Objective/Stakes
Super 8
More like, Disappointing 8. I was glad to see a movie pay attention to the all-important aspect of character empathy. That’s sadly lacking in too many flicks. Yet, surprisingly, other important aspects of a good flick were lacking in this one. Objective Act 2 was awful. After the setup of the train wreck, the kids [...]
Thor
I liked it, though it wasn’t great as my fave Marvel productions of Spidey, Spidey 2 and Iron-Man. This was a rare case where the movie was well made, well cast and overall went smoothly, yet still did not overwhelm. Also, considering this was the first and it needed to establish the characters and situations, [...]
Paul
The cute premise, the fine comedic actors, the nods to great sci-fi and alien movies, and the heartwarming ending were not enough to ignore the fact that this movie was not funny. A few chuckles here and there do not make a comedy, and certainly not one on par with Hot Fuzz and Shaun Of [...]
The Informant
You don’t need a Hollywood informant to tell you that a great actor like Matt Damon and great director like Steven Soderbergh are not enough to make a successful flick. You must start with good material. Structure/Plot and Character In all fairness, by the end of the story some interesting elements were apparent, how Damon [...]
Get Him To The Greek
There were some cute moments here and there, but it’s a few days after seeing it and I’ve already forgotten just about everything about it. Objective/Stakes I needed more than Jonah Hill’s cute charm to connect to and empathize with. And there were no stakes to his mission. He would have lost his job had [...]
Shutter Island
This movie had all the elements of a good story, yet I was not pulled in to it. Objective/Stakes Here’s why it is so important to hook a viewer early on. (Obviously, the following is in the context of what we know early on.) Leonardo Dicaprio and his partner came to the island to investigate [...]
Confessions of A Shopoholic
Confessions of A Bored Viewer: I stopped watching this after 23 minutes. Character I disliked the main character for she was shallow, one-dimensional, and I didn’t care that she was in debt. That the actress was cute was not a reason to make the character endearing or make me feel empathetic towards her. And not [...]