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Reviews
Join or Die with Craig Ferguson (2016)
Episodes are too short to be GREAT
I absolutely adore Craig Ferguson, and I had high hopes for his new show, but it just isn't well-done, because the format requires an hour, and the 22 actual minutes of the half-hour TV format is barely long enough to introduce the panel and make a few jokes. Then they just rush through everything else, and it's a pale imitation of a British Panel show.
There's no mathematical formula for exactly how good it would be if it were twice as long, but I imagine wholeheartedly that it would have been at least an 8 rating.
The Leftovers (2014)
Absolute Cocamamy nonsense
I gave this show a 3, for employing Christopher Eccleston, (it's only saving grace) and then knock it down to a 2 for forcing him to do the most entirely ludicrous "mysterious" bottle episode, while faking a horrific American accent.
For those who are telling people to wait, and to not be so uneducated and close-minded about the magically mystery tour, and want ANSWERS all the time - that is not the problem. The problem is a horribly conceived script with zero characters to care about, and an entire jumble of enigmatic blabble with no reason to believe that there IS any actual sense behind it.
If there truly is a reason for the way every person on this show is behaving after a very minor tragedy, then it better be something absolutely mind-blowing - because so far the Smoking Nuns who steal churches and bother the living crap out of everyone, and the regular people, are acting equally absurd. "Save your breath. Don't speak. Save it for smoking?" And these giant conventions for people who just can't DEAL? It's been three years. People die all the time. I want to smack every person on the show and tell them to grow up and get over it! And so far, after 7-8 episodes.. I think I'd rather they all jumped off their roofs.
It's not too "clever", or slow-building for ordinary folks; It's a bunch of completely random trumped-up jibber-jabber, filled with horrible people and nobody to dream for.
Divergent (2014)
How on earth is this rated so highly?
Granted, I watched this on an International Flight, and was not in a good mood, but this was seriously one of the worst movies that I've seen in a long time. From the first seconds, it is obviously trying to be some kind of new Hunger Games franchise. It is incredibly stupid, boring, and utterly predictable at every SINGLE turn. I have no idea why anyone would rate this above a 5, even if they had never seen a movie before in their entire lives.
I've seen THOUSANDS of movies, and remember not one single redeemable moment of this piece of garbage. I am completely confused by any single positive review. I have not checked rotten tomatoes yet, but I'd be shocked if it isn't 95% rotten.
Neighbors (2014)
Much funnier and sweeter and relevant than I expected.
If you get a chance, watch "Bad Neighbors". It was 10 times funnier than expected. Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne play "US" exactly - 30 somethings who are still trying to be cool (with a baby), when a Frat House moves in next door. Zac Efron and Dave Franco are really funny as frat boys. There is some slapstick humor, but also some hilariously smart and funny lines, if you just pay attention.
Ike Barinholtz (one of the couple's friends) looked exactly like bizarro Mark Wahlberg, which I kept thinking the whole time, until they all did impressions, and the first one he did was Mark Wahlberg. There are a bunch of very short little drive-by cameos. Very old-school and funny and pleasant. Even the music is sort of our era. Total 8 of 10 for me.
I'm I'm really not getting all the internet hate. It was an absolutely true-to-life (albeit exaggerated reproduction of this stage of life. And hate me if you want, but what exactly is the difference between being downstairs with a baby monitor and being next door? You probably make all your kids where bike helmets too.
The Sunset Limited (2011)
Makes everyone irritated.... Sign of a great story
I can see how both camps, Atheist and God-people are irritated during the first 10-15 minutes of this movie. Atheist: "YAY, we're finally portrayed on-screen at-ALL, but heck, it's a completely depressed suicidal guy representing our viewpoint", and the god-people are ticked because all they get is a broke jail-house felon. What you have to understand is that this a movie about two PARTICULAR people. One is an atheist, one is a Christian, but neither of these people necessarily represent either party. They're just people. A specific person speaking to another specific person.
There are a million things that I could pinpoint about this movie that make it a 9 instead of a 10. War and Peace? Best book ever? He could have said "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress" or "Game of Thrones" or "Cryptonomicon" or "Count of Monte Cristo" or a million other amazing books, but War and Peace is genuinely NOT THAT WELL WRITTEN. Fear of knowledge is a really serious contemporary problem and I don't particularly like the way being informed is portrayed here. Most of all, not having read the entire Bible? Weird. Most of us read the whole thing just for the funny, if not also the Apocrypha and any other Klingon writings. That bit is pretty hard to swallow.
After watching this three times, I feel like the biggest message that god-people can take home, is seeing how Tommy Lee Jones pretty much keeps his mouth shut for an hour, just doling out little interesting things, until he finally gets so entirely fed up that he just absolutely destroys the world-view of Sam Jackson. This is WHY we don't unload on people. I might not believe in your god or gods or whatever whackadoodle thing, but I'm a good person and I don't go around utterly destroying people for the fun of it. Watch his reluctance and shaky resistance to doing it. He's literally about to kill himself, knowing that he will not exist in any way and there ARE no judgments or aftermath... and he STILL won't humiliate another person, because there is no law above to tell him what to do - he just knows how to be a good person.
It's a great play, as long as you understand that it's two very specific people talking, not two representatives of two very diverse groups.