dale-51649 Reviews

Buried (2021)

Gal goes all"Salem Witch Trial" on Dad , yet it's still biased against him

[2/10 · 17 February 2024]

The story is about the gal who, as an adult, 20 years after the incident claims she saw her Dad murder her little friend, THEN SHE FORGOT ! ...

I'm not saying repressed memory hasn't ever happened , but if it has it is extremely rare. In this piece from the beginning , everyone from the DA to neighbors to inlaws to the press wanted to believe the narrative SOO BAD " when anything horrible happens blame the adult male in the equation - the older the better.

The filmmakers have a rag tag gaggle of uneducated people (medical wise) who make statements like the DA who says " he answered the door and said "you must have been talking to my daughter " therefore implication - GUILTY !!! There is a huge body of evidence against the man , but each is more ridiculous than the next: He had porno, he had X girlfriends who dissed him, then they dig up some haig who says he tried to strangle her at Disneyland as she gets her 15 min of fame , with us having no idea if it ever happened or not.

The filmmakers have all hear say ,w " nuts and sluts' like out of a ghetto alternative high school but no real evidence at all. I have read that Liz was arrested for prostituion and cocain, yet I dont know if its true as I can't find any details at all on the net. The media protects women from false allegations but not men whom they print all allegations both real and imagined .

In today's world of ambitious DA's and an infotainment complex that is desperate to believe the narrative "man bad, women and child good " that they convicted this man solely on her nutty testimony with no corroborative evidence at all. The poorly made documentary was by these filmmakers that still want to smear George Franklin. They should have said the truth -Is George Franklin a bad man ? Maybe , who knows ? We certainly can't tell by watching this oxygen network type piece.

Hijack (2023)

Made for tv predictable including always late single mom saves the day

[3/10 · 27 August 2023]

The quality of filming and acting is OK, and could have had an interesting story w a plane flying from Dubai to London being hijacked , so far so good, but then they have to check every box.... early on you are like "OK, the black guy is the hero, the white male grey pilot is a cheat and coward comp to the female co pilot, the yuppie white guy is lame, et al"

Then in the middle of all this the SUPER HERO single mom. She is running late driving her special needs boy to school, is yelled at by a fat dumb white man boss , but he takes a back seat when she shows up 20 min late and he sees she is figuring everything out. This is a bad influence on young girls, as they watch thinking " hummmmm...I'll mate w a man who won't stick around, be slovenly and tardy to work all the time but that will make me the best and brightest "...PROBLEM , these have no suspense as you can tell every characters character by their age weight and color, and everything is blamed on the adult white men, the older the better. I couldn't finish it.

Annihilation (I) (2018)

Slow and confusing , "Alienation" is more like it

[3/10 · 2 July 2023]

An all female group of techs and scientists go on a dangerous mission in which there has been some weird cross pollination between the animal and plant kingdoms, genetically speaking. This "psychedelic diversity" is causing weird and dangerous creatures to arise, but instead of approaching with caution this all girl band goes in full force, I guess to make them look all liberated and courageous .. Problem is, they switch back and forth between what seem to be discussions of evolution biology and the latest conversation on "The View". These gals all were and/ are pretty, but can they kick as&?

When they re made "The Thing " with chicks as the boss we saw the original was better . Yikes, Mix in a dude or two as the leaders, they might have made some better decisions at least and the "boy meets girl" subplot would have made it less boring, just sayin....

The Crowded Room (2023)

Good acting ,interesting but confusing story with major cred problems

[5/10 · 26 June 2023]

The acting is very good, almost good enough to overcome the confusing and incredible story about a young man caught up in a shooting.

Getting into the psych background of the protagonist would have been interesting if it wasn't presented in such a hackneyed, sensationalistic and incredible way. For example ; he is hit on by multiple different adult men who are close to him in same day ,when he is in THIRD GRADE. .... I'm not saying this has never happened , but , as an adult male I can tell you many of us (fortunately )got through childhood never having had the moves put on us by any adults at all, let alone by a male teachers and a close relative in the same day. No wonder guys are growing into adult men who are afraid to use a locker room.

As the story progresses the lady psychologist makes the diagnosis of "multiple personality disorder" which has recently been reclassified as "Dissociative identity disorder". The opinion on this controversial condition is as unstable as it's classification. Put it this way - it's more common in people who need an "out" for something they did wrong, sort of like the guy that took Ambien and then said he killed his wife while sleep walking. In addition , in the film they say it's always related to child sex abuse, which if it is present I guess could be related in some cases, but thats a couple of Menendez brothers type convenient out's for having blown a couple of people away.

There is no way to draw a straight line from child sex abuse and any psych disorder as an adult , let alone one that may not even exist . Screen writers seem to love psych diagnosis and profiling for a narrative , ie the evil adult male from the past made the angelic young person in the present do it, but teens and kids can be every bit as selfish and evil as adults, sometimes more. You may have seen this in "The Bad Seed" in the1950s but it doesn't fit the narrative they want today ,where they want it to all be blamed on the adult male in the equation . There are many other nebulocities in this , even for a piece about psych. "I didn't like his eyes" a cop quips when describing the evil dude. A long way from when Jack Webb used to say "just the facts ma'am".

The obsession with pedos and predators the Hollywood writers seem to have has rightly hatched the term "sexual McCarthyism" into the lexicon, as we now see not a commie but a pervert around every corner. . These actors are good enough to get us interested in their lives, then we become incredulous when the ridiculous backstory is told. It not only makes the story less interesting but sends a bad message , one that makes us increasingly suspicious of each other , if you are a male of the species at least. I haven't seen the ending, but don't have to - it will all be blamed on the adult male in the piece , the older the better.

Take Care of Maya (2023)

Confusing case, one sided presentation doesn't answer any questions

[3/10 · 20 June 2023]

The story is about a good looking upper middle class family that seems to have it all. The pre teen daughter then gets this weird "illness" that seems to have few, if any , objective findings . They find a doctor who gives her unusually high doses of Ketamine as treatment . When the kid's symptoms wax and wane and she smolders, the med staff rightfully suspect first class nuttiness from the family, which is a possibility.

Remember the Salem witch trials started w teen girl hysteria?, so anything is possible. Child protective services rightfully got involved because Munchausens syndrome by proxy, ie where a parent fakes symptoms or findings in their kid for attention, was suspected .

I don't know if this kid had real disease or not, but it is suspicious they had to go to Mexico to get the kind of treatment that their expensive doc wanted them to get. The kid can sit there pigeon toed all she wants , it doesn't prove she has true pathology or pain, and the documentary fails in that it shows all the adults in the room (ie the trained med staff) in a bad light and the family as noble victims. Makes you wonder.

When I was a kid we trusted the medical professionals to exam us etc., today we live in a litigious , hyper suspicious world where everything they do is suspect to the point of making us dysfunctional .

Hollywood (2020)

fantasy about not discriminating in a biz EVERYONE is excluded from anyway

[4/10 · 30 March 2023]

A fantasy film about Hollywood trying to be a meritocracy in which no one is excluded from participating , and with most people at least wanting to have integrity . Nice try, but in real life virtually everyone is excluded from Hollywood. Unless you are born connected, or won the genetic lotto for freakishly perfect looks, your chances of winning the multi million dollar lotto are greater than actually breaking into "The Biz" . The fact that they give lip service to even trying to be inclusive is ridiculous , we would all love a fun easy high paying job so why pretend it even can be a level playing field ?

The story is loosely based on a guy who owned a gas station in LA in the 1950s and pimped out some of his workers to mostly gay and some straight clientele . The guy existed in real life , but I dont believe the script follows the way things actually went down. They show many fairly attractive cougars paying a good looking guy for sex , and one recruits a friend to do the guys because he won't . They show a studio head struggling w his sexuality and then deciding to "do the right thing" and not partake although his wife is one of the above cougars who does , often. Many modern films seem to like to show the woman in the marriage straying while the husband as too moral to partake in any extra curricular activity , the opposite in real life. It's like if you took the sordid parts of Hollywood and ran it through a lifetime network spin machine , with a synthetic product spitting out shredded pieces into an un intelligible mass.

Industry (2020– )

Recent grads compete to become "Masters of the Universe"

[8/10 · 14 March 2023]

The story is about a group of recent grads hired by a high end bank to compete for spots on a tract to become some of the highest paid people IN THE WORLD. They have to master difficult material ( so do doctors) , work under very stressful conditions (so do Veterinary techs) and work long hours (so do heads of most very poor households ) but because of a peculiar political structure (ie congress paid off by lobbyists ) they get to be compensated as though they cure cancer X 100000... it is interesting to get a peek behind the curtain at the better looking versions of what these people do in real life, well, sort of.

In today's world there is of course a bit, well, quite a bit of nods to "woke" , including the "very intelligent " minority hire from a (relatively ) marginal Uni .....it all looked pretty cliche, but it got more interesting when the writers actually allowed said minority to be a realistically flawed human being. For example, she may not be a habitual liar, but she is certainly an expert.

All the woke-isms in it can best be summed up by a line from the stunning (perhaps shocking") Nicole when she says "you kids, someone gets a bit drunk, a bit handsy.... and you act as though the world is going to end" ...: The rationalization of a selfish sociopath ? Or words of wisdom from a mature pragmatist? Before you answer think: the victims of the so called 'sexual assaults 'aren't sure themselves which , and both their actions and words prove they don't know where to draw the line, especially when they put it in their p=back pocket to use as blackmail later. We all know a line has to be drawn , but is it fair when they keep moving it?

Generally when something goes wrong in these cases they blame the adult male in the equation, the older the better ,and this has a variation on that . However, these people are 24 year old adults not "children" , and they are competing to make millions of dollars. For them to think the world is going to end every time they are in an uncomfortable situation might be a reason most never do, or should, make it to the top.

Great acting, over the top sexual relations, like exaggerated real life if you turned the volume and color up to 11.

McMillions (2020)

Interesting doc with unusal suspense, very entertaining

[9/10 · 28 December 2022]

The doc is about a Mc Donalds game that was popular in the 90s, I didn't play it or even know about it. I don't eat there, and don't even take coupons as I don't need anymore crap around the house. However, a story about a big time scam that went on for years is interesting, to see what it was and how it was carried out, and how it was busted and prosecuted.

It could have been boring as, let's face it it isn't serial killing or mass murder. However, the main FBI agent is a very animated , entertaining character without being a drama queen. Because he could make talking about curling entertaining, it helps the show. In addition, the mystery of just who rattled the perp, and how the perp did it , is withheld cleverly until the end, and it keeps you watching.. Good job by the producers ,

imagine how good a documetry abut the Manson Family could be if made by these guys ?. I disagree with the reviewers who say it is too draged out :: Get on some meds and get an attention span I say, this was a complex case and hearing from all the players was a good thing.

The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)

A sad statement and/or refelction of male frienship today

[5/10 · 27 December 2022]

The movie is basically a buddy flick about a close friendship gone sour. The acting and scenery are great, but the story leaves much to be desired.

Brendon Gleeson and Colin Ferrell live in a small town set long ago. They lived at a time when Pub culture was still going, and men were allowed to socialize regularly . Suddenly and without explanation, Gleeson decides to end the friendship. Ferrell is understandably upset, and demands explanation , yet Gleeson refuses to give him one . The story unfolds around this somewhat weak premise.

Ferrell is friends with the town idiot, and it surfaces that father of said idiot is abusive. The story is both a sad reflection and statement about male friendship in our world today. They have the obligatory scene where they make it clear that the friendship is entirely platonic. This device was unnecessary in films made decades ago, yet in films made recently they seem to have to rub our noses in it. In addition , the innuendo about sexual abuse of the idiot was unnecessary and offensive. Not only was it not very credible in the context , but may be part of the reason they have to pay adult men to work in the " Big Brother " program, as men are rightfully afraid of an allegation of abuse . It also sent the message that the state of simply "being naked" was abusive, and may be one of many reasons we now have many grown men afraid to use a locker room.

The ending of the story was the only good part, as it was a surprise and the writers didn't chicken out. However, they could have written a good story about friendship going south with some realistic moving parts like we have in real life. It was a missed opportunity to examine male friendship realistically and sadly correlates with the data showing men have less close friends today than their grandfathers did. Maybe guys would have more friends if they made more movies that didn't mention sex, as the vast majority of male friendships don't have any.

The Old Man (2022– )

Good acting and story wrecked by woke offspring worship

[4/10 · 23 August 2022]

John Lithgow and Jeff Bridges are excellent seasoned actors , and the story started off mysterious and interesting. Some federal agents are communicating with an operative someone is trying to kill, and it captures your interest. There are some good action scenes and it peaks your interest, but Shortly after it starts with the requisite preaching : The not even "butter faced" chick obsessed over by fathers, father figures, total strangers et al. And she will beat anyone to a pulp who looks at her cross eyed .

The hackneyed theme of "girl needs father" is strangely pounded into us in a world where so many boys don't have one, but seems to be the narrative du jour. It's as though the writers had a checklist - homely , mouthy chick obsessed over by all, -check; said chick emasculates guy-check; woman gets half of everything a man earns doing little or nothing-check... They check every box except "entertaining " yet don't seem to care. A potentially good series ruined by the 'all woke no joke' writers room, and it's a shame. Many in the audience cringe every time they suffer another preachy point, and it makes you want to root for the bad guys, who are mainly of course, guys....

Barry (2018–2023)

Hitman seeks and finds drama, dark comedy runs from sublime to cheesy

[6/10 · 9 July 2022]

Bill Hader does a good job as Barry , the conflicted hitman just looking for an excuse to get out. He finds it in an acting class, with a goofy gaggle of stereotypical LA wannabes. Interesting premise and the plot unfolds into subplots that run from the ridiculous to the sublime.

There are dramatic scenes that are good and serious, cool group scenes of the class kibitzing and star fu*&ing like mad, then un funny scenes that are just plain silly. It might be an 8 or 9, but it can't decide what it wants to be - serious drama about a Vet ? Zany comedy with a laugh gag a minute ? Chilling psychodrama about the inner conflict of a guilt ridden criminal who is a nice guy at heart?

Problem is PTSD goes about as well with comedy as ketchup on ice cream ie NOT !

Defending Jacob (2020)

Good story but poor acting; Ken and Barbie's son finds trouble

[5/10 · 20 May 2022]

The production quality and story are good, although the dialogue is quite predictable. The main character parents look and act like models, literally and figuratively. Do parents really treat their kids like this today ? Apologies for yelling even when the kid royally F 's up? If so , no wonder we are in so much trouble, but I digress.... They should have made this less like a made for tv movie and more like one of those gritty Brit flicks - w acting heavy on quality and more gnarly in the looks department, more realistic looking. If they had done that the good "who done it" w a nice twist would have unfolded in a way we could buy into. Points for keeping me entertained and some good suspense, negative points for hiring Ken and Barbie instead of Indy players. I actually liked the ending, they didn't (totally ) chicken out at least...

Our Father (III) (2022)

Overdramatized documentary from vaguely interesting to silly

[2/10 · 13 May 2022]

The doc is about a doctor who was suppose to inseminate women with donor sperm from physicians in training, and instead he used his own. I understand that what the doctor in this case did was wrong, although it may be surprising that it was apparently not illegal.

In the cases which he was supposed to use a medical student donor but used his own sperm instead, he was cheap and lazy, because he didn't have to pay a donor. However, it was also dangerous and you shouldn't populate a small community with too many siblings who don't know it, it's risky they could marry each other. Otherwise there is not a big difference between him using himself or a medical students sperm . For any individual it should not implode their world , and if it does I suggest they watch what is going on in the Ukraine or Mexico or India, and observe what abject poverty and war are like.

Now, for those which he was supposed to use the husbands sperm , that seems like legal action would be warranted as there is a big difference between thinking your own husband's sperm was used and his. For those who were supposed to be from a donor though, I don't understand the level of hysterics whether it was from the doctor or some other donor .

The filmmakers overlay of dramatic music just comes off as silly. The main blond that started the case, seemed to be very vindictive . Brining up a horrible accident the doctor had had just seemed vindictive to me. They also talk about masturbation as though it's disgusting, but any donor who gave sperm would have to masturbate to produce it, either doctor Cline or a medical student. I agree w the reviews who asked "would you rather have not been born"?

"I want him punished " was a line by the main blonde . That would have made a nice title for the piece

"I feel like he is hiding something , more sinister".... Oh I think what he did was plenty to hide, he didn't have to be up to anything else on top of it.

The Mystery of Marilyn Monroe: The Unheard Tapes (2022)

Supposedly new tapes spliced w old footage devolve into cheesy gossip

[3/10 · 28 April 2022]

Having grown up in LA I enjoyed the old footage of the monster city , especially the stuff from the 40s before they torn down half the great buildings and replaced them w cheap , soulless crap. The voice overlay has a very creepy, forbidding sound score behind it, hovering over each clip as though the monster of Marilyns childhood abuse was about to jump out at any time. Eventually, you get the idea there was a monster, but it was in the form of rich, powerful men who she threw herself at... OH , as if THAT has never happened before. LOL..... Problem is , this was pre woke, so the kind of sexual harassment we all had assumed was legal in Hollywood hadn't been monetized by greedy lawyers yet. Maryily even had a line in a movie , when they pointed out the big producer she was going to have to "entertain" , she quipped " why do they always have to look like little rabbits ?"

Another problem is that whenever you hear any gossip about dead people regarding their sex lives , you have to take it with about a half ton of salt. This piece is no different, actors lip synching w alleged tapes of people who knew Marilyn talking about her , mostly with hearsay ,opinion and conjecture . The film maker seems to want to make many of the men in her life especially the Kennedys look as sleazy as possible , and he succeeds . However , there are two sides to every story, and if the major players were alive today I bet they would give us an earful about how inaccurate it all is.

The worst is where they try to convince us that this poor gal , hooked on pills by a studio that had no business turning doctors into puppets for them, was supposedly rubbed out because she "knew too much" . In any case, she was a high risk as we all were when barbiturates were used , w their high LD 50, for sleep and ambien hadn't been invented yet. She wasn't ever considered a very good actress, and her amazing looks were beginning to fade, so it's surprising that she is actually far more famous now than she was at the time of her death.

A Wilderness of Error (2020)

Cheesy documentary on hackneyed case, Groovy..NOT !

[2/10 · 24 April 2022]

"KILL THE PIGS, ACID IS GROOVY" was all I needed to hear back when Mc Donald was first charged, I was a high school student at a public school in LA , where you could get a Phd in street pharmacology at the time. Thisdoc is Cheesy, it has re enactments that look cheaply done, and the worst thing is the musical score, it's al perky and plucky, like they are covering a case of a Cat lady that dresses up her pets and pushes them in baby carriages as neighbors giggle. COM'ON ... ITS about murder of children . The old dude Morris who made it they say made good stuff before, he must be loosing it, or just needed the bucks.. He also didn't really press on the famous line . In the made for tv movie , I didn't watch it but saw a guy in part of it on the stand saying "nobody in that world would talk that way" referring to the kill the pigs acid is groovy " take. Groovy was a word used by parents and 40 year old plus film producers back then, not hippy dippies.

Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?) (2010)

Cringe inducing glossy piece on a good singer/songwriter

[3/10 · 2 March 2022]

I love rock history and looked forward to a doc on an artist I knew nothing about. Expecting an MTV Behind the music type thing, instead I got an Hallmark card thing. They even film these overly glossy , with everybody all smily . It needs a dose of grit, which all lives have especially musicians. Cringe inducing smiley boomers talking about another boomer, where is a little edge ? No spoilers because I couldn't finish it/

The Ripper (2020)

The Ripper does more ripping of all men than interesting facts about the case

[4/10 · 28 January 2022]

As a bit of an anglophile I enjoyed the footage of the retro UK and the unfolding of the horrible case of serial murders . It did drag a bit , then they started to interview people that seemed to be more inserted for some woke preaching than to actually examine the case . When porcine uber feminists "Ms". Bindel is interviewed, and (Yikes!) she complains about incompetent police telling women to not go out alone while men still could, "we weren't the ones doing the killing, we needed protection " she barked, "men are the enemy" graffiti is shown on screen. Subtle. She's frightening ! Men might say "we aren't the one doing the killing either, the killer is, we are the ones trying to catch him". This person added nothing other than to insult half the populace and the police. Then another woman reporter describes this massive campaign where they posted handwriting and clues to try to get a lead as a " massive PR campaign ". The police had worked their arses off on this case but PROBLEM ! When most of the victims are prostitutes it IS actually hard to catch the killer. Stereotyping men is no better than stereotyping women and it doesn't help us it divides us. Most of the police officers who are still alive seemed interesting and sincere, and the worked some grueling hours to try to solve it. I would say the massive effort people made to try to catch this psychopathic creature should be commended.

Aileen Wuornos: American Boogeywoman (2021)

Cheaply made with bad acting and revisionist history,

[1/10 · 23 January 2022]

I had seen "Monster" and read about the case. Why they would make this cheesy thing is beyond me , other than to cash in on a post woke , blame the male in the equation no matter what, the older the better... I know they did a Monica Lewinsky reboot to cast her as an innocent (24 year old) "child" who was a victim of the President. In this piece of garbage, they show Wuornos in the first scene instead of sneaking a gun out on the guy, fighting some big bubba like a female MMA fighter and beating him. I had enough at that point .

Mankind the Story of All of Us (2012)

The PC revisionist history of Mankind

[1/10 · 21 January 2022]

I had just finished watching a doc about the first people, which was quite detailed and included a lot of molecular genetics. This was like jumping from the hot tub into the snow, 180 degree change from smart to downright dumb. We have known Mt Everest climber and historian Josh Brolin condescendingly rambling as though he is talking to a small child- "A woman has an idea to invent farming and change the course of the world" (I paraphrase) WTF ? GIRL POWER LOL...Why didn't they just thrown in Max Plank's wife whispered in his ear the ideas behind quantum mechanics ?... or was that another documentary ? No but, seriously they don't even get the timeline right, they don't even touch on the recent enlightened genetic analysis contributions to tracing man's history, and they have a bunch of religious stuff in it that is not history. It seems like it was written by Bible belt fundamentalists , don't waste your time.

Rewind (III) (2019)

Well made documentary lets us peek into what we regret even seeing

[9/10 · 16 January 2022]

Well made documentary by a man who as a kid just happened to have had much of his childhood documented on film. His dad was a video cam freak, and his uncle was a ham to boot. They seemed like a nice typical if somewhat goofy jewish family, but things are not always as they seem.....Sasha Neulinger is the main character, and we see him as an entertaining child, with his cute "cabbage patch kid" looks mugging for the camera . You get the impression he is a typical larval "class clown" with a slightly more cynical bent than average. But it turns out there is more than meets the eye.

As he ages he becomes more obese, and he develops a dark side to his sarcastic wit . As time progresses he gets downright scary, physically hurting his innocent, cherubic little sister. Later, he is filmed doing lewd, wickedly disturbing looking dances in his under-roos, which for good reason seem to shock and appall his mother .....

Sasha's "acting out" goes beyond even a boy at the bottom of the social food chain with his peers, and you wonder "what is going on ?" Turns out there is reason to be concerned- there were multiple pedophiles within the family abusing these poor children, and what makes it particularly chilling is that we have gotten to know them already on camera, and other than being an amusing gaggle of hamish goofballs there was nothing out of the ordinary you could pick up. The media and plaintiffs lawyers has led us to obsess over Catholic priests, somehow forgetting that the incidence of pedophila is the same across all denominations , and it can happen anywhere, most often actually within our owns families .

John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky (2018 TV Movie)

Imagine no possessions ?; What a horrible thought .

[4/10 · 16 December 2021]

It's kind of ironic that it has been a full half century since one of rock's most famous couples paired up, and in that time period the infotainment complex seems to have not grown up at all . Instead, they cover the couple more like a pre teen girl from the Valley would have , and not one who was either very hip or particularly bright. It's all rainbows and unicorns showing John and Yoko as two great artists in the infatuation phase of love.

Well, they may have that half right, but I lived thru the time and although this piece seems to get the whole Yoko thing, at the time it seemed like NOBODY did. . Back when they met up I was about 14 , and my seemingly old at the time 35 year old mom was puzzled as to why John wouldn't have scored someone better looking . Yep, we were superficial back then too. Now you have everyone from rock's bad girl Chrissy Hynde to documentary film makers making these infomercials claiming they totally got it . Also, I thought I heard she stalked John as a groupie and thats how they met?, but whatever...

When it comes to the song IMAGINE , its "aight" but they way over think it. "It's Yokos words" ? Are you kidding me ? True story : I remember hearing the song in my bedroom when I was 15 and was on acid, and frankly, it sounded like a kiddie romper room thing, a glorified nursery rhyme . Granted, the drug had messed w my filters and perception but, the song can only be given so much credit. Didn't they live on Central Park ? Perhaps the lyrics would have been better w a Yoko contribution like :"Imagine no possessions, what a horrible thought "....singed: Yoko Ono, Central Park South.

The Forever Prisoner (2021)

Details the "Enhanced interrogation " of one post 9/11 detainee

[5/10 · 7 December 2021]

The filmmaker did an incredible job scoring interviews with people involved in the torture of a detainee in the frenetic post 9/11 world. A substantial majority of Americans had believed we were above this activity, and also that it didn't work, since people will tell you anything they think you want to hear when you inflict enough pain.

A perpetually smiley Ali Soufan gushes about questioning prisoner Abu Zubaydah , yet makes sure he emphasis that "he would nut interview him naked, he would nut go in"... I don't know why he was so determined that we know this, when the man had been hung by his arms, waterboarded, sleep deprived with screaming music , froze, and had multiple other horrid things done to him that sounded like torture . It reminded me of when John Wayne Gacy had killed like 35 dudes yet when interviewed he kept adamantly exclaiming that "he wasn't gay".

They had a psychologist named Mitchell with no experience interrogating writing up basically torture techniques for interrogation. I am amazed they got him to talk about it on camera . They should have taken a tip from physicians and not to let psychologists do to much damage by limiting them to talk therapy only , they are not allowed to prescribe drugs , they shouldn't be allowed to prescribe so called "interrogations ".

This was well made but the content made me less proud of my country than I was before. Well made, but it made me too depressed to give it more than an ambivalent score.

Bill Burr: Paper Tiger (2019 TV Special)

He's funny but could have been better

[6/10 · 6 December 2021]

Typical Burr, but it seemed watered down, maybe he should have stayed single. Not saying he's gone all woke, he did push the envelope, sort of.... he talked about being married and fighting w the wife , just didn't seem that fresh. I'll wait for his divorce show to expect anything better.

Yellowstone (2018– )

Red meat junk food for the tough bloke , but ultimately very woke.

[5/10 · 3 December 2021]

The story is about a land wealthy rancher and his three kids. The ranch has been in the family for 100 years and he wants to keep it unmutilated by development . The woke crowd and the Fox News junkies make strange bedfellows , but we are in a strange new world of screenwriting and they each may find something bingeable in Yellowstone.

This is a hi end soap opera masquerading as a rural, right wing Sopranos when it's anything but. It has similarities, as with a macho patriarch running his empire, but Yellowstone is no Elizebeth New Jersey, and Kevin Costner is no James Gandolfini .

Coster has two sons and a daughter, but his favorite son is actually the daughter, Beth. She can punch, kick , bite , spit cuss and generally fight with the best of um, but of course being a woman no one is allowed to hit her back. She teases Costner about the "anatomy lesson" as she watches him change after a shower, while the guys self consciously change under a damp towel tent when around each other , millennial style. Beth has most of the wisdom and all of the power, and she can do "anything she wants to NA NANA NA NA".

Problem is , to relate to or sympathize with a character , they have to have some redeeming qualities , and Beth has none. Her father and brothers have done back breaking ranch work, her brother Jamie went to Harvard and to law school and learned the complex legal maze of contract and real estate law. Beth inherited her land and power, having worked in "financial services" , a group of people who have to hire out the real brains from MIT to do the heavy lifting (credit default swap, anyone)?. To present her as an example of a strong , powerful woman does a disservice to women, and to strong and powerful while you are at it. She comments that women should lead because they have "all the P and half the money ," true , thats power but power can be abused too.

1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything (2021)

Revisionist history focused on Rock's greatest year :1971 "Love Peace ,Dope"

[5/10 · 10 November 2021]

Having been in my early teens that year, I was very interested in and agree 1971 was Rock music's greatest year. There was a lot of good music featured and a lot of good footage.. for me.... but for someone not my age I would think it would be kind of boring. In addition, they cover it w a weird post woke view of what actually (didn't ) happen. For example trying (desperately ) to show Yoko in a good light, w a voice overlay of Chrissy Hynde "hard chick of rock" gushing that "she was into the whole John and Yoko thing" WTF ? I lived thru it and NOBODY was into the "whole john and yoko thing". Even my Moms who was really old at the time, like 35 was appalled that John wasn't with someone "prettier"... Yep, we were superficial back then too. It was like Hynde was trying to throw a bone to the feminists after she T'd them off for saying she was passed around by bikers as a teen but it was her fault. They also over dramatize everything. Jim Morrison wasn't a violated artists poet who hated being a puppet ... He was the consummate rock star who was ill and couldn't work very well, he was an addict and when your drug of choice is alcohol it really shows. I think he liked being a rock star with the girls money and fame, but like all addicts it effects their work performance drastically when they get ill enough.

The doc is good for people of a certain age who are able to tune out the agenda overlay. The Boomers were the last American generation raised with a chain of authority and thus the last likely to have the discipline to practice an instrument 12 hours a day and make great music. Kids today have been too coddled and just want to push electronic buttons and get famous, let the music be synthetic and their world be as well, and they will drown in the votes of pop. The boomers were more noble because of their childhoods, but they weren't as noble as the writers of this thing wish they had been, remember the Stones penned "Stupid Girl" a song likely banned by the woke crowd of today... Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.