Reviews

Something is wrong with the audio in this movie. At first, I thought it might be a foreign language film with English dubbed in. However, it's not that. The dialogue doesn't quite match the lip movements, and it doesn't sound natural, either. It sounds like it was recorded after, in different rooms with different acoustic properties. The volume is off, and so are the sound effects. It's a shame because the quality of the video is great. The lighting is great. The acting seems good (except the audio distracts from it). The story might even be good, but I'm 15 minutes in and I can't watch the rest of this movie with the audio being so bad. I don't like saying this because it seems like this is an early effort by someone who might be talented. Maybe the audio got screwed up and they had to re-record some or all of it. Other than movies that have been dubbed, I've never encountered anything like this.

Too much of the dialogue in this movie, especially the scenes that are supposed to be meaningful, is horrible. Whoever wrote it should never be allowed near a keyboard or writing utensil again.

Other than that, the CGI is really good, and the two male leads are excellent actors. Halle Berry is also pretty good. The rest of the main cast is forgettable. The four-star general is far too young, and the lead actor's son is much too old.

The science behind the plot requires a hefty amount of suspension of disbelief. Other than that, this is just one of the lesser disaster films. I'd be less than happy if I had paid to see it. Streaming it makes it bearable.

I don't know why, but Travolta gives stellar performances in some movies (Pulp Fiction, Saturday Night Fever and Urban Cowboy) and lightweight, obnoxious performances in others (Michael, Face Off and this movie, for example). Perhaps Travolta charges according to level of performance he gives? Also, Travolta's Texas accent is lousy. I wonder how much he'd have charged to reprise the one he used in Urban Cowboy.

Meanwhile, the real surprise is Brendan Fraser. He gives an excellent performance. I've enjoyed many of his movies, but I never thought him much of an actor. That's changed with this movie. His acting in this movie is top-notch, right down to his character's accent and what seems like a bit of a speech impediment. Maybe we're witnessing a renaissance for Fraser. I certainly hope so.

Before this series, I only thought of BJ Novak as one of the background characters on the office. I don't think much more of him now. Just two episodes in, this series, and this episode in particular, is nothing more than a predictable morality tale. The plot tries to be clever, but the ending is obvious just minutes into the episode. I'm fine with a creator pushing an agenda, but the content needs to be entertaining. This episode simply isn't. Another reviewer compared the series to Black Mirror, saying that it pales in comparison. I agree with that comparison. Black Mirror also delivers morality tales, but Black Mirror is engaging and thought provoking. If the producers of Black Mirror tackled the basic story of this episode, they would have made it something truly great.

I'm almost halfway into this movie and I'm giving up. The first half (at least) is dominated by the wooden-headed Ben Affleck delivering one of his usual powerhouse performances. I don't care at all about any of the characters or what is happening to them. The producers chose to use a very heavy, stifling warm filter on this film. I've never seen so much yellow injected into a movie's coloring. The events in this movie took place about 40 years ago. We get it. But the world wasn't more yellow back then. There's no reason for the heavy yellowing or the low contrast. The wardrobe and the vehicles are done well, and they'd be more than enough to remind us when this story takes place. Ultimately, none of that matters, though, because the movie is just plain boring.

As others have said, this movie goes nowhere. I streamed it and had to check twice to make sure it wasn't the first episode of a limited series. Nope! That's it. The acting is fine. The cinematography is good. However, the story goes nowhere and you build little interest in any of the characters.

I can't say this movie is amateurish. The cinematography and editing is good. However, the first thing I noticed is that the main character is supposed to be 20, but the actor portraying him looks much closer to 30 (or older). That is very distracting. He seems to be a decent actor, and is a nice-looking guy, but he simply doesn't look the part. The rest of the actors are a mixed bag as far as ability goes.

Thirty minutes in there is no character development. I'm left uninterested in all of the characters. The central question in the movie, which is made known almost from the very start, could be resolved almost instantly with a bit of modern technology, rendering any suspense regarding it absurd. From early on, there is an undercurrent of something else going on, but, again, no suspense.

This is a good show, but the use of dusk/nighttime effects in it is horrible. Most of this series is shot in broad daylight. However, for stylistic reasons, or perhaps to even out the look of the footage, the video editors have applied horrible dusk/nighttime effects to make it look like the footage was shot at night (or in the early evening). It's truly horrible. Your eyes will strain to see what's going on. They might as well have reduced the saturation to zero and made it black and white! As it is, their ham-handed attempts have made this series nearly unwatchable.

The most horrible thing about this movie is the house it's shot in. You can't build suspense and terror in a house with vinyl windows, golden oak cabinets and crappy tile counter tops. The golden oak is literally everywhere: kitchen cabinets, banisters, bathroom cabinets, door casings, floorboards, etc.

The house appears to be no more than 15 or so years old, but the basement that you're supposed to believe is part of the house is dark and spooky with rotting wooden stairs that appear to be at 50 or more years old.

At one point a character remarks that an unexplained noise (that was meant to be spooky) was probably just the "old pipes." Because we all know how noisy 15-year-old pipes can be!

There should be a sequel to this movie in which whoever buys the house learns that their purchase contract included a clause which prevents them from redecorating.

It's amazing in the time of shows like "Breaking Bad," "Deadwood," "The Wire," "Downton Abbey," "House of Cards," etc., that a show like this can make it to air. "The Pinkertons" is just another weak show with canned scripts and poor acting. It's a crying shame that as fine an actor Angus Macfayden was in a position to even have time to do a show like this. Having seen him in "Turn," I had high hopes for this series. But his talents are wasted here. He is, of course, good in his role. But the rest of the cast suffers even worse by comparison. There's nothing gritty or genuine about this show. It's a throwback to the horrible TV shows of the 1980s and 1990s. The only thing its lacking is a freeze-frame at the end of each show where all the characters are smiling broadly.

It's hard to understand why anyone would give this movie a positive review. Every positive review must come from a cast member, crew member, or investor.

NOTHING happens in this movie. When 45 minutes had passed with absolutely nothing happening, I began to realize that this movie is hopeless. But I had already paid to see it and hoped in vain that there would be at least one interesting scene. That hope was dashed.

This movie shouldn't have been made at all. If someone decided it had to be made, it should have been a 20 minute short.

Do yourself a favor and stay away. FAR away. Unless you want to be bored to death.

This episode is absurd. At its core, Locked Up Abroad (LUA) is about people who get arrested and imprisoned in foreign countries. Too often, LUA strays into hostage situations that do not fit the mold of the series. But at least hostage takings are arguably related to the series' theme.

But this episode has absolutely nothing to do with the series' theme. It is simply a story about a criminal in this country. It has no foreign connections. What's worse is that this isn't even a good telling of this criminal's story. His story has been told by other television series, and they did a much more interesting job.

This episode is so bad and so unrelated to the series that I cannot understand how it could have possibly been included.

I watched about 35 minutes of White Christmas today. I've never seen it, and with it being a "classic" and all, I thought I'd give it a try. It is unwatchable.

Everything, including battlefield scenes, seems to be shot inside with cheap sets. And the plot is horribly boring. It's just an excuse for Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye to sing and dance together. And two guys up on stage singing and dancing together like they do in this movie looks really strange to the modern eye.

Everything about the movie is dated. From the unrealistic dialogue to the horrible acting, nothing about this movie holds up. And it doesn't have to be that way. There are movies from over 50 years ago that still hold up pretty well, like Gone With The Wind and some old comedies. But so much of what was made back then consists of horrible movies with bad plots in which stereotypical women end up with the male lead.

Sometime in the 1960s things started to get better. Realistic movies shot on location and truly funny comedies like the Rock Hudson/Doris Day movies started to emerge. But White Christmas falls into the category of dated movies that nobody today would pay to see. These movies look like someone filmed a bad play.

If you are at all intelligent, if you like your movies to make sense, do not watch this movie. I won't spoil the ending. But it's the ending that spoils the movie. The first 85 minutes of this movie are great. The acting is excellent, and the story is interesting. It seems to really be going somewhere. But then at the end, things happen that simply cannot logically happen. And there is no supernatural or mystical element to this movie that could explain away the massive, glaring inconsistencies. In the end, you're simply left with a story that could not have concluded the way it does. If you're like me, you'll be left hacked off and wanting answers. But don't look to the director's commentary on the DVD. Because the first thing Jeff Probst tells you in that commentary is that they aren't going to discuss the movie. Instead, they're going to discuss how to make a movie! Imagine that. The creators of this absolute turd of a movie are going to tell you how to make your own movie. Wonderful!

Of all of the giant, stinking turds of movies I've ever seen, "Brake" is one of the worst. The holes in the plot of this movie are as large as the Grand Canyon. If you're older than 12, you'll be left asking how things could possibly happen as they do in the movie. And the only answer is they could not possibly happen the way the do in the movie. There are many movies where you expect to suspend disbelief (science fiction movies, horror movies, etc.), but this is not one of them. There are no science fiction or supernatural elements in "Brake." Only a rotten movie that falls apart under the weight of its own pathetically bad plot.

Laughlin is supposed to be a high school student. But he was in his late 20s when he made this movie. All of the high school students in this movie appear to be much closer to 40 than 20. None of the actors seem to even try to act like kids. This is no minor point. This movie is all about high school athletes, and the actors playing high school students all look like they are the contemporaries of the teachers and administrators. Even ignoring the age issue, the story is just boring. The issues that seem to be causing the main character so much angst are all just boring. In fairness, it is just bad enough to sit through and marvel at how awful it truly is.

I wish there was an option to give this movie zero stars, or negative stars. Kill List is absurdly bad. It's a cloying, desperate attempt at making a movie full of symbolism and meaning. But its makers have only succeeded in making a movie that falls apart at its end as it tries to leave the viewer with some sort of ethics or morality lesson. If I could gather every copy of this movie in existence and destroy them, I would do so as a service to humanity. Even if the message succeeded, it is so obvious as to be useless. Watch this movie at your own risk and be prepared for a completely unsatisfying ending that renders the whole viewing experience a waste of time.

One of the best things about this movie is that it centers around the outbreak of an unknown illness that is suspected to be caused by a virus. So, of course, they get the CDC involved. The great thing is that everyone, including the doctor, refers to it as the Center for Disease Control. Even the woman in the film who is supposed to be from the CDC does not know that it's the CenterS for Disease Control.

They couldn't even spring for a real uniform for the Navy officer. He looks like he should be getting your bags out of the back of your taxi or opening a door for you.

The acting and the script are horrible. There are a couple of good performances (like that of the actor portraying the pilot), but the only serve to highlight how bad the rest of the performances are. There are many moments of tense confrontation, minus any tension.

Low-budget is one thing. That explains the horrible sets and confined feeling of the movie. But surely someone could have made the dialogue more believable.

I waited 18 years to see this movie because I had always heard how terrible it is. When it first came out, I seem to recall thinking it highly implausible that someone could have the kind of video and audio equipment you see in this movie. But the equipment and its use in the film is entirely plausible, even in 1993.

I found no problems with the plot. It's an interesting thriller with something that's hard to find--a unique story that hasn't been told a thousand times already. The acting is good. The characters and their actions are completely believable. I was never left thinking that a real person might not have done the things that the people in the movie did.

Having seen the movie, I really don't understand why so many people criticize it so harshly. In terms of telling a compelling, entertaining story, I would say it is far better than movies like Hereafter and on par with a movie like the Adjustment Bureau (just two recent movies I could think to compare it to).

If you haven't seen it, give it a chance.