Reviews

An eye-opening film about what Americans are up against, competing against China and Chinese companies. Maybe you don't work in manufacturing, but you are now competing against Chinese workers if you work in high tech: software, hardware, etc. The film makes the chairman out to be essentially Chinese royalty. He is king and his company is his kingdom - the floor workers are his peasants. Propaganda permeates all aspects of work. I also enjoyed the scene where the new Chinese president was teaching the Chinese workers about Americans, that they are overconfident and you can use that overconfidence to your advantage. Right afterwards saying that "we are better than them" - love the irony. This film should be required viewing for American High School students - if you don't get a proper education, this may be your future.

This movie had real potential - lots of star power, great production values, good supporting cast, but Costner blew it again.

First, the good: Duvall is great as usual. He really has the cowboy persona down to a science. Gambon is also very believable as the "Irish" bad guy. The setting and the old western town look great. I also like the long run time. I can't think of any other films that take time to show the aftermath of a big gunfight - cleaning up the bodies, burying the dead, bringing the wounded to the doctor. I liked the realism of that part of the movie. I thought Costner played the shy, unassuming, socially inept cowhand pretty well. The shootout was exceptional and lengthy - some of the stunts were great, and the sound effects were also great.

The bad: I like long run times because it can give a western a slow burn. However, this movie wasted lots of time on boring dialog and characters sitting around talking about nothing in particular. There were many boring sections of the movie. Also, the script made it obvious that our heroes were making it up as they went along - they were irresolute and inconsistent. I guess I was hoping for a little bit darker characterization of Costner's character - he kept talking about all the bad things he had done, but he's just kind of a goofy, shy character except during the shootout. And Bening - where do I start? She looked good, but didn't even try for a western accent. Every time she opened her mouth, it blew my suspension of disbelief - terrible. Also, the script had a lot of goofy lines. It was like Duvall was ad-libbing, because he was one of the few characters who really sounded like a old-west cowboy.

Overall, worth a watch but definitely not a classic.

If you liked the movie, or King of The Hill, you will probably like this show. The characters are awkward and goofy. They make some funny references to the movie, like when Napoleon tries his dance act to distract an angry crowd. When the crowd ignores him, he says "I don't even know how that worked the first time" The show is not rude, raunchy, offensive, like the Family guy, etc - you can watch this show with your kids. I was glad to see Fox try another animated series without all that junk. Also has faster-paced laughs and some social commentary like other modern animated series. The pilot episode was absolutely hilarious, and also Ligertown. Most of the voice acting is spot-on, and I enjoyed hearing Jemaine Clements as Professor Koontz. Hopefully it will get renewed - I look forward to seeing more.

You can tell that Abrams and Spielberg worked together on this movie, because it's a cross between Goonies, E.T., and Cloverfield, with some Close Encounters thrown in. This is JJ Abram's worst movie, but it's still watchable. As a gen-Xer, this movie took me back (feels like mid-70's), and the "production values" are very good. The tween love between Joe and Alice is realistic and likable - probably the best thing about this movie. Unlike other Abram's productions, this movie doesn't leave you hanging with lots of unanswered questions at the end. One warning: there is ubiquitous swearing and profanity - I wouldn't take my kids.

Having read the Roald Dahl book with my kids, I was looking forward to seeing this film.

The movie has a lot of good points: the animation and creative details in the sets are fantastic. Clooney and Murray are both very funny - I thought Meryl Streep was pretty flat. A lot of the visual gags and the witty, modern script is funny for adult viewers.

I have 2 beefs with this movie: 1) It strays very far from the tone and conception of the book. Probably any attempt to turn a short children's book into 90 minutes of screen time requires lots of padding, extra characters, story, and scenes. The characters are all turned into hip modern (sub)urbanites. If you haven't read the book, this won't bother you.

2) This film is marketed as a kids movie, or at least "family-friendly". Unless you're comfortable with a lot of transparently-veiled swearing, you may conclude (as I have) that this movie is not for family viewing. As stated in the parent's guide, "Instead of using profanity, characters say sentences that would contain a swear word, but the word is replaced by the word "cuss". What is not stated is that not 5 minutes goes by in this movie without a swear replacing "cuss" for f*** (apparently Anderson has an infatuation for the f-word). Also, the characters use the same tone and inflection as if they were really swearing - "What the cuss!?" "cluster-cuss", etc. The ratings board was really asleep at the wheel giving this film a PG rating with all the transparent swearing going on. Ruined an otherwise good movie for me.

A very interesting expose on the greed, hubris, lies, etc. that brought Enron down. This film is well-done and digs up a lot of dirt. The PBS viewing showed a little clip after the film which discussed the strange trial results, which was probably the biggest problem with the film - it pretty much ends with the bankruptcy of enron and doesn't show much about the trials, since they took place later, although they would make for a great inclusion. To me, the most incredible part of the film is that fact that these guys would stand up every day and tell bold-faced lies to the employees, the government, the investors, and make it all sound good. They had to be thinking in the back of their head "it's all going to come crashing down someday"...