vytas-64410 Reviews

Rehana (2021)

Buy this guy a tripod

[2/10 · 25 March 2024]

Handheld Hell!

In--your--face shooting so that I was soon going cross-eyed. Depressing as hell: starts with a supposed rape & ends with child abuse. Who gave this guy a camera & did not realize that he was colorblind & oblivious to anything other that blue?

Would have been better as a 30-minute short, it just d r a a a g g g g s on & on & on. Fast forward or skipping forward are merciful feature in these days for bore fests like this one.

And seriously, how many more phone calls can one insert into a movie & still call it a movie?

OK, OK, I get it--the director felt the viewer had to be dragged through hopelessness in order to feel it. And, oh, did we feel it!!

History of the World: Part II (2023)

Mindnumbingly horrid embarrassment for Mel

[1/10 · 20 March 2024]

As phenomenally great as was Part 1, this is 1000 times as mindnumbingly horrid & not funny in the slightest. This is the most embarrassing trash ever filmed. I rated it a "1" because I could not rate any lower to, while wanting to give it a "-1000". Never was I so optimistic & persistent in continuing wathcing through all the dreck in hopes of one worthy moment, but it never arrived. How could you stoop so low, Mel, how could you?!

Who could approve something this dreadful? It must be an embarrassment to everyone who was the slightest bit involved in producing this tedious fiasco. Shame, Hollywood, shame!

Zorba the Greek (1964)

The Dance of Death: A Prelude To Humanity's End

[3/10 · 14 December 2023]

So unbearably overcooked it was unwatchable. Overcooked in every way possible: preposterously overacted, over reacted, over outraged. Gives a hint of where the word cretin may have really come from rather than the accepted version of it being of French origin.

If Crete is the cradle of Western Civilization, it should come as no surprise that humanity, especially those of us in the West, have proven ourselves unfit to survive with our peer pressure towards conformity to bully, to hate, to take out one's own unresolved feelings of guilt on the innocent, to incessantly wage wars, & to slaughter one another in genocides. We see it every day.

I fear our ending will not be dancing on a beach with a misogynist who has abandoned his family but shows no remorse for anything he says or does.

Dumbo (2019)

Dumb, Dumber, Dumbest

[3/10 · 15 November 2023]

Graphically illustrates the greed, fraud, meanness, the use of power by the rich, & the violence upon which capitalism & western civilization is based. Disney unconscionably shows children the benefits of violence & revenge, as do many of their other productions.

In this respect, Keaton plays the perfect Trumpian monster eating the nation whole as we speak. It's so sad to see such great stars, especially Alan Arkin, adding their names to something as violent as this & calling it "family entertainment."

Despite feeling I was watching a horror show, I pressed on to see if there was anything salvageable in it aside from the superb acting by several of the stars, which is the only reason I rated this a "3" & not a "1'. There wasn't & couldn't be much benefit in something as vile as this when it is designed to pass on the cultural values mentioned which are the essence of doing business in this god-forsaken cutthroat culture.

A genuine educator or parent, however, can take the violence & other evils portrayed & bring out many points about them to consider in a discussion about the movie in an open dialogue format.

Let the Child Be the Guide (2017)

Yes, but . . . .

[9/10 · 25 July 2023]

The Montessori Method which has a lot going for it but certainly silences creativity & self-express if this movie is an accurate representation, but that may have been just due to the teachers in this case. When the little boy pulled the tiny bike out of the box & started fantasizing & playing with it, the teacher cut him off with a comment about the seriousness of study & in another situation, a woman teacher directed a child to not feel something. Feelings are barometers of our internal conditions & are critical to maintain trust, authenticity, & clear communication, the keys to a functional social environment, whether family, class, work team, or any group or organization with a common goal.

These (the mentioned fantasy, play, & expression of emotions), in addition to the incessant competition & restrictions on curiosity or interacting with one's peers, are the primary damaging aspects of typical traditional schooling. I was very favorably impressed by the amount of responsibility the children seem to develop in being self-directed & also how common it was for one child to help or to teach another.

The King of Staten Island (2020)

Apocalypse now! Please!

[1/10 · 16 February 2023]

1st: If the characters in the movie are representative of the level of maturity anywhere for anyone over 5 years of age, it's time for humanity to join the dinosaurs. It certainly helps grasps how the U$ could elect a morally, emotionally, & intellectually bankrupt buffoon like Trump & his goons, & then after 4 years of his stellar idiocracy, even greater numbers vote for him again. & what in god's name could draw women to such so-called men? They must be more twisted than their juvenile men.

2nd: The numbers of reviewers who thought this was a great movie & could tolerate being around such characters without suffering nausea &/or brainrot is final evidence that humanity is scraping the bottom of the barrel. Let the seas rise, the forests burn, the storms rage, the droughts parch, & the viruses mutate & proliferate.

The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy Your Bath! (1976 TV Movie)

Utter Travesty

[2/10 · 21 January 2023]

A one-joke 3 hour marathon of boring agony which would have made a worthy 20-30-minute film. Utter travesty that just gets stupider & more braindead as it goes. The last 2 hours were unbearable. Only the English subtitles kept me from zooming through the entire thing. If this is the best of Soviet cinema--myyyyy looooord--no wonder the system collapsed. They had no sense of humor.

I'm not one who cares for cold showers or jumping into icy water in the dead of winter which some think is good for one's health, but I would have preferred that to the torture of watching this idiocy. Many other types of torture also come to mind as preferably to this din of mental blather.

The Irony of Fate 2 (2007)

Utter Travesty

[2/10 · 21 January 2023]

A one-joke 3 hour marathon of boring agony which would have made a worthy 20-30-minute film. Utter travesty that just gets stupider & more braindead as it goes. The last 2 hours were unbearable. Only the English subtitles kept me from zooming through the entire thing. If this is the best of Soviet cinema--myyyyy looooord--no wonder the system collapsed. They had no sense of humor.

I'm not one who cares for cold showers or jumping into icy water in the dead of winter which some think is good for one's health, but I would have preferred that to the torture of watching this idiocy. Many other types of torture also come to mind as preferably to this din of mental nothingness.

This Is Us (2016–2022)

Horror show of dysfunction

[5/10 · 4 August 2022]

The lamest & most intrusive background music ever.

Busted their guts getting every current politically correct issue into the show: interracial relationships & even interracial adoption, sexual orientation confusion, alcoholism (but that one's vital to keep promoting alcohol consumption), obesity--BIGGGGGG time, & long distance relationships. The characters traveled cross-country enough to drain the oil reserve of at least one--or maybe 2--middle eastern sheikdoms.

With the exception of a couple of the women, the characters & their relationships are perfect for scaring anyone viewing this from ever taking the chance of starting a family. What a horror show of dysfunction! The 2 women characters I liked were ones goofball Kevin could never make up his mind about. Get these folks into therapy--long term!

The French existentialists were correct. If this is a typical extended family, then "hell is other people."

I doubt I'll ever be able to watch anything else with these actors in it because they have so soured my feelings about them that I won't be able to forget who they were in this mess of a family.

5/10.

Kandahar (2001)

Insanity !01

[4/10 · 26 April 2022]

Just as humanity is proving rather convincingly that it is not fit to survive, some cultures should have disappeared centuries ago. The trauma they generate is making each generation increasingly demented.

Only the rare individual will be able to endure the slow pace of the film, like torture. I had to speed through the entire movie in minutes to not get devoured by its horror & the bone-headed thinking that endures not just in Afghanistan but throughout the world, even in the supposedly most developed landscapes.

After Love (2020)

For those who don't need constant pumping of adrenaline to know they are still alive

[8/10 · 6 February 2022]

Clueless reviewers, those who say how it's been done a million times before. What other story has the wife take a job as the mistress's maid? I love the way Mary infiltrates her husband's other life & becomes a spy from within. A gem, though tediously slow, but the slow pace is apparently needed for those whose feelings are so foreign & removed that they need bombs & incessant car chases or violence to keep their blood pumping.

The Worst Person in the World (2021)

Worst characters in the world--absolute CREEPOLA!

[3/10 · 31 January 2022]

If I had to be around these characters any longer than the 30 minutes I spent with them, I would have seen my breakfast again--all over my computer screen! The most wretched people! The main character was clueless, but more like a teenager than someone nearing 30. Blaaaahhhh!

The only reason I gave it a 3 was because it raised such intense feelings in such a short time, although most crappo films do that within minutes. But I persisted for a 1/2 hour trusting critics, awards, & other BS.

What a horrid way to start my day! Gross! I'm glad I didn't try to watch it in the evening; I'm sure I'd have spent the night in nightmares.

The Rain People (1969)

The desperation of survival without a social safety net

[10/10 · 16 December 2021]

Excellent study of sheer & utter loneliness, lack of direction, & just hanging on without a will for anything else. Hard to watch because of all the gut-wrenching pain everyone is suffering, even the girl who is abused by her father yet has nowhere else to go, even at night.

Herself (2020)

Speak the truth as loudly as you can as soon as you can

[10/10 · 15 December 2021]

When the system takes such an antiquated view of supporting the violent husband's side & ignores the feelings of children, one can survive only by sidestepping it or finding a stronger way to present your case. I would have either totally vanished with the kids, preferably to a distant country, or I would have called a press conference to state my case & nailed the morally bankrupt system to the wall. She did well to say what she finally did.

Movie is hard to watch because of all the negative emotions & injustice, but it is vital to understand how defunct most social justice programs are, not just in Ireland.

Playtime (I) (2013)

What is responsible parenting?

[10/10 · 29 August 2021]

It's ghastly how we allow anyone to be parents while insisting on licenses for silly things like fishing. No training, no preparation, no requirements except being able to lie down & thrust one's pelvis a few times. And then we have the nerve to brag about "how we love our children", our most precious resource.

The film shows how such irresponsibility can lead to dangerous situations which can easily spiral out of control.

A must-see for anyone ever considering leaving such a young child alone.

Max Bishop (2021)

Huh?

[3/10 · 23 July 2021]

This might have been worth it if it were a 5-minute short -- Max. Spent most of the time jumping forward in10-second segments during which nothing happened, where the actors did not even move. It seems movie makers are going as braindead as politicians.

The Castle (1997)

Clinically dead

[10 July 2021]

Drop dead emotionless organic debris that someone mistook for humans. If this is at all indicative of the depth of feeling or intelligence on that little island, I don't expect to be visiting anytime in this or the next few lifetimes. This movie could probably qualify as an anesthetic for major surgery.

How It Ends (2018)

Reviewers with spit for brains

[7/10 · 10 July 2021]

The ending was overpowering, awesome--a megavolcano like the one sitting under Yellowstone! Apparently no one watched it to the end. This is why the U$ will be pretty much like in the movie very shortly, only it will be their own stupidity & competition & conflict, not anything external that ends everything. They'll rip each others' heads off for the last loaf of useless bread when they run out of toilet paper.

Story is quite realistic in how U$ Americans would be in a last ditched survival situation; in other words, it gets quite violent. Although while watching it, I felt the 2 main characters were too naive about what they were expecting along the road, I feel they would continue as they did anyway.

Joshua Then and Now (1985)

Authenticiy rules

[9/10 · 3 July 2021]

I love the way both Joshua & his father rip right through the arrogant BS of religiosity & the stuffy uptight pretentiousness of the rich & powerful. Most refreshing to watch these rare & delightful characters call spit "spit."

Josh's mom is a real down to earth treat as well, while the relationship between Joshua & Pauline is really touching with its openness & authenticity.

Alan Arkin at this funniest.

Another Round (2020)

4 deplorable drunkards

[1/10 · 3 July 2021]

How sad that too many people need synthetic stimulants to lift themselves up. Alcohol is the most dangerous choice by bored & boring people without creativity in dealing with life's stresses because it jeopardises or threatens so many others with violence or threats of violence & self-degradation, especially if one gets behind the wheel of a car or walks into a family with any instability whatsoever. This movie sanctifies drinking with a silly theory. Reprehensible for trying to dignify such irresponsible behavior. A 2-hour commercial for becoming a drunkard. I'm sorry I can't give it a negative rating.

If you must sink this low to overcome stress, off yourself quickly in a way that won't take others down with you. Better? Get some therapy & learn out how to live meaningfully.

Funny? Not in the slightest.

Oslo (2021 TV Movie)

It's all in YOUR hands

[10/10 · 28 June 2021]

(SPOILERS) EXCELLENT! Mona, in her final confrontation with the Israeli & PLO negotiators as they tried to walk out before the final settlement, was the strongest person ever depicted in a film. This is how effective mediation is done. My most successful line in my psychotherapy work is similar: "We can meet here for years, but it's still all in YOUR hands." I know that at least one suicide has been prevented just from that realization by the client. When people realize & accept that their fate is ultimately decided by them & their actions, they do what is necessary.