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Reviews
Arrival (2016)
Definitely NOT for everyone
Before I saw this film, I was baffled by how polarizing the user reviews were. Tens and ones, but very few in between. After seeing the film, I absolutely get it. Start by asking yourself if you enjoy the following movies. Sphere(1998). 2001: A Space Odyssey. Solaris(2002). If your answer is no to any of these, particularly those last two, do yourself a favor and watch something else. It would be insulting to call this the thinking person's movie, because I can think of a number of highly intelligent people that would not like this movie at all. It would be closer to say it is the extremely patient, thinking person's movie. The pacing reminded me of 2001, though it is not quite that slow. There is very nearly zero action in it, but a whole lot of highly thought provoking concepts that build over the course of the movie. For myself, I thoroughly enjoyed this film, but I also understand the hate if you went and saw it, expecting something like Independence Day. In this movie, the battlefield takes place in the mind, and the heroes are the linguists and the mathematicians.
NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service: Hit and Run (2013)
A well done episode despite it not being everything I was hoping for
Based on another person's review, I put off watching this episode, and almost chose to skip it all together. I'm glad I didn't skip it. It is a very well done episode. Is it the best in the series? No. But it definitely does not deserve a 1 star. Tony will always be a goof ball with corny jokes. That is the way he has always been in the series. I didn't find Ziva bossy at all. Assertive as she always is, but hardly bossy. I found the closure of the younger Abby story line to be acceptable, and in line with the message Gibbs was trying to convey, which is that we don't always get to see the outcome of our actions towards others. And I don't see any issue with showing an older Abbey going through a bit of a melt down due to similarities between the current case, and the connection it drew to her childhood case. Anyone who has watched a significant portion of the series knows that Abbey is not always a completely logic person. She has deep rooted emotions that she hides with a wall. It is not inconceivable to me that she would have difficulties functioning if that wall gets broken down, as this episode shows occurring.
It may not have been exactly what we were hoping for from an Abbey origins story. There are so many facets of her character that I was hoping would get explained and didn't. It is obviously difficult to make an origin's story of the series' most loved character. We have high expectations. If you take those high expectations out, and compare the episode to it's fellow episodes, it was a good story, and was told well.
Skyfall (2012)
A Sad return of one-liners. The Ending Falls Flat.
The first half of the movie was fantastic. I would give that a 9 (I don't give 10s easily). Without giving away too many spoilers, there is a point in the movie however where you think the good guys finally got a leg up. I feel if I had left the theater at that moment in time, I would have been really happy with the film. As it is, at that point onward, the movie spirals into increasingly poor plot gimmicks, cheesy one liners and over the top (and unbelievable stunts) that plague this Bond in the same way they have plagued most Bond movies since the days of Timothy Dalton. The "climactic" ending, with the exception of some gratuitous explosions, was anything but. It felt very anti-climactic.
One of the things I enjoyed most about the last two Bond films, was that they took the story line a bit more seriously. The over exaggerated (and in my opinion cheesy) stunts were gone. But best of all, the sad one liners were gone too. I could actually make it through a Bond movie, and not end up rolling my eyes at some of the dialog. Sadly, both of these have made a bit of a return in this film.
Most of the stunts were very well done and are thoroughly enjoyable. But there are a couple that I think would have been better if they were made a bit more believable. And the painful one liners to me, do nothing more than pull me out of the emersion of the movie, and simply remind me that I am watching an actor portraying a character. The lines have never been that funny, and they aren't now either.
Almost as bad is the studio's attempt to satisfy fan boys, by putting Bond icons back into the movie in a half-hearted way. I think this movie will get more thumbs up and good reviews simply because bond's classic Aston Martin makes a return appearance.
If you enjoyed the Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan Bond films, you will likely enjoy this one too. If you are like me, and enjoyed Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace because they WERE NOT like the Timothy Dalton and Pierce Brosnan Bond films, do yourself a favor and leave about 90 minutes into the film.