January | 2022 | A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies.

The reason why the ratings are so horribly low for “The 355” despite the fact that
Diane Kruger, Penelope Cruz, Jessica Chastain and Lupita Nyong’o are in this – is that the there is no logic, no continuity, no real story – just a series of excuses for Karate, gunfire and explosions. This is why screenwriting is so hard, because a huge part of the process is to not only write something interesting, but also make it understandable and actually hold water. Logic Please.

This movie is another one of those examples where some kind of deal making was going on, because how did they convince 4 bankable well known female actors to make this mess where both the worst part about it is the ending, which is also the best part, because its finally over.

We have all seen the spy-like-trickery movies in the past and there is nothing new here. There is another computer device that everybody is after in this story, that seems to have the ability to easily hack anything – including Jet Airlines. How many times have we seen something like this? Too many.

It was hard to understand why this movie was made and with critical reviews as extremely low as 26% on Rotten Tomatoes and only 4.6 on IMDB, this film will be out of movie theaters probably by next week. Considering the salaries of the 4 stars they hired, this will most likely be a big time money loser.

Do yourself a favor and miss this bad movie that should have gone right to DVD.

The new Netflix movie “The Lost Daughter” is highly unusual on a number of levels. A woman, Leda, played by Olivia Coleman, is along on a beach, obviously depressed about something. She is riveted on The new Netflix movie “The Lost Daughter” is highly unusual on a number of levels. A woman, Leda, played by Olivia Coleman, is along on a beach, obviously depressed about something. She is riveted on another woman Nina, played by Dakota Johnson, who has a 6 year old daughter and she is having problems with this child. At one point the child is lost on the beach and Leda finds her. The rest of this film is a series of flashbacks that slowly tells a story that I did not expect about Leda’s own daughters, her life as a professor and her marriage. The acting is very good in this film, but the overall story and payoff I did not think was strong enough for a recommendation.

The Lost Daughter is another one of this art-type-too-unusual-movies where the critics give it high marks, in this case 96% on Rotten Tomatoes – and the audience gives it low ratings, only 45%. My rating is around 60% because of the strange series of events and the way the depressing story was told. Despite the good acting, I cannot recommend this movie.