Review: The Interview


I was amazed how bad this movie was. This is a movie that even the President was talking about and perhaps, only because of the subject matter of trying to kill the dictator of North Korea, is the most controversial movie of all time. This movie from beginning to end, was total garbage.

As far as being a comedy, this movie violates the cardinal rule of comedy – its just NOT funny! Nobody was laughing in the theater, nobody. There are scenes of violence and death, including defecation and biting off fingers that were very disturbing.

For some reason, James Franco was acting very strangely in this movie and you had the impression that both Seth Rogan and Franco probably thought that him acting so strange and abnormal would be funny. On top of all this, this movie made no sense. There are plot changes and conclusions to scenes that made absolutely no sense.

I only saw this movie because of all the news reports about it, and I now regret that decision. This is clearly one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Avoid this movie at all costs.

Screenwriting Books

Review: Big Eyes


Despite the topic of this movie, which is about a woman artists that creates paintings of children with big eyes, I thought that this was a strange title for this movie. This is a very good movie on the study of human nature and just how bad some people can get. The husband of this woman artist lost no sleep when it came to stealing and taking credit for someone else’s work. I am a retired software developer and I have seen things like this in the past, when a co-worker takes credit for someone else’s work and has no problems doing something like this many times over. This is a true story with a very good ending but very often in real life the “right thing” does not always happen. The phrase Nice guys finish last comes to mind.

My only big knock against this movie was the non-stop smoking in so many scenes by Amy Adams, who played the main character in this movie. Even though smoking was much more prevalent in the 1960’s and 70’s there was absolutely no reason to show so much smoking in this movie. Showing smoking in movies should have been banned many years ago.

I thought this movie was good and I do recommend it.

Screenwriting Books

Movie Review: The Gambler


I have to admit, even though Mark Wahlberg is a very unlikable actor that in this movie the acting on his part and on the part of John Goodman was first rate. The story is both very believable and depressing as it reminds all of us that a horrible gambling addiction can be just as life ending as alcoholism or any disease. There were no slow moments in this movie and it flowed very well throughout and I thought that the story was told very well overall. I also think that there is a strong possibility for academy award nominations for both Wahlberg and Goodman.

I definitely recommend this movie.

Screenwriting Books