Almost 4 hours for a movie - with the cricket match itself taking more than an hour of screen time? Where was the editor? The practise of 'over-awarding' nationalistic movies should really stop. If they could've cut around 2 hours of screen time my rating would have crossed the halfway point.
Reviews
5 Reviews
Attica
(2021)
Incomplete
9 February 2022
I really wish the 2 recent Attica documentaries could have somehow been combined, with input from Ms Fink (loved her narration in the other doc) and possibly some of the state troopers involved - however difficult that may have been. Am still seething with anger hours after viewing both, and I live half the world away.
7 out of 10.
7 out of 10.
Summer of Sam
(1999)
Awful!
6 March 2017
this had to be the biggest waste of time in a long while. I still struggle to understand why this film was made. it was all over the place adding nothing new to the story. i know the makers probably wanted to capture the mood of the era and how the killings affected everyday life in the Bronx, but the characters in the film all had zero redeeming qualities and it was impossible to like, let alone sympathize with any of them.
Avoid like the plague. i only voted 1 cos there is no zero/negative rating.
Avoid like the plague. i only voted 1 cos there is no zero/negative rating.
Kids for Cash
(2013)
Could have been an 8 or 9
8 March 2016
having just watched this doc i am left feeling that it could have been more complete.
As others have pointed out - no mention of the Prison/Detention Centre for profit angle, which caused the issue in the first place. No mention on what happened to the owner of the facility who paid them the 'finder's fee'.
I guess that would have probably dragged the running time too long, and the topic has been covered elsewhere already (most notably in my opinion in the excellent "The house i live in"). But still a couple of minutes to explain the root cause (apart from greed) would have helped.
Also - no real scientific explanation on the reason why kids should not be treated as adults to begin with. And no explanation why the USA did not sign the UN Charter?
Having said that - it tried to be a well balanced piece - but the most serious flaw to me was the failure to mention the yacht and luxury condos the 2 judges bought with the money. And how they channeled the funds through various accounts and companies so that it would be well hidden. I had to dig this bit of information up myself after viewing the doc. This would negate the small part of me that actually still had some sympathy for judge Ciavarella after his tearful passage at the end of the documentary.
He did not just 'pay some debts and provide for his kids'.
Plain greed.
As others have pointed out - no mention of the Prison/Detention Centre for profit angle, which caused the issue in the first place. No mention on what happened to the owner of the facility who paid them the 'finder's fee'.
I guess that would have probably dragged the running time too long, and the topic has been covered elsewhere already (most notably in my opinion in the excellent "The house i live in"). But still a couple of minutes to explain the root cause (apart from greed) would have helped.
Also - no real scientific explanation on the reason why kids should not be treated as adults to begin with. And no explanation why the USA did not sign the UN Charter?
Having said that - it tried to be a well balanced piece - but the most serious flaw to me was the failure to mention the yacht and luxury condos the 2 judges bought with the money. And how they channeled the funds through various accounts and companies so that it would be well hidden. I had to dig this bit of information up myself after viewing the doc. This would negate the small part of me that actually still had some sympathy for judge Ciavarella after his tearful passage at the end of the documentary.
He did not just 'pay some debts and provide for his kids'.
Plain greed.
Oxyana
(2013)
Unfinished!
22 February 2016
This documentary seems terribly unfinished. Nothing about how the drugs flow in, why the law enforcement cannot stem the tide, why the residents of this small community seems especially prone to addiction (i am sorry - but just "there is nothing to do here" is a major cop out!).
It appears the documentary makers latched on to a good topic - drug addiction in rural town USA - along with its related social ills - but then just had no direction of where to take it, apart from having a series of interviews.
Unfinished - which is a shame, because so much more could have been done.
It appears the documentary makers latched on to a good topic - drug addiction in rural town USA - along with its related social ills - but then just had no direction of where to take it, apart from having a series of interviews.
Unfinished - which is a shame, because so much more could have been done.
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