gjw
Joined Jun 1999
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Reviews77
gjw's rating
This movie definitely ha S some "Dexter" vibes, with the serial killer posing as a likable, average guy. Except he lacks Dexter's code, of course, and his maniacal side shows up every now and then.
This movie was pretty good as long as they stayed at the concert venue and the trap slowly closed around him. If they had brought the script to a climax there at the stadium, the movie would have been much more enjoyable.
Unfortunately, they allowed the serial killer to escape from the trap at the concert venue, and once outside, the movie went straight downhill from there, with some preposterous turns.
The final twist (if you can call it that) was particularly unrealistic, and seemed like a transparent effort to preserve the possibility of a sequel (since in today's Hollywood, every movie has to be a potential franchise).
I suppose it's worth a watch If you have nothing else to do, but they definitely dropped the ball in the second half.
This movie was pretty good as long as they stayed at the concert venue and the trap slowly closed around him. If they had brought the script to a climax there at the stadium, the movie would have been much more enjoyable.
Unfortunately, they allowed the serial killer to escape from the trap at the concert venue, and once outside, the movie went straight downhill from there, with some preposterous turns.
The final twist (if you can call it that) was particularly unrealistic, and seemed like a transparent effort to preserve the possibility of a sequel (since in today's Hollywood, every movie has to be a potential franchise).
I suppose it's worth a watch If you have nothing else to do, but they definitely dropped the ball in the second half.
This should have been a very nice little rom-com, with a decent script, good direction from Billy Wilder, and good performances from a talented cast.
Alas, it is undermined by one thing that is impossible to disregard: Gary Cooper is simply too old to be believable as a romantic lead to young Audrey Hepburn.
While he was 56 years old (29 years older than Ms. Hepburn), he looks even older (and in fact he died just three years after making this movie). He looks more like a grandfather than a lover, and it's virtually impossible to root for the two to get together, when you realize that such a relationship would be doomed from the start. Had they chosen a younger actor as the older man (or at least an actor who looked more youthful), it probably would've worked. But Gary Cooper was on his last legs here.
A lesser factor for my relatively low rating, is that I found it hard to believe that the Gary Cooper character, who seems to have hundreds of beautiful young women more than willing to meet him for brief affairs in every city he visits, would be suddenly obsessed with this young woman. It's understandable that he might be curious to find out who she was, given that she keeps her identity a mystery, but curiosity is not love, and he would simply hire a detective to find out more about her. The movie depends upon us believing that he falls in love with her simply because he is jealous of her supposed long list of former lovers. But as a man with his own long list of lovers, why would that bother him? The script does not really provide him with a plausible reason for falling madly in love with this particular lover.
Still, I might have been able to ignore that plot hole If it wasn't for Mr. Cooper's age and appearance. But that giant "elephant in the room" Is impossible to overlook.
Alas, it is undermined by one thing that is impossible to disregard: Gary Cooper is simply too old to be believable as a romantic lead to young Audrey Hepburn.
While he was 56 years old (29 years older than Ms. Hepburn), he looks even older (and in fact he died just three years after making this movie). He looks more like a grandfather than a lover, and it's virtually impossible to root for the two to get together, when you realize that such a relationship would be doomed from the start. Had they chosen a younger actor as the older man (or at least an actor who looked more youthful), it probably would've worked. But Gary Cooper was on his last legs here.
A lesser factor for my relatively low rating, is that I found it hard to believe that the Gary Cooper character, who seems to have hundreds of beautiful young women more than willing to meet him for brief affairs in every city he visits, would be suddenly obsessed with this young woman. It's understandable that he might be curious to find out who she was, given that she keeps her identity a mystery, but curiosity is not love, and he would simply hire a detective to find out more about her. The movie depends upon us believing that he falls in love with her simply because he is jealous of her supposed long list of former lovers. But as a man with his own long list of lovers, why would that bother him? The script does not really provide him with a plausible reason for falling madly in love with this particular lover.
Still, I might have been able to ignore that plot hole If it wasn't for Mr. Cooper's age and appearance. But that giant "elephant in the room" Is impossible to overlook.
I knew there was something wrong when the critics on Rotten Tomatoes gave this series an 85% fresh rating, but the supposed audience gave it only a 13% rating.
That's almost always a sure sign that the reactionary trolls were at it again, attempting to sabotage a show by flooding a site with low ratings, because it somehow offended their neo-Nazi sensibilities. So I came to the IMDb to check the ratings there, and sure enough, they were likewise absurdly low, and clearly the victim of yet another false rating attack.
These kind of knee-jerk attacks usually happen when a production involves either a minority or a strong woman in a lead role. This series has both. That apparently infuriates the racist incels who can't tolerate anything that doesn't reflect their own dystopian vision of an all-white world ruled by uber-males.
So I watched the first episode to see if there was any validity to the low ratings. I have been critical of a number of recent Star Wars efforts, so I don't mind valid criticism of the franchise. But this is B. S. It was a very good opening episode, packed with well-done action scenes and the start of an interesting mystery.
I could understand someone with different tastes reasonably giving this a 5 rating, but the countless 1 - 3 ratings are clearly indicative of a campaign to sabotage the series because of socio-political grudges.
So you can safely ignore the ratings here. They are phony.
And if the IMDb wants to continue to be a reliable source of information, they are going to have to find a way to screen-out these kind of malicious, low-ball attacks.
That's almost always a sure sign that the reactionary trolls were at it again, attempting to sabotage a show by flooding a site with low ratings, because it somehow offended their neo-Nazi sensibilities. So I came to the IMDb to check the ratings there, and sure enough, they were likewise absurdly low, and clearly the victim of yet another false rating attack.
These kind of knee-jerk attacks usually happen when a production involves either a minority or a strong woman in a lead role. This series has both. That apparently infuriates the racist incels who can't tolerate anything that doesn't reflect their own dystopian vision of an all-white world ruled by uber-males.
So I watched the first episode to see if there was any validity to the low ratings. I have been critical of a number of recent Star Wars efforts, so I don't mind valid criticism of the franchise. But this is B. S. It was a very good opening episode, packed with well-done action scenes and the start of an interesting mystery.
I could understand someone with different tastes reasonably giving this a 5 rating, but the countless 1 - 3 ratings are clearly indicative of a campaign to sabotage the series because of socio-political grudges.
So you can safely ignore the ratings here. They are phony.
And if the IMDb wants to continue to be a reliable source of information, they are going to have to find a way to screen-out these kind of malicious, low-ball attacks.