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C-A-Dufour-71
Reviews
Outer Banks: Pilot (2020)
I feel like the missed the mark they were going for
I used to live near a coastal area, and the very unconvincing and inaccurate depiction of a hurricane (and its aftermath) was annoying. So when I was let than pleased with this episode early on, I thought my annoyance about the "hurricane" might be biasing me toward the show. (For one thing, why would that Child Services be scheduling a home visit for the day a hurricane was expected to make land fall. People in coastal areas are generally going to plan around an approaching hurricane. Hurricanes are intense storm systems, not single thunderstorms. They kept talking about surges, but homes just a few feet above water had no signs of water in them. They would say things like, "This looks so bad," but things looked fairly normal with just some trash thrown around. Okay, I am spending too long on the inaccurate "hurricane.")
As the move progressed, we are supposed to be feeling that the main "pogue" characters are likable rogues. But, they weren't doing enough character development with them. So, instead of seeming to be likable rogues, they just seemed like spoiled brats at times.
And other things were stupid, too. They have a hotel key to room 29 (I think it was) of some motel. It is a key, not a keycard. When they go to the hotel, the doors had key card systems. I have never known a hotel with a key card system to give guests mechanical keys. I guess this it to explain how they could open the room door during the post "hurricane" power outage, but hotels generally take actions as needed to deal with power outages. They don't give mechanical keys out to people when they have a key card system. It defeats the whole purpose of why hotels have key card systems. (So they can keep people out of a room after their stay without having to re-key the door.) I am mentioning that to show the example of plot convenience stupidity that seems to happen.
There is a character that seems to be a dirty cop. He walks into some maritime museum. When he walks into it, the man working there says, "We're closed." Well then why was the door unlocked? Every business I have ever heard of locks the door when they are closed. This was to show the dirty cop is just going to do what he wants, when he wants. But, it was just another example of lazy plot convenience to make the point.
I don't know why this is averaging so high right now. I was hoping to like this show, but I couldn't get all the way through the pilot.
Skyscraper (2018)
Some pretty video at times, but the writing is stupid. Had to stop watching.
I say the current average of 5.8 out of 10, so I assumed this would be watchable. I knew there was a chance it would have many cliches, but I have liked many movies with The Rock over the years.
When it was revealed fairly early that his "buddy" was betraying him, I knew I was right about the cliches. I was prepared to handle that, but the writing was so lazy that it became stupid. The bad faction starts a fire in the building and takes over the offsite security location. But, Building Management makes no attempt to contact The Rock, their Security Consultant. The bad guys get The Rock to unlock the control tablet, but he makes no effort to contact Building Management to kill his access.
I was already close to stopping the movie. Because the whole plot could have thwarted by having management lock The Rock's access out. (And of course, this "highly secure building" has security staff incapable of stopping anything. It seems like The Rock's character is not good at security consulting work.)
When my wife and I had to stop watching was when the Media was already vilifying him. There would be no way a connection to him could be made, yet. Even if the media knew he had been hired as a security consultant, why would they already be jumping to blaming him, yet? The media don't even know about the group of thugs, yet. They just think it is a fire. It wouldn't read as a security breach, yet.
They're probably are cool shots in it later. If you want to watch them, I would suggest just fast forwarding to them. The story is stupid.
Hold the Dark (2018)
Motivations are not explained, Lighting is bad
This movie seemed to have so much potential. The casting was pretty good and there are some good performances. I am avoiding spoilers so I won't get too specific. However, I have to say that there are important events that happen in the movie for which the character(s)'s motivations are just not explained. I cannot stress this problem enough.
There are also other problems, such as too many scenes that are shot without enough light. I did, at least, make it through the movie. But, I wished I has watched a different movie.