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thewrite01
Reviews
Jedi Junior High (2014)
I Loved It, But...
If you like Star Wars and/or theatre, you will like this film. As someone who loves both, I definitely enjoyed this movie, but it definitely is not beyond criticism. For starters, we spend way too much time focused on getting to know some of the individual children- and not just talking with them, but we see their houses, meet their parents, and on and on. I am not opposed to that level of character development in a documentary, but it came at the expense of what I think most people in the audience came for- the production itself. It seemed they really only hit the high points, and I felt like we really didn't get to see everything that goes into putting on a production of that level. Then, I don't know if some parents opted their kids out of being a part of the documentary or if it was some kind of creative choice on the part of the filmmakers, but there were the half dozen or so kids that we "got to know", and then everyone else was just kind of in the background doing their thing. We didn't really see a lot from the rehearsals- for example, one thing that happens in almost every production I've ever been in is that an actor will have one or two lines that they just struggle with for practice after practice, and then, it may not be until opening night, but after weeks of struggle, they finally nail the line and it's a big deal for them and a big deal for everyone in the cast who has been watching them struggle. That's the sort of thing I was hoping to see, but it just wasn't there. We heard a little about the sound production, and saw a little bit of how the set was created, but all of the costumes and props just magically appeared with no explanation. Those may seem like minor complaints, but it all comes back to the underlying issue, and that is simply that this documentary doesn't appear to have a point- or if it did, it did not succeed in making that point. At the end of the movie, I was left wondering what the purpose of the documentary actually was. If it was to showcase the growth and learning of children and/or actors over the course of a production, we didn't see much of that. If it was to show the effort that goes into putting on a major stage production, there was a lot that was left out. The "story" or focus of the documentary was very unbalanced, and there are gaping holes no matter which angle you try to look at it from.
All that said, there was lots of theatre stuff and lots of Star Wars stuff, so even though it had a lot of shortcomings, I still REALLY enjoyed this movie and I would definitely watch it again.
The Lost & Found Family (2009)
This film should get lost and never be found
Read the plot synopsis and imagine what you think is going to happen based on that set-up. Unless you have never watched an inspirational movie before, what you are imagining is exactly what happens and I just saved you an hour and half of your life. You're welcome. Don't get me wrong, I love a good inspirational movie, even if it's a little predictable, because let's face it, a lot of times they have to be, because the writers often get themselves into a corner where there is literally only one way to have the feel-good happy ending that the genre requires. However, this particular film went a little too heavy on the sugar and a little too skimpy on the sense. The rich woman was the only character with any depth, but she lacked a strong character arc. One moment she was the snobby lady who wasn't happy about moving into this rundown house, the next, she's trying to bond with everybody like they're her long-lost relatives. The point of the movie, as far as I could tell, was supposed to be about that journey, and how these people helped her to grow and change; but that just was not portrayed in a cohesive manner. The film also set up quite a bit of conflict between the foster mom and dad that was never resolved. Plus, when we meet him, he's set up as this no-good lazy bum type of dad, then you turn around and he's suddenly spouting scripture and being a good, Christian guy, then he was burping, goofball dad; and it was just like the writers couldn't make up their mind about what his character should be.
As for the other characters, they were as flat as paint on the wall. The teen that came from juvie turned out to be a big softy. The other teen had a drug problem, because it was a family film, so they didn't want her getting pregnant. The sick kid had an episode and got better. The kid that didn't talk decided to talk by the end of the film. The other kid didn't really have any issues, and was just there for exposition. I know it may seem like I'm being a little too hard on this movie, but if I am, it's only because I feel like it had so much potential. I love the idea behind the film, and I am all for what they were trying to do, which is why I hate the fact that it failed so miserably at being a good film. If you haven't already guessed, I do not plan to watch this movie ever again.
Antisocial.app (2017)
Don't Let This Movie Steal 83 Minutes Of Your Life!
The film starts out with a three minute advertisement for the fake company, Titan, and it pretty much goes downhill from there. The whole movie was visually irritating to watch. The camera people were clearly lacking the proper equipment to keep their camera steady, so there was a lot of very slight, yet still all too noticeable wobbling. The main actress appeared to have neck or back problems throughout the first part of the film. At first I thought maybe the character was supposed to be sick or handicapped, but it was just a lot of unnecessary stretching and neck rolling on her part combined with the poor camera work. Some of the dialogue was poorly enunciated and difficult to understand. As if that wasn't enough, there was a lot of unnecessary use of split screen and stock footage, they kept doing this stupid static thing that was really annoying, and the various computer animations they used were just flat-out bad.
All the technical downfalls of the film could possibly be forgiven if the story was any good, but it's not. Jessie is a pretty unlikable character from the start and the story is so jumbled and mucked up with static, split-screen nonsense and bad animations that it is hard to follow everything- much less actually care about anything that is happening. I will definitely not be watching this movie again, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.