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tdmoore005
Reviews
Manchester by the Sea (2016)
Save 2 hours of your life by skipping this movie
The trailer looked interesting, especially in light of this movie getting a few awards. The overall review average was excellent. However, I was sorely disappointed by this movie. There were so many opportunities for great story telling in this movie, topics to be explored, that were left lying on the table, or perhaps cutting room floor. Many reviewers, including "professionals", haves raved over the story and the acting, I just can't agree with them. The main character, Lee Chandler, walks around either depressed or angry for 99% of the movie. When he's angry I knew it was a matter of moments before he took a sucker punch at a stranger. The word said most often by the majority of the characters is the F- bomb. I felt sorry for Casey Affleck since most of his dialogue was 3-4 word sentences that he said multiple times. There is a heart-wrenching reason for Lee Chandler's depression, but it felt like it took forever to unveil this fact. The story could have explored his journey from the incident and his path to heal or deal with his grief, but that was another opportunity left to lie. Lee's relationship with his ex-wife was also a great opportunity to explore that was left to wilt away. Lee's relationship with his brother's friend, George, was also left unexplored. The strongest plot line was Lee's connection with his nephew, Patrick, and that, again, is an opportunity left lying. More than one character in this movie gave impressions of Lee, but not enough so that I wasn't left scratching my head. For example, Lee walks into a place, asks about a job, leaves and a woman comes out from the back and says, "I don't want to see him here again!" Why? That character's response is never explored. The cinematographic attempt to blend the current with flashbacks had me asking every time, "What's happening? Is this now, or something from his past?" At the end of the movie both my husband and I said, "What was this about?" The storyline rambled aimlessly and ended with no wrap up, no cliffhanger, nothing one would expect from any type of storytelling. So, beware the high rating of this movie.
Rush (2014)
Should have channeled surfed past it
Wasted a few hours of my life on this show, so don't waste yours. Acting is okay, but the premise is an obvious attempt to mix House MD, ER, Royal Pains and maybe even a little Breaking Bad. Perhaps the concept was a decent idea to begin with, but it has not been built out with strong stories and characters so it is not playing out well. Bottom line, there simply aren't enough new ideas mixed into the concept to bring great intrigue and growth to the show. There's little chemistry between the characters and actors, which is sad because there are some very pretty and handsome people in the cast. The story lines thus far are predicable. No, I won't give spoilers, but I haven't seen anything remotely believable nor a character that makes me want to root for them, regardless if they are a good guy or bad guy. The stories are not even exciting or suspenseful. I was very bored, but tried to give the actors my attention because they were trying to make things work. Unfortunately for the actors, I am hoping USA has other programs in creation because this one needs to get quickly shelved.