Tag: Stephen Tobolowsky

When Netflix released its line up for Netflix and Chills for October, I ignored it. Hell, I assumed most people ignored it. It featured a lot of titles that were original releases, so really, I had no reason to hype them as they were unknown to me.

What am I going to do, watch a trailer? For a NETFLIX movie? Psha.

The only reason I gave Fractured a chance (because it didn’t even make the front page of my Netflix feed) is thanks to positive word of mouth, and frankly, I am just here to pass it on.

Waiting for a reason to watch a trailer for a Netflix film.

Ray (Sam Worthington) and his family are driving up to the extended family for Thanksgiving holiday. They are heading up to Minnesota and a bit late, so they are not enjoying the long flatness of the Midwest en route. A lot of anger and minor arguments between him and his wife (Lily Rabe). Thankfully their young daughter (Lucy Capri) seems to be mostly ambivalent.

However, when stopping at a rest stop for normal reasons, and to clean a mess, a dog scares their little one. Ray tries to get the dog away, but she still falls into a construction pit and she is hurt. Ray is a little bit shaken up, but his wife snaps him out of it, and they decide to drive her to a local hospital for a check up.

Things go slow, his wife is nagging, so Ray has to bug the staff over and over again to get things moving, but they finally look at her, see nothing wrong, and bring her in for a cat scan to check the rest of her body.

Ray can’t go downstairs with his family during this time, so he waits in the waiting room. And he waits. And he waits. And he waits. But they do not return. And now the staff has changed, and no one says there is any proof of there being his family there.

This sounds like the hospital has stolen his wife and child for not being from there and no insurance, to do what…steal their organs maybe? This is not what Ray wanted when he stopped by, but he has to figure out how to get his family back, when the whole system seems to be against him.

Also starring Chad Bruce, Erik Athavale, Stephanie Sy, Shane Dean, Lauren Cochrane, Adjoa Andoh, and Stephen Tobolowsky.

Me falling forward in anticipation of more Stephen Tobolowsky.

Fractured was way better than anticipated, and the anticipation was low for many reasons, including Sam Worthington as the lead role. And yet it doesn’t take long to draw the viewer in. The fall happens very early on, after enough naggy wife to get us all on edge.

And from then on, we are in hospital mode, and shit just seems to get stranger and more bizarre the further we get into the movie. Who is telling the truth, our lead, or the hospital? Is this a man getting screwed, or is he delusional?

Unreliable narrators can lead to quite the thrill, especially if the film teeters on the fence until the final two minutes.

Fractured featured okay writing, but the twists and turns were enough to keep me on the edge of my seat throughout the movie. Definitely would recommend and worthy of viewing in your living room.

The worst trilogy of all time? No, you have to remember things like The Scary Movie franchise exist. Or soon to be Planes trilogy.

Now, weirdest and strangest trilogy of all time? Yeah, probably.

After all, I don’t know of a single trilogy that replaced every crossover character between every film. I don’t know of a single trilogy to say they would only continue to make more movies if their previous ones made enough money, then, you know, make them anyways despite it not occurring.

I don’t know of a single trilogy to make only one part a musical. That is not true for this one, but it almost happened.

So here we go. Atlas Shrugged Part III: Who Is John Galt?

“Who is John Galt? — Kill yourself!”

Part three, if you have been following along, starts with Dagny Taggart (Laura Regan) surviving her plane crash. She has now landed in a magical fairy tale land where all these big incredible thinkers have been living in secrecy! And she is now one of them!

Just kidding, she is here by accident. But this is totally where John Galt (Kristoffer Polaha) is. He wanted to stop the motor of the world, or some shit, and he wanted the government to get off of his nuts. And since they wanted to control his brain and his industry, so he fucking left. He wanted people to make money off of their creations and get some sort of super capitalism, away from any government shenanigans.

While this is going on, all the government works are falling to shit and everyone in America is sad.

And yeah, some terrorism level shit happens. People want the John Galt philosophy to come true, Dagny just kind of wants John Galt’s penis.

Some torture, and then another shitty ending.

With other fine actors like, Greg Germann, Larry Cedar, Joaquim de Almeida, Peter Mackenzie, Stephen Tobolowsky and Rob Morrow.

That’s right, this movie has a romance plot line.

Man, I wish this would have been a musical. It would have probably been less cheesy than the actual film itself.

Like, this movie ended up having a narrator. It wasn’t a person from the movie talking, it was just a straight up omnipotent narrator, with a powerful voice, and it really broke any narrative that the characters were creating. Show me, don’t tell me. The narrator made me laugh every time and it was extremely off putting.

Outside of the annoying narration, the story felt…over acted? Overly dramatic? Maybe just overly stupid. Yeah, let’s go with that. If I was supposed to feel any emotional connection to John Galt or Dagny I got nothing (And the actor changes / delay between stories didn’t help). It might work in the book, but this slow trilogy isn’t a great format for it.

I think this trilogy was made for people who really like the book and no one else. It really didn’t make a lot of sense without the book knowledge. If I have some free time, I might finally Audiobook this one. Maybe. But the trilogy was one of the worst and thus hilarious attempts at telling a serious story I have ever seen.

Never again. Never again.

I have walked by this title a lot, mostly because I got it confused with a British television show that might be about Pedophiles, Peep Show. But Peep World has neither pedos nor Brits. Just Americans, a “dysfunctional family” and boner jokes.

Peep World is the name of a fictional book in this fictional movie. Written by Ben Schwartz, he is the youngest member of his family, and decided to write a novel about their lives. They didn’t know it was going to happen, but it became a very successful book, and even has a movie being made about it! Whether or not it is just based on them, or all true, that is the real question. Despite all of this fame for the youngest son, he has problems lasting in the sack, and therefore is flawed again. His assistant Kate Mara might be able to help.

He has two older brothers, one a not too successful lawyer (Rainn Wilson, took 8 tries to pass the bar), and a more successful businessman with a wife (Michael C Hall, Judy Greer). His older sister is Sarah Silverman, and is thinking of suing for damages, all while her friend Stephen Tobolowsky is trying to hit that. Oh yeah, and the entire thing is narrated by Lewis Black.

Lot of star power right there. Unfortunately just describing the plot seemed weird to me. Characters all there, and a dad, who really wants to bring his family together. That is about it.

A very odd film, no doubt, and had some humorous moments, but I am left wondering what the point was of it all. I just needed something…more!

More than Rainn Wilson looking like, well, a pedophile.