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silvergrandam01
Reviews
Ice Road Truckers (2007)
Don't understand why History Channel insists on this show.
I could see this show on TLC or even Nat. Geo. But it's blasphemy to be on the History Channel in the first place. There is little to no historical value to this show. I actually watch the HC for historical relevance. This show simply has none.
Big deal, they are driving on the ice, doing a job, and getting paid for it. It'd make for a good one or two hour special. But a whole season? This isn't nearly as exciting as the Deadliest Catch, but it sure pretends to be. At least with Deadliest Catch you have a REAL enemy, the Bering Sea. Always unpredictable, always dangerous, and always obvious about both. And it has relevance to many who eat and enjoy seafood, seeing how that food gets to them and what lengths men go to bring that food to us. Ice Road Truckers doesn't seem to impact anyone on an emotional level at all.
Another issue is the editing to make everything seem more foreboding and cataclysmic then reality. The first season shows an animation of a truck falling thru the ice during a 'dramatic' event, then they cut to commercial. So of course you tune back in to see something go thru the ice. Only it was clever editing to bring you back because they knew the reality wasn't nearly as interesting. The reality was a minor fenderbender and some vulgar commenting. Sadly examples of this happen over and over. In reality, they have managed to record hours upon hours of driving over featureless terrain with little character interaction and somehow have managed to make it even more boring.
And then there is the issue of the characters themselves. I applaud that there are people willing to do this job, as with any job (like Discovery Channels' Dirty Jobs). It's even nice they got some recognition out of this. It's a working man's job, doing things others might not want to do. But the personalities are just flat, shallow, and lifeless. Put aside the vulgarity and there really isn't much being presented. Most the characters can safely be called quitters and losers, and few stand out as anyone you care about.
I thought this show to be a serious failure on the part of History Channel during and after the first season. I felt for sure they would not repeat this mistake with a second season. I'm astounded they have, and even slightly offended as a long time History Channel viewer. This show simply does not belong on this station.
The Sum of All Fears (2002)
Hollywood should apologize to all of us Ryan fans
I have read every Jack Ryan book and loved each one. Unfortunately someone always decides to make a movie out of it. How Clancy hasn't b*tch-slapped someone yet is beyond me.
How the movies fare so far.. Patriot Games.. acceptable. Hunt For Red October.. One of my favorites,even if different from the book, it basically got it right. Clear and Present Danger.. that's where things really started to jump the track, and fiction crept its way into an already fictionalized story.
But this one... this one is truly a horrible horrible event for literate people the world over. I won't list every detail changed and mutilated from a once great story, but suffice it to say this movie is basically in name only a representation of the book. All other details are conveniently changed or overlooked.
I understand that Clancy books are involved and takes some effort/intelligence to keep with the complex plots, but they always come to a great point, and leave me wanting more. This movie does not. If someone took my work and did an end-round with it like they did with this waste of film, I'd be homicidal.
Hate isn't a strong enough word. Vile isn't a strong enough word.
Then to cast my literary hero with Ben Affleck just pours more salt into a gaping wound in the side of my head. What a crock.
Pearl Harbor was a totally ruined movie which inconveniently had a historic battle (which I'm sure the veterans of were extremely interested in seeing done in modern effects! or did we forget that this should have been more of a tribute to THEM) interrupt everyones love lives, but at least the Japanese still attacked for Christ sake. This movie doesn't even go that far.
The real fun is how many clueless people say "wow, what a great movie" and don't even begin to realize what they're really missing by not PICKING UP A DAMN BOOK EVERY ONCE IN AWHILE!!!
Hollywood, continue to play down to the lowest common denominator if you must, but leave the worthwhile stuff in life alone for those of us that can still read. Stop making crappy movies "based" on great books.