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The Haunting (1963)
A major disappointment--slow, jumbled, unfocused
This movie hasn't aged well, and I think that's a large part of the problem. I found that it dragged and was overly repetitive. We're never quite sure whether the Julie Harris character is losing her mind or whether she's an ordinary (more or less) person being taken over by the evil house.
I couldn't figure out (or much care about) the Russ Tamblyn character. For most of the movie, he's really a lightweight, non-serious character who just wants to sell the house. That didn't really fit in with the tone of the movie.
The Richard Johnson character walked a very fine line between being believable and simply being a joke. At times he crossed the line. And is it believable that the Harris character would start falling in love with him without even knowing or realizing that he was married?
The music was largely intrusive. That's more how they did horror movies 60 years ago, but today it's very annoying.
Parts didn't make any sense--what was the significance of the large garden statues?
I did find it interesting from a historical and sociological perspective to see how lesbianism (the Claire Bloom) character was portrayed without ever coming out (pun intended) and stating it.
The Professor's wife didn't make much sense. She showed up very late in the movie. They make it clear that she doesn't like his paranormal investigations. So why'd she even show up there? What was her motivation?
Who wrote the woman's name on the wall? Presumably a ghost, but we really don't know.
The acting wasn't great, and the script was clunky. Okay, it was a horror movie, so you're not going to get great writing. Still, it could have been better.
At this point--60 years after the film was released--it's probably more interesting to view as a historical artifact than solely as a horror movie.
Marry Me (2022)
Could have been much better
This movie had the potential to be pretty good. Properly done, I'd have given it a 7 or 8.
The acting is reasonably good. Jennifer Lopez is surprisingly good. Owen Wilson is, predictably, Owen Wilson. I liked the kid, Chloe Coleman. Maluma is pretty wooden, but this being his first movie, that's understandable. And people aren't going to watch the movie for his acting, anyway. However, Sarah Silverman is pretty much wasted. She does her best, but she doesn't get good lines and her role/relationship with Owen Wilson's character is confusing and seems to shift. I didn't like John Bradley's casting, but he seemed to soldier through.
The writing, however, is pretty bad. Okay, it's a Rom-Com. But you need more than "Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl." There weren't many clever lines. The plot was completely predictable. The relationship between the Lopez and Coleman characters had a lot of potential, but it wasn't developed. It just seemed to be grinding on and on.
And the music: I get it. You have Jennifer Lopez and Maluma (who I'd never heard of, but I'm an old fogey). So you have to include music. A lot of music. But there's such a thing as too much music. It interfered with everything else, and much of it was barely connected to the plot at all.
And maybe I missed it, but there's a scene where Lopez has written a song but can't get the lyrics. That presented an ideal way to tie the plot in with the music. But that line wasn't pursued (not that I saw, anyway). A real lost opportunity for character development and making one of the songs relevant to the movie. And, again, maybe I missed it but the age gap between the Lopez and Maluma characters was never addressed and didn't really enter into the plot.
Other elements just seemed grafted on. This movie had multiple writers, so some threads seemed . . . Odd. The Owen Wilson character, out of the blue, reminiscing and his mom and where they'd go when he was young, seemed weak, especially in comparison with the follow-up. The Lopez character trying to get to the math competition--if it was so important, how could she forget about it. And then the mini-"Planes, Trains, and Automobiles" effort to get there--while a nice insight into Lopez's character--seemed unnecessary. Or, rather, just another last-minute hurdle. And not that important. Her dad was there to remind her what to do. Dance movies ("Save the Last Dance," for example) do it better by making the late-arriving person absolutely critical to the success of the performance.
So, overall, it's a pleasant movie, especially if you have a Lopez fan in the family. But it doesn't work well at all if you're expecting or hoping for anything more.
Moon (2009)
Concept with potential, poorly executed and implausible
The concept had potential, though I guess any movie of a person isolated for three years on the Moon has potential. But this just seems boring, not well written, with major plot points glossed over.
Let's start with GERDY, the computer that runs the outpost. At first it seems to be a malevolent entity with the goal of keeping Sam deceived about himself and his family. And yet GERDY seems to have a marshmallow for a heart, revealing thing it was certainly not supposed to reveal. That wasn't believable (and it's a major plot point). Nor was GERDY expressing emotions with changing "Happy Face" displays. Really?!
When Sam is told that there must be another hidden area where (not to reveal spoilers) significant things are going on, he swears he knows every inch of the structure. Turns out there's an entire half he's unaware of.
Sam arrived and, as a hobby, continued wood carving a town he's apparently familiar with. It doesn't occur to him that whoever carved the original structures had the same knowledge of the town and its buildings that he does.
When a new "Sam" appears, our Sam doesn't question how he got there or why he appears exactly the same as our Sam.
There was real potential near the end when our Sam is able to establish a direct communications link to his daughter and her father. But that peters out. We do find out what happened to her mother (which wasn't an issue through the movie and I'm not sure why it was handled the way it was here) but there was great potential, totally blown, to show dad.
The lack of a direct communications link between the Moon and Earth--for three years--was implausible. We did that 55 years ago with the first Moon landing. If the need had been to deceive Sam, then we already have "Deep Fake" technology that would have allowed Sam to communicate in real time with "people" on Earth. On the other hand, we have a "ticking clock"--the rescue crew--and we know to the second when it's going to arrive. Couldn't Sam recognize these inconsistencies?
Those problems only scratch the surface of the film's issues. At every turn, it's either clunky (as with GERDY) or missing opportunities. And it's built on a totally implausible structure. A handful of minor changes and edits could have made this an engrossing, entertaining film. But time after time, the movie goes for implausibility. Too bad.
More American Graffiti (1979)
Mean-spirited, poorly done sequel
If you liked American Graffiti, don't watch this nasty mess. And if you lived in the times portrayed in the movie, don't watch this mistake-after-mistake, completely inauthentic effort.
One problem is that the characters in More American Graffiti--with the possible exception of Milner--aren't true to the characters in American Graffiti. The Ron Howard character has turned into a domineering pig. Toad is brave and strong--I liked his story line but it's totally inconsistent with Toad from American Graffiti. The same inconsistency is true for all the returning characters. They're new characters who look the same but aren't.
The tone of the entire movie is nasty--from the brutal cops suppressing student protests to the bloodsuckers that Milner has to deal with to the one-dimensional officers and politicians in Vietnam (That's been done far, far better in other movies.) to the cheating hippie boyfriend.
Then there are the wasted characters. Wolfman Jack is in this one, but rather than playing an actual role, we just hear him repeatedly announce that it's New Year's Eve.
The movie itself is clunky. It's particularly bad during the Milner sequences when we get a constant flow of narrative babble from the track announcer.
The technique of dividing the screen up, with different viewing sizes for different sequences, was annoying and accomplished nothing.
The music in the original American Graffiti was integrated nicely into the scenes, and it was mostly upbeat. Not so with the music in More American Graffiti.
The acting was weak. The scenes with Ron Howard and Cindy Williams--who are both good actors--were painful to watch as they screeched and yelled at each other.
Most of the plot points were unbelievable. It's okay to show the Howard and Williams characters caught up in a police sweep. It's not okay to show Howard repeatedly arguing with the police. Back then, you knew that if you were swept up by the police, you kept your effing mouth shut. You didn't backtalk the cops. Or you don't muse humorously that you might lose your PTA card for your behavior.
This is a movie that certainly can't stand on its own; it'd be a failure even if American Graffiti had never been made. It gets even worse if you remember the original American Graffiti.
Scarface (1983)
An awkward, poorly acted mess
I can leave aside the overused obscenities. Some is appropriate, but this movie overdoes it. Still, that's not the reason for the low rating. He wasn't believable as his character. At the time, he actually was 43 years old and yet we begin the journey with him when he's supposed to be a young punk. And too often, his "acting" seems to be staring straight ahead with a blank look on his face.
His Spanish accent fades in and out. Mostly out. I wasn't sure whether his vanishing accent was supposed to reflect his growing Americanization. Maybe, but it does make a weak return here and there through the last half of the movie.
Moving beyond Pacino, so much of the story is predictably obvious. And if we don't get the point--such as when the Pacino character becomes murderously enraged at the guys around his sister--the ominous music swells and we see a blinding hatred come across his face. Yeah, we get it.
Speaking of music--watched it on Starz--the music is cranked up much louder than the dialog. I had to constantly adjust the volume. Otherwise, the music would have been far too loud or the dialog far too soft.
The character arcs are clumsy and elements don't work. We see Pacino at the beginning not using coke. About half way through, he regularly snorts it, and by the end all he's doing is snorting. Okay, we get it. Except we also don't see the effects of the coke on his behavior.
Other things didn't make sense. Several guys are in a room with all the video monitors. WE see this veritable army leaping over walls, crawling through bushes, etc. And yet that isn't seen by anyone in the room? Or the relative sizes of the two sides. Pacino has, what, 10 or 15? The other side has several hundred?
Or he shows up the day after his sister's gotten married and sees the guy in there. Does it make sense for sis to just appear? Seems she ought to be hiding, or at least remaining in the bedroom. But we need that trigger to enrage Pacino.
Predictable, awkward, and clumsy.
Big Game (2014)
A Consistently Terrible Movie
The acting is weak--or worse. The writing in clunky. But the worst part are the unbelievable scenes. At one point, Jackson/the President is in a coffin-like box being flown on a rope through a dense forest. The kid is riding the box like the scene from Dr. Strangelove. But it was particularly unrealistic in that the coffin is only a few feet above the ground in the dense forest, being flown by a helicopter. On and on. Even in the movie world, the rope would have snagged multiple times on the trees. But here it's like a hot knife through butter. And at one point the President has a chance to jump from the box to the forest floor but inexplicably doesn't.
Or Jackson returns to Air Force One, downed in a lake, along with the kid. Hours (or maybe days) after the plane landed in the water, it still has electrical power.
Or the President and kid escape from Air Force One seconds before it explodes by triggering ejector seats. The seats, though large and bulky, sail through the sky under a few not-large parachutes.
Or the people who planned the kidnapping are revealed--two of the President's men. In a brief scene--considering that this is a major reveal--one pushes the other, who cracks his head on a sink and dies. The "killer" covers up the murder my smearing liquid soap on the floor to make it look as if the dead guy slipped on some soap, fell, and killed himself.
Really?
The cinematography is good and the scenery is beautiful. But the plot, the acting, the writing . . . All bad.
Joyful Noise (2012)
Unoriginal, Tedious, Nasty Negative Streak
This was a really unpleasant movie. It was predictable all the way through, but there was an overlay of unpleasantness, especially between the characters played by Latifah and Parton. I found the song-and-dance numbers overlong--many of them just dragged on and on. Most were well-performed, but just not engaging.
The thing that struck me most, though, was how it seemed like a really poor imitation of the movie "Pitch Perfect." I can't say "Joyful Noise" copied "Pitch Perfect" because they both came out in the same year, 2012. Still, the parallels were amazing. I wasn't taking notes on "Joyful Noise" and watched it just once. However:
A singing/dance group (Barden Bellas, the church choir) lost a national competition last year and seeks redemption.
There is extreme tension as one of the leaders of the group (Latifah, Aubrey played by Anna Camp) wants to stick to traditional songs and arrangements while the other leader (Parton, Becca played by Anna Kendrick) wants to sing more modern, upbeat songs.
One of the competing groups in each movie has a very young black male who is outstanding and captures the hearts of the audiences in the competition.
Both groups lose in a round of regional competitions, but it then turns out that one of the "winning" groups cheated (one by using professional singers, the other by using a high school student). The cheating group is disqualified, allowing the group we're following to compete in the nationals.
During the competitions (regionals for the Bellas, nationals for the choir), the group starts performing its rehearsed program. One person in the group sees that the old stuff just isn't working, so the group does a 180..
Each movie has a singer whose dad is in the military but until the end of the movie ("Joyful Noise") or the trilogy ("Pitch Perfect 3") we don't meet him. In each case, that leads to an apparent reconciliation. Until then, though, each absent parent plays a role--Vi's husband in videos that she watches, Aubrey by constantly repeating her dad's pithy sayings.
Each movie begins with a singer (Parton in "Joyful Noise" and Beca in "Pitch Perfect") who has been traumatized by a life event (the death of G. G.'s husband, the divorce of Beca's parent) that will echo through the movie.
And of course there's the obligatory love story crossing the rivalries: Vi's daughter and G. G.'s grandson in "Joyful Noise" and Beca and Jesse in "Pitch Perfect."
As I said, I only watched "Joyful Noise" once, but I'm sure there were plenty of other similarities. And there were lines that were almost identical in the two movies. I was amused by G. G. saying, "Get your butt off my table. I eat there." It reminded me of Luke's warning to Beca and Jesse about not doing certain things on the table in the radio station.
"Pitch Perfect" got most of these items "right." "Joyful Noise" didn't.
The problem is that there's an uncomfortable feeling in "Joyful Noise." A negativity that permeated the film. Also, the songs in "Pitch Perfect" helped advance the plot in a way that "Joyful Noise"--being a more typical musical--didn't. I also really wasn't sure if the movie was meant as a "Christian Movie." I guess it was because it was so blatantly "in your face" and because some of the God/religious scenes came across more like sermons than part of the movie. But carrying that extra baggage can pose additional challenges to a movie.
The movie also was disjointed. Probably too many sub-plots. It just didn't hold together well. It didn't have a clear, satisfying arc.
The Last Five Years (2014)
Virtually unwatchable; Anna Kendrick is its only saving grace
Right up front: I don't generally like musicals. If you do, you may be able to tolerate this. Though let me also say that I loved Pitch Perfect (with Anna Kendrick) because the songs naturally occur and play a role in the plot.
But here, it's all singing. All singing as Kendrick and Jordan tell their up-and-down relationship story. Jordan can barely sing. Kendrick is much better--she has a great voice--but it tends to get monotonal at times.
Jordan isn't much of an actor, either. Kendrick is very good--her smiles, her blinks, her head movements. That makes it pleasant to watch her as well as listen to her.
On the other hand, the lyrics (and melodies) are pretty bad. Trying to squeeze dialog into a musical structure often doesn't work. (The show is an adaptation of one from Broadway, so I guess I should blame the lyrics on the Broadway show, not this movie. Still, the lines sound stilted and sometimes just plain silly.)
Some of the other reviews refer to a "confusing timeline mashup." Yes, there's that, too. It's difficult following what's happening. It's especially difficult when other elements of the movie don't support or guide the timeline. And, to the extent that movies are a visual medium, that element was largely forgotten.
If you love musicals, you may like this movie. If you're a fan of Anna Kendrick, you'll find it easier to tolerate the movie. Otherwise, it may not be worth your time.
A Cowgirl's Story (2017)
Poor story, predictable, poorly acted--just a bad movie even for kids
This movie has a huge number of problems. Others have pointed out the problems with the military--ranks, uniforms, behavior. That's not my area of expertise, but even I could tell there were real problems.
Then there was the problem with acting. I like Bailee Madison and gave "Cowgirls 'n Angels" an 8. But she wasn't as good in this one. The direction probably was poor. The script was weak; she didn't have much to work with. And the other characters were flat--both as characters and as actors. Other reviews have called out the actress who played Savannah, but that's only one example. Let's not even consider Pat Boone.
The plot--without giving anything away--resolves with a happy ending for all--for Savannah (a double happy ending), for Dusty (a triple happy ending)--and so on. There's some tension throughout, but it's all wrapped up in a happy, neat and unbelievable bundle.
The title itself--"A Cowgirl's Story"--suggests this has something to do with cowgirls. The earlier Bailee Madison movie "Cowgirls 'n Angels" did. This is just about a group of high school girls who like to ride horses.
Okay. Defenders of the movie point out that girls in the age range of 8-14 probably won't much care or notice about those problems. I'd put that age range at more like 8-10. There are some scenes that might bother younger children, but kids are smart and a 14-hear-old will see a lot of problems. But there are other problems that even younger girls will care about, and problems their parents will care about, too.
The injection of God--the awkward injection that seems unnatural, largely unnecessary, and a technique that stops the plot in its tracks--was poorly done. Some could have been left in and better woven into the plot, if one felt the need to include a message about God. It would have been a lot more effective that way. But this was like getting slapped in the face with a dead fish. Repeatedly.
This movie also comes across as anti-war and, thus, oddly, anti-military. Yes, the theme is how these girls handle their lives while their parents are fighting in Afghanistan. I don't want to give away the plot, but while the actual soldiers are portrayed respectfully and heroically, it's certainly possible to develop a dislike for the military establishment. There's a line from a Phil Ochs song--"I Aint Marching Anymore" that goes:
It's always the old to lead us to the wars
It's always the young to fall
Now look at all we've won with the saber and the gun
Tell me, is it worth it all?
And this message is reinforced by the dedication at the end of the movie to the military casualties in Afghanistan. If you're anti-war (and honestly I was with respect to Afghanistan), that's a good message. But otherwise just be aware of that theme running through the movie.
This is not a movie for anyone--kids or their parents.
Grace Unplugged (2013)
Doesn't work as a movie
This is a so-called "Christian movie." While that theme is certainly woven into the entire movie, I'd prefer addressing this simply as "a movie" because for it to work as a "Christian movie," it has to work first as a movie.
The characters are weak and, for the most part, one dimensional. There's Grace, the lead, who has been the "good girl" who accompanies her dad playing music at their church. But as she grows up, she wants to find her own voice and rebels--first by changing the performance, then by moving away to start her own career.
There's the dad--a "one hit wonder" a number of years ago who got involved in drugs and alcohol, nearly died, then found religion, which saved him. He doesn't want to return to the performing world, and he doesn't want Grace to get into it.
There's the mom--a weak, very one-dimensional character who supports her husband but sympathizes with what Grace is going through.
There's the song promoter who'd helped turn dad into a star years before, and now wants to work the same magic on Grace.
There's the handsome young star who, it turns out, is just using Grace.
There's the "normal" guy who works to get Grace back on the right path.
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The only character I found interesting was the dad and his story--with lots of unanswered questions about his pre-reborn life. Grace is just a rebellious teen. Mom contributes nothing. The song promoter is helping lure Grace into the world of depravity. The handsome young star is a cardboard cutout. And the "normal" guy is tediously "preachy"--not in a good way.
The tension between Grace and dad is overblown. Rebellious daughter and strict dad. Dad who has seen the real world and knows its dangers versus naive daughter. That gets tedious fast.
The plot uses too many shortcuts. The dad's past with drugs and alcohol is fairly well described. There's an attempt to show Grace falling into the same pattern. But it's done very quickly and artificially--she's having difficulty writing a song and through quick cuts we see her drinking, frustrated, drinking more, etc.
Another example: Grace makes a video--kind of a typical music video. Her dad--who apparently earlier didn't see any real talent in her--is absolutely blown away by her performance. That's the game-changer. All from one video.
The "normal guy's" character is preachy and not really helpful. He sees Grace going through her difficulties, but the only thing he does is repeatedly urge her to read a book on Christianity. Over and over. He doesn't talk to her. His parents don't do anything; there was a good opportunity for the movie to show the parents as a substitute normal family who could help Grace.
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As far as casting, I think AJ Michalka was miscast. She just didn't work as a pretty, naive 18-year-old daughter of a musical minister. Her acting was acceptable (considering the clunky script) but she was just the wrong person. "Dad" struck me as a bit young. The record promoter worked, but on a larger level everyone else in the story (all the good people, at least) are clean, smiling, eager. The record promoter was a cross between Danny DeVito and Quasimodo. We could tell the moment we saw him that he wasn't a good Christian.
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A final point: The movie borrows a lot from others, then just puts its own spin on it. At least a dozen times, I heard the same lines as I'd heard in movies from a few years earlier, repurposed for "Grace Unplugged."
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I've gone on long enough. The point, again, is that this isn't a very good movie. The writing is sledge-hammerish, the characters aren't well-developed, the plotting is unrealistic, and it's just not engaging. If the goal, though, is "Christian first, movie second," then it may be worth a view. But I'm sure there are better representations of the genre.