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The Deep Rig (2021)
False "Documentary" By Partisan "Documentarian"
For some reason, they make a big deal in the publicity for this video that the maker of this product "did not vote for Trump." Do you believe that? You shouldn't, not for a second. But it's just one more (small) lie to add to the pile of big lies, heaped high, in this video. It's ridiculously obvious that not only did he vote for him, but he is brainwashed and deluded, to the extent that he felt the need to make a conspiracy theorist's ode to Trump's Big Lie.
This video is only interesting as a American-grown example of agitprop. Post-WW1 Germany had the Stab-in-the-back Theory; Trump has his 2020 Election Big Lie. Trump assuredly knows he's lying. But Trump's followers... who knows? Many probably don't even know they are lying to themselves, which is a sad comment not just on Trump's mendacity but human psychology.
Handsome: A Netflix Mystery Movie (2017)
A lot of talent, wasted.
I'll assume you've read most of the other reviews, so I'll just give the takeaway:
* Jeff Garlin is badly cast and badly written for (awkward-- since he cast himself and wrote the thing). Most of the time he's reprising his Curb Your Enthusiasm affect: repeating what the other character has said with renewed emphasis, which works when he's interacting with Larry David only.
* Steve Weber does a great, over-the-top villain, but it cant save the thing.
* Where this production fails is in the script. It just doesn't work. The jokes, most of them, fall flat: they needed more/better writers for this thing. The tone, for the most part, is all wrong: Jeff, you can't just "do your Curb thing" in every production (only Larry David can do that). And, if you are failing, you certainly can't revive it by doing -explicit- CYE references (the staring contest with Joe Kenda-- I was only surprised Garlin didn't say "OK" at the end of it).
I will concede some high points:
* Stony-faced, retired detective Joe Kenda does an amazing stint as a stony-faced detective (it's why I troubled to watch this thing in the first place: go watch Investigation Discovery network's "Lt Joe Kenda: Homicide Hunter" now if you havent heard of him).
* Hailee Keanna Lautenbach has a great debut. She's going to be in a lot more movies.
Act of Valor (2012)
The Best "Bad" Action Movie I've Seen in a Long Time
Action movies are, almost by definition, going to suck. Too many clichés, too much money poured into CGI and special effects, too many grimaces and sweat wiped off of foreheads, too many reunions with the love interest the hero met in Act 1. When the trailer's voice-over begins with "In a world where..." you know it's all downhill from there.
"Act of Valor" is of course a full-blooded action movie, but it's taking a different tack by putting real SEALs in the primary roles. And I think it worked. Look, the acting is nonexistent, but they're real SEALs, and you can feel that in their body language and their dialogue. They're not straining for the contrived emotion as a Tom Cruise would. The villains are appropriately played by real actors, and they do a superb job as well without being too caricatured (there are nothing like the comic book villains of, say, "True Lies").
There's an actual, coherent plot that you can recount after you leave the theater. Think if you can remember what the plot was for the last recent James Bond or Mission Impossible movie. You can't. Because those movies are nothing more than a series of explosions stitched together with the bare minimum (if you're lucky) of dialogue.
There was some laziness by the director in some hackneyed scenes (eg, slow motion realization shot when an enemy grenade lands)-- but you only notice that because the rest of it is invariably so good. Especially so, since this is apparently a first time effort. Plus, there's two directors in the credits: normally would mean that the project would tend to not have the unity of vision that this movie seems to have.
The only dramatic license that was annoying to me was: the simulated RPG/rocket attacks. I guess they have to Hollywood it up with that "bottle rocket" effect (because in actuality you'll never be able to see a real RPG in motion). But it still looks so dumb seeing that sparkling bottle rocket go along the wire to its target. And the explosion is always this big "flame cloud" rather than the real explosion. And the car always has to spin over itself. They did two "hollywood" RPG/rockets, and I winced each time.
The calmness of the attacks, while certainly exaggerated (you mean, every attack goes as planned and no one ever freaks out?), still had a plausibility that is lacking in most action movies. (Maybe SEALs have that calmness because when they go in, it's for a select surgical mission and they're vastly over- powering their enemy.) The battle dialogue and choreography felt like the real thing. Sure, some of it had a video game feel, but that might also be because modern battle at times is actually like a video game simulation. Other times, some of their moves reminded me of ballet: accomplishing a physical task the quickest, most lithe way possible. No gratuitous "Matrix" moves here.
Is it propaganda? Yeah, it's propaganda. It's going to make some 18 year-olds sign up for Afghanistan. That's the only way you're going to get US DoD / USN cooperation with an enterprise like this. Still, doesn't necessarily make it a bad movie. (Uh, it may be immoral, but that's a different thread; we're just talking about whether it's an enjoyable diversion for an adult who's not in the recruitment demographic.)
The prologue and the epilogue, with that pro forma patriotic text, we could've done without. It was just too much. Then, it started to go into Starship Troopers territory for me.
Overall though, it's the best "bad" action movie I've seen in a while.
H.M.S. Pinafore (1997)
Painful to the eyes and ears.
I'm a huge G&S fan, and have seen many treatments of many G&S operettas, and was looking forward to this one, but what we have here is just, well, bad. Not knowing what year this was from when I first saw it, I immediately thought, because of the constant electronic disco back-beat, that it was from the 70s. Seeing the costumes of the sailors and Dick Dead-Eye, I thought, OK, this is a gay treatment of Pinafore from the 70s. Except it's apparently from 1997. So, that was my first impression, and it only got worse. They introduce songs from other operettas (Princess Ida). They changed "Well... Hardly ever" to "Hardly ever"-- a small point, perhaps, but that song is a signature part of the operetta. And it's endemic of this production: there is change from earlier productions without improvement or originality. They gratuitously make Sir Joseph a gay lecher, drooling over Ralph Rackstraw. The actor playing Dick Dead-Eye acts like he's a famous Hollywood star mugging for the camera with his valuable cameo. G&S is not Shakespeare, so it's not that I'm objecting to changes in the canon: but if you're adding a joke to the original, you have a duty to the original authors: to make it funny. Which they don't. That, and it's really impossible to even enjoy Sullivan's music because of the "disco" treatment they chose for it (um, unless you like disco). It was as if the producers were "The Producers" and they were trying to make a failure.
This production is painful to the eyes and ears and you can surely find a more productive way to spend ninety minutes of your life. (And, to EssGee Productions: when you create sock-puppets to manufacture positive reviews, it helps suspend disbelief if: each of your reviewers has more than one review to their credit; you neglect to mention EssGee Productions specifically by name.)
Giù la testa (1971)
Too many suspicious "Masterpiece" comments
isn't it suspicious that all these "masterpiece" comments appear for a film that almost all Leone fans will agree is patently awful? it seems the viral marketing crews are out again, pumping up the internet approval of poor movies. must be a DVD release soon. because this is NO masterpiece. it is the schlockiest of the schlocky spaghetti westerns. Leone and Morricone phoned this one in. Rod Steiger and James Coburn should have used their pyrotechnic abilities to seek out and destroy the negatives of this film.
TGTBTU: masterpiece. Fistful of Dollars: masterpiece. For a Few Dollars More: masterpiece. Duck you sucker/Fistful of Dynamite: a complete waste of time.