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On Demand Movie Review: Horizon Line

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A small plane, 2 passengers, then the pilot has a heart attack and dies. How many times has this idea been written into movies or TV shows over the years. Too many. When you get on a small plane with one pilot the odds of a tragedy are greatly increased – mainly because if the pilot can no longer fly the plane, all the passengers are doomed. Then add the danger of getting on any small plane.

The new on demand movie “Horizon Line” stars Alison Williams as Sara, Keith David as the pilot and an unknown actor Alexander Dreymon as Jackson – a name you hear screamed far too often in this movie by Sara. There is very little story here other than some up front dialogue and a trip somewhere in the Pacific in a small passenger plane, that most people would never get on in the first place. Where this film fails miserably is there are far too many scenes after the pilot dies, that nobody in the world would ever try. Nobody would have the courage to climb to the outside of a plane, tethered by a rope. Nobody would climb to the top of of a small plane like this for any reason. Not only would nobody ever try to do things this stupid, but these tasks, even in a desperate attempt to save lives are not even physically possible. So why make this movie, where the 2 main characters are so dumb?

Once again there is far too much smoking in this movie by Sara and Jackson, something I find very annoying every time I see it. This practice should be banned.

Save your money and miss this mess. I agree with the very low 4.6 rating on IMDB.

Movie Review: Little Fish

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I can only hope, after seeing “Little Fish”, that is about romance during a world wide Pandemic, that Pandemic films are not the new trend in the movie industry. Living through over a year of Covid-19 has been enough Pandemic at least for the next 100 years.

The Pandemic in this movie – something called, Neuroinflammatory Affliction or NIA, attacks the brain and over time erases the entire memory of the victim. Some kind of a cure is found, but in this case its a horrendous surgical procedure involving a long needle applied to the roof of someone’s mouth. All of this leads to massive worldwide panic both to avoid this horrible disease and then to somehow receive the cure. This is a Pandemic scenario just about as bad as it can get. It is rather unusual that the screenwriter even tried combine a concept like this with a romance story.

The main characters are Emma and Jude, played by Olivia Cooke and Jack O’Connell. Emma is a Veterinarian and there are no less than three scenes of her counting down the days where she would have to euthanize another dog – making anyone shy away from wanting to be an animal doctor. Emma and Jude are friends with another married couple who are affected by NIA, where the woman’s husband entirely loses his memory, making for some very emotional and well acted scenes. The romance between Emma and Jude is well played but rather depressing throughout the 2 hours as they desperately try to survive a horrendous Pandemic. I did not like the too-many scenes of chain smoking by the two main characters – even during a movie involving a health Pandemic. How stupid is this, that in this day in age, cigarrette companies are still making money in the movie industry?

The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for Little Fish is a surprisingly high 91%, my rating is only 75% with a marginal recommendation.

Showtime Series Review: Your Honor

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The new 10 part Showtime series “Your Honor”, starring Brian Cranston is as close to a Shakespearian tragedy as I have seen in a long time. The story starts simply, “what would a parent do to save their child if they made a mistake”. In this case a judge Michael Desiato, played expertly by Brian Cranston has a son named Adam who has Asthma. Adam makes a tragic driving error by bending down to pick up his inhaler and hits a teenage boy on a motorcycle, who himself was driving erratically. Unfortunately this teenage boy has a father who is both a murderer and master criminal, making going to the police and confessing no longer an option. From the very beginning, this basic conflict make for a highly believable and unique story that I have not seen before, with extremely well drawn out twists and turns all the way to the last episode.

This series is brilliant because of the way all of the lies Judge Desiato tells everybody he knows, trying desperately to hide the fact that his son was involved in the accident that killed a teenage boy. The lies mutate and grow ever more complex and impossible to conceal as the story unfolds. Desiato’s friends notice little discrepancies that don’t seem right, other small lies slip out, other things are found out that at first seem to be perfectly hidden. With a lie this big, over time it becomes impossible to keep it a secret. The unwinding of so many lies during this story, is the best part of this series.

As he was with the great series “Breaking Bad” – arguably the greatest television series of all time, Your Honor shows Cranston at his best with great dialogue, story and most importantly, his great acting as judge Desiato. All of the remaining cast members are also great in their roles with an ending that is both a surprise and ultimately tragic.

The IMDB ratings are an outstanding 81%, which is an accurate number, along with a ridiculous 44% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, that has only one very inaccurate critical review. Regardless, I highly recommend this series which is now available on Amazon Prime.