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donmoore444
Reviews
WandaVision: Breaking the Fourth Wall (2021)
Fantastic!
Wow! Only 2 episodes left. I haven't ever had a show keep me coming back every Thursday at 3am ever. This show is so much fun!
Bliss (2021)
Cahill minus Marling = 5 stars
I love the sci-fi dramas Mike Cahill wrote with Brit Marling. Another Earth blew me away. Marling's talents were sure missed in this movie. I saw the advertisement on Amazon, saw who wrote and directed it and immediately watched it without looking at the description or watching a trailer. It had great potential, but fell short in the end. I watched it all in one sitting which is rare for a movie I didn't like much. I could see where it was going to end up from the start, and really hoped it would do a good job getting us there, but it lacked something in the story that I just can't put my finger on. Owen Wilson and Salma Hayek were entertaining enough as the leads, though they didn't have much chemistry. Luckily, I've watched so many terrible movies during Covid, I didn't find it a total waste of time. Watch Another Earth or The OA instead if you want a better sci-fi drama that will make you feel. This one simply didn't make me feel much at all.
Underwater (2020)
Underwater - If you fill up a tub with water and hold your head underwater for 30 seconds, it would be more pleasurable than watching this movie
The scariest part of the movie was there were women trapped with TJ Miller 7 miles underwater. What's down there on the ocean floor? Is that an alien? That's a lazy foxhole that alien fish was laying in.
I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
You know where you're going
I would not recommend the movie to most people. It was very maddening journey to an ending that left me in disarray. Brilliant and entertaining, but I feel like a dumpster of melted ice cream now.
The Beach Bum (2019)
A parrot hooked on cocaine will never shut up.
Okay, you watched Beach Bum and now you are reading my review of it. Spoiler Alert. The money dies, but the cat lives. It's a lot easier to put your foot in your mouth once it's bitten off. Do the drugs, but don't let the drugs do you. No one ate spaghetti in a bathtub. Zach SPLASH! Jonah Hill did a great job being thin. Snoop Dog seemed himself. Martin got his foot back. Moondog's wife was a beautifool in love. Snoops rod looked enormous in her tiny hand. Jimmy Buffett didn't eat any cheeseburgers in this paradise-what a missed opportunity. Moondog got a Pulitzer. We never got to see a flipper dolphin orgy:( I took 3 stars away for that reason. Do you like cherries. I like Cherries. I like the word cherry. cherries
S. Darko (2009)
Couldn't they have just Let Donnie Rest in Peace?
First off, I want to say I love the original Donnie Darko. The plot of creator Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko was confusing (leaving doors open and making the audience thinking for days after viewing), the acting and characters were colorful, the dialogue was crisp and unique--all which paid off and made it great film. Casting was great, though early in his career he appeared as Billy Crystal's character's son in City Slickers, I don't remember seeing Jake Gyllenhaal in a movie as an adult until Donnie Darko (nothing memorable anyhow.) The overall tone of the movie worked wonderfully. And a healthy Patrick Swayze in a triumphant, yet disturbing return—great stuff. s. Darko's answer to a comeback is Elizabeth Berkley (aka Jessie Spano) with a not so much a victorious return to the screen in perhaps her worst movie (and she starred in Showgirls.)
Once I got over viewing the movie, I watched the making of s. Darko special feature. First off, Chris Fisher states that he hasn't even seen the final cut of the movie. How does that happen? I think it says a lot when the director doesn't even watch his huge mistake. The funny thing is that most people involved in this movie seemed to know and are willing to admit they were making a tragic mistake getting on board for this what people kept referring to as a "continuation" to avoid the Hollywood cussword, "sequel."
One of the co-producers, Jennifer Connelly (not the actress), even comments about her hesitancy to become involved and mentions how "sacred things should not be toyed with by unfamiliar hands." She should have stuck by that statement and steered clear. Perhaps if Richard Kelly was involved, instead of allowing others to play in the universe he created, the movie may have had some redeeming qualities, but obviously he knew it was a bad idea or he would have been there. If you want to watch a bunch of Hollywood professionals squirm, watch this special feature, it's much more entertaining than the film itself.
To sum up the ridiculousness of the plot of this movie, actor, John Hawkes, makes a funny comment about asking him what s. Darko is about. His answer, "it's about an hour and forty-five minutes or something like that and, and I know it's in color."
In s. Darko, the screenwriter, Nathan Atkins (who implied in the making of special feature that he was hesitant to write this because he is a huge fan of the original and seems somewhat ashamed by the outcome. He even asked himself when the idea was brought to him, Why do this? I guess the answer is money.) In his "chapter of the saga," (hopefully the final chapter) Nate uses many of the cool elements of the original, the infamous creepy rabbit head being, the stream of CGI liquid that leads the characters (their destiny spirit), and the concept that water and metal are essential to time travel, but it's all done awful, and he too often tries to explain things that were left to the imagination of the viewer by Kelly to no prevail which I feel is a big no, no and a kick to the Dick. If Kelly watched this movie and ran into Nathan Atkins on the street, he would deserve an apology.
I don't like to hold the writing completely accountable, because I know there are so many elements to making a film work and a lot of the time the story looks great on paper, but when it's made something goes terribly wrong. Here it's the overall story for me. Set in the mid-1990's (in order to correlate with the original film or O.F.), Sam (Donnie's younger sister that shook a leg at the dance recital of the O.F.) and her friend, Corey, are driving to Hollywood when their car breaks down and they are stranded in a small hick town--a plot point that's had to be in at least a million movies by now. Sam has hallucinations that warn her that the end of existence is near. Some weird guy from Desert Storm is rummaging through dumpsters and just plain old being weird. Another dorky dude's got strange sores going on. All the characters speak in clichés and over explain plot points. I'm not explaining anymore of the ridiculous, uninspired plot.
Using the idea of time travel from the O.F., s. Darko fails to come up with anything innovative. The characters are blah. The town is tired. The dialogue is laughable for bad reasons. The wannabe trippy effects are not worthy of a video game. ZZZZZZZZ. Then I woke up and started it from the point I remembered last seeing and nothing changed--just another bad sequel to a movie that should have been left alone. In real life and in any movie, people should never wake up and start all over again (except in Groundhog Day.)That is bad storytelling and a cop out which the original had done tactfully without dumbing things down. I was really hoping to have at least something good to say by the end of this disaster, but now all I hope is that True Romance, Dark City and Fight Club never spawn a sequel.
Though my review for this film is bad, I admire anyone who creates a movie, Chris Fisher, Nathan Atkins, the cast. Keep making movies. That's why I give anything a chance. So why get so fired up about a movie that sucks? A. Because without bad movies there can't be good ones and without comparison there is nothing learned. After watching the making of featurette, I think everyone involved in this mess will turn down working on a "continuation" or sequel of another film they love; then again, money talks. I bet they all feel dirty now. Some great stories don't need to become sagas and should just R.I.P. unlike poor unfortunate Donnie.
Hounddog (2007)
Just Stand Still and Sing
Movies that make me feel as uneasy as Hounddog did are difficult to like. With that written, I really have to commend Dakota Fanning for taking this role. It baffles me how a young girl could take on such dark subject matter and pull it off so well. She is very mature for her age, but sometimes I wonder if acting in such adult situations perhaps confuses a young actress while she is in the process of growing up herself. The girl does strike me as strange when she's doing talk shows and such, or maybe people tell her what to say when it comes to these subjects, that I'm sure happens as well. Anyhow, she plays a precocious preteen, Lou Ellen, growing up in poverty in the deep-south during the 1950's with her strict, ruler slapping, bible hiding behind grandmother, played by Piper Laurie, and her abusive father. Life is pretty tough for the young girl, so she turns to Elvis music for inspiration and happiness. Some shocking events occur in this movie that I find unspeakable (besides, I don't like giving away spoilers). Add in the cliché black farm hand to help inspire the girl and help her see her way and add some cliché Southern Gothic atmosphere and BAM! you got yourself My Girl (minus the heart and smiles) meets Black Snake Moan (without the ebony and ivory S&M). I'll probably always remember this movie and that's what really counts, but did I enjoy it?...not really. One problem with the acting is David Morse' performance as the girl's father which didn't really work as well as some of the morally depraved characters he's played in past films, such as his role in Dancer in the Dark—that was great stuff. He was abusive, yet it seemed producer/writer/director, Deborah Kampmeier, pushes the viewer to feel sorry for the fool and forgive and forget. I'm sure Lou Ellen will never forget the bruises which is obvious by the fact that she pledges, "someday I'm going to kill my daddy." Overall, Hounddog overcomes its dark content and delivers somewhat of an inspiring message, but it didn't really achieve bringing out my emotions the way a heartfelt drama should. In the end, my eyes remained dry and I was expecting much more.