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Reviews
Great Expectations (2011)
Not Very Faithful to the Novel
I'll not comment on the casting or acting, nor on the photography, lighting, or other technical aspects of the production. For me, the most important aspect of any adaptation of a Dickens novel is the degree to which the adaptation is faithful to the novel. And, in that respect, this production fails miserably. Many of the characters are portrayed in a way that is very different from the way they are depicted in the novel, including Herbert Pocket, Mr. Jaggers, Miss Havisham, Uncle Pumblechook, and especially Joe. And, while it cannot be expected that every event in the novel could be crammed into a three-hour production, some important events are missing, and others are shown out of order; for example, Herbert Pocket marries and departs for Egypt before Magwich arrives, even though, in the novel, Pip is assisted in his effort to spirit Magwich out of the country by Herbert and Startop (a minor character who is omitted from most productions). One of worst aspects of the production is the insertion of scenes that are not in the novel, and which are wholly out of harmony with Dickens' writing, such as the scene where Pip goes to a brothel with Drummel. Worst of all, though, is the almost total replacement of Dickens' words with new dialogue. It is almost as if the screenwriter was thinking, "I can do a better job of telling the story than this Dickens guy." The bottom line is, if you love Dickens' work in general, and Great Expectations in particular, you would do well to skip this version.
Lost (2004)
Gilligan's Island Recast
I did not watch Lost when it originally aired, but my wife recently binged-watched the entire series on Netflix, so I could not avoid catching quite a bit of it. In my opinion, the show is basically Gilligan's Island with an airplane and without the laughs. The basic premise is just as silly, and the plot lines are just as implausible, as well as being incredibly convoluted. It seems that the longer the show ran, the more desperate the writers became to come with something - anything - to keep the show going so the network could keep making money. And, with a show like Lost, that was not a problem, because the writers were not constrained by having to have so much as a grain of reality in the scripts. Plus, with such a large cast, they could come up with an endless variety of personal and social conflicts to keep viewers tuning in. I know that to enjoy any TV show or movie, one must have a willing suspension of disbelief, but I am not willing to suspend my disbelief to that degree. I hope I never have to watch this kind of tripe again.
Charlie Victor Romeo (2013)
Good Concept, Lousy Execution
The concept of this movie - using transcripts of cockpit voice recordings to re-enact air crashes - should have made for an intriguing, even fascinating, motion picture, and the producers obviously invested much effort and money in the 3-D animations, which are very good.
Unfortunately, they either didn't have enough money left or didn't care enough to make the live action portions of the movie even remotely realistic. A single cockpit mock-up is used for all the vignettes, regardless of the type of aircraft involved, and it seems to have been made as simply and cheaply as possible, since it's not much better than the cardboard cockpit set of the infamous "Plan 9 From Outer Space." Also, just a few actors are employed, and we see the same faces over and over. Even the uniforms worn are identical in each vignette, regardless of the airline involved, and are not very well done.
But, for me, the last straw was that we are not even told what caused each crash, nor anything of the aftermath, and are left wondering what went wrong and what, if anything, was done to prevent a recurrence.
As a result of the poor production values for the live action sequences and the omission of facts needed to answer questions viewers will certainly have, I cannot recommend this movie.