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Reviews
Searching for Sugar Man (2012)
Interesting but lacking in depth.
OK. I was not familiar with Rodriguez before this doc. He has some interesting tunes, some with very poetic lyrics and an interesting voice -no doubt he was talented. To place him in any league with Bob Dylan is a major stretch. There's a lot of gaps in the man's history that, for some reason, the writers didn't want to cover: how he got to the States, his wives, did he have a drug problem, why did he quit performing...? Why weren't any of the S. African distributors asked if they had their canceled checks or receipts from Sussex Records? Why was the live concert footage absolutely horrific when Rodriguez performed many times after being "found"? There's also no mention of any attempt of Rodriguez to follow up the original early '70s album releases with any performances. Why not keep going? Many artists fail for many years, but they keep at it. Something happened that is not talked about. It's an interesting story, but there are too many gaps and non-disclosures for me personally.
The Forger (2012)
Waste of $1.20.
Why would anybody with any sensibilities to the advancement of humanity and the nurturing of our youth invest money and time into this travesty? I saw Bacall, Molina and the Eastwood kids and I thought it might be OK, but no... it's drivel. The "kid" protagonist is a creepy brat thief who should garner no sympathy, but why the producers would want to engender that is reproachable. Besides all that, it's just a stinker script with no character development, bad over-lighting of scenes and worn out plot devices. And why does the punk kid deserve to get the girl? Is this really what we need to be saying in our media? Yes -it does matter. Did I say I wasn't wild about this flick...?
Fireflies in the Garden (2008)
Unlikeable characters and depictions of cruelty...
First the cruelty. Yeah, I'm a tree hugger and that's why I think imagery of firecrackers put inside living fish and the senseless batting of fireflies with tennis rackets is a terrible message for children and impressionable young adults. As for the characters -I just didn't like them. Ryan Reynolds was pretty flat, smoked cigarettes, and didn't seem like the same kid that grew up. And then I'm just tired of seeing women -like the one Julia Roberts portrayed- getting mentally abused and just taking it. Don't bother with this one. I love Carrie-Anne Moss but there was little development of her character -in fact I couldn't figure out her relationship to everyone and I'm not about to sit through it again. And then, probably worst of all, I'm really tired of watching drivers turn their heads for several seconds to talk to the person next to them. Let's work on fresh material, Hollywood.
District 9 (2009)
All hype... juvenile... no classic sci-fi here...
Maybe it's because I'm not a computer gamer, but I just don't get all the praise about this movie. The herky-jerky, documentary style camera work got old really fast. There was no need for it once the cameraman was obviously not in the scene. And then there were a few times when the camera actually was locked down -way too few- so what gives with that ? I couldn't sympathize with any of the characters, alien or human... no connection, no empathy, nothing to move me whatsoever. And the constant F bombs -hey, I'm no puritan, but it's like the movie was targeting 14 year old Beavis & But-heads. The lead character was more irritating than Jar Jar Binks. I didn't find any suspense, surprises -it was all pretty predictable. And definitely no human drama. And was there really any science ? This might have made a decent Outer Limits but, c'mon, some liquid gets sprayed on a guy and his arm mutates into a giant shrimp arm ? The deal with the weapons having to be operated by the alien race -that's old school Star Trek stuff. This was no sci-fi masterpiece. Movies like "Contact", "Alien", "Aliens", "Dark City", "Gattica", "Close Encounters", even "Solaris"... these are so much better. District 9 must be a setup for a shooter computer game. All I know is, District 10 will be rental only, at least for me. But then, I still remember the first "Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Forbidden Planet" ! You know... I'd have given it 8 stars if it was totally produced independently on a shoestring budget. But this had Peter Jackson's stamp on it...