cmccabe43 Reviews

Inhuman Resources (I) (2020– )

Corny and unbelievable at times but well acted and keeps you watching

[7/10 · 24 July 2021]

The best thing about this is the opening score and graphic which is quite cool. The acting is solid. The story is preposterous but check your brain at the door and go with the flow and it is quite watchable and kept me hanging in there which is more than I can say for many series.

The Sinner (2017–2021)

An incredible sleeper hit anthology that I'm glad I rolled the dice on.

[10/10 · 21 February 2021]

Just when I thought I had run out of great series to watch this one came along. Pullman and much of the cast in all three seasons are brilliant, moving and gripping. Don't believe the negativity about season 3, it was absolutely brilliant in its own right and continues a common theme of mental illness and human psychosis mixed with a True crime drama, part CSI, part X files (just a wee bit), part psychological thriller, and Bill Pullman...is beyond amazing in this role which sees him put everything into this. Amazing.

The Platform (2019)

Falls flat, like the platform itself

[5/10 · 3 January 2021]

Could have been a great movie but way too obvious allegorical shout out to marxism using dantes inferno as a metaphor, but in a prison setting. The ending was "mailed in" and pretty simple minded... The platform itself is well conceptualized and the set convincingly dystopian and eerily realistic. But the story is on thin ice and falls flat, like the platform itself.

Den of Thieves (2018)

Unapologetic 'Heat' Rip Off

[6/10 · 26 May 2020]

Still watchable, with solid acting but the film pacing and cinematography, even sound and even a couple scenes are blatant ripo offs of Michael Mann. I am surprised they got some of these lead actors to agree on this film. However, it is still a decent movie even if unoriginal.

Executive Decision (1996)

Solid action thriller that holds up after years of rewatching...

[8/10 · 5 December 2019]

This seminal action film is a favorite of mine. A sort of guilty but not really guilty pleasure with acting ranging from good to great. The story is as believable today as it was in 1996 and the film is one of a kind in the way it unknowingly predicted aspects of 911 with the use of a plane as a weapon. Kurt Russell is perfectly balanced by David Suchet, and everyone else is good. I think I've seen this movie maybe 5 or 6 times since 1996 and I just somehow never get tired of it. David's acting is absolutely and completely convincing as a legit radical islamic terrorist. It's like someone forgot to tell him this isn't an academy award contender.

Shot Caller (2017)

A surprise on Netflix - a very gripping, intelligent drama

[9/10 · 28 November 2019]

Wow, not the usual crap on tap at Netflix world. This movie was poignant, solemn and introspective, well acted by everyone, and the direction is very reminiscent of a Michael Mann film (the pacing, the cinematography with night shots of city skylines, etc., brooding, and the lead character undergoes a metamorphosis that only prison could do to someone (or war) and it's quite amazing. The time switching back and forth is also a nice deviation from the aforementioned directing style. I liked this movie, a lot.

El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)

Emotional and a gift from heaven

[10/10 · 12 October 2019]

This movie thrust me back in time, to the edge of the seat gripping nights watching weekly on cable TV. It was ironic in that the movie is largely built upon the effects of drugs and addiction, and here I was feeling like watching this was somehow equivalent to injecting a really good dose (at least I imagine it would be). This film is also all about time, with a small insect making the connection between the same kind of bug Jessie once studied on a street corner until it was stepped on - here now, it was reborn. Same goes for Jessie Pinkman, wanting to shed his old self and memories as quick as the dirt running off his body after taking his first shower since captivity. Like the bug, he is reborn and unlike Saul Goodman and Walter White, it's clear he has no intention of coming back.

This catapulted me back to those magical nights and was a dream come true - to see Breaking Bad come alive again, if even for a short couple hours. I kept checking the progress meter in Netflix hoping it wasn't going too fast, but it was, always.

Black Mirror: Smithereens (2019) Season 5, Episode 2

made me cry and feel for the main character

[10/10 · 6 June 2019]

Simply brilliant... this series is probably the most relevant and important series in decades. the plot was completely fresh yet immediately identifiable with the viewer from our daily interactions with social. media and our smart phones. this episode featured all the main ingredients to enable the story.. one person's misuse of technology, his victims, society handling the mess and the creator who has to come to. terms with the blowback of what he's created. oh yeah, and the mindless corporate automatons who have shed all emotional connectivity with their customers but yet know every personal detail about their lives... except how their own technology has impacted that life in thr most severe ways.

Lap Dance (2014)

What happens when you can't find anything else on Netflix...

[5/10 · 11 June 2017]

OK, it wasn't that bad - I did feel some level of caring for the characters, especially the main two. From what I know of strip clubs and the girls who work in them, the potential "pitfalls" as presented in this film are but a tiny sugar coated fraction of the real perils, which another reviewer here tells accurately. Anyway, maybe keeping it light is a refreshing change, so much in the real world is so dark anyway. I give it a 5.

Midnight Special (2016)

Beautiful, tearful movie with joy and love

[8/10 · 18 March 2017]

I don't need a social message subtext to enjoy a movie for what it is, a simple story about a boy with special powers and people (and governments) who want to exploit those powers were it not for his parents and a friend who try to rush the boy off to a destination they've been told is important, been told is where the boy "needs to be" but don't understand why exactly - until the father sees an image of another world, the boys world and the boy is healed from what appeared to be a increasingly sick state from being exposed to this world and using his special abilities. The boy further explains that he believes he must be from that special world (how he got to our world isn't really explained nor if he was born biologically to his parents or if they somehow adopted the boy or found him, a la Superman). He explains that his world is built "on top of this one", a probable reference to a dual or multiple dimensions where its beings have "watched us for a long time". I loved this movie, i felt love from the characters and the boy and i felt like i missed him terribly at the end.

The Shallows (2016)

Boring, Blake, Derivative, Blake, Suspenseful, Blake, Lively, Blake, Unrealistic, Blake....

[6/10 · 9 July 2016]

Some spoilers, not many:

I found this movie all of those things listed in the summary - it's simultaneously boring but beautiful, unrealistic but suspenseful, slow moving but at times engaging, unrealistic but frightening, etc., etc., and this seeming mix of contradictions was possible for one reason....Blake Lively. She and she alone, apart from the pretty scenery is the only saving grace of this film...and it saves it just enough to not say I want my 2 hours of my life back.

Blake Lively is simply stunning here, visually in terms of her natural beauty, sexy in terms of her bikini close up shots throughout, but most importantly, her completely convincing acting job here ... i didn't really know anything about Blake going into this movie but boy is she on my radar screen now. Her performance in this film was truly very good and very believable. She really is what kept me in that theatre. Her truly gritty, very realistic range of emotions in this film are amazing. I really felt close and caught up in her dilemma and she comes across as actually going thru this for real...very very fine acting job. Wow.

The shark? Typical CGI stuff...similar or close to what you may remember from "Deep Blue Sea" , maybe a notch better? The shark was too big for the bite on her leg though, which, while bad, indicated a much smaller shark mouth that the hulking shadowy brute that looked like the size of a small Korean submarine. The ending is pure entertainment and completely unbelievable and unrealistic. However, I recommend the film just to see Blake Lively in case she's a new item for you...otherwise, skip this.

Bat*21 (1988)

Underrated - definitely better than a 6.

[8/10 · 22 May 2016]

I saw this film for the first time last night and loved it. I thought it might be a cheesy 80s Vietnam war action flick but boy was I wrong. There are some great performances here first off - Gene Hackman and Danny Glover are very convincing and totally into their roles here.

I know the plot is very simple but this is based on a true story and I thought all involved measured up and did an honorable job of portraying the futility and tragic waste of life that was the Vietnam war.

There are some subtle moments in the film, reviewed better by others, but suffice it to say they were touching and were metaphors for the war. I am sad that in real life, many didn't make it home, but this movie does that justice while also pointing out the brutality of war and its impact on civilians