chaskell Reviews

Magic Mike (2012)

Steven Soderbergh at a Low Point

[4/10 · 28 March 2023]

I stayed with this film well beyond the first hour, and struggled to care anything about the story, the characters - or even to find them at all interesting.

Everything about these characters is cliched and formulaic - despite seeming efforts to give them depth, there is hardly anything that gets beneath the superficiality of the characters or their predictability; just a lot of well worn scripted inane dialogue.

Steven Soderbergh is so much better than this. Too bad he front-loaded this movie with a lot of gratuitous and unneeded stripper routines, and then tried to make a story out of it and give it meaning. It has none. These are just really boring people doing boring stuff. How did he ever get himself trapped in this mediocre effort?

The Wire (2002–2008)

Very Good. Near Great. But Not Among the Best

[2/10 · 22 February 2023]

The series has two incredibly powerful things going for it: a terrific story arc; and a powerfully cohesive, compelling and complex plot.

But, seriously? The rest is just stupid.

The characters are caricatures instead of internally driven agents.

The dialogue is cliche-ridden instead of genuinely interactive and responsive.

The scenes are contrived to move a pre-conceived plot forward instead of allowing the plot to emerge organically and inevitably.

And so many things are just too "convenient."

The Wire was stretching conventional television. And did a pretty good job doing it.

But it did not break the mold. In fact, it is incredibly cliche-filled. And laughably so.

Poor writing is at the core.

Killer Inside: The Mind of Aaron Hernandez (2020– )

Incoherent

[3/10 · 17 January 2020]

Instead of telling a compelling and informative narrative, this is just click-bait after click-bait news footage strung together that seeks to titillate.

There is a powerful story here. But you won't find it in this exhibit of cheap and lazy film-making.

Skam (2015–2017)

Watch the Original; Beware of the Fuller Corruptionl

[10/10 · 11 December 2016]

Exceptionally well-done series. Although originally envisioned as appealing to adolescent girls, it has a universal appeal because of its authentic story-line, realistic portrayal of characters, great writing and pacing, but most of all.... its intelligence. Yes, intelligence! Skam doesn't dumb down the lives of the teens it portrays, the challenges and issues that they face, or their own intelligence and motivations. It doesn't exploit them. It treasures them. It is deeply respectful of the lives that they lead, and values their intelligence and authentic striving -- their essential humanity. It's a rare piece of television. And great stuff.

How sad that the US/UK television rights have been bought by Simon Fuller. The US/UK version will undoubtedly miss all that is good and noble about this series and go right to the ratings formulas, giving us a self-absorbed, teeny bopper melodrama that turns characters into stereotypes and sensationalizes (i.e. exploits pornographically) the lives of the young people portrayed. What Fuller will do will have NOTHING to do with what this series is about. But he'll steal the rights, steal the name, and do the teensploitation. Shame on him!!

Skip what will surely be the US/UK abortion. Watch the original - thanks to all those wonderful people who translated and embedded subtitles. Once you watch, you'll have no doubt that Fuller hasn't the intelligence or decency to do what's right by this series.

Glee (2009–2015)

Why Do the People on Glee never Grow?

[5/10 · 10 January 2012]

Each episode is a self-contained story that challenges characters to confront their prejudices and attitudes and come to a deeper understanding of issues and people that leads to resolution. But when one gets to the next episode, it's as if none of the experience, learning and relationship building in the prior episode ever took place. It's as if their memories were wiped out (a la "Men in Black") Why do the characters never learn and grow from episode to episode? Are they just dumb retarded people?

Actually, I think the answer is simple. Glee has one story. But it uses a different matrix of character relationships to tell the same story each week. And it tells each story with the backdrop of looming "regionals" (which seem to take place 12 months a year). And why does Glee tell this single repetitive story? Because it's not about the story; it's about selling the music. This isn't television. This is selling product. Buy the CD. Download the Music. How cynically FOX this is.

Roger Dodger (2002)

Great Movie Until the Last Five Minutes

[2/10 · 6 May 2003]

This is is movie that would have been near perfect had it ended five minutes earlier (with Roger contemplating his empty life). Unfortunately, the filmmakers seemed to think that tacking on a rather juvenile, silly, empty and clever ending which said "we really didn't mean any of this and Roger is still an icon" would please audiences. Perhaps, but those five minutes turned a very good and creative movie into a piece of garbage. How sad that the filmmakers did precisely what Roger suggested for his nephew in the movie -- when you are not sure that you have scored, demean yourself and others and hire a cheap prostitute. The final five minutes were essentialy all about the hiring of such a prostitute in the context of this fim. I had been scoring this movie as an eight. It has dropped down to two, based solely on the final, worthless five minutes. Shame on the filmmakers who sold out in what what was otherwise a most promising film.

Empire of the Sun (1987)

It's About Time

[9/10 · 2 April 1999]

When I first rented and watched Empire of the Sun on video about 10 years ago, I was so moved by the performances and the story that I: first, went out and bought the video so I could watch it again and again; and, second, moved the movie into my top-ten all-time favorite list. Christian Bale (who will be hardput to exceed his acting accomplishment in Empire in the 60-odd years he has ahead of him as an actor) and Steven Spielberg (one of a kind) combined to give an extraordinarily rich picture of an awful and devastating war through the eyes of a maturing, but still quite young, boy. So it was disappointing, though perhaps not unexpected, that the conventional wisdom of the time dismissed Spielberg's work here as rather shallow; afterall, the critics had been predisposed to think of Spielberg in that way. Silly of them. It is only in the light of Schindler and Private Ryan that critics have begun to appreciate Spielberg's insight, vision, and directorial skills. Now the critics are beginning to look back at works like Empire to find the seeds of these more recent films. Bull to the seeds! Empire of the Sun stands on its own, not as a film that possesses seeds for other more "mature" works, but as a brilliant film in and of itself -- a brilliance that reviewers were too blind and too prejudiced to recognize at the time (and they PAY these people). Shame on them! And great for us! Spielberg, we know, has done tremendous work with Schindler's List, Amistad, and Saving Private Ryan. These are all exceptional films. But his truly pioneering work, and the film that ought to be his signature work, is Empire of the Sun. It is still a movie I will watch again and again, and it remains safely and securely among my top-ten -- the critics be damned (though their quest for forgiveness and redemption has not gone unnoticed)!