ed_bardo

IMDb member since March 2005
    Lifetime Total
    5+
    IMDb Member
    19 years

Reviews

Rememory
(2017)

The Reason I Watch For Movies I Never Heard Of
OK, so I travel on long haul flights all the time and decided to load up my tablet with movies I had never heard of on release, particularly science fiction. I watched films funded by fund-me sites to new, made-for-streaming movies. Of all that I have seen, this one made my shortlist of treasures I would never have found if it wasn't for this "take a chance" approach.

Without any spoilers, or details on the plot (as those are supplied in abundance here), let me just say this is a quality piece of film making that deserves exposure. It reminded me a bit of Brainstorm, Douglas Trumbull's great film. Please take the time to watch this movie and share it with your friends if you like it. I am going to do the same.

If you are interested in seeing my list or review of small time, sci-fi films you probably wouldn't watch or have heard of unless you looked, contact me and I will post those titles in list form.

Enjoy this film!

Café
(2011)

A Special Class of Film
I occasionally find these movies that most people won't have heard of and will have no interest to see, yet shine as gems in their own right. The criteria I use for determining when these small, indie films make my list is that they take a risk and show a level of creativity that mainstream films have abandoned. Recently I have found an interesting class of these films that I call the indie film with the unexpected sci-fi twist. Café is one of these.

I didn't read the reviews or know the tagline to be forewarned what this movie is about. I have to say, not only was I intrigued, but extremely pleasantly surprised. I am not going to rehash the details of the plot but suffice it to say, if you are a movie lover sitting at home looking for a pleasant way to stretch your imagination and spawn a post viewing discussion, this one is for you.

Recently I found two others I considered similar in this class of film. "Safety not Guaranteed" and "The Sound of My Voice" were two other films that fell into this personal class of interesting film. Take the plunge and try these original films!

Europa Report
(2013)

Near Term Science Based Fiction
I am not going to respond to the variety of reviews that already have been written above. I simply want to say to you science fiction enthusiasts, how ofter do you get to see a hard science based science fiction film these days? Jump on the chance when you have it and that is what this movie is, your chance! This is what I love about technology these days is that low budget science fictions stories can still have amazing visuals that help tell the story. It straddles that line between the technologically possible now to the near term future. The attention to science detail and the desire to make this look real, work for this film. As an aerospace engineer, science fiction fan, and space buff, I loved it!

Europa Report should appeal to any science and science fiction fan out there.Don't miss it!

4:44 Last Day on Earth
(2011)

Pretentious, cheap and horrible...waste of an hour and a half!
**Spoiler alert!!** I may unintentionally reveal plot *laugh, laugh* elements

I am stunned at the way some filmmakers and actors think they can do a movie and make a political statement and think by making it pretentious, it will be all that much more important. Enter this piece of pretentious garbage! I don't have anything good to say about this except that it finally ended. Everything is wrong about this film. The science is laughable (how the world is supposed to end). The characters are irritating, unlikable human trash and even worse, stupid! I kept praying they would get killed sooner rather than later. The camera work is terrible (you can actually see the jerky motor drive motion). The special effects (if you can call them that) are worse than a teenage kid does on his laptop nowadays. The poorly included soundtrack required turning the sound down it was so irritating. I don't know what more I can say to warn you not to waste your time.

Let me try one last angle. If you consider yourself a liberal, this is the type of trash conservatives think you come up with which is why they don't take you seriously. If you are conservative, this is such liberal garbage, you won't want to waste your time watching this.

How Do You Know
(2010)

Shame on you James L. Brooks, for shame!
To prevent claims that I am negatively reviewing this film because I don't like this type of film, I start by saying I enjoyed many of James L. Brooks' earlier works such as As Good As It Gets or Terms of Endearment. Mr. Brooks has demonstrated his ability to put together a diverse and talented cast and bring them together focusing on the things that make all of us different. The writing brings everything together where the work stands on it's own and is as strong as the sum of it's parts. So what happened here??? This film is a painful and mind numbing experience in boredom, bad writing, bad chemistry and pure stupidity! I have watched many a film and rarely have trouble sitting through them. I found myself laughing and almost screaming at this movie to go somewhere! Is it deserving of one star? Maybe I am being too harsh? No, how can you take a movie with Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson and Jack Nicholson and basically throw away their talent by wrapping it around insanely boring and random dialog? The first few times the characters think they are saying something witty that makes no sense to where the movie isn't going, it is irritating. To sit through two hours of this torture is enough to drive one to drink! This movie had no exposure for a reason, avoid it! I am sure you have something better to do for two hours even if it is to watch episodes of I Love Lucy you have already seen.

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