tmcdaniel1's Reviews

Complicit (2013 TV Movie)

7/10

2 January 2015

Which isn't easy. To sustain a level of tension this gripping for an entire movie without resorting to timeworn plot devices can't be done by Big Hollywood. In addition it clearly takes direction that allows fine actors the time and space to deliver the brilliant performances that are the foundation of the film as they fix one's attention on every word and expression. Well done, all!

Big Hollywood would have taken the premise and injected the obligatory "Hot Woman" into the agent's life. And, of course, there would have been a climax expending hundreds of rounds of ammunition (at least). (As an example see "The Kingdom")They never would have left us with this ending for "Complicit". An ending which is congruent with the body of the film instead of a cinematic "backflip".

A little creative honesty for a change...Thank You.

One point about the antagonists: If you think of them both as soldiers you can realize both, by their own rules, are good soldiers. George Patton loved his country so did SS General Kurt Meyer (a dedicated Nazi). Both were skilled, however, relativity ends at this point.

One just happened to be fighting to preserve Liberty and the other ... Not. As for me, I reject the moral relativism described by another reviewer of this film. No one is morally perfect. However some act in ways that are not to be tolerated.

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Horizon (2013 TV Movie)

6/10

Well, I liked it. Lifetime Channel mates with SyFy?

22 June 2014

I'm giving this a 6 because I have the feeling that it was done with more effort than money. It's not scary but, I don't think it was meant to be. It carries on at a slow pace with dreamy music (and little bloodshed or violence). The plot is coherent if not stirring. Same for the acting! Was this meant to be the pilot for a series that never made it? I think one reason I liked it was it doesn't pretend to be something bigger than it is. Or, drop into plot swamps like some much bigger budget films have done. It deals with some fairly large concepts but, treats them quite lightly. It could have easily been louder, more violent, and maybe more suspenseful. But, maybe it wasn't meant to be...

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When the Moors Ruled in Europe (2005)

1/10

Pure history? No. Half the story.

15 December 2012

Warning: Spoilers

There is a form of sin called "Sins of Omission". In journalism unpalatable true stories are often "Spiked" or simply not published. This bit of work is a perfect example. In fact, it veers past omission into outright propaganda. Everything in first phase of Muslim domination of Spain is WONDERFUL, JUST WONDERFUL. The narrator fairly shivers in ecstasy when describing this "Golden Age". Then the contempt for all of the rest of Europe fairly drips from her voice as she describes all other Europeans as though they were mentally retarded, homicidal maniacs.

But....the Golden Age? PURE, always perfectly pure. How WONDERFUL it must have been to have been the conquered people living as Dhimmi under the Caliph. Oh Joy!

Sadly, if you think I'm being hyperbolic....I'm not. If you turn the sound off, it is fascinating to see the remnants of this period. If you turn the sound on, be prepared for a relentless onslaught of one-sided propaganda and sickly sweet glorification of the time of the Caliph.

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Brady's Escape (1983)

7/10

A rarely explored facet of an immense war

7 March 2012

Warning: Spoilers

If you like war movies or horse movies or just something different, this could be for you.

There is more depth here than in most bigger budget and more recent films. Lots of the dialog is in the Hungarian language (with subtitles) but more than half is in English. However, it is not hard to follow the story at all. It is simple but, emotionally powerful.

It probably helps if you know something about the terrific suffering of Hungary under the Nazis ("rescued" later by Stalin, HA!). The willingness of the almost hopeless common people to give their all against a hated enemy is a serious theme here. The American, a decent enough guy, (but mainly ordinary except perhaps for his toughness in facing danger to help his new friends)becomes a welcome (although fatally dangerous) focus for the anger and resentment of the Hungarians against the Germans occupiers and their puppet government.

I didn't mean to concentrate my comment entirely on the political side but, it should explain better to the viewer why the "good guys" were so very willing to risk everything to help the downed flier, he is as much a symbol for them (and a chance at self respect) as he is a militarily valuable person. There is also a good moment of a sort of fairness to the German Officer hunting "our hero" listen closely for it and the word "Dresden".

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Person of Interest (2011–2016)

9/10

Simply well done

24 September 2011

It is hard to do something fresh or different in this genre. I've found, usually, it is either writing or chemistry that produces success. This show has both (at least in the pilot). Cav can carry the weight of holding one's attention for an hour. He's proved that in spades.

I see this (so far) as Bourne Identity meets Minority Report but, done in a lower key with Cav as the focus not Tom Cruise (that indicates a lower key right away!).

Storyline? Plausible. That's enough of a base for the rest of the team to do something special. If the other five episodes (currently sold) are as good as the pilot, I predict it will be a memorable season.

That doesn't mean it will run longer. We've all see very well done efforts that didn't make it past a season. They appear, years later, strung together like strings of pearls (on a cable channel).

Then we weep for for might have been. However, the quality effort will shine through always.

My fingers are crossed for more than one season. I think the ingredients have all been shown as being present. That is what scares me a bit. The networks have a habit of taking something this good and moving all over the schedule until they've lost its audience.

I hope this doesn't happen and I wish the team the very best of LUCK, because mere TALENT is only part of the recipe.

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Green Zone (2010)

4/10

Have to say I resent this ham-handed rewrite of history.

27 March 2011

Warning: Spoilers

Green Zone is a flawed and unsubtle effort to rewrite history so it suits the Anti-Bush* biases of Hollywood and its standard plotting formulas. It has been pointed out the use of the "Mission Accomplished" event was taken out of a correct time-line. This is just one of many "Indulgences" of Green Zone to "Tell a larger Truth". Well, why don't you try just telling the truth (that there is evidence for? The true situation was flawed enough to where there was no need to jumble it up into an inaccurate mess. Ahh, but there would be this need if you need to put Damon into a working class action hero mode. Pathetic.

Why shouldn't WWII movies show Pearl Harbor occurring BEFORE the Battle of Britain? Could it be integrity? Could it be respect that real people died and there is a real time-line that needs to be respected? Did the Iraq invasion have huge problems? Sure. But, does it serve the general public interest to offer a clearly mythological explanation? NO, but it served Hollywood standard procedures and the biases of its star and director. The truth had to be "Packaged" to achieve the desired results. This is typically called Propaganda.

Finally, CWO Miller sends off this "Blistering" report on what REALLY happened to nearly all major news organizations. It begs the question: If this movie is based on any real truth, why aren't its premises (embodied in the shocking report) ever picked up by this list of Anti-Bush media, in real life? Answer: Because its basis is a weak conspiracy theory. This homage to "Three Days of the Condor" is a joke because Irag isn't FICTIONAL. It happened and it happened in ways we have a lot of TRUE understanding at this point. Why make up a fairy tale? * I say Anti-Bush because the media seems to have no problem with the USA moving into another war in the Africa/Middle East theater. Just look at the shocking silence regarding our "Adventure" in Libya.

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Avatar (2009)

6/10

To Hell with the GENOCIDAL James Cameron

19 February 2011

Warning: Spoilers

I say this because: A. He, cynically, saves a critical bit of info for the last scene.

The Earth is "Dying". One assumes the mineral mentioned might delay or even remedy that. Hmmmm. Makes the actions of the miners more understandable if not sympathetic. Prior to that, I got the impression it was just about profits.

B. At the end he spits on the defeated miners and says "Go back to your dying world". Presumably to DIE. Nice James. Thanks.

How hard would have it been for him to say "Go back to the stars and learn from this....learn that your salvation is not best earned by the destruction of others".

Instead he basically puts a curse on the human race. Hmmmm, he goes on and on about "traitors to your race". Maybe James, philosophically speaking is a traitor to his....having given up all hope for it.

I don't know what he wants to see us replace by....whales? There are reasons for liking "Avatar" and there are damn good reasons for rejecting its ultimate message.

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Accidentally on Purpose (2009–2010)

2/10

It hurts to write this. It hurts worse to watch this show.

19 October 2009

If some of the other reviewers are like me they did not relish giving this show such poor reviews. I think most of us know Jenna Elfman is capable (when in the right circumstances) of being a fine comic actor.

However, this thing is just ugly. These are the kind of people in town that I struggle to keep away from. Not that all my friend are perfect (or me) but, these people seem to lack redeeming qualities. If we see their good side, it is only for a moment before they lapse back into behavior that swerves between the pathetic and the vile.

The Jenna character seems entirely out of place as someone who is old enough to know better than to give the advice she does. Yet, she seems to delight in playing to the weaakest and most immature sides of her "friends" personalities. When she does this with her baby, he will likely grow up to be Andy Dick. Not the Funny Andy but the Creepy Andy.

This is an entirely different setting than D&G where everyone's flaws were drawn clearly yet, (nearly)everyone had something admirable about them (even if was by accident). Most of the people in AOP strike me as younger, slacker (and even more immature) versions of the D&G characters: Jane and Pete Cavanaugh. If they were your absolute favorites, maybe AOP is for you.

Have only been able to stand watching most of two episodes. The thing too often veers into creepiness due to the repellent characters and the howling bad writing. Painful.

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Dancing in Twilight (2007)

8/10

A timeless theme set in the current and commonplace

26 October 2008

This movie deserves more than one comment.

This movie deserves more than one good comment.

The makers succeeded in making a serious movie about a topic that a lot of people deal with in their lives but, that Hollywood, currently, seems to be incapable of telling with any subtlety.

What happens when you have "it all" and then it's gone? What do you do when nothing or no one comes close to giving you what you had? What happens when the only dreams you have just leave you at the end of an empty road?

Don't think that this is a movie of unbroken darkness or gloom. The man has decent people all around him that reach out in friendship and love. His world is not gloomy, just the opposite... and it is not without possible roads to a new life, maybe even happiness, reborn.

This gives it the current of hope----even though he is profoundly alone, in his own mind, there are people all around him reaching out to help. This lifts the tone up and makes it hold one's interest.

I was rooting for the guy. Perhaps you'll agree with me that this is important...

Part of me was hoping for a "Hollywood Ending". This is a more serious movie than that. It poses deeper questions.

It asks us to look at life's illusions and then look beyond them.

If you do this, you get your "happy" ending, no matter how it ends.

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The American Ruling Class (2005)

1/10

An intellectual, moral and emotional vacuum

20 October 2008

This was the most soft-headed piece of nonsense I've seen since the last crappy sci-fi channel movie about giant insects.

Lapham is "trite and confused" so the movie follows closely.

The problems of the world are described poorly and the solutions are even less clear.

At one point we take a ride on a "Magic Bus" that drives from a dirty part of a big city to a "bright sunlit upland" where there are just country fields and wind powered generators.

Guess what you dummies. The world is not totally one or the other. It never has been.I doubt that it ever will be.

This film also leaves out the millions of people that find happiness in their work or their families and friends or religion.

None of the actors in this movie counts their blessings. They are too confused to realize that they actually have some control over their lives.

The sub-text seems to be you can't be happy unless you rule...but all the rulers are unhappy as well. WHAT A LOAD OF GARBAGE.

Its message is deeply pessimistic and unrealistic. It poorly describes the problems of the world and then offers no comprehensible solution or even encouragement. It is not so much that they get it wrong, its that they just don't make any sense.

Tripe, possibly harmful...tripe. Not when the thoughts are presented by 14 year olds smoking their first pot but, when presented by so-called adults...ouch.

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Band of Brothers (2001)

7/10

I finally figured out my main criticism of BoB

19 October 2008

Comparing this to Saving Private Ryan or any number of great war movies, I was struck by the way they chose to handle fear in the characters.

It seems like there is only anxiety, which comes and goes, as a reaction to contact with the enemy. Even though they are coming up against German paratroopers and SS units (both notoriously competent and well motivated), the treatment of the Germans is like "dose rascally krauts, HAHA".

The Germans are portrayed as mostly hapless and the BoB as almost omnipotent, even though casualties are taken regularly. In better war movies or even suspense movies, the sense of corrosive long term fear is portrayed more dramatically. The smooth, unlined faces and "Laid Back" attitudes project an atmosphere of drudgery albeit bloody drudgery.

Just look at the makeup on the characters in "Ryan" compared to these. In BoB they look constantly fresh and mostly clean---the main exception being the camouflage face paint they wore in early episodes.

It is one of the most profound rules of drama:

The good guy can only be a good or brave as the bad guy is truly evil or frightening. The enemy in this movie is distant and not scary. The ones we see up close are dealt with quickly or if they are goofy enough to surrender they are mowed down.

"Stupid Krauts, what clowns" With only a couple of exceptions the Americans seem to out-think and out-fight all the Germans they come across. It builds an atmosphere of Inevitabilty that lessens suspense rather than building it.

No portrayal of great heroism comes from bashing clowns around.

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Sunshine (2007)

3/10

The Sun ate my script that made sense

16 August 2008

In the past the world has chosen space flight crews from military pilots, scientists or civilian engineers of the highest maturity and experience. People that were selected for remaining cool under the worst circumstances and would "continue the mission" no matter how difficult it became...

"Sunshine" is what would happen if you chose the crew from anxiety ridden film school grad students.

They run around in a dither from the start making silly mistakes left and right. But, they look very soulful the whole time and aren't afraid to burst into tears at the slightest provocation. Appropriate behavior for an acting class but not for life-or-death missions.

I think this is truly why the first Icarus mission failed. A soufflé' fell and the crew hyperventilated to death.

On the good side, the creators manage to get a tremendous amount of visual beauty on the screen for a comparatively small budget.

As one crew member says "I don't know how to do it, just do it". This seems to have been the main directive for creating the movie. With regard to some of the super-positive reviews...No, this is not one of the best Sci-Fi movies ever. If you were so stoned that you couldn't follow a plot anyway, you might really enjoy yourself. Then again, if you were that stoned, you'd probably enjoy cleaning the basement.

This is one where the visuals and music stand out, in a big way but, the characters and the story fall short.

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Christmas Child (2004)

6/10

Slow, but steady

6 July 2008

Christmas Child is better than a lot of movies I can name that cost ten times as much to make. I thought the opening scenes between Moses and Megan Follows were excellent and they had good chemistry and excellent dialog. Sadly, when Follows leaves the story, it seems to lose a lot of energy and slow way down.

While not full of holes, neither is it seamless or easy to follow especially from an emotional standpoint. The messages are highly positive but delivered in a slow way through the eyes of the troubled protagonist who seems to fail to appreciate what he is given. His emotional distance and alienation do not "develop" along with the story thereby keeping the emotonal tempo from moving upward to match what he is learning on his "Quest".

The final problem I had with it was that the return of Follows to the story (thereby wrapping up a major, major plot line) is given short shrift and bypasses the serious and emotionally fulfilling aspects. I have a feeling that this would have been handled at more and better length in the written version.

So, for trying to tell a good story and show with some realism a "slice of life" that is far more common and more real than typical Hollywood tripe, I give it credit. The actors are very good throughout and there are many moments that will make you think.

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Crash Dive (1996 Video)

1/10

OK if you are drifting in and out of consciousness

28 June 2008

For all the fight scenes in this movie, you'd think they would have devoted some creativity to them...Ooops Sorry, There was no creativity in the entire movie. The director should be shooting video of the South Dakota RV Association annual meeting instead.

It really comes across as soft-headed and amateurish to the point of being offensive. They entire thing stumbles in a gooey fog through second rate (why not use first rate?) cliché's.

The best they can get out of the few serious actors in it is a sort of half-hearted professionalism, where they recreate (from better memories) some more prestigious and more watchable previous roles.

Painful. Turn it off and go clean the garage. You'll have more fun.

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Tae-poong (2005)

8/10

Tom Clancy thriller with shades of Shakespeare and Wagner

18 March 2008

If this is the "average Korean blockbuster" show me more! It is an imperfect movie but compared to most of the crap from Hollywood USA these days, it is a superior effort. The steely-eyed, hero that never quits and still has a heart has been abandoned by Hollywood as hopelessly out of date. Yet, these men still exist and the public still craves to see them fictionalized on the movie screen. Add a bad guy that you eventually come to feel some real sympathy for and you've got the conflict that powered hundreds of Westerns in decades past. Mix it up with some high-tech Clancy-istic plot settings and you have...an enjoyable movie. The acting is above average and there is enough depth to the story to keep one involved to the end.

It helps if you can appreciate the Korean sensibilities. All I can say is try to open your mind. If it seems "Corny" ask yourself if you are not just a little to hip (jaded) to enjoy it.

I hope this is a harbinger of a rapidly developing Korean cinema. In a few more years they may be the equal of anyone.

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A Sound of Thunder (2005)

7/10

Pleasantly bad

12 February 2008

I think most of us have watched worse on the television on a rainy afternoon. The real pain would be for people that paid $20 for a pair of tickets. I got in on cable so I can be merciful.

I give it a higher rating than most because I think over time a lot of people will see it and like it better than the harshest reviews would indicate, there are far worse sci-fi movies in constant rotation on cable! The other reason is Edward Burns. This is the kind of role that John Wayne would have played dozens of times (not in sci-fi, but "B" movies) before he became the major figure in films. It is the kind of part you have to do, and pull off while keeping your feet and a strong jaw! Hopefully it makes you better and better because of the experience.

So, if you are an Edward Burns fan, I think you will enjoy it...especially if you see it for free!

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Warriors of Terra (2006)

1/10

Not just bad, aggravatingly bad!

12 February 2008

I like a good "B" horror pic now and then and I respect the film makers when they can do something witty, or innovative, or just scary in new way, especially on a budget. For instance the first "Jeepers Creepers".

"Worriers", er, "Warriors of Terra" accomplishes NONE of these things.

Editing is nonsensical, characters are murky/schizo when not totally unsympathetic. The sets and photography are attractive but the TIRED effect of cutting lights on and off constantly as though shorted out detracts from what could have been an above average "look" for a movie of this budget.

Midway through the thing I just wanted them ALL to die, and pretty darned quick!

The monster is all-powerful, then the female protagonist can kick its ass, then its all-powerful again...ALL WITH NO EXPLANATION! If you start to feel irritable or even angry while watching this movie, it is not your medication, it is the MOVIE!

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