Notice

I caught the flu over the holidays. I should be feeling better on Monday for the next post but it was impossible today. Thank you for reading, I should be back then!

Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)

Number Rolled: 62

Movie Name/Year: Tremors 3: Back to Perfection (2001)

Genre: Sci-Fi & Fantasy

Length: 103 minutes

Rating: PG

Director: Brent Maddock

Writer: S.S. Wilson, Brent Maddock, Nancy Roberts, John Whelpley

Actors: Michael Gross, Shawn Christian, Susan Chuang, Charlotte Stewart, Ariana Richards, Tony Genaro, Barry Livingston, John Pappas, Robert Jayne, Billy Rieck, Tom Everett

Burt Gummer has made a career out of hunting sub-terrestrial creatures, but everyone has to return home sometime. Back in perfection he’s welcomed back as an old friend, though he’s noticed a change in the status quo. There’s a new man, Desert Jack Sawyer, treating Perfection as a theme park and collecting money from tourists looking to lay eyes on a real live Graboid. As Burt attempts to get used to the new ways of the town, Desert Jack’s tour is getting a little too real.

I can honestly say that I really just like the entire series. I haven’t seen the fourth one, but I’ve decided to stop underestimating these movies. I didn’t think the first one would be great, and it blew me away. I thought the second one would be pointless and I loved it. With the third one, I really thought it’d be just an extension of “been-there, done-that” and turned out to be hilarious and original. The only other series I’ve enjoyed as much as “Tremors” is “Jurassic Park.”

One can’t go into this series, however, expecting a huge blockbuster kind of setting or special effects. It’s a cult classic instead of a top earner for just that reason. It has to be that, it certainly wasn’t the plot.

The acting was a little overbearing, but that comes with the territory in this kind of movie. With a lower budget and a more fun-time script, the actors are bound to have a lot of fun and a little less sharp emotion to their performances. That, in no way, means I thought any of them were unbelievable. Considering exactly what they had to act out, I’m impressed any of them pushed through the hysterical laughter long enough to utter a single line.

I have an issue with the rating. I do not, under any circumstances, believe that this movie was rated PG. I think that might have been a Netflix glitch or the committee in charge of ratings was falling-down-drunk when they decided this one. At the very least, it’s rated PG-13. Despite the orange-colored blood, the movie can get fairly gory and if they used any of the minor curses even one more time it might as well have been an episode of “South Park.”

Netflix’s Prediction for Me – 3.7/5

Overall Opinion – 3.5/5

The Random Rating: PG-13 – for language and action violence

Movie Trailer: 

Maid in Manhattan (2002)

Number Rolled: 71

Movie Name/Year: Maid in Manhattan (2002)

Genre: Romance

Length: 105 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Director: Wayne Wang

Writer: John Hughes, Kevin Wade

Actors: Jennifer Lopez, Ralph Fiennes, Natasha Richardson, Stanley Tucci, Tyler Posey, Frances Conroy, Chris Eigman, Amy Sedaris, Marissa Matrone, Priscilla Lopez, Bob Hoskins, Lisa Roberts Gillan, Maddie Corman, Sharon Wilkins, Jayne Houdyshell, Marilyn Torres, Lou Ferguson, Di Quon, Liliane Thomas, Raquel Shapiro, Emma Thaler

Marisa, a maid, is dutifully cleaning her rooms when one of her coworkers convinces her to try on a guest’s designer outfit. She’s caught in the expensive clothing by a senator candidate and they hit it off. As they bond over her gifted child, they begin to fall deeper in with each other.

I like some movies with this recipe, but there has to be something exceedingly special about them. Something has to get them to stand out; whether it’s a fantastic script, or brilliant acting or even a slight unexpected twist thrown into the otherwise par-for-the-course plot. Maid in Manhattan had none of that. I think that, maybe, the writers thought that giving the poor maid a gifted son would add that twist to their cookie-cutter script, but they were wrong. I’ll admit it didn’t hurt, but it certainly didn’t pull the movie out of the rut it gets stuck in from the very beginning.

I’ve liked Jennifer Lopez before. In “Selena” she was outstanding and stuck to the character like duct tape, but she falls flat on her face here. I simply couldn’t buy her as the hard-working, struggling, single mom that she had to portray. However, I thought Tyler Posey was great, especially for a child actor. It’s very easy for child actors to over-act, possibly because they don’t understand the societal norms for certain emotions and circumstances, but Posey didn’t fall into that trap.

If you enjoy this specific movie recipe than it’s something you might be able to use as background noise, but don’t expect to be impressed.

Netflix’s Prediction for Me – 2.3/5

Overall Opinion – 2/5

Movie Trailer: