Reviews

Earthquake is not the best movie ever made but it's more fun to watch than many of them. Some of the special effects are excellent but others could use a lot of improvement. When this came out in 1974, I thought the Sensuround feature was great. So great I sat through the movie three times in a row. It was a very low frequency that made your entire body quake during the earthquake scenes. The multiple story lines merged one way or another. George Kennedy was great as always. Oddly, there are differently edited versions of this movie. One was quite shocking. We see Marjoe Gortner shooting his three nasty housemates on suspicion of looting jewelry. Ok, that was a bit extreme. But the deleted footage made it totally different. An old woman in a destroyed jewelry store gave them a suitcase full of jewelry to watch for her. So they didn't steal it as we at first thought. There was also deleted footage of people on a jet about to land.

It's fun to watch, but also gives you a lot of food for thought.

The Book of Henry should have been much better. It had a number of good points but a larger number of bad points. Such as...the concept and plot were excellent. But the execution lacked the umpff it should have had. It took over an hour to get half way to first base. Beginning with the opening credits, it showed the highly detailed plans of Henry's. That lead me to believe the movie would have a complicated ingenious scenario. Unfortunately it did not. Henry's elaborate plan was nothing more than how to buy a gun and aim at the bad guy. She didn't even need the notebook since he narrated everything on the cassette tape.

On the plus side, all the acting was good and Henry and Peter were very very good.

It was thought provoking, especially in regards to child abuse. How many kids did you go to school with had a similar abusive home life like the neighbor girl?

Like many Ally McBeal episodes, this was a little more bizarre than average. Ally was her usual self in her desperation to meet a good man, but Lucy was really the bizarre one. Instead of her normal Wicked Witch of the West demeanor, she was so caring for Orson Bean (and all the other old people too), it was very touching yet surreal. I thought it was a very well done ending. Orsons death was ultimately caused by his own delusions, not by anyone else.

As far as Ally's new potential boyfriend, you know there will be something to derail their new relationship. It was a good contrast to have that goofy laugh against the solemness of Lucy and Orson.

I am only writing this because I've seen this episode twice. The first time was annoying, the second time made me mad enough to write this. I hate to bash talented people but those letters she made this time around were awful. Globs of amateur looking glass with zero style. The colors had nothing to do with Christmas at all. Neither did the message. And the lips. The entire project was as far from Christmas as possible. This was not just outside the box, it wasn't even within a mile of the box. Then the one judge says the other girl should not have made candy canes!???? Oh well. I've blown glass and know how hard it is. I still watch and like the show.

All the glass artists are excellent. But the finale was disappointing. I blame that mainly because of the short time they had...just 8 hours for their final project. The winning piece looked like it was done in only a couple hours. There wasn't a lot to it. As a whole, the overall bodies of work are very impressive.

All of the contestants are amazingly talented. Their skills make the show worth watching. Otherwise, it's tough to take. The constant jokes are not funny even though they show everyone rolling with laughter. Clearly forced editing. When they show the cakes at the end, keep the numbers visible! They show each one pretty fast and it's not easy to note which one is which. Kudos to whoever bakes the cakes behind the scenes. Direct from the land of Oz, Andrew Fuller is an adventure to watch. He has talent. They did a good job with all the guest judges they hired. Although they aren't necessarily "A" listers and I, personally, never heard of most of them, they had the right personalities and did their judging well.

Ok now, that was for season one. Season two isn't near as good. It's turned more into a circus. The boat makes way too many stupid forced jokes. There are too many forced reactions from the contestants. Overall the show has too much campyness. The quality of the cakes is not as good as season one. The new format is not so hot either. It seems sort of pointless to have some of the rejected contestants sit there doing nothing for 8 hours. What also is annoying is that some of the genuine props have been distressed to make them look like cake. In other words, it's been dumbed down.

I thought this movie was ok at best, but maybe I must have missed something. It was far from being a "best picture". It could have been a lot better but there were too many slow parts where they talked way too sloooowwww. I like Jeff Bridges but he talked too slow. Long boring scenes filled the gaps between the few exciting scenes. There were two bad guys. One worse than the other. He got his due justice at the end. Yay. But the end with Jeff and Chris talking....what a dumb, boring, disappointing, let down of an ending!!!

It was too nice. Everyone was nice. There were no antagonists to give the movie some bite. It certainly was not a Lifetime movie. It was more like a Hallmark movie that was shown on Lifetime. I had no problem with any of the actors, other than everyone was so nice. I was hoping to see a few more divine magic tricks besides the flower, the phone and the door. Rather mundane. The boy Cody reminded me of a young John Connor and a young Jason Bateman. That's a good thing. It would have been a little helpful if the dad and the principal didn't look alike. The movie dragged on a little too much in the last half hour. The electronic music was less than stellar. For the principal to be become the next Mark Gordon, I was hoping he'd be a little feistier. But he's just nice, like everyone else. A nice movie that set the table for a nice TV show.

Stalked in Paradise. Next time they make a movie, try using actors. And if you have hire your friends in the cast, use ones that can speak with a convincing accent. It was torture to listen to. If not, pretend the setting is Florida where they don't need a fake accent. As far as the movie, it was slow and got slower. But I'll give Chelsie Hightower credit. She had 75% of the dialogue. Although she had the chance to stab the bad guy 50 times, why didn't she do it the first time she had the chance?

As Olivia said, "you can learn about anything on the internet...". Anything but how to make a movie. The mother was totally pointless, unless it was a way to make a long movie longer. You can't watch this alone. You need someone else to do exchange criticisms with. As with every other Lifetime movie, notice how cell phones are never locked.

Technically, the editing, cinematography, and sound was fine. The Sonic commercials, as bad as they always are, we're actually the best part.

It's proves there's hope for all of us, anyone can get an acting job.

Entertaining to watch with someone, just once.

Somewhat intriguing, not fantastic, but tolerable. As a who-dun-it, it kept you guessing, somewhat. The professor is a jerk and you wonder why his wife is as tolerant as she is. Despite two murders, the only real crime was the cops acting. Just like a piece of wood with nice hair. The scene with Nicole and Brandon in bed, why were they so conveniently visible through the window? And when he died, she didn't seem to show much sorrow. Why didn't that stupid cop ask questions about his affair privately, not in front of his wife!? The library scene was pretty dumb too. The library is closing, she goes to leave, and where did they all go? Why did Nicole confront the wife alone at the end and not get the cops there? And AGAIN, like most movies, a dumb stupid ending. A long soliloquy and a stupid fight. Why wouldn't the wife kill her right away? That makes no sense. Plus, I would guess a faceful of Lysol would knock you out for longer than one second.

Those are a few of my complaints. But watch it anyway.

I wasn't going to write a review but the awful ending forced me into it. Mildly entertaining yet somewhat predictable. No majors shocks and surprises but it kept you guessing a little. Warning, lots of spoilers...

Now the ending, that's another story. It followed the famous "stupid climax ending" template which is something like this: Protagonist gets tied up. Unlike the other victims who were instantly killed, antagonist does not kill protagonist, but instead gives very long soliloquy about her motives. Protagonist's aid, in this case her mother, comes to help. Where were the cops who were just with her? Make sure you don't look around as you rescue your daughter. And the daughter, make sure you don't tell mom, "Look out, there's an antagonist behind you!" Make sure the knife sequence is really stupid. Make sure when hit over the head with a vase, it does very little harm. And especially make sure that for the two seconds she's down, you run away instead of knocking her out and tying her up.

And please, have the cops come in and shoot her. She's a multiple murderer for crying out loud.

Party From Hell is so impressive. You'll be so impressed with the snappy dialogue and superb acting and brilliant plot. Well, maybe not. In fact, not at all. It started out slow but that turned out to be the best part. Was this a first draft? This was kind of like a car accident. And speaking of car accidents, be sure to pay attention to the idiotic fender bender scene. "Tee hee, I was texting too...hardy harr harr". Although it is always fun to see Eric Roberts, it's a shame he had only two scenes. Peanut allergy?....how many times does that have to be written into a movie script? A bit hackneyed by now I'd say. What was the point of whole Rutledge thing? It was totally unnecessary to the plot. At the unveiling, the way the people stood around gasping at the dead woman, that was kind of stiff. Haha. Molly's soliloquy at the end was stupid. The knife scene was really stupid. Parts were even out of focus. Maybe it was better that way. "Molly's gone, it's ok.." what a stupid line.

Did someone actually give this script a green light?

We just have female versions of Sydney Portier and Tony Curtis. For fun we also with a Wayne Gretzky lookalike.

The movie itself wasn't that bad, it just had more than it's share of dumb parts.

After a slow start with a bunch of pointless cackling for the first fifteen minutes, it finally went somewhere. The corn field scene was corny. Although it was night, it was very well lit (as was the rest of the kidnapping complex and the interior of the car). The girls pretended to be cold, but didn't act cold. When you're freezing you don't sit with your head up and legs apart. It's freezing cold! Where's their cold breath? I could do that special effect on my iPhone. Why was the mother so against calling the cops? Also, I think they are all deaf. No one can ever hear when someone is walking up behind them. Why so worried about her appendix? Is that the organ their after? Now, the crowbar... Every time I get hit with a crowbar, I'm usually somewhat fazed. The first guy, his arm was fine. The doctor gets hit in the head, nothing at all!

There was some creative cinematography every now and then.

Expect some typical suspense and don't expect an Oscar winner, but it was fun to watch.

Mediocre at best. Although it was fun to see Caryn Richmond from the Jardiance commercial. It was especially good because she played one of the bad guys. All of the acting was fine including Natasha. That was a good thing. But the plot plodded along with minimal reward and a sort of dopey ending.

Fun to watch, especially with someone else so you can exchange sarcastic remarks. On the plus side: Lots of entertaining situations, with minimal slow parts. Most of the acting was good. On the negative side: The music was way too loud. Can't they show the texts large enough and long enough to read? What are the odds of finding Grace's phone so easily? How is it possible for Bella to type on her phone with those claws? Why was the motive for the bad guy so stupid? Modern gas stoves have sensors to shut the gas off when not lit. Mom pulls a typical Houdini too. The restaurant was a success, somehow, so why change the name? And for many Lifetime movies, why does it have to have two titles. Recipe for Abduction and/or My Daughter's Deadly Date? Pick one!

Otherwise, it was fun to watch.

Death She Wrote. Another obsession movie. Not too many slow parts, although not necessarily many exciting either. Paula Brancati as Mary did a good job of being the crazed assistant. You can't watch this with out thinking of the movie Misery. The "gaslighting" segments were a little stupid and exaggerated. The dinner with Kabongo's parents was rather bizarre yet entertaining. It reminded me of Coming to America.

I can't figure why the large mansion is set in the woods, but every other scene is in the city.

It seemed to take a little too long for Lila to see Mary's kookiness. There were a number of odd and tense situations that kept me intrigued. But there were also plenty of dumb situations that kept me annoyed. That boyfriend guy in the first half and Andrew Jones, what was their purpose?

Dumb climax. Her hands were tied and her feet were tied to the chair legs. But when the chair fell down the stairs, her legs weren't tied.