belskoid Reviews

Firestarter: Rekindled (2002)

Watch the first half, avoid the second

[3/10 · 11 March 2002]

How can a mini-series be so good for the first half and be so awful for the second? The first two hours pick up where the Stephen King novel and associated movie leave off, only ten years later. Character development is generally good, and Marguerite Moreau is both easy on the eyes and the ears.

But-- the second half of the show is terrible. Pointless dialog, nonsensical action and plot holes you can drive a truck through. Don't even bother with part 2, just watch the first part and learn to live with the cliffhanger ending.

Cast Away (2000)

Some points about the ending

[8/10 · 25 December 2000]

Although the last meeting between Chuck and Kelly was a bit manipulated and manipulative, their confrontation was essential for the underlying theme of the story: the film's title is "Cast Away", not castaway. And this part of the plot does have psychological truth for anyone who has suffered a traumatic, life-altering loss or change: despite how overused the term is, there is a strong hunger for "closure." This is a very satisfying film , for its acting, direction and camera work, and for its ability to largely escape the usual, degrading interference of Hollywood.

The Blair Witch Project (1999)

Not the same ol' stuff

[8/10 · 20 November 1999]

Have you ever been seriously lost somewhere and been unable to find your way despite repeated attempts? Have you ever been trapped in a truly nightmarish situation that you could not control? Have you ever been dissatisfied with the unrealistically accelerated event time of most films, i.e., the failure to show process? If you answer yes to these questions, then you will probably find The Blair Witch Project satisfying and very unsettling, as I did. But if you're hooked on the jolt-a-minute manipulations of films such as Alien, this is not your movie.

As a hiker and former high school science teacher from the region where the film was shot, I can assure viewers the banality of the some of the dialogue and panicky and irrational behavior so effectively displayed in this film are far more genuine than most of what I've seen from major studios. Let yourself be young and inexperienced and frightened...and enjoy the luxury of saying afterwards, *It's only a film.*