Reviews

If you like films about photojournalists, there are few good ones. Under Fire about the Nicaraguan Revolution and Harrison's Flowers about the Yugoslavian War. Both good choices with Harrison's Flowers being a better film. Well acted, good story line and realistic settings.

Pale Rider is a near complete rip-off of Shane which is a far superior film with better actors. Just minor changes. Gold miners and a gold company versus sheep ranchers and a cattle baron, Alan Ladd is a reformed gunman while Clint is a gunman pretending to be a preacher. Both latch onto families with the wives being attracted to them and the kids (teenage girl in Pale Rider and little boy in Shane) idolize them. The gold minors hire a crew of gun fighter while the cattle barons hire Jack Wilson brilliantly played by Jack Palance.

Without a doubt, this is an incredibly dull and plodding movie. You can watch the first three minutes, fast forward to the hour mark, and not miss anything of importance. The plot line is okay but the execution of the movie is awful complete with uninteresting characters, loads of useless scenes and pointless rants. An aging and very gray Gere unconvincingly plays a congressman seeking to be governor of some state. His wife, who is about 30 years younger than him, is a anxiety-racked, nasty headcase. His younger brother, a public school teacher obsessed with the Civil War who lives in what appears to be a million dollar home (for a teacher?), is equally as nuts as Gere's wife going off on one stupid rant after another and seemingly scared of his kid. His wife, Linney, is white bread bland and adds nothing of interest to this pot boiler of a movie. Their kids are typical spoiled rich brats who committed a nasty crime in the recent past. Do not waste your time on this one. Not even for background noise as you clean your house.

This very slow moving film has potential but never attains it. It is a dull plodding movie about a Romanian father attempting to protect and help his high school daughter get out of Romania and into a U. K. college for a better future. There are many key plots and subplots in the film and none of them are resolved. The girl is sexually assaulted and we never know if the offender was caught. We never know if she passed her exams and made it to Cambridge. We never know if the father's girlfriend was actually pregnant. We never know if the police arrested the father for attempting to tamper with his daughter's college entrance exams so she passes. We never know if the father moved in with his girlfriend or got back with his dull, chain smoking haggard wife after she booted him out of their home. We never know who was stalking the father and vandalizing his home and car or the reason for it. A waste of two hours. Another movie without an ending.

A surprising good action flick. Lot of dramatic stunts, plot twists and suspense. This movie is like a combination of Fast and Furious, Road Warrior and Terminator. Who knew you can drift a Kenworth with and without the trailer? Who knew you could bash fenders on semi tractors like in the chase in Bullitt but on snow covered roads? Liam is like a modern day Mad Max driving his truck loaded with rescue equipment to a remote Canadian mine to save stranded miners before their air runs out. Accompanied by his mentally disabled likeable brother and a politically agitated Native American girl, he fights off a baddy who is like the Terminator but pretending to be an actuary for the mining company. This dude is very hard to kill regardless of what happens to him. Fun movie. No sex or swearing either.

Basically a cheapo remake of Through the Eyes of a Killer with Richard Dean Anderson and Marg Helgenberger. Sexually repressed and very deviant apartment owner and renovator rents apartment to recently divorced hot middle aged woman and decides to live behind the walls of the unit to spy on her. Gets angry after she rejects him. Same story line as the older film. Epic violent battle between Hillary and Jeffrey that ends with the a nail gun.

All that can be said is that the writers of this one definitely drank the bong water

This is a grim and disturbing film about the very damaging effects of parental child sexual abuse years later. Certainly not for the young to see. Includes themes of incest, sexual abuse, adultery and murder.

Not the quality of or as engrossing as the French Connection or the Seven Ups, but still pretty good 70's crime action made in 2013. Clive (no black raincoat or rumpled suit this time), with a really bad haircut, Elvis side burns and requisite three quarter length leather jacket (a.k.a. Goodfellas hoods) plays a nasty and unexpectedly violent ex-con whose English accent appears at times while he returns to a life of crime with a local mobster after his work release from a long prison sentence. His brother, a cop, tries to help while having his own serious personal problems.

Very gritty NYC scenes and actors add to the movie's character. As a side note, great set decoration and ugly wardrobe if you like the 1970's. Appropriate that Mila Kunis from that 70's Show stars in this too as his improbable lover and wife. Clive is old enough to be her father. Also, if you like 1960's and 1970's cars including muscle cars, this is a great film just for that. Chevelle 454 SS, Charger, Thunderbirds, Galaxies, Cougars, second generation Barracuda, Coronets a plenty, etc are all around and in perfect condition (right out of someone's collection).

This is a good film about the long term effects of bullying on a victim who could not cope with it. The film gives subtle and not so subtle glimpses in the nasty personality of Simon in several scenes before his vicious final acts on his old victim and a new one. Gordo, the fragile and seriously damaged victim of Simon's high school bullying gets his devious revenge 25 years later in a most clever way without any physical violence (maybe or maybe not). Worth the time to watch. The only likeable character is Robyn who remains innocent to the crimes of both men but served as a pawn in their schemes. Very well done thriller. Good plot twists!

I was looking forward to this (based on a book) as it explores the nomad van and RV culture made up of mostly older Americans traveling around the country and working at temporary jobs to get by after losing their careers, homes in the 2008 financial crisis or their savings. Far different from the YouTube (often fake) nomads or the Class A RV crowd in their massive $150,000+ homes on wheels.

It centers around the fictional story of an older woman, a widow who lost her job and home in a company town in Empire, NV. When the plant closed, the company town closed with it and she lost everything. She is somewhat of an enigmatic, broken woman having few if any real friends and often rejecting companionship of others interested in her including a potential boyfriend and her own family who offered her a home. A life on the road is her choice, not necessarily her fate. It is a slow moving movie showing the nomads in these barren desert campgrounds (with some stunning mountain scenery though), working at an Amazon warehouse, harvesting beets and working at campgrounds and Wall Drug cleaning kitchens and toilets - all hard physical labor jobs just to earn enough to go on.

One often gets this image that nomad life is lots of fun from media stories and YouTube. Travelers and retirees with money exploring the country, seeing all these great sites and make loads of new friends and having great experiences. However, if you are not well heeled financially, the nomad life is not very pleasant or glamorous. Not a very great existence. More of just an existence for many. It is an overall somewhat depressing film. But it does show the harsh reality of what happens to those who lost everything due to the massive economic changes in the country with the offshoring of jobs and financial disasters. The film is is more like the modern Grapes of Wrath, the original 20th Century nomads. That is why I gave it a ten.

A couple observations? What happened to the cat? Jason's English accent comes and goes a lot in the movie. How does a retired DEA agent afford a massive home on a plantation?

I really enjoyed their first film and book - a great analysis of consumer culture, mindless spending and why less can be better. But this new film was not all that different from the first one which made it a bit of a disappointment. This new movie covered the back-stories of Josh and Ryan which was done in the first film, but now done again in a more updated manner. it also covers the reasons for minimalism again addressed in the first movie. If you saw the first movie, you already knew all of this.

What it adds is new testimony from several people who adopted this lifestyle. They range from 17 to 67. However, there was not enough there to really get into why these people did it, how they did it and the outcome. It was too brief. The movie is not even a hour long so more could have been added. I would have liked to have heard more from the 67 year old baby boomer since that demographic would seem far less likely to embrace this kind of lifestyle change. That could have been a really fascinating part of the movie that built on the first film where the message was preached on a long road trip across the USA. Also, how many people adopted this philosophy but gave up on it? Some people like their stuff and its not clogging up their lives. That would have been interesting to see. I would have also like to hear Josh and Ryan talk about their homes far more. You see Ryan's but not much is said about it. How about interviews with both of their wives? They are both shown but say nothing? Are they onboard with the lifestyle.

The movie also has commentary by "experts". There is the anti-capitalist woman from Greenpeace who blames consumerism on capitalism. Not exactly true. Capitalism has been in this nation since before its founding and this consumer consumption mania is a far more recent trend - maybe about the last two generations only. What is the cause of this trend that some in recent generations need to find fulfillment in stuff rather than faith, relationships, family, pursuit of knowledge, work, etc? That was not addressed very well. The WWII generation and the early baby boomers were far less consumer oriented due to what they experienced growing up. They were frugal. So what changed in the country? It cannot just be attributed to advertising and capitalism. Something else is at work here that is driving it. They also have Dave Ramsey in several short segments where he is more focused on avoiding debt rather than promoting minimalism. Dave Ramsey is anything but a minimalist. I watch his show. He is great on personal finance advice. He also claims he owns $300 million in paid-for real estate, has a very successful multi-million dollar business, a numerous cars and collections, and multiple homes. So why pick him to talk to? They also mention that people buy things mainly to impress others. That is a big overgeneralization. Not everyone does that. People buy things because they enjoy them and are not trying to show off at all.

I was really hoping for a lot more in this new movie. But if it is your first view of the Minimalists, then it is all new. Hope the guys do another that really builds on this. They are good presenters. Also, this film made by Matt D'Avella shows that independent film makers can do work that rivals the corporate media. Very nicely filmed.

An awfully dark depressing film. Like a modern take off of Neville Shute's "On the Beach" (this film has a scene in which one astronaut is watching that movie) with a bit of Bruce Dern's Silent Running from 1972 thrown in.

In a nutshell: Without giving away the plot and several clever surprises, this is set in 2049, the earth is dying (no reason given). Our blue planet is just a brown, sulfury, smoky mess, the air is unbreathable and the cities are dead. Picture Detroit. The people are evacuating to underground shelters where they will only survive for a while. The Clooney is a enigmatic and sickly loner scientist who stays alone at an evacuated frozen and snowy astronomical research station located somewhere (no location given) in the Arctic, Antarctica or someplace else really cold and barren. He abandoned his wife and daughter years ago to do his research. He manages to make contact with a massive space station staffed by a multicultural team of five astronauts that traveled to and found a habitable planet and is now returning to earth with no knowledge of what happened here. The new planet, named K43 or 49K or Special K or something like that, is described as "just like Colorado" (minus the pot shops, Mercedes G Wagons and ski resorts of course) and perfect for human life. When the astros find out about the state of earth, they have to decide on whether to keep going or book back to New Colorado. Big bearded George really says very little in this film. but he plays the role well. Most of the dialog is from the astronauts. It is a depressing film, though not quite as grim as On the Beach. There is only one really positive scene that has to do with a Neil Diamond song. I gave it a ten due to its uniqueness, good special effects and that I like George's films. But you gotta' shave George. That beard is not you.

In a nutshell: Violent and psychotic middle aged woman avenges the death of her husband and daughter by going on a massive killing spree.

An absurd film with Jennifer Garner playing the nice wife whose hubby and kiddo were just gunned down by a Mexican drug lord. After the murders, Garner goes off grid for five years and transforms herself into John Wick with a vagina. She becomes a skilled MMA fighter, carjacker, knife fighter, burglar, a master of small arms and an expert with explosives. She uses these skills to waste every single bandito plus one alcoholic cop that was involved in her family's deaths. Even when shot, stabbed multiple times and slashed, old Jenny keeps on killing the baddies and punching out guys twice her weight. That is believable. If you like pure violence you will like this film.

Surprised this is not a NC 17 with full frontal nudity of Gere and the girl and graphic sex scene. Dismal storyline, awful acting and unlikeable characters.

Very engaging film about two American girls set up by an Australian drug trafficker in Thailand to smuggle heroin to Hong Kong. The film shows the role of a local American attorney, the US DEA's interest or lack of interest in the case, the nature of a Thai women's prison, the Asian practice of face saving solutions, and corruption in the Thai justice system. Interesting and surprising ending. Not what one would think.

Good show. Fun and entertaining especially for the summer.

This is a junk and insulting movie. Eastwood used it as an opportunity to characterize the urban white working class as nothing more than ignorant bigots and racists. His Walt Kowalski character hates everyone who is not white and lets out a string of racial slurs at every opportunity until he is "educated" by the "sophisticated" Hmongs. Give me a break. Eastwood spent nearly his entire adult life among the Hollywood elites. He knows nothing about working class America. He does the same thing in many of his films. Letters from Iwo Jima portrayed the US Marines as thugs while the Japanese were cultured and educated warriors. All his cop movies showed the police as either violent psychopaths willing to break the law to get the baddy or bureaucratic fools. His Heartbreak Ridge showed the Marines again as frat boys while the officers and senior NCOs were useless fools. Bridges of Madison county was a huge rip on middle class values like the family, marriage and morality. Go away Clint. Go away.

This is a cheesy movie, but due to current events, I give it a ten for that reason only. Vincent Price is Robert Morgan, a scientist studying the plague that wiped out the earth's population, or so it seems. Set in the USA, but filmed abroad - all buildings and foreign cars give it away. Price loses his beautiful wife and child to what he states is a virus (sound familiar?) that travels in the air (sound familiar?). He is the only healthy survivor living in his house loaded with provisions. Those who died and were not burned in pits to destroy their bodies came back as zombie vampires which includes his close friend. Robert goes out daily to finish them off with the approved method of a stake through the heart and locks himself in his home each night while the Zombies attack it trying to get him. He makes new batches of stakes daily in his house at his home lathe. Why not? Not much else to do. Robert traces his immunity to the fact that while working in Panama years earlier, he was bitten by a bat that carried the virus. Yes, a bat. Sound familiar? Not making this up. Way to accurate. Eventually he finds a a sexy young female survivor who is infected by manages to self medicate to stay normal. She states that she had been in hiding for years but still looking good in her skirt, make-up and heels. These plague survivor girls know how to look good in any situation. Turns out she is part of a tribe of similar survivors who are out to kill him cause he staked a few of their group by mistake. Wild chase and battle at the end of the movie with all the members dressed in black, driving jeeps, carrying spears and Russian sub-machine guns chasing him. This movie is the father of the Omega Man and the grandfather of I am Legend. Too spooky due to current events. Fact that it was made in Italy is even more chilling.