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The Batman (2022)
the most boring batman film i have ever seen
I'll be honest here, i take back what i said about "the dark knight rises". The batman (2022) is the most boring, unfocused, poor pacing and too long for a film about Batman, it's dark like literally, i can barly tell what am i watching, most of the chatacers are underdeveloped, cliche dialogue, copying a lot from david fincher's "Seven" from 1995 (which is masterpiece in filmmaking), the riddler, Paul Dano is just why?, he such a good actor and all the scenes of him i'm almost laughing at his performance, i don't know if it's matt reeves poor direction but somthing went wrong here, he's feels like a poor man's john doe in a gimp suit, very over the top even for riddler standers, the riddles themselves are interesting, i'm trying to figute out what's the answer, but batman's answers them so quickly like less then a minute (every one of them) like give so time with some bulid-up lets the audience also think for a moment, like even the movie thinks their audiences are stupid. The casting is a mixed bag: Zoe Kravitz (catwomen), Colin Farrel (penguin) and Jeffery Wright (james gordon) are the only ones that are trying really hard with such a messy script and poor dialogue, john turturro as Carmine Falcone is so wasted in this film and add's almost nothing to the film, Robert Pattison is just very boring batman, he only has two emotions: sad and angry, the only good thing about Pattison is the bat suit, looks great. Andy Serkis is a great actor but so miscast as alfred. Everything about the film is depressing, bleak and too much focus on the political side which only makes things worse. Seriously in theaters after the one hour a half i was looking at my watch every 20 minutes and yawning from boredom on the poor dialogue especially from alfred by the third act i just wanted this film to end already. As fan of the batman comics i can tell it's mostly based on "Batman: Year One" with some plot point and elements stright from the comic. I think this movie needed a better director, casting director, a editor who can calm down every scene and a better writer. But that's my opinion. The only thing that can salvage this film is to cut maybe an hour and focus more on the main story then the 2 side stories this film has. Like half of the time i forgot the riddler was in this film.
Sense8 (2015)
cool idea, but execution is slow, boring and pretentious.
I checked this show out due to being fan of J. Michael Straczynski who is the co-creator, a very talented writer that made "Babylon 5" one of my favorite shows of all time. Also co-created by The Wachowski's but it made me very skeptical, despite they made "Bound" (1996) and "The Matrix" (1999) which are Classics and probably their best work, i know it's going to be one of two things: surprisingly good or complete garbage, since their track record has been pretty bad in the last decade.
So i checked it out. I really like the concept, about 8 people from around the globe who have some special psychic ability to link to each-other, through mentally emotionally that connects to a bigger picture of what's going on. The production value is spot-on you can tell this show had a big budget for shooting locations, but that's where the positives end.
So what's the problem with this show: the pacing, writing and dialogue and other things. The plot moves very slowly and when it gets on his feet and actually moving, its slows down again and by the end of season 1 i give up it felt like huge waste of time. It's not even a sci-fi show, more like soft supernatural LGBT drama.
8 main Characters are undeveloped stereotypes, using a lot of annoying clichés and modern tv tropes. Instead of let it come out subtle or natural (even sexually wise) instead we got a preachy soap opera with subpar acting, pushing the racial and gay subject matter constantly down our throats.
About the sex scenes, the amount of gratuitous sex scenes in this show is unnecessary and really pushing it to the point of being borderline softcore porn.
I get it, sex sales, but it feels so exploitative and doesn't come natural in this series. Netflix or the creators don't trust their audience or think we have low IQ. I feel like something went wrong behind the writing process, JMS can do better then this and for the Wachowski's consider their many ups and downs and their writing quality as of late, I'm not surprised by this.
Some other science fiction LGBT shows like "Torchwood" and "Lost Girl" handle this subject matter much better than this.
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run (2020)
a complete disgrace to the late Stephen Hillenburg (1961-2018)
As a fan of the original cartoon series (Hillenburg era 1999-2004) and first 2 theatrical films, The third SpongeBob film "Sponge on the Run" is what I like to call the perfect storm of soulless cynical cash-grab. it feels almost nothing like a proper SpongeBob movie, more like an very expensive "TV Special" then a Theatrical film, not to mention a shameless tie-in to the SpongeBob spin-off series "Camp Corral" (which already manages to retcon the series and mess-up the back stories of the main characters) and oh boy they are pushing this spin-off very hard at the expense of the film. the main "so-called" plot is another rehash of "Gary is Missing" episode and the film does a really poor job retelling this story.
it's about SpongeBob and Patrick are on a road trip to find Gary in Lost City of Atlantic City. the film feels like an executive producer's wet-dream, cause it reeks of being too safe, predictable and by the numbers like with many sadly, children films these days. with pointless celebrity cameos that add almost nothing to movie but stating the obvious, modern "hit" music that stinks of quantity, main characters not acting like their characters, few jokes made me chuckle, but most are stale and lame even by SpongeBob standards.
unlike the previous films, I had a very hard time watching this film. this is definitely the weakest film in the film series by far. Viacom (who own's nickelodeon) completely went against the late Stephen Hillenburg's whishes and vision and essentially throwing his SpongeBob he created completely out the window. like many fans predicted it's completely 100% "a shadow of it's former-self" which is sad.
the only positives I can give this film it's a great time-waster for children, like i mention before few jokes were little bit funny and the CGI stop-motion style animation while very different from the previous films and show works surprisingly well and looks great.
I'm happy this film's didn't get a worldwide theatrical release cause it doesn't feel like a film and fits perfectly with the mediocrity of streaming service films (80% of the time) .
The Mummy Returns (2001)
a fun sequel, but the lackluster script hurts it's full potential
First of all, this sequel for a period of time was very popular when it was released in spring 2001, being a box-office hit, spawned a couple of video games (there not that good), an animated series that lasted 2 seasons (suitable for children, no flesh eating bugs or PG-13 graphic violence) and started the movie career of wrestler-turned actor Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and of course the prequel film "The Scorpion King" starring The Rock. This film was constantly on television for a long time, even more then the 1999 Mummy film. I saw this film when i was 11, i loved it back then, however one of the secondary villain's death scene gave me the heebie-jeebies and nightmares for years. I was only 11, i easily get nightmares at the time. Now re-watching after a very long time, finally overcome this once disturbing death scene. Still enjoy the film, but the flaws are much bigger then i remember.
Almost the entire original cast and production crew are back, with Stephen Sommers returning to write and direct this film, but this time it feels like more of a studio demand film then a well-balanced sequel.
The plot takes place 9 years after the events of the first film, Rick and Evy are married and have an 8 year-old son named Alex exploring ancient egyptian ruins, thanks to evy's visions they manged find the "bracelet of Anubis" as a valuable treasure at first, unaware it's a cursed item that can guide to the resting place of The Scorpion King and also a key to unleash god of the underworld Anubis' Jackal army. Meanwhile evil worshiping cult leaded by Meela Nais a reincarnation of Imhotep's lover Anck Su namon who's being having similar visions to evy about her past and found Imhotep's corpse in the ruins of Hamunaptra. Resurrecting him with the "Book of the Dead" to fulfill some kind of ancient prophecy on the year of the scorpion (on the year the film takes place) to kill the scorpion king and control his army for world domination.
Like with the previous film, the sequel "the mummy returns" has great production values, time period setting, much larger action set-pieces and in times it does feel bigger in scope, the cinematography, fight choreography, stunt work, the action, sense of adventure, ancient Egypt themes with egyptian mythology, culture and trying their best to add the dead language of ancient Egypt into the film for the second time. Some special effects looks fine, other's very outdated (even back in 2001).
The protagonists: Brendan Fraser as Rick O'Connell is more developed this time, less of a jerk and more serious, cares about his family more likable then before, but the one who has changed the most was Rachel Weisz character Evy, from a book-worm to ass-kicking adventurer, she can hold her own, to the point that rick is almost a secondary character to her. Their son Alex played by freddie boath who manged to avoid the annoying child character trope in this film, he's funny and likable, very smart 8 year old and comes off like a secondary comic relief, similar to John Hannah's character Johnathan Carnahan, who changed very little, but still funny and has few great moments. Oded Fehr as ardeth bay is fine, but sadly very underdeveloped when compare to the first film and his dialogue is 90% exposition dump. The antagonists: Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep is great as always, but sadly little underdeveloped, since Patricia Velásquez character Meela has more focus as villain then him. Both Alun Armstrong and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje characters "Hafez" and "Lock-Nah" are excellent side villains, and funny at times. It's a shame they barley have any development. And of course Dwayne Johnson as the other main villain The Scorpion King, who only appears twice, first in the prologue and in the final climax with infamously badly rendered motion capture CGI.
The late Jerry goldsmith was replaced with Alan Silvestri, who i think did an great job less majestic and more sense of high epic adventure music, considering the film is going for much bigger Indiana Jones vibe then the previous film. But lacks the sense of mystery and wonders that goldsmith provided.
So what's the problems? The script and some of the CGI. Unlike the first film, the sequel feels genuinely rushed, underdeveloped and moves from point A to Point B very quickly almost like a video game. The film has more going for the emotions and visual storytelling to it, but the dots don't really connect and it comes at the price of under-cooked script, underdeveloped characters, motivations that makes zero sense and a lots of mythology and geography errors (i get it it's a movie but c'mon that's just lazy!). They don't even bother to explain important plot details like how the O'Connell's got rich?, who are the evil worshiping cult? Or why imhotep doesn't want to take his revenge on the O'Connell's?. There are couple of plot holes as well, but the one that bothered me even back then was on Evy and Meela being the reincarnations of their egyptian ancestors (that connect's to the fate of imhotep, when the pharaoh was killed) which causes their visions is very head-scratching and comes off as forced lazy storytelling, it's such a shame because underneath this lazy script there's a huge potential for a very fun epic adventure film that could have been even better then the first film if they took their time working on a better script (since sommers wrote it). The CGI, for some reason sommers used this tool a lot since his film "Deep Rising", with the help from ILM, but due to it's early age and rushed development it can look super ugly on some things. CGI on imhotep is a slight improvement from the first film, some green screens look really good while others look very dated, the scorpion king from the distance looks fine, thanks to clever lighting and shadows but from close-up it's really bad gives a very early 2000 video game CGI cut-scene vibe.
Also i must address this, not only the script feels lazy and rushed but there's also blatant copying plot-points from the first film here, another opening prologue that takes place 3,000 or 5,000 years ago to introduce a villain who later gets resurrected, some macguffin item that's both a key and a map, using flight transportation to the destination to rescue someone, imhotep using one of the elements with his face on it to stop protagonists flight transportation, another secret ancient temple in the middle of the desert that many people were looking for they never found it or never returned, a gold item/weapon to stop the main villain, imhotep loses his powers by the third-act and dies by giving himself to the underworld, the secondary villain gets killed by insects and ends with the protagonists escaping just in time from a collapsing temple with treasure in the end.
Despite this issues, it's still enjoyable popcorn flick, just switch-off you're brain because the amount of plot-holes and suspension of disbelief is much higher then the first film.
The Terror (2018)
a descent into madness
This review is about the first season.
I'm quit familiar with infamous true story of "Franklin's lost Expedition of 1845-48" after modern technology discovered the lost ships, grave-stones, bones, letters and reports from that era, but aside from that, the lost expedition still remains a mystery about what really happened during that period on these two ships "HMS Erebus" and "HMS Terror", since most of the info on this were mostly speculations, rumors and debunked theories.
I was introduced to this series after few ad's online and some criticisms from online critics about it's historical inaccuracies. i was also unaware this series is based on a historical fictional novel by Dan Simmons that's very loosely based on the true events.
first of all this the series (first season), is one of the best horror/thriller mini-series i have seen in a long time. the high production values, great casting (plus it's so great to see the reunion between actors Ciaran Hinds and Tobias Menzies since HBO's series "Rome"), mostly grounded in reality a side from the supernatural part, also this series does horror right: likable characters, dark atmosphere (almost gothic-horror), sense of isolation, dread, anxiety, paranoia and fear. it's like a combination of two films: "Master and Commander" (2003) and "The Thing" (1982) and it fits very well.
not to mention it's co-produced by the legendary Hollywood director Ridley Scott's production company "Scott Free Productions" which explains the high production values, cinematography, the eerie and haunting musical score by the late swedish composer Marcus Fjellström (1979-2017).
the story of the series is about the arctic voyage of the two royal navy war ships, HMS Erebus by Admiral Sir John Franklin (Ciaran Hinds) and HMS Terror by captain Francis Crozier (Jared Harris) on their expedition to discover uncharted territory in the Arctic, to find northwest passage within King Williams Island. only to find out how unequipped, misinformed and miscalculated they were. on the journey they went through setback, after setback to the point of no return.
first problem: despite having very powerful war-ships for their time, they underestimated the very harsh weather conditions, shipping towards a very risky and potentially dangerous Icy path, dealing with below sub-zero temperatured icy waters to the point that both ships were stuck in the thick ice for a very long time i hopes of summer season to break-free, not to mention crew-members dealing with below subzero temperatures on a daily basis and completely cut-off from the world in total isolation. second problem: the ships food supply. both ship carried a stock full of canned-food (revolutionary for it's time) but unaware that the canned food was poorly manufactured (since the royal navy cut-corners for the expedition and chooses to give to the lowest bidder to supply the crew's canned food), causes most of the canned food to spoil even if its completely sealed, and makes matters worse the cans are made of lead, which the both Terror and Erebus crews for 3 years are digesting mostly spoiled food mixed with lead, slowly cause a serious health problems on both ships to the point of death (from "lead-poising" to "scurvy disease") showing crew members getting weaker, memory loss, headaches, turning their gums black, internal bleeding, pain in the muscle joints to the point of agony and more symptoms of this sickness. third problem: is the "elephant in the room" situation is the mysterious arctic supernatural monster that's attacking and killing the crew-members outside the ships on land. yes i'm fully aware that many people and few critics criticized it for been out-of-place and should have been replaced with a polar bear which makes a lot of sense with the setting and would have worked a lot better in this mostly very grounded and realistic series. i didn't mind much, it does bring the whole a "this place wants you dead" in a interesting way.
every episode of the show it gets progressively worse and worse for the crew of Erebus and Terror to the point of mutiny, paranoia, insanity and even starvation when a very sick and tired crew being unsuccessful in a already desolate frozen wasteland, desperately to survive they resort to cannibalism, in graphic detail, very disturbing stuff that give an unease vibe. it's also maybe coincidental that both ships named after something related to "death" and "despair", it's like both ships were doomed from the beginning.
the main characters:
Captain Francis Crozier of the Terror, played by Jared Harris, and he's probably the best character in the mini-series, his very charismatic, calculated, has more experience in the arctic then anyone else, but also stands his ground without any baggage from anyone. seriously Jared Harris was so great in this series, he deserves an emmy award for his performance. Admiral Sir John Franklin of Erebus played by Ciaran Hinds as a very overconfident yet flawed Admiral with messy background in the British Royal Navy, who does questionable actions on the voyage, choosing to take a risky paths without thinking through, denying anyone who doesn't see eye to eye, not to mention warning him about the dangers ahead. Commander James Fitzjames of the Erebus played by (Tobias Menzies). Fritzjames is my second favorite character in the series. despite his position as commander and Sir John Franklin right-hand man, he's usually the one keeping the order and peace on the ship despite his tensions with other ship's captain crozier, trying to keep the spirits up for the crew even in desperate times. then there is the ship's doctor and surgeon Dr. Henry Goodsir of the Erebus (played by Paul Ready). dr. goodsir is the kinder doctor on the ship who likes experimenting with different methods of medicine and surgery, he's also the one who discovered the reason why there are so many crew-members getting very sick over the past 3 years, and felt sympathy and care for the local inuit tribe woman named "lady silent" (played by Nive Nelson) who was interrogated on board "The Terror" about the mysterious monster that attacked the crew. Then there is the sort-of antagonist Cornelius Hickey played by Adam Nagaitis, he stats off almost likable but then goes completely off the rails, from a lower ranking officer (Caulker's Mate) with little to no morals, who's basically a cunning snake that likes to poke around high ranking officers for sensitive information, taking matters to his own hands to the point of treason, and eventually turns into a complete madman by the end.
in the end like the true story no one survived this doomed expedition, (with the exception of one person in the series) even the intro to the series kinda spoils the horrible fates of the main characters and the crew.
Overall one of the best mini-series about the horrors of human nature and survival. very recommended
RoboCop (1994)
surprisingly a good tv adaptation of robocop
Im a huge Robocop fan. The original "Robocop" is a sci-fi classic, "Robocop 2" was a pretty good follow-up but suffered from a messy script and post-production issues, "Robocop 3" is complete garbage and it deserves all the hate it got, the cartoons were clearly for younger audience: the one from the 80's was harmless but very goofy as well, but the 90's series "Robocop: Alpha Commando" on the other hand is like what-were-they-thinking?!, turning robocop into "Inspector Gadget" wanna-bee!?, and don't get me started on that god-awful dumpster-fire known as "prime-directive" mini-series, with it's crap acting, poor pacing, convoluted and boring 4-part storyline. The 2014 reboot was a joke. A soulless cash-cow that removed the satire on American culture, gone any emotion from man-to-machine, almost all the actors are miscasts, changing his iconic suit from silver to black with a red visor for Robocop was a very stupid idea that makes him look generic iron-man knock-off, and being a very safe PG-13 dumb-down and by-the-numbers.
the TV series sadly came out during the post-Robocop 3 phase where the franchise become more family friendly and the violence have been completely toned-down and blood-less. the tv series never had a chance to succeed after one season due to its high production costs, terrible time-slots and poor/confusing marketing. when i was younger they use to sell bootleg VHS of the 2-hour pilot titled as "Robocop 4" which confused me at the time. Forced under TV restrictions to keep the robocop under TV-PG as possible. if you can ignore the removal of the over-the-top violence and strong language from the first 2 films it has a much better writing and focus then Robocop 2 or 3. taking the advantage from the restrictions to focus on the character development. both film sequels were written by comic-book legend frank miller but the studio didn't approve his strange script and changed 70% of it which explains why the story-structure is all over the place in both films. the social satire is back but more sillier then the previous films. Richard Eden is the third actor to play peter weller's iconic role "Alex Muphy/Robocop", Eden gave a very solid performance as the title character unlike Robert John Burke from "Robocop 3" who gave probably lousiest performance out of the bunch (2014's Joel Kinnaman's wooden performance came very close as the worst). his robotoic tone sound more believable and he tries his best to mimic weller's robocop. the timeline of the series ignores the sequels and a direct continuation of the first film which explains why the Old Men/Chairman of OCP (played by a different actor) did not turn 180 degrees and become villain like he did in Robocop 2.
the supporting characters are likable except the annoying young girl named gadget (which is already a stupid name to begin with) which has no reason to be in the series other then be the focus group pet (like many shows at that time to shoehorn a child character down you're throut). However for some bizarre legal reasons they were unable the use some of the other characters names, robocop's partner Anne Lewis was named changed to Lisa Madigan played by Yvette Nipar and the Detroit police Sargent Warren Reed was named changed to Stanley Parks played by Blu Mankuma. Most of them are the same characters from the films just different names. The villains are very comic-book type with over-the-top acting and being creepy. Mostly former/corrupt OCP employees, punks or scientists. it's a shame they didn't included another robocop or a cyborg to raise the bar a little, since the series was already expensive for a prime-time series costing around 1 million per-episode which was a big deal back then plus shooting in Canada to save on production cost (you can tell at times it doesn't even look old-Detroit)
the pros: it's faithful in tone to the original film, the social satire with the news/in-show commercials are back, writing staff did a really good job under the TV restrictions and even better then the sequels, the production values are surprisingly high for a 90's TV series, some of the cast did a decent job and it has some very good episodes.
the cons: the episodic nature, they do link but loosely from returning villain or OCP related. There are some few "stinker" episodes when it's focused on child characters and less on robocop, and probably the biggest con (more like the elephant in the room) of the series, is the lack of blood and violence, robocop barley uses his gun throughout the series, some mild punching, some characters do get killed but very TV standardish.
Overall if you're a hardcore fan of robocop or willing to ignore the obvious lack of R-rated violence and language, this series is pretty decent.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2003)
easily the best TMNT series to date!
From all the incarnations of the pizza munching turtles, this is by far the best out of all them.
as much as i loved the classic 1987 series, it shows more problems as you get older, from the never ending dated cheesy catchphrases, the shows goofy nature, every episode is stand-alone and the villains from somewhat menacing to complete buffoons. pushing my nostalgia glasses aside and more accepting, when i re-discovered the 2003 series and loved it immediately.
the first television incarnation to follow the comics with the creators Kevin Eastman and peter laird involved with the production. and surprisingly i was co-produced by the infamous "4kids entertainment" and probably the best thing they ever produced.
darker, more violent and character developed then any other version. all four turtles and their sensei splinter have the same personalities from the comics and the films.
Leonardo the fearless leader, Donatello the brains, Raphael the muscle and Michelangelo the optimistic comic-relief. April O'Neil's character is handled much better she's more involved, works as a computer programmer then a news reporter and less interfering unlike the 80's series. Casey Jones was a huge improvement from the 80's series and has larger role in the series being more of a human character with a tragic back-story which explained why he became a vigilante and even uses his battle cry from the comics. the foot clan are taken more seriously as ninjas and the main villain Shredder is actually menacing.
every season has ongoing story-arc with some stand-alone episodes mixed in. the story-arc episode are the meat of the season, epic with a big scale feel to them. the stand alone episode are mostly character driven story lines. they do have continuity from previous story-arc episodes, but most of the time they stand on their own, some are great and some are just OK, thankfully i didn't find a bad episode during it's first five seasons, but seasons 6-7 that's something else.
in my opinion seasons 1-3 are perfect "10 out of 10", simply amazing. from great writing, gorgeous animation, character designs, shadows and definitely feels like a comic-book. the episodes from hunting down the shredder & the foot clan / Han & the purple dragons / facing agent bishop / secret government and alien invasion of the the triceratons / the federation and many other great episodes. season 4 is more "7.5 out of 10" lost a bit of focus and some episodes are better then other but still a good season. the last good season, season 5 (aka the ninja tribunal) was a bit disappointing. around "7 out of 10" with heavy fantasy setting, the new characters that are surprisingly bland and too much "enter the dragon" influence. but there some good episodes and it does give a nice conclusion to the series.
seasons 6-7 ("fast forward" and "back to the sewer") are pointless, purely made with corporate minds behind it. almost a completely different show. not only jumping-the-shark but a drastic drop in quality, major departure in tone but also in the animation department. the story-arc while not terrible feels very generic and out of place, the turtles and splinter by a freak accident went 100 years into to the future, the entire season is about how there going back to the present, but instead of being interesting it gets goofy, flashy, lame and boring after few episodes. season 7 tried to go back to basics when the turtles return back to the present, but the damage was already done and i think season 7 story-arc was even worse then fast forward. with a villain that you can't take seriously, and story-arc that rips-off "TRON".
my biggest problem with last two seasons they lack depth, personality or anything that made the first five seasons great, but shares more similarities with the 80's series. the lighter tone, less violent or complex, over the top premise, stupid villains and just more of a gimmick to sell toys.
the TV movie "Turtles Forver" was an improvement from last 2 seasons, but far from great. a cross-over between 1987 turtles and 2003 turtles i didn't like it much because of inconsistencies with the 2003 series, using season 7's already downgrading animation, plot-holes and disrespecting 1987 turtles as complete idiots.
Voltron: Defender of the Universe (1984)
a decent anime that was butchered for kids!!!
Why this series is getting great reviews on IMDb?, sure nostalgia is a powerful thing, but c'mon when localizing a very violent anime to younger audience of course a lot of dumbing-down and stupid will come out of it. it's "4kids" stupid levels of censorship here.
i used to watch it during re-runs growing up, the concept was fun and the robots design was pretty cool. similar to shows like "power rangers" and "transformers" it had action, adventure, aliens, giant robots, a bad guy that always loses, mainly focus on selling toys. however many years later re-watching again, wow! it's bad it aged very poorly. i tried giving it a chance after all these years but after 20 mind-numbing episodes it completely made me realize how bad it really is. and after discovering the original series it's based on and made me hate it even more.
the shows biggest problem is how much they butchered the source martial. the main 5 characters "Keith" (red) and maybe "Lance" (blue) being at least OK, "Hunk" (yellow) is bland as a brick, "Pidge" (green) is so annoying and never shut's-up!!! i'm amazed the actor who did the voice wasn't fired, and "Allura" (pink) who is every anime princess trope you can think of. the english voice acting is in general terrible (probably one of the worst), every episode is repetitive, boring, cheesy and even stupid at times, probably the worst offender was the amount of censorship.
trimming down the violence, changing the plot from it's original series almost completely, removing anything related to nuclear war, slavery, cannibalism, killing or even characters death (all from the original source martial). the characters always uses stupid lines of dialogue to cover the obvious death scenes such as "injured" or "wounded". there was even an episode "pidge's home planet" that the american version's team had the nerve to ignore a dramatic plot-point when a whole planet was destroyed they will add "all the people have escaped the planet safely". from the animation alone it shows a shocking reaction with tears, it was clear that people died from a nuclear war. there's a lot of darker themes that was heavily edited or completely removed which also explains the choppy editing which ruins the pacing on this series completely.
the only positive thing i can say about the Voltron series, it has a good music/theme and narration by the awesome peter cullen and it introduce me to the better original japanese series "Beat King Go Lion".
just skip "voltron" and check out the original series it was adapted from "Beast King Go-lion" miles better then this garbage. aside from the lame opening theme, it has better narrative, pacing, character development and it's completely uncut with a lot of violence, very watchable.
Dexter's Laboratory (1996)
the first 2 seasons + TV movie are fantastic, the seasons 3&4 are meh...
my introduction to the series back when i was 7 years old on the once a beloved cable channel "cartoon network" from it's prime in 1996 till 1999. i watched it during re-runs for years and i always loved the series. about a boy genius named dexter who has a secret laboratory where he does his experiments. but always foiled by his annoying hyper-active sister Dee Dee, who loves to tease him and cause chaos to his lab. the show as always known for it's bizarre mis-adventures of dexter's experiments in his lab from creating inventions that work by pure luck or always backfire from something silly or obvious. the series creator genndy tartakovsky is known for making fast-paced animation and use of clever writing. this series takes clever use of movie parodies and social satire.
genndy tartakovsky wanted the series to end on a high note, even though the last episode of season 2, "Last But Not Beast" was a really big finally, but the true conclusion to the series ended with the fun TV movie "Ego Trip".
because of rating success and becoming even more popular during re- runs, the studio saw big profit to keep this series around so they wanted to revive the series but without original team. gone the original creator, gone the clever writing staff, gone the hanna barbera style animation and gone some of the voice-actors. a different team, animation, and some new voice-actors it was not jumping-the-shark terrible but far from the original 2 seasons. i never ever liked the new animation style. it always bugged me even when i was younger, that blends something similar to flash and cell animation, but always looks bland and boring. the jokes are not really clever or funny. there are few OK episodes but most of them lack imagination or creative jokes.
the last two season were pointless, adding nothing but milking a series should've ended back when the creator wanted to ended with.
Beavis and Butt-Head (1993)
such a misunderstood show, with clever satire.
sure it's sexist, gross, cruel, mean-spirited and offensively stupid, but that's what made it work. Mike Judge ("King of the Hill", "Silicon Valley") is an humble intelligent person who was very creative when he came up with the premise of this show, about two idiots that present the 90's stereotype of the slackers who loves heavy metal. the premise is simple as it could be, beavis and butt-head watch TV, go to school, work at burger world or just wonder around somewere and do something incredibly stupid that's how they do things. Butt-head is my favorite out of the two, he has very little Common sense but still dumb as a brick, but i like him better then Beavis who is beyond the realm of reality in terms of common sense and complete idiot.
the music video segments are just a gimmick for MTV (which made sense at the time) and also padding the episode because of their short 5- min length it's not really bad idea and great way to introduce to music videos that you never heard of or looking for.
there's so many animated shows that has the similar type adult humor,but the reason it works here it's because it's a very interesting satire on MTV's generation X (90's) and it's culture about blaming the media for dumbing down society. it's a comedy that never ever supposed to be taken seriously. it has flaws, like the earlier seasons 1&2 are kinda mixed-bag with some OK episodes and some bad ones, with the crude animation and not really funny. but from season 3 and on-wards it's much better writing and better animation. also "Beavis & Butt-head" were the unofficial mascots for MTV for 5 years during their run. their movie "do America" is just amazing, one of the best TV to big picture along side "spongebob: the movie".
when "beavis and butt-head" was revived in 2011 for the season 8, 14 years after it ended. despite the creator mike judge returning to make the series revival, i was a bit skeptical at first. since today's MTV is so far form what is was during it's hay-day. i was worried it will ruin what was considered a classic series. i was completely surprised how good the revival was. a rare occasion where revival season 8 was as good as the original series with classic style B&B episodes and high quality animation, and the only good program on today's MTV. too bad it only lasted few months. my only nitpick with the revival was adding reality shows with the music video segments which feel so out-of- place for beavis and butt-head. seriously from all the reality garbage they had to include the bottom-of-the-barrel like "jersey shore" and "16 and pregnant" oh, well at least they're been mocked by the duo.
The Godfather Part III (1990)
a good sequel, just don't compare it to the other two
i saw this film, right after the first two since Part II did end on somewhat of a bitter ending.
i thought i was a pretty OK sequel if not looking on the other 2, Francis Ford Coppola's directing, Mario Puzo writing, most of the original cast are back, what can possibly go wrong? it took them 16 years. let's star with the positives: actor Andy Garcia as "vincet" gives the best performance in the entire film which give him an Oscar nomination, Sofia Coppola at least try's but she didn't bother me unlike the critics, the main storyline is pretty decent, mostly about michael's redemption from his dark ruthless past, finding a successor to become "The Don" not from his family, and tries to rebuild his relationship with his ex-wife, a really good storyline for a sequel. cinematography and music are just as amazing as the originals.
the 3 things i didn't like about this film: 1. the michael/bishop business conspiracy plot-line is kinda boring and drags-on because of the pacing and lacks the raw mafia conflict from the previous two. 2. weaker performances. already mentioned Sofia's dry delivery, but Al Pachino (who has some great moment in the film) also felt kinda dry and looks tired, his makeup wasn't convincing, some of the other cast members are just there for plot convenience and nothing more. 3. The weak ending to the godfather saga. it was rushed, pointless and almost makes you feel completely betrayed. it's only saving grace was the beautiful music score. it's clear that Puzo had a deadline from paramount to finish the script, and it shows.
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command (2000)
one of my favorite Disney shows ever
Buzz Lightyear of Star Command is such an underrated show, why score of 6.7? it has action, characters, humor and feels exactly like a show that is perfect in terms of FUN!, something that is painfully missed these days. it's one of my favorite Disney shows i used to watch alongside "Recess" and "Pepper Ann" during the early 2000's.
riding on the success of "Toy Story 2" Disney/pixar pitched an hour- long movie (backdoor pilot) to an animated spin-off of Buzz Lightyear which is not a bad idea at all since buzz in films always mentions his mission as a space ranger, zurg and star command. "the adventure begins" pilot movie was surprisingly good, a great introduction to the characters, great action scenes, and slightly dark.
the series is a lot of fun. mostly character focused, with the space rangers: Buzz Lightyear as the leader, "Princess Mira Nova" second-in-command and my favorite character, "XR" the short robot with many accessories and used to be my favorite character when i was younger, "Booster" big alien and a former janitor, who admires buzz, and knows almost everything about their space ranger rule book and up-coming mission log. most episodes centers around saving their star command, planet or a galaxy from zurg or other interesting villains.
the main villain Zurg is slightly more campy in the series then the film, being over-the-top but still menacing, but always fail to destroy buzz or star command.
my only nitpick i had with the show, was buzz. he is very 2- dimensional and never really get's developed in the show which is a shame. he has more development as a toy, then a human character in a spin-off show!.
Click (2006)
an Adam Sandler film that made me cry!
"Click" is a interesting film hybrid of comedy, drama and some science fiction with adam sandler and somehow it worked.
most adam sandler films tends to the dumb-comedy crowd with he's very old 90's comedy shtick that "Billy Madison" and "Happy Gilmore" started but repeated many times later which give sandler the negative reputation since, but then he give a mature performances in "Punch-Drunk Love", "The Longest Yard", "Reign Over Me" and even "Funny People" he can do drama and be believable without force comedy along with his annoying voice.
Click is more or less sci-fi retailing of "it's a wonderful life" about an workaholic architect who has slow-life with his family and getting problems from his boss, after some shopping he discovers by a mysterious person a special remote control which he can skip time (fast forward) and change things in the present (Pause or Mute), at first he's enjoys it's advantages, but slowly it controls his workaholic life, destroying his marriage, relationship with his children and he's family.
the film has few comedic moment early-on but their are very sandler standers, but when it get emotional and dramatic it make the film more than just another dumb-comedy.
the scene where adam sandler's character finds out that his father died it's probably the saddest heart-breaking scene i have ever seen in a film that's how much family is important. Henry Winkler who playing the father gives an excellent performance very strong and emotional.
Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
one of the best underrated films of the 90's
Johnny Mnemonic has probably the strangest production history i ever heard of. originally planned as a low-budget art-house film with acclaimed sci-fi writer William Gibson to write a screenplay based on his short novel by the same name and Robert Longo new york artist and painter to direct this feature despite having little to no experience with directing films. unable to get the funding but and somehow they struck a deal with sony pictures under their sister company "Tristar" for a budget of 30 million to make a cyberpunk action blockbuster.
Gibson was forced to sacrifice his original screenplay to appeal to wider audience and changing major plot points from his novel. which ruined his reputation in Hollywood.
Johnny (Keanu Reeves) is "mnemonic courier" data storage device implanted into his brain to carry classified or useful information for his buyers, but everything goes wrong when he makes a deal with a bodyguard agent (Udo Kier) to get an upgrade for more storage for him which later reveals that information that Johnny received links to the Yakuza's operation lead by Takahashi (Takeshi Kitano) who wants Johnny dead before they uncover the truth about a their operations related to a lethal disease that cause many deaths.
the cast is surprisingly good, sure Keanu's hockey dialogue and stupid moments are here, but he's hilarious, delivering funny lines of dialogue sometimes.
Dina Meyer's major film debut is probably the best actress/character in the film she's likable, bad-ass, strong female lead and helps johnny more times then the other way around which is rare for mainstream blockbusters.
Legendary Japanese actor Takeshi Kitano in his only English speaking role in Hollywood feature film which is also very minor, playing the main villain, despite given very little screen-time and dialogue he's performance shows how great he is. rebel-hacker J-Bone (Ice-T) also gave a good performance an improvement in terms of his acting and let's no forget the best character of the film Karl (Dolph Lundgren) the psychotic street preacher, delivering his lines is gold mine of awesomeness.
despite the criticism the film received over the years, it's not a bad science fiction film at all, i had a lot going for it. it suffered from poor direction, pacing and a lot of studio interference. the US version (97 min.) does not do the film justice at all, the out of place music, some plot points and characters development scenes have been cut, and some of the violence have trimmed for an "R" rating.
thankfully there is a "Japanese Cut" (103 min.) a much better version, slightly better pacing, much better music, character development, Takeshi Kitano and Dolph Lundgren's characters scenes are restored (in the US version both are barely in the film, almost all their scenes have been cut completely despite Lundgren getting top-billing in the credits!).
Fantastic Four (2015)
the first time ever i walked out of the theaters after one hour!!!
as a fan of the comic series, the lighthearted characters, humor, over-the-top but fun story lines. this adaptation was depressing to watch, disgrace to it's source material and such a waste of potential. since the film was announced it had problems, questionable casting and directing choices, re-writes and more screen writers add into the mix, studio executives interfering with the final version. also 20th Century Fox were really sneaky about the film's promotion material, trying to dupe us into a epic blockbuster by giving us trailers that has footage that was not in the actual film.
the main "fant4stic" characters are so bland it's not even funny, the action scenes are a joke, less then three minutes, and my friend told me there's 3 action scenes that last maybe 5 minutes in the whole film. the special effects feels unfinished, the plot is a mess of rejected ideas rushed in the last minute. the worst part of this mess is that "Fant4stic" is really really boring!!! it's up there with the other well-known snoozefests such as "star trek: the motion picture" and "speed 2".
Power Rangers R.P.M. (2009)
This might be the best power rangers since the 90's!!!
I grew up with the classic "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers", "The Movie" and "Zeo" afterwards it was mixed-bag. "Turbo" and it's dumb movie sucked!, and i never liked it even back when i was 8, "In Space" was a huge improvement, "Lost Galaxy", "Lightspeed Rescue" and "Time Force" were decent, but afterwards i just didn't care anymore, because i got older and felt it's not for my demographic anymore being really cheesy, inconsistent writing and sometimes plain childish, too much pointless subplots and filler. the only power rangers seasons that was surprised me with some effort were "Dino Thunder" and "SPD" but then it went back to being dumb, childish and annoying. in 2009 Disney announced that "RPM" is the final season of the franchise under their ownership. i didn't care at first, but then some friends who are fans told me to watch it, it's nothing like the other shows and it's one of few power rangers series that's better then the original super sentai it's based on, "Engine Sentai Go-onger".
so out my curiosity i saw the first couple episodes of RPM and WOW! for the first time ever i doesn't feel lazy, cheesy or childish power rangers at all, the mature writing, elements of realism (which is rare for 'power rangers' standers), the episodes are serialized with very little filler, the tone is more serious and dark, the casts performance is one of the best i have seen in power rangers series, the action scenes are also pretty cool, the characters are all likable and developed. my only nitpick with the show is the zords, they look really silly and they even have eyes!, in the sentai version they even talk. thankfully the staff that worked on RPM also hated the zords design and muted their voices to fit a much serious adaptation. overall this might be the best power rangers series of all time!!!
Sliders (1995)
i love sliders, one of the best underrated shows ever!!!
Sliders is one of my favorite science fiction shows of all time even in my childhood. Tracy Tormé and Robert K. Weiss created possibly the best sci-fi show of all time if the studio didn't stick their noses into it. about 4 individuals sliding to parallel earths to discover "what if" worlds, like what if USSR taken over USA, or a world were male population are almost extinct, just great stuff for a weekly episodes. the cast are all terrific: Jerry O'Connell (Quinn Mallory), Sabrina Lloyd (Wade Wells), Cleavant Derricks (Rembrandt Brown) and the awesome John-Rhys Davis (Professor Arturo) all share such a great chemistry, sense of humor and character development.
'Seasons 1 & 2' are simply amazing, thanks to good writing, the worlds themselves were creative and at times very clever, great chemistry between all characters and just pure fun entertainment.
'Season 3' was a huh... well a very mixed-bag season. it's around that season, the series saw some major changes. FOX network took creative control away from the creator/show-runner Tracy Tormé due to creative differences and being replaced with the executive producer David Peckinpah as the show runner, he is partially responsible for the series jumping-the-shark and the drop in quality. first problem i notice was the change in tone, it's more going for action packed season that falls between serious and silly at the same time, Quinn Mallory's personality changes so frequently and dramatically in this season. from a likable misfit to a cold self-centered jerk, helping other people is more important then he's friends which is so out-of-character for him. Wade also changed a bit, she's a little preachier, but has really great subtle moments. Rembrandt and Arturo are the only ones that are consistent with their personalities.
first couple episodes are as good as the first two seasons, but then there are the painful "monster/movie rip-offs of the week" episodes. few of the movie rip-off episodes are watchable despite the poor writing, but unfortunately most of them are predictable, boring and borderline terrible, even by sliders standers. due to decline in quality John-Rhys Davis had enough and wanted the leave half-way through season 3. his departure (killed-off) was one of the saddest moments in television history for the original cast members and the fans. then we are introduce to Kari Wuhrer as Maggie Beckett replacing John-Rhys Davis for the second half of third season. Wuhrer's character at first was terrible replacement for Arturo, her wooden acting and her bitchy military personality always irritate me. the fact she become Quinn new love interest, always tags along with him, pushing Wade a side with Rembrandt feels just wrong on so many levels. Kari Wuhrer was clearly in the show to attract younger-male viewers (boost the ratings) but thankfully by season 4 she's more likable and fleshed-out character. i feel bad for Sabrina Lloyd who left the series after season 3 with a bad taste, because of the idiotic decision from the producer and not getting along with Kari Wuhrer's ego.
since FOX practically ruined the series, they give it to the "sci-fi channel" for the last two seasons.
'Season 4' is an improvement in terms of writing and quality after the jumbled mess of season 3. it's faithful to the original concept, but darker and serious then the previous seasons and not as great as first two seasons but overall a good season. it involves "The Kromaggs" from season 2 as the main villains of season 4. Jerry O'Connell's brother Charlie O'Connell join the cast as Quinn's lost brother Collin Mallory. Collin is very enjoyable character for the most part. with the issues i addressed, i love this series so much, and i collected all four seasons of sliders.
the reason i said all four is because that speck so-called 'season 5' doesn't exist to me, not only the worst season but complete chore to sit-through. with nothing left but a shadow of it's former self.
without Jerry O'Connell there is no point continuing the series. jerry and his brother left the series, after a dispute with the network (sci-fi channel) but a fifth season was made without them anyway. almost the entire original cast gone, smaller budget then previous seasons, re-using the same location, poorly-written episodes and no closure. how sad when a series started out so great and promising and ended up derailed by idiots.
He-Man and the Masters of the Universe (1983)
i still have the power
many cartoons from the 80's don't really hold-up a candle to an grown-up adult like me, while i still love the original "TMNT", "Real Ghostbusters", and the underrated "Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors"
however i can't hide the fact that i have a special place in my heart for "He-man", i never watched it when it originally aired but thanks to re-runs and VHS i fell in love with it. the animation company "Filmation" has their history with many well-known licenses (archie, batman, superman, tom & jerry, star trek), however majority of them were borderline terrible writing and cheap- looking cartoons. the only decent ones in my opinion were "Flash Gordon", "Fat Albert" and "star trek". but "he-man" is an achievement. a great combination between "star wars" and "conan the barbarian" bringing every 7-yr old wet dream to life and being the first TV series to promote toys, by mattel and their he- man toys were awesome.
he-man's setting takes place on a earth-like planet called eternia full of magic, science and sorcery. where he-man and he's friends must defend the kingdom of eternia and castle greyskull where he gained his powers, from the evil forces of he's arch nemesis skeletor ruler of evil. all the characters are enjoyable and sometimes unintentionally funny due to the cheesy dialogue and some of the animation. the action sequences are really top-notch for it's time with nice flow in the animation, plus at the time it was controversial for breaking the cartoon censorship about it's use of violence. very 80's catchy theme song, great detail in animation. season 1 episodes are between average/mediocre to decent at times, season 2 is a improvement thanks to less recycled animation and high quality writers like paul dini and j. michael straczynski.
over-all i still love this series despite it's flaws the recycling animation to save money, cheesy dialogue, most of the characters sound similar to each other (fact that only six or seven people did the voices) and the morel lessons at the end of each episodes (some are fitting, and some are just dumb and pointless).
as much as i love he-man i can't say the same for it's goofier spin- off "she-ra: princess of power", the live-action train-wreck movie "masters of the universe", the 90's "new adventures of he-man" it's more like "he man the next generation". the 2002 series had great writing but i can't say the same for it's generic music and anime-inspired action sequences (seriously how many animated action shows post 2000's has insane amount of jumping!)
Hellraiser III: Hell on Earth (1992)
what the hell happened on earth?
i hate this film with a passion, it's easily the worst theatrical hellraiser film. i love first two films and even the fourth film "Bloodline", hoping the third film will be at least entertaining but nope, it was dreadful to watch after the first watch. i don't really think clive barker or the screenwriter peter atkins really care at this point, since around that time they lost creative control over the production and the franchise. it's americanized, changed in tone and direction (directed by the b-movie stinker anthony hickox) turned into something hellraiser should have never been a really pointless slasher film. why!?
first let's start with the positives: j.p. monroe (kevin brendardt) is a likable love-to-hate villain, the barb wired cenobite design is pretty cool, Pinhead (doug bradly) is great as usual and he's the highlight of the film with his awesome lines of dialogue. also pinhead's back story is the only decent part of the whole film. the film has pretty good production values but not as impressive as "Hellbound". it has it's moments but it can't save the film from his really bad points.
the negatives: the main plot sucks, gives very little to the series, ignoring it's own rules with the puzzle box and it's mythology, joey (terry farrel) is a terrible replacement for kirsty cotton, she's your'e typical boring horror chick with more looks then personality, and not to mention her acting is awful. the direction by anthony hickox also hurts the film aiming more towards a Freddy Kruger film with pinhead, with less suspense, too much horror cliché's, very cheesy and sometimes very stupid dialogue. i can't take anything in this film seriously, the cenobites are badly designed and laughable (with the exception of the barb wired cenobite), then there was the "boiler room" nightclub, this ruined the film for me. why half of the plot takes place in a night club with horrible rock music and extras that are clearly gonna die!!!, why not take place in a museum or ancient temple where the main plot makes more sense!. just go see "Hellraiser: Bloodline" instead it's returns to it's roots, more satisfying and closer to the original two then this piece of crap.