Change Your Image
jwbaumann
Reviews
Annette (2021)
All the charm and hopefulness of Leaving Las Vegas
The movie would have benefited from less Adam Driver, a better story line, elimination of half of the first 50 minutes, more interesting lyrics, actual music, enunciation, and a warning. And did I mention less Adam Driver?
Marion Cotillard was good. The sex scenes added nothing to the film. The Annette live actress at the end was far better than the Chucky wannabe. The lamp and the floating/flying was never really explained. The "haunting" really wasn't a haunting. And what's with his port wine stain?
Oh, and Henry McHenry, the Adam Driver character, was a crude, unfunny, nasty reckless self-centered drunk who was completely unlikable.
Based the IMDB summary I expected a family film. This is affirmatively NOT. Do not let anyone under 16 watch this.
Quincy M.E.: Sleeping Dogs (1982)
Pathetic setup, execution, and ending
Pathetic small town that won't stand up to a disgusting bully, then the bully is killed, everyone takes credit and the townsfolk (including the LEO) go to extreme lengths to keep Quincy, on his extracurricular high horse trying to do detective/police/superman work, from figuring things out (call in the state police already). In the end a women, who certainly *looks* like a decent, attractive, well dressed, nice person, disses everyone and says the bully was a "real man" (he was an a$$hoIe). A pathetic commentary on everything and everyone with no redeeming value and no even mildly worthwhile humans anywhere.
Tangent Room (2017)
Watchable. Cerebral. Low budget.
Several logical questions I have.
WARNING! SPOILERS!
Why would the bubbles be colliding in THAT room?
If the bubbles are colliding at tremendous speed, why does the movie last over an hour?
Dr. Wahlstein's death seemed to be important as to why the geniuses were brought together, yet he is alive in the other bubbles. That's a non-trivial difference between bubbles. Basically, his death was a gimmick that had nothing to do with the story.
I assume the list of numbers helped Wahlstein determine *when* the bubbles would collide, but again, given the scale of the universe, how did he get it down to a single room and a 4 hour window of time? This is never explained. In fact, this glaring question is never even asked!
Why do people shift bubbles, but then toward the end it is the pads of paper on the table that are switching. That seems anti-climactic.
In the end, it appears that a cosmic lifeboat is created, not by any action of the participants, but simply because that is how the laws of physics worked in this sci-fi context. So ultimately the only "problem" they solved was understanding, sort of, what happened.
Basically, the ending was a cop-out.
Despite all that, the movie is worth watching, especially if you think of it as a Twilight Zone episode.
War of the Worlds (2005)
Lame
This movie had plot holes and disbelief suspension ten times the size of the special effects. The world is being destroyed and you have your son escape carrying a cardboard box? Cities are being trashed so you escape to Boston? The roads are navigable even though everyone's car has stopped? He thinks the ferry would be running amidst all the destruction? And does that car have a bottomless gas tank? The aliens blow everything to pieces yet carefully search a cruddy farmhouse? The aliens feed on people yet blow them away willy- nilly? (maybe there's a buffalo metaphor in there) Communication is destroyed yet the military can mount an organized response? The news crew's equipment still works when phones and radios don't? Why did people smash the windshield at the ferry? Why were Ray and Rachel the only ones to go into the (conveniently open) farmhouse? How did Rachel get outside without disturbing the red strands, and why would she have run outside? The idiocy went on and on.
Besides the completely stupid story and complete absence of character development, the special effects were really cheesy and not believable.
The only modestly interesting part of the movie was the 10 seconds that the mirror was held up to the alien eye. Unfortunately, that little bit was unconnected to any other plot element.
Save your time. See a movie with dialog, or heart, or a message, or likable characters, or even a plot.
Mean Girls (2004)
A smarter movie than I expected
This was a far smarter movie than I expected, with a steady pace of action, a decent amount of non-predictability, and at the end, a fairly good social message. It suffers from some weak editing at points, and dismal character development and portrayal of the adults. Tim Meadows character in particular never seems able to treat the serious issues he must confront with, well, seriousness. Regina's mom is a true caricature, but sadly so close to reality the movie may get a nomination in the documentary category. "Health class" is clearly "as viewed thru the eyes of teenagers."
The redeeming value and message of the movie will likely be lost on the age group which will most identify with the humor and "realness" of it. This is NOT a movie for kids under 8, and probably not for kids under 13, as words like "bitch" and "whore" fly fairly freely. It probably IS a movie for parents to see with their teenage children as fodder for later discussion.
Despite the uplifting ending, it was a shame to see Cady (Lindsay Lohan), whose character at the beginning of the movie is pure, sweet, trusting, intelligent, and wholesome, become so corrupted by so many forces (hormones, peer pressure, revenge) in so many ways. You would think that her parents (who had homeschooled her in Africa) would have instilled in her the wisdom and self confidence to read people better and make better choices. Perhaps the point is that despite how well we prepare our children, they must still make mistakes and find their own way. Cady does enough of both to make for a very funny and thought-provoking movie.
Road to Redemption (2001)
delightful; a surprising, feel good movie
I stumbled across this gem while late night channel surfing, entering at the scene where Amanda and Nathan take the "detour" which lands them behind a pigeon truck. I'll admit what caught my eye was Julie Condra's beauty, but the story was intriguing because I knew neither how it started nor that it was a Christian film. The bad guys were caricatures, her boyfriend was pathetic, and the medical details poorly researched (hey, I'm a doc - I notice these things!), but it was fun, engaging, and mostly well acted and well written, with a message that did not feel forced or contrived, and with what felt like a natural relationship evolution between Nathan and Amanda through the film.
Perhaps the best evidence that this is a film worth watching: after it ended, I channel surfed a bit more, and came across a Girls Gone Wild adfomercial and VH1 music video. The contrast between the peaceful spirituality of the final scene in R to R and the raucous tawdriness of GGW and VH1 was stunning. I prefer the former. Much more.
Billy Madison (1995)
Unfunny and offensive
Bad, worthless, waste of time movie. The only thing that makes it barely tolerable is that his girlfriend is pretty, and the only thing that makes it barely excusable is that I really DON'T think Adam Sandler is capable of better. It's a perfect blend of bad acting, bad writing, bad directing and bad producing. If you liked this movie, you would probably also like "Blind Date," "Death Becomes Her," and "Skin Deep."