jlkap

OK, so when I see a critic give a movie 4 stars, I immediately say, yeah right - because the hype, the type of movie a critic considers to be 4 stars is many times not the same kind of movie a person looking for something great would consider 4 stars. Reviewers and moviegoers are worlds apart on taste.

Now, I give Breaking Bad 10 out of 10 yes. But it isn't for everyone. Watch the pilot. And then, if you can stay with it, and watch the next and the next, I am almost confident it will completely grab hold of you and a show about a lowly chemistry teacher turned meth cooker will become your drug of choice - I swear - but that's only if it grabs you.

The base scenario: Chemistry Teacher, who had aspirations for bigger things stuck in marriage to controlling wife with son who has Cerebral Paulsy and wife also baby on way. Brother in law works for the DEA. Chem teacher finds out he has terminal lung cancer and after finding out from DEA bro-in-law the huge money involved in cooking meth, decides to get into it to provide for family after his death (secretly of course).

It's 3 seasons old with a 4th season due in July 2011 and it has only gotten better season by season. It is amazing, gripping, disgusting, upsetting, emotional, slick, pathetic, scary, adrenalizing...and a bunch of other words - all in one shot.

The reason? The acting and writing. These two things make Breaking Bad the best show I've ever seen on TV. The acting is so freaking' good. Also, the writing isn't just what you're seeing on screen. It goes deeper than that. The way the actors execute bring the writing to levels unheard of in TV.

Fans of Dexter or Six Feet Under will want to try this one out. Even if you're not, give it a try and maybe you'll like it. Me? I'm a nut case about the show so I'll say try it no matter what you're a fan of.

I guess if I didn't know going in that this movie was nominated for 4 Oscars I wouldn't have been so disappointed by it. - But these days, Oscar nominated films are so subjective and hated by many - it's a wonder how some even get on the ballot.

Free of that, I am in the boat with the people who thought the movie was dull but the acting was what held the movie together. The flow of the movie was highly uneven but I was at least a little moved on how it came together in the end...sort of.

Everybody in the main cast did close to a class A acting job. Especially Annette Benning who deserves the actress nod without fail. I also thought Julianne Moore did a terrific acting job. Ruffalo also did a "good" job but an Oscar does he deserve? He was essential and pulled it off well (I like him as an actor), but he was way more Oscar worthy as the detective in Zodiac - a highly underrated David Fincher film that the Academy now wishes they didn't overlook.

I loved the kids - but that's where the movie goes wrong. It's uneven throughout, and the children to me are the strength of the story but the story completely drifts away from them. I understand that the title "The Kids are All Right" actually refers to everyone - not just kids in the literal sense - but the children I felt had the most to offer and the film just cast them aside - because of this, the story suffers and the movie becomes uneven and about stuff I sincerely didn't really give a damn about.

Acting? A. Story? C Overall - C+ or C - it's not a best picture by any means.

It was nice look at, the production was smooth and special effects OK. Robert Downey was great but his sarcasm and ego thing got tired after 20 minutes and unfortunately nothing else happened.

This movie was way more about watching high profile actors be on screen and underachieve. First Iron Man rocks way better. Scarlett Johansen? Just there to be in black leather and kick legs. The movie got too full of itself, made you not care about anyone and was a detached mess.

It seems that nobody is capable of making an action movie these days that even makes an attempt to try to have anything other than special effects or action - All action and no story is old damn news. I thought Tron was great - could've been better but it really held itself together. Iron Man 2, Transformers 2, complete meltdowns.

You can say that Inception was an action movie - but I would lean towards "Thriller" with terrific story and action to achieve its goal.

Try again Jon Favreau. Give us something better next time.

Story: Unoriginal. The rest of it: Fantastic. Finally a film about romance that doesn't pull every cliché out of its hat and seem enormously implausible and casts two actors and includes story elements that make it different enough to enjoy thoroughly.

The movie loses only two points for its unoriginal story and the fact that they could've done without the whole "Love Story let's meet at the top of the Empire State Building" that I just loathe. Doesn't matter. The acting and the story were terrific, engaging and enjoyable and you actually felt for these characters hoping for both of them. Both Hoffman and Thompson made you care about them. The rest of the cast is very real and For a movie this simple that relies most on character development, that's your make or break and this movie definitely makes it.

If you're looking for some fabricated generic movie about beautiful people going through unrealistic problems and complaining and being desperate about loneliness and lack of commitment issues, try "He's just not that into you" or a movie in which Matthew McConaghey attempts to be grounded by another girl as a result of bet.

Somehow, some way, Michael Moore needs to get his own network and give us news about what is really happening happening rather than the gunk given to us by the Fox, CNN and MSNBC morons.

My wife, who watches a lot of news, leaned over to me during this movie and said "How did I miss this on the news?" It basically confirms everything we all know to be true. There is no government, there is no religion, there is no media. There is only money and money creates greed and greed creates power hungry evil types looking to put the rest down because of their short comings as people.

You think Al Quaeda's cause is actually driven by religion? HAAAAA! They want world domination and they bomb people to instill fear to get it.

In this country, the corps own everything. Nothing is done by any president or govt official from the White House all the way on down to the corrupt state of NJ without someone financially benefitting from it. That part about the policies on people dying and the company gaining from it? What the eff!@!! No shame.

Why should any of us vote for Govt officials at all. Unless we are in a dire situation, I'm never voting again. Big deal, it's my right...it's my right to vote someone in that'll sleep with hookers with my money, start a war with my money only to build big business overseas and gain gagillions, live their fat cat lives with my money.

What seriously would have happened if Bank of America collapsed or AIG went under without bailout. Why is GM still in business? The whole city of Detroit is a ghost town. Who would have cared? In 20-30 years it will be a few rich, ruling like kings over the poor. We tried to get away from England for this very reason and after 250 years we are finally coming back to being ruled by evil. The human race is messed up.

Folks, sorry to break it to you but we are all being farmed by the machines and this is the Matrix. We are nothing and we continue to believe and feed the system because we cannot think for ourselves. We believe what we hear and have too much tunell vision.

We let it get this way

I'm not being eccentric when I say this but Showtime continues its streak. It takes these really delicate and wacko subjects and somehow makes light of them in a humorous, creative and entertaining way. I only wish that Dead Like Me got more of an audience - that show rocked.

Anyhow - only recently becoming a Laura Linney fan, this is her finest acting to date. Saw her in other movies and was just icked out by her. In this role she's just incredible and carries the show singlehandely. Her homeless brother and the fat girl charity case definitely add to the fun - but Oliver Platt's character and the son could use some human side to them...there's a selfish and childish factor that at some point need to change or else the show goes sour. I'm unsure if I'm with the "her not telling people" thing. I can make a case for it and against it. But it's just weird. It makes for an entertaining show -especially her chemistry with the chick from Precious - gotta love her. Perhaps the writers added the "not telling" thing as lead up to jumping the shark and want to keep it going as long as they reasonably can.

Not being a TV writer I don't know but the show's got me hooked and 30 minutes isn't enough.

The blame falls solely on the shoulders of George Lucas for not employing others to direct this and his last three films while he stuck to the producing and writing.

I think that's why the original trilogy was so great. With Sith, George gets back to the business of what makes Star Wars so great but for a much shorter time than I expected. Through all the great reviews I saw, I expected a movie far above the last two which were pretty bad. But I got a movie that was slightly better than run of the mill mainly due to the effects, action and ever increasing connection to the original trilogy.

****BIG TIME SPOILERS START NOW!****** Things that made this movie great: Opening space battle, revealing the emperor early enough to give enough time for him to reign fire, Ben Kenobi's fight with Greivous, Any scene with Yoda, any time spent on Bail Organa's ship (reminding me Star Wars's opening scene), hearing James Earl Jones's voice, seeing Vader, Emperor, and Moff Tarkin (who was that clone of Peter Cushing?) on the bridge of Star Destroyer a la Empire strikes back.

Things that made this movie bad: Any interaction between Anakin and Padme and pretty much any scene that involved poor Natalie Portman whose talents were wasted in this trilogy (her death scene was more unconvincing than a 70's B horror flick), the long drawn out dialog, that went on way too long in some scenes, the cliché-ish "Nooooooooooo" that Vader let's out upon realizing Padme is dead (darn, even Lucas managed to make Vader seem cheesy), those ridiculous Viceroys taken right out of a Godzilla movie, and that ridiculous droid army Lucas insisted on having in all three films (they were the most useless characters ever - what the heck happened to 3P0 and R2?), Chewbacca's lack of involvement, the constant scene switching, and my disappointment with all of the special effects. Many were good but they cannot and will never replace real actors. Kenobi's big lizard was laughable.

***SPOILERS END HERE**** Anyhow, Lucas got my money and now that I know how it all plays out, I never have to see the episodes 1-3 again.