice little surprise

[7/10 · 24 January 2016]

While I was waiting for something to happen I suddenly realized that this is a very nice little human interest story. Walter lost his Dad at a young age and it stunted him emotionally. His gradual realization of what his life is and what it could be is the story. There is some very nice talent with medium and small roles as his parents, psychiatrist, his father's former lover and even the great Jim Gaffigan as the movie theater manager. It is a slow paced feature but Andrew J. West has a lot going on as Walter deals with his unresolved grief for his Dad, his over protective Mom and his strong attraction to Kendall, the popcorn girl at the movie theater where he works. Justin Kirk plays the ghost who haunts him with snarky humor and a dose of reality which serve as the catalyst that Walter desperately needs to wake up and get a life. All in all a surprising and creative little flick that is worth your while if you can live without the usual clichés featured in today's films.

Entourage (2015)

Mailed in

[24 January 2016]

I enjoyed the series very much. There were many characters with their own back stories and even when the different plots and sub-plots were not threaded together, it always held my interest. I read reviews that slammed this movie and I am sadly in agreement. I love Jeremy Piven as Ari Gold. He is the best part of the entire premise. In this "movie", which is a poor TV show in search of a plot, all of the characters are cartoon versions of themselves. The script goes out of it's way to explain who everyone is and how they arrived at where they are in slap dash fashion. The writing is terrible! I always said that the show was the fastest half hour on TV. This is a slow, ponderous rehash that merely goes out of it's way to pound home what these characters are supposed to be with story lines (Vince is a director?) thrown in with no dialog, no argument, no character growth or development. I am most disappointed and I agree with another reviewer that this should not have been made. If money was made on this, I guess that was why it was made. Not entertaining.

A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014)

Seth don't Act

[20 November 2015]

Seth is an outstanding joke writer and his voice inflections and impressions are his strength. Mr. Macfarlane does not capitalize on what made him successful in this film. He shows a lot more emotion and acting skill when doing voices for "Family Guy" then he does delivering lines real time. Seth just doesn't have the "it" factor present in an actor, comic or dramatic, who can carry a movie as the protagonist. He is so wooden, even when feigning emotion, that this film was unwatchable. I expected the humor to be low-brow and tasteless and the movie delivered. I can laugh at low-brow and tasteless if it is funny and I actually care about some characters. This was like people reading lines and not looking at the camera.