Reviews

I didn't get far enough in to really give it a fair number of stars, but I did shut it off for a very good reason. This show is clearly, entirely, scripted. These are actors and not real people. It's a shame cause this kind of show could have been interesting if they just bothered to find real sexual deviants who are actually passionate about their weird kinks. As it stands it's incredibly fake and boring.

Overall a pretty funny and decently paced political minded black comedy. It has a decent mix funny and serious that is blended well enough, and they were smart enough to end on a comedic note. This film shines when poking fun at the television journalists and meme culture.

Much of it is edited in a style similar to the average YouTube video. This was clearly intentional, but the ADHD cutaways to barely related things, use of emoji like graphics, and speed of cuts is annoying.

The real issues are the length (they had the ideas/jokes for 90 mins but ran almost 140) and the narrow minded satire of our society. The NYT stand-in is treated as great truth tellers, only backtracking on follow ups to the story when other "experts" say they are wrong. And more importantly omitting the Democratic Party from the film period. I don't believe they explicitly say the president is a republican, but she is an obvious satire for trump. In case anyone hasn't noticed, the democrats haven't done anything to fight climate change either. The final problem is too little Ron Perlman.

A cast filled with wonderful character actors is wasted in this somewhat confused and dull thriller. To its credit there are a few scenes with a good energy, especially the end. But no matter how great an actor Patrick Wilson is, this one isn't worth your time.

This film definitely suffers from misleading marketing. The trailer paints it as a parody of vintage sci-fi film/TV, but it's a dramedy set in space. Think Juno or The Perks of Being a Wallflower meets Star Trek, to get a good idea of the tone.

It's worth a few good laughs, though some jokes don't land. It has some satisfying character drama, though some could use some more development or screen time. And the vintage sci-fi design is well done.

In my opinion though, this movie is more than the sum of its parts. Both genres have issues that are minimized by their combination in this film. Modern dramedies tend to be pretty boring, not being very funny and being set in bland environments that are too close to home. Science fiction tends to focus on cool ideas about technology and otherworldly happenings, and often leaves out satisfying and relatable human drama.

While not brilliant, the weaknesses of its parts balance each other out to make a quite enjoyable viewing experience. Though it's a shame it likely doesn't appeal to most fans of either genre, especially sci-fi as it adopts a sci-fi aesthetic rather than a strong sci-fi plot (though it does create the illusion of an impending classic sci-fi threat). Watch it with an open mind fellow sci-fi fans, it's something new for the genre.

Ash is Purest White is a character study of Qiao, a woman who's life is dictated by her love of the gangster Bin. These central performances are are hard to find any flaws in. It is quite captivating and the cinematography is quite amazing, but it does have flaws.

The narrative, like many thrillers made in the early days of cinema, is original and unpredictable. There are splashes of humor that are woven perfectly in with the tragic story of Qiao's sacrificed life.

On the negative, there is some script issues. The death of an important gangster is dropped immediately, and the central gang battle isn't set up. Actually a slight tweak would bridge these issues and solve both of them, but by the end you won't mind it too much. The biggest issue is the length. While the cinematography is beautiful, it does tend to linger, if this film was closer to two hours it would help the rating significantly.

Alas the flaws are there, but the movies strengths outweigh the flaws and still make for an engaging and original viewing experience.

The only real job of a film is to engage the audience, this fails to achieve that.

Not only is it overly long, often lingering on mediocre shots and containing many scenes that don't move the story, it lacks a clear story and meanders through the lives of the characters.

The script lacks in clear character motivations for their actions, leaving things like the hide burning and Dunst's alcoholism unmotivated and confusing. The twist ending, which was far from ambiguous, was largely unmotivated but at least had some explanation, and made for the only interesting part of the film.

Cumberbatch did a fine job, but Dunst seemed just as confused as the audience and her character seems to be always mortified (even if nothing bad happened).

This movies themes and overall intentions were mostly clear, and they've been done better by other westerns. The most obvious being Brokeback Mountian but others include Zachariah (1971) and Lonesome Cowboys (1968), give those a watch instead of this.

Nice visual effects can't make up for the generic and cliched writing. The worst example of this is the pilot, which is off putting and insulting to the viewers. None of the characters feel like real humans, they're too focused on making them look and sound "super cool". The Android was the only character I actually liked, she had a humanity that none of the other characters had. The action and production values are pretty good, but like everything else is very generic.

Want a show where a crew of cool criminals zip around the galaxy performing odd jobs with a running gag of never getting paid? Then watch firefly. Starhunter is also better and does the same thing with bounty hunters. They have well written characters that feel like people with real emotions and real reactions.

This had almost all the makings of a good B movie. Special effects that were decent and plentiful for the budget. An interesting enough premise. And it wasted no time getting to the story. But it was missing the most important element, Energy.

All the actors seemed bored and not invested, with the exception of Beth. People seem to praise Jim Davis' performance, but he was clearly bored and gave no effort. The poor direction also sucked energy out of moments that should be exciting. When amazing and terrifying things are happening our characters walk at a slow pace or lightly jog at best. With their or their loved ones lives in danger there should be urgency in their actions. When the performances and direction have no excitement or urgency the audience is bored, and the rest of the hard work is pointless.

As a low budget movie this got a lot right, but there are big elements holding it back.

The Good: Barbara Cramptom is great as always. They actually built some real sets and it made it feel more authentic (instead of just in a warehouse). The stop motion effects were fine and the best way to pull off the robots on their budget. Also at 72 minutes it doesn't overstay it's welcome.

The Bad: some of the actors are passable, but most are poor (to be expected). There are some really tired tropes (jerk hero harasses strong woman who later falls in love with him), that were tired when it came out. But the biggest problem is the hero. Our main character is intensely unlikable the whole time.

It's a fine B movie that isn't painful to watch. Might even be fun with some friends to laugh at it with.

I see why people like this movie. It's made like a real movie, it doesn't have nauseating computer effects and has style and quality acting. The issues come in with the writing and direction.

This movie wants to be a remake of Taxi Driver and it is in a lot of ways, but it greatly misses the mark in more important places. Firstly they make the Joker way to sympathetic, the only real reason we shouldn't like and relate to him for most of the runtime is that we know he is a comic villain. In taxi driver you weren't rooting for Travis, in this you are (and the fact that everyone wants to imitate the stair dance is proof of that). The other issue is there is no morally good character at all, like the senator in Taxi driver.

while the joker is crazy, everyone else is comically evil. Now I get that there aren't supposed to be heroes in the movie, but not even one minor character is shown to be a good person. If his neighbor wasn't in his imagination, and just treated him like a nice person that would solve this problem. The issue is there's no template for decent behavior, joker is ultimately shown as the most morally upstanding character (until the very end that is). While I think it's partially by accident, the movie does present the joker as a hero not just as a troubled man.

While he got the basic idea and structure from Taxi Driver, Phillips clearly didn't understand the message well enough. In short, it's a fine movie but has major writing issues and is way over rated.

There are a lot of bad Netflix originals, and this might be the worst I've seen. Nothing in this show makes any sense. They send the most incompetent group of people to make contact with aliens. Who waste their time committing mutiny, having an awful love triangle, doing drugs, having a party, getting sexually molested by their spaceship, getting unjustly blamed for sexually molesting the spaceship, and (most important) almost destroying the ship due to negligence. Earth isn't doing much better, cause they're using pigeon noises to talk to alien rocks.

Production values are fine and I'm sure the actors are better in other things, I don't know how your supposed to make this crap sound convincing. I've liked Katee Sackhoff before, but she's terrible here. It's shocking this show was renewed, don't watch it.

Full disclosure I'm a fan of Jean Rollin, and you either love his movies or you really hate them. His movies generally have dream like logic and as a result large chunks of the narrative are unexplained. That doesn't mean there isn't a story, there always is but chunks are left open for interpretation. In this the story is about two young girls who stumble into a cult worshipping the last vampire and their struggle to escape.

I completely understand why people don't like this movie or Rollins works. But his works are truly unlike any other movies. In Requiem our protagonists don't even speak till about 40 minutes in and the vampire has an abrupt change of heart with no real explanation for it. If you like unusual or non narrative heavy movie give it a watch. Warning mature audiences only.

Dracula has been adapted many times, and this one is the closest to the original novel (that I've seen that is). And the use of some of Bram Stoker's Dracula dialogue is a nice touch that many don't incorporate. Lee's delivery of this dialogue gives is one of the most imposing and genuinely ancient incarnations of the character. Renfield, played by Klaus Kinski, is in the running for the best performance of a genuine mental patient.

What hold it back from its potential is two things, the other actors and the ending. The rest of the performances are passable I guess. But the other actors are pretty boring to watch and bring nothing special to the movie. As for the conclusion, it feels pretty rushed and anti climactic. Dracula feels too easy to kill in a lot of movies and this one even more so.

Worth a watch for fans of gothic horror or fans of Jess Franco. Just watch it far apart from any other Dracula movies that follow the novel.

With the relative cheapness of HD cameras and CG effects, it's increasingly hard to find modern B movies that are actually well made. This is a diamond (or some kind of gem) in the rough.

The effects are fine, but the money was widely spent on the sets which look like a bigger production movie. And while the writing isn't the best, it handles its themes very well and wisely doesn't over explain.

What really sets this apart from similar movies is the acting. You might not be able to name the actors, but you probably recognize all the principle cast from something. They are professional actors and do a great job with the material given.

This isn't an action movie, it's a sci fi drama and it's a good one at that. If you like sci fi and B movies check it out.

The biggest problem in this movie, among a myriad of issues, is that it's clearly edited out of order. Not in a stylistic way, but like it was accidentally dropped in a wood chipper and hastily taped back together. Add atrocious costumes, comical looking villains, and a horribly unfunny pair of married robots (it's not as great as it sounds) and you have a truly painful film to watch.

If you're a fellow B or bad movie fan looking for a funny bad film, this isn't it. It tries to be funny and that makes it even more painful. Some of you are gonna watch it anyway, and your going to regret it.

The two leads do a great job and are genuinely funny and likable, which is good considering they are the whole movie. While the premise is far from original, it brings enough humor and doesn't overstay its welcome.

A lot of people seem to hate the characters for being "annoying millennials". Don't let this deter you, they are clearly poking fun at big city hipster types. Not in a vicious way, but in a critical way. I mean Jack says he doesn't know how to be a man. That's not affirming wealthy millennial values, but making a joke out of them. This movie has comedy, romance, a dash of Star Trek, and a little social commentary. It's an enjoyable watch even if it's not gonna get repeat viewings.

This is an honest review and contains constructive criticism for the filmmakers, who I respect for their hard work. The only reason I finished this is because it was made in Pueblo, my home town.

There is some good stuff. The CG effects were really well done. Their uniforms were a nice touch, clearly military surplus but it made it feel realistic.

Unfortunately the acting was poor, and this was exasperated by the terrible dialogue. Compounding this problem again was the fact that the actors basically never felt like they were in the same room. The dialogue didn't feel natural or organic at any time. While something like "you certainly jest" (paraphrasing) might sound good in your head, it sounds robotic and inhuman out loud. That's just an example, most of the dialogue had the same unnatural feel when spoken.

Clearly these are amateur actors and filmmakers, but the filmmakers needed to make the actors job as easy as possible. Write the dialogue to sound as natural as you possibly can, and let the actors change up the lines till it sounds like real people. On project like this, shooting specific actors together can be hard because of people's schedules, but try to get your actors in the same room for a scene. Saying their lines to the other actors in the scene will help dialogue feel less robotic and emotionless.

Another note, I was confused as to whether the ship was supposed to be military or bounty hunters. They have military ranks and say something about UN orders, but the Captian is just a rich guy and they're going after a bounty for a ship. If this was explained it missed it, the show didn't really hold my attention, but this should be made clear in the first little episode.

There were some smart decisions made as well. Giving the ship a submarine feel made it easy to limit characters in a scene and helped the CG environments feel more realistic. I also want to give a special shout-out to the guy who played Abner. He was definitely the best actor and did a decent job with some of his lines, even if they weren't written better then the others lines.

If they make another show I'll probably check it out. Hopefully they will learn some lessons from this project and improve on those aspects next time. Making a show on the cheap is quite the task and it's a brave thing to do. Please just take this as constructive criticism, the writing (dialogue, characters, and story) need lots of work. Next time spend more time hammering out this aspect of your project.

This was a slapped together piece of trash. They have big name celebrities telling horrible jokes about 2020, but was mostly news footage with terrible jokes narrative over them. Honestly, 2020 centered jokes made on the spot at dinner are funnier and more clever.

The only real funny parts was actual clips of trump and Biden talking. Diane Morgan was the only funny performance. She delivered the horribly written jokes with such deadpan sincerity that I couldn't help but laugh. This wasn't worth sitting through the whole 70 minutes, just watch trump clips on YouTube to get more laughs.

This is for anyone not familiar with Lexx.

The misadventures of a cowardly captain, a dead assassin, a love slave/lizard hybrid, and a love struck robot head aboard the Lexx. Lexx is a dumb, living space ship that happens to be the most powerful destructive force in the two universes.

This show is very weird, funny, and dark throughout. It has plenty of problems (obvious budget restrictions) and some bad episodes. If you can't stand dated CG effects be warned. But thanks to creative story telling and good writing this show is great.

Normal Sci-Fi tropes are taken in new directions or subverted completely. At times the characters freeze themselves for thousands of years. There is much time spent contemplating the meaning of life and death. While nudity is used only sparingly, this show is sexual/sensual at times. But even in that the darkness pokes through, you may notice each characters has a true love that they can't fulfill sexually (i.e. Stanley and Lyekka).

Another interesting thing is it takes chances with season and story structures. The first season, is four feature length episodes. Referred to as a mini series, but it doesn't tell one story like typical mini series. The second season is a normal 20 episodes season, mostly episodic but has a season arc. The third is 13 episodes and mostly all serialized. The fourth is like the second season, but with a lot of serialization. Not each season follows the planet of the week structure either. The latter 2 seasons are spent at 2 and 1 planets respectively.

Often compared to other shows like Farscape, this show is truly one of a kind. Too few shows, of any genre, dare to subvert formulas for imaginative story telling. I'm glad there are still fans, and it's easy to find for free if you haven't watched it yet.

Is this a brilliant work of art? No. But it is a perfect movie for its source material. This movie seems to be referred to by many as "unintentionally funny" and for having simplistic campy characters. Keep in mind Flash, his friends, and his enemies aren't complex or complicated characters. They came from a syndicated newspaper comic. This doesn't mean they are bad characters, just simplistic.

With this movies they stuck to the source material where appropriate. It's the same set up as the comic strip when it started and the first buster crabbe serial. The changes it makes are done perfectly. Flash is a football player, instead of a polo player. Mongo isn't an earth like planet, but a more metaphysical and fantastic land. This movie is colorful and fun, features a pure good hero battling a pure evil villain. It also didn't try to be campy, they took it seriously which makes the movie more enjoyable (nothing worse than bad comedy). Most importantly it has one of the greatest movie theme songs ever.

This doesn't take itself too seriously as other simplistic sci fi movies (cough, Star Wars, cough). It's a Saturday morning cartoon done in live action, and that's what's so great about it.