MacProTX
Joined Jun 2005
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Reviews5
MacProTX's rating
I don't understand the haters of this show. Is it realistic? No, not really. Is it entertaining? I'd say it's one of the two or three best scripted dramas (a dying breed of show, alas) presently airing. The acting quality may vary a bit, but Angela Basset is brilliant, and Peter Krause is not far behind her. The actors playing Hen and Chim are terrific. If the rest of the cast doesn't always reach their level, none of them are terrible.
The stories themselves may not be terribly realistic, but the writing is good regardless, and is frequently quite moving. Well worth your while.
The stories themselves may not be terribly realistic, but the writing is good regardless, and is frequently quite moving. Well worth your while.
I can't give this movie a 10, as so many here have, because it's not a perfect film (though it is perfectly enjoyable). But it's far from a 1, as many others have rated it. (If you want to see what rates a 1, try 2 hours of Battlefield Earth.)
All science fiction requires us to 'willingly suspend disbelief' for at least one thing we know to be untrue. Star Trek cannot exist if we insist that spaceships cannot move faster than the speed of light. (Warp 9, Scotty!) This movie asks us to accept not only that face transplants are possible, but that that alone is sufficient to assume another's identity. Complete brain transplants might make this story more plausible.
So the viewer must grant that absurdity for the movie to work at all, but once you do, what a ride it is! Cage and Travolta not only draw distinctive portraits of their respective characters, but it mid~film, trade them with one another. I thought their ability to do that was magnificent when I first saw the move twenty plus years ago, and it's no less impressive now. If you watch what they do, and how they do it, one can only shake one's head in admiration.
Now add John Woo action sequences, sense of pacing, and first-rate actors in the non-lead roles, and you're looking at a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours.
I'd give routine action movies, e.g. The Transporter (or about 50 others that come to mind) a 6 or less often a 7. This movie may not be perfect, but it's head and shoulders ahead of so many routine and even good movies in the genre, hence my rating of 9. Movies in this genre I'd rank ahead of this are few and far between. (Leon, the Professional, comes to mind.)
Relax, put your logic on hold, and the actors and action will give you a great time; they certainly gave me one.
All science fiction requires us to 'willingly suspend disbelief' for at least one thing we know to be untrue. Star Trek cannot exist if we insist that spaceships cannot move faster than the speed of light. (Warp 9, Scotty!) This movie asks us to accept not only that face transplants are possible, but that that alone is sufficient to assume another's identity. Complete brain transplants might make this story more plausible.
So the viewer must grant that absurdity for the movie to work at all, but once you do, what a ride it is! Cage and Travolta not only draw distinctive portraits of their respective characters, but it mid~film, trade them with one another. I thought their ability to do that was magnificent when I first saw the move twenty plus years ago, and it's no less impressive now. If you watch what they do, and how they do it, one can only shake one's head in admiration.
Now add John Woo action sequences, sense of pacing, and first-rate actors in the non-lead roles, and you're looking at a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours.
I'd give routine action movies, e.g. The Transporter (or about 50 others that come to mind) a 6 or less often a 7. This movie may not be perfect, but it's head and shoulders ahead of so many routine and even good movies in the genre, hence my rating of 9. Movies in this genre I'd rank ahead of this are few and far between. (Leon, the Professional, comes to mind.)
Relax, put your logic on hold, and the actors and action will give you a great time; they certainly gave me one.
Ignore the haters and bad reviews (what are they thinking? Or expecting?). This has proven to be a very good scripted show, of which we have too few on network television these days.
I'm a 64 year-old white ex-lawyer who dislikes most lawyer shows (and movies) as unrealistic. I think what I like most about this show is watching the Judge when she is wrestling to figure out what is the right thing to do, the right way to act. Almost always I agree with her resolution (including joining a BLM protest).
Across the board, the acting is excellent, with the leads being exceptionally complex and interesting characters. Some of the very poor user reviews suggest this show is all about knee-jerk liberals. Lola is an ex-prosecutor, and her sympathies often lean that way. But it's her struggle with how to be fair, in a new role, which is interesting to me.
I think teleplays all flow from the written word, and none of these can quite reach the soaring rhetoric of my hero, Aaron Sorkin, whose four television series and who knows how many movies generally hold me captive.
But the reviews trashing the writing on this show actually made me angry. If the rhetoric can't quite soar with Sorkin, neither does it sink into the muck. It seems to me that it makes it up with heart, which it manages to express not through just the lead character, but through every character, and far too often to be an accident.
No, I haven't been knocked out of my socks by every episode, but many have made me cry with emotion. (It's stupid, but while as a white male I'll never likely share it, I absolutely understand how Lola can so value her Uhuru toy as her most valuable possession, that it moves me to see that portrayed.)
Throw in Peter MacNicol, and you've got me as a fan for a few years.
Haters, Shut up. Newcomers come in. Leave your thoughts after a few.
I'm a 64 year-old white ex-lawyer who dislikes most lawyer shows (and movies) as unrealistic. I think what I like most about this show is watching the Judge when she is wrestling to figure out what is the right thing to do, the right way to act. Almost always I agree with her resolution (including joining a BLM protest).
Across the board, the acting is excellent, with the leads being exceptionally complex and interesting characters. Some of the very poor user reviews suggest this show is all about knee-jerk liberals. Lola is an ex-prosecutor, and her sympathies often lean that way. But it's her struggle with how to be fair, in a new role, which is interesting to me.
I think teleplays all flow from the written word, and none of these can quite reach the soaring rhetoric of my hero, Aaron Sorkin, whose four television series and who knows how many movies generally hold me captive.
But the reviews trashing the writing on this show actually made me angry. If the rhetoric can't quite soar with Sorkin, neither does it sink into the muck. It seems to me that it makes it up with heart, which it manages to express not through just the lead character, but through every character, and far too often to be an accident.
No, I haven't been knocked out of my socks by every episode, but many have made me cry with emotion. (It's stupid, but while as a white male I'll never likely share it, I absolutely understand how Lola can so value her Uhuru toy as her most valuable possession, that it moves me to see that portrayed.)
Throw in Peter MacNicol, and you've got me as a fan for a few years.
Haters, Shut up. Newcomers come in. Leave your thoughts after a few.