jtuchler Reviews

Trainwreck (2015)

Hopeful, but my hopes were dashed!

[3/10 · 25 July 2015]

Short review, but makes my points. I love edgy humor, and what I have seen from Amy schumer is just that. But this movie is a poor and way too long delivery vehicle for her most overused and least original material about sex, orgasms, etc. Much better to skip this film and just catch her cable shows or standup.

Why did apatow make this? It lowered my opinion of his body of work. The movie's unnecessary vulgarity made me cringe. I am no prude, but cringe is the right word. I ultimately walked out, partly out of boredom, partly distaste for the film.

There are a few funny moments, but way too few, and way not worth it. Wish I had seen Antman, which was the other option this night.

The American (2010)

A good sedative, a lousy movie

[1/10 · 4 September 2010]

I am dismayed by my IMDb cohorts who rated this dog a 7.2. I agreed to see it with friends and I guess I expected, at worst, for this to be a spy thriller with Clooney looking old and out of place, a la Roger Moore in late Bond films. What I got was a perplexing, plot less waste of time. Of 100 minutes, probably 90 of them are close ups of Clooney (often shirtless). Yes, the scenery is nice, but not THAT nice. Not Out of Africa at ALL. Read this again: NO PLOT! And very little dialogue. And holes in the story (such as it is), and really boring. I will think twice about the next Clooney production, despite having liked a lot of his work. All for now . . . Oh yeah - no plot! OK bye

Hotel for Dogs (2009)

The dogs were amusing, the people less so

[6/10 · 11 January 2009]

I saw a preview of this film with kids 6, 7 and 12. We are a dog-loving family, so perhaps we were biased to enjoy the film. That said, we were split on our review. The adults and 12 year old were bored; the two youngsters were thrilled! Hence the score of 6.

Overall, this was a harmless movie featuring a few humans and many trained dogs. It was sugary and nice - there was no real threat anywhere in the film of something bad happening (thus it is kid-safe for very young kids). And they've reduced the idea of foster homes down to a concocted McNugget of a concept. My younger kids didn't even follow that theme at all.

What they did follow, and what I found most redeeming, were the numerous cutesy dog tricks and toys. The creators of the film did a nice job inventing clever ways to mechanize the caring for dogs (think the breakfast scene in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). That was fun. And the dogs were cute.

For me the drawbacks were these: Slow start, unfunny 'comic' characters - like the foster parents and dog catchers, and a lame plot.

But ultimately - we had a nice outing, and you will too. And you will emerge from the film MORE likely to go get a dog of your own.

Nim's Island (2008)

Decent film, but kinda slow and overdone

[5/10 · 4 April 2008]

OK - who compelled Jodie to do this movie in the first place - it used none of her talents, and it made me think less of her (in that strange way we judge actors by the work they choose to do).

However, my boys (ages 5 to 9) liked the film, especially the 6 year old who wanted to go visit the island. They liked the adventure and the animals.

To me, it suffered in a few ways: * Jodie Foster's ridiculous overacting the same theme over and over and over. It wore thin quickly. * The animal gimmicks, while cute, were kinda lame (almost as good, but not as good, as a Geico commercial!) * Extraordinary amounts of suspended disbelief required to view this film. Easily forgettable, but a nice way to spend 90 minutes with the kids. J