MikeNTxs

I'm a pretty generous movie rater. In many cases, I'll give a movie 5-stars as the equivalent as an "A" for effort. I once scored a Robin Hood variant with a 10, not because it was a *great* movie, and not because they didn't avoid some gross anachronisms (like WW2-style landing craft??), but because it offered some interesting and surprising twists in the mythology, the cast was decent, etc. It was just a fun movie.

RUMOURS Is nothing like that. I rate it with the rare 1-star because I resented wasting nearly 2 hours of my life on a stupid movie with a stupid script, a stupid and nearly indecipherable plot, and stupid special effects (such as they were)

None of the characters, who were supposedly G-7 world leaders, made sense. They said and did stupid things at stupid times.

The situation they found themselves in was in no way explained or rationalized. (No. That's not entirely fair. They movie did attempt to rationalize the plot in a vague and stupid way.)

Their resulting actions and motivations made no sense. The special effects were "Ed Wood-level" ridiculous, but as bad as this movie was, it didn't have the heart to even be an Ed Wood-level camp classic.

No, it was just bad. Bad to the bone, as it were.

This movie had some good actors -- Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander, and Charles Dance, for three -- that prompted me to give this film a chance, After all, how bad could it be with them in it?

OMG! What could have induced them to be in this film?

Did they need money? Did financing collapse at the last minute and leave them with a dreck-level budget? Did they buy into the concept and only when the contracts were signed and they arrived for the shoot, they found out that this was noting like the idea that was pitched to them? (I have to admit, the synopsis sounded mildly interesting.)

I'm a fan of science fiction and fantasy films, so I'm generally pretty tolerant of "hard tries", but RUMOURS is just plain *awful*! (And please note the emphasis of asterisks AND exclamation marks!)

Save yourselves!!!

This story was gripping and suspenseful and hopeful and touching and tragic.

John Doe speaks - amazing in itself - but how they do it technologically is not only remarkable, but at the cutting edge of what we can actually do now or soon.

I had two quibbles with the episode.

One, the method chosen for the character to speak (and for the actor playing him to get screen time with lines) was so discordant with the positions of the bedridden character, the electronic equipment, and the medical personnel that it kept taking me out of both the story and my willing suspension of disbelief.

I understand that this was a creative choice by the director and/or writer, but it was like filming a car chase that has been established as going from left to right on the screen, but constantly flipping the directional point-of-view.

If you can overlook that, this episode will be the strongest of what is so far a very string freshman season.

Seeing Father Flanagan for real was interesting, as was seeing actual Boys Town.

My 2024 sensibilities were disturbed, however, by seeing these boys working at machines that could seriously injure, maim, or even kill them.

The labor, sports, and belief in a supreme being got plenty of depiction, but what shocked me was that the notion of education was given about two seconds of screen time, and only by inference.

I couldn't see how the boys could have time for academic education when work as carpenters, field workers, laundrymen, etc. Would seem to consume all their time.

I must guess that in 1938, having learned a vocation or trade was considered most valuable at a time when graduating high school then was almost like finishing college now.

This is the great thing about old movies. They're almost like visiting a place you can never go.