temp-544-612798 Reviews

The Purge: Election Year (2016)

Ugh... just BAD...

[2/10 · 5 July 2016]

My GOD that was bad... I can't even find a starting point, it was so bad. Seriously... did NOBODY consult security or military advisers on what happens in a demilitarized zone? It just *drips* of "social justice warrior porn" from start to finish.

In no particular order: - no white supremacist group is THAT well funded or we'd know who they are. - the candy bar girl... no. Just no.

• shoot them in the head the moment you're threatened.

• no, killing the murderer does *not* make you no better.

• what idiot wraps a car in white Christmas lights during a 12 hour run where murder is legal?

• the same idiot who lights up a drone so it's highly visible and targetable in total darkness?

• if you're hiding from legal crime, turn off all the lights instead of illuminating every space available to you.

• do not attract attention in a heavily armed city. It annoys others around you.

• you have to be blind, deaf & stupid to be a character in these films.

• no, that's NOT how elections work... but nice try.

• no matter what... SAVE THE WHITE WOMAN!

The Maze Runner (2014)

Teen dystopia #473

[5/10 · 27 September 2014]

Insert synopsis (which you can get from all the other reviews) here.

The biggest obstacle is the characters refusing to commit to simple, direct and completely normal exposition. There's little backstory and a "don't ask questions!" mentality among the preexisting captives which is antithetical to a viable, workable society. Unanswered questions is a literary device meant to create tension along the way, but it only works when the characters are in situations in which answers are denied by events--such as being interrupted by The Bad Thing before one can get the answer. These characters are sitting, bored, in a restricted area with lots of opportunities for exposition but refusing to provide it. It distracts considerably from the story's appeal and credibility.

There's also the cosmetic factor. It's VERY hard to believe that a society entirely composed of boys living rough in the woods would have such cleanly cropped hair and perfect skin all around. Even Boy Scouts are not this well-kept after one *week* camping.

Still, I can see why the story appeals to its target audience of teenagers (or emotionally and intellectually arrested post-teens) wanting to see themselves as individuals standing out in an undifferentiated mass of conformists. It's really no different from Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Divergent, I Am Number Four, Ender's Game, and all those other "miracle child" story lines.

Plus with this one you have the high school metaphor: trapped in a controlled environment, a specific caste system in place, the navigable "maze" only available to the best within them, being unaccountably provided with the basic sustenance for survival and constantly being frightened by outside forces claiming that a failure to conform will mean certain doom.

The semi-reveal of the "experimental environment" is silly. It appears to be tacked-on and irrational, possibly as an invitation to see the next book in the series. But in reality it just feels like much ado about nothing.

Overall, entertaining as long as you don't invest too much into the consistency or credibility.

Atlas Shrugged: Who Is John Galt? (2014)

Rush job, with lots of recycling

[5/10 · 13 September 2014]

It was a bad omen when *four* of the trailers were for religious movies.

Normally I see the AS films twice in one day. This one... I was ready to walk out halfway through. THERE IS NO HANK REARDEN.

Damn. Easily the weakest of the three films... they didn't put much effort into part three. Much of it's expository narration, they spend WAY too much time in the gulch, and the New York scenes are rushed and claustrophobic. It's almost as if they were rushing to get it done so they could claim they finished the trilogy.

THERE IS NO HANK REARDEN--even though arguably the best scene in this section of the book is his rejection of the Steel Unification Plan. His departure is the keystone setting off the penultimate collapse. They covered it by narration instead of portrayal.

Lots of recycled footage from the first film. Elia Cmiral is back for the score, but they also reused parts of the original score as well--not just the themes, but the 2011 recordings themselves.

The actors aren't even phoning it in, they're just reciting lines like they're in a rehearsal. Poor casting for Francisco, since he looks about 50 to Dagny's 20, and they're supposed to have been childhood friends. They completely neglected Ragnar, turning him into some half-wit thug instead of the raging terror he is in the book. THERE IS NO HANK REARDEN.

Galt's speech... wasn't. It's as if they took the start and finish, then filled about four minutes of space with the current TEA Party bromides instead of the positive, demonstrative statements about the right of free minds. They skipped the dinner party and went straight into Project F; no mention of Project X. Read the book for a better sense of what happens after Galt's speech.

...and THERE IS NO HANK REARDEN.

Heaven Is for Real (2014)

Pokemon is Real to a Four Year Old

[5 June 2014]

I took my four year old to see the Pokemon movie. Not only was he able to identify dozens of characters which seemed interchangeable to me, but he could recite their relationships and histories with biblical accuracy. He does the same thing with dinosaurs. The capacity for a preschooler to memorize repetitive information and blurt it out is quite astounding.

I can only imagine how much better he would have done if I were in the Pokemon selling business and able to coach him myself, then act surprised that he's able to repeat what I spent his formative years drilling into his head. I could even write a book about it, in collaboration with my wife, claiming that the boy magically learned Pokemon names without any coaching--despite the fact that I'm in the Pokemon business and the ubiquity of Pokemon merchandise around the house.

Then we could make a movie about it, and tell all our friends who also work in the Pokemon field to give it 10/10 reviews on IMDb, merely for the fact that it propels Pokemon.

All this, proving once again that miracles DO happen. Pikachu bless you all!