Reviews

Flying whales? Good and evil butterflies for Beethoven's 5th? A repeat of Mickey's Sorcerer's Apprentice? These were mostly silly and much inferior to the more profound thinking that forms the content of the original version.

The worthwhile sections were Rhapsody in Blue and the Firebird; but even these pale in comparison with the standards of the original.

Also, the much shorter run time is a telling reminder that attention spans and, proportionally, IQs, have sharply diminished to a tragic degree since the time of the original!

If audiences can't sit still and listen intently to great music without cutting out content mercilessly, then what's the point?

This was just a poorly conceived, waste of effort.

Where as the original was a well executed introduction to great music, this mess is just a bone tossed out in hopes of humoring some minority interests in hope that they'll just shut up and go away; never to bring up such an unpopular idea again!

We can all thank God that we haven't had to live through this story---YET!

The long monologue by Fred Astair about how the war started was prophetic; but in the opposite!

In 1983, Russian nuclear weapons technician Stanislav Petrov declined to initiate his missile firing sequence, determining that the threat he was ordered to respond to was a false alarm. This averted a worldwide nuclear catastrophe!

Please pray that God forestalls such a horrible fate to our world indefinitely!

On the Beach is a rare cinematic masterpiece.

Perhaps it had something to do with averting what happens in this film.

This is one nasty little horror film about the evils of medical innovations, even with the best of intentions. Marin Ireland is her usual menacing scream queen self; A tour de force for her talents!

If ever a film was a strong recommendation for letting go of deceased loved ones, this is the one! If this story is the alternative, then just don't go there!

A mother's love is boundless, apparently, and this film is a prime example! In a choice between medical reanimation and actual witchcraft, witchcraft seems more humane!

I felt bad for the charming little pig, Muriel! She really was the only bright spot in this absolute tale of woe!

This movie tries to be a second Dead Poets Society. The film has its moments, especially with the character of Mary. But Mr. Hunam is definitely no hero and is in fact just a very poor influence for young people. The "wisdom" he imparts to Angus is actually rather destructive. Marcus Aurelius' Meditations is NOT superior to the Bible or any other book, and especially not because it never mentions God.

Although Mr. Hunam states that "Adversity builds character," He contradicts this by claiming that military school would actually ruin Angus. Why would this be true if adversity really does build character?

Throughout this film the accusatory finger is staunchly pointed in the direction of wealthy parents and any authority figure who dares to enforce rules or discipline. I don't see why this is so laudable. How can people improve themselves if they're constantly encouraged to despise authority and discipline?

I say, give it a pass.

A wonderfully human and moving tribute to the beloved Lenny; how we all miss him!

Although Cooper's performance is laudable, I have to say that, at least for me, despite all the make up and study he obviously invested in this role, he doesn't quite nail it. Especially in the voice, there should be more of a deep, gravelly quality with much less stuffy sinus quality. The stuffy sinus especially is overdone, and actually detracts from the genuineness of the role.

Cary Mulligan is just superb as Alicia! The scenes during her final battles with cancer are definitely the best for both her and for Cooper.

No one will ever replace Lenny, either in the world of music or in our hearts, but in this film we have a genuinely moving tribute to a man whose love for both people and music was truly inspiring!

Nice special effects and a wild ride of a story, but it's a lot of death and destruction just to have kids!

I mean, even if she was infertile, there's therapy and adoption! Geez!

As preposterous as the whole enterprise actually is, it's a fun ride with lots of Sam Raimi craziness to spare. Lots of cameos by just about everyone in Hollywood.

Anson Mount looked really stupid as Black Bolt! And, although I never really noticed it before, Rachel McAdams should really give some serious thought to having that yucky mole surgically removed from her left cheek! Yikes!

All-in-all, I enjoyed the madness. Lots of fun if you check your rational thinking at the door.

The premise is untenable, since it becomes all-encompassing and therefore contradicts itself. All the action, suspense, and mystery that you think you're enjoying during the first half of the film becomes meaningless, and everything becomes an illusion. Premise begins to contradict itself and everything gets increasingly stupid! Then, suddenly, the hypnotic becomes irrelevant and reality becomes stable again, for no good reason.

This film is aimed at morons who think that being baffled with BS is the same as gaining insight.

Ben should take some tips from brother Casey, and just step away from stupid projects like these. Casey's films are always truly insightful, real, and relevant to life.

This film purports to be based on the captain's logue of the Demeter as it is included in Stoker's novel. But there are numerous departures that I find detrimental to the overall story.

First, as many reviewers have also noted, Dracula appears as comically similar to a larger-scale Gollum from LOTR! This is just too silly, and is completely inconsistent with Stoker's description of the count. There are a few mentions of Dracula's ability to appear as a human, but we never actually see him in this guise, even in the final scene when he's in the tavern! The goal seems to have been to portray Dracula as a loathsome fiend, which he certainly is; but wouldn't it have been more interesting to have him masquerade as a nondescript crew member to facilitate his predations on the hapless occupants of the ship?

A huge departure from Stoker's novel is the negation of any power over Dracula by Christian symbols and faith. It's such a shame that our current culture will not tolerate any idea that Christianity has power over evil, which was an essential aspect of Stoker's original story!

A big inconsistency has to be the puzzling way that Dracula apparently never actually needs to retreat to a coffin of his native soil during daylight hours. Where does he go? The film initially makes a point of this necessity early on, but it never seems to factor in to the plot later, especially when the crew is frantically searching for him in order to destroy him!

The scene in the captain's quarters when the vampire zombie is attacking little Toby is especially confusing! Apparently, Dracula has been crouching in a corner of the room during the entire ordeal! Why didn't he just either open the locked door and allow the zombie to enter, or just attack Tobey right away? Instead, he seems to wait until the rescuers are at the door and about to break in!

Lastly, what about the "black dog" mentioned prominently in the newspaper account of the Demeter's landing according to Stoker's novel? The implication is that Dracula transformed himself into a black wolf in order to escape from the wreckage once it made landfall, but there is no trace of any such ability for Dracula to transform in this film, except for his apparent ability to sprout wings and fly around like fighter jet, even in the midst of a raging storm at sea!

In any film that includes supernatural elements, it's necessary to suspend some degree of incredulity in order to enjoy the story. But there are just too many inconsistencies throughout this film to ignore!

I find it immensely disappointing.

In the year 2010, the fate of the world is at risk because the Soviet Union (which ended in 1991!) and an evil republican president are arguing about some preposterous situation in Honduras that never even came close to happening.

Wow! It's a good thing there's a scientist out around Jupiter, trying to communicate with god-like aliens to save the world from evil humans who have ruined earth! So these wise aliens bestow new inhabitable worlds for humans to exploit and ruin as they did with earth!

Yay! Thank goodness for indulgent aliens who have plenty of planets for us to ruin! Now, we can just suck earth into a desiccated husk and go on to romp roughshod over more planets!

Wow! These aliens are like God; only better!

If you're one of those morons who loved Close Encounters, I'm sure you'll just fawn and drool all over this beneficent alien garbage!

For the rest of us: What a load of crap!

Now for a pallet cleanser: Alien Covenant!!!!

What outlandish fun! Riminds me of a Sergio Leone western set in Lapland!

Aatami Korpi was a one man assassination squad during the Finnish/Russian wars. He was credited with over 300 kills, and earned the ominous title of Koshei, "immortal".

Now he is a peaceful prospector in the remotest depths of Lapland, living with only his trusty pony and poodle for company.

When Korpi strikes an enormous vein of pure gold, he fills his shoulder packs with it (it must have weighed close to 100 pounds!) and begins his journey to Helsinki to cash out.

On the way, he is set upon by various unfortunate Nazis, who are fleeing the Finnish forces and leaving a scorched earth trail behind them.

They try to relieve Korpi of both his gold, as well as his life, with little actual success.

The antics ramp up to a rather ludicrous climax of Korpi living fully up to his title as "immortal", leaving a bloody trail of mutilated and dismembered Nazis in his wake.

Happily, Korpi finally arrives at his destination (along with his poodle) and redeems his gold for currency because, "It's not so damned heavy to carry!"

An extremely entertaining romp!

Highly recommended!