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richardstarr
Reviews
The Griddle House (2018)
A pleasant diversion
I watched Buffy the Vampire Slayer on TV when it came out, so when I came across a little independent film that features 3 of the actresses, I was a bit intrigued.
No, not a supernatural film or anything with action in it.
Honestly, it many ways it reminded me a bit of the type of
thing you'd see on Highway to Heaven.
Just a slice of life film, really.
Even though Amber Benson, Charisma Carpenter and Clare Kramer are likely to be relatively unknown to most people, I got to admit I immediately smiled just to see them. I have a feeling that it got made simply because they knew each other..
A simple story, well told and well acted.
A story involving people being mostly kind, loving, and supportive.
It might not be what most people are looking for, but I liked it.
Frank and Ava (2020)
It could have been a lot better, a waste of talent and possibilties.
So, I finally got my Blu-Ray of Frank and Ava.
I've been looking forward to watching it ever since
Emily Elicia Low announced she was working on it.
I really, really want to love this movie because she's in it.
When I see her on the screen she always puts out a certain
something, but I admit I'm biased. The problem is, well, there
are a number of problems actually.
First, the good, I loved the cars, the clothes, and many of the locations. It was great to see Harry Dean Stanton and Katherine Helmond in their last roles as well as veterans like Robert Costanzo and Eric Roberts. Ron Pritchard killed as Sammy Davis Jr. and the people playing the newscasters and rumor mongers were overall excellent. A very nice use of underused talent. Robin Arcuri as a stenographer is an almost criminal under use of talent.
The not so good involved much of the script which just did not seem to give Emily the right words. I'm not sure if there was some bad directing going or or if they just chose to limit the number of shoots, but the scenes with her varied from excellent to ones I really think they should have shot again.
The subplot dealing with abortion managed to get lost along the way and could have easily been cut. The scene in Africa with the "Frank is bigger" should have been cut completely, it was really, really bad and there was no excuse for it.
There were times when there really should have been more people in the scene and their lack was missing. The cinematography/lighting jumped around from movie quality to cheap TV show settings.
Seeing the old school royalty chatting about Frank and Ava was a nice touch.
Overall I was not unhappy I watched it, but for whatever reason what could have been, did not happen. I'll still watch Emily Elicia Low's next film.
Jukkalan (2011)
Not as good as most of her stuff.
I first saw JeeJa Yanin in Chocolate, so when I saw a copy of this movie I went ahead and bought it.
First off, you need to know this is a comedy with action vs the normal action with some humor. What this ultimately means though is that even though it did a fairly good job at both the subtitles and English language tracks, the humor just does not translate well.
I seriously encourage you to watch the trailer for the movie first before you watch the movie itself. On the DVD there is a scene in it that does not appear in the movie, yet it will help explain her reference to elephants later on.
On the bright side the action is still good and they continue to do real stunt work like old school Jackie Chan.