Edward Bombaro

Good Liar was recommended to me, after giving it a go I was deeply disappointed. As a fan of both Ian McKellen and Helen Mirren, I assumed only the best. At first I appreciated seeing McKellen portraying the con-man bad guy, he had a command of the role that was appealing. Helen Mirren was surprisingly appealing as a widower looking for companionship. It starts to appear as if the con-man has reached his desired goal and is falling for who had previously been his prey. Then the story falls apart! It lapses into noir-like flashbacks where McKellen teenage self is actually a German teen who takes advantage of Mirren's teenage self in late World War II Germany. It's then the movie turns to rubbish, Mirren's character turns out to be a con-woman extracting revenge 60 plus years later, the con man's partners somehow align with Mirren's character Betty, it falls apart in plot holes over lapping plot holes. The movie trudged through 100 minutes of rising action to its climax and just stops, no falling action or resolution. There were opportunities for the story to have set up background and developed meaningful resolutions above revenge and vice without happy romance and still ending in tragedy. Good Liar instead cuts corners and takes the easy way out leaving no conclusion to the central plot and loose ends. Mirren's turn of Betty into con-woman felt forced in a rubbish script and poorly carried by her acting. This was intermingled with plot holes surrounding Betty and her health which are written off by the ambulance staff, emergency room staff, treating doctors, and pharmacist part of large intricate lie set up by Betty to support her claim of a current and history of mini-strokes. Other plot issues surround Betty's character that create plot holes or lack believability aa we learn her house is a safe house set up to lure Ray, McKellen's character, to ease, the connection to and ability to turn Ray's long time con partner to betray Ray, and then the noirish flashbacks to WWII that do not connect to one another and create other plot holes. I don't think I could suffer through a second viewing of Good Liar.

I was fascinated by the adverts I saw regarding gentleman and Moscow, but I wasn't sure exactly what I was getting into, nor was I aware this was a novel. While I have to admit at times the first few episodes plod little bit, I was captivated very quickly by the characters, the premise of the story, and was enthralled waiting to see what would happen next. I can understand criticisms of the plot and characters of the story being Limited schedule for 95% of everything we see occurs within the Metropal Hotel, and we are really only seeing things through the perspective of Alexander. There are references made through the series to the horrors that were occurring during and after the Revolution to the Russian people on the whole, the plot and premise are not about the politics, the revolution, and its effects on the masses in Russia politically and socially, but rather a tragic story of love, loss, family, and patriotism to a home country that was lost in a long period of upheaval and chaos. Insightful viewer is able to conclude however that Alexander, Anna, Nina, and Sophia affected, compromised, troubled, and disturbed by what little is presented about the turbulence in Russia and are both directly and indirectly affected by it, adding to the emotion and tragedy of the story. I pay no credence to the staunch criticisms of casting choices being historically incorrect, racially incorrect, or racially inappropriate. The roles were played very well and the actors who played them embodied the struggles the characters faced. (For what it is worth, I think the harshness of the criticisms against casting black and brown actors in Gentleman in Moscow is a greater show of narrow-mindedness of the viewing audience who are 'upset' regarding the 'historical accuracy' of a fictional story.) It was easy for me anyway to become engrossed in Alexander's struggles to adapt, his love of his country simultaneous to his hate of what the revolution had forced this country to become, the difficult Romance Anna and Alexander share, as well as the development and struggles Sophia faces while in Alexander and Anna's care. It was however disappointing to see a lack of development of Nina's character and quick and convenient disposal of her part in the storyline. Having not read the book I do not know how accurate the transition of needless character may be from its original written context into the Cinematic form, but by the end of the 8th episode Nina feels like a painfully unresolved loose end that deserved better closure. It is rare that I find episodic productions that enthrall me as greatly as Gentleman in Moscow has, and in that respect I am satisfied with you overall story, production, and value of what I have seen. In the same breath, I'm slightly disappointed this is a miniseries as I did so enjoy the many aspects presented on screen and truly came to love and respect Alexander and Anna. I realize also due to the nature of the timeline of the events of the series a second series of episodes would add nothing of value to the story. Instead I'm going to root through the muck of streaming telly hoping to find something new that will comparably stimulate my intellect and Imagination

I went into watching Zombie Town with reasonable expectations, I knew it would be child/adolescent oriented as is the market for R.L. Stein literature, but I had higher than average hopes for a movie featuring comedy veterans Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, and Bruce McCullough. To say the least I was greatly disappointed; this movie had no redeeming qualities whatsoever! None of the comedy veterans were used in a meaningful way, their acting and wit was buried in a bad script, poor costuming, and exceptionally poor special effects. The child and teenage actors seemed to be forced and almost under duress, they weren't believable and although they has most of the screen time just plodded through with no enthusiasm. Usually R.L. Stein movies are decent and effort is put into them, Zombie Town is not an example of this. Everything about it seemed painfully low budget at an almost Ed Wood movie level. The computer special effects were poor and heavily pixelated almost as if produced on software for systems operating Windows 95! The redeeming qualities about Ed Wood movies like visible strings, poor model details, and cardboard tombstones are not present in Zombie Town, it feels like a high school film student's semester project! It is light hearted "horror" meant to be a campy Zombie flick, but it doesn't pull it off. The zombies are "soul zombies" who pass the condition with a flash of white computer light and glitter, there is no gore or zombie cannibalism. It leans a little more towards comedy than scary, but scary is a subjective term as the zombiesm feels more like bad Sci-fi. This is not an adult move, definitely for 8 to 12 year olds. In a way it reminds me of a very prolonged episode of a show that appeared on Nickelodeon in the late 1980s and early 1990s called Are You Afraid of the Dark; Unfortunately it didn't fill me with the longing to reminisce, just a desire to get it over with!

'Dead End' captures the best parts of comparable horror thrillers like 'Black Cadillac' and adds an almost black comedy twist. A narrow number of set locations create a psychological thriller edge. Unfortunately the movie lacks in other ways. The script has little substance and quickly becomes tedious. The film is low budget and lacks in gore content when it was seriously needed. The acting is either flat or over the top.