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fferkle
Reviews
Little Black Book (2004)
I can't believe Holly Hunter agreed to be in this film
I only gave this film a '1' because I couldn't give it a '0'.
Holly Hunter and Ron Livingston are two of my favorite actors. Unfortunately, even their talent couldn't make this dog hunt. There was no plot, I am not even sure what the premise was, the acting was terrible and you didn't care about any of the characters. In fact, after about ten minutes of this, I started playing Tetris on my PowerBook while I watched it. It was that bad.
The protagonist was, in fact, the antagonist. She was evil, in every way imaginable. Her "friends" were portrayed as mercurial, cutthroat and immoral, you couldn't care about them if you tried. I never really understood the reliance on Carly Simon's music - even though I enjoy Ms. Simon's music, the songs used in the movie were morose and had no relevance to the story. Every character seemed to be in it for themselves. They all went off in different directions, most of them having nothing to do with what the movie was supposed to be about.
In the end, I have to wonder, which one of the characters were they trying to make a movie about? The ending was worst than the rest of the film. Just when you thought the movie couldn't get any more mediocre, it did. The lead character walks off into the glorious sunset, getting everything she hoped for, after completely ruining all the other characters' lives? I can understand plot twists and surprise endings. (Although, for this to have a plot twist that led to a surprise ending, it would have been necessary for the film to have a plot.)
This is one of those films where, at the end, you wonder if the actors and production crew even watched the film after it was finished and if they realized it was terrible and confusing. I am embarrassed for Ron Livingston, Holly Hunter and Kathy Bates for having to act in such a dog.
Ticket to Heaven (1981)
Very Good Movie
This was an extremely accurate account of recruitment, indoctrination and life in a coercive religious group. It also accurately portrayed the lengths some go to rescue people from this type of group, the lengths some will go to stay in the group and the difficulty some people have breaking out.
In addition to an accurate portrayal of the subject matter, the film is very well made. Although I doubt it would be considered as "art", the film moves along very well, has a good plot, good acting, great dialog and the production values are very good. I did not view this film for entertainment, but rather because of the subject matter. I was pleasantly surprised that it was outstanding as dramatic film, as well as educational.