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Reviews
Dashte khamoush (2020)
DON'T BOTHER WITH THIS
Oneof the worst movies I ever wasted my time watching. Don't bother with this turkey from France! There is absoluely no plot or rhyme or reason to the idiotic story. It is less than a 1 out of 10.
Cry Macho (2021)
REALISTIC STORY OF A MODERN DAY HORSEMAN
This movie is easily Clint Eastwood's best work in many years. The main character Mike, played by Eastwood helps his former boss get his son back. But all is not easy. What I really liked was the romance and personal redemption of the lead character. Never give up!
No Country for Old Men (2007)
WHAT A PIECE OF JUNK!
In contrast to what most are saying or have said about this movie I found it to be stupid, unrealistic to the Nth degree and it didn't add up. Since I've said my review contains spoilers about the movie/plot let me begin with the portrayal of Texas police officers as stupid rubes. Nothing could be further from the truth. I've lived in Texas and the police go after criminals 100%. They do not let the wife of a murdered Texan be killed without protection for her, which is toward the end of the movie. Secondly, over and over Javier Bardim's character lets people go who have seen his face, as in the case of the store keeper who he asks to choose heads or tails, with his life riding on the results. Having his life threatened by the Mexican hit man would have certainly caused the man to call the police and give a good description of him, which then would have gone out over an all points bulletin alerting cops statewide. And then there is the ending, which is no ending at all. It just stops. This is an absolute cop out on the part of the Cohen brothers. I saw this at a movie theater a long time ago in Hawaii and after the show ended about half the audience was grumbling that the end was a total rip off. Lastly, Josh Brolin's character was supposedly a Nam vet and yet he was portrayed as no match for a sick, wounded, Mexican hit man that he had vowed to go after when Bardim's character threatened his wife. I am a Nam combat veteran and believe me there would have been no contest between a U. S. combat vet and that sick pig portrayed by Bardim. StocktonRob.
The Luminaries (2020)
PATHETIC WASTE OF TIME
This incredibly disjointed and boring New Zealand miniseries is an absolute waste of time. It isn't worth the film it was made on. It presents ridiculous plot lines and completely idiotic premises of a woman being able to relive other people's lives without presenting any plausible reason for her doing so. Sickening and stupid story.
Journeyman (2007)
RIDICULOUS TIME TRAVEL PREMISE
As awriter of movels myself, one thing I know is that you have to give your audience a "reason to believe" when writing fantasy stories. There is no plausible reason for Kevin McKidd to continually go back and forth in time and therefore the audience didn't accept it as being possible even in a fantasy world.
Godfather of Harlem (2019)
TROUBLE IN HARLEM
When a person considers the devastation that heroin has had on the Black people living in Harlem, it is disappointing to see a mini-series built around the heroin trade there. Although I applaud the excellent acting in the series I have deep reservations about a series that glorifies selling heroin to a vulnerable group of people (the residents of Harlem) in order for a few gangsters to get super rich. It is these portrayals of gangsters and in particular Bumpy Johnson, the Godfather of Harlem which have so many young Black men in America confusing "success at any cost" to real success in life. I can't actually recommend this mini-series.
Death Sentence (2007)
KEVIN BACON'S MASTERPIECE OF REVENGE
One thing Americans may not know is that there are more gang members in the U.S. than all the Walmart employees in our entire country. This movie is exceptional in all ways. I can't recommend it more and it has fantastic performances by Bacon, John Goodman and Kelly Preston! 10 out of 10 for sure! StocktonRob
Poldark (2015)
POLDARK LOSES HIS HONOR BY CHEATING ON HIS LOYAL WIFE
Poldark held my attention into the second season's 6 season when the lead Ross Poldark cheats on his wife. That did it for me. If I need brainless, soul-less stories all I need to do is watch Hollywood movies. StocktonRob
The Wall (2020)
Ridiculous Movie with No Value!
There is no need to try and avoid giving away the plot because there isn't any. It is a brainless waste of time so don't watch this absolute trash. You have a Korean woman giving advice to children in Northern Island about how stupid the fences separating the Catholics from the Protestants are. The movie shifts back and forth from North Korea to Northern Ireland. I've seen some seriously dumb movies over the years but this is even worse than Clint Eastwood's The Mule, and that stinking pile is BAD! Don't bother....
A Place to Call Home (2013)
GREATEST SOAP OPERA EVER FILMED!
In all my long years of placing reviews of movies, TV shows and miniseries on IMDB I have never been more impressed by anything as I have been watching the full six seasons of the impeccably great mini-series/Australian soap opera A Place to Call Home. Every single actor and actress is perfect in their roles, to the point where a viewer might assume this is actually a "home movie." The direction is fantastic. The realism of the presentation of Inverness in Queensland, Australia in the 1950s is beyond reproach. Homosexuality is one of many intertwined themes of the mini-series and is dealt with in the inhospitable straight laced society present in Australia back in the 1950s, where any form of LGBT was viewed as an "absolute abomination" and deviance of the highest order. If you watch one mini-series in your entire lifetime or watch only one soap opera in your lifetime watch this. There are ways to obtain the entire six seasons and I advise that you talk to your friends about how to go about this as this series is no longer running. It is the most captivating thing on screen I have ever seen and I am a novelist who has written 15 novels but unfortunately none as good as this! GET IT! StocktonRob
SGT. Will Gardner (2019)
Terrible movie with bogus high reviews
I am a Vietnam vet who began my two year stint in South Vietnam as a combat medic with the 1st Infantry Division and then was promoted to an Official U.S. Army war correspondent. I know PTSD very well. This movie is very boring and self indulgent as far as the portrayal of the ex-sergeant's problems with PTSD. It is a low budget mess and I don't recommend it AT ALL. It is NOT entertaining in the least!
The Fall (2006)
Terrible movie with incoherence as the central theme
It seems as if many movies rated highly on IMDB are actually being rated by people who either performed in or had something to do with producing the movie. This terrible movie is a case in point. A person seeking a rational review of this pointless blunder of a film must go to the bottom of the second page of reviews to finally hit one that gives it a 1 out of 10 and says essentially the same thing as I am saying. Boring, a serious waste of time to watch, disjointed scenes that have no relevance to the overall movie and a ridiculous premise that a child would be able to conjure up images such as she is supposed to see in her juvenile mind. I highly recommend that people avoid any movie made by Spike Jonze. StocktonRob
Upgrade (2018)
A brilliant sci-fi movie/ One of the BEST!
From beginning to end Upgrade is the real deal. It has as many twists and turns as Total Recall. Whoever wrote this was a very accomplished science fiction writer. The lead actor is fantastic. What makes the movie so exceptional is that we humans are right on the cusp of creating life-like functional robots and our military is exploring the possibilities of android soldiers. A right script, great actors, especially the African-American female police officer and an artificial intelligence creature that rivals A.I.! I highly recommend this! StocktonRob
The Imitation Game (2014)
Brilliant Watson, Simply Brilliant!
As a fairly intelligent person myself I found this movie both fascinating and a great showcase for the acting chops of two of my all0time favorite movie stars, Benedict Cumberbatch and the fantastic actress Keira Knightley, to of the best British thespi8ans to have ever been hatched in Great Britain. This magnificent story may not be 100% accurate as one of the naysayers reviewers stated (they gave the film 7 out of 10, while I give it 9) but for entertrainment value it is 100%. The ONLY reason I didn't give it ten out of ten stars was because of the review that stated Polish scientists should have been credited with some of the early work on the decoding machine but other than that this is a dream movie!
Condor (2018)
A leftist Hollywood hit piece on conservatives in the U.S. Government
As a conservative Republican I am always alert to the propaganda of the Hollywood elitists who portray anyone loving their country, standing for the national anthem and believing in capitalism, democracy and American exceptionalism and decency is portrayed as a "far right radical" Well once again in the miniseries the Hollywood elitists have portrayed the CIA as being dominated by evil right wingers. This is such a common trait in Hollywood movies as to be mundane but considering the weaponizing of the CIA, NSA, FBI and Justice Department against Republicans under the Obama Administration it doesn't ring true and in fact no Republican leaning CIA, FBI, NSA or Justice Department members have EVER acted the way the Dumbo-Crat supporters did under Obama. Therefore, this is a failed leftist attempt to malign people who believe in America and create the false impression that conservatives are evil people and do evil things. I would beg to differ and suggest that it is exactly the opposite! StocktonRob
The Mick (2017)
Dysfunctional White chick with no humor
The Mick has one of those high ratings that make a person want to check it out after reading some of the reviews on IMDB. However, it is a miserable mess with a horrible lead character who is a woman with no prode and no civility. Comedy writers in America's Hollywood seem to think that tearing down the American family is the way to get laughs. They are 100% wrong. In the opening scenes of the pilot episode from Season 1 the lead character is seen walking through a grocery store grabbing and eating (without paying for it) Whipped cream she then puts back on the shelf and other disgusting behavior. Is this humor or just a low ability writer trying for laughs and failing bigtime. The series goes downhill from there. Do not watch this piece of liberal crud. StocktonRob
The Punisher (2017)
Anti-U.S. Military and anti-American liberal wet-dream
I have left very few reviews on IMDb over the years but I really felt I needed to with this remake of The Punisher in a TV series format! As a U.S. Army combat veteran who won a valor award at the Battle of Loc Ninh in Nam in November of 1969 with the 1st Infantry Division, I feel I have a unique insider's view of our military. I worked with the top general, Keith Ware, while serving as an official U.S. Army war correspondent for two years in-country. The U.S. Military NEVER acts as it is portrayed in this deceptive and deceitful series The Punisher on Netflix. The truth is that we are the good guys and if any service member commits a crime against a prisoner they are held responsible for it. We have the highest military standards in the world. In this series you have FBI agents trying to kill people to cover up misdeeds by the U.S. Marines in Afghanistan, etc. You have "hit squads" of U.S. military personnel killing innocent people in Afghanistan. This series is "rotten to the core" and I don't recommend it to anyone. StocktonRob
Radius (2017)
Do NOT watch this terrible waste of time
IMDb is a great site for finding out what a movie is BEFORE you watch it. For example, whether it makes any sense at all. This movie doesn't and takes the easy way out of a muddled mess of a horror film by having the main character shoot himself in the head at the very end, which of course prevents any explanation of why being near him, except for one woman, will kill people. Thus the entire movie is people dying who get close to him. That is the entire premise of the movie in a horrible, stupid nutshell. Whoever gives this movie more than 1 star needs to be admitted quickly to the nearest mental institution as it has absolutely no entertainment value whatsoever. As I dragged myself through this confusing mess I kept wondering if there would actually be any explanation of how the man suddenly become toxic but it was not explained, other than showing a flashback where he appeared to be hit by lightning but it never delved into what it did to him. The people who wrote this are idiots and people like me who watched it got ripped off!
Security (2017)
Incredible 10/10 action thriller starring the great Antonio Banderas!
For uncounted years Antonio Banderas hasn't had a true hit movie, since around the time of his epic Zoro movie, but this is the comeback film of a lifetime. I just finished watching this and as a Nam combat veteran who is also an author of several military novels I found the acting and the skill set of the director in creating realistic civilian (meaning non-military) combat scenes to be truly excellent. The movie is exciting from beginning to end and has all the elements of greatness that I found in the first two Bruce Willis films starring the character John McClain in Die-hard I and Die-hard II. Antonio is perfect as the former Special Forces captain who served in Afghanistan but now as a civilian has been reduced to looking for work as a security guard. I rarely if ever give ten stars to a movie review I do on IMDb but folks this is the real deal. Buckle up and get ready for true excitement in a GREAT movie!! This is what action movies should be like but most often aren't!!
Arrival (2016)
Over-rated SF Garbage
Folks we all know that many of the reviews submitted to IMDb are from the people who either made the movie or knew someone in the cast or crew. That's the only way I can explain that high overall review rating for this terribly boring and poorly made attempt at SF. First let's start with the so-called aliens. All the writer/director did with this thing was to use octopuses (or would that be octopi) as the model for alien creatures (wow how 50ish) and they even used the fact that the earth bound octopus species uses black ink, which it squirts in a defensive mode) to somehow communicate with humans. Overall, it was just another left wing Hollywood picture that puts humans in a "bad light" because we supposedly can't get along and therefore allow our murderous intentions toward the alien visitors to run rampant. It was poorly done and in the theater I attended, right around 1/4 of the people left before it was over. If this stupid movie is given an above 8.0 rating (out of 10) then, as Trump says, this system is rigged.
Westworld (2016)
Greatest Sci-Fi Series EVER!
So folks where do I begin? I guess with the cast, which is the best ensemble group of actors and actresses ever assembled for any series I have ever watched. This includes Evan Rachel Wood, the incredibly beautiful android, James Marsden (his best work ever), Thandie Newton as another beautiful android, Jeffrey Wright, an unbelievably great actor, and of course Anthony Hopkins and Ed Harris, two of Hollywood's greatest living legends. In heaven, I am sure that Michael Crichton is very proud of this further incarnation of his original story-line for Westworld. As a sci-fi fanatic I am constantly looking for "plot holes" and discrepancies in the settings, dialogue and special effects of movies in this genre and I can tell you I couldn't find a single one in this brilliant, original and exceptional HBO series. We are very fortunate to be alive in a time of fantastic changes and advances in science, health-care and hi-tech devices and just like the original Star Trek, which foretold of inventions like our cell phones and certain medical devices, this series opens your eyes to a future that might be right around the corner, for better or worse.
Ben-Hur (2016)
Worthy Remake of the Classic Ben-Hur
Inevitably I couldn't help but compare this Ben-Hur remake to the one with Charlton Heston as Judah Ben-Hur. However, after a few minutes I was swept away into the reality that this was a very good movie on its own and a worthy successor to the 1950s Ben-Hur. Several examples of things I particularly liked about this movie was first of all the lead actor. He was excellent and to be honest probably a better cultural and racial appearing Ben-Hur than Heston's Anglo-Saxon roots. There was one scene in particular that really got to me and made me admire the screenplay writer who thought this up in a unique way. That is a hug between two former foes that had me very close to tears, and for a Nam vet that's sayin somethin. I gave this movie a 9/10 due to the overall direction, acting and truly wonderful ending.
Colony (2016)
Typical low budget unimaginative sci-fi series
Don't you just hate it when aliens take over the entire earth and yet the producers of this well below average sci-fi series don't ever show the aliens. I got sick of the repetitious gratuitous sex scenes and the endless drones rolling through the sky (heck we got better drones than these) as the only actual connections to the "aliens" who have taken over the earth and of course LA. What I noticed was that a whole bunch of formerly fairly well known actors and actresses were hired for this shindig that lacks punch, originality and FX (of course meaning special effects). There are a lot of hints about a "farm" that no one wants to go to, etc. but generally it is an unbelievably boring mess. I gave it three stars simply for the fact that I recognized many of these "has been" actors and actresses as I had wondered what had happened to most of them. I wouldn't recommend this dud to my ex-wife and that's saying a lot! StocktonRob
Brooklyn (2015)
One the great love stories
Folks in all the years I have commented on IMDb I have never given a 10 to any other movie and I am a movie addict who has watched countless films. To begin, the writer of this script is a very accomplished person as there is never a dull, boring or repetitive moment in this incredible movie. It gives an inside perspective on a young Irish woman's American experience as she begins a new life in the United States. The decency and sensitivity of the movie are to be applauded in our current world of one night stands, the shedding of moral values and the minimization of true romantic love. At one point toward the end I was beginning to get a bit uneasy as to where the plot was headed but instead of disappointing me the screen play writer brought the story to a wonderful conclusion.
Copper (2012)
Incredible period piece about Old New York scores TD
In all the time I've been writing reviews of movies, documentaries and TV shows I have never given a 10 to anything except this. The old Five Points neighborhood of New York City, in south Manhattan Island, is the setting for this drama that highlights the lives, loves and hard times of the largely Irish occupants of the area just before the end of the Civil War and just after. One of the problems with high quality shows like this is production costs for the excellent cast, supporting actors and actresses and the sets. A major plus for me with this show was the excellent depiction of everyday life in the 1860s in a poor section of New York City, without any attempt to cover up the open sewers, rampant crime and corruption, and disease that came right along with the piles of garbage, polluted water and masses of poverty ridden city inhabitants. The big disappointment to me was that this excellent mini-series only lasted two seasons! Well worth watching and highly recommended. Robert