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Joanie44
Reviews
L.A. Law: The Movie (2002)
L.A.Law: Return to 2 hours of bad writing and actors who have not aged well
Disappointing, from someone who was not expecting much.
Now Harry Hamlin, playing Michael Kusak, looked good and alive and rested, but that was about it...most everyone else looked and sounded tired and bored with the poorly written script. While we all expected that the Romance between *Mickey* and *Grace* (Susan Dey) would be part of this years later story, Gracie showed no spark, looked and acted particularly tired and drawn...the interaction between them was dull...who would believe a rebud of a romance there? And the outcome of the trial in the story?? Oh, puhleeeze...like *that* would ever happen...a total collapse of the prosecution after a few sentences by a totally inconsistent witness? While we knew what would happen in this never ending case...we expected more guts and surprises all around, perhaps substance in filling in the blanks of all the unfinished story lines of years ago...but we really got drivel.
Well, I guess there were more story lines involving all the other old cast members that they could draw in...stupid and boring story lines drawing together people who have not really aged well and just did not have the story or lines to let them exhibit the spark of life that made them appealing in the TV series not that many years ago. Poor Roxanne just looks fat and too old to be the mother of the young girl who appears to be just learning to color with crayons (did not Tommy Mulaney impregnate her at least *10* years ago? Not that *he* shows up in this film to give us a clue of that relationship...instead it is more of whining sleazy Dave, unappetizing and unsympathetic even in his so-called death throes).
Benny is just bigger, Leland older, Brackman acts like an undertaker, Markowitz and Kelsey older, more drawn, flat and ditzy with a few stick in there lines with little character consistency. I could list (the mousy Abby was not bad in *her* stupid story line, but hardly riveting) the rest, but why? It was a BAD TV movie, embarrassing even as a years later story...most of the acting was flat and one dimensional and the story line had even my kids complaining about the writing. Most of the lines seemed written just to give another character something to say...what a bad movie. The few memorable characters who did *not* appear (notably Jimmy Smits and John Spencer) came off the best in this one.
Shattered Dreams (1990)
One more Reaganite unveiled
Interesting only as a story of just one more scumbag in power during the Reagan administration. Adequate acting, but superficial characters and story, and even my 12 year old kept asking why the mother and children were so compliant, insipid and, well, moronic in their response to this guy. Well...this was the 80's I guess. But we did watch the whole thing, so it gets a 5 from me.