jdburkitt

I liked this movie. For me, the two leads played well off each other and Ashton may yet be taken seriously. Once again, the jaded, cynical critics did not get the thinking of the public. In Rotten Tomatoes, critics 38%; public 62%. The womens' roles were not strong enough and there should have been more off-base love interest. The training sequences were a little too long and detailed--therefore boring. A better movie could be made of these little noticed but fantastic trained rescuers. Some more of the armed USCG personnel who interdict contraband coming into the country also place themselves in danger and would have balanced the total Coast Guard perspective. But then, I think Costner and the writers wanted to emphasize the hand of fate that especially affects the rescue teams and the legendary "Guardian" under the sea who holds up victims of Mother Nature---who can be a real Bitch at times! I preferred the less depressing alternate ending shown on the DVD's bonus features section.

Like most movies on TV, esp. in the morning, this was just a "filler" to take up space. However, there were NO external reviews on IMDb!! Is any movie that terrible? the movie was kind of silly, teeny bopper stuff that might be appreciated by ditsy pre-teens trapped in a hospital room. The guys were eye candy, alright, but no real acting, dialogue or plot involved. I think that the IMDb guidelines dictating a minimum of 10 lines is cruel and unusual punishment, so I'm filling up the space in my comment with that brilliant observation. Let's see, I still have two more lines to go to meet that silly requirement, and ---now I think my comment can be officially approved by the Poobahs at IMDb. No wonder they don't get the hundreds of comments that they should get on a site like this!!

Big Panda Bear

San Francisco

"I Love Lucy" is one of my faves guaranteed to elicit a constant belly laugh from me. Great way to start any day! Ball's comic timing in her scenes has NEVER been surpassed. Since I was born in 1945 this is also somewhat of an opportunity to see what life in America was like when I was a mischievous child. Today, of course, we know more than we want to about the real-life personality conflicts behind the scenes and Desi's constant insensitivity toward Lucille. Ms Ball was a great role model for young ladies, esp. in the industry, because of her managerial/financial/directorial brilliance. I don't think that the later "Lucy" sitcoms were even as good as the "I love Lucy" series.

As a 61 yr old gay guy, I STILL laugh my ass off at this funny, entertaining classic. Watching it on cable today and dropped everything else. I esp. enjoyed the postings on this site for the favorite lines in the movie. I wasn't offended at all, like some overly sensitive gays, by the "stereotypes". However,I am glad to see much less flamboyant gay characters in the subplots of current TV hits incl. "Brothers and Sisters" w/ the same old skinny Calista! Most of my gay friends and I are "straight-acting" and "butch" enough to fool any unfortunate Hetero who thinks they are sophisticated enough to have a "gaydar".

Wahlberg was meant to play this role, which may be his best yet. It will be a cop movie classic, esp. with the realistic portrayal of Chinatown (I have lived near there in San Francisco for 14 years). Brutal, but honest, it shows the ubiquitous racism of all races. The Chinese Triads still exist in sex and drug smuggling. The "sweatshops" are somewhat better now, but the simpleminded racism still exists on all sides. Despite the usual snooty superciliousness of most critics, I thought the characters were quite well developed building up to a human aspect that the audience identifies with. It is true in San Francisco that cops in my city surrender to the inevitability of street crime in the poorer sections of the city.

This is a great little gem of ancient history that still affects us in modern times. I watched it over several mornings with my coffee so that I could begin the day laughing at human folly (THAT has not changed) and learning some history. One of the few things Marx got right was saying that religion is the opium of the people--if that's an accurate quote. The world still suffers from religious fanaticism. I only hope that the more rational global economy can conquer and behead the religious fanatics in America, the Middle East and elsewhere! Today we send young women and men to war to die for oil: back then it was for "salvation"!!

Big Panda Bear

Caught this for the first time late night Sept., 2006. It was a very cool, foggy San Francisco night. I loved it! The critics missed the point altogether on this one. An older Ebert probably would have given it more than two stars. Garner was great, as usual, in his cool understated character. One critic said Bruce Willis was not movie star material. WRONG! The porn star Joe Dallesandro as "Dutch" was one of several funny, kinky sidebars. Yes, Chandler could have written it and drank to its health. Oh oh! scolded for less than ten lines---so, the cold, impersonal wind swept down trashy Market Street where the very rich and the very poor rubbed shoulders nonchalantly. Ah! the irony of it all.

As a mature (61) gay man, I enjoyed the hell out of this film. At least there was a diversity of stereotypes. I guess it would be boring to show that most gays lead "regular" lives in all kinds of workplaces. The angst was, thankfully, less "Dawson's Creek" and more universal. The experienced straight actors helped it flow along nicely, a cut above the usual sloppy, Indie-style gay movie. The Lesbian subplot should have been expanded--or left out! I recommend this movie to all young lesbians and gays facing a still altogether ignorant homophobic society---but one that has improved since I was their age. Kudos to the people behind the camera too!

"Kyle XY" is yet another copy cat of smallville/superman. Kyle (Matt Dallas) is great eye candy alright, but way too dumb to be an intelligent alien life-form. The show becomes too preachy too, stuffing religion down our throats even more than "7th Heaven". The best acting is by Jan-Luc as the much more articulate son in a family too well-educated to take in a weirdo without a belly button (conceived by Immaculate Conception?). The plot seems to be getting less dull. Who knows, I may even be seduced by the show instead of just all the handsome men! However, like most TV shows today, "Kyle" is targeted toward the huge bimbo factions of teenagers--both male and female.

Another hunky, hairy straight guy playing a gay guy. Is it a risk to their career anymore, or not? Apparently not in this case. As a gay, I consider this a good thing. I liked him in The Bone Collector, but does he always have to play the dumb big guy with the Brooklyn accent? I am sure that he is a much better actor than that. It is also superfluous to have to write ten lines for these damn "guidelines". So I thought that I would talk about what I ate today: a crab/tuna salad sandwich; orange cream yogurt with a banana and raspberries. I also emailed my sister in Atlanta and sister-in-law in Arizona with my thoughts on wet dreams and the Mideast crisis. ah! ten lines, finally!