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Mark_Stone
Reviews
Storage Hunters (2011)
NOBODY is likable on this show..
Yet again, another network scores with a hit, and TRU tries to capitalize and a cheap imitation, and FAILS miserably. They give you NOBODY on the show who is even worth rooting for as an underdog. Where as on A&E, everyone seems to find something likable in most of the participants (even the "Villains"). In this version, there is absolutely nobody worth liking.
When I watch this (and ONLY when there's zero else on the TV), I honestly hope everyone goes broke each and every time (and that includes the auctioneer). That's how little anyone on this show Heck, the Baggage hunters show has at least one likable set of participants. But not here.
If this one could get negative stars for their rating, that's what they would get.
Shuffle (2011)
Modernized version of "It's a Wonderful Life".
When I first loaded up this movie via Netflix, the description had me thinking I was getting another time-traveling thriller mystery. Boy, am I glad I was wrong.
For those who say this movie had too much of a "sappy" ending, the female lead was STILL his _true_ love. She started the circle of the lead character's life, it was only right that she be there at the "end' of the circle.
If you go into this wanting wild science fiction time traveling... you need to find a different title. If you want a GREAT story, with a fantastic beginning, middle, AND end, this movie is a must see, and the B&W and color scenes mixed in, made it nearly perfect.
Nine Dead (2009)
"Psychological" thriller.. Flawed, but not bad
Just got finished watching this morning, as I'd been looking for something a little more psychological than thriller/gore-laden, and this one definitely fit the bill.
A lot of people will compare it to the "Saw" series, and understandable, but look deeper and you'll see this one is actually _deeper_ than the Saw series. It's not just a case of how far you'd go to try to survive, but trying to find a reason behind the crime involved.
As for the character list. The actors/actress had their great moments and their horrible moments. Chip Bent (as Sully) was probably the one guy who was perfect in his role, while MJH.. i've never called her an over-actor before, but this was one movie where that's exactly what she was on-screen. A "Ham"... even though I knew she and William Scott were the big names of the movie, I was HOPING against hope that maybe, just maybe they'd kill her off and make the scenes a little more bearable.
While trying to stay out of the Spoiler area, the premise behind the storyline is acceptable. What man wouldn't want to go after everyone he felt was responsible for his son's death? However, you have to stretch some believability on two of the people that were kidnapped (the others may be a stretch, but they were a LOT more believable). For instance, the cop didn't know the evidence had been tampered with until MJH said something, so how did the dad find out? The priest? He wasn't even going to tell Christian's confession before he died.. so how did the dad find that one out? Everyone else, any father who did his research would be able to find some sort of connection.
The story was solid all the way through up until the final ending. That was just seemingly thrown in there to make the fan say "ooh, twist-at-the-end". There were so many ways the ending could have been done to make this movie so much better.
(-1 for the above plot hole, -4 for the MJH and Lawrence Turner overacting, -1 for the ending, and I'll give it salvage points of +2 for some of the character choices, who played their roles better than I think some reviewers give them credit for. Chris Bent, Marc Macaulay, and William Scott, and +1 for doing a SAW type-storyline with a real storyline to it.)