john32935
Joined Jan 2015
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Reviews74
john32935's rating
The initial premise is a good one - how a tragedy can make someone lose his/her faith and the principles on which he/she has based living. And then (about 10 minutes into the movie) it goes off the tracks and devolves into a bad after school special - a really, really bad one.
Lamb (a very bad character name) is supposed to have been protected from the evils of pop culture but when she travels through Vegas she seems to know quite a few pop culture references. The bad girl activities which she undertakes are lame and tame. The "jokes" are even worse "I'll have the Peach Shnap" as she misreads the bottle behind the bar. Ha Ha.
The backstory for 2 people who befriend her are glossed over - thereby wasting the talents of Octavia Spencer (and maybe Russell Brand if I am being generous in the definition of "talent"). Oh yeah, Lamb's parents (the extremely talented Holly Hunter and Nick Offerman) barely register any screen time or decent dialog and are additional examples of wasted opportunities.
Sure, Lamb grows some through her experiences but it all comes too easily and too readily to her. And the audience can see the resolution way before it happens.
Such a disappointment from a talented writer and director, and a gifted cast so badly misused.
Lamb (a very bad character name) is supposed to have been protected from the evils of pop culture but when she travels through Vegas she seems to know quite a few pop culture references. The bad girl activities which she undertakes are lame and tame. The "jokes" are even worse "I'll have the Peach Shnap" as she misreads the bottle behind the bar. Ha Ha.
The backstory for 2 people who befriend her are glossed over - thereby wasting the talents of Octavia Spencer (and maybe Russell Brand if I am being generous in the definition of "talent"). Oh yeah, Lamb's parents (the extremely talented Holly Hunter and Nick Offerman) barely register any screen time or decent dialog and are additional examples of wasted opportunities.
Sure, Lamb grows some through her experiences but it all comes too easily and too readily to her. And the audience can see the resolution way before it happens.
Such a disappointment from a talented writer and director, and a gifted cast so badly misused.
I am not a fan of violence in movies, especially when done to excess. This movie pushes past my normal limit for body count, but it is done is such a way, i.e., without much gore, that I did not find it gratuitous or off-putting. Additionally, Denzel Washington turns in another stellar performance as a man of violence (e.g., Training Day, among others) that the viewer does not mind the extreme willing suspension of disbelief that the director requires.
Mr. Washington's character has very little in the way of backstory although his motivation is readily apparent. I suspect that some explanatory scenes were cut from the final print since the movie runs long at over 2 hours. Also I find it difficult to believe that both Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo, each leading actors in their own right, were cast as old friends of Mr. Washington's character with the original intention that they would have about 3 minutes of combined screen time. It seems that these characters would have been the time when the backstory would have been revealed.
While there is nothing really new in this movie that makes it a must-see, it is well-shot, action-packed, and, as stated above, well-acted thereby earning a viewing recommendation.
To see more of my other movie reviews, please visit:
https://nomorewastedmovienights.wordpress.com
Mr. Washington's character has very little in the way of backstory although his motivation is readily apparent. I suspect that some explanatory scenes were cut from the final print since the movie runs long at over 2 hours. Also I find it difficult to believe that both Bill Pullman and Melissa Leo, each leading actors in their own right, were cast as old friends of Mr. Washington's character with the original intention that they would have about 3 minutes of combined screen time. It seems that these characters would have been the time when the backstory would have been revealed.
While there is nothing really new in this movie that makes it a must-see, it is well-shot, action-packed, and, as stated above, well-acted thereby earning a viewing recommendation.
To see more of my other movie reviews, please visit:
https://nomorewastedmovienights.wordpress.com
"A colossal flop" - not only serves as an assessment of this movie's performance at the box office but as a valid assessment of the movie's overall quality.
With the exception of outstanding CGI, the plot, characters, acting and dialog are each seriously flawed. Intended tone filmed as a love story against the backdrop of a historic catastrophe, I have no doubt that this was patterned after the mega-success of "Titanic." As with Titanic, everyone knows the general story of the disaster so the ending cannot be a surprise. And as with Titanic, Pompeii tries to create a romance between an upper class woman and a man well beneath her standing. But unlike Titanic, there is no chemistry between the two romantic leads here, and there is no grand gesture of sacrifice which immortalizes the love story in our mind - and without these elements, the film is just another expensively filmed epic with nothing new to offer. Additionally, there are many historical inaccuracies regarding the volcano's eruption and the devastation of the city that the movie suffers from the attempted over-dramatization of already one of nature's most dramatic events.
To see my other movie reviews, please visit:
https://nomorewastedmovienights.wordpress.com
With the exception of outstanding CGI, the plot, characters, acting and dialog are each seriously flawed. Intended tone filmed as a love story against the backdrop of a historic catastrophe, I have no doubt that this was patterned after the mega-success of "Titanic." As with Titanic, everyone knows the general story of the disaster so the ending cannot be a surprise. And as with Titanic, Pompeii tries to create a romance between an upper class woman and a man well beneath her standing. But unlike Titanic, there is no chemistry between the two romantic leads here, and there is no grand gesture of sacrifice which immortalizes the love story in our mind - and without these elements, the film is just another expensively filmed epic with nothing new to offer. Additionally, there are many historical inaccuracies regarding the volcano's eruption and the devastation of the city that the movie suffers from the attempted over-dramatization of already one of nature's most dramatic events.
To see my other movie reviews, please visit:
https://nomorewastedmovienights.wordpress.com