dfreeman-7 Reviews

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965 TV Movie)

comments on "A Charlie Brown Christmas"

[10/10 · 16 July 2006]

All I can say is that,despite all the "corrections" that some people seem to feel were necessary, I feel this was a very sweet movie and was, is and will always be perfect just the way it is!! This film is a classic in the world of animations and will always bring fond memories of my childhood when I see it. The fact it, even WITH the so called "mistakes", The film has a lot to offer. Teaching that Chrismas has a strong spiritual aspect to it,and not just something for the retail world to cash in on, although surely with this piece, they probably did, anyway, kind of defeating the purpose of the meaning behind the film. In either case, commercialized to the hilt or not, this is one of my all-time favorite cartoons and, as I said earlier, I find no fault in something as meaningful tome as well as spiritually as this cartoon.

Poseidon (2006)

Poseidon

[9/10 · 22 June 2006]

I have seen this movie and, though Wolfgang Peterson is one of my favorite directors, he tells his story more in the visual than in character. In other words, he'd rather fill a movie with all sorts of dazzling special effects, play a lot with CG, fill huge tanks with water and life-size boats on "gimbles" than to tell a more "human" story. His main characters were the special effects rather that any humans acting in it. He assumes the audience simply isn't interested so much in what makes up the characters involved, just the need to play with them. In Poseidon, there is a massive amount of footage showing people falling to their deaths, victims of "flash fires", lots of cool underwater explosions and, his favorite, CG. Unfortunately, character development doesn't exist. In fact, the movie risks itself as being a modern "B" movie, with actors that don't deserve to play in such features. In short, Poseidon doesn't stand a chance to be a classic the original Poseidon Adventure was, and I don't think he intended it to be. Too bad.

The Sum of All Fears (2002)

Jack Ryan Movies

[9 April 2006]

People seem to expect jack Ryan movies to be more or less the way they imagine the books to be. This phenomenon is almost never the case when a movie comes out BASED ON THE BOOK. I emphasis BASED because it is never MEANT to be exactly what the book is. In "Sum Of All Fears", there is a switch from Arab to Fascist terrorists. Sure, some scenes are changed and others, unfortunately, left out. But being that the book is only based on the story, it is NOT GOINT TO BE the story itself. Somethings don't translate well on screen. A book is several hundred pages long. A movie two hours, and they can't very well put every detail from the book into the movie. I saw the film and thought it was good. I also saw all the other Clancy films and enjoyed them for what they were. Maybe not so good by comparison to the book, but never the less good for what they were. As for some characters, for example, Mary Pat Foley would have been unrecognized had it not been for the credits. She is known more for her role as a spy in "Cardinal of the Kremlin", which would make a great movie, if they ever did it.