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Old_Bald_Eagle
Reviews
NCIS: Los Angeles: Missing (2010)
Missing: The Entire Episode Is A Spoiler
I don't consider NCIS to be award winning drama, but at least it's usually entertaining in a mind candy sort of way. NCIS- Los Angeles tries to capitalize on the original show's popularity, by adding more glitz and glamor. The good guys ride around in a big-assed Cadillac SUV, have all of the high tech gizmos and work in artsy Pier One decorated offices. That's about all it has going for it.
I cannot believe how many clichés they managed to pack into one hour in the episode "Missing". The plot is senseless, the dialogue is abysmal, the staging is textbbok D-grade action TV, the acting is heavy handed, even the background music sucks. This is the worst television drama I've seen in at least ten years. Everyone involved in this dismal production should be embarrassed. I wasted one hour of my life in sheer disbelief. Worst of all, it looks like a two-parter. I won't waste another minute on it.
The Last Templar (2009)
The Da Vinci Code Light...Very, Very Light
The story line isn't so bad, but just about everything else in this TV flick is. Uninspired acting, stereotypical characters and sophomoric writing all wrapped up in a series of trite clichés. You also get mediocre sound and lighting plus capricious editing at no extra charge along with memorable lines like, "I don't know what to believe anymore" and "Mom, you've always told me to follow my dreams".
The main characters, Mira Sorvino and Scott Foley, which you expect to develop some sexual tension never really connect. The dialog between them seem to be mostly flippant one liners and stock "detective speak" plucked from rejected episodes of CSI. You wonder why some of the other characters, like Anthony Lemke are even part of the story. They just seem extraneous.
The promos lured me in and I suffered through the first night, but will skip the finale.
Seven Pounds (2008)
It's Just Another Chick Flick
I haven't been so disappointed by a movie in a long, long time. I like Will Smith. I was looking forward to a poignant drama about interpersonal relationships. I had such high hopes. Instead I got a series of disjointed vignettes that lethargically drag from one clichéd scene to another. Arrrggghhhhh! It reminds me of the self-glorifying pap that Kevin Costner started cranking out after Dances With Wolves.
Cliché #1: Will Smith's character is a charismatic aerospace engineer who has it all
making big bucks as a captain of industry, sports car, beach house, beautiful girlfriend, but his work consumes all of his time. Cliché #2: He is tormented by the tragic death of his girlfriend in a spectacular slow-motion car crash. Cliché #3: Sporadic flashbacks that give you glimpses of his past. Cliché #4: Rosario Dawson's character is an alluring yet fragile single girl plagued by a life threatening illness. Cliché #6: Even though she has no visible means of support, she lives quite comfortably in a charmingly decorated, cutesy L.A. cottage. Cliché #7: Her illness prevents her from pursuing her creative passion as a graphic designer. Cliché #8: She has a dog. Cliché #9: Will Smith rescues her. Cliché #10: They fall in love. Cliché #11: Their love is doomed.
So for almost two hours Will Smith mopes from cliché to cliché, and his reflective looks of anguish become increasingly annoying. Okay, okay, he's haunted by his girlfriend's death. I get the picture, let's move along or at least find some other way to express it besides an another lingering shot of Smith's pained and brooding mug.
Dawson's character is slowly dying, but in a wistful and romantic sort of way. With mounting bills and no income she apparently lives at ease with a ginormous Great Dane that would eat any normal family out of house and home within a week or two. What little spare cash she has at her disposal is spent on candles and flowers and her illness flares and fades according to the convenience of the script.
Other cast members pop-up intermittently in vague reference to Smith's character, but you never get any real feeling of who they are. Some are benefactors of Smith's good will, including a Hispanic woman with two kids stuck in an abusive relationship. Her salvation comes when Smith signs over his beach house to her and sends her on her way behind the wheel of an old minivan. Never mind the fact that she has probably never driven a car before and like Dawson's character has no job or source of income. How on earth will she ever pay the property tax bill on a beachfront home in Malibu? And so it goes. The situations are improbable and the characters unbelievable. As a result you never make any emotional connection with the film. It's not that the movie's premise is ill conceived or the acting is bad. It just could have been so much better, so much more.
Comanche Moon (2008)
A Major Disappointment
Wow...as a big fan of Larry McMurtry western tales and the Lonesome Dove series in particular, I was s-o-o-o looking forward to Comanche Moon. What a tremendous letdown. Maybe my expectations were set too high because of the all around excellence of Lonesome Dove...the story, the characters, the cinematography, the music...it all worked.
Comanche Moon by comparison comes across like a bad Saturday Night Live skit. The characters are completely colorless, the dialogue is babble and the plot meanders mindlessly all over the place. It seems like the actors are all reading from TelePrompTers. I couldn't relate to any of the characters, good guys, bad guys, not even the incidental characters. David Midthunder's performance stands out in particular. It looks like it was plucked out of an eighth grade middle school performance. I'm sorry, I'd like to find something positive to say about Comanche Moon, but I just can't do it. There's nothing there.