lopingbuzzard Reviews

He's Just Not That Into You (2009)

Dialog straight from any middle-school hallway

[2/10 · 16 February 2009]

"I think he likes me! Why doesn't he call?" "I think she likes me! Should I call her?"

There must be about 100 characters that this movie asks us to care about and keep track of who knows who, who works with who, who's sleeping with who, who USED to sleep with who, who's a friend of a friend... I frankly just didn't care about any of these people enough to try to keep track of all their relationships and juvenile dating games.

My wife assured me it wasn't a "chick-flick" and that even men who see it learn something. Right. Here's what I learned:

1 - People are stupid. 2 - Most men are jerks. 3 - Most women are insane.

Can we go see "Taken" now?

True Crime: New York City (2005 Video Game)

Good way to virtually tour NYC

[3/10 · 31 May 2006]

The coolest thing about this game is that it contains all of Manhattan. All the streets, anyway. Unfortunately, most of the buildings are generic with just a smattering of actual buildings and landmarks such as St. Patrick's and the UN building. You cannot enter into most of these buildings, however, with a few exceptions like Grand Central. The only buildings you can enter are generic restaurants, hotels, and laundries. And they are all the same - the interior of every hotel is exactly the same, as is every convenience store and strip club.

It was fun to roam the streets of Manhattan again, and safer than doing it for real. The game-play, however was pretty bad. The main story missions are somewhat amusing, but the regular police work is painfully repetitive. Stolen cars, fights among the homeless, rock bands wrecking hotels... you have to deal with these problems over and over and over.

This game might be appealing to anyone who has never seen, played, or heard of GTA: San Andreas. To everyone else, it's just a cheap, buggy, boring, knockoff. Forget playing the game. Just enjoy touring Manhattan without the normal traffic - sort of a Manhattan ghost town.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002 Video Game)

Better gameplay, but not better city

[13 June 2003]

Yes, there are many improvements over GTA III - motorcycles,

weapons, bailing out of a moving car, etc. But the city itself just

doesn't measure up.

GTA III's Liberty City is based on New York, while GTA Vice City is

based on Miami. The GTA games are crime games. Roaming the

streets of New York (Liberty City), it just FEELS like a crime-filled

city. It feels natural to jack a car or pop a Triad. The city is grimey

and dirty. You can see the old stepped-on wads of gum on the

sidewalk. Everything is grey and slimy and filthy. It's a breeding

ground for crime. The ideal setting for a game like this. A

small-time criminal would feel right at home in this town.

Vice City, on the other hand, is too slick, too clean. When I first

started the game, it seemed so out of place to steal a car.

Everything is so bright and shiny and glowing in pastel neon

colors. And the streets are so narrow! Is Miami really like that?

Tiny little cramped streets? And the main character's clothes!

Give me back my baggy pants and jacket - these Hawaiian shirts

and checkered golf pants are for tourists, not would-be crime

lords.

Thunderheart (1992)

Great deal of truth in this powerful film.

[11 September 2002]

Based on actual events on and around Sioux reservations in the Dakotas, this film reveals injustice Native Americans suffer at the hands of government. The names have been changed, but all the facts and players are there. The American Indian Movement (AIM) is referred to in the film as ARM (AmerIndan Resistance Movement), traditional natives who are at odds with the corrupt capitalist natives of the Guardians of the Oglala Nation (GOONs). Jimmy Looks Twice (played by real-life American Indian Movement leader John Trudell) is the Leonard Peltier character, framed for a murder he didn't commit. Throw in a plot involving greed, uranium, pollution, the high mortality rate on the reservations, and a government that is either unwilling to investigate or is participating in the whole thing, and you've got an only slightly fictional portrait of life on the Rez For the documentary approach to the same subject, see "Incident at Oglala" narrated by Robert Redford and featuring Leonard Peltier himself an extensive comments by John Trudell.

The One and Only (1978)

What was I thinking??

[29 August 2002]

When this film hit the theaters in 1978, I saw it three times. But when I watched it again recently on video (a video that I BOUGHT), I couldn't believe that I at one time LIKED this movie. Winkler plays a totally unlikable character who never gets any better. Darby plays a dopey girl who, for reasons not addressed in this movie, falls for the obnoxious egocentric jerk.

I chuckled maybe twice during the whole movie. The rest of the time I was wondering how anyone could fall in love with someone who cares about no one on earth except themselves and how Carl Reiner got mixed up in this mess.

I was embarrassed to admit to my wife that in the late 70's I actually paid to sit through this tripe... three times! Foolish youth.

The Valley (Obscured by Clouds) (1972)

Came for the music, stayed for the story

[16 August 2002]

I saw this film at the Plaza in New York City around 1981. I went to hear the Floyd music but I quickly became so engrossed that I forgot about the music. Determined to travel to the mysterious valley that is always obscured from the air by clouds, a group of Caucasians cross New Guinea. They meet isolated tribes (NOT African - this is New Guinea, remember), experience love and loss, discover themselves, etc. And I thought the ending was wonderful. A little Easy Rider, a little Sorcerer, a lot of atmosphere and style. Naturalist-docu-fiction. Unique and unforgettable.