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DeltonP
Reviews
60 Minutes (1968)
Goodbye to Journalism and 60 Minutes!!
Shame on you, @CBSNews - you and your ilk are fakers of the highest order, and we'll find somewhere else to spend our Sunday evenings than watching your once respectable show. Several recent news stories on "60 Minutes" have fully exposed it as the tabloid trash it has become, with stories edited to fit narratives rather than actually hiring competent reporters and allowing them to do their jobs. Goodbye to journalism - credibility gone, lies and illusions completely obvious to anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention.
L'ultimo squalo (1981)
"Special effects are great" - NO, they are abysmal
If anyone watches this forgotten shark attack flick from the 80s hoping for even passable SFX, they will undoubtedly be disappointed. The shark that appears way too often in the last third is merely an oversized, semi-waterproof puppet that has two tricks - rise up above the surface and pose in front of an assortment of Hollywood overactors, then chomp something (surfboards, boats, crash test dummies). "The Last Shark" is a cold, wet mess, and its human counterparts are even less interesting. It's free for Amazon Prime members, and that's about the only thing going for it. I've seen at least 25 monster-in-the-water films and liked maybe ten of them including this summer's "Crawl" (8/10). This one is the absolute worst of its kind, and no other turkey is even close.
P.S. All right, so it's two weeks later and Prime Video has a Rifftrax presentation of "The Last Shark". I bit, and this version is a hoot with the riffers taking every opportunity to point out many of the ways that this is a so poorly made Italian ripoff of "Jaws". The underlying movie is slightly less awful, but the former MST3K guys - Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett - actually make a watchable flick out of it.
Yesterday (2019)
What if... This film started a trend of original, musical fantasies with just the right touch of comedy
Actually, I can see "Rocketman" and "Yesterday" doing just that (trending into the next year / decade and inspiring other stories from music and other worlds). I had never heard of this one until I watched the trailer while seeing the Elton John movie at the local cinema, and it looked like a hit to me from that first look. This long-time music fan of true, original artists like The Beatles and Elton thoroughly enjoyed both films - this one even a little more so. The male and female leads were wonderful in their roles, as were most everyone involved on-screen and off. I had heard or read somewhere that the filmmaker (Danny Boyle) had been given the rights to use up to 20 Beatles songs in the film, and that alone is quite a feat. I'm so happy his movie lives up to mine and many others' expectations, well beyond my own as I very much look forward to seeing it again when it hits the video markets. "Yesterday" is the seventh or eighth Boyle film I've seen, and I've always appreciated his vision in making films as diverse as "Trainspotting", "28 Days Later", "Sunshine", "Slumdog Millionaire" and "127 Hours". I believe "Yesterday" is among his very best.
The Meg (2018)
Loved original Jaws and Piranha, and I really liked The Meg too!
I love suspenseful, disturbing, scary, bloody and gory horror films. After reading the first three "Meg" novels and part of the fourth, this movie which is based on the Steve Alten's books could have been all of that and more. I won't waste time worrying about what isn't in The Meg because it's better than I expected.
The movie is very "toned-down" as many would-be critics will tell you, and I don't recall any profanity in it. That will disappoint a lot of moviegoers, but I found it refreshing. If I want to watch a GREAT shark flick, I'll pull up Jaws from my digital movie locker - or The Shallows, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Joe Dante's Piranha, The Blob (either one), Deep Blue Sea, Deep Rising, Humanoids from the Deep or one of my other 300 or so creature feature favorites when I'm in the mood for them. The Meg makes the cut and is satisfying in its own way. So what if it could have been rated PG in our world of Mortal Kombat and God of War. I still would've wanted to see it and would have liked it just as much - for the whole new world discovered in the ocean's depths and the beasties that dwell within it (much more impressive than those in the most recent Jurassic Park film, imo). And also for Jason Statham, Rainn Wilson, Cliff Curtis, Robert Taylor (Longmire!) and all of the Asian characters / actors (I liked all of them); and for the light moments and enough peril and suspense to thrill ten-year-olds who'll be seeing it (around the same age I was when I went to see Jaws).
The one thing I really wished Warner Bros. and Gravity Pictures had included in their film is the way the first megalodon in Alten's "Meg" is transported from her world to ours. (I thought it was done much, much better in the book and would've earned an even higher score from this viewer.) Even so, I'll probably watch The Meg again as soon as I finish "Hell's Aquarium" (the fourth Meg novel). With luck it will still be in theaters.
Batman & Bill (2017)
One-sided, sure - but WOW!
I can't tell you how overjoyed I am to have just watched "Batman & Bill" and learned of Bill Finger's place in comic book history. Batman has been with me for almost 50 years, through much of my upbringing and adult life. I've loved the comics, TV show, (most of the) movies... but I have to tell you how very much I enjoyed the Hulu documentary and the story that Marc Tyler Nobleman brought to light through his tireless investigative work. It's a story in itself that is worthy of inclusion in an upcoming issue of Detective Comics (if not now, maybe when #1000 comes around in a few years).
Neither of the Batman creators (Bill and Bob Kane) are around to tell their own story about what happened in 1939, but the evidence presented here sure points to both men being almost equally important in the origin. If anyone from Mr. Kane's camp, DC Comics, or the Gotham Gazette/Globe/Herald/Chronicle/Free Press wants to present another side to the story, I would be more than happy to listen. In the meantime, I'm just one fan of many who wants to thank Marc and Mr. Finger's granddaughter, Athena, for procuring credit for Bill's creations.
Dog Soldiers (2002)
Gory and only occasionally trashy - A bloody good show!
I liked "Dog Soldiers" at least twice as much as the last guy (8/10) and considerably more than the "Predator" movies which it cannot help but be compared to. "Dog Soldiers" is a testosterone-fueled film with an interesting assortment of characters and some good monsters, a nice remote setting and a whole lot of blood and guts ("sausages!?") - and all for just a fraction of the cost of the SFX-loaded, big-budget bombs which are force-fed to American horror lovers. This was a labor of love for Neil Marshall and it shows. He directed, wrote and edited the film; and more than likely came up with the terrific tagline, "Six soldiers... Full moon... No chance." With a more impacting and memorable title, this "Dog" might have been a bigger hit here in the States. ("Night of the Werewolves" was also considered and it wasn't much better.)
The Sixth Sense (1999)
An Oscar for Osment! "Sixth Sense" is a *** 1/2 Must-See Film
Not only can Cole Sear "sense" dead spirits around him, he sees and can communicate with them. Thanks to a solid script and clever direction by M. Night Shyamalan and an incredible performance by young Haley Joel Osment (as Cole), this is one summer thriller that should not be missed. Sure, Bruce Willis is given top-billing in all of the film's promotional efforts, but there is no doubt who the "star" of this creepy and affecting film is. Osment is remarkable in the role of an elementary-aged boy with "The Sixth Sense". With psychiatric help (from Willis in a role very much resembling his turn in "The Color of Night"), Cole attempts to overcome his disturbing otherworldly visions and the fact that many of his classmates (and even his teacher) consider him a freak. Fortunately for all, Willis keeps his pants on and Osment works magic, playing his character with as much skill and believability as someone many times his age. Let the Oscar buzz begin! I'm wondering, just how young was the youngest Best Actor winner!?
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Definitely NOT the feel-good movie of the summer
Thank goodness! In a world where Bruce Willis climbs aboard asteroids, dinosaurs ravage metropolis, and famous sports figures (Brett Favre) all but steal the best-looking babes (Cameron Diaz), it is a nice change of pace to see something REAL in summer films. "Saving Private Ryan" isn't a perfect movie, but is sure is powerful in conveying the horrors of war. Leave it to Steven Spielberg to blast all of the "ID4s", "Armageddons" and "Lethal Weapons" into oblivion.