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The Final Countdown (1980)
I've Seen Better Student Films
I'm absolutely flabbergasted that this film was ever released, let alone given good ratings by anyone. Don't be fooled by the great sounding cast. I saw this when I was purposely watching obscure films, and it is probably the second worst film I've ever seen.
There's very little if any acting going on here. The entire cast delivers their lines like they are bored. Most dialog consists of realistic but dull carrier business (i.e. orders to launch and retrieve aircraft and the like). The rest is just ludicrously, laughably bad. Emotion is virtually absent. From just sitting and talking, to exchanges during death and gunfire, the mood is decidedly flat. You know when something is SUPPOSED to be exciting by the use of raised or hushed voices and possible profanity. Character development is nonexistent.
Visual effects consist mostly of inter-cut shots of real aircraft doing their business so there's no problem with realism there, but there's almost no interaction between aircraft. All special visual effects (atmospheric to blood squibs) look very poor. The film's score is no better than the rest. It's often wildly at odds with the tone of what's happening, though that may not be the case if the tone weren't so flat.
Perhaps this film's biggest downfall is that it completely sidesteps venturing into the territory it promises to tackle early on, and thus has no significant climax!
I don't know what film those giving this high ratings were watching, but I know I've rarely seen such a universally pitiful film.
The Lorax (2012)
Highly Overrated!
Even as it stands on this and other review sites, The Lorax is highly overrated. It's colorful. It's got action... That's pretty much all it has going for it. I'd bet that even small children will find it forgettable with so much better fare available.
The characters are dull, and highly underdeveloped. All mystery and mood has been drained from the book. Instead it is a film of lively colorful action for action's sake. The voice characterizations are so-so. The plot meanders all over the map, steering clear of Seuss's material whenever possible. Even the fanciful nature of Seuss's artwork has mostly been purged here. The few musical numbers are dumb and unmemorable and feel like a substitute for good plotting.
The environmental message stands out fairly distractingly and starkly because there's so little else here to focus on. Apparently "Despicable Me" was a pleasant fluke for these folks.
The Cabin in the Woods (2011)
Definitely NOT Ready for Primetime
What a major misstep from Whedon. This junk wasn't even a horror film. Rather it was a lame cartoon. First too much time is spent on getting the thing underway and even when it does, the very original gimmick is revealed - if not explained - right from the beginning of the action so as to utterly kill off any suspense or surprises and reduce it to a level somewhat below the typical slasher flick.
No tricky twists. No suspense. No real emotions. Unceremonious deaths. Creatures were mostly shown so dark and rapidly cut that they weren't particularly interesting. The only reason I gave it 3 stars instead of 1 was it's dark quirky sense of humor. Even the gore was silly.
The Right Stuff (1983)
MASSIVELY Overrated!
Purports to be the story of the original 7 Mercury astronauts and events leading up to that program. Unfortunately all these highly skilled, and intelligent, if overly confident and rough hewn people with the "right stuff" are portrayed as nothing but coagulated silly quirks and anecdotes. It didn't have to be a documentary, but it's about 90% fluff to 10% history. If you want to watch people with this much of the "wrong stuff", the flight scenes in "Top Gun" are more exciting.
The Pilots are all puffy inflatable stereotypes with no evidence of skill or brains beyond our being told it's true. The wives' story is a sappy soap opera of the most simplistic order. Interesting folks like Pancho Barnes are invisible. All government and NASA employees are bumbling idiots. It all just plain feels dumb and phony. Stuff as enormously complex and technical as faster than sound flight, and space travel could have provided a hefty dose of much needed interest for the non-brain-dead, but there's NO SCIENCE OR HISTORY ALLOWED HERE!
Great cast. Some good scenes and performances. Dashes of amusing dialog.
No explanations. Barely a skin-deep look into the characters. History dumbed down to anecdotes. If the people involved in the reality were as 2 dimensional and brainless as portrayed, we'd still be trying to break the sound barrier today. It just felt like an overlong comment about the space race being a publicity stunt with massive egoed pilots acting as public front men.
A lot of reviews I've read refer a lot to the book, which I haven't read, and my 2 decade-apart viewings of this film don't incline me to read. My own research into some of the people and events portrayed made it highly evident that very little historical accuracy comes into this production. This entire 3 hour monstrosity equates to perhaps 20 minutes of the vastly superior "Apollo 13".
Disappointing when I was young. Even more disappointing viewing it now.
Cracker (1997)
Not a thing wrong with it!
I remember it being one of the best shows of the season when it was released. Now i'm re-watching it via Netflix. The other reviews here don't make sense to me. I do want to see the Britsh version, but I'm glad i didn't see it first. The gist of reviews is that this is a pale comparison, which doesn't mean much.
I remember before it premiered, the buzz was mostly questioning whether the US was ready for such an "unpleasant" central character. I found Fitz pleasantly realistic and not nearly so obnoxious as the press indicated. The show has a great deal more depth than much of what's on, plus a large dose of simple everyday realism compared with most current dramas (where's Bochco when he's needed?)
Currently there seem to be two schools of drama; both rather irritating: In one, focus on characters is maximized but events are somehow super-heightened as to be unreal. Kind of soaps on steroids that grind you down after a while: i.e. Grey's Anatomy
The other is the gimmick show, started by ER, which focuses so heavily on it's supposedly clever concept, usually some scientific subject usually just off the radar of common folk, the characters are virtually forgotten; mere robots carrying on the activity necessary to illustrate the subject: Any of the CSI's, Criminal Minds, Numbers, Lie To Me, and a few dozen others they've spawned.
Cracker was not clichéd. It was character driven without forgetting to have interesting goings on, and didn't try to twist the viewer into knots with every plot turn.
Fitz reminds me quite a bit of Dr. House, especially now that show has lost it's sense of humor as well as the cast and formula that made it great. Cracker was never as brilliant as House began, but then there's plenty of room for both sorts. Perhaps the character of Fitz WAS before the time was right.
13 Going on 30 (2004)
It's No "BIG" Deal!
A lot of events in this movie seem to mirror those in the much better film, "BIG". I don't believe in the "chick flick" theory. I like GOOD films regardless of subject matter.
13 Going On 30 tried hard to be an updated, female-centric version of "Big", but it just didn't hold together or have anything like the brilliance or creativity of it's predecessor. No big (sorry for the pun) surprises; all the formulaic pieces were in place here. In fact the early, age 13, segments of the film feel extremely contrived and uninteresting. They are strictly bare bones minimum required to set up the situation we already know from advertising, is coming.
The only things keeping this from being a really majorly boring film and allowed it to be marginally entertaining are Jennifer Garner, Mark Ruffalo, Judy Greer, and Andy Serkis. None, however, really got to show their stuff and what meager strands of plotting there are here, are utterly dependent on Garner's charm.
Red Dwarf (1992)
Not only sucks, it blows!
No wonder this never got past the pilot! The characters (with the exception of Kryten) are generic looking, acting, and speaking with none of the wackiness of the UK version; UTTERLY uninteresting.
The jokes fall flatter than an amoeba in a centrifuge. Even the jokes ripped straight from the UK version are delivered so badly they don't even elicit a smile.
No understanding whatsoever of UK RD's "trench humor". The music adds nothing.
The whole mess is just... PUTRID BEYOND WORDS!
Ho1ywood* just cannot seem to make any kind of comedy except banal machine-gun-rapid "spray stupid sex jokes and hope a few work", sort. Compared to this the minute long "Pigs in Space" segments of the Muppet Show were absolute masterpieces!
* misspelling intentional
Grand Canyon (1991)
Effortlessly Makes My Top 20 List
Grand Canyon is a very strange bird. It's a completely unique urban piece, where relating the entire plot would fail to convey much.
It's central theme seems to be the inherent uncertainty life holds for people of every race, background and station. But to proclaim that THE theme of the film would be to horribly understate its scope. Similarly, to pigeonhole it in a particular genre is futile.
The film has volumes to say, though likely different volumes for every viewer, and says it all in such a non-preachy way from so many angles, that in the end, i can't even define its central message for myself.
Nevertheless, it does it's business with such laser precision; every prop, line of dialog, and bar of background music contributing to it's pervasive mood and powerful message, that i'm pleasantly surprised, and come away very thoughtful after every viewing. Still it doesn't feel at all stuffy. A sparkling film with a great cast and everything working.
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Yuck
Good cast. Good story. The performances were excellent and there was both ample food for thought, and some very good scenes. Didn't hurt that i'm a big Morgan Freeman fan. Always top notch.
On the other hand, overall, the whole film was far too unpleasant, preachy, and downright repugnant, to be terribly enjoyable. When the payoff at the end finally arrived, it just wasn't grand enough to overcome the feeling i'd just crawled through the sewer.
And for this to be the #1 film on IMDb (actually second, but same score as #1 and with more votes) among far superior films like "The Godfather", "Schindler's List", "Lord of the Rings", and "Casablanca", is ludicrous. This would never even have entered the remotest regions of my mind if somebody had asked me to name some really great films.
The Godfather (1972)
THE Gangster Film!
As just a drama film, the Godfather is excellent, with it's engaging storyline, well drawn characters, tight script, and all the rest of the clichés. In the genre of the Gangster film it has no peer.
Where so many gangster pictures seem to just be commentaries on how quirky they are and how explosively violent, this film has so much more to say and explores the lives of it's characters from every perspective.
We see the aging Don playing with a grandchild. We have the family member who wants nothing to do with the life of a wise-guy but whose love for his father and murder of his wife by rivals draws him in. We also see a gangster using violence not to solidify his position or intimidate, but simply acting violently to mistreatment of his sister.
The film has such depth of realism and is so far above and beyond the scope of most gangster fare.
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Appeal is a Complete Mystery!
The overwhelming praise for this film is beyond my comprehension. While it has a handful of darkly funny moments, and a fair splash of style, it's episodic, tasteless, sometimes downright disgusting, and far too quirky to make a good film.
It has so many elements critics decry at every opportunity as the things which prove "holywood" is completely out of touch with it's audience that it brands most as hypocritical. Seems to prove it's not the sex, drugs, violence, and vulgarity that critics actually object to, but simply the package they come in.
This is basically dreadful sludge masquerading as hip!