jdmcox55 Reviews

Ivanhoe (1982 TV Movie)

Tells the story

[5/10 · 30 January 2024]

I give this TV movie a low score only because the directing is the absolute worst directing in any movie I've ever seen. The story is the true story that Walter Scott write, which I tried to read but gave up because of the extreme prolixity and obfuscation of the writing. The story was very good, and deserves a better representation. The actors were professional actors, but they had to act in an amazingly amateurish production. I suppose cost may have been the limiting factor that led to such an amateurish undertaking, although I can't believe the director would ever get another job directing because he put up with this type of production.

His Dark Materials (2019–2022)

Starts with a bang

[8/10 · 31 October 2023]

I'm past episode 8, and an exciting, well done visual copy of the book has turned into soap opera, where everybody keeps talking to each other and hardly anything happens. In season 2, things pick up again. I started reading the book again, and the TV series does seem to do a good job, so far, in staying with the story in the book. It's hard to capture on screen what words can convey. But in place of good writing, there's good scenery and background (we see better than we understand through words). I also have to admit that the movie is aimed at a different audience than the book (watchers instead of readers). So I'll keep on watching. The overall story is interesting and clever, and of course the acting is fine. I've learned that the author has another series of books, Dust, which helps me stay with the story, knowing that the end is not the end. I'll end with a secret: clicking on the response to "Does this review contain spoilers?" may stop the admonition that 600 words (or was it letters) haven't been written.

The Golden Bowl (2000)

Not as good as the book for me

[7/10 · 5 July 2023]

Not as good as the book if you're like me and like clear thinking phrased very well, even though the idea may be unusual. It's a pleasure for me to read the book, and there's so much in the book that can't be spoken. I saw the movie some years ago (the 2000 one) but graded it fairly low. Now it's only available on Amazon as an expensive DVD. Try the book. And I guess I have to add that the characters are filled out nicely, and are not the usual characters you might find in a 19th century story, because one is a Prince with Islamic family as well as at least one Pope in his ancestry, and the other is a daughter of a rich American.

Carrie Pilby (2016)

Loved it

[10/10 · 24 April 2023]

Better than the book. The book is very good, but the screenwriting is excellent. The cast was perfect for their parts (as always, the acting was excellent). I could relate to Carrie, although I'm not female and not as smart. But everything made sense from her viewpoint. She was fascinating, and so were the people she encountered. Thoroughly enjoyable. Carrie's actor played her part perfectly, and even a little over-the-top when it would help. The psychologist/psychiatrist actor was perfect for the part, and was naturally over-the-top (and it helped). Of course the directing was perfect, as always, at least as far as I can see.

In a Better World (2010)

Idiotic

[2/10 · 16 April 2021]

Nothing made sense except the doctor working in Africa. Supposedly smart people kept saying stupid thing. What almost anyone did didn't make sense. I'm sure there was a point to the movie, but so much illogic ruined it for me. The director has made some excellent movies. I can't imagine an excuse for this one.

Adaptation. (2002)

The ending

[7/10 · 24 March 2021]

I disagree with the other "The ending" review. Like others, I liked the movie except for the ending. It would have been perfectly good without that ending. BUT, knowing Charlie Kaufman's other movies, I can only believe that he could NOT write a perfectly good movie. He had to go over the top. So why was this kind of writer selected to write a perfectly good movie about a perfectly good book? That's the question. He IS a very good writer, and I liked the majority of the movie.

Honeyland (2019)

Very well-presented documentary

[2/10 · 19 August 2020]

It's the exact opposite of the kind of movies Hollywood made in the good old days. It's about an old woman living in horrible conditions (think Dark Ages horrible conditions) with her dying, really old mother, and then a trailer-trash family (think Balkan Peninsula trailer-trash) moves in next to her hovel and makes her life much worse. But it's very well well done. It does make an important statement that other reviewers have raved about, but I'm too old to want anything but an enjoyable movie-moment.

Live from Lincoln Center: The New York Philharmonic's Performance of Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel (2013) Season 38, Episode 8

Richard Roger's favorite musical

[10/10 · 16 May 2020]

And it's my favorite, too. I've seen the movie version of Carousel a few times, and never cared for it. That's probably why I was blown away when I saw this production (on video). There's all the difference in the world between the movie version and this filmed stage version. The story finally made sense to me, and everything about it was beautiful, even Billie Bigelow came across as a real person in this production. The stage production had great orchestration, great singing, great acting, and even great dancing. A treat for the eyes and soul.

Avenue 5 (2020–2022)

Very Creative Humor

[8/10 · 26 March 2020]

Very impressive writing. I really enjoyed the creative humor. I've only seen the first episode, but if they can keep the creativity going, it'll be great. And this is one of the very few TV shows that's funny NOT because everybody in it is just plain dumb.

Fleabag (2016–2019)

Fleabag 1 vs. Fleabag 2

[7/10 · 8 October 2019]

How can everyone rate Fleabag 1 and Fleabag 2 with the same review for both? I mistakenly watched Fleabag 2 first, and thought it was amazing. I give it a 10. So then I watched Fleabag 1, expecting it to match Fleabag 2. But it doesn't, and I give it a 6. So reading all these 10/10 reviews, you have to realize that they're thinking of Fleabag 2. And the Emmys were for Fleabag 2. My score above is just a compromise between 10 and 6. Fleabag 2 was amazing.

A Sunday in the Country (1984)

Simple people

[6/10 · 7 May 2019]

Yes, it's nice and it's simple. But nice and simple people aren't very interesting. They keep saying and doing things that make them all seem "simple." I suppose if I were "simple" myself, I'd like it.

My Masterpiece (2018)

Amusing

[8/10 · 14 March 2019]

Very amusing all the way through. Guillermo Francella was also in The Secret in Their Eyes (the Argentinian version), where he displayed the exact same dead-pan humor playing as Pablo Sandoval. In fact the whole movie seemed to be written for his style of humor (tongue-in-cheek).

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016)

As enjoyable as the book

[8/10 · 1 December 2017]

Appreciation of art and intelligence are closely related. That is, some people like country music and some people like classical music. The same goes for paintings, books, and movies. Lee Child is my kind of writer, neither too intellectual nor too simplistic (I think he's a very smart writer). I've read all of his Jack Reacher novels but one. This one (by mistake, apparently). The movie Jack Reacher: Never Go Back was a very good implementation of the book (which I'm now reading), and I can see how the writer/director, Ed Zwick, kept the basic plot and the flavor of the book while making it a very good movie and under 2 hours long (Richard Wenk was also the writer). And I don't understand why some people think Tom Cruise is too small (some people think size matters). He seemed like Jack Reacher to me. Thank you, Lee Child and Ed Zwick.

Neckan (2015)

Another good Spanish story

[7/10 · 11 June 2017]

Well done and in an interesting location about an interesting time. The place is Tetouan, Morocco, and the time is 1956, but the protagonist is trying to find out what happened there in 1936. I'm pretty familiar with the Spanish Civil War, so I expected there would be ugly revelations (it was an ugly time, with the Leftist against the Fascists, with very strong feelings on both sides). The movie seemed as if it could have been a TV series because it seemed to have been noticeably edited, but I still enjoyed it. I've also seen another good Spanish movie, "Palms in the Snow". But before either of them I saw the excellent Spanish TV production, "The Time In Between" (El Tiempo Entre Costuras), and I suspect these were follow-on productions that were (sadly) cut to movie length. I'm hoping for more of the same, but more fully realized.

Truth (I) (2015)

Excellent

[9/10 · 4 February 2016]

Excellent movie. It seems to have come as close to the TRUTH as any movie about well-known events could. And of course the writing, directing, acting, etc, were excellent.

I met George Bush in the Texas Air National Guard's 111th Fighter- Interceptor Squadron (Ellington Air Force Base, near Houston) when I joined the Squadron in early 1970, after getting an early-out from the Air Force when the 317th FIS (Elmendorf AFB, Anchorage, Alaska) stopped flying the F-102, which I flew. Being qualified and up-to-date as an F-102 pilot, I got a slot in the Texas ANG. George Bush was a nice guy. I didn't stay there long because he and a couple of other pilots there told me that Delta Air Lines was hiring guys my age (I was about to turn 32). I broke my promise to Col. Killian and quit his Squadron when I got hired by Delta a few months after I got there (sorry, again). Flying in the Air National Guard isn't as gung-ho military as flying in the Air Force. It was somewhat like belonging to a military club. The same was true in the Florida ANG, where I flew while flying for Delta. When I read that George Bush had missed some required ANG training, I didn't see it as being AWOL (absent without leave) -- more like he'd been bad, but it wouldn't be the end of his military career. I WAS appalled when I read that he'd approved the invasion of Iraq. He wasn't the best or the worst of Presidents.