jtheis-83492 Reviews

Napoleon (2023)

not quite science fiction

[2/10 · 6 December 2023]

Why would a film maker direct a historical era movie if he has no interest in that history? Ridley Scott was asked about the many inaccuracies in the movie, and he said "Were you there?" His response is as idiotic as it is childish. Of course there are many things that are known about the subject of this film.

The movie, even ignoring the lack of accuracy, isn't very interesting. Although the movie focuses on Napoleon's relationship with Josephine, that relationship isn't very compelling. Trying to take on the entirety of Napoleon's career is probably too much to handle for a single film.

There probably are a number of people who don't know much about Napoleon. After seeing this movie, those people still don't.

Barbie (I) (2023)

music video non-movie

[2/10 · 26 August 2023]

Barbie has color and some music and dancing. There's no movie in there though, as taken as a whole it's a mess of illogic and heavy handed pronouncements. The "real word" is as fake as a 3 dollar bill. A universe called real world might be thought of as portraying, well, the real world, but it doesn't. When straining for humor, it mostly doesn't work. Furthermore, none of the characters in Barbie are interesting or someone one wants to relate to in a narrative. Some of the historical Barbie items are interesting to look at. Why this movie is popular I don't know, but the film will soon be forgotten.

Star Trek: Lower Decks (2020–2024)

Unwatchable

[1/10 · 19 December 2022]

The show is dumbed down, childish, and unfunny. The writing reaches a new level of incompetence. The animation is good. The acting runs from acceptable to poor.

My partner and I suffered through a few episodes, but we both disliked it. We both do like Star Trek series in general though, and have no problem with a humor oriented Star trek series, but this one is insufferable. We do wonder if series two and three are improved over series one, but we have little desire to watch further episodes after the crap from series one.

Overall, while the show looks good with the animation quality, there's no reason to see Lower Decks.

Downton Abbey (2019)

Comedy

[6/10 · 17 May 2022]

The film basically moves into parody/satire, showing how ludicrous monarchy and aristocracy are. The inferiors strive to worship and obey the members of the superior class. Oh how glorious!

1941 (1979)

Wasted opportunity

[3/10 · 23 April 2022]

With all the assembled actors, and what must have been a large budget, the result was a mostly unfunny mess. Spielberg can be a very good director when he has a good script, but the problem is of course that he can't tell a good script from a bad one.

A Bridge Too Far (1977)

One of the Better Ones

[8/10 · 27 March 2022]

This is one of the better WWII films. It is well written and well acted. This movie portrays the historical narrative of the Market Garden operation in 1944. Human dramas, military and civilian, are shown. Some of the action sequences are Hollywood stylized, but overall there is a sense of realism, and this was made without computer generated graphics. A Bridge Too Far is one of the best films set in the Second World War.

Clue (1985)

Non Com

[2/10 · 26 March 2022]

The initial premise is fine, that of a group of people meeting in an old, large mansion. The problem is the movie was supposed to be a comedy, and the writer and director don't really know how to make a comedy. The attempts at humor mostly misfire and are either boring or painful to watch.

Born to Kill (1947)

Strains credibility

[4/10 · 24 September 2021]

The acting was good, but the main characters behaved in such unrealistic ways that the film was difficult to take.

As usual for films this old there is interest in the clothing and hair styles of the time.

The Wild (2006)

animal bashing

[2/10 · 20 August 2021]

The animation was good, but... The story and the characters were unappealing. My partner says this is not a very Disney movie, and I think that's true. A lot of animals hitting other animals in the head and animals being bashed against rocks. How the director ever got the job is mystifying as he's incompetent.

The Searchers (1956)

Unappealing characters

[3/10 · 14 July 2021]

The characters are unappealing, with no identification to, or sympathy for, this collection of fools and jerks. John Wayne's character thinks it's noble to fight to enslave people, and then it goes downhill from there.

The background scenery looks majestic, but it's clearly Arizona, not Texas as claimed.