Change Your Image
jeichenberger
Reviews
White House Down (2013)
Bush's fault, Tea Party did it
A political movie does not have to be deep, but it should take place in a universe that exists outside of a Hollywood fantasy world. This does not. It is awful.
Conservatives are evil. Business and the military are the source of everything bad. All we need is a noble black president who just promises to be nice, the world will lay down arms and sing Kum Ba Yah. Awful. Stoooopid. Insipid.
The only thing worse is that there are so many politically naive enough to take this even semi-seriously.
I am not sure there are spoilers in this review or how there could be. The baddies are all telegraphed in the first ten minutes of the movie.
The Ghost Writer (2010)
What's wrong with Hollywood
Ghost Writer is another big-screen bust by a renowned director featuring a talented cast. The film had an unremarkable budget by today's standards and only grossed a fraction of it.
The reason is simple. Hollywood seems to take it as a badge of honor to produce films pushing it's political agendas and have them rejected at the box office.
The villains are predictable: Tony Blair, George Bush, the C.I.A., Haliburton, Condi Rice, and America as a whole. The heroes are likewise so: the United Nations (and it's subsidiary court), angry grieving parents of war veteran's (ala Cindy Sheehan) no matter how unhinged, noble newsmen with a conscience, and terrorists who had water forced down their throats to extract information that saved innocent lives.
The fact is, the film is technically great--remarkable cinematography that sets a sterile tone without being overtly noticeable, more than capable directing, and fine acting. But the storyline is laughable for all but those irrationally wedded to its political ideology.
***SPOILER**** C'mon--the C.I.A. has a college student seduce a want-to-be student actor in order to marry him and secretly direct his career so that decades later he would become a puppet English P.M. of the U.S.? And people are assassinated for discovering this? The fact is, they would have already died of laughter had they been told something so ludicrous.
Just what we needed--a lecture about morality from a director still in exile because he drugged and sodomized a 13-year old.
What drivel. Will Hollywood ever learn?
End of the Spear (2005)
Does what an Indie should
It is exciting to see and independent film do what such a film should--getting a good story that the major studios pass up, getting talented but lesser known actors, writing a script that minimizes dialog and plays to the actors' strengths, and spending money on what sets the film apart (in this case the incredible scenery).
Critics that refuse to evaluate the film for what it is and tries to do, but feel obligated to trash it because they disagree with its world view will certainly chime in. But in the day of a plethora of films being released that are slightly (if that) disguised political tracts, such criticism is hypocrisy of the basest sort.
Support Your Local Sheriff! (1969)
Just Plain Fun!
Now, I will even watch James Garner in a bad movie. That whole worldly wise, yet winsome thing he has going makes you think of that best bud you had in junior high.
But this is actually a very good, drown yourself in a bag of popcorn, and laugh your cares away film.
Is it a western parody or humorous homage to some of the great character actors in American western? It certainly doesn't have a mean bone in its body and doesn't rely on shock humor to get you chuckling. This film respects its predecessors and has good clean fun with them.
It's a DVD you can easily find for under $10, and well worth it.