qormi Reviews

Life with Lucy (1986)

Actually a pretty good show.

[8/10 · 14 April 2024]

Both Lucy and Gale Gordon were as sharp and funny as ever. Lucy was in great shape for a woman of 75, and did physical stunts that most women in their fifties couldn't do. Great cast with the exception of Ann Dusenberry, who played her daughter. She always shouted out her lines, which was very annoying...why couldn't the director, or Lucy or somebody simply have told her to speak in normal tones? The kids who played the grandchildren were very good actors, and the tall guy who played her son in law was quite funny. It's s shame that there were 13 shows in the can, but it was cancelled after only six episodes.

When Worlds Collide (1951)

Idiotic and stupid beyond comprehension

[1/10 · 1 November 2023]

There are so many things wrong with this movie. A planet a billion miles away is hurtling toward earth, along with its sun. Scientists predict the precise day and hour of its arrival, and sure enough, it's there at precisely 1:00 pm.

Good thing they had months to prepare... they built a huge spaceship, ten years before the first astronaut went into space. No test flights.. and 40 people and a few farm animals were slated to be hustled off to the new planet. Why? Because with the arrival of the new planet and its tiny planet sized sun, earth and every living thing on it would be destroyed. Why everything on the new planet wasn't destroyed on its light speed billion mile journey with its faithful tiny sun in tow, is never mentioned.

Anyway, as if this isn't stupid enough, all the people are white and the only disabled wheelchair bound person is a complete nasty, hateful, crabby guy who gets killed. So... only whites and non disabled people allowed. Hitler would have loved it.

What else? The leading man, who is supposed to be a total chick magnet, looks just like a grown up Eddie Haskell from Leave It to Beaver. So... the movie ends with the white flight landing on a snow covered terrain, with green fields on the horizon and alien architecture to the left. Oh, and the professor's daughter, who was engaged to a handsome young doctor, immediately dumped him for the Eddie Haskell guy.

Carmen (I) (2022)

Very interesting story.

[10/10 · 3 September 2023]

Great acting throughout. The story unfolds in the 1980s as we learn of Carmen's situation.. deprived of a normal life since her youth, and then finds herself at middle age with no family and no place to go. We see a spiritual guidance in the form of a pigeon, in a few fleeting appearances of Christ himself, and of a long gone lover from her youth. When she impersonates a priest in a confessional, she gives sage advice to the unsuspecting confessors, which is very funny. On her way to establishing a new life, she has a romance with a young guy half her age, has a very dangerous encounter with a sexual predator, and becomes close friends with a most unlikely person. The people in the Catholic country of Malta are very religious, and we see processions in the streets which are common there, along with parades on religious observances of saints' birthdays, etc.

Sweet Smell of Success (1957)

Dog Eat Dog

[10/10 · 23 July 2023]

Oscar worthy performance by Tony Curtis. Lancaster menacing, manipulative, brooding. Everything about this film noir classic rang true... from a dirty look in a coffee shop, to the middle aged newsboy, to the neon light soaked streets of New York at night. The dialogue was priceless... fast and unrelenting, you wanted it to slow down, but this was the film noir style ... filled with smart aleck remarks delivered staccato and impossible to process all of it. Above all, the dialogue was very intelligent, challenging you to keep up with the pace and requiring you to think. Great movie and never let up from the opening credits until the end.

Kings Go Forth (1958)

Great movie

[8/10 · 19 July 2023]

Great acting by Sinatra and Curtis. Wood and the actress who played her mother, not so much. Both overacted and came off not genuine but weird. Riveting performance by Sinatra as the hard nosed soldier and Curtis seemed very genuine. As the story unfolds, there are unpredictable moments and some surprises. Some of it was quite shocking. There were no stereotypical cornball characters that plagued most World War 2 movies. Characters, even secondary ones, were not one dimensional. The movie flowed and I never got the feeling that it bogged down at any point. It's not a well known film, and very underrated.

The Texan (1958–1960)

Great Western

[10/10 · 23 June 2023]

I never knew about this show growing up in the 1950s and 60s. I started watching all the episodes on YouTube and am very impressed. Rory Calhoun looks, acts, and talks just like Alan Ladd... except Calhoun was very tall, while Ladd was pint sized. This western is about a drifter who doesn't look for trouble, but t trouble always finds him, as he keeps getting in weekly brawls and shootouts on his many small town stopovers. The acting and dialogue seems to set this show apart, as there are very high standards. The plots are more adult themed than most westerns. All in all, it has high production standards and avoids the jovial cliche ridden excess found in most tv westerns. Calhoun was a very great, underrated actor, who co produced this series. Too bad he decided to pull the plug on it after two seasons.

The Virginian: Riff-Raff (1962) Season 1, Episode 7

Not good

[1/10 · 3 May 2023]

This episode trivialized the Battle of San Juan Hill. They made it look like a small scale walk in the park with virtually no American deaths and the Spanish with just one cannon. The Shiloh Ranch Boys single handedly won the battle by stabbing a half dozen Spaniards. In reality, there were 144 American soldiers dead and over a thousand wounded. The Spanish had 85 of their soldiers killed. The Americans had 3 Gatling guns and the Spaniards several pieces of artillery. Although Theodore Roosevelt was featured prominently in this episode, he was curiously absent from the battle which had made him famous.

The Virginian: The Brazen Bell (1962) Season 1, Episode 5

Very lame and drawn out.

[2/10 · 25 April 2023]

Despite starring George C. Scott, this episode was very disappointing. Perhaps Scott felt the same, because his name did not appear on the credits. Filled with wordy, overly long scenes, which was a weakness of this series in an attempt to stretch the weekly shows to 90 minutes. We even had Scott read an entire poem by Oscar Wilde, and it wasn't a short one. In one scene, a woman fleeing a hostage situation was shot in the back. We see her body on the ground, but... it's just an empty cloak, with no head, hands, or feet. Did the actress refuse to lie on the ground and there wasn't a stand in? Or did everyone go home and they staged it later? Quite odd. In light of today's unfortunate rash of school shootings, this was a textbook case of how not to deal with a school shooting situation, as the townspeople, although armed, chose to lie in wait for an hour instead of taking a shot at one of the two gunman who stood by an open window the entire time. Very cowardly, as in the recent Uvalde school shooting in Texas, the Parkland massacre in Florida, and the Columbine massacre in Colorado. In each case, the police huddled outside and did nothing until it was too late.

The Virginian: The Big Deal (1962) Season 1, Episode 4

So looks and charm trumps all

[2/10 · 24 April 2023]

So this aristocratic dude from Columbia with a suave accent and impeccable manners tries to blackmail the judge out of $100,000 for a piece of land worth $5,000. It's a mystery why they didn't string him up for that. This was the Wild West. Instead, to make a long story short, the judge is forced to herd thousands of cattle miles and miles to thwart his move in a two week drive that must be completed in 6 days. Meanwhile, the Colombian dandy installed a mile long stretch of barbed wire, causing the judge's daughter to fall off her horse and almost bleed out from deep neck and facial cuts (I'm not kidding). Instead of shooting the Latin lover, or beating him senseless, they all forgive him immediately, and the judge and daughter ( who made a miraculous instant recovery), and the ranch hands, along with the lady newspaper editor he romanced, blow kisses to him as he waves from the train, leaving town to return to the Colombian pampas or whatever.

Creed II (2018)

Kind of a Drag-o

[6/10 · 6 April 2023]

Decent movie. Adonis and his wife having a baby, separate family dramas with all 3 protagonists.. Rocky, Drago, and Creed. In the first fight, Creed nearly gets killed. Then, Rocky agrees to train him and they go to a weird desert place where all the determined boxers in the universe dwell... they pound sledge hammers, go toe to toe in a spare tire, use a head brace to lift weights..... okay all of this stuff is useless and probably counter productive to getting in shape for a fight... but so what? There's a scary guy full of tats to legitimize it all. Then, we go to Moscow for the rematch like in Rocky IV. But the fight sequences are so much better and more realistic than Rocky vs Daddy Drago. In that movie, Rocky actually got punched in the face 200 times! Creed 2 boxing was very well choreographed. Still, Creed almost got killed and made a miraculous resurrection from being stone cold knocked out. The unintentional takeaway from the movie..... Adonis Creed is a stuck up jerk with a perpetual attitude, and a spoiled brat, with his wife, mother, and Rocky doting on him. Viktor Drago is much more likeable.. he seems very humble and has to contend with a very mean and demanding father, and an aloof and cold mother. Plus Adonis Creed often reminds of Napoleon Dynamite..same facial expressions, mannerisms.

Tales of Wells Fargo (1957–1962)

Agent Hardy... one bad dude

[10/10 · 4 April 2023]

Dale Robertson's agent Hardy was unlike other stars of fifties westerns. He was the forerunner of the Clint Eastwood type of western hero... soft spoken, but willing to beat or shoot a bad guy without formal notice. He was very cocky, walking around with swag and sneering smirking, and wisecracking with an attitude to annoy the outlaws. With the ladies, he was the same way. He knew what he wanted and so did they. Lots of action and this show may have conveyed the lawlessness and danger of the west better than any other. The action sequences with stagecoach horses galloping flat out, being pursued by outlaws was very exciting. Robertson was voted best horseman in a western series, and you could tell. All around great show.

Creed III (2023)

Good Movie

[7/10 · 3 April 2023]

Michael B. Jordan did a good job portraying a man haunted by a childhood living in foster homes, group homes, and juvenile detention centers. His father died while his mother was pregnant, and she too died when Adonis was very young. Phylicia Rashad played the widow of Apollo Creed, who tracked down Adonis and took him in. Sylvester Stallone played his other guardian Angel, who befriended him and guided him toward the path of being a professional boxer. Tessa Thompson was very convincing as Adonis' girlfriend, and their relationship seemed very real. From there, we go into the formula of nearly all the Rocky movies... training, and then the big match in the ring. The fight scenes were much more realistic than those we saw in the Rocky movies, where he would get punched in the face 200 times before rallying in the final round.

Strangers When We Meet (1960)

Stranger When in Heat

[3/10 · 29 March 2023]

Well, we have Larry who's almost 20 years older than Maggie. He has a wandering eye and it was lust at first sight. Maggie is married to a man who's not interested in doing the wild thing, and there you have it.. time to boogie.

Maggie is a total drip who can't seem to put more than two words together to form a sentence, and has a perpetual expression of angst on her face. Never mind that, because Larry just wants her pretty face and hot bod, although the woman whom he's presently married to is much hotter and much less depressing. So there you have it.. it's 1960 and Maggie has a retro hairdo from 1953. Yet Larry is willing to forfeit his wife and 2 kids and take off.

But wait l.. when she finds out, Larry's wife begs him to stay, crying on his lap, instead of kicking him out. So there you have it. He stays. Maggie's face is still paralyzed with the angst look as she says, "Goodbye, Larry." Oh.. and Larry is supposed to be an award winning architect, yet he built the stupidest house for his rich client. It was under construction throughout the show and the much anticipated end product resembled a treehouse built by a drunk.

Babylon (I) (2022)

Trash

[1/10 · 21 March 2023]

I turned it off after 30 min . It was stupid and gross. I saw an elephant with diarrhea discharge 100 gallons of it on a man's head, with a closeup of the rectum it poured from. Just prior to that, a car was towing a truck carrying this elephant up a very steep hill when the rope broke. A man jumped out of the truck and pushed it from behind, stopping it and its multiple ton cargo. Then we witnessed a wild party in a cavernous, secluded mansion. We witnessed an obese man lying on the floor, enjoying himself immensely when a woman urinated all over his face. Then.we watched an unfunny exchange in a car between Brad Pitt and an angry, screaming woman that had been intended to be funny but failed. Back to the party.. people dancing as if it were a present day club. No, they did not dress or dance that way in 1923. They did dances like the Charlston; not standing and waving their arms. I turned it off after watching a man onstage with a huge fake penis device spray the crowd with white foam from 3 spigots.

This movie was pure garbage and very sick.

One Foot in Hell (1960)

From good guy to bad guy

[9/10 · 20 March 2023]

Very interesting story, written by Aaron Spelling. Alan Ladd's character went from good guy victim to manipulative, Machiavellian, ruthless, master mind, and killer. Nobody could see that coming.

He was treated very badly by three of the towns, people in particular, when he desperately needed medicine to save his wife's life, as she was struggling with childbirth complications. They all played a part in delaying the life-saving medication until it was too late.

Afterwords, the towns people rallied around him and offered him their friendship and his choice of employment. He chose to be the sheriff's deputy.

From there, we see that he devised a plan to steal $100,000 and get revenge on the town he secretly resented. He carefully recruited for cohorts, in much the same way the recruitment was done in the Magnificent Seven. What we see unfold is a tale of ruthless deception, murder, and double cross.

The Great Adventure (1963–1964)

My favorite show as a kid

[10/10 · 12 March 2023]

Very educational and showed a wide range of biographies and historical events. It was highly unusual then and now to see a prime time series that dramatized history in such a thoughtful, innovative, and realistic manner. The fact that there were no actors who appeared weekly and that it was an anthology series made it all the more interesting. From the inspirational theme song, the stage was set for another weekly adventure. This show greatly influenced me to take a lifelong interest in the subject of history, and I have enjoyed reading many books on American snd world history, eventually majoring in history in college and briefly teaching the subject before starting a long career as a special ed. Teacher.

Gutfeld! (2021–2024)

Just not funny..

[6/10 · 15 February 2023]

I agree with his conservative views and comments about Biden, AOC, and the rest. But Greg is an alleged funny man who lacks wit and maturity. His regulars on the show include Kat and Tyrus. Kat makes constant attempts at humor, but fails each time, while Greg rocks back and forth in his chair, fake laughing hysterically. Tyrus is a very large ex wrestler and apparent narcissist, acting bored while delivering confused attempts at humor like he's doing the world a favor. The only saving graces are the guest comedians who can carry their own weight. But Greg, with his wide eyed cutesy put - on persona is a real drag.

Friends (1994–2004)

The theme song kept this show afloat.

[1/10 · 4 February 2023]

The theme song to friends has the same riff as I Feel Fine, by The Beatles. Was there ever a lawsuit? This show has the most hyperactive laugh track I ever witnessed. Every time a character completes a sentence or even a partial sentence, we get hysterical laughter. None of these characters can act. The six actor ensemble seems like amateurs compared to the cast of Seinfeld, Golden Girls, or any other sitcom. These friends all live in apartments in a weird habitat with dirty hallways. The interiors are painted In loud purple, orange, turquoise, and green. The friends gather daily in a coffee shop on the same orange couch. Every plot revolves around flirting or sex. That's all they do and it gets old very quickly. The plots are really implausible unless you are 10 years old. Just a horrible show.

Elvis (2022)

Elvis for Dummies

[1/10 · 20 January 2023]

Terrible movie. Butler looks nothing like Elvis and does not capture his personality at all. Elvis was very charismatic and confident... an alpha male. Butler comes off as shy, frail, and effeminate. His idea of portraying Elvis is to shake a lot. The film just skims by, showing cars and fashions of the time period while showing us nothing, skipping from one episode in Elvis's life to the next without development or explanation. At two and a half hours long, they certainly had the time.

Tom Hanks' performance as Colonel Parker is rather unconvincing. We just get Tom Hanks in a rubber fat face getup with a phony German accent... Tom Hanks being Tom Hanks.... the role was too challenging for him, and nobody advised him to come up with something better than his lame portrayal.

Macon County Line (1974)

Very Suspenseful

[10/10 · 26 December 2022]

Very well paced, and very good character development. From the beginning, this movie holds your interest. Really stretched that shoestring budget to make a gritty, powerful movie that is unforgettable. Max Baer successfully shed his Jethro persona and is a very good actor, conveying his troubled character very convincingly... the rest of the cast are mainly unknown actors, with a couple of familiar faces too. Really captures the old segregationist South and the time.. the mid 1950s. The move has a special quality in that it flows... it's not as if these people are acting. They seem all too real.

On the Case with Paula Zahn (2009– )

Excellent and well crafted

[10/10 · 17 September 2022]

Paula Zahn is really great as the host, narrator, and interviewer. She is very professional and does her job well.. she tells a story and is skilled at making it even more interesting and riveting. . These cases follow law enforcement as they unravel false leads, dead ends, and confusion to piece together what really happened and ultimately nail the suspect. Scary how so many killers continue to lie and maintain their innocence after having been convicted with airtight proof of guilt. The arrogance and evil on display is scary.

The research into little known and fascinating crimes from all over the country make this series fascinating. Home videos and interviews are used, and actors used to portray the true life characters are matched to closely resemble them.

Grease 2 (1982)

Only profanity can aptly describe this garbage.

[1/10 · 19 August 2022]

This was without a doubt one of the 3 worst movies I have ever seen. I streamed it today on my tv ... and I refused to watch the last 20 min., because I did not want this film to have the satisfaction of me watching it in its entirety. Everything was wrong with it. Grease was an epic film.. Grease 2 was a septic film. The only saving Grace was Adrian Zmed as the comical tough guy leader of the T Birds. How this did not nip Michelle Pfeiffer's career in the bud and end it is beyond me. But she managed to live it down. One could write a 300 page book documenting the many ways this movie sucked.

Grease (1978)

Awesome one of my favorite flicks.

[10/10 · 16 August 2022]

Everything gelled... Travolta was terrific. Great chemistry with Olivia. Jeff Conaway, Stockard Channing... the whole cast did a great job. Really captured the era, circa 1958.

The Dollanganger Saga: Petals on the Wind (2014) Season 1, Episode 2

Daring, Shocking, Riveting

[10/10 · 9 August 2022]

What a tale of incest, betrayal, and revenge. Good and bad people trampled along the way. Converging storylines leading up to the final unexpected crescendo. This sequel to Flowers in the Attic knows no bounds.

Jaws 2 (1978)

Really got bogged down

[1/10 · 4 August 2022]

A bunch of teenagers with fluffy seventies hair get their boats tangled up in a confusing flotilla of laughing, screaming, yelling, going around in circles while a fake looking shark just hangs around and watched them for a half hour until the sheriff floats by in his boat, crashes it onto some rocks , and gets the shark to chomp on an electric cable. Oh yeah... earlier in the film, the shark ate 4 people off camera. .. The End.