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thebigd56
Reviews
The Open House (2018)
Tedious and pointless, just like others said!
This movie looks like it was carefully made, so it's a shame it's so AWFUL. Promising start to a haunted house flick, but then...is it? A possible ghost is seen, but it amounts to nothing and does nothing and it might have been a hallucination; you never find out. The main characters are blah. The crazy neighbor wanders in the woods, but does nothing. Finally, deaths occur and you have no idea by whom or why they have happened. At the end, you see an anonymous silhouette of someone driving a car down a road toward another open house, but you have no idea who it is, or if they're even going to the next house. No real plot or resolution. It's a good thing I saw this on Netflix, so at least I didn't have to pay extra for it!
Brahms: The Boy II (2020)
Pretty good sequel, especially for the twist
I actually liked this sequel, and I usually don't like them. I enjoyed "The Boy" very much and appreciated that (SPOILER) I spent most of the movie expecting something supernatural, only to find out there was nothing supernatural in it. I have seen that some viewers don't like the fact that this sequel reverses that, but I do, because they include what was "true" in the first movie, but then show that it was a misconception. I don't mind that if the switch is well-done and believable, and here it is. I had never seen Katie Holmes in a movie before, and she was excellent. The actor playing her husband was good, too, and they actually showed some decent parenting of the kid, instead of being the usual clueless pushovers so often seen in movie families. I thought the child playing Jude was very good. He conveyed a great deal with his eyes and facial expressions; crucial, since he didn't speak for most of the film. The movie has a polished, well-crafted look. I keep in on my DVR to play in the background when I'm working on the computer or paying bills. It's fun.
Jane Eyre (1996)
I agree with the previous reviewer....
This version is pretty insipid, I'm afraid. Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books and has been since childhood, but William Hurt's weary, throwaway acting style is completely unsuitable to the bold passion of Edward Rochester and poor Charlotte Gainsbrough looks like a bored, petulant teenager whose dental braces hurt! I also can't believe that they eliminated Edward's great marriage proposal scene from the end of the book, one of the most moving moments in literature. I do appreciate that they finally used such a young, plain woman to play Jane, a character who is supposed to be a worldly 18, but if you want to see a version that closer approximates the personalities and passions of the novel, please see the 70's version with George C. Scott and Susannah York. York was too old, tall and pretty to play Jane, but no one has touched Rochester's character the way that Scott did.