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HalBaker_MA
Reviews
Nameja gredzens (2018)
Eh, Meh
Even though based on history, so-so on execution. Difficult to suspend disbelief with some of the actions that characters take. Doubt there is historical basis for supposedly veteran sailor taking over ship single-handedly only to jump off and swim in full armor (albeit scale and mail) quite a distance to shore. Would not the historical figure have sailed it? That and other nits that didn't jibe caused my disbelief to come crashing down. Too bad. Beautifully shot.
Mohawk (2017)
Great subject but under done
OOf! Started watching. Looked kind of interesting at first, but wow, severe historical inaccuraccies and anachronisms rear their ugly heads. Understandably, given history and subject matter, refreshing to have a pro-first nation slant.
Why do non-American (I think it was a Canadian production) love putting actors playing American military character heavies in a southern accent? Most of the early American enlisted regulars were immigrants, poor seamen from port cities idled by the drop in maritime trade due to the Royal Navy, or local apprentices and farm boys running away for adventure. Other than that small number of regulars, there were the militia, that is, locals. Ergo, why the southern accents? WTF? People of little means didn't travel far.
What is with the guy with the steampunk specs?? All I could think of was 1988's "The Adventures of Baron Munchausen."
Seriously, it got so bad so quickly that I couldn't watch anymore. Too bad. This slice of First Nation history needs to be told on the screen/TV.
How about a movie on the Stockton Indians (mix of Nipmuc, Wampanoag, Abnaki, and other New England tribes) and their combat contributions in the Revolution? Or the actual civil war between the Iroquois during the Revolution where Tuscarora and the Oneida sided with the rebels?
Anyway, so sad to see good bits of history not getting proper treatment.
FYI, check out reviews by History Buffs and their friends on YouTube for a guide to well-done historical films.
The Deuce (2017)
This Stinks
I guess I'm in the minority in that I think Franco is maybe the only good thing in this series. The rest is just bleh! And maybe, meh! While the show has the look of the era, the cast seems cartoonish at best. Not one visually appealing cast member. Impossible to watch any episode in one sitting.
Terrible, terrible, terrible.
London (2005)
Terrible Piece of Junk or Unintended Satire?
I caught this on cable last night. I might not be smart enough, wealthy enough, or privy enough to the life of the wealthy hipsters in Manhattan to understand this movie. In that case, let me rate it at face value as it first appears - this a terrible movie.
The cast members are beautiful and handsome so that you find yourself fast-forwarding through it to see if anything interesting, or positive happens (on demand lets you do that).
Wow, I mean wow, lots of shots of really attractive women not doing much of anything. Lots of shots of Chris Evans revealing his, "look at my edgy, hip, arty tattoos that show I'm an artist and not a privileged rich kid from Lincoln-Sudbury."
I never realized how short Jason Statham was -- if he isn't he should beat on the director and cinematographer like he did the guests at the party for making him look like Tom Cruise.
Why does London's character like Syd? So much of their background is blank. They've known each other since they were 10. This may mean they are supported by trust funds that can fund a prodigious drug habit and debauched unemployment. How can someone with apparently that much money behind them not know about the foreign exchange market?
I am sorry, but the purpose of a movie is to entertain and bring about a catharsis of some sort. I couldn't watch this without fast-forwarding through huge chunks of it. It just was not believable to me.
If this was actually a satire, then it reinforces a lot of stereotypes that the working and middle class have about the upper class in Manhattan.
I'm not that smart, but I think it was intended as a serious movie, and, oh my word, is it bad!
Saints and Soldiers (2003)
I thought it was well done
With the exception of the nitnoid of two 101st soldiers in the battle before the unit got there, I thought this was a well made film. Stumbled across it on the History Channel this past drill weekend. I missed the early scene of the actual massacre. I'm curious as to why they let something like that slip, especially with all the attention to detail they seemed to expend on other aspects of the film. This is one of the few films on the Bulge (Band of Brothers being another) that seemed to capture the amount of snow that was reported to be there. I wonder where they filmed it. I think that they must have filmed it here in the States because the woods are not as orderly as they are in the actual battle area.
The Boondock Saints (1999)
This Movie Stinks
I'm not from Southie, but I know it well enough to know neither is Duffy. The movie is filled with ludicrous moments. I don't know which is the worst travesty -- Billy Connolly or Willem Dafoe. The blaze of bullets that never hit anyone or Dafoe's campy dancing. Your choice. This movie appalling. It's a slander on Irish-America by a poser -- a suburban upper-middle class kid trying to pass himself off as one from the streets. I could not suspend my disbelief while watching this movie. I think the only thing that made me watch it to the end was that I kept thinking that it couldn't get any worse -- a thought that was continually proved wrong.