rmt38 Reviews

Paris, Texas (1984)

Beautiful but boring

[1 March 2004]

A beautiful, well-made movie. Too bad it is only 20 minutes of storyline stretched out to movie length.

Man helps brother end his mindless wandering. Brother stays with man and slowly acts less weird. Brother meets his son who is staying with man and wife and being brought up as their son. Family refamiliarisation ensues and storyline progresses. All with a backdrop of North American countryside, cities and towns - mostly dreary dusty looking places.

I like movies in this style because they show what todays movies lack, this one however was missing something else that would have made it a joy to watch by keeping of your attention. I would only recommend it to watch in the background while you do something to occupy the rest of your attention.

Encrypt (2003 TV Movie)

How on earth does dreck written as badly as this actually get made?

[18 June 2003]

While Encrypt was watchable due to its ok production quality, the feeling this left me with was just how low quality the plot was and that this production was just made for the sake of making a sci-fi production.

The challenges faced by the protagonists during the show seemed like they were inserted just to pad out its length. In addition they weren't generally very interesting or convincing as actually being much of a challenge except to serve as an excuse to remove cast members. While the ending and direction of the storyline were moderately interesting, what role various cast members were going to play was pretty predictable given their shallow dialog and tacky names.

How on earth dreck written as badly as this actually gets made I have to wonder.

Just Married (2003)

Well made and more or less watchable but pointless

[21 May 2003]

While I enjoyed watching this movie as I do any well made comedy that doesn't rely on painful situations as the base of it's jokes, it is hard to work out what this movie is supposed to be.

The humour is only funny enough to be mildly amused by. I don't know much about directing and production, but I think the parties involved did a great job, for all its faults, it is a well made film. The storyline also works well. Good job there.

The character portrayals however come across as more like animal stereotypes than anything to be proud of. Ashton Kutcher makes a great "slow and dumb tortoise" and Brittany Murphy a "braying donkey". Whenever I try and recall Ashton speaking in this movie all I can picture is him slowly turning his head with a vapid look and saying "Duh-uh". And dear lord, please never let me have to listen to Brittany laugh again - its not that bad, but it certainly isn't good. Still, on the positive side, the laugh does fit in naturally with her tomboyish looks.

Whenever I see David Rasche (Sledgehammer!) in a film I know its going to be low quality and B grade. I'm glad I watched this movie if only to see that not he does get some roles in some better movies (better than the standard I expect to see him in).

Jeepers Creepers (2001)

Well made and entertaining but flakey characterisation

[6 September 2002]

This was one of the better horrors I have seen recently, the special effects were believable and the script and acting were both generally pretty good.

However, the continual stream of stupidity that the characters exhibited (possibly in order to build tension, but really building frustration with the characters) only served to weaken my suspension of disbelief. While I won't get into the specific spots in the movie where I felt this was the case, the symptoms were sudden unexplainable ignorance, dithering about and the use of bad logic to convince other characters to go along with ill conceived actions decreased the quality of a movie I otherwise enjoyed.

Despite the problems I had with it, I would thoroughly recommend this movie as an entertaining evening. It didn't have me looking over my shoulder as much as I sometimes do after watching a horror, but I was somewhat freaked after watching it.

But I'm a Cheerleader (1999)

A well made, but camp and vapid film.

[2/10 · 15 July 2002]

While there are many potentially interesting and involving storylines that might be derived from the concept of a cheerleader not thinking she was gay, but her family and friends thinking she was and sending her off to a correction camp - this isn't one of them. What it is, is a disinteresting and camp c-grade movie - at best.

On the bright side, it isn't badly made - the acting and production have resulted in a quality product (ignoring the storyline) especially considering it doesn't even attempt to be anything other than what it is.

Skin Deep (1989)

I laughed so hard I cried.

[10/10 · 15 July 2002]

This has to be the funniest movies I have ever seen. Its not everyones cup of tea and when you recommend it, most people tend to assume its pornographic from the title. Its also hard to find, at least in the video stores near where I live.

John Ritter adequately portrays a drunk letch who throughout the length of the movie moves from above water to rock bottom and back again, encountering many women along the way who have as many problems as he does - although theirs tend to be along the psychopathic line.

If you're willing to give this movie a chance given its age (13 years at this time) and are willing to judge it at the production and acting standards of its time (late eighties), then this might be one of your favourites, like it is mine.

Take Me (2001)

British drama series

[9/10 · 26 February 2002]

Entertaining british drama. Anything I have watched with Robson Green cast in it has been worth the effort, and this series is no exception. The story seems a little lacking, although it is very watchable despite this - having seen two episodes all I can say is "Man with troubled family and disrespectful/unfaithful wife solve (or aggravate) problems with wife swapping parties." Hes appeared in better things - most anything else hes worked on.