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NormJohn
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Shadowhunters: The Mortal Instruments (2016)
Saddened by the quality
Nearly everyone has heard the saying "Never let them see you sweat". In the acting business it's "Never let the audience catch you acting". If you want an example of watching an actor "act" just catch this show.
While Ms. McNamarra is, according to her IMDb bio, beautiful, brilliant, multi- talented and vastly experienced, she is a prime example of showing the craft. She prepares an emotion that will be attached to every line. As she delivers that line she blasts the emotion then returns to a state of rest while the other actor delivers their line. Next line it's the same thing - deliver and blast emotion then back to zero.
It's a rookie mistake that can be corrected with training and good directing but when you combine it with the pervasive vocal fry that is affected by so many of the cast, watching this show sends shivers up my spine. Many of the actors are at the level of a high school drama club production. Unfortunately the star of the show is one of them.
Better things to say about Mr Sherwood and Mr Rosedale. Their acting is smoother and more believable but I wish they had read the books and never seen the movie. If that had been the case perhaps there could have been some difference between the big screen and small screen versions of their characters.
Mr Daddario is too intense, but Alec was pretty intense in the books. Did they tell him why his character doesn't like Clary?
I know this show is on Freeform (formerly ABC Family) and they are using it to rebrand their image to Young Adult from Preschool through third grade, but that's no excuse to accept bad work. The producers, and especially the director, are phoning this one in.
Houdini (2014)
A familial abomination
This disgrace started with the late Bernard C. Meyer, a psychoanalyst at Mt. Sinai hospital in New York. His specialty, apparently, was to write books about historical figures based on his "analysis" of their characters. To do this he would cherry-pick facts and anecdotes written by others about his subject (and therefore hearsay) to gain "insight" into their true character.
His work was then taken by his son, Nicholas Meyer, and turned into a screenplay for the History Channel. This is not, of course, history. It is a copy of a copy of an opinion based on little evidence. If the name Nicholas Meyer is familiar to you it may be because he is the author of "The Seven Percent Solution" in which he portrayed Sherlock Holmes as a delusional drug addict who hallucinated his deductions. Apparently creating fiction and passing it off as analytical thinking is a family trade.
Please do not think that this pastiche has anything at all to do with the real Harry Houdini. It is a characterture created to enhance the reputation of two members of the family Meyer. There is no history here. There is very little fact here. There is NO legitimate analysis of the character of Harry Houdini here. There is nothing here.
The History Channel should be truly ashamed.
Xchange (2001)
Who's responsible for this?
Early in this near future science fiction debacle you see a yellow cab pass a movie theater showing the movie "High Fidelity" which was released in 2000. It is a sign of the quality of things to come.
When an actor delivers all his lines with the same emotional "punch" you can rule him out as a limited talent but when all the actors in a movie act at the level of a cheap porn film you have to blame the director. Credit to Kim Coates for at least trying to give his character some believable emotional reactions. Everyone else in this movie is stiffer than a two-by-four.
This movie could have been much better. Considering that it started out with a pretty good idea it couldn't have been much worse