Reviews

The four stars I gave this series are all for Katee Sackoff. Her deep emotions and passion are the core of this show, really the only thing outstanding about it.

The rest is lame, pointless, and unbelievable sci-fi plot work. Disaster situations are presented like an assembly line of challenges to the crew, or more like the writers are going down a list of worst case scenarios for space travel.

The only redeeming thing about these cookie-cutter situations is the way Miss. Sackoff deals with each one.

Not to mention the frankly unqualified and a amateur crew she has to deal with. As the title of this review says, it's like a bunch of random put together to work on a space ship, never mind that an important mission would draw crew from the most qualified, trained, and mentally stable astronaut pool.

If you have any love of science fiction, you've probably already scene this show in many other forms. If you're a fan of Katee Sackoff, it's worth watching (but be prepared to skip forward a lot).

I came across an old episode of the program online and so fell in love with it I did my best to track down other episodes. This show was so informative about the various destinations and sights one can find when traveling that I build a couple of extended trips around it. Everything from their recommendation to use the venerable Let's Go guidebook, to what to keep in your pack when on an adventure, proved invaluable when I was out in the world. If you can find eps somewhere, it's worth a look.

I've been a fan of Rooster Teeth's machinima (video game cartoon) Red vs. Blue pretty much ever since I started playing Halo. Their sense of humor, jokes, heck even the dialogue made me laugh so hard my gold-visor helmet would almost slip off.

To see those ingenious guys working on their own anime, and in the style of Macross (Robitech) no less, has been a genuine treat.

Keep up the great work guys!

I never knew much about Biosphere 2, and after watching this film I still don't feel like I do. The footage was strangely cut to make the Bio2 project as bad as possible, for instance putting blooper footage of presenters in it to make the promo video look incompetent, and mentioning "people losing control" while interspersing footage of the project founder dancing at an improv class.

After such obvious attempts at making both the project and the people involved look bad, I really don't feel like I can trust the conclusions drawn by this documentary.

At a time when the world is on fire (in some areas literally), and as a planet we are all depressed, anxious, and uncertain about our future, the timing couldn't be more perfect for this positive and upbeat show to be airing. Not only does the determined lead make those around him happier, he does it by determinedly being helpful and warm with every homespun bit of wisdom he dispenses. It doesn't hurt that he quickly attracts the other sincere individuals that populate the pocket universe of this football club into his circle, to quickly form a strange yet wonderful work/team follower family. For the first time in quite a while I find myself looking forward to the weekly episodes, and with each one I watch I end the episode with a smile on my face.

First let me preface by saying I've been working in web development for a long time. A very long time. And as much as one might think that this show is kitschy and cute, that's true, but if you pay attention they get a lot of the jargon right and capture the spirit of what happens when people are trying to get a new technology idea off the ground.

The research, brainstorming to think of something unique, then trying to find some way to make it into a unique app that will scratch that "itch" and will make users choose you over everyone else, it's all here.

Why they canceled this show is beyond me. Silicon Valley is similar but takes a more antagonistic approach. Start-Ups: Silicon Valley was okay but the producers of that reality show decided to choose the most a-typical startups imaginable.

If you want to see a fun version of what's happening in the startup culture of SF these days, this is the show to watch.

It's a funny thing when you see something expand before your eyes beyond the sum of it's parts. In the movie Serenity, it's the Firefly-class transport ship. Each piece has a certain value, but put it all together and you have a ny-indestructible starship that will take you anywhere.

The characters in this movie are the same, actors drawn from gritty Vietnam soldier stories, light and funny ABC comedies, and even a cheesy WB sci-fi program, come together and produce not only a t.v. series, but also a movie that tugs at your heart strings and doesn't let go of your emotions.

The backdrop of space, resistance, and the search for freedom allows those who live within it to appeal, to touch the viewer in some way. We hope for kaylee to get together with Simon, we wait for Mal to really see Inara, and that somehow River will find peace.

Faris was the warm pink frothy center of this film, and while her bunny-isms took a little while to get used to there was a definite theme of Pollyanna outgoingness to her character that charmed all. I would give this an 8 out of 10 but Lindsey Lohan's careening through scenes as the "straight man" to Faris' comedy diluted the laughs and generally skewed the comedic timing. I barely even recognize her from Mean Girls, both in looks and acting. She reminds me of a summer-stock extra suddenly finding themselves with a speaking role. And while the sorority house motley crew was a bit too motley to be believable, I did enjoy their role in being clay ready to be molded by the happy-go-lucky House Bunny.

It was great seeing a more balanced biography of Walt Disney after all these years. I felt like there have always been 2 extremes: the sugary and perfect Walt who loved children, and the diabolic Communist smasher that hated Jews. Well, here's a news flash: he was human. Walt was a taskmaster, and perfectionist, but he was dedicated to entertaining people and making them laugh. This movie showed us how he was a 12-year old at heart, full of the vigor that made his cartoons great and prone to being naive when it came to labor and politics. To work for Walt was probably a roller-coaster, being "under the eyebrow" one moment when he was concentrating on a project, then elated when he dispensed a single iota of praise from his gruff businessman persona. The next second he could transform himself into a character from the storyboard he was demonstrating, brimming with energy and enthusiasm like a middle-aged Huck Finn. People have tried to villify him over the years, pecking away and trying to drag down his overly-sweet reputation perpetuated by the studio after his death. But you can say this about him: he loved children, wanted to make people laugh, and in some small way felt that by making the childhood of others happier, he was a happy child himself.

At first I was somewhat lukewarm towards the Poirot series; although my family was enthused with the episodes I found them a bit bland. The Sherlock Holmes programs from Ramada starring Jeremy Brett made them seem boring in comparison (and perhaps a vague memory of Ustinov playing Poirot didn't help much). But after seeing Finney in Murder on the Orient Express I was interested, and during a stay at isolated Bar Harbor, Maine I decided to check out an episode of Poirot from the local library (oddly enough the same one reviewed here previously).

Suffice it to say David Suchet is the definitive Poirot. He has in the past played American movie chieftens and diabolical Middle Eastern terrorists, but he portrayal of Hercule Poirot transcends them. The settings are perfect, proficiently replicating the Art Deco feel of the early 1930s. And Poirot's fastidiousness and simple directness make him unique amongst Agatha Christie's creations.

I highly recommend viewing these episodes.

I saw the movie before I read the book. I remember that I saw the movie when I was going through a classics phase in college; Jimmy Stewart, William Powell, Cary Grant, etc. So I started in on Gary Cooper one day and rented this. When I watched it, the theme of man vs. society was new to me and I enjoyed the individualist overtones it represented (considering how individualistic I'm surprised it made it through the hollywood studio machine). But later when I read the book, and then watched the movie again, I saw how it was a rushed, almost confused mock-up of the novel. The beginning was rushed, not surprising given the length of the book, but then the dialog was tampered, giving certain characters lines others had in the book. But the killer of the movie was the delivery by the actors. Raymond Massey was perfect for the role of Gail Wynand, and Patricia Neal was good for the part of Domonique, but she lacked the firmness of her in the book. Gary Cooper, as much as I liked in the man in Sgt. York and Ball of Fire, simply couldn't bring life to the role as Roark had in the book. First, he looks somewhat haggared and drawn, the opposite of the kind of being that Roark is. And his glances at Neal in the quarry were romantic yet lacked the energy of Roark in the book, and the subsequent romantic overtones were ridiculous, mockeries of the tight sexual tension that existed in the book made obvious for cinematic purposes. The coup de gras were the interchanges with Roark and others, especially Wynand. The delivery was...limp. I may be judging Cooper too harshly, as it might be difficult to bring to life the voice of such a potent character, but the evergy that the words from Roark in the book contained were lacking when Cooper talked, too much emotion on the face and too much nervousness in his movements.

The Fountainhead is ripe for a remake. In this day and age audiences would be more receptive to its ideals, and it could be done much more faithfully to the novel.