Tag Archives: Based on a True Story

Ford v Ferrari

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I remember this film getting a ton of promotion when it was first coming out. You couldn’t walk a few steps without seeing some kind of advertisement or poster. I can see why since everyone loves cars and you would definitely at least now about both companies. I can’t say that I ever followed the competitions much though so at least whoever would win, I wouldn’t know the outcome much. It’s a pretty good movie but one that is hampered by a pretty bad ending. I suppose it is usually difficult to change any parts of the ending when you’re based on a true story but if there was ever a time to do it, this would be it.

The story effectively has two main characters. First you have Shelby who used to be a great driver but unfortunately he can no longer race at high speeds anymore. His heart just can’t keep up with it and so everything gets really blurry. He now works as someone who repairs and sells cars. One day he is approached by Iacocca representing Mr. Ford. He wants Shelby’s help in creating the ultimate race car so they can win Le Mans. Shelby figures this is pretty much impossible since Ferrari has such a strong hold on that race but they are willing to spend anything so why not right? He knows just the man for the job.

The top racer around is Miles. He has won many races over the years but unfortunately they don’t pay the bills very well since his bad attitude often costs him any shot of getting a sponsor. So he’s retired from the business at this point but Shelby pushes him back in. Perhaps by having the best racer and the best car they can actually have a shot at this. There are corporate suits trying to get in the way though, specifically Beebe who didn’t get along with Miles when they first met and now has a huge grudge. The grudge is so big that he would rather lose than see Miles come out on top here.

There is definitely a lot of drama here. I don’t know enough about the historical events to say how accurate it is or not but either way it is very entertaining and that’s the important part. I like the feud between Ferrari and Ford. It makes for a good reason as to why Ford is trying to hard to win this one. He feels like he absolutely has to win this or all is lost. That’s why Mr. Ford is a bit disappointing later on as he seems to lose that fire in favor of the suits calling the shots. Even leaving the race midway to go out and eat seemed a bit odd. I know it’s 24 hours so you need to go somewhere but have the 5 star food go to his suite or something since it’s so important to him.

Allowing Beebe to be the head of the race division again after telling Shelby that he would have no boss was also an odd move. It just seems like Mr. Ford’s mind can be easily changed and his big speeches don’t amount to much since his mind can be changed so easily. It’s not a great look for a man who considered himself to be a real power player. He gets manipulated with ease so while Beebe is a worse character, Ford just looks weak. Beebe being so petty that he would sabotage his own team is just an awful look for the guy. He’s really lucky that he wasn’t fired at this point.

The only executive I actually liked was Iacocca. He was one of the few guys who would stand up for himself and did well during the first board meeting. He didn’t let Shelby deter him the whole time and he had a voice with a good amount of power. Ultimately he still won’t try to rock the boat so at best he will give Shelby a heads up and then dip but I appreciate his doing at least that much. I don’t think most of the others would have done that.

As for Miles, he does get himself into a whole lot of trouble by being so emotional. Shelby tries to help him on several occasions and Miles usually find a way to get himself into trouble. I don’t blame him for being upset at being put on the bench at the last second though. That did feel like a betrayal so I don’t blame him but other scenes like throwing the wrench and causing a scene at the race weren’t good looks. His wife certainly has a hard time of it with everything going on but ultimately she did good to be very supportive when it counted. I thought she was a really fun character and helped to flesh out his side of the plot.

While Miles had his issues off the track, he certainly lived up to the hype on it. He was the best driver without anyone being even close. He knew the right turns to take and breaking all of those records was really impressive. I’d say a good part of why the film is good was due to him being one of the main characters. Additionally Shelby did a great job on his side of things and I would say that he was the best character.

Shelby knew how to play the corporate game while also making sure that things went well on the track. He would stop people from trying to sabotage his racer and he also played some tricks on the rival. Shelby was a big time competitor and his only mistake I would say was being passive with Miles at the end. He should have just told him to race hard and keep going as normal. Ultimately he gave Miles a choice but in a way that still made it seem like slowing down was the right call and I can’t say that I agreed with that at any point. Even if the person suggesting this idea wasn’t trying to mess the heroes up, it just makes no sense. It’s super risky to slow down and don’t you want to go as fast as you can to set more records? That would have been the right way to do it.

Ultimately a lot of characters share the blame for the ending. In the end I suppose Ford was unable to get past the bureaucracy no matter how much the leader thought he could. Ford is still a very top to bottom organization in this film and that does prevent things from being done efficiently and in the right way. There is a time and a place for it but it certainly came as a detriment in every possible moment during this movie.

Overall, Ford V Ferrari is a solid movie. It’s well written and has a lot of good characters. The pacing is good so you are really engaged from start to finish and don’t really notice the length. I did not like the ending of the film which definitely does sour the experience and takes away most of the replay value though. You probably wouldn’t want to watch it again after the first showing. I would still recommend you watch it at least once though. It’s clear that a lot of effort was put into this and they really did a good job of creating this film from top to bottom. You definitely get to experience what it’s like to drive really fast.

Brian’s Song

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It’s been a little while since I saw a film based on a true story. Brian’s Song is a story about two NFL running backs and I have to say that I didn’t really know about either of them before the movie. They were just a little before my time but it was cool to see the NFL highlights and learn more about them through the film. I’d say that the movie does a good job with the adventure. Of course I can’t speak to how accurate it all may be, but as a cinematic experience it does the job.

The movie starts with Gale heading to practice as this will be his first season with the Chicago Bears. There he meets up with the veteran Brian who is currently the running back but he’s been in decline a bit. Brian starts off by messing with Gale a bit with some pranks but eventually they get to be good friends. Gale even ends up becoming the starter right away because of his incredible talents rushing the ball. Brian fortunately takes this in good spirits and they even get to share a room and help each other to succeed further. Sadly this cannot last as Brian becomes incredibly ill and may not make it. Can he be saved or is it all over?

As this is based on a true story I suppose it isn’t really a spoiler but at the same time if you don’t know about these events, I figured I’d keep them under wraps just in case. Either way you can bet that this is a very emotional film as movies based on true stories usually tend to be about dramatic events. Why make a movie about an every day situation right? The movie is fairly short as it’s just barely over an hour so the movie doesn’t need to try and stretch the premise out much. It’s able to just go from scene to scene fairly quick.

Of course I would have liked to have seen some more Football highlights but as it stands we got a good amount of them. The main cast is also fairly small as the true focus is on Gale and Brian. The coach gets a decent role as well and I thought he handled all of the situations well. You could tell that he was a good guy and was always willing to do what was best for the team even if it meant that he might be a bit unpopular with some of the players. He just did his job and kept it moving.

I give Brian a lot of credit for not being jealous of Gale as well. A lot of times with movie like this and even in real life you’ll see jealousy start to emerge when the starter is overtaken like this. In any sport there is a lot of pride involved and even more once you’re at the top. You know that Brian wished he could be out on the field but he would just use that as motivation to work even harder as opposed to trying to take any shots at Brian. It was the right attitude to have and it was a real credit to his character.

That brief time where he got to be the starting fullback while Gale was the starting running back was definitely the deal point in their careers. Meanwhile Gale did everything the right way too. He kept on going with 100% effort on all plays and didn’t hold back just because he was friends with Brian. Gale was as supportive as he could be and they really did get along quite well. Gale even overcame his fear of public speaking to give a good speech about Brian later on.

The talent never went to his head and you could see how Gale was incredibly good at playing during his games. One of the fun parts of Football is making friends and getting that feeling of comradery and this movie really handled that quite nicely. Whether you’re a fan of Football or not I think you’ll be able to appreciate the film’s strong writing and solid main characters. The pacing is good and it’s just a well made movie.

It would be nice if the film could have had a happier ending but at the end of the day when you’re based on a true story there is only so much that you can do. Ideally it would be fun to change things a bit so that everyone runs off into the sunset but doing that would likely not go over very well with the viewers. You’re expected to follow the path wherever it takes you and so this film did that.

Overall, Brian’s Song is a good movie. There’s not a whole lot to say about it in part because of how short the film is but also because the plot is very direct. It’s not the kind of movie where there is a lot of lore to talk about or scenes to explain in detail. It’s really a film about bonding over Football and dealing with life’s challenges as they come. So if you’re up for a rather heavy film then this is a good one to check out and the timing is good since we are in Football season right now. It can help you pass the time by until the next games start.

Zero Dark Thirty

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This review is of the edited TV-14 version of the film. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version would be more negative

Time for a fairly long film about the manhunt to find bin Laden. This one takes place over around 10 years and a lot of dead ends along the way so you can see why it’s so long. It seems like they definitely really wanted to go into a lot of detail here in how many lines had to be crossed in order to get to the destination. As a result you won’t find too many likable characters here as they’re all willing to become villains in order to save the day.

The movie introduces us to Maya whose sole mission is to find Bin Laden. No matter how many years or attempts it takes, she figures she will keep on going until she ha accomplished her mission. She has to keep up with the times though as initially the main tool to use is torture but then that’s outlawed so she has to take more political approaches like bribes and threats. As the film goes on she continues to move higher and higher up in rank until the mission is finally done.

Right off the bat I can say that you’ll only be able to tolerate this film if you can get past the excessive torture scenes. These really go in depth and try to be as violent as possible. The scenes just go on and on and on so you want to be through with the first part as soon as possible. Once the characters are out of that side of the business the film gets to be a little better.

It does tend to drag on though as the pacing here isn’t always very good. There are a lot of lingering shots that could have been trimmed and would have also helped the movie speed up. There’s nothing wrong with being a long film but you have to be able to do it while keeping the pacing fast. Otherwise what happens is you end up with parts of the film that feel like fluff to keep up the run time. I think you could have told this story in about half the time without missing out on a lot of key details.

With a plot like this I doubt you could make the film too happy but the whole thing always feels like the main characters are a few steps behind. So the whole thing gets a feeling of helplessness to it. Some characters also seem a bit too trusting considering their occupation and the situation. Jessica was a big example of this. Telling the guards to skip the security protocols and all when meeting someone who may have connections to bin Laden? Yeah that’s a really bad idea so you can totally guess what happened there.

The army guy had a good line about how security protocols only work when they’re followed every time without exception. He was proven correct right away. There’s no point in having them if you’re going to just ditch them when the situation is so dangerous. Definitely a real sad moment with Jessica there since she seemed like a nice person. It ultimately just didn’t work out for her.

Then the film decides to end in a rather intriguing fashion. Someone starts crying but we don’t know exactly why. I definitely have my theory on that though and it’s that they got the wrong person. This is my guess and it would be the film feeling rather jaded about the whole thing but that’s what I’m thinking. It’s implying that the whole thing wasn’t quite as it was presented later on but this character had to stay silent about the whole thing. There’s a lot of interpretations you could have for this of course but to me this made the most sense.

The film seemed to have some critiques about the CIA and their handling of the case so this idea of getting quick results over accurate ones would fit right in. You have commanders yelling that they just want some names so they can murder people and stuff like that so it wouldn’t be beyond the pale for them to bump someone off and then cover it up as being the right person. I could absolutely see that being the case.

Well, it’s always interesting to see how the areas look so different abroad. Whether you’re looking at France, the Middle East, Japan, or another area like that, the geography and architecture really changes. Personally I’m not much of a travel guy myself and wouldn’t really want to ever leave the country but I can see the appeal. You certainly get to learn a lot and really experience new things. Just do a lot of online research to make sure you’re sticking to relatively safe areas. Every place has its more seedy avenues after all.

Overall, Zero Dark Thirty will probably have the most appeal if you were really following the case or on the other hand if you didn’t and want to catch up on the details. It really does go in depth after all so it can be nice to learn about the whole thing but I’d say they could have focused more on the hunt and less on some of the gritty details. There’s never a reason as to why we have to actually see any torture being thrown around. The army deciding to destroy a bunch of monkeys also felt like there was no reason to do so other than to make them appear as ruthless as possible. At the end of the day you just won’t really be having a good time with this one at all. That may be expected for any film based around terrorism but you can always do better. I’d say you should probably give this one a skip and in this case maybe just find a documentary to watch instead. Sometimes that’s the best way to follow up on true events with the least amount of added drama. Of course, documentaries can also spice things up sometimes so you really never know ahead of time. For all I know this will have more details than some of the documentaries anyway in relation to how it went down.

Hacksaw Ridge

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Hacksaw Ridge is a war movie based on a true story where a soldier was able to stand his ground and help out a lot without firing a single shot. It went against his beliefs in the Bible to take another life under any circumstance. As you can guess this would really be put to the test in war since your life is constantly in danger. It makes for a pretty intense film and you really see the many struggles the lead had to go through.

The movie starts off with introducing us to Desmond who is all set to join the military. He falls for a girl named Dorothy and the two of them end up getting together fairly quick but she isn’t thrilled with his decision to join the army. His father isn’t pleased either but Desmond ultimately decides to go forward with this and then begins to get hazed by the rest of the army recruits. They all take it very personally with his deciding not to take up arms and feel like he’s also judging them to an extent. The hazings only continue to get worse to the point where Desmond may as well be in an enemy camp.

One thing about this film is that you’re quickly not going to like Desmond’s fellow soldiers at all. Sure, they eventually start to get better but the sheer degree to which they would attack Desmond and make his life as painful as possible is not something that you can forget. The fact that it was allowed to happen at all is pretty awful and the bosses were in on it as well. They showed that the army had no tolerance for Desmond whatsoever.

You can understand their being worried if Desmond is the guy who is backing them up and they could be in a dangerous position but it doesn’t mean you should go around beating him up yourself. It’s almost like turning their fire to a civilian. It defeats the whole purpose of fighting in the war right from the start. It’s just unfortunate that there weren’t some more good men in the squad to have had his back. Desmond had to fight for everything tooth and nail.

The film is suitably very somber and dramatic as Desmond tries to stay true to his convictions the whole time. Ultimately the army never succeeds in breaking him and so Desmond stays true to the path. This certainly comes in handy to the army during the iconic battle at Hacksaw Ridge. Desmond had to survive in a really brutal environment for quite a long time so that was as impressive as it gets. In a way I guess he was used to being in hostile places.

His skill at tying knots and maneuvering around the battlefield came in handy as he saved many lives without having any true form of backup. Nobody could deny his ability by that point. So he’s definitely a great main character. You couldn’t ask much more from him than what he delivered because he really did everything. Meanwhile Dorothy and his father may not have been thrilled but both of them did come up to bat for him when he needed it. From appearing at the court martial to giving him encouragement all the way through. They definitely helped out quite a lot.

By the end of the movie you like to think that the companies will be a little more understanding next time there’s someone who enters in but doesn’t want to fight. Ideally you would hope that the next guy would be treated well even if he doesn’t have such a big chance to prove himself.

You don’t want the results to be what made the difference here, but the concept itself. A good deal of the film is about the hazing though so if you’re not up for a rather cruel affair with everyone being awful to Desmond then you’ll want to re think watching this one. It feels like they put a lot of effort and research into this so I’m betting that the facts are fairly true to what happened but that won’t make it any easier of a watch.

It’s not like the war scenes are going to be very happy either. Quite a lot of people die there as America was completely outgunned on the ridge. Surviving at all amidst the bomb strikes and reinforcements was really difficult. If not for Desmond it really would have been a total wipeout there. The larger firepower just wasn’t as effective since it kept missing or not downing all of the enemies at once.

The only part of the film that’s really light would be some of the opening scenes as we see Desmond’s life before the army. His town seemed nice enough and he had a good gig there so it was impressive that he would risk it all to serve his country. At the end of the day he wanted to do his patriotic duty to help out and he certainly lived up to that.

Overall, Hacksaw Ridge is a really intense film. It’s not really going to be a film that you end up rewatching as it’s not the most pleasant title out there but if you don’t want to read the Wikipedia entry on the battle, this is a good way to get a lot of the facts and events in one solid package. Then you’ll be able to follow along when you see people talking about this battle. I’m not sure if it’s an item of everyday conversation wherever you are but you never know when it may be brought up at some point.

First Man Review

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First Man is a film based on Neil Armstrong and that was a pretty big event so I suppose it’s about time we got the really big budget film adaption. It’s a solid movie although they make Neil Armstrong look incredibly unlikable here. I have to assume he was like this in real life or there would have been a ton of buzz from family and friends about how they did him a disservice. Either way the film makes it very hard to root for him at any point in the movie.

The movie starts with Neil crashing yet again so his superiors think that he just isn’t in a good headspace to be a pilot for a while. He’s temporarily grounded and unfortunately his daughter ends up dying so now he’s quite depressed. He ends up taking a job with NASA for project Gemini where they will be using some cutting edge tech to try and get to the Moon. It’ll be a difficult journey though with a lot of setbacks and deaths to get in the way. Can Neil pull through?

Of course since you know the events you know how the film has to end. It’s pretty straight forward in that respect but it’s fair to say that you won’t know all of the events here unless you really studied his life in the past. The effects are definitely really solid so you should appreciate seeing the space view from the ship and even the inner workings of the machine. At times it can try being a little too life like so the screen goes totally dark or totally light which makes it hard to see but otherwise it all tends to look very fancy.

During the film we also see how a lot of people are skeptical about Nasa’s mission and think they shouldn’t be wasting money to go on these space trips. How will going to the Moon enhance life on Earth? Well, Neil’s answer is that in space you can see the bigger picture and it’s something people should see. I thought this was a bit on the weak side. Personally while this may be a hot take, I do think exploring space is a waste of time at the moment. It is extremely expensive as the film shows and all that money could absolutely be spent on better things. Building more and more space ships like this just isn’t helping out much. It’s not like in a sci-fi film where we find some super metals in space that can help us out here. None of that tends to happen.

Sure, we learn about planets and space, but it’s hard to say how much of a tangible effect that has on quality of life. I would certainly say it has less effect than if you put that into some good Earth projects straight up. You don’t see many people talking about space nowadays so it’s hard to say what the general sentiments there are, but I still hold the same position. I know we’re getting close to trips to Mars and other places but it all just seems like a waste of time. Now if private companies want to do it, no problem. When it comes from the government’s funds though then that’s a different issue.

As an aside, there was a whole lot of discussion when the film was coming out about the U.S. flag scene not appearing here. I’m not sure how much I would have noticed it otherwise though. While it was an iconic moment in all Neil Armstrong stories, the ending all goes by rather quickly. Knowing this in advance though, I do think it should have been included. That’s just a staple of the event and even titles like Justice League and many other popular culture moments always make sure to keep that in. It’s impressive to see the flag up there on the Moon and a good proof that the U.S. made it first after Russia had the edge for most of the film.

So the drama is solid and the film has good writing. There’s always a lot happening here with other pilots being knocked down in droves. It shows how much sacrifice went into this and how Neil grew tired of the funerals. He had a difficult time adjusting to loss and it gradually made him drift more and more from his family. The movie never portrays him in a sympathetic light there which is good but it also made it difficult to have him as a main character. I just didn’t like the guy at all and nearly all of his scenes make him feel like a bad character.

He could have done the bare minimum to make his family happy and didn’t even do that. His wife Janet did the best that she could in the meantime. It was still a pretty tough journey for her though since she would have to make excuses for him and raise the kids on her own. By the end she does put her foot down and force him to talk to the kids which wasn’t easy. Neil’s friends also do their best to try and talk to him but it never really works.

Overall, First Man is a good adaption of the events. All in all, I probably could have done without a lot of the human drama though. Cut that stuff out and just focus on the actual flying and building of the ships. If this made the film too short then I feel like you could extend that by showing more scenes of Congress debating if this was actually worth pursuing after the first ship blew up and burned those 3 people alive. You could certainly have quite a few scenes about that and it would easily help pad out the runtime by the end while still feeling natural. I’d certainly be very interested to see how that goes at least. Either way, if you want a film about Neil Armstrong’s life, you’ll be hard pressed to find one more detailed than this film.

Concussion

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When the concussions became a big issue in the NFL I definitely remember it being a big deal. To an extent of course you expect a lot of injuries in the game, but it wasn’t yet known just how deadly this was. In recent years we’ve seen several gameplay additions come in to try and mitigate this like moving the kickoff so there are less returns. The helmets are also better but of course there will always still be concussions in the game so the NFL just does what it can to reduce the amount of hits. This film delves more into the discovery of this.

The main character is Dr. Omalu and he was a pathologist who would find out how people died. Omalu could be a little on the quirky side as he would talk to the dead bodies and wasn’t very well liked by his colleagues here. He did put up results each time though. One day he is puzzled at why a very healthy ex NFL player died. It didn’t seem to make sense but the office didn’t want to foot the bill for this. Omalu pays out of pocket and discovers the concussion but he has just opened up a bigger can of worms than he ever could have guessed.

Naturally when you discover something that’s really groundbreaking there is going to be a lot of fall out. There is always two questions that you have to ask yourself as well. Are you really the one who discovered this? Did nobody else ever piece this together or did something happen to everyone else who tried to go public? The second is, how do you tell the world? As several characters point out, the NFL is a huge organization with almost unlimited power. This discovery will certainly cost them a lot both in terms of cost and reputation so they will have to try and bury it.

The NFL are the main villains of the film in that sense. They’re out to protect their own interests and try to threaten and discredit Omalu the whole time. It’s not particularly surprising since if they acknowledge that he is correct then all the families of the people who died will definitely sue them. Additionally they will have to come out with new equipment and then have liability for not noticing earlier. Meanwhile if they can bury this they can buy time to come out with new protocols naturally so if someone else notices in 10 years they can say that the game has already been safe.

Not ethical but it is to be expected. The only part that felt like a bit of a stretch was the FBI randomly showing up to threaten everyone. Guess the NFL wasn’t playing around here. I thought Omalu seemed a little too surprised the whole time. I get that he’s optimistic but he seemed shocked that the NFL would be upset at his discovery and I dare say that even a kid would have come to that conclusion pretty quickly. Omalu’s discovery completely shows that the NFL is effectively murdering people. Why would they be glad to know about this? I liked to think Omalu was just messing with everyone but he did seem to really think that this was going to go over well.

Still, he’s a nice guy though and a good main character. He put in the work to learn a whole lot of different subjects in science to the point where his accolades took several minutes to read through. He took the entire case very seriously and made sure that he had enough awards where he couldn’t be silenced so easily. Omalu also took in a lady named Prema when she really needed a place to stay. So he was a class act all around.

Then you have Prema who is the main heroine of the story. She helps to cheer Omalu up when things aren’t going well. You do immediately feel like this will turn into a bit of a romance plot which is too bad since I think it would have been a good, rare example of a nice friendship blooming there. Having even just one person to stick up for you is major though so she really helped out quite a lot. On his own Omalu may not have been able to stick it out for so long.

Finally there is Bailes who also helped out. He used to be the team doctor for the Steelers and is the only professional to side with Omalu. Even then Omalu doesn’t seem to fully trust him until the end and blows up at the guy at one point. Bailes does his best to earn trust though and sees this through to the end. This will certainly impact his career and reputation as well so he’s also taking a risk.

Beyond that, everyone else here is either an antagonist or a victim. You see the ex players as they start to suffer the side effects and take their own lives. The film certainly gets quite serious in these moments as you can see how the concussions just proved to be too much. Then with the NFL players, everyone’s always really angry and yelling about Omalu’s discoveries. They seem to have no regard for the players and so the film never lets you forget that they are the enemy.

Honestly I would have liked to have seen them do a bit more here. The NFL’s like the boogeyman here as they’re mentioned a lot but rarely appear. I suppose if in real life they never met with Omalu it would be difficult to change that but I was really hoping for some more interactions between the two sides. Those tend to be the most interesting moments in a film like this where both sides size each other up a bit. The film builds up a good amount of drama either way but that would have been the clinching moment.

Overall, Concussion is a decent film to show someone if they’re interested in the whole concussions discovery. That said, I don’t think it’s quite as interesting as it could have been to the point where you’re probably better off watching a documentary about it. It’s rare to recommend a documentary over a movie but I think you will probably get more out of it that way because you just really miss the NFL angle the whole time. With a documentary you’d likely be able to see their responses in real time and it would better help to juggle the two plots there. I’m always up for a Football film though so I’m glad this came out.

A Beautiful Day In the Neighborhood

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Who doesn’t remember good ole Mr. Rogers from back in the day right? The show was always fun and while I don’t think I saw a ton of episodes, it was certainly around. Having a film based on both the show and Rogers himself was a fun idea. The movie can certainly get dramatic and all but it seems to have been a rather accurate/realistic portrayal here so I imagine everyone would be satisfied at this point. Since the film is based on a real story there won’t be a review or score but I will still have my thoughts below.

The main character here is a guy named Lloyd. He has been dealing with issues with his father. Lloyd blames him for their mother’s notably unpeaceful death. The guy was cheating a lot back then and now Lloyd finds it hard to forgive him even if the guy seems to have changed. Mr. Rogers wants to help Lloyd let go of this grudge in the show and eventually meets him in the real world. Lloyd is a reporter and his boss wants him to write about Mr. Rogers. Lloyd looks forward to finding faults with Rogers but is unable to find any. Could it be possible that Mr. Rogers is just a nice person? Lloyd has never thought that this could even be possible.

The writing is solid and so even if you know more or less exactly how this will play out, the adventure is good. I would say the film’s only weakness is that it can go a little too far in being dramatic at times. For example, it takes Rogers an eternity to finish his sentences at times because he’ll take very long breaks to look at the camera. We have moments of silence that go on for a while and in general the film’s pacing is like that of a glacier. This is a movie that will absolutely feel long as every scene is stretched for maximum effect. I think it can be a bit much at times but I understand why the effect is used. That’s just how this is supposed to be played out.

As for Lloyd, well he’s definitely not a nice character for most of the film. He holds onto his grudges and just does not move forward. Ultimately he does manage to learn his lesson though and we see how Mr. Rogers has changed him. Rogers does a tremendous job of being a good role model at all times. He is very conscious of how much kids look up to him and doesn’t make many mistakes. He’s not perfect of course and he knows this but he goes out of his way to make sure that people see the good side of him. He even leaves mistakes in the episodes after editing so that kids can see that sometimes things don’t work out. It’s a good lesson to be learned and also shows that he was really good at being an editor. He knew what scenes to keep and what scenes to cut.

It’s very unlikely that you will walk away from the film not liking Mr. Rogers. He’s just a very good guy and I would have liked seeing him as the main character of the adventure even over Lloyd. I suppose Lloyd gives us the more dramatic parts of the story but you could absolutely do a lot with more Rogers scenes. Seeing him take the train or eat out at a restaurant are fun because you get to see him outside of the routine. At the same time, he always has to be with Lloyd in these moments since that guy’s the main character and it seems like he holds Rogers back there. I know the point is that Lloyd’s not a great guy but so until he changes, his scenes can be more on the brutal side.

More scenes showing Rogers hanging out with the kids and being patient with everyone would be enjoyable. We see that he drives his producers crazy since he has a hard time sticking to the script but it also shows that he is very serious about his show and persona. He never breaks character and is always helping out. More scenes could show him at various news shows and programs where he could talk to people directly.

I did enjoy the dream Lloyd has where he joins the show though and that was a moment where the movie used his character really well. It was fun seeing him shrink and have to accept his new situation. it was certainly very trippy but it worked out well. It’s also cool to see the old sets and the music since it’s exactly how I remembered it. It’s been many years since I’ve heard the theme song but there are just some tunes that you never forget. The intro song to Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood is definitely one such example. It could probably be another 30 years before I hear it again and I would still recognize it.

Overall, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood does a great job of really capturing the spirit of the show while also having a story where you get to see how Rogers’ changes someone’s life personally. I do think that the adventure would be even better without Lloyd but having him around was a good way to see how Rogers would deal with this situation. It was important to see him take on Lloyd’s bad attitude with a good attitude of his own. Nobody could really knock Mr. Rogers off of his game. He was really committed to helping out everyone as best he could and ultimately he succeeded. If you’re feeling nostalgic about the series or just want an emotional story then this is certainly a good pick.

I Still Believe

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I Still Believe is one of those films where you probably already know about the true story. Due to that you know you’re going to be in for quite the emotional experience. I’m definitely more a fan of happy films from the jump so that puts this one at a disadvantage. Still, it seems to be faithful enough to the actual events which is good, at least as far as I know the real ones. There’s a lot of good music and solid writing here so you should be good, but again if you’re not up for a sad movie then you’ll want to skip this one.

The movie starts with Jeremy heading out to College to begin a new chapter in his life. He’s very interested in music and is quickly able to get backstage at a concert. He meets the lead singer Jean-Luc who quickly becomes Jeremy’s mentor. Jeremy also meets a girl named Melissa and immediately likes her. The issue is that Jean-Luc does as well. Jeremy is determined to win this round though and he’s in luck as Melissa likes him back but doesn’t want Jean-Luc to know about this since it would crush him. They have to try and keep the relationship secret but is this possible at such a small town? Additionally, Melissa may not be as healthy as she appears. Will she really be okay with all of this stress going on?

The romance comes in pretty fast and it’s rare to see a love triangle in a film based on true events. It adds an extra layer of tragedy from the start since you assume Jean-Luc is doomed from the start. I have to say that I didn’t like Jeremy and Melissa really beginning this relationship right in the sound testing room when they knew Jean-Luc was right there. There have to be hundreds of better places to have started that. I blame Jeremy for calling her over but Melissa takes some blame as well for not shutting him down there.

It is a little hard to root for the romance all things considered since someone has to lose out here. Now it’s not like Melissa was actually together with Jean-Luc so I don’t have an issue with Jeremy going after her. It’s all fair game at that point when both are available. The keeping is a secret part was a bad idea on Melissa’s part from the jump though. She never liked him either so it isn’t a rebound but they definitely should have just told him everything right away instead of just dragging this out.

The movie gets a lot darker in the second half as we find out more about Melissa’s condition and what’s going on. There aren’t a lot of points where things are ever happy in this film. Every brief happy moment is immediately met with a setback or something else happening which negatively effects the characters. I would usually pile on the movie by this point for doing this but it all happened os I can’t say the film should have changed events. That said, I would have absolutely cut out the ending. It involves a rebound and because of how quickly the ending has to move, it just feels like its in bad taste. Now that’s a romance that’s really impossible for me to root for at least based on how it appears in the movie.

Jeremy’s a good lead. He can be a bit awkward when interacting and has to deal with a lot here but ultimately he does a good job. Jean-Luc is a good rival and really did try to help Jeremy out a whole lot. He took the betrayal of trust really hard but it’s easy to see why he would. It’s not easy to get over the fact that your best friend just took your love away. Then Melissa rounds out the main cast as a good heroine. There was certainly a lot of trials that she had to go through as well.

The cast is good here and the writing is on point. The film is able to get across that this is going to be a tough challenge for everyone. I would have liked to have had some happy scenes to grab onto for the second half but I guess it wasn’t in the cards. We do get some solid music during the film though. The famous “I Still Believe” song is here of course and a few other really good Christian worship songs. The film shows that you can’t always have everything your way and not every prayer will be answered the way that you want it too. Many have become shaken in their path when their prayers aren’t answered but it’s why prayer isn’t a simple wish list to Santa. The answer won’t always appear the way that you want it.

After all, you have billions of people praying and so naturally there are countless instances of two people praying for the exact opposite things. Naturally that means one person will get their wish and one won’t. You have to accept that everything happens for a reason and everything has a good purpose. Even if it is negative for you, the outcome may help a bunch of others in some way. Just keep up the faith and the ultimate reward of Heaven is worth any measure of strife.

Overall, I Still Believe reminds you that adversity will always appear no matter how calm your life may appear to be. In those times you need to pray and seek God’s help so that you aren’t crushed beneath all of your issues. This is certainly not a feel good movie so don’t expect to have a good time here but if you need a film to help teach someone about always getting up after a tough moment and never losing faith, then this will at least help you to show an example of true loss. It’s a good way to prepare someone for the future.

Deepwater Horizon

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This is a film I saw the trailer for many times. It definitely got promoted heavily and even BP was a company name I knew for a while. They definitely have a ton of issues and controversies around them at all times so it’s no surprise that they would have a big tragedy like this one. Unless they had another big oil spill before then I think I even wrote a paper on this one. I just remember BP was responsible for the accident I was writing about. Well, the movie does a good job of walking through and events and makes for an engaging watch from start to finish.

The movie opens with Mike and Jimmy’s team heading to the oil rig to finish the job and get everything set. Unfortunately things are looking a little shady right from the jump as the previous team was chased out of there before they could even run any tests. That definitely doesn’t sound like a good system right? What does this place have to hide? Well, the two BP representatives do not want to pay extra money and figure they could squeeze out a nice profit without actually increasing expenses. There isn’t a whole lot Mike and Jimmy can do beyond just proceed as normal. The system wasn’t ready for this kind of action though and the whole thing blows up. Can anyone escape this catastrophe?

With a film like this where you know the story and the basic plot, there aren’t a lot of twists and turns. Of course the first act takes a while for the explosion to actually happen but you do know that it is happening so that can be a mixed bag. After all, then maybe the film should jump right into it. It’s always an interesting predicament, like Superman or Batman film where you know they will become superheroes so you want them to jump ahead. At least I would say that the leadup is solid here and you do get to have some fun dialogue with the characters.

Mike is a good main character. He’s serious about his job and knows what he is doing. From all of the characters in the film he is probably the most prepared. He has a good working relationship with everyone and isn’t afraid to speak his mind. Even if he has to talk tough to the big execs, that is just what Mike will do. He really has no faults here and that’s always a good thing since it means this is a main character you can get behind. While we do have the explosion coming for the climax, I would say the film is largely character driven so you want a good cast.

His boss Jimmy is also solid. He’s clearly been around the block quite a few times in his career and has a ton of experience. He doesn’t let himself get pushed around by BP too easily even if they do overpower him by the end. He also does his best to keep the rig afloat and tries everything possible. It’s why he has to be written out of the action for a while since he may have been able to salvage the situation a bit.

As for the two heads of BP, those guys were a lot of fun. In particular Donald is the guy who stole the show here. The guy is really confident and you want that in your main villain. It’s not like he’s intentionally trying to destroy the place either. The guy wants to make money and he needs the place operational for that but he did some research and figured he could pull this off. At the end of the day he has likely succeeded in many similar situations, the whole thing just caught up to him. Any scene with him in it is always entertaining though, that’s for sure.

The effects are on point here and the explosion certainly looks realistic. Seeing the entire oil rig go down makes for quite the spectacle. we get intense scenes of having to run through the place while it’s burning and it makes for an effective climax. You definitely wouldn’t call the sequence boring or anything like that. It all just happens quickly and everyone has to find a way out. I was glad that nobody on the crew was being super unreasonable…until we get to one random guy.

So even with explosions coming through and all, there’s one character who refuses to send out an SOS and doesn’t even let his colleague try to press some buttons to make things better. He keeps yelling that they don’t have enough clearance for this and it felt like such a bad hill to die on. This guy is really going to get in everyone’s way because he doesn’t have the proper rank? Now that’s a way to mix up your priorities when it really counts. He’s got to be the worst character in the film due to how exaggerated the whole thing was.

There’s also a heroine near the end who starts to break down quite a bit when it’s time to escape the ship. Mike basically has to trick her to pull this off which makes her look really bad. Cmon now, jumping into the water is really a great plan. You still might die, but at least it’s not guaranteed. At least Mike was ready for even this situation and showed some really quick thinking.

The only thing I would say about the the film as not being super positive is I do think the ending can be a little overdramatic at times. When the characters arrive home you immediately have someone attacking Mike and nobody steps in to help for the longest time. I would hope there would be a little better security here trained for tragedies like this. The breakdown and all helps to throw a somber note on the film but I do think parts of that could have been skipped. The film just tries a little too hard to be super emotional by the end when the whole film was quick paced and energetic so it just didn’t transition very well.

Overall, Deepwater Horizon is a fun film. You may know what is going to happen but it doesn’t change the fact that the first half is really written well. They did a good job with it and you get to know the characters before things turn sideways. I enjoy seeing corporate duke it out with the small well meaning companies in all of these films. There’s just something about having confident villains that always makes for a lot of back and forth. With good banter at the ready, this is a film you would enjoy checking out.

American Made Review

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This review is of the edited TV-14 version of the film below. All thoughts below should be addressed as such as a review of the unedited version may be more negative

American Made is an interesting film about trying to play all of the sides for as long as you can. Ultimately this will pretty much always lead to ruin so the movie’s really about seeing how far he can go with this. The film is based on a true story but loose enough where I figure I’ll still do a review here. It would have definitely been something if all of this had really happened.

The movie starts off by showing us that Barry is already in the illegal business of smuggling cigars to people while on his flights. This catches the CIA’s attention and they remind him that stealing and smuggling is okay as long as it’s for the good guys. They will pay him poorly to smuggle a lot of things for them. Barry accepts although it’s not like he has much of a choice. When he arrives at the gang hideout with the items, they convince him to start smuggling for them. Why not right? Then the DEA wants a piece of the action and before you know it Barry is working for all of the good guys and bad guys. It’s going to be rather difficult to get out of this predicament.

Barry’s a charismatic guy and that’s really how he has lasted so long in this rough business. as always it is a matter of time before someone catches you when you’re cutting corners and committing crimes but he would have been caught sooner if he wasn’t so smooth. At the end of the day he just really wants to be rich and doesn’t even hide the money all that well. When he starts raking in the cash there is so much money that it’s flooding the house, the family gets a super big house, a pool, etc. Barry likes to live large and in charge that’s for sure.

He’s a fun lead even if he isn’t heroic. That’s good since a film like this really needs a good lead as otherwise you would run the risk of this guy not being sympathetic at all or just rooting for him to get taken down already. As it stands, you’re invested in what is going on here. The cast is rather small though. I mean there are quite a lot of side characters but for the main ones it is relatively self contained. You’ve for Barry’s wife Lucy who isn’t really thrilled at all the secrecy initially. It’s not like Barry told her about his new job at the CIA so when he just vanishes like that it isn’t easy on her.

In one scene she even throws away all the food he brought home. It’s an emotional moment of course but I always feel bad when that much food is tossed aside. It had to be a lot of work to get that and you can’t let good food go to waste like that right? I dunno, I thought the food could have at least been saved. Otherwise Lucy takes it all in stride once Barry actually explains things. She cracks a bit near the end with the jewelry but lasted well for most of the journey.

Her brother JB is one of the most annoying characters in the film though. He’s just here to complain and get a free lunch. He doesn’t contribute at all and makes the worst decisions possible. You definitely know he’s doomed by the end as he starts creating a lot of scenes and even attempts some blackmail. Game over JB, that’s the match.

Barry’s boss Schafer was fun though. He may seem rather slippery and untrustworthy but from the start you get the feeling that he will act as if he has no knowledge of Barry if things go sideways. I would say it’s one of those things that is just understood. Naturally he also gets to take the credit so Schafer really has it easy here. At the end of the day he never has to go into the field or take any of the risks. All he has to do is claim the spoils at the end. It’s a really good setup.

As for the two main weapon/drug dealers who worked with Barry, they seemed nice enough. Of course you never quite forget that they are villains. It’s one of those things where they don’t act overtly evil but just knowing what they are doing shows that they aren’t exactly the good guys here. That pretty much wraps up the cast, it’s a fun group of characters I’d say. Definitely couldn’t consider any of them to be weak ones.

Another good aspect of the film is that the movie balances the humor and serious moments rather well. There are quite a few scenes that should at least have you crack a smile. Barry coming prepared with the Baseball bat after being robbed the first time was definitely a solid scene. Even when things aren’t going well for Barry there’s always a humorous undertone surrounding the movie. It was executed quite well and the movie already had good pacing as it was. Throw in the solid writing and a film that could have easily been more on the dull side ended up being a lot more interesting.

Overall, American Made was better than I expected it to be. I wouldn’t say it had any serious weak points to it. It’s not like I would say the movie is great or anything but there wasn’t a point during the experience when I was bored. It just passes on by rather quickly and you should be satisfied at the end of it. I think in some ways the movie could have gone a little more all out with how crazy it could be if it wasn’t trying to be based off of a true story though. The ending was rather intense though and it does seem like the gang has a whole lot of influence. Even the whole thing with the courts felt like it was rigged for Barry to fail.

Overall 7/10