Reviews

This movie is an enigma of the realities of many aspects of life all wrapped around the world of news media. The storyline revolves around 3 people that you see every day and you invariably identify with one of them.

The first is the statue, or in this case, mannequin. This would be Tom, the dashing and dim newscaster. He knows he looks good, sounds good, dresses good, and doesn't mind that his brain is far from being his best aspect. He plays the game perfectly and reaps the accolades he barely has to break a sweat for. Does this make him a bad person? Nope, it makes him a winner.

This leads to our next character, Jane. Jane is hardworking, organized, cute, hyper, and sadly, as shallow as a half filled kiddie pool. She looks at Tom and all her sensibilities go out the window and her loins take over. We see this often as well. The cute girl who is attracted to the one guy who is absolutely wrong for her. You can't fault her for this, for she knows not what she does. She cannot control these feelings as she blindly focuses on her trophy man. Sadly she is not seeing our next element of the story: The Simp. About 90% of the male population in the world can identify with this guy; myself included. He is head over heels in love with Jane. He has played out an entire lifetime in his head with her being the love of his life. Walking hand in hand in parks, cooking dinner together in their kitchen, watching TV together in bed, maybe getting a dog, then having 2.4 kids. He wants this so bad with her that it hurts. He cannot accept the fact that she is falling for the mannequin and imagines that it's not happening. Man, it's a miserable way to go through life and luckily, I figured out when I was 20 that you cannot live life this way or you will end up alone forever. Aaron is a great guy. Petty, needy, and unable to face reality, but still, a great guy.

Broadcast News, to me, was a fascinating watch and truth be told, a very accurate representation of the news media. It's cut throat, it thrives on the dramatic, and it will exaggerate or flat out make up storylines for ratings. It's rare that you are actually rooting for all 3 of the main characters to have happy lives, even though they will have to achieve this completely on their own.

This is a movie I will always enjoy because, in my life, I have been all 3 of these people at one time or another.

This is a far better movie than what the rating indicates.

Michelle plays the wife of a mob button man who has discovered she must get out of that environment. When she does try to get out, she does so with such a desperation that you can't help but to root for her.

Michelle plays her role with such a vulnerable and believable way, I feel that this is her best role.

The rest of the cast, including Matthew Modine, Dean Stockwell, and especially Mercedes Ruehl make this movie top notch entertainment.

This movie is a lot of fun, but my heart went out to Michelle's character. All she wants is a normal life with her son and dog. Watch her awesome performance and enjoy the ride.

It was 1978 and I was 14 years old when the family went to Century City to go see a couple of movies. The first movie of the double feature was the remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" which was one of the most unsettling movies I have seen. It was creepy and tense. What I didn't realize was that it was setting the stage for the next movie which was "Coma". It starts out generically enough with young doctors doing their thing and then suddenly, unexplained catastrophic outcomes begin happening in surgery. Now the generic hospital starts to become more sinister as we see what goes on behind the scenes in pathology and the morgue. As the movie unfolds, bizarre events become apparent to the young female doctor and she stumbles into what is actually happening. Being a young teen, I was completely enthralled by the weaving and unraveling of any semblance of comfort when I realized exactly what was happening.

At the theater, I was basically planted in my seat for a good 4 hours and Coma was such a cool movie to watch, albeit a very disturbing one.

The entire cast was wonderful and played their parts with just the right amount of restraint and believability.

The movie had an impact in with me in my future life because 30 years later, I worked as an engineer at a huge HMO which part of my duties required me to work in pathology. It was just like being in the movie, except there were no illegal shenanigans going on.....that I know of.

Hollywood is dying on the vine and it's from utterly useless remakes like this contrived piece of crap doing it. What is the point of this movie other than to make the fanboys of Jake squeal with unbridled glee? I can think of maybe TWO remakes that were actually better than the original. Even then, they were done with love and they had their own charm, while paying tribute to the originals.

The original Road House was barely watchable in it's own right, so I really don't know how this one got the green light.

The era of movies that rely on solid story, dialogue, cinematography, music, and acting is becoming much more scarce. We are getting remake after remake after remake like this one. The only saving grace is I can stream classic movies in the comfort of my own home.

I may watch this one if I see enough abysmal reviews because I do love a good train wreck.

....absolute scream.

I avoided this movie like the plague for decades because I found most movies of the Halloween and Friday the 13th ilk to be far too predictable and for the most part boring. I just watched it tonight on a whim and I found myself totally engrossed from the very first minute on. Every trope that was covered was distorted into a delightfully violent and scary scenes with undertones of humor. What a joy this movie was to watch in every single way. The movie was perfectly cast and you could cut the tension with a knife (pun intended). Every aspect of what I predicted this movie to be was completely wrong, which made this so fun to watch.

Ah, this was a great movie! Dare I watch the sequels?

F/X is a movie that when you stumble across it, you are in for a fun ride. The premise is a special effects guru, Bryan Brown, is hired to stage a hit of a mafia informant that takes a sinister turn. Once things go south for our make up man, a game of cat & mouse begins.

I remember seeing this back in 1986 and I was pleasantly surprised how entertaining it was. I also enjoyed the cast of characters. Brian Dennehy, playing the ambivalent gumshoe seemed to have a lot of fun being blustery and confident. Playing Bryan's love interest is the beautiful Diane Venora. My heart went out to her when her fate was sealed. Over the years, I remembered her from this part, and oddly enough, one of my friends married her daughter. I made sure to have him tell her I am a big of hers because of this movie.

The rest of the cast was excellent as well, especially the slimy FBI agent, Cliff De Young. Jerry Orbach as the mafia informant was also a fine performance.

One other thing: Bryan Brown looks exactly like Wayne Gretzky. I just noticed that.

This movie never ceases to entertain, so give it a go.

I just finished another viewing of the movie and, to me, it is one of the finest display of cinematography, ever. It shows the amazing beauty Italy has and it truly adds so much more to the movie.

Now, about the performances: The interaction between Damon's "Tom" and Law's "Dickie" were perfectly performed. The dynamic of Dickie's ultra privileged lifestyle and Tom's quiet conniving ways was a joy to watch. You can see the strong friendship begin to crumble slowly as Dickie senses something is completely off with Tom. Say what you will about Gwyneth Paltrow, but she was fantastic as Dickie's long suffering girlfriend/fiancee. She played her role with a vulnerability combined with strength and emotion. I honestly felt sorry for her by the film's end. Playing Dickie's college buddy with the air of person who has been spoiled their entire life, Phillip Seymore Hoffman was a joy to watch. I must say, I fully approved of his fate.

It's not often, but this is one of those times the cinematography almost overtook the actual story. Italy should use it as a commercial to travelers trying to decide where their next trip will be. Stunning views throughout the movie make it rewatchable time and time again.

Excellent cast, performances, and views make this a movie I will watch whenever I see it is on.

We went to see this movie on a whim and although I am not someone who listens to reggae music, I would like to learn more about it and see what Bob Marley was in our world. The story was not the easiest to follow because it it jumped around in time, which isn't usually difficult to follow, but it was in this movie. There were aspects missing that would have brought this movie together much better.

I found I enjoyed the music very much and I did get a sense of why Bob Marley was an important figurehead in the attempt of taking away hate at teaching love to all.

I thought the actress who played Bob's wife was fantastic. I felt a lot of pain and strife that she must have experienced as the celebrity status of her husband soared. To me, she was the best part of the movie.

This was an interesting movie with fine performances, but it felt a bit rushed and scattered in it's writing.

Really, there is nothing new here when it comes to supernatural horror genre. The same jump scares, settings, characters, and outcomes are all here and completely predictable. The CGI is pretty generic as well. That said, the movie is watchable and entertaining. The notion the entity that is prowling you shows it's presence by a smile works in the creepy department. I mentally played out this movie in my head before I sat down and actually watched it and found that I was spot on with my assessment.

This movie would have actually been much scarier if it didn't have the jump scares and the CGI gore to entertain the masses that enjoy such things.

When I rate a movie a 5, it means if you have nothing better to watch, give this a go and you won't be disappointed, but you will forget about it an hour after you have finished watching it, and you will never need to see it again.

This was your standard Christmas episode from the era that pans out exactly how you expect. A child in peril, misunderstandings, gruff mountain man with a stony heart, and the Cartwrights exuding all that is good and wholesome in the world. Absolutely nothing wrong with that in my book! My problem is apparently no one seems to realize that, other than the inability to see, blind people are completely normal in how they function in life. The representation of someone being blind in this episode was borderline comical. I chuckled periodically at how she stared with a completely still head to assure us that she is indeed blind.

Aside from that, this is a warm and fuzzy episode that will give you Christmas cheer and warmth all the way up your backbone, stiff neck and blind eyes!

It's a very quirky show that features rich people finding themselves in uncomfortable or awkward situations often. These are reasons why I usually dislike shows like this, but for some odd reason, I fully enjoyed both seasons. I guess what it is that grabs me is I find the people so strange and completely unaware of things that I find it amusing. I also like trying to figure out the outcomes and I really can't figure out exactly how things are going to shake out. My wife, however, has a knack deciphering and analyzing the thought processes of these bizarre characters.

Another thing I enjoy about this show is the casting, particularly Jennifer Coolidge. I enjoy her in pretty much everything she is in and The White Lotus is no exception. She plays mentally dim people so well that every time she smiles, it seems her IQ drops 75 points. Myself, I think that is an endearing quality with her character in seasons 1 & 2.

The White Lotus isn't going to be for everyone. Most of the characters are self centered, obnoxious, evil and just completely useless for the most part. We get to watch these malcontents be horrible to each other from the comfort of our homes. Some people would rather watch grass grow than this show and I get it.

The White Lotus is a series that should rate only 1 star or 10 stars. I find it hard to see it in between those ratings.

I became familiar with Gran Turismo when I gave my son his PlayStation 1 back in 1998. A demo version of the game came with it. Even back then, the graphics were amazing well done and the whole vibe of the game was very realistic in the fact you had to learn the courses and lines you drove to maximize your performance. With the vastly improved gaming consoles, graphics and sounds, it stands to reason that the hand to eye and timing aspects of racing could translate to real racing. The main difference is the physical toll that actual driving takes on the human body. I have raced go-karts a long time ago and after driving 100 laps, you are sweaty and spent mass of humanity. I felt like I played 2 football games back to back when I got out of that cart.

This movie was well written and performed without being sappy and predictable. The emotions displayed were heartfelt and realistic. This leads to my final portion of my review. Back in 1979 there was a movie called "Breaking Away" which entailed a young man who was obsessed with bicycle racing. All he wanted to do was race against his heroes the Cinzano Racing Team from Italy and when he does, it does not pan out well for him. To make matters worse, he is a townie in a snobby college town where he is looked down upon by the college types and his own father.

Just like Breaking Away, Gran Turismo has a storyline of difficulty, self-doubt, pain, sorrow, excitement and a final race where the odds are against the hero.

Anyone who has seen Breaking Away and Gran Turismo will know exactly what I mean when I say this was a great movie where you will be cheering at the end.

See it.

I first saw this movie back in the 80s and at first Sean Penn's performance seemed to be way over the top at the start of the movie. As the movie progressed, however, some great acting started to shine through. Allie Sheedy in particular played her part so well that in one scene it is so stressful and disturbing you watch it unfold and you wish it would just end before the inevitable outcome. Some of the correctional facility scenes were cliche' but there were also many things in these scenes that gave a good indication of what happens in such a setting.

Esai Morales stole the show in my opinion and Sean Penn shows that he will be an upper echelon star and not stuck in roles in the Spiccoli realm. It's hard to believe that it was the same actor, the roles were so completely different.

The reason why I am writing this review is because I watched it again recently and found it just as powerful as my first viewing of it.

I had Robert De Niro write the title for my review.

I will premise my review with this: I did enjoy the movie and I watch it often despite the fact that it is a pandering, indulgent and overdone mafia movie. Using the recipe of having narration provided by characters in the movie to describe what doesn't need to be described got a bit annoying. It was a highly successful technique used in "Goodfellas" so Scorsese did it again. It's sort of pandering to people who love narration. I found some of the scenes over the top ridiculous and not believable in the least, such as the pen scene and the scamming black jack players. It was purely for simple entertainment value; nothing more.

Once again, we have De Niro repeating himself many times. Example: "Equal blueberries in every muffin. Equal blueberries in every muffin....................Equal blueberr....(ok, you got my point). I picture Scorsese yelling "SAY IT AGAIN!!!" during the take. Not sure why its done, but it is sort of a trademark of De Niro's. Joe Pesci basically replayed his role from Goodfellas. It worked great there, why not in Casino? It was lazy character development. It was still fun to watch him be a "pissant" though.

There was something that really stands out in the movie though and that is the performance of Sharon Stone. Truly, she should have won the Oscar for it. She played a damaged soul that knows she has the looks to control men with money like puppets on a string perfectly. It really was a fantastic performance by her.

Let me make one thing clear: If Casino came out before Goodfellas, I would have made it a 9 or 10 rating. I would have given Goodfellas a 5 rating if came out after Casino. I just thought Casino was a lazy retread.

Don't get me started on "The Departed" and "The Irishman".....You can read my reviews on them if you wish. Spoiler: They sucked.

This movie was such a delightful surprise on my first viewing. I was expecting such a different, if not slightly boring, movie. From the opening scene, this movie became a favorite.

Everyone talks about Michael Keaton's break out role, and I get it, but to me, the best performance was from Henry Winkler: The Fonz, the coolest tv character ever created. He was so great with his meek & quiet demeanor. Ron Howard went out on a limb having him play Chuck, the overstressed, undersexed and financial genius. Pairing him with the hyperactive. Bill, he has created a perfect comedic team.

The movie is interlaced with so many small great scenes that it consistently entertains with many laughs.

This is a great and underrated movie.

Weeks ago I heard that there was going to be a Barbie movie coming out and my immediate first thought was "Oh, God." I then forgot about it and then saw the trailer for it when we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie. I always enjoy seeing Margot Robbie when I can and Ryan Gosling looked like he was going to bring some humor to the movie, so when my wife asked if I wanted to see it, I said SURE! I'm glad I did.

The movie was as amusing as I hoped, and it didn't overly rely on tired story lines to make it entertaining. What it also had was a lot of heart. Margot Robbie is an actress that has a ton of sex appeal, but she doesn't use it. She uses her great skill as an actress to convey the story and does it very well.

What was really fun about this movie was listening to the kids in the theater responding to it and it was pretty hilarious. My daughter and I were laughing more at that than anything. It was actually a delightful surprise that added to the whole vibe of the movie.

Ryan Gosling played a goofball Ken, but he does so in a very controlled and amusing way, and you actually feel for Ken bigtime as the story moves along. He did a great job as well as the rest of the cast that made up all the Barbies and Kens.

The only thing I will say takes away from this movie is Will Ferrell. I normally find him amusing in most movies he is in, but in this one, he was completely superfluous. He added not a single laugh nor important aspect to the story line. He just was not needed in this movie.

So, if you have a daughter of any age, go see it with her and laugh. It's truly a good time.

I watched this movie today on a whim. I figured it would be entertaining despite the anticipated idiocy. I was half right. The movie was entertaining, and the idiocy I was anticipating wasn't there. I found the opening scene to be cheesy but very creepy as well. It was a nice start to the mayhem that lays ahead.

The main story is about 2 estranged sisters; one a single mom who has kids from different fathers, the other a tough technical chick in the rock n roll industry. Both characters are set up to be annoying run of the mill types that add absolutely nothing to the story. Once again, I was wrong for the most part.

The movie holds the Evil Dead tradition of making the dead into extremely evil entities. Although much of the gore was CGI, I found the mood and quality of it wonderfully disturbing. Scenes were quick and to the point with satisfying violence.

Last but not least, the little girl. Usually, when a little girl is introduced into a movie such as this, they mutter plucky lines, or are so incredibly annoying, you want a bad outcome for them. This little girl had Newt from Aliens quality that had me pulling for her. I thought the kid playing her did a great job.

This was a fun movie to watch and it was truly disturbing just like the originals from the 80s.

Movies like Heredity remind me that mood trumps jump scares and gore in the horror genre. The mood of this movie goes from a family that has suffered loss of someone that, well, they are better off without to tense, terrible and completely sad story. I don't want to go deep into it but the emotions it evokes are real. This does not mean that the movie does not use manipulations all horror movies use and it is necessary to make the story work.

Now lets get to the reason why this movie puts it above so many: The performance of Toni Collette. She played her part with so much raw emotion, pain, terror, sadness and maniacal energy that I do find it hard to believe she did not get accolades for her performance. By the end of the movie I was emotionally exhausted and fully impressed by her.

This was a solid watch and I will watch it again to catch subtle things that I have missed on my first watching.

99 times out of 100 when I read the book first, I will dislike the movie immensely. Stephen King novels suffer horribly when they are adapted into movies. The main reason is because they skim over important plot lines and characters to fit the story into a 2 hour movie time frame. I get it. It's not easy to do. The other thing that happens is when they cast someone for the role that completely does not fit with the character you have imagined in your mind. Happily, Disclosure did a pretty good job on all fronts. As a matter of fact, they removed a character from the book that I found highly annoying and pretty much a useless character. It is Max, incase you are wondering.

Considering this was made in 1994, I thought the computer graphics were pretty good and added to the overall tone of the movie. Today, it is dated, but it still holds up.

The casting was satisfactory. It's hard to believe that Gordon Gecko getting manhandled by a woman, but then again, he got manipulated by the insane Alex, so what do I know?

Donald Sutherland, Dennis Miller and everyone else played their roles with some fun and no one seemed miscast at all.

Lastly, let me talk about Demi Moore. She was perfectly cast. She was who I pictured in my mind when I first read the book and she played the part exactly as how I hoped she would. She unbelievably sexy, smart, evil, and, did I mention.....sexy? She successfully shown that sexual harassment is not specifically male against female. I am here to tell you that women can be just as forward as any man.

This movie is better than it gets credit for.

I initially decided I was not going to see this movie based on how utterly horrible the last one was. I refuse to say the name of it. I decided it would be nice to see the movie with my wife so I went. I figured worse case would be I have a nice nap in the cool theater on a 105 degree day.

The movie did started off with some CGI magic that usually puts me right to sleep, but this was pretty different and for the most part, kept my interest.

The movie was built around a bunch of chase scenes that once again, usually put me to sleep, but they were short and to the point for which I was grateful.

The story line is what held me and I found it intriguing. Let me put it this way: It was a million times better than the unmentionable piece of dung that was the previous installment.

The movie was long, but it was very watchable and I did not take a restroom run even though I had to for the last hour.

Harrison Ford's performance was much better than what I expected and the cliches were held to a manageable level.

The rest of the cast did a solid job and there was no one who was annoying or took away from the movie in any way.

Truth be told, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and will see it again.

Actually, I lied. It took 3 minutes for me to realize this was steaming pile of dookie. It put on Netflix continue the final season of Better Call Saul and Fubar popped up. I figured I'd give it a shot even though Arnold has been in a string of cliche saturated, CGI loaded over the past decade or 2. Do people really enjoy watching this type of show? Why? There's nothing original. There's nothing clever. Oh, the repartee between Arnold and his plucky colleague is so great, right? RIGHT???

No.... I shut it off after 5 minutes because I have seen this done over and over again. I don't want to watch a show that is going to give me a headache from my eyes rolling and my annoyance climbing rapidly.

I cannot imagine this show having a season 2.

Skip it. You're welcome.