rooster_davis Reviews

Man Afraid (1957)

I don't think it's as good as some are saying

[5/10 · 16 February 2024]

I decided to watch this movie because the premise seemed promising. And I did watch it all the way to the end, which says something good about it since often I give up on a movie that doesn't hold my interest. What I found wrong with 'Man Afraid' is that right off the bat the parents - especially the father - are playing so fast and loose with the safety of their son, i.e. Having him walk to his friend's house after dark especially after the kid has told them that the father of the dead burglar has approached him. The kid's father knows that the other father is upset and would not even talk to him, so he just dismisses the kid's claims out of hand? Even though the kid has a history of exaggeration, this would be no time to dismiss his claims about being pursued by the dead guy's father.

And the police seem awfully reluctant to do much about the dead guy's father either, even when the kid's mother sees him in her home and she has to try and get away from him. 'Oh, she couldn't have seen him, she didn't know what he looked like,' says the police detective. Over and over the police refuse to believe there's anything really going on to be concerned about.

This movie was only so-so. And I have to say that I didn't find the ending all that satisfying either. This is not in the same league as 'Cape Fear' as someone else said. Not even close IMO.

L.I.E. (2001)

Impressive

[9/10 · 8 January 2024]

I went into watching this film with only a vague notion of what it was going to be about. The description wasn't wrong but didn't begin to convey the depth of this film's plot. Teenager Howie (Paul Dano) has lost his mother in a car accident on the Long Island Expressway. He lives with his father in their very nice home but their relationship is pretty rocky.

Next up, Howie's best friend Gary betrays him by stealing a set of souvenir pistols from a retired military man, "Big John", who also happens to be a pedophile. Howie and Gary planned to run away together to California, but that morning, Howie finds that Gary has ditched him and left on his own - and leaving him in the lurch with Big John. Howie can only find one of the two stolen pistols and the pedo retired military guy wants payback.

It becomes clear that this guy may want some sort of sexual favors from Howie and I would say he starts to groom Howie to win his trust and acceptance, letting him drive his 4-4-2 muscle car even though he's not old enough. Howie seems rather cagey though and doesn't go along with any hints from John. Somehow I got the feeling that Big John's greatest 'pedo' interest was giving oral sex. The subject does come up - in fact, Howie brings it up and doesn't outright refuse.

Howie's other friends upon learning that Gary took off for California start saying things about the two of them having been sex partners, which never happened. They get into a fight, and now Howie has lost his remaining friends.

Howie's dad gets arrested and charged with fraud in some business dealings; the FBI comes and hauls him off to jail. Howie comes home to find that his father has apparently left him and guesses that he ran off with his latest girlfriend, leaving him on his own.

Howie gets picked up again by Big John who takes him home, and we can guess what he has in mind. At home, John tells his current young live-in 'friend' that he needs to get out of the house for a few days. The 'friend' resents Howie because he feels his place is being taken as a 'special boy', and he packs a few things and angrily leaves and drives off. (He's older than Howie.)

John originally thought that Howie might stay with him for just a few days but Howie tells John about losing his mom and all his friends and now his dad. Howie doesn't know his dad has been taken to prison; Big John gently tells him that has happened, and that his dad didn't just abandon him. John tells him it's in all the papers; Howie knows now that his dad won't be coming home any time soon.

Howie breaks down crying; he's lost everyone now. John lends a genuinely sympathetic ear, and Howie hugs him for showing some concern for him. By this point, I think John stops looking at Howie just as a sex toy and instead seems to have developed real feelings of empathy and genuine affection for him. Howie's hug is a response to someone caring about him. The pair seems to be on the way to some kind of more substantial relationship - not just some quick sex.

John takes Howie to the prison to visit his dad and the visit goes reasonably well. While John is parked by the side of the road after dropping Howie off, his prior 'special boy', the disgruntled one he asked to leave for a few days, pulls up in his own car next to John's. Using the one stolen pistol that Howie had managed to retrieve and return, he shoots John, killing him. Howie doesn't know it yet but he's just lost the only person he had left, the one who was helping him pick himself up again. And we can assume he will find out that John was killed by the gun he had returned to him.

To be honest I had to re-watch the beginning and end a couple of times to be fairly sure of the story's conclusion. The film opens with Howie's voice as he talks about the L. I. E. And the people who have died there; he's walking across a railing high over the L. I. E., balancing on one foot - and in closeup we see that the one foot he's still standing on is rather unsteady in its purchase of the railing. Immediately the film cuts to Howie lying on his bed, looking through clippings of his mom's death and he finishes his background narration that "I'm not gonna let the L. I. E. Get me." At the end of the film, Howie is arriving at the same place on the bridge, and again we hear his little mental speech about the L. I. E. I thought possibly that the opening of the movie had previewed for us what the ending would be, of Howie actually teetering and probably falling to his death. But the ending concludes with him saying 'it's not gonna get me.' While it would have been pretty dark and depressing, I almost think the ending would have been better if Howie had resolved his problems in that way, on the bridge. It would have put the opening of the film into the mode of 'I see now where this was heading' when the same scene concludes the film... but he doesn't get on the railing that time. Maybe we're still supposed to gather that the opening WAS the eventual ending. I don't know.

While normally I am not a fan of movies with pedo stuff, this was not the focus of the film and there wasn't any of it shown. It was just a part of the movie that explained the attitude and relationship of one of the main characters.

The Newcomers (2000)

Where do I start?

[2/10 · 7 January 2024]

Boy this movie is about as exciting as 'New - Improved! Vanilla Pudding'. And SO much is SO wrong.

They can't afford to live in Boston - so they move to Vermont? What? And into a house that would run close to a million dollars there with some of the nation's highest property taxes, very mediocre pay levels, and massive taxes on everything. Believe me, if you can't afford to live in Boston, you SURE can't afford Vermont.

Not one person in the whole movie talks with a Vermont accent. Not. A. One. One thing was accurate, when the family showed up at their new house there, the neighbors immediately dissed them as 'flatlanders'. THAT is truth. Anyone who moves there is called a 'flatlandah' and advised that no matter how long they live there, they 'can never be a real Vahmontah' and being told "real Vahmontahs like this' and "real Vahmontahs do that" etc. The place is like a giant clique and they are not eager to welcome flatlanders and that would include people from Boston.

When the young gas station attendant rushes out to pump the gas into the family car... that's not happening there OR anyplace else.

The family DOES go to a church with a woman pastor, that part is realistic, although attending church in Vermont is about as popular as sword swallowing.

But to sum up, this movie is beyond banal and does not in any way represent any sort of a realistic view of Vermont. And in defense of Vermont, the people in the movie are so dumb it's not even fair to real "Vahmontahs". Honestly, this is just the dumbest movie. It could have been written by third-grade class.

And not a single person in the whole movie speaks like a 'real Vahmontah'.

Hot Rod (1950)

Just plain awful

[3/10 · 1 January 2024]

This is a really poor film. It features two alleged teenagers, reference is made to going to school, and they're way way past their sell-by date to be teens. Jimmy Lydon, who was really good in the Henry Aldrich movies, was playing a teenager NINE YEARS earlier than this movie was made, and even then he was almost past his teens. Gil Stratton as his sidekick 'Swifty' is even older. Neither of them really could pass for a teenager or high school student. In fact it's kinda laughable. Lydon plays it low key; he's pretty skinny and still does have a bit of baby-face to him but Stratton is absolutely not believable in his role.

There are so many old hot rod movies out there and this is one which disappointed me. How about getting character roles played by people who are believable in them?

Close (I) (2022)

A love story that's not about sex

[8/10 · 19 November 2023]

I was relieved to see that this movie was unlike a too-often-seen pattern of stories about boys who feel strongly for each other and they usually turn into physical / sex stories. This was a love story about two boys, Leo and Remi, but their love for each other was strictly brotherly. Unfortunately, this closeness is seen at school and some students begin to question if the two boys are more than just friends.

Leo in particular finds this questioning bothersome and begins to distance himself from Remi. At first, the distancing is mostly in public, but eventually, it throws cold water on the whole friendship.

Remi takes this loss of his friend a lot harder than anyone knows. It reaches a peak when the boys get into a fistfight which to me was more about them fighting about the loss of their friendship than it was them fighting each other.

One day the boys' class is to go on a day trip, and Remi doesn't show up at school. When the class gets back to school it's apparent that something seriously bad has happened. It turns out that Remi has hanged himself at home.

Leo tries to carry on as though everything is all right. He goes to school and to hockey practices; he tries to carry on as if there's nothing wrong but after a while, he just can't. He goes to see Remi's mom, who treats her late son's best friend with love and compassion. When he breaks down and tells her that he thinks it's his fault Remi is dead, at first she is angry toward him but soon realizes that he was not the cause of it really, and they come to terms. Both of them have lost someone they loved.

At times this is a hard movie to watch as you see Remi suffer the loss of his close friend, and then Leo's failed attempts to carry on without accepting his feelings of guilt. It's definitely not an upbeat movie. But it's a good story and very well acted, especially by the principals who play the parts of the boys.

The Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway (2011 TV Movie)

Made me laugh, but made me sad at what we've lost too

[10/10 · 19 September 2023]

I watched the Pee-Wee Herman Show on Broadway some time ago and seemed to recall enjoying it but it was so long ago I decided to watch it again. I think this show worked every bit as well as his kids' Saturday morning show - can it be that Pee Wee was on TV long ago enough that kids still had Saturday morning shows?

Of course to enjoy Pee-Wee you have to have some suspension of belief. Yes he's way, way, way older than the overgrown boy he plays in the role, but he's such a unique character it still works

On the 'Show on Broadway' we got a little bit of more adult humor - nothing smutty or obscene in any way, but jokes grown ups would get and kids would probably miss. (That was also the secret of Chicago's Bozo's Circus being so popular it lasted 40 years.) In this show, Pee-Wee gets his first computer and his first email. The electrician who wired it up sees an offer for Viagra. Magic Screen asks 'What's Viagra?" and Pee-Wee says "I'll have to order the free sample and find out!"

He was also wearing an 'abstinence ring' during the show, which he took off and tossed to the audience at the end of the show.

There were lots of jokes and basically it was the Saturday show expanded to 90 minutes - and it worked. We got to see all of the regular characters i.e. Cowboy Curtis, Jambi, Terry the Pterodactyl, Miss Yvonne, etc. Etc. And they were their same old selves only in expanded skit lines.

I laughed out loud ad some of the schtick and jokes, but at the end of it all I felt a little sad too, knowing that Pee-Wee is dead. Well, no, not really... Paul Reubens has died, but Pee-Wee will live on for a long long time, and he should. I loved this show and I'll give it a 10 because there can never be another, and this one was so good.

Rest in peace Mr. Reubens, thank you for all the laughs and for leaving us Pee-Wee.

Summer of 84 (2018)

The last 25 minutes or so really change things.

[6/10 · 2 September 2023]

First - I always check the spoilers box, just so I don't have to be too careful about what I write in my review.

The movie starts out with a real un-serious feeling to it. The pubescent teen sex jokes, things like that. The serial killer has just 'come out of hiding' by sending a rather taunting letter to the police. Of course they don't know who he is, but now they know that he IS a serial killer of boys (mostly).

The main 'kid' character, Davey, is sure that through a window of his neighbor's house, he saw the latest kid who disappeared and whose picture is on the milk carton. He and his friends - led by him of course - go about spying on the neighbor in various ways. After a rather drawn out middle part of the movie, they finally find the proof that the neighbor is the killer. That's when things start to really move.

While the police have seen the evidence of who the killer is, they haven't caught him yet - and he turns up in Davey's house late at night, taking him and his buddy Caleb to an island where he's going to play "Manhunt" with them - for real.

Davey promises Caleb 'I got you into this and I'll get you out of it' but unfortunately Caleb gets brutally murdered by the serial killer, who for reasons I don't quite understand, elects to let Davey live so that he can worry every day if this will be the day the killer gets him.

In the last part of the movie we see only a glimpse of Davey's grief over the death of his friend Caleb. I think it would have been a lot clearer if they'd have shown a few shots of Caleb's funeral. We know Caleb died, we see Davey crying, but to see even a brief view of some part of the funeral would have cemented the connection and made the grief all the more real.

I also don't understand why, with the serial killer still on the loose - after having killed Caleb and releasing Davey - why Davey is out riding his bike again delivering newspapers. If that was my son, leaving him out of my sight with the killer still at large is the LAST thing I'd ever do.

When the killer comes down from Davey's attic and abducts him and Caleb, apparently chloroforming them to knock them out, that is when this movie gets one heck of a serious murder movie aspect to it, especially the killing of Caleb. I couldn't watch. The part where Davey and Caleb get abducted is another thing I don't understand. They were sleeping in Davey's second floor bedroom - how did the killer get both of them down the stairs and out to his car without waking Davey's family? And Caleb was a BIG boy, like well over 200 pounds. I can't imagine how the killer even managed to move him, all that dead weight.

But - this is a movie and there has to be some suspension of disbelief, so okay. This is a pretty good movie - I doubt I'll watch it again but I think it was worth my time to see it once.

Hunted (2012)

An interesting and offbeat story with characters I liked and an ending that made me feel good

[9/10 · 26 August 2023]

I'm going to check the box indicating that this review contains spoilers, just to be safe, though I am not by any means spilling all the beans here.

This movie surprised me. I decided to give it a look based on the one-sentence description it has, "Mysterious teenager arrives in small town, attracts sheriff's interest, violence surrounds him." That is about as compact of a description as you could give it - and it doesn't begin to touch on the real story.

Rufus, a teenager, had been traveling with an old lady who died in an accident just outside a remote small town. It's not mentioned much but the town is Conrad and I believe it's in Iowa. (More on that shortly.) He won't answer questions about himself at the scene of the accident, and with him having no place to go, the sheriff takes him home to give him a place to stay. Originally he was going to stay for one night but that turns into an ongoing situation. This really upsets the sheriff's wife because they had had a son about the same age who died; having Rufus around, staying in their son's room, wearing his clothes and such seems to her as a violation of her own late son's memory, space and things. (Rufus is wearing the son's jacket which has a patch from the Conrad Coyotes, 74-75.) Before long though, Rufus's quiet and unassuming personality first draws her curiosity, then her tolerance and finally her affection. Also, the high school girl Tracy who lives across the street from the sheriff's house falls for him, again because his quiet and reserved personality makes him so different from the other boys she's known. The girl's current boyfriend Clay at first attacks Rufus but as with the others, eventually becomes his friend. Unfortunately, a young local boy and a visiting stranger sees them together and accuse Clay of being attracted to Rufus. Clay unhappily admits to Rufus that the kid is right. Apparently unable to handle his own feelings, the next day he tries to kill Rufus. I was afraid at that point that this would turn into some sort of gay love story (nothing wrong with gays, I just didn't expect or want that) but it was just another of the subplots surrounding Rufus. It was IN the story but it was certainly not THE story.

Rufus is emotionally very subdued. His basic attitude is to be cautious and quiet, likely because despite his age (more on that later) he has lived his life in a sort of institution and has no experience in the real world. Hence he's illiterate... he's just never been taught to read or write. Other than the instances where he gets angry and becomes his violent character, I only noted two times when there was real emotion, and one of them was almost impossible to catch. In one scene, he's on top of a building in the downtown of the little town where he lives, and he's taking chunks of snow and tossing them down on top of a man by the street. The man hollers for him to stop and he keeps it up, and at that moment we see the only great big smile he ever shows in the movie. The other instance is when he's in the room where the old lady's body is, the one who was accompanying him on the trip til she was killed from being hit by a truck. Rufus is there with Tracy, the girl from across the street, and she asks him if he cried for her. He asks, 'Should I have?' and she says that it depends what she meant to him. He pulls the sheet up over the old lady's face, then just as the scene fades we hear the sharp double inhale of someone who is on the verge of crying. Maybe he cried, we don't get to see it.

Other minor subplots happen through the movie, but a larger one comes along in the person of another stranger who arrives in town. He knows all about Rufus, and plans to take him away, back to where he came from... but the people surrounding Rufus, while they still don't know his whole story, have grown attached to him and they don't want the stranger to take him. Rufus knows the stranger, and he also doesn't want to go with him. The sheriff's wife tells the stranger 'You're not taking MY boy!' and that sets off the last big turning point. The stranger is dealt with, and the sheriff and his wife now know a lot more about Rufus - and it doesn't matter to either of them. Rufus has shown he's as fond of them as they've become of him. The sheriff disposes of any indication the stranger has ever been in town. The presence of that stranger does prompt a couple of instances when the normally stoic Rufus cries - once, when the stranger is convincing him to come along with him - and he doesn't want to go - and after he's attacked the stranger for hurting his new 'mom'.

I will make one more comment which could be considered a spoiler. Some other reviewers and even the story itself make a case that Rufus is a sort of vampire, but in actuality, he's much more like a werewolf. He does have aspects of both, which makes him a somewhat unique character in the movies. And he's ageless - even the stranger who had come for him has no idea how old Rufus really is, but he presents as a teenage boy and will remain that way forever despite the fact that he's known to actually be over 100 years old. His behavior and attitudes, as his physical appearance, will remain as those of a teenager. Think of Samantha Stephens on "Bewitched", she's a witch and has been around for untold years yet she still remains a young woman in appearance and attitude. Rufus has a very interesting combination of characteristics.

This movie was released in 2012; Rory Saper, who plays the role of Rufus, was born in 1996. He was no more than 16 years old during filming and may have been 15 for at least part of it. He did an excellent and sensitive portrayal of Rufus. It is a pet peeve of mine that movies almost always find someone a different age to play a role. Normally I'd have expected a 16 year old Rufus to be played by someone 20 to 24 years old but here we have an actual teenager playing the role of a teenager, and to me it adds a lot of credibility to the character. And Saper, who was born in England, has a definite English accent to his speech, but they make it work fine in the movie. In different scenes his complexion goes from rather clear to much more noticeable acne, and I guess that comes with the territory of having a teenage actor.

I'm sure I will watch this movie again.

Ominous (2015 TV Movie)

Nowhere near as bad as some reviewers say

[5/10 · 16 August 2023]

No this is not a top level horror movie. Not at all. However it is far better than some of the reviewers are saying. One star? I think a movie that rates one star would be like, The Bowery Boys Meet Abbott and Costello on Mars or something.

I disagree with the reviews ripping child-actor Gavin Lewis. He was about as sweet and cute of a kid as you could hope for, only now that he's been brought back from the dead, his sweet facade is only that. At first he starts to turn against his father, he exercises his powers against people in the park who aggravate him, and finally when Satan (I guess it was) gets hold of him, then we see just how evil and nasty the boy is.

I realize the special effects with the birds were only so-so but then so were they IMO in the ultimate killer birds movie, Hitchcock's The Birds.

At the end of the story when the lyoungster has suddenly grown up and attacks his father, the mom has to do the job of finishing the kid off... and after he's dead, there lays her little boy again on the floor.

It's not a great movie by any stretch but it is entirely better than many of the reviews that quibble over grammar and other irrelevant nonsense. I gave it a five, a solid five.

Responsible Child (2019 TV Movie)

An interesting and almost factual dramatization of a real murder case

[6/10 · 12 August 2023]

"Responsible Child" is based on the actual case of two brothers, Jerome Ellis age 14 and his brother Joshua, 23, who stabbed their abusive stepfather Neil Tulley to death in 2013 in England.

This is a very well-acted film, particularly considering that it is a 'made for TV' film. Billy Barratt, the young actor who plays the lead role of the younger brother, is absolutely believable in his part. In 2020 at the age of 13 he won the International Emmy Award for Best Performance By An Actor, the youngest person ever to receive the award - especially impressive as the category is not based on age. (Four years earlier, that award went to Dustin Hoffman.) All the roles are very believably acted but Barratt's was by far the toughest and most important of the film. He absolutely came across from the screen as the scared and withdrawn child he played in the film.

Films with a story such as this one have an innate 'hook' to them - an ordinary person finds themselves in extraordinary circumstances. The fact that this one concerns a schoolboy compounds that fact.

I find it an interesting point that young Barratt was apparently about the same age (12) during filming of "Responsible Child" as the character he portrayed. It seems to me that nobody playing a movie role is ever the same age. Teenagers and high school student roles are frequently acted by people well into their 20's. For me, having the actor's age match the role adds credibility and believability to their characterization.

I do question why the producer of the film chose to stay true to the facts of the actual case but lowered the age of the younger brother in the film to 12, instead of 14 which was the reality. Perhaps he was trying to make a point that the same situation could have happened to a 12 year old as happened in real life to a 14 year old? In England a child as young as 10 can be charged as an adult in a serious crime and tried in regular full court.

The film's point is that the UK should re-examine its laws regarding child criminals and the age at which they should be held responsible. I would agree with that with the exception that not all child criminals are just good kids who were driven to do bad things as was the case here. There are legions of juveniles convicted of murder, who have criminal records as repeat offenders including for prior violent crimes. There certainly must be distinction made in how children are treated in the courts, depending on past circumstances and the individual situation. A 14 year old who kills for thrill is not the same as one who snaps after being abused by a drunken step-parent. It is not my intent here to preach or editorialize, but to comment on the message expressed by the film.

While this movie didn't exactly move me to tears as it apparently did for some, that is not in any way a criticism. It's a compelling re-enactment of a real-life tragedy, and Billy Barratt did a tremendous job playing the role. You can't help but feel empathy for the character he plays as a juvenile charged with murder.

Bloody Kids (1980 TV Movie)

I think there was a lot of wasted potential here -

[6/10 · 9 August 2023]

When I read the basic description of the plot, I thought 'this could be pretty cool - two kids staging a public prank, and afterward the one who got injured seems to turn on his buddy who took part in it with him. That is hugely fertile ground. I expected the cops to find the buddy and take him in and put him through hell before the whole story came to light.

Instead the story was made up of loose ends, most of which didn't get disposed of at the end really. The end of the story has one kid telling the other 'see, we're just kids, we can get away with anything.'

The acting was good. I can't fault it though I don't think the boys who played leads were THAT good, but certainly they were sufficient. Mike, the boy who (accidentally) stabbed his friend gets picked up by a young hooligan who drags him around all night through night clubs and stealing a car and eating at a restaurant (from which they fled without paying). Meanwhile, Leo, the smarter and more manipulative of the pair, is in the hospital in PJ's, recovering nicely from a small stab wound and giving the police fits in various ways - but not until he has described his buddy Mike as just a kid at school who has fantasies about killing. He tells them where Mike lives and says 'there's stuff under his bed, you should look there.' Great friend!

If I had written this story it would have had more of a plot line, would have been less aimless and disconnected. It did keep me watching through to the end, but only because I was hoping there would be some big denouement, some major plot twist that would explain the whole thing. Instead, it just ended with 'See, we're kids, we can do anything we want.'

It was okay but I was disappointed.

Heart of Fear (2006 Video)

Remember the old 'Made for TV' movies of the 60's? Not as good.

[3/10 · 12 July 2023]

There's too much cutesy cutesy between the lady FBI detective and the handsome newspaper reporter and not enough actual tension or suspense. It's a lucky thing they were able to finish making this movie because I think the kid playing 'Taylor' would have gotten bored and gone home by the halfway point. And why, please tell me, would the authorities or the police leave the kid - who is in danger from the 'slasher' - in town and with that FBI lady?? They needed to put him out of town someplace safe. But that would have made sense. Ugh, this movie is just blah. We're at midpoint now and so little has actually happened... so dull.

Except for the budget part, it reminds me of something Elaine Benes said once on Seinfeld: "It's like a big budget movie with a plot that goes NOWHERE."

Whiplash (2014)

Wow. Just wow. I have a new addition to my 'Favorites List'

[10/10 · 8 July 2023]

This movie was so much more than I expected, even though it has such fantastic reviews. When a movie closely entails something in which I'm not interested, but I enjoy it anyhow, it has to be good. For example: Breaking Away. I'm not a bicycling fan, and bicycle racing is the backstory of the movie, but it's one of my favorites. Same goes for "Rudy" and football. Same goes for "Hoosiers" and basketball.

I'll avoid giving away any spoilers here. The backdrop of this movie is a young man who has enrolled at a top national music conservatory as a jazz drummer. Normally I'd be saying "Next!" at this point. But it is the personalities of the characters that hooked me in - quickly - and I even enjoyed some of the music that was played in musical scenes though I've never been into jazz. I don't know where they got people who were both so gifted at playing their instruments and were also really, really talented actors - but they did. This adds a huge level of credibility to the movie and to the characters themselves.

The instructor (?) played by J. K. Simmons was someone with a personality that was all over the map. We have all known people like that - one minute friendly or at least cordial, and the next minute mean and nasty. That is not the whole plot but it is an ingredient. And Miles Teller, the jazz drummer student, has the ability to react very convincingly in his role to everything that the instructor puts him through. Near the end of the movie there is a huge plot twist... followed by another... and yet another. The movie ends up leaving us with a good feeling but boy you're gonna go through plenty to get there.

Someone in the Reviews here called it a 'modern day masterpiece.' I totally agree. And it's an example of a film that is carried by top notch acting and writing, not sex or special effects. This is a really, really good film and I strongly urge you to watch it when you get the chance. It may become one of your very favorites, too.

Boy Wonder (2010)

An engrossing movie with some instant justice and a twist at the end

[9/10 · 17 March 2023]

I watched Boy Wonder several months ago and it's on my 'Movie Night' list for tomorrow. In thumbnail a young boy Sean witnesses the murder of his mother and some circumstances lead him to suspect his father was behind the killing. Sean believes that the true killer of his mom escaped justice. Growing up he hardens his body and his resolve; as a teenager, he finds himself in a number of situations where he can come to the aid of victims - whether on a dark street or at a party. We get to see some very interesting situations - the kid is not to be trifled with. My favorite scene of these is when he deals with a grade A jerk...

I'm not going to say any more about the plot as I don't want to spoil it, but the ending was unexpected both in how it was done and what the outcome was. This is a really good movie and I'm looking forward to seeing it a second time.

Those Who Wish Me Dead (2021)

The acting is better than the story

[6/10 · 10 December 2022]

First - a personal gripe. The thumbnail image for the movie shows Ms Jolie large and clear and the first thing I see is 'lip job'. When will women get over the idea that we want them to look like human fish? And another gripe - the star of this movie is Finn Little as Connor. Period. He's almost invisible on that same thumbnail featuring fish lips. Finn did an excellent job playing a very emotional role. You'll never catch him 'acting'. In fact I re-watched part of this movie to be sure of my opinion; he is darned good.

The story itself isn't too hard to follow. Some bad guys are supposed to get rid of a man who knows what they've been doing, and as a side job they have to get rid of the kid who saw what happened to the man. Other people are involved because of where this takes place. 'Nuff said. There is some rough violence near the end of the story and that part was pretty good.

In addition to Finn Little, the adult cast members did a good job in their roles. This just seems to me more like a good 'made-for-TV' movie like we used to get in decades past when there wasn't much option of watching movies other than in a theater or on TV. The story is just okay. It's not a total waste of time to watch. It's definitely worth a 6, but I'd not go as far as a 7.

My Soul to Keep (2019)

I wish the whole movie was as good as the last part

[5/10 · 10 December 2022]

I almost stopped watching this movie halfway through - it was really going nowhere fast. Minimal story and lots of time used up on that. The end definitely changed the situation but I wish we actually saw everything - we saw basically nothing - rather than pretty much just being told what happened. If not for the ending this would have made a decent ABC After School Special movie - the ending moves it out of that realm.

I'm going to go against the oft-stated comments here that the kids were excellent, acting was believable etc - it sure seemed to me like these were kids on their first acting jobs and the director should have re-shot some of the scenes and gotten the dialog down better. When I think of kid actors in somewhat recent movies, I think of the kid who starred in The Djinn, or the ones who were in Sky Kids. Those are youngsters who can really act, perhaps due to better directing but in any case, you never got the feeling for a moment that they were reading lines. As Spencer Tracy once said, 'Acting is easy, just don't let anyone catch you doing it.' In 'The Djinn' (horror/thriller) and 'Sky Kids' (which is not a horror flick but still dropped my jaw a few times) you don't catch them acting. In this movie, you do.

If you were hoping for more of a horror-type film, check out The Djinn. It also has a twist ending, but the story is a whole lot more intense. If you're more patient you can sit back and watch My Soul To Keep, just be aware that the real adrenalin doesn't hit til shortly before the end.

Torch Song (1953)

I think Crawford always wanted to be Judy Garland...

[5/10 · 6 November 2022]

... and that is why she probably enjoyed playing the role of Jenny Steward.

Yes this movie is campy and Joan's blackface dance number is definitely not on the radar of today. But I like Michael Wilding in the role of the blind pianist who seems to be the only person who knows how to handle the bossy and driven Jenny Stewart (played by Crawford).

Technicolor makes this a visually appealing movie, and so much more realistic than had it been shot in black and white. The clothes, the locations, it's all so much more lifelike and for me that alone justifies watching Torch Song.

But - it is obvious that Crawford is playing the role of a performer doing the same kinds of things Judy Garland did for real in so many films - the very capable dancer and incomparable tune-belting singer. Garland however did it naturally and easily, Crawford is acting those parts though I must say she does some good dance steps.

The real guilty pleasure camp classic of Crawford's during the 50's was not so much this, as the laughable Johnny Guitar!

Concrete Kids (2018)

The basic premise was full of possibilities but it was a rather low-key tale

[6/10 · 5 November 2022]

I've raised my rating of this film from a 5 to a 6.

This is not the movie I was expecting, based on the few other reviews. I don't think it can be called a 'coming of age' movie, for one thing, as one reviewer put it. In a nutshell, two low-income-family kids are trying to get across L. A. to take part in a contest to win $1000. They leave in the evening so they can be sure to be at the contest when it starts the next morning. Their plans of course go awry and they end up mostly on foot or skateboard instead of being able to take the bus. We're with them all night as they do their best to make it to the contest (at the Staples Center), right up until the next morning when they arrive there.

First, the kid actors - they were good. I'd say the taller one ("Sage") was definitely the better actor of the two though the smaller one ("Edison") did an okay job. However I'm not going to give them raves as the best possible natural kid actors. (If you want to see a real kid who could act like a pro from day one, watch Brad Renfro in "The Client". Basically plucked out of a life in a trailer park at the age of 10, he was an absolute natural.) Anyhow, I think the two boys did okay considering the rather thin plot of this movie.

The cinematography was great - the film gave a real feel for being outside all night in downtown LA, and not in the best of neighborhoods either. However, in a movie like this, there are endless ways that the boys could have run into serious trouble or encountered some scary bad people, but they didn't really and I wished they had. Instead, most of the night was spent in random places doing random things. The boys were likeable enough that the viewer would really care what happened to them, but really, very little did.

The ending was rather puzzling. The movie ended in a way that didn't have much - if anything - to do with the rest of the story.

I'm giving this film 6 stars mostly because I like the feel of 'all night in L. A. that it provides. It does feel as if you're really there and I liked that. But if you want to watch a movie about kids who find themselves in some real situations and have to extricate themselves, watch Sky Kids. I think I gave that one an 8.

Sky Kids (2008)

Normally I save ratings above 8 stars for 'serious' films, this one I gave a 9.

[9/10 · 23 October 2022]

I enjoyed Skykids - all the way through while I watched it and I am even more impressed with it the day after. I will check the 'spoilers' box just to be safe though I will try to not really give away any major plot points.

Kyle is a new kid - about in 6th grade, I'm guessing - starting school partway through the year. From the start we realize that he's a tough little hombré. On his first day in class, the class bully trips another kid, Jason, as he is carrying his science project to the front of the class; the project crashes to the floor and is destroyed. When the teacher asks him what happened, Jason is afraid to say any more than that he tripped - but Kyle points out the bully to the teacher and says 'He tripped him'. Outside the school later on we see the bully - who has been expelled for two weeks - attacking Jason, and while he and a friend or two of his punch and kick Jason, Kyle steps up and despite being smaller than the other boys, proceeds to clean their clocks. There's a bit of blood in this scene but though I'm squeamish I could handle it, and it did look very real. (There are also a couple of deaths during the story, one by shooting and one in another way I won't spill.)

So begins the friendship between Jason and Kyle. A few times during the movie, the bully's older brother and friend try to exact some revenge on the two boys - especially Kyle - for the beating his younger bully brother got and yet again Kyle leaves the larger and older brother bleeding and furious, while Kyle and Jason escape. There is a moment where Kyle wants to know how come Jason left him behind while the bully's brother was trying to attack him, and Jason quietly admits that he was afraid. Kyle says 'that's okay, we got rid of them' and I think at that point Jason decides he's not going to leave his new friend behind ever again, and we see that late in the movie - when he proves he's not a coward.

The next day Jason brings Kyle to the airport where his uncle is a mechanic. He asks Kyle if he wants to see something really neat, and through an opening in a hangar wall, they enter and see a large old twin motor plane. It's a Beechcraft 18, or 'Twin Beech', which is somewhat like a small DC-3, a plane used for passengers or commercial duty. Jason invites Kyle to look at the inside of the plane with him, assuring it is okay to do so, and they get aboard. While they are sitting in the cockpit trying out the controls to work the flaps and such, the hangar door opens and two young men enter. The boys hide in the cargo hold at the back of the plane, and to their dismay the plane taxis out to the runway and takes off. Kyle peeks out the door of the cargo area after a while and sees one of the young men on the plane is carrying a gun. This is serious business. They stay hidden for a while but when they look inside a black satchel that was placed in their hiding place (the cargo area) by one of the two men, inside it is clearly some sort of bomb. Now they have to do something. They open the door of the cargo hold only to find that the two men bailed out of the plane; Kyle and Jason are alone on a pilotless plane with a bomb aboard. Seeing how they get out of that predicament had me on the edge of my seat more than once.

This is only maybe a third of the way through the movie. There is a LOT more to the story, I won't go into it but there are a few genuine goose bumps moments . I liked the character of the mobster who owned the plane the boys had hidden in; he is a dad with two kids himself (who he seldom sees as he's divorced and they live with their mother) and he has a soft spot for the boys and intends that they not be harmed, but his much older son worries they will have to be killed. He doesn't want to do it, but the his 'loser' friend would sooner kill them than look at them.

All the parts in this movie are well acted and the story is really engaging. This has to be one of the best 'family' movies I have seen in a long time. The young actors playing the parts of Jason and Kyle are top notch; there's not much 'acting' to be spotted, they play the roles so well. The action is real - in the beginning when the bullies were beating up Jason and kicked him in the stomach I caught myself saying 'OOF'.

I highly recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see a good story and especially for youngsters who could identify with the main characters, the Sky Kids, as fellow 'kids'. I am certain I will watch this movie again, before long and more than once, and will likely be even more impressed by it.

Another viewer said 'this movie is better than Stand By Me.' It IS - far better. This is a better more interesting story, even if not made by a big Hollywood studio or phony baloney producter like Rob Reiner. And on a budget of $2M!

The Djinn (2021)

Minimalist horror movie - I think it works. Almost gave it 8 stars.

[7/10 · 14 October 2022]

In my opinion, with what the producers and actors had to work with in making this film, they created as much as anyone could have. The budget was so small they had to work without filming permits, in someone's apartment where the lease was nearly up. Virtually the entire movie is filmed within the apartment, and they had to do it quietly so neighbors would not complain and rug-pull the whole production. Loud sound effects were added very neatly after-the-fact.

Here's the basic story: Ezra Dewey plays Dylan, a mute boy of about twelve years old. (In one scene where he is preparing to take a shower, when he has his shirt off we see scars from his throat and down his chest, so apparently some sort of injury or surgery was involved in his lost voice.) Dylan and his dad live in this apartment together, his mom having died sometime previously. Dylan finds a book of what looks like Satanic spells, and one of them tells how to cast a spell to a demon (The Djinn) who will grant him one wish. Unfortunately, Dylan will find that it's not as easy as that.

He waits for his dad to go to work (the night shift at a radio station) and then performs the steps to cast the spell; the wish he makes by mouthing the prescribed words and using sign language is to have his voice and be able to speak.

At first nothing seems to happen. But before long, that situation changes - and Dylan is in for a horrifying night as The Djinn, an evil spirit, takes numerous forms and terrorizes him and tries to scare and maybe kill him. This goes on most of the night until Dylan finds that in the spell book, farther down the page, are instructions for getting The Djinn to go away. With some difficulty, he manages to execute those steps and it appears to have worked. The Djinn seems to be gone.

That is not the end of Dylan's troubles however, and I am not going to say what happens after that because I don't want to spoil it.

This was one of those movies which took me a few days after I'd seen it to realize just how good it was. Ezra Dewey as Dylan carries almost the whole movie on his shoulders and he does it without being able to speak. His facial expressions and emotions cover a very wide range, amazingly so for a youngster who is apparently in real life just in his early teens. He's more talented than a heck of a lot of other young actors I've seen.

The actual ending of the story happens at the very end of the movie and comes with a sort of moral. I found this movie to be a hell of a lot scarier than some other recent 'fright' movies which are given higher ratings, and I think it's worth watching. I know I'll watch it again.

The Boy Behind the Door (2020)

This is a better movie than some say - well acted and genuine scares

[8/10 · 8 October 2022]

I rate this movie more highly than the average 'stars' score, which presently is 5.6. I also recently watched The Black Telephone, another movie about a child abduction which I see is presently rated 7 stars. In my opinion, Boy Behind The Door is by far the better of the two movies. There were moments when I found myself either lookinga way or squinting my eyes a bit because I wasn't sure I wanted to see what might happen next. Having seen both 'Behind the Door' and 'Telephone' gives me some perspective.

People have said there is a 'fatal flaw' to the storyline of this movie. Perhaps a fatal flaw could be found for most such movies. I found the acting to be excellent, and amazingly good by the two youngsters who play the lead roles.

What I liked about this movie is that it had a logical and complete story. We find out during the movie WHY the boys have been abducted (particularly the one 'behind the door') which is horrifying in itself, and there is actual horror to this movie. Most movies involving kids don't show you actual harm coming to them but this film is not afraid to show some of that. Not gratuitously, I might add - what the kids go through was definitely part of the story. The one who was the main subject for abduction finds himself with a shock collar around his neck which goes off when he tries to get past a certain point. The boys are injured in the process of getting away and defending themselves, with a reasonably logical conclusion at the end.

By comparison, the only real horror in Black Telephone was that the abductor wore a scary mask. I don't think it was ever revealed just what his intentions were for abducting the kid, and there were so many missed opportunities to add tension to the story. Very little really happens in 'Telephone' and most of it just isn't scary. In Boy Behind The Door, one of the kidnapped boys finds some photos showing body parts of boys - nothing obscene, but it's clear that they were not taken at a birthday party. Also some bloody kids' clothing is found by one of them. It's quickly apparent that the abductors are up to serious no-good and are about as mean and evil as can be.

The boys who play the main roles were really excellent in their parts. To be honest they are light years ahead of many other child actors I have seen, with acting on a par with full-grown adults. There is one other really 'main' character who we don't see until partway through the movie but I won't give any description so as to not spoil things. I'll just say that person's role was played with real viciousness, another well-played part.

This is a better movie than some are saying. Certainly it's better than the other movie I mentioned, which for some reason has a higher 'stars' rating then this one. Trust me, this is the better of the two, and by a lot.

Life of Crime 1984-2020 (2021)

A real gut punch

[10/10 · 7 October 2022]

I watched the first two installments of this documentary decades ago. The second installment of those two ended at some date maybe 20 years ago and nothing looked especially promising for the three main subjects. (The 4th one, Mike, was in prison and maybe still is. We didn't find out about him.)

Freddie tested positive for HIV and spent years in prison, fortunately kept alive by HIV drugs. Rob also spent years in prison as did Deliris. All three came out clean determined to make a go of things at last and stay off drugs for good.

Rob was doing great. He had a job at a drugstore and when it closed they transferred him to another of the company's stores, because he had been a good and reliable worker. But the manager of the new store, upon learning about his past, fired him. He was unable to get a steady job after that. Freddy also had problems getting steady work and staying 'clean', given his family and friends who were all 'using'. He ran into trouble with his finances and life in general and was on the fence about whether he could keep up being clean. Deliris started out strong, then relapsed... she looked like death. Rob however is seen visiting her in one clip, urging her to get clean again.

Fast forward... the first thing we see is Freddy in his casket. I wasn't expecting that and caught myself saying 'Oh no...'. He lost his will power and drive to stay clean, and died from drugs. Then we see how Rob also died... on the floor of his small apartment, from an overdose of pure heroin. The police give us a view of his apartment, with blood all over the floor that came out of him after he shot up for the last time. We also get a look at him in the morgue, including his face which is greenish and lifeless. It's obviously him though. Again, so hard to see.

Deliris however - she got clean and stayed that way for 13 years! She gained weight and got healthy and began working to help other addicts to get off drugs and get them help. She was even named Newark NJ's 'Citizen of the Year' for her triumph over heroin and her success at life once more. But then... Covid hit. She lost her job and her support group was disbanded over the virus. After three months on her own with no support, she bumped into an old acquaintance who (may they burn in Hell) sold her some heroin. One shot, she overdosed, she was gone.

This was so hard to watch. I'm a full grown adult man and the very last scenes put tears in my eyes. We also saw Deliris in her casket and her family and friends grief stricken. For me the worst and most moving moments were seeing her young grandson - who looked just like her own son had at that age - crying at the side of the grave as her casket was lowered. That hit me.

I had really hoped that at least one of these people would straighten out and live happily ever after. During the course of the earlier parts of the documentary I got to know them and to a lesser extent some of their family members, and I learned to care about them. They were not bad people. Having such a devastating ending to all three stories was just so very sad. People who think we should legalize drugs and lessen penalties for those who sell them should be made to watch what drugs did to these people, and their families. Whether the drugs are legal or not, they will get you addicted and kill you. Freddy said exactly that, late in the program - 'I don't care how long you been clean, if you ever used before, you're gonna use again.' Sadly he was right in all three of these cases.

Rest in peace Freddy, Rob and Deliris. I hope your stories save the lives of some other people.

The Baby (1973)

This is one sick, sick movie

[4/10 · 17 September 2022]

I hardly know where to start... a full grown young man with the mind of an infant is kept as a baby in a playpen by a nasty woman and her evil daughters. They live off the welfare paid by the State to support the 'baby'.

A babysitter taking care of the 'baby' one evening finds him opening her blouse and sucking on her breast. One daughter abuses 'baby' with a cattle prod; the other one goes to his crib after dark and eases herself down 'onto' him, if you get the drift. I think this was written by someone who gets off on various kinds of abuse.

There is a story here - the social worker who seems more than a little too interested in just this one case out of her assigned caseload. She seems to show up at 'baby's' family home day after day despite clear indications she has long ago worn out her welcome. She is so fixated on the 'baby' that she threatens to work to have him taken away from the rest of his dysfunctional family.

I don't know what else to say about this flick and I don't want to spoil (?) the plot with any more info, but it's sick. You'd have to be a little bit 'off' to like it. Oh, and being that this thing is half a century old, the 'baby' has now in real life died pushing 80 years of age.

Orange County (2002)

When it was over I realized, hey, I liked this movie

[7/10 · 28 August 2022]

Orange County has been on my 'to watch' list for a while as the premise sounded interesting; tonight it made it to the top of my list, and my screen.

When the opening credits started and I saw that it was an MTV production my hopes really, really dropped. I've seen so much trash and cheap simple minded junk associated with MTV and I couldn't imagine this movie would be any good, but I decided to give it a chance anyhow... and I'm glad I did. There were a few points in the movie where I thought it might let me down and go the way of an MTV-type production but those moments passed, and were actually worth including in the plot.

What hooked me into it was that the main character, Shaun Brumder, was such a likable and sincere young man surrounded by bumbling and irritating characters who continually (albeit accidentally) thwart his plans to attend the college he dreams of going to. His high school counselor, his parents, his brother, his best friends, each has at least one way that they accidentally pull the rug out from under him.

Colin Hanks who plays Shaun was 22 at the time of the filming but is still young-looking enough to pull off the high school senior role here. All the characters are well played - and it doesn't hurt one bit that Catherine O'Hara, Lily Tomlin, Chevy Chase, and Harold Ramis appear in the film. O'Hara, playing Shaun's inebriated mother, has the largest role of those four SCTV / SNL alumnae and does a great job with it, and her character's drinking is not just there for cheap laughs.

Shaun's buddies Arlo and Chad could have been very annoying as not-too-bright surfer types (Shaun also was a surfer at the start of the film) but even they are likable enough in their modest roles. And his girlfriend Ashley, well-played by Schuyler Fisk, seems a good fit for him in the film and her role is a major one.

I'm trying to not get into the plot of the movie at all so as to not provide any spoilers - but if you've ever known a college senior who is smart, motivated, talented and has goals, then you've known a "Shaun" and you've surely wanted to see them succeed. Shaun Brumder has all those things and more going for him and I couldn't help but actually wonder how he was going to get through the story. If I don't care about the characters, I'll switch off the movie or put away the book but I watched this film straight through and it never felt to me like it was overlong or dragging.

Okay, being an MTV production there's a very small bit of 'drug' humor in the story, but VERY small and rather inconsequential. There was not one joke about anyone's physical anatomy, not one curse word or vulgarity that I can recall nor any nudity; in other words, this movie entertains with good dialogue and situations, not cheap humor worthy of 14 year olds. I'm giving Orange County a 7; there are of course better movies than this one. But that is a very strong 7 and I consider my time having been well-spent watching it. As I said in my title, by the end of the movie, I realized that I liked it, and if I can get to the end of a movie and feel that way about it, it's pretty good. In fact I'll probably watch it again before long and enjoy it all the more.

Adventure of the Treasure Boys (2019 Video)

Not gonna win any awards, but...

[3/10 · 26 August 2022]

Okay, this is movie isn't gonna win any academy awards. But it's kinda fun. And one thing that I think makes it neat is that it was written by a man and either his two sons or grandsons, I'm not going to guess which as I'm an older dad myself and have been assumed to be my boy's grandfather, not his dad. I've learned that guessing isn't always easy. Anyhow, all three are featured in the movie, and using their real names as their characters, no less.

Probably the leading part among the many youngsters in the film is Vinny Von Wolfe, and like the rest of the kids in the film, his acting is rather uneven and not great - but he has some better moments and an appealing smile that looks real. (My own son can't deliberately smile without looking like someone is giving him a wedgie.) I guess it can be said that in some of the scenes, the balance of the kids come across as real kids. Not great actors, but real kids anyhow. However there are some scenes where you can almost imagine the actors holding a script in their hands, they sound so mechanical. From scene to scene the acting is quite variable.

One scene that I was surprised to see in a movie from 2019 has Vinny loading up a .45 Colt revolver - same kind of gun the cowboys used - with ammunition, and wearing it in a holster. I have no problem with this but I can imagine some people saying 'oh it is glorifying guns to kids'... Baloney. I'm NOT recommending that kids lug .45 Colt revolvers around though.

Kids will watch this movie and never find a fault - they won't notice the very uneven acting or even how many of the young actors can be caught stealing a quick glance at the camera in some scenes. Just be aware that there is a scene where Vinny handles a gun - in case you're one of those overprotective parents who don't want your kids to know about such things.

This is one for the kids; I'll give it an E for effort.