jmstettner Reviews

Super 8 (2011)

Check your brain at the door and enjoy

[23 July 2011]

Super 8 is good film, technically well put together, well cast and acted, and pretty to watch. The story keeps moving and drags you along with it. Still, it is unoriginal, stereo-typical, and cobbled together as if from a Hollywood script Job Lots. J. J. Abrams deserves no credit or acclaim for this film since not one aspect of it is actually his ~ he wandered through the grocery store of thematic elements and picked from this shelf and that till the story came together. The card-board cut-out military characters and nature are painful and distracting unless you lean to the left and drink the kool-aid. It is clear that Abrams has little actual knowledge about the military and possibly less about government.

I am a harsh critic. All I ask is a modicum of believability. Perhaps I'm wrong, but the Air Force uses planes not tanks ~ I could be wrong though. Given the nature of American culture in 1979, how does Abrams explain the fact that there were no whistle-blowers, no political over-sight, and no pesky reporters poking into this project? He doesn't ~ the audience is just supposed to buy into the Evil Government Big Brother mind-set. What insults most of all though is the American soldiers ignoring Posse Commitatus and murdering civilians.

Mr. Popper's Penguins (2011)

About what one should expect from Hollywood & Jim Carey

[3/10 · 9 July 2011]

This movie is predictable in both content and quality. It is surprising and disquieting that so many reviewers are raving about this as "family fare" ~ perhaps it's the same poster using aliases. Jim Carey is himself and the scat humor is unnecessary. The relationships of the characters are stereotypical and pathetically overused ~ are there no married couples with children who have a normal life style any more? Finally, this movie bears no resemblance to the book which the title was lifted from apart from the obligatory penguins. It is trash and indicative of the twaddle that dribbles out of the media elite who haven't the decency to just leave iconic stories (Where The Wild Things Are, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, etc) alone and tag their flights of fancy with a simple "inspired by ...." tag at the end of the credits.

If Hollywood and the Screen Actors' Guild really want to stop piracy, they should consider doing something to EARN their ticket sales instead of insulting audiences.

Aftermath: Population Zero (2008 TV Movie)

Absolute Utter Trash

[1/10 · 23 February 2009]

While the special effects are entertaining in some cases, that is far, far overwhelmed by the sheer exaggerations, assumptions, and out right fabrications perpetrated by the creators of this farce. This program is clearly geared to evoke a variety of politically correct responses to the fuzzy and questionable pseudo-science prevalent in society today.

Firstly, the way humanity "steps off this mortal coil" makes a huge, tremendous difference in how events would play out. Simply vanishing is a dramatic but narrow-minded way to captivate the viewer and instills a "do not question" attitude that, again, is so prevalent with pseudo-science.

We are shown elephants in a suburban neighborhood where all the trees are denuded. This would be understandable if the elephants were late comers to the feast, but they are first arrivals. It is June, but the filming must have been done in autumn or very early spring. Just lousy editing.

We are shown lions hunting a baboon in a playground and the poor felines can't get the ape because it's on a plastic tube-slide. However, the slide comes off a wooden play structure that has a flight of stairs, but we're expected to believe the lions are such lousy hunters they don't circle the structure and go up the stairs.

We are told that "birds fly south and more will survive this year" because the lights in the cities are off. The narrator explains that birds navigate by the stars and in cities at night many "circle the buildings till they tire and die." Now, I've seen a dead bird or two in cities, but the suggestion here would have us find hundreds or thousands every morning. It's patently ridiculous.

Many of the mechanical catastrophes depicted seem on the whole accurate, however, since most people do not visit their Waste Water Facilities they are unaware of how they work and this shockumentary takes advantage of that ignorance to outright lie about it's failure.

Further, there is a claim, directly from the EPA and the IPCC, that automobiles pump out 19 pounds of CO2 per gallon of gasoline. Now, the fuzzy pseudo-science crowd adore the EPA and IPCC mainly because these agencies do not use the scientific method when doing science. They start from a solution and work backwards to prove it as opposed to asking the question and experimenting to determine the answer. Gasoline is basically 8 Carbons with 18 Hydrogen. In one pound of gasoline there is about 0.84 pounds Carbon and when burned in the combustion engine combines with about 2.24 pounds Oxygen to become 3.08 pounds of CO2, nowhere near 19 pounds.

Why is it, the pseudo-science crowd always lies about their claims? They'd get more mileage from the truth, but then they wouldn't get any money from the average Joe who can't be bothered to study the real science.

Watch this movie for the entertainment value, but please, please, please educate yourself and your children as you watch so you don't get caught believing the hype and dogma.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005)

A complete surprise and an excellent film.

[8/10 · 19 February 2007]

I sat down to watch this film based solely upon the TV commercials that I saw. I expected a shocker chock full of cheap scares and Hollywood schlock. What I got instead was a sort of "Law & Order meets Ghost Hunters." Somehow, I missed the part where it said "based upon a true story" and I'm glad I did. The courtroom drama is believable and not the sort of contrived clap-trap I've come to expect. The supernatural segments are tastefully done and reserved. Even-handed is a phrase that comes to mind. Particularly entertaining were all the players who come from other movies and TV shows that never quite reach BIG NAME status and thus are a refreshing cast who perform ably and create the verisimilitude that makes this a great film. This is a film well worth watching ~ yes, it did give me chills and I did look askance at the shadows in the room ~ and I highly recommend it. It's not Chucky or Friday the 13th, rather think of Agnes of God.