osufbf

IMDb member since January 2008
    Lifetime Total
    25+
    Lifetime Plot
    1+
    Lifetime Trivia
    10+
    IMDb Member
    16 years

Reviews

Easy Money
(1983)

Meh
Yeah it's Rodney Dangerfield being typical Rodney Dangerfield and what made him who he was but the movie itself falls flat. It's just a montage of scenes thrown together and some of those scenes aren't allowed to fully play out and are cut too soon making the film feel rushed. Joe Pesci and the other supporting characters are merely window dressing and don't bring out the best in Dangerfield's character.

If you're bored on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and have absolutely nothing to do or looking for a good movie to fall asleep to, then this is a good choice. Otherwise, if you're looking for a good Rodney flick to check out, I'd recommend "Caddyshack" or even "Back to School".

54
(1998)

Movie titled under false pretenses
I remember when this movie came out and the reviews for it were terrible back then. I'm sitting here over 20 years later watching it again for some reason and I remember why they were so terrible.

The movie is unfortunately not about the salaciously real story involving the infamous night club's owner, Steve Rubell, and the dirty way he ran it into the ground with his greed. This is nothing more than a club movie slapped with the 54 title to rope people into watching it, glossing over the true backstory of how Rubell created one of the biggest nightclubs in the world but then just a few years later after it's creation, brought it crashing to the ground through years of stealing and tax evasion.

The real story is interesting, however this one isn't. Mike Myers looks confused as how to play the infamous Rubell, stuck between Austin Powers and Wayne Campbell while lead actor Ryan Phillipe gives his usual performance wear seems like he's grimacing most of the time to hold in having to take a crap. Which was like all of his performances, painful to watch and nothing but crap. No wonder the dude isn't acting anymore, he was awful back then.

The only performance I can't understand why she got a bad review by some people was Neve Campbell. I found her character fairly interesting, even though it was slightly misplaced. Like most of this movie, it was jumbled up and the real story was glossed over which would have been a lot more interesting to see. But this was nothing more than a club piece dressed up with the title.

If you want to watch a club movie that has little to do with the actual club and is essentially nothing more than dudes walking around half naked then this will definitely be for you.

Windfall
(2022)

Meh
Seems like there's an ongoing theme to this movie from other reviewers that I can't disagree with. It wants to be a dark comedy at first, then an introspective drama where we get to know the characters better - but either the script or director Charlie McDowell fall somewhat flat in giving us that perspective - and then the third act tries to turn into a thriller with an enigmatic ending. Altogether, it's a slow moving vehicle that really never revs up.

At first, I had trouble buying Jason Segel as a mean, bad guy and Jesse Plemons as the heroic protagonist. However, as it plodded along, the characters developed slightly more than what they were perceived in the beginning and I began to buy their performances a little bit more.

In the first act, Segel seemed a tad confused whether he wanted to be a tough guy or a nice guy who has fallen on hard times with good intentions as to why he's doing what he's doing. Plemons seemed confused as to whether or not he wanted to be a cool, funny, caring husband or a complete jackass. By the second act, that all gets resolved but it's still not specifically explained why Segel is doing what he's doing which left an unhappy void for me.

Then the third act occurs and the way it concludes seems muddled and inconsistent with how the first two acts unfolded. Ultimately, I felt like the script or McDowell was trying to go somewhere but didn't know exactly where to go and just quickly wrapped it up.

If you're completely bored and have exhausted virtually every option Netflix offers, go ahead and check it out, it's not a complete waste of 1 hour and 40 minutes. However, don't expect some riveting drama that will leave you breathless and overwhelmingly giddy you spent the time doing it.

Beverly Hills Cop III
(1994)

Sucks
Absolute God-awful script where Axel (Eddie Murphy) is running around a theme park chasing down the villains who are not only running a counterfeit money ring out of the park but also killed his over-the-top gruff boss, Inspector Todd.

The second scene of the movie, where tough car mechanics are needlessly dancing around the shop singing Motown straight into the camera, will immediately turn you off and show you it's going to be absolutely nowhere near the Beverly Hills Cop-style flick you came to know and love with the first two.

And that's just one of a slew of problems with the third installment that completely separates itself from nos. 1 and 2: director John Landis tries to create the comedy from other aspects, not from Eddie Murphy, who's third version of Axel Foley is stiffer than a week-old block of cheese that's been sitting on the kitchen counter.

Foley is written as a straightforward, wannabe tough guy that rarely ever cracks wise and when he does, it comes off flat and unlikable. The action scenes are even more unrealistically stupid than the first two movies and make you crack up with pathetic laughter.

No Harold Faltermeyer means various terrible renditions of his classic score. No John Ashton (Taggart), replaced with Hector Elizondo who is misused and under-utilized. Judge Reinhold is back but also under-utilized and is more of a decorative piece to the story rather than an integral part.

Even Murphy is disinterested throughout and it shows.

John Landis seriously slaughtered this one and has (wisely) somewhat distanced himself from it.

I made it through the entire thing only because I loved the first two and felt like I owed it to them to pay my respects. However, if you give up the good fight before the final credits roll, I'll have more respect for you that you felt you had better things to do with your time rather than sit through this pile of crap.

Surf School
(2006)

Straight manure
Terrible in all aspects. Joel Silverman, the director, has absolutely no idea how to capture comedic moments. The camera work and angles are completely off. Silverman uses the wrong techniques and angles at the wrong times.

The acting is horrible, as well. Laura Bell Bundy, as the hot goth girl who blossoms into a blonde beauty, has a scene where she pauses for a second, which was obvious she's trying to remember her line, and then picks up and keeps going. This was an obvious flub that needed redone but instead, Silverman kept it in there. And what's up with Miko Hughes and his constant bouncing around like a drug addicted tweaker squirming because they can't get a fix? Also, Sisqo's character is absolutely lame. Seems like he was just thrown in there to be the "token" black guy. Corey Sevier was okay but his performance didn't move the needle much for me.

And then when it comes to the final surfing contest, they show one set of waves from each team (even though there's technically a third team, which is weird in and of itself that the high school surfing championships - which is a pathetically, generic name that seems like it was thought up by a bored 5-year-old - only had a whopping three teams in the contest and two of them are from the same school?) and the nerd is the one to surf who uses his super brain to outwit and psych out the lead jerk from the Laguna Beach A team to take home the title. The whole point of the movie is working towards the final payoff and all we see is one set of waves from each surfer? What a way to waste an entire plot of the movie by showing literally 20 seconds of surfing.

Altogether it's a waste of time and if you run across this movie, check what's on PBS first. There should be a more riveting episode of Antiques Roadshow you could waste your time on and actually get something out of it.

Fear Street: 1994
(2021)

Picking on the soundtrack
A common theme I've seen from most reviewers of this film is the "authenticity" of the soundtrack and how it's virtually the only thing nostalgic about it. For me, that's patently false.

Overall, the soundtrack was very disappointing. Even some songs that appear that kind of make sense as to why they're in the movie, it just seems like director Leigh Janiak threw them in as a way to say, "and here's another song from the time period that was popular" rather than trying to play something that captured the mood of the scene.

As a 16/17-year-old kid who remembers 1994 like it was yesterday, music was a huge part of my adolescent years, like it is for any teenager growing up. And if the soundtrack is the aspect of this movie that a lot of folks here are hanging their hat on, then they either didn't grow up in the '90's or just didn't listen to a lot of mainstream radio.

I'm going to assume that this flick is supposed to take place in the fall of '94 given that football players and cheerleaders are the focal point at the beginning. Granted, I wouldn't doubt if it actually takes place in the spring and Janiak added the football aspect because football players and cheerleaders are typically the most popular sects of kids in virtually every high school across the country and having them as your "main" character types (aside from THE lead character being in the band) would be a cool thing to have in the movie.

But I momentarily digress, back to the soundtrack.

Garbage's "Only Happy When It Rains" (1995), White Zombie's "More Human Than Human" (1995), Prodigy's "Firestarter" (1996) and White Town's "Your Woman" (1997) hadn't been released yet.

Pixies' "Hey" (1987) and Cowboy Junkies' remake of "Sweet Jane" (1988) certainly didn't receive any airplay in '94 to warrant being considered a song that speaks to the year. And if they did get some airtime, it was VERY few and far between and were definitely not songs I can recall hearing on the radio or seeing on TV.

Roberta Flack's 1973 version of "Killing Me Softly With His Song"? That was definitely not heard on the radio in 1994 and only got re-recognized when the Fugees did their take on it in '96.

"Thursday" by 99 Tales?? Even though it's a cool, grungy tune and sounds like something that would've been popular back then, to this day I've never even heard of this song nor this band and couldn't find anything on them despite an extensive Google search.

There were a couple of songs that Janiak kind of got right like Cypress Hill's "Insane In The Brain", Snoop's "G'z and Hustlas", Radiohead's "Creep" and even Sophie B. Hawkins' "Damn, I Wish I Was Your Lover".

Even though the latter two came out in '92 and the former two came out in '93, you could still watch the videos on The Box or hear someone bumping them from their car stereo. (Except Hawkins. I don't remember hearing anyone loudly pump her jams while cruising through town.)

Portishead's "Sour Times" was mildly popular at the time and was released in August of that year so I'm willing to give Janiak a pass on it. Even though it's definitely not a song I vividly recall being a major staple of 1994.

And then there is Soundgarden's "The Day I Tried To Live". Indeed, they were a band that was ALL OVER the radio at that time. When they came out with Superunknown, there wasn't an hour that went by that you didn't hear "Spoonman", "Black Hole Sun" or "Fell On Black Days" being cranked out. But "The Day I Tried To Live"? Even though it was a single released from the album, it's probably the lowest-ranking single released. I get that Janiak was simply trying to capture the mood of the scene (one of the few times she does in the movie) but it's still not the song I'd pick for being the ONLY grunge song in the movie as well as one from SG. Don't get me wrong, it's a great song and one I incorporate with that time period but if you're going to use a Soundgarden song, pick one of the aforementioned three rather than this one. Those other three ring truer to me for 1994 than that one. I know, I know, now I'm just being nit-picky.

The ONE song, however, that Janiak ABSOLUTELY nailed on the head and one that was an insane smash hit was Nine Inch Nails' "Closer". As soon as I heard it in the very beginning of the movie, it immediately took me back to the beginning of my senior year and going to a party where that was being played. That song definitely speaks to 1994.

Aside from Soundgarden, though, where was the rest of the grunge?? It was the style that dominated the airwaves, music charts and MTV at the time. Although it wasn't the ONLY musical style out there (rap was really picking up steam and even country was highly dominant with the likes of Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, Faith Hill and Alan Jackson) but grunge was still the most popular music at the time. Where was the Nirvana, Pearl Jam, STP, Alice In Chains and Green Day?? If you're going to make a movie about 1994, you've got to play a vast majority of grunge, not the jumbled mess Janiak incorporated.

And the soundtrack wasn't the only reason why I gave this movie 1 star but was certainly a huge catalyst for me. The overall vibe of this being in 1994 just isn't there. AOL was a thing but if folks who actually grew up in the dial-up age can remember, incoming calls would kick offline whomever was on because your internet was plugged into the phone jack in the wall. So the scene where little bro is on the cpu and big sis receives a call and he continues to type is an inconsistency.

And the part where little bro is talking about people trading "life hacks online" was NEVER a thing back then. In fact, I don't remember calling it being "online" until several years after '94. At that point, it was being on the "Information Super Highway" or the "World Wide Web".

Seeing as how Janiak was born in 1980, she would've primarily been 14 at the time so I'm sure she can remember this year fairly well. Which is surprising as to how badly she missed the mark.

Manifest
(2018)

Premise is the only thing going for this show
I'm not a normal network TV show viewer. And I think I now know why.

A lot of the good writing is with Netflix, Hulu, Amazon and cable. Network shows have fallen by the wayside and after seeing that this show has now been on for three seasons on NBC, I'm perplexed as to how it lasted so long. Especially after reading a lot of the reviews here. Then again, a 7.2 rating might also be why the show has lasted so long because there are obviously a ton of people who are merely voting but not lending their voice.

I saw this was the No. 1 rated show for the week/day/hour (or whatever "stats" they base these numbers on) and figured the Netflix society couldn't ALL be wrong as well as the community here.

Halfway through the first ep, I began to question my sanity.

Surely ALL of the peeps on here as well as Netflix must know what the hell they're talking about, right???

Uh.....

If you've gotten to this review and it seems like I'm saying nearly the exact same thing as a slew of others, there's a reason for that.

After taking a chance and reading some reviews after the third episode, I think I'm going to give up on this show and not even bother binging it despite having the time to commit to it.

For me, the acting and writing are the two biggest points of contention.

After a few minutes into the first episode, I could tell this was a fifth-rate Canadian show. Not to completely dog our friends to the north, they're great folk and all, but their shows are evident from the jump. An immediately compelling idea that leaps hard and fast into the premise only to be shot down during the season with dragged out storylines that seem to go nowhere. Also, the characters come off as too forgiving and sappy towards one another. There's a petty argument or some sort of strife occurs and thirty seconds later, they're apologizing and smooching it up, either figuratively or literally or the strife has been resolved.

I've seen some reviewers get on Josh Dallas's (Ben) performance but for me, he's not the worst. Michaela's (Melissa Roxburgh) former boyfriend/current coworker Jason (J. R. Ramirez) seems like he needs to take a dump every time he's on screen. Ben's wife is at times an annoying shrew and others a lifeless hot air balloon. And the FBI Director who's in charge of the investigation makes me want to pat him on the head for "trying" so hard. If at any point, any of these actors get nominated for Emmys, I'll quit watching TV forever.

The writers don't seem to have a clear definition of what the show should be about. Each show has its own story and quickly solves that show's "issue" within the same episode. Nothing more boring than that. As well, each ep is slowly moving along an arc that will bring us closer to the answer of what the hell happened to these people.

Or will it? I'm only four episodes into the first season and I can already tell that they're going to milk this cow for as long as it's spitting out liquid from its udders. That and the fact that according to viewers who truly need to be commended for gutting it out through three entire seasons, the overall answer as to what happened on the plane and why they are the way they are now has yet to be answered. Or even close to being answered. And since I'm going to give up on this show, it looks like I'll never find out. Even after the show officially ends because I won't give a flip for the series finale.

See all reviews