joe-territo

Not a bad flick. It was entertaining. Had a number of funny moments, of course, it's Kevin Hart. But as you watch, it becomes more and more apparent that this is just The Italian Job (2003) on a plane. The two stories are very similar, but the plot and character archetypes are nearly identical.

Typical Hollywood: "Let's take a fairly recent movie that had success and repackage it." Lift is well made. Good acting. Good direction, production design and stunt work. If this is the movie the producers had their hearts set on making, they should have had more differentiation in the script. If you've never seen The Italian Job, you will enjoy Lift much more than if you had.

You're treated to a pretty decent flick and then left with a sub standard finish because they didn't know how to end their movie. Well crafted, decently acted with good production value. The audience gets all the way through, riding the customary ups and downs with some good scares and special effects, then left with that 'ripped off' feeling with that lame ending. Kudos to the make-up department. There were other ways to end it, but the filmmakers either got greedy or lazy. You can't get your audience all revved up for a big pay off and then not deliver. Clealy they set themselves up for a 'Mira Mira' II. God I hope not. If you want to watch a bad movie, there are better bad movies.

At first glance, 'The Rebels' is a rehash of the old 'First and Ten" show from HBO. But so what? Hollywood has been, and still does, produce movies that are remakes. A lot of us don't even realize that they are remakes. And not surprisingly, or maybe it is, these revisits have done very well at the box office historically. Now if it works for the movies, why can't it work for television? 'The Rebels' proves it can. I loved this episode. It was well written, well directed and well cast. I have a minor issue with the character of the owner's son, Chris. His character is pretty flat. You could take any thirteen year old kid and stick them in the role. The creators did an outstanding job fleshing out the rest of the characters. There is only so much character development you can accomplish in one, short episode. They put their efforts in the right places. The most important things are that the show is entertaining and funny. This is a very well done show and deserves a look.