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rhrunge
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Win Win (2011)
TV Movie of the Week, at best
Seemed to recall there was good critical buzz on this movie so I just gave it a shot the other day on cable. Yes, I can see how some might find a movie like this "charming" or "refreshingly different", but for me there wasn't enough movie here. At best, this was at the level of a TV movie of the week. Maybe it was just me but I personally felt like the movie kept insinuating that several of the characters had some deep, dark secrets yet to be revealed. But this actually never happened. Paul Giamatti's character: a decent, honest guy does something morally questionable. Why? A secret to be revealed? Nope, just a few bucks short on the mortgage payments. Meanwhile, spends a lot of time coaching but not a lot of time being a lawyer. The best friend(Bobby Canavale) comes across almost perversely infatuated with the blonde kid, but nope, no story there. We first see the blonde kid bruised and black-eyed? Victim of physical abuse? Yes? No? The mom, what secrets is she hiding? Well, nothing really.
World War Z (2013)
Blood wasn't the point....
I enjoyed this movie even though I'm not generally drawn to see most of Brad Pitt's movies, and zombies are not my thing. My favorite part and in my opinion, the scariest part of this movie is the mass panic and the hysteria of people fighting for groceries, guns and shelter in the midst of a yet unknown terror. For those people that just wanted to see gallons of blood and brain eatings, this is not the movie for them. This movie goes in another direction. If I had two criticisms, it was the "movie science" they employed (Mother Nature leaves clues / Animals instinctively can detect disease, etc.) and that the zombies were simultaneously clever and stupid, fast and slow, weak and strong, whenever the movie needed them to be. Overall, and to my surprise, I recommend it.
The Woman in Red (1984)
I feel like watching this again now....almost 30 yrs later
This movie came to mind out of a somewhat unrelated office conversation. I recall this movie as being lighthearted and funny. Wow, one of the reviews here was REALLY rough....As funny as cancer?? Wow. I'm not going to bash someone else's review, but I think everyone's had an infatuation at one time or another. And his attempt to "cheat" ....(was he daydreaming? I forget)....totally backfires in a comedy of errors. To say that this movie was blueprint for how to cheat on your wife is like saying Stripes was a blueprint for how to screw up in the army or Tootsie was a blueprint for how to cross-dress your way onto a soap opera. Kelly LeBrock was the it girl of the moment and the Stevie Wonder soundtrack kept the movie fun and upbeat.
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Check your brain at the door...
This movie was mindlessly enjoyable, but riddled with plot contrivances and nonsensicals. The opening scene seemed liked a total ripoff of the Temple Run app. Literally, Kirk and Bones running out of a temple while being chased by natives. Khan saves the child of a grieving father. All he asks in return is that the father blow himself up along with all of downtown London? WHAT? WHY? So that he could break into an archive building? WHAAAT? WHY? Do they still have archive buildings in the 23rd century? Spock tattles on Kirk for disobeying the Prime Directive (which sets up a series of other events) but that's exactly what HE did when freefell into the belly of the volcano. WHAT? Almost every other scene in this movie makes no sense plotwise. On another note, Uhura, Bones, and Chekov are completely wasted in this movie. Chekov spends the entire movie running thru a maze of pipework in the engine room, Uhura is whiny and scorned and spends the whole movie talking about how Spock doesn't really love her. Bones is just there to say "Dammit Jim, I'm a doctor....". This is a video game of a popcorn movie. If you want to make any sense of the plot you'll be disappointed.
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Watched it again recently...
Saw this movie when it first came out and thought it was pretty great. Suspenseful, well-acted, different....and critics were heavy-handed with praise; which probably heavily influenced my opinion. Recently re-watched it, and had a more critical opinion. 1) What was the deep inner turmoil that Starling was suppressing all those years? That she saw a lamb get slaughtered on a farm as a young girl? So what??? 2) Did she REALLY surmise ANYTHING from the "clues" he gave. Seems she somewhat randomly stumbles onto his house. 3) Too many closeups; too many plot contrivances. Nearly every scene is a closeup shot. Adds intensity at first, but quickly becomes annoying. That Lechter could uncuff himself from behind with the tip of a pen and overtake the two Keystone cops, not very believable. Less believable that he was ever placed is some makeshift iron box in the middle of a library or gymnasium. 4) She chases him down into his night vision dungeon? C'mon!! OK I get it for the movie's sake...but way too unrealistic. And with all the FBI's resources and knowledge they're somewhere else storming the empty house of a false lead? C'mon.