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Self-Medicated (2005) – Movie Review

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self-medicated

This was a guest movie review post by one of our fans:

Brandee Neal

This was a pretty good movie that really tugs at your emotions with a story about a Mother-Son relationship.

‘Self-Medicated (2005) Rated: R’ starts by establishing one of the main characters, Andrew, who is a 17 1/2 year old boy.  He’s a teenager where he likes to be with his friends, drink to excess and experiment in life.  Some of his activities are reckless and overboard.

It’s clear that Andrew and his mother had enjoyed a good relationship previously, yet had been somewhat strained since the passing of their father/husband for some unknown reason (this was not relevant to the plot – so I’m glad it ‘didn’t go there’).  Next, Andrew’s mother, had him forcefully admitted to a rehabilitation facility.  She had every good intention but this facility turned out to be basically a mental institution.  This was NOT a place for Andrew but his Mother had no knowledge of how they were treating her son.  They would keep him in solitary confinement for hours, or threaten him by having him write written essays of ‘500 words’ or ‘1000 words’ at a time.

In the end, the movie had a good moral plot and if people would listen to each other, and not get defensive, then what this kid was put through wouldn’t have happened.  It’s a classic story of people living in glass houses and throwing stones at others for reasons they don’t understand because they assume instead of taking the time to understand.

The Faculty (1998)

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The Faculty (1998)I must admit, this is a film that turned out pretty good for some odd reason.  And please know that when I say ‘good’ it means ‘in comparison to all the other crap I have recently watched’.  You see, on the KevinNeal-O-Meter Movie Rating system it is not easy to get on the ‘good’ rating-scale with anything marginally enjoyable to watch.  I am a tough movie critic!

While I can’t pinpoint the exact reason, or reasons (if there are any other than being entertained) I just found this movie somewhat good.  This is not to say that The Faculty was a must-see.  In fact, far from it but it was amusing for a teen-campy-type flick.

I did really like that the film setup the characters nicely in the opening credits.  Unlike I’ve ever seen before they went through nearly every character and provided a quick name and visual profile.  This set the stage nicely for the rest of the movie to understand the various players in the movie.  I liked this.  Next, and which I did not know at the time, was that this movie released in 1998 was full of what would eventually be several celebrities including Elijah Wood (Lord of the Rings), Jon Stewart (Comedy Central), Josh Hartnett (Black Hawk Down), Selma Hayek, Christopher McDonald (Happy Gilmore) and others.

* Stream of consciousness kicks-in and thinking to myself *:  Now that I consider the fact that I typical despise these sorts of movies, yet I liked this one, could it be attributed to decent acting and not the plot???

The plot was about aliens taking over a high school and everyone is distrusting of each other because the inflicted people don’t have obvious physical symptoms.  Imagine that???  Not that this flicker had anything other than the usual screams, creeps and lame plot for this type of sci-fi/horror film but it was surprising interesting.

My recommendation on this one;  don’t search for it on your favorite video streaming service just yet because it’s not one you want to admit looking for.  But if you are running low on guaranteed good films in your library then The Faculty is a nice transition from a sure-winner to the vast majority of film-garbage available.  Worthy of just-above an average for Steelers Stars to 6 out of 10 possible Steelers Stars.

Red (2008) – Movie Review

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red_2008This was certainly a movie that brings you “full circle”.  And this is exactly what I like in a quality film.  It had a lot of emotion, several bits of anger and tons of good moral messaging throughout.

Red was an entertaining flick that pulled at your emotions, for better or for worse.  I have to say this was a rather simple storyline that I enjoyed tremendously.  This was a film about the good and bad in people.  The movie had some really believable characters where you wanted to hug the hero and punch the villain in the face.

Red is the name of the main characters, Avery’s, dog.  A group of young punks come upon Avery while he’s fishing and end up killing Red with a rifle/shotgun for no reason.  It was senseless and sad.

So, Avery, in his calm and collected manner didn’t go ballistic.  Rather he was set on a mission for the punks to apologize for the wrong they had done and change for the better.  Avery’s patience is admirable considering the fact that it was clear he loved Red immensely.

Avery continued to give the punks, as well as the shooters father plenty of chances to make-amends but these idiots were the stereotypical bullies that could not bring themselves to simply say sorry.  But Avery was determined because he loved Red so much.

In the end it’s a story about a lot of loss and little gain because stupid people do stupid things but if there is any opportunity to try and make things right, do it.  Don’t miss your opportunity.  As upset that clearly Avery was over the killing of his dog, he maintained his composure and genuinely hoped the punks would reform for the better.

The main point I took from this movie is to be a decent person in spite of bad life events.  And if you make a poor choice or decision be honorable enough to admit wrong.  Lastly, don’t be a punk in the first place.

I won’t spoil the end of this great movie so I will end with the point that I have seen hundreds of non-memorable, or awful, movies lately and Red is the only one which I will watch again today.

Red is worthy of 9 out of 10 Steeler Stars.


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Four Christmases (movie review: Comedy)

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Brandee, Jack, Bella and I watched the movie Four Christmases (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369436/) yesterday and this will be my first movie review in the Comedy genre.

This was a good flick if you are looking for a decent comedy. It was very slap-tastic at points but humorous and a well thought-out plot. It was quick moving as to not bore me like so many other movies do that don’t have enough good content.

The story is simple. A couple visits their four sets (each parent is divorced) of families for Christmas. I didn’t get a chance to watch the movie straight through so I’m sure I missed some good parts however I did get to see much of the film and I liked what I saw.

The characters all were very believable and funny. In particular I remember the scene when Vince Vaughn’s character was introducing his father’s side of the family to Resse Witherspoon’s character for the first time. The brothers were named Dallas, Denver and Vince was Orlando. They were all named after the cities that they were conceived-in! Also, Dallas and Denver were like amateur UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) fighters or something. There were the totally stereotypical ‘meatheads’ and were constantly antagonizing each other.

The cast of characters was impressive and two of my other favorite actors, Robert Duvall and Sissy Spacek, played outstanding roles. Overall this was a fun movie to watch on a lazy day after Thanksgiving. It also was a good tone-setter for the upcoming holiday season and put a smile on Brandee’s face so I deem Four Christmases worthy of 8 Steelers Stars.

The Cabin by the Woods (2011)

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The Cabin in the Woods PosterThis was surely “one for the ages”.  The wifey and I decided to order a pay-per-view ‘horror’ movie tonight and just relax.  Cool and cool, and horrific is absolutely what we got!

This movie started with no clear plot that I could figure out what-so-ever.  It was just plain gratuitous violence.  Blood and guts, severed heads, screaming and yelling and all the typical things you’d see at the END of one of these types of movies.  So, I must admit, this movie had me intrigued to being with.

Okay, I can deal with the silly, and totally ridiculous violence since that is what we bargained for, but through-out the movie they would include intermittent scenes of some type of Command Center/Control Center.  We were thinking like “what the hell is this for?”, because it seemed so random but it appeared they were building a plot of some sort.  It turns out that the Command Center wanted people for being “young”.  Five young people had to die according to Sigourney Weaver.  Yep, she stooped to a new low for sure with this bomb of a flick!  She made about a five minute on-screen appearance and that was the most true insight to any sort of plot I could find in the movie.

All I could figure out with this movie (or that I cared about) was that the mega-pot smoking dope-head was somehow immune to the effects that this Command Center was infecting people with.  That minor detail went unexplained as I recall also.

Anyhow, there were some good things in this 1 ½ hours of yuck though.  Namely, it made the wifey jump out of her skin several times which was quite hilarious.  It left her cuddlier with yours-truly (or at least I would like to think so).

In the end, I just quizzed her on if she understood the plot anymore or any less than I did.  She said she was as confused as me so I will leave it at that.  It’s unfortunate because at about one hour into the movie it looked like the movie was building to be something interesting.  I assure you – NOT!

This movie is a true stinker and gets only three Steelers Stars.