miller-steve Reviews

Mount Hideaway Mysteries: Heartache and Homecoming (2022)

I Give 5 Stars for Average

[4/10 · 28 August 2023]

I tried to contact the Producer with some of these comments, but I don't think they still exist. To them and potential viewers I write: This is a sequel. In the first movie, Bethany's dad had been in Special Forces (Army.) In this, his tombstone says he was Navy. At the 13-minute point, the police agreed there was no break-in, but they never Checked Around. The perp could've been hiding under the desk! The 19-minute point: Hector the Hacker is discussed, and the government agency doesn't want to launch an official investigation because he's a friend of the boss's daughter. That sounds like a "Color of the Law" civil rights violation, a.k.a. Favoritism, corruption, and these are the "good" people doing it!

-- Angie is a great real-world lazy kid. Good Reality, but I'm surprised Tina doesn't know how to handle it. As in the 1st movie, I think Elizabeth Kadeli is a great actress. Her expressions speak a hundred words!

-- At 46-minute point, Amy doesn't use her gloves to examine the object. She'd worn them initially, but not now. This was a point made during training at the beginning of the first movie.

-- SPOILER: at 56-minute point, "They weakened the guardrail so it would..." The bad guys blew the car's brake line. They had not done anything with the steering. Exactly where the car hit the guardrail would Not be predictable. The driver could have ditched the car on the other side of the road before reaching the guardrail.

-- At the 1:16-hour point, Angie opens a car door against the advice of experts. But it was a convertible with the top down. She should have climbed in over the door.

-- @ 1:25, Amy hides the gun; it's probably so annoying Grandma won't see it. That loudly tells me that Amy is not up to snuff on security and defense. Carry the gun; if it bothers Granny, ask her to leave. (instead of her security guard.) I don't know if Grandma is a terrible actor or perfect in every way. She definitely reminds me of grandmas.

-- @1:39 point, the government people start a meeting. It's their meeting, but in the end, it's veterinarian Amy running the show, calling the shots, and calling the meeting to an end. The government guys should've put her in her place real clearly.

-- @ 1:50, in the climactic scene, Rose kept shoving her gun into the bad guy's face, giving him the excellent opportunity to take it away from her. SO Many movies do this, not here, but it's so annoying to see. BUT, in the 1st movie, there were 2 cases of a gun being taken away.

-- @1:55, Caleb didn't read the villain her Miranda rights. Later that minute, everyone forgets Amy has some nasty injuries. There's an assumption in the lovely discussion right after that--Caleb knew Amy wouldn't shoot because she's "gentle, kind, full of mercy." The assumption is that St. Paul never said, "When you're a soldier, be a good soldier." What does that mean in YOUR church? I'd be okay with a few Christian movies showing the good guy blowing away the evildoer. Right, Wrong, & Forgiveness can be discussed later. Though not shown, it seems Amy had been deputized and authorized to carry a gun. (I have experience doing something quite different from Amy, so consider me biased. The projected message is that I am not "gentle, kind, full of mercy.") -- @1:58, the good guys immediately assumed a tricky thing had been done by Angie. Why wouldn't they have thought it was the bad guys setting up something to help them access info???

-- I'm confident we've never heard how old Angie is, which affects how the story ends.

-- ! -- I strongly sensed a Christian touch in the first movie. This one made it clearer from the beginning, and doing so with questions we're always asking.

-- I'm very passionate about Christian movies, but my (Gripe) is that 99.98% of them are purely "preaching to the choir." The target audience is Christians. Unfortunately, no one REALLY Reaches For the non-Christian with a message that holds their interest. I could name the points where non-Christians would stop this movie and go to something else. C. S. Lewis knew how to write for them, but the modern movies from his books water down his message. This movie isn't bad in this respect, but I'd like it a bit closer to the first movie. Keep trying.

-- Finally, one of the other reviewers said, "It is absolutely laughable that the town veterinarian, who rarely works, always open carries. Seriously?" That is not laughable. The veterinarian's life was in danger. In most places I've lived, all the hot girls carried guns, open or concealed-Texas, Wyoming, rural Arizona. City people just don't get it.

Mount Hideaway Mysteries: Exes and Oh No's (2018)

Better acting & directing than high school plays, but Bad Editing.

[4/10 · 25 August 2023]

I chose to watch this BECAUSE OF the low reviews. Yes, I seek "outside the box" movies. Actually when I saw on IMDB that the lead actor didn't even have a photo, I knew is had to be a creation by first-timers. The first review I read confirmed this as well as give me more stuff. It's budget was a mere $130K. This bad acting, story and directing is why I go to high school plays. Mainly, I'm SO Sick and Tired of Typical American movies. It's not great acting that bothers me, it's the hideous Reality of American movies. Everything seems to require Magic. Think! Even James Bond movies are now fantasy, magic and fairy tale. Those shoot-outs, chase scenes, and OMG I hope women don't really go for that. I also watch Foreign films to get some Reality. There must be a conspiracy to make us stupider.

-- I'll add to the complaints about this movie by saying Bad Editing. Other reviewers say "disjointed" & "incongruous." I suspect those who made the movie also edited it themselves--big mistake because they who Know the story can't see that the viewer Won't know that somewhere in the script, but not in the final cut, is crucial information. Fifteen minutes in, I hear, "The explosion," and I restarted it to learn What Explosion? It keeps coming up later. That must have been something that fell out on the cutting room floor. There's reference to "an argument last night" that we never saw. Also, there's Bad special effects. At 13:47 there's a car in a stream, but it's bad photoshopping of two photos. No shadows, no blurring of the edges, ick! In that scene: Rose is Missing. That's all we ever see/hear, but her death is discussed and we see her tombstone. (However... go ahead and watch the movie for more on this.) -- Yet, this movie inspires me. Almost makes me want to start making movies. There IS a story. The plot is Not one we've seen a hundred times--a few similars are out there. Old "The Spy Who Came in from the Cold" (1965) may have been the first of this concept. An intel officer wants to quit the business, but has to go back for one more assignment. This movie has the added twist that the "agency" cannot help. That's also not unique, but how about we think of this as a bunch of neighbor kids putting on a frontyard play and we get to smile and encourage them. It's fun to decide who's the best actor, and the worst. No actor here was great but I vote Elizabeth Kadeli as best because she could say a Lot just with her expressions.

-- There some myths in this story that personally annoy me. When I was in the military, I learned some fundamentals about handling classified information, and most movies seriously mess it up, as does this one. People Don't simply walk into the next room to talk about secrets. Grrr. But I love the lines regarding Bethany's mission, "... and if it goes south, I'm hung out to dry." "Yeah." -- THAT is reality even for "efforts" that Are officially sanctioned.

-- Another movie myth is that local people investigate murders. Now that's aways done by the FBI, who has vastly more resources and none of the bias. I love Beth's use of the strobing flashlight. Those things really can mess with a person but then banging her forehead onto the bad guy's only gives mutually bad headaches. (The right tactic is to bang forehead to the nose.) And now Beth started a myth by saying 20 apple seeds can kill someone. 83 will make a small child sick and we'd need 500 for a large adult. Usually, sheriffs don't handle things within a city because they have their own police department. Although some counties with tiny towns designate all law enforcement to the sheriff's office. But this town "has three traffic lights," so I think that's big enough for city police.

-- One thing I like about this is Conspiracy Reality. If you were to take a political science class, you'll find these kinds of conspiracies are TYPICAL everywhere. Most don't jump into a series of murders, but most Could. This stuff also happens in Your hometown.

-- A skilled person really can take a pistol away from someone. I just wish they'd actually show her hands when Beth does it. (My son, a former cop, can even disassemble a Beretta while someone's pointing it at him, then poke the person in the eye with the Slide.) -- I give this movie 4 stars NOT because it's bad but because I strictly give Five for any AVERAGE movie. I save eight and nines for legendary hits and epics. It's like... when I visit someone's home and the dinner they serve is not tasty, I still eat it, don't complain, and thank them. I can do the same with a bunch of first-timers' movie.

Pocahontas 2: Journey to a New World (1998) (V) (1998 Video)

DON'T BLAME Historical Facts

[8/10 · 30 September 2021]

The unhappy reviews I read here seem to say you want Fiction. Truth isn't always so pretty. BUT We Can't HANDLE All the Truth. For example, and this regards the first movie, the reality is that Pocahontas was around ten years old when she first visited Jamestown with several others from her tribe. The little boys were staring and Pocahontas was apparently a tomboy and a ham. So she started doing gymnastics and that especially thrilled the boys. Soon she was teaching them to do the same and she returned often and essentially served as a gymnastics instructor. THAT would be Very Interesting for any movie maker. BUT it would be a crime in America to show the truth about this because all the while... Pocahontas was naked... as was many of the other natives. We can't let some truths leak out.

Katherine (1975 TV Movie)

I always give 5 stars for average, virtually never 10

[9/10 · 10 August 2021]

I saw this only once--when it was on TV in 1975. I was 20 years old. It left a powerful impact on me. I hadn't yet heard of Sissy Spacek or Henry Winkler. I deeply "identified" with Katherine as the movie began. I kept thinking "Yes, she's doing the right thing!" Then in the end... I felt the way a balloon must feel when it's popped. I realized the error of her ways--and mine. I realized I too could've been sucked right into all that. I've never, ever forgotten this story. Someday I'll try to get my granddaughters to watch it with me.

Interstellar (2014)

Biggest Casting Catastrophe ever.

[6/10 · 8 August 2021]

The movie begins, and flashes back to, Young Murph, played by Mackenzie Foy. Look at her picture.

Then the movie flips to many years later. There are now two major female characters. One is played by Jessica Chastain, the other by Anne Hathaway. Please look at their pictures.

Guess which one this movie uses as Older Murph? The one that looks like she could be Mackenzie's mother or older sister... or the one that looks so different, even down to skin quality, that she must be a thousandth cousin or something?

The movie producers could just as accurately cast Whoopie Goldberg for playing the part of Older Murph. That is something I couldn't get past.

-- As far as the movie itself... DON'T expect a typical outer-space movie. It is a thinking person's cerebral event, not a high action thriller. It's much more philosophical than action. When you go in knowing that, you find a great story.

Death in Paradise: Frappe Death Day (2019) Season 8, Episode 4

I have to stop watching this show. It's too ridiculous.

[3/10 · 24 December 2019]

Jack arrives at the murder scene with the dead guy already out of the pool, no one briefs him, but he immediately knows where the guy had stood when shot. He had NO basis for knowing that. The bullet being in a planter, on top surface, on other side of pool shows no understanding of ballistics. AND the story verifies this because the bullet they'd found, based upon his brilliance, hadn't gotten there from the fatal shot, but from another shot later. -- The Great and Awesome discovery that a bookmark was missing suggests brilliance, but it's this minutia amongst the lack of more obvious things that reeks of bad writing. -- "Does that water look funny to you? It's got a greenish hue." That should be no surprise since someone had just bled out in there a few days before, changing the water chemistry, probably causing algae to grow. -- Ruby glances at a wet wig inside a plastic bag and knows it's a human hair wig. I find it far too hard to believe that it's that easy. -- They find ONE bookmark in the study and stop searching. They don't Yet show us that it had a bullet hole. I sat here shouting, "There could be several other books on the shelf with a bookmarker." And after the killer hid the robe and wig, why would she possibly put a book with a bullet hole back in the library? -- The bullet's exit hole in the book is clearly the size of .22 or .25 caliber. Both very weak rounds of ammo. What they'd found in the planter was clearly a larger bullet. The image of the gun, at the 44:32-minute point, is far too large a caliber to have made the tiny hole through the book. -- Firing a gun into a hard book would be a poor silencer since the expanding gasses would've leaked between the muzzle and the book. On the other hand, a pillow would've been better. -- One shot is powerful enough to go through a thick book and a man, but the next shot isn't strong enough to sink into the dirt of the planter. -- Ruby used to work at a photo processing lab and knows people there. They can supposedly analyze the photo. Photo analysis involves a lot more than just zooming in on an image. Jack should certainly have police lab contacts who can do it right. The zoomed-in photo could not have delivered such clarity from a photo. It's extremely rare for any security camera to have much clarity at all. SOME do, but the zoomed image would have to be taken from the system's internal capability, not from a photo of a wide-angle shot. -- Why didn't the writer have someone say Ciss wore a blond wig over her dark hair when she bought the wig that looked like her own hair. The wig salesperson would've wondered and remembered THAT oddity more than "someone who wore sunglasses." Why did it have to be an expensive human hair wig, which made the case easier to solve? -- Jack had been illegally gambling, but makes it legal by moving the operation to his house. Then we see the commissioner clearly covered-up his niece's criminal record--destroying the record. That's supposed to make us feel better. Unfortunately, I have to call it a criminal act. What other crimes are they covering-up? -- Ruby has always excessively been the literary fool. Someone to make us laugh, but the writers have made her far too much like a slap-stick comedy character. I've grown familiar with British comedy and Ruby doesn't fit it at all.

Death in Paradise: Wish You Weren't Here (2019) Season 8, Episode 3

Detective Logic is Weak

[4/10 · 29 September 2019]

First, I have grown irritated with Ruby, the new cop. Her role seems to be entirely comic. She's to play the part of a fool and I don't like that a young girl is playing the incompetent. Second, I've grown annoyed at the "brilliant" conclusions that Jack comes up with. In this episode, he's certain the murderer was one of the four production crew. Why couldn't it have been some other tourist or a local? It reminds me of a famous investigation where ALL the questions were, "What was this guy doing?" and No One ever thought to ask the question, "Who shot the President?" And this is what I've been seeing in most of these episodes--grand god-like knowledge.

Here Is Germany (1945)

Clearly Propaganda, BUT...

[5/10 · 28 July 2018]

SO obviously propaganda that I wonder WHAT was wrong with the USA of 1945 to find this appealing. The history is okay, but they fail to mention that in the seven months between the Armistice of 1918 and the Treaty of Versailles, the Allies invaded Germany, thus violating the Armistice. THIS made Germany furious and lust for revenge. What I found fascinating with this was a new twist to the question of "How did Hitler rise to power?" This documentary alludes to it being the industrial powers who wanted their riches to grow and they needed a (poster child) for the people to rally around. They also needed to overthrow the democracy that had arisen around the end of WWI. They saw Hitler as the man to help them get back on their feet. ... I've never heard this angle before, but it makes more sense to me than Any of the propaganda pitches I'd grown up with. The fact that Hitler grew more powerful than the Rich & Powerful may have wanted isn't & doesn't need to be told. Frankly, my personal suspicion is that THEY remained in power After the end of the second world war.

Being Human (1994)

One of thew Greatest THINKING person's movies

[8/10 · 5 May 2018]

Today is 2018 and I just bought my own copy of this and haven't watched it yet. I saw this only once--in 1994, and I've never stopped thinking about it. Maybe, Maybe this can be compared to Pulp Fiction, but only because the viewer has the "assemble" the story. This is NOT a scrambled sequence like PF, but the message is understood by recognizing the similarities of four different "skits." I think the worst part is the narration, which I understand from iMDB's Trivia was added later by the producer, not the director's choice. I don't give ten stars because I genuinely consider Average should get 5, only very rare spectacular movies get a 10 from me.

Nova: Killer Floods (2017) Season 44, Episode 18

They're Incorrect about a Key Point

[6/10 · 10 November 2017]

The experts often referred to the "islands" that "could be formed only by massive floods." Problem: Features looking exactly like that are all over New Mexico and Arizona, and no one is claiming a flood formed them. Furthermore, if they were searching for massive ancient floods, there is now evidence of a similar glacial lake formed in the areas of today's Great Lakes, with it having been dammed in the eastern St. Lawrence River area--with a resulting flood so large it crossed the Atlantic and forced its way across the Mediterranean and hitting the Black Sea. Why didn't NOVA talk about this?

The Eagle and the Hawk (1950)

IMDb is Mixing Three Different Movies With Same Name

[1/10 · 8 June 2016]

IMDb shows a cover staring Cary Grant and Carole Lombard, and noted as being a 1933 movie. The Cary Grant movie was actually released in 1950. Another movie has Cary Grant, Fredric March and Jack Oakie. One text is for a 1933 Western (taking place in Mexico) staring John Payne, Rhonda Fleming and Dennis O'Keefe. The text says it's a story set in 1863, but the cover shows airplanes. When I look at IMDb's Mobile App, I see two movies with this name but they are also mixed up. The Internet version for IMDb (on my desktop computer) doesn't even offer the 1933 movie to look at. The Mobil text about the two movies gives a third variation involving the Civil War. >>> IMDb, please fix this <<<

The Hessen Conspiracy (2009)

Historical Accuracy Questionable

[5/10 · 9 April 2014]

The plot sounded mildly interesting, but I chose to watch this because I wondered if it was based on a true story. The opening credits said it was and that held my interest more than the overall plot. However, some things seemed odd. I'm no historian but from what I know of Germany, there shouldn't have been any German Crown Jewels outside of museums unless the Nazis stole them. A royal German duchess in 1945 also doesn't match what I know. SO after seeing this movie, I got online and confirmed these things don't match history. What it comes down to is that when Hollywood says a movie is based on a true story, the truth MIGHT be that some Private swiped a box of cigars and it got stolen while he tried smuggling it out. And from that a more exciting story is created. I'm disappointed.

Technically, the movie had poor lighting through most of it. The style felt like what we saw in movies made in the 1960's—not that that's bad, but it simply has a low-budget quality.

The Secret Garden (1999)

Where Can I Buy This?

[1/10 · 21 January 2009]

This is the only movie for which I've tried to get a copy of every version (& I'm a guy.) Since this is a 1999 version, a copy must be available. WHERE DO I FIND IT? I am a writer with a new screenplay version. Mine is the most unusual, among all the versions I've seen. It is set in 1930's Arizona instead of old England, as are all others versions I know of. It is a "darker" version where Mary Lennox is not just a spoiled loner, but a kid on the brink of insanity. Colin is more true to what psychologists would expect from a child in his situation. In spite of these and other twists, the story is close to the original author's.