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Reviews
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Those Old Scientists (2023)
This Is Nothing Like Star Trek
As a fan of the old Star Trek shows from the 1990's through approximately 2004 (The Next Generation, Enterprise, Voyager, Deep Space Nine), I found this episode especially disappointing. It didn't even feel like Star Trek. It reminds me a bit of one of those awful Star Trek cartoon shows like Lower Decks or something, but with human actors. This is just terrible and it shouldn't even have the Star Trek label.
Star Trek needs to return to the winning formula it had with The Next Generation, Enterprise, Voyager, and Deep Space Nine. Those shows were great, unlike this episode.
Skip this and go watch one of the older Star Trek shows I mentioned, even if you're a Star Trek fan.
Eating Our Way to Extinction (2021)
Very Informative and Entertaining!
Kate Winslet does a great job narrating this documentary. I must admit that I did not find the topic of this documentary very interesting at first, but as the documentary went on I couldn't help but find it highly entertaining.
From that standpoint, I suppose the documentary filmmakers did a great job keeping me entertained while informing me about the issues at the same time.
I delightedly watched the entire thing, and will enthusiastically recommend this documentary to everyone I know who is interested in or concerned with environmental issues.
It's too bad there aren't more documentaries exploring this aspect of environmentalism. It explores the issue from a unique perspective that you don't typically get from a documentary about environmental issues.
Stargate Origins (2018)
Bad acting, unoriginal story, overused tropes, and bland dialog
It was nice to get a return to the Goa'uld story that made Stargate so interesting in the first place, but this movie utilizes some very tired evil Nazi tropes that have been used by what must be hundreds of other movies at this point, then tops that off with bland dialog and terrible acting. The franchise even used noticeably recycled actors from Stargate: Atlantis (the guy who played Michael... who also played Commander Charles Tucker "Trip" from Star Trek: Enterprise, by the way). It's one thing to use actors that been seen before in other sci-fi shows, but I question the decision to have the same actor playing multiple roles within the very same franchise. I can only guess from this they must have been desperate for acting talent they were having difficulty finding.
It's all especially disappointing because I get the impression this could have been a wonderful movie if they had come up with a more original story without the overused tropes, hired some better actors, and put more effort into the movie overall. I can only guess the film production company must have given this a low budget or something for it to have turned out this way.
Hopefully the next Stargate show will get some better actors, a more original story, and return to the Goa'uld or Alien Gods story that made Stargate so interesting in the first place.
My Cousin Vinny (1992)
It's Decently Funny
It's a decently funny movie made a lot better because of Mona Lisa Vito. It's not the funniest movie ever by any means, but it was a decent movie overall. The acting was good. Joe Pesci did a great job portraying his character... who was actually quite a character, if you know what I mean. I would also be inclined to say the movie was more fun than funny. There were definitely a few times where I laughed out loud, but the characters, story, and circumstances of the movie were also just overall very entertaining even when I wasn't feeling like laughing a whole lot. I would recommend this movie to people who like movies about lawyers, trials, and comedy.
Stargate (1994)
Outstanding Beginning For A Great Series
This is an outstanding military sci-fi film. I would highly recommend it to people who also enjoy the TV show "Ancient Aliens." After I watched Stargate, I went on to watch the TV series that followed it which was called Stargate SG-1 (which was also quite good), but the problem with SG-1 was that it seems to go off on a tangent from the story that made it good and interesting in the first place (the Goa'uld story) in favor of less interesting topics, whereas this 1994 Stargate film maintains its focus more effectively on the essential story aspects that made the Stargate franchise so interesting from the very beginning. Essentially, having watched the newer Stargate TV shows has renewed my appreciation for this wonderful addition to the Stargate franchise. The visual effects are also noticeably better than those from the Stargate SG-1 TV show, and the soundtrack was an excellent match for the scenery and environments of the film. Overall this was a real pleasure!
Get the Gringo (2012)
Pretty Good As An Action Movie
I think it's a decent movie as far as action and crime films go. Mel Gibson is the best actor in the movie by far, the others are mostly just adequate for the particular roles in the film they happen to be playing. The film seems to convey the feeling of the atmosphere or the ambiance of the scenes from the film really quite effectively. I think really the biggest weak point of the movie is the soundtrack. There are so many movies out there with better soundtracks. I guess the music feels appropriate to the setting of the movie, so maybe it makes sense in that regard. As far as the writing for the story, it really came together nicely at the end. There was something I saw on one website which described the movie as "cerebral," but I didn't think it had any particularly thought-provoking qualities. (This isn't like Star Trek or The Matrix, it's just a decent action movie... nothing more.)
Stargate Universe: Seizure (2011)
Outstanding and Cerebral
I loved this episode. It had cerebral elements to it that were very interesting and that remind me of The Matrix in a way, but different in that they were put to use by the episode to explore Dr. Rush's relationship with Amanda Perry. Actually, I wish it could have continued more. I'd love to hear more from Amanda Perry in Stargate Universe going forward. She really didn't get enough appearances on the show as a character, despite the fact she absolutely deserved to play a larger role. I enjoyed seeing Dr. Rush and Amanda Perry enjoying themselves, and would have liked to see more of each of the two characters in this show, actually.
Contact (1997)
Different From Other Sci-fi, But Good!
It's amazing this film hasn't been released in 4K yet. Not that it looks bad in blu-ray, but it's one of the best and more realistic portrayals of first human contact with intelligent aliens that I've come across. I can only guess it was rated poorly because it isn't a sci-fi action movie with lots of "bad guys" getting shot and things exploding, like most other sci-fi movies depicting human contact with alien life. I consider this one of the more underappreciated films out there on this topic. The acting was pretty good, the story was pretty good, and the topic is of course very interesting. I honestly see nothing to complain about with regard to this movie. There really aren't enough films of this type out there that present human contact with intelligent alien life in a thought-provoking way without being an action movie. On that basis, this movie is quite special.
Stargate Universe: Malice (2010)
Better than usual for this show
Rush was so mad at the Lucian Alliance guy who killed the woman Rush was in a relationship with, the writers really should have had Rush make the guy suffer a bit more before he killed him. When a guy is as mad as Rush was, you wouldn't think he would just give the guy a quick death with a bullet to the head like Rush did in this episode. You would think Rush would have wanted his enemy to die a lot more slowly. But no, Rush just gave him a bullet to the head, which seemed a bit out of character to me. But Rush continues to surprise. He's a much more interesting character than many of the others in the show. Maybe it would be better if he was in command.
I only took a few stars off the review because I thought it was unrealistic that Rush gave the guy a fast and fairly merciful death considering how mad Rush was at the guy. If Rush had taken a bit more time with killing the Lucian Alliance guy, this could easily have been rated 9/10.
Stargate Universe: The Greater Good (2010)
Poorly utilized characters
It was a real shame the writers killed off the Lucian Alliance woman who was in a relationship with Eli in this episode. She was a fairly interesting character, and it seemed like a waste for her to die at this time just to set up a circumstance where Rush would go chasing after the Lucian Alliance character who killed her. I guess the whole point was to set up the next episode, but I also get the sense that there were other ways they could have done it that would have kept this very interesting female character alive to be enjoyed a bit by the viewers. I mean, they only just introduced her a few episodes previously, and already the writers had her die in this episode.
Stargate Universe: Cloverdale (2010)
Inconsistent With Past Col. Young Behavior
It's a boring romance episode between Chloe and that Scott guy (ugh). And it's made worse by the fact that Col. Young behaves in ways inconsistent with recent previous behavior. Remember the episode where he refused to vent the atmosphere of the gate room during the attack by the Lucian Alliance even though General O'Neil said he should? All to save a guy who had a record of betraying Earth for the Lucian Alliance... Telford. He wasn't willing to sacrifice Telford to trap the Lucian Alliance invading troops in a vacuum so they could be easily killed or subdued without casualties from his crew, even though it ended up costing him the life of at least one of his soldiers who was executed by the Lucian Alliance. Perhaps more. An awful decision on his part that was, frankly, implausibly bad. No intelligent commanding officer would make such a decision to surrender the gate room to the Lucian Alliance so they can gain a foothold on the ship and cause all sorts of trouble, but Col. Young did. And it was an awful episode because the whole thing was based on him making that bad decision. However, lets think for a minute. Col. Young refused to allow Scott back on the ship after he was infected, because doing so would put the rest of the crew of the Destiny at risk. Fundamentally, that decision is no different from his decision to save Telford by not venting the gate room atmosphere, thereby putting the rest of the crew at risk of being killed by the Lucian Alliance. There is a logical inconsistency in Col. Young's behavior in each of these episodes, and given that both of them occurred so recently, it's difficult to forgive. To put it simply, these two episodes and Col. Young's incompatible behavior in each of them are examples of bad writing despite the fact Col. Young made the right decision in denying Scott permission to return to the Destiny because of the alien organism that had infected him.
Stargate Universe: Incursion: Part 2 (2010)
Episode was founded on implausibly bad decisions.
The whole episode was contrived as a result of Col. Young's implausibly bad decision not to vent the atmosphere of the gate room in the previous episode, making it possible for the Lucian Alliance to board the ship. They had to have him make such a bad decision in order to create the circumstances for this mess of a show to exist. I'm sorry, but when the actions of the characters which are needed to create all this drama don't make sense, it creates a poor foundation for future episodes to be based upon. And this episode was based on that shoddy foundation. And what's the deal with Camille accepting it when the Lucian Alliance handed them 3 live prisoners and one corpse they had already shot and killed instead of the 4 live prisoners as per the agreement in the episode? They should have turned down the exchange immediately upon seeing the Lucian Alliance wasn't even holding up their end of the bargain. Again, nonsense actions by the characters make for a bad episode.
Stargate Universe: Incursion: Part 1 (2010)
Too much implausible behavior in this episode
One sign a show is poorly written is when the characters behave in ways that don't make sense. When Col. Young failed to vent the atmosphere of the gate room out into space, he was behaving in a way that doesn't make sense. Of course, he failed to vent the atmosphere of the gate room because he didn't want to kill Col. Telford, who the Lucian Alliance brought through with themselves into the gate room. But the thing is... he didn't have to kill Col. Telford to make his plan work. He could have released the atmosphere of the gate room into space until everyone in the room had merely lost consciousness or was at least greatly weakened and disoriented, but was not dead. Then he could have had his soldiers rush in and eliminate the freshly disabled enemy troops as they bring in new atmosphere with them, and have a medic provide emergency treatment to Telford. Even if that wasn't true, he still put the lives of many of his own people on the ship at risk by trying to save Telford -- a guy who had been helping the Lucian Alliance and should not be trusted even if he somehow managed to survive. Losing the life of one untrustworthy traitor to save the lives of several of his own crew while repelling a large enemy attack successfully is, frankly, a bargain Col. Young should have eagerly accepted.
I'm aware Col. Young is a strong believer in the "leave nobody behind" type of military decision-making that, if applied consistently to all cases, would demand he try to save Telford. But as I said earlier, there was a way he could attempt to save Telford without allowing the Lucian Alliance to gain a foothold on his ship in the first place which puts everyone else on the ship at risk. And even the most steadfast believer in the "leave nobody behind" philosophy of command knows that in war there will be casualties. Being a good commanding officer requires he make the decisions that minimize them while achieving the objective, which he wasn't doing.
Not only should Col. Young have vented the atmosphere, he should have vented it before all of the enemy even went through the gate and before Col. Telford even got through the gate to the ship. Why wait? They should have emerged from the gate in a total vacuum so they wouldn't even be able to react in time.
And Col. Young's soldiers guarding the interrogation room with Col. Telford also failed to keep the interrogation secret from Camile Wray by allowing her to see who was inside the room and what was going on when they opened the door. Also implausibly bad acting. A person doing a better job of playing a soldier wouldn't have even allowed her to be in that area arguing over it, let alone allow her to see what was happening in there so that word of what was going on could spread to the rest of the ship, which would reveal to the others on the ship a classified military operation taking place which they could then talk about to others on Earth when they use the ancients communication stones.
Overall, the characters just seemed to be doing a really bad job of playing their roles. Even General O'Neil got mad at Col. Young for failing to vent the atmosphere as planned, and O'Neil follows the same "leave no soldier behind" philosophy of command. Because O'Neil presumably knows there are reasonable limits to how far you can take that philosophy in practice, and Col. Young crossed them to an extreme degree to the point where we can say he was an implausibly bad commanding officer.
There were just way too many characters in this episode making implausibly bad decisions and it ruined it for me.
Stargate: Continuum (2008)
Underrated Addition to the SG-1 Story
This is the best of the two Stargate SG-1 movies (The Ark of Truth & Continuum) because it returns the Stargate franchise to the Goa'uld story of false gods, which in my opinion was when the show was always at its best and had the most interesting lore and backstory. I would easily prefer watching this movie to watching any number of the SG-1 episodes about the replicators, many of which seemed to get a bit silly at some point. And yet this quality Stargate movie gets rated only about 7 here while many of the replicators episodes were rated in excess of 8? It really makes no sense. This movie is greatly underrated and is an excellent addition to the other Stargate blu-rays. This movie more or less seems to conclude the Stargate SG-1 Goa'uld storyline, and does a fine job of that. I would highly recommend this.
Stargate: Atlantis (2004)
Better than average TV
One positive change I like for this series compared with SG-1 is that there seem to be a lot less replicator episodes. The wraith don't seem like they are particularly inspired from an intellectual perspective. They seem to be pretty generic villains and don't add much to the core idea of the "Stargate" franchise narrative that human gods were technologically advanced alien visitors of Earth. The original trajectory of Stargate: SG-1 with the narrative that the Goa'uld were beings with advanced technology posing as gods from human history was a very interesting bit of lore for the Stargate universe, and made the Goa'uld a lot more interesting as villains. I feel like the wraith are a much less compelling "bad guy" for the show overall than the Goa'uld were for SG-1. However, much of the potential Stargate: SG-1 had was wasted on bad episodes involving the replicators in which it strayed away from the Goa'uld gods storyline themes. So SG-1 was better in some ways, but had some bad episodes. It's tough to give an overall rating. Although Stargate: Atlantis had much better orchestral introduction music for the show.
I think it's fair to say the best Stargate: SG-1 episodes were a lot better than the best Stargate: Atlantis episodes, but that the typical Stargate: Atlantis show also sets a pretty high bar... in part because of having fewer replicator episodes (by my estimate), and also that the replicator episodes that Stargate: Atlantis has were also done better.
Cosmos (2019)
Much better than the IMDB rating would suggest
I'm not sure why the IMDB rating gave this film such a low score. Perhaps people were expecting some sort of sci-fi action movie or something? I'm really not quite sure. This is more of a movie for people who are perhaps amateur astronomers, are interested in the SETI program, or something like that. This is not a movie for people hoping to see ray guns and lots of explosions in space or something like that. If you're the type who likes going out and looking at objects in the night sky with your telescope, you would probably find a lot to enjoy here and should give this movie some serious consideration.
Stargate: Atlantis: Ghost in the Machine (2008)
Hopefully the end of replicator episodes...
I'm really hoping this will be the end of the replicator episodes. I really liked how the Stargate series story tended to focus on the idea that gods of humanity were actually aliens possessing advanced technology, and I feel like the series has been moving away from that significantly by diverting its attention to these replicator episodes. The Goa'uld story involving the ancient Egyptian gods was good. Stargate: Atlantis seemed to be off to a better start with its emphasis on the wraith rather than replicators, but as we see with this episode, they keep going back to replicators. And thus far at least, the show hasn't really used the wraith to add to its central story idea it began with: that human gods were aliens. Thus, this episode is just another diversion from the story content I initially found interesting, which is one reason I'm dissatisfied with it.
Stargate: Atlantis: Midway (2008)
Stargate is back to quality writing here
I was delighted to see this episode for one thing because I was getting sick of all the replicator episodes. Finally, a quality Stargate episode that brings together some people from SG-1 to some of the characters from Atlantis. It was interesting seeing Teal'c and Ronan clash in this episode, and how they didn't seem to come to respect each other until they fought together against the wraith. I suppose it makes sense in a way as the two are essentially coming from warrior cultures. One other reviewer complained a little in saying it wasn't realistic that the two were evenly matched or nearly evenly matched. I suspect this is probably true considering Teal'c has the healing powers of either tritonin or a symbiote, which I would think would give him an edge. In a way it was nice to see the two of them together in one episode because I had written them both off as the strong silent type, thinking of both being a similar character type. And I guess they are, but seeing them come together made me realize how different the two characters really are: Teal'c has a certain civility and civilized disposition to him that Ronan lacks.
Stargate: Atlantis: Travelers (2007)
Poorly Written Episode...
One major red flag with writing for a television series is when the characters do things that don't make sense. And Sheppard's behavior in this episode really doesn't make sense.
Why would he agree to hand over a warship of the Ancients that could provide tremendous technology for reverse engineering to the scientists of Earth... and to hand that ship over to a group of people so unethical they would kidnap Shepppard, take his blood from him against his will to control an Ancient ship, and above all torture Sheppard? What's more, they threatened to kill Sheppard if he didn't do what they want. Do people like this sound trustworthy? I mean, Sheppard handing over control of the ship to them is a bit like handing over the ship to the Genii. It's something Sheppard would never do.
And Larrin's claim that she needs the ship to benefit her people was an utter joke of a justification for Sheppard's behavior because the Genii would make the same claim, yet Sheppard would never give them such a ship.
It's also a highly unethical decision for Sheppard to make to hand over control of an Ancient warship to people who are so unethical because he is handing over the ship to people who have already demonstrated a propensity for unethical behavior, and who are demonstrably untrustworthy. It would be like arming the Genii. Any reasonable person would have a strong suspicion that the weapons of the ship would not be used for an ethical purpose.
Sheppard's behavior in this show is essentially him providing weapons of war to violent criminals who torture and kill people to get what they want. It's not something Sheppard (or any ethical person) would do, and is therefore bad writing.
Black Hawk Down (2001)
Great New Setting for War Movies
It's nice to have a war movie that talks about a different set of events than World War 2 for a change. The event discussed in Black Hawk Down presents viewers with a new combat environment, new countries in which the combat takes place, and a more modern conflict that seems to get a lot less attention from movies and games... all of which are changes I found welcome when compared to typical war movies.
The film is unfortunately very bloody and can feel a bit depressing at times. Personally, I was hoping for something more along the lines of an action movie in a war context without as much gore and suffering being depicted, but despite my wishes I can't fault the film creators for presenting war as the cruel thing that it is in a seemingly unfiltered way.
Stargate: Atlantis: Progeny (2006)
Too many replicators episodes already
By the time I had finished Stargate: SG-1, I was already quite tired of all these Stargate episodes that focus on the replicators. Stargate: Atlantis has been better in some ways in that the introduction music of the show is better, and that there haven't been many replicator episodes in this show up until now. I feel that the Stargate franchise is at its best when it focuses on a storyline that centers around the idea that the religions of Earth are really based on contact by ancient extraterrestrial life forms rather than anything truly divine. These episodes featuring the replicators seem like they distract from the interesting ideas the Stargate franchise got started with.
Stargate: Atlantis: The Return: Part 1 (2006)
Please stop with the replicators episodes
I'm just getting so sick of the replicators episodes. I was really starting to like Stargate: Atlantis because so many of the episodes up to this point didn't feature replicators. The Stargate franchise, to me, is at its most interesting at the times when it creates a fictional story that puts forward the idea that Earth religions from ancient times were in some way a consequence of visitations by extraterrestrial life forms. The best parts of SG-1, for me, were the beginning as this story based on those ideas was just being shown the first time with the Goa'uld, and the end of SG-1 after the replicator episodes returned to form and the show started going into the Ori story. And I really was liking Stargate: Atlantis as well thanks to the fact that there weren't many episodes up to this point focusing on the replicators.
Stargate: Atlantis: The Return: Part 2 (2006)
Getting tired of the replicator episodes
I'm really just getting pretty tired of all these episodes in Stargate that feature the replicators. The show was interesting to me when it featured shows that focus on Earth religions being based on visitations by ancient extraterrestrial travelers, not when it's about replicators. I was feeling so hopeful about Stargate during the last few seasons of SG-1 as it seemed like the Ori and the Wraith were going to be the new focus that would supplant the replicators, but to my dismay, the replicators seem to be making a comeback in Atlantis. Really, the show was pretty good up until these last several episodes with replicators.
Coffee Wars (2023)
A movie with unique appeal
This film may not have the best acting, or the best plot. And I may not even be particularly interested in coffee. But regardless, this is the first film I've seen that weaves interesting and socially important vegan ideas into a non-documentary story format type of film, and presents these ideas in the context of a fun and optimistic, feel-good, and uplifting story rather than conveying its points in a depressing sort of way as so many other vegan films would typically do.
Therefore, this film is in a category of its own and has few (if any) competitors. On that basis, because there are so few other films of this type, I think I am justified in giving the film an excellent score because of its unique nature and characteristics few other films have.
Stargate: Atlantis: Letters from Pegasus (2005)
What a boring episode
Ugh, as if I want to listen to all these personal messages from the whole Atlantis crew of characters. What an awful episode. I normally like Stargate, but man this was an awful idea for an episode. The episode's dialog also was tremendously lacking in substance, with Teyla suggesting Sheppard was a bad guy for not wanting to sit around during a wraith attack in one of the cloaked Atlantis ships to wait around for extended periods of time for personal friends of hers to arrive and get picked up... thereby putting the other Atlantis crew (not to mention one of their ships) at risk of being discovered by the wraiths for her own personal favor to her friends.