miker75058 Reviews

Comics Unleashed (2006–2016)

Scripted "improv" comedy.....

[3/10 · 23 July 2007]

This is basically a show where they want you to believe that these comedians are doing improv and just "winging" it. What it really is, is Byron Allen asking a comedian a question like "So, where are you from?" and the comedian going into his or her bit that they have used a million times in the comedy clubs about where they are from, except they act like it was a random question. This show is set up like "Politically Incorrect" and "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn", but unlike those shows it is obvious that these comedians have come here with a planned bit. These are talented comedians, but don't try to pass this off as an improv show- it is just so obvious that it isn't.

Dreamland (I) (2006)

A good independent movie

[7/10 · 21 May 2007]

I've been really down on independent movies lately for their tedious pace and bland characters. However in Dreamland, while we do have a slow pace so common in independent movies, the characters here a very interesting to watch and there is an emotional story in the movie.

In the movie, we have an eighteen year old high school graduate whose life revolves around taking care of her alcoholic father and her best friend diagnosed with MS. She has a chance to leave the trailer park for college but feels that she would be selfish to move away from the people that depend on her. She even lets her best friend date the new guy in town even though she has feelings for him. We see that it is her father and her friend who are actually being the selfish ones for for being too dependent on her kindness and not letting her move on with her life.

The performances here are outstanding and the characters are interesting especially John Corbett and Gina Gershon in a bit role. But I do have to agree with some reviewers here that Justin Long was miscast as the basketball prospect/ love interest. It would have been more believable if he were a track star and not a basketball star.

10 Items or Less (2006)

Morgan Freeman and Paz Vega run errands.....

[3/10 · 21 May 2007]

Don't be fooled by the premise of this movie. I rented this movie because I love movies about road trips but what I got instead was a movie about a washed up actor and a disgruntled supermarket cashier running errands while having "life-altering conversations." If you consider going to Target, the car wash, and Arby's a road trip then you will enjoy this movie. If you consider them your Saturday morning errands then you are probably like me and will consider them a little boring. As for the colorful characters they are supposed to meet during this road trip, I'm still waiting for them.

Maybe it's just me or have independent movies lost that edginess that used to make them so great to watch? Independent movies to me have become very laborious to watch over the past few years due to mainly long, drawn out, almost unwatchable conversations between characters that aren't very interesting in the first place. This movie is a perfect example of that.

Paris, Texas (1984)

Plot flawed- may contain spoilers

[5/10 · 24 April 2007]

I agree with many of the comments here about the photography and scenery of this movie. It can be breathtaking. Wim Winders camera-work with the Texas landscape and characters within the landscape is second to none. I was ecstatic when I saw Ry Cooder had done the music for Paris, Texas.

However, I just couldn't get through the unrealistic plot and character situations of this movie. A guy has been missing for four years and his brother just takes him home and sets up a bed for him like he's been gone just a few hours or something. Doctor? Hospital? The doctor in the desert doesn't count. He then just takes his kid who was abandoned by him and his wife and takes him on a road trip to find his mother without telling the people who were decent enough to take care of the kid. He then finds out that the mother of his child is working as a stripper and decides to leave him with her. Kinski's character knew where her son was all these years but never contacted him- I don't see that as someone who loves her son that much.

Overall, great camera-work, scenery, soundtrack, and acting but the plot twists in this movie just were too unbelievable.

Saw (2004)

The audience was laughing....

[4/10 · 8 November 2004]

The first half of this movie started off as a dark, disturbing, shocking thriller with a lot of potential. The second half of this movie turned into an unintentional comedy. The dialouge was so bad near the climactic scenes of this movie that the audience was actually laughing out loud. When the two captives were up close to each other near the end, one audience member yelled out, 'Here comes the Hollywood Kiss'. The audience broke down laughing. Danny Glover's career has obviously sunk to new lows. I thought Monica Potter was an up and coming actress but she has obviously become desperate for whatever comes her way. Her only purpose in the movie is to be tied up and gagged and look scared.

The Core (2003)

Someone should be fired.....

[3 November 2003]

After watching The Core, I think that the person that greenlighted this movie to be made should be fired and blackballed from ever working in the movie industry again. I realize that most Hollywood movies today are paint-by-the-number factory products but this movie is dull, far-fetched, and idiotic. The death scenes of some of the crew members are so long and overdramatic that the actors look like they're just waiting for the director to yell "Cut." The only praise I give is to the people who sat through this movie from start to finish and didn't hang themselves.

Poolhall Junkies (2002)

Dull

[4/10 · 28 August 2003]

This looked like it was going to be a great movie, but I ended up falling asleep halfway through. There were no great characters in this movie and there didn't seem to be a lot happening. I especially found the scenes between Mars Callahan and Allison Eastwood to be cliched. The relationship between those two characters ripped off Rounders exactly( a movie I didn't like much either even though I love playing poker). Basically, if you've seen Rounders, then you've seen Poolhall Junkies.

House of 1000 Corpses (2003)

Great Movie

[28 August 2003]

It was nice to see a horror movie that doesn't star a Dawson's Creek-or whatever the teens are watching this week- actor in the starring role, which is what we horror fans have been enduring for the last decade thanks to Scream. What we get here is a Drive-in classic, almost a tribute to an era when a horror movie was actually a horror movie. Zombie wasn't trying to gross 100 million dollars with this movie but instead to give horror fans a great movie. I've read too many reviews here about the story or the plot being uneven. It's a horror movie- what do you expect!?!?

Caddyshack II (1988)

Aykroyd.....

[21 August 2003]

I was surprised after watching Dan Aykroyd in Caddy2 to see that he was ever hired for another movie after that. I mean, I know the script was terrible but that had to be worst performance by anyone that I have ever seen. It wasn't funny at all but just annoying. I think that it was Aykroyd's character and acting that really put this movie in the bottom 100.

Dancer, Texas Pop. 81 (1998)

Disappionted

[3/10 · 11 August 2003]

I was very disappointed after watching this movie and was surprised to see this movie get such a high rating and such good reviews on IMDB. It was a movie that I had been eyeing for a while at the video store because it looked like it would be a good comedy/drama. I knew this movie would get sentimental at some point given its subject matter of four youths who are getting ready to leave the small town they grew up in, but the problem is that it got sentimental about 15 minutes into the movie and stayed that way throughout. Some of the scenes were just too long with nothing significant happening in these scenes. The main characters were very dull (even Ethan Embree's character which was supposed to be the spaz of the group is generally boring) and there is nothing unique about them. We get a sense early on in the movie as to which character is going to stay in town and which character is going to leave which doesn't make the ending very surprising. The only thing this movie has going for it is its beautiful scenery but that alone cannot make an interesting movie.

Stalled (2000)

What was this?

[3/10 · 1 July 2003]

I couldn't figure out what this movie was trying to be. In the first half of the movie there were lots of attempts at gross out comedy(spitting, nose-picking, vomiting, ect.) They were portraying the townsfolk as the biggest losers/buffoons on the planet(the redneck father couldn't read the nasty grafitti he was scrubbing off of the walls in a filthy bathroom about his daughter) . In the second half of the movie, these same losers were being portrayed in a serious manner as the nicest people in world who had everyday problems like the rest of us and were just misunderstood. It was just bizarre to see a movie go from gross-out stupid comedy to serious drama. After seeing how the redneck characters were portrayed in the first half of the movie, it was hard to believe that these people could actually be normal people, which is what the movie tried to do.

Memento (2000)

brilliant

[10/10 · 18 July 2002]

I had heard a lot of good things about this movie from the critics but for a long time I always rented some other crappy movie to watch instead. I finally rented Memento and after watching it I wondered how much time and money I wasted on these other so-called mystery/thrillers with their big budgets and "big stars." Memento was absolutely brilliant and I don't think I'll be renting movies for a while because I think it will be a long time before a movie comes out that will be as interesting and well done as Memento.

10 out of 10