Change Your Image
kwilson-40888
Reviews
Barbie (2023)
I would have totally bought a mojo dojo casa house.
First, not funny. Some parts were cute and a few parts were creative, but unless mockery of groups of people is funny, it wasn't funny. Not sure what they were trying to say in this one. I give it a 5 for costumes and scenery. My favorite actor in it was Ryan Gosling and my favorite scene was the dance scene with Ryan and Simu Liu. Many parts of the movie were super cringe.
The idea that a doll is a role model has always escaped me. It's a toy. Another human can be a role model, but, no, not a toy.
I would have bought a mojo dojo casa house for Ken and GI Joe. My Ken had adventures with GI Joe in a jeep when he wasn't marrying Barbie. And this was 60 years ago, so some girls just play with dolls, not think they should be the same shape as the doll.
Awesome to see Rhea Perlman
The only pressures I got, as a woman, was criticism from other women for choosing to be a stay-at-home Mom. Cause I guess when "they" said you could do anything you want, they didn't mean "that".
Friday Night Lights (2004)
TX and small town football
Really well done. Good story. True story. It's a slice of TX high school football, but really it's TX and just small town football. Little towns rally around their team, which becomes the pride of the town with tons of involvement by families and the school and business owners in the little town. The kids in these small towns that find they have a talent for a sport often place high hopes on using that talent to get out. The schools are less than mediocre and there's not much for a kid to aspire to, so that golden ring of an athletic scholarship could be a dream come true. It's well portrayed in this movie the intense pressure the kids place on themselves, and is placed on them by coaches, their parents, and the entire town. It's sad, but understandable. This film is a slice of Americana.
American Underdog (2021)
What an inspiration
Such a good story. Even more so that it's true. I've watched this 3 times. It's so uplifting. Kurt Warner just never takes no for an answer. He had to work through many hardships to get to today, but he never gave up. There were plenty of times I'm not sure I could have stuck it out.
I think the story was well written and the casting was well done also. An amazing part is the casting of Brenda's blind son by an actor that is actually blind, and although the actor is Chinese he looks quite a bit like Brenda's son Zach.
Although Kurt Warner is Christian, and that piece of his life is portrayed in the movie, I wouldn't call it a "Christian" movie, as it's not a huge focus of the film.
9-1-1: Buck, Bothered and Bewildered (2024)
Disappointed
I've rewatched this series multiple times. I was excited for a new season 7. Can't believe how convoluted this series has become. There just so few TV series I enjoy anymore. I just end up rewatching series from many years ago, so I guess it's lucky streaming services carry older shows in their entirety. I've really enjoyed most of the characters in 911, and I feel bad that I'm just not interested in watching it anymore. I've always enjoyed police, emergency, and detectives shows, so I was so happy when 911 first appeared. Unfortunately, Lone Star lost me in the first episode. I thought that one was going to be cool, but no. Oh well, I'm sure 911 will remain popular.
Bye Bye Barry (2023)
Well done
I thought this was well put together. I enjoyed the footage of Barry Sanders playing and the interviews of people who knew him, played with him, and people that lived in Detroit.
Barry Sanders is a man and a talented professional athlete. He is not a God. He owed the team 100% when he was playing. He owed the coaches and management 100% as an employee of a company. That's all he owed anyone.
People seemed bothered that he was not an attention seeking self-absorbed media hound. They seem betrayed by him, that he stabbed them in the back, by not making a huge publicity extravaganza spectacle when he retired. It's none of their business. Stop worshipping athletes and celebrities. They're just people and they don't owe you anything except effort on the field.
Holiday High School Reunion (2012)
Why make these?
It's called "Christmas Crush" on Prime and Hulu.
First, I love Christmas movies and there's a handful I rewatch each year. This is not going to be one of them. Seriously? It's just not believable. There are several stars in this movie that I have seen in other movies and really liked their parts. They're sweet and the parts are cute and Harry Hamlin is always fun to see in a funny part.
It's just such an odd version of this story and guess it's just cringy to watch a movie that's supposed to be a romance when you know that a character would never be attracted to that person. I mean, I can suspend disbelief to a point, but come on.
Sideways (2004)
Sometimes cringe, sometimes disgusting
I really don't get the glowing reviews. They were the reason I watched this really confusing mess. Giamatti is arrogant and unattractive. Thomas Haden Church is an immature horn dog who should not be getting married. Take 2 middle aged men, one is soft and dumpy and snooty, the other acts like a horny teenager, then send them on a little vaca to drink wine and ponder life's unfair ups and downs. Oh please. It's really tough to tolerate people who are condescending when they have zero reason to be, when they aren't funny or attractive or even wealthy, they're just sad, over the hill losers who are convinced they're brilliant elitists.
Captain Phillips (2013)
Hard to believe it actually happened
It's really hard to wrap your head around watching this and realizing it's based on actual events in 2009. You just shake your head that ships would be sent out in dangerous waters with no weapons to protect themselves. That's just insane and negligent.
It's hard to believe a ragtag groups of pirates with little wooden boats would think it's a good idea to hijack a container ship. Amazingly stupid. I'm surprised the Somali actors would want to participate in showing this. It's pretty embarrassing. Almost cringe-y.
It's very intense and edge of your seat, even though, historically, you know what happens. It's very well done.
Nomadland (2020)
Resilience in the face of adversity
Fern's world has crumbled around her. Her husband is dead, she has no children, the company that employed everyone is gone and the town is gone. So what do you do? Fern decides to pack up her van and hit the road. Along the way she finds people, friends, work, connections, and how to survive in her van.
I find this to be a powerful movie. Fern is so strong. She's not going to let her life destroy her. I do see people on various platforms lament people living the vanlife and how sad it is that they're homeless and someone should come to their rescue. Most of these folks don't want to be "saved". They're living their best life now, free of ties, often free of debt, and ... just free.
National Champions (2021)
How very 2015 of them
So cute they used a "Missouri" school for player drama. Look up the players strike in 2015 at University of Missouri Columbia. The largely black football team thought there was racial issues on the largely white campus that weren't addressed. Leaders and coaches quit, enrollment declined, the team record suffered, and some of the drama players that were really good did not get drafted. What a mess.
Anyway, college football should not be the precursor to pro football. It makes a mockery of getting an education as many of the players are not there for that. Sure colleges make money off having a football team and colleges are perceived as good or bad based on the performance of their sports teams, so good teams attract good players, and the entire thing feeds off itself. Football should have a farm team system like baseball. If a football player wants to be paid, remove the free education, and room and board, and tutoring to pass the classes, and just play.
The teachers at a university don't make money for the university. Sure, they get paid a fair wage for the position that they hold, but they don't get a "cut of the profits". Then why are they there?
Dragged Across Concrete (2018)
Refreshingly un-PC
Don't understand the bad reviews at all. Vaughn and Gibson were a good pairing. Mel is the old school cop at the end of his career and Vince is still battling away trying to keep his job. They gave each other crap through the entire movie, which I thoroughly enjoyed. They both had personal habits that grated on the other, which happens in real life with co-workers. It was pretty violent at times, and sad at other times. The evil guy is super evil and disgusting, but we want to hate him, so it works. The little dips into their personal lives helped give us the foundation for their frustrations with their careers, their neighborhood, and their city. It's the kind of movie I would watch again because there's so much going on, I'm sure I missed stuff.
The Bear (2022)
STOP SCREAMING!!
I do not get the good reviews. I do not enjoy watching a show where employees and the owner cuss and scream at each other, in a restaurant, in front of customers. If this was a real restaurant the new owner would have laid out the rules and procedures and fired anybody who didn't follow them. Instead, everyone has screaming arguments with the owner about everything. Not sure what's interesting about watching a dozen emotionally damaged, dysfunctional people attempting to work together. It's all very negative and dark and sad.
I have to get drawn in from the first episode of a TV series. I'm not watching an entire season to let things work themselves out or wait for it to develop or whatever. I find it really sad this kind of base, disrespectful, chaotic mess is what people want to see.
Just Getting Started (2017)
It's cute and should be inspiring
Is it a deep and profound work of cinematic amazement? Nope. Is it cute and silly? Yes. Was it a chance for a group of older actors with many successful decades behind them to do something fun and amusing? Probably. Maybe lots of people didn't like it because they're uncomfortable seeing older folks being flirty and sexy and running around shooting at the bad guys. That's really sad. Shouldn't it be inspiring that they still like to dance and sing and laugh and enjoy their life? I would imagine the cast had so much fun making this movie just because it wasn't serious and deep and complicated. We should all be lucky enough to live this long and healthy enough to enjoy this time.
Alaska Daily (2022)
Another canceled gem
I enjoyed this show, but if any program is to be judged on viewer numbers they might want to go back to one episode a week instead of dragging a season out over nearly a year. In the olden days TV series had 18-20+ episodes, shown one a week. You knew when it was on and scheduled your time to watch it. Now series have 6-10 episodes and you have to keep checking and checking week after week to see it an episode ran. People lose interest. Eventually, it takes so long you don't even care what happened to the characters or the story. I'm not even that much of a Hillary Swank fan, but I liked other characters, the interactions between them, and have always enjoyed "newspaper" shows. It would be cool if someone else picked this up.
Waco (2018)
Not surprised ... just disgusted.
This was very well done. It's interesting, even if you think you know what happened back then. It's certainly a disheartening example of gross government overreach by the FBI. I felt bad for the negotiator. He's trained to do what he was doing, but the FBI was gearing up for a battle.
I'm sure many will semi-justify the intervention by the Feds due to the lifestyle the Branch Davidians were living. If the compound was portrayed truthfully, there was no closed wall around it, no one was locked in the basement. Seems like, if people wanted to leave, they could.
The walls of their home were bashed in with tanks and tear gas filled the rooms. Tear gas is incendiary, but no plans were made in the event the tear gas caused a fire, which is shown at the end of the last episode, to have happened frequently in the past when people's homes were raided.
They were murdered, and nothing happened. Not surprised ... just disgusted.
American Commune (2013)
Human nature
The 2 young women that produced this documentary did a fantastic job of putting together their own opinions, talents, memories, grief, and history with interviews and archive footage to show us and explain to us this attempt at utopia in the 70s.
It might be awesome if people could actually live like the leader desired, but it's asking a lot to require vows of poverty, and rules about divisions of labor, contribution, housing and diet that defy human nature.
Since this video is from 2013, I'd love to see a follow-up to explore how these young peoples opinions may or may not have changed through the years about their experience.
The Magic Pill (2017)
Even more relevant than 6 years ago
Not sure why I've never seen this film. Most of it was not new information to me, since I've been following this way of eating for many years, but the statements by the experts and personal stories from people who have improved their own health was really amazing. I was able to eliminate IBS symptoms, greatly improve arthritis pain, lost 15 lbs, eliminated breast cysts, and reduced thyroid medication. That sounds like I reduced inflammation in my body.
One part of the movie I thought was so eerie was the mainstream medical community attacking and going after the people who spoke and wrote about this low carb high fat diet. They were hoping to silence this alternative view, as it didn't fit the narrative. Very deja vu, accusing them of not following the science.
Redwood Highway (2013)
Family dynamics and feisty Grandma
I've watched this many times. Grandma wants to stay independent and active, and her son wants her to be careful and cautious, and that's just not her. She wants to do whatever she wants, but, interestingly, she wants to influence her granddaughter into not doing what she wants. And anybody who's ever known a 22 year old, that ain't gonna work. Grandma decides she's going to walk to the wedding. It's a long walk. It's 80 miles. The bulk of the movie is her journey, the people she meets, the people that help her, and her physical limitations that we all face eventually. Shirley Knight does a good job.
New Amsterdam (2018)
So disappointed
I love medical shows and I loved this show when it started. The first 2-3 seasons were awesome, then something shifted. This seemed to happen to other shows I used to watch during that time period also. It's like they never recovered from covid. Post 2020 the show just disintegrated. It was, at that point, like there was a virtue signaling checklist they used for every episode. There's enough of that in our real world. I wanted to be entertained and lose the outside world for that hour each week, not have it up in my face in every TV series I watch. The writers had thousands of topics to pick from in a hospital setting that could have been thought provoking, creative, and engrossing.
Rip Tide (2017)
A story of finding your way
I've watched this 3-4 times. It's a story about a young woman, Cora, with an amazingly overbearing controlling mother, and how she figures out what she wants, instead of what Mom wants. To get away, she takes off to her aunt's house in Australia, where the locals are fun and real. The scenery is beautiful. The locals are quirky and kind. Cora is a little spoiled and a little immature, but has a chance to grow up, spending time with down-to-earth honest people with real struggles and problems. They let her be herself, good or bad. She's allowed to take the lead, be creative, and succeed or fail, on her own merits.
Home by Christmas (2006)
A cautionary tale
This can be hard to watch, a woman allowing herself to be screwed over by her ex in a divorce. I guess she needed a better attorney, or maybe she just had to learn things the hard way. It's inspiring to watch her take care of herself as best she can with what she had, her devotion to her ungrateful daughter, and her eventual success in turning things around. The movie is also a good portrayal of "money doesn't equal happiness" because she had a lot of money from her husband's job during her marriage, but her husband was a slimeball, her daughter is a spoiled brat and her friends were hypocrites. But she just kept going.
The Perfect Wave (2014)
A young man's journey to adulthood
I the past, young people would often leave home at 18, or even younger, to figure out who they are and separate from their parents, to grow up. Ian is immature and all about Ian. He's a surfer and decides to take off on a surfing trip to various locations. The acting isn't perfect. There's just a few known actors and they used some pro surfers that aren't actors. The soundtrack is awesome and fits the movie/setting/theme. Ian was raised Christian. In the time of his greatest need, that's what he turns to. It's far from a perfect movie, but it's a good story. Everyone has their own journey, but you have to put down the PS5 controller, get up off your parents couch, and go find yourself.