blackacid
Joined Jan 2009
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Reviews11
blackacid's rating
I agree with some of the user criticisms of this film but I think these 1/10 scores are ridiculous. What did you expect? For Bob Lazar to pull a chunk of Element 115 out of his arse?
You have to go into this movie without expectations, which unfortunately are rife in the UFO community desperate for a smoking gun. It's simply a look at Lazar (a man who was harassed, bullied and discredited for speaking his truth) 30 years on to see who he is now, what he's up to and how he feels about coming forward in hindsight.
On that level it succeeds and shows a clearly honest man whose life was irrevocably changed for doing what he thought was for the good of humanity.
Maybe there is a little too much style over substance, but ultimately it's great to see Lazar in an intimate setting with close family offering their support and character testimony, and the ensuing raid by every government agency ever (a reaction to his taking part in this documentary), pretty much vindicates the guy.
It's no smoking gun but it's worth a watch.
You have to go into this movie without expectations, which unfortunately are rife in the UFO community desperate for a smoking gun. It's simply a look at Lazar (a man who was harassed, bullied and discredited for speaking his truth) 30 years on to see who he is now, what he's up to and how he feels about coming forward in hindsight.
On that level it succeeds and shows a clearly honest man whose life was irrevocably changed for doing what he thought was for the good of humanity.
Maybe there is a little too much style over substance, but ultimately it's great to see Lazar in an intimate setting with close family offering their support and character testimony, and the ensuing raid by every government agency ever (a reaction to his taking part in this documentary), pretty much vindicates the guy.
It's no smoking gun but it's worth a watch.
I loved the original Poltergeist and was very wary of this remake, but I decided to give it a chance after reading some of the reviews on here.
The casting is great, Sam Rockwell is always on form, and the kids were cool and not annoying, which is always a big win.
For the first half hour, this was a solid 'remake' in the truest sense of the work, staying faithful to the tone of the original whilst making it relevant for a modern audience.
But it all completely fell apart with the spooky stuff, which was handled with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. There was very little build up at all, and then suddenly everything happens at once, completely spoiling the tone and bordering on the ridiculous.
Take the classic tree scene for example.
This worked so well in the first movie due to pacing and slow burning tension, that builds over time and unfolds later in the movie and allowing us to suspend our disbelief when it hits us.
In this iteration, there is no such skill, instead we're almost immediately hit over the head with everything at once, too early in the movie and a scene that is more 'Whomping Willow' from Harry Potter than Poltergeist.
Talk about shooting your load too soon, the makers of this film clearly don't understand what made the original so compelling. This would have been in much better hands had it been made by the team who brought us The Conjuring.
The casting is great, Sam Rockwell is always on form, and the kids were cool and not annoying, which is always a big win.
For the first half hour, this was a solid 'remake' in the truest sense of the work, staying faithful to the tone of the original whilst making it relevant for a modern audience.
But it all completely fell apart with the spooky stuff, which was handled with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer. There was very little build up at all, and then suddenly everything happens at once, completely spoiling the tone and bordering on the ridiculous.
Take the classic tree scene for example.
This worked so well in the first movie due to pacing and slow burning tension, that builds over time and unfolds later in the movie and allowing us to suspend our disbelief when it hits us.
In this iteration, there is no such skill, instead we're almost immediately hit over the head with everything at once, too early in the movie and a scene that is more 'Whomping Willow' from Harry Potter than Poltergeist.
Talk about shooting your load too soon, the makers of this film clearly don't understand what made the original so compelling. This would have been in much better hands had it been made by the team who brought us The Conjuring.
If Jarhead was a subtle, slow-burning study of the Middle Eastern occupation through the eyes of a grunt, Jarhead 2 is the complete opposite.
It's an entertaining if dumb action flick but has very little in common with reality or common sense.
Ambushed on a supply run, a team of marines switches their mission object to keep an Afghan woman out of the hands of Taliban with the help of Cole Hauser's NAVY Seal.
The acting is fine and the action is well shot, if totally preposterous with overkill.
I can't claim to have served in conflict, but I'm pretty certain soldiers on both sides wouldn't frequently waste RPG's just to blow up one person armed only with a gun, instead of disabling vehicles and such, for which these weapons are designed. A lot of the action pieces seemed designed for cinema gore effects only and pretty much took me out of the reality that the rest of the film worked hard to achieve.
As did a point after a gun fight where the soldiers opt to walk to their destination through hostile territory, instead of commandeering the Taliban cars.
It wasn't the worse movie, and for the most part was exciting enough to hold my attention, but it could have been a lot better had it not been for nonsensical movie tropes that burst the bubble.
It's an entertaining if dumb action flick but has very little in common with reality or common sense.
Ambushed on a supply run, a team of marines switches their mission object to keep an Afghan woman out of the hands of Taliban with the help of Cole Hauser's NAVY Seal.
The acting is fine and the action is well shot, if totally preposterous with overkill.
I can't claim to have served in conflict, but I'm pretty certain soldiers on both sides wouldn't frequently waste RPG's just to blow up one person armed only with a gun, instead of disabling vehicles and such, for which these weapons are designed. A lot of the action pieces seemed designed for cinema gore effects only and pretty much took me out of the reality that the rest of the film worked hard to achieve.
As did a point after a gun fight where the soldiers opt to walk to their destination through hostile territory, instead of commandeering the Taliban cars.
It wasn't the worse movie, and for the most part was exciting enough to hold my attention, but it could have been a lot better had it not been for nonsensical movie tropes that burst the bubble.