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braddo22
Reviews
Dadi (2001)
She was working in a bridal shop in Ankara, Turkey... more's the pity
This is airing as I speak on our national "ethnic" broadcaster, SBS (which helpfully provides English subtitles), and very peculiar it is too. Basically, the show looks and plays like "The Nanny" - near-identical sets, same multi-camera set-up & camera positions, a cast that bears a general resemblance to the original actors, scripts that are one-to-one adaptations of the original scripts (the show is licensed, not a knockoff) - but it is decidedly NOT "The Nanny": no more Yiddish jokes/Jewish references; no more jokes about Broadway shows; no snotty English butler; no live audience (and boy, does it show), just canned laughter. Gülben Ergen is talented enough in her own way, but she's no Fran Drescher, and a show like this really revolves around its Nanny, so you do miss her presence.
The Usual Suspects (1995)
A cheat
*** WARNING: SPOILERS ***
I was loving this movie -- LOVING it -- until the climax. So Kevin Spacey's character's been making it all up as he goes along? Most amusing. And the storyline to which we were wholeheartedly devoting ourselves for the previous 100 minutes (or whatever) turns out to be a neat conman's trick? How delightfully clever. And how completely cynical of the moviemakers. It's their prerogative to take their script in any direction it suits them to, but I couldn't help but feel cheated -- I had actually wanted to know what the outcome of the plot (or what I thought was the plot) would be, not be fobbed off with some kind of superior "you were actually going along with this guy's cornball story? You IDIOT!" attitude. To me, this movie is nothing more than a clever-clever scriptwriting exercise -- all "look what I can do, ma!", and no heart.
Star Wars (1977)
What's all the fuss about?
*** SPOILER ALERT *** (just in case)
Why do people -- mature, fully-grown-up-adult-type-people -- continue to laud this movie as one of the greatest of all time? Yes, it's marvelous entertainment for kids -- and the last time it was my favorite movie ever WAS when I was ten years old. Then I grew up. Watch it again and apply to it the same critical faculties you'd exercise upon any other movie you've seen since puberty. And if it still passes the test for you, despite its generally poor acting (Harrison Ford and Alec Guinness excepted), cruddy dialogue and gaping structural flaws... then I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree. But in a perfect world, George Lucas would be remembered as the guy who made "American Graffiti", and not for this infantile nonsense.