adbrown100 Reviews

Oppenheimer (I) (2023)

Confusion

[1/10 · 24 December 2023]

It seems like Nolan read the book American Prometheus on Oppenheimer, the overseer of the Atomic bomb project, and then tore out the pages and reshuffled them in a waste basket, the result being a script for his 3-hour dirge, Oppenheimer. Adding insult to the confusion of the film with its mind numbing dialog was that the movie ended with whimper instead of an expected BANG, namely the Bang of the A bomb explosions over Hiroshima and Nagasaki never seen in the movie. The official excuse according to Nolan was it would have distracted from the interior point of view of Oppenheimer. But really, I suspect it was worries about the Japanese film market where the film was initially banned.

If any movie ever needed events presented in chronological order for those unfamiliar with the history, this movie was it. What the viewer got was confusing flashbacks and flash-forwards of critical plot points, enough to make your head spin.

Also Nolan should have used ID supers for the names of the many historical figures presented, mostly unidentified. Actually, you probably need a program guide to follow this movie.

While the Irish Actor Cillian Murphy was flawless in portraying Oppenheimer, the average movie goer should save his money and watch the movie Fat Man and Little Boy (1989) in order to understand what really happened in the building of the atom bomb and its controversial usage.

Or better yet read American Prometheus. Just don't tear the pages out.

Yellowstone (2018– )

Repackaging the Myths

[1/10 · 1 November 2023]

Yellowstone: repackages all of old clichés about ranch life and cowboys in the wild wild west except updated to show a new cast of villains such as land developers, Indian casinos, and billionaires occupying their mansions only a few weeks a year. All of that threatening the demise of the Yellowstone Ranch run by an aged Kevin Costner his a gang of cowboy thugs. Anybody who cares to look around where much of this series was shot, can see the extensive, low rent development of Bozman and understand this is where Montana is headed.

Also portrayed are women as doormats in a machismo society or the occasional tough girl who can out cowboy the cowboys. Add to that the rare sexy hustler that can outsmart everybody.

Nightcrawler (2014)

Close to the truth

[10/10 · 2 November 2014]

While certainly exaggerated at various points, Nightcrawler strikes close to the truth about local TV News. I should know. I spent thirty four years in local TV news in major markets as a writer/ producer, much of that time dealing with "stringer" film or tape of overnight mayhem and tragedy. Of course part of my job was to clean it up somewhat so it could be presented on the air with the most obscene gore deleted. Nonetheless, if "it bled it led" was and is a universal truism in local TV news. Some of the stringers that I worked with were truly weird, others quite professional just doing an overnight job cheaper than a regular TV crew. After watching this movie, I felt like I had spent a day at work.

Nebraska (2013)

An invitation to depression

[5/10 · 19 December 2013]

After viewing Nebraska, I was left wondering if everybody depicted in the movie was on depression medication. This is a slow moving, tedious movie that purports to be a slice of life on the Nebraska plains. Adding to the dreary atmosphere is the fact that it is shot in black and white. Of course, it is well acted by Bruce Dern as an aged and senile Woody Grant. Also kudos go to Will Forte as his son David Grant and especially to June Squibb as Woody Grant's feisty wife. Still, the film is largely a wasted effort by director Alexander Payne and also a distortion what life is really like in small town Nebraska. It depicts these Nebraskans as mostly taciturn depressives who spend most of their time in seedy bars sipping Bud Light or in dreary living rooms watching endless football on television. Nobody seems to work on a farm although this is essentially prosperous farm country. Woody's relatives and old friends are only roused to action upon learning that Woody might be winning a million bucks. Then they all start hitting him up for a loan or demand that he settle some long ago imagined debt. Nevertheless, if you enjoy endless driving shots along the Interstates and gravel-covered secondary roads of Nebraska, then this movie might be for you. Of course, the motivating force in what is essentially a road movie is transporting Woody Grant to Lincoln Nebraska from Billings Montana so that he can collect his one million dollar prize that he thinks he has won in a sweepstakes contest. Needless to say, the ending is a letdown. Woody has won nothing but his dutiful son David buys him a used pickup truck as a consolation prize. The last scene in the movie has Woody driving his truck triumphantly down the main street of his old hometown.

Before Midnight (2013)

Headache

[1/10 · 10 June 2013]

If you really like fighting with your spouse for two hours, then this movie is for you. When Delpy and Hawke aren't arguing, they are throwing around cheap, pop culture observations about feminism, careerism, child rearing, divorce, literature and philosophy. The Greek scenery is just a silent backdrop to their incessant prattling. The movie could have as well been filmed in Peoria. The first and second movie in this trilogy, Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, had charm and some dramatic interest, plus European settings that related to the plot and action. Aside from a long dinner table conversation with some other couples that was humorous and stimulating, Before Midnight was essentially boring and pointless.

Amour (2012)

Depressing

[3/10 · 22 January 2013]

If you are in the mood to be thoroughly depressed or are obsessed by old-age and dying, this is the movie for you. Although well-acted, this is a simple and predictable tale of an old woman suffering a stroke, becoming demented and dying, tended by her "loving" husband in their Parisian apartment. The movie is too long and besides depressing, boring. You almost wish he had reached for the pillow a half hour earlier. We treat our dying pets better than we treat our dying humans. This side note,the director, Michael Haneke, seems to be in love with unnecessarily long, lingering shots of empty rooms, hallways and stairwells which probably add a good twenty minutes to the film.

Rust and Bone (2012)

Implausible

[4/10 · 14 January 2013]

This is a movie based on the implausible. Although well-acted by Marion Cotillard and Matthias Schoenaerts, the story doesn't make much sense. First, why would a marine animal trainer hang out in a raunchy dance club apparently waiting for a pick up? And then be attracted to a thuggish bouncer after he saves her from bar fight? Marine animal trainers are generally well educated, animal loving people who usually stick with their own kind. This is especially true in class-conscious France.

Second, the likelihood of an Orca whale not only jamming into a performance float and then apparently biting the legs of a trainer is highly unlikely but not unheard of.

Then next question is why would an insensitive slug such as Ali waste his time with legless Stephanie when all he is really interested in is quick scores? Oh, the more intellectual critics would say it's a meeting of two wounded people. Ali, the emotionally wounded and Stephanie the physically wounded. That makes a nice movie rationale but is basically BS. He's a lower class brute who ignores and then abandons his son and she's a middle class professional apparently looking for love in all the wrong places.

The movie did show French life in basement of society with Ali working as a security guard, fighting as an amateur boxer. His brother-in law as truck driver, his sister a store cashier living in a seedy apartment on the Riviera. Barely any time is spent exploring the life and world of an marine animal trainer which is where the film should have focused.

Kudos, though, to the legless special effects. Well done.

The Impossible (2012)

A true story that begins with a lie

[3/10 · 4 January 2013]

In "The Impossible," we are presented with a nice, blonde, sun-kissed English family (the Bennetts) when it fact the real family that the film is based on is a dark-haired, Spanish family, (the Belons.) This is even more mind-boggling when you realize that the director, Juan Antonio Bayona is a Spaniard. So much for verisimilitude.

The movie opens with the happy English family arriving at a plush Thai seaside resort and settling in for fun and games on a pristine beach with gin clear waters and later lounging at pool side. But wait! There's a distant rumble growing louder but only Maria (Naomi Watts) seems to notice it. Then with a crash, the wall of water arrives and all hell breaks loose. By some miracle the Bennett family including the three sons survives the tsunami after being tossed about amid the debris with only Maria suffering a serious leg injury. After the water recedes, we see the extent of the destruction, (real footage of the devastation?). But the only bodies or injured people that we see are fellow European tourists. Not one recognizable Thai local. And so the movie goes featuring only white tourists and their various travails. The Bennett family after wandering about and split up for a couple of days finally locate each other. After Maria has a life saving operation on her leg, the Bennets fly off in a chartered jet leaving the mess and the thousands of local dead behind them. Once again, white privilege counts for everything and the locals are left to fend for themselves.

Django Unchained (2012)

An obnoxious, racist screed of pre-civil war history

[1/10 · 28 December 2012]

Quentin Tarantino needs to undergo some serious rehab before directing another movie. This movie was as racist as it gets with the gratuitous use of the N word and the over-hyped violence of white men torturing and killing black men and black men taking vengeance on white men. Historically, the film is schizophrenic jumping from what appears to be the 1880s in the mountainous West, right down to the costumes and the weapons to the ol' southern plantation life of the pre-civil war twenty five-years earlier. (With shots of hilly California thrown in for good measure.) The only saving grace of this movie is Christoph Waltz as the German bounty hunter and Jamie Foxx looking uncomfortable on horseback. For the life of me, I don't understand what prompted Leon DiCaprio to take part in this fraud.