anonreviewer Reviews

The Cheyenne Social Club (1970)

screenplay was probably written by larry mcmurtry & plot elements used in his book Lonesome Dove

[7/10 · 7 September 2022]

This is a fairly good movie, but the most remarkable thing about is that plot elements of this movie appear in the pulitzer prize winning book Lonesome Dove, written by Larry McMurtry.

The two main characters in this movie and their journey from texas to montana is very similar to the plot of lonesome dove.

I believe that the screenwriter who wrote the screenplay for this movie, James Lee Barrett, hired mcmurtry to write (or co-write) the screenplay for this movie. I believe that barrett also used mcmurtry to write the screenplay for the movie Bandolero, which is even more similar to lonesome dove than is this movie.

Also, mcmurtry may have helped write the screenplay for Shenandoah, another movie which credits barrett as screenwriter.

Mcmurtry wrote a book called Film Flam, which was all about hollywood, and this book shows that mcmurtry had extensive experience writing for hollywood.

The Many Saints of Newark (2021)

Liotta does a good job

[8/10 · 20 October 2021]

Some good acting here, by ray liotta in pertickler....the script is not great...fairly good direction...great production values....definitely watchable...

Old Yeller (1957)

the sexual relationship between mrs coates and bud searcy

[8/10 · 24 March 2021]

Great old movie, and although the clues leading us to discover the affair between bud searcy and mrs coates were subtle, they were there...

recall that the lazy lay-about bud searcy was left behind while all the other men were driving cattle to kansas...and bud was always dropping by the Coates household, ostensibly to mooch another meal ...but there are clues that searcy was also satisfying mrs coates' sexual needs...travis and little arliss never suspected... but out in the barn, bud was taking of bidness... ...and he was doing half the womenfolk of the settlement too...while the men were out driving cattle to kansas, bud searcy was getting more a$$ than a toilet seat..

and a big oafish fella like searcy? You telling me he didn't have what it took to satisfy a woman's needs?

Welcome to L.A. (1976)

languid & bittersweet music & characters

[10/10 · 12 December 2019]

I saw this movie in the southern cali around 1978 or so...it is a view into a certain type of world...set to some unusual music...a lot of people in the now-removed comments section here have dissed baskins' music...i like it...the movie is obviously flawed, but is also brilliant, like the music..remember that we are all going to die...memento mori...somehow this movie and its movie are a reminder of that--that we mewl through infancy and meander through adulthood and then die...and just why did those loathsome amazon execs remove the comments anyway?

The Invasion (I) (2007)

the poor IMDB rating highlights the pro-establishment trends in america

[10/10 · 7 July 2019]

This movie is an easy 10...easy...but it is currently at 5.9 in imdb...and its rating dropped over the last year or so..it was rated in the 6's just a couple years ago...this is a great movie...the best thing about it is how well it picks up on aspects of society that go unnoticed by almost all movies...for example, near the start of the movie, we see how the establishment and the media was almost immediately co-opted by the aliens...and how quickly the aliens worked through the media to "manufacture consent" for more takeover actions by generating a "crisis", namely, the new virus..the media was being used by the aliens to seize more power...and the script didn't even have to explain how that happened...because we have all seen before how powerful entities work with the media to manufacture consent via lies...

that is subversive...very subversive...this movie is almost as subversive as They Live...

and that sort of anti-establishment subversiveness is why this movie's rating is bad and getting worse...you see, the powers that be in this society fear that they are being exposed...they fear losing power...america and europe are...how can put this...being invaded...in a sense...and the establishment is facilitating the invasion...I cannot really be too specific here because the establishment is cracking on the truth...and that crackdown has been accompanied by a massive propaganda campaign from the establishment....that propaganda has created a lot of zombie in the population, meat puppets that are have been turned into ideological weapons...and they now attack all things anti-establishment...things like this movie...

The Goodbye Girl (2004 TV Movie)

the actor talent gap is wide between original & remake

[6/10 · 2 July 2018]

This is a decent remake ...because it is just a great script...however there is a big gap in the quality of acting between original and remake...the remake actors are just OK...but watching the remake just shows how good the original actors really were...in particular Dreyfuss is a far better actor than jeff daniels...even the little girl, played by quinn cummings in the original, was significantly better...

A Quiet Place (2018)

8/10 rating is bogus--fake reviews?

[3/10 · 26 May 2018]

This movie is stilted and boring...all atmosphere...and not much else...got about 15 minutes into it and gave up...but it has a 8/10 rating here...which tells me that there are a bunch of fake reviews...and that imdb is probably in on the game...

The Mist (2017)

fakeLeftist culture-war propaganda piece pandering to the media

[1/10 · 23 June 2017]

This series is just crammed full of any and every fake-leftist culture- war trope--a skinny girl who can miraculously beat up a huge man...a gender-fluid teen, etc...I guess they are pandering to the media trying to get media attention... I just cannot get past the media-pandering and them pushing all the fake-leftist culture-war tropes on you...

Drive (I) (2011)

a vacuous film for vacuous, empty-headed youth

[3/10 · 17 May 2017]

this movie caters to youth, callow youth, empty-headed youth...youngsters love to be flattered and be catered to...and that is what this movie does...so self-indulgent...oh, young people are so so so special...this movie drapes itself and its characters with so much indulgence...what is there? Nothing...

Drone Wars (2016)

not a bad movie AT ALL!

[8/10 · 6 May 2017]

it's not citizen kane, but a decent alien invasion movie...it's primarily a guy movie...lots of weapons and fighting...made from a male warrior point of view.... decent acting--the lead actor is a very experienced actor who had the lead in a TV series some years ago...

good production values...a simple, straightforward story line...definitely worth a watch...

it's low budget, but with current computer graphics tech, almost anything is possible...

Cops (1989–2023)

This show disgusts me

[5/10 · 12 September 2006]

I used to be able to watch this show for entertainment value. Not any more. As I grow older I get wiser. I learned too much about life.

Now this show just disgusts me.

Most of what I see on this show is just the cops picking on people who are not hurting anyone. People who are for the most part just dysfunctional biological machines.

This episode I am watching right now, they just arrested some guy for sleeping in the cab of his truck for a couple of hours while his kids were playing in the park nearby. Apparently he had a couple of drinks and dozed off. Oh, the horror!

And they bust some poor guy who was soliciting a prostitute who was actually a cop. Haven't they got anything better to do? Here in Houston, they won't do a %$#& thing about the thieves who break into our cars for years. But they devote teams of people to bust some poor guy napping in his car or trying to have sex with someone else for money.

Why can't the cops and the puritans and baptists just leave people the &%$#@ alone?

I am in law school right now, and ya know what? I am going into criminal defense when I graduate.

And it is not just this episode. Most of the episodes I see of this show &^%$# me off. Freaking puritans are in charge of this nation because of our low rate of voting. And why do our poor people not vote? BEcause this nation was set up from the start to discourage voting among the poor. THat is how the constitution was designed by James Madison.

Born for Hell (1976)

Stark, uncompromising, austere style makes up for poor production values

[6/10 · 3 July 2006]

This movie has poor production values but makes up for it with a brutal and uncompromising style of storytelling.

This is the story of a man gone mad, driven mad by life and its turns and twists. He gone on a killing rampage. And you will want oh so badly to take your own revenge on him.

Not a sentimental movie. Neo-realist, maybe. Gritty in its own way, even though most of the acting is shoddy.

It really picks up the suspense at the end.

Worth watching.

This movie is also apparently in the public domain. Filmed in Belfast Ireland.

Jenny (1970)

A glimpse into the NYC filmmakers community

[1 June 2006]

This is a little piece of autobiography, I suspect. It is really best for giving you a glimpse into some chapter of the screenwriter's life or the life of someone he knew. This is in part a story of New York City and the film makers's lfestyle there. It is about a contrast between the educated and sophisticated and a simpler person. Or at least this is a subtext of the movie, I think.

On the surface, this is about a young girl who gets impregnated by someone who was/is a friend of a NYC filmmaker. He makes commercials. It is an all comsuming business for him. He is knowledgeable and sophisticated. Some friend of his impregnated some country girl who made it to New York. Then this friend moves away and Alda, the filmmaker, is placed in the position of having this pregnant, naive young girl living with him. I think the impregator-friend was his roommate, and now Jenny, the pregnant young girl, is moving into the apartment, after the friend has left town. Or something like that.

Well, Alda at first does not have much sympathy or room in his life for this girl. He sort of ignores her. But they develop a relationship. And so forth.

Not bad, and sort of a window into time and into a certain subculture.

The Pass (1998)

this movie is way underrated

[7/10 · 6 May 2006]

What is it that this movie is rated? A 4.2 or something like that? No way! It should be rated about a 6.5 or so. I gave it a 7.0 This movie is well done with professional actors and good production values.

It is not clichéd and has several surprises.

Good music, good suspenseful atmosphere. How could it be rated a 4.2? That tells me it is not worth watching. But this movie is definitely worth watching.

I ain't it saying it is the second coming of the Godfather or anything like that.

But a solid movie worth watching.

The Ring (2002)

Perhaps the best horror movie of all time

[9/10 · 7 June 2005]

Well, maybe not the very very best, but it has to be very close to it. Excellent pacing, visually hypnotic, tight tight plot, surreal atmosphere. It's right up there with Psycho and exorcist.

OK, maybe it does have a some weaknesses. Maybe it depends a bit too much on built-in Hollywood horror mythology. It doesn't explain a lot, or offer any kind of substantive framework for how this happens. I mean this is all in the mind, in the realm of ghosts and psychic stuff. I mean, it works, and very well, but it could never happen.

Really, horror movies like Psycho are better, because that could have actually happened.

This movie is just way out there in ghostland.

But the visual effect is simply tour de force stuff. A beautiful movie. Not all THAT original, like I said--in a way it depends on a huge framework of Hollywood horror clichés. But the visual world is alluring. Sort of reminds me of Jacob's Ladder, what with the way it slips from a totally realistic workaday world into surreal otherworld.

Flesh+Blood (1985)

the nasty realities of Life is what Hollywood tries to avoid

[10/10 · 7 May 2005]

And they do it not only because a positive movie sells better (I doubt it), but because decades ago Hollywood and its rich investors were afraid that socialism would sweep over America (ti almost did! But you do not know that, do you?).

So, back about 80 yeras ago, the backers or the movies demanded a different focus, one that avoided the nasty realities of life, the better to avoid providing a vehicle for labor union organization. But that is a foreign concept to you, right? And maybe that explains why Europeans have universal healthcare and live longer than Americans? Or maybe you would just rather listen to Limbaugh cuz you are gonna be rich someday. The Wall St Journal promised you that.

Or maybe you are ready for some of the nasty realities of life? If so, then watch this movie...

High Road to China (1983)

Evokes colonial times and Anglo Saxon culture

[10/10 · 31 March 2005]

Totally underrated movie! BTW, this movie was based on a book of the same name. THat is one reason why it is a good movie--it has a deep background of character development and locale development and cultural development.

THe book, and the movie, both explore some of the primary aspects of Anglo Saxon wartime hero culture and colonial culture.

The book/movie deals with a culture that is now gone mostly. And it is only there in just a trace in the movie. Just a trace of that war-hero-worshipping culture that is now foreign to our mainstream culture today, no matter how hard the media tries to revive it in order to pump up support for our current militaristic imperialistic adventures.

Well, that is a little bit of what is makes this a good movie--it draws on submerged cultures tropes from many decades ago.

Great theme music, too.

Braveheart (1995)

good movie, but it panders to Scots-Irish socio-politics of America

[7/10 · 1 February 2005]

This movie is a well made and rousing movie. It is a gritty movie.

And it taps deeply into the Scots-Irish socio-political background of America. And I would know--I am an American of mostly Scots-Irish descent.

The Scots-Irish socio-politics is maybe the biggest single problem with America, and the biggest problem with the world, at least right now.

There is a massive reservoir of cultural stupidity in the Scots-Irish culture. You can see it ALL OVER this movie. It is central to this movie. What it is, is the idea that fighting and dying for this ephemeral concept, freedom, is a Good Thing. What a sad sad idea that really is. Better to live and sabotage and fight a low profile cultural fight, rather than fight and die as they did in this movie.

Unfortunately, the Scots Irish has bought into this fantasy time and time again. But throughout history, it has never been the brave warrior-patriot-citizen who has exhorted the Scots-Irish and the American people to war for fight for "freedom." No, indeedy. Instead, it has been the rich, the powerful, and the corporations who have used this subterfuge in order to persuade the SCots Irish to fight and die. Corporate profits and more riches and estates for the wealthy have almost always been disguised as "freedom." Those Scots Irish wound up immigrating to America, and now they form the base of the Republican party. And now we have yet another faux warrior-patriot-citizen in George Bush, exhorting the Scots Irish to die for freedom. And once again, they are falling for the manipulation. Well, at least most of them. But not this old Scots-Irish....

The Visitor (1979)

atmospheric exorcist-omen derivative is NOT that bad

[7/10 · 22 January 2005]

This movie is underrated.

OK, it is not The Omen or The Exorcist, but it has some pretty good atmospherics.

What I liked about it was the ending. It had a kind of beatific glow about it.

I like the music, even thought it is clearly outdated.

But to give it as low a rating as it has--that is just wrong, people.

C'mon it is a movie that has freakin' Jesus making a cameo!

I would like to see the less edited version.

But it has been a long time since this movie has been on TV

Undead (2003)

script seems like it was written by a teenager

[5/10 · 19 January 2005]

When I was teaching high school English, I used to see stories written like this one. Script just seems totally juvenile.

Acting is not real good either.

What was good about it? There must have been something good about it--I did watch the entire thing. And I have stopped watching real good movie before: I couldn't sit through Eternal Sunshine.

I suppose this movie seem have some decent cinematography. THe film had a nice look to it.

And it was Australian, so it was missing some of that built-in Hollywood lameness.

Not really something I would recommend.

I rate it a 5.5 of 10.

Enemy at the Gates (2001)

top notch war movie

[8/10 · 17 January 2005]

Absolutely top rate production values.

Pacing is very good. Characters are pretty good.

A mix of Hollywood techniques and European film-making. This gives it a slightly different feel than most Hollywood movies.

Sets the scene/background fairly well.

And as another reviewer pointed out, although the film take the point of view of the Russians, the movie goes out of its way to denigrate communism sufficiently to please the American neoliberal regime. Heavens knows what would happen these days to a film that actually portrayed socialism from a favorable perspective! I recommend it.

The Godfather Part III (1990)

Most movies are overrated in IMDb, but this one is underrated

[10/10 · 13 December 2004]

This movie is Rated a 7.2 here by IMDb voters; I feel it should be rated higher. Perhaps a 7.9, which might move it into the top 250 of all, and perhaps it deserves that.

The ending of this movie is sterling, of the highest quality. Pacino really lets rip.

The other actors? Sofia Coppola is, as others have pointed out, not all that great. Talia Shire? She was never that good, and she does an "OK" job here. Both of those actresses got into movies via their relative, Francis Ford Coppola, who directed this film. Nepotism....it shows. How Talia Shire ever got as much work as she has, I will never know....

Keaton is held back a bit in this movie, perhaps so as not to overshadow Pacino. Not one of her best performances.

Andy Garcia? I am not all that big a fan. I think his performance here is overrated a little bit. He is a ham. And Pacino is, too. But he has something Garcia will never have.

But many other rather good roles for a lot of great character actors, who perform well. Those character actors, along with Pacino, are the heart of this movie. That, and a very good script and production values and direction. Seamless direction!

A high quality film. Almost as good a script as parts 1 and 2.

I give it a 7.9.

Jeepers Creepers (2001)

Derivative of Stephen King, but good production values/cinematography/direction

[30 November 2004]

The plot and many of the structures in the movies (e.g., the use of the song Jeepers Creepers to build suspense and a sense of foreboding) are very derivative of Stephen King. THe movie feels like it came right out of King's typewriter.

So, it is not very original.

But what you do have is good production values, decent acting.

Beautiful cinematography. The movie is lovely; good eye candy.

One of its real strengths is the direction and editing that together work to build very suspenseful shots and scenes. This movie is drenched in nail biting suspense, mainly because of the many artful combinations of shots and editing.

Decent movie.

A little bit underrated. I would give it a 6.1.

Dawn of the Dead (1978)

Interesting and influential, but a bit overrated

[10/10 · 4 November 2004]

It is overrated. The acting is rather poor, and the overall production value ain't all that great. Camera angles and shots are not the best.

The editing seems a bit flaky. It seemed as if there were some glitches.

Good plot overall, but the start was a bit shaky, but once we got 1/3 of the way into it, it becomes something you want to watch.

Script has some problems. The ending was not that great.

But if you like zombie movies, this is a must, as it seems to have had a huge influence on that subgenre.

It really has the classic situations for this type of post-holocaust movie.

Weird sort of 70s liberal vibe that seems a bit overdone, or maybe that was some satire aimed at ostentatiously liberal artsy type in Hollywood?

Rocky V (1990)

Not that bad a movie

[5/10 · 23 October 2004]

A lot of IMDb posters are kinda trashing this movie, and Rocky V ain't exactly The Deer Hunter or THe Seventh Seal, or anything like that, but this movie is better than the IMDb readers have rated it (4.0). It should be rated at least a 5.5 to 6.0.

This movie has some stuff going for it: it has a good little storyline, with lots of local Philly flavor in it. Nice plot complications, if a little predictable.

THe climax is also a bit predictable, but well done. Great production values and good music.

THe Rocky movies in general have taken a lot of abuse, but Rocky V does not deserve the abuse it has gotten here. And it deserves better than a 4.0!