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Oppenheimer isn't a bad movie. It's a good movie. It's just difficult to know just how good it is since the dialogue is constantly interrupted either by over the top sound effects or a self important and intrusive soundtrack by Ludwig Göransson. It isn't that Christopher Nolan thinks he's Michael Bay. There's only one explosion, but it is a big one. It's just that he might as well have been Michael Bay, exchanging explosions on the screen for an explosive soundtrack. I don't know if Ludwig Göransson thinks he's the new Vangelis or the next Hans Zimmer, but he is neither. They must have a great sound system in the studio's mixing room. It's just too bad the average Cineplex can't quite match it.

I think he would have been better served if he had brought Zimmer onboard to do the soundtrack. He brought other people from the Batman movies. Gary Oldman is almost unrecognizable as President Harry Truman and Tom Conti is totally unrecognizable as Professor Albert Einstein. There are other Hollywood Heavyweights in other cameos as well. But they're all overshadowed by the intrusive overbearing soundtrack.

If only Christopher Nolan had more respect for the audiences intelligence he might have given the dialogue a more prominent place in his film. Quantum Mechanics and Nuclear Physics are difficult enough subjects to tackle when you can hear and understand every word being said clearly and distinctly. But when you have music that is trying to create a sense of urgency and tension even in scenes where there is none, it's a bit like the snow he inserts into scenes where it isn't cold enough to see the actors breath. Obviously he is foreshadowing nuclear winter and fallout, but again, it's as intrusive as the persistent soundtrack, and more than a little ham-handed. Muck like the inserted nudity and sex scene trying to allude to Oppenheimer's life being laid bare before his detractors.

Cillian Murphy's performance is excellent. Had this film been made a decade or two ago his part might well have gone to Peter Weller. He would have fit right in as the Doctor Buckaroo Banzai of the 1940s, especially when Naked Lunch like sexual and atomic hallucination intrude into the story almost as much as that bombastic soundtrack.

Perhaps all the blasts of music, sound effects and shocking imagery are to keep the audience awake since you can't always hear the dialogue. Or, maybe, he thought the dialogue itself would put people to sleep, especially after the bomb is made and shipped off to Japan and the movie is only a little more than half over and the film degenerates into a courtroom drama against Oppenheimer by a Robert Downey Jr.'s bitter character, since it's filled enough science and political science to put the audience to sleep even with the intrusive music and hallucinations. It's hard to say for certain since I couldn't hear a lot of it.

So I hope when the DVD comes out there will be instead of a Director's Cut, a Viewer's Cut, complete with options like a soundtrack that can be turned down. At least there will be Closed Captions, hopefully accurate ones, and not like the ones that seem be written for the deaf by the deaf. No, good ones where you can read what's actually being said. Only then will I be able to determine just how good this good movie really was. It was certainly better than the theater's sound system as it struggled to keep up. Perhaps they should resurrect the of Sensurround System from the 1970's that they used for movies like Earthquake and Midway with enough Cervwin-Vega speakers for a Grateful Dead concert. Maybe that would allow the audience to hear the dialogue above the intrusive score and atomic blasts. Otherwise it's like trying to watch a combination of a dramatic Broadway play with the entire New York Philharmonic on stage with the actors, punctuating their every line with fanfares and flourishes.

Does this review seem overly long and monotonous? Well then Oppenheimer probably isn't your cup of tea. The "courtroom stuff" makes the "math stuff" seem interesting by comparison. It seems that Christopher Nolan wanted to give us an epic. It's certainly long enough to be one. But most of the film isn't IMAX worthy, even if the soundtrack requires their sound system. This could have been a Smart Movie, but I think Nolan made it just smart enough for intellectually challenged pretentious people to think it is. Or maybe I'm wrong and it's just me. But if I were you, I'd wait for the DVD, or Stream it. That way you can rewind missed dialogue and take breaks as needed in order to find out.

The Offer is my favorite series right now. I look forward to it every week. Some slag it, but you can usually tell by their writing they're no critics. Sure, it's a bit ham handed at times and a mixed bag. It's filled with nods to the movie and anachronisms, such as the assassination of Joe Colombo and Hit on Crazy Joe Gallo. Both of those happened in the late 70s, well after the filming of The Godfather. And not all of the actors nailed the people they're portraying, but enough of it is right to make it enjoyable viewing whether you know the people and the stories or not. I would have like to have seen more on Gianni Russo. He was the one actor that, as a courier for Frank Costello, was mobbed up enough to make the filming in New York happen. But the series is all from the point of view of Al Ruddy. So, of course, he's the hero of the story. The two lesser bosses Ruddy and Lapidus argue like kids. But the two big Bosses fight like Titans! Gorman is a psycho as Bluhdorn. Barking mad! And Goode is really good as Evans. He has the voice down. For those who don't know it, it's a great story. And, for those who do, it's fun to see what they got right and what they went Hollywood on. Do yourself a favor. Don't refuse The Offer.

Why do all the versions of Buck Rogers suck? Flash Gordon go his shot. It was no Academy Award winner, but okay for what it was. Buck Rogers looks like it was shot in a bad disco. Maybe someday they'll make a good one, or at least as good as Flash. I think both of them are due for a serious update.