IMDB says 600 characters required to review this title. But the movie is so boring I don't think I can think of that many. The movie attempts to show a psychologically damaged Norma Jean struggling with abandonment issues, her longing for a father she never knew and basically becoming her mentally unstable mother. There is nothing remotely uplifting about this movie, nothing that humanizes her character because they've summed up her life as one of pure misery and fantasy. Ok, so that's probably true but the movie is like dehydrated milk, remove all the liquid and you're left with powder with all the nutrients sucked out of it. This was a waste of money to make. It was a movie that didn't need to be made. The writers took a part of who she was and made her only that. I eventually had to start skipping through the movie till I finally got to the end. When I was a kid my cousins and I would play Barbie's and name our dolls after famous people. I used to name mine Marilyn Monroe because she was a sexy, beautiful woman. Everyone loved Marilyn. But who loved Norma Rae?
Reviews
13 Reviews
Lou
(I) (2022)
Predictable but entertaining
29 September 2022
Look, folks, there's truly nothing new under the sun, and given our unlimited access to media we've pretty much seen it all. So what it takes to make been-there done-that worth predictability worth watching is someone like Alison Janney. The one thing I didn't find believable is that horrific hatchet injury and how she managed to get through to the end. There was a lot of violence, stabbing, shooting, blood and nasty wounds which I can't watch but the rest was ok. I don't feel it was a waste of time. The story didn't dwell on the backstory of Lou and the "bad guy" but there was enough to feel her regrets. Her memories made her human. I'd like to think we'll get a sequel or series out of this. Not saying any more.
Unthinkable
(2010)
Well, that sucked
28 November 2021
I just hate movies that don't go all the way. Look, if I'm in the back seat with you and we've got some heavy petting going on, chances are either one or both of us will want to finish it. Just do it! This movie bailed at the last minute, didn't finish what it started. Yes, yes the movie is preachy, we got preached at, nothing new there. At least put a dang condom on and finish what you started. Acting was intense, well, I guess that's cos the stakes were intense. Stakes, as in are they really going to murder a terrorists children to find out where the bombs are? Intense movie with no real payoff at the end.
Red Notice
(2021)
Boring
13 November 2021
I enjoy Dwayne Johnson, can't stand Ryan Reynolds. Reynolds tries hard to be funny and he's just...not. I managed to sit through the first thirty minutes but gave up. I give it a 2 star rating because Johnson is in it and the production is pretty.
This movie is trying to be Red with Bruce Willis. Failing. If you want to see t his type of film done right, go watch RED and RED 2.
This movie is trying to be Red with Bruce Willis. Failing. If you want to see t his type of film done right, go watch RED and RED 2.
Pieces of a Woman
(2020)
I wanted to care--but ........
26 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I didn't like the movie. Period. There are plenty of reviewers who tell you what the story is about so won't get into that. There are a few spoilers here.
From the start I didn't like the characters. Any of them. The opening sequence puts us right into the at-home birth scene which doesn't give us a chance to "bond" with the characters. I guess we're supposed to be awed by the spectacle of birth and that substitutes for characterization?
In the opening sequence a baby is born and dies. Segue to many weeks later as Martha and Sean are trying to adapt to the loss. I actually feel empathy for him, not much for her. They're really not a happy couple. We have no idea what their relationship was like before the birth except for a few comments that indicate she's keeping score on his sobriety and that immediately turned me off her. Then she shuts Sean out after the birth as if he had no part in the making of their child and his own hopes and expectations for fatherhood. That turned me off. SHE made the decisions about *their* baby's body donation to science vs traditional burial, *she* decided to undo the nursery, etc. As if it were HER child and not THEIRS. That disturbed me. I liked her less. Sure, she was suffering but so was Sean. How they grieved together--or rather NOT together--showed how empty their relationship really was.
Her mother's interference was something she could have managed better or dealt with properly but didn't and allowed it to play into Sean's insecurities. Skip ahead some months and Sean is cheating and doing drugs. Martha is drinking and out clubbing without Sean. That's when I had enough of trying to care about these people, skipped ahead several times to see how it actually ends. But really, despite her apparently coming to her senses late and deciding she didn't blame the midwife for her baby's death, I really didn't care. It was too late.
Yes, people grieve differently, they behave badly at times, they don't know how to process something like this as a couple, etc. But there has to be something likable or empathetic about an individual to make me care in the beginning and it just wasn't there for me.
At the end we see she's apparently had another child, a little girl who's climbing an apple tree and Sean is nowhere in sight and I just don't care. My concern is, THIS is who the child has for a mother? Poor kid.
I wish I could get back the time I wasted trying to watch this.
From the start I didn't like the characters. Any of them. The opening sequence puts us right into the at-home birth scene which doesn't give us a chance to "bond" with the characters. I guess we're supposed to be awed by the spectacle of birth and that substitutes for characterization?
In the opening sequence a baby is born and dies. Segue to many weeks later as Martha and Sean are trying to adapt to the loss. I actually feel empathy for him, not much for her. They're really not a happy couple. We have no idea what their relationship was like before the birth except for a few comments that indicate she's keeping score on his sobriety and that immediately turned me off her. Then she shuts Sean out after the birth as if he had no part in the making of their child and his own hopes and expectations for fatherhood. That turned me off. SHE made the decisions about *their* baby's body donation to science vs traditional burial, *she* decided to undo the nursery, etc. As if it were HER child and not THEIRS. That disturbed me. I liked her less. Sure, she was suffering but so was Sean. How they grieved together--or rather NOT together--showed how empty their relationship really was.
Her mother's interference was something she could have managed better or dealt with properly but didn't and allowed it to play into Sean's insecurities. Skip ahead some months and Sean is cheating and doing drugs. Martha is drinking and out clubbing without Sean. That's when I had enough of trying to care about these people, skipped ahead several times to see how it actually ends. But really, despite her apparently coming to her senses late and deciding she didn't blame the midwife for her baby's death, I really didn't care. It was too late.
Yes, people grieve differently, they behave badly at times, they don't know how to process something like this as a couple, etc. But there has to be something likable or empathetic about an individual to make me care in the beginning and it just wasn't there for me.
At the end we see she's apparently had another child, a little girl who's climbing an apple tree and Sean is nowhere in sight and I just don't care. My concern is, THIS is who the child has for a mother? Poor kid.
I wish I could get back the time I wasted trying to watch this.
A Single Man
(2009)
Sad but pointless journey
26 October 2021
Warning: Spoilers
There are plenty of other reviews that can tell you want the story is about so I won't repeat all that. I enjoy Colin Firth's acting and how the story focused tightly on one single element: loss.
What bothered me is why make the movie at all? Alert: my next comment is probably a spoiler. We follow George's day, apparently a mirror of months of similar days, but on this last one he's decided to kill himself. After making observations (potential last minute hookups?) and emotionally sorting out what he was going to do, he has a last minute change of heart and decides there's something to live for after all, when ironically, his heart gives out and he dies of a heart attack.
What did the director want us to make of that? Some sentiment like, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it despite changing your mind?
It would have made more sense to follow through with the characters emotional progress and evolution to a return to living life and while we might not know what will happen in his future, we've seen his loss and struggle propel him into a positive direction. But to cause the viewer to invest their own emotions into this man, to tease them with hope that George is going to do what we all should do--survive--then pull the rug out from under us? Nah. I don't buy it. For that reason alone I can't give this film a good rating.
Filmmakers always want to do something "different", imprint themselves on the map but I feel what Ford did was a cheap shot. I could almost hear him laughing at us at the end, chuckling, "Yeah, you thought poor old George was going to pull himself out of his misery, find a reason to enjoy life again and when I (Ford) did give him that at the last minute I (Ford) also snatched it away from him and you, the viewer. Laughs on you, folks." The actors were great. The story was great. The ending sucked. Just give Ford a pitchfork to go with his red horns and move on.
What bothered me is why make the movie at all? Alert: my next comment is probably a spoiler. We follow George's day, apparently a mirror of months of similar days, but on this last one he's decided to kill himself. After making observations (potential last minute hookups?) and emotionally sorting out what he was going to do, he has a last minute change of heart and decides there's something to live for after all, when ironically, his heart gives out and he dies of a heart attack.
What did the director want us to make of that? Some sentiment like, be careful what you wish for because you just might get it despite changing your mind?
It would have made more sense to follow through with the characters emotional progress and evolution to a return to living life and while we might not know what will happen in his future, we've seen his loss and struggle propel him into a positive direction. But to cause the viewer to invest their own emotions into this man, to tease them with hope that George is going to do what we all should do--survive--then pull the rug out from under us? Nah. I don't buy it. For that reason alone I can't give this film a good rating.
Filmmakers always want to do something "different", imprint themselves on the map but I feel what Ford did was a cheap shot. I could almost hear him laughing at us at the end, chuckling, "Yeah, you thought poor old George was going to pull himself out of his misery, find a reason to enjoy life again and when I (Ford) did give him that at the last minute I (Ford) also snatched it away from him and you, the viewer. Laughs on you, folks." The actors were great. The story was great. The ending sucked. Just give Ford a pitchfork to go with his red horns and move on.
Earthquake Bird
(2019)
Funny thing about words
23 October 2021
In one scene Lucy commented that she'd become mute for three years after a traumatic event. For me, the irony is there just weren't enough words-dialogue-in the movie. When you're showing instead of telling (dialogue) facial expressions and ultra subtle metaphor can are difficult to rely upon for information. There was just too much information lacking in this movie. I spent too much time trying to figure out what was really happening that it was impossible to find anything really enjoyable about the movie. I watched it because I like Vikander's acting and she's good at portraying emotion but in this film, emotion relative to what? I don't particularly want a movie spelled out for me as it happens but this was too lean to be fulfilling. I never fully understood the boyfriend's persona and actions by the end. Lucy's Japanese lady friends seemed to be there to just provide a few plot points, they didn't seem real or relatable. The middle was too slow, the bread crumbs too stale. Disappointing.
Kate
(I) (2021)
Nothing here
27 September 2021
I like Winstead and Harrelson so thought I'd give this movie a shot and almost from the beginning we find she's been poisoned and there's no antidote so she goes on a hunt for violent revenge. Why would anyone want to watch beyond that point? She's going to die; (not a spoiler) and does. That's it. I don't know if she gets her revenge because after she shoots up a bunch of bad guys I skipped most of the rest of the movie and went to the end hoping for a surprise but caught her dying moments. What's the point????? Terrible movie.
Netflix trying to be relevant
4 August 2021
Boring. Nothing new. Got to do better than this Netflix. Suggestion: use only REAL footage of anything UFO related. It's cheap, shoddy work to try and impress viewer with CGI stuff. If you're going to produce a show on this topic at least use real footage, photos, illustrations, people, etc. Ancient Aliens is a hundred times better than this. Also, Gaia's Cosmic Disclosure better than ANYTHING out there.
Awake
(III) (2021)
Ok but something missing
13 June 2021
Movie has an interesting premise but like Greenland, another "disaster" movie I watched recently, it's as if the writers imagined the film as sci-fi but hadn't a clue how to actually write a plot with science, so they threw a few crumbs in the plot to get it going then Awake turned into a road trip to nothing. The characters were unable to sleep but I didn't have any trouble....
The movie is more about a former soldier/mom/recovering drug abuser and her vulnerabilities, which is generally fine, but like Greenland, Awake falls into one complication after the other in an attempt to get to safety / find a cure which, again is generally ok, but it should have had some science along the way to make it seem like a, well, sci-fi. In the beginning of the movie just after the accident the movie seemed to actually skip an important piece of information--where the characters become aware of the inability to sleep. Seems there would have been more buzz about that moment. Instead the movie jumps ahead like we're supposed to know that the world, except for two people, can't sleep and will go crazy and die. Well, nothing interesting (sciency) really happens from there. And the ending? What ending? It is a CHEAP shot by a writer to avoid a real ending. Go ahead and watch the film if you have nothing better to do just to check out that... ending. The little girl who couldn't sleep did a fine job acting. Gina Rodriguez is good a playing a vulnerable but tough mom who does a lot of sobbing like mom's are supposed to do. She's also good at playing characters who sound like they have asthma and no inhaler.
Could have been a better movie. I wouldn't have paid money to see it (well I sorta did since I'm a Netflix sub). Was hoping for more.
The movie is more about a former soldier/mom/recovering drug abuser and her vulnerabilities, which is generally fine, but like Greenland, Awake falls into one complication after the other in an attempt to get to safety / find a cure which, again is generally ok, but it should have had some science along the way to make it seem like a, well, sci-fi. In the beginning of the movie just after the accident the movie seemed to actually skip an important piece of information--where the characters become aware of the inability to sleep. Seems there would have been more buzz about that moment. Instead the movie jumps ahead like we're supposed to know that the world, except for two people, can't sleep and will go crazy and die. Well, nothing interesting (sciency) really happens from there. And the ending? What ending? It is a CHEAP shot by a writer to avoid a real ending. Go ahead and watch the film if you have nothing better to do just to check out that... ending. The little girl who couldn't sleep did a fine job acting. Gina Rodriguez is good a playing a vulnerable but tough mom who does a lot of sobbing like mom's are supposed to do. She's also good at playing characters who sound like they have asthma and no inhaler.
Could have been a better movie. I wouldn't have paid money to see it (well I sorta did since I'm a Netflix sub). Was hoping for more.
Alien Warfare
(2019)
O...M....G.....
7 February 2021
I wasn't expecting a great movie but this is so bad it's not even funny. And half way through it I'm sure it's supposed to be a buddy type parody movie. Everything is so unbelievable but those seals try so HARD to be believable. Honestly I feel embarrassed for the actors. They stand out like a serious sore thumb in a Spaceballs farce. When you come across a movie like this you have to wonder if a couple of buddies with 12 year old mentality got together and thought it would be cool to see how many movies they could rip off with the idea that it would tease the viewer into guessing what movie this or that was ripped from. THE best part? All the comments about it on IMDb :) Very entertaining!
Our Souls at Night
(2017)
Could have been so much better
13 January 2021
I haven't read the book so don't know if the characters are being played true to the story. Regardless, I didn't like the characters or the actors playing them. I'm 65, I get the theme of the story. But the characterization is dull and boring, at least played by Jane Fonda and Robert Redford. She's supposed to have been worried what people thought of her? Her character is hardly lacking in confidence. Redford's character is implied to be a bit of a womanizer or flirt. Yet, he's just the opposite, a dull boring lump. I think Fonda and Redford were all wrong for this movie. As I watched it I saw too many lost opportunities to have made a truly great movie. There are no warm fuzzies here, no tender moments, just Fonda and Redford acting as if they're aware they're acting.
The Midnight Sky
(2020)
Wait! It really did go somewhere
25 December 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Cloony is a tree hugger. A save the planet guy. Which is fine. The planet needs some fixing. But I don't like it when a filmmaker sneaks his issues in on me in the guise of a sci-fi film. You sly old devil Cloony... There's a lot of things wrong with this film and that is just the start. Haven't read the book so don't know if Cloony's vision of a movie about the effects of environment on earth mirror the author's but Cloony's name is on the film. The beginning is messy. Unclear. When a viewer spends the first half of the movie trying to figure out who's who or connected in real time vs flashback, it's a major distraction and the viewer (me at least) feels like I'm running alongside a train on the move and trying to hop on it. Well-done segues between present/past should have me on the train already. Then there's the fact that all the characters have more information than the viewer and they are being very stingy with it. In order for the viewer to become immersed in the emotional sequences we have to UNDERSTAND what's happening at least on the same level as the characters! Cloony doesn't give us enough to work with. Got to drag the info out to the very end and by then it's too late. All I see are flaws and am NOT invested in the characters. It's a very dark movie with no real hope for the people of earth. But then, that's Cloony's not so subtle message isn't it? Change our ways to protect our environment or THIS is where we're gonna end up? Got it. And did he intend for two of the important pieces of the future--two of the space crew--their return to earth knowing there is no hope to be read as a sign of our human connection to the people we love (go home and die with them) or the act of selfishness it ultimately is? Two go back to earth, one dies in space whittling a skimpy crew to start with down to 2 persons to what--start a new population on the new pseudo earth they found and return to? Two people? It would have served their ultimate sense of duty best and said more about self-sacrifice if those two who returned to earth had stayed on board and been a part of the solution and future of humanity. Are we supposed to feel sorry for Cloony's character for having misspent his life? And when he could have told his adult child he was her father, he denied her that. Oh, sure, HE got something out of knowing he was in radio communication with his daughter, but honestly he didn't deserve to have that knowledge but she did. I don't sympathize with Cloony's character. Didn't like him. The ONLY thing he apparently did right in his lifetime was find the new home for humanity but he gets no pats on the back from me. And, the baddest cliche of numerous ones (like the feel good minutes with everyone singing sweet caroline seconds before disaster and death) is Cloony's character introduced as a dying man so of course in the first minutes of the film we know he's not gonna survive. Boo hoo. There seems to be the agonizing cliche where in a book or film when a man has lost is his wife or family you can bet the bank that he's gonna give plumb his resources and find the impossible solutions then just ... die. So aside from that, the visuals were nice. Rest of the characters were nice. I'm not a techie person but that seemed like a humongous space ship for just 5 people to support. And honestly, I would have liked more information about what happened on earth to put the characters where they were in the beginning. I'm sure glad I didn't pay to rent this movie. I sure won't buy it.
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