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WackyKacky
Reviews
The Good Doctor (2017)
Freddy Highmore at it again!
A wonderful young actor. I hadn't realized he was the youngster in August Rush which I had seen years ago.
This show is a treat! If you haven't seen it, catch it when it airs. If you have a cable provider for regular broadcast stations, you can see it on abc.go.com anytime.
Beastly (2011)
Disappointing.
One reviewer said this movie was so different from the book, it could have been renamed. I agree 100%.
I am a Beauty and the Beast fan from way back. The first time I saw Beauty and the Beast was in french with English sub-titles. I was a teenager at the time. Since then I have seen many versions, read a couple of versions (there is no author, it's an anonymous folktale). My daughter read Beastly and enjoyed it. So when the movie was going to come out, I too read her book (just started out seeing what was in it).
I had some issues with the book (the girl was held hostage but WHY? She was pretty much had a horrible home situation and was in need of a home. I thought that keeping her up in the attic was silly. He could have figured a way to offer it to her as a living arrangement without kidnapping her.
The Beast: I thought the "Beast" makeup was anything but. I can find more ghastly looking people who have had plastic surgery to alter their appearance. So he had tattoos and piercings? Really?! That might have made him hideous in, say, the 1950's, but certainly not now with the amount of piercings and weird things people do to their bodies. He really didn't need to hide his face. Do some web searches and you'll see that he looked tame compared some of the people you'll find pictures of.
Beauty: Vanessa didn't look anything like the book character, which was disappointing. However, the fact that she looked so different, albeit pretty enough, could have forgiven that if she portrayed the character of Beauty well. But she didn't. As others have said, her acting was flat. I found no chemistry between Beauty and the Beast so it was hard to care if they ever got together (although knowing they DID, I still couldn't have cared less).
My tween daughter was vastly disappointed in the movie. She couldn't relate to all the changes made from the book and wondered why they felt they needed to do it. She felt insulted that they thought a teenager couldn't relate to the story unless it was made into senseless drivel. Even the opening music was more reminiscent of a B quality high school musicals (no pun intended). A well made movie (which might have happened with better actors and sticking to the book) could have been made, and they would have broadened their audience. As such, the author made the mistake of allowing the wrong people to make her book into a movie. A good movie would have increased book sales. As such, the movie probably killed them.
My suggestion: read the book. It is NOTHING LIKE THE MOVIE.
Fringe (2008)
Enjoy the show, but sick to death of making drugs look attractive
I enjoy Fringe, and like it's similarity to the X-Files. I am in the 2nd year, and I can see a slight down from year one. Mayble the plot development really could use the 7 minutes that got hacked off by season 2. I like the dark gritty quality, which seems to be somewhat lacking in my estimate this year.
One thing that has picked up in intensity is the drug use, and how excited Walter, as well as Teresa Russell as a guest, get excited about the use of LSD. I was a teen in the 70's, and remember very well people using LSD and similar drugs. There was nothing great about the drug drenched hippie "enlightenment" time. I can't say I like watching LSD be introduced to a younger generation, and the romanticizing of it. Mes and LSD are being used for every procedure out there on this show. I read a review in a newspaper saying it was time for an intervention on Fringe. I will try to hang with the show, but definitely WON'T introduce it to or allow my teens to watch it. They have enough to deal with in real life without having a show make them wonder about LSD.
Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
Interesting plot line, but some things unbelievable
I enjoyed this movie on a few levels, and there where things that I found totally unbelievable. The story line is basic: an abused woman who flees from her abuser, the enemy, who happens to be her husband. I picked up something watching a second time. It was when the abused woman (Julia Roberts) calls her mother who was blind and in a care facility. The main character said she had a job and was making her own money. It made me think that possibly the reason she may have remained in the abusive relationship was because she didn't know if she could make it on her own (support herself) without him. She was young and beautiful, but basically uneducated. She is wined and dined by a rich, handsome, powerful man (a policeman) that she marries, thinking he was her prince charming and she his princess. His OCD and lack of ability to view her as a human but only as a possession means a horrible existence for her, filled with fear, as he beats her and completely controls every aspect of her life. She plans her escape and waits for the opportunity, and then it presents itself. Here is where the plot begins to become unbelievable to me. When the impromptu opportunity arises, and time is of her essence for her to make her escape, she takes the time to cut her hair, change her clothes, throw her wedding ring in the toilet, and basically leave a ton of clues that she didn't perish the way he was going to think she perished.
This is possibly her once in a lifetime opportunity to get away from this monster and she risks it by taking time at their home doing things that could easily have waited.
Of course, she finds a love interest in a town far away. But I think the movie failed to really show the fall-back of women who have been abused for years. I think it would have been much harder that they portrayed it and I think she would have looked over her shoulder for years, possibly always. Forget about sitting on the front porch so soon after she escaped.
I also didn't believe the mother daughter relationship. Maybe it was her grandmother and I missed it? Anyway, it lacked believability. And even though the mother didn't know the husband, she did know her daughter had to show up in male disguise to see her and had flown for her life and still harboring fear of being recognized and it getting back to him somehow. As a mother, I would have been way too hesitant to talk to someone who just showed up in my room asking questions about my kid without knowing exactly who I was speaking with. This mother just handed up the info and every detail to the psycho husband. Yes, I know she couldn't see him, but she knew enough about the situation to have been on guard.
Lastly, in the final scene when she calls the police to report she had just shot an intruder, why not simply say the truth. She had just shot her husband? Ben was there to back things up (albeit he had been knocked out by the husband). Was this abused woman ever going to get her real identity back now?
I thought this could have been much better by being more realistic.
Borrowed Hearts (1997)
Romantic Fluff But Fun
I liked this movie. Yes, it is formulaic. There is no doubt in your mind this is going to be a boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl. It is simply this: a feel good movie. And if you don't mind seeing a movie that has "been done before", slightly different plots, different actors, cute kids, at Christmas, and you love the moment the boy and girl realize they love each other, then get your mug of hot cocoa, grab some holiday presents you need to wrap, and watch something that doesn't require your rapt attention. I personally am a sucker for romance: corny, Disney, Classics, Jane Austen, Bronte, TV shows/ movies, etc, etc. As long as boy gets girl, happy ending, I'm in! It's okay to like movies like this: fluff entertainment. Every movie doesn't need to be deep.