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kellygfullmer
Reviews
Road House (2024)
Good fun
If you're looking for be innovative excellence in film making, you won't find it here. But just for fun, this is a great popcorn movie. Jake Gyllenhaal is the coolest of customers bringing memories of Steve McQueen and Clint Eastwood back from the 70's. Connor McGregor is no better than expected but no worse either. The bands behind the chicken wire each night had me Googling for more and of their songs. Derivative, conventional, yes. Flavorful, fun, and entertaining, also yes. The characters at best are unobtrusive, and other than Gyllenhaal's charm, forgettable. It's violent but not realistic enough to feel graphic. Looking for brainless fun on a Friday night? You'll find it in Road House.
Foyle's War (2002)
Like old friends
Kitchen's Foyle is intensely catatonic in his understatement. Week's Sam is heart breakingly adorable in her earnest unsinkability. Together they make one of the best TV pairings of all time. The intriguing plots set against backdrop of WWII and its aftermath in England make for top notch British TV. Low res of early seasons is a little tiring for modern hi-res spoiled eyes, but it gets better each subsequent season. Spending time with Sam and Foyle each night got to be like spending time with comfortable old friends at night over the last few months for my wife and me. We'll miss them. Sad it's over.
The Wheel of Time (2021)
Two seasons in . . .
No, the TV show does not faithfully follow the books. Yes, the plot is simplified and truncated. Can we just simply get past the book vs TV show comparisons? They are two different genres and art forms. Shows like this are never for fans of the book; Prime had their money and eys before shooting the first shot of episode one. In order to succeed, and secure multiple seasons, producers need to invite and sustain an audience who has not undertaken the hundreds of hours necessary to read all the books. I've read all the books, and I knew going into season one of the TV show that adapting them successfully was always going to be a tall order and an incredibly ambitious undertaking. The production value is not that of Game of Thrones, but I enjoyed both seasons and am glad platforms like Prime are willing to pay for and create shows about my favorite books, like those in The Wheel of Time series. I hope other seasons will follow and improve on the previous ones.
Foundation (2021)
A vision worth beholding
The basic attraction of science fiction has always come from the imaginings of the author that depict technology, the future, and other worlds in a compelling way. Literary criticism has a role to play in the critique of any scifi novel, of course, but without the concept comprised of a futuristic vision, the story is dead before it begins.
As scifi spectacle alone, Apple's Foundation is a glorious achievement. Its technology is compelling rendered and created, it's worlds gorgeously imagined. The series encompasses and realizes the scope of Asimov's story. The art direction, special fx and world building done by the series creators is enough to warrant a watch.
Of course, acting, casting, and writing have a role to play in any series, and they appear in this film with varying success. I won't get into them. Suffice it to say they are adequate to good to occasionally excellent.
It's the vision, the spectacle, the world building, the scope, the craft that went into this series that any sci fi lover cannot help but admire.
I couldn't wait to get on the treadmill and watch the next episode each night after work, and I felt forlorn when I finished the series. Merely, escapist? Maybe, but in the best, time honored sci fi way.
Just finished Season 2, and it is better than Season 1. If 3 improves on 2, I'll have to regretfully tell The Expanse I have a new favorite sci-fi series. And that's saying something.
Dune (2021)
Not Perfect but awfully good
As a high school English teacher, I have taught Frank Herbert's Dune for many years to seniors. I have read the book at least 10 times and watched the two previous film versions of this book at least as many times. Lynch's 1984 attempt is grand, fantastic, and memorable but ultimately leaves those who have read the book feeling unsatisfied. SciFi's Channel's 2000 rendition did the book more justice but suffered from all the limitations a made-for-tv budget imposes on a production.
This latest effort from Villeneuve has all the cinematic elements that made Lynch's film such a grand spectacle but without the off-putting strangeness, convolution, and complexity that repelled 80's viewers not familiar with the story. My wife watched Dune with me last night on HBOmax and was able to follow the movie with minimal explanation from me. Villeneuve does a great job condensing a big and complex novel, half of it anyway, into a package the Dune neophyte can enjoy.
I found myself wishing he had included the scenes that lovers of the novel would have appreciated, like the banquet scene, but I understand that scenes like that one would not translate well to the screen from the page and only confuse and bore viewers. Instead, the director emphasized and doubled down on the action scenes-almost without sacrificing the nuanced layers of the book's plot.
The casting is simply excellent, and the art direction is, in a word, superb. This is the Dune film I have waited 30 years to see, emphasis on see. The book remains topical and relevant, and the newest film of it does too. Politics, feminism, economics, environmentalism, religion, and more permeate the novel or at least adorn the film when they don't play a more central role.
I have not taught the novel in several years, but I plan to finish this semester with it thanks to Villeneuve's passion for the story and excellence in bringing it to life, once again, on the big screen.
Rarely do good books get made into good movies. Usually one of the two is lacking, but when they do, fans are treated to a rare gift. I put Dune, and hopefully its sequel, in the company of Harry Potter and the subsequent films and Lord of the Rings with Peter Jackson's creations.
Snowpiercer (2020)
Connelly, yes. The rest? meh
Jennifer Connelly is reason enough to watch the first season of Snowpiercer. She's at once sympathetic and repellent, simple and complex, human and automaton. The rest of the cast, and the show for that matter, is competent but not memorable or noteworthy.
Obviously in a story about a train housing the last remnants of humanity in a post apocalyptic future, the setting is vital to the story and the plot; however, the train itself as a physical creation never gets the attention it needs and deserves beyond some cg and bland, repetitive sets.
The train's passengers, little more than tropes, occupy the Tail, eat drink and are merry in First Class and remain utterly forgettable in the space between with the notable exception of Wilford devotee Ruth Wardell played by Alison Wright. Ruth's stubborn insistence on order and the status quo offer the only other insight into the human condition a character other than Connelly's Melanie Cavill gives the audience.
Andre Layton, played by the always super David Diggs, is a disappointment as a character and fails to give the nuanced, multi-layered performance Connelly does. As a one-dimensional "rebel", he could have at least appeared noble and aspirational, but instead he doggedly plows ahead with his elevated visions for the train without much thought of what they will result in, much like the pre-freeze human population who are vilified at every turn for pursuing their own selfish ends while ignoring the peril to the climate of the earth on which they rode as passengers.
Sadly, the creators of Snowpiercer, just like much of the rest of the media, feel justified and compelled to condescend to their audience with political messages for our own good because outside of watching their productions, we aren't smart enough or concerned enough to have meaningful, informed opinions of our own.
Although entertaining with a novel concept and an exceptional performance from Connelly, Snowpiercer, in the end, is just socialist vs classist twaddle that abandons its potential in favor of the soapbox. If you don't mind being talked down to and "educated" for your own good, you'll be entertained by this show.
Annie (1982)
Iconic
Watched this on vhs in the early 80's until the tape started to degrade. Loved it then, love it now.
To Walk Invisible (2016)
Turning Back Time
I've read all the Bronte novels, studied Emily's poetry in college, and been to Haworth several times. (Tip: if you ever visit, don't skip the hike to Top Withens-the place Emily based Wuthering Heights on. You won't get the true Bronte experience unless you hike on the moors.) I've sat next to Charlotte and Emily's graves and tried to imagine life in that place in the 19th century.
This movie encapsulated and synthesized every emotion, thought, and feeling I experienced while in Haworth, at the parsonage museum, reading, and hiking on the moors. It positively reeks of authenticity. The sisters form the nucleus of the story while the ancillary characters orbit them at just the right distance. Their quiet strength and desperation depicts the plight of three women smarter than anyone around them in an age when their brains were considered by men to be more similar to monkeys than their own. Each sister is fully actuated and differentiated as a stand-alone character, individual in her own right.
I finished the movie with a determination to visit their home again and re-read all of their work. How many movies inspire their viewers to travel several thousand miles, spend several thousand dollars, and invest scores of hours in reading?
I loved that the movie required something from the viewer. You can't watch this film passively. It takes scrutiny, concentration, and contemplation; in other words, things most modern movies don't require in the least. That's why this movie stays with you days after viewing it. No wonder I forget almost everything about many movies I see hours after watching them; they demand nothing but sensational response, something that ebbs almost immediately after arousal.
My one complaint is in the sound mixing. The background music swells with such amplitude in places that the dialogue is almost impossible to make out without closed captioning. I eventually put in my Bluetooth ear buds to help me discern the dialogue (admittedly, Yorkshire accents are tough for Americans to decipher in the first place, but as I mentioned earlier, the effort required helps galvanize the viewer into deeper concentration and engagement).
Bravo PBS. You rarely disappoint.