fawn_jane

After watching this movie, I just think, "wow, I'll never forget this..."

You just have to see to understand. The plot is nothing riveting on paper. The merit of this movie is all about the wonderful acting performances. Besides Billy-Bob of course, I especially thought the actor who played the young boy was amazing. Ritter's portrayal of a flaming gay man is charming without being over-the-top.

I can see someone disliking the movie, it is kind of slow-paced, and full of simple, unglamorous southern people living their unglamorous lives.

To me this movie is about how difficult it is to live in this dangerous, complicated world with an open heart. It's about the banality of evil, and the struggle to cope with a world that's full of that evil: A world where the employer abuses the worker, then the worker comes home and beats his kid, and then the kid grows up to be someone who continues the cycle. A world where those with mental disabilities have nowhere to go, and where mothers are forced to depend on abusers to provide for themselves and their kids.

Karl is supposed to be "mentally challenged" and "different", but I interpret his role as representing the inner child inside of all of us. Throughout the movie he demonstrates a simple kind of wisdom, he is the voice of common-sense. I thought the movie would be about him getting into conflicts due to misunderstanding, or people rejecting him. Instead his character behaves quite rationally, and he is adept at connecting with and winning the trust of the people around him. He acts odd but he demonstrates a level of social intelligence that many "normal" people lack. His characteristic tone of voice seems to represent someone who speaks from their gut, but is struggling and subconsciously hesitant to express themselves because they are just so full of feeling that they just shut down somewhere along the line because they had nowhere appropriate to direct and express all that emotional energy.

Watching Thornton play Karl is touching because it connects you that simple, innocent, yet dangerous part of yourself. The heart of you that just wants to live life, enjoy the simple things, the part of you that dares to long for a world where children don't suffer, where there are answers and justice.

This movie is just barely watchable. Basically it consists of irritatingly cutsie baby-faced actors poorly imitating intelligent scientists engaged in deep philosophical conversation. The way the actors interact with each other and their environment barely resembles reality.

The romance is shallow and cringe-worthy, like something a preteen would think up: Anonymous hook-ups and stalking somehow portrayed as an appealing, convincing backdrop to a life-changing romance.

The main character is a scientist who has exactly two coworkers, and zero managers or bosses or advisors, throughout his entire career, and can fly around the world at a moments notice on a whim.

Usually I'm not one to criticize the "science" in a movie like this, but they didn't even try! In the end it comes down to a guy randomly finding a little girl on the street, (of course she's the right girl, of course she speaks English!) and dragging her into a hotel, and no one raises an eyebrow at this. Then he gives her a multiple choice test in the most biased and error-prone way imaginable. Then even though the questions were all 1:3/33% chance, for some reason its unimpressive that she got 44% correct. Statistically, that would impressive if there wasn't someone emotionally attached to the outcome and who knows all the right answers, staring at the test-taker in the face while they make their choices.

Then the ending is open-ended in a way that is intended to be though-provoking and deep, but actually is anti-climactic.

Okay, so now that my ranting is out of the way, actually the movie isn't that bad. It has some touching moments occasionally, its worth watching if you're bored. But the ending leaves much to be desired, it feels unfinished, and overall the movie just seems like its geared to appeal to preteens whose brains are not fully formed and don't really have a fleshed-out concept of how the adult-world works.

When I first saw previews of the movie, I thought it looked really sappy and unappealing. But then I saw it was a Christopher Nolan movie and I thought it had to be good. I love all his movies: Batman, The Prestige, INCEPTION. He's made so many great movies, I thought there was no way it could be that bad... well it was.

The movie starts out and the premise just makes no sense. I don't understand what humanity's problem is in this movie. Humans survived for literally 100s of thousands of years before farming was invented, but all of sudden we're all going to die just because we can't grow wheat and okra anymore. It isn't explained satisfactorily at all. People have cars and electricity, but they can't have an MRI machine? MRI machines are not that hard to build. The world of Interstellar makes no sense and they don't even try to explain it.

But the biggest problem is that the movie is boring, so very boring. We start out on this boring farm. I couldn't wait for the main characters to leave this boring planet, but they just dragged it out with the sappiness and the "please don't go!" There are so many scenes that just seem to pointlessly drag on and make you wonder why the editor dropped the ball so much.

Then when go off into space it gets a lot more exciting... some of the time. Thinking about grativity, and relativistic time effects is pretty cool, but this is puncuated with some odd interpersonal conflicts that don't really play out in a compelling or sensical way.

For some reason Hollywood has decided that romantic relationships aren't compelling anymore. That sort-of makes sense, it's kind of silly when movies are about two people who just met and then all of sudden they fall in love and are willing to kill and die for each other. But they have replaced romantic relationships in movies with something less compelling: boring, undeveloped relationships. The main character has a son and a daughter, but for some reason the father doesn't seem to care that much about his son, and instead the movie revolves around his relationship with the daughter. But honestly, I did not care about them. None of the characters were particularly interesting or likable. You could replace the actors with any other big name actors it would not have made much of a difference.

There was so much in the movie that I just plain old didn't understand. A lot of scenes in the movie that were supposed to be exciting and suspenseful just fell flat, because I had no idea what was I was supposed to be rooting for or afraid of happening. Much of it isn't exciting because of the fundamental nature of what is going on on screen... like watching someone trying to figure out the answer to an equation, while some dramatic music plays. That's just not exciting.

The worst parts of the movie, besides the nonsense and plot holes, was the weak philosophizing on the nature of love and its relationship to science, and that kind of thing. Blah blah blah evolution, survival instincts. The movie does has depth, but when the characters go off on some philosophical exposition it just comes off as pretentious and shallow. They never make a single point about love that is even slightly original or though-provoking.

But the movie isn't all bad. I like the Robot AI character. The movie had some unique visuals and situations that are memorable, they should have been used in a better movie...

And so in conclusion, this movie is okay. I'd recommend it if you have nothing better to watch.

This show is great, it's the perfect late-night cable softporn for women. It has lots of sexy situations of ahem... "power-exchange", i.e. bodices being ripped (literally...), hot guys being tied up and whipped. Since the show is based on a series of books, it has a well-written voice-over that expounds on her situation with emotional and psychological nuance.

The one thing I don't like about the show is the lead character. The lead character is so insufferably smug yet self-conscious. She's no fun at all, not relatable; a tall emaciated model with a prissy accent... yuck.

But I like the show anyway, it is well done with beautiful sets, costumes, and good acting.

This is a great movie everyone should see, not because it's perfect, but because the message of the movie is very deep and powerful if you are receptive to it.

In the movie the protagonist has a "gift", but in reality it represents a gift that all human beings have. In real life it's not so supernatural or dramatic like how its portrayed in the movie, but pretty much the same thing. The gift is that ultimately we have the ability create our own reality through our choices on how we perceive it, the movie focuses on the pitfalls of using that ability. The protagonists' mistake is he can't accept the past, and keeps trying to control other people. Only when he lets go, and when he is willing to sacrifice his immediate desires, and instead use his wisdom to make a choice that he knows will create the greatest good for the most people in his life, does his world end up in a harmonious state.

The end of the movie was kind of disappointing at first, it's kind of ambiguous and open-ended, I wanted a happy ending. But for this kind of movie, perhaps an open-ended ending is best.

Read some Darryl Anka and Esther Hicks books and then watch this movie and make the connections, it will blow your mind!

I love Tom Cruise but he is badly cast in this role.

There is this one scene where he's standing around with his shirt off and the leading lady is like "put a shirt on..." as if he's this hunk who is pea-cocking around with his shirt off distracting her. In reality he looks elderly, he reminds me of a well-preserved mummy. Someone close to Mr. Cruise needs to let him know that all the makeup and plastic surgery in the world isn't keeping him looking young anymore.

That out of the way, it was a good movie. It was smart, had an engaging plot that was unpredictable. The only problem is that at moments somehow Tom Cruise's acting or something made him unbelievable in the role. The thought kept hitting me that he's just Tom Cruise playing a role. I can't put my finger on it, it was just a bit off-key.

Disney sets a high bar though. The movie was good and entertaining but still, it was kind of forgettable. It had the usual Disney theme of "love yourself, appreciate yourself for who you are, you don't need to be something you're not", which seemed very familiar since I just saw "Monsters U" the other day. But when they pound on those poignant themes it always brings a tear to my eye. The movie has masterful use of classic storytelling and archetypes, as is expected from Disney. Gorgeous animation and CGI, from Disney it practically goes without saying.

I have to complain though: Why did they pick Sarah Silverman of all actors, to do the voice of a cute little girl? When I heard the voice I immediately could tell it was her because it sounded so obnoxious and out-of-place. The voice of Ralph wasn't that great either, it reminded me of Barney Gumble.

The movie starts out interesting, then has a boring lull in the middle, but then the ending it gets exciting again.

It could have been an enjoyable movie, but it left a terrible taste in my mouth. From the beginning the movie seems to be pandering to some wishy- washy conventional "respect-all-religions" message, but it's only a front. By the end it becomes clear that the message of this movie is something even more insidious: that life is cold and cruel and meaningless, and humans just like to make up pretty stories to placate ourselves.

The movie would have been fine if they had just told the story without pushing the theme so ham-handedly. The story is touching, the imagery beautiful and masterfully done, it has scenes you'll never forget. But then at the end the movie cuts off it's own legs with its cynical theme.

I found it barely watchable for the first couple of seasons, now at the beginning of third season, I'm not sure if it has gotten worse, but I can't stand it anymore.

Lowlights of the show:

• Boring boring plot. Bland, predictable relationship crap. They are all losers without real careers, except Schmidt who's just a dull, uptight, white-collar d- bag.

• As the show progresses, more and more the characters all seem to have the same "voice". They all sound like Zoe, rambling on randomly with this forced, contrived quirkiness.

• The male actors are repulsive. Actually, Winston is okay. But Nick and Schmidt make me gag. Isn't there a limit on how many goofy-looking Jewish dudes you can put in one sitcom? Why is the main, long-term love interest of the protagonist an unattractive, broke loser? How am I supposed to root for them?

They should make a show starring Cece, she is strong and glamorous and has waaay better screen presence than Deschanel, who'd be better cast as the quirky friend. The actress who plays Cece should have a show where she models by day and fights zombie werewolves by night. Anything would be better than this boring crap.

With all the TV I have watched in my lifetime, this one show is my favorite of all time. It has everything: great acting, great writing, it's exciting and intelligent. There is not a single wasted moment, not a single predictable lazy/clichéd storyline in the entire show.

When I first started watching, I must admit I was turned off. The show seemed dark, depressing and bleak. I mean come on... some boring middle-aged white dude working two jobs, putting up with his bitchy wife, a special-needs son, AND cancer? But as the plot goes on, it's soon becomes quite inspiring. What it all comes down to is that this is a story about an emasculated, downtrodden man who finds his mojo. The cancer is his wake-up call; Facing death in the face, he finally begins to embrace life. Watching the transformation is a joy to behold.

Now, I am sure many would protest how I have characterized the show here. It is typical for Walt's character development to be described as as a downward spiral into evil, selfishness, and narcissism. And he does indeed have moments, particularly in the last seasons, where he seems to have hit the moral rock bottom. But I think when you go out and live life to fullest, you have to accept that sometimes you are going to make mistakes, sometimes you'll have to be the bad guy.

In any case, you don't have to like Walt's character to like the show. In this show there are no heroes, definitely some villains, but no heroes. In many stories there is often a trade-off between action and character development; either you have a slow plodding show with great 3-dimensional characters, or an action-packed explosion-fest with little character development or nuance in the direction. But this show has it all; Every single episode has such tight cinematography, excellent dialogue and characterizations, every episode makes you hungry to see the next one and see what happens next. The way the plot unfolds with its ups and downs, exciting moments and slow moments, is PERFECT.

I'm not going to go through every character, they all did a great job, but I have to single out Aaron Paul, who plays Jesse. I think he stands out as the greatest acting performance of the show. His youthful, bright-eyed character is the heart and soul of the show, and he could not have done acted it better.

So anyway, if you haven't seen this show yet, I envy you, because you get to see it for the first time and I can't again. I supposed someone might not like the show if they are particularly squeamish about drugs or violence, but even if you are you might like the show anyway.

At first I was put off by the premise of having a television show where the protagonist is a serial killer. That sounded reprehensible. I mean, c'mon, are they trying to make serial killers look cool now? What is this world coming to? That's what I thought, but the show works because the whole dark serial-killer thing is compensated for by everything else in the show: the colorful, sunny, Miami setting, the relatively wholesome family values and themes about justice and protecting the innocent. The first few episodes put me off a bit with how gruesome and gory some shots were, but later the directors made a good decision to minimize that; For the most part the show doesn't dwell on the violence, and it happens tastefully off- camera.

I love this show, but Dexter is the least-convincing psychopath in the history of TV psychopaths. Throughout the series he behaves in a way that is far more reasonable, thoughtful, and considerate than most 'normal' people. True psychopaths are selfish and impulsive. Psychopaths are born, not made by traumatic childhood experience. Pyschopaths are supposed to be charismatic, impulsive, reckless, while Dexter is just kind of socially awkward in a way that is far more normal than he realizes. Psychopaths generally don't have an urge to kill, they just have no remorse or empathy about it. To a psychopath killing a person is like squashing a bug. In his inner monologue in multiple occasions he says/thinks nonsense along the lines of "If I could love anyone, I'd love my sister Debrah." or "If I had feelings, I'd feel bad in this situation." When obviously if he didn't have those feelings, those thoughts would very unlikely to occur to him. Given the tone and situations where he says that, he seems less like a psychopath and more like someone who has a warped view of themself and their feelings.

Dexter is not realistic, but the writers have successfully created a protagonist that is a symbol - exaggerated for story-telling purposes - a symbol of a regular person like you or me, who has demons to battle and struggle against every day. He's just a regular person who struggles with balancing work and family and a terrible addiction. This show explores the ultimate fear that is too common: The fear that if other people learn who we really are, they will all hate and shun us. Most people have more boring secrets: that they are an atheist, they are gay, they like to eat icecream straight out of the carton with potato chips late at night, but deep down inside in our inner dramas, it feels like we might as well be serial killer and so we can relate. But what really keeps you watching the show is you really want to see these bad guys caught one way or another, and you really don't feel bad when they end up on Dexter's table.

This show goes on for 8 whole seasons. It seems like everyone complains that the show jumped-the-shark after the first season, or the second season, or whatever. Personally, I enjoyed all the seasons. They tend to follow a formula, it's a good formula: Every season there is a Big Bad that Dexter and the police hunt down. Dexter always makes a new friend that gets his hopes up that he finally has someone he can confide in and have a rapport with. Throw in a love interest, some family drama, and some minor side-plots about his police coworkers. It's all good except sometimes the side-plots can seem rather pointless and tacked-on. And Dexter/Michael Hall has no chemistry with his love interests. I seriously expect him to come out of the closet now that the show is over. But overall the acting is amazing, there is never that feeling that I'm just watching a show with actors. It's not realistic per-se, but it's immersive.

It was only until season 8 that I really felt like the show was getting contrived and was outliving its worth. But first thing's first, the early seasons are by definition, classic good ol' Dexter. But season 4, with John Lithgow as the most excellent Big Bad of any season, is not to be missed. Over time as Dexter eventually confronts people like big-time mobsters and super-rich dudes, his whole socially- awkward insecure serial killer schtick starts looking kind of quaint in comparison. Then the show ended... I won't spoil it but I was a little surprised and slightly disappointed. The ending left some side-plots hanging. They introduce important new characters and then just forget about them. It wasn't bad, but the writers fumbled the ball there.

But despite my criticism, I love this show and would recommend it. It's smartly written, engaging and suspenseful, and has lots of heart for a show about a serial killer.

Patrick Wilson is pretty unconvincing as a pedophile. He's handsome, and has a glamorous career and a cool apartment. There must be pedophiles out there like that, but not really the typical image the comes to mind.

Ellen Page is also unconvincing in a way. As usual, she plays the role of the annoying precocious child, but of the horribly overgrown 18-year-old sort. Her role is convincing when she is pretending to be the ingenue, but when she turns on Wilson's character, she blatantly turns into a preachy mouthpiece for the director/writer in a way that seems out of place.

The movie can best be described as torture-porn. It reminds me of the show "Dexter" in its attempts to justify the horror of the protagonists crimes with "they deserve it...", although in the case of this movie I don't buy it - except kinda-sorta near the end of the movie, maybe.

Sleeping with underage girls is horrible and all, but come on, trying to hook up with an underage girl through the internet is not in the same league as say, raping a toddler; it's terrible but doesn't quite justify the violent retribution against Wilson's character that the writer/director seems to want the audience to root for.

There was this one weird part, when Wilson's character supposedly hurts Page's character by rolling a desk chair into her, that he happens to be tied to. That just seemed rather silly to me. When you are tied to a chair, you can't hurt someone by ramming them repeatedly, you just don't have the leverage to propel yourself all that hard.

Despite all of this, Wilson and Page do very excellent jobs acting, and these are quite demanding roles. But they are just in the wrong, poorly-written movie. There's barely any more plot or other characters. At the end the movie left me feeling rather empty. It's like... that's it?

To sum it up, the premise of the movie is interesting, but the execution... not so much.

They could have done some hilarious things with the narration, put him in some wacky situations, but instead it just plays out in the most dull and uncreative way imaginable. The way Ferrel's character reacts to it is stilted and unrealistic, in my humble opinion.

Besides the life-narration thing, the story is the typical boring salary-man lives boring life, and we're SOMEHOW supposed to feel sorry for him and accept him as representative of a mediocre life when in an actuality he is quite privileged as a tall, fit, healthy man with a good job, and no responsibilities such as a wife or kids. Come to think of it, why and how could a great novelist write a full novel about such a boring life anyway?

Anyway, one day he meets manic pixie dream girl. They skipped the essential part though where their relationship has any actual ups-and-downs. The way they get together is pretty unconvincing too. I am puzzled that either one likes the other. His overtures towards her get downright cringe-worthy and creepy in its overly-earnestness, reminiscent of Anakin and Padme in Episode II.

I'm probably missing something, I don't understand what theme they were going for, or what the significance of the ending is. The movie overall seems pretentious and self-important. The movie sputters along boringly until the end when it tells us (but doesn't actually show us) it is dramatic and profound.

Back in the day, the premise of a cartoon about a brainy, outcast, independent girl in high school seemed exciting and promising, I loved watching this show.

The show is refreshing in that it features an assertive, independent, intelligent protagonista who is in high school but doesn't do the lame, hackneyed "boo hoo, I'm so pathetic and desperate to be cool" shtick. Daria's dry sarcastic and blunt wit is a drink of cool water, and draws plenty of laughs and entertainment.

But as the show goes on, it slowly disappoints as you realize that when you get down to it, Daria is dull and a killjoy. They should have made the show about her fighting crime or solving mysteries, or something... anything! Instead the show dwells on the mundane. Daria is supposed to be clever, but we never see her do anything clever. For me the lowest point was when they had a whole episode about... brace yourself... her trying on contact lenses. The show wavers between mediocre satire, and taking itself way too seriously, and it does neither one very well. There are too many cringe-worthy after-school-special moments and preachy monologues.

When the show tries to be deep and coming-of-agey, it falls flat, and lacks basic insight. Daria lacks self-awareness, and inadverdently represents a young person in a sad state of arrested development, like that chick who goes around scowling and cranky, and when called on it claims "this is my natural resting face!". This point is driven home in later episodes, like the one where Daria remembers being a little kid and not getting along with the other kids at school. The show just frames it as "she just didn't like them, the end."

Then the show COMPLETELY jumps the shark with the Daria-gets-a- boyfriend-storyline. That plot arc is just like... what is this? I don't even... What in the world were the writers thinking? I am baffled as to how they managed to go through the whole process of putting that plot arc into the show, and no one along the way realized it was terrible. The show tries to be too many things at once. This is a cartoon, it should've have just stuck being a cartoon and not try to be a teen-drama soap opera.

Despite my harsh criticism, it is a good show to watch, it paves the way for similar shows in the future to someday do it right.

I don't even mind that Carrie Bradshaw here breaks canon from Sex and the City, which seems to be what most of the negative reviews go on and on about. I don't even mind that much that the lead actress looks like a "Bratz" doll. I could almost even overlook some trite teenager-coming-of- age stuff.

But after a few episodes the show just became painful to watch. The central conflicts in the show are downright trifling and unnecessary. Watching this show is like listening to some spoiled over-privileged white girl helplessly whine and complain about their nonexistent problems.

The last straw for me was the Thanksgiving episode. I won't spoil it, but basically what happens in that the writers utterly reduced Carrie to having NO common sense, just so she can fail and then whine and complain about how she failed. Lazy, stupid writing.

This movie is quite an experience. Maybe I just haven't seen enough movies, but the whole feel and art style of the film was quite unique to me. In every scene of the movie, something weird and alien is introduced: bizarre creatures, advanced alien technology, other-worldy landscapes and vegetation. Watching this movie is like taking a trip to another dimension.

The film works as an experience, but no so much as a full-fledged movie. Perhaps it should have been a music video instead of a movie. The plot is the most trite, sterile, unoriginal thing in the world. The writing for the character's dialogue and interactions are cold and emotionally stunted. The film makes me think the writer of the film is some cynical, immature, nihilistic, reductionist college sophomore trying to make some ham-handed point about societal relations.

The whole premise of the movie, humans being playthings for giant oppressive blue aliens, implies the movie will teach some elevating and inspirational lesson about appreciating other living beings as being more deep, intelligent, and multifaceted than we can perceive on the surface, but ultimately the movie actually seems intent on actually REDUCING humanity and societal relations to mere stereotypical cavemen bludgeoning each other to death over petty ignorance, and simplistic fears and superstitions. Despite that criticism, the film is valuable for its depiction of human beings being treated as mere playthings or animals. The visceral experience of watching it stirs something deep down in a way that can't be put into words.

So, to sum it up, this a pretty mediocre film, but worth watching for the unique experience. The movie puts your mind into that creepy "uncanny valley" and keeps you there the whole time. I think the movie would have been better off if they just cut the dialogue, set it to some psychedelic music, and let the viewer use their imagination to assume what is going on, because the plot really does not have enough going on.

When I had read about the character development for Lara Croft before playing this game, I was concerned that they used this reboot/prequel as an excuse to turn Lara Croft into some cliché damsel-in-distress in a horror-survival situation. It is technically like that, but it feels more gritty and raw and violent, and Croft kicks way too much ass to be that cliché. It draws you into her role, and makes you think: "if I were in that situation, what would I do? How would I cope?" The director of the game successfully creates an experience where you go from normal relatable everyday life to living in a Jerry Bruckheimer-action movie, (and at some points a horror movie). The game successfully conveys Lara Croft as a normal young person who triumphs through adversity to be strong, brave, even a bit ruthless.

In recent popular culture, the bow-and-arrow seems to have become a symbol of the strong independent woman in a fantasy setting. Perhaps they are channeling the ol' goddess archetypes like Artemis, the Greek, bow- wielding moon goddess. But often these depictions fall flat because the writer/director doesn't know how/is afraid to really run with it, and the bow-and-arrow just becomes a prop or a fashion accessory. (The movie "Brave" comes to mind.) But Lara Croft is different: she has a bow and arrow, and she actually USES it. To KILL people (and animals).

Speaking of violence, this game has just the right amount. The temples full of bloody bodies is a bit unrealistic, I mean, how could they have that many bodies on a little island that are so fresh and bloody? But the action sequences are gritty and real and drawn out, and they draw you in in that way a movie can't. To get through the game you have have shoot and stab and blow people up and that's that. It is what it is.

The plot is nothing original but it is enjoyable and suspenseful. I am halfway through the game and there are still big mysteries about what is going on. The overarching plot reminds me of the show "Lost" (except it makes sense and isn't full of random crap that goes nowhere). When the player gets into the action it reminds me of action movies from 10 or 15 years ago, especially with some of the background music they chose. The dialogue of the various enemies and henchmen wandering around can be pretty amusing too.

The gameplay is good ol' Tomb-Raidery goodness with some modern touches thrown in. There's the classic climbing and 3D-platform jumping that Tomb Raider games invented, plus elements reminiscent of newer series' like Assassins Creed, Prince of Persia, or God of War such as elements of stealth, first-person-shooter, scripted action sequences that require the player to press the right buttons, or mash the buttons quickly. At some points the game seems too easy though, and it holds the player's hand too much. It gives you too many hints without the option to turn it off. Often in the beginning of a puzzle Croft thinks something out loud, or an NPC makes some comment that steals the opportunity for the player to figure it out by themself. But I like it better than how impossible the old original games were, where the reading walkthroughs was pretty much a requirement. (Everyone I know always got stuck because they didn't notice that one tiny ledge of in a corner they're supposed to jump to, etc.) The combat sequences in the game has adjustable difficulty though.

The gameplay has elements of collecting random things. Usually that turns me off but in this game it's done right. Croft finds many artifacts throughout the game but they are realistic and rendered and described in detail. She finds old writing and journals that game reads aloud to you. Unlike many video games, the voice acting is good, and it is engaging enough that I want to read them, unlike most games where I don't even bother.

Overall this is a very well-done, professional, polished game, where the game designers did their homework in including time-tested fun and balanced game elements. A couple of times I did come across bugs though: At one point I was trapped because a cutscene wouldn't trigger when it was supposed to. I reloaded from the last save point and it worked OK after that though. Also there was a curious door that swung open. The door opened fine, but the graphic for the bullet-hole in the window of the door remained in the doorway floating in mid-air.

My only complaint is the over-done menu system. Every time you go a submenu or do something there has to be swooshing sound effects and text flying around and turning upside-down and exploding. (I'm exaggerating, but not *that* much.) It's just a minor quibble, it doesn't truly detract from the game, but I would have preferred a more clean and simple menu system.

I was ready for a Disney-dose of girl-power but was let down. I read that the director abandoned-ship halfway through the production and it shows.

The movie starts out promising then it flounders. They forgot to finish writing the second half of the plot.

Eventually the protagonist "realizes" that refusing to be forced to marry some stranger is just her being "selfish" and "spoiled". (What the heck?) In the end the mother suddenly changes her mind about forcing her daughter to marry. What goes on in the middle of the movie seems to have nothing to do with actually resolving the interpersonal conflict.

The third act of the movie is kind of dull and consists of contrived slapstick action. I call it contrived because it revolves around trying to hide the mother while the protagonist tries to accomplish something, but why did the mother have to even come along? She could have just stayed somewhere safe while the heroine did her thing.

I loved watching this movie in 3D in the theater! This movie made me feel like a kid again, I was absorbed and entranced by the stunning, colorful action and visuals. It's the kind of movie that gives you something to daydream about. I loved watching and idea of these giant robot Mechs. Gives you that I-love-science-and-technology feeling.

The entire movie has this quality I have never seen before, wherein the feel of it was bleak and gritty, but at the same time it was very colorful and futuristic and fantastic.

These days in action movies often the action sequences are hard to follow because the director employs too many cuts and blurs, I assume to make it seem more exciting. But here I never had the thought, as I often do in other action movies, "When is this action scene going to end... yawn... what is even going on?"

I took off one star though because the movie isn't perfect. For instance, the main character is extremely forgettable, I could not even tell him apart from this other more minor character in the movie that looks similar. And then there was Elba's character and performance, there was something off about it. It's hard to put into words, the delivery of his lines was unconvincing at times: flat or the timing was off.

I enjoyed the female lead. She's a gentle soft-spoken Japanese woman, and the movie does not apologize or overcompensate for it. Her character isn't the generic female lead who sneers at Mr. reckless rebellious protagonist at first and then gets won over and falls in love with him. Instead the male and female leads develop a hearty platonic friendship based on mutual understanding and shared experience.

The movie had a rainbow of colorful characters, like the goofy scientists, the bleach-blonde rockstar-looking russians you see in the background, Ron Perlmen's character, they were all welcome comic relief to whole serious aliens-are-trying-to-wipeout-all-of-humanity situation.

The movie is well done, but there is no denying it is completely formulaic. I instantly saw so many parallels between this movies and for example, Independence Day. The film is very much classic Hollywood, three-act, Joseph Campbell's-Hero's Journey stuff.

And the whole premise of the movie doesn't make sense. If aliens were attacking earth, why would you build two-legged humanoid mechs to punch them and shoot at them at close range? Makes zero sense from an engineering standpoint. But all that is forgivable because after all... MECHS! But still worth pointing out... there are other things in the movie like that but I won't get into it.

The special effects in the movie are amazing, and the director knew what he was doing with them. There were so many points in the movie where I was just in awe of how beautiful and well-put-together the action and special effects were. Moments where I appreciated watching something that felt absolutely PERFECT.

If you are in the mood for a colorful action movie, run to the theaters now! I could see someone not liking it though if they need something deep or logical, this movie is a fun formulaic action movie that doesn't take itself too seriously.

I expected this movie to be just another mediocre comedy with a few laughs here and there. Instead I found the movie to be fundamentally flawed and unenjoyable:

• The main character is an unlikable loser who is selfish, mean- spirited, petty and jealous. She has no apparent goals or aspirations, nothing to help the viewer feel sympathy or like her or find her interesting.

• Too much of the humor relies on embarrassing and gross bodily functions.

• Another portion of the humor just relies on characters over-sharing and making others uncomfortable with their whiny self-pity. This is not from the movie but to give you an idea of what I mean: imagine a scene where one woman says to another "I'm having problems with my husband, he doesn't want to have sex with me anymore so I bought 5 vibrators! (blah blah etc.)" Other person looks uncomfortable and stays quiet. The movie has several exchanges like that between characters and that is supposed to be funny or cute? It's just... not. Humor should be about presenting the audience with some novel unexpected arrangement of ideas or experiences, not rely entirely on making them wince and feel uncomfortable.

• Lacking plot and character development; The whole plot revolves around being a bridesmaid. Eventually the main character supposedly "learns" that she has take responsibility for the problems in her life. But the things that happen in the movie don't seem to show the process of her learning anything, instead it is just her being a trainwreck and wallowing in misery. At the end there is nothing tangible or demonstrable to show that she has grown at all.

On the plus side: somehow it wasn't that bad. As much as there is to criticize, it's worth watching once. There are some funny moments, situations that make you think, some scenes that are poignant and have heart.

Before I get into it, let me cut to the chase for those of you too impatient to read my entire review: I do not recommend this movie even slightly. Imagine watching some grainy, washed-out, poorly-shot home video with bad audio and boring annoying people you know nothing about doing random stuff you have little context for. That's what watching this movie is like.

I was all set to love this movie. A deep intricate plot based on time travel... How could they go wrong? Well, they found a way...

From the beginning the movie is hard to follow and boring; The main characters go about their lives as normal engineers or businessmen or something, rambling endlessly about boring stuff. I could not follow what they were talking about, or whether I'm even supposed to be able to follow. I'm no dummy, I'm a professional engineer myself but I found it very frustrating. The movie is alienating to viewers from the beginning.

Then when the plot picks up and gets into the time travel stuff, the viewer's experience still suffers because nothing is really explained clearly. I watched the whole movie and left confused about the basics as to how the time travel machine was even supposed to work.

The characters are boring and joyless. They have an effin' time machine and not once do they seem excited or happy about it. Despite their grave attitude, that doesn't stop them from making painful-to-watch, unnecessarily, bad and reckless decisions about using time travel. It's like the worst of both worlds of serious vs. not-serious.

The makers of this movie should have spent less time making the movie complex and more time making it actually *watchable*. The plot quickly devolves into an unnecessarily vague and confusing mess. The only reason I have any clue what happened was because I found a college essay about it that lays the plot out. Even after reading about it, I'm not impressed by the plot. It's just complex just for the sake of being complex and beyond that, no creativity or artistry whatsoever. The writers of this movie seem to have no sense of art or aesthetics, or what would be engaging or enjoyable to a human being.

In many scenes I gritted my teeth straining to hear what the heck the actors are actually saying. At the same time I fumed wondering how they could put all this time and effort to make a movie, and yet it didn't occur to them that having rumbling engines or rushing water drowning out the dialogue might be something that has to be corrected before releasing a movie.

What else can I say? Terrible movie... for your own sanity, stay away.