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Reviews
Outer Range (2022)
JJ Abrams called. This show is Lost
The show is rudderless. At least Lost had a decent start by crashing onto an island. The first episode of Outer Range has a random buffalo in the middle of a pasture. I had to fiddle with my TV settings because the filming was so dark. Didn't Lost throw a cow on the island? I'm getting really expensive poo vibes from the start.
Amazon has bland original content. I am pretty sure they just buy whatever content is out there that a known celebrity gets in on to collect a paycheck. This sort of concept shouldn't have been made- like at all.
If there isn't a point after a few episodes you will not find one later.
Out of the Shadows: The Man Behind the Steele Dossier (2021)
this will always be confusing to me
The entire premise starts in 2007 when Trump wanted to buy a hotel in Russia and have a beauty pageant there. And then it whizzes past a decade until Trump is the final Republican candidate in a bid for presidency. A former MI6 guy who says he is a Russia expert steps in and says "wait a minute. I know what's happening here. Russia used to be the USSR. Putin is this guy who poisons people. Russian trolls buy ads on Facebook. Trump Russia Putin America". It feels like a meandering story rather than anything coherent.
No matter what, I will never get past that Trump progressed past 12 other Republican candidates in the year leading up to the final vote. Every time I hear the story begin a decade before and then when it glosses over the 12 other Republican candidates, that is where I get lost in this fiction.
In my mind, when the Republican candidates began their campaigns the least plausible candidate was Trump. I wrote him off day 1. But, hey, it happened. The most damage was the massive blowback beginning with this dossier.
Steele a patriot? Hardly. I feel a little bad for him that he got stuck where he did. I didn't read his dossier but I assume he laid out some bullet points and then Clinton threw it over the fence and let American media talk about it... forever. My only thought going into the polls was if Trump wins, I will not go a day for the next 4 years without hearing and reading his name- which came true, btw.
The whole ordeal was a disruption caused by hysteria.
WWII in HD (2009)
I want to like it
What took me out of it was the superb audio. It's nice that they found crisp footage but the audio should've been more dusty.
Imagine they take audio from a college football game and overlay that to show a crowd of Germans cheering for Hitler. Or taken modern gun sounds and use them to fill in some 100y.o. gun sounds. It's too crisp. Like I expect to hear that Transformers transforming sound when someone salutes.
Doctor Strange (2016)
good for insomnia
I'll just say what is on my mind after watching the movie for maybe the fifth time. I'm tired of Hollywood hiring foreigners to do an American accent. It's just a lot of hard R's. Either base him in London and let him keep his natural voice or hire a real American.
The biggest thing that nagged me was the writing that dated the movie. When he starts listing off one-named musicians (that a 45 year old British guy wouldn't/shouldn't listen to) it sounds weird. It also wasn't a funny bit. It was just weird. I'd rather him stick with liking music for his age -like a normal person would. Besides, 50 years from now grandkids will ask if that was a joke and no one will know. "Well, at the time he was a British guy (pretending to be American) a decade older than me talking about musicians American kids 20 years younger than me would listen to. It was a dad joke I guess?"
The whole time bending, multiverse thing is blah.
I couldn't see kids get behind this as a superhero and I, as an adult, think it's good for making me sleepy.
Vice Investigates (2019)
biased content
The 1st episode about hip-hop:
There is a difference between hip-hop and rap and this is rap.
Hip-Hop - Fugees, Das EFX, Naughty By Nature, Wu-Tang, Brand Nubian, Aceyalone, Black Eyed Peas, Talib Kweli and Mos Def, Ugly Duckling, Pharcyde, Outkast, Jurassic 5, Sugarhill Gang, Tribe Called Quest
Rap - Eminem, Tupac, E40, Public Enemy, N.W.A.
Of the Hip-hop side, the most extreme might be the Wu-Tang but the overarching feel is a lyrical competition. Many of the others have messages about freedom, equality, enjoying life, or simply rapping about rapping.
And there is much to be said about protecting children. Parents should be offered of lyric content so they can make informed decisions about what their children are exposed to. And exposure is the problem. If you put the idea of suicide or drugs in someone's head, their range of choices in lifestyle increases. The Amazonian Pirahã tribe doesn't even have a concept of suicide. It's just not something they are exposed to. The number of suicides increases when a famous person commits suicide. The most notable account that differed was with Kurt Cobain and economists attribute it to Courtney Love as she spoke out in condemnation of the choice her husband made.
The examples they gave were more like the Eminem or Insane Clown Posse variety. There is no culture. In the show, kids rapping about the intracacies of suicide or running around with assault rifles is reckless.
Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)
I don't want to be this negative but here we go
I just didn't like this movie and created an account just to write it somewhere. Apparently you have to be a real critic to write a review on Rotten Tomatoes. Anyways, someone on Rotten Tomatoes put it well in saying that Solo took all of the imagination out of the Star Wars story. To me it felt like it filled in too many blanks. Why couldn't Han's last name simply be Solo? It didn't need to be an English nickname. It killed the idea that he could be otherworldly. Oh, and let's go ahead and point out that we'll call Chewbacca "Chewie" from now on.
I went into this wondering if they would mention the Kessell Run not knowing that would be the whole plot to the entire movie. It's like they didn't try to be creative and it killed my imagination. Let's just explain it all. The Lando guy did a good Lando impersonation- I still don't like the character. Let's really talk about these capes because that's different, right? Ugh. I imagine that's to sell figurines and Halloween costumes. Thanks Disney. They wrote for Han to give a wookie impression? To me it felt like breaking the 4th wall rather than adding context. Just have Han speak English to him and they understand each other. I wish they had left my imagination to think the way they understand one another had a mystique. Like clairvoyant we-just-understand-each-other thing. The writers just seemed compelled to explain every single thing.
For what it's worth, Woody Harrelson did a good job playing Woody Harrelson.
I just thought they could've slowed the story down and taken things in a different direction. It felt more like a comic book origin story than something special. This goes on the list of movies to watch when you're sick. You know, when you're sprawled on the couch and you can turn over only to listen while you're half asleep. And they could've picked someone to play Han that was as tall as Harrison Ford and had him complain more. He was all smiles and looked more like the double for Lone Star in Spaceballs if I was suffering from face blindness.