Nothing to lose, 1997

Nothing to lose, 1997
Director: Steve Oederkerk
Cast: Martin Lawrence, Tim Robbins





Nothing to lose in short: Nick Beam's life couldn't get any worse. He discovers he has been living a lie and is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. So when T. Paul, a carjacker, attempts to rob him, it is the last straw for Nick. With everything to gain and nothing to lose, he kidnaps T. Paul and attempts to put his life back together.


Stage: home TV selection, Saturday night


Preps: None in perticular. But I have nothing more interesting to do, hence..


Reality: This kind of movies should be prohibited. There should be a test under which a movie rates high enough to enter TV selection. Nothing really close to a comedy. The story is not believable, but this isn't the only sin this movie is making. All sorts of mistakes and misbeliefs, but nothing can settle the initial problem the movie has. The drive. What is this man, after he discovers he's being betrayed, after? What will he do and why? The viewer should have the answers, not make them up as we go through the movie.
Martin Lawrence, as the role of the chimp monkey that waltzes around Robbins all the time, trying to get his attention or prove his intelligence and misfortune that drove him to be a robber. Quite predictable, with stupid delivery and unpersuading cast. Things that happen to them while they are on a road, could buy (maybe) a child, and by that I don't mean to be offensive towards children or underestimate their intelligence. But this piece definitely underestimates our intelligence. Hence, delete and forget forever. I can't believe this was on the prime time of the local TV.



My personal rating: 0 (yuk. don't waste your time)

Nothing to lose on IMDB

American Dreamz, 2006

American Dreamz, 2006
Director:Paul Weitz
Cast: Dennis Quaid, Hugh Grant, Mandy Moore




Stage: Home TV selection


American Dreamz in short: The new season of "American Dreamz," the wildly popular television singing contest, has captured the country's attention, as the competition looks to be between a young Midwestern gal (Moore) and a showtunes-loving young man from Orange County (Golzari). Recently awakened President Staton (Quaid) even wants in on the craze, as he signs up for the potential explosive season finale.


Preps: None in perticular, I am just home and have some time to spare.



Reality:Well.. pathetic. Is the director so lame that he thinks there could be a case where a president of US wouldn't function because of a TV show? Or that he could really hide away? Really? I mean, Really?

This is a classic example of a movie that wants to be serious and funny at the same time. You don't get to be a drama and a comedy at the same time. You don't use actors that have a giant role in comedies, and in this case Grant does his job decently. Not if you want a drama about the president.
Oh, wait. Or was it the first intention of the piece to make fun out of president and his role? This reality isn't really funny, nor entertaining, nor dramatic, nor sad. Just plain stupid. Nowhere you could have a president running through the newspapers instead of going to the crowds and shaking their hands, at least.

Hugh Grant in the role of the TV leader isn't as bad as everything else is. Well, I don't admire his role. I just love the man in dramas and romantic comedies. This, trying to be a mixture of both, fails and lets me down completely. Dennis Quaid, as far as I am concerned, is one of greater names in late nineties. But here, he is a complete disaster. I don't buy even a minute of his cast. As if he didn't know the role (or the scenario). Or was it on purpose?

No strings attached. I stop watching. I cannot bare it.




My personal rate: 1,0 (yuk. skip it. If you are a fan of TV shows, maybe. But on the second hand.. No. skip it!)


American Dreamz on IMDB

Horrible bosses

Horrible Bosses, 2011
Director: Seth Gordon
Cast: Jason Bateman, Charlie Day, Jason Sudeikis




Stage: Home theatre

Horrible bosses in short: Nick hates his boss, mostly because he's expected to work from before sunrise to after sunset and his boss, Mr. Harken, calls him out for being a minute late and blackmails him so he can't quit. Dale hates his boss, Dr. Julia Harris, because she makes unwelcome sexual advances when he's about to get married. But Dale is on that pesky list of child offenders so he can't quit. Kurt actually likes his job and his boss, well, up until his boss dies and the boss's coked-out, psychopathic son takes over. But who would be crazy enough to quit their jobs in such poor economic times? Instead Nick, Dale and Kurt drunkenly and hypothetically discuss how to kill their bosses, and before they know it, they've hired a murder consultant to help them pull off the three deeds.


Preps: Hm. seems interesting, but on the other hand, I fear that it cannot exceed comedy genre (or to say it differently, I fear that it's making fun out of things that aren't funny).



Reality: Your boss is your biggest priority. The only task you have is keeping your boss satisfied in all senses /and all possible interpretations. True? According to the piece so true.

People aren't machines. This means they come programmed with feelings. And that sometimes relationships between the boss and the subordinate are beyond anything you could imagine to have to bear with. And in most cases it's definitely done the way the boss wants it. Like it or not, you are here to make him happy and you aren't spending your money, but the money he's signed up for or is responsible for. If the boss is the owner, then you are actually spending his money. So sometimes it needs to be according to the saying "your money, your game". which means we are forced to turn the boat as the boss likes it and not as we would.

This piece shows a rebel yell of three individuals that despise their bosses for different reasons and plan how to kill them. The abuses we can see prior to the stupid plan and delivery of it, are quite common in business world and even though they might not seem real, they are real and we often hear about this. However, there's nothing really an individual can do to avoid this. Rather than sharing the thoughts and dreams how to kill the boss, I would think of how to deal with this. There is no universal recipe, but the pain is universal. Does the power you hahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifve on one position equip you also with means to hurt your subordinates? Yes, it does. But how to avoid the temptation to tread on people like the ones you knew treaded on you? That's the remaining question.

The piece is below average and besides thinking on the way I could handle my own career life with another solution, the movie didn't offer me anything. It's really sad that I managed to see another piece surely underestimating the audience. Cast is respectable, yet thin in delivery. The setting is pretty much unimaginative. The only thing true are the issues that these guys are facing. But this question remained unanswered - how to be a subordinate that deserves /and knows how to push with this/ to be respected.


My personal rate: 2,0 (surely a waste of time!!!)


Horrible bosses on IMDB

Rubber, 2010

Rubber, 2010
Director: Quentin Dupieux
Cast: Stephen Spinella, Roxanne Mesquida, Wings Houser

Stage: Laptop scene @home



Rubber in short: When Robert, a tire, discovers his destructive telepathic powers, he soon sets his sights on a desert town; in particular, a mysterious woman becomes his obsession.


Preps: One in the oven, waiting anxiously for my attention. Though I don't know anything about it..

Reality: Well.. Well.. was left speachless after ten minutes. The same thing after twenty, thirty, three quarters of an hour.. With open mouth I am thinking whether to label this one as total bullshit or quite the opposite.
In most of the scenes you have a vengeance full tyre, heading around and exploding, or to be more exact, making other things explode. With a funny posture the tyre takes just before the crime, it makes things that come in its way, dead in some seconds or in quite a short time.

The piece is set like a filming spot, with an audience which resembles a school crowd you could take from a film academy, looking at what the movie is supposed to be filmed with /or how it is supposed to be made. The other side of the coin is the adventure you have with tyre and its obsession with a perticular lady it fancies. Does a tyre fancy anything? The piece implies that it has a soul and its own brains. Which is highly unlikely and furthermore, highly unlikeable. I decide the movie isn't worth my attention. The poisoning of the crowd? Pretending that it's a movie inside the movie? The last, but not least.. the tyre having a soul? I don't think so. Erase.


My personal rate: 1,0 (I was intrigued and amused at the beginning, but it got on my nerves quite quickly).
Rubber on IMDB