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kurtcallaghan
Reviews
Friends Effing Friends Effing Friends (2016)
An OK watch
The dialogue doesn't sound forced, which is a rarity for low budget films without name actors. One big issue though is that all the main characters are morally repugnant with one exception. This makes it hard to root for them.
Tyler, the protaganist, is not the exception. His need to have Camille the moment he meets her despite his budding romance with her also hot roommate disqualifies him as a serious person worthy of respect. He and Laura both start off as very sympathetic characters, but in the end everyone except Sarah is hopelessly selfish and untrustworthy.
Was watchable but in the end you felt like no one learned anything.
House M.D.: Broken (2009)
One of the finest episodes in television history (vague spoiler)
We really see all of Gregory House in this episode. Most importantly what we see is that sometimes his genius and ability to manipulate is simply not enough. Amazingly, we also see the ability for legitimate personal growth. It is also great fun to see him do battle with his most formidable opponent yet. Historically, House has defeated everyone who tried to control him, including Cuddy for the most part. He has also seemed as addicted to his own misery as he ever was to vicodin. His great weakness as a person has been a lack of empathy, too often viewing people simply as problems to be solved. Could we see a change? Watch for yourself.
The Sopranos: Made in America (2007)
Solid ending
To be honest, I have to laugh at all the people who think Tony got whacked. He didn't. All these people wandering through the restaurant are harmless, but they are vital to the final message.
The suspicious looking people in the restaurant represent Tony's very necessary paranoia. He has not won. Tony can never win. He's beaten Phil, someone else will come along and try to destroy him. He's beaten the feds before, they are coming after him again, and hard. If he beats them again, they will keep coming until they get him. For Tony, it only ends in prison or an early grave. Not today, but he knows it is coming.
I would like to see a movie though. Maybe a movie that employs all the usual Sopranos devices, and ends not with a hail of bullets, but simply the door closing on Tony's prison cell. That is how it should end, not manly, not glamorous, just helplessness.
Starsky & Hutch (2004)
Don't go for the nail-biting suspense, but go
I have only a vague memory of the original series, but this movie is strictly comedy, a great spoof of the original and the buddy cop genre overall. With all the sight gags, behaviour gags, and the rest, you never find yourself asking for a meatier plot. One of the brightest points is the funny twist they put on the climax. While Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn, and Snoop Dogg had very good performances, the movie is carried by Stiller. Will Ferrell, however, almost steals the whole thing out from under him. Most of the other actors were pretty average, but that doesn't matter much when you get top notch performances out of your 5 biggest roles. 8/10
Half Past Dead (2002)
Lives up to the low expectations
Did you hear this one? Steven Seagal almost dies in an attack that kills his loving wife. This time, oddly enough, it has almost nothing to do with the plot of the movie.
Did you hear this one? A bunch of bad guys with guns take over Alcatraz.
This movie could not possibly be more formulaic. Occasionally adequate to watch, and Seagal isn't the only one who is sped up for fight scenes. This makes the female villain the main entertainment value of the film.
Essentially a mix of 10% Hard To Kill, 40% The Rock, 50% Under Siege, while managing to fall far short of any of them. Absolutely nothing original.
3 out of 10. Maybe 4.
Superchick (1973)
exquisitely bad
I'm not a "bad movie" fan, but this one has to be one of the exceptions. Probably unwatchable in 1973, the lifestyles, the lingo, and the attitudes are so comically dated that they lift the film to the level of unintentional satire. The plot is terrific. At least I think it is. I never really figured out what the plot is. But the atmostphere is like Valley Of The Dolls with 1/3 the calories. Superchick wanders from bed to bed without any apparent reason, and stops to deliver a few ridiculously bad Karate shots on the unsuspecting bad guys. Well worth watching if you understand that you aren't getting The Maltese Falcon.
Carlito's Way (1993)
Among Pacino's better movies-Penn is amazing
The first time I saw Carlito's way, it took me probably an hour to realize that Kleinfeld was Sean Penn. It's a rare actor who can put none of himself into a character, but Kleinfeld rings astoundingly true to life and contains no piece of Penn.
Others have talked about the Grand Central scene, and I will comment on it some. So many chase scenes revolve around people and cars moving so quickly and randomly as to try and confuse the audience, with more bullets expended in one minute than during the entire series run of "The A-Team". This is too smart to be one of those scenes. The scene is based on brief moments of hiding and changing direction, followed by a 4 on 1 fight that drags out for close to a minute with probably less than 50 bullets expended in total.
Also excellent is the leadup to the Grand Central Scene, where Carlito muses and frets about whether he has covered all his bases in the short period of time he has to get to the train, then you watch as one by one he uses his gangster experience to defuse them all, except the one he wasn't looking for, which killed him. Also makes a statement when Blanco, one of the minor threats, is the one that gets him. Suggests that surviving in that gangster environment has more to do with keeping your mind sharp than being tough.
The Last Samurai (2003)
The best picture of the past 5 years!
I had a pretty good idea of what to expect from this movie, but every scene is done to perfection. I was literally stunned walking out of the theater. Even the romantic subplot, the bane of any decent movie, was in this case spectacular. I would say that I was a mild Cruise fan before this, and a much bigger one afterwards. This is by far his best movie. I would rate Top Gun as his previous best, but don't let that or the military theme confuse you. This movie is nothing at all like Top Gun in any way. It seems to me that the "cocky, fall, humility, redemption" theme that was the centerpiece of virtually all Cruise's movie's up to Jerry Maguire has been put out to pasture.
Ken Watanabe was better than magnificent.
I have refused to buy a DVD player, as DVD's are more expensive than VHS, and I resent that given that I believe the manufacturing costs are about the same. When this movie comes out on DVD, I think I will be forced to end my resistance.
10 out of 10.