The Leverton Review

 I surprised myself by being sympathetic to the main character of this documentary. While not a great example of humanity, and most definitely a philandering liar, he was in fact a surgeon. A surgeon with a revolutionary idea that did not work. Or at least does not work in the method he deployed. There are a lot of stages that a doctor has to get to before they can be allowed to come up with a new method of surgery. So that shows that he did have talent. I think what wrecked him was his unfounded optimism. The documentary tries to portray him as a monster because he lied to a bunch of women, and he did not perform any animal trials of his procedure. As to the first accusation, while certainly unethical, it's not immoral. As to the second accusation, if the procedure had actually worked, then the animal trials would have been redundant. As far as I know, testing to see if stem cells actually grew around the plastic tube, what's the major flaw in this method. It was certainly rec...

 vA bit too long, but entertaining for what it is. Lee Yoo Mi does a good job as a fish out of water in the beginning of the series, but when the series transform into more and more of a Korean character and less and less of a Mongolian character I feel like she loses some of her charm. There's no reason she has to cut her hair. A tragic loss. The rest of the cast which plays her family does a remarkable job, with the best possible combination of gravitas and over the top ridiculousness. One character who is always played deadly seriously is that o Ryu Shi-oh who is played brilliantly by Byeon Woo-seok. The villain story is really well written even if his demise is laughably bloodless. Not the best k-drama it's quite good.

 I just finished watching this and am a bit surprised and shocked by how modern and yet how timeless this story is. I grew up in a very religiously charged atmosphere, and that caused me to be interested in many different areas of spirituality - including more destructive groups. Twinflames shares the destructiveness and manipulation of groups like the Branch Davidians, the people's Temple and others, but it also adds its own unique and horrifying take on it. There is an epidemic of loneliness and our society, and they lure their victims in with the promise that they have correctly magical formula for love and happiness. Of course, it doesn't work, it's all a charade to line the pockets of the cult leaders. I think it's an interesting example of how a group that just started off as a con, become perverted into a dangerous religious movement. It's a modern take on a destructive group because it has forced its members to transition from male into female identities and...

 This is a fun romp. There are many things to criticize the MCU for, and this film is certainly not exempt from them, however, it has a sense of humor about it that is perfectly balanced with its plot. It's not a boring waste of time like the last Ant-Man movie, nor is it two separate movies placed together like the last Thor movie. It's quite enjoyable. It does have a few problems, as I previously mentioned. The first problem is the MCU is a victim of its own success. Kamala Khan is an interesting character, and seeing her family try to deal with a ridiculous situation is quite entertaining, but there are a lot of Marvel fans who just watch the movies. And if you just watch the movie, Kamala just seems like an extra character added ridiculously to this Captain Marvel sequel. But it makes a lot of sense, Kamala is obsessed with Captain Marvel, takes her name after Captain Marvel, so she's Miss Marvel which means she is someone who looks up to Carol Danvers as did her niece ...

  There's a lot of doom and gloom connected to the fate of the MCU recently, and this show demonstrates that it is possible to have interesting characters, interesting special effects and an interesting plot even after producing so much content. Loki works because it is an examination of Loki's character, and his potential to grow. The special effects do a great job of setting the atmosphere of the story, but there isn't any reliance on them to overpower and amaze the viewer. It is easy to compare and contrast this television series with the last ant-Man and  see everything that Marvel does correctly, and everything they do incorrectly. There are big stars in the show, they are not forced to only rely on their charm. The writing of the show carries the entire weight of it, makes it a great viewing experience. It is a great demonstration of how you can tell a profound story through the medium of television. It doesn't need another season, this is a fitting end for the ch...

 A surprisingly faithful adaptation of the book, but for me a bit too long. Walt Disney bought the rights to the 1940 film version because he thought he could make a much better film. I think it probably was more successful commercially, however, it focuses on things that are just not interesting for me. There is no explanation as to how the family was able to survive and thrive in this environment, that gets overshadowed by a really forced love triangle, the threat from some pirates. One thing that both adaptations do which is strange for me is they are faithful to the wide variety of animals that are on this island found in the book, which doesn't make any sense at all. Because the island is supposed to be somewhere in Asia, are ostriches, zebras and tigers. Honestly, I was bored by the end and the most exciting thing for me was that the caption froze for the last half of the movie and all it said was what I'm going to do

 Also, her family has been bribing politicians of all political stripes since before the Second World War. And something that was not mentioned at all in this documentary at all, she was the person who lost the most money to Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme. That's the fascinating thing about this documentary - this woman has more money than she possibly can ever spend in her life, and yet she and those she is surrounded by, are constantly trying to buy influence, and help her evade taxes. I mean, even if she spent 90% of her yearly income on tax, she would still be one of the richest people alive. And while it is sad that she was taken advantage of when she was older because she had Alzheimer's, the crazy thing is that the people who took advantage of her the most were put on trial. Neither she nor her family wherever charged or convicted of any crimes related to tax evasion in France. The French president she bribed was charged with that crime, got out of it, it was so corrup...

 Apparently the 1960 Disney version of Swiss Family Robinson is much more famous, although I haven't watched it yet. It's more famous because Disney bought the rights to this film and most of the copies of it and tried to have it destroyed so that people would remember their version better. It's not the darkest thing that Disney has ever done in its illustrious history, but it's up there. This film is much more of a morality play than we are used to in our modern films. A man, despairs at the future for his children, decides to immigrate to a safer place and in the process gets his family shipwrecked. He's quite happy about this because this is the life he wanted to lead, but his wife is less than enthusiastic. Upon researching the book for this review, discovered that there are multiple versions of the book and the book that is an English is quite different from the original German text. But this movie does something even different with the plot of the story - vers...

 A good introduction to the life of Sylvester Stallone, and a good companion piece to the earlier documentary released on Netflix about Arnold Schwarzenegger entitled Arnold, this suffers from a lack of acknowledgment of significant controversies in Stalone's career, most notably several sexual assault accusations. One can have problems with how Schwarzenegger addressed his controversies, he addressed them. Stallone seems more interested in building the narrative of a sensitive boy who was tormented by his father. Of course, that is probably true, it does not absolve one from responsibility for one's own actions. An interesting watch, but a bit incomplete.

 Usually when Netflix presents a true-crime documentary, there is always some sort of controversial angle to discuss. In this one, in my opinion, there is nothing controversial to discuss. Both of the people who were accused of the crime most likely had something to do with the crime. Only one of them was convicted of murder, served a prison sentence that was equally lengthy. You might argue that neither one of them deserved to be released on parole, but that is another question altogether. I don't believe that Jens had nothing to do with the murder, and I also don't believe that Elizabeth was not present during the murder. The alibi that they both constructed was pretty weak considering it relied on movie tickets that can be fixed, especially back then. And if they were innocent, why did they both run away together, causing an international manhunt?

 In the last film of this trilogy, Larry the night security guard learns to accept that his son has come of age and that he can make his own decisions. The backdrop of this story is full of zany shenanigans and awesome special effects. When the statues of the British museum starts to come to life, it is very creepy and effective. There's no real villain in this piece, the enemy is time. Does it have a monkey slap battle? You'll just have to watch this film to find out.

 While not as strong as the first installment of the franchise, this film certainly has its moments. As I said to my son, any film with a monkey slap fight is an awesome film. The plot is not necessarily important in this film, but the story is. In the first film, Larry learns to accept responsibilities that he has as a parent, and in this film he learns that he can fulfill these responsibilities and doing a job he loves but which does not necessarily pay well. Like the first film, it is elevated by a combination of a great supporting cast and excellent animation. I didn't mention this in my first review, which was an Omission on my part, but Robin Williams and a small role shows why he was one of the greatest actors of his generation. It's a combination of humor, darkness, and pathos. It does certainly make me want to go back and watch more of his more famous films to see if I missed something, just being entertained when I originally watched them. The animation is a chaotic w...

 I'm sure I must have watched this film at some point earlier, but I wasn't paying attention. The plot is a by the numbers tale of a man-child, finally decides to accept responsibility for his son. But as Alan Moore has said, plot is not the story of this film. The story of the film is a man is thrust in to unusual situations, and ends up not only surviving, but thriving. The film is full of little bits that are hilarious, but you might not catch them if you're not paying attention. But what really elevates the film is the combination of superb supporting acting from Dick Van Dyke, mickey Rooney, Owen Wilson and a host of other actors who are not as famous and great special effects that really stand the test of time. The animation of the t-Rex is just classic. This is an entertaining family film which is definitely worth a watch.