Reviews

Coming from the creator of Family Guy and Ted... this show was an unfunny disappointment. A blatant ripoff of Star Trek (and not the witty satire I thought it would be and wished it could be), the characters are dull, the story is not compelling and the conflict is shallow.

The production design is fantastic for a TV show on network television, but ultimately a waste.

There were actually scenes which featured awkward small talk, long pauses and characters slowly walking out of the room. I suspect Fox execs didn't even watch this show before they gave the green light.

In the age of Hulu, Amazon and Netflix you would think network television would try harder to produce quality programs.

With 'Thieves Like Us' Jarrod Crooks has taken the action genre normally full of big name actors and massive explosions and bought it down to his level.

Crooks is a master at martial arts film making and this latest film is one that will surely put him on the map as a bankable filmmaker.

And while the acting is not always up to the par and the story might sound too familiar, (two professional thief buddies, one wants to quit for a woman...) the film has heart and balls in the same hand.

This film may not be available in the main stream market, but it certainly deserves it's mark as a underground classic.

Hallettsville is a rare gem that starts off well and fizzles out into a forgettable, underachieved conclusion. It's in an indie with the only name actor being Gary Busey, whose recent filmography probably won't get the attention of most viewers looking for an above average horror movies. Alas, I gave it a shot… online at Netflix, and I was pleasantly surprised. I expected a b horror movie with a predictable plot, lame acting, and lousy cinematography. But the Hallettsville has a lot of talent tucked into it's indie bundle.

First time director Andrew Pozza directed and co-wrote this supernatural thriller which has a very standard plot: A group of college aged friends go to one of the kids' parents' cabin where they later reveal that 'something bad happened.' It's true what they say: it's all been done before, but it's not the story you tell, it's how you tell it, and Pozza and company do it well… for a while.

The cinematography and sound design were the two things that I enjoyed the most about this film. The acting was solid as well accomplished. The dialogue was good for the most part and Busey's small role was well played and memorable. Most of the cast was solid as well and I couldn't help but notice one of them strangely resembled a young Johnny Depp. I wouldn't be surprised if his face shows up in a mainstream film one of these days.

Hallettsville is full of memorable scares and jumps, but the film becomes increasingly B-movie when the killing starts and we don't really see much of anything. The ending was just lame, and what the hell is up with the book? It brought nothing to the story, it only reminded me how similar to The Evil Dead this film was and it mislead me into believing that things would be better explained when they ultimately weren't.

However, this film deserves a lot of credit for the atmosphere it credited, but the third act really hurt the quality and turned my expectations belly up.

In light of a renewed second season: I have mixed feelings. How much suffering can the Connor family take? Poor Miss Connor has been fighting walking computers since the early '80's preparing for a distant future- but now that Cameron isn't writing the movies anymore, the future has gotten a lot more complicated. As if being a complex time travel story isn't bad enough. I'm a HUGE fan of the Cameron created Terminator films, the ones made with blood sweat and tears. Anything after that has been wiped away with crisp Benjamins. As we learned with the Back to the Future trilogy, the more time traveling you involve, the more complicated things get.

Season One Review: A year after the events of T2, Sarah Connor and her lead of the resistance in training John Connor have started a new life, but soon they find *another* terminator has found them and of course *another* protector has followed suit. Thus begins the complicated events of the life of John and Sarah Connor. Throughout this 9 episode season series, the Connors must run duck and hide once again with surprises and familiar characters (but not familiar faces) along the way.

Remember Kyle Reese, John's father? He makes an appearance in the later half of the season during flashbacks of the future, but don't expect to recognize him, the actor playing him bears no resemblance to the likes or personality of Michael Bien. In fact, plan on being confused. Very confused. Some of the show's plots are so twisted and knotted that even the biggest fans of the films (knock on wood)will be lost. Don't plan on watching with your girlfriend either- if you think you're lost; imagine how she's going to be if she's only seen "bits and pieces of one of the films." Who's Kyle Reese again? Exactly.

I like the actor who plays John Connor. I think he portrays the character well, not brilliant, but satisfactorily enough that I can just go with. Title character Sarah Connor (Lena Headey) needs to put on about 30 pounds of muscle and lighten her hair (her hair color was WAY off in the flashbacks of her in the hospital). She looks more like a well paid actor than a woman with the weight of the world compressing her spine. Wear less makeup, let your hair fizz, she's way to put together. The Terminator movies were gritty. The Sarah Connor Chronicles are shiny you could fry a egg with it's reflection.

However I have to give kudos to Brian Austin Green who steals the show, particularly near the end of the season finally when he takes John for ice cream in the park. That scene was self-explanatory. Unfortunately the rest of the series has a prerequisite. The biggest payoff about being a fan, however is having seen the extended version of Terminator 2, which shows John and Sarah popping open the top of Arnold's head, a key task in the season finally. That alone gave me hope that season two would be worth it. Let's hope so.

Are you a bitter out of work filmmaker or something? Granted, this movie was not quite as good as people on IMDb.com suggest, but you make it sound like its completely pointless - it's not.

Pete Shawba is a first time director and this story has been stated as being autobiographical. The film was in fact shot in Marinette, Wisconsin for less than a million dollars, and as a filmmaker, I thought many things were impressive, not extraordinary, not bad.

One of the things you have to consider when you make a low budget movie is that you will have many unknown or first time actors appearing in the movie either underperforming, overperforming, or surprise you and hit it right on. The Godfather of Green Bay did that.

The biases you're referring to are people from Marinette who recognized many of the locations (I'm from Marinette as well but I try to remain on neutral ground.) There were some things that I did not like: the overuse of the Macarena, the emphasis of stereotypes and the overall low budget feel when the bartender announces that Rocktoberfest has begun- it seems as if this event only takes place in a small bar, where a field full of campers, stages, and drunk Wisconsinites would be more appropriate. Instead we get the later, which if you're like me (An indie filmmaker), the lack of depth is forgivable.

As for Lauren Holly and other name actors appearing in the film, they all performed well and kudos for appearing in a film that obvious isn't mainstream and paying for a second home in Hollywood.

Last word: This movie, for the first time in movie history, shows Northeastern Wisconsin in bloom of fall, capturing the beauty of the tree along the highways near Marinette. I was please to recognize many locations (Mickey Lu's and Trade Winds in Marinette, the playground on the Menominee, MI Marina with the library in the background. I loved seeing Wisconsin on film and I was pleased to see that someone other than myself has made a movie in Marinette.

5 out of 10.

The Evidence One Hour Crime Drama Premiered 9pm Wednesday, March 22, 2006 on ABC *

"Not since NCIS has their been a more idiotic rip off of CSI" "CSI: San Francisco is the weakest of the CSI's this is a CSI isn't it?"

That's what I have to say in a nutshell about The Evidence.

The only thing that intrigues me about this new crime drama is that it's not on CBS like all the other who-done-it crime dramas on television these days (except for NBC's Law and Order).

Orlando Jones (Make 7 up yours) and Rob Estes (Gilmore Girls) star as crime fighting buddies in The Evidence, a crime drama that brags of only one original idea: present the evidence at the beginning of the show. Sounds potentially interesting right? Sure, but try as they may, The Evidence is all they have.

The first downer I noticed about this show was that the cinematography was out of whack in an NCIS kind of way- jump cuts from one side of a person's face to the other, very distracting and very un amusing for the eye. The other bad thing I noticed, and this is a big bad thing, they copied CSI (and all its many clones) right now to the fuzzy flash backs and helicopter establishing shots. OK?

To make things worse, the dialog is awful, the acting stale and uncomfortable; Jones is still breathing his 7 up days and it's hard to ignore. Estes does little better, his incompetent, sober character (I lost my wife to a killer I can't find) is clinched and played by an actor who should be kicking Jones's ass by now. Where is the feeling? No one grits their teeth or cares about this dead girl's killer. The realism is not there!

Original, die hard CSI watchers know what a good crime show looks and feels like, and will probably be unamused by this ABC wannabe and go back to their CBS chalk lineup. My prediction is that this show will be about as successful as the remake of Dragnet starring Ed O'Neil and Ethan Embry. However, NCIS is still on the air, and The Evidence is just as idiotic so you never know what America will sucker into.

Check out more reviews at my blog: blog.myspace.com/51407065

I can't stand this show! For starters, it's a spin off/rip off of CSI, (not officially, but both are broadcast on CBS) which is an excellent show, but now they have what three spin offs now? I watched this show for five minutes and couldn't stand the cinematography. The camera moves every 5 seconds for now good reason, nauseating the viewer, something I was taught NOT to do in film school. Then there's the dialogue, which is hard to follow since I'm so distraught by the camera angles. Agent Gibbs, the "leader" as Grissom is in CSI (not the similarity in name) Gibb's attitude toward his colleagues insulting and the men working for him act very insecure, not something you see in the Navy. The show is comical and hasty in the same way a bad sequel to a good movie makes you feel. If you like CIS, have you seen CSI? Not CSI Miami, not CSI New York. CSI, the one that takes place in La Vegas: it's the first and the best.