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Reviews
The Dark Knight Rises (2012)
An Epic Stinker.
Where to start? You don't expect a high budget super hero movie to be an ode to martial arts, physics and clever writing. At the same time though, you expect better than what you would see in a more light-hearted movie written for a different demographic like Charlie's Angels.
Aviation physics and firearms effects go completely out the window very early on in this movie, but only a minority of the audience will likely notice that.
More glaring are the fight scenes. While movies like The Avengers convince us of a female character's ability to defeat someone bigger and heavier than herself through elaborate martial arts choreography, The Dark Night Rises simply endows Selina/The Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) with the same ability to defy body mechanics and physical combat basics that Cameron Diaz exhibited in Charlie's Angels. And the reckless, clumsy, kamikaze style slugfest between the male characters is no better. -It simply makes you want to groan.
Worst of all is the writing. If you enjoyed the yawning plot holes and brutal rape of the original premise, story line and characters in the 2009 Star Trek and the 1996 Mission Impossible than you can disregard this review. However if those things bother you in a movie, then consider yourself warned in advance about this stinker.
American Dreamer (1984)
Quirky, but disappointing romantic comedy
Catherine Palmer, (JoBeth Williams) a frustrated housewife who dreams of being a mystery writer enters and wins a contest to write a chapter for an upcoming installment in the Rebecca Ryan detective series.
The comedic element is developed once she arrives in Paris though the multiple vehicles of amnesia, mistaken identity, and a madcap roller coaster ride through a steadily thickening plot involving real criminals and real crime.
The first time I encountered this movie, I stumbled upon it during the airport scene near the end. Female friends told me this was the worst possible point to start, so I re-watched it from the beginning. It still left a bad taste.
Although Kevin Palmer (James Staley) is boring, overly absorbed in his career and inattentive to his wife and her dreams, his 'sins' aren't fleshed out to a point where you really feel he deserves the loss of family and (As unlikely as it seems) the removal of his children to a foreign country.
Alan McMann, (Tom Conti) while far more engaging, is a similarly hollow character. Both appear to be simply foils in what is ultimately a very predictable 1980's era girls' empowerment tale.