Change Your Image
drlawyer
Reviews
Supernatural: Wayward Sisters (2018)
Trying to force something that doesn't work.
Rhe writers were clearly trying force a spinoff with all-female characters that were just as good - no, BETTER - than Sam and Dean Winchester. But even in a universe dripping with the imaginary - vampires, werewolves, angels, demons and even the Devil himself - this concept felt artificial & implausible. Sam and Dean are jumped and instantly neutralized by 105-pound "evil Kai" but don't worry... Super-Claire to the rescue! The boys are lost for 2 days, but she finds them IMMEDIATELY because... she has to save Sam & Dean (just like she told Jody). /yawn Glad they passed on this dreck, and all the single review accounts raving about how great this is? You're not fooling anyone.
Breaking the Silence: Children's Stories (2005)
Political hatchet job
Nothing like seeing a blatantly politicized and inaccurate film presented in "documentary" form... the worst since Farenheit 9/11. I like the comments from CPB and PBS ombudsmen following an investigation into its airing on PBS, an allegedly non-partisan public channel: Using the words "slanted" and "no hint of balance," in the report, CPB Ombudsman Ken A. Bode concluded, "The producers apparently do not subscribe to the idea that an argument can be made more convincing by giving the other side a fair presentation." Bode wondered whether PBS had been used as "the launching pad for a very partisan effort to drive public policy and law." If so, the documentary violates PBS' mission statement to be non-partisan and "provide multiple viewpoints." PBS's own internal ombudsman offered a separate analysis, "I thought this particular program had almost no balance
turning it
into more of an advocacy, or point-of-view, presentation." Avoid.
Spanglish (2004)
More Hollywood preaching (though subtle)
***WARNING*** This post contains spoilers about this film. If you haven't seen the film, don't see it, but feel free to read here anyway.
Does anyone else get tired of Hollywood droning on and on about how horrible they think America is? If so, pass on this movie.
The entire movie was one big "America is filled with selfish materialistic half-wits - only the more noble cultures (like Mexico) have any merit" cliché.
The protagonist is a woman who starts off on the wrong foot with me - by sneaking into the U.S. illegally (of course, the movie glorifies this, because she resisted coming for as long as she could and finally succumbed to lowering herself to come to the U.S. so she could find a better life for her daughter... the martyrdom...).
Once here, she is immediately put off by the garishness of the U.S. (which of course is represented by Los Angeles, which (IMHO) is the least American city in America). Fortunately, she is able to find a niche within the city where she is comfortable - a small segment of the city completely populated by other Latin Americans, who have created a little "Neuvo Laredo" right there in the city. No crime, of course - she is welcomed with open arms by the loving and giving community.
Finally, she finds a job that allows her to support her daughter - as a housekeeper for Tea Leoni - who represents a caricatured version of the American woman. Selfish, insecure, obsessed with her looks and career, inconsiderate - she represents (in the writer's opinion and in that of the protagonist) all that is wrong with America in personam. Her husband is a sweet but hen-pecked chef (Adam Sandler) whose greatest quality is, apparently, that he has the emotional personality of a "Latin woman" - lacking in the machismo and confidence of Mexican men (of course).
In the end, despite Leoni's desperate attempts to co-opt the heroine's daughter (since her own is a disappointing little fat kid), the heroine manages to protect her beloved culture in her daughter - by pulling her out of one of the finest prep schools in L.A., where Leoni was able to get her a full scholarship. The movie closes with the daughter writing a letter to Yale, warning them (somewhat pretentiously) that even if she's admitted, she won't change from the girl her mother wants her to be.
A pitiable commentary that thinly veils the writer (and director's?) obvious disdain for all that is the United States, this move is more propaganda than entertainment. Pass on this one, even as a rental.
Chasing Amy (1997)
Badly acted/directed low budget misguided social commentary
The really sad thing about this film is that I think that Kevin Smith is a really good comic actor/writer/director. Clerks brought a fresh, new style to low-budget filmmaking, and is rightly a cult classic.
Where I think he went awry with this one is the whole ultra-liberal "alternative" social commentary - the sheer arrogance of his belief that he could "enlighten" his fans by exposing them to the "realities" of homosexual lifestyle and counter-culture. The really pathetic part stems from the preachy tone of the mainline gay characters - "Archie is gay - obviously" --- "Why does sex have to be intercourse? How do you define losing your virginity?" "I thought it was stupid to eliminate half the population in my search for the perfect partner." All complete with circular and flatly pedantic arguments in a thinly-veiled attempt to cast gay culture as mainstream and somehow more intelligent/enlightened while casting more traditional and conservative inter-sexual roles as somehow narrow and ignorant.
To pull this off, of course, Kevin Smith must whitewash the reality of homosexuality - none of his gay characters are remotely dysfunctional, unhappy, insecure, or conflicted about their sexuality, and none have any (stated) history of abuse or persecution. The pushy nature of Hooper, lighting about with a delusional sense of grandeur at the notion that he understands the "truth" about human sexuality. Or Alyssa's tirade of how her history of loose sexual encounters was somehow not about low self-esteem or self-worth, but was instead a glorious journey of independence, empowerment and self-discovery ("IT WAS MY CHOICE! AND I WONT APOLOGIZE FOR ANY OF IT!"), even when she was getting trained by the high-school losers who hung around her house eating her parents' food and trolling for her dad's porn.
Reality check? Quite the opposite. Smith's documentary of pro-homo-culture comes off as little more than a badly written, badly acted gay joke, wrought with clichés and sub-culture denial.
The Karate Kid Part II (1986)
Not as good as the original, but a good film nonetheless
Sequels are often measured against the originals, but as it is well known, fail to measure up (the notable exception being "Star Wars Episode IV: The Empire Strikes Back - the exception that proves the rule). Too often, the sequel lacks the "newness" of the original - the characters are often completely developed, the underdog has already triumphed. In other words, the story has already been completed.
In this second installment, we see how, to some degree, to overcome that. Of course, the challenge has to be taken up a notch (a fight to the death? Yeah, that's a little better than a tournament) and we usually delve deeper into the characters. Seeing Mr. Miagui cope with demons from his past helps to better completely define his character; Machio's Daniel Laruso is sadly left second stage, as all he seems to learn is that his famous "stork-kick" obviously hasn't been perfected after all.
Personally, I feel as though KKI and KKII told both halves of the story nicely, and could have done without installments three and four. However, KKII fills the void nicely for those who saw, and loved, The Karate Kid and wanted nothing more than to see that pseudo-nazi military sensei get humiliated.
Guns: A Day in the Death of America (1990)
Give me a break
Okay. So we all know that gun deaths are tragic. We know that innocent people die as a result of senseless gunfire. Yet, nonetheless, Tolkan subjects us to an "eye-opening" documentary into the tragic lives of 61 victims of gun deaths on a random day in 1989. Why? So we can all learn the important lesson that "people don't kill people, guns do." Gimme a break. He even goes so far as to include criminals who are shot and killed by police officers defending themselves and suicide "victims" who use guns to kill themselves - as though, without guns, the suicide victims would have simply shrugged their shoulders and chosen to go on.
This "documentary" is clearly a thinly veiled attempt to enrage viewers to cry out for gun control in some effort by the director, I suppose, to rid the world of tragedy. News-flash, genius - senseless murder happened long before guns existed, and doing away with guns won't solve our problems anymore than your worthless "documentary."