Seanette Reviews

Ed Gein: The Butcher of Plainfield (2007 Video)

No resemblance at all to facts

[1/10 · 18 March 2013]

I don't think this could bear less resemblance to the facts of the Ed Gein case if there had been a deliberate effort to avoid getting any details accurate. About all they got right was Gein's name, the deaths of his mother and brother, and the year and location of events. Most of the principal characters are not historically correct, Gein was NOT known to have killed men or young women (the only two he's known to have killed were both middle-aged and similar to his late mother), he did NOT have an accomplice, and the personality and physical type for Gein are all wrong. Then there were the problems with sound quality, cinematography, etc. Even on an HDTV, it was very hard to make out what was going on in some pivotal scenes due to very poor lighting and photography and dialog was hard to understand (and just why were the young deputy's mother and girlfriend so Southern when they were both residents of Wisconsin and the girlfriend's father did not sound Southern?)

I would really like to get back the hour and a half I wasted on this.

Special Bulletin (1983 TV Movie)

Effective and memorable

[28 September 2004]

I saw about the last 20 minutes of a rerun at about 3am, without the precautionary warnings used in the original airing, and still remember how believable and intensely effective the movie was. Based on what I saw of it and remember after about 15 years [I probably saw this in the late 80s or very early 90s], very well done. I might even add it to my "to rent" list so I can see the whole thing :-). I even woke my grandfather [I was living in his house at the time] to ask him if we knew anyone in Charleston. Once we worked out that it had only been a movie, he was sympathetically amused. His sister had been taken in by the War of the Worlds radio broadcast, so he apparently readily understood how easy it had been for me to be confused by an apparent newscast with no commercials or warnings.

I Bury the Living (1958)

Good concept, but not for a movie

[6/10 · 15 November 2002]

Interesting concept, not badly done, but it's really not something you can stretch into a feature film [even 80 minutes]. This would have been just fine as an episode of "Twilight Zone" or "Tales From the Darkside", I think.

Kannibal (2001 Video)

Wish I could have given it a lower rating

[1/10 · 31 October 2002]

Absolute garbage. The "plot" is incoherent, sound quality is so bad that dialogue is unintelligible, background music choices are bizarre at best [such as in the opening sequence, with several police cars rushing to their destination on a rainy night with lights and sirens, with bright, sprightly, cheerful music playing], the music tends to be so loud that it drowns out dialogue [which is probably a good thing. Judging by the garbled "plot", the "writing" was so bad that a better result could have been achieved by throwing alphabet soup at blank paper] and the "actors" seem to be sleepwalking or to hate the movie about as much as the audience does.

2001: A Space Travesty (2000)

A total disappointment

[1/10 · 31 October 2002]

This was a total disappointment to me. IMO, it was basically "all the cliches of every Leslie Nielsen movie", *minus* the customary intelligence and humor. I can't recommend this one, even to other diehard Leslie Nielsen fans.

The Borrowers (1997)

Nice adaptation, well worth watching

[12 May 1999]

I loved the "Borrowers" books when I was a kid, and the movie is a quite good adaptation of the concept. There were a few minor bafflements [such as what time period the movie was supposed to be in, and where it was set], but those aren't major. Overall, quite enjoyable.

Down Periscope (1996)

No-brainer light fun, and good at it

[12 May 1999]

OK, it's a no-thought-required farce, with some fairly cheap laughs [such as the running joke about Dodge's tattoo], but it's great when you just want a good laugh that doesn't require a great deal of mental effort. [Maybe someone should have told Pascal about decaf? :-)]

Tarzan the Ape Man (1981)

Absolutely horrible, even for Bo Derek

[1 May 1999]

I have NO idea HOW John Derek got away with calling this "movie" "Tarzan", when the title character was not even close to being the major character. If he'd called it "Jane", that would have at least been somewhat more honest about the focus of the "movie". Not that that would have helped much. Nothing could have helped this waste of film. I saw this ONCE, eighteen years ago, and still shudder at the memory.