Duane Hogans

Very slow moving. Was tempted to give it a 2 star, but it finally picked up in the last 20 minutes. Will not give spoilers, but there’s some over the top, unbelievable plot twists that beg credibility, although you will strongly suspect something about Bujold’s & Lithow’s characters anyway. Thankfully, it’s only about 90 minutes & can be fast-forwarded (without missing anything).

The juice is probably not worth the squeeze. Most of the endings are a letdown, compared to the drama that is built up. Every episode pretty much begins in a court room, without the audience knowing what the crime is (hence The Accused title). A series of flashbacks begin to illuminate the story that led to the opening court room scene. The essence of the show is more about a character study of the person being accused, rather than the actual crime itself. It can get pretty tedious though, going through the journey to trial’s culmination. Finally, most of the verdicts are kind of a letdown…nothing surprising & rather mundane. The viewer is left with the character study, which is fine, but not a lot of meat.

A lot of hype that could have been told in about 30 minutes. Don’t know if this was Kendricks’ first attempt at directing, but this one left me wanting something more filling. Thankfully, she was smart enough to limit this White Castle burger of a movie to 95 minutes. Since this was “based on a true story” I am sure there was more information from trial transcripts and newspapers that could fill out this hollow story with no real ending, other than the murderer was caught, released on bail & eventually caught again….died in prison. Now, that’s a movie by ITSELF, instead of focusing on a 20 minute Dating Game scene & other surely concocted enactments of killer with his victims.

Let’s take away the fantasy aspect of her not aging and all the subsequent issues associated with relationships, ethics and physical deterioration. This was one of the slowest movie flicks I have ever seen. Every, and I mean EVERY, conversation was chocked with philosophical dilemmas for Adaline and confusion for those she was speaking to. The only real drama, was how it was going to end with her handsome, but extremely boring love interest. Thankfully, I watched it on streaming and didn’t have to stick around to see the conclusion of this dog. Kathy Baker & Harrison Ford also give cookie cutter performances as the boyfriend’s intelligent, but unrealistically bewildered parents. It was all too slow and too much.

You will have to be in this for the long haul (which we were not). The movie combines real world physics, imagined doom day scenarios, super high tech video head gear and aliens trying to flee to earth. The premise is promising, but the plot jumps around quite a bit. As soon as you think you understand where it’s going, the director throws another red herring in. A lot of filler, when at its heart, it’s a twist on aliens needing to find a new home.

Anyone even remotely related to the high pressure of sales will appreciate this movie. You will laugh. You will cry. You will certainly empathize with the stress levels associated with selling ANY type of product or service. It is a timeless movie that will always be relevant. Top notch and varied performances from all actors, although Alec Baldwin stands out in a ruthless 10 min performance early on.

Ugh! I see the average rating is 7.7? What did I miss? Save yourself and watch Harrison Ford’s 1990 version. It too, had its problems with flashbacks and momentum, but at least it only lasted 2 hours. I could barely get through the first episode of this “mystery” with Jake, who is usually a reliable actor. It’s just that there is no here, here, after we find out his wife knows of the previous affair within the first 20 minutes. There are a lot, I mean a lot, of steamy flashbacks between Jake & the dead associate. I can only imagine there are plenty more in upcoming episodes. There is a lot of filler and I refused to indulge in future episodes.

It was certainly watchable, but by the second hour, it had run out of steam. Quickly deteriorating into 7 character studies, as the world implodes around them, one feels this movie could have been so much better. This movie isn’t much more a disaster flick, disguised as something more. And of course, with an expected disappointing ending.

Barely a 3. This is beneath Jolie. She must have needed a quick payday, but at a 20M budget, she couldn’t have scored too much. Overall acting was decent, but the plot was super flawed. At the very beginning a powerful law enforcement official & his family are killed by 2 fastidious hitmen & it’s off to the races. They then seek a forensics accountant (and his young son) who had something to do with hiding money for the official…at least I think so. It’s never really clear, cuz it’s only a plot device to bring in Jolie, who’s a disgraced forest firefighter. The father is killed, boy escapes and Jolie finds him by chance. Together they try to outrun assassins, a raging fire & personal demons. As an insult to injury, Taylor Sheridan decides that he is not once going to show anyone climbing this extremely tall look-out station! There is no elevator & we never even see a ladder. At least 4 people appear in this look-out station, including the boy & a very pregnant wife of a sheriff deputy (who’s also there). Awful. Just awful.

Great concept, but too many bad plot devices & coincidences. For example, there is the car driven by the kid, who kills a kid on a motorcycle (coincidentally a kid, whose dad is a mobster chief). Well, the motorcycle’s broken handle just happens to fall from underneath the car as it leaves the police garage....this after the assigned thief had driven it around the city & then probably being towed to police garage. The problem with this? Kind of a spoiler alert, but you probably already know the series’s plot line of a judge’s kid accidentally killing a mobster’s son. To continue, the cop investigating the theft just happens to witness the handle drop! Oh vey! So, enjoy Cranston agonizing about his moral dilemmas, but also expect a lot of silly things like the above, to try to move the plot along. Your choice.