Reviews

I wanted to like I Care a Lot (2020) as I know much about the adult living care business and nursing homes and the horrors. I had also just watched The New York Times Framing Britney Spears (2021) that makes relevant the issues of wards and conservatorships. But this is a fictional movie where none of the main characters have any redeeming value and therefore there is no "good guy" to root for. The acting was hit and miss, probably because of the screenplay or writing and directing but there were some notable standouts by Dianne Wiest and Rosamund Pike. Most of the men appeared to be incompetent and, as is standard in movies today, the main characters' relationship is gay.

So from the get go you feel outrage and frustration with Marla Grayson's callousness as she just takes over sweet old (or so we think) Jennifer Peterson's life and sends her off to a nursing home meanwhile taking over her financial accounts and assets such as her house. This appears to be a regular routine for Marla and her partner. Jennifer's son Roman (Peter Dinklage) is a cliché bad guy eating danishes in a covered parking lot while talking to his incompetent lackey using bad guy jargon. We are not sure how Roman becomes so successful when all the guys working for him appear to be morons including his attorney Dean (Chris Messina). The first quarter of the movie I was ready to give it a 2 or 1 but the movie was somewhat saved by the last half and ending. There were two notable scenes, one when Jennifer and Marla are talking outside in the patio of the nursing home and second when Marla and Roman have a conversation at the hospital while Roman is in a wheel chair. In the first scene Dianne Wiest does an outstanding job of showing her strength and subtle evil power with the ever slight smile. And in the second we finally get to see the great acting skills of Peter Dinklage when he finally acquiesce to Marla. But again who do you root for? A woman who controls, abuses, and steals from the elderly or a mobster who traffics slaves? Those are your choices and in the end while certainly making wards and conservatorships a concern there is no body you care about or want to come out ahead. It could be a statement about today's society and whether the government should control all aspects of your life, or a statement of the lack of concern adult children have for their elderly parents, but I think it's more about evil people getting ahead.

Today the movie looks like a early 80s movie - kinda grainy and definitely on film (which is a good thing compared to digital). The movie gets slow in the middle but overall the acting is very good, especially Judd Hirsch and Kate Nelligan and the final scenes with Danny Corkill playing the young boy Alex. It is heartbreaking. I saw it as a young adult in the 80s not being a parent yet. It was wrenching to the gut, the sadness of child abduction and fear of not knowing what has happened to your child as Kate showed so well in this movie. Re-watching it as a parent now it is even harder. (minor SPOILER) But even more rewarding in final scene. That is what makes this movie stand out among all movies, the so powerful ending. And it still holds up today (2020). I recommend this movie just for the outstanding final 15 minutes. Like other movies of the time that were kinda boring in the middle, ( or 70s movies The French Connection I & II), the final scenes more that make up and leave you quite satisfied.

In the last few years I have become cynical and very disappointed with movies that Hollywood has put out. Being aware of this I still try as Gene Siskel use to say no matter how jaded you have become with a particular genre always in your first watching of a movie keep an open mind. So, though not expecting much, in watching Seven In Heaven I was thoroughly entertained , at times quite thrilled, and very satisfied with the acting in a movie of the high school thriller/horror genre type. (Though I guess you could say sci-fi) A definite positive was that in the first 20 minutes of the movie setup the script and acting and dialog was never over the top and super cliché like you see in so many movies today. I was thinking "oh no here we go again with another typical over acted extreme bully scene" at school in the hallway after the science class but instead it was more subtle and realistic jabbing that teens do. Not to say bullying does not exist or is not a problem at all but just this scene called for a particular mood of awkwardness, humor and mild bullying like calling him Judy without some sort of violent slapping down of the books, etc. I have young adults and teen children and the dialog between the mother Megan (Jacinda Barrett) and lead character Jude about the party was amusing and very realistic and I could hear my wife and sons having this conversation: "You know, where the girls put different color lipsticks on," and the boys try to sleep..." " Oh, my God, Mom. No!" As for the overall plot problems do exist especially if you cannot suspend reality and forgive the plot holes around the playing cards and the closet and the fact that we only really get one explanation for the whole twist. (Minor Spoiler Alert) The only slight bit of reasoning we get as to why this whole weirdness is happening is when Mr. Wallace (played very well by Gary Cole) says: "They want to hurt you for as long as they can. 'Cause they can. Because you let them. This is the place where the worst thoughts take over. Everybody's worst thoughts. And you sure as hell turned everything upside down." My question is who is Mr. Wallace or what can we analogize him to? And in the end when we think everything is going to turn out ok.. a final zoom in shot done quite well by director Chris Eigeman. I always recommend to people looking for a movies to watch to disregard at first the score ratings and just read the summary and if it sounds like something you're interested in then watch it. Maybe you'll agree with many of the IMDb raters and think it is a mediocre movie, or maybe you will be pleasantly surprised and thoroughly entertained like I was.

Sure this episode was not a laugh a minute but I believe us Family Guy fans have either become so jaded about episodes nothings funny or Family Guy has just been on so long we are getting tired of it. Granted for me this season has been one of the worse, especially episodes 10, 11 and 18. But this one actually had some cleverness to it. I enjoyed when Seth M and Alex and Seth G and Mila talked as themselves and Chris's interaction with the reals and Seth explained to Meg that she got the worse of it... the brunt end of all characters. I thought that was kind of funny.

Many writers have said, like James L. Brooks and Matt Groening (The Simpsons) or Seth MacFarlane and David Zuckerman (Family Guy) or Trey Parker and Matt Stone (South Park) that writing 20 to 30 episodes every year for over 20 years gets tiresome and it is hard to stay funny and edgy. And certainly there are episodes of Family Guy that are far funnier but I just don't agree that this is such a bad episode that it needs to be tarred and feathered and stoned for being shown on TV. I saw alot of anger in the reviews of this episode on IMDb. I think if a person watched this after only seeing a few episodes before they would see some humor. I gave it a 5... maybe a 4.5. Not great.. not very good.. not the worse thing my eyes have ever seen.

I actually thought this film was well done and quite entertaining and kept me interested long enough to watch to the end. Obviously has flaws but why it has such a low rating on IMdB is beyond me.. I guess if you paid for this at the theater I could see being let down some. But seriously it was well acted and had some excellent scenes as the hero Dr. Abe Anderson (played by Sean Maher quite well) went through mental gymnastics from reality to hallucinations and imaginations back to reality. I watched this on a rainy Saturday afternoon on tv and I am glad I did not read any think on this web site before I watched it. It was good.. it was entertaining and the story actually moved along nicely. 6 out of 10

Dark... sad. Reminds of start of Dickens 3rd chapter from Tale of Two Cities: A Wonderful fact to reflect upon, that every human creature is constituted to be that profound secret and mystery to every other. A solemn consideration, when I enter a great city by night, that every one of those darkly clustered houses encloses its own secret; that every room in every one of them encloses its own secret; that every beating heart in the hundreds of thousands of breasts there, is, in some of its imaginings, a secret to the heart nearest it! Something of the awfulness, even of Death itself, is referable to this. No more can I turn the leaves of this dear book that I loved, and vainly hope in time to read it all. No more can I look into the depths of this unfathomable water, wherein, as momentary lights glanced into it, I have had glimpses of buried treasure and other things submerged. It was appointed that the book should shut with a a spring, for ever and for ever, when I had read but a page. It was appointed that the water should be locked in an eternal frost, when the light was playing on its surface, and I stood in ignorance on the shore. My friend is dead, my neighbour is dead, my love, the darling of my soul, is dead; it is the inexorable consolidation and perpetuation of the secret that was always in that individuality, and which I shall carry in mine to my life's end. In any of the burial-places of this city through which I pass, is there a sleeper more inscrutable than its busy inhabitants are, in their innermost personality, to me, or than I am to them?.

The show See No Evil is like all shows on ID Channel.. loaded with commercials and very slow telling the story. See No Evil has some interesting real life tales of people that have gone missing or murdered and sometimes caught on camera. But each show is so tedious.. even without all the commercials they could tell the story in about half the time. I've watched a few of these and at the end I can't believe I wasted so much time watching something I could of looked up on the internet and read what happened in 2 minutes. And the filler.. the stuff they put in there between solving the case sometimes is just mundane, like one expert saying "video evidence is really good... tells facts" Duh. I would really like this show if they would edit it down to a 1/2 hour show.

I've lost all faith in IMDb's rating system, when a movie like this can be rated in the sixes. It was horrible with little redeeming value other that an occasional cool gadget like a lasso that can cut one in two. From top to bottom the movie was bad, including a ridiculously stupid story line, horrible cliches and god awful music line to go with some of the scenes (like using Take Me Home - I song I like - in the worst way, and that version of Word Up... just awful). I can't necessarily say the acting was bad because the decent actors in the movie could not save this crap of a story and direction. It was just uncomfortable watching Elton John. And to try to get a pro drug and anti-US President theme like its popular was nauseating regardless of what political stance you take. If you have a life don't watch ever and you will be a healthier person for not seeing this junk.

This was a great series and the particular episode Easy Rider was very good as well. As in most episodes Bernie's ego gets in his way as he rides his motorcycle trying to get approval of other bikers all the while missing commitments to his kids. Funny enough as he wrecks and what follows.

The best part of this episode and the entire series was the use of Earth Wind and Fire's song Fantasy when Bernie thought he was dead. As I watch it now its kinda sad as Bernie passed on way too early and as in life and the show things changed. Here he finds all his (adopted) kids have turned for the worse. A good portion of the song is played as he walks through the house. Its cool. We miss Bernie.

I NEVER post a professional review BUT now - - ROGER EBERT reviewed this and said exactly what I felt and wanted to say about this film. Rather than trying to paraphrase his review I am simply posting his original review found on his web page: (since links are not allowed i have put spaces in the link. you need to remove the space to follow the link)

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/ apps/pbcs.dll/ article?AID=/20120530 /REVIEWS /120539995/ 1023

It might help to think of "The Intouchables" as a French spin off of "Driving Miss Daisy," retitled "Pushing Monsieur Philippe." A stuffy rich employer finds his life enriched by a wise black man from the Paris ghettos and takes lessons in funky music and the joys of marijuana. This is a story that has been told time and again in the movies, and sometimes the performances overcome the condescension of the formula.

The film was an enormous box-office hit in France, and indeed, it is easy to enjoy. Philippe (Francois Cluzet) is a millionaire who was paralyzed from the neck down in a para-gliding accident. Driss (Omar Sy) is a man out on parole for robbery, who applies for the job of Philippe's caregiver only so he can be rejected and get a signature on his application for unemployment benefits. As Philippe interviews one boring job applicant after another, we begin to understand that he needs not only physical help but someone to cheer him up. Driss' cheeky irreverence is refreshing, and Philippe astonishes him and his own household staff by offering him the job.

The movie tells the story of a growing relationship between these two likable men, based on Driss' confidence that Philippe will improve if he escapes his stuck-up lifestyle and samples the greater freedoms of an immigrant from Africa. There may be a certain truth in this, but the education of Philippe proceeds in a series of essentially insulting clichés. Driss, you see, has rhythm and soul, and if only Philippe can absorb some of that, he'll be a happier man. He'll still be a French millionaire surrounded by a protective staff, he'll still be paralyzed, but he'll be happier. How many times have we seen the scene where an uptight square inhales pot for the first time and a smile slowly spreads across his face? "The Intouchables" has an element of truth that it never quite recognizes. The role of a good caregiver is hardly limited to lifting, bathing, grooming, dressing, pushing and supplying medicines. The patient is faced with a reality he finds it difficult to accept: he has been deprived of all he once took for granted, such as the simple ability to walk across a room. A caregiver can't provide that, but he can provide something more valuable, companionship. Philippe's wife is dead, his teenage daughter is a snotty brat, and his staff is preoccupied by their salaries and status. Driss comes from a different world.

The success of the film, despite its problems, grows directly from its casting. Francois Cluzet, who acts only with his face and voice, communicates great feeling. Omar Sy is enormously friendly and upbeat. He reminded me of the African immigrant played by Souleymane Sy Savane in Ramin Bahrani's "Goodbye Solo" — a film that avoided the traps that "The Intouchables" falls into.

The appeal of a film like this, and it is perfectly legitimate, is that when we begin to feel affection for the characters, what makes them happy make us happy. Caught up in the flow of events, we allow many assumptions to pass unchallenged. The writer-directors, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, are cheerfully willing to go for broad gags, and their style is ingratiating. But at the end, by looking through the foreground details, what we're being given is a simplistic reduction of racial stereotypes.

That was also true of "Driving Miss Daisy," but it was a period picture set in the South in the late 1940s, with older characters who had been shaped by their times. There was a plausibility there. "The Intouchables" is more of a soothing fantasy.

by Roger Ebert - May 30, 2012

I watched this with an open mind not worrying about the low rating so far on IMDb and I was pleasantly surprised. The acting and quality camera work were very well done and were not diminish by a story that had a good premise but was missing some elements of information. And unfortunately the final song to start the end of the movie was horrible. But the beauty of a well done short movie is it leaves a lot more to the imagination of the audience. The short is one of the hardest movies to make now and this movie was fast paced with intelligent thought and decent dialog.

I see about 70 to 80 new movies (new to me) every year but only write a few reviews as I believe a decent review should be well written and the reviewer should have a good sense of films, which takes some time I do not have. But I saw that the review on here was so poorly written without much thought or understanding of this film I felt it necessary to try an give a more realistic and open minded review. First, this film has nothing to do with nor any of its references directly taken from "Fight Club" as one reviewer suggested. If talking about how the cost of materialism has effected the world makes it a "Fight Club" reference then that's like saying any movie that talks about the south is is "Gone With The Wind" reference. In Fight Club one major theme was around materialism and how it controlled our life's, a theme at its pinnacle in 1999-2000 when Fight Club came out. This is 13 years later where we see the cost of having everything available everywhere, like Coffee which is very labor intensive as Jesse spoke of in the movie, is causing a huge divide between the classes of rich and poor and an incredible strain on the world's resources. That is a very real theme today that many people are aware of that goes beyond just the self indulgent life style of the past 20 years.

The movie tries to make radical 'change' Jesse's theme at a level that implies that hackers and coders do have much control over what goes on not just in the cyber world but in everyday affairs. The group Anonymous comes to mind, and not that I agree with their methods, but they are real and are having some effect, whether one sees it as good or bad.

Emily Somers (Stat) and Travis Aaron Wade (Jesse) both did an excellent job acting. One can notice for a short film how the expressions and feelings have to develop much quicker and they do in Reboot. I recommend you see this with an open mind and not be disappointed with an ending that leaves you thinking about whats next.

I know these Resident Evil movies are originally based on a video game, but at least the last one, Resident Evil Afterlife[2010] was a decent movie that plotted out with a good screenplay and moved more like a movie than a video game. But this one is just ridiculous.

You know when you get a new game now, usually they have a nice intro or short movie to get the game going, then you play. Well this movie is like that game movie and play the entire time. Its like watching someone else play a fairly boring loud bang bang shoot shoot gory monster video game for 90 minutes (seemed like 2 hours). Seriously they just walk through this video game going from one set to the next trying to beat the next level.

Its difficult to believe even the die-hard Resident Evil fans would like watching this formulaic movie. I would have to assume this is just one big ad for the next Resident Evil video game installment. Wont be on any of my game consoles or PC. Resident Evil out.

I don't normally write reviews for TV shows, but it is no big secret House is one of my all time favorite TV shows. That said I've never written a review for a House episode. I am sad. I know this is nearing the end of a great series. I am pleased to say that season 8 is now becoming right up there with the best of them though I was very critical early in season 8. And this episode, Chase, is by far the best episode of the season, a continuation of S8 Episode 11 Nobody's Fault.

Now that there may be only 6 to 8 episodes left for the show, for first time in the history of the series the complete focus was on a character other than House. Yes there have been episodes that the theme was geared towards a particular individual, like Taub or Forman or 13 (or Chase when he killed the dictator) but always the main gist was around House. This episode was so beautiful, shown from Chase's view and the conflicts within Chase. I am so happy they finally tribute his character so well.

I really hope they at least do something like this with Forman, the only other character left that like Chase has been there since the get go. I did not put in spoiler alerts so I won't go into detail on the story line, needless to say this was one of the best acted and well written episodes of the entire series. Bravo.

This is the epitome of horrible TV and an example of how far down we have come to meet our lust for mundane inane babble on "Reality TV". The fact that enough people even watch this awful dribble to keep it on TV is proof of how bad not only American TV has become but how the viewers of reality TV have absolutely no standards for intellect or decency. I have to admit I have only watched this show for about 1 half hour and that was completely enough to know how mind numbing bad it truly is. Even though I do not like this type of show much there are some that are watchable but Khloe & Lamar does not fit in that category. I hope my review is not met with to much criticism and that we, the people, will wake up and say ENOUGH!. Time for some decent TV again.

This was a great series and this particular episode was very good as well. As in most episodes Bernie's ego gets in his way as he rides his motorcycle trying to get approval of other bikers all the while missing commitments to his kids. Funny enough as he wrecks and what follows.

The best part of this episode was the use of Earth Wind and Fire's song Fantasy when Bernie thought he was dead. As I watch it now its kinda sad as Bernie passed on way too early and as in the show things changed. Here he finds all his (adopted) kids have turned for the worse. A good portion of the song is played as he walks through the house. Its cool. We miss Bernie.

The story has Superman returning to Earth after a five-year sojourn in which he's been exploring a fragment of his home planet Krypton that has been floating around the universe since its destruction. (Exactly why it took him five years to do this is not explained.)

It's not quite a runaway success, the casting is hit-and-miss and there's nothing hugely innovative in the story line or the effects. In an era full of superhero movies, it's not likely to have anything close to the impact of the '79 version with Christopher Reeve.

But the film is magnificently mounted, it moves like a speeding bullet and it's so respectful of Superman traditions that even the pickiest of die-hard fans should love it. After a lapse of two decades, it revitalizes the franchise and makes it seem fresh and alive.

None of the major reviewers will say it but this movie just isn't realistic. I thought it was a good story and a feel good movie that was entertaining. However if you look back in the history of the spelling bees there has never been someone with little discipline and structure of very low economic environment and a broken home winning. And the child winners always have the support of their parents from the beginning. Don't bother calling me racist because I am not. All winners of the spelling bee like most child prodigies come from distinct background of discipline and structure. Words are not like math where someone can have it all figured out in there heads, however someone can be more inclined to excel at spelling words than the average person. But it takes practice. Akeelah did not have that structure and a child cannot do this without a mom or dad (usually both) providing the right environment from the beginning. Tiger Woods had such structure and discipline. So did all the recent spelling bee winners.

This is another one of those Hollywood movies that thinks that by showing a man (Cage) who is self-centered and pretty much a moron with a touch of darkness(ie:Sideways) the movie is reaching to the more intelligent audience. Not the case. This movie made me so frustrated because it was so bad. It had a feeling like the director and the writer were just being smug by putting together a story of someone so mundane and self-centered that they could pass this off as dark comedy. It is pitiful and very painful to watch. I do not want to put any spoilers in here so more people will read this and hopefully never go to this heap of garbage. Needless to say I even think less now than I did before of Cage and put him right there with the likes of Keanu Reeves. The Weather Man finds Nicolas Cage in a self-pitying mood. In the past, this would have been happy news. Cage in a funk was good for ''Leaving Las Vegas" and ''Adaptation." Even in a movie as imbalanced as Martin Scorsese's ''Bringing Out the Dead," Cage's depression soulfully complemented Scorsese's mania. Those movies gave Cage an opportunity to be inventive and inspired. The Weather Man gives him license to drift for nearly two hours like a parade float. The film takes too many of its cues from Dave's (Cage) depression. It is like a funeral.

I really have to laugh and get a little peeved when I see many people get suckered in and write "good" and "Great!" for their review here on IMDb. In the end this movie's attempt at self-centered humor flops unlike Sideways which was overrated yet still far better than The Weather Man. Forecast: Stay away from this dust-bowl of stink.

This was on ShowTime or HBO a number of times in the early 80s when I saw it and whenever it was on I would stop down to watch it. Little Ricky Schroder is excellent at a young age and counters William Holden's maturity for an interesting balance of young and old. I'm not sure why the rating shows a 5.6 since over 60% of the votes for this film were over a 7 and the majority voted a 10. It is definitely worth a watch if you're a Holden fan like I am. While the premise seems unrealistic at first as we go through the movie we find there is much more to this than expected. I liked this movie for the outdoor scenery and the beautiful backwoods areas of Australia. If you get a chance to see this film, please do.