Kurios Reviews

Buffaloed (2019)

writers clearly did no homework on this film

[1/10 · 12 August 2021]

The 'wild west' type of debt collection as portrayed in this film may have been true decades ago, but today it is actually a HEAVILY regulated industry. Pretty everything the main character does in this film and the firm she works for would be sued out of existence in about 2 weeks for any one of those actions. The writers could not have done any research outside of reading a few stories off the Huffington Post. And the inaccuracies made an average flick with one decent performance a completely unwatchable flop.

The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

Nowhere near as good

[4/10 · 18 December 2008]

I was afraid of this movie after seeing the remake of 'The Manchurian Candidate" Both the Manchurian candidate and TDTESS were always my favorite old movies. The themes and the scripts in both were politically and socially poignant, the acting was brilliant in both and the results were two fantastic movies. I'll give the remakers of the Manchurian Candidate the benefit of the doubt and say that they made an honest effort to update the story to modern times but fell short of that goal with a bad script and sub par acting (while Denzell was good Meryl Streep's performance of the mother was pale in comparison to Angela Lansbury completely chilling evil portray of the same character). I was afraid that the other of my favorite movies was going to be warped out of recognition. Unfortunately my fears were realized in TDTESS. The parts i loved about the original were the themes and the conversation...especially the conversations between Klaatu and the boy, not only teaching him about the universe but allaying the boys fears that were being broadcast across the media in reaction to the alien's presence. I was a clear diatribe about fears of racism and the unknown. IN the remake there was nothing of this. While agree with Klaatu's arguments that we are killing this planet and of the ultimate tragedy of existence if we let the planet die, this message was transmitting in 4 or 5 lines with very little effect. There was very little to this movie to like, the acting was sub-par. Keanu Reeves has more acting skill than was required for an emotionless alien of course, but it did not feel like it was well directed at all. There have been some successful remakes, but when you remake a classic it is important that the people who undertake the project is passionate enough about the original to do the project any justice. Its the same in music; so make remakers are simply done because they have run out of their own ideas (or never had many to begin with) so they half-heartedly recycle stuff they think no one has heard of.

Of course its is fortunate in this world that those of us who appreciate good effort can still enjoy the originals. Its not like Denzell's and Keanu's bad remakers have replaced the classic originals.

Stranger Than Fiction (2006)

My new favorite movie

[10/10 · 26 December 2007]

This is absolutely the type of movie that I usually ignore. A friend saw the movie and recommended it, so i went to see if because i had an afternoon free and could not think anything better to do. And....

How did this movie not get any Oscar nods? The performances of Ferrell, Gyllenhaal, and Thompson were perfect, the story was poignant and touching, it was cleverly directed and it is a joy to watch even after the first viewing.

Ferrell showed he has breadth as an actor, Emma Thompsons frenetic performance was fantastic, and i think i might be love with Maggie Gyllenhaal.

It is at least as good as the winner (The Departed--which i enjoyed but did not think it was Best Picture material) and better than a couple of the other nominees in 2006 (Babel was half a movie at best and The Queen was not much of a movie outside of Helen Mirren's excellent performance). The nominating committee really dropped the ball on this one.