MovieMan2016 Reviews

Jurassic Park (1993)

Impressive Dinosaurs and Not Much Else

[5/10 · 11 August 2019]

The title pretty much sums up my thoughts on this movie. Impressive special effects, but if you want an interesting story and interesting characters, well, you should probably look elsewhere.

I can't believe the number of rave reviews and the overall score this movie has achieved. Evidently most people just want mindless action and cool special effects, which I probably shouldn't be surprised at considering what is popular nowadays - silly comic book movies.

This may be a fine movie for kids, and yeah the first few times the dinosaurs were on screen it was definitely awe-inspiring (I figure that's worth about a 5/10). But frankly, that isn't enough to carry a movie for 2 hours.

How It Ends (2018)

Lame Reviews

[7/10 · 2 February 2019]

I don't usually write reviews, but the quality of the reviews I've read is really, really lacking for the most part.

I think the fact that the ending is so open ended is a valid criticism, and I get people coming down on the movie for this reason. Still, this point does not change the fact that for 98% of the film we got a pretty entertaining and intriguing apocalyptic tale. Giving the movie 2/10 or something like that is completely short-sighted and does not accurately reflect its overall quality.

The movie could also have delved a little bit into what was actually happening to cause all of the events depicted. A valid criticism. But you know what? It's not what the movie was about. The movie was about two people trying to get to Seattle to save their daughter/girlfriend, two people who were cut off from all but those around them due to the lack of power and cell reception. And one can argue the ending (or lack of one) had artistic merit - the argument that if this was a real event it is how these characters would have experienced it. In such a world, you wouldn't know what is happening, why, and what the outcome will be.

Other comments like it wouldn't take 2 days for 90% of the population to go into Mad Max mode are just silly. The film did not depict this at all. Some people did act desperate though, but I think if you give it some thought they had reason to. I think it became clear to many during these events that this wasn't going to be a short power outage, so being a little proactive wasn't exactly a terrible plan.

The one pro review I read had the following points:

• the reviewer could not buy that Ricki would join the main characters, yet gave no explanation for why he felt this. Whatever gave this reviewer the idea that Ricki loved where she lived? She indicated she wanted to move to California, She clearly didn't like her current home and she was going to receive $2K if she went to a place she wanted to go to anyhow (i.e. the west coast). All she needed was to be convinced that Will and Tom were not murderers. Not a huge stretch really.
• it wouldn't be a road trip movie without stops along the way. Ok. I mean, do you drive from Chicago to Seattle without ever stopping? It's a 30 hour car trip. Sheesh!
• Will's Dad's house was conveniently empty. I'm not exactly sure why this reviewer thought Will's Dad had to be home. During an event like this, surely people who know each other would band together to plan what they should do. He may therefore have simply gathered with his friends to figure out their next move, or was working with them to actually start doing something. He could have been out looking for someone. He could have been in another town when all this went down. The point is, there are many reasons he may not have been home.

For someone who just enjoys watching movies and understands they will play fast and loose with reality at times, I think pro reviews are becoming way too jaded for me to really pay much attention to. There are valid criticisms and then there is just being way too cynical and I notice a lot of the latter.

For people who just want to be entertained for a couple of hours (the point of watching a movie, yes?) and not be overly critical and nit-picky about every little thing (especially when it's not warranted), and for those who like this particular sub-genre of movie, How It Ends is pretty solid.

Bates Motel (2013–2017)

Great Show But A Couple Things Drag It Down

[7/10 · 25 May 2018]

First of all, I see reviews from people who have watched 3 episodes, or 8 episodes, or...you get the idea. I mean, come on! Unless you've watched the entire series then you simply shouldn't write a review. It's like watching half a movie and then reviewing it and expecting people to take your write up seriously. Sheesh!

This show does a lot of things well...great acting (especially the two leads), great pacing (yes, it builds slowly and you need to stick around for more than one season), interesting subplots, a very dark main plot that was executed well, and the recreation of the motel and the central characters felt pretty authentic

It was interesting watching the events leading up to the happenings in "Psycho" and then watching an alternate version of what happened in that movie. Seeing it happen in current day was also pretty interesting.

The problem I had was the behavior of two characters - Romero and Dylan. Romero's devotion to Norma and Dylan's devotion to Norman simply didn't feel right. There was no chemistry between Romero and Norma for him to all of a sudden decide to marry her and then fall in love with her to such an extreme level. But, I guess they needed someone with as much at stake regarding Norma as Norman had, so that they could pit those two against each other until series end. Alright, but it still doesn't fly.

And Dylan started off of someone who was intelligent and had a good sense of right and wrong, someone who thought Norman was weird and Norma was his enabler. Then, as Norman got even more weird and even more dangerous, all of a sudden Dylan decided that protecting Norman was more important than anything else, even the safety of others. Well, that doesn't really fly either.

Overall it was a good show, but I felt how these two characters behaved really was hard to swallow, and dragged the show down from 8 or 9 territory to something around 6 or 7.

Backcountry (I) (2014)

For People Who Complain About Stupid Characters

[7/10 · 31 March 2018]

I see quite a lot of comments from folks criticizing this movie for it's stupid characters and how their dumb actions only help get them into trouble - this seems to be the main reason for some of the negative reviews. Umm, have you guys paid attention to real life? People do stupid things all the time. It's not necessarily something that, when it happens in a movie, makes the movie less believable.

Yes, the main characters did make some questionable choices but those can be explained pretty easily (Alex's ego explains what he does, and shock explains some of Jenn's actions and inactions). Yup, it's that simple and plenty believable because it happens in real life all the time.

I thought this was a pretty good movie, that takes a simple premise and manages to create quite a bit of tension all while feeling pretty realistic.

Not spectacular, but a solid outdoors thriller that scores 7/10. Kind of held back by how simple the premise was and that it never tried to be more than this. But like someone said in another review, it's based on a true story and it appears restraint was exercised to limit it to that (more or less).

Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)

Many reviews are too harsh

[6/10 · 1 January 2018]

Man, some of the reviews here!

First off, some of the questions raised were the exact same things mentioned in Roger Ebert's review (so much for originality!). And they were answered pretty reasonably by reviewer hawk-58.

Second, since when do we expect a movie to hold our hands and provide all the answers to questions that may come up? Sometimes you have to fill in the blanks yourself. Plot holes? Hey, these are movies, not real life. If plot holes make you mad then it might be time to consider not watching movies anymore!

Third, since when do we expect characters to never make mistakes? The story was unrealistic because Laura made a few errors. Newsflash! People mess up all the time in real life. If they didn't, criminals would never be caught by the police. And frankly, I don't think she messed up as much as some of the reviews imply...again, it's human nature to make some miscalculations and not take certain things into account.

This is certainly not a terrible film, but not a great one either. It's about average, so 6/10 seems right. It's entertaining enough if you have a couple of hours to kill and enjoy the genre, and if your expectations aren't unreasonable.

The Vanishing (1993)

Pretty Good

[7/10 · 3 September 2017]

Most of the bad reviews seem to be based on the fact that this is a remake and the original is better. I tend to believe a film should be reviewed mostly on its own merits. I haven't seen the original but from the sounds of it most of the movie is the same - only the ending has been changed.

Not sure that this warrants such bad reviews then, as the ending here wasn't that bad (aside from a cringe-worthy joke at the very end of the film). I mean, it's a typical Hollywood ending and you should probably expect it given you're watching a Hollywood film. With a superior ending and maybe a bit more suspense and realism, I could see myself giving the original 8 or 9.

Good acting, a pretty suspenseful story, nothing too unbelievable by Hollywood standards = a solid 7 out of 10 for this remake.