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Container Masters (2021)
So much possibility
Such poor execution. I know most 'reality' shows like this are a lot of staged drama and silliness, however in this one they include such little actual information about the container homes that it seems to not have any purpose.
The group isn't actually that interesting but the subject is; yet we get mostly the group and very little on the subject of container homes.
We don't find out how much they cost compared to having a small home built on-site. We don't find out how an on-site built container home might differ from one they have to be able to ship across the country. We don't find out what, if any, the benefits are to having a container as the structure rather than building a traditional frame.
They basically have to frame out the entire interior in a traditional style so that they can have insulation and a place to run wiring and plumbing. At that point, is there really a purpose to the container under it all? I was hoping to find out if this was really a genius, cost effective way to build a small home or just a gimmick that gives you something to talk about. This show didn't seem like they were going to answer that at any point.
Hotel Impossible: Desert Disaster (2017)
It is nice to have a few likable owners
While likable owners are nice it is sad that they often don't get as much free stuff as the complete jerks that don't care about their customers and that abuse their employees.
On this episode the owner is in way over her head but she doesn't seem to be greedy or evil like some of the others. But I guess as they get near the end of the series their budget is lower and they get less free stuff from vendors.
On this one they get a mild redo on the lobby and that is it. They don't do a room or anywhere else. He gets them a 'deal' on new door locks but not free and an eCornell gift certificate.
Meanwhile on episodes with truly awful owners, where I often wish he'd just leave and don nothing for them, he's done their lobby and two rooms, free door locks, free linens for all the rooms, and more.
Westworld (2016)
It has its moments (1st season)
It has its moments but they are too few and often too far between.
There are few likeable characters and that number drops as the season goes on. And that includes interesting 'evil' characters. Sometimes the bad guys are the most interesting but that isn't the case here.
I think there was a good story there but it gets a bit muddled in their parallel timeline and flash backs, flash forwards, flash sideways moments. The overall story arch is interesting, it is just the journey to get there that feels long at times.
There is some funny irony in a show that has an underlying point that all people want is sex and violence that also gives us a lot of sex and violence.
Motel Rescue (2023)
Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is entertainingly bad
There are some things she does that look like they work and others that are so far off that it actually makes it fun because it just seems too silly.
In some episodes she mentions a budget but in others she doesn't. Are the people paying for the work or not? If they are paying for it then I often feel sorry for them. Some of the changes are nice upgrades but others are not and some she just messes things up.
She repeatedly tries to put coffee stands or smoothie bars in small hotels that are unlikely to have enough guests to ever make it cost effective to staff it. All that time and expense for something that would require another employee or two, just doesn't make sense.
A lot of the time she leaves the TV out of the renovated rooms. It is nice in your down time in a hotel to have a TV, especially at night. It shouldn't be that difficult to fit a reasonable sized flat TV on a wall.
She likes to downsize the refrigerators in the rooms with kitchenettes to dorm size. The small fridges are pretty much useless for anything but snacks.
Finally, the worst thing about all these 'rescue' or 'impossible' shows is they fix up 1 or 2 rooms and the owners immediately put those pictures online so that people making reservations think that is what they are going to get.
Alien³ (1992)
Lacking in many areas
There were interesting ideas to the movie but they were overwhelmed by what was missing.
They do the oh so popular sequel thing of starting out with 'you thought the second one ended like this? Well, think again! ' They actually go back and take away what was a satisfying ending to the prior movie by instantly killing off two of the main characters because they wouldn't have fit into this new story.
The biggest problem here though, was a lack of likeable secondary characters that you could cheer for and worry about harm coming to them. The Clemens character was starting to fit into that but then they kill him. And mostly all we are left with are rapists and murderers.
Instead of Ripley being fierce and driven she mostly travels through the movie like she has space lag.
There is also the issue of the special effects. The aliens in the close-up shots were so covered in slime that it was ridiculous at times. The distance shots were mostly bad low budget, early 90's CGI. It was distracting. Even the moments of the alien grabbing people wasn't good for jump scares. It was just 'oh no, that guy we don't know at all that is a violent criminal just got taken'.
I liked the setting, the set was well done; and I liked the trying to fight it without weapons but the ending made little sense. They went through this very long scene where they lure it down a 'piston shaft' for some reason, into the mold area for the lead. Which sounds great until you realize that, after all the time and lives spent getting it down this long hallway into the mold area, the mold is open at the top. What do the aliens do better than humans? Climb up things! How did they ever think that was going to be a good trap?
Even if I remove the comparison to the first two movies this one is weak as a stand alone creature flick. It lacks suspense, it lacks jump scares, it lacks good characters, it lacks a really terrifying creature.
I Love Lucy: Pilot (1951)
Yikes
Don't get me wrong I love Lucy, but there is a reason this was lost. The series gets 9 stars, this gets 4.
Reports are it was just made to try to sell sponsors on the show. I'm glad they saw possibility in it, because I didn't.
The start had too much Ricky singing, too much Pepito; it was very rough and the acting felt rushed. Probably the norm for a promotional 'pilot' but not what we are used to from the other 180 episodes.
I'm sure many will enjoy it, simply because of the beloved characters of Lucy and Ricky in it. However if it were someone's first exposure to the series they likely wouldn't be back for more.
Pieces of Her (2022)
passable but barely
Most of the characters are very unlikable and not in an entertaining way. Sometimes characters can be evil or unpleasant and still entertain.
I'm not sure if the Jane character (Jessica Barden) was told to act the way she did, but much of the time she seemed a bit mentally challenged and out of it. It was hard to take.
The adult 'Laura Oliver' character was just abrasive most of the time, when she wasn't being abrasive she was just unpleasant. The character Andy generally did the least bright thing most times. And they were both intolerable complaining about having to live where they did.... right on a river, walking distance from the ocean, in a nice house, in a nice neighborhood.
Gil Birmingham's performance was quite good, as usual. Jacob Scipio was also quite good. But unfortunately, two well acted characters couldn't save the show.
Overall it would have been easy to skip and I only stuck through it to see exactly how the story ended and if things would finally make sense.
Hotel Impossible: Jersey Shore Uproar (2016)
They should just leave
I wish they would just go to another motel on some of these episodes. There have to be more owners that care and just don't know what they are doing. Helping these ones that have no interest in taking care of their employees or their guests does a disservice to everyone.
They pretty up enough of the place that the owners can post nice pictures online. Then you combine that with a few fake positive reviews and Anthony is helping trick unsuspecting travelers into staying at really bad places.
Help the employees find new jobs but stop giving stuff to people that are just evil. There is no making the places better when the owner sees nothing wrong in mistreating their employees and giving their customers a terrible experience.
My Spy The Eternal City (2024)
Just watch the first one again
The first movie ends with the characters having respect for each other and yet this one starts with Sophie being the overdone teen. Why do so many sequels have to reset any character development that happened in the prior movie? And why are so many characters in movies now one dimensional?
The first movie had charm, humor and likable characters. This one seems to be missing those. A lot of the performances feel like they are cold reading the lines rather than shooting the actual movie.
I'm curious how many of the positive reviews are from people that spent much of the movie looking at their phone. It may not be a bad 'background' movie.
IF (2024)
I'm annoyed that it wasn't as good as it should have been
There was so much possibility here. It is a really cute premise with so much possibility.
The problem is every character was really one dimensional.
Krasinski was the quintessential "I'm the worlds best father ever!!!". It was to the point where he didn't seem human, so it was hard to connect with his character and his character's feelings.
Reynolds was more subdued than I thought he could play, which fit at times but at other times I really missed his charm and humor.
For Fleming, I realize it is hard to play an angsty pre-teen and remain likeable and then transition to a caring young person in a smooth manner. However I would have liked a bit more surprise and wonder at what was happening around her. She charged through too much of the parts that should have had her amazed as though she did that every day. If she wasn't in wonder of what was around her, then why should we be?
They really didn't seem to explore the possibilities with the animated characters, their real feelings, personalities and abilities.
Live actors interacting with what will be added later is an art form into itself and this lacked the connection between the worlds.
At the start, the musical score seemed strong but as the movie went on it seemed like an over used laugh track. For everything that happened they built the music up like it was the peak moment in the movie. If the music is done right it flows with the moments, this one tried to use it to force the moments.
The setup felt very long and there were a lot of slow parts throughout. And many of the slow parts didn't need to be. A bit more of Reynolds humor and of Fleming being in awe of what was going on would have gone a long way to drawing us into the movie.
The closing credit moments were touching but that is a lot of movie to sit through to get to that.
Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F (2024)
It depends on what you are expecting
As tribute to Beverly Hills Cop it is quite good
As a cop movie it is okay
As a Beverly Hills Cop movie it is a bit lacking.
Seeing the old characters from the original movies is fun and it brings back great memories, however their parts are very small. I was left wanting much more of each; and none are really integral parts of the movie.
Murphy is 63 years old so I didn't expect him to be dangling off a delivery truck this time around. But I did so miss his humor. The problem there is, much of his humor in the early movies isn't PC enough for today. And over the years his acting style has moved on from largely surrounding his infectious laugh and goofy characters to a much more serious style.
His charm shows through from time to time but the writing often felt lazy and a bit too careful.
The uniqueness of the first movies was the reverse fish out of water scenario. His character was so comfortable and so confident that even though he was in someone else's world, they were the ones that felt out of place. This one lacked that element. Instead of teaming him up with straight laced cops afraid of losing their jobs, they matched him with his estranged daughter. Who was neither likable, nor charming. Mostly she was just tense and angry, which works for other movies, but not a Beverly Hills Cop.
She did get one Caucasian joke in, but unlike Eddie's likeable, goofy, delivery that always made his jokes about anyone funny, her delivery came across with more disdain than finding humor in it. She just didn't seem to know when to pare back the intensity and enjoy being in a Beverly Hills Cop movie.
At its worst it is okay and at its best it is an enjoyable reminder to watch the first two movies again.
Christmas at the Drive-In (2022)
Just a really odd concept
The town council, at the insistence of the female lead, forces the owner of a closed down drive-in theater (her high school sweetheart) to make a good faith attempt at opening it in the middle of December as a test to see if it can make money or if he should be allowed to sell it to developers that will tear it down and build a distribution center.
That is so far fetched and seems almost mean of the female lead to force him to try to make it work so he can't sell. She isn't trying to buy it, the town's people aren't moved out of nostalgia to start seeing movies when it opens.
Keep in mind that the drive-in, is in pristine shape, everything is freshly painted, clean and in perfect working condition.
With that as the backdrop for the entire movie it makes it really difficult to get into. What happens in writing meetings? Is nobody allowed to question ideas like this?
They could have easily had it be where the town was going to sell the property to the developer to cover owed taxes and he has to make enough money to pay the taxes by the start of the new year and his ex, who still loves the drive-in agrees to help just because she has so many fond memories there. Boom, I just fixed your terrible script.
The Beekeeper (2024)
Maybe AI can do better
Ironically, for a movie that was written before AI, this feels like AI wrote it. Every character is the stereotype of the person they represent and few of them fit well together in the same movie. It is like an AI generated picture where there are too many fingers and the camp fire is in the tent, it just isn't right. It is a movie, it has action and it has modern references but it the parts don't fit.
Statham is great in his usual butt kicking style. But the 'thoughtful' starting with the bees feels out of place, like an attempt to lift the movie into something better.
Emmy Raver-Lampman overplays her role to the extreme at times. It is very distracting at times. Her character continues to quote bee hive behavior to her superiors and they rarely question it at all, let alone go 'what are you talking about bees for?' She is almost a caricature. It is like a character from a Tarantino movie got transported into this one.
Bobby Naderi gives one of better performances of the movie, actually seeming to be a real person.
I felt like someone on the production should have told Jeremy Irons "blink 3 times if you are being held against your will"
Josh Hutcherson was mostly just annoying and not in a well done bad guy way. Just in an annoying way.
Don't even get me started on the terminator hit attempt at the gas station. It was like a portal to the 80's opened up and the dumbest character ever came out.
They went for the modern hated villain, the scam call center. But they moved them to the US and filled them with slimy frat bros instead of having them be in India. So it was a little hard to accept with the 'they just say people gifted them the money' as a reason nobody could ever get them. The real life scammers want cash or gift cards because they can't be traced.
A Family Affair (2024)
I had high hopes but...
The mean boss that overworks their assistant is a common story in movies, but usually they play it so that you actually feel sympathy for the overworked assistant.
In this one she lives in a huge home on the ocean with her mom and while he did seem to threaten to fire her often, her boss was overall nice to her.
And in modern fashion, she had worked at the job for all of two years so, to her, she should be in charge of everything by then. Yet, even though she had worked around people doing those jobs for two years she seemed surprised at what they actually did.
She's an adult but acts like her mom is supposed to answer to her about the choices her mom makes.
It is hard to root for a spoiled 24 year old. I didn't make it to the end so I don't know if there was some lesson she learned about how to treat people but I doubt it.
Nicole Kidman's character at times seemed a bit goofy. I'm not sure if she was trying to play the part as younger but she seemed almost childish at times.
Shark Killer (2015)
More shark in the title than in the movie
This isn't a shark movie, it does have a shark in it, but not very much. So don't let the title or movie 'poster' fool you. It isn't a terrible movie once you accept that it is an organized crime sort of movie instead of a shark attack movie. But it also isn't great.
Derek Theler was great in Baby Daddy and Erica Cerra was really good in Eureka. Arnold Vosloo was amazing in The Mummy movies. It gave me some real hope for this one.
But Theler didn't ever completely gel as a wisecracking action hero (even though I thought he'd be great at that). And Vosloo's scenes went so far over the top that it often felt like the movie was spoofing itself.
There were enjoyable and fun parts to it, but I'm not sure if it came together as a whole.
The 88 minute run time should have felt quick but instead it felt a lot more like two hours.
Let's Make a Deal (2009)
It's a mixed bag
If you like the show then don't start paying attention to just how little they tend to give away in each episode. And definitely don't read about how Wayne Brady doesn't interact with the audience at all while they setup the next prize. He apparently disappears into the back each time. I've watched more episodes than I can count of Who's Line but he just doesn't seem to be genuinely happy to be there.
They also seem to kill a lot of time with skits. The only time they are entertaining is when something goes wrong and Johnathan improvises. When things go a bit sideways and they get goofy it is fun but the rest of the time I get the feeling that some of them would rather be elsewhere.
Otherwise the skits tend to be long and just seem to kill time so that they can give away fewer prizes. You end up with a 5 minute chunk where they do a play about what is behind the curtain and most times they basically tell you exactly what it is but then throw in "or it could be a zonk version of that"
I'd like to see more normal reactions out of the contestants. Every single one of them just repeats "that's okay, that's okay" with a huge smile when it turns out they made the wrong choice.
Hand picking just the people that will pretend to be the most excited takes the variety and fun out of it. "Yay! I traded in my $8,000 prize and ended up with wake boards. Yay!"
Name That Tune (2021)
The first season was the best
Their first season that was shot in Australia was the best, mostly because the band they put together was really good. Much of the band changed in the later seasons and never was as impressive.
Jane and Randy seemed to have more fun in the first season. Having random prizes early on was fun and the goofy way the band would sing the prize was entertaining.
Sometimes I wish the bid-a-note section didn't have such giveaway clues so that people were actually guessing it based off of the notes more. It frequently happens that the person that isn't good at guessing from the music is better at guessing from the clues so they win that section and we end up with the weakest contestant for the final round.
It would be nice if they made sure they had a wide variety of music each time too. Because it is easy for them to do more songs that are old or more that are new and whichever contestant is more familiar with that genre will always win.
Don't Forget the Lyrics! (2022)
It all depends on the contestant
The show can be a 3 or a 7, depending on the contestant. Some are very entertaining and others are just annoying.
My biggest issue though is that they don't seem consistent in the difficulty level of the words that are missing. Sometimes contestants get mostly missing words from the chorus or just parts of the song that are the first ones to pop into your head as soon as someone mentions the song.
Then other contestants will get song after song where the missing words are from a much more obscure part of the songs. Parts where most people, when they sing along, either mumble or hum.
There have been multiple times where early on it is obvious they are lobbing softballs at a contestant and that the contestant will get to 100,000 or 150,000 before they give them a difficult one. It is as if they decide 'this contestant is going to do well'.
That '90s Show (2023)
Starts off so funny and then....
The first moments of the first episode are so funny. It gave me so much hope for the series.
But then, they introduce the new characters. And they are annoying, one dimensional and acted at the level of a high school play. They aren't fun, they are just annoying.
I think it made it worse starting the episode with two of the original cast members back and interacting with the parents. That reminds us how good the original was, how well they worked together and how likeable the kids were.
There is a reason the original cast members went on to so many other shows and movies, they were talented. Why can't Hollywood find us some more unknowns that have acting skills?
Anyone But You (2023)
A bad Hallmark movie but with f-bombs
Usually romantic comedies have romance and comedy, after the first 5 minutes this one lacks both. Even the lower grade, made for TV ones tend to have a bit of charm and sometimes enjoyable people. This one didn't even have those. The thing about movies like this is you know where they are going to end up so it is all about the journey there and this journey is like being trapped on a plane next to loud, obnoxious people.
Most of the characters behave like spoiled five year-olds. I expected to see a full on tantrum at some point. They aren't likeable and they aren't funny.
The idea of a more edgy TV style romance movie is interesting but it has been done successfully before. This one lacks creativity and there is no depth to the characters. Most everyone just overacts the traits that their character is supposed to have.
The Haunting of Hill House: Two Storms (2018)
It's a love it or hate it episode
You will either love the 'artsy' single shot, stage play style of this episode or you will hate it.
I found it gimmicky and distracting. The swooping first person style camera view got old pretty fast. It took me out of the story.
It felt like the show suddenly transformed into a stage play. The dialog and acting changed to that style as well. The delivery felt odd, as if they were trying to make sure the people in the back of the theater could hear what they were saying and see their movements.
Most of the other episodes seemed to go by really fast, this one not so much. When the show tells the individual stories of the characters or shows them as kids it really pulls you in. When it groups them together as adults they are all so mean that it just gets repetitive and you start to lose some of the caring towards them.
How to Rob a Bank (2024)
Weird modern version of a true crime tale
The comparisons to Robin Hood were odd. He was a meth dealer that got a rush out of robbing banks. He didn't help out the random poor he just made himself look generous to his friends and family.
The show goes on at great length about how impressive of a person he was. Few if any 'documentaries' just tell the facts; it is just natural for the writer/filmmaker to tell a story and include more footage and information that fits their view of it. This one seems to be completely in love with Scurlock.
One of his accomplices actually laughs when he recalls the first robbery and how frightened an old man was when he took his car keys. That goes beyond zero remorse, to the point of fondly remembering terrorizing someone.
Hit Man (2023)
almost but not quite
First off, the whole 'based on a true story' thing were they make up so much of it is getting old.
It starts off interesting, if unbelievable, with him suddenly being thrust into posing as a hit man for the police, with zero undercover experience, to bust people trying to hire a hitman. However, as it nears a half hour into the movie and the realization hits that nothing else has happened.
Glen Powell is charming, but after awhile that just isn't enough to carry a 2 hour movie. The center section is like a spoof of a Hallmark movie, but just a bit too over the top. It is broken down into clear chunks that feel like different movies rather than a well flowing movie with different elements throughout.
I gave up around 45 minutes in, skipped forward and wasn't surprised at all by the plot or the ending.
Metal Lords (2022)
A likeable underdog movie without a likeable underdog
I gave up after about 30 minutes. Who was I supposed to be rooting for? I know metal is supposed to be angry, but he lashed out at people that treated him well.
I couldn't figure out if he was that way because his dad drank or if his dad drank because he was that way.
None of them were likeable and it is hard to feel for him as an underdog when he can buy multi-thousand dollar drum sets with his daddy's card and drives an expensive car.
You can get away with a lot of things once your audience gets invested in the characters but you need good characters for that.
It is difficult to write a driven, self centered character that is also likeable but if you can't do that then don't write a movie with one in it.
And, what school has a battle of the bands without any signs up about it? School events aren't usually secrets.
Resident Alien: Girls' Night (2022)
One of the weakest episodes
The sheriff and the deputy investigating Harry was really getting interesting. Both of their characters were getting a lot more depth. And then they just gave harry a new power to deal with it. A power that would have come in handy several times before. It was a real letdown; not only to have the story line end so soon but to have it just brushed off.
Darcy is usually fun and has more depth than you'd expect but took over being annoying in this episode. And enough about the mayor and his wife.
In a clearly modern theme Harry gets scolded by the kids for not warning them that the orb that Max stole from him would be bad for him. How about you stop stealing stuff?