anthony_retford Reviews

Escape Plan (2013)

Maximum Security my Ass

[4/10 · 23 January 2014]

If this prison was the ultimate in maximum security it would not have meal times for all prisoners. They would have individual meals in their cells. Any idiot knows that when a hundred or more prisoners get together all sorts of things can happen including escape talk and riots.

That is all I have to say about this movie. Why IMDb insists on 10 lines of text is ridiculous.

Again, I will repeat, why IMDb insists on 10 lines of text is ridiculous.

Ridiculous.

Prisoners (2013)

Horrible Police Work

[6/10 · 17 November 2013]

We have the detective stating early on that the girls would never have gotten into the RV, but then he did not have the savvy to ask the next question - What did the get into? And instead of him having the RV torn apart he should have gotten the woman's car to search. I am sure there were fibers and prints galore in that car. And why didn't the police officer get the phone records for the suspect. It would have shown he called home that evening.

How did they get taken? Simple - He called home and told her two girls were walking on the street. She came right over and he came out an invited the girls into the RV with a strong leer. They shrank away and the woman came up and comforted them and threatened the man with the police (to get their trust). She then offered to drive them home and that was that.

More incompetent police work happened when the cop sat in the rain watching the loud and obnoxious man go into the liquor store. Then he noticed that he walked out and walked in the opposite direction, but then turned and saw the detective and came over. It just took a little more yelling at the detective for him to abandon his watching. A real police detective would have sent at least two men over in that area to watch. Sloppy police work.

And what detective bangs a suspects head on a table and lets him get a gun?

The Walking Dead: Internment (2013) Season 4, Episode 5

A Dirge from Unprepared People

[12 November 2013]

I have read most of the reviews here stating that this is one of the best episodes yet. But I beg to disagree. I did not want my time taken up with two weeks of sickness and under lit scenes. I would have devoted half an episode to the sickness and got on with the story.

I knew the Governor would show up. These survivors show they are really unprepared for things that happen, from the fence giving way, to the not locking the cell doors, to the Governor appearing. What, did they just forget about the Governor?

They really seem to be hapless in their approach to things at the prison. They react to things. They do not anticipate things. Their utmost safety is their biggest concern yet they ignore obvious problems.

The Walking Dead: 30 Days Without an Accident (2013) Season 4, Episode 1

What Sustains these Walkiers?

[14 October 2013]

I thought that with the time elapsed from the last episode that the Walkers would have decreased markedly. But I see the same number wondering around. So what sustains them? You can't have active dead people rooted to one position just breathing air and living on and on. Biology, even for the undead, would require some input so that the undead could continue on.

I noticed that the walkers at the fence all had good hands, that is their skin was fine on the hands, so I guess the makeup department was not on the ball.

I guess we will all soon find out what the blood from the eyes means.

Europa Report (2013)

Pretty Good but with lots of errors

[7/10 · 26 September 2013]

I know NASA was consulted about this movie and that shows but what got me was the ineptness of both the designers and the crew.

Why was there only one communications system on board? Redundancy would have required at least 3.

I found the crew to be very inept. First of all what astronaut would not have tethered himself to the ship? Why did only one female astronaut go out alone? She would have to have had a backup in case of anything going wrong. And why did she lack the discipline to disobey orders to return?

Why did the remaining astronauts try to take off without doing a pre-flight check? Surely they would have found the problem and not have to crash land.

It was silly mistakes like these that caused me to rate only a 7. I thought astronauts were professional not amateurs.

Breaking Bad: To'hajiilee (2013) Season 5, Episode 13

Silly Episode

[3/10 · 13 September 2013]

I noticed all of the reviewers were very much over-enthusiastic in their reviews. Maybe they have lost their sense of objectivity.

There is no way that Walt would not have checked with the rental location about the GPS, especially after receiving a call from Jesse. Sol told him he was being set up but he gets the message and panics, which is not what he would have done. Could not Walt have figured out that Jesse was with Hank? He found that he did not know and that was the one place left. Could he not have figured out that Hank would try anything to get him?

Finally, in the shootout it is impossible that no one was hit. Hank was firing his weapon over and over again into empty air, and at a distance of about 50 feet. Supposedly he spent time in a range practicing. And when the firing began the two of them were in the open and dozens of bullets were fired at them and everyone missed. Impossible!

This Is the End (2013)

Who the Hell is Seth Rogen?

[1/10 · 18 August 2013]

I started this movie but soon advanced it repeatedly to see if it got any better. It didn't. It catered to someone with a religious bent and was so simple in its creation. Why were the people in the house not taken in a rapture but others were? Why was this movie centered in LA? What was happening in Terra Haute at the same time. Why were these people morons and simpletons? I have never seen any of them and was not even aware these idiots were "actors."

It was an insult to intelligence, but at least I can now be forewarned about this Seth person and not see any more of his movies. I could make better movies.

The Walking Dead: Clear (2013) Season 3, Episode 12

Why Does Everyone Look So Shabby?

[24 May 2013]

I noticed the shabbiness in this episode particularly. Rick always looks greasy and grimy but I thought when I watched this episode that Morgan was wearing a shirt that was badly frayed at the collar. In that town there must have been some clothing stores and it would not take much to have decent clothing. Rick should be wearing his uniform or something reminiscent of it so he projects authority instead of looking like a slime-ball. I know the Walkers would not take any clothing so there must be all sorts available. I think if I were there I would change my clothes every few days just to feel good. Also why doesn't anyone take bathe when there are streams and rivers aplenty?

Argo (2012)

Good Movie Hollywood Style

[8/10 · 14 January 2013]

This was a very good thriller in the Hollywood style. By that I mean that they took a story and added lots of very close moments to heighten tension and they succeeded. Yes, the actual history is way off and the Canadians were the heroes, but playing with history has always been the wont of Hollywood directors and story-writers.

The artifices added were obvious: the bru-ha-ha at the market: the segregation at the airport; the last second pick up the phone to save everyone; the car chase along the runway, when if only the cars could have gone faster would the Swiss Air pilot have stopped the plane; the resistance at the Canadian Embassy by two of the people.

But these artifices just added to the tension and improved the film. And that is what Hollywood does with stories.

Homeland: Semper I (2011) Season 1, Episode 4

Dumb Agents?

[27 June 2012]

It seemed to me that when the college professor was followed by the two agents that they (the agents) did not have the intelligence to ask the question "Why did he drive out of his way through a housing subdivision to get home?" He did not stop anywhere that we know of and certainly did not stop at listed houses as though he was interested in buying a house, no, he just drove through a housing subdivision.

Real agents would have asked that question and then assigned someone to see if the professor again went the long way home by first observing whether he turned right or left when he left the campus, and then stationing agents in the subdivision along the route previously taken to see if he stopped at any particular house. The agents were far too quick to dismiss the professor.

I admit I have not seen beyond this episode so if there is an informant notifying the suspect none of this would do any good.

Hell on Wheels: A New Birth of Freedom (2011) Season 1, Episode 3

Just Unrealistic

[5/10 · 22 June 2012]

I have just watched episode 3 and felt that there would have been no way the owner would have just passed on his new foreman taking off on a personal errand the day after he made him foreman. All the foreman did was set out details for the day and then rode away, and that was after he knew he would be short-handed due to the Swede. When he returned with the woman he did not even check in but rode off again. He told the owner he would take the task in hand but then just neglected his duties.

The Swede would surely have mentioned that the new foreman was absent and the owner would have easily given him over to be hanged.

Also, the three men who he shot must have been workers and known he was the foreman, so the one whose ear was injured surely would have ridden back and reported it was the foreman who shot them. Either way he would deserve the rope when he returned.

Jerusalem Countdown (2011)

Facile

[2/10 · 12 April 2012]

This movie was obviously made by some Christian group, otherwise why would Randy Travis be in it?

Seriously though I found the conversations which often were about religion very facile. An example was when the man and woman were in the kitchen talking about religion and she asks him if he believes there was even a person called Jesus. He tosses his hands around and says "Of course I do." And then gives as the reason he believes this as millions of people celebrate Christmas. But it is clear they have been having this discussion for years and that was the best he could think of? A reasonable response to that question was "No." Then the reason could be given that there is no evidence at all for such a person, and that no contemporary writers who wrote anything whatsoever about such a person have been found. We know that many other people existed because they were written about but not a man who supposedly fed thousands, walked upon water, raised the dead, and many other things.

For my money acceptance was too easy in this movie of the mass delusion called religion, be it Christianity or Moslem-based.

Spartacus (2010–2013)

Where's The Slave Army

[8/10 · 27 March 2012]

I have just finished the Monsters episode and am left wondering where the slave army is. I read the Arthur Koestler book many years ago and read that Spartacus raised an army of thousands, yet I see only a band of about 60, which is thousands short of the actual number. Also I read that Glaber lost his life on the slopes of Vesuvius, yet here he still is marching after Spartacus. I wish the writers would get their facts straight concerning the slave revolt.

Now I find I have to write at least 10 lines so I will say I have enjoyed the series and have no doubt that duplicity and murder were part of the aspiring Roman praetors.

Mission: Impossible III (2006)

Ethan, Ethan. Whoops, did I just say that?

[8/10 · 17 February 2012]

I was viewing this movie after downloaded all 3 of the genre. No. 1 was OK, but No 2 sucked. This one was good and had a great snatch in the Vatican. But then they were in a plane and the villain wanted so much to know who Ethan Hunt was so he could plan to kill his wife. But Ethan was much too smart to tell him but dragged him to an opening in the plane, opened the door and then tortured him with pretending to drop him out. But just to make sure that he knew who was doing this the other team member shouted out "Ethan" no less than 6 times, whereas any professional would never use another team member's name. I will get back to the rest of the movie now, but could not help laughing out loud at that poor script writing.

The Walking Dead: Secrets (2011) Season 2, Episode 6

Blah, blah, blah

[3/10 · 22 November 2011]

Yep, this series has gone way downhill. Now everyone goes about their daily activities without anyone watching for zombies. That could only mean there aren't any near the farm, although it turns out that friends and neighbors are bottled up in the barn. So what happened to all of the other people who died? I just get the feeling that we don't have to worry about zombies invading the farm because the characters don't act scared any more. And the search for the little girl seems to have been forgotten with just two going to a town looking desultorily for her. Even her mother just doesn't look stricken any more.

Well, I will give it one more week and if the farm life continues with its mini-dramas that have nothing to do with zombies, then I will not watch it anymore. What made this show special was the zombies and the every-present threat of being attacked. That has disappeared on this farm.

Anaconda (1997)

Stank

[18 November 2011]

I wanted to rate this pile of horse-dung as a 1 but then it did have some shots of J-Lo's derrière which stuck out prominently, although she did her best not to show it, so I had to give it a 2.

Actually, I never got to the end of this movie. I quit when the Jon Voight character strangled the woman while the others were in the water. As though any small group would put 75% of their able-bodied personnel in the Anaconda-infested water at one time.

I don't know anything about Anacondas except I was shown a picture of one caught in South Asia after it had digested a man. But it was a small man and he fell asleep never to see the light again. However this computer-generated snake looked far too menacing to be real - it seemed that it had a vendetta against the boatload of people, something no animals have for humans. Owen Wilson was happy to get killed early as he really was out of place - he felt horny because of the jungle. That was a terrible line.

I would have put in mostly unknown actors. Jon Voight was awful with his constant sneering and ham-acting. Jennifer Lopez, aside from the glimpses of her backside, was wooden and unconvincing. Ice Cube was clearly out of his depth.

Anyway, if this movie shows up on your cable, skip it.

Lucky Number Slevin (2006)

False Premises to Begin and a too-clever Story

[28 October 2011]

This was supposed to be a "clever" con movie but it had too much gratuitous violence for the ensemble cast. I was struck by the mistakes at the beginning when the bet was made and the bettor was warned direly about the consequences of not paying. Now I believe that when you make a bet such as $20,000 you will be required to lay that amount of money down on the bet. There was also "juice" called for but whether or not one would have to put that down too escapes me. But let us assume it was not advanced, then the bad people went after the bettor, his wife and his son for $2,000, which does not seem believable.

So we have that mistake and then how did the bad people find his house to kill his wife? And how did Bruce Willis' character find his son in a crowded parking lot? The story was too clever for its own good.

Seventeen Years (1999)

Seek This Movie Out

[10/10 · 19 May 2011]

I got this movie from the local library. I have lived in China for over 4 years in different cities. My wife is Chinese, so is my son. He just got his visa so we will be together very soon.

I rate this movie up with To Live with Gong Li. It should be required viewing for Hollywood producers and directors. From the opening I was drawn in and remained fixated on every movement and most articles (all of which are familiar to me). The story is very powerful and, as another reviewer wrote, can be from a long time ago or a long time in the future.

The water bottle was interesting when the father got more hot water. When I first went to China the bottles had large stoppers in them and you would have to tip and pour them. Later the siphon bottle came to make life a little easier.

I was mesmerized by Lui Lin (the correct way to list her name). I was amazed by the actions and caring of the prison guard in making sure Tao Lan did get home despite her great resistance to moving anywhere near home. She displayed great wisdom for someone so young. By the way, she said she was almost 28 and should anyone question why she was unmarried it should be noted that in China many women do not marry until their late twenties.

I could not stop crying too. The emotion was so strong, coupled with my remembrances of China. Really, really ask your library, Netflix or anyone else for a copy of this movie.

Hereafter (2010)

Amazing How Gullible People Are

[3/10 · 15 April 2011]

When I was a teenager I was thrown through the window of my car in a bad crash. I was found in a pool of rusty radiator water at 1 in the morning in the north of Scotland. I did not come around for some time until I was in the hospital being asked who my next of kin was.

Did I have a NDE? No I did not. But here in this movie we see almost the first words that trot out of the German doctor's mouth being about how she was an atheist but could not deny all of the NDE's she had heard about at that hospice during her long tenure. What is it about Western cultures that have this need to place so much importance on out portion of humanity? We are visited by aliens and UFO's. We are special in the eyes of some god. We experience NDE's. All of these unfounded and unproved interactions and experiences are special and important to a small group of people. I am afraid that is where I left this movie because that was just a female actor repeating what was written.

I have lived in China for four years and never once heard anything about a NDE. Or a god. Or an alien. My experience shows me that all of these are culturally oriented. I think the film should have ended once the man said there is nothing when we die.

Never Let Me Go (2010)

A Disquieting Tale

[7/10 · 19 March 2011]

What are the children but creatures? They cannot be human because humans fight against tyranny and injustice. The closest these creatures ever got to rebellion was when Tommy raged but did not know why. Otherwise all of them calmly accepted their fate, that of providing organs to the general population. They were sheep, being led to the slaughter. When they learned of the reason for the school keeping their artwork it expressed the general sentiment of the population, that they have no "souls" and are therefore not human. (Since humans don't have a soul either why was this idea permitted to judge the children?) How else could surgeons extract a vital organ that "completes" the donor without feeling any remorse or feeling any guilt at all? The headmistress of the school wanted the children to be human but even she had to express her disappointment in the end. It seemed the children had to take drugs every day in order to control them, but then that idea was thrown away when they left the school.

I did not accept that there could be love between any of the creatures, because that would mean there would have to have been hate. And once you have hate you can have hatred of a system and way of life, but none of them had this.

I did not like the ending shot. I have been to Khartoum when plastic bags were just thrown away and as you leave the airport you see thousands of bags on the surrounding fence. That is what I thought of.

Taken (I) (2008)

Highly Implausible Rescue Story

[4/10 · 12 March 2011]

I am curious why reviewers here rate this movie above the Bourne trilogy. When Liam fights his opponents crumple up like folding paper. He utilizes old-style jujitsu moves and moves stiffly like a middle-aged man. For some unknown reason he wades in everywhere no matter what the odds. He is also invulnerable to bullets as shown by the chaser at the construction site shooting point blank at him and Liam just shrugs the bullets away. How he knew where the construction site was puzzled me too. Clearly he loses his head all the time he is in France, so why did he not call in his friends and really do a good job?

Don't Say a Word (2001)

When Did They Have the Time of Opportunity?

[5/10 · 17 February 2011]

I recently quit working for ADT, where I was steered to sell video surveillance systems. So what was shown in this movie was very familiar to me and other ADT people. However, how did the Patrick gang get access to the apartment to install video and audio in every room it seemed? And how did they install a transmitting device behind the grille in the mental institution? To install video that cannot be noticed by the inhabitants of an apartment would have to be CIA-grade equipment. Even the smallest cameras on the open market would have been seen not only by the parents but by the little girl. And I suppose they broke in at night and installed everything, not! Obviously these were plot devices to enable Patrick to have complete control over his victims.

Inception (2010)

Dre ee ee am, dream, dream, dream

[3/10 · 4 January 2011]

I thought this movie was going to very good and had to wait a few days for it to show up available at the Red Box kiosk. I rented a second movie as well and put that one on first in anticipation that Inception would be my "special" movie of the evening.

Well, it was not special at all. I quit about halfway through. I kept thinking to myself that everything you saw must be a dream and maybe it was but I could not sit through the whole thing. All of the criticisms have been levelled at this movie already and I won't repeat them and just add that I endorse those that happened before half of the movie was done. I did enjoy Momento but not this load of tripe.

Arlington Road (1999)

Can I Get Your Transcript?

[4/10 · 19 September 2010]

I didn't know anyone could call a University and get the transcripts of a student. But that is what this movie started out with to let the Jeff Bridges character discover all is not right with his neighbor. Without that plot artifice the whole movie falls flat.

I was not sure why Mike did not call the police when he could not get his son back from Oliver. All he did was run around crazed. I began to believe that he was hallucinating everything. How he got into the Federal building was stupid, with his friend telling everyone not to shoot. But an FBI man would not do that when even his friend is trying to drive into the building.

Edge of Darkness (2010)

A Question of Exact Timings

[5/10 · 3 July 2010]

I did question the timing in two sequences of this movie. First, his daughter gets shotgunned exiting the house while the rain is pouring down. So this means that the killer had to stand waiting in the pouring rain and be ready at the precise moment the front door is opened. Right!

Then the second split-timing needed to make sure the intended killer was right on time to the nano-second when the young woman exited the car so he (I assume it was a he) could hit her and demolish the passenger-side door. If he was a half-a-second early he would have missed, and half-a-second later the door would have escaped destruction.

The part at the end when he shoots the man in the kitchen was OK but surely he would have taken the pills the man was intending to take. Apparently the man thought they were some kind of antidote to radiation poisoning.

Why does Mel Gibson keep on forcing his views of religion on us? Having the "curtain call" ending was silly. It just says he thinks all of us will have a happy afterlife with a close one. Just plain nonsense.