PaulsLaugh's reviews

This TV series has not aged well now that there's a "suburban shooting" nearly every week. The show might make more sense if set in West Texas where the gun culture is like a religion, but in domesticated England? Nope. Rather than playing comedy seriously, the actors know they are in spoof and mug accordingly. It's rather sickening to watch considering the subject.

I kept watching just to catch TH, but he had not gotten passed his teen years' ungainliness when this was filmed. He had bad skin and un-brightened teeth with little muscle tone, kinda shocking to see him as he was then compared to later. He got better looking.

Made in 2009, I would like to hear what the interviewees think today and it should be noted, these End Times Christians are a subset of mostly American Evangelicals and Pentecostals. It's also quite new inside Evangelicalism. And even the millennialists themselves are split on just which comes first: the Tribulation or the Rapture. The Rapture dogma is based on one paragraph in a letter from Paul of Tarsus.

The folks highlighted in the film are typical though of making precise predictions using more than an inerrant reading of the Bible, but taps into a Crusader warrior, medieval-like magical beliefs coupled with American nationalism. They seem convinced the New Earth begins with them.

Historically, fundamentalism that second guesses biblical prophecy has been treated by mainstream Christianity as nonsense or heresy.

...this is an entertaining movie if not taken seriously. And the old age superhero gimmick works mostly due to the funny dialogue between a hero's dream-team out to avenge the death of one of their retirement home comrades. The special effects are set at 1970s TV mode and the cast play it straight for maximum tongue-in-cheek. Younger geeks won't get it, but us older ones will. 8/10 alone for the heart put into this project.

Sadly, I am unable to take Professor Smith's thesis seriously, not because of his ideas about the nature of reality, which I am open-minded about, but by the inclusion of Olavo de Carvalho in this film. Look this person up and you will understand my disgust.

That said, in the first part of the documentary, Smith does explain his position simply enough for educated laypeople to understand his quantum physics insights...which are not new, but similar to the New Physics popularized by acid dropping mavericks such as Fritjof Capra and others in psychedelic 60s Berkeley and Haight-Ashbury Days.

Beyond that, it becomes an apology for conservative Christianity and pre-Cartesian, Western traditionalism. Therefore, I've split the difference between the 1s, who rightly point out this should be recognized as pseudoscience and ultimately propaganda and the 10s, who are dangerously non-skeptical and rate this 5 stars.

This isn't the worst movie and Beanie Feldstein alone makes it watchable, but otherwise the humor is forced and the assorted high school characters are too quirky-cute. All these airheads are going to Ivy League schools? I doubt it. And I kept thinking Billie Lourd's character is one the flaky parents. I mean I know she's supposed to be a senior, but I kept forgetting.

Sixteen Candles, Breakfast Club, even Superbad it ain't. Hope to see more from Beanie.

But sadly fails to tell Mark Hogancamp's remarkable story or do homage to his "art." His photos are, by Hogancamp's own admission, not art. It was never meant to be art. Rather look for the documentary Marwencol and watch it. I've met the real Mark and he's pretty much the same affable, funny guy in the Malmberg film and he's not precious.

As for the Zemeckis movie: It is very entertaining and the motion capture lets the actors perform within the animation. In that, the movie achieves some of the uncanny essence of Hogancamp's photographs, though it lacks their crude brutality.

The movie also glosses over Hogancamp's past struggles with alcoholism, homelessness, and violence. Much of that past predicated upon being deep in the closet about his crossdressing which goes beyond women's shoes.

Otherwise, if your not too familiar with the original documentary, this not a bad film to watch on Sunday evening. Steve Carell and Leslie Mann have good chemistry.

I've watch this series twice and enjoyed it both times. The narrative does take its time, but the short episodes moves it along without boring. I especially like the use of diegetic music score. The filmmakers borrow heavily from Bernard Hermann, the composer most associated with Alfred Hitchcock, but also David Shire's scores from The Conversation and All the President's Men.