Change Your Image
Mehki_Girl
Reviews
Sins of Our Mother (2022)
Getting angrier, angrier, and angrier
This must be a good documentary, because I'm getting angry and angrier and more and more disgusted with each episode. I'm 9 minutes from the end of the third episode and I had to put it on pause and write this comment/review.
So you have a Doofus, who married the first woman who would deign to date him, who has delusions of narcissistic grandeur, so he gets together a group of gullible people who have already been groomed and primed to believe total unbelievable, mystical, fantastical, fantasy, nonsense since childhood and sets himself up as a prophet and god.
Then you get another narcissist, a covert one, who's been married three times, and it's also ripe to go down your rabbit hole of nonsense and the two of you, of course, are special.
Because, why not? Aren't they always?
Then the two of you go farther and farther down into this rabbit hole of your own creation and convince yourselves that you're a bag of chips and more and decide to kill everybody in sight for money. I'm surprised they didn't put insurance on the kids.
Oh, I forgot the kids did have survivor benefits that Lori could collect, so they were worth knocking off, too, I guess.
So Doofus kills his wife for her insurance. Lori had already gotten her idiot brother to kill her ex-husband for his insurance - Only to find out that someone that you threatened to kill will actually remove you off their million dollar insurance policy!
What a shocker! Who knew! These three geniuses didn't!
Then you try to knock off some other people like your niece's husband so that you can manipulate her money, because the two of you are such master manipulators.
Then you have the mama who has her head in the sand and way too much in the sun - yikes! - and as the bodies are racking up and piling up, never puts two and two together. And actually goes on national television to say, I know my daughter and she would never harm her kids!
Meanwhile, two of her grandchildren, one of whose DNA was found on a shovel and an ax pick and the other with a plastic bag over his head (those poor babies! The fear they much have felt!) have long been buried in said doofus' backyard. And he tries to run off when the cops are driving up the yard! Didn't he see that coming?
Prior to getting caught and while the authorities are searching for the children, these two narcissists run off together to Hawaii to get married one week after said doofus's wife dies.
So now we have her brother who knocked off the ex-husband also dead, supposedly of natural causes (blood clots - I wonder can you give someone something that will make blood clots form?) We have two dead innocent children. We have one attempted murder, and we have a 49-year-old healthy dead woman who was married to the doofus.
And yet we have doofus' children, Grandma/mother, sister, and son all living in la la land.
One family is blaming the covert narcissist for what delusions of grandeur narcissist Doofus did and you have the other family doing likewise.
Meanwhile, everyone is throwing around God, and covenants, and Jebus, and Abraham, and marrying each other at the drop of a hat and not one sane person is standing back and saying to themselves -what the heck is going on? And what the heck am I doing???
Doofus, the prophet, did he see not their arrests and convictions coming? Did any of these geniuses realize that text messages, computer searches, GPS, are all going to be confiscated and examined, because they practically confessed all of their plans in text messages before they did anything? Did they not think that family members wouldn't wonder where the children were?
And then listening to these two clowns trying to manipulate a friend of theirs who called them to tell them that it was wrong to tell the police that she had the young boy and then listening to the mother gaslight and manipulate her son on the phone - both of those things really got to me.
This is exactly what narcissists do and we got to hear them in the act.
Grandma, you gave birth to two vile people, perfectly capable of taking the lives of at least three people, if not more.
Face it.
Sins of Our Mother: The 144,000 (2022)
This review is for the first episode only
As an atheist, but a true crime aficionado, I am sitting through this trying to make sure that my eyes aren't rolling too far back in my head.
I don't know what to review first -the content of the documentary or how the documentary is put together.
So far, I think the documentary is fine. I know some people were complaining they wanted documentarians to have input and commentarym but I think most documentaries should not be slanted.
This documentary seems to have pretty good production values and it's letting people speak for themselves. I don't know if Lori is going to ever be on camera but they have audio of her and video of her speaking for herself.
Anyway these people are nothing but narcissista. Narcissists always have to be the most special, the chosen. And sometimes that comes about in the form of Jesus or God is talking directly to them and telling them things, like, they should go on game shows. Lol!
You know, God is taking time out of his busy schedule giving cancer to little innocent children to tell narcissists that they should go on a game show.
Yeah.
Now, I don't know about anyone else but if I had a family member telling me that God spoke to them and told them to go on a game showm I would be calling them out right then and there.
But anyway this woman is walking around spouting all kinds of nonsense I'm going off the deep end and no one is saying anything. As far as I could tell except the exhusband who apparently is going to end up dead in later episodes.
The woman had several husbands so it's a little hard to keep track of which husband is which and which one she decides to off and apparently get someone to help her kill them.
These are truly awful people and religion only made it worse, not better. I gave the documentary a seven for keeping my interest.
Hold Your Breath (2024)
Reminiscent of The Wind...
...another psychological drama / ghost story set in mentally challenging isolation in a desolate and unyielding part of the US.
Hubby and I watched this together and I think it took him a little while to get into it; but once he did, he enjoyed it as much as I did.
As usual, Sarah Paulson gives a stellar performance a a mother slowly losing her mind from fear, despair, loneliness, depression, and grief.
Throw in smalltown gossip, a ghost story, a real life threat, and religion and you have the makings for slowly spiraling out of control.
There are hints along the way that the mom had done some unsettling things while sleepwalking after her younger daughter's death. She also has a teen daughter and another daughter who is deaf, to protect -not only from herself, but from the threat of disease caused by the unrelenting dust, starvation, and any stranger with ill intentions during the Great Depression.
It's true, the story is a bit meandering with some elements introduced and then never revisited (what happened to the little boy she took in to care for - but not feed? He's never seen in the home.)
Still if you don't mind slowburns and enjoy mature stories, this might be for you.
Monsters: Don't Dream It's Over (2024)
Another Good Episode
This was another really good episode with the father making the phone call to the mother.
You always have to ask yourself if a victimizer has been a victim and if their victimizer was a victim.
Have no idea if any of this was true or had a modicum of truth to it or is the imagination of the writer because of what the father and the mother did and the typical pattern and so the writer took some liberties, but it certainly plays to the abused becoming abusers.
The dad abused Lyle who in turn abused Eric. Dad was abused by Mom who was abused by an uncle. And abusers lying about it and gaslighting and denying the victims.
Unfortunately, after hearing all the stuff that the parents had done the ending scene is kind of cathartic.
Episodes have been a little uneven with some of them even taking on a sort of comedic undertone and in some places even overtone, but this one pretty much stayed on an even keel. One of the second best episodes in the series.
Monsters: The Hurt Man (2024)
I almost want to watch it again....
... That's how good this episode was and it seems like everyone else agrees, except one person who "didn't like the camera angle", so they were "bored" (insert eyeroll).
Man if your attention span is that of a gnat, go watch a Marvel movie.
Besides the horrific things that were said in this and it definitely would be a trigger for anyone - but especially for anyone who has experienced that kind of abuse, I became really upset with Eric's attempt to defend his mother. It actually made me feel better that the lawyer shut that down.
When he called himself the Broken Man and said that his dad had ruined him and broken him... Man that was really tough to hear... That he didn't know who he was and was pleading that the only way he could possibly find out who he is, is to be free.... Breaks your heart.
Getting back to defending his mom - it is so typical of an abuse victim, especially from a parent to do just that.
You know people are saying that they're lying, but there's too much typical kind of testimony of a child describing abuse from a parent.
Children always want to love their parents. And the way he described that at first it felt like love and he was so happy for the attention, I've read those same sentiments so many times from people saying that they are a victim of CSA. It rings so darn true. And there's so much corroborating evidence - things that Eric confessed to relatives. Things that relatives knew. Their mother talking about filthy family secrets. Correspondence from the brothers. Even medical reports of physical damage to the back of his throat.
This is a little off topic from the review, but it bears saying here because other people do read comments - two opposing things can be true at once. One thing could be true, while another isn't.
They could be sociopaths, but created by the abuse that they endured as children. They could have also been entitled spoiled rich kids, because that was the circumstance of their birth, but were still abused.
They could have killed their parents for the money, while still killing them because they wanted the abuse to stop.
They may be lying about feeling they were going to be imminently murdered by their parents, while still believing that the people who abused them so horrifically were absolutely capable of killing them.
Anyway, a really powerful thing that you don't often see on film and shot in a way that really brought the abuse home. Definitely a trigger warning before watching this episode.
Azrael (2024)
The Dude is Speaking Esperanto
I got up to go get a snack and actually missed the scene, but was taping it.
So at first he's asking her, How are you? Kiel vi fartas. Later in the truck he's asking her, What language do you speak? Kiel lingvo vi parolas and he asks again, Language? Lingvo? And then he asks her, What happened? Kio okazis?
My husband is deaf so the no speaking thing works for us.m Heck y'all, A q'Quiet Place! There was enough body language and facial expression to understand what was going on. And there were title cards interdispersed that gave you some inkling as to what was happening next.
People have been raptured. The rest are the leftbehinds. Clans presumably have formed. Two individuals are outliers,(maybe escapees?) That clan wants them, presumably to sacrifice them to.... Something that lives in the woods and survives on blood. Now I'm thinking why not move from this particular area away from the clan? That would make some sense. But this is a movie, sooooo....
Anyway, the clan has a pregnant woman, who seems pretty violent and the clan seems to be hanging on to some remnant of an Abrahamic religion. The birth is anticipated to be the Second Coming, I think.
At the climatic scene, the woman gives birth to.... Something.... That, methinks will become the new Messiah....
Manhunter (1986)
Just Awful!
Oh my God this is so bad. Bad bad bad. Now going in, I expected it to have the quality of a 1980s movie, so a little cheesy, crappy special effects, wouldn't be as good as the later renditions, and it would be dated, but I didn't know it was just awful - even by 1980 standards.
They have actors in here who went on to make better movies and show a little bit more in acting chops, but oh my God how awful they were in this movie. Is it their fault? Is it the script? Is it the poor direction? I'm thinking all three!
I'm a true crime fan and so I like movies about serial killers 0 real or fictional. There is no nuance. There is no tension. And the acting all around is completely devoid of emotion or subtly with long awkward pauses where people just stare. There's no flair. There's no finesse. This has made for TV movie straight to video quality all the way around.
From the horrible acting to the silly dialogue to I'm so sorry but the villain and Hannibal Lecter when you compare the remakes - it's sad it is so so sad. The villain is about as scary as a cupcake.
If I were any of these actors and I saw the remakes I would buy every copy of this movie and destroy it and hand in my actors guild card and go and get a job at McDonald's.
You've been warned!
Never Let Go (2024)
It's all Allegory
This is my take on the movie - yes, it's strange but I felt like it was definitely original and it kept you guessing whether or not it was true or not true as to what was happening was really happening.
Here's my take: mom used to be a prostitute. So she saw a lot of evil in the world and she felt like there was a darkness in her. Plus, she had her mother probably telling her about all the darkness in her. Her husband may or may not have been her pimp. Maybe he was never her pimp but they were married at some point. If you recall when she saw her husband, there were marks on the side of his neck, as her pimp, she might have been the one who killed in a fight.
The two boys said mom killed her mother and she killed her husband. And maybe that's so figuratively on literally. Maybe mom died of a broken heart and the husband died in that possible night fight.
Anyway one of the sons took after Mom, Sam. While Nolan represented the more unselfish one and the caring one, but he also was the more critical thinking one -suspecting that maybe none of this was real and Mom just told the story to keep them from leaving her and going out into the world that she characterized as being evil and no longer existing
I believe that Mom was hallucinating seeing the husband and her mother and that was the manifestation of the evil that she felt was inside of herself.
Mom at this point is mentally ill. Hallucinating, she kills herself, leaving the two boys on their own. I think the hiker was real and the little girl that was supposedly his daughter wasn't actually real.
You drill and indoctrinate a kid often enough a kid will think heaven and hell are real, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus are real, kids have great imaginations.
So Sam has now taken on the mom's role of evil. Nolan is saved by that room enclosure and he fights off the evil of mom, but Sam is absorbed by it maybe even mentally ill at this point.
And we learn at the end that Sam did say several times, mom loves me more.
I give it a seven for holding our attention and not spelling everything out and leaving it up to our interpretation.
Demonic (2015)
Craptastic
I'm not exaggerating. It took me 3 days and multiple, multiple rewinds and attempts to watch to finally finish this POS.
Boring, stupid, non-interesting, and most of all for a horror film, not even remotely scary.
I saw James Wan was attached, which was the only reason why I watched. Only to find that he did not direct it, because it had none of his flare.
And as usual there's the one Asian male character who is just completely desexualized. Rant in- coming. I saw another commenter with a one-star review who said exactly what I was thinking, while I was watching this. James Wan is attempting, I guessm to neutralize himself by putting Asian characters into movies who are completely desexualized but always hungry after some white female. The lone Asian dude is always portrayed as goofy, for comic relief, and certainly has zero sexual appeal. I'm not even Asian, but, like, just please just stop it with the racist tropes. I'm offended for Asian dudes in movies. This actor was the same one that was in Disturbia and playing second fiddle to the main protagonist who has to be white, of course. He was there simply for comic relief. And I guess he was in this one to show that Asian males are always going to be the ones with the technical know-how, while being completely dickless. I'm not even sure what that trope is supposed to be at this point.
Anyway, this was a crappy movie all the way around. The found footage thing has been done to death. It made no sense at all. You cared not a wit about any of the characters. And the background music trying to drum up something resembling tension was annoying and pathetic.
Skip this craptactic movie. Not worth the celluloid or the price of the smartphone used to make this crap.
Bite Size Halloween: The Heritage (2022)
Have you ever called a family member of POS?
Well I have. My dad specifically. A son goes to visit dad for the first time in 30 something years. I don't know what he expected.
But he, like me, is going to discover that his dad is an actual POS. I discovered that when I was 17 when I went to visit one summer. And the protagonist gets to discover that when he meets his dad in his 30s.
Well my dad was a figurative POS and his dad is an actual POS as well as a figurative POS.
My suggestion is, like the other commenter, do not eat while you are watching this.
I really don't know what was worst the physical embodiment or the things he said and did while visiting with his son - both were disgusting - but then what do you expect from a POS?
The other noteworthy part of this little piece of horror is the way a POS can suck in everyone. Watch.. and see what I mean.
Bite Size Halloween: Disposal (2022)
Pretty Good
This was really good. The ending was left to the imagination, possibly, but I think the husband realized who was the person his wife was cheating with.
Good visuals and ability to tell an entire story in just a few minutes.
A family is having a birthday party for a sister who's also engaged to be married. Mom is present and wants grandkids from the married couple. The young husband isn't particularly handy around the house and gets shooed or of the kitchen when the garbage disposal doesn't work as the women are cooking.
The husband goes to drink a beer and watch tv when he finds his wife's scanty undies on the couch. She said she was folding laundry. You get the picture that their sex life is pretty lifeless.
Hubby starts imagining the worst. Wifey accidentally drops her rings into the disposal and as party female guest/friend assists her and comforts her, hubby walks in and realizes the intimacy between the two.
Bite Size Halloween: Ticks (2022)
What the Heck Did I just Watch?
What was the message here? Revenge against abusers? Because I didn't get it. This was just bloody horror porn and that's not a genre I like. Also, it went on far too long and I couldn't take tell one female from the other so I couldn't tell who was doing what to whom and the ending was just weird because it seems like she remained a victim of yet another person. So again, what was the point?
I'm being forced to add more to this. It was awful. Not good. So be careful of those who claim they want to help you but will prey on you too?
Anyway skip this one. The worst of the lot and there are a few dudes in this series.
Weathering (2023)
A Great Short Film In Which You...
... Might have to be a woman to understand.
The protagonist lost her baby in childbirth and like a lot of women, and black women especially, the doctors dismissed her and didn't listen to her concerns.
Probably throughout her pregnancy or in the 3rd trimester, she felt something was wrong, got a lot of women are dismissed by male doctors sometimes female doctors as being hysterical and there's nothing wrong.
She ended up with preeclampsia which is a rather common but possibly deadly condition and it appeared the doctors blamed it on her.
After the loss, the father of the baby leaves her and she's home alone and absolutely nobody is understanding her pain.
She's weathering her pain and loss and grief and blame at home alone and she's having a hard time of it and most of all with herself.
What's real and what's not real we're not sure but it's definitely affecting her mental and physical health.
At least one other person here got it. Nobody else seems to have gotten what this short film was all about.
Pity.
TikTok Star Murders (2024)
Tiktok Held My Interest...
...for about 3 months. I never go on there anymore, but still have the app on my phone.
Ignore the social media implications, which of course is important and a vital element to the story, but it's a story as old as time.
Man meets beautiful woman. Man become jealous of beautiful woman. Woman gets accused of infidelity. Man abuses and eventually kills the woman and sometimes himself. Nowhere in the scenario does the man ever realize that his behavior and jealousy and subsequent abuse is what has turned the woman away - not another man.
Been there. Lived that. This guy has zero talent, but apparently young people found him entertaining and a couple of Internet follows and likes from total strangers made him think he WAS special.
He was not. He was as boring and corny and as mundane as any abuser is and has always been.
She, of course, did what a lot of victims do - ignored the concerns of others, think that they are special and won't be treated poorly, have kids with their abusers, and then find themselves trapped. They protect their abuser because they think that somehow this is going to spare them, spare the abuser, and in some twisted way, spare the children - all the while ignoring the fact that the children are getting to witness their mother being abused and their dad being the abuser - a relationship not worth saving for all involved.
Rinse and repeat.
The worth of this documentary is for people to see how DV starts and ends and also to see that internet fame is really not fame, but creates a delusional mindset that somehow, you're special.
Narcissists don't really need to have a platform to think that they're special and above the rules, but it certainly helps!
Gerald's Game (2017)
Kept My Attention
No, this doesn't have any superheroes or robots or crashes or giant robots that turn into cars or vampires or zombies, the fast or slow ones.
Stephen King's books are always much, much better than the adaptations, even when he writes the adaptations and that's because Stephen King really knows how to write dialogue and he also knows how to get you into the mind of his characters. But somehow dialogue may fall flat in the movies. I guess because we readers we just know how to get into a book.
For we fans it's also a little fun to hear references to characters and situations from his other books. It doesn't always work, sometimes it comes across kind of cheap but other times it's kind of fun.
One thing I have to say is the Netflix's description should have given a trigger warning, especially for those who are victims of sexual assault. I am not. However I find any assaults of children and women (and men) extremely disturbing and I will have a hard time getting through scenes in movies touching on the subject.
So the critters and the creatures to me were not as horrific as the scene with the dad, I don't know what was worth worse - the manipulation to get her into position and to get rid of the wife and himself alone with her or the scene when he came upstairs and manipulated his daughter into promising never to tell.
JUST NO!!!
Not only was it a horrific scene, but it was maddening so I spent a lot of time angry talking to my screen.
I kept yelling at my screen just tell, tell, tell. Even though I know in many cases children are not believed by adults.
Netflix really needs to be mindful of things like that. I can't imagine someone who has been through sexual assault getting through a scene like that when I could barely get through it without the memory of such trauma.
The other more horrific thing in this movie would be for animal lovers is to make the dog part of the horror show. I don't know what was worse the idea of what the dog was doing. Or the sounds of the dog doing it, so for those people who cannot stand the sound of someone eating and lip smacking, they also need a trigger warning.
Most of the complainers about it being boring just seem to have missed the entire message and the other ones seem to feel like the message is all men are terrible beings.
I don't get it for decades movies have been showing certain groups as terrible people criminals prostitutes pimps and the like. And no one seemed to have any problem with that.
Unfortunately, some men do do bad things. And it's going to be reflected in cinema.
There are plenty of superhero movies movies with great dads movies with loving couples in them on out of all of those one movie depicts men doing what some men do and everyone gets in the uproar.
This is basically a character study and so you have to be willing to to sit still and watch and listen and understand or change the channel.
Bottom line is, it held my interest and my husband's interest; and, not for nothing, my husband didn't get offended by the way any of the males were depicted, because my husband isn't like the males that were depicted and is able to separate himself from those depictions.
Wayne Brady: The Family Remix (2024)
I Got Bored
I was bored in the first 5 minutes. I was listening while doing other stuff.
I'm not a "reality" TV fan at all. Never watched the original one. I've watched a few episodes of The Nanny and fe of the game swap on. The were interesting.
But all the rest of the them? Blah... So this is with his Wayne Brady, who when you say his name you think of really boring things, but people have liked him enough for him to do quite a few day and nighttime TV shows. He's light pablum.
Apparently, he was married and got divorced. Was it because of his sexuality? Probably. Then the wife gets together with one of his dancers on some show he had. I recall he had a variety for at some point. Who knows? I guess the young woman is his ex-wife and his daughter. I don't really know.
So you have a guy who can dance, a guy who can hold a mic and talk into it, is ex-wife, and his daughter.
Exactly, what's interesting about this? It looks like there's eight episodes and I doubt there will be more.
I wish Mr Brady good luck. But I haven't watched a reality TV series in 25 years and I doubt this show will make me start the habit~
Presumed Innocent: The Verdict (2024)
I Knew Spoilers!
I already knew who had done it and I was a little disappointed that they gave away their hand two episodes back.
Unfortunately, it took away some of the impact, but still the final episode was very well acted, especially the courtroom scenes.
Both the prosecution and the defense gave great closing arguments.
However Rusty wasn't as completely innocent as he claimed to be. Rusty was pretty awful and if the wife knew it would explain her sticking with him. Her reaction indicated she had no idea, thereforem her sticking with him for the children who were nearly grown becomes inexplicable.
Rusty just wasn't a very nice person. And the poor DA was probably just a lovesick lonely guy with a cat.
People are kind of ragging on the actor's (who played the politician)choice of voice. I actually liked it he sounded, like those guys down in Louisiana who are just corrupt and sticky fingered and just general slime ball and I think that's why he made that choice and I had no problem with it.
I see there's going to be a second season but are they going to stick with this family or are they just going to have a presumed Innocent character for as long as this series last different crimes different families sometimes guilty sometimes not. Sort of like that detective series which is escaping me at the moment.
Anyway, nothing was premeditated. It was the heat of passion brought on by a smug and cruel woman who thought it was appropriate to tell the child of her married lover she was pregnant.
Who does that?
Presumed Innocent: The Elements (2024)
Rusty Gets Violent With Women
Someone here said they didn't understand the point of the scene when his wife told him about the kiss with the bartender.
I would have never told him, because it didn't need to be told, so the wife telling him was simply her little Act of Revenge.
However, I think the scene was put there to illustrate that Rusty becomes very angry and handsy with women who anger and frustrate him.
Overall, a really good episode, that keeps you wondering which way the jury will go. The end scene from the previous chapter, I thought wow he's a goner.
And then the way the trial played out in this chapter, you think it could go either way. The prosecutor should recuse himself because the jury is not going to like him. Anyway this is keeping me guessing as to how this is all going to play out.
I see reviews and ratings have picked up as the series has gone along.
Unprisoned (2023)
No Just No
Tried watching once. Accidentally tried again. I may hate-binge in the future.
Watched the same ten minutes as the last time. Went, nope, and switched over to Abbott Elementary, a show that actually does make me laugh.
Kerri Washington playing "cute" just makes her look old and it's cringe.
Delroy just comes across as a hardened criminal, I would never let in my house or near my black male child. Just like my ex junkie cousin, whom I talk to on the phone, but hell no.
The whole scene with the PO pressing her to have him live with her to keep him out of trouble really ticked me off.
He's a grown azz. It's his responsibility to keep his own self out of trouble. WTF?
And then trying to pick up that poir woman in the store while broke,no car,no nothing, barely a place to stay screamed user and predatory all over. In this day and age how is any of that cute, or funny, or insightful, or messaging?
What's the message?
This has me so ticked off, I think I will hate-watch this show so I can just be mad! Lol!
Maybe I'll change my rating. I doubt it.
The Ledge (2022)
Really Ticked Me Off
What are the lines? Men are afraid women will make fun of them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.
I'm not a follower, so I don't understand the mentality of followers. People who join cults. People who believe in political figures and false promises and make them their entire persona. I really don't get it.
So whenever some person is a bad person and three or four other people or even just one or half a nation goes along with whatever they're telling them to do, it really just annoys me.
Like really, the scratches under her nails belong to him. If they save her and she's alivem she can tell them who did what. So why on earth would that four of you stand around and let one guy tell you what to do?
Not only that, you know he's a POS, so why is he a friend of yours? And if he's got something hanging over you, why did you go along with whatever it was he did before, so that now you're stuck with this POS?
I know he has to get it in the end and that's why I'm actually watching this craptastic so I can watch him die a horrible death.
But to get there, I have to sit through some of the worst dialogue and acting and script ever.
Like why set this movie someplace in Europe and everyone is an American anyway? What was the point of that? There were no mountains in the states?
I thought this was another movie that I had seen in the past that had to do with climbing and it was really nail-biting from the very first scene and this wasn't it.
But I was stuck, because it annoyed me so very much! I literally hate watching this!
Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief (2015)
Another Made Up So-called Religion
Just like one of the originals, where some guy came out of nowhere and made fantastical claims, you have all the others - like our current one that starts with an "M" no, not the one in Utah, but that one, too, the other one from the middle east, the one that spread from the east and covered the west - it's always some guy (ALWAYS a man), who decides to get famous, get tax-free rich, and get powerful by creating a "one true and only" religion.
Because, why not? Because there are always lonely, sad, lost, wacky, mentally unstable, entirely stunted, confused, easily convinced, unsatisfied, gullible people searching for something to reel in with your own, special made-up gobbledygook bs.
Of course you felt something. You created it in your own mind! But you're a believer. The faithful. Because if you believe hard enough... Maybe it'll become true!
So this documentary starts off early with a couple of it's most famous adherents, then on to some more relatively famous folks that you'll recognize more by their names and jobs than their faces.
If we didn't already know, we learn what a liar and sociopath and how unstable a conman L. Ron Hubbards was. We get the voiceover of his former wife (not sure if it's her voice we're hearing or an actress reading from his wife's own written recollections), but what a horrible man he was!
He basically tortured and abused his wife and by extension his child. We also learn he called Scientology a religion because of the cushy tax exempt status our government foolishly allows, causing even more charlatans to crawl from the woodwork to fleece people.
So now we have Scientology, Christian mega churches, prosperity gospel, Catholicism and all its offshoots, Mormonism, et al, which makes religion nothing more that a big, big, big lucreative and powerful business.
Scientology is nothing more than one of l Ron Hubbard's early science fiction stories.
The documentary has quite a bit of old footage of l Ron Hubbard and gives voices to former adherents and basically just let's them talk. We learn how he strategically went after the rich and the famous.
What a scammer!
What a scam!
Basically, you throw out and inch and people take that inch and run with it.
And the money (and power) rolls in!
A Quiet Place: Day One (2024)
I Liked It!
The movie is more of an eigh than a nine stars, but I gave it an extra star to counteract the downvotes, which the movie does not deserve.
Michael Bay was surprisingly attached to the movie but it certainly wasn't a Michael Bay type movie. Which some people wanted - they wanted two and a half hours of explosions and bodies being ripped apart and bloodshed and military, and, I don't know, robots thrown in and maybe a superhero or two.
But these movies have never been about the aliens. It's always been about people and people's interactions and how they react in times of terror and stress. There is room for a fourth movie, by the way, and there's a scene in the movie that hints that a fourth one will be on its way. If you're paying attention, you know what scene I'm talking about.
Anyway back to the movie, there wasn't one scene that failed. There was not one interaction or characterization or actor in the movie that rang a false note. It was very naturalistic and the two leads, including the cat were awesome.
The ending for me was perfect and poignant and made me even shed a tear.
I'm hoping for a fourth one that will delve into - like I said - there's a scene in the movie that hints at something that could definitely be built on for a fourth iteration of this film - a quiet place.
I can't wait.
Harlem (2021)
I'm Binging... But...
These women are so cringe. I was starting to like the gay character, because I thought she was strong and together, but she's just as messed up as the other three.
The one that's in the Get Out play is so messy and frankly she needs to go get a STD test.
The one with the mama, she's also a hot mess, she needs to figure out herself and get a real job, instead of depending on her mama.
And then the whole Ian/Camille relationship just isn't working for me. She's immature and messy and a hot mess. She has zero gravitas as far as being a PhD or teaching younger students or even considering that she have tenure.
And Ian just isn't doing it for me. They were adults 5 years ago and they couldn't figure it out. Why are they going to figure it out now?
The only one that I feel for is actually the very sweet fiancee. She didn't deserve the way she was treated, but at least she found out that Ian is not to be trusted or depended on.
I'm up to episode 9m so hopefully by episode 10 she realizes that she was lucky. And Ian and Camille can go and be messy together and argue and break up and get back together... whatever they're doing.
I'm still going to finish watching the show but the acting is really subpar. I was actually had on episode 9 while I was doing something else and it just sounded like everyone was in a room reading their lines with no voice inflection or anything.
The humor is way too crude and sometimes veers into slapstick. And these women are just too old to be this messy. They are well into their thirties and look every year of it and just need to stop trying to act like they're in their early twenties.
The actresses need a better script. They also need to up their acting chops. And here's looking at the most experienced once. Her acting isn't any better.
I'm being entertained while being annoyed and rolling my eyes at every messy situation.
See for Me (2021)
Didn't Work Because of the Lead
We're supposed to be rooting for her at the end? Are you kidding me?
She was an awful human being. She was mean nasty rude. Were they supposed to be portraying her as being feisty and independent? It didn't work.
Then on top of that making her obnoxious, they also made her a thief.
Then they try to sort of placate the audience by a silly exposition explaining the money was stolen anyway. Sorry, two wrongs don't make it right.
Nothing at all was realistic in this movie - it was almost impossible to suspend disbelief.
I mean she's bumping around the house with a light on on her phone which why wouldn't need, because she's blind and talking as loud as possible. Like put earphones on her. Turn off the phone flashlight and have her whisper. Simple enough to let us know she had earphones on and we can hear her through her earphones through movie Magic
Then at the end it's so laughable that they try to make her into some sort of heroine, who has overcome and triumphed over her blindness.
Like ], no, she got a cop killed over money. She killed a whole bunch of people. The cops would have to be idiots not to suspect her, blind or not.
Silly movie, but it killed an afternoon.
The Apology (2022)
As a true crime aficionado..Loaded with spoilers
I knew what was up the minute the minute he arrived and when he refused his coat, I turned to my husband and said, he's got a gun in his pocket.
Having watched true crime confessions on YouTube and been an ID addict for nearly 20 years, whoever wrote the script had him sounding exactly how abusers, child predators, and sociopathic narcissist see themselves.
When he "confessed" the first time, I again turned to my husband and I said, that's not what really happened.
What really happened was he purposely drove by, knowing that the child would be coming from school. He had it all planned, including having the blanket with him. And of course she didn't kiss him or kiss him back. He had planned all along to rape her. And of course, then he had to kill her so that she couldn't tell.
It takes 6 to 7 minutes to strangle someone. Sit still for 6 or 7 minutes and see how long that is. That's about how long someone's been holding on to someone's neck and then claims it was just an accident.
I didn't mean to, it's not my fault, she made me do it, he made me do it, see what you made me do? Why'd you make me do that to you?
Took a little while for there to be action. I think my husband was a little bored at the beginning. But soon the action begins.
Is this a great movie? No. But it's decently acted and they hit the nail on the head in their betrayal of people who abuse and who prey on people for their own selfish needs and wants.