Ralph's Movie Reviews: PROMISED LAND

Friday, January 11, 2013

PROMISED LAND

Drama

PRINCIPAL CAST MEMBERS

Matt Damon: Steve Butler, corporate salesman for Global Crosspower Solutions

Frances McDormand: his associate Sue Thomason

Titus Wlliver: store clerk Rob

Rosemarie DeWitt: school teacher Alice

Hal Holbrook: high school science teacher Frank Yates

John Krasinski: environmental advocate Dustin Noble

REVIEW

Getting land owners to sign leases granting drilling rights to gas companies is controversial although there is some attempt here to present both sides of the story. The acting is uniformly good, the production values are all top-notch and the pacing is fine.

But it will be left with the viewer to decide the merits of this new process.

CLASSIFICATION

for language (which makes no sense to me given that there is just one f-word)

FOR NITPICKERS ONLY

Steve gets off the bus pulling his suitcase. He turns the corner and meets up with Sue but his wheelie is no where to be seen. It has disappeared.

Steve says “hydraulic fracturing has been used for over 50 years”. In fact fracking (the horizontal slickwater fracturing method) has been used by the industry for just 15 years. Intentional deception or a nitpick? You know which one gets my vote.

Sue and Steve are driving in an old pickup that would not meet State laws as it has no rear-view mirror in any of the head-on shots.

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my ratings system

I've always thought that telling too much about a movie or warning someone about a "twist" at the end deprives the person the pleasure of seeing it as it unfolds, so I don’t do it. You may not always agree with my rating of course, but at least it is an unbiased opinion unlike some of the full time professional reviewers who are on the studio’s payroll.

A few movies you won’t see any review from me:

Scary movies: I’m the world’s biggest chicken and just hate getting the crap scared out of me. I can handle an unexpected door slam, that kind of thing, but a movie that keeps you on the edge of your seat…not for me. Sorry.
Movies geared to the young teen and pre-teen crowd with dialog comprising mostly of crude remarks, awful jokes and lots of rude, socially unacceptable body noises. "The Spy that Shagged Me" comes to mind. (I wonder if the kids know what the British verb to shag someone really means? They probably do; I bet you it’s the parents who haven’t a clue).
Sometimes Hollywood gets on a roll and they produce a series of movies that are all very much alike. For example movies about the CIA were very popular and so we had The Bourne Identity and Bad Company and The Sum of All Fears. They all had the same basic theme and it becomes repetitive. I will see some, but not all of them.

FYI this is my rating system:

0 stars = Terrible: so bad it’s not worth talking about; in fact, I’d pay you not to go
= Lousy: I actually got up and walked out before the end it was just that bad (no kidding)
= Not so good: thought about walking out but hung in just in case it got better (but it didn’t)
= A so-so good movie: I enjoyed it somewhat but wasn’t all that crazy about it
= A really good movie: I recommend seeing it
= An excellent movie you just got to see! I suggest you put it on your "To Do List" it’s that good.

some favourite websites

For those into it, Nitpickers at

has more movie mistakes than you could ever imagine. My contributions can be seen if you check out the Nitpickers Registry and click on the link Nitpickers Listed by Nitpicker Number, select the group 45,401 - 45,500 and drill down to number 45411. Although I have 56 nitpicks to my credit, some have almost 2,000. You wonder sometimes where they find the time to do it.