traverb1213 Reviews

Laid (2011)

Season 1 was funny, season 2 not so much

[7/10 · 5 December 2015]

I really like season 1. It was funny. Yes, it was really, really weird also, but it was funny.

Season 2 - you just really hate 3 of the 4 main male characters. I mean, you watch a bunch of male characters that you like die, and these other three you just really, really hate and they won't die, they don't die. And they won't go away. It's just not fun.

I still like Roo and EJ. I'd like to see these two actresses in other things.

Sort of like Soap. Seasons 1 and 2 were great, and then it just all fell apart.

Flight (I) (2012)

Contrived ending

[4/10 · 5 July 2013]

First - top notch acting by Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle and whoever the actress was that played Nicole. Even John Goodman does a decent job, although he plays his character over the top.

But the script...oy! There is nothing new here. Denzel's alcoholism takes its toll. He loses it all. Been there, done that.

In the hearing - when asked if he thinks the stewardess drank the two mini-bottles of vodka, all he has to say is "I have no way of knowing. I wasn't back there, how would I know?" End of story.

It would have been better to see him stay sober, and testify. And later have many families thanking him for saving their lives, but maybe have him wonder if he could have saved everyone if he had been sober and well rested.

I watched a video of the pilot that crash landed the plane in an Iowa corn field. He did an impossible job and saved a lot of lives, but about 40 people died. Years later that still ate at him; what could he have done different to save everyone. And this guy was sober. What kind of ghosts would haunt you if you had been drinking? That would have been a better story than this.

A Man Called Gannon (1968)

What a preachy movie

[1/10 · 30 June 2013]

This movie is like a lot of others made at the height of the Vietnam War - I swear Hollywood was chucking out really bad movies just to take people's minds off the war (check out Burt Lancaster in "The Swimmer" some time.) Number 1: bad songs. This is a trademark of movies made between '65 and '71. Number 2 (or 1b): use of the harpsichord. Again, a key instrument in American movies made between 65 and 71. Then, there's the anti-hero (or two of them here.) I guess by 1968 / 1969, all the good western stories had been done. (Until Josey Wales, Dances with Wolves, and Unforgiven, that is.)

This movie's writer and director must have said to themselves, "let's take the worst of the 1960's and put those characters in the 1880's." Let's imagine the Woodstock generation faced with a range war.

The Usual Suspects (1995)

SPOILER ! My one (key) problem with Usual Suspects

[8/10 · 6 May 2012]

Let me say first - I loved this movie from beginning to end. Well written script, superb acting, great direction, good pacing. BUT...and I mean a big but - AND A BIG SPOILER - stop reading now if you have NOT seen this movie...

The whole point of Keyser getting these guys together is to kill the (supossedly) one guy in the whole world who can identify him. OK, great. But now Keyser just sat in a police detective's office for two hours. Now there's a cop out there who knows what Keyser looks like. (Plus there's a second cop who spent a lot of time with the surviving suspect too.) Doesn't this just defeat the purpose of Keyser's whole plan? Now granted, maybe Keyser did not plan to get arrested. That's the only thing I can think of. Still - big time "cheating" on the twist.