dcornibe Reviews

Blues Brothers 2000 (1998)

I like John Goodman, but...

[2/10 · 23 March 2022]

...I really wish, if they were going to do a sequel, they would have done something between the time of the original and the time of this movie's release that would have featured the late great Stevie Ray Vaughan! Now that's the Blues!

I only saw this movie once, but between the re-hashed orphanage bit with the kid and the Louisiana voodoo, this movie really didn't do anything for me. Wasn't needed.

Jazz (2001)

Good, but no Vince Guaraldi?

[9/10 · 11 January 2022]

Overall, as a noob to jazz and not really having a background in it or music training, I enjoyed this documentary and learned a lot about jazz. I was, however, a bit disappointed that there was absolutely no mention of Vince Guaraldi. Granted, in the overall scheme of things, he was never that big, except for the fact that he was only the guy who scored nearly all of the Peanuts specials, including A Charlie Brown Christmas - the 2nd best-selling jazz album of all time next to Miles Davis' Kind of Blue. "Linus and Lucy" has got to be one of THE most recognizable jazz tunes ever. It brought a lot of non-jazz enthusiasts to jazz, including me. And outside of Peanuts, he composed some really sweet-sounding tunes, like "Cast Your Fate to the Wind". Anyway, I know this doc was pretty long as it was, but they should have at least had a short blurb about him. Outside of Dave Brubeck, there was hardly anything mentioned about West Coast/Cool Jazz.

Also, towards the end I expected at least some mention of the formation of the annual New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (Jazzfest). Nothing mentioned about that.

RiffTrax Live: Santa Claus (2015 Video)

Not as funny as the MST3K version

[7/10 · 9 December 2021]

The riffs in the MST3K version were spot-on and at times, fall-over hilarious; these riffs in the Rifftrax Live version fall flat, although a few are funny. (Why couldn't they have stuck with the original riffs?) I also don't like when they do the picture-in-picture effect showing the guys in panels next to the film as they riff; it takes away from the humor. Still, the film transfer looks better here and more colorful, and includes the full version of the movie as opposed to MST3K's edited version (although most of the extra scenes drag out the movie a bit and don't contribute much). All in all, I'll stick with the MST3K version for maximum laughs.

The Beatles: Get Back (2021)

Moving, engaging

[9/10 · 27 November 2021]

This is only Day 2 of the 3-day Thanksgiving 2021 rollout, but so far I love it! SO much better than "Let It Be" (wonder what Michael Lindsey-Hogg would think of this cut, and why HE didn't do this!?). I was moved when both George and John were out of the studio one day, and SPOILER ALERT Paul contemplates the seemingly inevitable breakup of The Beatles, saying, "And then there were two," with a long pause afterwards as he thinks about what he just said, and both he and Ringo get emotional as they must have both considered the weight of it, after they've all been together since they were teenagers. Pure gold! I can't believe this hasn't been released before! And I don't have to bootleg it, haha! Heck, if they just released ALL the 60+ hours of raw footage as a series, I would still watch it. It should be required viewing for all college music majors who want to study composition, as it dives deep into the creative process of some of the greatest songwriters of all time, how they came up with the lyrics as they went along, etc., and under deadline pressure.

The only reason I gave it 9 stars instead of 10 is because of the pretty lengthy intro on Part 1 that recaps their entire career, which I'm sure most people know well by now. I wanted them to get right into the documentary footage for Get Back/Let It Be.

The Karate Kid (1984)

Wonderful story and characters, not your typical cheesy martial arts movie! Score underrated.

[10/10 · 8 March 2020]

There are plenty of reviews here about the plot and characters, so I won't rehash all that here; suffice it to say everything about this movie is great - the writing, the sensitive directing, the acting, and the story. It has everything from the big moments that make you cheer to the more quiet, personal scenes that are beautifully carried out.

Superbly aiding all of this is Bill Conti's score (which has recently been released in Limited Edition by La La Land Records, good job!). My only disappointment with this movie is that Bill Conti wasn't even nominated for an Oscar for this beautiful score. He certainly deserved it. Better score than Rocky IMO.

Star Trek: Enterprise: These Are the Voyages... (2005) Season 4, Episode 22

Speech!

[2/10 · 9 February 2015]

I'm not going to repeat what's been said so many times here, except to say that Tucker's death was just TOTALLY stupid, and the way he reacted to the aliens and the takeover situation in this episode is just completely out of his character, even for him.

That said, my MAIN complaint about the episode is that they completely CUT OFF Archer's speech he was about to make at the delegation. Riker and Troi basically say, "OK, we're done here", and shut off the hologram. ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME?? This was *the* pivotal moment, the reason I watched all those seasons of Enterprise. That was THE speech that started the Federation, for crying out loud! And they just shut it off right there! Talk about a tease! That's like someone turning off the Superbowl right during the winning pass! You just don't do that. They wasted so much screen time with Riker and Troi (whom I could see anytime with 7 seasons and 4 movies of TNG), that they didn't have enough time for us to hear the immortal words that created the Federation! I hope the writers at least made up some text on the Star Trek website we could check out for ourselves. I was getting really interested in this back story for Star Trek; it was really curiosity about that, that got me interested in watching Enterprise in the first place.

Also, about the Chef: if they wanted to somehow tie in TNG, instead of making this a stupid holodeck episode, they could have simply revealed (since they never mentioned in the whole series the Chef's name, nor did you ever see him/her) that the Chef was an ancestor of Riker, played by Jonathan Frakes...maybe just one short cameo scene...I would have appreciated that better than the waste of valuable screen time with the stupid holodeck stuff and interchange between Riker and Troi.

The Core (2003)

Not great, but okay

[1 March 2004]

First of all, at least it was a little more realistic than Jules Verne's classic "Journey to the Center of the Earth." I don't remember much about that novel (and movies made based on that novel), but weren't there creatures depicted living at the center of the earth!!!??? And they call that classic literature?

I did have a problem with the scientific plausibility of this movie, but hey, it's a feature film, not a documentary! So I kept that in mind and suspended my disbelief, and I enjoyed the ride. But on that subject of plausibility, I'm not a geologist or scientist of any kind, but I did have the following issues with this movie:

* I'm not sure how Project DESTINY would have caused the core to stop spinning. The movie doesn't really explain that.

* If the core did stop spinning, and we had these EM problems that threatened all life, kiss your butt goodbye, because there's not any object on earth that could withstand the heat and the pressure.

* Even if we could build such a thing, to me it would be wise NOT TO MAKE IT MANNED, but like a probe that you could control remotely like Voyager or the vehicle we sent to Mars. It's too risky to put humans into the center of the earth!

* By the way, if the EM field was decaying and all electronic devices were failing, how could the nerd and all the govt. agents operate the computers!?

* If you dropped a number of nuclear bombs in the center of the earth, and it made waves that rippled throughout the outer core and mantle, that ship would be GONE. Ripples that large through the whole earth would cause the earth to blow up, not just "heal itself" (I hate that term anyway) by multiple earthquakes all over the planet.

* The ship builder (I forget his name) would not have survived going out into heat twice as hot as his suit was designed.

* On that subject, I feel that even though Rebecca had to make "life or death" situations, some of those lives (particularly that of the ship builder) could have been saved. The navigator seemed to just push buttons and exterminate people at will.

Final note - I wish the DVD had included the original theatrical trailer, because as I remember the trailer the movie was marketed with an almost totally different plot. The trailer emphasized the government project to cause earthquakes at various points on the planet, but it backfired to cause electrical anomalies so something had to be done about it. But in the final movie that aspect of the plot is only briefly talked about. It's like they decided to reverse the plot to emphasize the effect rather than the cause.

Tune in Tomorrow... (1990)

horrible

[7 June 2002]

This movie is so typical of Hollywood's treatment of New Orleans' language and culture. I am a native of New Orleans, and neither I nor anyone I've known down there has that extreme southern drawl that is depicted in this movie (and in many others, such as JFK). Keanu Reeves' accent was especially bad. I can't believe John Larroquette sold out and faked his accent as well. He's from New Orleans, and he didn't sound like that on Night Court. If anything, Barbara Hershey's character was closer to the New Orleans accent. Depending on the section of New Orleans, some residents sound much like New Yorkers. Watching this movie was like watching Gone With the Wind, without the same caliber.

I am also offended by the plot itself. It presupposes that all New Orleanians or Louisianians are inbreeders (as depicted by Aunt Julia and Martin's love affair), furthering an unfair stereotype.

I was disappointed by the deletion of a few scenes I saw filmed at my college, Loyola University. That was the main reason I wanted to see this movie.