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Waldimore
Reviews
Fair Play (2023)
It ain't Billions... SPOILERS
I thought this film was going to be a cut throat exploration into the world of finance. Instead, it was a relationship exploration into what happens to the male ego when she gets the promotion he wants after they get engaged. Their relationship, of course, is against the workplace rules. Then upon getting the job, the boss shares that they're hoping her fiance quits because he has no future at the company and if he doesn't in due time he will be cut. She doesn't tell him. Instead pumps him up in the belief that she's going help him get a promotion. Of course, he is all kind of desperate to prove his worth and makes mistakes in his eagerness. This is where he starts to tear her down professionally at home. She gets all kind of pissed, which leads him to ultimately accuse her of stealing his job and that the only reason she got it was because she f'd for it. This is where I would have thrown the engagement ring in his face. But instead she finally blurts out the truth of his status and naturally he thinks she's lying. He goes off on a bender for 2 days, but not before humiliating himself on his knees begging for a newly available promotion. He disappears after that, shows up at the office days later and has the most disgusting meltdown, exposing their relationship, and blurting out a tasty intimate remark she made to him. It all ends up at the engagement party her pushy mother throws where they have a knock down drag out fight ending in the bathroom where she kisses him. He, now aroused, proceeds to screw her from behind as she says stop. Their final confrontation happens after she LIES to her boss stating that he's been stalking her, harassing her because she rejected him. The boss believes her and she heads home to find him and her bags packed. (Guess it's his apt.) She has a fit of rage because she wants an apology and to say he was wrong. She grabs a knife, cuts him and he finally apologizes. There is so much wrong about the final scenes. Her lying about being stalked. Her claiming he raped her.. come on. That was a high pitched moment and both of them were out of their skulls, she had hit him upside the head with a glass. To accuse him of rape plus lying about being harassed to save face kind of makes the case that women are liars about some really important stuff that doesn't happen to them quite in this way. Offensive and wrong. I left out an important fact. Before she gets the promotion, she hears someone in office say he's going to get it. She then flies over to his desk to share this unconfirmed tidbit. Maybe that's why he was so angry. He was convinced it was his. She then compounds that mistake by not telling him that his status at the company was nil. After getting engaged, did not either one of them realize that working together was a bad idea. If they had accepted that reality things might have been better.
Echoes (2022)
Maze of Confusion
Poor execution of interesting concept because it was in pursuit of a 2nd season. I get profit motive, but it's nice to have an interesting idea reach a conclusion.
These characters don't warrant a Season 2. Their story is told in these 7 episodes. It was really 1 episode too long. They were both villains. Perhaps one was a bit worse. But as the story moves on their sins become almost indistinguishable. I don't need to see more of them.
Writers/Producers would be better served if they let their story play out in one fell swoop. This is true with one with a clever hook that reels you in. The pursuit of more often exposes the flaws in the concept. And that happens here. In the end you simply don't care.
Blonde (2022)
Misunderstood Film
I agree w/the person who says this is a horror film. It is. Celebrity culture is infused with some of the worst humanity behavior. Rumors circulated for years about how MARILYN was exploited. But there are other stars with equally ugly tragic lives. For what we know of all the ME TOO crimes, I'm sure what we don't know is uglier.
Movie is TOO LONG. Also too many indulgent graphic moments. The movie is at its best when the images are stylized. I hated the embryo animation. Seemed like oblique pro life propaganda. It loses points for that especially.
Marilyn had a tragic life for real and this approximates the horror of it.
The Adam Project (2022)
Oh Yeah!!!
A fun ride from beginning to end. As time travel themes go, the story is more than respectable. Typical Ryan Reynolds schtick. The special fx are great with enough action to keep you engrossed.
Invasion (2021)
S- L-O-W
I stopped at 3 then picked it back up 3 months later.
I hated every character. If these are going to be the kind of people I'd be trapped with in an apocalypse, I don't want to survive with these people. Any woman more concerned with her husband's infidelity ata crucial time like this, is not someone I can watch and care about. And the soldier who had only one foul word in his vocabulary was too annoying. I kept screaming you are all are under attack. You play by different rules.
Grey's Anatomy: Deterioration of the Fight or Flight Response (2006)
Absurd
I never watched Grey's. I started binge watching the series over the weekend and I'm now at this episode. Cannot believe the level of hysterical romance fantasy around life/death situation. Izzy was out of her mind. And so were her 'friends.' It's really an unattractive portrait of women who are supposed to functioning in a professional setting w/careers on the line. They think they are shattering stereotypes but instead they just proved them. Worse yet is an audience that buys into them making this a success.
Condor (2018)
Annoyed
I watched 3 episodes, got to #4 and was told it was not available. I wouldn't have begun watching it if I had known I couldn't see the entire series and needed a subscription.
It is excellent but I cannot afford another subscription now. Might as well have cable bill.
Beckett (2021)
Illogical characters ***SPOILER ALERT***
***SPOILER ALERT***
I have a problem w/characters who don't make sense. Screenwriters mistakenly believe that opening w/10 minutes of fake intimacy and playful lovey-dovey relationship drivel will somehow endear characters to you. After the car crash that kills his girlfriend the character is thrust into a political conspiracy in Greece. It should never have happened. Why didn't the police ever ask him what happened? Instead, they let him wallow in confusion which was his cover for denial that he was at fault. This led him to reveal that he saw a boy and a woman. They had nothing to do w/ the accident. Did he a foreigner know that the boy was kidnapped? Of course not. It was a foreign country. He didn't speak Greek. So why were they even intimidated by the fact he saw the kidnapped boy? And why was he so fixated on them other than it helped him stay in denial that he fell asleep at the wheel. They should have gotten him and his girlfriend's body to the American Embassy so they could get on a plane and go back to the US. Instead the film takes us on an illogical journey of a character who didn't even have the sense to say from the beginning: "I just want to go home." I've grown fond of John David Washington's work, but this vehicle didn't serve him well.
Pieces of a Woman (2020)
Wait just a second... ***SPOILERS***
The first time the baby's heartbeat was too rapid. It was a warning. The second time the mid wife listened for the heartbeat she didn't hear it. She turned Martha over, which took some time, and listened again. That's when she told Shia LeBeouf's character to call 911. He called for an ambulance. Martha lied on the stand and said she refused the midwife. Martha freed the midwife s a way of absolving her conscience. I think the midwife should have told him to call 911 as soon as she didn't hear a heartbeat. I don't think it was manslaughter. But she should have lost the right to practice midwifery. It's a good movie. Strong performances by all. The script flaws rest largely with the overindulgence of the lead character and the casualness in the way she dismissed the father out of her life making him just as sperm donor. A bit much for the man you were willing to have a child with. His character could have used a tiny bit more development.
Fear the Walking Dead (2015)
A Hack Job
You hope a spin-off will breathe new life into a well-loved series. No such luck with the Pilot for FTWD. I am so tired of cliché, stock characters. Newsflash to producers, NO, we don't always want to see the same people. That plus some of the things these characters did. The second visit to the church by the mother and live-in partner with all that melodramatic emoting the mother did was soap opera personified. Really, this kid seems as if he's been using drugs awhile and she's still at square one? But the pair's oblivious attitude when stuck on the highway. Who gets stuck on the highway and does not look ahead to see what's going on? Especially with choppers above. Who gets out of their vehicle when shots are fired? It was just a mess. I usually enjoy Kim Dickens. Loved her in Treme. But for some reason, I'm not enjoying her so far. This seemed like more a Anne Heche kind of part or an actress similar to the woman who was Rick's wife. Kim was too annoying in this role. If Sunday's episode is better, I'll give the pilot a pass. But it better get better.