Ozark Season 1 Netflix Series Video Clip

Ozark (2017-)
Season 1 - 10 episodes (2017)

Ozark Season 1 premieres on July 21

Jason Bateman stars and directs this drama series about a financial planner who flees to the Missouri Ozarks from Chicago with his wife (Laura Linney) and two children. He laundered money for and must pay off a Mexican drug cartel.

L.A. Confidential (1997)

Genres

Crime, Mystery, Thriller

Director

Curtis Hanson

Country

USA

Cast

Kevin Spacey, Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kim Basinger, James Cromwell, Danny DeVito, David Strathairn, Ron Rifkin, Graham Beckel, Amber Smith, John Mahon, Paul Guilfoyle, Matt McCoy, Paolo Seganti, Simon Baker, Tomas Arana, Shawnee Free Jones, Darrell Sandeen, Marisol Padilla Sanchez, Gwenda Deacon, Jim Metzler, Brenda Bakke

Storyline

As corruption grows in 1950s Los Angeles, three very different cops - the golden boy (Guy Pearce) of the police force, a brutal cop (Russell Crower) and a celebrity detective (Kevin Spacey) - investigate a series of murders to find the truth behind the world of L.A. crime.

Opinion

Been on my watchlist forever because of Kevin Spacey, I finally watched L.A. Confidential. And I should have been disappointed because there wasn't a lot of Spacey, but I guess I can't be mad at a great film, can I? After all, I loved every second of it.

The film features a compelling, fascinating story about corruption with many interesting twists and so complex that requires you to follow it carefully so that you won't miss anything. Because as the story progresses and new twists are revealed, the mystery doesn't get solved, but it deepens even more. There are also several different and equally complex sub-plots that work beautifully together. There's even a love story, and it doesn't feel out of place. This is exactly how I like my crime stories.

In addition to the interesting story, there are also some very interesting and well-developed characters that are believable and a real pleasure to watch, especially Guy Pearce's Ed Exley, a young cop with a strong sense of justice and Russell Crowe's Bud White, a hothead detective aka the typical film noir anti-hero. Pearce and Crowe's performances only make the characters even more compelling. Kevin Spacey also gives one hell of a performance as Jack Vincennes, a cynical detective looking for the spotlight. The supporting cast as well does a wonderful job by delivering complex supporting characters.

Then there is the dialogue. It's simply brilliant. It will make you laugh, it will scare you and it will inspire you but the greatest thing it does, in my opinion, is contributing to character development. Exley, White and Vincennes really grow as men as the film progresses and it's not delivered only through the performances of those three phenomenal actors, but through the dialogue as well.

Also, the photography is wonderful and the score fits the film to perfection. And if you are a shootouts junkie, well, this film has enough to satisfy your cravings. 

Also Watched - The Wraith, The Lost Weekend

Also watched - The Wraith, The Lost Weekend

The Wraith (1986)
A mysterious figure in a turbo super car suddenly appears and begins killing a gang of dangerous car racing thugs.

The Lost Weekend (1945)
The desperate life of a chronic alcoholic is followed by a four-day drinking bout.

THE B-LIST: QUESTIONABLE MUSICAL MOMENTS #23 – THE APPLE

This isn’t the first time we’ve sampled The Apple here at The B-Movie Catechism, but the simple fact is that Menahem Golan’s gonzo musical/biblical allegory is a crap-filled cornucopia that never runs empty. For instance, in our review of the film we didn’t even get around to mentioning the brief sequence in which the entire movie comes to a screeching halt so that every single person on the planet can take part in a daily state sponsored exercise routine. Behold, if you dare, the national BIM Hour.

At first glance, this would appear to be some sort of government run torture program. I mean, “Hey hey hey, BIM’s on the way!” repeated ad nauseam for a straight hour. That’s worse than water boarding, right? But the citizens seem to love it, so that theory doesn’t really work. I suppose BIM Hour could be a national health care initiative, as the dialog hints at. After all, a fit populace would definitely cut down on expenditures. But no, there seems to be far too many portly participants for that to be the case. If the exercise hour is some part of BIMcare, it’s definitely one that’s not working.

That leaves ritual. As behavioral scientists Francesca Gino and Michael I. Norton noted in a recent post at Scientific American…

“People engage in rituals with the intention of achieving a wide set of desired outcomes, from reducing their anxiety to boosting their confidence, alleviating their grief to performing well in a competition – or even making it rain…. Recent research suggests that rituals may be more rational than they appear. Why? Because even simple rituals can be extremely effective… What’s more, rituals appear to benefit even people who claim not to believe that rituals work… Despite the absence of a direct causal connection between the ritual and the desired outcome, performing rituals with the intention of producing a certain result appears to be sufficient for that result to come true.”

Okay. So, what is the desired outcome BIM is hoping for with their daily dose of mandatory jazzercise? Well, in an article for the journal, Cultural Anthropology, sociocultural anthropologist Barry J. Lyons suggests rituals play an important part in discipline and the maintenance of social order. He states, “Anthropologists have long regarded ritual as a way that societies make cultural assumptions tangible and impress social structural principles upon participants.” Given that, the ritual of BIM Hour is most likely a way of reinforcing the populace’s collective voluntary submission to BIM. It’s the Nuremberg Rallies via way of the dance floor.

Ritual doesn’t have to be so sinister, though. Discussing the Christian ritual of the mass, the Catechism explains that…

“Signs and symbols taken from the social life of man: washing and anointing, breaking bread and sharing the cup can express the sanctifying presence of God and man's gratitude toward his Creator.  The great religions of mankind witness, often impressively, to this cosmic and symbolic meaning of religious rites.”

In the case of religion, then, the purpose of ritual is not merely to establish some form of social order (although some secular leaders have almost certainly attempted to use religion for such reasons). The rituals of religion are meant to do no less than allow its participants to experience God. Of course, that only works if people actually show up and participate in said rituals. Might want to remember that come next Sunday.

Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Genres

Action, Horror, Sci-Fi

Director

Paul W.S. Anderson

Countries

USA, UK, Italy, Canada

Cast

Sanaa Lathan, Lance Henriksen, Raoul ova, Ewen Bremner, Colin Salmon, Tommy Flanagan, Joseph Rye, Agathe de La Boulaye, Carsten Norgaard, Liz May Brice, Glenn Conroy, Karima Adebibe, Sam Troughton, Ian Whyte, Tom Woodruff Jr., Petr Jakl, Pavel Bezdek, Kieran Bew, Carsten Voigt, Jan Filipensky, Adrian Bouchet, Eoin McCarthy, Andy Lucas

Storyline

During an archaeological expedition on an island in the Antarctic Ocean, a team of archaeologists and scientists find themselves caught up in a battle between two alien races, aliens and predators. 

Opinion

It could have been worse. That's what I kept telling myself as the ending credits for Alien vs. Predator rolled out. Sure, it could have been better considering it's and Alien and Predator crossover, but despite all its flaws it still was fun to watch. 

And I'm really surprised because this film it's kind of a mess. The plot is uninspired and there are so many holes it's impossible to keep count. Wait, actually I'm not even sure this film has a plot. So no plot no holes I guess. Anyway, it's just terrible.

The characters aren't any better. They are paper-thin, uninteresting, stupid and they soon become boring as fuck. The character development is so little, they are dead and you barely know their names. I remember only two names, Lex  - because of Lex Luthor - and Sebastian - because I've never met or heard of any Italian named Sebastian. And the wooden acting surely doesn't help. 

However, he most surprising thing, script-wise, is the dialogue. The two franchises kind of have good dialogue; here it's just a mess. If feels like watching a parody of a sci-fi flick, that's how bad the dialogue is.

But it was fun. Well, at least the last part was. After a very long and tedious first part with the annoying humans, the aliens and predators show up, killing humans and each other, and the fun begins. The action sequences and special effects aren't anything special - they are average - but if compared with the rest of the film they really are great, and they make the watch more bearable. And although it's just your typical action flick action, it's fun. 

You Get Me Netflix Movie Review

You Get Me (2017) 

Watch You Get Me on Netflix
Written by: Ben Epstein
Directed by: Brent Bonacorso
Starring: Bella Thorne, Halston Sage, Taylor John Smith
Rated: TV-MA

Plot
After a fight with his girlfriend Alison (Halston Sage), Tyler spends the night with transfer student Holly (Bella Thorne). The next morning Alison takes him back, but Holly isn't done with Tyler, worming her way into every aspect of his life.

Verdict
This movie is just an outline of undeveloped ideas. The characters have no purpose other than to awkwardly advance the plot. There's no tension, and nothing to hold your interest. This sub-genre has been done better by so many other movies. It doesn't take much to eclipse this movie.
Skip it.

Review
You Get Me is incredibly derivative, owing a debt to one of the earlier examples in the sub-genre, Fatal Attraction (1987) which beget the Mark Wahlberg led Fear (1996) and Swimfan (2002). The movies feature a character obsessed when another character rebukes their advances. You Get Me contains ideas from those movies with a deranged teenager latching onto a guy after a one night stand and turning his life upside down because if she can't have him no one can.

There are numerous problems with this movie, mainly that none of the ideas are fully developed. Holly is crazy, but for no real reason. She's done this before but we don't know why. Giving her character more backstory that boilerplate crazy could have made us sympathetic towards her, or make her more of a villain. Doing something with the character is better than nothing. The movie shows she's violent, provides a news article she was institutionalized and presents that as backstory.
This dabbles in unreliable narrator, but Holly's step-mother plays a bit part and doesn't outright deny Holly's claims.

Tyler is mostly benign. He cheats on his girlfriend, though he claims they were broken up. That doesn't excuse him, and he could have been portrayed as more of a bad guy, generating more sympathy for Holly before we realize she's the bad guy, not Tyler. That doesn't happen. It would have helped.

Holly goes from obsessive to murderous in just a handful of scenes. It's a big leap with no basis. It happens so fast there's no tension or speculation to her actions. We know she did it. There's no mystery. Holly infiltrates Tyler's life overnight. Slowly having her wiggle into all aspects of his life would have given this a better since of dread. It needed something. There just isn't much here. It's a collection of ideas done better in other movies.

Holly doesn't have a grand plan or even a good plan. She's just here to fill space until the movie ends. I never imagined typing the phrase, I'd rather watch Swimfan, but there it is. To note, Swimfan isn't a good movie.

Gypsy Netflix Series Opening Title Video

Gypsy (2017-)
Season 1 - 10 episodes (2017)

Gypsy Season 1 premieres June 30

Naomi Watts is a psychiatrist that forms dangerous and intimate relationships with people in her patient's lives. Billy Crudup plays her husband.
This is directed by Sam Taylor-Johnson (Fifty Shades of Gray).