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LadyCeara
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Defendor (2009)
Uh... no, just no
********SPOILERS********
While I will acknowledge Mr. Harrelson's great acting, this movie is a downer from start to finish. It is not a comedy - unless you find laughing at and making fun of the mentally retarded comedic.
Mr. Harrelson plays a man who IQ is so low he is barely functional and believes himself to be a superhero. He tries to fight bad guys but is constantly being beaten up and ridiculed. He does "win" his first encounter which introduces him to the crack whore who becomes his friend.
His reason for becoming Defendor is to avenge the death of his mother, who is shown through flashbacks as also being a crack whore. This eventually leads him to taking on an Eastern European drug lord and sex slave trafficker.
Throughout the movie, his co-worker and others either ridicule him or attempt to get him to stop being Defendor. Only at the end of the movie, when he loses his life getting the bad guy does society praise him for his actions.
Movies that are depressing and do not have happy endings should not be billed as comedies.
The White Queen (2013)
Good For What It Is
Having read all of Phillipa Gregory's books on the Lancasters, Yorks and Tudors and having seen other adaptations of her work, I knew that this would be good entertainment even though it is rife with historical inaccuracies.
Being Gregory is a historian, I find her penchant for deviating from history as well as just making things up extremely distressing and annoying. The actual history is compelling enough and in no need of elaboration. People will read her books and watch her movies thinking them to be accurate.
So if you want good entertainment this is a good show. The casting is excellent, the costuming is fabulous and in general this is a very well made show. Just realize that it is not history but very loosely based on history.
Secondhand Lions (2003)
Secondhand Lions is a First Rate Film
Duvall (Hub) and Caine (Garth) are at their best. Osment (Walter) shows he is not a just a wunderkind but a true actor. The three together are just magic. Sedgwick is delightfully horrid. Good guys, bad guys, heroes, love, action and adventure - this movie has it all.
It will make you laugh. It will make you cry. It will make you cheer. It will make you think. The plot is believable and the characters are believable. Best of all, you will walk away feeling good about the world and people. What more can you ask for in a movie?
The following is a quote from the movie and the reason I marked "spoilers". Hub is talking to Walter, giving him a small portion of the speech he gives to every young man on the brink of adulthood. If this is not one of the most true and precious lessons one can impart, I don't know what is.
"Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in."
The Other Boleyn Girl (2008)
History is Interesting Enough - You Don't Have to Change and Distort It
This movie is one of the most God-awful portrayals of Tudor history I have ever seen. It even beats out "The Tudors" in it's inaccuracies and outright fictionalizations.
They completely miss the mark on the time-line, the ages of the characters; they skim over important events, they portray main characters falsely - in short, they totally screw up this movie. If you are going to do an historical film, you should make it as true to history as possible.
The historical truth of Henry VIII, Anne and Mary is much more compelling and fascinating than this tripe. If you want to see a more factual adaptation, watch "Anne of a Thousand Days".
The ONLY good things I can say about this movie are the costuming is gorgeous and the acting is well done.
A Wrinkle in Time (2003)
I Could Just Cry Over This Horrible Adaptation
The "Wrinkle in Time" book series is my favorite series from childhood. I have read and re-read them more times than I can count over the last 35+ years. The characters, with all their virtues and flaws, are near and dear to my heart. This adaptation contained very little of the wonderful, magical, spiritual story that I love so much. To say I was disappointed with this film would be a great understatement.
If you have never read the book(s) I imagine you will enjoy the movie. The acting is passable, the special effects are well done for a made for TV movie, and the story is interesting. However, if you love the books, avoid this movie at all costs.
I found this statement at the Wikipedia page of the novel: "In an interview with Newsweek, L'Engle said of the film, 'I expected it to be bad, and it is.'"
I, like another reviewer here, feel the need to read the book again to dispel this movie from my mind.
Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974)
Absolutely Fabulous!
The Hammer House of Horror movies from the 1960's and 1970's are the best horror movies ever made.
Horst Janson plays the handsome and dashing Captain Kronos - the vampire hunter. A former soldier, he becomes a vampire hunter after losing his mother and sister to vampires.
His travels lead him to a small village where a peculiar type of vampire is preying on the young women. This vampire does not drink blood, but sucks the life force from his victims leaving behind an aged husk of a corpse.
Filled with a myriad of colorful characters, gorgeous costuming and sets this half hero adventure-half parody/tribute to earlier Hammer films is absolutely fabulous!
An Affair to Remember (1957)
Most Romantic
This is one of the most romantic movies ever made. The on-screen chemistry between Grant (Nickie) and Kerr (Terry) is magical just as it is in "The Grass is Greener".
This movie's theme is that true love is forever and conquers all obstacles. Not only the love between Terry and Nickie but also Kenneth's love for Terri. Only a man who truly loves a woman would help her knowing she loves another and expect nothing in return from her.
The ending scene where Nickie confronts Terry is definitely a tear jerker and very moving.
I disagree with the previous commenter's opinion regarding the movie's attitude towards women - the movie was made in 1957. You cannot judge things in the past by today's standards.
Murder One (1988)
A Mediocre Depiction of a True Story
A mediocre portrayal (script, acting, etc.) of the Alday murders in Georgia.
Here is a timeline of the true story:
Alday family murders
May 5, 1973 Carl Issacs, Wayne Coleman and George Dungee escape from Maryland State Prison. They pick up Billy Issacs, Carl's 15 year-old brother
May 10, 1973 Richard Miller is abducted in McConnellsburg, PA. He is murdered in Allegheny County, MD.
May 14, 1973 Carl Issacs, Billy Issacs, and Wayne Coleman enter the Alday home in Seminole County (Donalsonville), Georgia looking for money and guns. The Maryland work camp escapees kill Jerry Alday, his father Ned, two brothers and an uncle. Jerry's wife Mary, who had witnessed some of the killing, was forced into a car and raped repeatedly before she was killed.
May 15, 1973 The body of Mary Alday is discovered.
May 17, 1973 On the day that the Alday family is buried, West Virginia police capture George Dungee, first of the Issacs gang to fall into custody.
May 18, 1973 West Virginia police capture Carl Issacs, Billy Issacs and Wayne Coleman
December 31, 1973 Jury selection begins in Seminole County for Carl Issacs. The racially mixed jury has six women.
January 2, 1974 Carl Issacs goes on trial for the Alday family murders. He will be convicted and sentenced to death.
January 6, 1974 George Dungee goes on trial for the Alday family murders. He will be convicted and sentenced to death.
January 14, 1974 Wayne Coleman goes on trial for the Alday family murders. He will be convicted and sentenced to death.
July 28, 1980 Carl Issacs plans to escape, along with four other inmates. He is moved to a new "Death Row," foiling his attempt, but 4 other men succeed. Three are recaptured 4 days later in North Carolina, the fourth dead at the hands of his fellow escapees
December 9, 1985 3 judge panel finds that pretrial publicity about the Alday family murders made a fair trial virtually impossible in Seminole County
June 3, 1986 Supreme Court orders a new trial in the Alday family murders
September 9, 1988 Murder One, a movie based on the Alday family murders starring Henry Thomas and James Wilder, shot almost entirely in Toronto, Canada, opens to mixed reviews
June 28, 1990 U.S. Supreme Court rejects Carl Issac's appeal of second death sentence
February 18, 1993 Billy Issacs released from Georgia prison
April 21, 2003 U.S. Supreme Court upholds Carl Issac's death sentence
May 6, 2003 The man who orchestrated the Alday Family murders, Carl Isaacs, is put to death by lethal injection. At the time he had been on death row longer than any other person.