Change Your Image
circuskotton
Reviews
Leave the World Behind (2023)
Waste of Time
SPOILERS: Story has no real beginning, middle or end. The acting wasn't that great for the big name actors in it. After an half hour, it was so slow I almost switched it off. I wish I had. This was not even remotely entertaining.
The movie opens with Julia Robert's character waking her hubby with news they needed a break and she rented a house just outside NYC, where they live, to get away. The entire family packs up and happily go on this unplanned trip...no other derails. Mid day the family loses internet and cell connection and the kids are frustrated, especially the daughter who is hooked on the old sitcom, FRIENDS, worrying what happened to Ross and Rachel. That night the owner (Ali) returns saying the power went out in all of NYC and he didn't want to remain in the city. Ali hopes the family will let him and his daughter stay in the basement in return he will give them a 50% discount. Julia is hesitant, but her hubby (Ethan Hawke) says they can. There's something strange about this situation and at this point you're wondering what Roberts and Ali know because the two are acting strange. The next day Julia's kids go exploring and find an old shed and hide out in there talking. While in the shed some ultra sonic booms and piercing tones emit in the area. None have any idea what it is, which concerns the adults. Meanwhile Hawke has left the rental for town to see if he can get info on what's happening. He doesn't make it to town. A woman speaking Spanish tries to flag him down. He stops a moment and can't understand her so races off. Hawke gets lost and comes across a drone tossing out flyers. He takes one and finally finds his way back to the rental. The group looks at the flyer and see it's in a middle eastern language. The family decides to leave and go to NJ in hopes the power outage has not affected that area. On their way they come across dozens of crashed Teslas blocking the road. Julia goes up to see if there are any people in the car. She finds them empty then realizes they were driven in self driving mode. As she returns to their vehicle she sees more Teslas coming quickly down the road. She barely makes it to the car in time to keep her family from becoming crushed. They return to the rental telling Ali and his daughter the roads have been blocked by the Teslas. That night Hawke and Ali's daughter are outside talking and Ali and Roberts are talking. Ali opens up to Julia telling him a client called and asked him to move a huge amount of money and it got him wondering. They continue to discuss what then means then decide to put music on and dance. Really??? That night Julia's son is running a fever and feeling ill. The next morning he wakes up and loses several teeth. Ali suggests they go to a local "doomsdayer " for medical help. Now, the daughter was with the son the entire day before and she isn't having any problems. Again, really??? The two men and son head to doomsdayer, Kevin Bacon's house. When Ali and Hawke arrive, Bacon refuses to help and threatens to kill them. Ali and Bacon pull weapons but Hawke defuses the situation. Meanwhile Roberts' daughter has gone missing. She and Ali's daughter go looking for her and see bombs being dropped on NYC across the river. Cut back to Ali and Hawke. They have received meds for the son and share the flyer info with Bacon. Bacon laughs and says he spoke to a friend in CA before the phones went out and the flyers there were in Korean. Bacon goes on to explain whomever was causing the outages and sonic booms were only step one. That their plan only did this to disrupt contact and make neighbors wary of each other and that would lead to the citizens killing each other negating the need to send their own troops in. Cut back to the missing daughter. She has found a neighboring house where they are well stocked with food and is pigging out not caring people are looking for her. Once full, she tours the house and finds a bomb shelter. Investigating further, she sees a TV, DVD player and thousands of DVDs. She finds the "Friends" DVDs, puts it in the player and sits down to watch it thus ending the film. What a waste.
Perry Mason (2020)
Definitely not Earle Stanley Gardner
Grew up on and enjoyed the two versions of the Perry Mason series/movies that stared Raymond Burr. They were based on the Earle Stanley Gardner books and followed his style well. This series is definitely not at all like its predecessors nor the books. Where Burr's version of Mason was a successful lawyer with a upstanding reputation and quick thinking to get clients out of a jam, Rhys' Mason is a down and out lawyer working as a PI who takes on shady clients (photos of a man & his mistress), then double crosses his client for more money. Della is a more sassy character here and she doesn't so much keep Perry organized as keeps him honest. As the first episode goes on, you do see things come together that shows some finer character traits when he is dealing with the viewing of the baby corpse in a murder he is investigating. These little snippets of emotion could potentially lead to a more refined character in later episodes even as he maintains a "rough around the edges" personality. I'm not totally sold on this new variation of Mason, but it intrigued me enough that I'll watch a few more episodes hoping the writers are building to something that will hook me in for the long run.
Under the Dome (2013)
Don't waste your time - just read the book
I the series gets a 6 because it started out pretty good, but is barely hanging on in my opinion. I'm an avid Stephen King reader, but had not read this book yet. After 5 or 6 episodes, the story seemed to have too many side plots that didn't seem to have anything to do with the main plot of how the dome came about so bought the book (2 part) and couldn't put it down. I only occasionally watch the series since reading the book - mainly out of curiosity to see how it is progressing. I just can't see how they will drag e series on for more than another season and keep the viewer's interest, especially with the slow pace and all the time spent on side plots. This should have been a three or four part mini-series like what was done with King's "The Stand." I enjoyed that book AND the mini-series.