brunettevtx Reviews

Heart of Invictus (2023)

Inspiring series

[10/10 · 26 March 2024]

Who would rate this low except for the haters? This series focuses on different people who struggle with trauma, PTSD, childhood issues and even the threat of war. Paievska is one of the toughest women I've ever seen and I truly admire her.

Since Harry is the patron, it does have him talking to the participants about his tween trauma of losing his mother so suddenly in the car crash and how he later acted out over that. This is his way of connecting to them, not making it about him. His mother is still dead, he still is without her, and that isn't going to change, so the nasty comments are unwarranted.

It's a worthy series and a wonderful cause. I AM.

Mr. Bean's Holiday (2007)

It's not to be taken seriously

[7/10 · 24 September 2023]

Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean character is old slapstick comedy that can be watched by the whole family. It's something that would have fit in well with the silent film era since he rarely speaks, depending more on facial expression. But the silliness of his character getting into jams can be enjoyed in our modern times if one has the patience to watch. The Brits have a degree of comedy that the rest of us do not, and it's a big step up, without having to resort to jokes about sexual performance for instance. Look up his Christmas episode from about 30 years ago when he's shopping at Harrods or accidentally conducting Christmas musicians. I think I will, just for a refresher.

Windfall (2022)

What is this movie REALLY about?

[5/10 · 28 September 2022]

So there's a lone male lounging around, enjoying a nice afternoon on this extensive property, but it soon becomes clear that it isn't his.

The husband and wife soon show up, and they get along with each other when they walk in the door. They're ready to fool around but getting organized comes first.

The thief is not smart enough to slip out the back door while the couple is coming in the front door. He easily could have gone around the side of the house and disappeared off the property.

So he lets it be known that he's in the house and there you are. At first the thief traps them so he can get away but spots a security camera -OUTSIDE their property- and returns to demand where it leads. He just should have left, but remember-he isn't too smart.

So - they're all stuck with each other for the time being while the thief negotiated a ridiculous sum of money from the husband for their release. They can't get the money for another day. The husband tells his wife to get close to the thief, and this suddenly deflates her delicate self-esteem and trust in her husband. Nothing happens except talking about the future and crap; perhaps she's playing the thief or Vice versa. Maybe she's envisioning some stupid life of living on the run with this creep who's been waving a gun around all day. She seems to warm to him, and even defends him to her husband later on; it's so ridiculous.

I was 'tired of seeing the thief's face' too. If someone held me at gun point for that long, I would lose it. Threats only go so far. He and the wife's fantasies annoyed me. I felt bad for the gardener, and Plemons' character just got fed up with the situation like anyone would be, so that's why he was such an ass.

The cinematography and score were the only good points of this movie. Otherwise don't waste your time.

And oh, about that ending? The last character forgot about the camera out by the road.

The Weekend Away (2022)

Not bad

[7/10 · 28 March 2022]

I've never seen Split so empty of tourists in the middle of July! Those streets and alleys should have been packed with people, but in practically every shot, from the taxi ride to Kate's revealing murder near the end, the streets are near deserted. It just isn't like this in high summer. But anyway, I enjoyed watching a movie starring (mostly) Croatian actors, set in beautiful Split, and following the plot which had an interesting twist at the end.

No Exit (I) (2022)

Valiant effort but Read the book!

[6/10 · 27 February 2022]

I read the book which I found in a LFL about a year ago and I couldn't put it down. They changed a few things in the movie and dropped a few others - Not to mention there were some plot holes. Darby never tries to figure out who owns the van in the film and it's not clear to us how many vehicles are in the parking lot -she tries to do this in the book. Also the kidnappers talk in code in the book during the card game-this is revealed near the end. Otherwise the movie was entertaining enough.

Stay Close (2021)

WOW

[8/10 · 9 January 2022]

One of the better series adaptations from Coben's novels. There are many characters and you have to watch EVERYTHING, you can't step out of the room to make a sandwich and let it keep playing or you will miss something vital.

I binge-watched it in a single weekend because I wanted to see what would happen and it did not disappoint.

As with past English-language adaptations of Coben's novels, such as The Stranger, The Five, or Safe, you think everything is wrapped up...but there's a twist, which I love.

So keep watching this if you really want to be entertained.

Big Little Lies (2017–2019)

The Monterey Five...

[8/10 · 27 November 2021]

...Their performances were the strongest. This series was slightly different from the book in more ways than one, and extended the aftermath of the deceased after Trivia Night so that HBO could have a second season, which, frankly, was unnecessary. It's like a romance novel - we don't need to know what happens after they ride off into the sunset.

I found most of the adult male characters to be either juvenile (Nathan), creepy (Joseph Bachman), or in a state of arrested development (Gordon Klein). They were behaving more like they were still in high school than in marriages with women far too good for them.

I found the character of Tori chasing after Ed in S2 to be just plain pathetic. She claims it wasn't about revenge, but we all know that's a joke. If it wasn't about revenge, why didn't she go after him BEFORE her boob job/she found out her husband had an affair with Ed's wife? Then she uses the words "masturbation" and "i want you" in the same speech, which will grab any man's attention when there is a new pair of breasts in his face. She thought she was playing a seductress - twice - but it reeked of desperation. Glad he didn't fall for her BS and suggested instead to Madeline what he did.

Also, what happened to Jane's budding relationship with the nice guy at the coffee house?

The book doesn't have half of all of this stuff, and is better than the series. Read it instead. Liane Moriarty is a gifted writer.

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)

Best line of the movie

[7/10 · 10 July 2021]

"Full cavity search! I'm talking roto-rooter! Don't stop till you reach the back of his teeth!" Robert Stack was initially embarrassed to be in this movie, but he shouldn't have been. He had all the best lines and that one made me laugh out loud the first time I heard it.

B&B leave a trail of havoc in their wake, meet their fathers, unknowingly smuggle a dangerous device as well as cluelessly evade the ATF, tour the White House and meet President Clinton. And all they really wanted was to find their stolen TV.

Yes, this movie is silly but if you watched B&B in the early 90s, you'll enjoy it.

Things Heard & Seen (2021)

Stop the film when you see the husband start sailing...trust me.

[6/10 · 12 May 2021]

It could have been pretty good, but like the book "The Lovely Bones' it seemed to have an unsatisfying ending, where the killer gets his comeuppance and nobody even knows about it (which really cheesed me off). Where's the closure in that? Moreover, where is the justice? George Claire got away with forgery, adultery, murder, attempted murder, and where was he going with the boat, exactly?

The inverted cross appears in the sky. This symbol has long been a misnomer in horror movies and it's ridiculously misleading. I'm not sure when it became a Satanic or ungodly symbol but originally it was a symbol of humility or unworthiness in comparison to Christ. Saint Peter asked for himself to be crucified upside down because he did not consider himself to be equal to to the Savior. Look it up, people.

My budding filmmaker offspring could have come up with a better ending than this oddity. Something where the mean criminal husband dies and the wife/widow lives a happy existence with the nice young man who chops wood for her instead of ending up chopped herself. Why not?

Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel (2021)

Don't bother...

[1/10 · 26 February 2021]

Poor Elisa Lam. I remember the case when they were talking about it on the news. A once-lovely hotel from the Roaring Twenties, which has sunk to depths so low it will never crawl out, thanks to the jaw-dropping homeless population only blocks away and the prostitution industry. Only the lobby is anything to brag about, apparently. The city needs to raze the whole thing to make room for more tents. All of these web sleuths - don't they have real jobs? - thinking they are smarter than the police, they just get in the way. All their conspiracy theories about the hotel. Jumping to conclusions over Morbid was not very woke! People are SOOO brave on the internet but not so much face to face.

The blonde former manager of the hotel disappointed the most. She treated Elisa like a drunken sorority girl instead of a paying guest in distress. The cops don't show up for that in L.A.? There's a difference between a homeless woman who is drunk and a guest inside the hotel who's acting strange, if that was the point she was trying to make. YOU CALL SOMEONE no matter what.

And something else: if you work anywhere with the public: hotels, Walmart, police, library, whatever...please read up on the symptoms of bipolar disorder so that you can recognize it and get someone the help they will possibly need.

Nick of Time (1995)

Still good after 25 years

[7/10 · 14 February 2021]

I remember when this was released and it was one of the better films of 1995. I recently watched it again and enjoyed it just as much, in the pre-cell-phone craze of the mid 90s. This may be a John Badham movie but it reads like a Hitchcock. There are at least six Hitchcockian trademarks throughout: trains, written notes, ticking clocks, trying to get help from strangers, the murder plot, and the gripping climax. It resembles The Man who Knew Too Much (1954). Watch that and you'll see the similarities. A lot of good actors in NoT, and the plot unrolls in real time which makes it more interesting.

Blackadder Goes Forth: Goodbyeee (1989) Season 1, Episode 6

Comedy becomes Drama in the last few minutes...

[9/10 · 28 December 2020]

Edmund Blackadder spends much of Season 4 comically trying to "get out of" the war, or the front lines. His efforts are for naught. By the end of this episode the mood has changed, the laughter stops, and he does what all soldiers do: scared to death, but you go anyway. They all do, even Captain Darling, who didn't realize he would be in this position and has had the rug yanked out from under him at the last minute. I discovered the Blackadder series in the early '90s and watched all four seasons. At that time I was living with my grandparents, and when my grandfather and I were watching this particular episode, and Baldrick questions why there has to be a war, my grandfather, a homebound WW2 vet, said, "Good point."

When they go over the top and the film is slowed down, and the piano is playing those end notes, it seems very final. The red poppies on the field are a quiet testimony, as to any battle, in any war.

The Haunting of Bly Manor (2020)

A convoluted mess

[4/10 · 16 October 2020]

Like everyone else, I was looking forward to this, but with each episode that cranked wearily by, my anticipation waned, my disappointment grew, and I began wondering if the actual frights would ever begin. It was just plain BORING. The ghosts, when you saw them, were not scary, there was too much jumping forward and backward into time, too many confusing subplots...I didn't even bother to finish watching it. Hours of my life I will never get back. Don't bother with Bly; return to Hill House.

White Lines (2020)

It's watchable, but goes back and forth between genres...

[8/10 · 25 May 2020]

The previews have you believing this is a series where someone gets in over their head and is in constant danger, despite all the beauty and hedonism going on around her. The reality is this series touches on comedy here and there, with the character of Marcus (however did he get into drug dealing?) dragging a leaky inflatable banana across his lawn, leaving a trail of coke, and then hurriedly disguising it as a soccer pitch, and after Zoe shoots Boxer with the crossbow and he hands the arrow back to her in the hospital.

Zoe is a bit of a wishy-washy character; she is stealing Marcus' coke, she is shocked and appalled that Boxer killed the two Romanians (who were far worse people than anyone on Ibiza) and considering turning him in, she is having sex with Boxer, she is freaking out when she finds two body-shaped corpses wrapped in chains on the sea floor....I kept waiting for someone to slap her good so her eyes would quit bugging out. The girl has been a housewife for too long.

There's an Ick factor between Oriol Calafat and his mother, which she enables throughout the series. There are unnecessary characters (the "wives" of the dead Romanians, and they sound more Russian than Romanian) showing up in the last episode which didn't need to be there, and what is Marcus going to do about them? He's a better father than he is a drug dealer.

Everything comes together in the last episode, and we find out the Why, the How, and the Who. The whole cast of characters all have something wrong with them, mostly from their past. Of course Nuno Lopes as Boxer was some great eye candy so it's worth watching just for him.

The Chalet (2017–2018)

Keeps you watching

[8/10 · 4 May 2020]

This series jumps back and forth between past and present, and the little girl singing during the opening credits lends an eerie quality to the whole thing. Keep your eyes and ears open and watch it like a cop or detective. You may be able to figure out the Who and the Why. Frankly, as Episode 5 unrolls, and then 6, you can't help but feel that the guilty party are getting exactly what they deserve. These folks are cold-blooded. The only thing I did not understand is who the guy tied up underneath the bridge was.

Marriage Story (2019)

Not a masterpiece, but good

[7/10 · 10 January 2020]

The fight scene was genuine. I will say that. You really believe they hate each other. However, Nicole's attorney seems to be the one goading her on to "get this, get that". Was Nicole always this way, deep down? Not a true artist, but just someone out to get what she can? It seems like that. But I would sure feel uncomfortable if my divorce attorney took off her shoes and cuddled up with me on the couch in her office. Am I hiring you? Are we sisters? What's about to happen here? Creepy.

Even more creepy is the non-blinking, robotic evaluator Ms. Katz, who doesn't even have the correct address, doesn't smile, doesn't have a shred of engagement at all, and seems to be in this job solely for the check. She sits there staring at you. She stands there staring at you. She doesn't check out the whole apartment like, say, a child welfare worker would to see how you live or even if the entire place is presentable for a kid to live in. She tells us the obvious. "New York is a long way from here." Anyone knows that. It isn't for her to say. That whole scene with her annoyed me. Plus the thing with him and the knife made him look extra bad. He didn't have to bring it up again. She didn't ask him - she just did her staring thing.

I'm glad I never got divorced if it meant I had to deal with people like this - uncomfortable divorce attorneys and staring evaluators. Wow.

Dracula (2020)

Awful. Is this 1897 or 1997?

[4/10 · 8 January 2020]

Terrible. Not scary at all. Bad acting. Almost cringeworthy. Dracula comes off like a playboy in his big castle and talks like one in modern times. Don't bother. I could barely make it to the halfway point of the first episode before turning it off.

You (2018–2024)

It's exhausting watching this series

[5/10 · 30 December 2019]

I gave up in the middle of Episode 7, when Beck catches Joe saying the wrong thing at her surprise birthday-literary-theme party. Enough already. This girl is impossible to please. Why is he so obsessed with her...her angelic looks? Her willingness to display everything to the world that goes on in her first-floor apartment, including sex? Do the least little thing wrong, say the wrong words, and you Lose Her? Joe bends over backwards, forwards, and sideways, and has killed two people so far for this girl because he thinks she is "worth it". What isn't worth it is wasting your time watching this series, which has been done many times before, except then it was crunched into a two-hour movie, either for television or on the big screen.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: It's the Sixties, Man! (2019) Season 3, Episode 2

Starting to lose interest

[5/10 · 27 December 2019]

The banter between Midge and Susie as they drove up to the USO show was getting to be old hack (banter between them was always there, but this time it was like the Energizer Bunny). I kept watching. Her father brought home beatniks who made themselves at home without a second thought and didn't have a need for sleep. I kept watching. Turns out Rose grew up in Oklahoma which was unexpected, but she's always been an interesting character to watch anyway. The courtroom scene in E2 was what did it for me. Idiotic. I actually skipped ahead just to get past it because it wouldn't stop. Again, the Energizer Bunny thing. The writers barrage us with back-and-forth banter that wouldn't happen in real life unless rehearsed and the show feels more madcap than mainstream comedy. I'm giving up on Mrs Maisel. There has been a change in the writing and not for the better.

Overboard (2018)

Liked both versions

[7/10 · 12 July 2019]

I've seen the original and it uses similar lines from it, flips genders, changes ethnic backgrounds, etc. The widower is now a single mother, four sons are now three daughters, etc. Yes, Eugenio Derbez could be a little younger but so what. It's a sweet movie

Murder Mystery (2019)

Worth it if you like the comedy/mystery genre

[7/10 · 20 June 2019]

This is a bit like 1992's "Once Upon a Crime", also a comedy, but not a spoof like 1985's "Clue". It's set in the style of the Agatha Christie mystery. There are many different characters with a motive, a wealthy, antagonist host, an isolated setting in an exotic location, and there is access to a deadly weapon. It's a fun little romp and moves quickly. The ending as the camera zooms out is a nod to Christie as well.

God Knows Where I Am (2016)

Very tragic

[8/10 · 29 December 2018]

Linda Bishop could be anyone's mother, sister, daughter. This documentary is a tragic look at the cracks she fell through in the mental health system (her family should have been notified before she was released) plus the stigma of living with mental illness itself. Please, if you need help, don't be ashamed to get it or ask for it.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

Yawner

[5/10 · 12 August 2018]

Lovely cinematography and fair acting by a number of names, but no chemistry whatsoever between the two leads on the isle of Guernsey. She's in love with him - why? We don't feel it. Because he cares for the little girl of a woman who was dragged off by the Germans? That's the only reason I can see. I felt this was a waste of time.

The Snowman (2017)

Disappointed that this wasn't better...I blame....

[5/10 · 28 July 2018]

....the rushed production. It deviated so far from the book, dropped several characters and made everyone sound American or English. Perish the thought of reading subtitles! :o If they are planning to make a series of these like they did with James Patterson's books and Morgan Freeman as Alex Cross, please make the next one better. Take your time filming it.