Minou07 Reviews

The Worst Jobs in History (2004– )

Fascinating walk through rarely known British History

[10/10 · 6 December 2009]

I just caught the middle of "Worse Jobs in Maritime History," this morning and instantly knew that voice! Then I really knew the face. (I own the DVD sets of "Blackadder" (starring Robinson, Rowan Atkinson, and Hugh Laurie) Robinson is serious and sometimes humorous in presenting the program that makes British History interesting. He explains and participates in doing these actual jobs and it is fascinating. In "Maritime," they also show photos of women gutting fish. Of course people still do that today. But the most overlooked and dangerous jobs are those of the "stokers" in the ships boilers and the ones of people who actually built the lighthouses.

In the USA we have the program "Dirty Jobs," so we can certainly appreciate what people do to earn a living. It's also sobering to those of us who have lousy, low-paying jobs but don't also have to soil our hands or risk our lives to do them.

Targets (1968)

Bogdonovich Shot Holes in this Movie with Dead Space

[3/10 · 29 October 2009]

Watch the clean-cut young guy eat dinner with his family. Watch them watching TV. Watch the same guy driving a car. Watch him get dressed. All this is acted Robot-like by a no-name actor who is a dead ringer for Matt Damon, without the acting talent. Yes, there's violence because he goes on a shooting spree and kills many people. But that's IT. I mean, there's no plot, no suspense, no anything. There IS a lot of dead space in this movie.

If you love watching a pasty, boring dude eating a sandwich.....driving a car.....walking......etc., then this movie is for you!! Before seeing this movie I read the raving reviews. I thought my favorite actor, Boris Karloff, was in it and the reviews were good...so I spent almost two hours being BORED TO DEATH.

NO GUN NECESSARY.

Marple: They Do It with Mirrors (2009) Season 4, Episode 3

Julia McKenzie is Enjoyable Miss Marple in "Mirrors"

[7/10 · 28 July 2009]

Julie McKenzie steps into the role of Miss Marple for Season 4 and I'm enjoying it. Like Geraldine McEwan, she has to make-do with retelling of Agatha Christie's books. But I have to admit I am enjoying the later series with both actresses. McKenzie adds her own qualities to the role, including a sedate appearance and quieter persona. She doesn't try to be cute, stuffy ,etc. Although "Mirrors" was never one of my favorite books, I've enjoyed this very loose adaptation. They could have left the schmaltzy Joan Collins out, but she has a small role. The other actors are fine including the actress who plays Carrie Louise. I've loved her in "Dr Who" and "Shawn of the Dead." The scenery is lovely too.

Although I don't care for these retelling of Agatha Christie's well-known books, I am letting that go. Thank goodness they ditched the silly background music, garish backgrounds and dizzying camera work.

Warehouse 13 (2009–2014)

Cheap, Cheesy, Knock-Off of Better Programs

[1/10 · 8 July 2009]

If this program is our intro to the new "SyFy" Channel, they can keep it.! Warehouse 13 is the Ed Wood equivalent of "The Librarian," "Indiana Jones," and any other program that offers superior entertainment about mystical objects. Just replace the superior CGI special effects, good acting, and interesting scripts for those movies/programs, and we have Warehouse 13. The first episode introduces us to the most irritating people who deservedly belong in the desert where they can't harm or annoy anyone else. Unfortunately they supposedly have oversight over some great and powerful objects, like Houdini's wallet. Uh-huh. All the main characters fall in the usual seen that, been there category. The female is intelligent but bossy and pushy. The male is handsome but a bungler. The keeper of Warehouse 13 stutters and flutters and never makes a clear statement. The three stooges are now in charge of the great Warehouse, which is actually an incredibly cheaply made metal building in the sand. The interior is not much better, using more cheap metal and wood shelving to hold the great and powerful objects. My friends and I could have produced this if we had a couple of thousand and an outdated video cam. It would at least be more creative than this stupid stuff.

Think SyFy should have kept the money for better programs, instead of stupidly renaming the Channel to sound like "SIFFY."

Land of the Lost (2009)

We Actually LAUGHED.....A Lot!

[8/10 · 8 June 2009]

First I must state that I am NO fan of Will Ferrell. Outside of his SNL days of doing a dead-on spoof of Bush, Ferrell hasn't made a movie that I wanted to see. After reading these reviews I was even more set on avoiding it. However, I decided to suffer thru it for my sis's birthday. To my surprise, we laughed quite a lot at the sweet goofiness of this movie. I agree that they could have cut out the useless mature sights and words that left the kids out because it would have appealed to them. We particularly loved the scenes between Farrell and the obviously more intelligent Dino. Danny McBride was sweetly silly too. The female actress was okay as eye candy for the guys. All the criticism on this site is for people who place stock on what others have to say. Happy to say, we avoided these critics. By the way, if you hated the movie so much, why spend so much of your time to write such long-winded diatribes??? Seems to me these are people who need to feel a sense of importance that they don't have. Oh well, the movie goer should always make up their own minds. We did, and I'm happy to say it turned out well. We really laughed!! And my sister is not one to laugh easily. I just wish they wouldn't show so much of the sight gags in the commercials for the movie. But don't let that keep you away. There's more context for the funny parts in the movie.

Cooking for Real (2008– )

A Real Cook for Real People

[8/10 · 9 May 2009]

This new cooking show with "Sunny Anderson" is entertaining and special. No emaciated sex-pots, no expensive ingredients that I can't find in a normal store! Anderson is peppy, funny and lives up to her name....Sunny. She reminds me of how it is when my friends and family get together because she cooks for them too. I just wish I could cook like she does! I've watched a few times and enjoyed the cooking hints and recipes (got them off the Food Channel website). I'm not nuts about all the shows on Food Channel but Anderson makes this one watchable. The only problem I have is that she sometimes talks a bit loud, but a few others on the Food Channel do it too.

$40 a Day (2002– )

Superficial Woman Stuffs Face on ONLY $40 a DAY!!

[1/10 · 14 March 2009]

The only good thing I can say about this program is that it is no longer on the air. Rachel Ray, a very limited "talent," spends a day and the amount of money some people spend in a week, to stuff food down her gullet. Is this REALLY a great feat?! To be fed for $40 a DAY??? Yikes. Perhaps this show would be palatable if the host wasn't so annoying. NAH....it wouldn't. Ray obviously tries to be so ingratiating, laughing at her own inane comments and scatterbrained jokes. Unfortunately she only succeeds in being annoying to the nth degree. She's LOUD, and literally talks out the side of her mouth. She's more suited for a job as a greeter in Walmart. Ray loves the camera (and obviously thinks she's being delightful), but the love is purely one-sided. Watching this greedy lush fork down big plates of food and chug down alcohol like it's great entertainment is too much for me. GAG.

Marple: At Bertram's Hotel (2007) Season 3, Episode 1

Dreadful and Unfathomable

[1/10 · 1 August 2007]

First, the "new" Miss Marple series is anything but the original character based on Dame Agatha Christie's books. Everything is changed including characters, plots, settings. So why use Christie's name and call it Miss Marple?? They simply need to pander this trash to people who don't read the books.

Bertram's Hotel is probably my favorite Miss Marple book because Miss Marple goes to a posh hotel she knew as a child and nothing has changed. Bertram's was portrayed in the book as stylish and a throwback to Edwardian times.

In this latest recreation by the BBC, Miss Marple enters Bertrams and it's the equivalent of Grand Central Station. New characters are thrown in, including a set of twins, a Black singer who looks like an NFL player in drag, even SATCHMO himself!! The main characters of Bess Sedgewick and her daughter and completely rewritten. Agatha Christie's Bess Sedgewick was a classy, blonde, thrill-seeker with a lust for life and danger. In this 90 minute pain fest she's an overweight, brunette, drudge. She's also relegated to the background.

Agatha Christie's work is changed so much it's unrecognizable. Her tautly written plot-twists and multi-dimensional characters are gone. So are the settings. This Bertram's Hotel has Miss Marple looking and acting like an elderly Shirley Temple. With a head full of curls, twinkling her eyes and looking cutesy and ditsy. Gone is the spinster with the ability to see all and the intelligence to figure out everything while being underestimated.

Mindless reworking of Christie's wonderful plots and characters make this Miss Marple unwatchable. Let's call it "Miss Marple for Dummies." THIS IS NOT REALLY A SPOILER, but I had to mention here that Miss Marple is NOT really the sleuth in this Bertram's. THE MAID DOES ALL THE SLEUTHING, AND MISS MARPLE SITS BACK (literally), WHILE THE MAID CONCLUDES THE MYSTERY.

Absolutely DREADFUL.