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NanoFrog
I would like to see more intelligent and knowing films about American Indians. There are so few. Most of the films featuring American Indians are incorrect, to say the elast. There are some incredible stories that could be told and should be told. Hollywood has made so many great strides with women, minorities and LGBT/etc communities in both films and production but almost none at all when considering American Indians. The world is missing out on some awesome stories.
I don't believe in a score of "10" stars. That is absurd. I have never seen a film I would rate 10. It is clear that many times the friends and enemies of some particular film or series will try to pump up or down the ratings for personal reasons, so I always take that into account when considering highly rated projects.
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Paris Has Fallen (2024)
Sean Harris creates a unique villan
First of all, I am a big Sean harris fan.. He first caught my attention in the Borgia's HBO series some years back. He has a very particular style when he plays so-called bad Guys. It has been great watching his career advance. He is very sinister as the bad guy in this film, and adds his own credible spin and style on his villan The rest of the cast is sterling as well. The film suffers from some credibility issues in the relationships of the two main officers pursuing Harris' charecter. The rifles used in very long range shooting could never make those long shots...in a film with a lot of authentic details. The villan has killed a lot of government people who he believes were responsible for his lover and her two children. It is diabolical, even plausible up to a point. But the direction and script fall off rather sharply at the end. The end is out of sync with the rest of the film, weak. There is also a huge unresolved issue of the corporation CEO who funded behind the scenes the entire plot and who made a fortune from it, he is just left dangling and forgotten at the end. They could at least had a 30 second scene at the end where is being handcuffed. The film opens very strong and builds a suspense that keeps moving, but is very weak at the end. Good work by Sean Harris and look forward to seeing what he does next.
Le Comte de Monte-Cristo (2024)
Not even close to the Dumas masterpiece
First of all, some have given this film a 10. There is no such thing as a film that is a 10. The rating system here means something, not just random numbers. Next Niney is unwatchable, right from the beginning there is nothing about this actor that resembles the original Edmond. When you have a masterpiece like this work by Dumas, it approaches the obscene for some random screen writer to have a better idea or an insight in how to improve the original. This movie is overstuffed with French hubris. The Count of Monte Sisto is one of my favorite novels, since I was a child and read this book the first time. I have seen most of the remakes of this film. All he remakes in the last 50 years have been exaggerated trash like this elegant turkey of a film. Nice photography and costumes but Mr Niney has not even an ounce of talent for a film like this. I find him utterly unwatchable. While there is no such thing as a 10, there is an abundance of pretentious trash like this in the 1 category.
Forty Eight Hours: Where is Jermain Charlo? (2024)
Freedom is not Freedom for American Indian women
I deeply appreciate the coverage of this case by 49 Hours. The two American Indian ladies in particular spoke so well, so clearly about the problem. There is a dream reveal at the end that is remarkable and typical in American Indian culture to experience dreams like this. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women is a shameful story of law enforcement and citizen indifference. This single fact has freed up a predator class, or sub class perhaps, of the kind of people who beat, punch, abuse, lie and murder the indigenous women in their life. It is beyond an epidemic. Focusing on this single case that really is well reflected. This young lady was so outgoing, so bright. Bing able to project outside the reservation culture with technology is still not so common reservations. I hope someone comes forward. This is the story of a precious life of a beautiful and precious young woman and mother. 48 Hours might have helped this case. Well done on a problem the main media pretty much ignores as hard as they can.
Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid! (2024)
CNN...this is the Problem
Carville is a very documentary worthy person, by all means. CNN is not the right choice. CNN lost me back during the Clinton impeachment follies with their nakedly partisan nonsense, of course only after the advertisements were played out. I have not watched CNN since those days. It is filled with dubious persons and in my view barely qualifies as a news organization. All of that dazzling mediocrity is on display in this tedious, jumping around video grab bag of interviews and hacked together scenes. Why would Carville agree to do this? Fame is hard to resist perhaps, perhaps it is vanity. CNN does vanity as poorly as it does all else. So I am not sure why he would agree to this childish and shallow experiment in documenting one of the most interesting and formidable democratic political operatives in recent memory. PS, it did not help that they kept dragging micro-person George Stephenouhalis around on the scree. Never watch him either. Ever. Loose loose.
Morning Joe (2007)
Joe and Kika need to be replaced
Joe and Mika are unwatchable. I always mute Joe. He is such a blowhard. If a segment with a guest is two minutes, Joe bloviates for one minute and 30 seconds and the expert guest has 30 seconds then break to 15 or 20 banal commercials. Mika is a little more restrained and focused. But Joe is just impossible to listen to. He mostly talks about himself while pretending to talk about "the issue". Many of the guests that show up are just amazing and fine at their work, any number of them would and could and should replace Joe and Mika. Why is Joe still in the seat? Surely the owners of MSNBC and the clowns at Comcast have eyes and ears to see this debacle every morning? Honestly, I find it impossible to understand why Joe and Mika have this show.
Borderlands (2024)
Fatal Casting Flaws
Barely worth watching. Mostly for fans of the game, if you don't know the game it makes no sense this film. Fatal casting errors, Kevin Hart just ain't Roland, no way never. Cate Blanchett, a fine actress anyway, is way too long in the tooth to be playing Lilith. Follow this up with a pointless empty story provided by the clueless writing of Mr Roth and you got this mess. This sad mess that could have been so much better, maybe even easily so much better....the characters in the video game have many times more back story and personality, and lines, than anyone had in this inarticulate rendering of a well fleshed out back story that was wasted and ignored. Very disappointing to fans of the game.
The Dead Don't Hurt (2023)
Unfinished, unclear, unlikely
For one thing, I have come to enjoy Dillahunt very much. He has a small part in this odd film and his role as a semi-villain and a greedy rancher out in the old west is very nice, good to see him stretching his wings so to speak. This is a beautifully filmed smear of nonsense that starts out with a lady dying then transitions without clarity into all that happened before. This seems like a Danish Fairy Tale about what it might have been like in the old west. The story sets us up but never goes anywhere. It is like a story made from the middle of the middle. Many of the actors who imply some sort of major part, never happens. There is a shooting of six or seven people at one point that is left completely unexplained and unresolved. I have a general skepticism of these written and directed by films. They are proliferating. This film is a case study on why this is a terrible trend. There is only the barest parts of a story here. The protagonists talks slowly and is very photogenic, but he is an idiot who makes empty gestures. There is something artificial about the film. It could have been shot by AI, maybe would have been better...weird and empty.
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
Fatal Defect JJ Abrams
This film has one fatal defect, JJ Abrams. That this talentless man-clown was allowed anywhere near the Star Trek franchise is a tragedy of our times. This production offers an interesting story and a sterling cast. But the staging is all Abrams, that is, nothing. Glitter and explosions and violence is the most dominant element here, not the story. I find it strange and a little infuriating that Abrams is even allowed to make any film, and here he gets his hands on such a great franchise. The Enterprise goes on a rescue mission that turns out to be a trap, and Abrams style mayhem ensues. Roddenberry never would have made such a piece of trash. He was all about the story and never about over-exploited, over the top violence and special effects, which is all that Abram knows. He knows nothing about story telling at all, just special effects. This may be the most meaningless, over-produced and foolish Star Trek film ever made. Abrams has no business being anywhere near this beloved franchise.
Monkey Man (2024)
Dev Partel Overdose Fail
One unknown guy, Dev Patel, a scrawny, untalented but energetic overdose machine. There is always a serious red flag to any film that is written, directed and starring one guy. Especially this guy. He is not believable in any way as an avenger or even as a victim. This is a mouse pretending toe be a lion, and that-s all you see, that is all there is. A meaningless gore and violence film for the subset of people who get off on such things and that is it. Dev Parnell casting himself as the protagonist is just strange. Whatever little talent he may have as a writer, he is not at all believable in any way as figure and avenger, it is kind of sad that he thinks so. Also, having a cast that has some real world acting experience would have been helpfull.
Civil War (2024)
Plastic Garbage with zero sense of reality
C'mon man. While the idea of visualising an American civil war is perhaps irresistible at this point, this ain't it. For one thing the US President has an unreachable fortress beneath the White House and that's where he would be. Not wandering around upstairs. This is just bullets and mayhem with no coherence. No ideaology is proclaimed and they have in this case what appears to be the left, rather than the rabid right, doing this civil war. I only watched this because Durnst was in it. I am a big fan, but she is wasted in this film. The main cast is fine, they are good actors doing their work. But the writing, directing and editing is 3rd rate, meaningless instruments used badly to fail to tell a story that makes any sense. It is like a series of cut and paste scenes from different movies pasted randomly together with grunts and grimaces for a story line. The people who made this film are shallow people with cameras. I actually watched this thing. I am sorry that I did. You will be also.
The Ritman Library: Amsterdam (2017)
Agreat collection curated by the clueless
This is about a collection of books curated and owned by what appear to be rich Amsterdam collectors. It could be fascinating, yet it is clear that the curators of this unique collection have no idea at all about the collection itself. The entire video is about the antiquity and rarity and craftsmanship but really not one meaningful word about the content of the collection itself. You also need serious subtitles. The video is presented in what seems to be English but not one person who appears on camera speaks English very well at all. It seems the owners are very proud of their collection of rare books but have no real idea of the contents, or much interest in the contents of these many volumes. It is the most inarticulate presentation of a rare collection I have ever seen.
Road House (2024)
Unrealistic, badly acted, mot credible
Lots of fight scenes by actors who have no idea how to fight. In real life if you get kicked and punched in the face dozens of times you are going to the hospital, possibly the morgue. But here our so-called hero barely shows a mark and keeps on being the under layer, non-believable character of this childish and artless film. Eventually a deadly villain shows up to dispatch our hero. He is a very ugly man, over-muscled, with a squeaky little boy's voice and no acting talent of any kind. I had to look up this terrible actor to realise it was in fact Ewan McGregor, once a boxer who failed miserably. One can see why. He is absurdly bad as enactor and grotesque as a person, and the film goes downhill from there. This is basically a fight film with a minor subplot about taking over the property of the Road House. <cGregor turns in one of the worst acting performances ever seen, second only to our hero who is also not an actor at all; all of them doing beat downs that no human could survive for reasons that no on will ever understand. This film is an insult to the innocence and grace of the original Roadhouse film. It is an insult to the very idea of even the loosest standards of good film making. Worst remake ever.
Turning Point: The Bomb and the Cold War (2024)
A highly selective and false narrative
This is quite an interesting documentary about the cold war period and the development of the atomic bomb. Yet, so much has been left out, a narrative designed to mask and cloud the true facts. When discussing the war with Japan and the choice to drop the bomb, it was never mentioned, for example, that every military mind on earth new Japan was well defeated at that point in time...that the so-called need to invade Japan directly was and is a myth. They don't mention the near impossibility that Germany was working on a bomb, another myth. Lots of important facts like this are left out entirely. One could say this series is a bit more propaganda than real truth. And that is deeply unfortunate. Viewer beware.
Shogun (2024)
A more mean spirited version of the original
Shogun way back, the first televised version, had far more elegance and detail than this version. Shogun 2024 is a darker, more mean-spirited version of the origanal book and TV series. It is also racing through the story, this version, omitting so much detail of the story of an English pilot findinh himself in an inter-clan Japanrse war. They have also changed the origiunal story line into a much more violent one than the original. The cast for the most part is outstanding, but not as exciting as the earlier TV version. They are duller, meaner, and darker. The absolute square man playing Anji-san is terrible in this part, the most impotant guy in the story. He is dull, excessively masculine and without an ounce of humor or grace. He is a blunt object, in this version, placed between warring ego-maniacs. Though lavishly produced, there is no grace to the photography or the staging. There are so many subt,le scenes in the original that are entirely missed here. Interesting certainly, but deeply flawed.
The Daily Show (1996)
Jon Stewart Leves Apple. Duh.
First of all, Welcome Back Jon Stewart. It is no surprise that Stewart was to much to handle for (puritanical) Apple. Stewart is used to speaking truth to power and that is something not allowed at all at Apple. Stewart is unique and better unchained than the fake culkture that prevails at Apple. I stopped watching Daily Show after Stewart left. I did not like Noah at all. I find him unwatchable. But since he left the show has jump-started its game and brought forward a diverse and interesting cast, along with Stewart. In this present age, this climate among the world leaders, the empty and dangerous agendas of the political right, the Daily Show remains a formidable front in the puch back on over-reach and assault on human dignity made by many at the top of the political right.
Fear the Night (2023)
Fascinating Maggie Q Executive Produces a Bomb
Maggi Q is such an interesting actress. She has yet to be given the correct script to showcase her potential. Oddly enough she is the Producer of this turkey of a film. Home invasion yes. Middle of nowhere. Yes. No help will arrive. Yes. Way to many people get killed. Yes. It would have been far more interesting showcase of Maggie Q's martial talents if none of the innocents were kiled, but bow, howdy, a lot of innocents are killed in this. An absolutely terrible script. Absymally generic of the type just described.. Also: the wardrobe. Trult ugly, brutal wardrobe for everyone but Maggie Q. She looked just fine. Anyone else had been the star of this nonsense I would have turned it off after 10 minutes, seeing the wardrobe of these ladies. But I repeat that Maggie Q is such an interesting actress. I hope someone in HollywoodLand can figure out what to do with her. So far they have this jewel of of character and no idead what to do with her. This is nonsense otherwise.
Dogman (2023)
Suprisingly moving, yet goes to dark
The beginning of this film are so interesting, even emotional. We find a young man (the actor as both old and young are fantastic).....who endured a brutal childhood and found a kind of salvation with his dogs. As his story unfolds, we see an emotional range from all the actors, that is brilliant and shows a side of reality that is beautiful, namely how the people at the edges of society help one another that those who live in the Great American Dream can never acheive, or even comprehend. As the film develops, however, it goes into a grim and violent darkness. Thatg makes sense for a "scary movie" I guess, but these producers and writers had a chance to make a film unlike any other, that went to a more profound and gracious, even clever place. It seems a sad waste of creative effort. They came so close to making a unique jewel that falls apart at the dark ending. Even so, it is a beautifully made and acted film.
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2024)
Glover is poorly cast. Unwatchable,
Glover's entire vibe, body language and comportment is cartoonish. He is supposed to be a spy yet he has such odd body language and just enough arrogance that such a role is impossible. After he and Mrs Smith meet and we go through what that's like, they get their first assignment to follow a lady. They find the lady and Glover looks like such a doofus, so poorly cast, and such a worthless actor, in this part, I could not watch another seccond of this bad idea badly executed. I can't imagine which Hoolywood genius had the idea to do this. Casting an interracial couple is very good, but Mr Glover is not right. A big phooey on this one.
Reacher: Burial (2023)
Fatal Flaw : Missile Hijack
Phooey. There is a fatal flaw in this story. When there is a scene of 650 top secret missiles, it is being transported by one truck and a single driver. This would never happen. This truck would have been excoreted by a serious security team front and back. There are also notifications that mucy be made to local authorities on the route. While Reacher and his crew are closing in on the reasons why their friends were killed, there is this crazy scene which just seems impossible. Lee Child, though he has abandoned his Reacher, always wrote a very plauible story. This interpretation by the writer of the episode is actually nonsense. A big phooey on this one. 10 phooies.
Ferrari (2023)
Casting Adam Driver is an insult to filmaking
Adam Driver pretending to be a legandary Italian. Christian Bake originally cast? Who made this odd, rather creepy film? Were there really no Italians who could act Ferrari? The rest of the Italian cast is played by Italians. Adam Driver, honestly, is a freak. I can't stop seeing him as himself. He is not that good of an actor even though the makeup staff transformed him to another guy entirely. The opening scenes do not seem right. The story seems to begin well in the middle of the saga of Ferrari but completely out of context. We also see a kind of agressive tension that does not seem Italian at all. I have lived in Italy the last 20 years and never seen any of them act like this. So, interesting, but hard to watch with Adam Driver's great hulk peering out of the acting.
The Marvels (2023)
Disney Ain't Marvel
So Stan Lee passes away and we get Disney now in full control of Marvel stories...and boy is there a difference. I could not finish watching this really bad film, it is just junk from scene to scene. The cast, I feel so sorry for them because the cast is a fine group for the most part...but the story, the effects, the directing are all jumbled up into a real mess. The premise is interesting but they have no idea what to do with it. I have never been a fan of Disney, maybe when I was 10 years old, back in the early 60s, but this is not at all Walt Disney. This is Disney INC and a massive number of talentless paperwork and book-keepers make their films these days. This is just junk slammed together by people who have no idea how to tell a story or stage intelligent effects. This film is not a Turkey, it is, in fact, just garbage. RIP MArvel.
Maestro (2023)
Bradley Cooper. Zero equals zero.
An empty bag of mostly water. I have watched in near disbelief as Mr Bradley Cooper is starred in film after film. As an actor he is zero, I see nothing, feel nothing, learn nothing from his body of work. That he has Speilberg's endorsement is, to me, the kiss of death. Mediocrity is the A-Listers new genre. A white man actor, Cooper is so generic that his plastic nose, his acting parts, his very presence adds nothing at all. Why the movie going public is even interested in a film about Berstein is a puzzle. List your favorite music right now. Is Berstein on your list? Making films about below average composers by using a well below average actor makes sense somewhere. Cooper is an empty bag. I try to watch him, but there is nothing there to see. And as for Leonard Berstein, honestly, who cares?
The Curse (2023)
Stars for Espanola, stars for Emma
Fielder is utterly without talent, as an actor or as a writer. It is a mystery how this got made in the first place. New age property developers buying up property to remake Espanola. There are probably a majority population of Espanola are Pueblo Tiwas American Indians and most everything else is Hispanic, So this is an LA idea made by Anglos but planted into a community very distinctive that makes little sense. The idea iis interesting. But the execution comes off as boring, inert. The supporting cast has a few good parts, but are played by some of the ugliest and most untalented people ever. The guy who play the producer / cammer guy is actually much worse than Fields, he is essentially unwatchable. The biggest question coming out of this is how Emma got trricked into this part. It could almost be good, as the cultural peek into Espanola New Mexico culture, thin as it is here, is quite charming. I used to live just north of there off and on for decades.
After the Sunset (2004)
Stars for Harrelson and Hyek
No for Brosman. This film has that fatal defect, Pierce Brosman. Why such a sterling cast wold agree to star under Brosman is a real puzzle. Brosman is one of those actors when you see him on the credits you can pass on watching the film. Talk about zero equals zero. Brosman in my view in unwatchable. A generic bland Englishman who looks like an extra in any movie he is in. This otherwise charming heist film has a fine cast but the casting of Brosman, and the tortured script writing involved in presenting him, is a fatal flaw. It is in fact a mystery as to how and why such a dull and uninteresting man could have been cast as the lead in this. Just think, yourself, of all the fine actors who could have filled this role? Would you, on your worst day, have picked Brosman?
The Killer (2023)
First of All-That Soundtrack
The guy in this film would never listen to the music in this film, whicjh mostly seems to come from a Micrsoft Zuni, and that tells you a lot about this crippled dog of a film. The soundtrack is insufferable. Most of the inner dialogue we hear is just a few repeated phrases. It takes forever ( I went out for Pizza) to get from one scene to the next. The people doing the sound were taking magic mushroom maybe. Dull, promising a soimething that never arrives. Tilda Swenson is on screen about 3 minutes. She does it very well at least. This is a deflated debackle that follows a flatforuma to a dead end tropical island. A Turkey for Turkey day.