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cljohnston108
Reviews
The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
Hopeless People Can't Dance
The one thing everybody seems to agree on is that the Rave scene was unnecessary. I beg to differ. We'd only heard about Zion in the first film. In this one, we see the city itself, but only a smattering of its purported 250,000 citizens at first, so we needed to see what the stakes were: Ergo, a massive gathering. After they've been given the news that they might all be dead within the next day or so, we needed to see that they haven't lost hope, yet keep them together in the same space, rather than let them disperse and find their own fun activities. Well, pretty much the only display of unity that can be performed with athleticism by an individual in-place while standing shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of others is dancing.... Club-style! (Tango & Waltz take up too much room!) And hopeless people can't dance! Next time you're feeling suicidal, give it a whirl, you'll see what I mean.
I actually found the kiss between Neo & Persephone to be more objectionable.
(Oh, and if Neo & Trinity hadn't made love the night before the Big Battle, I'd've never fully believed that there was a physical attraction between those two.)
EZ Streets (1996)
Shameful DVD Release
Yeah, I bought my copy yesterday and as I was watching the Pilot, I was remembering the next line to be said, as if no time had passed since the original CBS airing. That's how often I think about this show.
Watched the first 5 minutes of the next episode on the DVD, then angrily ejected the disc... because there's THREE episodes missing!!
Whose BRILLIANT idea was it to place a 3-episode gap on an incomplete DVD compilation for a series with a running storyline, where discontinuity is LETHAL?
That's kinda like the game CBS played when they refused to re-air the first two episodes after an angry public forced them to resurrect EZ Streets from a four-month hiatus!
All the great moments we're missing...
The "Illusion, Allusion" discussion between Jimmy and Fivers in the burned-out restaurant.
The "Pop-Up" shower scene with Jimmy and Theresa.
Theresa getting frisky at church.
Theresa joyfully waking up, then retrieving her pager from under the covers and returning Jimmy's call... Jimmy: "Why won't you give me your home phone number?" Teresa: "Because I love it when you call me this way."
The "Dog-face" discussion that ends with Jimmy heaving a glass at Mickey's head: "What kinda dog?"
I could go on...
Oh, and I really want the chance to see if there really IS a mailbox in Theresa's apartment building with the name "B. Fraser"!
Secret Admirer (1985)
Stole My Heart
Saw this movie when it first came out, and have since been wandering the Earth seeking Lori Loughlin's clone!
Not much else to say about it: The plot holes have been pretty well covered here...
Many have commented on the great score, which is to be expected: Jan Hammer also did the music for "Miami Vice"!
Human Target (1992)
Fond Memories
I have a special fondness for this series, centering around one particular episode:
Chance is hired by a judge, who happens to be his father's best friend! Chance isn't too enthusiastic about going home, since his father still thinks he has a dead-end desk job at the VA, as per Chance's cover story: During dinner, his father says he's got a friend at some company who can get him a better job...
Later, Chance shoots some pool with his father - while disguised as the judge! So, he gets to dispense some advice like "Why don't you go easy on the kid! He might surprise you!" Great scene!
His father finally discovers Chance's secret, and that final scene still brings a tear to my eye - going something like "I always thought you were wasting your life away... but a HUMAN TARGET?! I'm so proud of you."
Apollo 13 (1995)
Breaks my heart...
Just purchased the Collector's Edition DVD, and I'm somewhat ashamed of myself for a) waiting this long and b) buying it used.
This was my first time viewing the film digitally (after seeing it once in the theater and countless times on VHS) and I must say that, with the DVD format's perfect picture & sound quality, I felt like I was seeing this perfect film for the very first time!
As someone who has followed the Space Program closely all his life, I consider this to be the most accurate depiction of manned spaceflight ever committed to film, and feel it should be considered an historical document, rather than "just a movie".
It breaks my heart when I see comments from uninformed & uninspired individuals, who come out of the woodwork for the sole purpose of spitting bile on this masterpiece, inventing flaws where none exist.
I know how NASA personnel behave and communicate, and these performances were absolutely flawless. The recreation of all the hardware and locations was perfect in every detail, which had never been attempted before, nor had the concept of generating ACTUAL weightlessness inside a KC-135 flying a parabolic trajectory!
People complain that... ...the dialog was too technical, when in fact it was "dumbed down" quite a bit! If you're having trouble understanding what's being said... READ A BOOK! ...the ending was known! Ah, but the tale was not! It was a true Odyssey: "a long journey marked by many changes in fortune."
The sheer magnitude of effort pumped into this film, and the obvious love and care displayed by each and every member of the cast and crew for the subject at hand, deserves much better than the merciless apathy it's been getting here.