Change Your Image
rickack99
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Nyad (2023)
A Narcissist Tells Her Story
The woman who single-named herself 'Nyad' became the first person to swim from Cuba to the Florida Keys, a distance of about 103 miles. This film, an apparent post-covid vanity project shepherded by two A-list actresses, tells her story with little to inspire. Looking on the bright side, it could conceivably hasten the demise of post-feminist hagiographies concerning women who heedlessly and obsessively pursue their dreams, often at the expense of others, no matter how vain, overblown or wasteful the project. There will always be sherpas ready to drag these glory seekers to the summit of their personal Everests.
Annette Bening plays the titular heroine, and although she is a gifted actress, she spends most of the film's 121-minute running time flailing around in the water, often nearly drowning. Four failures over several years to make landfall in Florida take their toll on Nyad's crew, including her best friend and trainer, Bonnie Stoll (Jodie Foster). Foster, an overrated actress with very limited range, no discernible sense of humor and zero chemistry with male leads, has not aged well. Her face has stretched over the years into taut, collagen-starved angularity, and her muscles are overtrained. Presumably, that is why she has taken to girl buddy films in recent years.
Stoll and others in Nyad's flotilla part company with the swimmer, only to return when Nyad decides, vaingloriously and after a years-long hiatus, to give it yet another try. Ironically, Nyad's ability to pull together the old crew for a fifth attempt comes off as more impressive than the swim itself. The movie inadvertently offers testimony to the power a world-class narcissist can exert over those from whom they would seek help.
The film ends with Nyad slogging onto the beach half-dead, but with enough wind left to speechify about how she couldn't have done it without the support of many. Viewers might be left wondering why the crew, including a boat skipper with terminal cancer, would have dedicated such a significant portion of their lives to protect Nyad from jellyfish, hypothermia and a smattering of shark. You may wonder the same about yourself after spending just two hours watching this turkey.
Inside (2023)
Sets a Benchmark for BORING!
It troubles me when films like this get rave reviews on IMDB. Are the mostly young followers on the site so utterly lacking in discernment and so unfamiliar with good films made before they were born that they regard junk like "Inside" as great cinema? I have watched Citizen Kane slip well down IMDB's top 100 list over the years from #1, presumably because it was shot in black & white and has no chase scenes or chain saws.
This film had zero suspense and was extremely boring, as many here (Baby Boomers?) have noted. Even if it had been plotted better it would still have been 25 minutes too long. What surprised me most was that the challenges that thwarted the thief's escape were boring and mundane when they should have been diabolical.
Concerning Dafoe, I live his work, but he is wasted in swill like this.
Master of the World (1961)
Laughably Bad
I'm not sure how this film pulled a 5.9 rating, since it's right up there -- down there, actually -- with 'Plan 9 from Outer Space' on the list of all-time stinkers. Special effects, plot, production design, dialogue, direction and acting are as bad as it gets, but the music/soundtrack deserves special mention for being even worse than bad. This is early Bronson, and although he is cast appropriately, the script, which is filled with clunkers, didn't give him much to work with. Nor does Vincent Price rise above the material, not that he ever did. 'Masters' is worth watching for the unintended yucks, but that's about as much as one could say for it.
Rookie of the Year (1993)
A Truly Awful Remake
Daniel Stern should stick to comic roles, since this film makes clear that he has no talent for directing. It's hard to tell whether the acting is as bad as it seems here, or whether it was Stern's amateurish oversight that made every line go clunk. To make matters worse, there is not a single frame in which the action, such as it is, feels emotionally authentic. This problem is exacerbated by a camera that lingers for too long on each and every shot, especially the numerous and increasingly tiresome slow-motion scenes.
Stern appears in the film himself, hamming it up so badly that he actually makes co-actor Gary Busey look pretty good. With respect to the way balls are hit, caught and pitched, and base paths are run, the game played in this film evokes real baseball about as well as William Bendix did on the mound in "The Babe Ruth Story".
I was eager to see this movie because the 1954 original, "Roogie's Bump," was one of my favorites as a kid. Too bad the effort fell so flat. Along with the Danny Glover version of "Angels in the Outfield," "Rookie of the Year" stands as one of the least accomplished remakes of a baseball classic.
Roogie's Bump (1954)
One of my favorite movies as a kid
I had an experience similar to the reviewer above. I saw the movie as a boy around the time it was released and loved it. I've always remembered certain scenes, such as the boy flying from the mound to home plate after forgetting to release the ball. In another scene, when the boy first learns he has acquired a special power and a 120 mph fastball, he heaves a rock across a river that hits a tower a mile away. In retrospect, I'd infer that the movie visualized fantasy in a way that engaged a young boy's mind -- at least it did in 1954, before computer graphics took our visual expectations to a whole new level.
What I could not recall was the title, which finally came to me when I was chatting with another film buff who remembered it as Roogie's Bump. As far as I'm aware, the original is impossible to find and has never been shown on television. Unfortunately, the 1993 remake by Daniel Stern, released as 'Rookie of the Year', was almost too dreadful to watch.