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mrsfixit
Reviews
The Tree of Life (2011)
Mind numbing and pretentious...
I read the reviews before deciding to watch this.
Long story short- I made it through 30 minutes and turned it off.
I have to say- the visual imagery is impressive, but the whole losing a loved one/questioning God and the misery and grieving and whispering narration was more than I could take.
BTW- it's a pet peeve of mine when the narration or dialog is a whisper you can barely hear- then the next scene is so loud it shatters your damned eardrums. I hate sitting there with the remote and pressing volume up/volume down constantly.
Hell-oooo- haven't you film makers ever heard of "Normalize"? It IS possible to compress the dynamic range of the soundtrack so it doesn't have this flaw.
I wonder how the "critics" rated this? It always seems that critics rate mind numbing BS like this as work of genius. I think it's a case of "The Emperors New Clothes" with them.
If you want to watch a film for it's imagery, do yourselves a favor and skip this one.
I instead recommend the film "Koyaanisqatsi" which is technically a documentary, but is hard to describe. There is no dialog, and no narration. It's a stunning series of video montages that you can't tear your eyes away from. It's set to a score by Phillip Glass, and best watched on a big screen TV with a decent sound system.
I may try and watch this again. Then again, I may not, because it's no loss if I don't.
Terra Nova (2011)
After 3 episodes- I'm done with it
After watching the awful pilot, I decided to give this 2 more episodes to give it a chance. I did, and it still stinks. I'm done with this drivel.
I am a lifelong scifi fan, and had high hopes for this series. It had the potential to be a lot better than it is had Spielberg spent the money for decent scriptwriters.
This is first and foremost a "family drama" and oh, there's some dinosaurs. The emphasis is on only one family, and their petty day to day problems. The problem is, this family is not only *not* interesting, they're downright annoying- they're grind your teeth and roll your eyes annoying and watching them for an hour is almost as bad as having a root canal.
In a dying overpopulated world with a limit of 2 children per couple, Doctor Mom and Officer Dad decide to pop out another child, despite the law. Their actions were stupid, selfish, and self-centered- not to mention illegal. This made me immediately dislike them.
So family winds up in Terra Nova, where angry rebellious teen son never misses an opportunity to vent his angst on Dad. This got old half an hour into the pilot.
Teen son immediately hooks up with the hottest chick there, and instead of going to class to learn about the place and things that might actually save his life, he, hot chick and their friends venture right out into man-eating creature infested jungle to get drunk and fool around. Have you not seen this cliché before in every bad horror movie ever made? And of course the dinosaurs appear to be un-killable, as no amount of rounds fired at them has any effect, just like horror flick villains who keep getting up after they've been shot 200 times. Cliché. Cliché, cliché....
There is brainy older sister, and cloyingly adorable little 5 year old Zoe, who is so cutesy and needy I feel like I need an insulin injection every time she is in a scene so I don't go into diabetic shock.
Mommy and Daddy haven't seen each other for 2 years, and naturally want to do what people do when they've been apart, and of course needy little Zoe is always there to spoil the moment because she needs a hug, she needs to sleep in their bed, she needs a glass of water, she needs a story read to her... hey- parents- teach this brat what NO means, you'll be doing her a favor. I was really hoping these kids would all get eaten by now- no such luck.
Now we have Officer Dad who is jealous of Doctor Mom's ex-boyfriend, who has shown up at the compound, and of course Dad is acting like a jealous 16 year old douchebag instead of a grown man who has more important things to think about- like not becoming lunch for something big, hungry, and bullet-proof.
All the major characters in this show have about as much depth as a piece of toilet paper.
People compare this to "Lost" a lot. Lost was far more interesting, with better characters. The story did not revolve around the same characters every episode. The day to day effort to survive, and the flora and fauna in this world gets little coverage at all. Maybe that's because the alleged script writers might have to do some *research* to make things scientifically plausible? This is more like "Jersey Shore meets Jurassic Park" complete with stupid, whiny, annoying people you want to strangle.
If you want to watch dinosaurs- watch BBC's "Primeval". Now that's a fun ride, with great story lines and characters, and good CGI.
If you want to watch good end of the world survival shows- catch "Jericho" from 2006, or BBC's "Survivors" from 2008.
I won't be tuning in for the next episode, I'd rather wash the kitchen floor or do laundry.
The Road (2009)
True to the book- which was also awful
***Warning- Spoilers Below**** To those of you who criticized aspects of this film such as:
1) the unknown apocalyptic event that we are told nothing about.
2) the annoying kid who acts like a 3 year old.
3) the idiocy of finding a fully stocked bomb shelter and deciding to leave and go back on the road to nowhere.
4) the conveniently happy (?) ending when Papa dies and the kids finds a new family.
OK, don't blame Hollywood for this mess, blame the author. I read the book, and the film is very true to the book. BTW- I hated the book too, and found it to be even more annoying than the film.
Throughout the book, the inane and annoying dialog between the father and son goes on for page after page. It consists of "Papa I'm scared" "Papa I'm cold" and "Papa I'm hungry" endlessly from the kid, and "I know" and "it'll be all right" from the father. By the end of the book I wanted to shoot them both. At least we were spared this in the film.
The book gave no details of "the event". Neither did the film.
The ending in the film also was the same as it was in the book.
Why were they even on the road in the first place? What was the point of enduring all that danger and suffering traveling from where they started out to some point south where things were just probably the same? The father knew he was dying. What father would want to leave his kid in a dead world, on his own, to fend for himself amongst hordes of murderous cannibals? Anyone with any love for a child would have put that bullet in his head to spare him that kind of suffering. There ARE worse things than dying...
Hollywood took a book that was bleak, depressing, and pointless and made it into a film that was also bleak, depressing, and pointless.
This film never should have been made. And maybe the book that inspired it should not have been written either. Avoid both unless you're just a glutton for punishment.
Duo (2006)
A little gem of a film
This is a very funny movie with a lot of heart.
It has wonderfully quirky characters, and some of the scenes are just hilarious.
I happened to pick this up used on DVD on one of my trips to Montreal.
Quebec has a big film industry, and some of their films are gems, like this one.
We Americans don't get a chance to see Quebecois films, which is a shame.
If you can find this online for rent, or purchase- watch it. It really is a good film.