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THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Massie Affair, a review by Antares

THE AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: The Massie Affair (2005) 86/100 - The year 1931 will never go down in the annuls of American history as a hallmark of harmony amongst the races of this country. Instead, it will be remembered as a benchmark for bigotry and injustice. Earlier in the year, the infamous Scottsboro Boys incident took place in Alabama, as nine innocent black men were accused of raping two white women. In a state known for being the one of the most intolerant of equal rights for blacks in the deep south, this was and could be expected. Jim Crow laws had been on the books for decades and most of the population was still fighting the Civil War. The Massie Affair would take place thousands of miles away, in an island paradise, where racial tensions were every bit as high as in the "Old South". In September of that year, Thalia Massie, a transplanted member of an east coast socialite family, was in Hawaii with her husband, who happened to be an officer in the U.S. Navy. They were on the brink of divorce, but were trying to work things out. Thalia, being the socialite spawn that she was, always looked down upon the Navy and felt herself above its members. She and her husband attended a party on the 12th, a party in which Thalia was not happy to be attending. Some time during the night, she left her husband at the party and decided to take a walk. According to her statement to police, she was accosted by a group of men who took her to a deserted section of road and beaten and raped. She could not identify her attackers or tell the police if they had been white or Hawaiian. What transpired after this preliminary investigation would set forth in motion, a series of events that would make Scottsboro look like a minor traffic violation. In the months that followed, there would an acquittal, revenge murder and finally, a once admired lawyer would sully his reputation by defending those who perpetrated the murder of one of the original defendants. This is a story that should never be allowed to be forgotten.

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on December 4th, 2014)

The Beach Girls, a review by addicted2dvd

Title: The Beach Girls
Year: 1982
Director: Pat Townsend
Rating: R
Length: 91 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78:1
Audio: English: Dolby Digital: Mono
Subtitles: N/A

Stars:
Debra Blee
Val Kline
Jeana Tomasina
James Daughton
Adam Roarke
Dan Barrows

Plot:
A coming-of-age story about a bookish young woman who changes during her summer vacation from a bespectacled bookworm to a femme fatale.

Extras:
Scene Access

My Thoughts:
This is one of the movies that I got out of the Too Cool for School boxset. This is one of many from that set that I never seen. I went into this one expecting nothing more then a T&A movie. And that is basically what it is. The acting leaves a lot to be desired. The storyline is nothing but a few beach parties one after the other. Then there is a silly contrived side story to make part of the main story work. Sure it has entertainment value... it has tons of beautiful women in bikinis and less throughout the entire movie. But that is about all you get here.





(From Weekend Movie Marathon: Just for Laughs on July 16th, 2010)

Tom's Random Reviews, a review by Tom

Title: Knight Rider: Season One
Year: 2008
Director:
Rating: 15
Length: 769 Min.
Video: Anamorphic Widescreen 1.78
Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Subtitles:

Stars:


Plot:
An iconic TV classic is back and better than ever in the reinvented, updated and super-charged Knight Rider Season One. From executive producers Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity franchise), David Bartis (The O.C.) and Glen Larson (Battlestar Galactica) comes this action-packed series about the coolest car ever created K.I.T.T. (Knight Industries Three Thousand), that's equipped with artificial intelligence capable of hacking into any computer, the weapons system of a jet fighter, and incredible custom body technology that allows it to transform into other vehicles. Relive every Season One episode as an elite team of crime-fighters work with K.I.T.T. (voiced by acting legend Val Kilmer) to track down elusive, hight-tech villains. Presented in uninterrupted Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, you won't want to miss this fast-paced ride to the wild side!

Awards:
Extras:
Commentary
Featurettes
Outtakes

I have seen the pilot when it first aired. Even though I had some problems with it, I was excited overall for a new series. But when the reviews of the actual series came in, I didn't bother picking up the DVD set when it was released.
But when it was on sale now and it's only a single season, I decided to give it a chance.
I have to admit, that I enjoyed the pilot more than I remembered it being. I thought it did a good job setting up the series and also acknowledging the 80s series.
But when I saw the episodes from the actual series, I was heavily disappointed. Bad acting overall. Especially bad was the guy who played Sarah's father. He always had to do the exposition and he always looked like he didn't know what he is talking about. Hard to believe that this guy is supposed to be the inventor of both KITTs.
Horrible scripts which sole aim seem to have been to get the lead actresses into a bikini or down to their underwear. Also I think it is a terrible idea to make KITT a transformer, being able to transform in any kind of Ford car (pick-up truck and even a big van etc.). They should have left it with the "attack mode" (which essentially is the updated version of the "super pursuit mode" of the original KITT). Although the attack mode could have looked better. I looks cheap and ugly. It almost seems like they wanted to top the series Viper, which also had a super car which transformed into the Defender mode. So they couldn't leave it with one alternate forms, but had to have multiple. Or they wanted to get in as much product placement for Ford as possible.
They even had KITT's evil twin KARR be an outright transformer! A robot in disguise of a car. It even has Optimus Prime's voice! Though to be fair this is a nod to the original series, where Peter Cullen also did the voice for KARR.
I liked that they used the windshield as a head up display. But I think it is very stupid to take up the whole windshield for incoming calls. They hardly couldn't see the street anymore when talking on the phone.

After the first 13 episode they retooled the show. Kicked out all the bad supporting cast and kept the ones which were the only fun back in the headquarters scene. And moved the direction of the series more to be like the original series. They even did a bit with petty criminals trying to steal KITT, which was a running joke in the old series.
I have to say, that I enjoyed the last five episodes. And if they would have done it like this from the get-go, maybe the series would still be on today.
I loved how KITT seems to constantly put down Michael at the end. Like when Michael told him to track something, and KITT was like "No shit, dickhead. I am already on it. You don't need to tell me every little thing."

One other thing: I liked the new intro. I starts out as an updated version of the original theme and sounds like the theme of "IT Crowd" towards the end.

#	Episode	Rating
01	Prometheus (Pilot Episode)
02	A Knight in Shining Armor
03	Journey to the End of the Knight
04	Knight of the Iguana
05	A Hard Day's Knight
06	Knight of the Hunter
07	Knight of the Living Dead
08	I Wanna Rock & Roll All Knight
09	Knight of the Zodiac
10	Knight Fever
11	Don't Stop the Knight
12	Day Turns Into Knight
13	Knight to King's Pawn
14	Exit Light, Enter Knight
15	Fight Knight
16	Fly By Knight
17	Knight and the City
18	I Love the Knight Life

(From Tom's Random Reviews on July 11th, 2010)