This series was well written, well acted, and well directed. It is good story telling and held our interest all the way through. However, there is one casting decision that we found noticeable and particularly annoying. During casting, the script writers deliberately decided to change actors for one of the main characters in the final episode. Their reasoning was to keep viewers confused. They were certainly over thinking the process. They wrote a good script. Changing actors was a bad decision. Both my wife and I found this change of actors to be an unwarranted distraction. However, they did succeed in confusing us (if not for the reason they intended). Other than that, we enjoyed this series.
Reviews
9 Reviews
Dragged Across Concrete
(2018)
If you have anything else to do, do that!
28 March 2023
Painfully sophomoric writing and directing - this is a thirty minute monotone recitation of Hollywood cliches from almost every cop show and movie of the 1970s/80s stretched out for a mind numbing 159 minutes. Add in some thankfully brief, but graphic gratuitous violence, and two well known actors, and that's a wrap.
I can't imagine why Lionsgate didn't insist on an edited version. As for Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn, what a waste of great talent. Hiring popular and respected actors cannot make up for bad writing and worse directing. Shame on the Lionsgate executives that gave their okee dokee to release this dog.
I can't imagine why Lionsgate didn't insist on an edited version. As for Mel Gibson and Vince Vaughn, what a waste of great talent. Hiring popular and respected actors cannot make up for bad writing and worse directing. Shame on the Lionsgate executives that gave their okee dokee to release this dog.
The Woman in the House
(2022)
Nope
1 February 2022
This doesn't work on any level. I can't tell what the story is about because there's not one scene that makes sense. It's just a collection of unbelievable human behavior. If it's supposed to be a comedy, I missed the humor. If it's supposed to be a satire I missed the context. If it's supposed to be a thriller, phooey! If it's just a new and different vehicle for Kristen Bell, what a waste. If it's supposed to have some poignancy about drug and alcohol addiction, it really missed the mark. I gave this one star only because I actually watched the whole thing in a desperate attempt to find something that would help me understand why nothing made any sense. Shame on me.
The Stranger
(I) (2020)
Lost opportunity at the end
22 February 2021
I watched this on Netflix and they only offer a thumbs up or a thumbs down rating. My qualified rating (6 stars) would have been higher had it not been for the final episode. Until that point the show was very well done; details were worked out by the writers and potential story line conflicts were convincingly resolved. However, in the final episode it seems as if the writers didn't have time, or didn't take the time to work out a believable ending. Given the careful attention to details in the previous episodes, the utterly unbelievable ending was extremely disappointing and left me walking away frustrated and unsatisfied.
The Silencing
(2020)
Bad, bad, bad
22 February 2021
The most fun I've had for some time, sitting around with three great friends ridiculing this horrible excuse of a movie. Great laughs. But seriously people,...NO! If you have anything else you can do for 93 minutes, do that.
Deidra & Laney Rob a Train
(2017)
BAD IDEA!
1 February 2021
Warning: Spoilers
In the wake of the "Black Lives Matter" movement the makers of this film thought it would be a great idea to make a flippant film about two desperately poor teenage sisters from a broken home who decide to steal cargo from passing trains. And after getting cornered by the authorities, they decide the best plan of action is to bait and goad the arresting officer and take off running in an attempt to film the officer violating their human rights. Wow, now there's a story whose time has come! Let's make it a comedy! (Wink, wink)
Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb
(2020)
Exasperating!
31 October 2020
Warning: Spoilers
Everything about this feels sophomoric, improvised, and random. The narrative appears to be made up as they go along with no real scientific evidence to support it. No one seems to know what they are doing as they dig up sarcophagi in slopes of sand around the site and bones in shafts of a tomb proclaiming them this person or that person, all the while spinning a weak narrative of ancient conspiracy.
Meanwhile these so called archeologists open a three or four thousand year old sarcophagus for the first time and examine it outside in full sunlight! In lieu of a laboratory the bones they find inside the tomb are examined by spreading them out on the dirt floor of the work space.
I'm not an archeologist but I find this whole thing implausible as a professional archeological dig and ethically questionable as a documentary.
Meanwhile these so called archeologists open a three or four thousand year old sarcophagus for the first time and examine it outside in full sunlight! In lieu of a laboratory the bones they find inside the tomb are examined by spreading them out on the dirt floor of the work space.
I'm not an archeologist but I find this whole thing implausible as a professional archeological dig and ethically questionable as a documentary.
The Social Dilemma
(2020)
Commentary not documentary
19 September 2020
Warning: Spoilers
This film is more of an editorial on the state of social media on the internet than it is a documentary. That having been said, the first half of this commentary is very interesting and very relevant to anyone using the internet, especially social media. The discussion is an important one across all spectrums of society. However, as universally important as the topic is, about three quarters of the way through, the film digresses into a series of opinions about what should be done about this dilemma. It struck me as completely inappropriate to interject those opinions into an otherwise informative expose' on artificial intelligence and the manipulation of information. Allow your audience to draw their own conclusions.
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