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joshuathirteen
Reviews
Soarin' Over California (2001)
In Florida as well as California
Most of the reviews don't mention that Soarin' is also a ride at the Epcot center in Disney World, Florida in addition to Disney's California Adventure park in California. I do not know if it has been replicated in any of the other Disney parks such the ones in France, Hong Kong, the new China Disneyland that just opened this year, and Tokyo. It is very much worth your time if you get a chance.
I wish the transitions between locations in the film were a little less abrupt, but that is my only real criticism. It's breathtaking and gorgeously filmed. It's a view you will almost certainly never get to see in real life, so this is not something to miss.
The scenes are representative of many areas of California, though I don't recall any desert footage. There's only room for so much of course, so that is not a criticism. After all California is very large and has a great diversity of landscapes.
Sick Girl (2007)
Main character nailed her roll
Others have said the acting was terrible, notable the titular character. I cannot disagree more about her. The portrayal of a psychopath was spot on. Seemingly normal and caring in ordinary life, but absolutely without empathy and totally ruthless when dealing with those who would hurt her family. it it is her portrayal which has stuck with me in the years since I've seen this, and is the reason I Recommend this film to others. The other characters may be lacking, I honestly don't even remember or care, as the central role is riveting. It makes the film. Watch this film. But do beware it is not for the faint of heart. There are some gory and disturbing scenes. She is a very sick individual like the title says.
A Nanny for Christmas (2010)
Too much plot
I love all the silly, "you can see the happy ending after the first 3 minutes" Christmas movies. I love them. I watch a ton every year. But this one just doesn't know what it wants to be and fails miserably trying. This movie has at least 4 (maybe 5) typical Christmas movie plots going at once, and doesn't have enough time to develop motivation of characters or resolutions for any them. Even for a Christmas movie people act in extremely contrived ways. You can't figure out why they would do that. And you don't really like them enough to care. Back stories are hinted at but not developed. It seemed the author had no idea how to set up the situation so just randomly got people to move to starting places for the story. Then there is too much plot to resolve, so abracadabra a small event or two suddenly makes everyone make decisions to tie up a happy ending for all the plots elements. Motivations for change are completely inadequate. If they had picked one or two of the several problems in the characters lives and focused on motivations and resolutions for that, it could have been a good movie. But it wasn't.
Frayed (2007)
Not just loved by filmmakers
I really enjoyed this film, which I just finished watching, then I read the reviews here.
It's true as some have suggested that one of the major twists revealed near the end is pretty easy to predict if you've seen a lot of movies, but I was never SURE until that point as they did a good job of keeping an element of doubt. Very possibly this is exactly what they were going for. All movies have points of similarity to others but this was a very original script.
The acting was overall quite good, and the characters believable with one exception - but that exception makes sense in the end. That character's apparently repeated stupid behavior no longer is anomalous, when you understand events better.
I did not find the pace too slow, as some did. I never felt I needed things to hurry up and happen.
Some have suggested the positive reviews are from the film makers, as evidenced by the fact that they are from people who only ever reviewed this film. That is a fact about some of them, but as many more positive reviewers have multiple reviews to their credit, and histories going back years.
I can understand why some people might not like the film's ending, though I liked it, but neither the acting or the writing or the suspense should be faulted. See it.
The Occultist (2009)
Acting so bad, it almost saves the film
Within minutes of starting the film we are introduced to all the central actors. I'd like to say central characters, but that would be an exaggeration. The acting is so wooden in some cases, so stilted in others, so beneath the level of a decent High School play, that these are not characters but at best caricatures. Sometimes the delivery is funny, seeming to be a parody of the kind of character you often see in similar, but better films. But most of the time it just grates on you, and makes you regret starting the film. The rest of the film is so bad, from the massive plot holes resulting in the impossibility of suspension of disbelief, to the pointless scenes of blood and gore interspersed through the introductory portion, that if the acting had been a little funnier it might have actually been the saving grace of the film, moving it in to the so bad it's good category. However some of these actors show some potential, and so are just not bad enough for that. Nothing saves this film. Don't waste your time.