simonwoodwrites

Running With The Devil tries to do what Traffic did by showing the drug trade from the farmer to the kingpin, but lacks the budget or the story to pull it off. The story is too fragmented. Instead of focusing on a few key characters to tell a story, it goes off in too many directions. Some elements weren't needed and some elements are so scantly told they don't mean anything. Actually, it's not a bad movie, although it does drag. It just needed to be about something than trying to be about everything.

Good Cop/Bad Cop is a likeable show. Leighton Meester is great as the lead. It's a fun setup for a show--mismatch siblings forced to be partners for a small-town police department. But there are a number of things stop this show from being great show. Sadly, Luke Cook doesn't nail the part as Leighton Meester's annoying brother. He has no charm as the character and his chemistry with Leighton Meester isn't there. Also, the writing needs improving on several fronts. The crime of the week stories are okay but need a bit more complexity to them. The characterization and the foundational storytelling needed work. For example, Clancy Brown's character trait for doing favors and turning a blind eye to crimes to keep his stats low is poorly drawn and doesn't make sense (sort of) until the end of the season. Similarly, with the supporting cast of cops. They are thinly outlined at the start and details get dropped from time to time like someone thought of it on the spur of the moment to include it. Also things get forgotten. Leighton Meester's character has a certain interrogation technique to get people to open up, but that gets forgotten after a few episodes so she doesn't have a USP character-wise unlike her brother's character which does. The show just needed a better foundation as to what this show is and what it wanted to do.

Overall, I like the show and I hope it gets a second season and that they do tighten up the writing, but I think the makers have given the show a mortal wound that's going hurt the show's longevity. The series arc will have a massive impact on the show's setup and it will hurt the show's dynamic. If they'd kept the show episodic, it has the potential to have a long run.

I had high hopes for this film but it was a bit disappointing. First off, TALK TO ME is similar to "The Gatecrasher" story from the movie FROM BEYOND THE GRAVE, except it's about a haunted mirror instead of a mummified hand. TALK TO ME even has the same ending as the Gatecrasher story. As others have said, it suffers from too much fluff. There's about 20 minutes of mumblecore before the film gets going and it could've been covered in about five minutes. The big issue for me was story logic. The power of the hand was too inconsistent. It didn't make sense that some people were more affected than others. Too many people were using the hand. With everyone recording everything, how come what the hand did wasn't common knowledge. It didn't make sense that one guy gave the hand away when it killed his brother. Why did no one destroy the hand? The cops would've taken the hand and been more involved. The whole climax doesn't make sense. What was Mia trying to do? Parents didn't seem to care too much about their kids s they seemed to be away from home for days without any contact. If the story had centered around Mia obsession with the hand and had been more secretive, it would've made for a tighter story.

One thing does need to be mentioned. What the hell was up with this friend group? Did any of these characters like each other? Who has a circle of friends this hateful and spiteful? Horror movies have got to get away from relying on dickish characters.

Overall, good premise, so-so execution.