pdavis68 Reviews

Babylon 5: Babylon Squared (1994) Season 1, Episode 20

This is where it really starts to get interesting....

[10/10 · 22 March 2008]

This episode is the beginning for me, of the genius of this show. Earlier in the season, up to about episode 18, there's not a terribly consistent story being told. It's as if Straczynski is still trying to figure the characters out but has no long term plan. But the real story begins in episode 18. What makes episode 20 genius however, is the connections. By this point, Straczynski has clearly mapped out the next two and possibly three seasons. This episode is retold in season 3 from the point of view of the characters a year and a half in the future.

I've seen shows that flash forward a few episodes and possibly even a following season. But to introduce connections beyond that shows real vision on the part of Straczynski. These kinds of connections continue on for the following 3 seasons and for me, they are what make the show one of the best sci-fi series I've seen.

Sadly, when the series originally ran, I watched the first few episodes of season 1 and dismissed it as a sci-fi show with lousy CGI, mediocre stories and mediocre acting. If I had held on through the entire season, I would have been hooked as I was when I finally sat down and forced myself through it.

King Arthur (2004)

Disappointing overall

[9 July 2004]

If you want a plot, read some of the other reviews. They cover more than enough and there's no need to repeat them.

This is probably as close to the "true" Arthur as has been portrayed in a movie to date. If you've followed any of the research into the origins of the legend of Arthur, then you might find this film mildly interesting.

To their credit, I think the main characters did a fairly good job with what they had. Unfortunately, what they had was almost nothing. I struggled for hours trying to figure out why exactly the movie just wasn't entertaining given that Clive Owen, as Arthur did an excellent job. Knightly is a talented actress, but she wasn't given much to work with. Skarsgard is also an excellent actor but again, not much of a part to work with. The dialog is incredibly weak.

The movie seemed like a really weak version of Braveheart overall. It was as if they had taken Braveheart, removed all the good dialog, weakened the battle scenes, and packaged it back up with new faces.

While it's possible you may care about Arthur and his knights, you're just not going to care about anyone else in this movie, and that's really where it fails miserably, I think. It's a shame because the "true story" of Arthur and his knights is as fascinating as the legend it spawned and better writing and direction really could have done something with it.

Battlestar Galactica (2003)

Wow, what a surprise

[9/10 · 18 December 2003]

First of all, I was a big fan of the original, when I was a kid, but having seen a few episodes of the original lately, I'm glad they avoided a lot of the cheesiness of the original. The cast and crew, I think, pulled off a wonderful surprise and a lot of us who thought they would fail are pleasantly surprised.

The only real fault I really see with it at this point is the same fault I see in most new series, which is that not all of the cast are completely at home with their characters. I think that will happen when this becomes a series.

The space fights and flights were exceptional in that unlike almost any other space battles I've previously seen, they assume physics has something called inertia. Wow! What a difference that makes. Yeah, you don't get those cool turning on a dime space ships, but it adds a great deal of character.

The story was excellent, I thought. The cast was well chosen. I like Olmos and McDonnel a lot but would never have picked them for the roles. I was quite pleased with their performances. I was very impressed with Helfer's roll, and not just because she's a gorgeous model. She spooked me, and I like that.

All in all, I have to say I can't wait for this to become a series. I'm glad they've reworked it. It makes the story work with an audience that has become more knowledgeable and saavy about space movies.

Beyond the Clouds (1995)

Huh???

[1 May 2003]

How can this movie possibly have such a high rating? When it comes to the director, I'll admit being ignorant of his past works, and maybe they are fine works. This was not a fine work by any stretch.

The script is terrible. The acting is horrible. You can't blame the actors, though. They don't have anything to work with. Every character acts like a psychotic stalker or a schizophrenic. The dialog is entirely nonsensical.

To quote Mark Twain from "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses", simply replace "Deerslayer" with "Beyond the Clouds":

1. A tale shall accomplish something and arrive some where. But the "Deerslayer" tale accomplishes nothing and arrives in air.

2. They require that the episodes in a tale shall be necessary parts of the tale, and shall help to develop it. But as the "Deerslayer" tale is not a tale, and accomplishes nothing and arrives nowhere, the episodes have no rightful place in the work, since there was nothing for them to develop.

3. They require that the personages in a tale shall be alive, except in the case of corpses, and that always the reader shall be able to tell the corpses from the others. But this detail has often been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.

4. They require that the personages in a tale, both dead and alive, shall exhibit a sufficient excuse for being there. But this detail also has been overlooked in the "Deerslayer" tale.

5. The require that when the personages of a tale deal in conversation, the talk shall sound like human talk, and be talk such as human beings would be likely to talk in the given circumstances, and have a discoverable meaning, also a discoverable purpose, and a show of relevancy, and remain in the neighborhood of the subject at hand, and be interesting to the reader, and help out the tale, and stop when the people cannot think of anything more to say. But this requirement has been ignored from the beginning of the "Deerslayer" tale to the end of it.

All of this applies to "Beyond the Clouds". The characters don't act like human beings, they don't talk like human beings. There seems to be no real story to tell.

As far as I can tell, it seems to me that the director simply wanted to see some beautiful actresses naked and came up with an excuse.

Don't waste your time, that's all I can say.

Oblivion (1994)

5 writers and at least 5 movies in 1

[1/10 · 24 August 2002]

You get 5 writers together, have each write a different story with a different genre, and then you try to make one movie out of it. It's action, it's adventure, it's sci-fi, it's western, it's a mess. Sorry, but this movie absolutely stinks. 4.5 is giving it an awefully high rating. That said, it's movies like this that make me think I could write movies, and I can barely write.

Deterrence (1999)

Would be a great play

[8/10 · 29 June 2002]

This is a very well written story, but it looks more like a play than a a movie. It's very well written and as others said, Kevin Pollack isn't particularly well cast as the president, but he does a valiant job at the attempt. Kevin Pollack is a great actor, but just isn't believable as a president of the United States.

Timothy Hutton and Sheryl Lee Ralph are terrific, especially Hutton. Both are well cast. Sean Astin is humorous, as usual.

While the movie is clearly low-budget and belongs in the play arena rather than movie arena, I still give it an 8 out of 10, based on story more than anything else.

Belle Epoque (1992)

Que belle pelicula

[19 May 2002]

Wow, what a terrific movie. I didn't expect much. I'm watching the end at 4:40am in the morning, and wondering why I haven't seen this movie before. It has something that you'll only find in a Spanish film. A type of humor that is missing in American movies, or maybe, just doesn't work in English. I don't know. All I know is that the movie is tremendously humorous. The actors are all fantastic. Penelope Cruz is, well, Penelope Cruz, but otherwise the movie is wonderful. DO NOT MISS IT.

Coldblooded (1995)

Excellent flick

[10/10 · 27 January 2002]

I can't believe this movie doesn't have a higher rating (although 6.6 isn't that bad on IMDB). I'm not a Jason Priestley fant at all, but he is just fantastic in this movie. The story is totally strange, very low-budget it some ways, but it has some great acting by Priestley and Peter Riegert.

Although her part is small, Kimberly Williams is also impressive and the bit parts of Michael J. Fox, Talia Balsam (his movie wife, though very short lived, no pun intended), Janeane Garofalo, are also great.

Robert Loggia can't be a bad actor in anything, so we don't even have to bring him up.

This is my favorite "unknown" movie. It seems few people have seen it and I will buy it the second it comes out on DVD. I catch it on cable every chance I get. Yes, I did rate it a 10!

All the Pretty Horses (2000)

Good movie, but like always...

[10 December 2001]

This is a great movie. There's no question. But...

Well, this may sound snobbish. I like Penelope Cruz, especially in the Spanish movies she's been in. She makes a poor Mexican, though. She played a Brazillian woman in another movie. Please, cast people where they belong. She looks and sounds Spanish. You can argue looks, but you can't argue accent. She sounds Spanish, not Mexican. She tries to hide it, but I could do a better English accent (and I can't do a decent one) than she can do a Mexican accent.

Okay, it's snobbish, and that's really my only complaint about the movie. But think about it, if you saw a movie with Sean Connery playing an American and speaking with his Scottish accent, how believable would it be to you.

Sorry, but I lived in Mexico and it just bugged me to death. The rest of the movie was great.

The Jackal (1997)

Well done, in every way...

[10 December 2001]

Bruce Willis is amazing as "The Jackal." Very convincing, very evil. You can't doubt it for a second.

Richard Gere is amazing as a an IRA soldier imprisoned in the U.S. on gun selling charges. His accent is incredible. I didn't think he had it in him.

Sidney Poitier: What can you say? The guy is amazing in everything he's been in.

Everything about this movie is beliveable, especially if you're familiar with the story of "The Jackal"

Michael Caton-Jones deserves cudos for an amazing job in direction. All the actors deserve cudos for fantastic performances.

People complain about this movie with some sort of prentension for knowing something about the Jackal or knowing about movies. Clearly they know nothing of either. This movie excels in every area.

The Last Supper (1995)

What a splendid movie

[9/10 · 26 November 2001]

What a great movie. Totally original storyline. Very well done. Everything about it screams great movie, yet few people have seen it. What a pity.

Being a bit of a liberal myself, I got caught up in the idea behind the movie. I suppose it would turn off conservatives. Still, I highly recommend it. It is well produced, well directed, and certainly well acted.

Courtney Vance is amazing, as always. But the rest of the cast are amazing as well. It's as if Cameron Diaz wasn't a star at all, and that's one thing that makes it great. Great cast, no egos. I highly recommend it.

Hendrix (2000 TV Movie)

Very well done movie

[18 November 2001]

I'm very disappointed by the reviews I've seen so far. I think they can be broken into two very different views: 1) This is a low budget movie and should have done better, and 2) I'm a guitar player and the guitar playing and depiction Jimi's life were incomplete.

Okay, I think I can address those all at once: It wasn't a move for guitarists, and being a low budget movie, they couldn't possibly cover every aspect of the man's life.

What they chose to cover, I believe, was very substantial and important. Being a guitarist myself, I'm not disappointed in Wood's performance. Was his "guitar playing" perfect? No, he's an actor, not a guitarist. Nevertheless, the movie was very well done, Wood did an amazing job of portraying the character of Hendrix, and the story told a great deal of Jimi's early life in music. The latter part, I think, is probably what bothered most, as it didn't go into enough details about his demise.

I think it's unfair to put down the movie for that. I don't think that's where the writers and directors were focusing. They were concentrating on his early music career and I think they did it brilliantly. I found it entirely engrossing and having seen it three times, I'll watch it a fourth.

If you're not a Hendrix fan, but you're curious about his early career, I think this movie is just for you. I won't guarantee that it's entirely accurate, but it's close enough to satisfy me, and the acting and music are exceptional.

Mad About Mambo (2000)

Glad I saw it on cable

[14 August 2001]

The movie isn't bad. It's a decent story, but I wouldn't have paid to see it.

I have to say I'm a bit impressed by Keri Russell's Irish accent. Not perfect, but not bad for an American. I personally can't do one at all, but hers wasn't bad. A few slips here and there.

The story is pretty good in a lot of ways, but isn't atypical of the kind of storyline they're producing.

I think some people were a little too concerned with the dance aspect, but the acting was terrific. I think Keri Russell is a very professional and believable actress.

There were some technical "mistakes", for example, Luis Miguel singing "La Gloria es Tu", which is Spanish, and the Mambo is Brazilian and really goes more with Brazilian music, which of course would be in Portuguese.

Still, overall, I liked the movie. I give it a 7.

Colors (1988)

Great Acting, Great Directing

[25 June 2001]

Until I checked this out on IMDB, I had no idea that Dennis Hopper was the director. Wow, that says a lot about his directing ability.

In a void, this movie might not be great. Someone from the UK complained about it. I'm not from Compton but, this movie rates up there with the other true-to-lifers like Boyz in the Hood, and other gang related "classics" (as they deserve to be called).

This is a great movie with great acting and a great plotline. It's a pretty realistic view (again, I'm not a gang banger, so maybe my view is skewed) of the gang life in L.A. And it was the first to really portray it... I'm still a big fan of Boyz in the Hood (not for excitement, but for a good story about a tough life). But this was the first (as I recall) and Hopper deserves a great deal of credit for that. Penn and Duvall are fantastic actors and both come through in a big way in this movie.

My personal opinion: This movie has been, by far, underrated...

The Green Mile (1999)

In the top 50

[10/10 · 2 June 2001]

This movie belongs in the top 50. There are movies I think belong in the top 50, but they're not necessarily in "my" top 50. This movie belongs in the top 50 and it's definitely in my top 10.

The feeling, the emotions, the realism (by realism, I'm not talking about the John Coffey "the healer" aspect, but the emotional realism).

Tom Hanks, as usual, is extraordinary. David Morse, also pulls of an amazing performance. Doug Hutchison plays the devil of a man that you love to hate.

But beyond it all is the gentle and loving performance by Michael Clarke Duncan (Coffey). If you've seen him in person, or in interviews, you just can't believe the performance he gives as Coffey. It's the all-time home-run, last minute touch down, you name it, of acting.

He ranks up there with George C. Scott as Patton, Brandon and Pacino in the Godfather movies, Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman in Shawshank Redemption, Humphrey Bogart and Ingred Bergman in Casa Blanca, Liam Neeson in just about anything, and Kevin Spacey, Annette Bening and Jack Nicholson in just about anything as well.

Maybe I'm going too far, But it's just one of those magical movies. Unfortunately, not as famous as some of those more popular magical movies.

But, if you liked the Shawshank Redemption, and Stephen King's take on that, you just have to love this as much or more.

Funny thing, I've never read King. That's a mistake I shall have to remedy, soon....

Warlock (1989)

Worth the watch

[28 May 2001]

I'm not saying it's a great movie, but definitely worth watching. Julian Sands is terrific. I think this is the first movie I saw him in, and he's perfect in the roll.

Lori Singer is certainly replaceable, but it's not exactly a movie with a Terminator type of budget... Richard Grant is pretty good for his part.

You have to judge horror movies separately from the rest because, let's face it, with few exceptions, they can't stand on their own. I'm not a big horror fan at all, but I like this one...

What really makes a good horror flick, for me, though, are the one-liners. A cop says to Lori Singer: "If I were you I wouldn't stay here tonight." She responds: "Do you have a watch?" "Yes," he says. "Time me," she responds. Not SNL material, but good enough for me to enjoy...

The Vivero Letter (1999)

This movie SUCKED

[1/10 · 18 May 2001]

Okay, everyone has talked about the bad story line, bad direction, not so great acting. What about all the continuity problems??? Just as a single, and one of the most glaring examples: This group of 7 people are white-water rafting (not too white) down this river. A guy from the shore shoots one of the guys in a raft and he and the other 2 guys fall out of the raft. In the next scene, nobody is even remotely upset about their friend getting shot. In fact, there's no discussion of it whatsoever. They're on the side of the river and Robert Patrick is hitting on Chiara Caselli. Can't blame him, but still... Okay, so then we cut to the next scene. Remember, it was 6 living people and 1 dead last we saw. Now, about 10 or 12 of them are walking through the jungle together? How'd the others get there? Drive? If so, why didn't they all drive instead of white-water raft to this place?

This was the most ridiculously stupid movie I've seen in a long time.