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SteveNY
Reviews
Trainwreck (2015)
Fooled Again
I haven't logged on to IMDb in years, but after WASTING over two hours last night watching it and then being yelled at by people I watched it with because I mentioned it as a "comedy" choice, I was willing to reset my password so I could give it 1 lowly star. The whole thing felt like either a grad, or maybe grade school project, I haven't decided which. It was the same old story of someone used to being single, getting hooked up and falling for someone and then after a bump in the romantic road, getting back together. It felt like it was from 15 years ago. Amy can't act. The rest of the cast was a bunch of SNL-ers, who seem like they signed on because their show was on hiatus or sports celebrities who lumbered through their scenes. WHY oh WHY would this tired story be over 2 hours long? I sat there thinking of all the other things I could be doing. The scene with Matthew Broderick and Chris Everett. Why was that even there? Amy in a too short skirt in way too many scenes to remind the audience her character is sexy, I guess. The dialogue was like from an online screen writing class - University of Phoenix, comes to mind. Hader was a WOODEN LUNK. The boss was nothing else but shrill, like in a bad soap opera. All the sex jokes were the same you hear on Bravo! or USA or any cheesy network with serial reality shows. You'd feel so much better if you did yard work or went to the gym or read something or even changed the filter on your air conditioner than if you did none of those and watched this reminder of just how bad the movies, specifically comedies, have become.
Hairspray (2007)
Canned Hairspray
Major Disappointment. I enjoyed the original Hairspray in '88, thought the stage version was forgettable, but this new one...I actually had a hard time sitting through it. First off, the camera work is wooden and the music numbers suffer as a result. Everything just felt so flat and uninspired. And then, John Travolta,...wrong! wrong! wrong! His singing voice was terrible and his Edna could barely move her face, she wasn't a woman, she was a plasticine sack that may as well have been a mannequin. I just kept wondering why there wasn't a "real" drag queen playing the role or a campy guy or even a talented & heavy "real" woman playing Edna (Bette Midler?). And the songs themselves, just noisy, unclever and not something I'll ever want to buy or sing-a-long to. I remember hearing all sorts of hype about this movie when it came out that it had really hit it out of the ballpark, I just want to know how much money the producers spent to generate that kind of phony buzz. Everyone I talked to thought it was terrible. Michelle Pfeiffer can't sing either.
Training Day (2001)
Serious Storyline Flaw
***SPOILERS*** ***SPOILERS*** Some of the scene depicted the streets in an exciting way, but the storyline was so flawed it took the rest of the movie down with it.
There was NO reason for Denzel Washington to involve Ethan Hawke in any of his dirty doings at all. What kind of killer-crook involves an innocent person ( Hawke ) and then kills someone in front of him hoping he'll take the blame for it??? Absurd! Denzel should have offed Scott Glenn himself privately and taken all the money. All he basically did was pluck an innocent person out of the police academy and make him a witness to a zillion crimes when Denzel already had enough legitimate dirty goons around to do whatever he wanted. It was completely unnecessary.
Erin Brockovich (2000)
Not an exceptional film
The idea that this film is exceptional or that Julia Roberts' performance is exceptional is just another Hollywood snow job. A very surfacey look at the story of the woman in the movie's title. To separate his work from appearing like that of, say, Penny Marshall, Soderbergh seems to insert long, boring parts into his movie so that people will see him as an auteur. "Ain't he deep?!" You can load a movie up with all the film school smoke you want, but I've watched enough Nick at Nite to spot bad '70's TV when I see it and let me tell you, kiddies, in Erin Brockovich I see it! Also, a very lousy job of balancing the love part of the story with the big bad corporate part. If Julia Roberts wins the Oscar for this I hope she forgoes thanking her agent, her eighth grade drama teacher and God and actually thanks the one thing that got her nominated for this role to begin with...her push-up bra. And if for some reason she's unable to attend, maybe her bra can accept the award on her behalf.