Reviews by TrekMedic

Oh, no! The Vampire Diaries meet Twilight! Can we please put a stake in the whole "updated" vampire mythos??
BTW - neat casting nod - Claire Holt and Phoebe Tonkin used to swim the Australian oceans as mermaids in "Just Add Water.:

This is one of those quirky little films populated with a mix of then-hot and/or up-and-comers of the indie set. I haven't seen it for years because it just disappeared from cable TV. I really liked it as a nice, waste away the afternoon movie. BTW - I visited the town it was filmed in a few years ago - it really looks bad these days. Sad.

Oh, what potential! Place crooked cops in the fertile cesspool of lawlessness and degradation that is the rapidly imploding city of Detroit and you should have the next Breaking Bad. Instead, while it has all the great AMC timing and acting, the "peel back the onion on each character" plot is second-rate, the red herrings are more like lake trout and the show looks like it'll end with a whisper, rather than a bang.

Coming from a big, immigrant Italian family myself, this movie holds a special place in my heart.

The conflict between the two brothers, Primo and Secondo, and their rival, Ian Holm's Pascal (in an over-the-top performance) mirrored the American immigrant experience: does one stick to their heritage, like Secondo, who serves "traditional" Italian fare to a scant clientele, or jump into the melting pot, like Pascal, who "gives the people what they want" - a big, pedestrian, plate of spaghetti and meatballs?


Tony Shalhoub's Primo ends being caught in the middle of this argument, seeing "selling out" as his ticket out of the financial mess his brother's restaurant has become.

Minnie Driver's character, Phyllis, the quintessential "Joisey Girl" was a complete waste of her talent.

Overall, this was a real hidden gem of a movie!

Once you get past the ridiculous name and suspend some degree of reality (not unlike "Murder She Wrote") its another run-of-the-mill "murder among the wealthy landed gentry" series, with everyone involved having some deep, dark secret. The fun is sorting the red herrings from the final resolution and that's what keeps your attention.

How much do I dislike XIII? Let me count the ways:

NOTE – This rant MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!

XIII – Another made-in-Canada but set in the US, eh? Series!
XII – Produced by Europeans with little-to-no-concept of the 21st Century United States.
XI – Acting that makes “Showgirls” look Oscar-worthy.
X – A convoluted and incoherent plot.
IX – A 24-hour news channel/Greek chorus (complete with stereotypical vapid blonde talking head) that suspiciously looks like a parody of Fox News.
VIII – Ingrid Kavelaars’ role as a Sarah Palin-like presidential candidate is so bad it makes Tina Fey’s Palin parody on Saturday Night Live look intelligent by comparison.
VII – European actors trying to use cool, American slang made me fall of the couch laughing!
VI – Shanghai looks just like Toronto? Who knew?
V – A global tech company instigating every global event and pulling the strings behind the US government? Yeah, let’s perpetuate that Euro-view stereotype!
IV – Since the producers in Europe apparently have no access to cable or the internet, they wouldn’t know America’s election process,…
III – Or the handoff of control between elected administrations,…
II – Or the utter unlikelihood of a military seizure of power between adminstrations!
I – Finally,...an overall anti-American message that was so off base, it makes Severin Severin’s infantile [Link removed - login to see] seem coherent!

More like "Tediuum." Another sterile, made-in-Canada sci-fi show that shouldn't be aired too late at night, or it'll put you to sleep.

Doris Day, in the twilight of her movie career, trying to simultaneously keep her good-girl image and hop on the suave, globe-trotting spy genre (a/k/a James Bond). It didn't go nearly as well as it should have: even though Doris was in great shape for her age (early 40s), she clearly wasn't a "girl," especially a "Bond girl" type. Just enjoy it for the light, mid-60s fare that it is,...

BBC America just played this ahead of the Blu-Ray release, so I dragged out the entire trilogy (House of Cards, To Play The King and The Final Cut)from my DVD collection. Somewhat dated (this was originally broadcast in the early-to-mid 90s) Eastern European references aside, this black comedy, not-as-lethal version of Richard III is still incredibly entertaining.

Is it insanity to pursue the existence of God, or does obtaining that knowledge create the insanity? Darren Aronofsky sets up that premise, but portraying the protagonist with underlying mental health issues,and leaves just enough red herrings to have a lot of questions unanswered.