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DaveMattia
Columnist for The Canadian Sportsman Magazine
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3834680/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1
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Reviews
Died Suddenly (2022)
Anecdotal? Maybe, but not everything is a conspiracy.
This film can be easily dismissed as a conspiracy crackpot's dream, and if I were to see this at any other time in my life, I would have dismissed it like a Bigfoot movie filmed with night-vision goggles. Trouble is, I cannot dismiss this film because I know four relatively young and healthy men, each under 55, who died suddenly within the past year. One friend, found dead in his sleep. Another walking up the stairs to his home. Another at a restaurant. The other has yet to be explained to me. Naturally, one gets curious but so far so autopsy results have not been revealed or shared-- at least not to me. I don't expect family members to rush to tell me the cause of death because of privacy issues, but since most people instantly assume drugs or suicide, you'd think the families would tell you, "No, it was not drugs," but they haven't. Do they themselves even know? Did they get a straight answer from a medical examiner? There is something odd about that no matter how you look at it. In fact, one of the dead didn't even get an autopsy. He was 52 and perfectly healthy. Found dead in his bed. Cause of death was chalked up as "natural causes." .Why do I personally know 4 young men who dropped dead in the past 18 months?
Greenland (2020)
Only the characters experience the disaster
Remember when CNN - or maybe it was another network - said, "We will bring you the news about the end of the word."? Yeah, well here is a perfect example of how that could be true -- but only in movies where a a thousand extras in CGI cities are being bombarded by small asteroids as another life-extermination sized asteroid impact looms only hours away. Everyone else in this apocalyptical world still goes to work - dressed and prepped - to report the news. I know there are situations that are "movie believable" but Greenland takes this suspension of disbelief to the limit. Who writes this stuff? If it was a kid in 4th grade, I would say it was nice and stick the script on his grandmother's refrigerator. I mean, imagine seeing TV anchors doing their job like it's just another day except for the fact that they will be vaporized in 10 hours. Please, if there is anyone who would show up for their job while this is happening, he or she is a weirdo who should only live in a world of disaster movies. Apart from the fact that 8 billion people are going to die in a few hours, and they all know it, the characters involved - the main ones anyway - always seem to find one soldier or doctor or person in authority who can help them with trivial things. Imagine the world is ending in a fiery meltdown, but you can't get your kid his medicine, and you ask to speak to the manager when a military officer says no. Add to that, a lot of laziness from the writer and director, or probably both. How do you drive from Georgia to Louisville to Canada to an airstrip somewhere in Canada in such a short time without even having to stop for gas. Of course one can say that the gas stops are implied, but who ran the gas pumps? Who supplied the electricity for a filling station. Did gas stations people show up for work like TV news anchors? Wow, such dedication to their jobs is to be applauded. How did a seriously overloaded twin prop commuter plane get from this imaginary airstrip in Canada all the way to Greenland without a stop in Gander or wherever? Then there is the problem with science. They treat an extermination event asteroid blast that wipes out all of Europe as though it was a hurricane that blows out to sea. After nine months - which is a convenient background voice line thrown in to tell you how long its been - how is the world now a beautiful and sunny place when in fact it should be a dark and lifeless and barren tundra of virtual nothingness for decades to come? You don't simply open the door to your mega-bunker and see the sun shining, the flowers blooming and the blue birds chirping as they flutter by. Why do you look exactly like you did 9 months earlier in the midst of the cataclysm ? Your hair has not grown, and you're wearing the same clothes? You don't even need a shave and your kid with diabetes has had enough insulin and healthcare to get him through the whole thing despite the fact that he is not allowed in the bunker because the military banned him owing to his illness. It's as though someone said, "No one is allowed in the survival bunker if they have an illness that requires treatment, but let's throw in a sympathetic military nurse with every diabetic supply she will need for a year just in case some cute little diabetic kid sneaks in." I could go on for pages with things like, uh, finding keys in a random house and simply assuming there is a fully functional vehicle there....and there is! No, this is a lazy movie, written and directed by lazy people for lazy viewers. The videography is cheap and just gimmicky enough to look lazy-hip. Basically, this movie stinks.
Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy (2019)
Worth Seeing - if only for Patty McCormack...and there is no Charles Dickens error
This is a Hallmark Christmas movie. do son't expect it to be brilliant or amazing. It is what it is.
It looks like a Christmas card and it plays like a Christmas card.
The writer - in spite of what others have said about him here - does a good job with the storyline. In fact, for a second, if you didn't know it was Hallmark, you might think, from the start, that it's a horror movie with a mirthful beginning. Yes, it's that cheerful. You might even wonder, "Is everyone in this town a ghost ?" Catch my drift? Happily, it's a happy film, designed for happy people at a happy time of the year.
The acting is okay. I mean, you can see the actors acting, but that's what you get for a small budget and a heavily family-oriented holiday thing.
For my money, however, the only actor of note here is Patty McCormack who plays the part of the librarian or historian or whatever. Patty is a great actress - THE BAD SEED - 1956- greatest performance by a child actor ever - nominated for an Oscar. Remember her? In my opinion, she is the most under-used actress in history, but you can see her old movie star class -- even in this.
The thing that bugs me is that the writer is accused of making a mistake about the writer of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. In fact, it's included as a "goof" in the summary when there is no goof whatsoever. Allow me to explain.
In one early scene, a man is reading the Dickens classic to children in a library. Then, when one of the actors walks in on the reading, Patty McCormack's character, referring to the book being read, says, "Not one of my favorite Christmas stories, but it is a crowd-pleaser. Louisa Mae Alcott's is much better."
That is all she says. Nowhere is it implied that someone other than Charles Dickens wrote the classic novel. A CHRISTMAS CAROL. She simply says that it is not one of HER favorite Christmas STORIES. Some reviewers said that the writer or editor or even the actors should have noticed this goof -- but it is not a goof. Besides that, I know Patty McCormack. I have worked with her. If anyone would have made note of a goof, it would have been Patty. She is a very intelligent woman.
In conclusion, the movie is okay, but some of the reviews are really uninformed. Did these people listen to the dialogue? Doesn't sound like.
David Damien Mattia
True Blood (2008)
WORST SHOW I EVER SAW
I first heard this show playing in the background while my friend was watching it in another room. I was audibly struck by the sound of bad acting. I assumed it was one of those $1.99 Walmart close-out dead teenager movies. The acting and dialogue was so bad, that I had to peek in. Then it hit me. "This is the True Blood that everyone talks about." I could go into detail about how bad this is, but all you need to know is that it's awful. EVERYTHING about this is amateurish and silly. I seriously question the taste and level of sophistication of anyone who give this show high marks.