bwwrite Reviews

Meteor (1979)

Brains Do Not Exist In This One

[1/10 · 30 May 2023]

I turned away when Karl Malden and the NASA brain trust told their space craft which was in the vicinity of the asteroid belt "Hey guys, we got a comet coming through the belt, so go and park next to it and send back some pictures..." Like nothing could possibly go wrong. And when the astronauts acted so shocked that the comet actually crashed into one of the asteroids ("It's gonna hit!"...duhhh, no kidding. That did it for me and I turned it off. I don't have anything close to a security clearance, but even I would've told our spacemen to be on a lookout warning and clear the area at once! But that's just me.

The Virginian (1962–1971)

Since No One Else Would I thought I'd Give It A One

[1/10 · 6 January 2023]

The show, since it's on all the time, is stupid. I liked it as a child because it came on just one a week and I only had one channel...not counting PBS. I liked Trampus more than the Virginian back then, because I thought it was stupid to have a main character with no given name. He could've been named Arnie Fife, Barney Fife's great grandfather, for all we know. I got tired of all the pretty girls dying or getting on stagecoaches at the end of every romantic show...but the real stupidity was when I grew up and realized the happy-go-lucky Trampus, with that boyish and amicable charm of his...had practically killed twenty or more men while he was working at Shiloh...if you count all the various episodes. He would've lost that smile if that were true. Yet he was always joking. It's unrealistic.

Columbo (1971–2003)

Oh, And Just Three More Things...

[1/10 · 6 January 2023]

1. I liked it when it shared time with McCloud and McMillan and Wife. There were weeks in between. Now when I see it at a whim I realize the stupidity of using practically the same bit players every other week. Can somebody say Val Avery?

2- The plot device of having a maid just having wiped the fingerprints off a closet door the very day of the crime, or have the chaffeur just finished washing the car, and therefore had to empty the ash tray in order for clod-dumbo to solve the murder...well that gets old fast. In one show clod-dumbo didn't solve the crime until he saw a lady in a hospital tying a little boy's shoes. I thought that was a bit much.

3- But the real stupidity is picturing a prison system in California were all these murderers end up...famous writers, actors, high profile business types...and none of them have the temerity to warn the crimnal population in LA about a dumpy, sloppy police lieutenant hell bent on filling up all those cells. One of those high profile perps would have had him offed. Or he would be so popular in the city no one would ever talk to him. Columbo in 2023...TWO THUMBS DOWN!

Outer Range (2022– )

There's A HOLE in every episode!

[1/10 · 20 October 2022]

I hole in on the outer range represents all the holes in the scripts. People who have never prayed at the dinner table freak out and start cursing God in the middle of prayer. Then they say Amen. That's Hollywood...and it's the devil's playground on earth. The man falls through a whole and goes to another time. I want to fall down a hole like that and go back to a time before liberals started taking over and ruining everything. They can't keep their hatred of God out of their movies, talk shows, sitcoms...mini series like this. Nothing! The man cries in his prayer..."there's a void!...there's a void!" What he, the rest of the cast, the directors, the writers, and everyone connected to show is REALLY trying to convey to us is that they KNOW there's a VOID in their lives...but they would rather leave that BIG hole unfilled than submit to a loving GOD...because HE won't let them have their filthy fun,,,they HATE HIM for it...and they don't mind boring us with the fact while we watch. Liberalism is another virus that kills.

Marathon Man (1976)

Dustin Hoffman and Toxic Masculinaty Don't Mix

[1/10 · 16 October 2022]

When Dustin started screaming like a girl I turned off the sound. Then I realized why Hollywood today is the way it is. They were all badmouthing Senator McCarthy back then. As he was simply trying to warn America about actual communism infiltrating American culture. Seems the senator was right...and ahead of his time.

We also get to see what Hoffman was trying to relay to the audience with his interpretation of 'Babe'. "Look fellas, you can be a wuss and still get the girl. Stop being strong men. Scream when you get in trouble...It's okay." Hollywood is full of the type. Dustin hated toxic masculinity before the rest of America even knew what it was.

Barney Miller: Werewolf (1976) Season 3, Episode 6

"Then You Won't Hear The Jokes!" Barney to Wojo

[10/10 · 4 October 2022]

My all-time fovrite Barney Miller. For two reasons.

(1) The jokes and character development really jell here. Examples.

Fish:"Be thankful they don't have enough brains to organize." Referring to the file on hallucinations.

Barney: "Then you won't hear the jokes." After Wojo tells him people make jokes when he faints after taking shots.

Harris: "This aint no city no more, man, it's a giant coo-coo clock!"

Yamano: Woo-wooing along with the werewolf...(Hilarious)

The werewolf portrayer---Every second he's onscreen. Best Miller character ever.

2. Janet MacLlachlan at her breathraking best (the real reason this is my favorite) Since I ran across this episode I've been watching it once a week just get another peek at her. But I'll cool off after awhile. Maybe.

The Fly (1986)

Erkle Did It Better

[5/10 · 7 August 2022]

On the sitcom Family Matters, when Steve Erkle used a similar machine to transform himself into the Kool Stephon...my suspension of disbelief was easier to achieve. Because the writers didn't take themselves so seriously. The Fly was just a vehocle to gross us all out.

Angels & Demons (2009)

Stop Making Movies, Opie. Give Barney Fife a Try

[1/10 · 15 May 2022]

I think the whole franchise needs to be crucified.

Tom Hanks may be America's every-man hero...but when it comes to religion, he's simply another epitomized Hollywood stand-in actor, mouthing every line ever uttered or written in liberal non-belief.

When his character is asked if he believes in God, the face he's showing isn't an act. The expression portrayed on his is the real face he shows the world in his daily life. Heck no he doesn't believe in God! Why would the writer of this film even bother to ask his character that! Doesn't he know that! And another thing about Tom and his movie choices. He seems to fall in love with ditzy blondes. (Meg Ryan in every movie they played together). Perhaps because he secretly thinks they're easier to bed. But when it comes to hunting down religious artifacts and deposing those utterly ridiculous religious myths, he prefers those brainy brunettes. Why the male chauvinism, Tom?

Fargo (2014–2024)

Minus 3 Points When Suspension of Disbelief Became a Toil

[7/10 · 14 May 2022]

Loved Season 1 overall...but when Thorton's character killed 22 people in a building without any resistance at all, though I continued to watch---I lost a lot of my prior interest. Until that point, I was glued to the show. But that wasn't a silencer on the weapon he was using. Shots could be heard from the bottom floor all the way up to the third...yet everyone he shot seemed taken by surprise. Which didn't ring true. Plus the two dimwitted FBI agents were sitting across the street, yet even they didn't show any real surprise until AFTER he finished slaughtering the top floor. That's nonsense. Everybody should have become alarmed when he started shooting up the first floor. This incident gave Thornton's character a sort of invincible-like, mystical status that's hard to swallow. He shouldn't have been able to escape even to two original hitmen earlier either, blasting away with their automatic weapons, but I chalked that one up to some sort of James Bond-like escapism. But the 22 deaths were a bit much. The real Malvo could not be walking around unaccosted as he was...out in the open with no one professional-like on his heels. Even with seemingly dimwitted Minnesota lawmen at the helm, a peace officer nemesis more on Malvo's level was needed to give this series more heft...although the pregnant woman deputy did give her best and should be saluted. A Cagney or Lacey type would've been better. IMHO.

Ad Astra (2019)

THE REAL UNDERLYING REASON FOR THIS MOVIE? see my review below

[1/10 · 23 May 2021]

The absolutely positively only reason on earth and beyond for this picture is that Matt Damon got to profile himself in a spacesuit in The Martian. Matthew Mconaughey got to dude up in one in Interstellar. Then Brad's pal George Clooney got decked out in his and even got to save Sandra Bullock out in the space when they made theirs together (I forget the title in that one) Anyways old Brad sits back and sez to his agent "Heck, get me in one of those pictures. I've got to get me one of those space suits. They're cool stuff." It's the only reason Ad Astra was made. So Brad Pitt-ly can look astronautical in his.

The Post (2017)

IF ONLY THERE WAS A WORLD WHERE THE WASHINGTON POST NEVER EXISTED

[1/10 · 19 April 2021]

Back then it was just the Pentagon Papers floating around out there. Now we've got the IRS Papers, The FBI Papers, The DOJ Papers, and The State Department Papers...all kinds of classified stuff that's been unclassified, floating all out there but you can't get these liberal liars to notice. (They lie by omission.) Bet you couldn't get any of these artful thespians to make a relevant movie about what's really been going on the past few years, because it would land their liberal ex-presidents and other elected representatives in water. They like pretending that their actions during the Trump Presidency didn't exist...and they'd rather focus on what was (to them) some sort of 70's glory days instead. I wonder if we could get old Hanks would to play Christopher Steele, or maybe Peter Strok? Probably not. And maybe Meryl could play Lisa Page. You think? Time to force both Spielberg and Hanks into retirement. Those two are done IMHO. Now they're nothing but a couple of glorified retreads. And Meryl's a nonentity these days. She can come or she can go. Doesn't matter. I just think one set of liberals making a movie about another set of liberals in redundant. Kinda like the math equation (liberals x liberals = liberals/squared). Both the Post and the Times have outlived their relevancy.

The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

SHOULDA HAD MORE THAN 6 SURVIVORS. EVEN OFF SCREEN

[3/10 · 7 April 2021]

I've watched the movie three of four times over the years. And every time at the end I keep wishing...not when the rescuers ask how many are in their group...but when the group asked the the rescuers if their were any more survivors. The answer should have been yes, 10 more, up forward. It would've been more realistic to me. But what the heck, it is Hollywood...but that's why I gave it only 3 stars.

Deadwood: The Movie (2019 TV Movie)

My Honest Analysis of It All, So Bear With Me

[5/10 · 10 March 2021]

"I will not try and beguile you with words, or assuage your own predisposed tendencies to try and persuade others to your particular points of view..." SCRAAAAAAATTCCCCHHHHH!!!!! Sorry. For a while there I thought I'D been enlisted to write some of the dialogue for Deadwood The Movie myself. What I really meant to say was, Why, oh why...if they were going to fictionalize the famous town in the first place, like they'd already done in the series...why bring back Alma Garret (Molly Parker) back at all, knowing how smitten she was with Seth...only to have a final showing where she's staring out the window alone toward the Bullock house. In unrequited heat. Did she not just spend $7000 at an auction, just to get one tender hug of gratitude from the man? Is she gonna have to spend $7000 every time she wants some attention from him...seeing as how we are left to believe that she remained in the Deadwood town? Why not, at the very least, have her return to town with a beau of her own, so she won't appear so lonely? Since you had no intention of resparking the union with the sheriff in the first place? To leave her that way, and to have Seth return to his boring wife with the boring dialogue "I'm home, honey." is cruel and benign...especially to Alma. I mean, we are fictionalizing right? So a better scene way back in Season 1 would've been... Seth to his betrothed, ex-sister-in-law "I know I promised to marry you after my brother died, but before you got here I sorta fell for someone else. And she has beautiful eyes, and we stare into each other's for long periods of time. So do you mind, if we carry through with the wedding, playing second fiddle? Cause I really like Miss Garrett?" Or, at the beginning of this movie, have an opening seen where we learned that Seth's wife died 6 months prior, and after Alma arrives he tells his children "Look. kids. This is the woman I wanted to be with before your Momma came along. Say hi to Alma!" Or, if nothing else, surely the writers have heard of that TV show Dallas from the 1980s. They could have opened with Seth taking a shower outside under a makeshift water tank, and have Alma walk up to him as water falls down, and she pulls back a curtain and Seth says, "Hi, honey!"...and we learn that the whole Season 3 of the original Deadwood was a dream. That too would've been better than what they did to her in this movie, pining away by herself. Stupid writers ruined it for me. If you don't know by now, my favorite part of the entire series was the relationship between the widow and the sheriff. And I didn't mind taking to the time to chime in about it. One thumb down!

Hitsville: The Making of Motown (2019)

Too Much Social Justice Nonsense

[1/10 · 23 February 2021]

We get it. You people were black. Got it. I quickly tired of the cutaways to john legend, dr. dre and especially jamie foxx. Not exactly who comes to mind when I think of Motown. And if barack obama showed up I was ready to turn it up altogether. He is no MLK Jr. in my book. Sadly, I found myself muting half the dialogue uttered during the second hour, and had no desire whatsoever to rewatch Hitsville when it was replayed this morning. Too much diana ross, marvin gaye, and stevie wonder, IMO. Smokey has always been benign to me, so on him I have no opinion at all. Everybody has their favs, and I get that. So I don't expect much by way of agreement. There was certainly plenty of talent to go around. And Mr. Gordy SHOULD be given his due. It was a grand achievement for any age. But the only Motown I personally listen to these days (with ALL of it available free and at my fingertips online) is David Ruffin's version of the Temptations. After 1968 Motown died out for me...except for the Temps. In closing, no disrespect to the living, but I also muted otis williams whenever he showed up. I know he was in the middle of it all, but being the last surviving member of the originals seems to be his only claim to fame, and that's sad in itself. I just didn't want to hear him blurt out this and that about funky armpits. Such a low IQ-ed representative of that GREAT group. I guess it's God's way of rewarding him for folks "not coming to see you, Otis". He does work in mysterious ways. Anyway, thank you Mr. Gordy...for starting Motown. But in the future it would be nice if you didn't over-burden us with your obnoxious presence. 5 or 6 minutes will do. thank you. And I do stand by my words no matter how popular they my be. This is my opinion...and perhaps, mine alone. Feel free to call me ungrateful. Temptations Forever!

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2019)

Disney Sucks!

[1/10 · 21 February 2021]

Thanks. disney. What's next? Star Wars and the Seven Dwarfs!

Shutter Island (2010)

Even Hitchcock Couldn't Be Hitchcock Today

[2/10 · 6 February 2021]

I will try and be succinct. For me, and perhaps me only, it is impossible for me to enjoy the current slate of hollywood actors. Not simply because, as a conservative, I find their liberal views detestable. But as a sixty year old it is hard to take Leo...and Matt Damon, etc etc as anyone other than young children playing adult roles. I know that's unfair...but I grew up watching older guys like Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. And I looked up to them. What has that got to do with my Subject title? Nothing. It's a twist. But after 80-90 years of American talking movies, it seems Hollywood is in a fugue state. It was way easier for Hitchcock and his contemporaries to be original because the medium itself was. In todays world of moviemaking, to find a fresh idea (or even a new approach to an old idea) is like trying to find ONE grain of rice in a SILO full of corn. And like I said, to me, Leo's looks like a little kid PLAYING a deranged agent in this film. Not his fault however. I own brain is in a fugue state at this point.

Black Butterfly (II) (2017)

Could've Been Worse. I Think...

[1/10 · 5 December 2020]

Honestly, when the writer picked the drifter up as he walked along the road, knowing Hollywood, I thought we were headed for another Brokeback Mountain. I give it one star just for not being that.

Inheritance (I) (2020)

ABYSMAL

[1/10 · 28 November 2020]

Do people still fall off turnip trucks? Apparently. If my brothers and sisters were truly of an artistic bent, and cared about the quality of their work, they would hold up there hands and say STOP! It's okay for couples to be of the same race...and/or creed. We appreciate your intent, Hollywood, with this inclusiveness and everything...but would much prefer better scripts, characterizations, and all-around better movies. Cause in reality...that's what true artists (who care about their craft) would do. Just saying. EVERY movie from 2020 and beyond does not have to be PC. Just have a quota or something.

Love & Mercy (2014)

I'M TOO BLACK AND CONSERVATIVE FOR THIS MOVIE

[1/10 · 24 August 2020]

Succinctly. Too much john cusack and not enough Beach Boy music. I useto like cusack...but that was before the era of Trump. Now he's vomit to me. I really wanted to like the movie because I find the Beach Boys sound very unique and entertaining. And it sounds really good. But there was very little of it and I couldn't get into the Brian Wilson character (Which is a must for a movie of this type)...because I just kept seeing cusack-on-qualudes. The kicker was when I remembered I was black, and that made it easier to divest myself of the whole affair. I reached for the Temptations biopic instead. But honestly, I did wanna enjoy it...but couldn't Hollywood actors in the Age of Trump make me hostile. Screw 'em. Sorry Beach Boys.

Pet Sematary (1989)

Though No Where Near As Popular As The Almighty Zelda...Timmy Baterman Is My Favorite Flashback Scene

[10/10 · 18 July 2020]

To everything there is a time and a season. I am writing in for the sole purpose of giving some props to the character that drove Pet Sematary home for me as one of my favorites. I'm 20, in the navy, in the barracks where I'm on restricted duty, unable to move around because I'm awaiting a hearing. I grab King's novel for the first time and start reading. It's 5 in afternoon. By 9 that evening I'm still reading. "I Wanna Know What Love Is" by Foreigner is playing in the background, write around the time Jud Crandall is telling Louis about the boy that got buried up in the MicMac burial ground. It's so surreal. I was despondent about own situation earlier, until I'm drawn into this story...that makes me forget about my problems. I'm thinking about Timmy Baterman...and realized for the first time I've been gripping the book in my hands. To everyone who thinks zelda is the most frightful, you're entitled to think so. I can't and won't knock her because so many of you mention her name in these comments she cannot be denied. But my own favorite part of Pet Sematary in both the book and 1989 movie is the Baterman flashback because it takes me bake personally to that night long ago when was at a low point in the navy. I'm Black, and that song by Foreigner is the only one etched in my brain because the Stephen King book. I wrote just to give Timmy some honorable mention because obviously I am the only one affected by his presence in PS. Zelda I don't ever even blink about. I have watched the movie a dozen times and read the book 5 times. Each time I look and pay close attention to her...trying to see what the big todo is all about. I get nothing from Zelda at all. Sorry. But to each his own. I do respect her a major contributor to overall fabric of the story however. She matters. She's just not scary to me. By the creepiness and madness surrounding Timmy Baterman gets my attention every time. Pet Sematary is forever in my Top Ten Favorites...both as a book and a movie (the 1989 version...not the 2019). The reboot sucked BIG TIME to me. Thanks for letting me share.

Pet Sematary (2019)

THEY SHOULD NEVER LET THESE TWO DIRECTORS MAKE ANOTHER MOVIE!

[1/10 · 10 July 2020]

I'm not gonna waste any time, like I did by watching this movie. There was no backstory or character developement ANYWHERE in this movie. Miss Lambert did a much better job in 1989 than these two "hip" dimwits, neither of which should ever be given another dime to direct a movie! WORST EVER!

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)

Another Yawn Burger. Hold the Lettuce, Please.

[1/10 · 28 April 2020]

Liberals of the hollywood variety...trying to prove more liberal nonsense points to their dumbed-down liberal audience. Where is Eugene McCarty when you need him? Boy was he ahead of his time. Can someone please wrestle our nation's movie-making abilities away from these west coast apologists? Surely there are other creative regions out there. In the words of the tag-team legends Siskle & Ebert. TWO UNAPOLOGETIC THUMBS DOWN!

The Untold History of the United States (2012–2013)

Dubious Distinctions

[2/10 · 11 April 2020]

I gave it a two becuase I did glean a few new facts from the series. But after a while I noticed a theme. There seemed to me an almost cheering and admiration in the narrator's voice whenever discussing Russia. (Ex. Their role in ending the war.) At the same time, I denoted much disdain whenever a point was to made about this country, George W., and/or the right wing in general. The same running theme I heard during 8 years of obama. It made me suspect. "To the victors belong the spoils." and "history is written by the victors." True axioms. We learn early how stalin had executed tens of thousands of their own upper military leaders in order to gain power, known is a purge, and may have contributed to his signing the nonagression pact with hitler in the first place, his knowing the weaknesses in his own military. Then after hitler subsequently broke that pact and attacked russia, it seemed the strategy of the russian army was to agressively attack 'full speed ahead' at at cost. Somewhat randomly, and lacking in defensive and tactical measures. Rarely do we here of great russian generals like we do of the Americans (though understandably) or the german Rommel . I definitely heard a lot of cheering when the narrator spoke of both Leningrad and stalingrad however. I am bias however. So shoot me. I love my country. This seemed russia-centric...or commie-based. Just saying.

Trump: An American Dream (2017)

The True Puppetmaster Is the One We'll Never See

[1/10 · 8 April 2020]

Even if everything in this series IS true, and there is worse, that makes his rise to the Presidency even more astounding to me. What bothers me is Netflix, and their puppetmaster-in-residence, having the 'audacity of an I'm-better-than-you" mentality when it comes to running this. Everybody under heaven knows there would be an even juicier series on barack obama, if someone other a republican or conservation (cause then it would be branded a right-wing conspiracy and nothing more) undertook the effort to show us the "real" obama, and the sordid connections he formed during his rise to POTUS., Except we'll never see a treatment like this geared toward him. The O-man would be fawned over, to the degree of putrid sentimentality...and everyone would walking on egg shells not to offend the first HALF-African;American president in this country's history. What galls me as a black man is that the fragileness of my people's psyche was on full display for 8 years during that fiasco...and now, even though the the lame stream media has real threads that they can follow (such as the Steele dosier) that could unveil how obama (along with hillary) and their ilk conspired to overthrow Donald Trump's election. Something that, if it ever came to light, would overshadow anything revealed about The Donald in the series. But we will never know, will we? Because obama's on the left, and he gets to sit back, smoke weed, and throw rocks at a better President, because he's a smaller man. Everything obama does is sleight of hand. At least Trump has had the unbridled gall to allow us to see his true nature. That's what bothers me about this treatment. It reeks of obamanism. Which is weak and whiny.

Wonder Boys (2000)

Once Is Not Enough...for Dylan's Song. But For The Movie Itself. Blah.

[1/10 · 1 March 2020]

I rented this once and managed to suffer through it. Then the day came I was to return it, and I remembered I liked Dylan's "Things Have Changed". I fast forward through to whole movie once just to hear IT again. Loved it! As for the movie boys? Not so wonder-ful. The pretentiousness displayed by half the cast was a turnoff for me...as was Douglas' morbid voice-overs. So--sorry, Ebert. One thumb down on this one.