ericpeterson999 Reviews

Civil War (2024)

Once in a Lifetime Movie Experience

[10/10 · 15 May 2024]

I went in with low expectations. I came out with a movie experience that I am still thinking about after having seen it twice. This movie is a masterpiece.

This is a road movie. We join a group of photo journalists on the journey of their lives. They aren't there to judge. They are there to record what they see. What they see is not pretty.

We share their journey. We see and hear and feel what they see and hear and feel. Only the best movies can accomplish that. This movie does what only the best movies do. It puts you there. It doesn't resort to cheap romance or comedy or any other cheap trope. It is a visceral experience.

This movie is why I go to the movies.

Every Which Way But Loose (1978)

It Is Better The Second Time

[9/10 · 21 January 2024]

I love this movie for many reasons. Most are very personal and would mean nothing to the rest of you. This movie is a slice of life. Most of all it concerns a certain time in America. It also concerns a certain part of America, a time and part that I treasure. I drove down those roads. I visited those bars. I hung out in all of those places, and I drove some of those cars. Those times and those places are a part of my being, and this movie captures them beautifully.

Clint Eastwood captures that place and time in this movie perfectly. I first saw it at a drive in movie theater, and to be honest, I was a bit bored by it upon first viewing.

But now, seeing it with fresh eyes, I love it more than I can say.

Silent Running (1972)

This Movie Has A Big Heart

[10/10 · 23 July 2023]

A previous reviewer said they were the last one alive on Earth that still likes Joan Baez. WRONG! I love her and her delicious voice. Her voice was put to good use in the soundtrack of this movie.

So now let's talk about the movie. Bruce Dern plays a man who wants to save humanity from itself. The story is more relevant today than it was when it was made. The story is truly prescient.

If you take it literally, then it makes very little sense. But the best stories transcend those limitations.

The movie asks what would you do to save humanity from its ignorance. The answer is pretty dark, but so is the world we live in.

A Little Romance (1979)

Young Love

[10/10 · 29 March 2023]

This is the most romantic movie ever made. You do not have a heart if you don't root for these two young lovers who are in love with love. They conspire to escape their "adult" confines in order to embrace their love of true love. It brings me to tears every time I see it. May my children find this kind of love. God bless them.

Laurence Olivier "retired" before he made this movie. Thank God he reconsidered. I remember seeing a preview several years before I watched it. That preview still is in my memory of this most beautiful film. What is not to like about this most pure story of love between two innocent hearts?

The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)

Harold Russell is the Heart of this Movie

[10/10 · 7 November 2022]

What a great movie. Nothing more needs to be said. Watch it. Harold Russel carries the story, along with Teresa Wright. Dana Andrews and Frederic March and Myrna Low are window dressing.

One of the best movies ever made. The author understood something about PTSD before we called it that.

There are so many great scenes, so realistically portrayed. The scene where Harold Russel explains his "disability" to Teresa Wright is one of the most honest and noble scenes ever put on screen.

Honorary mention goes to Dana Andrews when he explores the aviation junk yard. You can't watch this movie without being changed in how you see the world.

The Dirty Dozen (1967)

A Dubious Anti-War Film

[5/10 · 23 October 2022]

I have strongly mixed feelings about this movie. It is entertaining, until it isn't. Every time I have watched it, I have felt like taking a long shower afterwards to clean the grime from my soul.

One can interpret it as an ant-war movie because it succeeds in dehumanizing everyone, most especially the audience.

But I can think of anti-war movies that don't fill me with as much disgust. Dr. Strangelove, for example. But maybe we need a vile movie like this to remind us of how vile war is. I suggest that Putin should watch it. He is vile enough to need a reminder.

I hate this movie, but I will probably watch it again.

Alien Predator (2018)

Oh So Bad

[1/10 · 17 June 2022]

This movie was too bad for Bad Movie Night. Don't watch it unless you want your IQ to decrease. Thirty minutes in, nobody could make a joke about it. 45 minutes in, an opening allowed a few comments.

Dunkirk (2017)

Terrible Music

[1/10 · 28 December 2021]

There might be a good movie in there, but it was destroyed by the music. I find it unwatchable. The score is an endless repetition of the Nimrod variation from Elgar's "Enigma Variations". It plays over and over again, and it never reaches resolution. Zimmer owes ME money for having to listen to that. Watched the movie once because a family member wanted to watch it.

Listen to Elgar's Enigma Variations. That is a far better use of your time

I will never watch it again.

The Thin Red Line (1998)

This movie isn't about Guadalcanal.

[10/10 · 2 March 2021]

This movie is about far more than Guadalcanal. Roger Ebert, as much as I love him, failed to see the movie he was watching. The poetry in this film transcends any movie I have seen in my life.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Chain of Command, Part I (1992) Season 6, Episode 10

1984

[10/10 · 1 February 2020]

Great episode. It is 1984, a la Star Trek. If it inspired anyone to read 1984, then it was worth it.

Ring of Bright Water (1969)

Beautiful and moving.

[9/10 · 30 November 2014]

Like many, I saw this movie as a child. Like many, all I remembered about it was the tragedy at the end. There is so much more to this story. The story is what happens between the beginning and the end. Many years later, I have watched it again. There is joy in the play between otter and human and dog and geese. That joy is what this movie is about. But the sad fate of Mij at the end is a reminder that we are responsible for everything we do. It reminded me of the day I nearly ran over a mother goose and her goslings as they crossed a four-lane road in Silicon Valley. I credit the fact that I avoided doing so to stories like this one. Maybe children grow up to be better human beings when exposed to a little bit of painful reality. Pain is part of life.