warfield

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

For about first 10 minutes seems promising, then becomes a polished amateur film-course project with the backing of, and participation of, some experienced professionals.

If the first third of the movie could have been compressed to 15 minutes and the whole story told in two halves, this would have been a better movie. Maybe the director felt that he owed Gosling screen time, performing a character he had already done in "Drive." The overlong first part does pay off, however: the last two parts of movie compelling viewing. And I hate to say this--but the actor Emory Cohen reminiscent of young Brando.

Not compelling movie making. Interesting to see another culture so close up, but does not make up for the tedium. Not sure a shorter movie would have done the trick: somehow the narrative had to be made more compelling without sacrificing the simplicity of settings, characters, and story.

Disappointing: expecting much more in terms of story. Could've have done without the mistress. Plenty of tension and complications could have been built entirely around deceptions and fraud and resultant tensions within family and relations with/negotiations with/deceptions of employees and tentative business partners. I expected far more info regarding how such fraud works. In movie critics' reviews saw that "Law &Order" mentioned several times: this movie seemed like a more highly financed episode of L&O.

Not impressed, as I was not impressed with Hurt Locker. Bigelow goes through the motions but does not tell a compelling story. What are compelling in both movies are the topics, and that seems to give a boost to the buzz about the movies. I am confused why this movie receiving such high marks from critics. As for Jessica Chastain, nothing wrong with the performance: just not much for her to do.[ I haven't seen all nominees, but female performance I remember enjoying the most this year: Anne Hathaway in The Dark Knight Rises.]

Out of respect for Ridley Scott, I award this film a 5. If the film did not have high-end effects and production design, it would seem at amateurish as those B-movie black white serial sci-fi adventures that were re-shown on early TV during the 50's and which I then found too corny to watch. Where did they go wrong? And why the sop to the great Alien film series at the end of this film? A real disappointment. I usually trust Roger Ebert's reviews: why the "100" review from him?

Unbearable. Though I didn't expect much, the movie started off with some promise. But when we learned that Frank's' daughters worked at Hooters, I got a bad feeling. Tension was great until the blue engine started chasing the runaway train. Then things became predictable and manic. Some good actors were given some poor dialog and character motivation. Hard to believe such a situation reacted to and handled this way by railroad employees. And, Hooters...Really?? 04/08/12

Really not much to this movie. Critic who said it was "kiddie-pool deep" hit the mark. Seems like a made-for-TV movie, the Lifetime channel. Hard to believe it was even nominated for an Oscar.

Disappointing, especially since I chose to watch based on mostly high marks from crtics. Anne Hornaday for the Washington Post had it about right in her review. Started out promisingly enough. Final thoughts: dialog bad;, character development weak; the alien embarrassingly bad; and a movie pubescent boys might like. Glad I rented DVD and not paid for ticket or bought DVD.

An ugly little movie. Assuming that production of this movie started with only a story outline, otherwise why would Bateman, Ferrell, Anniston, and Spacey get involved with a script that read like the movie I saw. Seems like actors asked to improvise in quite a few spots: and they improvised none too well. I have liked some movies of this genre, but this one is poorly executed. Ferrell l I have really enjoyed in other roles: but shouldn't he have entirely eliminated his Irish accent for this role? [No set-up for having it, e.g., adopted from Irish orphanage.] I am surprised by high critic ratings on this one.

A disapointment. Casting mistakes. See the orignal: the British TV show. American version might have been better if done in 6 episodes on cable network