***** Exceptional
**** Great
*** OK
** So
So
* Blah
Cold in July Is
about a clean-cut family guy (Michael C. Hall) who shoots and kills an intruder
who has broken into his house. The
police tell him the intruder was a wanted felon and he did society a favor. The
intruder's newly-released-from-prison ex-con father (Sam Shepherd) comes a
calling, isn't happy about his only son being murdered, and starts stalking and
intimidating the family. The police do a stake out at family guy's house then
claim they ran the ex-con out of town. In the meantime, Family Guy sees a
wanted poster and realizes he didn't kill the wanted felon, but the police tell
him he must be in shock, go home, forget about it. When Family Guy decides to
go back to the police station to ask more questions, he witnesses the police
dragging the ex-con forcibly out of the police station, injecting him with some
kind of a sedative, and leaving him on the train tracks with a train coming
down the tracks. Family Guy rescues the ex-con and asks, WTF is going on? Ex-con phones his old Army buddy who is now a
private investigator (Don Johnson) and they attempt to answer that very
question. Never a dull moment. Don Johnson's character was delightful. All
great performances. I'm not sure I'm convinced Family Guy who was shaking so
hard in the first scene trying to load his handgun is the same guy at the end
who is acting like a professional law enforcement officer. Hmmm...and none of
the questions Family Guy had were ever answered: who did he shoot? Why were the
police murdering the ex-con? Was he just in the wrong place at the wrong time for their plan to work? The plot kind of twists into something totally
different. Still interesting. Lots of blood and shoot-em-up which is not my
favorite, but worked fine. Stupid title. You'd think someone could come up with
something better. Just off the top of my head I'd take something out of the
movie like "Fear of Life" which is the justifiable homicide law that
allows Family Guy to get away with a self-defense charge. Way more interesting
and connected to the script. Cold in
July? What the hell is that? ****
God Help the Girl is
about a young woman in a mental institution although they aren't clear
why...there was a boyfriend she followed from Australia to Britain, and she
wasn't eating...I have no idea. She writes music, escapes the institution, and
finds two people to start a band with her. The music was good. It was a little
like a 1960s musical where they just burst into song and start dancing which was odd.
Her clothes were outstanding. Another stupid title. **
Little Accidents is
about a mining community after a mining accident and the disappearance of the
mining foreman's teenage son. Excellent story, beautiful photography, lots of conflict
and tension between characters and outstanding character development presented
quickly and efficiently at the beginning. Great performances. Love the title.
****
The Meg is
a science-fiction about science gone wrong and although I'm not a fan of
sci-fi, I do like a storyline that makes sense rather than giving long convoluted scientific speeches on how the craziness happened. Not only do these explanations rarely make sense, but usually a total waste of time. For this story an underwater
research station inadvertently opens a portal from a hidden trench in the
Pacific Ocean. OK. I can get into that. And up from the depths comes a Megalodon - a 75-foot thought to have been prehistoric shark with a mean disposition. It was exciting and fun with great
special effects and lots of humor. It also had lots of bad scriptwriting filled
with sentimentality and overacting, but the giant, incredibly ugly shark made
up for it. ***
Sold is
about a twelve-year old girl in Nepal who is sold to a brothel by her very poor
family thinking she was being sent to a better life in the city to work for
rich people. When she realizes what she's expected to do, she fights. They beat
her and when that doesn't work, they drug her and have her raped repeatedly
into submission. So horrible this is based on a true story. An American woman
(Gillian Anderson) is hired as a photographer by a humanitarian organization
and sees this young girl calling out from her barred window for help. They plan
to find and rescue her, but the logistics take time. So very sad human trafficking
is so wide-spread. I can't imagine what it must be like for a child. It's horrifying
there are so many degenerate men in the world who keep this business going.
They all need to have their dicks cuts off. ****
The Screaming Woman I
saw this movie on television when I was a kid and it has haunted me all my
life, popping into my memory every now and then. It was a made-for-TV horror
movie, but since it was made in the 1970s it's more melodramatic than scary, but
for a kid it was frightening! It's about an older, wealthy woman (Olivia de
Havilland) who had a mental break after her husband died and was sent to an
asylum to recuperate. Her son and his money-hungry wife want to have her
permanently committed so they can sell her very lavish house and property to a
development company, of course. She is now home, and on her first outing away
from the house comes across a dog on her property digging. She stops,
investigates, tries to shoo the dog away, and hears a voice coming up from the
ground calling for help. She runs hysterically back to the house screaming
about a woman buried alive, but everyone is wondering if they let her out too
soon. She calls the police and they too think she is wasting their time. She runs through the neighborhood trying to
get someone to help her because her arthritis prevents her from digging the
woman up herself, but her reputation for being a little crazy proceeds her and
the fact no one likes her because she's rich and mean doesn't help either. Then
she knocks on the door of the man who thought he murdered and buried his
wife...he's not real thrilled she's still alive. Even now in 2018 it's quite scary and says
a lot about how elderly people are treated, dismissed, and constantly judged as
incompetent for no reason other than someone is trying to control them. Great
movie even for all the melodramatic performances. Love the high-end 70s
California architecture and fashion. The film quality wasn't very good, but I
watched it online copied from an old horror movie program like the ones we
watched when we were kids. I remember watching old horror movies on "Nightmare Theater" every Friday night. LOL. ****
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