Three Movie Reviews

By Joe Berk

Man, as a blogger on a site that sometimes offers movie reviews, I am flat on my butt.  No excuses, folks.  I’ve been having too much fun doing other things.   This is a catchup blog on three shows I’ve watched recently.  Two were excellent; the third was a unmitigated flop.  With that an as intro, here we go.

First Man

The story here is about Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon.  I really enjoyed this one.  In a word, it’s outstanding.  Maybe outstanding is too weak an adjective.  I was a teenager during the Apollo program years, and this movie hit home for me.

First Man is running on Netflix, and I’m giving it two thumbs up only because I don’t have three thumbs.  If you have a Netflix subscription, this is one you might consider viewing.

As an aside, I almost got to meet Neil Armstrong.  He was a regular at the former Nieuport 17 restaurant in Tustin, California (I wrote about it in our blog about Admiral Gordon Smith).  I knew the owners there, who would have introduced me if the real First Man had been in the restaurant.  It just never worked out that we were both there at the same time, much to my regret.

Horizon

I was hoping this Max film would be an epic work, but it was a real bust.  I want anticipating something like another Lonesome Dove, but Mr. Costner appears to have lost his touch.

Costner’s presence notwithstanding, it’s not Dances with Wolves.  If you want to urinate away three hours of your life you’ll never get back, this wandering, mumbling, constantly moving back and forth in time, difficult to follow, and plot-free show is for you.  My advice is to take a pass.  I wish I did.  But having said that, I noticed in the photo above that this is to be a “two-part theatrical event.”  For me, Part II will be like driving past a bad motor vehicle accident.  You know you don’t want to look, but you do.  I’ll give Part II 15 minutes, and if it’s a snoozefest like Part I, I’m outta there.

Bad Education

Bad Education is an outstanding movie.  It’s about a school system superintendent and his administrator convincing a Long Island, New York, community that their school system was outstanding in every regard while simultaneously embezzling something north of $10 million over a multi-year period.  It’s a true story, which makes what happens on screen even harder to believe.

I don’t want to spoil it for you, so I won’t tell you too much more other than what I’ve written above.  You can tell a movie is good when it seems like it’s over in 20 minutes.  I enjoyed it and I think you will, too.  Bad Education can be seen on Netflix.

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