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TahoeEast
Reviews
Dark Legacy (2009)
Biased "Documentary" That Jumps to Too Many Conclusions
Dark Legacy had been in my Netflix queue for sometime. It was one of those films that looked interesting but I just never got around to it. I finally did and I am glad I did insomuch as now it can be out of my queue. Forever.
Director/writer/producer/conspiracy theorist John Hankey deserves credit for taking the initiative to produce a feature length, low budget documentary on the JFK assassination. He correctly states that several polls have shown a large number of Americans doubt the government's story on what happened that fateful day in Dallas back in 1963. Hankey does a very good job of stepping the viewer through the events of the day and in particular, raises several good points about the chain of custody of the President's body and if it was somehow disturbed between Parkland and Bethesda hospitals.
Had Hankey stopped there he would have had a good, 20-30 minute YouTube video. Instead, he spent the remainder of his time on this nonsensical attempt to link the assassination to George H.W. Bush. His favorite graphic being pictures of Bush's father, Prescott, Bush the father and George W. wearing swastika armbands.
Everything Hankey touches goes back to a Republican conspiracy. Whether it is JFK, his son John F. Kennedy Jr.'s untimely death, or even Mitt Romney. Hankey has a built in conspiracy that involves the Bush family and assorted others in the so-called Illuminati. For me personally, it is a disappointing mess of a film because I do think there is some level of conspiracy in government and in particular, a concerted effort to create enemies and promote war for the sake of the military industrial complex. If Hankey could focus on those issues, he could be considered a serious filmmaker. Unfortunately, this first stab at a feature film discredits him as a documentary filmmaker and leaves him viewed by most as another misguided partisan.
Bikini Spring Break (2012)
You Get What You Came for But Disappointing Production Value
For it's genre it's not bad. The group of women on their journey to the band competition are all attractive -- a couple are insanely hot but the director, DP, and editor did them no justice and should quit the industry. Great T&A -- which should be one of only two reasons to watch it.
I mentioned genre and I hate to use that word because it implies that the work is somehow comparable to what Netflix refers to as "Late Night Comedies." The more raunchy Skin-a-Max type of film. The script for this was weak but mostly fit the bill.
My problem was with continuity. You could be making a student film with that hot goth girl who acts totally disinterested but secretly obsesses with seeing herself on camera and still get the freaking continuity down. The direction and editing were amateurish, at best. The acting was so-so although I have to say Rachel Alig stands out. It's a shame she didn't get a better script.
If you are bored at night and don't want to watch another end-of-the- world documentary then this is an acceptable substitute. Otherwise, I'd pass.