jaybsigel Reviews

Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)

Is this the way love is?

[9/10 · 18 February 2024]

In Judaism, we have the mystical concept of "bashert," which means destiny. So, your bashert would reference the one "meant to be," that is, your soulmate. That means you'd have to believe that God has a plan for you except that plan doesn't include *finding* your soulmate. For that, the excuse is, you have been given "free will." If you look at divorce rates, one could logically conclude that soulmate finding isn't working out too well.

Back in college 50 years ago, I was taking a psych course and reading B. F. Skinner's "Walden Two." Inside is a quote from Skinner (who invented the Skinner box): "The tender sentiment of the one and only has less to do with constancy of the heart than singleness of opportunity." That's kind of a mouthful. It was more succinctly and cynically codified by Crosby, Stills and Nash in Stephen Stills' song, "Love the One You're With."

And that brings us to BJ's Diary. I really liked this movie in spite of Hugh Grant, who plays the same a-hole character in every movie he's in (can he act?). Bridget is a 30+ yr old airhead looking for any love she can get and she is desperate. Her life's pleasures are smoking and alcohol. She'll take anyone as long as he's faithful. She's more like that lonely puppy longing for an owner. She attracts the attention of her boss at a publishing firm by wearing slutty clothes. He gets her into bed (or vice versa) and that doesn't work out for her when he's obviously not committed to the relationship. So, onto Mark, who is a barrister (Colin Firth with an aloof affect) and must somehow see something in her that no one else appears to appreciate and tells her that he likes her the way she is. They have nothing in common, really, but along comes Van Morrison's "Someone Like You" song (which is very touching and used in multiple movies, including John Candy's "Only the Lonely"). This and other songs from the 60s and 70s make this movie quite nostalgic because, after all, who hasn't been lonely in their lives? You might get the feeling that you're being manipulated, but all movies do that.

So, to sum it up, this movie uses the standard chick-flick formula of girl finds boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy back and it is done very well. The music contributes to the theme. Unfortunately, you will also have to put up with Hugh Grant again in this one. The final scene, with Bridget's diary entry and its apparent consequence is worth waiting for and you'll never run outside in the snow again in your underwear.

Let Him Go (2020)

Best watched on an empty stomach.

[5/10 · 3 February 2024]

Having traveled extensively and worked in this country, Montana and the Dakotas are beautiful. However, this was filmed in Alberta and I've been there several times as well as Alaska. These are relatively unpopulated areas. Having lived in small towns (3,000 or less) and mega-cities (Dallas-Ft. Worth), it is interesting that despite the daily news reports of crime in our large cities, we have never been victims there, always the small towns, 30,000 or less. What kind of people like living far from civilization and conveniences? Certainly not the gregarious types. What kind of personality does it take to work in a profession that pays little and is extremely dangerous (accidents), like farming?

Well, this movie is set in the 1960s in Montana and North Dakota. The views are gorgeous and the acting is excellent. The characters are all unlikable other than the 3-year old boy, the grandson. Kostner plays a very stoic and taciturn husband to Diane Lane. Lane's character is loveless as she demeans her son and daughter-in-law. They have a small horse ranch with just the basic necessities. There is no passion between them. When their son dies (apparent horse-related accident), all they have left to remember him is their grandson. When his mother remarries, they become more estranged. Lanes witnesses her grandson's stepfather smacking his wife and child in town while the grandson is eating an ice cream cone with the ice cream falling off the cone, something that has happened to us all. Then, the grandson, his mother and her husband disappear.

The husband is a member of the Weboy clan in N. Dakota. Lane's character packs up her station wagon and decides without consulting Kostner that she is going to track them down and remove her grandson and his mother back to their home. Kostner's character doesn't want her to go alone. He is a retired sheriff and that will help him track down the Weboy clan.

Along the way, they are warned to keep away from the Weboys. Do they listen? Nope. The locate them and are invited to a dinner of pork chops. When then express no interest in eating, the mother of the clan, Lesley Manville, asks, "Are you a Jew?" They are visitors in there home, with their 4, grown sons present and they're making demands. When the stepfather arrives with the grandson, Lane is only allowed to hold him for a minute and then Manville tells her that it's his bedtime. Instead of asking if they could visit with them the next day, an ugly verbal confrontation occurs. The next day in town, Lane and Kostner see their daughter-in-law at work in a "Monkey Ward" store (Montomery Ward). During a lunch break, they ask her to secretively return with them to Montana. There is no love between the mothers and it isn't clear if she will really leave with them at 2 AM.

At 2 AM, the entire clan bursts into their motel room and it gets very violent after accusations of child and wife-abuse are made. This is tough to watch. The local sheriff won't support them or protect them. Things get worse and it becomes a totally avoidable tragedy. At the end, with so many people getting killed, one has to ask Lane's character, "Are you satisfied now? Was it all worth it? What should you have done differently?"

Many others here have criticized the plot here and I agree. There is excellent acting and cinematography but an awful plot. While someone less violent than "No Country for Old Men," both are the type you're better off not seeing because the violence will be difficult to unremember.

Leave Her to Heaven (1945)

Never marry a psychopath.

[7/10 · 1 February 2024]

Gene Tierney plays the part of Ellen who jealously loves her husband while displaying an affect that was so flat that even Botox couldn't make it flatter. Any chemistry between her and Cornel Wilde, who plays her husband Richard, is minimal.

The plot was mostly believable until the trial. After Richard dedicates his latest book to Ellen's sister Ruth, Ellen becomes jealous and poisons herself with arsenic. In the hospital, her cause of illness and death is subsequently never medically identified. Her death should have resulted in a referral to the medical examiner and an autopsy should have been requested due to the unusual circumstances. Just prior to her taking the arsenic, she mails a letter to her ex-fiance (Vincent Price) who becomes the prosecutor. Ellen's body has been cremated. There is no legally reported cause of death, but the prosecutor is suspicious of Ellen's sister because of the contents of the letter that he has received. Statistically, rarely does a sibling kill her sister. It's usually the husband. But not here. At the trial, Ray Collins seems to portray the defense attorney (Lt. Tragg from Perry Mason, of course). The prosecutor clearly has a conflict of interest that should disqualify him. The defense says nothing. The prosecutor is clearly badgering the defense witnesses. The defense says nothing. WWPMD (what would Perry Mason do {or E. G. Marshall})? After Richard testifies that Ellen had likely killed herself as she had killed his brother and intentionally fallen down stairs to induce an abortion, that leads to Ellen's sister being found not guilty by the jury. But Richard, having heard Ellen actually admitting that she killed his brother and their fetus, then left her. Had he gone to the police, he would have had no proof and Ellen would, logically, deny everything. What prosecutor would take on such a murder case with only conflicting statements from a married couple going into a separation and probable divorce and with absolutely no physical evidence? To have Richard declared an accomplice for withholding "evidence" in his brother's death made no sense and then given a two-year sentence for it made even less sense. Today, it would be, if anything, a suspended sentence. What was Richard's moral crime that justified that? There were enough things to make a mockery of our justice system back then than that. It was totally unnecessary and not believable.

This is not a film noir. Filmed in Technicolor, the vistas and dwellings outshine the over-saturated and annoying skin tones. A more coherent plot and some chemistry between Tierney and Wilde would have made this a much better movie.

They Cloned Tyrone (2023)

Clones in Black

[5/10 · 12 November 2023]

Watching this, I wasn't sure this was a Black SciFi movie, a Halloween movie or a variation on "Run, Lola, Run" when Fontaine's character gets resurrected with memories intact. The plot, such that it is, is preposterous and bizarre to start with. The characters were mostly unlikable and it wasn't clear who the main character was at times, but it really didn't matter. Some have felt that this is a comedy. I guess it was if one considers stupid as a comedy form, but the characters played this way too seriously for me to laugh at anything here. The dialogue was 80% ghetto-talk/ebonics/whatever and that made following the plot that much more difficult, even with headphones. I liked the music. Overall, I found this movie disappointing and forgettable, taking too much effort to make any sense of it.

John Wick (2014)

Neo becomes dumb and dumber

[2/10 · 1 November 2023]

A "retired" hitman goes on the rampage when his 1968 Ford Mustang SS is stolen (although retrieved intact) and his cute beagle puppy, Daisy, is killed by the hoodlum son of a Russian mobster who the hitman used to work with. Just what is a dog worth? The Russian tries to make amends but, no, the hitman refuses. So, non-actor Reeves kills almost 100 people in this movie. He, in the meantime, gets shot and stabbed and almost suffocated. The Russian has more character, personality and some logical purpose and acts far better than Reeves in this monstrosity. It's a stupid revenge movie where the loss has been grossly exaggerated. The killing is with impunity and you only see one police officer who basically just walks away. The script, such as it is, is mostly cliched action and the dialog is moronic. All of this has been done before and way better with at least a decent plot: Kill Bill and Commando immediately come to mind and at least they made some sense. And there's 3 more of these and one more on the way! What bad guy from which ethnic group will he kill next?

A Stolen Life (1946)

Deus ex machina

[5/10 · 18 September 2023]

How do you make a movie about identical twin sisters where the wrong sister marries the right guy and then that married sister dies? Maybe the other sister takes over the dead one's identity. We all know how well that will work.

Well, that's what they did. The preposterous story involves identical twin sisters, Pam and Kate, cleverly played by Bette Davis and Glenn Ford who plays angry Bill. The twins, whom no one could otherwise tell apart, dislike each other. Kate is the first to meet Bill but somehow, Pam gets married to Bill even though Kate is the one who really loves him. The twins go out together on a small sail boat and during a squall, Pam is thrown overboard and while Kate is trying to rescue her, their hands slip apart with Kate only holding Pam's wedding ring. After that, everyone thinks she's Pam and Kate plays along. It turns out that Kate doesn't really know about Pam's marital indiscretions and things get complicated. Pam and Bill were getting divorced and they definitely didn't like each other. Kate unsuccessfully tries to get Bill to love her, but he thinks she's Pam, so that doesn't work. You want to scream, "Just tell him, stupid!" Apparently, honesty won't be the solution even as she starts to believe that Bill will not want her. She refuses to tell anyone who she really is except, finally, for her kindly butler who suggests telling the truth to Bill, which is too obvious, and that makes the entire story pretty much preposterous. The acting here is not the issue and it is fine. The twin special effects are excellent. It's the entire story line and the final ending where (oh, come on!) Bill runs into her open arms in the fog, apparently suddenly figuring it all out by himself, a really blah ending that should have occurred an hour earlier into the film. It seems like the writer(s) just didn't know how to end the movie. In the real world, she would now have a host of legal problems including impersonating a dead person's identity, correcting the death certificate and various estate-related problems for Kate, all of which would have been totally unnecessary if she had only told the truth. Well, "Stupid is as stupid does." But true love vindicates all of that, right?

Tár (2022)

The banality of evil

[7/10 · 29 June 2023]

Movie criticisms: The acting is superb. The script and plot leave a lot to be desired. What was the point of listing all of the movie's credits at the beginning of the movie - cuteness? The movie was way too long with scenes that added nothing or were incomprehensible to me. There were too many inside "jokes" with musical and lesbian jargon that I had to look up. I had never heard of a "Uhaul lesbian" before. Why should Tar's behavior be more shocking than a male conductor who preys on females? Her sexual orientation was irrelevant. The comment made by the student she belittled pretty much summed up her personality.

The movie's theme is actually a universal one. Lord Acton's, "Power corrupts..." comes to mind. There are way too many people who believe that they're the center of the universe, but it's more than having a big ego. They cannot achieve their dreams without tearing others down. They cannot tolerate those getting equal or more attention. They manipulate and mistreat those who are around them and, as much as they can, everyone else. They take credit for the work of others, they cheat, they steal, they plagiarize, they belittle others. Destroying others makes them feel superior. We see this daily in our news, in our leaders, our government, our world. Immoral and disgusting behavior is the norm. If you feel the need to be reminded of that, watch this movie.

The Wire (2002–2008)

Too boring to watch

[3/10 · 21 March 2023]

This series has been rated the #2 best of HBO. Filmed in "Charm City," where I grew up, I figured it was worth watching.

The many problems are: 1) Lack of action 2) Unlikable characters 3) Incomprehensible dialogue

Of the three above, the third is the most important to me. One can get the gist of what action there is with the sound muted. I never learned Ebonics in school but one doesn't need to comprehend it to get the point here of (mostly) black residents in subsidized housing in Baltimore doing drugs with the complicity of some of the police (yawn). While every job has its own jargon, I am also unfamiliar with police jargon. So, about 3/4 of the time, the dialogue was just incomprehensible.

In spite of growing up in Baltimore, going back there for post-grad school and being shot at from "the projects" while doing so, I didn't recognize much of anything other than some neighborhood references. The city under the late Mayor Schaefer, tried to revitalize the city with cultural events, the inner harbor, the Civic Center, the National Aquarium and so on. They got a new VA hospital and much improved state med school. The residents of this edge city didn't want any of it, only more welfare. There is so much crime there that the it is truly hazardous to even drive through it. Coming back from the symphony at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, one had to contend with the squeegee guys on the way north to the Jones Falls Expressway (I-83). When I stopped 100 feet in front of a red light to avoid them, absolutely no one behind me complained. My mother got stabbed there during a robbery outside a fast food establishment. Even the police were leaving. It was and is a war zone. I was wise to have left this 45 years ago.

Well, I know that I digress, but after watching 5 episodes of this, I decided that watching more would be just too much torture waiting to see if there was more to the plot or if the dialogue became less obtuse. There are so much better things to watch for entertainment. Even watching "Waiting for Godot" would be more interesting than "The Wire."

Our Friend (2019)

A secular tragedy done amazingly well.

[9/10 · 12 January 2023]

I was about to rate this at a 10, but there were some glaring issues.

The acting was excellent. I am not familiar with any of the actors, but many so-called actors will just play themselves, which I don't consider real acting. I don't know if that was the case in this movie.

The movie, titled "Our Friend" is based on a published article written about this originally titled "The Friend." The title change suggests that other things were changed from the original to make it more dramatic. One can debate whether "based on a true story" is really true. Let's just assume that they they all happened. Anyhow, it depicts the drama of middle-aged Nicole, a singer and semi-professional actress, who is slowly dying from cancer. The nature of the cancer, which I suspect was probably ovarian, is not mentioned. As an allegory for anyone slowly dying of cancer, it probably doesn't matter, but the type of cancer certainly affects one's ability to care for a loved one. We never see her getting chemotherapy, which is never easy, other than seeing a bunch of prescription bottles.

The story line moves back and forth in time. When we think of past events ourselves, we often don't recall them in chronological order. Although the time periods are identified with titles like "2 years prior to diagnosis," it still does make it a bit more difficult to digest the entire story.

The friend is Dane who in real life puts his own life on hold as he helps Matt take care of Nicole. Dane is an amazing person, a angel with his own problems, and those problems are not given enough attention. Just what possesses someone to do this, I cannot imagine. It shows immense loyalty, compassion, caring and insight that is incredibly rare considering the circumstances.

Matt is a foreign correspondent who travels all over the world including into dangerous places. We never really see those places other than inside an elevator. It takes him away from his wife and children and they hate him for that. Yet, they need the money. After Nicole is diagnosed with cancer, we don't see any further information about his job or see any source of income while caring for Nicole, which was itself a full-time job.

It is only during the last few days, perhaps a couple of weeks, that hospice finally gets involved. All one needs for hospice care (which is free to everyone) is a determination of a life span of 6 months or less (you don't have to be a DNR and if you outlive the 6 months, it can easily be renewed). Speaking as a physician who caring for my aged father dying of kidney failure, even we were not equipped to deal with his end-of-life care and hospice was a huge help.

Included in hospice is pastoral care, which brings this to my major issue, the one glaring deficiency in this movie. One would surely ask, "How could God let this happen?" Of course, God doesn't let this happen - we do. But there is no mention of God, churches or anything to do with religion anywhere in this movie. Was that intentional so as not to offend anyone or were they all just atheists?

Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)

Any original plot is burried in special effects

[2/10 · 27 November 2022]

After the first 3 Star Wars movies, the series went down the toilet. They called it "the Star Wars franchise," indicating that it was all about the money. Mel Brooks even mocked it his "Space Balls, the Search for More Money." Rogue One continues the decline. If you've never seen any of the originals SW movies, you may find Rogue One interesting. But if you have, it's the same old Death Star theme, Darth Vader, the music, etc., just a lot more dreary and depressing. What it lacks in originality it tries to make up with special effects and while they are excellent, about half of the dialogue is drowned out by the music and the plot is just so deja vu. They script writers must have had writer's block. It's like watching a really bad J. J. Abrams Star Trek remake. There is little character development and way too much over-acting that makes the characters annoying and lacking empathy. The original characters are not there other than a very brief scene near the end of the movie showing CGIs of R2D2, 3CPO and Leia (but not Luke or Han Solo) that added nothing. Even Darth Vader had about 5 minutes of screen-time. While sitting through this disappointing excuse for a movie, I kept thinking, "Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi." And it just ends, not really a cliff-hanger, and I didn't care what could happen next. Save your money - watch something else.

Welcome to Hard Times (1967)

IMO, much better than most of the reviews would indicate, a very different kind of western.

[8/10 · 6 July 2022]

This is an unusual, unique western, more like a play than a movie. There are very few characters and they mostly get killed by Aldo Ray's psychopath. One could say that this movie was a more realistic western except for the minimalist sets and periods of time when nothing seems to happen, perhaps mimicking real life. The movie, for me, had kind of a Samuel Beckett quality, specifically reminding me of the classic play, "Waiting for Godot." Perhaps this movie was an experiment. The town of Hard Times, population of about a dozen, cannot decide if it will be a real town or ghost town. It is economically dependent on the workers from a nearby mine of some type, which is never shown. The characters are all fairly quirky and the actors mostly just play themselves, except for Aldo Ray. Henry Fonda in particular acts with the same aloofness and flat affect as in everything I've ever seen with him in. In the town, there's a saloon/brothel (which never runs out of alcohol), general merchandise store, a church (where they sing Christmas carols) and the so-called mayor's office - the bare minimum of a town. There is no sheriff, marshal or judge in this tiny desert town located in some pre-statehood territory, but the town's sole American-Indian character, who never says anything, is accepted as the town's doctor. Henry Fonda plays the mayor who also happens to own a windmill-powered water well, the town's apparent only source of water. The women are all prostitutes (one of those being Asian) but, perhaps amazingly, there is no sex or actual nudity (other than Henry Fond taking a bath in his well's tank - and he might have well had clothes on underneath); there is only hugging and hand-holding. When the psychopath comes to town and either kills or rapes half the townspeople and then burns the town down, few raise their weapons against him and those that do are killed off. Henry Fonda's character is among those that refuse, at least initially, to do anything about the psychopath. He takes in a hooker, played by Janice Rule, to protect her but they sleep separately and he never does more than just hug her. She returns his kindness by belittling him for not standing up to Aldo Ray's character. That culminates in an ironic ending including the showdown when the psychopath returns.

Some of the themes explored in this movie: manlyhood, bravery, duty, honor, compassion, tolerance, perseverance, greed, evil and loving/accepting someone for who they are rather than what they were.

Dream Lover (1993)

It's just a movie, but...

[7/10 · 23 June 2022]

There were many plot failures, which make the entire story impossible in this country:

As an emergency physician, I know that it is very difficult to get someone involuntarily committed, even after a failed suicide attempt. Spouse abuse is not a reason for psychiatric hospitalization. It takes more than one physician to commit and, by law, one cannot be confined over 72 hours without a hearing. Voluntary commitments are much easier and patients can stay as long as they and their insurance allow, also assuming that the psychiatrist says that it is still necessary. Patients cannot be medicated against their will. Objecting to one's incarceration is not a sign of insanity nor is demonstrating hostility at a sanity hearing. The insanity question is not whether someone is mentally ill, but whether someone is a danger to him/herself or others and doesn't comprehend his/her actions, doesn't comprehend right from wrong. Any half-competent psychiatrist would know that Ray was not insane. It wouldn't matter what her psychiatrist said because he wasn't Ray's psychiatrist.

At Ray's hearing, his legal representation was incompetent. It was apparent that his lawyer didn't believe him. Bruises in themselves are not evidence unless someone witnessed how they occurred. There was no attempt to investigate who Sissy really was, where she came from, her hotel bills and so on.

Attorney-client privilege doesn't keep one's lawyer from telling police about a conspiracy to kill someone, assuming that's what Ray whispered to his ex-wife/new attorney. Killing someone while declared insane only theoretically gets you a get-out-of-jail card when you are later on declared no longer insane. In the meantime, what would happen to his business, his living expenses and so on? (A related plot device is hit-man with benign brain tumor kills his intended target and then attributes his behavior to the tumor.)

The movie's moral is never marry someone just because of their looks or because of great sex. Learn who they are first, take your time before you tie the knot, because it's a legal contract that is difficult and expensive to break. If there are significant assets to be brought in, then a prenuptial agreement makes a great deal of sense.

Other than that, the movie was very entertaining assuming you don't think too much about the ridiculous stuff.

Nomadland (2020)

An advertisement for anti-depressants

[7/10 · 29 May 2022]

This is a movie that wants to show the sad side of capitalism. It fails to do that. It's a dystopic Rt. 66 (the TV series) without Buzz and Todd, and without the music from Nelson Riddle. Fern's husband has died and where she worked is no longer in business. Based somewhat on the USG gypsum mine closure in Empire, NV, it closed in 2011 and a whole 95 people lost their jobs. Empire was a company town and never had as much as a thousand people working there. The mine actually reopened in 2016, but stating that wouldn't fit the narrative, would it?

So Fern, alone, depressed, decides to live out of an old utility truck. She travels around doing odd jobs but taps financial help from her family when her truck needs major repairs. She appears to be an intelligent and educated person. She says that she's not homeless but "houseless" - whatever. It's not a road trip movie and has nothing to do with RVing. Yes, there is a group of RVers who sell their house and travel fulltime, but they have the resources to do so. There is a scene with her at the RV super-show in Quartzsite, AZ each January. She goes up to one of the vendors there and stupidly asks for a job application. Her walking next to the $500K motorhomes is supposed to emphasize her relative poverty. Many of the areas shown, we have been to and they never appeared to us to be as joylessly beautiful.

Attempts to get Fern to settle down are unsuccessful. Just like her insistence at smoking cigarettes, her lifestyle is her choice and hers alone - very alone. There are others like her, running away from their lives, looking for a meaning of it all. She throws away family, companionship and even love for what?

This has nothing to do with the results of capitalism as the writer would appear to suggest. Fern needs psychiatric help and medication. Otherwise, she'll be just another homeless statistic of a life, wasted.

The acting is fine, the scenery is gorgeous. But as an Academy Award winning film, it is much over-rated. It is a basically failed propaganda film.

Foreign Letters (2012)

Lovely

[8/10 · 29 May 2022]

This is a true story of 2 preteen children brought to America by their families. One came from Israel, the other from Vietnam. The actual author of this plays the mother of the child. It's main perspective is from hers, which while Israeli, has very little to do with religion. It shows their commonality in their isolation from the other school children in dress, language and culture. These children manage to accept each for what they are, something that most adults don't seem to know how to do. I found it very touching.

Shtisel (2013–2021)

The writing is more dysfunctional than the characters.

[6/10 · 25 April 2022]

I initially rated this as a 10. The wife and I watched the first 2 seasons and they were very good to excellent until near the end of the 2nd season. Basically, we are presented with an extended family of so-called religious Jews who are, basically, dishonest and mean to each other. Because they keep their head covered and pray all of the time they consider themselves "righteous." The soap-opera plot mostly revolves around Akiva who, as a rabbi, is burdened with the ability to paint and the inability to find a compatible wife. Akiva sees and interacts with people that aren't there, even paints them. As the episodes moved along, I noticed an increasing lack of continuity from episode to episode. What happened to the dog near the end of season 2? Characters would leave, personalities and motivations would change. Suddenly we were presented with season 3 with no explanation of what happened in the interim. Apparently, it's suddenly 5 years later. What happened during that time? Akiva had finally married his cousin and on the way to a showing of his paintings, he is talking to his wife in the car while she apparently is dead! There's no explanation of how his wife died but the owner of the art studio (Kaufman) announced at the showing that she died 18 months previously. Akiva is caring for his apparently normal, infant daughter, Debra, who is presented as being less than a year old (1 year olds walk, 2 year olds talk and this kid looks about 8-10 months old, which makes no sense if his wife died 18 months before). Akiva's character now lacks emotional intelligence and maturity as he decides to sell 3 paintings of his late wife for a lot of money during a time when he was about to be evicted for failure to pay his rent and then tries to get them back from the new owner. I then realized that the writer ran out of good plot ideas. I feel sorry for the actors, and the acting is fine. As for the characters, I no longer know who they are.

Along Came Jones (1945)

Unmemorable

[2/10 · 9 April 2022]

In case you thought that Gary Cooper could act, this should help dispell that idea. He's like so many performers (I wouldn't call them actors) who are great at playing themselves, being the same, essential character in everything. Here, GC plays a cowboy who gets misidentified as a ruthless robber and falls for the criminal's girlfriend, with all it took to win her over being a kiss. The plot gets dumber as the movie progresses complete with the phony scenery. If this was supposed to be a spoof, it falls flat. This is a movie I'd like to forget.

The Tale of Despereaux (2008)

Soporific

[3/10 · 4 April 2022]

The story-line of this cartoon is so weak that it required a narrator. I found it boring and the use of the voices of the many name-brand actors and actresses couldn't save it. It's just another rodent-tale that has been done better elsewhere.

The Rain People (1969)

A study in unintended consequences.

[8/10 · 2 April 2022]

Wife leaves husband after she finds out she's pregnant, basically running away from herself. In act of reluctant kindness, she picks up a young hitchhiker who had developed severe brain damage as a result of a college football game. What happens becomes a tragedy that reminded me or 2 other movies: 1) "Run Lola Run," where the final outcome is determined by the timing and decisions of Lola as she tries to save her boyfriend from gangsters; and the ending of The Rain People is similar to Sandra Locke's graveside lamentation at the end of "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter," a far better movie.

The Savages (2007)

Marketed as a comedy, it's a very timely, depressing tragedy.

[8/10 · 2 April 2022]

The acting here is excellent. The plot is realistic, timely and depressing.

When an elderly, demented man's girlfriend dies (with whom he had been living in Sun City, AZ), he is suddenly without a home and assets. His 2 neurotic, estranged children (female and male) have to decide where to place him. There is very little that is funny here, unless seeing people struggle with their neuroses and bad decisions is funny. I found this movie fairly realistic with one possible exception. After placing him in a NH on Medicaid, they then try to get him into assisted living when he obviously doesn't qualify from the mental and functional standpoints. Medicaid doesn't usually pay for assisted living, at least not all of if. However, this movie takes place in NY and NY does have their assisted living program (ALP), which the state finds to be less expensive than NH care.

The plot is mostly centered around the children and how they cope and even grow closer together while having to make mutual decisions in everyone's best interest. If there is a moral here, it is to be nice to your children and to teach them to be ethical because they won't forget how you treated them and they will ultimately be the ones making decisions on your behalf when you are no longer able to.

The Devil All the Time (2020)

Very deep, a film noir movie with many messages to think over

[10/10 · 29 March 2022]

First, the acting is phenomenal. I'm not sure what the writer and director's intents were but I found it profound on many levels. Yes, this is a long movie. Others complain about there being a narrator. I recommend getting past all of that and watching this in a single sitting if possible. There are many characters presented, all extremely well acted and very believable. My review is from my own Jewish perspective where is it acceptable to question everything including one's religious beliefs. This movie may make you question your basic faith. It will affect you for a long time.

The movie showed people from the time periods of WW2 until the Vietnam War, but most of the story was during the mid-1950s and 60s. It showed white, Christian, rural and fairly uneducated people. The emphasis was on evil and there was a lot of it there. There was the corrupt sheriff running for re-election, his whoring sister and her serial-killer husband, and the authoritarian father haunted by grim events during his service in WW2. There were the unquestioning faithful whose minister used his position to obtain sex from the teenage girls in his congregation. The religious people were portrayed to believe that when bad things happened, it was because God was angry with them and that prayer would make things right again. There was the eternal question of why God lets bad things happen to good people. What does God want from us? Does God need our prayers? Does God micro-manage? Does God want animal sacrifices as a gesture of faithfulness? There is doing wrong, bad and evil, but is killing ever justified? There was the contrast between killing in war and murdering your enemies back home.

Other movies come to mind after watching this long movie. "Shtisel" shows a Haredi (Jewish ultra-orthodox) family in Jerusalem. They are called "righteous" because they cover their heads and say a prayer before eating, but they treat each other despicably. And then there's Gary Cooper's portrayal of Sergeant York whose religious conversion includes how to treat his fellow man in "normal" society as well as in war.

Jews don't believe in, "The devil made me do it," as Skip Wilson used to say. We believe that God gave us free will. That means that our future is not predestined; our decisions are our own. Does God micro-manage? I don't know, but when He did, really, what good did it do? After all that God did, freeing the Israelites from Egyptian bondage, the 10 plagues and all, they still built the golden calf, or so the story goes. During the time of this review, the Russians have been invading Ukraine, the bread basket of eastern Europe. People will starve because of this and not just Ukrainians. In Deuteronomy 11:13-15, God says that if we follow his commandments, rain will fall in the proper seasons, "I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied." If we follow just the most basic, 10 Commandments, we will have peace, prosperity, progress, cures for cancer and there will be plenty for the entire world. These are logical, not religious concepts. God doesn't let bad things happen; I do, we do. Try to do good.

Lost in America (1985)

Losing Your Minds in America

[2/10 · 25 March 2022]

This is supposed to be a comedy, but it's more a tragedy. First, if you like people who don't act but just play themselves or the same characters over and over (and there are way, way too many of those), then this might be your cup of tea because Haggerty and Brooks are the same here as in everything.

Next, there are many comedies based on stupidity: Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, I Love Lucy, and Dumb and Dumber come to mind. But the story here isn't funny at all to me. Here, 2 immature, married, childless adults irresponsibly lose their jobs and then take their meager savings of $190K (which wasn't a lot of money even in 1985 plus worth even less in Los Angeles!) to buy a $50K, piece-of-junk motorhome which is, somehow, immune from all concerns of fuel costs (at about 5 miles/gallon), maintenance, licensing, insurance and campground fees. The idea is that they're gonna do "Easy Rider" in an RV (minus the cocaine), what the RVers more properly call "full-timing." Only an idiot would hop into an RV the very first time and without any prior RV experience decide that this is their goal. This left them with $140K. Their very first trip is to to Las Vegas, showing them driving their rig down the Strip and at night! Driving a car down the Strip during the day is bad enough due to all of the pedestrians, even worse at night. Haggerty's character manages to blow their entire "nest egg" in one night in a casino, leaving them with less than $1K left. Brooks then tries to talk the casino manager into returning it (at least the casino manager can act). It's not funny, but painfully pathetic. And it gets worse. Are you laughing yet?

The Silencing (2020)

Too many plot holes, nonsensicals

[3/10 · 13 March 2022]

(This is one great ap! Turn the phone sideways and back and the review disappears. Writing a review using a smartphone is a waste of effort.)

(This is one great ap! Turn the phone sideways and back and the review disappears. Writing a review using a smartphone is a waste of effort.)

The Burnt Orange Heresy (2019)

Tripe

[1/10 · 9 March 2022]

Why do movie writers think that they need to include sexual intercourse in order to attract viewership? But this goes beyond that. You can also watch Debicki taking a leak. None of that kept the beginning of this movie from being boring. The action finally begins when Figueras steels a so-called painting and forges the painter's signature. When Hollis accuses Figueras of theft and forgery, Figueras drowns her in his bathtub. At that point I no longer cared what would happen to Figueras and said, "Enough."

The Talk of the Town (1942)

So many plot holes, such stupidity...

[4/10 · 26 February 2022]

A man, described as a trouble maker, is falsely accused of arson and killing a foreman in a mill that was losing money. The man is Cary Grant and it starts off with his escaping from jail. Then he goes to Jean Arthur's house and she protects him because she likes him. She is renting the place to law professor, Ronald Colman. A senator visits and tells Colman that he's been "appointed" by the President for a supreme court seat. Presidents can't do that. Presidents can nominate, the Senate gives its advise and consent (votes). But that wouldn't matter to law professor, would it? The prof never reads the morning newspaper, so he doesn't know Grant is wanted by the police until he sees in bottle of borscht that was wrapped in a newspaper. When he finds out, he obstructs justice to protect Arthur, who is harboring a fugitive. Grant and Colman go to Boston and find the foreman alive and force him to confess that Grant had nothing to do with the arson, that the mill was burnt down for the insurance money (so original...). Rather than inform the prosecutor or even the local police, they force the foreman back to the corrupt town, take him to Arthur's home, from where he escapes. Grant is recaptured and at trial, you only see the prosecutor's rampage. Then Colman arrives with the foreman, whom he has found and forcibly brought to the trial, and brings order to the trial by firing his handgun in the air, which doesn't appear to bother the bailiffs one bit.

If this was to be comedy or a parody of the state of small-town justice, it came across as neither. The situation of the false accused and the mob with its lynching mentality is no laughing matter. Overall, the plot was dumb. Grant plays himself, again, basically the same in everything, with his usual wise cracks. It's not so much the acting; the plot is just unbelievably stupid.

Hamilton (2020)

Not your conventional musical.

[5/10 · 30 January 2022]

As a whole, I tend to dislike musicals because it seems that the songs don't fit, that the screen-play's plot was made to fit the songs or the songs were trite. "Hair" comes to mind in some of those regards.

In this musical, and I thought that is was more like an opera with lots of dancing, everything takes place on a single stage. It's a play performed live and filmed. As such, there was no real cinematography, as others have pointed out. It's like watching an orchestra playing on TV. It might be a great symphony but it's not cinema.

The dancing, costumes and singing were amazing. But it was non-stop singing and dancing for over 2 1/2 hours with no one actually stopping to talk, and even amazing can eventually get boring, and boring it was for me.

As this was a musical loosely based on history, its plot can't be taken very seriously. I found it impossible to understand most of the lyrics even with wearing headphones and I wasn't sure who many of the characters were. The tunes were not memorable. Quick: can you sing one song from it? But you can sing several from the Sound of Music, can't you?

I recommend watching this for about 1/2 hour and if it doesn't turn you on, switch to something else because, for me, it didn't get any better.