The Leverton Review

  I am treating this movie as being one movie in three parts, so my review of all three parts is the same. Trilogies are often weak. And often trilogies don't make a lot of sense. The filmmakers just want to make more movies, and the studios are happy to oblige if it means making more money. A good example of this is the back to the future trilogy, where the last two films are kind of redundant. Another example is the last Star Wars trilogy, where the finishing movie sort of destroys the goodwill that the first two films in the series had built up. But this trilogy is a true trilogy. The first film deals with the young life of the protagonist, the second deals with his middle-age, and the third deals with the last act of his life. So it is possible to take all of these films as one. What do they suggest to us? The animation of the non-human, this is done in a sympathetic and really moving way. It's also interesting to see how the technology developed from the first movie to the...

  This is a bright documentary, about a sordid tale. It's about a powerful man, the wife he wooed when she was just a child, and a young man who got taken advantage of by both. The story also delves into the hypocrisy, and blatant racism of the modern Evangelical movement in the United States, as well as touching upon the sleaziness and corruption that surrounds former president Trump. Although I have to say, the film did such a great job that Donald Trump was one of the least sleazy characters in it. It seems to me, that the current American age is one in which ideals have perished, great masses of people are convinced by the ever-changing salesmanship of grifters. There are two grifts in America at the moment. The first is the religious grift, which for the most part is purveyed by hypocrites. The second is the political grift. The substance of this grift varies with the day, and the trends of social media. If there is a study that suggests that gas stoves give children cancer, t...

  This is a sordid true crime drama, that somehow manages to rise above its format to deliver a powerful message about being convicted by the media. And about the corruption that is rampant in the Indian justice system. And the plight of women in that country. There's a profound moment when the filmmakers show an out take of an interview with a police officer, and he says that in the case of a sexual assault, the woman is at least 25% to blame. At another time in the series, a police officer is being interviewed, this is a different police officer, and he casually mentions that the police have their ways of getting suspects to talk. By which he means torture. And what is even more baffling is that the same suspect was allowed to escape from police custody twice. And some of the explanations that the police officers come up with are just hilarious. For example, one says that one of the officers was diabetic, so he was peeing more slowly and that gave the suspect a chance to escape. ...

  It's hard for me to review this nature documentary series. Does it have the awesome narration of Morgan Freeman? Yes. Might you learn a few things that you did not know before? Yes. Are there amazing shots of animals and graphics of the creation of the universe? Yes. Although, in the end it kind of feels like mcDonald's food for that part of your brain that craves new knowledge. It will satiate that thirst for knowledge for a few minutes, but ultimately you will be hungry again soon. And whatever you have learned, you will probably forget. But, hey, i'm glad Morgan Freeman got that paycheck.

  This is one of the worst shows I have watched in quite some time. Let's get all the positives out of the way first. The idea of the show is quite interesting, a sort of Suicide Prevention Squad from the afterlife. A few of the episodes are quite moving, especially the one that deals with school bullying and the other that deals with a case of sexual assault. The actors that play the characters in these episodes do an especially great job. There is one episode, that seems like it's from another drama entirely. It tells the backstory of the main characters, and it's good. Now for the negatives. It seems like the level of talent of the writers of each of the episodes varies quite wildly. Some episodes, like those that I've mentioned, are either good or acceptable, and others are just boring or bad. The main problem is that the series introduces ideas that it doesn't explore. There's one episode, that could have been quite interesting, as it dealt with pet suicide...

  This is a cringey, unpleasant view.  This is a remake of a remake.  If you don't know the original story, a teenage girl and mother do not get along and have to body swap to learn life lessons.  The teenager is atrocious to her mom.  Her mom is getting married the next day and yet she doesn't understand why her mom might be stressed.  She's also awful to her younger brother, which doesn't make sense because she is actually 6 years older than he is, and yet she calls him a nerd and almost causes him to run away to Las Vegas. Oh right, I forgot to mention that this is a musical for some reason. The songs are kind of forgettable, the choreography is interesting. The cringy part comes not from the musical but from the fact that the main character's soul is inhabiting the body of her mother and her mother is going to get married very soon, so you would expect some kind of affection between the two people who are going to be married. Luckily that doesn't happen...

  This movie has a lot of the problems of other modern day films, in that it is far too long and scenes that should have been cut out are kept in. The story follows the story of Matilda, and the events that happen in the film are the same as in the earlier version of the film. The difference, of course, is that this is a musical, and the previous version was not. Some of the songs are catchy, and the choreography and set design are visually stunning. Alisha Weir and Emma Thompson both do an excellent job in bringing their characters to life. The film hits all the same emotional and even visual notes as the earlier one, except that it's a musical. The songs are quite good, but sometimes they don't make any sense. For example, there's one where Miss Trunchbull goes off fantasizing about horses for a while? And the penultimate song is one in which the children claim to have a revolution, play this time the villain has already been dealt with. The beginning sequence of babies b...

Matilda is all about the difficulty of being a child. It is about abuse, and how the victims of that abuse can fantasize about having their revenge. And yet, this film is a classic for children. Mara Wilson is cast as the titular Matilda, and she brings an innocence to the role. Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman are her parents, and these parts are played with equal maliciousness and indifference. Pam Ferris plays the villain and her performance is so good that I'm sure it actually caused her difficulty in real life with children running away from her screaming. The film is bitter-sweet. It has a happy ending, but it is clear that this ending is nothing more than the wish fulfilment of a clever girl. Leverton Review:  4/5

 In my quest to watch all of Disney's films chronologically, I have to say that this was the first I actually kind of liked. It starts out in black and white with a woman reading a children's story, and she says that it would make a great Disney picture. The woman and the man then travel to the Disney Studio, where he takes a tour around the place while trying to meet Walt Disney. When the tour happens, it then switches to colour. It's good because it gives you a sort of idealized sense of what it took to make animation back in those days. And the way that animation is explained is quite clever. There's one scene where Donald Duck comes to life and explains how he is moving, which caused me to chuckle. There's another scene where a classically trained opera singer is about to sing and duck noises come out of her throat. So that's also fun. The film is a bit marred by its history. There are a few racist caricatures inside the film, and it was released during a ti...

  This is one of those movies, that exists in that strange space in your mind, after you have viewed it. It's not a great film by any stretch of the imagination, but after you have seen it you will remember it forever. It's not a bad film also. It's a film that exists beyond the confines of binary good and bad. The special effects are amazing, especially when considering the fact that they are all practical effects. The acting is quite funny, with the leads giving hilarious performances. I think it deserves to be considered a classic Halloween movie, it's like die hard is considered to be a classic Christmas movie. And they both star Bruce Willis.

This is the third film that Walt Disney released. After the studio's successes with Pinocchio and Snow White, it is clear that Walt Disney believed he was creating great art. And what could be better or more suitable as great art than the combination of high classical music with high animation? The film ultimately disappoints because of its pretension. The animation, while imaginative, is not as great as the previous two films. The live action interlude with the famous conductor is an artifice that does not hold up, and shows why further films of this nature were not produced. Especially irksome, is the statements that the conductor makes that the animation successfully does this or the animation perfectly does something. Animation should show you what it does, it shouldn't have to be explained to you during the film itself. I honestly hated this and was bored by it. But what is something positive that can be taken from this film? The first is that the Disney animators were mas...

So I read a lot of nonfiction, and I decided it would be good to read some classics as well. So I thought to myself, I should read or reread all of Shakespeare's plays. I started off with the two Noble Kinsmen. The story opens with three queens begging a king for revenge. This part is quite dramatic, and I think the actors in the version of the play that I listened to were quite good. But the actual plot of the play is so ridiculous that I did not expect its dark ending. Who's the King goes off to war, and he wins, and he captures a bunch of people. Two of which are cousins who are put in the same prison. They then impress everyone around with their intelligence, good manners and all around nobility. Then disaster strikes. A beautiful woman walks outside their window. Within 5 seconds, they each claim to love that woman and attempt to murder each other. Their claim is so ridiculous, but in the world of the play they are presented as being the most noble men and that this woman ...

This k-drama is full of things that make K-drama so good and so bad.  The main plot, and the sub-plot are riveting, but the sub-plot concerning the fate of a highschool is abandoned part way through.  The supernatural elements are genuininely scary, the resolution of the drama is anti-climatic.  There are times that will make you cry.  There's one moment when the main character, Mun, says, "All I wanted you to do was to leave my friends alone-was that so hard?'.  This moment deserves to be as well known as "I'm the one who knocks", it's that good.  But there are other times where the plot does not make any sense, or the acting is over the top, and the special effects look too gimickly (all the main special effects are quite well done).  The main problem with it is that it is too long, and despite being too long the ending feels forced.  I'd recommend it, but it's a mixed bag.  Leverton Review 3/5

  Pinocchio is Walt Disney's second feature film. It's much better than Snow White. Snow White is the first animated feature film and I can imagine that people were amazed when they were watching something in colour in the 1940s, but it's not actually that good. Pinocchio has great animation, and even a little bit of humour. So I could actually imagine showing young children this film. However, there are some things about the movie that are just bizarre. I'm not the first person to mention this, but it is quite strange that Geppetto longs to have a real son and when his puppet comes to life is very first thing, very first action he does is to send his new son to school. You would think that he would do more investigation as to how this happened, or give more training to Pinocchio in the real world. The other bizarre thing about the plot, and I think this is from the original story, is that Pinocchio has all of these misadventures, and his father goes out looking for him...

  This is, surprisingly, the first Marvel film. It's gone down in history as being something of a bad film, but honestly, I love it. It's the story of a duck man, who gets plucked from his peaceful existence, and transported through the powers of Weird Science to our planet. The special effects, while venturing into the area of The Uncanny Valley, are quite good for their time. And the film is entertaining. Howard is funny, irritable, and everything you would expect from a man duck. He's like a more well-adjusted Donald Duck. The problem that many people have with the film is that a human being falls in love with a duck. But in defence of this plot point, Howard is a conscious, sentient being. He has all of the intelligence, or lack thereof, of a middle-aged man duck. I imagine if aliens came to Earth, and they somewhat thought like us, there would be interspecies love. No the creepy thing is not the interspecies connection, it's the fact that Howard is clearly 20 to 30...

Though this book predates The Invasion of Ukraine, it does lay out a compelling argument for why it happened. It explains the post-soviet viewpoint of the Russian society, and how Putin, in his quest for complete control, has allowed this to become solidified. It also explains the events that led up to the annexation of Crimea, and the aftermath that affected the people who lived there. It certainly does not exonerate the behaviour of the Russian establishment in its conquest of Ukraine, but it does explain the frustrations of Russian speakers in the eastern part of Ukraine. Unfortunately, I do not think a book of this nature could be written today. The Ukrainians, after 2014, were coalescing in a national identity. The full scale invasion of their country, has in their minds proven that they were correct in assuming the worst of their neighbour. So a western offer trying to explain the Russian point of view in Ukraine would not be welcome. And he would be even less welcome in Russia b...

 This was certainly an odd duck of a series. It tells the tale of a magical creature, who is condemned to live in a painting, until she is liberated by an aspiring action star. The special effects are atrocious. The series is about four episodes too long. And there is this very bizarre character who is constantly munching on a match stick. The acting, as well, is lacking in the principles of goodness. Despite all of these flaws, this Series has heart. The main actress is the cutest actress in all of k-drama, and the villain is not hard to look at also, if he is your kind of thing. The bits where the main character is acting like a fox are hilarious, and the sacrifice of the male lead for the woman he loves is heartbreaking. I think if you are just getting into watching Korean dramas, this may not be for you, but if you have watched the normal, this serious, you can watch this goofy thing.  Leverton Review 4/5

  While I certainly enjoyed the first instalment of this series, this was too long, and I was bored by the end. It is quite remarkable that an actress of such a young age can hold the weight of this film, but the writing is ultimately a failure. Because this is a Sherlock Holmes film, there is a bit about this complicated plot whereby a person is transferring money from one bank to another bank to another bank to another bank, and this is portrayed as being brilliant. But this is just standard money laundering practice. While it is unclear when money laundering was actually invented, it probably started when a corrupt person did not want a government to find out what amount of money they had. But in this film the money laundering is not actually the point of the scheme, the point of this scheme is to make an interesting diagram on a map that will draw the attention of Sherlock Holmes. The film does draw its inspiration from real life tragic events that happened to the working poor ...

When I first started watching this series, I admit my expectations were thwarted. I was expecting a story of an immigrant overcoming the odds and being successful in an untraditional field. And while that is part of the story, I was not expecting the True Crime aspects of it. I won't go into details about the crimes that happen in this series, although they did happen, so it's not exactly like a spoiler to tell you about factual events. But I will assume, that you, like me, do not know anything about the story of Chippendale's. The acting, especially that of Kamail Nanjani, is brilliant. And the story starts off with us being introduced to two colourful characters, who in any other story would be the heart of the series, being brutally murdered. So if you are in the mood for a dark series that plums the depths of human depravity, this is it. Leverton Review 5/5

This is a classic of animation. It is a rare example of a series that had just enough episodes to bring its story to a conclusion. It's hard to talk about what happens within the story without ruining the story. I will just say that the animation is excellent and the writing of the characters is brilliant. I especially like the fact that the main characters Mabel and Dipper, despite being twins, are portrayed as unique and distinct individuals. There's all of the young heartbreak of a coming-of-age drama, but this is firmly a story for children. I think the best way to describe this would be to say that it is an intelligent X-Files for kids. Leverton Review 5/5

  This series was quite unexpected. I was expecting something a little more mystical, but this drama was rooted quite firmly in reality. A young artistic man and his father run a trauma cleaning service. This kind of company might lead to the production to stray into some graphic and salacious details, but it is handled with tact, both by the production, and the characters within the drama. The young man's father dies quite unexpectedly at the age of 45, leaving him to bond with an uncle he had never known up until that point, and to run the business. Quite honestly I was shocked by the death of the father, even though the story makes it clear that he will die. I guess I am not used to characters who are exactly my age dying. The main plot of the story revolves around the uncle and the son gaining knowledge about each other's characters and histories, and being bonded by the connection they share with the dead man. But each episode also tells the story of their dead clients. So...

  This reboot was disappointing. The actors who returned from the original series unfortunately demonstrate the lack of talent of the actors who are portraying the younger generation have. I was especially disappointed because Leia, the protagonist, is said to be 15 years old at the time these events happen in 1992. I also was around the same age as she was during that year of 1992, and this feels more like a Disney Channel series that is out of, and beyond time. It didn't feel familiar at all. Another disturbing aspect of this series, is the young age at which these characters are promiscuous, and exposed to drug use. Now, I think the great thing about the original series is that the ages of the teenagers are never mentioned. And the actors portraying the characters were clearly adults. So you never had any moral qualms about them doing drugs or having sex. Whereas in this incarnation, the characters are clearly played by actors who are of a similar age to their characters. So, wa...

  While I enjoyed this serious, unfortunately, I had already seen most of the very funny bits before watching this. Some of the sentences that Philomena comes up with are brilliant, and it makes you wonder if this is all improvisation, or if the actress and writers had to work very, very hard to come up with lines that a person both incredibly stupid and yet smart would come up with. So if you don't have TikTok or you don't use YouTube shorts, you'll love this. If you've already seen Philomena Cunk on TikTok or YouTube, you don't need to bother.  Leverton Review: 4/5.

We often think of biases as connected to our political experiences, or preferences. But it is equally true to think of biases as being connected to our culture, our nationality and our language. This documentary tells a convoluted story of kidnapping, revenge and corruption. It is the reason that for a time, the French and the Mexican governments absolutely hated each other. And I had no idea that even happened because I get my news from English language sources. So that aspect of the documentary was a little surprising for me. About the case itself, it seems really strange. The documentary is presenting it as if three people weren't kidnapped. But I think if three people were kidnapped, it would be easy to prove by asking their friends and neighbors if they had seen them during that time period. The other aspect of the case that is a little disturbing, or rather very disturbing, is that it is mentioned in one of the episodes that the man who is accused of the kidnapping is still i...

This is the story of a man with deep-seated psychological problems who became a meme and ultimately a convicted murderer. So the story of this man is not hidden from the audience as they view this documentary. He was a hitch-hiker, and he was being driven by someone who then had an accident and in what appeared to be a fit of murderous racist rage decided to kill the other participant in the accident. Caleb, the protagonist of the story, then decided to hop out of the truck and rescue the victim of this attack by attacking the man with an axe. He then gave an interview with a local news station, which then went viral. Then he got a lot of offers to become rich and famous, including having his own reality TV show. But ultimately he was unwell, and this was apparent to anyone who spent any time with him. I think the documentary wants us to ask ourselves what happens if you make a person a meme. However, the brutal murder that Caleb was convicted of was not caused by him being a meme, nor...

 So I have decided to try the impossible task of watching every Disney movie that has ever been released. The first movie that I decided to watch was the first movie that Disney released chronologically. The first feature length film, Snow White. Now I must have watched this sometime in the past, but honestly I don't remember. Let's start with the positives, some of the animation is excellent and really holds up to this day, especially the scenes with the wicked Queen and her being wicked. But I have to ask myself would someone show this to their children today? The film is nearly a hundred years old, and our morality and values have evolved since that time. But that's not the real reason why it wouldn't be interesting for children today, or rather it's connected to that. The way that Snow White is depicted, it's like leading actresses of the time would be depicted in Hollywood. It makes the animation of the character look quite bizarre. The  dwarves are animate...

This is for the most part an interesting examination of what are the motivations behind the actions of people who have been condemned to death. Not all of the prisoners have been condemned to death in this series and in one particular instance a man is punished merely because he decided to go to trial. He got twice as much time as his accomplice who actually pulled the trigger. This shows the hypocrisy of the American justice system where a very rich judge sits in his cottage and says it's okay that he sentenced a boy to 40 years because that boy didn't think about the feelings of the victim. He was just in the same car, and even if you wanted to punish him he should have got the same time as the one who pulled the trigger, not more. Most of these criminals have mental issues, most of them are poor or black or immigrants. It is a quiet indictment of the justice system itself-an interesting watch.

The Incredibles still holds up after 18 years for two reasons. The first is that it manages to create a universe of believable superhero characters without relying on the deep history of Marvel or DC. The other reason is that it deals with a theme that is all too common for adults-the feeling that we have made bad choices and that we wonder how we ended up in the situations we find ourselves. When you are an adult, the dreams that sustained you as a younger person are dead. And I think most people would be tempted if someone gave you the opportunity to feel as you did back then. This is the brilliance of Pixar, other films for children include jokes for the adults to keep them entertained, like Shrek, but Pixar's themes are for the most part adult things, with film elements to keep the children entertained.

There are only two reasons to watch this film. The first is that it is the first sci-fi film ever. The second is that it does have some shots that are brilliant, and it is a marvel they were created almost 100 hundred years ago. The film is more like a ballet than a movie. The story barely makes sense, the message of the film is confusing (the head and the hands need the heart to mediate?) and it is about two hours too long. If you are interested in the great shots from the film, they can be found on Youtube. It's not worth your time watching this. H. G. Wells gave it the most honest review when he said it was a 'silly film'.

So one interesting fact that is not mentioned in this book, is that if you are European descent are you related to Charlemagne.  This is due to the fact the farther in time you go back, the more your ancestors overlap.  So now that you have read that, you can skip this book, because there's nothing that interesting in it.  The author has one idea, that Charlemagne was really dedicated to the church and he repeats this over several uninteresting chapters and hundreds of pages.  Leverton Review 5/5.

This is a bizarre story of a man working through some psychological issues while being absolutely wealthy. The documentary does a very good job of telling you the story he told the world over the years, and then, bit by bit, unravelling the true story.  The heart of this story is a scam artist, who unlike others in his profession has the virtue of sometimes telling the truth.  Because of this, he does end up being somewhat sympathetic. There is tax evasion on a massive scale, which the Italian government seems to have forgiven him for, and there is also a question of animal abuse, but it is unclear how much he knew of what was going on.  There's also a quasi-sex cult shrouded in the veneer of a science experiment.  It is definitely worth a watch.  Leverton Review 5/5

 I choose this book to read because Queen Elizabeth the Second was always a distant presence in my life.  When I went to school, her portrait hung in classrooms, and even in the arena of the most popular hockey team in Toronto.  Lands that are owned by the government aren't called 'government' lands in Canada, but 'crown' lands. She was on the money, and it was weird when her portrait was changed as she aged. By the time I was born, she had already been Queen for two decades and would go on to be queen for five more.  I was a teenager when the debacle of Charles and Diana reached its tragic end. It is strange because the royal family is clearly like any other family, filled with kind and unkind people, saints and criminals, and yet- they have always seen alien to me.  Queen Elizabeth was like an archetype of a grandmother to me. My own grandmother died very young, and I imagine that they would have had similar personalities.  In this book, it is revealed th...

I have always liked Superhero movies that did not take the conventional approach to the genre.  For example, kick ass, and the Watchmen were my favorites for some time, and despite people's hatred for it, I kind of dug Ironman 3. Extraordinary tells the story of a woman without superpowers in a world where everyone has superpowers.  The superpowers are kind of irrelevant to the story, it's just the story of an unextraordinary person who does not know what her purpose is.  It is full of very meaningful moments, and hilarity.  There are very few things that I can watch by myself and laugh out loud and this is one of them.  The actors are great, and the writing is superb.  Leverton Review. 5/5

The plot of this series is a good one, some unsuspecting characters stumble into a murder investigation.  The characters are well acted, and the writing of their backstories is excellent.  The one thing that sticks in my craw is the way the writers treat true crime podcast fans.  It's kind of obvious that they have never listened to a true crime podcast in their lives as they depict true crime podcast fans as something like modern day Trekkies.  I don't doubt that there would be a podcast about the crimes in the series, or that the characters themselves would try like they do to make one, but that they would have fans camping outside the building, or stalking them in restaurants?  Absurd.  Leverton Review 3/5 

 I watched this movie with no great expectations.  I think for most people, the attraction of the MCU has faded.  It's not surprising after the over saturation of the content over the past few years.  I think last year there were six tv shows and four movies.  And honestly, I've never been a huge fan of the characters.  But I have to admit that there are two things that Marvel does well...emotionally resonant scenes and big action.  Wakanda Forever had both.  It was far too long, and I think this was affected by the premature death of Chadwick Boseman.  It was hard to balance an emotional story of farewell to that character with an absurd one of fish-people being angry with Wakanda. This leads me to my biggest problem with the portrayal of Wakanda, and the fish people in the MCU.  Vibranium is supposed to give both countries this amazing technological advantage over the rest of the world to the extent that major powers like the US are af...