andrew-ragland Reviews

War of the Worlds: Goliath (2012)

Cracking Yarn

[7/10 · 1 January 2015]

This is not a great movie, but it is a good one. Pearson sets out to tell the story of the second Martian invasion, with humanity using salvaged Martian technology and advances in their own to defend the world more actively than last time. He sets this against the dawn of what in our world would be the First World War. That serves only as backdrop, though. The incipient conflict in Europe, the problem of Irish home rule, and other issues get forgotten partway through the movie. That's okay. They were distractions, and would have detracted from the main story. This is a war movie, not a political drama. It has all the requisite elements of Japanese, American, and British war movies, all the tropes, all the conflicts, and manages to deliver them without becoming a muddle. We have the heroic yet damaged young officer proving himself and overcoming his past. We have the somewhat inappropriate relationship between comrades in arms. We have explosions, heroics, self-sacrifice, and triumph but at a terrible cost. The story of the initial invasion is told briefly, in the credits, ending with an atomic shadow on a wall in a burning city. Pearson moves straight from there to the action getting rolling, and keeps the pacing fairly tight, letting the audience catch their breath but just barely before throwing in the next assault. The film contains what it says on the tin. There's a lot to be said for that.

And hey, any movie with Theodore Roosevelt firing a heavy machine gun while riding atop a walking tank scores points with me.

Serangoon Road: Give Me Money (2013) Season 1, Episode 4

Tightly Written

[9/10 · 26 November 2013]

Two investigations that are unrelated and yet cross over, interfering with each other and one eventually providing the solution to the other - this is a very tightly written episode. Frank Simpson is under suspicion of taking bribes and possibly embezzling from his employer. Kay Song believes he has an informant in his organization, and will not take no for an answer when he asks Sam to investigate. Two very uncomfortable clients, two cases that poke into very dangerous areas, not just physically so but emotionally and socially. Some of the best conflict in the episode is non-violent. The scene at the party, and you'll know which one when you see it, was brilliant.

"You really don't know who you're speaking to." He was so amused by this. Very scary, yes.

Tarkan: Viking Kani (1971)

Wonderdog Kurt!

[7/10 · 10 August 2013]

Blah blah spoilers blah blah Muppet hides blah blah boobs blah blah warning.

Tarkan may have gotten top billing, but Kurt is the real action hero here. When his father is killed by a cheesy fake Viking with a loincloth made out of a skinned Muppet and a mustache made of shag carpeting, Kurt sees to the wounds of his human companion, Tarkan, nursing him back to health. Tarkan mainly serves to get doors open and get Kurt to where he needs to be. It's Kurt who climbs the vertical rock wall out of the pit, Kurt who saves Tarkan from the inflatable octopus monster, and Kurt who fingers the villain. "MY name is Kurt Montoya! You killed my father! Prepare to die!"

Yeah, there's plenty of battles with floppy cardboard swords, and a longship shaped like a bathtub with an obvious outboard motor actually driving it. There's Captain Morgan posturing, and attack falcons, and a friendly giant who only grunts (Hodor!). They must have skinned the entire cast of the Muppet Show for the costuming. Tarkan himself gets captured and wounded more often than he manages to rescue anybody, but you have to admire his willingness to overcome arrow wounds, stab wounds, and drugs, and keep getting back up to fight on. But though Tarkan has the cape, no really, Kurt is the superhero. Go Kurt! Cry at your father's funeral! Whine jealously when Tarkan throws you out of his bed to make room for the Chinese woman! Leap off the castle into the sea to attack the inflatable octopus! By Grabthar's hammer, your father will be avenged!

Rated Z, with enough women prancing around mostly naked in weird bits of costume to make Lair of the White Worm look tame. And I do mean prancing - wait till you see the Viking women go bouncing into battle.

The Divided Union (1987– )

Bad Research, Bad Quality

[2/10 · 22 February 2013]

From the wooden narration to the poor editing, the low budget, lack of care, and indifference to the subject matter of the production crew is obvious. When CDs became the dominant medium for software distribution, the term "shovelware" was coined, being a CD with content shoveled onto it haphazardly in the effort to make a cheap dollar. This documentary is shovelware. Massive amounts of stock footage, mostly of Civil War re-enactments, intersperses with interviews with subject matter experts whose views are often biased and sometimes contrafactual. The opening title sequence itself has a historical error: Kentucky was not a Union state. The Commonwealth of Kentucky declared neutrality when the Confederacy seceded, and was the first territory conquered by Union forces. The only reason I don't give this production a single star is that it actually has some value, although it takes a lot of slogging through mud to find the occasional garnet. There are no diamonds here. Take your money and your time elsewhere, and avoid this production.

Lost in China (2009– )

Informative and Informal

[8/10 · 24 July 2011]

Exactly the sort of travelogue I like - immersive and participatory. The Hutchins brothers grew up in China, have been away for years, and have gone back to see what's become of the land of their childhood. In six episodes, they travel throughout China, seeing and doing and trying their hands at anything they run across. Full of odd bits of local color, the Hutchins brothers put together a fascinating series with gleeful spontaneity, running off on any tangent that grabbed their attention while somehow still managing to keep track of their main objectives. This is the sort of ground-level look at a nation that you can only get with a small crew and a high level of mobility. It's not enough to point a camera. You have to try the food, wear the clothes, play the games, climb the mountains and portage boats down the rivers in order to get anything resembling an authentic experience. The Hutchins brothers did a bang-up job capturing that experience for the rest of us.

Outlaw: In Re: Officer Daniel Hale (2010) Season 1, Episode 2

Everybody has a right to an impassioned defense

[8/10 · 17 November 2010]

Garza very nearly unravels his team when he takes the defense for the cop accused of violating a Hispanic man's civil rights through enforcing Arizona's new anti-illegal-immigrant law. In the end, his closing remarks to the jury sum it all up: the law may be unjust, and probably is. It lays the populace wide open to abuse from racist police officers, and puts honest officers in a bad situation. However, we cannot hold the police to blame for enforcing the law. That's their job. If the law is unjust, there are proper channels for handling that, through the courts, the legislature, and the voting booth. We cannot, and must not, sacrifice a man who was just trying to do his job in order to make a political point. I see this series as more like Law & Order used to be - it's not so much about the characters as it's about the cases. Garza's flip from conservative justice to crusading attorney is hard to swallow, I agree, even in light of his father's death and the pivotal case in the pilot episode. But the series seems to me to be less about Garza and his team's character development than it is about our legal system, which is in terrible shape, and needs someone who knows it from the inside out to do some serious remodeling. We've painted ourselves into a corner as a country. The very concept of justice has been lost, replaced by adherence to precedent and procedure and rules. This show offers us a chance to re-examine what we have done, and consider the options for where we might go and how to get there. Look past the sometimes formulaic dialog, and the Superman complex that our flawed lead character has, and see the show for what it is: a sharp critique of the United States that we'd better pay close attention to, if we want to find our way out of quagmires like the Arizona profiling law.

Law & Order: LA: Echo Park (2010) Season 1, Episode 2

Dude, you are so fired

[2/10 · 17 November 2010]

I was going to give this series three episodes before I made up my mind whether to continue following it or not. This episode cut that down to two. The ADA on the case would have been so fired in real life, between his insubordination, his stipulation to a political third rail issue, and general conduct. Also, can someone please get Peter Coyote a toothpick to get those bits of scenery out from between his teeth? The story itself was listless and unoriginal, a painful mishmosh of Manson's cult (which was lampshaded by a couple of the characters) and a 1970s Movie of the Week. The acting was generally flat, with only Teri Polo giving any real depth and emotional content to her performance as the conflicted (and possibly coercive) former detective married to the investigating detective on the current case. Ms. Polo has very expressive eyes, and I hope that she finds a better role in a better series in the very near future. I'm done with this one.

CSI: Crime Scene Investigation: Fracked (2010) Season 11, Episode 8

Bringing the issue to the public

[8/10 · 16 November 2010]

We start with a body, then an SUV that leads to another body, which turn out to be related murders, but then you knew that from reading the network capsule description. The real villain behind all of this is the gas company, which is cutting corners, using an unsafe methodology to begin with, and silencing not only their employees but their employees' families with nondisclosure agreements and the threat of loss of benefits, pensions, insurance, and the like if anyone speaks out of turn. The CSIs must investigate two murders that lead them to groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, a method of getting natural gas out of underground shale deposits long known to cause massive environmental damage. Unfortunately, as Ray points out, gas companies have been exempt from impact studies and the laws that protect our environment for the last five years. In the end, as in far too many cases, the CSIs can only deal with the crimes that are in their jurisdiction. Kudos to the production staff of CSI for having the guts to put this very serious issue out in front of the public in such a graphic and readily understood way.