Reviews

What's with all the hate? Sure there was some predictability, but a few plot twists changed it up. It wasn't what I expected. It was better. I felt I had to give it a review to try and up the rating because of the low score. I would say it's an 8 but I'm giving it a 10. It's hard to find even half decent movies to watch these days and in my opinion, this was well worth the watch. Another reviewer said it was a "B" movie. Have you watched a "B" movie? This was definitely not one. The cinematography was fantastic. The acting was excellent. Other reviewers were saying that it was boring, predictable and unbelievable with poor acting. I found it exactly the opposite. The story was well written, and plot was very believable. Research how a person can die in the desert and how to survive in the desert. As for it being boring? It kept me on the edge of my seat once the action started. The suspense was there and "Ben" being a top guide, of course he's expected to know how to survive in the desert and I enjoyed his cleverness and the secret survival stashes. The desert was his backyard after all, along with the old guy who left the maps and stashes because he literally lived in an old mine in the desert. And all of the hate over the ending? Really? It was unexpected and satisfying. What more could you ask for? These days even favourite series have ridiculous endings that frustrate and aggravate. I thought it was great. And Michael Douglas always plays an excellent villain.

This was good enough, interesting enough and great action. Over the top killing of innocent people, but I've seen worse. Giving it a 7 to try and balance out the not deserved low scores. There was some wooden acting yes, but why all the hate? We quite enjoyed this film for what it is. Bank heist gone wrong, action. Really thought the kid did a great job in his part too. The only real complaint I have is the interpol chick. Like why was she even in this movie. Her parts had us laughing out loud. Hahaha! Not even kidding. Bad actress and had no real reason for her part. Just kept giving her a couple of lines here and there's she randomly shows up and flips her badge lol! Says a line or two or just stands there looking pretty for yet another ridiculous close up of her face hahaha! They could've completely written her out of the script and not much would change. They also could've used the money they paid her in areas of the movie that needed it. Anyway, all in all it was a decently entertaining movie.

It feels like a school project. Extremely low budget. Poor special effects. Plenty of holes in this. Many are much too obvious to just ignore. House Plants won't live for 5 years without being watered lol! Lawns don't mow themselves. Shrubs and trees don't trim and shape themselves. Gardens would be completely overgrown. Pools don't stay clean without electricity and a filter and chemicals. Also, after 5 years, a pool in the desert would be empty due to evaporation. Houses would fall into disrepair and gather heavy amounts of dust after 5 years being empty. Especially in the desert.

I saw no wild animals. After 5 years with no people or very little people, animals and nature would move back into the cities and towns. Pavement and sidewalks and patios would be overgrown.

The stalkers can track them with a sound magnifier, but they don't have a heat sensor to track them from the helicopter or vans. The sound magnifier doesn't pick up their talking to each other, or cooking or bathing or scavenging, or riding a bike, or hearing them shoot other people, but it picks up a tiny music box from a mile away.

They literally ride a bike and walk around in plain sight, when they are supposed to be being careful not to get caught or heard by the stalkers who are patrolling every street and searching every house.

Most people don't have Everclear just stocked up in their homes. It's 190 proof" means 95% Alcohol by volume, the remainder 5% comprised of water. And there were 2, brand new 60 pounders? Lol! I could see being stocked up on Vodka, but Everclear? Oops I could be wrong! I was just informed that Everclear was the liquor of choice during our real pandemic. Who knew?

After Ellie shoots (She's suddenly an excellent marksman, and had never even shot a gun before, or been shown how.), and kills the 2 stalkers to save Quin, the next 3 stalkers enter the field and see 2 dead co-workers lying there and they slowly and casually walk over to them? Shouldn't they be running with tranq guns drawn? And once at the spot, wouldn't they follow the drag marks into the bush and quickly try and find the killer(s)? Especially when they know how slow they'd be moving. One is deadweight due to the tranquilizer she was shot with, and is literally being dragged by the other girl. But they don't even glance in that direction.

Three stalkers take a pile of shots at them with the tranq guns but miss almost every shot. Yet they are apparently government employees. Most likely military who are trained marksmen.

Once the Stalkers abduct Ellie, Quin outruns the van while running through sand, rock and brambles all uphill and ends up in front of it back on the highway. Bizarre! At least Quin attempted to make it look like she was running fast. Still much too slow to outrun a vehicle travelling on the highway. When Ellie ran, it was like watching a person run in slow motion. Painful and kind of funny.

When Quin gets away and ends up in front of the van, all of a sudden she's a super trained marksman too. She kills all three and does a backhanded second shot at one of them for good measure, while not looking. Was humorous, and kind of cool haha!

There are plenty more holes that I could pick apart until there's nothing left. After saying that, I actually enjoyed this film. Ya I'm one of those. I can enjoy some of the worst movies. I find most of them humorous, and sometimes there's other great things that balance out the negatives.

Thankfully, the two young lead girls were actually not too bad in the acting department. They're new to acting and I thought they did a good job. The more films they're in, the better they will be. Giving this a 5, mostly to balance out the 1's, and because there were quite a few good qualities with the bad.

What is with all the hate? I loved this film! Yes, it's a little predictable but the writing and lines were beautifully written. Almost poetic. And sure there's a few holes, but it's so much deeper. It's not the regular fluff and stuff. I really enjoyed this film. The honestness of it in these times. Hatred for women is real. Every woman knows this in her soul. So much could be written here about this alone. There's no real safety from the hatred and fear of female power that so many males are threatened by. Threatened enough to be full of hate and willing to kill. Not every male is this way, of course, but it's becoming more prevalent every day. People are saying it portrays the Father as crazy or losing touch with reality. That may be true, but it's a large growing phenomenon today. And they aren't being labelled crazy. Fathers teaching their sons the hate. Hatred is taught. Learned. (And not just hatred of women.) Especially the subtle and soft power of women, that so many men are terrified of. Even when a female thinks she is loved, many men harbour this hatred, and show it in many different ways. The non-violent, sly, narcissistic, controlling, manipulating expression of it is sometimes worse than violence. Slow, painful, destruction. Stealing a child is definitely a power play beyond comprehension. The cruelest torture and payback, for just being female and a mother. And not obeying the rules of a man, no longer being a slave to the patriarchal rules of old. Yes, the world is full of men and boys like that. This film shows how it can be when a boy is naive and hasn't been brainwashed that way yet. There had been no females around, so the Father hadn't embedded the hatred of women into his developing brain. And he was no longer a boy and didn't understand the hatred. He had been told all women are liars, cheaters and whores. But it hadn't yet been repeatedly programmed into his brain. And so he questioned his Father's hatred. Girls learn quickly at a young age, what this hatred looks and feels like. If you can look past the predictability, and look deeper. The final lesson, yes lesson, is hope. Hope that there are still good people in the world. That there are still men (and women), who aren't full of violence, narcissism, hatred and fear. That there is still love. That beyond the evil, destruction, pain and chaos of the world that we live in, there is still humanity left. To not take anything or anyone for granted, such as those we love, our warm safe beds, the food we eat. A hot shower, our safety, Mother Nature, the earth. How money and riches are not the true meaning of life. Money is the root of all evil. And fear of the unknown and things we don't understand. And finding truth in that, not anyone or anything is what it seems. Not all that seems bad is evil, not all that seems good is trustworthy. But to live without love and humanity, is truly no life at all. Balance in life with the earth and with nature and other human beings, is the real meaning of life. Also, sometimes we need to get lost to find ourselves.

The host ruined this show for me. She's probably a super nice person in real life. And the constant screaming she does may not even be her fault. If she's been directed to do so, they need a new director. All she does is act super hyper, doing ridiculous antics, jumping around, dancing, and screaming at the top of her lungs! And then...get this...they hand her a megaphone hahaha! Unbelievable! I'm embarrassed for her. It's so hard to watch. Is she supposed to be some crazy cheerleader for the hard working construction workers? I just don't get it! It's irritating, annoying, causes anxiety and seriously cringeworthy! One episode she's literally rolling around on top of the newly installed granite countertop, screeching and screeching at the top of her lungs, while the male designer is literally BEGGING her to stop and get off it. Because it wasn't fully installed. You can see him roll his eyes while biting his tongue. I feel sorry for every other worker on the show that has to listen to her constant screeching and watch her "over the top", ridiculous antics, every single day of filming. I couldn't imagine working beside someone like that every day. I'd find another job! I feel bad for her if they made her act this way. It's hard to watch, listen to and I just couldn't do it. After the 2nd episode, I had to fast forward to the end of each next episode to see the results and by-pass the constant screeching and fake storyline. I do love the designs and the transformations. So I'm giving it a 5. Obviously the real workers on the show deserve much more for their beautiful designs, hard work, and especially for putting up with the host constantly screaming at them. But the 2 main women are actresses, and it's blatantly obvious what their roles are. Host is an actress with no training in design or leadership or construction. She's only there for the annoying, cringy, constant screeching, fake excitement. The blonde woman is a model/actress who is there for "special projects". Yet she has no training in her past in design or construction either. So what is she doing there? Eye candy? Most likely. I'm really disappointed in this show. I was really excited when I first found it because I love renovation shows. This one is definitely unique but in a real bad way. I hope whoever is directing this mess, reads the reviews and figures out how to fix things. Because I can't see it lasting another season. Which is disappointing because the designs are good. If you do watch it, save yourself a migraine from the constant screaming, and just watch the end of the episodes. You'll thank me.

I was on the edge of my seat! Creature is a new twist, great job. Loved the part where she figured out to use the appendage to gain access. I would seriously love to see a movie or series of this. On top of it all, casting Dakota Fanning is a huge plus. Love her. This one also left me wanting more! I want to know how it ends. What happens to her. Storyline is tight 10+. (Although couldn't figure out why she started limping part way through.) Acting 10+, realistic effects 10+ Suspense level 10+ details and continuity 10+

This movie was amazing. Sandra really outdid herself. I was trying to do some weekend work while I watched. It was impossible. I was sucked into the lives of these people. This movie shows both sides of the horrific situation. It also shows what horrors and heartbreak and destruction that a person's suicide leaves behind. The entire movie is the results of one man's choice to kill himself. Not caring what happens to his children or any other person he leaves behind by his selfish act. He knows he will no longer feel anything and that's all that matters to him. No matter what his own children are left to deal with. The results of his selfish choice leaves 20 plus years of heartbreak and destruction. The person who commits suicide is dead, feels nothing. But would he have gone through with it if he knew the years of pain, destruction and hell it unleashed on the people he left behind? Especially his little girls. They still have to live their broken and destroyed lives. It also shows the deepest loyalty and love of sisters. Taking complete responsibility for murder, because the murderer is her sister who's only 5 years old. A mother would do the same for their own baby girl. Just heartbreaking. And due to the age gap and the situation, the Love of a mother. Sandra was more of a mother to her baby sister, than a big sister. I felt this so deeply, I had tears throughout. I truly felt what they felt. This is an amazing heartfelt story, showing both sides. And the automatic judgement of people about a person incarcerated without knowing the truth. Without knowing the real story. This is also devastating. There are no second chances once you've done time. No matter the reason. Even if it was the best reason in the world. In alI honestly, I felt the pain of both sides of this situation. Well done. The twists and turns I didn't see coming. I kept hoping for a better outcome in each situation that unfolded. This tore at my heart from both sides. All sides. This was truly one of the best films I've seen this year. Bring your Kleenex. The bad reviews are crap. This movie is so underrated that those bad reviews have to be fake, paid for, for whatever reason. I'm so glad I decided to watch this, despite the b@&$sh&@ reviews. I had no idea that Sandra Bullock could pull off a story this deep. I've always loved her. But THIS...she's on a whole other level. I hope she chooses to do more roles like this. She was absolutely excellent!

The over acting, non-acting, lack of real science, cheesy CGI, teethfull grimaces every minute, the Lead NOAA dude outrunning American soldiers, the hated obnoxious teen (who looks to be 25-30), the helpless whiny wife who makes good stale sandwiches while the world is ending because everyone needs to eat before they die, right? Not quite up there with Sharknado but I loved it anyway lol! Go Asylum!

If you hated this movie, you're just out of the loop. Just go on, continue with your day. Nothing to see here.

This review hits the mark. It really explains what I couldn't, about what's missing in Maid. I'm giving it a 9 out of 10 due to this glaring hole in the show. And rating it this high because bringing attention to these issues is so very important. I recommended this show to several close friends, especially for its content on domestic abuse, cyclical abuse, mental health, substance abuse, and generational trauma. Which I also thought wasn't touched on deeply enough. I Found this online review and had to share.

Warning Spoilers!

Netflix's breakout hit is a tough tale of economic desperation and domestic abuse, but there's one place it's hopelessly idealized.. Inspired by Stephanie Land's memoir, Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive, the 10-episode series is striking a chord so often left unstruck, a deeply moving exploration of domestic and emotional abuse, generational trauma, and the infuriating catch-22s of government systems built for failure. Its raw, unflinching depictions could have pushed viewers away, but the response tells a different story. Countless women see themselves in Alex (Margaret Qualley), her struggles to first define and then prove the emotional abuse from her boyfriend, and the so-big-you-could-drive-a-truck-through-them holes in any safety net. As the pandemic continues to expose the spit-and-glue foundation of many societal systems, particularly for mothers, Maid is a tough but ultimately inspirational tale of a woman's ability to not only navigate those systems but ultimately triumph over them.

The brutal clarity with which Maid depicts the realities of poverty and abuse, however, falters when it comes to Alex's parenting skills. Alex is, as she should be, a complicated individual, one who's allowed a degree of ambiguity in nearly all of her relationships. It's enraging and heartbreaking, purposefully so, to watch her return to her abusive boyfriend after working so hard to escape him. It's devastating to watch her ping-pong between being caretaker to and dependent on her own mother, Paula (Qualley's real-life mother, Andie MacDowell), who struggles with undiagnosed bipolar disorder and the lingering effects of the abuse Alex's own father inflected on them both. But as a mother, Alex is almost blindingly perfect, with unlimited patience that borders on magical. She never loses her temper, reacts with frustration, or really does anything one would expect a parent of a toddler to do-especially one facing such incredible uphill battles.

Instead, Alex is presented as a mother who can flawlessly shepherd toddlers and infants alike, a rugged Maria von Trapp with skills unparalleled not only by any other mother in the show, but any mother in real life. Alex is able to seamlessly transfer a sleeping infant from car seat to crib; Alex can pull her toddler away from cartoons on her tablet without even a whimper of protest. (Watching the series with a sleeping 3-month-old on my lap and a 3-year-old glued to her own tablet, I almost laughed out loud.) Alex is tired and frustrated and overwhelmed at her circumstances, but she is never tired and frustrated and overwhelmed with her child. The only hint of a raised voice comes in the first episode when, fleeing her abusive boyfriend a second time, dealing with a boss who will not stop calling, and fielding irrational demands from a child who's pestering her about a lost doll, Alex's voice pinches in anger and vague annoyance flashes on her face. But that brief moment of peevishness ultimately only serves to underline Alex's perfection. The episode ends with an act of wholesome, motherly compassion: Alex stopping at a dollar store to replace the lost doll.

In the world of Maid, questionable mothering is reserved for other characters: Paula, swinging wildly between love for her daughter and her own spirit and needs; rich and nasty Regina (Anika Noni Rose) who, after separating from her husband, isn't sure she wants the newborn she thought she'd desired; even the one-scene character in Alex's writing group who sheepishly admits that, asked to write about one of her happiest moments, describes a girls' night out and not a day with her children. That throwaway line speaks volumes, not only about America's expectation that women who become mothers should derive their joy primarily from caregiving, but also the show's.

The message echoes even through Netflix's marketing for Maid. "A mom will endure even the most difficult, humbling experiences to provide better for her child," reads one ad, and the trailer builds to Alex's declaration, "I live for my daughter." Alex continuously voices and acts on the idea that she wants a better life for Maddy (Rylea Nevaeh Whittet) , but rarely mentions wanting a better life for herself. Even when she fantasizes about a near future in which she'll attend college and learn to be a writer, it's to create a "whole new world" for her daughter. In the place she's back-breakingly created, it's not even clear how much Alex is present.

Much has been written in the last year about how the pandemic has irrevocably changed motherhood, and much has been written about how it disproportionately affects low-income people, but the overlap in that Venn diagram hasn't really been investigated. Maid misses a vital opportunity to explore the raging anger of mothers who have had systems that were already stacked against them break down, and the bleak truth over which mothers are allowed to make mistakes. On a recent Grey's Anatomy episode, two mothers confess to each other the way COVID has exposed the drudgery and darkness that is day-in/day-out parenting. But financially stable surgeons can falter in their mothering, while mistakes are often devastating for single mothers, low-income mothers, and mothers of color-both on and off screen. Maid scratches the surface of these inequities, but it misses a crucial chance to explore the cruel systemic ways low-income mothers face an increased risk of having their children removed from their custody, by agents whose job is ostensibly to protect the family.

It's exciting to see a show like Maid succeed, especially since its success comes on the heels of last year's record-setting The Queen's Gambit, both of them shows centering on complex and complicated women that likely would not have gotten a green light even a few years ago. Unfortunately, Maid's portrayal of Alex's perfection as a mom doesn't show this progress. At a time when women's discontent has gone from "the problem that has no name" to a primal scream, Maid fails to show a place in between, one where mothers are given a voice without having to be perfect.

BY ELIZABETH SKOSKI OCT 30, 2021 8:00 AM (Slate)

I went in expecting a cheesy B movie with low budget actors etc. A low budget Indie movie...I honestly went in open minded and willing to endure some crap. I was completely wrong! Excellent acting, and honestly, this is how I think things would go...in reality, if this ever happens. The scenery and locations were great! Although, a house made of glass is the last place I'd be facing a battle. There were some parts I forwarded through. And the scenes with the girl being locked up and raped...were too long for me to endure. I fast forwarded and walked out on several parts. Because of the subject matter. It seemed very realistic to me, unlike the excessively funded Hollywood movies of the same genre. I'm actually quite blown away by how engrossed I was in this film. I don't want to give anything away, so I'll stop now. If you're looking for an Epic Hollywood CGI apocalyptic film, this isn't for you. It could've went deeper sure. But they only have so much time. This could've been a great series. I loved it and absolutely hated the reality of it at the same time. I highly recommend for anyone looking for the real deal. No sugar coating, no fake fights, no excessive drama, no CGI. Loved it! I'm giving it a 10 to make up for some Hollywood loving low raters.