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Reviews
Masters of the Air (2024)
Could have been better
First I agree, why disrespect the RAF? That was arrogant. No P51s were there during the Battle of Britain.
The score was amateurish at best sounding like it came from canned section at a cut rate movie scores store or left over from a B movie from a free steaming service. That alone gave it the "lets hurry up and get it to market" feel. The attitude towards senior officers was way to casual and would have never been done regardless of familiarity or mutual home town. And it seemed there was an abundance of field grade officers (major and above) willing to fly. All my life I've been fascinated by the B17s and studied them and their crews, these things just didn't happen.
While many of the scenes were realistic, the speed at which the 109s or FWs sped by was not. I've viewed many hours of German fighters whizzing by, the CGI was not realistic here. Time period represented OK as no model B17Gs were shown which didn't enter war until later in 1943.
Disappointed, perhaps this was rushed to market.
Ahsoka (2023)
Very well done
Rosario Dawson is perfectly chosen for this role. Ahsoka's glaring/staring at opponents penetrates like a laser blaster held open. Rosario/Ahsoka emits energy to friend and foe alike. Dialogue is, well, perfect never felt bored and all made sense. Didn't see once were dialogue labored or they were trying to pad the time. Ray Stevenson quite evil in his quiet responses....he had that Titus Pullo strength surety of self....while PC had too many female characters it still worked well. And you think a tiny blonde girl can be anything but rainbows and unicorns? Guess again.
The force is strong in this series.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Subspace Rhapsody (2023)
Truly sux
Yes.... I am not a fan of musicals, Oklahoma is my one exception. There's a LONG BORING number by L'an...goes on waaaaaayyyyy tooooooooo loooonnnng. I kept fast forwarding through numbers going on far too long.
I LOVE STRANGE NEW WORLDS....but Paramount blew it on this one. The music distracts from the story, from the intensity of the Strange New Worlds storyline and you keep asking yourself, "Dear God when does this end?" When do we return to a serious story? Paramount I truly hope you read this review...I'm a Trekkie from the olden days, and I consider SNW on par with original series, or better.
PLEASE do NOT do this again.
65 (2023)
Kylo deserves better
The older man / female teenager survival thing has already been done...numerous times. Driver acted well, but you could tell he was acting, perhaps a bad screenplay. Take that back, WAS a bad screenplay.as many parts predictable.
The premise or storyline has LOTS of potential though just not developed or rendered into something we haven't seen before.
So...and advanced interstellar ship could not tell when it was approaching an asteroid field and go around? Hmmmm....
The process of telling they had hit Earth could have been done far, far better. And the asteroid at the end? Now that had great potential, but again done pedestrian and predictable....
You can kill a few hours if you really bored.
Poker Face (2023)
Meh
Became quite pedestrian, repetitive after a while. Same general story line in ever episode. I also got tired of the same forced carefree character...few episodes in, OK cute, but after a while she got annoying, and with no means of self support, accepts random jobs so she can head on down the hiway trying to escape the bad guys...blah, blah, blah. In her beloved car....a formula we've seen many, many times in an attempt to create an aura, a mystique around his/her travels. I did like Benjamin Bratts character....never seen him like this so my 5 stars was generous. Want to watch more but, that may be my day to mop the bathroom. Darn.
Perhaps a season or 2...
Prey (2022)
Extremely well done, perfect atmosphere
Very much gives you an atmosphere of raw warfare, and when Naru hinted that if it bleeds...maybe she was Dutch's ancestor. Liked this a lot...constant action from beginning to end and the relationship she had with her brother was well done part of story. This will remain my favorite of any Alien or Predator movie
Naru had to out think the predator and she did.
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
Star Trek: The Soap Opera
Wow, first time ever I felt I wasted my time on a Star Trek anything, and I'm a Trekkie from the old Kirk era...season 4 a disaster. Season 5 better get new writers and storyline quick as ratings are in free fall
Writing for Picard and Strange New Worlds is far far superior.....you get involved in the action and adventure...Star Trek Discovery you need tissues available...because those are your own tears for a dying, lethargic, waste of time soap opera. There's still time to fix this and that may be the greatest adventure of any Trek series.
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
True to Star Wars
Liked this very much, couldn't wait week after week and hopefully, more to come. Connected dots and filled in some holes in back story. Ewan McGregor will always be identified with Obi-Wan as Shatner is with Kirk.....Ewan IS Obi-Wan. And let's hope there's a LOT more of this.
Foundation (2021)
Disappointing
If you are a fan of the books as I am, you probably wont like this series. Deviates for off course of books at multiple points, but besides that I tried to consider as a stand alone, which, fares slightly better but difficult at times to follow simply because....a few characters completely miscast. However. The one bright shining star perfectly cast? When I heard they had picked Jared Harris as Hari Sheldon, set aside time to watch and first few episodes were good....but then the deviations ruined it for me. Just too far off.....if I were a member of Asimov's estate, I'd sue for the insulting deviations.
Should have been a series named something else, certainly NOT Foundation. Watch it as a Sci-FI series and imagine another name. Lee Pace and Jared Harris are stellar...extremely well acted.
Invasion (2021)
I got bored....
Skipped an episode or 2....didn't miss much it seems. A lot of folks wandering around (think of the Walking Dead)....but not nearly the action. Just wandering around, talking. More talking. You keep waiting for the aliens to pop out and.....more talking, no aliens. No spaceships except for a Japanese space shuttle or space station....never made clear. Whys and what fors, that's in another movie. Oh from time to time they discover something, but your investment in time just isn't worth it.
Rises to a slow lethargic level then plateaus. Remarkably, after this alien invasion (which we see only circumstantial evidence of) lights and natural gas still works. Wow. Apple should cut their losses and nix season 2, I can watch paint peal on my own time.
The Adventures of Bob & Doug McKenzie: Strange Brew (1983)
Very underrated, even zombies laugh
Reviews artificially low, too many can't appreciate the silliness of it all.....I guess some people cant appreciate stupid. When parts were written for Max van Sydow...come on!!! One of our all time favorite comedies.
Les revenants (2012)
Confusion overrides curiousity...
Eagerly awaited 2nd season after 1st....mistake.
The overuse of flashbacks in season 2 made it very confusing to be kind. Got tired of having to review past episodes so 3-4 episodes into the 2nd season.... I quit. 8-9 stars for season 1, 4 for season 2.
Multiple goofs in scenery too, and there were multiple indicators that questions would not be answered.
Not recommended unless you're a billionaire and have time to waste, but I dont recommend this snoozefest for the rich either.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Strange New Worlds (2022)
Excellent, very well done
Actors perfectly chosen....you will see a LOT of subliminal or background references to the original Star Trek, many ideas are now tied together.
Many shows blast off with first few episodes then plateau....this does not it keeps getting better and better. Captain Pike.... PERFECTLY chosen.... Mr. Spock.... PERFECTLY chosen.....and it gets better. You also get a sense of how powerful the Enterprise is you didn't get in the original, and the bridge? Ya gotta see it. And the graphics improvements since the 60s? Wow is it good now...absolutely hooked.
The actors duplicate the chemistry that William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy had....and the chief engineer?
Dune (2021)
Falls short, but repairable
I've read all the Dune books and seen all the adaptations....this version falls a hair short of the grandeur you sensed in the other versions.
Chalamet is just too moody...not his fault I suspect, but more the screenplay. Seeing him open up a bit would do wonders.....and let's not just pay homage to characters in the novel, develop them, would like to see a hero (s).
Will watch part 2 for needed improvements.
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
Disappointing....felt unfinished
I"ve seen The Soparnos.... Alessandro Nivola was convincing, as was Michael Gandolfini and a few others, but it felt like a few strong performances with no purpose, no direction waiting for a good scene.
It will tie together a few things from original show, but it seemed only out of obligation to original show.
If you were a fan of original show, you will be disappointed.
Clancy Once Again (2017)
Confused...until we discovered alternate beginning
I wish I too had known this was an alternative as Clancy passed in the first movie.....watching, we were confused and really couldn't understand until we found out. We too thought we had missed something and rewatched the original looking for something missed.
The Chosen (2017)
Slow, ponderous...and I got bored.
Yes, I am a Christ follower, and I love Yeshua. But honestly I got bored with this because of the slow and ponderous dialogue. Yes, it was from the disciples point of view, but season 2 put me to sleep, and a few of the actors seemed too coiffed to be in a small dusty town in Palestine 2k years ago where slaves were tasked with washing people's feet for stepping in donkey turds.
While I do give credit to the actor playing Yeshua, the one playing Simon I do not. A little too intense at times...perhaps he didn't like the way his hair was blown dry. The rest of the cast were artificially happy at times and you cold tell.
I do believe the ratings are artificially high and if you are a believer and found this to strengthen your faith then great...but not me.
Far more realistic is the series of shorts by Jefferson Moore, "The Perfect Stranger"....or perhaps "The Passion of the Christ".
A friend from church loaned me the CDs before I possibly purchased.... I wont be purchasing, just too much speculation on dialogue.
The Secret of Skinwalker Ranch (2020)
They set themselves up
I agree with someone else here, stop with the theatrics. And some of the side characters very cartoonish. I'm love the 2nd Ammendment but Dragon? I'd never sell him a gun....he reminds me of the pervy guy in Joe Dirt.
Travis is way to smart to be associated with this show, demeans himself by being associated with it so they must be paying him quite a bit.
But the worst is, they set themselves up for exactly what they want to find. One guys cell broke in an episode and suddenly "mysterious" signals were affecting his phone. Uh, could it be it was run over? Here's a tip.....buy a new phone!
....and then they pour water into the ground and wonder where it went. Nope cant make this up folks.
At least we know what's a hit in trailer parks these days...
Prityazhenie (2017)
Starts promising,
Even the really good CGI could not deter from a plot holes.
So a technology that is capable of interstellar travel....cant avoid meteors? How then did it travel so far? Acting generally not bad but wooden at times as if they were doing it out of a manual, just like the screenplay. Love story gets in the way at times...but whole film watchable, just focus on CGI.
Dubbing....if it wasn't Russian I'd swear I was watching a 60s Godzilla movie.
Stowaway (2021)
A review about a movie
This is a review, it has words in it. You may safely ignore all pictures or others words surrounding it. No explanation will be given for any odd circumstances in this review. You may read it completely devoid of any emotions, passions, or reactions.
Again, this is a review.
Alien Code (2018)
What? huh? why did? How come?
Very confusing disjointed plot. Just when you thought OK, i get that part, jumps to another plot in another movie. You will find yourself constantly asking...Huh? What? How come? What did that have to do with? Some plot points were never explained or developed. As one commentary said, your time would be far better spent watching paint dry, or dirt...do anything. I agree.
And the acting accolades I see coming from other comments...wow, Kyle Gallner must have a lot of cousins he called one night.
Now if you'll excuse me I'm jumping to another dimension to try and get back the 11/2 hours I wasted on this....whatever it was.
First Cow (2019)
Sure cure for insomnia
Wow, when I woke up, I started watching dirt...MUCH more exciting than whatever this was...
Messiah (2020)
Clearly takes a point of view
This is clearly skewed to the left with open borders. Under the guise of faux Christianity and having undertones of a religious format, it takes a thinly veiled antagonism towards the religious right and anti-Americanism...to wit a Muslim Jesus.
Maybe we can get our money back...
Fake or Fortune? (2010)
Cannot look away
Every episode is like the best Columbo, Law and Order, and Perry Mason you have ever seen rolled into one. Deeply respect Fiona, Phillip, and Bendor's calm as they go through the ups and downs of each investigation...and we learn about the great works of art and the artists as they investigate. The bonus is...everything you see is real, no scripts.
One episode a masterpiece was found by a junkyard...another someone has had decades and tracking it trail of ownership or provenance is really quite fascinating...
Highly recommended.
The Wire (2002)
Great potential, but the acting ruined it
The over acting was stunning, kept nudging into the surreal and felt I was watching a very low rated 2AM movie.The story had potential, the rhythm of the movie had potential...i had to filter the bad acting through some very thick filters...and that's why I couldn't give more than 2 stars. There were a few actors that you thought may be real...but the rest...you could tell they were all acting trying to get noticed for that next gig. Idris Elba who we've always liked, was even dripping with the stain.
Perhaps it was the direction they got who know...but this will not make it to my remember pile.