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Reviews12
jimojimo's rating
This movie was almost good. Then it ended.
I sat through the first 20 min, thinking what a snoozer this was. Then a story started to unfold. The main character, a well to do lady who owns an art gallery gets a manuscript in the mail from her ex husband. She begins to read it, and the story she's reading is played out in the movie.
The story is fictional (though quite allegorical) and involves involves her ex-husband. It's about him not being able to save his family from a gang of rowdies on a deserted west Texas highway. The story starts getting suspenseful and interesting. We follow the incident, the aftermath, and the lawman who tries to find and bring justice to the rowdies. It starts becoming a gripping revenge thriller.
Then it ends.
I get it--the "...stops a beating heart" reference which was (quite literally) pounded into the audience's ears. And I get the "meaning". But there was a good story going and it just ended. If there's a term similar to "blue b*lls" for what a movie audience feels when let down, well, the entire audience left with a big case of that.
I sat through the first 20 min, thinking what a snoozer this was. Then a story started to unfold. The main character, a well to do lady who owns an art gallery gets a manuscript in the mail from her ex husband. She begins to read it, and the story she's reading is played out in the movie.
The story is fictional (though quite allegorical) and involves involves her ex-husband. It's about him not being able to save his family from a gang of rowdies on a deserted west Texas highway. The story starts getting suspenseful and interesting. We follow the incident, the aftermath, and the lawman who tries to find and bring justice to the rowdies. It starts becoming a gripping revenge thriller.
Then it ends.
I get it--the "...stops a beating heart" reference which was (quite literally) pounded into the audience's ears. And I get the "meaning". But there was a good story going and it just ended. If there's a term similar to "blue b*lls" for what a movie audience feels when let down, well, the entire audience left with a big case of that.
This movie was entertaining throughout and enjoyable, but not a blockbuster. As my subject line says, it's like a mashup of 30-Rock and Zero Dark Thirty.
This is not a "Tina Fey comedy" as the trailers seem to say. But it has a lot of great laughs nonetheless, but mixed in with some serious drama.
There are a few very realistic and gory combat scenes, mixed in with the work-a-day world of Tina Fey's character. Based on a true story, the real Kim Baker described herself as a Tina Fey type character. She had a humdrum job, boyfriend issues, workplace politics. She then gets asked if she'd like to (read: told) to go on assignment in Afghanistan. She accepts because her life in New York was getting boring for her.
In "the Kabubble"--as the press and contractors refer to their fenced in life in Kabul--she finds that she still has workplace politics, boyfriend issues, etc. but at least she'll have fun stories to tell to her friends and maybe children. Another big plus for her--in New York she's a "6, maybe 6 1/2", but in Afghanistan she's "like a 9, maybe 9 1/2" as her colleague (Margot Robbie, who appears to be channeling CBS news' Lara Logan) tells her. "What are you then, a 15?" asks Tina's character.
So the story arc ends up being mostly around a Scottish photographer who "fancies" her, though Tina's character will have none of it, for a while anyway. Various things happen, a backstabbing (figurative) by a work friend, and a kidnapping of a close friend--the latter for which she ends up trying to use her Kabul political connections (which her "9" status has helped her achieve) to try and get information about the kidnappers' identity. This would be a double-whammy for her--getting a friend free and also getting a huge story.
So without getting into spoilers, that is pretty much the plot-- nothing earth shattering but it was enough to keep me involved, laughing, and entertained throughout.
This is not a "Tina Fey comedy" as the trailers seem to say. But it has a lot of great laughs nonetheless, but mixed in with some serious drama.
There are a few very realistic and gory combat scenes, mixed in with the work-a-day world of Tina Fey's character. Based on a true story, the real Kim Baker described herself as a Tina Fey type character. She had a humdrum job, boyfriend issues, workplace politics. She then gets asked if she'd like to (read: told) to go on assignment in Afghanistan. She accepts because her life in New York was getting boring for her.
In "the Kabubble"--as the press and contractors refer to their fenced in life in Kabul--she finds that she still has workplace politics, boyfriend issues, etc. but at least she'll have fun stories to tell to her friends and maybe children. Another big plus for her--in New York she's a "6, maybe 6 1/2", but in Afghanistan she's "like a 9, maybe 9 1/2" as her colleague (Margot Robbie, who appears to be channeling CBS news' Lara Logan) tells her. "What are you then, a 15?" asks Tina's character.
So the story arc ends up being mostly around a Scottish photographer who "fancies" her, though Tina's character will have none of it, for a while anyway. Various things happen, a backstabbing (figurative) by a work friend, and a kidnapping of a close friend--the latter for which she ends up trying to use her Kabul political connections (which her "9" status has helped her achieve) to try and get information about the kidnappers' identity. This would be a double-whammy for her--getting a friend free and also getting a huge story.
So without getting into spoilers, that is pretty much the plot-- nothing earth shattering but it was enough to keep me involved, laughing, and entertained throughout.