Change Your Image
Jim-500
Reviews
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: A Misunderstanding (2016)
Notrhing happened, but a young man is turned into a criminal.
Another infuriating SVU episode. Two teens--boy and girl--go to a secluded place to make out and perhaps more. She is into it, as is he. She becomes unsure and he becomes awkward. It ends up being nothing more than a kissing and petting session.
But then she decides to claim that she was raped. The story line meanders for a while until they end up in court. Both the girl and boy show themselves to well-intentioned but confused teenagers. Perfectly normal. But Benson decides to continue her crusade to put every man who has ever had a sexual feeling toward a woman behind bars.
This was the first time I agreed with John Buchanan's tactics. His cross examination of the girl revealed the truth--she was more confused and regretful than anything else. He even showed empathy for her.
Benson, sad to say, showed her continued bias against male suspects. At one point she even referred to the boy as a predator. I guess she never had any sexual experience when she was a teen, because she would have known that what had happened was something that happens every day when teens explore their sexuality. (Thankfully, none of them end up on the registry.)
I hope that if this was a "think" episode, in that it made people realize how ridiculous the idea that a young man can be convicted in court of sexual misconduct simply because he was innocently testing his sexual urges. And, by the way, that's exactly what the girl was doing as well. Near the end of the episode, she screams that she wishes she had never said anything. Indeed: the kids are the victims here while the adults are the criminals.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Demons (2005)
SVU sets up a parolee to fail
I found this episode to be quite infuriating. Robert Patrick plays a parolee who has just gotten out of jail after a lengthy prison term for rape. The day after he's freed, a woman in his neighborhood is raped. So naturally all of SVU's eyes point to him.
But this is really ludicrous. As Ray (Patrick) points out, would he be so stupid as to risk his newly found freedom by committing rape on his first day out? Cragen stands up for Ray by pointing out that there is no hard evidence linking him to the rape. But Benson goes into her idiotic anti-male mode by saying that he still could be the rapist. Yeah, sure, he could, but he also might not be. Still, Benson's mind is made up. This even after they try to entrap Ray by planting a youngish-looking female cop on the street for him to ogle. He approaches her, but then successfully resists his urges.
Still, Stabler is not satisfied. Without department approval, he assumes a new identity so that he can attend Ray's sex offender support group. This is a clear violation of ethics. Ray initially resists Stabler's desire to become buddies (another violation of ethics, as people in the group are not supposed to socialize outside of group). Stabler keeps pressing and finally Ray relents.
Ray does end up breaking the law and he and Stabler have a stand-off at the end. But none of this would have happened if Ray had not been unfairly suspected by SVU. Ray didn't do anything wrong until he had been egged on by Stabler and SVU to do so. I could see him suing the cops successfully for how they set him up to ruin his life.
What do they have against this man who has just re-entered society and is trying to start a new life? Instead of vilifying him, they should be supporting him. Big thumbs down to Stabler and Benson; Cragen seems to be the only one in SVU who has a clear head regarding Ray. Lousy episode.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Mean (2004)
"Mean" hits home
I (an adult male) found this to be a very engrossing episode because I've known about the power dynamics amongst teenage girls for a long time. I taught at a middle school, and in our faculty meetings this topic would come up quite often. When boys didn't like each other, they would tend to have a brief physical fight and then it would all be over--they could even become friends afterward. But with girls, their ways of getting back at another female would often be cruel and show absolute indifference to the other girl's well being. And rather than being brief--as with the boys--girls can keep a chip on their shoulders for a very long time, often until they are disciplined. And even after that, they will harbor feelings of resentment until they at last grow up.
Thankfully the actions seen in the show are few and far between, but the dynamic portrayed here between young females is real and not uncommon.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: In Loco Parentis (2018)
Infuriating episode
I had a lot of problems with this episode. I knew instantly that Mia was lying about the first rape. Yet all the SVU people automatically sided with her because that's what you do: the woman is always right and the man is always the criminal. As Eli points out, "All it takes is one girl to say you looked at her funny and that's it. It's all over."
Then Carisi tells her, you can make this right. Any reasonable adult would have then scheduled a formal meeting between Mia and Eli in a neutral place with parents and university representatives present. But he doesn't do that. Instead, he leaves Mia to her own devices, which have her calling Eli up and inviting him to her dorm room to talk. Geezum Crow.
I simply don't believe at that point that Eli would have done anything wrong. He's a bright, intelligent guy. Sure, he's been hurt in an unfair and reprehensible fashion, but I doubt that his anger would have gotten the best of him. Notice how he had accepted his fate and kept on telling his parents to do the same.
The episode ends all touchy-feely way with the women all happy and the future doctor's life in ruins. Now that's reprehensible.
N. B.: That was going to be the end of my review. As I thought about it, I remember one thing Eli said on the witness stand: She set me up. I'm thinking about his anger and Mia's lie that got him kicked out of the university. It does now feel that his anger could have indeed gotten the best of him. I'm not justifying it, of course; I'm just thinking that a book-smart college kid might not use his best judgement when in that situation. He probably reasoned, My life is over anyway, so what the hell? This is what she accused me of anyway.
That still doesn't let Mia off the hook. Due to her first lie, she ruined Eli's academic career. A person falsely claiming rape can face civil or even criminal charges. And filing a false police report can put you in jail. Her only punishment? She leaves the university on her own "for a while." Geezum Crow squared. Not only did she ruin Eli's life, she lied to university officials. And this didn't get her kicked out? Geezum Crow cubed.
Bottom line: Mia should have been charged for lying about the initial rape and punished. The case should have ended there. Eli would have gone on to become a doctor. Instead, she takes some time off and he ends up rotting in prison. Nice going, SVU.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Lime Chaser (2023)
Not the SVU I remember
I've been watching SVU episodes from all the seasons in the last few months--basically whichever ones the cable channels (USA, ION, WE, BBC) throw up on the screen. I've noticed that the quality of the writing has gone downhill in the past couple of years. This episode was no exception.
At this point, beloved characters such as Stabler, Rollins, Munch, Stone and Barba are gone. In this episode I really only knew Benson that well; Fin and Carisi are still in the credits but did not appear. Benson seemed out of her depth in trying to deal with this cast of relative unknowns; as one reviewer said, she treated them like school children.
I've seen Bruno (who looks a little like Sean Penn to me), Velasco and Muncy before; it was the first time, however, that I had encountered Churlish. I couldn't believe this character's name. Do people know what the adjective "churlish" means? It means "rude in a mean-spirited and surly way." Every time somebody said her name it set my ear off. Why would anyone name a character that unless you want them to be disliked?
As far as the story goes, I found it ho-hum and fairly predictable. Like other reviewers, I was annoyed that the detectives failed to notice that the drug could have come from not just the drink but the salt or the lime, too.
But oh well. It was a way to spend an hour. I know much better SVU eps are out there. I only hope that in the new ones they find a way to make these characters more likable. Perhaps Fin could give them a good talking-to, Army-Ranger style!
Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes (1972)
A circuitous route led me to this movie via its music
I came to know this movie in a roundabout manner. On July 19, 1979, I watched an ABC-TV special entitled "Infinite Horizons: Space Beyond Apollo." It was hosted by science fiction writer Ray Bradbury and featured speculations about the future of humankind in space and how we might go about populating the universe. In a New York Times article about the show, reviewer John J. O'Connor wrote: "The music track... is somewhat thick with heavenly choruses suggesting some sort of spiritual dimensions." Possessing a musician's ear, I was very taken by the music (space travel and music are two of my joys) and I knew I needed to find out where this music came from. Of course, back then, no Internet existed and the library wouldn't have had that information. So I did the only thing you could do in that situation: I wrote a letter to ABC-TV.
Thankfully, back then gigantic, faceless companies tended to answer mail, and it wasn't long before a woman from the network wrote back. She told me that the music came from a movie called "Aquirre, the Wrath of God." I had never heard of it, but funnily enough, I saw it the following year during my junior year of college. When I saw in a newsletter that it was being shown on campus, I was excited to hear that ethereal music again, and I wasn't disappointed. Then, when soundtracks became available on CDs, I was able to purchase "Aquirre." It came on a disc that also features Popol Vuh's score for "In the Gardens of Pharao."
The whole reason why I'm writing this review today is because last night I was watching an episode of Law & Oder: SVU entitled "Know It All," and during one of the last scenes, Mike Post's score evoked Popol Vuh's "Aquirre." My ear immediately latched onto it and I thought, "Where have I heard this before?"
At first, I though it might have been from Weather Report's album "Mysterious Traveler," which contains a lot of similarly dreamy music, and I had been listening to it recently. But I soon came to doubt that. Then, as I was getting ready for bed, it hit me. Aquirre! And I was right. There ya go.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Monster's Legacy (2013)
One of the best!
This was another fantastic episode of SVU. Early on, I noticed the janitor and immediately picked up on the fact that it was Carisi (Peter Scanavino). I'd seen him recently in a 2005 Law and Order: Criminal Intent episode called "Diamond Dogs," so it was fun to see him again in a non-Carisi role. When I saw Mike Tyson's name in the opening credits, that rang a bell telling me that I'd seen this episode before, a long time ago. It was really touching to hear about his character's poignant story. The penultimate scene where he, Andre and OIivia are celebrating the outcome of his case and his huge smile is wonderful, especially since before that moment the only feelings he exhibits are resignation and hopelessness.
I had also seen Ed Asner is another Law and Order show recently; I think he played an equally creepy guy in that one.
The only celebrity I wasn't able to spot was Jan Brady (Eve Plumb). I guess becoming an adult really changed her looks.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Can't Be Held Accountable (2019)
Perv of the week... identified!
As I watched the beginning of this episode and caught the first glimpses of Steve Getz, I thought to myself, "I've seen that guy before." As things progressed, I kept thinking, "Who is that?" My first thought was Ferris Bueller, but I knew that wasn't him. It wasn't until the credits began to roll after the introduction that it hit me--Vincent Kartheiser... Pete Campbell! From "Mad Men!" I happily yelled out, "Pete!"
Anyway, I enjoyed the episode very much. The well-told story unfolded in the normal creepy fashion. I didn't care much for Kat bungling things up. The hardest thing to hear was the crooked judge ("Let 'em go Joe") who made an inane connection between getting an abortion and child rape. It was at least satisfying to know that we had another criminal in our midst.
Columbo: Undercover (1994)
Tedious
I remember watching Columbo in the 1970s along with McCloud and the other Mystery Movie detectives. To find the show available again on COZI TV makes my Saturday night viewing fun, as I wonder if I might remember the episode I'm about to watch.
"Undercover" rang no bells, and it's a good thing, because it was very difficult to get through the entire show. After about 20 minutes, I was looking at the clock, wondering how I was going to make it. Normally Lt. Columbo doesn't show up until about 30 minutes have gone by; here, he shows up after 10 minutes, investigating a double homicide in which I had zero interest in. The normal Columbo formula gives you some sense of the characters involved before the evil deed is committed; here, instead, it's just two toughs we don't care about.
Going against formula isn't necessarily a bad thing, but where it goes is important. I lost interest quickly simply because I couldn't follow the plot. Okay, I quickly figured out it was jigsaw puzzle and the show was going to be about finding all the missing pieces. But getting there was so boring, filled with inane characters I didn't care about. The climax was unfulfilling at best.
Funny thing is, after they find the treasure, Columbo basically dismisses everything, smiles and says he wants to go walk his dog. That's the way I felt--I just wanted to forget the episode and get on with it.
The episode tries to insert humor here and there but fails miserably. The only two fun moments for me were when two actors I recognized show up. The first was Ed Begley, Jr.--I had just seen Christopher Guest's "Best in Show" in which Begley has a small but memorable role; it was fun to recognize him. Same goes for Edward Hibbert, who I know from "Frasier."
I am keeping a checklist of all the Columbos I've seen, and it's nice to check this one off. I only hope that COZI TV doesn't run this one or "Murder in Malibu" again anytime soon. I know some people liked it, but it just made my Saturday night viewing less than memorable.
Chappelle's Show (2003)
Not as funny as I had hoped
A friend recently lent me the complete DVD collection of the show, and I just finished watching it. I knew Dave's comedy from sketches the same friend had recommended to me on YouTube, and they were very funny.
But watching the complete set of shows, I was let down. Many of the sketches began with a humorous premise, but then just plain fizzled out; quite often they simply devolved into either toilet or crude sexual humors (or both). In one sketch, Dave offered a rebuttal to critics of that low-brow humor by having an all-girl choir sing a song he wrote called "Diarrhea." That's an example of thinking you're being clever by not being clever, but you still try to pass it off as clever.
The sketch I found the funniest was "Popcopy," about the way customers often are treated in a copy shop. It was smart, over the top and well acted. The other sketch I liked was when Dave says he has quit smoking weed, and shows the "TV commercial" which made him do so. The unexpected twist at the end made it quite funny.
The black KKK guy was somewhat funny; the best laugh for me was while watching the scene at the run-down filling station, off to the side you see a sign reading "Clean Rest Rooms". The Racial Draft was also very smart and well written... and funny.
I'm sure there are a few other sketches I liked but have forgotten about. The large majority of the other material, however, didn't do it for me.
I really enjoy racial humor because it serves two purposes: it shows how silly prejudice is and also how much we are all alike, regardless of skin color. Dave's show does a great job when this is the focus; when it's not, the show succeeds much less often.
I think Dave did the right thing by quitting the show. He said the reason was because he found it interfering with his stand-up act. I have never seen Dave do stand-up in person, but have seen it on the Internet and he is so funny.. Thanks, Dave--by ending the show, I think you did a good job at keepin' it real!
Apollo 11 (2019)
Beautiful movie with one exception
THE SOUNDTRACK IS TOO LOUD. I know you're not supposed to use all caps when writing, because it makes it seem like you're shouting. But that's what it felt like in Apollo 11--like the soundtrack was shouted out by Lamb of God. I talked to the theatre manager and he said lots of people had complained about the sound as well. He also said he worked for the distribution company and they made the sound overly wrought on purpose, to create an immersive experience.
Well, they overdid it. I saw a few people leaving the theatre complaining about the sound. One was an elderly gentleman who said it was too much for his ears. A real shame, because it was an otherwise truly spectacular movie.
The Wife (2017)
Well done, but...
I'm just wondering: DOES ANYONE MAKE HAPPY MOVIES ANYMORE?
This movie has high production values, glorious sets, great acting and dialogue, etc., etc.... but it's a total downer. The film is full of deceit and tension between a husband and wife with a very angry, sad, yet not unexpected ending. Still, did they have to end it that way? There could have been at least bit of redemption and hope with a different ending. But no. I guess it's fitting for this completely depressing movie. And speaking of depressing, the dreary music only adds to the ultimate lifelessness we see on the screen.
Hopscotch (1980)
Wonderful film
Hopscotch is a light-hearted, fun film that treats us to witty dialogue, gorgeous European locations, a sumptuous Mozart score and a battle of wits between ex-CIA man Matthau and his former boss Beatty.
It's hard to believe that Hopscotch received poor reviews when it came out. If you approach it with the right frame of mind--that is, looking for a clever, enjoyable film--then you'll have a ball. Maybe the reviewers wanted sex and violence? Sorry, none of that here. Maybe they wanted a movie that needed to make a deep point? Outside of satirizing the government and its feeble-minded minions, there is none. No, you'll have to settle for an elegant, sophisticated show filled with memorable characters that help you root for the good guys (or good guy). Can't imagine who would object to that.
Play It Again, Charlie Brown (1971)
The first dud
I remember seeing this when it first aired and was sorely disappointed. After several years and seven wonderful specials, PIACB fell far short of the mark the previous shows had established.
The charm of Peanuts is seeing the real world through children's eyes. But in this special, some of the humor and plot points depend on things coming in spray cans; for example, PTA meetings. Huh? Not only is that not funny, it's supernatural, something that does not belong in Charlie Brown's world.
Also, this was the first time we hear actual adult voices, as opposed to the muted trombone sound effect. It's almost as if the 4th wall was being blown to bits. Suddenly we are no longer in the world of kids; the adults have invaded.
The other major thing wrong was the use of rock music in the soundtrack. Up to now, Vince Guaraldi's outstanding jazz scores gave Charlie Brown a dynamic, signature sound that everyone could quickly identify. To replace that with rock borders on sacrilege.
Maybe they wanted to try something new. Well, to me it didn't work. Why mess with success?
Eat Pray Love (2010)
Why Eat Pray Love is a Dud
In most movies, one or more characters experience an arc where they learn something by the end of the show. The audience goes along for the ride and feels satisfaction at having learned along with them.
But although Eat Pray Love's main premise is for Julia Roberts' character to learn something, it's obvious, by the end of the movie, that she hasn't learned a thing. She spends a year on a path of self exploration, but in the end, sees no problem in returning to her old life. And it's not until a last-minute intervention by a brown man (the brown people in this movie are all portrayed as wise sooth sayers) that something clicks and she seems to recant her former ways. But in reality, it's just an excuse for a Hollywood ending: a man who shows up quite late in the movie (a perfect example of deus ex machina abuse) gets the girl, loses the girl, and then gets her back. Indeed, the entire movie is just an excuse to set up this trite conclusion.
Whatever learning that was supposed to take place in the preceding two hours all gets washed away, and instead of a worthwhile experience, we and Julia Roberts sail off into the sunset, all the worse for wear.
Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Doesn't know what to do with itself
I felt this film was a mess. It starts out promising, with Bradley Cooper's slightly off-kilter gaze proving quite unsettling. You know he's been through a lot, and he knows it, too. We wonder what his next move will be--as does he. In the meantime, he's doing meaningful work with his shrink, who takes his job seriously.
But then he meets The Girl, and the movie slowly morphs into a madcap romantic farce. Goofy parents get involved, the shrink becomes a drinking buddy, and all sense of seriousness vanishes. The scene in Cooper's living room stretches on endlessly as subplot after subplot play out, and drama and comedy are mixed so you don't know how you're supposed to feel about any of it. Is this Rain Man or Abbott and Costello?
The old saw in movies used to be, Boy Gets Girl, Boy Loses Girl, Boy Gets Girl Back. Nowadays, it's Boy Gets Girl But Is Too Stupid to Realize It Until She Knocks Some Sense Into His Head. Of course, this rarely happens in real life. Silver Linings has The Girl for a while and then loses her, but neither the writers nor the director were able to get her back.
Hope Springs (2012)
Strange, very strange movie
I want to preface this review by saying that if you're an older couple experiencing intimacy problems, you might find this movie interesting and even helpful.
But if you don't belong to that demographic, you may not find this movie interesting at all. Helpful? Not. Creepy and uncomfortable? Hell yes!
I can't remember ever being so turned off by a movie before. It plays like a sex-ed flick for grown-ups. But, as a movie, it's supposed to be entertainment and not something from a clinician's notebook. But that's exactly the way it plays.
With Steve Carell as the couple's shrink, one might expect some light-hearted moments and bits of comic relief. But no-- Carell plays the part completely straight, and completely boring. The scenes in his office are tedious and sometimes don't make sense. One moment we find Tommy Lee Jones to be standoffish and irascible--the next, he's conversational and agreeable, and we don't know why or how he changed. But suffice to say, if you've ever been to a shrink, these scenes will have a certain familiarity to them--but since they don't involve us personally, they're completely uninteresting.
The show does contain sex scenes, as it were--really just the two lovers trying to experiment and get back the old fire (with their clothes on). To say that watching them is uncomfortable is an understatement. You just wonder how this film ever got past the preview audiences. The only comic relief is when Jones puts on a silly smile when he's trying to figure out if something feels good or not. We kind of force ourselves to laugh, if only to break the tension in the silent theater. In reality, it's more out of a desperate attempt to find something to enjoy.
I am so surprised by everything about this movie--the tedium, the three A-list actors, and the positive press it got. It reminds me of Marley and Me--where absolutely nothing happens. Well, I guess I just don't get it.
Cesta do pravyeku (1955)
Really good for a 10 year old!
I do remember seeing this as a little kid sometime in the 1960s. And a good thing, too, as I was in the middle of the dinosaur kick that most little kids go through. I really only remember two things. A great dinosaur fight, after which I asked my dad how they made the dinosaurs bleed so realistically, to which he replied that there were men inside the models with buckets of red paint. I also remember the end, where the boys wake up in the Museum of Natural History, and we're supposed to wonder with them whether it was all a dream.
I'm happy to know about this film again, and to know others remember it, too. And I just read an article in a fanzine called Prehistoric Times that rates the dino fight as one of the top 10 dino fights ever filmed!
The Three Stooges (2012)
A nice surprise for this Stooges fan!
I was unsure whether I wanted to see this movie or not. Like many Stooges fans, I was worried that the filmmakers were treading on hallowed ground. When I saw a preview that seemed to make Curly look like a little sissy, my fears only deepened.
But through a string of coincidences one day, I found myself sitting in the theater with about 30 other people. The flick had been out for a while and the audiences had begun to dwindle.
I was pleasantly surprised! I really enjoyed this movie. It had plenty of original material, as well as many gags that I (and I'm sure other inveterate stooges fans) could recognize from the old movies.
I was very happy with Moe and Curly's portrayals; Larry, less so, unfortunately. The actor really didn't get Larry's voice and mannerisms down that well. Curly was excellent, and Moe was uncanny! The movie was so enjoyable that I didn't even mind the Farrelly's descent into toilet humor a few times during the show. It's a shame that the final crises had to be solved this way, but this is the 21st century and the audience enjoyed it, so what the heck.
Speaking of the audience, that's what made it truly fun. People were laughing hysterically, and even though it was a small crowd, you couldn't help but join in.
The only real miscue I found in the movie was the under-use of the sound effects. In the old movies, they were so important to getting the laughs. The original crew knew this and would crank up the volume so they actually became part of the show. But in this movie, the sound effects are on the quiet and dainty side. Not good for a slapstick movie!
The Art of Getting By (2011)
Good/But
This is one of those movies that starts out well but seems to disappoint in the end.
It's beautifully shot and edited, and we see many fine performances. I found Emma Roberts particularly appealing, as she has a dour, come-hither look in her dark eyes about 95% of the time. What Ingrid Bergman could achieve by looking down, Roberts does by looking almost right at us.
Freddie Highmore looks and feels authentic. His character has a lot of choices to make, many of which go against all common sense. But although he drives us crazy, he's intriguing and we want to know what's to happen to him.
Mid-movie, the characters are hit with several crises, and it gets interesting as we wonder how they'll resolve them. When resolution strikes, though, it's so conventional that it's disappointing. The expected is unexpected.
Yup, it has indie-feel and Sundance all over it. But I was hoping for a big surprise at the end from these flawed but good people; instead, they seemed to abandon what they had stood for. And what may have qualified as a surprise involving Roberts was simply unbelievable and too convenient to accept. Though I was happy for them, a simple, happy ending didn't feel right with these non-simple characters.
But then, maybe, that was the point.
Goof on the Roof (1953)
One of the best... but
This is truly one of my favorite stooge shorts. The premise is one of my favorites: the boys take on tools and other inanimate objects. You know when this happens that nothing will ever go right! The short is one stooge delight after another. The only problem with it is the ending. It's one of the dumbest endings in stooge history and has nothing to do with the rest of the film. It's a shame that such a great short is marred in this way, and that you can't leave it on a note of hilarity. You'd think they could have come up with something much better.
But, all things considered, it's an excellent stooge short and the laughs don't stop.
The Shining (1980)
Can't believe I didn't like it
This movie has two things going for it: style and eyebrows.
The visual style is quite handsome and well done. Intriguing sets, odd colors, and a sense of large, sinister space inside the hotel. This was the first movie to utilize the Steadicam camera, and it's put to good use.
The musical style is also effective. Bizarre 20th-century classical works (similar to the ones in Kubrick's 2001) enhance the spooky and creepy nature of the action.
And of course, we have Jack Nicholson's eyebrows. I don't believe they've been put to the test before or since. They're very effective in letting us know what's on his mind.
But if you take all this away, you're left with a very confusing story. Okay, so the hotel is haunted. Somehow along the way we find that one of the characters may be from the past, and then that seems to be confirmed at the end. But so what? What does that have to do with the story? Why is that important? What does that have to do with the hotel? Why do the scenes from the past matter and how do they fit in with the story in the present?
I saw the movie when it first came out, and just watched it tonight, 30 years later. I wanted to give it a second chance. But I felt exactly the same way both times. I found it boring, not scary, somewhat predictable, and ultimately unsatisfying. Style is grand, but it cannot make up for a story that doesn't make any sense.
Super 8 (2011)
The script should have taken a cue from itself
After hearing a bunch of hype over the much-ballyhooed J. J. Abrams, I went to this movie with high hopes. I love making films myself, and thought watching a movie about how you made a film before iMovie would be fun.
But it turns out that Super 8 really has little to do with kids making films; rather, it has to do with some secret Air Force plot involving a mysterious being.
After a spectacular first act, the film devolves into a lot of malarkey involving strange sounds in the dark, angry townspeople, and military folk with suitcases full of little white cubes. The strange being is revealed, but this only creates more confusion because its origins are barely explained, and after they are, it's difficult to care about them because this plot point has nothing to do with anything else in the movie. We then see some equally confounding scenes involving a big hole in the ground and a water tower with a story arc that defies understanding. And then, before you know it, POOF!--the being is gone. But again, this was anticlimactic; since we knew so little about the whats and whys of the action, there was no reason to care about it.
Early in the film, one of the boy filmmakers tells his friend about how important caring about your characters is to your story. Well, after a while, I didn't care about these characters, mainly because the story was not there. Why things happened the way they did was never explained, and both the characters and story took a back seat to a never-ending cacophony of senseless explosions and fire in which absolutely no one ever seems to be in danger. That does not make for a good movie.
The Son of Kong (1933)
Good... till the end!
The problem with this movie is that it's not too bad save for the ending. And that's what stays with me.
(Spoilers ahead)
We've got a nice set-up with the kinder and gentler Kong making friends with the strange white people. The strangers stumble onto the forgotten treasure, and then... nonsense. An earthquake hits for no apparent reason, and is quickly accompanied by a hurricane. In a shot lasting no more than 10 seconds we see the island natives jump to their deaths off the seething land. The strangers flee as the island is gobbled up by the sea. Kong, Jr. sacrifices his life to save one of the strangers. The End.
It wouldn't have been so bad if they had taken more time to plot out this sequence, and to have it make more sense. For example, showing more of the natives trying to save themselves. And perhaps tying in the start of the earthquake with the toying with the treasure. Still, trying to picture the immense Skull Island as seen in the original King Kong being submerged under water in a matter of a minute or two is hard to believe.
But that's what happens when you have an impossible deadline to meet in making a film. You have to cut corners and do what you need to to get it all in the can on time. That's obviously what happened here.
Love & Other Drugs (2010)
Standard Hollywood romance disguised as something else... but what?
This movie would like to be a moving commentary about love knowing no bounds, but it just ends up being another tired "boy meets girl, boy loses girl..." formula. This is combined with the "jerk meets woman who makes him care about people" (a la any Hugh Grant movie) storyline. Add a gross, immature male sidekick--ostensibly for comic relief--straight from a Judd Apatow movie and you have two hours of tedium.
The woman in this case has Parkinson's disease, but despite the initial impression that this is going to make and shape the story, it actually plays a small role. Anne Hathaway's hands shake in a few scenes, and then she stumbles a bit, but in the rest of the movie she's as fine as ever. We have one scene where we meet other Parkinson's sufferers, but that's as close we get to addressing her affliction. The next minute, she's back in bed with Jake, acting as unafflicted as ever.
The movie is full of sex jokes that often fall flat and dialogue that is supposed to be funny and isn't--mainly because the punchlines are often unintelligible. A quasi-orgy scene near the end makes no sense to the story and seems to serve only as an excuse for a few more sex jokes.
The ending is completely removed from reality, as Anne Hathaway's character goes against the instincts she has trusted throughout. In real life, what her boyfriend does would be considered stalking. But this is Hollywood, and we must have a romantic speech from the man about how he desperately needs her (And yes--we even have an angel chorus as the music swells! At least the filmmakers didn't have the people on the bus break into applause--I'll give them that.). But true love doesn't come from need, it comes from want. And it seems to imply that no matter how strongly an independent woman rejects a man's advances, all he needs to do is to keep harassing her, and eventually she'll come around--because she's not capable of knowing what she really wants, and she needs him to point it out to her.
I really didn't want the movie to end the way it did. It would have been much more interesting for both the audience--and the characters--to have kept on trying to figure things out. The ending speech says nothing more than he's already told her; alas, this time, she finally capitulates. I asked myself, Why? Good movies usually have the main characters showing some sort of growth and learning. But here, both characters regress: Anne's character doesn't stick to her guns, and Jake's character ends up codependent, needing her to fill up his empty life. Seeing them several years down the road and how Jake reacts to Anne's increasing feebleness would have added substantially to how we felt about both of them. As it was, they were merely two attractive people in lust with each other.
A second plot line is about drug companies and the way they work to make money rather than care for people. In fact, the first part of the movie has some very entertaining scenes between Jake and his supervisor as we learn how callously corrupt the industry is. Just the fact that Jake knows this already, and is willing to speak out about it, is compelling and attractive. But this goes nowhere. Late in the movie, as Jake is trying to help Anne with her disease and investigates cures, he suddenly stops his efforts for no plausible reason.
It's generally poor form to critique a movie for what it isn't as opposed to what it is. But the filmmakers have churned out a melodrama that wants to be a comedy that wants to be a melodrama, so it's hard to know what it is. Revealing the health care industry's inner workings, coupled with the Parkinson's story in light of the romance could have made for both an entertaining and thoughtful movie. What I thought was to be a love story with a sad twist, turned into a storyline as old as the hills. Using Parkinson's as a plot point but then not doing anything with it was quite clumsy. The disease thus becomes a MacGuffin in that it didn't have much to do with the story. You could have had the same storyline minus the malady, and it would have been basically the same movie.
Overall, I left feeling empty-handed and wondering what I'd just seen.