bdctunes Reviews

Katherine (1975 TV Movie)

Violence is never the answer

[8/10 · 9 January 2023]

Time capsule of a film about activism in the late 60s.

It's interesting and the acting from all the main players is well done.

The story is told in matter of fact fashion such that it wouldn't sway a person with a particular political leaning one way or the other. It illuminates a time when a group of "leftists" resorted to violence to apparently achieve their goals. Violence by definition is not the way of the left, and any self respecting intelligent progressive would denounce those actions and disassociate from it. Spacek's character advocates for democracy, equality and justice. She's on the "right" side of things there. Then it's her passion that leads her too far, thus becoming a "left wing" terrorist. I contend that you've walked away from the left when you commit first strike offensive terrorism. Terrorism is by definition a right wing act.

The US right wing gets all up in arms when you explain this, but it's just projection, as we see the ends to which their belief system leads every day, not fairly isolated incidents.

The movie is more interesting than it is entertaining, and it's always good to view the San Francisco of past days in movies. Imagine innocent times when the Weather Underground was your worst fear, when considering Oklahoma City, 911, Charleston, January 6th.

Violence will never end violence..

Back to the Garden, Flower Power Comes Full Circle (2009)

Good but I wanted some different info

[6/10 · 12 June 2021]

The film has a feel good quality to it and it is interesting to see this movement in the modern era documented on film. I wanted to know how these people survived in terms of making money and putting food on the table. I wanted to know how often they took a shower or something resembling one. Having lived in Tonasket for a couple years of my life. I'm a little familiar with the local hippies, at least as they were in 1980 or so. These were people who generally worked in the fruit industry, at least back them, and I suspect a lot of them collected welfare checks too. I heard back in about 1980 that it was in the 70's when the hippie settlements started in the area. The story went that California news papers in he 70s had articles saying it was cheap and easy to collect welfare in the area. I don't criticize any of it personally except that earthiness that goes with not showering.

That's what I saw when I lived there. I did have a friend who was the son of one of these hippy families..He'd always had showers though, even had a car, which few of us teenyboppers had at the time. There was varying degrees of quality of life among the hippys in the area. At the time, I never noticed so much a sense of peace and love in that scene, or any intentional attemp at oneness with the earth. It seemed more to me like people wanting a simple life and living on the cheap. It was kind of like ghetto's, except they were out in the sticks. Definite poverty and I'm sure some people at times probably froze to death in the winter. In the film we see an upside to things, and these hippies may have no connections to the ones I witnessed in 1980. Bottom line, good film, but I wanted the unromantic details... We do need to save the planet, and there probably is a thing or 2 to learn from the people in the film released in 2009. There's much more to be learned elsewhere too. Technology used in a positive way can do way more than adopting a primitive lifestyle.

That said, at some point, if we are to save the inhabitability of planet earth,human beings are gonna have to sacrifice some comforts. I believe this true, but nobody wants to hear it.

Since 2009, in Washington state we've had devastating wild fires in our state and I'm certain it's impacted the people in the film.

Interference: Democracy at Risk (2020)

Good Information mostly from establishment sources

[3/10 · 29 November 2020]

You get the voice of establishment hypocrites mostly telling the truth. From establishment sources one couldn't expect any better. Asserting through any mental gymnastic that donations are not bribes, is a falsehood beyond the pale. Politicians represent their donors, with very very few exceptions. Politicians also spend the vast majority of their time in office raising money, and not doing the work of the American people. All sides are represented equally, which on the surface sounds good, except that when one is wrong or lying, a massive disservice is done. I think the most pertinent thing in the film is the Thomas Jefferson quote captioned at the beginning. We do not have an objective mainstream media. We have a media with corporate owners, whom edit content to their interest. Is this fake news?, mostly not, and things reported are generally true, what people need to be aware of are the massive omissions. This is a case where people are generally not getting the news. Democracy cannot exist with an uninformed public, and this is where were at.

Sweden: Lessons for America? A personal exploration by Johan Norberg (2018)

Weak on perspective

[1/10 · 9 August 2020]

Clearly a film that doesn't delve deep in detail. The filmmakers have an agenda. The implied lessons are a rat hole that won't end well for Americans if implemented. Privatization in the US has never ended well. America can learn much better lessons from it's own history of success, dating from WW2 till about 1980.

Kingdoms in Time (2018)

Theology not challenged by history, science or logic

[1/10 · 18 September 2019]

None of what is presented stands up to any type of scrutiny. This may be convincing to the already convinced, but such one sided views leave in question the integrity and intent of those who made the film. Those who accept this at face value IMO should never be allowed to serve on a jury.

Bosch (2014–2021)

Bosch Season 5 with maybe some comment on earlier seasons

[10/10 · 25 April 2019]

Bosch Season 5 was excellent and a constant climb in enjoyment and anticipation all the way up to episode 9. Episode 10 was still really good, but a bit anticlimactic after what it followed. In episode 10 killing the bad guys who are trying to kill Bosch was for me less anticipated than finding out the future for Barrell. Episode 10 for me was about tying the loose ends, which was well done, and I'm glad there will likely be the great character Barrell in assumed future seasons. The most interesting loose ends were tied up neatly in episode 9, 10 ices the cake....... All in all I watched season 5 in 3 sittings. They have their work cut out making future episodes this interesting. Peace

Silence Patton (2018)

This is one way to look at things, but not very objective

[2/10 · 24 December 2018]

This documentary is full of adoration for Patton, and it is interesting. It also is a bit of an anti FDR propaganda film. At one point the narrator outright states the FDR had soviet spies in his cabinet. This is stated without any explanation and the more gullible viewer will swallow it hook line and sinker. To fully endorse this film, one pretty much has to be in the mindset that we should of pursued war against the USSR after defeating Germany, also be a big believer in the domino theory. There's a manipulativeness in this film, the way it drives home it's one sided point.

An Inconvenient Tax (2011)

An establishment view of tax issues

[1/10 · 8 December 2018]

Briefly featured in this documentary is Noam Chomsky, his comment toward the the end of the film about people paying into a democratic society for a common cause as a positive, is a vastly underrepresented viewpoint in this work. We get abundance of Mike Huckabee masquerading as an economic expert. On the other hand this is an intelligently put together film, but with a decidedly establishment, pro wealthy agenda. Not addressed much is the actual definition of what would be considered a fair tax system, and how each part of the population benefits from it. Considerable time in this documentary to the point of advocacy goes into a consumption tax as a fair solution. Again the fairness not well explained, for a tax policy that would favor the wealthy. Among many taxes mentioned is the inheritance tax, which persons in the film refer to as the death tax, going unchecked without an alternate point of view. This film has a pro wealthy, pro establishment viewpoint, with smartly woven editing for it's deceptive agenda. Though I don't think it would pass the smell test to many progressives

Too Late (I) (2015)

Appreciated best by fans of noir

[8/10 · 6 August 2017]

Any movie about a PI that looks decent will be on my radar. I not particularly a fans a special effects and action either. Gratuitous dialog coming off the wall from unlikely quirky characters is Noir to the bone! There is even some comments about classic noir in the script, which is clearly a homage. My favorite Tarrantino is the dialog heavy early stuff, and I don't have any use for "Kill Bill" and some of his other forays. I love "True romance","Jackie Brown", and "Reservoir dogs". The fact that the dialog is unlikely coming from characters in such circumstances, makes things interesting and less predictable to me. The movie also has some impacting plot twists, which caught me by complete surprise. If you want action, this won't be your thing. If you're into noir, good chance you'll like this flick.

Rabbit, Run (1970)

A good movie

[8/10 · 5 July 2017]

Good acting with humor here and there. Maybe some of the drama was underplayed as another reviewer stated, but the film held my intention. I watched half the film last night on TCM, my hearing isn't the best and I struggled with the audio. I went to watch the rest of the film today and TCM removed it! Bummer! Being engrossed in the film, I decided to rent it from Amazon. The Amazon version had subtitles, which for me was a huge help. I thought the soundtrack was good. I liked the music, and felt it served the film. Serious issues, drama with humor taking the viewer back to 1970 with James Caan.....Not a good as "The graduate", but kind of in that category.................

Gold (I) (2016)

Worth a watch, but nothing to write home about.

[6/10 · 7 May 2017]

Gold is not a bad movie, but I found the story, and mood entirely predictable. The movie reeks of hollywoodization! There are many movies about the sensational rise and fall of people. A well worn theme to begin with, for movie fanatics.......This movie goes out of it's way to be fast paced, leaving details vague. The movie is aiming to be a ride more than a story, as I see it. I think the ride takes over the story, as do other such movies, which is not my thing. Now that I've scorched the film, I must mention I am a MM fan, and will continue to target films he is in. This movie isn't bad, just not my thing.....and to say it's not very original, is not just opinion, but fact. For serious thinking movie lovers, watching this will be just going through the motions. Peace

The Whole Truth (2016)

Nice courtroom drama/thriller

[8/10 · 3 March 2017]

I was a fan of Reeves before he became the Sci fi/Action star, that he is probably best known for these days. Rene Z is unrecognizable from the last time I saw her in a film, maybe plastic surgery, but her acting is stellar and she looks damn attractive anyway. This is a classic style court room thriller that offers a surprise at the end, which I thought was pretty good. The film telegraphs the story in a particular direction, but I didn't predict the actual outcome. I look forward to more dramatic films from KR..........

Basic Instinct 2 (2006)

Movie is actually pretty good, I let reviews scare me off for way too long

[5 November 2016]

I'm a longtime fan of slow burn thrillers, Noir and Neo Noir. These genres are apparently a niche audience anymore, and it seems most of these type movies made anymore, are low budget, made for TV and video productions. This is OK with me, as long as they're done well, big budgets don't usually equal good movies, and the type of movie in question has a long B production history. This movie to me is well acted,and brings back some of the original BI films Hitchcock vibe, with probably a medium budget. An element in the 1992 film that I loved was the Northern Cal scenery, and I would of liked to have had that again. Going that route probably would of made it too much like the first film. This movie is taken place in London, which isn't too bad of grounds for noir in it's own write! Stone in the 1st movie, her character's personality to me plays out like Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lechtor. She was a little too much of a bad girl for my personal taste, so I was less attracted to her than many viewers. IMO much of the over the top aspects have been tapered back for this movie, the sex scenes are there, but they're shorter, and to me it doesn't look like they tried to carry the film on it as with the first. The plot is confusing, but no more than in the original film. The California aspect was a huge factor in my liking of the 1st film, and a younger Stone could sell that sexual/abrasive character better. That said, to me the newer version shows her a little less over the top, sex is not as quite over sold. You don't have the heavy hitter that Mike Douglass was in 1992, but there are some very good British actors in this film.

If you're a fan of Noir and twisted Neo noir thrillers, don't let the bad reviews hold you back from watching this as I did

Journey to the End of the Night (2006)

Very good modern noir..

[7/10 · 9 July 2014]

The pacing is good, the violence serves the plot, and is not over the top. The camera work isn't flashy, and distracting from the story. The lead female is absolutely beautiful, I've seen her else where, will look it up later.

Action and gore folks stay away.....

I wish there were movies made along this style these days......

PS fellow reviewers, I don't think rehashing the whole story is needed.. That said, I felt very misled by some of the reviews here, I almost didn't watch the movie, glad I did. The Noir analogies made me want to give it a try.....Long live Noir........