Reviews

I'd never heard of this movie, but I've started a collection of Blu-Ray 3D films and The Darkest Hour was cheap at Hamilton Book (less than 10 bucks). The movie was actually quite well done.

To my surprise, after I watched it, I checked the rating on IMDB which had it at a dismal 4.9. I'm kind of a B movie buff, have watched many cheap productions, and can honestly say The Darkest Hour doesn't qualify as a sub-5 film. Not even close.

One of the things I really appreciated about this movie was you couldn't predict which star was going to get killed by the aliens. This is a major plus, because most films are way too predictable.

The special effects were great and the acting was fine. After watching it I realized Olivia Thirlby (with blonde hair versus brunette in The Darkest Hour) starred in Dredd and had done a superlative job in one of my favorite 3D films.

I really appreciated that the production team kept the length around 1.5 hours. Too many films these days are over 2 1/2 hours and I have a hard time sitting that long.

This is actually a fairly good movie. Not the greatest by any means, but I could watch it once every 4-5 years or so. I need to watch Dredd again. It's been about 5 years since I've seen it.

Jessica Walter should have received an Oscar for her performance. Pretty hammy dialogue, but entertaining nonetheless. I recall the U of O dorms and the battle to watch this versus MASH. I voted for this. Some smartass said the movie was crap or words to that effect, but it is a minor classic. Great slasher film. Eastwood does a decent job directing this as it never gets old. There's a fairly long interlude 3/4 of the way through showcasing Clint's love of jazz music, but otherwise the direction is crisp. I've probably seen this 4-5 times. It scared the crap out of me the first time; almost as bad as Hitchcock's Psycho. Bravo to young Eastwood. He has a lot of talent as a director.

After the initial shock, and perhaps disgust, this show gradually grabs a hold of the viewers interest. I was visiting London a few years ago and turned on the hotel telly. To my amazement during prime time, and on regular broadcast TV, there were several naked people in pods being chosen for a date. There were all types of individuals in the pods. Skinny, fat, attractive, unattractive; some covered with piercings and tattoos. Any type of person you can imagine. All in the buff. Starkers naked. The show mentions several studies during each episode which provide some educational benefit. I never imagined this show would be available in the US. However, by miracle of all miracles it is now shown on MAX (HBO Discovery). It can become tiresome if you watch too many episodes in one sitting, but I give kudos to the people at Max for being brave enough to air this. I'm sure the puritanical prudes are up in arms and will try to get it banned. I better watch a few more episodes before they succeed.

I don't like writing long reviews, but this movie and IMDB require it. I just wanted to warn viewers of the depravity they'll be subjected to upon viewing "Martyrs." I've never watched "Hostel" or "Saw" in their entirety because I abhor torture porn. Rob Zombie makes these types of films as black comedy (see the grotesque "House of 1,000 Corpses" and "The Devil's Rejects"), but Martyrs ups the ante to an unmatched level of horrendousness.

On a positive note the film is well-shot and the acting is impressive. The plot keeps you guessing in the early going, but descends into a horrific torturous (literally) abomination. Is it necessary to see the poor unfortunate soul captured through her own goodheartedness be continually beaten and tormented beyond belief? I suppose to a certain sick audience this is entertaining. Hopefully, they are a very small minority or we'd in deep trouble if big brother wasn't keeping things in check.

The ending, with the Illuminati's involvement in the experiment and old lady's suicide was unsatisfying after the sickening brutalizing endured for too long. The director will imply there is a deeper meaning here, but it isn't worth it. The end.

I'm surprised it took me so long to see this engrossing movie since I would consider myself a minor horror/thriller film aficionado. Much of the film mirrors the miserable Dennis Rader, aka BTK killer, although the ending veers away dramatically.

The acting is superb from mainstream former A-lister Dylan McDermott and the lesser known cast. Directing and pacing is above average.

I'm not going to re-hash the story as many have done an admirable job already and exposed several plot holes that occur near the end. All I'll add is that this kept me interested and questioning things, but I was ultimately satisfied even though the father should have been exposed for his horrifying misdeeds.

Barbarian is an extremely entertaining, well-shot and acted film stirring up many emotions, but unfortunately, in the end, extraordinary disbelief.

Started out slowly and enthralling, but descended into ridiculousness. Was terrifying between about the 20-30 minute point. There is some comedy interspersed when Justin Long enters the fray around mid-way.

Problems: 1) the montrous woman in the basement had incredulous Hulk-like strength, i.e., rips a man's arm off, survives being hit by a car into a house and later a 50 foot fall with the heroine falling on her. 2) The heroine (excellent actress Georgina Campbell) makes several horrible, unbelievable decisions, but fortunately survives because the audience desperately wants her to prevail through this madness. 3) Campbell is shot in the stomach but everyone agrees she won't need medical treatment through the night. 4) Makes the police look really bad. 5) So many other holes in the story which I don't have time to elaborate on.

Seemed much longer than its 1:43, maybe because of all the twists. My significant other said it was well done and the scariest movie she'd ever seen. She was actually closing her eyes during some of the scenes and she's seen dozens of horror films so that says something about scare value.

I've watched this 4 times and it never gets old. Quite possibly the best rock documentary ever made. If anyone has seen a better one please let me know. Skynyrd lived the dream but unfortunately it got cut short due to some lax decision-making. It's sad to realize some incredible rock gems could have been produced if not for the unfortunate accident.

The 3D version is exceptional; extremely good depth and visuolization. The lure here is the dialogue from the donkey, which is exceptional. The actresses don't have lines, but they are exceptionally beautiful. I didn't want it to end. 8/10.

This seemed like an impossible challenge and it was. James had sleep deprivation and injuries in the first five days. How did he continue on? By using an elliptical machine instead of running/walking. For one day, two days, more.....I don't know. It was shocking that he didn't raise more money, because this is an incredible athletic feat even if you use an elliptical for a day or two because your blisters are horrendous. Someone mentioned this should have been made into a mini-series and I agree. A few more details would have been nice. His times in each event and sleep hours were shown for some of the days, but it was so brief that I couldn't finish reading them (guess that's what the pause button is for?).

I do have a lot of admiration for James. It was inspirational, but a dangerous challenge. All this suffering for $75,000 when the goal was $1 million. People are cheap. Elon and Jeff want to go to Mars. They couldn't care less about childhood obesity.

The saga of Ryan Leaf, whom some refer to as the biggest draft bust in NFL history, is stunning. I had read quite a bit about Leaf, but this documentary revealed a lot I didn't know. Leaf took a long, hard road to maturing as an adult which this excellent film depicts in a respectful and humanizing manner.

We watched this because it had a high rating on Netflix. It was excellent through the beginning and middle, but had a lull towards the end that almost put me to sleep. The very ending was creepy and well done in my opinion. I know some of the history of Satanism and the director bringing this into the story grabbed my attention. This is much better than the current rating of 3.7 on IMDb. The disparity in Netflix ratings and IMDb ratings warrants some investigation. "Cave" was also rated highly on Netflix, but badly on IMDb. Something fishy going on here.

The only reason I watched this film was because it was shot close to where I live. Initially, the plot wasn't inspiring and seemed a bit ridiculous. But Spring Breakers is a movie that gets better the longer you watch it. Basically, it demonstrates how people's expectations of an event (such as spring break) rarely lives up to the perception or dream of the future. Also, people delude themselves into believing something is great even though the reality is completely different. Spring Breakers accomplishes this with incredible cinematography, acting and a great score. It is an under-appreciated gem of a film.

I won't explain the plot or setting of this series. Just read the previous reviews. It doesn't seem like it would be possible to make this interesting, but somehow the people involved in the production have made it "must watch" TV. You could call it a guilty pleasure, but the show is very engaging; mainly the interaction between crew and customers (personality conflicts on display regularly). Below Deck demonstrates how challenging it is to run a private cruise ship and how difficult it is to obtain employees with the proper work ethic and temperament to get the job done. The production values of Below Deck are impressive with the editing being top-notch. Some of it might be contrived because it's hard to believe this concept could be this absorbing, but I recommend it highly for those with time to kill.

Don't Breath starts out well with three morally challenged characters attempting to make their way through the world by burglarizing others homes. They decide to rob a blind war veteran (excellent character actor Stephen Lang) of his settlement from the wrongful death of his only daughter.

It's not a bad movie, but at some point you wonder who to root for because the blind veteran (Lang) is concealing a despicable secret in his basement. The thrills are well filmed and fairly predictable. The scariest character in the film is Lang's rottweiler. Lang's blind character must have had sinus issues because he would walk next to unseen burglars and not smell them which I found unrealistic. Supposedly the other senses are heightened when one is missing. Maybe I'm off-base with this criticism. Sometimes I can't smell things due to allergies.

I was hoping for more scares, but maybe I'm jaded from seeing so many horror movies over the years (I'm past middle age). If I had seen this in high school it would probably have been a totally different experience.

The of ending of Don't Breath leaves room for a sequel, although maybe it would be hard for a blind man to track down a woman who robbed him.

Reading several of the negative reviews of this great film made my blood boil.

How dare you say this there is no character development? This is not a mini-series! There are time constraints and developing character generally takes more than three hours. God, you people can be awful, spoiled ingrates. This film brought me to tears during several scenes.

Getting that off my chest, I will now provide my opinion of this incredible production; which was completed in less than one year.

The Revenant is long at over 2 1/2 hours. And yes, it is a bit too long. Actually it is not, for those not marred by the instant gratification evidenced in modern society (you poor souls!). The cinematography and plot are so exceptional you won't notice the unusually long length.

The initial scene involving the battle with the Indians is stunning in its chaos and unpredictability. The viewer doesn't know who will live and die and by what means. The battle lines are obscured to a degree not seen in may films I've viewed.

The rest of the film is a long slog through nature in its extreme challenges and is moving. You may question the motivations and decisions of the subjects, but these are all conjecture by the director based on his interpretation of the true story.

I will watch this film again with the closed capture enabled because I only understood about 80% of what was said. It will be worthwhile in my opinion because, in its essence, this film depicts the good and evil, along with the greed and selflessness, in every man.

This is the kind of film you need several drinks beforehand to enjoy. I'm watching this on Amazon Prime as I write this; on my 4th whiskey on ice. There's some interesting period music in the first 10 minutes and sporadically thereafter.

At the 19 minute point viewers are treated to some entertaining dialogue between the biker gang regarding their financial straits and how $10K could set them up for life, "and for the first time in a year, we'll be able to jam down the roads on our machines without the man on our back." A biker underling chimes in, "Anyhow, who's going to miss two scroungy mamas with all of them that come to this town every month?"

The next good scene occurs at 34:30 when the underling biker "Irish" doesn't know which state Omaha is in and the gang leader chuckles, "Oh, don't pay no mind to him. He's a kindergartner dropout."

Later the biker leader "Chelsea" has a violent encounter with his bra-less "nipples askew" old lady where the acting is actually not bad. It's disturbing how he treats the youthful "old lady."

Subsequently, there's some weed smoking and instructions on how to best achieve a high, and other general disobedience and felonies (mainly kidnapping).

Some of this is classic 70's schlock, but unfortunately it's not enough to raise it above a 5 on a scale to 10. If William Smith was the gang leader it could probably muster a 7.

This will be a small review as requested by IMDb. The director is Swedish, so I feel a bit of a, what is the word, perhaps obligation, to provide a review since I'm 1/2 Swede.

Anyway, while at a ski resort, I happened upon a pile of DVDs and decided to pick "Derailed" as it was the highest rated on IMDb that I hadn't already seen.

The film starts out fine, kind of boring, but the production quality is high (and Anniston is hot) so I keep watching. After awhile I think to myself this movie is actually getting better the longer I watch it, which is unusual for current films. Clive Owen is a very good actor, by the way.

However, at a certain point I realize what is going on and it becomes predictable, to a point.

Then, all a few unexpected completely unrealistic twists occur near the very end which kind of sully the entire experience.

The direction was very good though.