Ratings
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Reviews
Heart of Invictus (2023)
Inspiring
Heart of Invictus is an excellent documentary that gives insight into the games, the participants and why these games are so important in helping Veterans on their journey to healing. I cried all 5 episodes, each story was so touching, seeing how these athlete push past their physical, mental pain to become a better athlete, a better parent, a better person. The documentary didn't focus on just one voice, it told the stories of several men and woman who have given their lives to defend and service our countries and who are now trying to rebuild their lives post-trauma, stressing the importance of having a community that supports you, understands you, that is rooting for you. Good job on the documentary and good job on The Invictus Games. May it continue to grow, helping those in need become stronger.
The Madame Blanc Mysteries (2021)
Loved Season 1 but Season 2 is rather disappointing...
I really enjoyed watching season one: I thought the mysteries were interesting, the chemistry between the actors/characters was engaging and it was a fun show to watch. I gave it a solid 7. When I saw that new episodes had dropped on Ac*rn TV, I was excited to binge watch. Not sure what happened but Season 2 is a little dull. I found myself distracted during the episodes, having to go back and rewind because I zoned out during certain scenes. Season one I binged in a day. Took me a week to get through the 7 episodes of Season 2. Not sure what it is: the characters seem disconnected with each other - Dom and Jean seem kind of dull with each other; the mysteries were a little blah, and short. Seemed like just as I was getting interested it was over. Jeremy and Judith are still a hoot and it was nice seeing Gloria have a bit of romance but all in all, Season 2 didn't do it for me. I'm hoping if they come back from Season 3 its better. And no offense, they need a better theme song. Yes the lyrics tell Dom and Jean's "story" but it really sounds very dated, like a 80's British soap opera theme. Season 2 is a 6 at best. Hoping 3rd season is the charm.
The Sister (2020)
Try not to let the low score reviews scare you away
Sometimes I can be a little disappointed in this site - used to be I could come here and get good, honest reviews that were spot on which made my decision on what to watch a no-brainer. Now? The ratings are either 10 or 1 - overly enthusiastic, raving, glowing, to the point of being fake down to the ones who will ramble about stuff not even associated with the show. Some even rate the show having only watched 20 minutes of it! Anyway, I'm so glad I didn't take the reviews or votes on this seriously, I would have missed out - this was a very interesting series.
To address some of what the other reviews whined about: Nathan and Holly not having chemistry - they both had issues that brought them together - her probably feeling guilt at having left the party without her sister and him for being with her sister when she died. Nathan even mentions that all he wanted to do was protect Holly and make her happy, perhaps trying to make up for what he had done. Could he have been replacing Elise with Holly? Had he known of Elise before the party? The way he was watching her at the party seems like he knew of her, maybe even had a crush on her. We never really get why Holly married Nathan - did she love him? Or was this her way of 'moving on', marrying someone who would take care of her. Either way, both are in the throes of depression, going through the motions of living and moving on with life. But evidence of depression can be found in Holly's drinking and the fact they have their home as somewhat of a shrine to Elise: Everywhere they turn there is a picture of Elise, still young, still beautiful, still full of life and promise. For Holly there is a reminder of guilt, that she left her sister and for him, what he did is literally staring him in the face every day.
Secondly, the pace of the series is good with the transition from past to present. It kept me on my toes - I thought I had it all figured out, but the twists and turns were good. The wrap up in episode four was good, didn't expect any of it. End was a little creepy - all in all, a good thriller, perfect length (4 episodes, binged it in one afternoon), good pacing and acting.
Give it a chance.
The Me You Can't See (2021)
Thoughtful approach to discussing mental health issues
Timely, thought provoking approach to mental health issues that touch people from different walks of life: wealthy; poor; professional athletes; entertainers; people from our own community, our own family. It helps bring to light how many people are suffering needlessly in silence because they often feel or are told to suck it up they don't a right to feel sad (just look at some of the troll comments on this site against one of the producers). Kudos to those involved and those brave enough to tell their truth, acknowledge they need help and then go on to seek help to make their future better.
Tape 407 (2012)
Found Footage Fail
Found this on prime - sounded pretty good - plane crash survivors crash down in Area 407 with something "Big" hunting them. We only know this because that is what the description says, not because any dialogue in the movie states this.
As with most found footage movies, this (according to the trivia section) was ad-libbed by the actors and you can tell: saying the same lines over again, conversations that don't really go anywhere. And lots and lots of screaming.
To say I was disappointed wouldn't be accurate because I honestly didn't have any expectations on this being anything different than most found footage. Twenty six minutes left to go in the movie and we still don't know what is hunting the survivors, where exactly they are and why the dudes in the truck took off without helping them. I do wish the annoying kid and Charlie (big guy with the dang peanuts) would get eaten. Still holding out hope!
Home Stay (2020)
I liked it
Stumbled upon this movie on Prime - knew nothing about it. Despite the low scores, I gave it a view. I liked it! Its a found footage movie of a young couple on their honeymoon at a rented beautiful home in a quaint town. The movie did a good job setting up the characters: Veronica and Anthony - the actors did a wonderful job of making the characters come across as likable, fun and obviously in love with each other and excited about their honeymoon. Robert LaSardo did great job as the creeper stalker guy - is he dangerous? Is he there to help them? Keeps you guessing until the very end. Yes the movie is a slow burn but I liked that - building the suspense and mystery until the frenzied finale. And I liked how the movie played on the whole creep factor of renting strangers homes.
The Mirror (2014)
Not bad...
***spoilers***
Problem with found footage films (imho) is that it's usually an hour or so of ad-lib build up where absolute nothing happens then the last 20, 30 minutes of the film the action happens pretty rapidly.
We start of with three friends who want to capture paranormal activity to win a million dollar prize. The object of their study is a mirror with a weird past. One of the friends sets the tone of the movie by telling the others he has seen (a) ghost(s) so we now know he's susceptible.
For the next 1:26:39 there is lots of ad-libbing, yelling, pouting, staring off into space, weird behavior. No one mentions visiting hospital when friends start getting hurt, with susceptible dude going blind. No one turns on the news to see if sus friend was 'found lying in a ditch' when he goes missing, or to hear of a person being mutilated near their home.
Literally the last 26 minutes of the film is where the major action happens which is why I have it a 5 - pretty nice gore. TIP for this site: maybe take out the still photo of the girl with no eyes - kind of ruins the shock effect of the scene when you watch it after seeing it.
Tex Montana Will Survive! (2015)
Looked interesting...
Independent film, about a Bear Grylls-type adventurer made on a $1500 budget, no script, just ad-lib. Sounded really interesting. It's not. Got about 30 minutes in, made it through the boy humor song about sucking orifices and gave up. Wasn't funny or appealing.
The Food of the Gods (1976)
Oldie but Goodie
Disappointed to see some recent reviews that give this score a low rating. This movie is from the 70s - of course it's cheesy and the special effects are low budget when you compare it to movies made today. Watched this film when I was a kid and loved it - very scary for its time. And the end scene - what if! Definitely haunted me.
Canvas (2020)
Beautiful.
Watched this after seeing a recommendation on Twitter. Haven't seen any advertisements for it. The movie has no dialogue but the it doesn't need words. Everything is acted out and it's a beautiful, tender bittersweet storyline. The artwork is gorgeous, realistic, even down to the freckles on Granddad's cheek. 9 minutes of pure delight. I really hope more people view it.
Don't Speak (2020)
Reviews on this site are so exaggerated
One of the things I loved about this site is that I could come there and get really good reviews on movies. Seems now all we get are reviews from people who can't sit for more than 2 minutes or have poor comprehension skills and need to have things spelled out for them. This movie is NOT that bad. Silent Place (or titled: Don't Speak when I saw it on T*bi) is pretty much in the same vein as Quiet Place: Creatures that hunt via sound. Movie opens with a family that goes to check on her parents, finds the unnamed small village empty, crawling with creatures that hunt via sound. We aren't given an explanation on what they are although later in the film, Mom and Dad speculate on what they are, where they came from. Family spends the rest of the movie fighting for their lives, fending off the monsters while trying to stay alive. Production value wasn't too bad, the monsters looked like if Alien had a human body. The characters were a little frustrating in that even though they figure out the monsters are attracted by sound they wouldn't stop screaming. Frustration aside, the gore factor was pretty good. Is this Shakespeare? No. Its a halfway decent movie to watch on a lazy saturday afternoon in quarantine that has good gore.
Animator (2018)
Doesn't deserve the low score
Happened upon this movie while scrolling through T*bi, never heard of it before, the brief description sounded good so I started to watch. As with every movie I watch, I logged onto this site to see what the score was. Shocked to see the low score so much so I was going to turn it off, scores that low can't be good. I'm glad I didn't turn it off. I found the movie funny, charming, sad and very sweet: story of a man who is given an incredible, life changing gift. Will he make the right choices with it? I won't go too deep into the story because I don't want to spoil it but the film was touching, the lead actors played well off each other and gave really good performances; the animation of the history of the gift was stunning, colors were amazing. If I could give a recommendation it would be to ignore the scores and watch the film. It really isn't as bad as the reviewers on here are making it out to be.
The Cool Kids (2016)
Disappointing
Picked this off of Amazon Prime based on the 7.0 score - as soon as it started I realized I was duped. Production value is poor, acting is bad (laughable really), even the closed captioning was bad (wrong words throughout the movie). Not much of a 'who done it' as the person was really very obvious but there is gratuitous sex thrown in I guess to take your mind off the poor acting. This is NOT a 7.0 movie.
Miles Between Us (2016)
Lovely Movie
I've found that when deciding to watch a movie, it's best not to look at reviews because for reasons that often times have nothing to do with the film, a film will get a bad review that isn't warranted. I kind of feel this film could be included. Not knowing anything about the film (including that its a 'christian' film) until after when I came to the site to look up information on it, I thought this was a good independent film that hit all the right notes - I laughed, teared up, felt sentimental. The actor who played the dad (Dariush Moslemi) was great, there were several laugh out loud moments and his facial expressions were priceless. The daughter (Anna Stranz) was charming and sweet, really giving a good performance of being torn between being angry at her previously absent father and wanting to have a relationship with him. A really feel good movie about forgiveness and reconciliation.
Empathy, Inc. (2018)
Interesting Concept
Not really sure why there are reviews that claim other reviews were bought because they were rating this film with high scores but this is an honest review from a viewer that wasn't paid for. I viewed the movie via Shudder platform the first day it was added. Never read anything about it other than the small description that was on the site so I went into this movie cold. I'm glad I did! I really enjoyed the film. I thought the story was very interesting, yes VR has been done before but this rendition was good. The actors were great in their parts, some better at it than others but nothing amateurish about the performances. Ending was good too. I rated it a 7/10 because I'd definitely recommend this to others and probably would watch it again.
Holiday Rush (2019)
Not As Bad....
Not sure about the bad reviews but I actually enjoyed this film. I thought the kids played exactly how they were written to be: entitled, spoiled, bougie kids who have been given everything, never knowing sacrifice, lack and hardship. I enjoyed the story, the acting (the actress who played Roxie was great!). It's a Christmas movie - give it a chance.
A Majestic Christmas (2018)
Lovely Holiday Movie!
Great Hallmark movie that grabbed me from the start. The chemistry amongst the cast was wonderful to watch - everyone seemed to really play well off each other. Their interaction seemed effortless - like they were all friends for a long time. And leads (Jerrika Hinton, Christian Vincent) were a delight. I found myself smiling whenever they were on the screen together. Beautiful couple. Christopher Hayes' Barry was hysterical! All in all the movie was a joy to watch. I can't wait for another showing so I can DVR for my collection. Thank you Hallmark for the production. It was wonderful.
How It Ends (2018)
Wow.
I've have this movie in my queue for the longest time but I've read grumblings about the ending so I never watched it. Why set yourself up to be frustrated? Well today I decided to watch it. Normally a story that starts off like this would normally get a 7 may be even an 8 from me: starts off really well (Forest Whitaker, one of my favs); good looking lead (Theo James); great story; mysterious (what's going on? What could this be??); action packed - very engaging. Engaging up until the end where I look at the scrolling credits and think: DANG. 7/8 rated movie nosedives to a 6 because of how it ends.
Not Like Us (1995)
An insult to the "Horror" genre; **possible spoiler included**
This movie should be nominated for a new genre: Complete Mess! Except for a few chuckles and one or two scenes of gore, this movie is a complete waste of time. Calling it "Campy" doesn't even cut it. "Campy" implies fun which this movie was not. You spend the first half of the movie thinking "Its got to get better, right?". In fairness, it does, at the very end when its finally explained who the "brother/sister" team are and what they want but by then, you hardly care anymore because you've spend the entire second half of the movie wondering exactly what did Mr. Onorati & Ms. Pacula do to tick someone off THIS badly to be stuck in such a horrible movie.
Signs (2002)
Don't believe the hype...
I wish I had taken that bit of advice before seeing this movie. This movie was billed as the scariest movie you'll see all year...sorry, it wasn't. What is supposed to be the scariest parts in the film they showed in trailers on TV. I was really disappointed in this film. I adore Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix--both are truly gifted actors and they did well in this film, don't get me wrong but I was always waiting for the story to actually start! When it finally did ten minutes later the credits are rolling. It isn't a horrible film, there were some good parts but it definitely didn't live up to the hype. It just wasn't that scary. If you want scary or rather creepy, rent "Night of the Living Dead" and watch it with the lights out. Now THAT'S creepy!