Change Your Image
michellez-82344
Reviews
Family Guy: Peterschmidt Manor (2021)
Things I dislike about Family Guy
I gave it three out of ten because of past good episodes, granted they seem to be coming less and less.
This episode had some of the things I dislike most about this series: Lois bitching about being let down by others while reminding us she was raised in a privileged background and all the while she's the WORST mother on cartoon T. V.
Oh, dear, you lost your nanny? The tragedy. Plenty of people had far worse parents and she s**** on her Father with predictable regularity. What about the Mother? Does she get a pass? Seems like while Dad was absent much of the time as a parent, the Mother was nonexistent. Regardless, not interested in Lois' nasally whining about how her upper-class childhood was tainted by minor inconveniences.
The hotel story, while full of potential, had three of the most annoying and one-note characters this show has to offer: the principal of the local school, whose only apparent feature is a voice which is best in small doses, an incompetent doctor, that's it, that's his entire thing, voiced by the exact same voice actor and pretty much the same voice as Daddy Pewterschmidt, and the lonely librarian who laughs at her own terrible puns and wordplay. God.
The Lois-Carter Story was tedious. I tapped that little 10 seconds forward button more times than you'd think a "comedy" would warrant but Lois' constant high expectations of others, yet low conduct to her own children, I just don't give a cr*p that she was let down as a kid. Mummy and Daddy didn't tell her to her face she's not worthy of their love as Lois seems to do every episode to one or other of the family. The Hotel Story could have been much better, although I feel like it's been done to death, commandeering someone else's home for some "hilarious" purpose but the three "stars" just suck the oxygen out of the story. Dr. Hartman less so but still, those three characters can never be in another episode and it wouldn't bother me.
A bad episode in a sadly declining series. It's no longer "must-watch" and beginning to look like The Simpsons in that respect. At least with The Simpsons, that Halloween Episode is USUALLY good.
The Shivering Truth (2018)
Like being the Designated Driver on New Year's Eve
I watched the pilot, gave it a solid "Meh." It wasn't great but hey, it only took about 10 minutes of my time, so no big deal. 2nd, 3rd and 5th episodes, (Skipped one.), were, I'm sorry, just tedious. They and the first episode, were occasionally unsettling but never particularly 'Shivery'. Nor were they particularly insightful. Or funny. THIS is another one of those "Not for everyone." Things. Some will love it, Some will hate it. Some will be non-plussed by it. I strongly recommend mood-altering substances be applied liberally prior to ingesting this rather odd and off-putting assemblage of the uncanny valley.
To those, like myself, who don't particularly care for this, THIS is what it feels like to be out with friends and they're all partying their a**es off and YOU'RE the designated driver. End of the night, they're relaxing, just talking. Really pondering the universe. Next day, they want to reminisce about what a great talk we had and I have to tell them it was mostly mumbly gibberish, shouting over each other, gleefully giggling about things not said and for the most part, their merely having imagined that something profound was spoken of, when it wasn't.
Just not for me. I don't care for the art style, the attempt to be thought-provoking and creepy seem like fails on both counts. The creators tried for both and failed at both. Some segments were shallow, barely explored and others went on beyond any point, like a bad SNL Sketch that went on a bit too long. In almost all cases, reaching a conclusion that could, for the most part, only be labeled 'disappointing' for me.
All that being said, give it a look, it IS different and ONLY about 11 minutes. Some of you will like its peculiar strangeness. Michelle Provencher.
Big Mouth: Rankings (2019)
BigMouth and Ep. 29. Trying to be all-Inclusive, ostracising some in the process.
As others have written, this program is NOT for everyone. It's the Coming of Age Tale and Sexual Awakening of tweens/teens, (7th Graders, apparently, 12-13 year olds.), in the 21st Century and all that that entails within modern Western Culture. Whew.
Who this program IS for is kind of a question. Almost no parent who is aware of the program is letting their younger children watch this unsupervised. WAY too much cursing and way too many sexually-related themes and storylines. Few parents have the time and/or patience to watch with their children, pausing every 30 seconds to explain cartoon kids can curse all they like, YOU can't. And asking their kids if the sexual themes reflect their concerns and quietly asking themselves if they are unnecessarily opening up things their kids had previously had no interest in.
Teens have already been there, done that. Is this for young adults who want to reminisce about what a pain puberty and adolescence was? I'm 26, so maybe? I can't see older adults too into this. It's ONLY been 13-14 years since I was 12-13 and I'm thinking no way I was THIS obsessed about sex. Nor was anyone else that I knew in school. Seems overdone. Older adults might be even less inclined to buy this.
Season One was well done although I still feel like the children are drawn with over-sized heads that make me think of toddlers, not young adults or children passing from childhood into adulthood. Season Two seemed to start to lose the easy nonchalance of the first season, becoming a bit too preachy and Season Three seems to have completed that with this notion/impression that there are way more LBGTQs than there actually are. And kinks aplenty!
THE most honest depiction in Big Mouth is of the stereotypically slender, well-dressed gay boy who realises just how alone he is. Otherwise, the song played is that no matter your particular preferences, you're always in good company. Except Andrew. Andrew sucks.
This rather odd notion that kids who ARE different sexually won't feel all alone during these years is brought to a really weird conclusion in this episode in which the new girl, who is OF COURSE so cool and so self-assured, announces that she is pan-sexual and that that is totes different from bi-sexual and just WAY cooler than mere Heteros and homosexuals, referred to insultingly, in my opinion, by said new girl as "Borings." This seems to reflect the failure of many attempts at inclusivity in which a down-trodden group is uplifted at the expense of another group.
You don't get respect for one group by disrespecting another, the same as you won't likely get lots of help to end prejudice against your group if you are prejudiced against another group. Justice for all. Respect for all. (Apologies for the long rant in a review that is ostensibly about one episode.)
Vinasu senki (1989)
If you like this sort of thing, you'll like this sort of thing.
Acceptable Sci-Fi Fantasy set on a future Venus capable of sustaining human colonization after a freak interstellar accident, roiled in civil war, spoiled by seemingly unnecessary side stories to include some airhead bimbo from Earth reporting on the tragedy of death and conflict for kicks. Tee-hee!
Meanwhile participants in a complete Rip-Off of Rollerball imagine themselves fully capable of defeating an invading army. Even better, their military thinks so too! To the point that one of the leaders of said military decides to take time off from trying to defeat the invaders who have completely taken over for a cool bike race with one of the "Roller-Ballers" to prove who has the biggest dick.
The setting is pretty good. It's the future! It's Freaking Venus! There's steam-punky warmachines! But the blonde reporter is idiotic. That might be part of this style of animation. Every story, no matter how serious or intense has to have comic relief but she is just annoying. I don't believe she's a reporter. I think she's some spoiled rich brat, run away from Daddy to prove what a big girl she is! RollerBall Action Heroes seems a bit of a stretch too but at least they do some stunts, whereas Cub Reporter Braindead mostly makes goo-goo eyes at the camera.
As I said above, if you like this style, you'll like this. But that's it's redeeming feature. It's ancient and it looks it. It's completely cornball if you don't get it and the music is so meh. Backgrounds are well done, even the machines and gadgets look good if implausible, the characters appear drawn by a child. Not worth the time if you don't like everything "Anime" butsolid for the audience it's shooting for.
Alien News Desk (2019)
Funny in small doses
This may be an awkward comparison, but imagine that all the shows that you watch and enjoy share a reality, each show like a character in that reality or a sitcom. "Aliens News Desk" should be an occasionally recurring character but not a main character and never the focus of an episode. It's funny in small doses.
Similar to some sketches on a comedy show. Kept short and sweet, it's O.K. (This seems like the perfect show for 11 minutes.) Dragged out too long, not so much. It can be quite amusing, aliens misinterpreting the doings of wacky humans but some of the things that they do and do not understand seem oddly random. Too random for "superior" aliens who have been observing us for longer than a few weeks.
A minor example, If you'd been observing earth's broadcasts for any amount of time, HOW could you be aware of Roman Catholicism but entirely ignorant of the correct pronunciation of Roman Catholicism? Little things like that seem off. I get it, the idea is that even those who imagine themselves superior, observing "inferiors" from a safe remove can be mistaken in their judgements. But 22 minutes of not slight misinterpretations but grossly ignorant ones is too much.
Kim Possible: Ill Suited (2007)
Not the best in an otherwise quite good series
New to this long since cancelled series, having just found it recently, so I'm still discovering the Kimpossibilities here and hopping around between seasons. A real shame the series was cancelled. There are two feature length movies though, plus some live action one, I have no idea about yet.
Generally, I'd say the entire Series of 4 Seasons is an '8' easily.
Which is why it pains me to judge this one episode so harshly. Without giving away any spoilers, there are two incidents in the episode that I feel make this episode deserving of censure and a low rating.
1) Ron violates Kim's trust. Again, I won't spoil it for you but if I had a boyfriend who did what Ron did, I'd be seriously reconsidering everything I thought I felt for him. Don't betray a trust. And nothing happens to him. (-4)
2) Ron cheats his way to gaining an achievement at his high school and is never really punished for it and apparently Kim and the head football coach are willing to just look the other way. (-4)
I get that everyone wants a happy ending, to keep things light and funny but I feel like Ron is WAY out of line in this episode and it's just all overlooked because he is a "good guy." Quite frankly, I'd be questioning if someone was a good guy if they did what Ron did IRL.
As a whole, Season 4 is a '7' or an '8'. Now, if you do not like an increased focus on Kim and Ron's relationship or an increased focus on Kim's twin brothers, this season might be less than a '7'. Personally, I prefer keeping things focused on our hero, Kim but that's just me. Season 1 was a '9' for me, and Seasons 2 & 3 were '8's. The finale was very good, even with Ron's incessant girlish screams. Dude's been side-kicking all through high school and he still can't not be a buffoon. :D
O.K. SPOILERS here, so if you think you might want to be surprised, last chance:
1) Ron broke into/entered uninvited Kim's house-no one was home-entered her room, rifled through her personal belongings and stole her super suit. Aside from stealing from your girlfriend, this is a huge violation of her privacy. (He took it so he could qualify for the high school football team.)
2) Not only did Ron use the suit to make the team in a practise but he also used it in an actual game, cheating to win as the team's starting QB. This was found out by Kim, mostly through a villain gaining control of the suit and Ron's own inherent buffoonery. Ron did NOT have a sudden realisation that he was behaving like the bad guys they fight, cheating to gain an advantage. He had no intention of coming clean. He did play the next game without the suit, but WHY is he still on the team? Shouldn't they have forfeited that game? Shouldn't the player who cheated be suspended? Nope, he gets to play anyway. His "punishment" is that he is no longer the starting QB, he's the starting RB.Oh, and he has to crabwalk 20 laps around the field. THAT'S IT.
Seriously, Kim says she's proud of him, the guy who broke into her house and stole a high tech suit meant for fighting crime, so he could impress her. I'd be impressed. Impressed to dump the loon. Does he go through her purse to steal money so he can impress her on dates?! And the adult, the head coach-love that voice actor by the way-couldn't care less that they won a game unfairly that could see the entire team punished by being suspended/barred from any playoffs.I thought for a moment the coach would at least suspend him, since he was going to keep his ill-gotten win but no. He's not off the team, benched, anything. Worst example in the world for any kiddies watching gets to keep the girl, who's WAY out of his league AND his starting spot on the team that he only got because he cheated to make the team in the first place and there are no serious repercussions for the game they stole from some generic rival we're not supposed to care about.
It's only a cartoon, don't take it so seriously, got it, but for a show that usually tries to be funny and wholesome, this episode was a huge disappointment. "Lying thief gets the girl and gets to be a football hero." Unbelievable.
The World of Henry Orient (1964)
Tedious and Dated. Disappointing even by 1960s family movie standards
This movie was obviously enjoyed by a number of people based on the reviews but I suspect that a good deal of the enjoyment was of a nostalgic nature, older reviewers fondly remembering a movie seen in their youth.
It reminds me of some of the old classic Walt Disney family movies of the 1960s that would feature wholesome stories, young children coming of age, and fairly innocuous, harmless adventures. At their worst, overly sentimental and cloyingly sweet with a somewhat heavy-handed moral lesson.
THIS particular film hardly even seems to have those redeeming features or a message beyond the girls still being friends and one girl's dad becoming a proper father, all previous issues magically resolved. Although even there the 'awww factor' is dulled by the last lines of dialogue between the 2 young girls: "You know what I'd like?" "What?" "A mouth like a CRIMSON GASH!" "Hey, that's a cool idea!" Continuing to apply more makeup than the average woman owns. Sorry, that line is just 'ew' and a jarring transition from girlish hijinx to more "adult" things. (I get the feeling that the makers of this film may have had in mind a film of a much more mature nature than the film that was made.)
One reviewer who did enjoy this entitled her review: "The Giddy Magic of Girls." I would have said, "The annoying antics of brats" but this movie did not work for me, obviously. Two negatives were that the movie was touted by cable channels as featuring Peter Sellers or Angela Landsbury headlining. TWOHO does NOT "feature" either of those actors. That sets it up to be a disappointment from that perspective. So if you planned to watch it because those two are listed as the stars in this film, don't.
Mr. Sellers IS important to the plot but hardly featured and not particularly hilarious as others have alleged. Amusing at best. He does change accents throughout but for no good reason other than apparent boredom with his part in this extremely limited role. Ms. Landsbury is notably absent from the first half of the movie, doesn't have many lines and seems to have been miscast somewhat curiously as something of a woman who has deluded herself into believing she is still a femme fatale, to Mr. Sellers' "worldly" concert pianist. Angela Landsbury is a quite good actress but seems past it in 1964 for such a role. She DOES play well as an unhappily married woman who is frustrated that her child is interfering with her own fun, as someone who has NO maternal instincts whatsoever and very little loyalty to her husband, let alone the family.
The story centers on 2 young ladies, in their mid teens, and on their developing friendship. To some extent they seem to me to be infantilized, depicted playing games well below their perceived age, and mentality, such as Follow the Leader, each jumping over things in turn. (And what's up with the crotch shots? Are camera angles from the ground as the girls jump hydrants, etc., splay-legged in skirts really necessary?) They are also featured pursuing pointless pranks that only elementary school children would find funny. The girls then go from that very childlike/childish behaviour to obsessing about and stalking a much older male, Mr. Henry Orient, who is apparently a philanderer specializing in married women. The girls have unusual home situations which would be revolutionary for those times, if explored: 2 unrelated women raising one child, no one really raising the other but this fertile area is only cursorily covered as it relates to the "quirkiness" of each girl and in the latter case, as a way to highlight what an unpleasant character Ms. Landsbury plays.
This movie just isn't particularly funny. It is that rather odd brand of mildly amusing story, that apparently passed for humorous in the olden days, with an adequate script no one bothered to improve on or edit. Neither Sellers nor the other adults have much to work with, the situations do not ever seem intriguing, and the girls' pranks just seem idiotic and off-putting. It's just a movie but what moron falls for the movie's final prank and is going to just accept the story/lie that 2 completely dissimilar looking girls are Jane Mansfield's daughters and that they are simply waiting by a random shop for the ostensible "kidnappers" to release a famous star to them, no ransom, in plain view on an otherwise busy street? (Although as with most scenes, the streets are oddly deserted of people.) And what adult alerts the police based on this slip of a story and in what world do the police believe such a gullible adult and such a far-fetched tale of kidnapping, mobilizing a dozen men to capture no one? All of this scene played mostly in an oddly straight manner, although Mr. Sellers does attempt slapstick as he retreats to his apartment when the swat team leaps into action, somehow mistaking his lone paramour for the kidnappers, ignoring the fact that there is no kidnappee.
As a comedy, this is feeble stuff, barely eliciting a few smiles, the occasional chuckle. If this is a story about family, and exploring the travails inherent within families and all human relations, it is all too shallowly explored and not at all in a satisfying way. Neither zany nor introspective, it tries for both and fails at both.
If you enjoy the old Disney Family Movies, and don't mind the inevitable, telegraphed happy ending without much of an explanation about how they got there, you may like this. If you think you are going to see a lot of Angela Landsbury at her dramatic best or Peter Sellers at his zaniest, you will be disappointed. For what it's worth, the two young ladies are quite good, (Oddly neither of them had much of a career in acting afterward.), but that is not enough to carry this overlong, repetitive, trite, stale yet implausible tale.