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Reviews
Good People (2014)
Seemingly intriguing plot devolves into yet another prolonged shootout
This movie promised a level of twistiness and intrigue that it failed to deliver. The writers leaned too much on the big name actors they hired, and not enough into the script.
There was negative chemistry between the actors. And James Franco negotiating with a worldly and deadly gangster was hilarious! He sounds like a stoned Bro barely able to keep his giggles in.
About halfway in the plot fails, and the film turns into a continuos shoot-out in varied locations. If you like hearing gun shots for 45 mins, and one dimensional plots, this is your film! 3 is fair, because some people will probably enjoy that.
Island of the Sea Wolves (2022)
Watch Netflix feed endangered marmots to a mountain lion
This is what this Netflix show was to my daughter. A whole family of marmots ill equipped to survive in the wild were basically fed to a mountain lion in this show. It was disappointing to see them unprotected, in light of the facts they're critically endangered, and were raised in captivity.
But the visuals are stunning. The camera person brought their A game. Still, sad about the marmots. They should have all stayed in the safe place they were raised.
The sea wolves were kind of interesting, but we only saw one actually enter the sea. The storyline was confusing, depressing, and overly dramatic.
Love Without Borders (2022)
Promising show with a disappointing ending.
This show had a great concept-similar to 90 day fiancé, but mostly treated the cast with dignity-not like overly production-driven Jerry Springer sideshow characters. The people featured seemed more "real" than most reality show people.
Still, of all the matches ZERO people ended up even trying to make it work. The only couple who seemed to make it wasn't even matched on the show. Most of these couples never even kissed (that we saw), it was more like "Roommates without borders" than "Love without borders."
There were a lot of people treating others badly, especially the first American woman matched with the Indian guy, and the woman in Panama sleeping with her ex while the American man stayed in her house! The show says "dancing," but she stayed out all night, so that's obviously a euphemism for sex.
The petite Irish man not attracted to the American woman was correct-her makeup is over the top. The lashes and yellow eyeliner were pretty outrageous. However, saying she has "broad" shoulders and calling her "broad" because of it was cruel. She can't change that. Of the two, she was the more attractive, and didn't seem large at all, so I don't get his issue with her looks. You can't force attraction, and I don't think he's a bad guy, but he could've been kinder (she also could've given him teeth whitener for Christmas, as he gave her makeup remover, but she had a little class than that).
Still, these behaviors really were individual, and probably not a controllable outcome of the show.
I would watch another season, but I'd probably stop watching if absolutely NONE of the couples worked out for even a few weeks.
The Deep House (2021)
Interesting premise crumbles into boring shaky camera/found footage jump scares with lots of screaming and crying
This one, I wanted to love this film. Horror movies and deep water are some of my favorite things. The concept immediately gripped me.
The beginning was promising, adventurous young YouTuber couple in France seeking a submerged locale to film. Foreshadowing regarding the girlfriend's lie about how long she can hold her breath, slightly sadistic streak to the boyfriend, mysterious stranger.
Then they enter the home and all of that extensive foreshadowing (except for the mysterious stranger) leads absolutely nowhere! The fact the girlfriend lied about how long she could hold her breath was highlighted a few times in the movie as if it would be significant, yet her lie never became relevant to the story.
As soon as they enter the house this movie quickly devolves into found footage shaky cam type scenes with a bunch of pointless jump scares and a lot of terrified screaming for almost the rest of the movie.
It is tense, but not because the story grips you or actually creates terror, only because of the constant screaming and sound effects. And that is everything. Like the difference between "show me" vs. "tell me." This movie attempts to tell you to be scared rather than show you why you should be afraid.
Near the end the writers attempt to weave together some big reveal into a vaguely cohesive story, but by then it's too little too late. You've just wasted over an hour watching people swim around and dimly lit areas screaming every two seconds at objects that float by.
The movie is visually stunning in parts, and that combined with the beginning of the movie showing such promise is what makes this one even more disappointing. It's almost like one writer composed the first half of the story and a completely different writer (fan of jump scares/screaming/shaky found footage/and drowning) wrote the second part, and they never sat down and compared notes. That's my only explanation for how awful this movie becomes.