Change Your Image
silverton-37959
Reviews
Narcos: México: Boots on the Ground (2021)
More unnecessary Walt
Good episode despite it being too much about Walt. Walt's role is pretty silly, if you think about it. He's one DEA agent assigned to General Rebolla. If one agent was needed to work with the general, it shouldn't have been Walt, since he had already ripped up his ticket with Mexican authorities with his insane antics as "head of Leyenda". The general had to have known what a danger Walt would be, but he lets Walt in. That's a plot hole of sorts to me.
The Walt character is supposed to represent "la dea " in Mexico. That means that the creators of the show intend to portray la dea as amoral, reckless, incompetent fools who are a danger to public safety anywhere they pull their guns out, to judge by Walt's actions at the scene where Benjamin was escaping. He stands there with several dead civilians lying in the street near him and complains that the soldiers aren't going to carry the gunfight out further into Juarez.
If Walt is the face of the DEA, then the DEA is being shown as a detriment to Mexican civilians as well as to the military and police. Walt must have been dropped on his head when he was a baby to act like he does.
The Last Picture Show (1971)
The novel is a classic
Larry McMurtry is a fine novelist. The novel on which this movie was based is a classic, but this movie isn't a classic. Peter Bogdanovich was not a good writer. He made some ham-handed adjustments to the story to tailor the screenplay to some of the cast. In the process he made the storyline meandering and pointless.
He has also bragged that he did the editing alone, assigning a few tasks to Donn Cambern in order to have an editor to list in the credits. The many failings in the cut are attributable to Peter Bogdanovich alone.
Something for the 10 star fanboys here to consider is that, if Peter is such a great director, why was this film his only Oscar nomination for Best Director, and why did he never get the Best Director award at any time in his career?
I don't really even regard him as an adequate director. Something that I must say about this film is that it's proof that Cybill Shepherd cannot act at all. For about a decade, she was rather pretty and was a popular model, but she had no talent for acting and as soon as she started to mature, her facial features took a bad turn, making her decidedly unattractve.
Look at still photos from this film and from the sequel, Texasville, and decide for yourself.
Scarface: The Al Capone Story (2023)
Could have been a great histprical documentary
This film has some excellent footage and photos from the early 20th century and it's also a good historical examination. What ruins it, for me is the constant cutaways from the historical imagery to the two historians who narrate the whole thing. I really don't need to keep seeing these two rather ugly guys doing their voiceovers.
Narration of a documentary does not require footage of the narrators, and the inclusion of the narrators in the visuals is a distraction. It breaks up the flow of the two, sometimes competing narratives, and takes the viewer out of the absorbing stories being told.
What could have been a 9 star rating from me becomes a 7.
Stranger Things: Chapter One: Suzie, Do You Copy? (2019)
Where are Dustin's teeth?
Suddenly, Dustin has no front teeth again and Hopper has dropped the 30 pounds he suddenly gained in season 2. Also, the writing has reverted to the level of a year before the series was storyboarded, which means that there is no writing even being considered.
All of a sudden, this episode appears instead of a season opener for the 3rd season of Stranger Things. It looks as though the cast was tricked into making a parody of the show they had been working on up until now.
Someone forgot to warn me that season two was the final season of Stranger Things. That would have saved me from being duped by this bait& switch.
Stranger Things: Chapter Nine: The Gate (2017)
It was a finale
I guess the season had to end somehow, but it was kind of rushed and cobbled together out of odds and ends. The gate between dimensions was closed just in time, before the monsters managed to get themselves established for a worldwide expansion and just in time for Christmas in the small town.
This being, after all, a Netflix production, there had to be a demotion of the Christmas dance to something called "snow ball". I lived in the 80s as an adult and I can tell you that the adults and the school kids still had Christmas parties back then.
Now that the historical record has been set straight by Netflix, in which the discarding of Christmas was complete by the early '80s, we get to start all over with the doom scenario. There has to be a resurgence, because the first two seasons drew a lot of viewers. That's pretty much the way things go.
Stranger Things: Chapter One: MADMAX (2017)
The story slows down
This supposed to be a year after Will returns and there are some changes. Joyce has cleaned up her house and gotten a new boyfriend. The "party" regained a member and lost another one. Everyone seems to have aged a year, except Hopper (David Harbour), who has suddenly gained 30 pounds and looks like a lardass.
The character changes, except for Hopper's, are good. Dr. Brenner has been replaced by Dr. Owens, Paul Reiser once again plays a deceptive, evil scumbag like his character in Aliens. Eleven has grown her hair out and looks like a girl now. The two California kids are typically arrogant, though Max drops that attitude while Billy piles on more arrogance, leaving viewers hoping to see him taken down a notch or two.
Echo 3: Red Is Positive, Black Is Negative (2022)
This should trigger the thumbs-down votes
Surprisingly, some things happened that put a little twist into play. To judge by the other reviews of this episode, viewers just assumed that it was all a series of goofs by the writers. Here is what I saw:
Bambi's mom, Maggie, suddenly popped in on the boys for no apparent reason. She stayed at the house with Ray while Prince and Bambi were out doing some recon , setting up a diversion for three intruders who had been set up by someone (Mitch, probably) to think that they were going to go in and free the DJ. Two of them were killed by Ray, who was killed in turn by the third intruder.
Maggie kills the third intruder herself, finishing the intended plot to further confuse Prince and Bambi so that the two of them will decide to change their plan to an assault on the site where Amber is being held.
Mitch comes to their next hideout and sets them up for a failed negotiation with Tariq. Then, Foster is revealed as an ally of Bambi's who tells him that the assault is what Mitch's outfit wants, because it will start a war.
Maggie was on a mission, probably at the behest of Mitch. Mitch has an agenda, which Prince and Bambi don't even suspect until Foster tells Bambi about it. Bambi and Prince are still willing to carry out the assault in order to free Amber.
Maybe this is too much to consider for viewers who want to dislike the series.
Echo 3: We Reject Your Influence (2022)
Why did this happen...
...? By this, I mean this episode. All right, I'm going to say the quiet part out loud: Amber (Jessica Ann Collins) is not pretty, not even cute. We're being gaslighted when other characters tell her how pretty she is. Really, just look at her.
Shallow, I know, but true. Anyway, the two women prisoners are allowed to walk around all over the place because... uh, I don't know, muh human rights I suppose. Of course, Amber is going to escape. The captors should know that.
At least Franka Potente does a good job portraying someone whose mind has snapped under the strain of captivity. She's a powerhouse actress compared to Jessica Ann Collins and she doesn't try to pretend to be pretty.
Territory (2024)
Very cheap and cheesy ripoff of Yellowstone
Early on, Daniel is shown waking up from an apparent fall from a horse. He has an open fracture of the femur, but, incredibly, isn't bleeding so he kinda/sorta takes off his belt and ties it around his thigh, or almost does, just in time to be swarmed by dingoes. If that doesn't have you reaching for the remote, then you weren't discouraged by the nonsense shown before poor old Daniel's laughable scene and there's no help for you.
The first 8 minutes of this thing has everything that might pass for a backstory shown in 20 seconds of an orientation video for the new hires, the depiction of the patriarch as a tyrannical fool, and the arrival of a roundup crew that resembles an armored column.
Go ahead and watch this thing, but you've been warned.
Cowboy Cartel (2024)
Hero feds again
Oh, please. Here we go again with hero feds. The" big time money laundering operation" was such a silly little toe-in-the-water hobbyist deal for a cartel that grosses billions that it really looks as though the whole thing is a fiction made up for public consumption. Hint: 26 million dollars in cartel funds might amount to a rounding error, so this was likely more Jose's hobby than some nefarious plot by the cartel bosses.
If it's even true that the brother of the two heads of a violent cartel in Mexico was living in the US, buying horses and selling them back to himself right before a race, it looks more like Jose, the brother, had been sent to the US by the bosses to get him out of the way. Jose's dimwitted little scheme was probably the kind of thing that got him banished to the US.
The "heroes" are just pukey, especially the IRS agent with his Porsche and his long, straggly hairdo. There's already enough in the media of TV and films about trying to present federal agents as heroes, without making ridiculous documentaries like this.
All the fawning 10 star reviews read like they were written by the stars of this lame thing. Enough, already.
Civil War (2024)
And, this would be interesting because...?
The driving distance between NYC and DC is 229 miles, according to the travelmath website, so why is the distance in the film said to be 857 miles? I suppose that the bigger number is the distance of the roundabout route that the intrepid photographers will have to take since the "freeways are vaporized", according to the fat, old NYT "journalist". That roundabout route is needed to make what passes for a storyline somewhat plausible. OK, whatever.
So, we're being set up for an implausible tale to start with. That's par for the course nowadays in American films, but it isn't really the fatal flaw in "Civil War". The fatal flaw is in the unspoken question that viewers ask themselves: "And, this would be interesting because...?"
There are other, less-than-fatal-flaws, such as a failure to reveal what caused a secession movement. Even a hint at that kind of revelation could make a viewer care about such a needless journey being undertaken by such an irrelevant crew. There's a civil war raging somewhere but we don't know why it started.
Maybe Texas and California seceded for different reasons and are not even allies. Maybe the opening scene of the vaccuous president rehearsing an impromptu speech for the TV cameras shows that Americans have decided to go to war with their government because the president is an idiot and a liar. That, at least might be a reason, though the film doesn't cast the conflict as being between the people and the government, but between the people and each other.
Wagner Moura smokes his cigarettes as though they are joints, a'la Matt McConaughey, but he's still Wagner Moura. Kirsten Dunst has gotten even more homely than she was in her most recent films before this. Stephen McKinley Henderson has gained another 40 pounds since last I saw him, and Jesse Plemmons has shed the weight he gained for "Black Mass". Those are the impressions I got from seeing this film. That's a pretty strong indictment of the film's chance of being memorable. Sorry, but that's the truth.
Invasion: Old Friends, New Frontiers (2023)
Here's an idea:
How about showing the story instead of having the characters make speeches to each other without even explaining the story? It took a while for me to see it, but this is conducted like an Ayn Rand novel made into a movie. Rand couldn't write fiction to save her life, so she would just create some cardboard cutout characters and have them make speeches to each other.
The writing team here is apparently led by some Ayn Rand acolyte who insists that action isn't necessary and can be replaced with speeches by undeveloped characters. The result is this series. The writing team has had 20 episodes to tell a story. Sometimes there would be some action, interspersed with speeches, but much of the "action" was a few characters sitting at keyboards in a dimly lit area, entering strings of code, or pretending to.
The story, after 20 episodes, is yet to be told. A semi-coherent outline has been presented and might someday be used to shoot a 2 hour film, but only if the Randian team leader isn't allowed within 20 miles of the production.
Invasion: Chasing Ghosts (2023)
Trev's back home
Trev comes home and chews out his 8 year old nephew for falling in the pool and almost drowning. Of course this was after Uncle Trev jumped in and pulled him out, then did chest compressions to bring him back to breathing, but still Trev is back to his old yelling at kids routine.
Trev's sister doesn't take it well, that Trev chews his nephew's ass to a bloody rag for falling in the pool. Too bad some of Trev's team weren't there to tell Sis, "You don't understand. This is the most normal thing he's ever done since I knew him". Since there was nobody to clue her in, Sis tells Trev, "I love you and this is with all the love in my heart, but GTFO of my house."
It's too bad that Shamir Anderson didn't drop out of the series the way that Sam Neill did, but then he'd have to be a first-string star like Neill is to have that kind of option. Shamir doesn't seen to be able to shed that character he played in "City of Lies", David Mack, the Piru Blood/ LAPD cop.
I know he can shed that role if he tries.
Invasion: Something's Changed (2023)
What's changed?
Well, one change is that the little JASA girl dyed her hair back to match the roots. She's still a mannish girl who is gonna save the world. She has an endless supply of gas bombs that she doesn't actually seem to carry with her, they just happen to be in her hand when she needs one, but, that's OK. Heroic girls don't have to have any reality to worry about. Previously, the aliens were only momentarily inconvenienced by fire, but now it kills them dead. Who knew?
Aneesha's kids have aged several years, so this must be several years after Mannish Girl and Casper helped the nuclear weapons crew to kill the ship. Sarah's acting ability now doesn't include being able to cry realistically. Luke is even more dimwitted and disobedient, so he must be a teenager now. Aneesha has started tying her hair back, so they have more changes than Mannish Girl has.
So, that's the somethings that have changed. What hasn't changed is that the writing still sucks and no discernible plot is being developed.
Invasion: Hope (2021)
This guy is a SEAL?
This SEAL Chief is the most nervous, shook up excuse for a frogman I can imagine. He yells at every civilian he sees and threatens kids and women with his rifle while screeching like a civilian cop on a pot bust.
The writers obviously don't know any combat vets or they might have written a believable character instead of this nervous nellie. The story of the SEAL team should have been much more interesting than the story of the mourning JASA lesbian who lost her lover, or the story of the school kids from the bus crash. Sadly, it ain't.
The scene with the last plane out doesn't even help the frogman's image. He does break down enough to bargain for the family's place on the plane, but he maintains his bad attitude by saying that it ain't God who is looking out for him. He is not a good representation of his service.
Invasion: Home Invasion (2021)
Good episode except...
...too much of it was too dark to see, at least the parts where something interesting was happening. The annoying radio message repeating an interminable list of counties being evacuated became maddening.
BTW, that list of counties being repeated over and over continued right into the beginning of the next episode. Whoever came up with that radio message idea needs to remain anonymous, because there are probably a lot of viewers who would snatch them bald headed if they could find out who they are.
The story was advanced somewhat and the scenes with the tedious Japanese version of NASA was mercifully limited. If there is ever going to be a point in having that little JASA employee obsessing over the death of her lover, I do wish the point would finally be made.
Invasion: Crash (2021)
I don't get Ahmed
This guy Ahmed is married to Aneesha (Golshifteh Farahani) with two children and he cheats on her with some skanky looking blonde woman. He has a Tesla, which won't run at all because he forgot to use the key on his phone in a panic trying to get to his blonde skank, so he tries to get the neighbor to take him along, leaving his wife and children behind. Aneesha has to get the car going and take over the driving. This guy is demented, apparently.
Aneesha is going to need to leave him behind. He'll get everyone killed with his stupidity. So far, the story is engaging. It's building toward a reveal and drawing in several character groups in different parts of the world. I think that some patience is needed here, on the part of the viewer.
Salem's Lot (2024)
Much better than the old dragging mini-series outings
Lots of reviewers seem disappointed that this isn't another dragged out miniseries. I'm not. The story works just fine for me, mainly because I've read the novel and I saw the TV mini series and I already know the backstories of all the characters. I don't need to see another overlong retelling of this tale.
The novel takes place over a pretty short time span. A vampire and his slave come to a small, remote town in Maine to establish a vampire colony, and it doesn't take long to do that in a town that small. I like the way the story moves along without a lot of diversion into what this character or that one thought about this or that.
The vampire master is a scary looking evil being like Nosferatu, instead of an ordinary older man who likes to talk to his intended victims, which is a stark departure from King's Barlow character. That doesn't get in the way of the tale for me.
Get Rich or Die Tryin' (2005)
First I have to say
Poor ol Fiddy can't act. That had to be said.
The story is realistic enough, especially when he tells how selling coke on the street barely pays minimum wage until you go to prison, then you see that it had paid you less than minimum wage.
Some reviewers didn't even follow the story. Marcus's mom didn't get killed in a drug deal, she was murdered by somebody who was jealous of her. It didn't make sense though that as soon as his mom died, he didn't have his clothes and shoes any more. Maybe his cousins or uncles took them, I don't know.
So, he winds up living in his own spot, in a closed down sewing sweatshop and working for Majestic. Then when crack came along, Majestic teaches the young dudes the rules and tells them to get out and get their own crews. Crack multiplies the profit on coke and Majestic says that it's their way out.
Marcus still hangs on to his idea that rap is what will get him off of those streets.
Heat (1995)
This one turned out to be a classic
As heist films go, this one is my favorite. It isn't just about one heist, it's about a top tier heist crew in a running war of wits with a MCU team that's a top tier crew in their own right.
I'm not a Deniro fan by any means, but this one role of his is the one I liked most. He was pretty good in "Jackie Brown" as well, but I consider this his best role. I usually like Al Pacino's work, though this role, IMO, was not a good match for his talent, or he just didn't have his heart in this one. His outbursts weren't convincing at all to me. He has done much better work with more sympathetic characters.
The rest of the cast was hard at work, and Val Kilmer gave one of his better performances as Chris Shiherlis. Tom Sizemore and Mykelti Williams were both good in their roles.
This is a film that I have watched several times over the years. I will probably watch it again some day.
Copshop (2021)
Heavy duty suspension required
Heavy duty suspension of disbelief required for this film. Nothing in this story is remotely believable, from the opening scenes through the midpoint, which is where I stopped to write a review.
Teddy (Grillo) is a fixer of some strange sort, who tried to bribe the Nevada AG to do something that had to do with gaming laws in Nevada. Somehow, for some unknown reason, the AG was murdered and Teddy, also for some unknown reason has to run away from somebody. Teddy gets himself arrested, which makes no sense because he can no longer run.
Bob (Butler) is a contract killer who also gets himself arrested so that he can be in jail with Teddy in order to kill Teddy. Never mind that he would be in jail after he kills Teddy and will be arrested for murder. That isn't important, somehow.
Valery is is a rookie cop who arrested Teddy. When Bob manages to overpower Valery's sergeant (an unrecognizably obese Chad Coleman), Valery gets the drop on Bob and handcuffs him. Teddy then starts spilling the whole story to Valery, a rookie cop who couldn't help him in any way....
There's not enough suspension of disbelief available for me to continue with this film, so draw your own conclusion as to whether or not you might like this film.
God Is a Bullet (2023)
Maybe not the Director's Cut
The runtime of the film at 2:36 is just about the minimum needed to tell the story. I think that the reviewers who didn't get it must have viewed the shorter cut that ran about 1:54. That might be the reason that some viewers didn't understand parts of the plot.
Spoilers ahead, beware. Some reviewers don't get why the cult attacked Bob's family. The reason is that the cult leader, Cyrus, was hired to do it. The reason that they were hired is revealed later and has to do with the crime behind the wealth of three of the peripheral characters. Maybe that was some of what was lost in the shorter edit version.
Some reviewers don't understand why Bob was made to get elaborate tattoos to fit in, then wasn't allowed much of a role in Case's plan. The reason is that Case's goal wasn't the same as Bob's. She needed to "get part of herself back" from Cyrus. She was also flying by the seat of her pants, so to speak. Bob was able to pass as her "old man" with a few people who weren't real insiders of the cult, but were needed for information in the search for Cyrus.
The missing scenes probably held the clues that some people needed in order to "get it". Patience and an interest in the wider view of the story is likely also needed by some who didn't get it. Some people, also, didn't want to understand the whole story because they have a short attention span and anything over 90 minutes doesn't appeal to them. That may be the main reason for all the 1-4 star reviews, IMO.
The Lincoln Lawyer: He Rides Again (2022)
So, after a personal and professional spiral...
...Mickey Haller is rich, with a collection of Lincolns, a closet full of bespoke suits, two ex-wives, and a Mexican accent. What is wrong with these writers? This silly thing starts with a bare bones outline from "The Brass Verdict" and rolls right off the rails into Netflix wokeland.
As usual, the 10star fans can't really give a reason for their swoons over this thing, since what they call reasons to love this series are just blatant fantasies. There is no wonderful cast, no acting that is any good, even by daytime soap standards, and no suspense since everything is spelled out in advance.
I keep expecting to read in the trades that Michael Connelly is suing the Humphrey-Kelley team for plagarism. He must have been under hypnosis to have allowed his characters and title to be used by such a bunch of unimaginative idiots.
Rez Ball (2024)
Good sports drama
This is a story about a Navajo basketball team, so I wonder why the writers who write the description blurbs on streaming sites and IMBD can't be bothered to state that the team is Navajo, instead of "Native American". OK, that was my one quibble with the way the film is marketed.
The film itself is well produced and has a good cast. The story is, for the most part, believable. It does seem to be aimed at ticking as many boxes as possible for woke points. What's good is the number of relatively new faces in the cast as well as some familiar actors such as Ryan Begay, Kiowa Gordon, Morningstar Angeline and Amber Midthunder. None of the cast did bad jobs with their roles, IMO, all good work.
Unsolved Mysteries: Park Bench Murders (2024)
Annoying in one way
The description of evidence was passed over in favor of interviews with the grieving families. The most obvious evidence suggested what could have been a solution of the crime.
The fact that the murder weapon was a .22 caliber handgun, coupled with the statement by the roofing contractor who was there in the parking lot when the murders occurred and didn't hear the gunshots points to an experienced assassin, because the three casings found matched the number of wounds on the victims. That would be the work of someone very well used to that kind of killing.
Three shots, resulting in three fatal head wounds in a very short period of time indicates that the killer was familiar with his weapon and the tactics he used which could suggest a professional assassin.
The fact that no gunshots were heard by the one witness who was close to the site of the shooting, suggests the likelihood that the weapon had a suppressor attached and that the rounds themselves were subsonic loads because there was no sound of a bullet traveling faster than the speed of sound. A .22 LR round will produce a loud "crack" unless the round is one with a lighter than normal charge of propellant for the purpose of eliminating that crack sound of a bullet breaking the sound barrier.
One possibility is that the killing was a case of mistaken identity, by a professional assassin, which the facts regarding the weapon suggests. If one of the victims was mistaken for the target of a paid assassin, and the other was killed to eliminate a witness, that would be one theory of the crime that was never mentioned.