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cslproulx
Reviews
Allagash (2020)
Good acting, lazy writing
Loved the acting. The fault in this movie, and I see this in a lot of movies, is that the bad guys had no narrative. None! Their actions made not a lick of sense. They send the lone female in their gang off to go through the frozen woods with the bag of all the money--what were they thinking? And where were they? Could they have heard the gunshots? What was her purpose, hiking through the woods with the cash, was she trying to keep it all for herself?
And then, in the many times when the bad guys (singly and as a group) had old Tom in their sites. There's only so many times you can run out of ammo and this number was exceeded in this flick, by both sides. So he gets away. There is no clue why he gets away. Especially when there are four of them.
Still, I found it suspenseful and
Loved the cinematography. Loved the sound of boots crunching on really cold snow. Great atmosphere, and I did really like the ending.
The Girl on the Train (2014)
Trains in the present, trains in the past
The only description visible on amazon.com when I looked up this movie said, essentially, that it was NOT based on the Paula Hawkins novel. That may not sound very helpful, but it sure sold me.
The plot here was complex, with a lot of twists, turns, surprises, and a few obvious plot devices. But overall the characters were compelling, the issues interesting (such as whether an individual would prefer the reality, or the nice story), and mostly the acting was great. I can only think that people who gave this a low number of stars must have thought they were dealing with a 5-star scale and not a 10-star scale.
A lot of Manhattan and upstate Hudson River scenes, and yes, in fact it had a lot to do with trains, both in the moment and in the past.
I am adding this bit because apparently I need 10 lines of text. It looks to me like I already have that.
Beer for My Horses (2008)
Fun little movie
Looking at the rating, it looks like this is one of the worst movies ever. But fact it's a lot of fun. It is not, as I expected, a movie where the action takes place only to tie together various music videos. I don't know why I expected that.
But I was pleasantly surprised. The main characters are fun, and easy enough to root for. The bad guys are really bad, with hardly any redeeming virtues--at least none that we see in the movie. The conflict is laid out very simply, in the form of a challenge, and the main characters go for it. Hilarity ensues.
Also, always good to have a dog.
OK, the movie pulls in a lot of typical tropes, but it executes them well.