rjschneid47 Reviews

Texas Killing Fields (2011)

Crappy audio dragged it down

[5/10 · 23 June 2023]

There is a lot to this film, and it is the kind of film I like, but the audio track was so lousy, it detracted from the experience. I could barely decipher anything that Sam Worthington said throughout. This is the new trend in film making -- unintelligible dialogue. I'll have to watch it again with headphones to track the two storylines. I'm getting tired of directors or whoever is advising them or the producers coming up with films or series where either the music mix is so amateurish (like Dick Wolf) that it gets in the way, or you cannot make out much of the dialogue. The piece is gritty and visually well done. I can tell it's a worthwhile detective story, but for the challenging audio. One thing I can say, is that you will be uncomfortable through much of it.

The Ipcress File (2022)

Very good spy thriller fix

[10/10 · 10 March 2023]

There are some of us on the planet who just need to get our spy story fixes. We are forced to find them where we can. How often have I watched le Carre's "TTSS" (the Guinness Smiley) or "Smiley's People", or listened to the BBC radio dramatization of "The Honourable Schoolboy"? I've lost count. Or the Deighton adaptation of "GSM" with the marvelous Ian Holm (whom Deighton detested!). Or Hitchcock's 1936 "Sabotage" or his 1935 "The 39 Steps". This rendition of "The Ipcress File" satisfies that need. I'll go back now and find the Michael Caine version from 1965, and its sequels. The period look created in this newer version is a joy to watch. Pace it if you can. Spread it out over a week or more, but enjoy it, for it is worth your time. The reviews claiming Cole to be too young for Harry Palmer are pure bunk. Caine was 32 when he starred in "The Ipcress File". Cole is 35. And Tom Hollander is certainly making his mark in this genre.

High Water (2022– )

It almost too real

[9/10 · 21 February 2023]

High Water is dang near too realistic, so much so it bothered me. It upset my stomach. It made me uncomfortable. Its characters were rough. Its scenes were rough. Rough, in realistic. I did not like watching, yet I watched as the water rose and as the people, hundreds of them it seemed, rose in panic with the coming flood. I knew it was based on the real Polish flood of the nineties. I knew it was a fictionalized account. I had trouble suspending disbelief and accepting that what I was watching was not real. I searched the internet to find out what real flood they used as a backdrop. I wanted to know if this film crew was at the ready to film their entire story during a real flood. Yet I had produced enough videos (industrials; two-column corporate scripts; what can I say; I didn't want to mess with screenplays and Hollywood types, ever) to know the series could not have been shot during a real flood. Articles online said nothing about that, only the locations. Late in the series I had to accept I was looking at a set for some of the city scenes. The stuff by the river and the reservoir and dam scenes all seemed too real. They added to my growing discomfort. The sets, the locations, the actors, the extras, the ways of life portrayed were frayed at the edge, not the coiffed and manicured look of the travelog thrillers on Acorn TV. The discomfort comes from the roughness of life in Poland (as opposed to suburban LA or Vancouver) and because this sort of thing actually occurs in real life; it is not an attack from made up aliens, for example. The overdubbing needs getting used to, but it beats most of what is on American broadcast television, and there is a bit of a Hollywood ending, but High Water is well worth watching.

--Richard J. Schneider, Author of the Vic Bengston Investigation mystery novel series at Amazon.

The School for Good and Evil (2022)

Why I'm not a fan of this genre

[1/10 · 8 February 2023]

When I saw Jurassic Park and the CGI that made it I said to myself, "Self, now they can make The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings." They did and it worked, but I guess my interest in the magic of this genre began and ended with Tolkien. Now, years later, CGI has gone mad and this genre seems to have tagged along with it. This film is too long, too tedious, too boring, too poorly written, too over produced too over acted, and the music mix? God, it made me wish for silence! The director did get his money's worth out of that gloppy floating blood EFX though. Even with my diminished interest in the post Tolkien magic shows, this was a colossal waste of time. Give me Hitchcock's The 39 Steps any day.

Outer Range (2022– )

Something isn't quite right

[6/10 · 5 May 2022]

I began with high hopes, Josh Brolin, Will Patton and all, but petered out at 7:55 into episode 6. I know it is me, not you, but there were no characters I even remotely liked or cared for, except Deputy Sheriff Joy. Maybe she will solve the murder, or, heck, maybe Patton's fictional son will return to life because of the hole in the ground on Brolin's fictional ranch. I like time warp stuff, but this is unraveling even too slowly for me, and I am patient. Others have liked it though, and I do not fault them, but I am headed back to finish The Looming Tower.

Stowaway (I) (2021)

Runs out of air

[2/10 · 26 April 2021]

I couldn't even get to the end of this one. Hey! Yet another plot where the crew is running out of air, this time because of a stowaway. I nodded off when it was explained why this guy was even on board, and I was not interested enough to go back and replay that little explanation. The scientist hands the stowaway a poison hypo and tells him to do the right thing, that it won't hurt. I petered out, guess when? When Zoe the doctor was frantically running around the spacecraft looking for a way to save everyone. She probably did, but I just wasn't interested by this point to find out if she succeeded. The flick looks like yet another vehicle for the thousands of CGI artists schools are cranking out so everything we see, hear, do, and interact with is virtual rather than real. Looks like the set builders on this made some good coin. Oh, for some real science fiction.

Into the Blue (I) (1997 TV Movie)

TV mystery fans will not be disappointed.

[7/10 · 15 April 2014]

While a bit of Inspector Morse comes through, Thaw pulls it off with a working class persona. We get to follow him through his investigation, and this is the most appealing type of mystery for me. Thaw's Harry Barnett is as tenacious as is his Morse (created by novelist Colin Dexter). Harry is driven mostly by two forces, his attempt to disprove his involvement in a disappearance of a woman and his lifelong relationship with a wealthy former politician, Alan Dysart. But the more questions he asks, the more questions arise about his longtime friend. The connection between the very beginning of the film and its ending works, provides an added twist (there is one right before the end as well), and brought the (film) story full circle, including the exchange of an important gift between two main characters (Barnett and Dysart), bound together through life experiences. You will not be disappointed.

As an author of mystery novels and an observer of the two industries (print & film), the media are so different that I often discount the "it did not follow the book" criticisms. Most viewers of the film never have nor ever will read the novel. We writers need to bank the movie checks and move on to the next book.