Structure/Plot
Take Me Home Tonight
I wish my friend had taken me anywhere but to a TV to watch this drivel. At least I didn’t watch the whole thing. Character The character of the fine actor Topher Grace graduated from MIT (in the backstory) and, rather than work in his field till he figured out his life, worked in a [...]
Red Riding Hood
Why did I stop watching this after 30 minutes? Premise Because the tone of the movie was muddled. It was supposed to be a fairy-tale setting, yet it looked silly…it looked like a low-budget set of a fairy-tale village. And then there was talk of a Father and, worse, the Father character appeared. Yup, a [...]
Hall Pass
The studio should have passed on this idea. Premise / Character I’m not sure if the idea could have worked in any manner, but it was doomed from the beginning in this production. The wives giving their husbands a week off from marriage made them look stupid (regardless of the reverse-psychology that was established) and [...]
Hanna
This was a weird movie…it had some good thriller elements, yet they never gelled together to create any thrills. Some of this was clearly due to the director- parts were over-stylized and characters like Cate Blanchett’s were cartoonish. This movie would have had a much better chance at succeeding in the realistic style of the [...]
John Carpenter’s The Ward
The opening title sequence- with the images of patients getting barbaric treatments- was scarier and more interesting than anything else in the first twenty-five minutes, which is when I stopped watching this. Premise / Character / Structure/Plot The girl was sent to a mental hopsital after setting fire to an abandoned house. Say what? Just [...]
The Mechanic
My mindset was properly aligned for this kind of thriller/action movie…and the story went ahead and did something that ruined even my low expectations. Premise , Structure/Plot There was no reason for Jason Statham to mentor Ben Foster in his deadly trade. Jason knew Ben wanted to avenge the death of his father (killed by [...]
Colombiana
A good setup was wasted as the story inexplicably went off course. Zoe Saldana was the only bright spot, but it’s not like she had much to do aside from stunts. Premise and Structure/Plot It should have been so simple. Little Cataleya, after the cute opening where she stabbed the bad guy and ran away, [...]