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Reviews
Paradise (2013)
This should have been a lifetime movie, not something you pay to watch
This could have a great movie based on the cast alone - Holly Hunter, Nick Offerman, Octavia Spencer & Russell Brand. It could have capitalized on Juliana Hough's singing talent in one or two scenes. The opening scene of a girl with a serious crisis of faith, gave a hint of a comedy to come. No such luck. When sheltered country girl Juliana Hough decides to leave her small religious community after surviving a horrible accident and go to Sin City to experience life's naughty pleasures, there's a premise (Don't let those previous fool you!) that this could be funny. It's NOT. The first sign of this is when she makes offensive comments about Muslims...and shortly later, about Jews. Not funny, just racist. During her travels, she meets a charming bartender played by Russell Brand & a disillusioned lounge singer played Octavia Spencer, and I hope things will pick up. In fact, I hoped I'd hear Octavia & Julia sing together by the end of the movie. Nope. Russell Brand's witty commentary is not enough to save this dreary movie. Octavia is relegated to dispensing dime store wisdom. There isn't much of a plot. It's not funny. It's not moving. In fact, it's rather contrived. At one point, I thought I was watching one of those Christian movies, and I'm still not sure I wasn't. But one thing is for sure: I was terribly disappointed in such a waste of a great cast and a potential for a great movie plot.
Savages (2012)
Unrealistic movie with contrived plot & terrible ending; you'll never get these 2 hours back
Really disappointed in Oliver Stone this time around The plot for this movie is contrived at best - how many drug cartels have less than 20 "soldiers"? Benito Del Toro tries to do his best as the cartel bad guy, but his character is fairly one dimensional and cliché at best First of all, Blake Lively can act about as well as Ali McGraw - she looks good on the screen but is bland as vanilla pudding & can't act to save her life. And why would these 2 guys fall for her, aside from her looks? She's devoid of personality & likes to shop for designer labels - doesn't strike me as their type. The ending is stupid, totally unrealistic. Contrived, contrived, contrived.