Change Your Image
tdidymas
Reviews
Deadpool (2016)
R Rated Comic Book Story
This movie is definitely for the 20's crowd. It is a comic book story which appeals to the young, but the lewd scenes and language is not for teenagers (it's rated R) and definitely not for the morally faint, and the body count gore is not for the faint-hearted. I gave it a 7 because it is overall fun, funny, and entertaining; but the plot is simple revenge, with a side note of shallow romance, with a few snide remarks in psychological therapy. It's an experiment in the anti-hero where the protagonist character traits are worse than ever, looking villainous. A few scenes don't make sense, such as what the villain was trying to accomplish, how the hero escaped the rebar, and a few others, that left me wondering how to fill in the blanks. Finally, some lame explanations were made for a few puzzling scenes.
Anomalisa (2015)
It Hits the Moral Gutter
This movie is animated pornography. I think the high rating was strictly for the creativity and nothing else. The ending was depressing and had no redeeming quality. Pure trash. If you love watching adultery and marital unfaithfulness as if it is normal behavior, then you'd like this movie. If you like seeing the moral gutter, you'll think this movie is watchable. I only wish the advertisements had warned me of it, I would have stayed away. I was waiting for the story line to get better, but instead it got worse until the ending was the worst of all, and left me depressed and wishing I had never seen it. Psychological vomit.
The Avenger (1931)
The Revenge of Joaquin
The story is loosely based on the legend of the California bandit Joaquin Murrieta, depicting him as a sort of Mexican Robin Hood. Buck plays Joaquin as the brother of a gold mine owner who is murdered by hanging for being falsely accused of horse stealing. The brother is played by a young Paul Fix, who much later plays the North Fork town marshal on The Rifleman. The perpetrators end up owning the mine which they had been after. Joaquin then disguises himself as both a gambler and a bandit named "The Black Shadow". He then proceeds to plan out his revenge against the 3 accusers. The video quality is very good for a 1931 film with some slight fuzziness. There are leftover flavors of silent films, such as some melodramatic acting, and a blackboard to depict time lapse. Romance is included in the film, with a few amusing scenes. The watchability is good for a first viewing.
The Red Tent (2014)
The Story Appears Anti-Semitic
The movie was generally well-done. The acting well-matched the setting and script. Parts of the story were somewhat abrupt, but understandable since it's trying to pack most of a lifetime into 3 hours, however it could have been improved as far as time transitions. Background and clothing also appeared to well-fit the story.
The story depicts the viewpoint of a woman bitter against her father and some of her brothers. It showed some anti-Semitic prejudice in depicting character flaws in Jacob and his sons, in contrast to the women and Canaanite men and Egyptians who were depicted as righteous people. One might wonder if the writer of the story was a non-Jewish Palestinian sympathizer instead of a bitter daughter/sister.
Notwithstanding a few minor historical problems, the movie was professional and captivating, and worth seeing again.
As Above, So Below (2014)
Motion Sickness Inducer
1. WARNING: IF YOU TEND TO MOTION SICKNESS, DON'T WATCH IT!! The 'Blair Witch' style shaky video will make you sick 1/2 way thru. I had to watch it in 4 stages, I think my eyes are still flickering.
2. Some ridiculous plot holes: (a) Someone translates a message from ancient language, and it rhymes in English! (b) Opposing gravity separated by 8 inches of concrete! - I think they're still in hell at the end.
3. Mostly surprise frights - they couldn't seem to scare with script material, so they try to do it with SURPRISE!!
4. Appeared to be a remake of Descent in a different setting - the same kind of cave crawling, cave-ins, getting trapped, finding a way out and going deeper, etc.
These are the main reasons for a rating of 1. Otherwise, the acting was fair, although exaggerated somewhat to melodrama. There were also places where the camera appeared to get lost, then suddenly was in operation again. Other places where there was sound and no video - some stupid tactic at fright of blindness. The camera started out on the shoulder of the main actress, then jumped to some unknown person who was never acknowledged by the cast. There were simply too many negatives to give this movie anything but a 1! Like "Alien Origin" in many ways, I'll not see this one again, ever! TD