keifer-1
Lifetime Total
5+
IMDb Member
17 years
Reviews
Australia (2008)
An Energizer Bunny of a Movie - it just keeps going and going and going...
This is a gorgeously photographed, convincingly acted, densely plotted epic of a movie. It is so complex that at several points you may think the story is finished, but you'll be wrong. It's like watching an entire mini-series at one sitting.
Don't misunderstand, I enjoyed it, but at one point I leaned over to my friend and said, "I thought it was over." She answered, "Oh, no, we've got another hour to go yet."
It has wonderfully convincing CGI effects, clever plot twists (including a spectacular cattle stampede with an unusual hazard and an amazing resolution that is particularly Australian.) It also has a relevant social message in among the revelations about Australia's past.
There are points where I missed dialog because of the Australian accent or because it was covered up by the music or sound, the latter may have been the fault of the theater sound system. I wasn't alone. We're still not sure what Nicole Kidman's last line was.
I hope when they show it on network TV in the US that they do it over a couple of nights. It's good enough and long enough that it deserves it. It would have benefited here from an intermission if American theaters still did that kind of thing.
Don't misunderstand, I enjoyed it, but at one point I leaned over to my friend and said, "I thought it was over." She answered, "Oh, no, we've got another hour to go yet."
It has wonderfully convincing CGI effects, clever plot twists (including a spectacular cattle stampede with an unusual hazard and an amazing resolution that is particularly Australian.) It also has a relevant social message in among the revelations about Australia's past.
There are points where I missed dialog because of the Australian accent or because it was covered up by the music or sound, the latter may have been the fault of the theater sound system. I wasn't alone. We're still not sure what Nicole Kidman's last line was.
I hope when they show it on network TV in the US that they do it over a couple of nights. It's good enough and long enough that it deserves it. It would have benefited here from an intermission if American theaters still did that kind of thing.
Mamma Mia! (2008)
Relentlessly Cheerful, Cloying, and Cutsie-poo
If you can get diabetes from a movie this one's it.
I have nothing against cheerful movies, but this one starts out with a smile so broad you'd think it had a coat hanger in its mouth - and it never lets up.
It wasn't helped by all the performances being over-the-top. Here you have a cast of excellent actors noted for their abilities to create subtle, believable, characters and they are all chewing the scenery like an army of Tasmanian Devils. Even Christine Baranski, who has turned over-the-top characters into an art form, is notched up too high. When a talented group of people like this all overact, you know it has to be the result of the director.
The staging of the dance numbers was an odd combination of boring and bizarre. There were some little bits that were clever, but all the while the cast seemed to have annoying "see how clever we are" expressions on their faces. The resulting effect was as if you were watching a movie acted and choreographed for live theater, where sitting in an audience seated in front of a stage, it would look fine. But staring at it photographed and blown up to twenty feet high gave it a kind of horrific intensity.
I will say that the singing was not as bad as I had heard. Meryl Streep was fine, even Pierce Brosnan was good at times. (But don't give up your day job.)
The one note cheerfulness made the 108 minute running time seem very long. The actors enjoyed what they were doing so much, I didn't have to. Perhaps if they had dialed it down to a more realistic level I could have gotten involved with them. After all, I believed John Travolta in a fat suit.
At the end, right before the credits, there is a reprieve of "Dancing Queen." When the song is over Meryl Streep turns straight to the audience and says, "Do you want more?" My friends and I looked at each other and said quietly, "Noooooooooo!"
I have nothing against cheerful movies, but this one starts out with a smile so broad you'd think it had a coat hanger in its mouth - and it never lets up.
It wasn't helped by all the performances being over-the-top. Here you have a cast of excellent actors noted for their abilities to create subtle, believable, characters and they are all chewing the scenery like an army of Tasmanian Devils. Even Christine Baranski, who has turned over-the-top characters into an art form, is notched up too high. When a talented group of people like this all overact, you know it has to be the result of the director.
The staging of the dance numbers was an odd combination of boring and bizarre. There were some little bits that were clever, but all the while the cast seemed to have annoying "see how clever we are" expressions on their faces. The resulting effect was as if you were watching a movie acted and choreographed for live theater, where sitting in an audience seated in front of a stage, it would look fine. But staring at it photographed and blown up to twenty feet high gave it a kind of horrific intensity.
I will say that the singing was not as bad as I had heard. Meryl Streep was fine, even Pierce Brosnan was good at times. (But don't give up your day job.)
The one note cheerfulness made the 108 minute running time seem very long. The actors enjoyed what they were doing so much, I didn't have to. Perhaps if they had dialed it down to a more realistic level I could have gotten involved with them. After all, I believed John Travolta in a fat suit.
At the end, right before the credits, there is a reprieve of "Dancing Queen." When the song is over Meryl Streep turns straight to the audience and says, "Do you want more?" My friends and I looked at each other and said quietly, "Noooooooooo!"
The Descent (2005)
They shoulda stayed home and learned how to make pie crusts
Talk about a vacation from hell. Six women who like living life on the edge decide to go caving to help cheer up one of their own who's husband and daughter were killed in a freak auto accident.
The women in the cast are wonderfully believable. They are attractive, but there's not a cheerleader clone among them. They all come across as smart and capable.
The caving starts out in a beautiful serene setting, but as they descend further into the earth things begin to go wrong. The cave itself becomes very claustrophobic.
I happen to be claustrophobic, and I had a tough time sitting through this part of the film. If it had been a straight action flick about spelunking this claustrophobic cave, I don't think I could have taken it.
But the cave opens up and then the violence begins. The editing during the gore scenes was very effective, slow enough to give you a feeling of what was going on, but fast enough that it wasn't totally disgusting and you didn't have time to notice how they were faked. The fight scenes were cut a bit too fast. It was often difficult to tell who was fighting what and how many.
A word of caution when you watch this movie. There is an important subtext between two of the women that is set up at the very beginning of the movie. So pay attention to who treats who in what manner. Women will probably see it right away, but men may miss it.
The women in the cast are wonderfully believable. They are attractive, but there's not a cheerleader clone among them. They all come across as smart and capable.
The caving starts out in a beautiful serene setting, but as they descend further into the earth things begin to go wrong. The cave itself becomes very claustrophobic.
I happen to be claustrophobic, and I had a tough time sitting through this part of the film. If it had been a straight action flick about spelunking this claustrophobic cave, I don't think I could have taken it.
But the cave opens up and then the violence begins. The editing during the gore scenes was very effective, slow enough to give you a feeling of what was going on, but fast enough that it wasn't totally disgusting and you didn't have time to notice how they were faked. The fight scenes were cut a bit too fast. It was often difficult to tell who was fighting what and how many.
A word of caution when you watch this movie. There is an important subtext between two of the women that is set up at the very beginning of the movie. So pay attention to who treats who in what manner. Women will probably see it right away, but men may miss it.
Surface (2005)
Good series - Terrible title
I think one of the reasons this series had problems was the title. I had trouble remembering it and I was a fan. If you can't remember the title, you can't find it in the listings, and you don't watch.
Like 'Lost' there is a lot of emphasis on the characters, even the character of the monsters that are at the center of the story.
Unlike 'Lost' it doesn't take forever for the plot to go somewhere. There were more plot developments in the single season of 'Surface' than there have been in the whole 'Lost' series so far.
And yet we still don't know where the critters came from, why they are here, what they are going to do next, and what the government had to do with it.
The production values were spectacular, and it reminded in some ways of the Sci-Fi channels miniseries 'Taken'. There was enough variety in characters that it could appeal to the whole family.
It would be nice to see a 'Surface' mini series to wrap things up.
I'll bet this one sells more DVD's than 'Invasion' and that other 'Lost' wannabe that I can't remember the title of.
Like 'Lost' there is a lot of emphasis on the characters, even the character of the monsters that are at the center of the story.
Unlike 'Lost' it doesn't take forever for the plot to go somewhere. There were more plot developments in the single season of 'Surface' than there have been in the whole 'Lost' series so far.
And yet we still don't know where the critters came from, why they are here, what they are going to do next, and what the government had to do with it.
The production values were spectacular, and it reminded in some ways of the Sci-Fi channels miniseries 'Taken'. There was enough variety in characters that it could appeal to the whole family.
It would be nice to see a 'Surface' mini series to wrap things up.
I'll bet this one sells more DVD's than 'Invasion' and that other 'Lost' wannabe that I can't remember the title of.
The Break-Up (2006)
They had a real winner and blew it
Jennifer and Vince play lovers that share a condo.
Like many couples, their differences balance each other out. She is more cultured and cares about social propriety and the finer things in life. He is still a kid at heart playing video games, but he is a good provider. She feels unappreciated by him. He feels unappreciated by her.
He brings home three oranges instead of twelve for a dinner party centerpiece, they argue, and things start to spiral out of control from there.
The arguments manage to be funny and at the same time uncomfortably close to reality. They seek advice from their friends, and, as in reality, the advice never quite works out like you expect it to. (The best one was the hunk that Jennifer brings home to make Vince jealous. He winds up becoming a video gaming buddy with Vince and is most concerned about whether or not he will hear from Vince again.)
Jennifer realizes what she's doing isn't working and decides to make nice, so she buys concert tickets to Vince's favorite band. Vince stands her up.
Vince realizes he has been a jerk and fixes Jennifer a nice dinner for two. Jennifer says she just doesn't care anymore.
This is the exact point where the movie crashes and burns. Nobody in the audience bought that she didn't care, because we still cared. She had spent almost two hours banging her head against the wall and now that she's got exactly what she wanted, she doesn't want it anymore?
You could almost hear someone in a script conference saying "Oh, that happy ending crap has been done to death. It's not realistic, let's do something different." Personally, when I want reality, I don't go to a movie.
So be prepared to have your happy ending yanked right out from under you.
If they'd gone for the happy ending, this movie would have worked.
Even Mr. and Mrs. Smith got a happy ending, and they had been trying to kill each other!
Like many couples, their differences balance each other out. She is more cultured and cares about social propriety and the finer things in life. He is still a kid at heart playing video games, but he is a good provider. She feels unappreciated by him. He feels unappreciated by her.
He brings home three oranges instead of twelve for a dinner party centerpiece, they argue, and things start to spiral out of control from there.
The arguments manage to be funny and at the same time uncomfortably close to reality. They seek advice from their friends, and, as in reality, the advice never quite works out like you expect it to. (The best one was the hunk that Jennifer brings home to make Vince jealous. He winds up becoming a video gaming buddy with Vince and is most concerned about whether or not he will hear from Vince again.)
Jennifer realizes what she's doing isn't working and decides to make nice, so she buys concert tickets to Vince's favorite band. Vince stands her up.
Vince realizes he has been a jerk and fixes Jennifer a nice dinner for two. Jennifer says she just doesn't care anymore.
This is the exact point where the movie crashes and burns. Nobody in the audience bought that she didn't care, because we still cared. She had spent almost two hours banging her head against the wall and now that she's got exactly what she wanted, she doesn't want it anymore?
You could almost hear someone in a script conference saying "Oh, that happy ending crap has been done to death. It's not realistic, let's do something different." Personally, when I want reality, I don't go to a movie.
So be prepared to have your happy ending yanked right out from under you.
If they'd gone for the happy ending, this movie would have worked.
Even Mr. and Mrs. Smith got a happy ending, and they had been trying to kill each other!
Murder in Suburbia (2004)
Cagney & Lacey meet the Desperate Housewives.
There are always crimes afoot on Wisteria Lane. Suppose you sent a fashionable version of Cagney & Lacey to investigate them. This is the basic effect of 'Murder in Suburbia'.
Just like 'Desperate Housewives', it manages to combine a good story with a generous helping of humor. The crimes are suitably bizarre, and the interplay between Ash and Scribbs as the two single police officers is a lot of fun.
This is not like most American mysteries which are heavy on procedures and tend to be very somber. This one is strong on character and very light hearted.
If you enjoy 'Midsomer Murders' you will probably enjoy this, and if ABC doesn't option the US rights to this show as a companion piece for 'Desperate Housewives', they're nuts.
Just like 'Desperate Housewives', it manages to combine a good story with a generous helping of humor. The crimes are suitably bizarre, and the interplay between Ash and Scribbs as the two single police officers is a lot of fun.
This is not like most American mysteries which are heavy on procedures and tend to be very somber. This one is strong on character and very light hearted.
If you enjoy 'Midsomer Murders' you will probably enjoy this, and if ABC doesn't option the US rights to this show as a companion piece for 'Desperate Housewives', they're nuts.
The Unearthly (1957)
Live MST3K Moment
This movie created a live MST3K moment during it's World Premiere run.
The World Priemere was at the Roosevelt theater in Chicago. The top billed film was "Beginning of the End" (Yes, the one about the giant grasshoppers invading Chicago.) That this film got second billing should tell you something about this flick.
If you've not read other reviews, John Carradine has created a synthetic gland that he thinks will give eternal youth. About halfway through the picture, he implants his eternal youth gland (Which looks suspiciously like a pulsating jalapeño pepper.) into Sally Todd and moves her to his moldy basement to recover.
When they check on her later, instead of remaining eternally young, she's all wrinkled and shriveled up and looks about a hundred years old.
At this point, someone waaaaay at the back of the balcony yelled out, "YA GOT IT IN UPSIDE DOWN!!!"
It must have been at least five minutes before the laughter subsided and you could hear the movie again.
The World Priemere was at the Roosevelt theater in Chicago. The top billed film was "Beginning of the End" (Yes, the one about the giant grasshoppers invading Chicago.) That this film got second billing should tell you something about this flick.
If you've not read other reviews, John Carradine has created a synthetic gland that he thinks will give eternal youth. About halfway through the picture, he implants his eternal youth gland (Which looks suspiciously like a pulsating jalapeño pepper.) into Sally Todd and moves her to his moldy basement to recover.
When they check on her later, instead of remaining eternally young, she's all wrinkled and shriveled up and looks about a hundred years old.
At this point, someone waaaaay at the back of the balcony yelled out, "YA GOT IT IN UPSIDE DOWN!!!"
It must have been at least five minutes before the laughter subsided and you could hear the movie again.