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- Review count9
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- First reviewNovember 3, 2015
- Last reviewOctober 31, 2017
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Filmfool's Reviews
![Rough Night [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray] [2017]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5947/5947717_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
2
Skilled Actresses Shine In A Crude Dud
on October 31, 2017
Posted by: Filmfool
from San Francisco
Verified Purchase:Yes
Jack Benny wrote that Marilyn Monroe had a natural understanding of how to do comedy. She appeared on his TV show in a sketch promoting "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes". Monroe knew how to play a funny scene absolutely straight, gleaning more laughs than if she'd employed a wink and a smile.
Scarlett Johansson grasps that same wisdom. Since Woody Allen's "Scoop" she's demonstrated the same high craft at comedy that she's shown in drama and action roles. She's a treat to watch on the screen in anything.
Here she stands a head and a shoulder above a very well-talented supporting cast of women who know how to milk farce. Unfortunately, their grace and skill get undermined by an idiot-level script written by the director and male lead.
I strongly suspect that the knowledgeable Lucia Aniello secured funding for a female ensemble film on the condition that it deliver a level of raunch equal to or greater than male-oriented crudities. In the days since "Putney Swope" and "Animal House", those have gotten gross and grosser.
When Clare Boothe Luce put the all-female "The Women" on stage, she cleverly gave us peeks at sacred female areas -- the dress shop fitting room, the manicurist's niche, the ladies' health gym, the Reno wives' dude ranch, the posh powder room in a ritz club. Aniello takes us on a spectacular failure of a bachelorette party.
The software guarding these reviews will not permit the rude words that fill the raw dialogue enlivening most of "Rough Night". The adept actresses tackle their tasks with aplomb, delivering truly good performances under the handicap of lackwit lines. That's the glory of the movie.
When Alfred Hitchcock undertook "The Trouble With Harry" he and screenwriter John Michael Hayes slyly contrived a great deal of black comedy based around inappropriate reactions to a fresh cadaver in the woods. Humor about how to dispose of an inconvenient body dates back at least to a very funny sequence in "The Arabian Nights" collection of Middle Eastern tales. The 2000 TV two-parter from Hallmark handles the material adeptly.
That well of mirth went dry by the time of "Rough Night", which offers an accidental corpse for our plucky team to wrangle. Johansson rises to the challenge of appearing interesting in even witless circumstances. Her co-stars second her valiantly.
Demi Moore has proven her acting chops and now can graciously offer herself in cameo roles to help struggling filmmakers. She made a heartfelt appearance in "Margin Call". Here she brings her best to the part of a polymorphous perverse neighbor.
The "Rougher Morning Edition" disc lards on extras giving us more views of the killer cast at work and play. However, watching gifted people attempt to raise roses from horsepuck does not enhance the base material they're struggling with.
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
Mobile Submission: False
No, I would not recommend this to a friend.
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![Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence [Blu-ray/DVD] [2 Discs] [2004]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5707/5707448_sa.jpg)
Posted by: Filmfool
from San Francisco
Verified Purchase:Yes
I first saw Japanese animation in 1968 when the "Speed Racer" TV series chronicled a young race car wannabe on his journey to competing in the Around the World Grand Prix. The series had a freedom of motion and daring you didn't get from "Jonny Quest" or "Spider-Man".
Japanese creators have helped guide the world's animated feature films and series for decades. The 1995 "Ghost in the Shell" revolutionized the field further. Supercharged by the imagination of elf-like director Mamoru Oshii, the creative team adapted graphic novel manga sources.
The visuals and action influenced Quentin Tarantino, shaped The Matrix of the Siblings Wachowski, and compelled every action and science-fiction filmmaker to rethink their product. The intricate philosophical thought of Oshii elevated a conventional plot into a classic of metaphysical cinema questioning identity and purpose.
In the time since I saw that original "Ghost" on the large screen a wonderland of off-shoots and re-imaginings have spread across the store shelves. Wikipedia can best explain the intertwinings of those movie, TV, and manga variations.
This movie, "Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence", deserves to be called the direct sequel to the original. Mamoru Oshii and his production crew have even further expanded the nature of animated cinema. The unique visuals and the haunting score by the original film's Kenji Kawai mesh to create a truly other-worldly revelation of how "cartoons" can achieve fine art.
Cyber-eyed Batou and family man Togusa, former partners of the action heroine known as the Major, still work for clandestine Section 9. They investigate murders of diverse owners of doll-sweet companion robots. Themes of exploited identity, fundamental relationships, and the malleability of memory parallel the action.
Fans of the Major, who vanished at the end of the original film, will detect her subtle influence on her old companions. Appreciators of basset hounds will find Gabriel, a dog modeled on Oshii's own, a touchstone for reality in a film of profound uncertainties. How do we exist with one another when what we experience may not prove trustworthy?
Both Oshii "Ghost In the Shell" motion pictures open eyes, ears, and minds far more thoroughly than most other animated offerings.
An advisory: This version has English dubbing, but no subtitles for the dialogue other than those which translate Japanese song.
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![The Flash: The Complete Third Season [Blu-ray]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/prescaled/500/500/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/16b5f3da-6f4d-4eeb-9b6b-e8e39ab83977.jpg)
The complete third season of The CW superhero series The Flash, following Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and his blinding speed as he continues to ward off enemies in Central city. All 23 episodes of the third season are included, as well as bonus features and deleted scenes.
Customer Rating
5
A Propulsive Story Arc with a Stunning Climax
on October 23, 2017
Posted by: Filmfool
from San Francisco
Verified Purchase:Yes
My first introduction to a speedster in comics came around 1952 with Johnny Quick, who's coyly referenced in "Flash" through the mathematical formula which gave him velocity and through the character Jesse Quick, his daughter in comic books. I vividly remember when the Barry Allen Flash came into being in 1956, ushering in the Silver Age of superheroes. He fought DC's strongest line-up of villains -- Captain Cold, the Mirror Master, Captain Boomerang, etc.
Carmine Infantino provided cool, modernistic art for action adventures written for early adolescents in a cool, modernistic style. Iris West graduated from Barry Allen's fiancee to "just good friend". Emotional temperature stayed low, as it did in the revived and revised Green Lantern, Atom, and Hawkman-Hawkgirl stories.
DC characterization remained equally cool and mostly vestigial. At one point a "Justice League of America" script had Wonder Woman as the monthly rotational chair of the group; the printed comic had Batman taking the role without a single word changed in dialogue. Try that after the Dark Knight revolution...
The 1990 "Flash" series starring John Wesley Shipp remained truer to old DC than not. By contrast, the current "Flash" has given us two seasons of complex, charming characters in complicated story arcs firmly based in human relations, not just hero-villain interaction. Grant Gustin's winsome Barry Allen anchors the stories to a slightly goofy, noble, flawed individual who screws up a lot and tries to bear the weight of his world on too slender shoulders.
His questionable choices at the end of Seasons One and Two have had huge consequences for the folks in this series, and have remolded the entire Arrowverse, particularly the "Arrow" series. The story arc for Season Three includes an alien invasion crossover with "Arrow", "Supergirl", and "Legends of Tomorrow". The writers top even that with an additional "Supergirl".crossover in musical format.
I thought the Season Five ending to the darker, fiercer "Arrow" wrenched my emotions. The finale to "Flash" Season Three took me on an open-mouthed roller coaster ride with characters I have come to love, respect, and enjoy on the deepest television level.
Themes exploring the meanings of family, responsibility for personal actions, and defeating the savage burden of despair have cornerstoned "Flash" from its first episode. The continuing characters have expanded remarkably since the beginning and each one continues to blossom even more fully this time around.
Special mention needs to go to Tom Cavanagh who has played a different Harrison Wells in each season. He brings more than one to this storyline, replacing the austere prior Wellses with a jiving ditz who still manages to rise to heroic stature when his team needs him.
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![DC's Legends of Tomorrow: The Complete Second Season [Blu-ray]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/prescaled/500/500/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/a967b217-df50-4b05-8a1e-bb5ef3c221ab.jpg)
Customer Rating
4
The team storms and performs
on October 9, 2017
Posted by: Filmfool
from San Francisco
Verified Purchase:Yes
The second season sidelines RIp Hunter in favor of Sara Lance, who develops skill and confidence as the new captain of the Waverider. Never short on personal combat, the show gives Caity Lotz and Neal McDonough and their stunt doubles epic work. The White Canary and Damien Darhk use their League of Assassins training against one another recurrently across the episodes.
For the first time DC's Arrowverse puts together a villain group. From the first season of "The Flash" Eobard Thawne returns to recruit Darhk and Malcolm Merlyn of "Arrow". Images of his dead partner Captain Cold begin to bother Mick Rory's thoughts as that very complex character undergoes yet more personality development synced with the plot arc.
The season plays fast and loose with our history, but celebrates the power of story to inspire human nobility. George Lucas (a character, not the man himself) makes a pivotal appearance underscoring how movies, our modern mythology, affect our personal destinies.
The series crosses over with "Supergirl", "Arrow", and "Flash" in an alien invasion plot that transcends the ordinary to examine issues raised in those other series about metahumans and "outsiders" whose abilities differ from the norm. The Legends themselves have to grapple with their own intrusive meddling in their own histories' flow. Gaining new members, battling private concerns, they truly start to gel as a team.
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Supergirl: The Complete Second Season [Blu-ray] [4 Discs]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/prescaled/500/500/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/b6d71ce4-6881-4a3e-a135-029e204775dd.jpg)
Customer Rating
5
Pleases the whole audience spectrum
on October 9, 2017
Posted by: Filmfool
from San Francisco
Verified Purchase:Yes
As a comics reader since 1952, I remember the arrival of Supergirl in the life of her cousin, Superman. This incarnation has freely adapted concepts and characters from the DC mythos. The second season maintains the bubbly charm of the first while deepening the very relevant themes of inclusion v. paranoia against aliens and "outsiders".
David Harewood had apparently complained about the limited range given his character, the Martian Manhunter. This season J'onn J'onzz takes a front and center role in a complex subplot involving a female Martian here on Earth as part of an alien bar crowd who interact strongly with the regular cast.
Supergirl's adopted sister makes a dramatic decision in her long-suppressed search for love, broadening the series' approach to diversity and acceptance. Maggie Sawyer, introduced in the comics in the 80's, becomes a significant other as a smolderingly hot Latina with her own relationship issues.
The themes of family, betrayal, trust, and deeply manipulative games continue to get developed nicely. Cat Grant steps aside. I miss her acerbic, wise adult presence. However, Supergirl/Kara Danvers/Kara Zor-El maintains that sparkly cheerleader persona with the fists of steel and eyes of fire that worked magic in the first season.
Talk by the producers in an audio accompanying the "Supergirl Lives!" episode tells us that the series has claimed equal attention from adult men, adolescent lads, adult women, and adolescent gals. "Arrow" apparently captures more female audience, while "The Flash" attracts more males. "Supergirl" charms all four segments equally -- as anyone watching the show could guess.
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Saving Mr. Banks [Blu-ray] [2013]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/4120/4120077_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
4
A look at the struggle that creates dreams
on September 15, 2017
Posted by: Filmfool
from San Francisco
Verified Purchase:Yes
The DIsney organization advised the BBC production team, but the British folks made their own artistic choices in this parable based on the P. L. Travers and Walt Disney encounters that led to the movie "Mary Poppins". Neither had comfortable childhoods. Both triumphed over personal pain and produced art enchanting millions.
The script smooths over Travers' real reaction to the Disnification of her archly mystical Edwardian nanny. However, her clashes and reconciliations with Walt and his people give Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks wondrously deep waters to swim in. The end sound track over the titles contains authentic recordings of Travers in fully cry demanding and debating with Disney's creative folks.
An ultimately satisfying meditation on how our lives become a statement about the world.
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
Mobile Submission: False
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Pride and Prejudice and Zombies [Includes Digital Copy] [Blu-ray] [2016]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/5082/5082007_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
4
An Ideal Cast In An Imaginative Adaptation
on August 12, 2016
Posted by: Filmfool
Verified Purchase:Yes
The book version added zombies to Jane Austen as exaggerated parody of the archetypal romance novel. The film plays everything with exquisite sobriety. If a plague of the undead had struck Regency England, here's how the Bennets, Mr. Darcy, and Lt. Wickham would have handled it all.
The cast could have starred in an absolutely straight adaptation of Austen, they're all that good. Lady Catherine's a very different, but a quite valid take on her ornery ladyship. Wickham's evil quite transcends the cad Jane intended, but understandably so.
Unlike The Asylum's history pastiches, the fully flavored art direction in this movie does justice to the Regency world Austen and Georgette Heyer fans know. The combats work beautifully, particularly Lizzie and Darcy's more-than-verbal sparring. I would willingly see a sequel, given the cliff-hanging ending.
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Predestination [Blu-ray] [2014]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/8831/8831018_sa.jpg)
Customer Rating
5
Intelligent, superbly acted science-fiction film
on March 19, 2016
Posted by: Filmfool
Verified Purchase:Yes
A startling adaptation of a Robert A. Heinlein short story, "'All You Zombies'", this film showcases Sarah Snook in a groundbreaking performance as a time-travel agent who fathers her own child. The production values stay high on a low budget. The shrewd script expands on the original plot, offering sharp dialogue, a mind-expanding mystery, and core characters who truly change.
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
I would recommend this to a friend!
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![Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! [Blu-ray] [2015]](https://pisces.bbystatic.com/image2/BestBuy_US/images/products/4358/4358519_sa.jpg)
Posted by: Filmfool
Verified Purchase:Yes
The original film had a fresh outlook and solid family values. The New York sequel lagged. It had scenes that marked time. It had more celebrities, but less drive and cohesion in the main story. This third outing gets the mojo back on track with well-spaced, ever- accelerating, ever-bigger anti-shark action. The focus on Fin and April's family dynamics stays solid. The freshness of the original has become the vitality of a well-oiled thrill machine.
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
My Best Buy number: 4017300801
I would recommend this to a friend!
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