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armacphe
Reviews
Weeds (2005)
Uninspired and Just Plain Annoying
When I heard about this show, it sounded pretty interesting - a middle class single mother starts dealing in the suburbs. In fact, I find that plot line to be fairly interesting. The problem is that it only makes up maybe a quarter of the show. The rest is filled with really uninspired stuff. First of all, many of the characters are not at all believable as human beings - none more so than the main character's brother, Andy. Similarily, the characters do not interact in a believable fashion. For example, in episode 8 when the main character Nancy goes to dinner with a karate dad, there is a conversation that is apparently intended to come off as a quirky, witty exchange with lines like "Do you like stamps that you lick or the self-adhesive kind." If someone said that to me, I would be left with no alternative to punching them in the face. The poor acting of Nancy's two sons, especially the youngest, was also very distracting for me.
To sum up, just because the movie centers on the "controversial" issue of marijuana, it doesn't make this show edgy or smart. The poor writing really makes this a mediocre show, comparable to the annoyingly popular Desperate Housewives. I'm really baffled as to why people seem to like Weeds so much.
That said, I do find that Mary-Louise Parker delivers a good performance despite the weak material.
Bomb the System (2002)
Shallow and Pretentious
I just finished the film, and boy, it was not good at all. I've never seen any other movie about graffiti, and yet everything in this one seems clichéd. Many of the characters are not believable, for example the central villain is a "bad cop" who is just laughable in the way he is portrayed as pure evil. And it just DRAGS for about twenty minutes two thirds of the way through (and the movie is only 90 minutes long!). I almost went to see this last fall at the local film festival, but the schedule didn't work out, and I'm glad I saved my $10. If this was a film made by a group of high school students I would applaud them, but for a professional film this is just a pretentious waste of time.