The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for the new Netflix movie “Heart of Stone”, starring Gal Gadot are a very low 29%. The reason for this is that this film is nothing more than an another reverse engineered action movie. No story, no explanations as to how, or why anything is happening. Just a chain of action scenes that are used in movie trailers to get people to watch the film- only to see the action, because once again, there is no real screenplay and no real story.
There are many fight scenes, some parachuting scenes, a scene where the main character Rachel Stone, played by Gal Gadot runs for her life with a massive fire following her on a huge Dirigible, but not much more. The other known actor in this film is Jamie Dornan, known for the very bad 50 Shades of Grey franchise. While some of the fight scenes were very impressive, they were not nearly enough for this movie to move into recommend status. The IMDB ratings for this film are also a very low and correct 5.1.
This is a movie only for fans of Gal Gadot and those who are only interested in the action scenes that they can see by fast-forward through the great majority of this movie, and missing the rest of this film which was nothing more of a bad retread of a many spy movies and nothing new.
In recent years the acronym for UFO (Unidentified Flying Object) has been updated to UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) that have become so prevelent that Congress has conducted hearings, interviewing Navy pilots who have seen flying objects that were not identifyable. The idea of aliens coming to earth in recent years has changed from impossible and ridiculous to now – something that one day may actually happen.
The problem for anyone who thinks they have seen a UFO/UAP or have been kidnapped by Aliens is that telling anyone without documented proof will get you sent to the nearest mental hospital. The main character in the new movie “Jules”, Milton Robinson, played very well by Ben Kingsley, Milton has partial dementia and is 79 years old. So when Milton goes to the town hall and casually mentions that an alien spaceship has landed in his backyard and killed his flowers – of course, nobody believes him. Milton also tells a store clerk that he needs to buy many apples to feed the alien that is living with him, and because he is slightly demented, the clerk tells Milton’s daughter, and his daughter thinks her father is losing his mind. One of the best parts about this new film is the gentle, matter-of-fact, quiet way the entire story unfolds.
Milton is friends with two women his age, Sandy and Joyce played by Harriet Sansom Harris and Jane Curtin and they both not only find out about the bald naked alien who is living with Milton, but they all become close friends, have lunch and dinner together, along with many conversations even though the alien they name Jules cannot speak. There is a good amount of humor in this movie and many subtle references to the movie “ET”, especially at the end. All of this works very well throughout this story. One crazy off-the-wall part of the conclusion is how the alien goes about creating the fuel he needs to return to his home planet, which might not sit well with animal lovers.
Overall I thought this movie was funny and highly unusual with a story well told. I agree with the high 84% ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and recommend Jules.
From Dictionary.com, the definition of binge watching: the practice of watching multiple episodes of a television program in rapid succession, typically by means of DVDs or digital streaming.
The TV series “Suits”, appeared on USA Network from 2011-2019. There were 134 episodes made and after binge watching all of them, over a period of weeks, there was not a weak or a bad episode in the entire series.
This series is about a top law firm in New York City, where their policy is to only hire new associates from Harvard Law School. It is the Harvard Law School premise from episode one and throughout the series that could be argued is the series’ only flaw. In the first 20 minutes of the pilot episode, the lead character Harvey Specter played by Gabriel Macht, interviews a genius Mike Ross, played by Patrick J. Adams who has a photographic memory. Mike’s memory is so profound that he passed the bar exam without going to law school. Whatever Mike reads, he not only understands but after he understands it, it is permanently memorized. The episode one interview with Harvey and Mike is one of the best scenes in the entire series when Mike Ross demonstrates to Harvey his extraordinary memory of the law. It is this massive brainpower that convinces Harvey to give Mike a shot at this prestigious law firm.
The problem is that there is no way, no matter how hard you tried to fool so many people, that any lawyer would be able to claim that they graduated from a law school even though they never attended even one class. Every other associate in the firm went to Harvard and would know who was in their class. Transcripts could be easily obtained. The Harvard faculty and administration could be contacted and this scam with Harvey hiring Mike is over in a few hours. However, it is this risky premise and continued demonstration of Mike Ross’s genius are some of the best parts of all the episodes that follow.
What is so great about this law drama series, the best I have ever seen on television, is that it demonstrates the worst parts of humanity that are revealed within all high-stress jobs. There is virtually no limit to how bad people we work with can potentially treat other people. Given that this is a high-functioning law firm, the worst parts of backstabbing and cruel insanity are all on steroids. Every episode in this series was riviting, keeping the audience at a high level of anticipation for the next major problem, obstacle, solution, or fending off the next person, hell-bent on wrecking the law firm or someone’s career.
Due to Mike Ross and his desire to help people, many cases are probono, not about making a great deal of money. Just about all of these cases are satisfying to watch, because we all want the evil people in the world to get what they ultimately deserve.
One of the best main characters in this series is Donna Paulsen, played expertly by Sarah Rafferty. Donna, who is at first Harvey’s secretary demonstrates her genius-level people skills that hold the entire law firm together in just about every episode of this series. Later in the series another secretary is hired named Gretchen played by Aloma Wright, who has people skills almost as powerful as Donna.
The other major standout in this series is Louis Litt, played by Rick Hoffman who not only provides many scenes of intense legal conflict, but many laugh-out-loud funny moments that are some of the best parts of this entire series.
Actress Gina Torres, who plays Jessica Pearson, the managing partner for 94 out of the 134 episodes is also outstanding in her role as the lead partner of the firm, calmly and expertly handling the constant conflicts, legal problems and attacks from the outside trying to destroy the firm, or force her out of the legal profession. Torres also starred in a sequel to Suits, called “Pearson” that lasted only one season, with 10 episodes.
Other standouts are Robert Zane, played by Wendell Pierce, who is the managing partner of a competing firm with many scenes of extreme legal and personal conflicts throughout this great series.
In recent years, the entire world knows about former actress Meghan Markle, who plays Rachel Zane, who married Prince Harry. Her performance throughout this series is also outstanding as the girlfriend of Mike Ross and daughter of Robert Zane.
As one of the actors in a series that ran for 9 years with 134 episodes, it had to be difficult for everyone involved when the series finally wrapped. Both lead actor Gabriel Macht and series creator Gabriel Macht have not worked since this great series finished in 2019. This could be either because of burnout or the realization of how unlikely it would be to ever work on a series this perfect ever again. Many times in show business, especially within an outstanding TV series, too many great actors just get one amazing opportunity and another one never follows. The standout TV series “The Practice” is another notable example of this phenomenon where so many of the great actors on this series, never got an acting shot like this ever again. This is very unfortunate, but the reality of choosing a career as an actor in Hollywood.
Anyone who starts to watch this series, most will find it very difficult or impossible to stop watching all the episodes – it is all that good. The series Suits, now on Netflix receives my highest recommendation.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 