Camino hacia el éxito

A weird collection of character arcs merging together into a loose plot. A lack of flow, and although there is a star-studded cast, a few only pop up for a single scene, namely Grammar and Trejo. Some characters work, others like the cowboy cop don't. It's interesting, but not particularly good. It also all concludes with the most surreal sausage dog action scene.

Continuing my plan to watch every Sly Stallone movie in order, I come to Reach Me/The Collection

Plot In A Paragraph: A motivational book written by a mysterious man quickly gains popularity, inspiring a group of people to re-evaluate their choices and decisions by confronting their fears in hopes of creating more positive lives.

Where to start with this one.

Our main man Sly also keeps it subtle and low-key throughout, briefly raising his tone. Sadly the movie is disappointing, almost instantly forgettable, and without enough spectacular Sly moments to make a film worth rewatching.

The movie is a bit of a mess. Most of the cast seem to have wandered onto the set from another film. The characters meet up have some chats, And that is kind of all there is. Overall there's nothing to keep us interested. With the exception of Sly, Thomas Janes character was the only one I was interested in seeing on screen.

A REACH

Watered down quasi-Tarantino bout a shy motivational speaker and his followers. Feel-good with a happy ending, this director hopped on the Tarantino gravy train early with "2 Days in the Valley", fresher and grittier, and a more satisfying imitation of the original. Big stars here, in undemanding roles in a polished production, amusing enough if you don't expect much.

Unexceptional.

"Why would a best selling author go into hiding?" When a motivational book takes the world by storm. An actor, convict, mobster, and a rapper all swear by the book. Everyone is trying to find out just who the mysterious writer really is. Teddy (Berenger), the author has gone into hiding. When young reporter Roger (Astin) finds him he is the one that tries to motivate Teddy to revel himself. This is a pretty decent movie but there were some flaws in it. First of all there really isn't a standard plot in the movie. This is a movie along the lines of Crash, or the recent Third Person where there are many different stories going on that end up connecting in some way. I did think the movie was OK but it never really grabbed me and made me totally engrossed in it. Stallone really steps out of his comfort zone in this and while not terrible I can see why he sticks to action movies. There really isn't a whole lot to say about this other then it's worth a watch but probably only once. Overall, a movie with a great cast that was just OK. I give this a B-.

This movie had me very intrigued at first as I was trying to figure out the characters and I really thought there would be much more to this. Then eventually I started to notice many inexplicable events throughout the movie and that is when I realized that the movie itself was going nowhere and had no real, deep meaning whatsoever. When Teddy is giving his speech at what is falsely portrayed as Redondo pier he begins reciting absurd platitudes in the background and talking about the basic fears of all people (i.e. fear of going to prison). The entire movie is nonsense and about nothing. What really bothered me was when they kept referring to Redondo Beach and showing Venice Beach. Note to Hollywood - We do not have homeless people digging through trashcans in Redondo Beach.