Reviews

If you enjoyed the True Detective series, you'll love this. Reptile isn't a series so it doesn't have the time to build the same depth of character. But, like True Detective, it's heavy on ambience, with an excellent atmospheric score, and populated by an excellent group of character actors who play normal on the outside and creepy on the inside. Except Justin Timberlake, who may not be a character actor, but based on his work here, he could be. Michael Pitt is especially effective, as he really seems like a terrifying psycho who's just wandered onto the set. Ultimately, this Benicio del Toro's movie, brilliant as the reptile who is more cold blooded than the killer he is hunting.

Oblivion is nine years old as I write this, and in perusing the reviews written when it opened, they have aged far less well than the movie.

Those reviews are mostly concerned about whatever the hell Tom Cruise was going through at the time, or obsessed with obscure symbolism in the production design.

For whatever reason, it appears the reviewers couldn't get over themselves enough to just watch the movie and evaluate it on its merits.

On the off chance this film has escaped your attention, it is well worth two hours of your time. It is solidly acted and produced, has first class effects, and a spectacular location. The story combines some emotional heft with a clever and satisfying twist at the end.

I watched it again, but this time with my SciFi hating wife. She protested initially, watched the entire thing, and then thanked me for getting her to watch it afterwards.

That's as good as it gets.

Its hard to believe that someone actually got paid to write the script for this pathetic and mind-bendingly idiotic rip-off of the Castle TV series. And it doesn't end there. The acting performances are all excruciatingly bad. They may find the killer but nobody involved in making this movie survives. So astonishingly bad I watched it all.

In 1995 this would have been categorized as "straight to video." It's being promoted today because it's an "early" Russell Crowe movie. The movie succeeds in stranding Russell, and two fine Japanese actors, in a film so painfully inept, that there is no way back.

High level production values, a great location and valiant acting performances by a group of solid character actors are wasted in the service of a D- script that is relentlessly predictable, torturously contrived to kill off the cast and filled with endless expository dialogue that goes on forever. And I'm not exaggerating. Whoever wrote this, look dude, if you don't understand physics, don't waste our time with dialogue pretending that you do. It is boring boring boring.

Totally competent addition to my favorite genre, "the bad ass woman who beats the crap out of everybody." The cast is great and Jessica has the acting chops to sell the action and the emotional roller coaster her character is on. Which is good because this film has a ton for her to shoulder. She's an assassin, an addict in recovery having a rough week featuring a crisis of faith about her work, trouble with her boss because she is questioning her assignments, a job going spectacularly bad, then a trip back home to reconcile with family she walked away from, a past love, also an addict, now with her sister. And she has daddy issues. But, get out of her way! There's nothing Jessica can't solve with her fists, her feet, a gun, harsh language and a full clip. Included is a John Wick nightclub moment. My wife watched the whole thing, without wandering away, and had one complaint. She said Jessica should have put more time in at the gym like Charlize Theron did for Old Guard.

I don't know what movie the reviewers saw. If you enjoyed the original first two this was a worthy roller coaster ride of a successor. Yes, this movie echoes the originals, but the echo is imaginative and self aware. As for the acting, the previews don't do Linda Hamilton's extraordinary performance justice. As for Arnold, he manages to surprise by underplaying his usual role in a way that is both funny and sympathetic. Mackenzie Davis makes her case as a new generation female action hero, and Natalia Reyes is impressive as the "new" Sara, or so we think.

Starts out strong, fades in the stretch and barely gets across the finish. It could've been something. Instead its something you can watch, guilt free and alone, while your wife is sleeping.

Sorry, but you are not going to get a standard review. The real star of this movie for me was Huntington Lake, which is high in the Sierras above Fresno California. As a sailor, Huntington is famous for it's consistently windy conditions that you can set your watch by. Every day at 10am, the lake is glassy calm. By 11am however, it is really blowing. Quite a bit of the movie uses the lake as a stand in for its presumed location in Wisconsin. I have sailed a lot of races on that lake and it is funny to observe that, in the background of each scene, you can clearly see that, even back in 1957, the wind is always absolutely cranking. Very amusing were the scenes which cut back and forth between the lake, where the wind is howling creating the usual Huntington Lake chop, and the boat in which they are sitting, which is clearly in a glassy calm swimming pool. It is actually not bad for a film shot in the 1950's. In a fun plot reversal, Tony hires the guy who was so hard on him as a bellboy, to work for him when he ends up with his own resort. But, for anybody who has ever raced on Huntington Lake, this movie is a must see!!!

This is a really fun movie and I am amazed by the commentary I have read about it. I wonder if the writers have actually seen the movie or are really just interested in bashing Keanu Reeves. First of all, he is not a detective or a gumshoe, again, what movie were they watching? The movie is really a classic sci-fi story. You have 3 parallel universes occupying the same space, earth (where we are), heaven (where angels are and where good people go when they die), and hell (where demons are and where bad people go). There is a contest to see who can tip earth to their side, but they are only allowed influence by suggestion, not by direct action. Keanu is basically a referee. There are "half breeds," who can live on earth, but again, they are not allowed to interfere directly. If they do, the ref, Constantine, deports them in flashy cinematic fashion. Of course, this is a movie, so someone does interfere, and that is the conflict that drives the story. Keanu's performance is fine. He is an unhappy, alienated person with a really crappy job that no sane person would want, and which he has for reasons that you will discover by watching the movie. Of course, there is a girl, Rachel Weitsz, a cop, who gets drawn into the conflict and discovers the truth of the world. Their weird relationship, very underplayed, is quirky and interesting. Peter Stormare's turn as Lucifer is an absolute bizarre hoot. It occurs near the end and is integral to a great twist at the end. Again, the complaints about the end of the movie are lame and I doubt they watched the movie or conversely, had the brains to understand what was going on. Comparisons to the comic book are also nonsense. This is a movie. Movies are an art form with certain constraints. You can adapt material from other sources but you always get something different. The point here is that in this case, you have an entertaining movie, unless you happen to hate Keanu, in which case, your opinion is not really informative.