Treydle's stats
- Review count108
- Helpfulness votes608
- First reviewNovember 10, 2011
- Last reviewJune 30, 2013
- Featured reviews0
- Average rating3.7
- Review comment count1
- Helpfulness votes0
- First review commentNovember 10, 2012
- Last review commentNovember 10, 2012
- Featured review comments0
Questions
- Question count0
- Helpfulness votes0
- First questionNone
- Last questionNone
- Featured questions0
Answers
- Answer count0
- Helpfulness votes0
- First answerNone
- Last answerNone
- Featured answers0
- Best answers0
![Haywire [DVD] [2012]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5089/5089219_sa.jpg)
Posted by: Treydle
from Saratoga Springs, NY
Imagine yourself being pursued by all manner of for-profit and government assassins. What do you do? Who can you trust? Can you trust anyone? And is it still possible to make this interesting?
Mallory Kane (played by Gina Carano) is a former Marine employed by a private contractor to deal with clandestine issues of national security for the United States government. When we first see her she is in a diner in a remote area by herself when, moments later, a former coworker by the name of Aaron (played by Channing Tatum) asks her to come with him back to their employer and assaults her when she refuses. Aaron (Tatum) has the upper-hand until a patron in the diner comes to Mallory’s aid and this allows Mallory to injure and incapacitate Aaron and escape with said patron, Scott (played by Michael Angarano) in his car. Worried this might be her only chance and looking for any help she can get, Mallory recounts the events that resulted in her being on the run to Scott (Angarano) while he mends her injuries from her encounter with Aaron and she drives. Meanwhile, Mallory’s employer and former boyfriend (for lack of a better word) Kenneth (played by Ewan McGregor) is making plans to contain the situation and the inevitable blowback that will result.
Though I didn’t know it going in, Carano’s voice was dubbed over in the film. Having heard her voice since seeing the movie, I’m not sure of the motivation. Usually the motive for dubbing is inferior acting, inability to speak the language, or incompatibility between the character and the voice of the actor portraying them. I can only assume that she fell short as an actress but it doesn’t show onscreen. The music chosen by and work of director Steven Soderbergh in addition to the fight scenes are all top-notch. Surprisingly so, as Channing Tatum has not made one film up to this point that I’ve watched without regretting it later. Great movie.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+4points
5of 6voted this as helpful.
![The Descendants [DVD] [2011]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/4818/4818099_sa.jpg)
Posted by: Treydle
from Saratoga Springs, NY
Two big decisions that could forever affect your family’s future are ahead of you. One of them already made, the other still being debated. Then you’re hit with news you never saw coming and expected to deal with it quietly.
Matt King (played by George Clooney) is lawyer in Hawaii and, by virtue of his profession, the sole executor a family trust that controls 25,000 acres of untouched land on Kauai that they will lose relatively soon thanks to the rule against perpetuities. In addition, he is married with two daughters and their mother has been in a coma for six months since a boating accident and the terms of her living will dictate that she will soon be disconnected from life-support. His younger daughter, Scottie (played by Amara Miller), is unaware and is holding out hope that her mother will wake up. His seventeen year-old daughter, Alex (played by Shailene Woodley), is away at a reform school, of sorts, and stills bears a great deal of resentment for her mother as a result of being sent away. She claims the motivation for that decision was her discovery of her mother’s infidelity and says as much to her father. First rejecting the idea, Matt (Clooney) eventually accepts it and then decides to confront the other man in her life, bringing his daughters along under the pretense of a much needed respite.
Hawaiian music isn’t really my taste. Perhaps it’s the tone, perhaps it’s that I don’t speak and could never learn the language. On the other hand, it does set the mood beautifully as do the many shots showcasing Hawaii’s natural majesty. Clooney brings the conflict to life with a typically gripping performance and the cast all back him to varying degrees. I will say the part of Brian Speer, the man King (Clooney’s) wife was having an affair with was not very well-acted by Matthew Lillard but it’s a part with little screen time and few lines so it’s forgivable. See this movie.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+6points
6of 6voted this as helpful.
Posted by: Treydle
from Saratoga Springs, NY
Imagine yourself being pursued by all manner of for-profit and government assassins. What do you do? Who can you trust? Can you trust anyone? And is it still possible to make this interesting?
Mallory Kane (played by Gina Carano) is a former Marine employed by a private contractor to deal with clandestine issues of national security for the United States government. When we first see her she is in a diner in a remote area by herself when, moments later, a former coworker by the name of Aaron (played by Channing Tatum) asks her to come with him back to their employer and assaults her when she refuses. Aaron (Tatum) has the upper-hand until a patron in the diner comes to Mallory’s aid and this allows Mallory to injure and incapacitate Aaron and escape with said patron, Scott (played by Michael Angarano) in his car. Worried this might be her only chance and looking for any help she can get, Mallory recounts the events that resulted in her being on the run to Scott (Angarano) while he mends her injuries from her encounter with Aaron and she drives. Meanwhile, Mallory’s employer and former boyfriend (for lack of a better word) Kenneth (played by Ewan McGregor) is making plans to contain the situation and the inevitable blowback that will result.
Though I didn’t know it going in, Carano’s voice was dubbed over in the film. Having heard her voice since seeing the movie, I’m not sure of the motivation. Usually the motive for dubbing is inferior acting, inability to speak the language, or incompatibility between the character and the voice of the actor portraying them. I can only assume that she fell short as an actress but it doesn’t show onscreen. The music chosen by and work of director Steven Soderbergh in addition to the fight scenes are all top-notch. Surprisingly so, as Channing Tatum has not made one film up to this point that I’ve watched without regretting it later. Great movie.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+1point
1of 1voted this as helpful.
![We Bought a Zoo [DVD] [2011]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/4859/4859217_sa.jpg)
Posted by: Treydle
from Saratoga Springs, NY
“Life is an adventure”. A cliché if ever there was one. But for some people, it just so happens to be true. And Matt Damon is portraying one such person in this latest family effort from acclaimed writer/director Cameron Crowe.
Benjamin Mee (Matt Damon) is an adventure columnist for a struggling newspaper, if that’s not redundant, and father of two children. His wife recently passed away due to illness leaving him to raise those children on his own. His daughter Rosie (played by Maggie Elizabeth Jones) is regularly losing sleep thanks to the hard-partying college students in the house next door. His son Dylan (played by Colin Ford), is a fourteen year-old artist who’s developed a taste for the macabre of late and who has recently been expelled from school. Rather than keep his job at the paper, which he would’ve held onto despite their financial problems thanks to his editor’s sympathy, Mee decides to sell his home and find more picturesque surroundings for him and his family. After rejecting several houses because they for dull or dime-a-dozen, they find a home situated on the grounds of a struggling zoo and embark on their greatest adventure yet.
It’s cutesy, I’m not denying that. But while Zookeeper had nothing else going for it, this is entertaining and interesting and I enjoyed it very much thanks to Crowe’s screenplay and direction, a typically interesting effort from Damon and an excellent supporting cast in Elle Fanning, Thomas Hayden Church and Scarlett Johansson.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+6points
8of 10voted this as helpful.
![Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close [DVD] [2011]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/4842/4842305_sa.jpg)
Must enter redemption code by expiration date to redeem UltraViolet offer. Does not include iTunes file.
Posted by: Treydle
from Saratoga Springs, NY
What do you do when you lose the one person you’re closest to before you’re ready? Do you simply give up and start the healing process or do you hold onto whatever’s left with all you have?
Without any explanation, we open on the funeral of jeweler, husband, and father Thomas Schell (portrayed in flashback sequences by Tom Hanks) but Oskar, his son (played by Thomas Horn) won’t tolerate the formality of a funeral with an empty coffin and as firefighters and rescue workers were unable to find his remains among the wreckage of the World Trade Center, the symbolic burial was the only option available to Linda, Thomas’s wife and Oskar’s mother (played by Sandra Bullock). Still struggling, Oskar (Horn) goes to a closet filled with his father’s things and, among them, finds a jacket with an envelope containing a key and the word “black” written on the outside. Where is the lock? What’s contained inside? After exhausting easily available sources of information (e.g. the doorman in his building and the neighborhood locksmith) Oskar decides to launch a massive investigation of any listing with the name Black contained with the five boroughs of New York City. An undertaking that would be difficult enough on its own but made even more so by his many phobias and unusual personality traits. Some of which include carrying a tambourine as a form of stress ball and avoiding public transportation at all costs.
Watching Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I couldn’t help but draw comparisons between it and August Rush, a 2007 film starring Freddie Highmore, Keri Russell and Jonathan Rhys Meyers. On the other hand, the receptions they received are complete mirror images. Audiences have not exactly embraced the former despite its Academy Award nomination while August Rush was generally maligned by critics and praised by audiences. That is the position I find myself in. To this day, I still watch my copy of August Rush while Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close just left me confused and otherwise dissatisfied. Good performances all around and a good comeback for Hanks after the Larry Crowne debacle, still I wasn’t impressed.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Share this review:
-2points
5of 12voted this as helpful.
![The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo [DVD] [2011]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/4816/4816161_sa.jpg)
Posted by: Treydle
from Saratoga Springs, NY
An investigation where there are no clues left to find, little if any cooperation from those around you, any of whom could be the killer you are looking for. What’s the plan? Is there one?
Mikael Blomkvist (played by Daniel Craig) is co-owner and writer for Millennium magazine and has recently suffered a professional setback that could bankrupt him and his publication. An unscrupulous man with alleged criminal dealings has won a libel suit that might end his career. Soon after, however, Henrik Vanger (played by Christopher Plummer) makes him an offer. Find out who is responsible for the disappearance and likely death of his niece Harriet 40 years earlier. He also believes that whoever’s responsible is a member of his family. The family that lives on the same large estate they did during the disappearance and somehow manage to avoid speaking to each other. Blomkvist is promised a substantial salary in addition to evidence that will bring about the demise of the man who brought the libel suit against him. When he asks if he might employ a research assistant, Vanger’s (Plummer’s) lawyer recommends the woman who did the background check on Blomkvist before they hired him. A troubled loner with a peculiar appearance by the name of Lisbeth Salander (played by Rooney Mara).
Now I have no doubt that the books on which this film and its 2009 Swedish language predecessor were based on are better than the movie. Not because I’ve read them. In actuality, I haven’t read a book since high school. But since people who do read the books first ALWAYS say that the book is better, than it must be the case. It couldn’t possibly be an effort on their part to sound and feel superior. Putting that aside, Craig as Blomkvist was a surprisingly wise choice and Plummer, along with others, make for an intriguing, albeit despicable Vanger family. But the real star is Rooney Mara as the brilliant, beautiful, and unstable Lisbeth. Despite a few small roles in other films and guest appearances in numerous television series, Mara’s most recognized for her performance in The Social Network. That role was child’s play compared to Lisbeth. This is truly a breakout performance that, one would hope, could bring a slew of bigger roles and a long successful career.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+5points
15of 25voted this as helpful.
![The Ides of March [DVD] [2011]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/4614/4614905_sa.jpg)
Posted by: Treydle
from Saratoga Springs, NY
Is a principle worth the sacrifice of the greater good? What if the agent of that change is not who you thought they were? Questions regularly posed in politically-themed dramatic efforts and so posed in this latest offering from long-time Hollywood favorite George Clooney and the recent favorite of movie-goers Ryan Gosling.
Stephen Meyers (played by Gosling) is a veteran of numerous political campaigns and a revered media maestro. He’s in a bitter contest seeking the Democratic Party nomination for his candidate. That being Mike Morris, the governor of Pennsylvania (played by George Clooney). Because of peculiar voting rules, his is most likely going to be defeated by Republican voters who are voting in their opponents’ primary in hopes of seeing a weaker candidate that they could trounce in a general election. With another upcoming primary that, if won, could clinch the nomination. To win the latter contest, however, they would need to strike the kind of deal that the candidate refuses to make on moral grounds. All this is merely the foreground while the background is replete with backstabbing and illicit affairs.
I am not one of those who only recently heard of Gosling thanks to much-lauded efforts such as Blue Valentine, Drive, and Crazy, Stupid, Love. I have known of him since the independent 2001 film The Believer. And he is true-to-form here as a man who’s greatest weakness is his faith in his leaders and purpose. Everyone, Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, are doing superior jobs in compelling roles. That said, my tastes run more toward films that show American politics closer to what we wish it was, not what it actually is. Dave, The American President, and The Contender to name three. This isn’t that.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Share this review:
-2points
3of 8voted this as helpful.
![J. Edgar [DVD] [2011]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/4709/4709587_sa.jpg)
Must enter redemption code by expiration date to redeem UltraViolet offer. Does not include iTunes file.
Posted by: Treydle
from Saratoga Springs, NY
With no real knowledge of history, someone asked “who was the most powerful man in the country during the sixties and seventies” would probably answer with the name of a president. JFK, LBJ, or Nixon, most likely. And they’d be wrong. During all their turns as chief executive, only one man had all of them quaking in their boots.
J. Edgar Hoover (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is dictating his autobiography to a young FBI agent and this provides the sequence of events for the film. The beginning of his relationship with long-time secretary and confidant Helen Gandy (played by Naomi Watts), the creation and growth of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and those prominent cases that helped to garner press coverage for the Bureau and Hoover specifically. Chief among those is the Lindbergh kidnapping. But we find out later during a private moment between Hoover and his deputy, Clyde Tolson (played by Armie Hammer) that his recollections are usually embellished and occasionally flat-out lies. And while the relationship of Hoover and Tolson has been the subject of much speculation, the film does little to explore it.
If you read and remember my review of Water for Elephants, than you know I hate Leonardo DiCaprio. That hatred, however, has not stopped me from enjoying several of his movies in the theater and purchasing them on DVD. The Aviator, Blood Diamond, and, most recently, Inception to name a few. I also enjoy Clint Eastwood’s work as both a director and an actor despite serious missteps like True Crime and Blood Work. And while I’ve never liked Hoover, I was anxious to see this film on his life. When you start off intending to make a film about a paranoid, power-mad, cross-dresser with a penchant for blackmail and who is alleged to have had an affair with his second-in-command, ending up with a dull finished product is practically an accomplishment and that’s what happened. Perhaps any one film is not enough to offer real exploration of this polarizing historical figure, but with the cast and crew already mentioned and a script by the same writer who brought us the 2008 biopic Milk with Sean Penn in the title role, this was a disappointment and a rather significant one, at that.
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
Share this review:
-7points
1of 9voted this as helpful.
![Tower Heist [DVD] [2011]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/4769/4769749_sa.jpg)
Posted by: Treydle
from Saratoga Springs, NY
You work all your life in the service industry with the hopes of a comfortable retirement 25 or so years down the road. Meanwhile, the money in your paycheck earmarked for your pension has evaporated into thin air. While this might be enough to make anyone snap, imagine being at the beck and call of the man responsible for bankrupting, not only your retirement fund, but that of all your coworkers.
The Tower is home to the most expensive real estate in New York City. But the real draw of The Tower is not the location or the amenities in any of the individual apartments, but the staff which is on duty 24/7. The penthouse apartment is occupied by The Tower’s wealthiest resident Arthur Shaw (played by Alan Alda) who is the CEO of a high-return investment group. When his fund is exposed to law enforcement and in the press as a Ponzi scheme, it falls to building manager Josh Kovacs (played by Ben Stiller) to inform the staff of The Tower that he’d invested their pensions with Shaw and that said pensions are most likely lost. And during all this, Shaw (Alda) is under house arrest in The Tower. But when a doorman just shy of his retirement becomes despondent and attempts suicide, Kovacs resolves to find the rainy day fund that FBI Agent Claire Denham (Tea Leoni) assures him Shaw is hiding. All in the hopes of retrieving what’s rightfully theirs Kovacs, Charlie Gibbs (Casey Affleck), the building concierge and Josh’s brother-in-law, and Mr. Fitzhugh (played by Matthew Broderick), a former Merrill Lynch employee who was evicted from The Tower after losing his job, savings, and marriage, join forces and begin devising a strategy for the caper. But knowing they’re in over their heads, Josh enlists Slide (played by Eddie Murphy), a thief and Kovacs neighbor who he once went to school with.
I’ve never been a big fan of Ben Stiller and while I have great appreciation for Eddie Murphy’s early work (the Beverly Hills Cop series, Coming to America and even The Distinguished Gentleman) I’ve long-believed his best years as anything but a voice actor were behind him. That said, I enjoyed this film a great deal.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
+4points
7of 10voted this as helpful.
![Everybody's Fine [DVD] [2010]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/4172/4172306_sa.jpg)
Posted by: Treydle
from Saratoga Springs, NY
Frank Goode (played by Robert DeNiro), a widower and father of four children is desperate to strengthen his relationship with said children after the passing of their mother, his wife, as she'd been the one they always went to. Be it for advice, consolation, or simply company, they would call his wife first. Rather than accept that, Frank resolves to get all of his children together for dinner, but his first attempt is met with last-minute cancellations from three children and no reply whatsoever from the fourth. Rather than accept this, he decides to travel the country and ask them in person despite his failing health due to poor working conditions.
It's not one of those diabetes inducing family films we've become accustomed to, but there's a lot more truth to it than most and that's what makes it quality.
I would recommend this to a friend!
Share this review:
0points
0of 0voted this as helpful.
Treydle's Review Comments
![The Amazing Spider-Man [Includes Digital Copy] [DVD] [2012]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/6836/6836709_sa.jpg)
Overall
4 out of 5
4 out of 5Great superhero film
By Treydle
from Saratoga Springs, NY
Can you reboot a franchise that once held the record for largest opening weekend in history? Can you create something original using a character who was first introduced to the world in 1962?
Peter Parker, age 4, (played by Max Charles) is playing hide and seek one night when he discovers someone has broken into his father’s study. His father, Richard (played by Campbell Scott) sees this and takes some important papers, his wife Mary (played by Embeth Davidtz) and his son to the home of his Aunt May (played by Sally Field) and Uncle Ben (played by Martin Sheen). Peter is left in that home for his own safety and never sees his parents again. At least a decade later, Peter (played as a teenager by Andrew Garfield), is being bullied by an athlete named Flash Thompson (played by Chris Zylka) and has a crush on a student named Gwen Stacey (played by Emma Stone). When Peter returns home at the end of the day, bruised and beaten by Flash, he finds papers in his father’s briefcase that show he once worked with a man named Dr. Curt Connors (played by Rhys Ifans). Connors works at a company named Oscorp, so Peter disguises himself as an intern to gain access to the lab and, hopefully, Connors. Little did he know, the tour for new interns was led by Gwen Stacey. She knows immediately that the ID badge that Peter’s wearing belongs to someone else, but allows him to continue on the tour regardless. Peter sneaks away from the group and finds a lab filled with genetically-modified spiders that are producing biocable. As is often the case with people who bother animals for no reason, Peter gets bitten. Security eventually finds him and escorts him out of the building. While on the subway, he discovers that he gained far more than knowledge from his visit.
Now, I saw the 2002 Spider-Man film starring Tobey Maguire and the 2004 sequel. I liked it initially, but over time, I grew tired of it. I thought 2004’s Daredevil was a much better film, despite mixed reviews from moviegoers and critics. Not to mention, I believe Kirsten Dunst gave a less-than-stellar performance as Parker’s love interest, Mary Jane Watson. Not to mention the irony of having blonde Kirsten Dunst dye her hair red to play Mary Jane Watson and then having redhead Emma Stone dye her hair blonde to play Gwen Stacey. Forgetting all that for a second, this was a much better film than the one we got from Sam Raimi. Director Marc Webb and company have created something with a much darker, more serious tone, a better story, and a solid conclusion. I enjoyed this film very much.
Treydle
Saratoga Springs, NY
Answer
November 10, 2012
Not on Sony's payroll. Or anyone else's for that matter. As for Sam Raimi, I have great respect for his work as the writer/director of "Evil Dead 2", "Army of Darkness", and "The Hudsucker Proxy". The "Spider-Man" film series, on the other hand, turned webbing into something that just came along naturally with the spider bite and turned Mary Jane Watson into a damsel in constant distress who spoke in a whisper most of the time. Whether Dunst was chosen by Raimi or forced on him by the studio, I believe the film was worse as a result. As for having a pleasant day, while it has little if anything to do with you, that seems unlikely. At any rate, I appreciate you saying that you respect my opinion and find my comments well-written. Perhaps you could submit a question with regard to a film on which we are of like minds. To sum up, feel free to respond or not and thanks for the input.
0points
0of 0voted this comment as helpful.
Treydle's Questions
Treydle has not submitted any questions.
Treydle's Answers
Treydle has not submitted any answers.