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savafiend76
Reviews
Val (2021)
Thoroughly engrossing
I have always been a big fan of Val Kilmer. I will admit I had a bit of a crush on him back in the day. But I also think he is a fantastic actor. I just re-watched the movie Real Genius a few weeks ago and it just struck me how much he brings the roles he plays to life.
I didn't read any reviews of this movie before watching it. Surprised to see so many negative reviews on it. I found it so interesting, all these glimpses into Val's life. I enjoyed his son Jack's narration. I enjoyed all the behind-the-scenes footage from different movies and I love seeing all the different audition tapes Val did. I expected the like this movie because I like the subject matter obviously. But I actually found myself more engrossed and engaged with the movie then I expected. It really pulled me in and held my attention.
And I think Val still looks great😊 I liked watching present-day Val Kilmer as much as I enjoyed watching the footage from his past. I found him to be very insightful.
Grimm (2011)
Decent, not great
I thought this was a really great series. I liked the fantasy aspects to it. It was distracting how awful the police procedural stuff is portrayed in this series. Detectives Nick and Hank get called out to EVERY crime scene - mainly homicide but also theft, robbery, assault. etc. It does not work that way in real life, there are separate detectives for those things. Also, Sergeant Wu ends up at most crime scenes too, again, very unrealistic.
I recently re-watched this series and holy cow, there is a LOT of time in each episode devoted to the detectives carefully walking through a dark environment holding flashlights and a gun. And there is also a lot of interiors getting wrecked in every episode - lamps, tables and mirror broken by characters fighting. If you think I'm exaggerating, pick an episode at random and watch it and I guarantee there is a scene with the interior or a home or business getting busted up.
That said, I think the acting in this series is good. Really like Silas Weir Mitchell as Monroe and Sasha Roiz as Captain Renard. David Giuntoli as main character Nick, the titled Grimm, is generally good, but he smirks in several scenes where it seems like he wasn't supposed to, like you could tell he was trying not to laugh and it is kind of distracting, but overall, a very engaging series for anyone who likes fantasy themes.
Nine Lives (2016)
Not a great movie for younger children
The premise for Nine Lives seems like something that would make this funny for kids. Indeed, this preview showed up before a couple of animated films I took my kids to.
But Nine Lives, for the most part, is NOT really for kids, at least not younger children. Mine are 12 and 8. My 12-year-old enjoyed it. My 8-year-old was bored.
Reasons why this film doesn't seem to cater to its intended child audience (SPOILERS!!!)
1. The film starts off with a montage of cute random cat videos, but after that, there is a looooong section of film where it's just the main character, Tom Brand, in his office discussing plans for building the tallest building in North America and generally showing him being a jerk to everyone he encounters. Kids will be bored by all the office politics (Ian Cox is trying to take the company away from Tom Brand, Tom's adult son David from his first marriage works at the office too and is trying to earn his father's respect, etc.)
2. Finally the film gets to the "meat" of the plot, and it's not cute. Tom agrees to meet Ian on the roof of the building-in-progress in the middle of a rainstorm, Tom ends up slipping over the edge and clinging to the ledge, begging Ian to pull him up...and Ian just stands there and watches him and lets him fall. That is very, very dark for a "children's" movie, which I realize is rated PG, but might be scary for very young viewers.
3. Tom survives by a fluke, but is in a coma while his soul goes into the body of a cat he bought and intended to give his daughter for her birthday. I thought, "Finally, maybe we can get the kids to some real laughs here!" Well, one of the first things the cat does is purposely gets into Tom's liquor cabinet, manages to dump some alcohol into a dish, and drinks it. Cue scenes of drunk-cat-Tom staggering around the house. Drunken cat...in a kids' movie. Again, maybe funny for older kids, but not young kids.
4. And that brings me to alcohol. Besides the drunk cat scene, there are numerous scenes of Tom's ex-wife (who happens to hang out/visit Tom's current wife) all the time. Yes, she is supposed to be an alcoholic, but there are a LOT of scenes focusing on her drinking, asking for more drinks, trying to push drinks on other people, etc. Not great for a kids' movie.
5. At the end, David (who battles Ian Cox the duration of the movie for control of his father's company) heads over to his dad's tower, having seemingly lost to Ian. The implication is that he is going to commit suicide. Again, VERY adult theme. As it turns out, he does jump but with a parachute on his back, but the implication is that he up there getting ready to kill himself.
Language is mild. I caught one "hell" and one "son of a bi---" (it was cut off, they didn't actually say it. That was okay for a PG movie. There is reference to the cat getting "fixed" and then Jennifer Garner's character says something along the lines of it being illegal to castrate her husband, but there is no rules about what she can do to the cat, which is a little graphic.
And there are some bizarre plot inconsistencies too. Mom brings the cat home from the hospital after Tom's accident and the first thing they do is...leave the cat alone while they cuddle up in Mom's bed, leaving the cat to fend for himself. And the next day upon waking, Mom pours the cat a bowl of food and sets up the litterbox. They didn't set up the litterbox right away the night before?!? And it was supposed to be a gift for the little girl, but they shut it out of the bedroom and in most scenes the cat is just "there" in the movie and not being played with or shown love by the main character? Thumbs down for that.
All in all, I'd suggest not taking any kids younger than 8 to this movie, or honestly, maybe not younger than 10. I think younger kids might find some funny parts but most of it will bore them or go right over their heads.
The Smurfs 2 (2013)
Bland and lackluster
I'm not saying the first Smurfs movie was cinematic genius, but it was at least tolerable. Smurfs 2, for an adult, is agonizingly boring. My kids (ages 9 and 5) enjoyed it, so I guess it's okay for younger children. But honestly, I've seen many kids' movies in the past, and there's usually at least some element of humor in there that adults can appreciate and enjoy too.
That is not the case here. The plot feels very drawn out and contrived. The humor revolves largely on sight gags and jokes of the farting, implied nakedness, or "oh look, I'm falling and crashing into something" variety. While that was done to good effect in Shrek, it was embarrassingly bad here. They gave Azrael the cat a bigger role in this one, but it came across as irritating for the most part
All in all, an okay movie for younger kids, but adults, be prepared to be bored out of your mind by it!