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chaoticprime
Reviews
Mayday (2013)
Mostly Different
Mayday was something else. The world that surrounds the characters, its diegesis, is absolutely everything. Its a murder mystery at heart, probably, but its not one that the viewer is meant to solve. Most similar stories progressively paint guilt on a guilty party as they progress. Mayday's narrative does mostly different--it paints everyone guilty and then peels it off the innocent a little at a time. The final episode explained more than just "who did it," but also the intentions behind many other scenes from throughout previous episodes, though for the latter, not by way of a flashback--pay attention.
The "who" does not nearly matter so much as the "why." What Mayday was, was not a show about action. It was a show about reactions, specifically the wrong kinds that come from bad information. Watch for that. They were all reactions to things that happened before the show began, also. You must essentially reverse-engineer what you see. Had the show's producers omitted the incriminating flashback from the final episode, there would still have been more than enough explanation--its use is also my only criticism.
If nothing else, you can afford to spend five hours of your TV time with Mayday. Even if you end up not liking it, it was still pretty short.
Age of the Dragons (2011)
Exactly As Expected
This movie is exactly as represented by its advertising and network of origin. It is a low-budget monster movie with a couple of easily recognizable actors, loosely adapted from the oblique theme of the novel, Moby Dick.
I felt the film entertained me to the exact degree that I expected it to.
To review by comparison, the script was equal with Star Wars Episode IV for use of stock dialog. The special effects were better than Dragonheart, but not as good as Reign of Fire. The acting was neck and neck with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The movie could have used more English actors, as their accent typically does most of acting for them; Michael Caine could play Frederick Douglas and somehow pull if off because people like the sound of his voice.
Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
Do Not Watch If You Are Irish-American
This movie was, very clearly, an allegory of the struggle Irish-Americans faced when immigrating from Scotland in the 1700's. The white man's oppression of them is portrayed as heroism in this film, and the Irish settlers have been depicted as little more than brainless, gold-gorging, alien monsters. Steven Spielberg probably has never even come close to dealing with actual subjects like oppression, segregation, and genocide, so the fact that he'd put his name on this movie does not come as a surprise. I normally only watch independent, thought-provoking movies, but I thought that, just this once, I would descend to the lower ranks of film film appreciation because I thought the title of the film was very Kafka-esque. I was wrong, the movie ended up being just another Hollywood hate-film packaged as independent, art-house, genius.
Shadowheart (2009)
A Perfect Pulp Western
This movie was, despite the claims of many others, an excellent western. I am not sure how people define how a western should be, but I look back to the horse opera pulp fiction of the former century.
This movie had a hero town between his want for revenge and moral convictions bestowed upon him with his father's dying words and a psychotic villain whose greed motivates him to acts of unspeakable horror.
This film is surely vilified by the double standard held by fans of film today. It is not high-budget enough to be considered as relevant as any film that gets a theatrical release and it is not low-budget enough to get passed off as camp. If this movie were made thirty years ago and starred Clint Eastwood, it would be a classic.
There has not been a villain in a western so good as this films since Gene Hackman in Unforgiven.
This movie is Pulp, it is not drama, neither is it one of the pointless morality lessons written by Cormac McCarthy.
There is a place in the middle between the highly stylized Spaghetti Westerns and the dramatic The Unforgiven. This movie belongs on that line.
The bottom line: If you are a fan of Westerns, particularly in novel format, you will like this film. If you are a fan of films and do not like it when a movie sticks to the formula of its genre, then you should probably look elsewhere.
This movie is not going to change your life; it does however entertain.