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Reviews
Replicas (2018)
Very much like "The Sixth Day", loved it!
Don't listen to the moron critics who are panning this movie. Sci-fi fans will enjoy it. If you liked "The Sixth Day" and the 90's "Outer Limits" TV show then you'll love this movie. I gave it ten stars to try to boost the rating, but it deserves a 7 or 8. The story is about a scientist working on transferring human consciousness into a robot body. His family is tragically killed in a car accident and he brings them back through cloning and sci-fi. He can't do it alone so he has to drag his friend into it. He only has three pods so he can't bring one of them back. Will it work, will he get caught, will there be complications, maybe his company is evil, etc. The basic plot isn't unique, but this story is a new twist on that plot. Critics are panning the acting. Keanu Reeves was great, not epic, but it's just a movie. The rest of the acting was very believable too. This movie uses CGI as it should, to create things like robots, labs, and crashes that could possibly exist, but would be too expensive. The critics didn't like Robo Cop when it came out and that's a classic. Anyway, critics love a lot of crap movies and sometimes they're too picky about good ones.
Frontiers of Flight (1992)
A multi-episode series free on YouTube
This is probably the best video series on the history of aviation ever made. It is available for free on YouTube. It includes interviews with people involved with making Charles Lindbergh's plane as well as many other important events. People no doubt long dead by now. Anyway, it's great, go watch it! It said I needed 10 lines. Okay, not padding, just trying to meet the requirement here. The series starts off mostly with the Write Brothers. It does not delve into WWI too much. It explains about the NC float plane around the world flight, very interesting. It explains about the Douglass DC 3, rockets, and everything up to modern aviation. Anyway, if you like history and aviation then this is a great series. It's free, and there's only one small commercial at the start. Go to YouTube and search Frontiers of Flight and it should come right up.
Children of the Living Dead (2001)
Campy, so bad it was good
This movie was so goofy it was quite entertaining. Most of the acting was terrible, with some of the actors obviously trying not to laugh. Tom Savini was terrific for the first part of the movie, but...well I won't spoil it for you. I would definitely like to see him get larger roles.
The movie starts out with a bunch of zombies roaming a field with the local yahoos shooting at them. The action leads to a barn where the hero of the movie discovers more zombies and shoots all of them except the head zombie. The movie then shifts to 14 years later when we learn that the head zombie is Abbot Hays, who was executed as a murderer, but the body disappeared. A crooked car dealer buys out the cemetery and starts digging up the graves to put in a new dealership. Hey, none of the locals complained about that? The movie cannot seem to decide whether Abbot Haze is the hero or the villain. Is he protecting the cemetery or just causing mayhem? It makes the sheriff into a heal and then a hero in the end. It makes the crooked car dealer's heal side kick into a hero at the end too.
Yeah, people are saying how bad this movie is, but that was what made it fun to watch, but if you want to be scared out of your wits this won't do it for you.
Beyond 2000 (1985)
First MRI, Cray2 supercomputer
I am lucky enough to have one of the shows that I recorded on a tape back in 1988. This show was prophetic. Notably it featured the first MRI machine which was only large enough for someone to put their leg into. They said that there were plans to build larger versions of the machine in the 1990's that a whole person could fit into. It also featured the enormous liquid-cooled Cray II supercomputer with a whopping 2 gigabytes of RAM memory. Another neat thing was a commercial for CompuServe on the tape. It was a pre-World Wide Web dial-up service that featured the largest bulletin board. And here is the kicker; they ONLY charged ten cents a minute to connect.
I wish that this show could be downloaded off the Web. I find it interesting to look at technological predictions that came true or didn't.
Dawn of the Dead (1978)
The best zombie movie ever
If you like zombie movies at all then you will love this. I was 16 when I saw it in the theater in 1979 and I had to close my eyes at some scenes. I have seen a number of other Zombie movies, including the 2004 version of Dawn of the Dead. Many of them have been scary, but this movie is a lot more than just scary. This is the classic zombie movie that all others since have tried to emulate.
The subtle thing that makes this movie so fantastic is the editing. The music blends in nicely, but the action does not stop, as many different camera angles are blended into the soundtrack. You can learn a lot about shooting good video if you buy the DVD version and listen to the editor's commentary.
Animal Farm (1954)
Worth watching
I think the 1999 version was better myself, but this version is well worth watching. Of course the theme of the movie is the same as the book by George Orwell, a political message against communism. Because of this it has a rather brutal theme and I would not recommend this for small children.
My copy was made by Digiview and sold for $1.00 at WalMart. Well worth the buck.
In the movie a drunken tyrant farmer loses control of his farm when the animals revolt and take over. A benevolent pig, Major, leads the revolt and eventually pigs become the ruling class. The revolution is a success at first. Oppressed animals on other farms have their own revolutions too. As time passes corrupt, evil, pigs take over and the other animals end up more oppressed than ever.
Tommy (1975)
Very memorable because it is very unusual
I highly recommend this movie. It is a totally off-the-wall rock opera like "Rocky Horror Picture Show", or "Jesus Christ Superstar". In the movie the title character "Tommy" is a child who is traumatized into developing a psychosomatic loss of sight and hearing. Even though he is "deaf, dumb, and blind" he becomes the greatest pinball player in the world. Most of the movie takes place while Tommy is in his twenties. His parents and an assortment of other crazy characters try to cure Tommy of his illness. There are some neat little details, like hookers wearing gas masks, that make this movie worth watching more than once.
Gumby 1 (1995)
This is one of my daughter's favorite movies
The movie has numerous detailed, but unsophisticated sets that Gumby and his friends enter by going into books. My daughter has loved this movie since she was two, and still watches it now even at seven. I would highly recommend it to anyone with small children.