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john-scaglione
Reviews
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)
Very Disappointing
There were so many themes, plot lines, and characters this movie could have pursued and it chose to mostly ignore all of them. Instead of exploring characters such as Walt's wife and son, his sister-in-law, Jesse's murdered girlfriend's son, or the poisoned Lydia to name a few it spent an extensive amount of boring and senseless flashback time exploring Jesse's time when held captive and his interactions with an extremely overweight psychotic Todd. Plot lines such as the missing 10 barrels of money or the friends of Walt who were entrusted with money for Walt's son were ignored. Time filling cameos by Jonathan Banks and Bryan Cranston were embarrassing and downright nonsensical. I know this was a movie that was supposed to be about Jesse but it could have been so much more. Like I said a total disappointment. On the plus side Paul's acting was superb but was not nearly enough to lift this movie above mediocrity.
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)
Hard to Believe this won best picture award - terrible movie
My wife and i rented this movie last night and i can only say thank god we only wasted $6.00 on the rental rather than over $30.00 if we had gone to the theater to see it. How this won best picture and best director is beyond me. At first we thought there may be something wrong with us for not liking this pretentious mess of a movie. But now after reading the user comments we don't feel so bad. The hand held camera work was jarring and unsettling, the overbearing drum music (and i use the word 'music' sarcastically) was loud and out of place - I feel a two year old could have banged out the same discordant notes. The plot, if you could call it a plot, was nonsensical and drunkenly switched back and forth from comedy, to dark comedy, fantasy, and drama. The only saving grace was the fine acting turned in by Keaton and Norton whom i often wondered whether they were ad libbing many of their lines. Simply amazing that this move also won a screenplay award. To think BOYHOOD was beaten out by this claptrap makes one wonder about the so-called professionals who review these movies and then vote on the awards. Do yourself a favor and do not waste a single dime on this flop.
Thousand Pieces of Gold (1990)
Excellent family oriented movie
Just watched this the other day on Hulu.Com and was very pleasantly surprised. Great acting, very meaningful dialog, a very touching story (supposedly based on a true account) that was extremely well told. Many people today would probably find it slow moving because of its lack of action, bloodshed, and sex. But i found it perfect. One can feel for the plight of poor Chinese striving to survive in remote regions and the harsh decisions that they had to make in order to do so. The story of the daughter of one of these families and her subsequent forced relocation to Oregon in the U.S. is both touching and heroic. I would highly recommend this movie to anyone who appreciates the triumph of the human spirit in the face of hardship. Great performances from Chou and Cooper.