Reviews

The opening shots of space were so gorgeous that I thought I was in for a cinematic treat. (I was wrong)

Some reviewers here have compared this flick to The Goonies, E.T., and Jurassic Park. .. Seriously?! Those classics were fresh fare extraordinaire - this is like Thanksgiving leftovers reheated for the 4th time the Monday after!

I am no movie mogul, but if I were, I am certain that I would want to produce a film that has at least a modicum of originality - as opposed to a potpourri of kibble bits derived from popular movies of yore. This was nothing new under the sun. I found myself fast-forwarding through stretches of the requisite been-there-done-that action scenes.

Rim appears to be aimed at a very narrow demographic audience: 12 to 14 yr old boys, basically. Who else would be interested in raunchy sexual metaphors, or an awkward, baseless "romance" between two kids who have zero chemistry, not to mention the absence of a storyline leading up to said romance?

And speaking of kids, I don't think the actors or the characters were given much thought. I think the producers just wanted a balance of ethnicities, and using that as a yardstick settled on these four. .. I did like the Asian girl, who was charming and charismatic. I also like the character Gabriel, a boy who exudes a sage-like aura that serves to offset the rich kid's obnoxious behavior. One of my least favorite characters was the reticent hero, Alex. .. Which brings me to the million dollar question: What were they thinking!?

Alex is the main character of the story, and, arguably the direct opposite of an example of a high "Q-Score". I mean no disrespect to the actor, but I felt he was not a good fit for the role. Clearly he was cast for his ability to depict a storyline-appropriate pale, bookish, pre-heroic appearance. But even within that context the role should have gone to someone with serious acting chops and big screen magnetism. Watching, I felt no connection, and had no interest in the character - with the exception of the scene where he flashbacks to a traumatic event in his life. Props for that scene, which was beautifully executed and performed!

Without giving away the ending, I would like to say that I felt cheated. I sat through one chase scene after another, and then when the ending came, instead of a big, satisfying pay-off - all you got was a little slide show. Stills; what a cop-out! I wanted to see some reunited families, some emotion, maybe a cherry topping or a twist thrown in to make it all worthwhile. But.. No.

The very fact that so many reviewers panned this episode and gave it one or so stars speaks volumes about the fact that blacks still experience more than a modicum of white intolerance or outright hatred.

If this were truly a society of equality, stories like this would be unnecessary. The preponderance of blacks being unfairly arrested, prosecuted, and even killed still stands, even in the 21st century. Things are improving little by little because of education (for example, as in this episode of The Twilight Zone), but we have a ways to go yet. And anyone who tells you that episodes such as this are not viable in today's America is a white person with their head in the sand.

I am a 66 yr old caucasian who wishes that stories like "Replay" and activist groups like "Black Lives Matter" wasn't necessary in today's world.. but we are not at that point yet. Just read the reviews here if you don't believe me! The intolerance or lack of understanding is veiled behind accusations that Replay is an irresponsible addition of fuel to the fire that is our country's racial division. Wouldn't it be great if people banded together to finally remedy the injustice of our Justice system? Then we wouldn't need shows like this!

They did a great job here.. the setting and cinematography was perfect.. the acting was superb.. and even though they used an oft-employed Groundhog Day theme, at least it wasn't too repetitive - the scenarios were varied. I like that they added a non-Groundhog element to the show to keep it from being boring (the visit to the brother's house, and the tunnels).

My only negative criticism of this episode is that after giving us a happy ending, you hear the police siren right after Dorian and his daughter walked out the front door for ice-cream. Social messages are fine to a point, but I really hate it when they leave you with the dreaded Schrodinger's Cat style unhappy ending!

First, I have to wonder if most of the reviews here were written by the same person or group of people. Their points are the same, their perception is echoed in each review, and even the terminology is repeated over and over again.

For example, the use of the word "queer" and the outrage over the "suicide" are oddly repetitive throughout.

Here's my viewpoint:

Quentin didn't start out bisexual. It developed as a result of Q and Eliot being alone together for many years in an alternate reality. And that's fine. It was a beautiful love. But he started out in love with, and in a relationship with Alice. I don't find it outrageous, and don't see how it can be such an insult to the gay community that he and Alice got back together again at the end. Not that it was satisfying. His bond with Eliot was more believable. So in that sense it was a disappointment, but it wasn't out of character and it shouldn't have been considered an affront to any group.

Most of the reviews depict anger over Quentin's "suicide". Frankly, I feel the writers shouldn't even have called it a suicide or touched on that subject. Quentin wasn't like "You know, this would be a good day to die"! The entire season was based on how much power and control The Monster had, and how humanity (and even gods!) was not safe as long as this monster lived. It had to go! But then along comes Everett who wants to stop Q from eliminating this most dangerous monster. What else was Quentin to do? He died in order that the creature would not live. How is that comparable to an actual suicide? If you see someone pointing a gun at a child, and you jump in front of the gun and die, saving the life of the child... is that the same as hanging yourself because you are depressed? (Of course not!).

I thought that the memorial scene was the most beautiful memorial I have ever seen! The group singing that soulful rendition of Take On Me, around a campfire, tossing in objects that bore memories and the energy of Quentin, was just magnificent! Like Quentin, I was in tears. I also thought the slo-mo death scene was beautifully done as well. As I watched it I thought how much more powerful it was, in its silence, than if it had been loud and chaotic, in real time.

I do agree that it sucked for Julia to have had her choice taken away.. however.. if she had been a goddess that would have separated her from the group and been more difficult to maintain, storyline wise.

The one thing that really does make me angry, and for which I may not return as a viewer, is finding out that the writers do not plan to bring back Quentin. Up until that point I was so sure they would bring him "back to life". Q was my favorite, by far. They could have killed off Josh or the Librarian. I would have been okay with that. But I am NOT okay about Quentin! What were the writers thinking?! He was the heart of the show for me. I am so furious about losing him that I will likely boycott the show. Imagine if Rachel or Monica had been killed off on Friends! Or Hawkeye on MASH.. or Seinfeld on Seinfeld.. Sure, The Magicians is an ensemble cast, and we love all of our main characters.. but Quentin was the most important one, and if this show was a body, then the writers just ripped out it's heart!

I LOVE this show!!

When I watched the first episode I thought it had promise, but I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it yet. The second episode began to draw me in. By the third episode I was totally hooked, and very anxious for the next. The 4th is the best yet, as the characters, both alien and human, become more and more interesting and intriguing with every episode.

**Spoiler Alert**

It's also nice that they show some back story clips to flesh out the characters, such as Ana Gasteyer's role as the shrink who mediates the group when she's not lying on a probe table telling the patronizing ET that he's full of ...

My favorite, Wyatt Cenac, as Ozzie, plays the straight man, a reporter who came to town as a skeptic writing an exposé piece on an alien support group, that, much to his dismay, triggered him to start remembering his own alien experiences. I love his character, such an intelligent, stable, likable guy, who is just miserable over the fact that he can't discount the presence of aliens anymore... or get the talking deer to leave him alone!

Wyatt's boss is a handsome young alien that you can't help but hate to love because, hey, he's only doing his job... a job which sometimes results in being "sent out for a donut" (i.e, getting reamed by the big boss, whose slit green eyes I find mesmerizing). Then there's the boss's coworker, a snarky little alien with a big head, who is in a snit because his reptilian partner met with an untimely demise when he was dispatched to earth and materialized, unfortunately, in traffic.

This show is deliciously refreshing, legitimately funny (not canned-laughter-funny, but really funny), and has some surprising depth for an off-the-beaten-path half hour sitcom. I just wish I didn't have to wait another week for the next episode! I hope this cleverly written, superbly acted show is around for a long time; of all the new shows I'm watching this season, this one is at the top of my "don't miss" list!

p.s. I might have given it a 9 instead of a 10 (because few shows ever merit a 10), but I'd like to compensate for the person who gave it a "4" because the show doesn't accurately depict real Reptilians. (Hey buddy, it's a COMEDY, not an interstellar documentary!)

First of all, this movie was too jumbled to sink your teeth into. There was no depth. It was hard to keep track of the characters and what they did or didn't do because none of them had any screen time worth mentioning except for Ethan Hawke and, to some extent, the psychiatrist. At no time did the film draw me in.

**SPOILER ALERT**

The crappy ending was a neat little summation that you might have missed if you blinked. I was like, are you freaking kidding me?!

Even if a young woman wanted to seek revenge on her family for her lackluster upbringing (which is a weak premise in itself), what about all of the people who, independent from her, had corroborating memories? Her father was in real anguish over his memories of satanic abuse, which not only matched the girl's brother's details and traumatic emotion, but both she and her father named the same abuser, unbeknownst to the other. He was willing to go to prison for life, possibly get the death penalty, for feeling guilty because he wasn't Father Knows Best...? Seriously?! Meanwhile, the crazy grandmother is also harboring the same satanic delusions as the others in the family... and yet... nobody ever actually experienced ANY of it!

The detective has some pretty vivid nightmares, to the point of thinking they may actually have happened. He puts a gun under his pillow. And one day, a couple of his fellow officers come to beat the hell out of, or kill him – in black robes, no less! – and he's like "I understand why you're upset with me, so I won't report this". Gimme a break!

The worst thing about this movie though, which I find wholly irresponsible and unforgivable, is that the point of the film is a declaration that satanic abuse never happens – it's all in the minds of delusional people! OH. MY. GOD.! Way to dismiss the agony and suffering of the thousands of people who have been victimized by actual, non-imaginary satanic cults which DO, in fact, exist! It is a large network of organized rings around the world.... which certainly makes me wonder about the motive of the people who created this piece of deleterious propaganda...

... but this one was hard to sit through!

The special effects were very cheesy and the magic was unimaginative, except for the moon part, which was pretty cool.

The acting was abysmal overall. The actress who played the mom was superb, but the actor who played the starring role was just awful! I can see him in a smaller part, but to cast him in the starring role...? Who thought that was a good idea?! No disrespect towards the lad; he's still young, and with experience might be a fine actor someday, but his performance in this movie was as wooden as a fence post. Better casting in the lead role might have made a significant difference. The evil magician was no better, but at least he wasn't the main character and thus was tolerable.

Spoiler warning ....

There is an obvious hole in the plot at the end when Bobby puts his dog's service vest away because he no longer has the need for a crutch. That goes completely against the whole time-change arc! If the accident never happened, then Bobby would never have developed agoraphobia and the need for a service dog.

I don't have any small children, and I imagine that a young child might actually enjoy this movie, but if you are over the age of 10 you will probably be disappointed. It's truly one of the blandest films I've seen in some time!

I came home from the library with an armful of DVDs, and the first one I picked up is this one. Sandra Dee... Bill Bixby... George Hamilton – it's GOT to be good, right? Wrong!

"Doctor..." is one of the worst movies I've seen in years – and it's a rare film that I can say that about. Usually, I'm like "Mikey"... I "like everything". But I sure didn't like this! I fast-forwarded through most of the goofy music scenes, although I did enjoy the one where Dee sings about heartbreak, which was nice.

Remember how you felt in school, impatient for the bell to ring, and anxiously wanting to jump out of your seat? That's how I felt all through this shallow pre-fab of a flick. It did not capture my interest nor merit my concentration. There was no substance to the story or the characters. It bordered on slapstick. And the worst part? The ending!

The ending had to have been the most unsatisfying of any movie, ever! It was a few seconds of a few spacey, rather wooden words exchanged between 2 people who may as well have been discussing the weather, and then, surprise... the credits start rolling!

There are a lot of great old classics begging to be viewed. My advice is, pass this one by, and get something else – it's 94 minutes of your life that you will never get back!

This movie is like a carcass with no bones... a lovely building with no foundation... music notes without a staff.

The scenery is beautiful, the cast is superb, but so much is left to the audience to figure out on their own, that you are often left scratching your head. You are never given a reason to care about the mother or son... there is little depth to their characters, it's very "surface", like the ice that appears ubiquitously in the movie, and in some cases, in the characters' behavior.. Suddenly the mother seems to be saying goodbye to her son, and you're like "WTF?"

Aloft is like a book that someone has randomly torn pages out of. And the anticipated ending/reunion? I blinked and the credits rolled!

This would have been a terrific movie if it had been longer, more fleshed out, and had an ending worthy of putting all the time, money and effort into making a movie to begin with.

In my opinion, this film is exceptional for it's type, and doesn't deserve the low scores. While it is a typical teen horror flick in many ways, it isn't pat. Personally, I don't care for the teen horror genre, I cringed through the gore, and I had to do some fast-forwarding because I'm impatient. That said, I was very impressed with the detail and layers involved, as well as the acting, which was superb. It's not easy to show terror, but these kids emoted fear very convincingly.

Someone stated that they felt the alien was shown too soon, but I disagree. I hate films where you have to wait until the end, and then they show a split second of the antagonist. It was satisfying to have several good glimpses.

Most movies of this type would have ended with the survivor going on with her life after the craft took off – but this one continued with an unexpected "insider" experience. Once again, you think that when that event ends with the protagonists' joyful reunion, that the movie would end and the credits would roll. Not so! There is even yet ANOTHER unexpected twist, AND a surprise cameo of a character based on a popular sci-fi series!

This film may seem ordinary and predictable on the surface: Teens at a cabin at night, power going out, terror, etc. – but it was very well fleshed out and the ending proffered a rewarding twist for UFO and "conspiracy theory" buffs.

In summary, Extraterrestrial is not my cup of entertainment, but it deserves high marks for it's production, twists, and performance.

I am not a researcher of Beatle trivia. I am old enough to remember their debut, and I love them and their music, but I couldn't give you dates or data about their recordings, don't know their birthdays, and never played an album backwards. That said, I couldn't help but be astounded by the plethora of symbols and innuendos that overwhelmingly point to Paul's death and a cover up. It goes way beyond coincidence! One or two symbols or rumors, okay.. but this goes deep and went on and on for years!

It was only when I got to the one and a half hour point in the documentary (and yes, this was a documentary until the backlash forced the producers to re-classify it a "mockumentary") that I knew it was contrived: Heather Mills could not have been "Rita", the cause of the "accident" – she did not yet exist at the time!!

Later, I read that Rubber Soul came out in 1965, which meant that the reason here for the name Rubber Soul (in lieu of "Rubber Paul", based on Paul's supposed death) could not have been true, since the "death" was to have occurred in 1966.

Another falsehood in this film is when you hear George, in an interview, refer to Paul as "Faul", not once, but twice. I read that in the real interview he clearly said "Paul", so this was dubbed for the sake of this documentary. Too bad, because I can't help but think that there might be something to this theory, now scoffed at because of the lies in this docu-mocku-mentary. There are just too many symbols, lyrics, etc, to be nothing more than an elaborate game the boys were playing. If it was a game, it dragged on too long. In photo after photo and album after album Paul is intentionally set apart from the other Beatles. I'm sure these performers considered themselves artists. I don't buy that they spent all that time and effort turning their entire careers into a "Paul is dead" game just for the sake of a little joke and some publicity.

I have to wonder if this video is for the purpose of being a red herring? No one would go through the trouble of creating this elaborate exposé, only to throw in some obvious fakes that could be disproved in a moment, such as that Heather Mills, who wasn't even born yet in 1966, could have been the cause of the accident. Surely the guy who put together this nearly 2-hour long, detailed documentary, could not be that stupid. Of course, if he created, or was convinced to create this for the sole purpose of discrediting the entire "Paul is Dead" discussion .... it's a resounding success!

** Spoiler Alert **

I watched the movie and I'm still wondering what the flick's message was.

I liked the city scenes, and I'll watch anything with Stiller in it, so it wasn't a total loss. But..

There is so much they could have done with the concept of 40-somethings realizing that their youth is behind them! They could have made it funnier, and they could also have made it more poignant. Getting old is scary as hell. People treat you differently, especially at work, and you have all kinds of new body manifestations (skin tags, grey hair, age spots, etc.). All you have ever known is being young, and then one day it begins to dawn on you that you are "old", and you will never be young again!

The ayahuasca scene could have been fun... just think of the hallucinations they could have had, the fun they could have poked at the Shaman, the crazy profound realizations they could have had (a vision quest... a totem animal...). Instead, the director chose to turn it into a puke fest. If they had to play up the vomit, they should have done this scene outdoors and had people go behind the bushes.

Stiller's unfinished documentary seemed like an afterthought; it had no real place in the film – at least, not the way it was presented. Also, Stiller is supposed to be the protagonist, but I wasn't liking him so much when he went off on his father-in-law, who did nothing but try to help him by sitting thru 6 hours of a boring documentary and then giving very constructive advice. Stiller's character was never funny, only flawed.

You're expecting a satisfying or climactic ending, or the issue of the deceit to be resolved. If you blink you'll miss it... the ethically challenged young film maker gets the fame he so desired – and Stiller's character, who evidently got nowhere with his own documentary, shrugs his shoulders and accepts what must be the moral of the story, which is...

Young people who claw and lie their way to the top are just doing business as usual, and folks past their prime should sit back, accept their fate, and not concern themselves with things like integrity, honesty, and the pursuit of success.

And the big 4-second payoff? The "old" couple is going to adopt a child! As if that matters. In fact, nothing in this film matters, as it doesn't appear to have a point. It's like a collage of random bits and pieces that someone Mod-podged together and decided to call a movie. There was nothing I could grab onto; nothing that drew me in.

** SPOILER ALERT **

I'm easy to please when it comes to movies, but this one did nothing for me. It was as if someone wrote out the screenplay on a piece of scrap paper while running to catch a bus.

There was never a story or even a scene that pulled you in. Not even at the end when the whole premise for grown up Clooney's cranky attitude was his unrequited boyhood love for Athena – and now, when emotions should have been intense, it was as if his love interest was no more than a book he had finished reading!

The CGI action was too rapid and too frequent for my comfort, and the constant bickering annoyed the cr@p out of me. It was great – until it wasn't!

I went to this film because it involved going to the future, and I love time travel stories. But there was precious little of the future in this movie. Or story. Basically, it was a venue for CGI action ... and product placement for Coca Cola! It also stretched the boundaries of common sense. I get that the Clooney character was a brilliant inventor, but c'mon... how do you build a rocket, all by yourself, unseen by other humans – down the center of the Eiffel Tower?!

There were so many opportunities for making this a good film, but none of them were employed. And nothing ever happened that wasn't totally predictable. In short, it was disappointing from start to finish!