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Reviews
The Crossing: LKA (2018)
Lazily telling a story that the showrunners will never have time to finish
This episode delves further into the events that resulted in Jude fleeing Oakland. His back story may have been of interest later in the show, had it survived (it's already canceled) but right now we want to know about the people who've crossed over, not Jude. Yes, it's good to know that he is a good-hearted guy who's willing to tilt at windmills, but we already knew that. We didn't need to know that his wife is one of the most unsympathetic characters we've seen on TV recently who isn't actively evil. The episode also reveals that the arrangement Jude made with his ex-wife makes no sense whatsoever. If the family was supposed to move for its own protection ... why wouldn't it have moved already? But enough of that. What matters more is that Lindauer knows what Sophie Forbin did to save Leah, and he's willing to take steps that, without ill intent, put Sophie's life in danger. We also know that Sophie wants more blood (or marrow) from Reece to save herself. This makes Sophie a prime candidate for the person who makes Apex come true. This would create a time loop, but time loops are what the future folks came back to create - just not in this direction. There are some good bits in the episode, but, unfortunately, the showrunners have chosen to lazily building a story that they will not remotely have time to finish.
American Hustle (2013)
Hated it!
I cannot guess what people see in this film. The four main actors come off like kids playing dress-up. Only Louis C.K., DeNiro, and other members of the supporting cast come out of this looking like pros at work. This might have been acceptable had the film been a comedy, but at a pace of one laugh per 20-30 minutes, it's not. Instead, it's a long, slow, unpleasant grind that mostly goes nowhere. Yes, there moments of genuine intensity, and yes, the final 15 minutes or so go quite well, but for nearly two hours of running time the only thing keeping me in the theater was the fact that my wife didn't want to leave. This film is way, way overrated; wait for the DVD so you won't feel too cheated when you give up in disgust.
Disengagement (2007)
Slow, disconnected, disorienting, and only occasionally touching
Although nominally about Israel's 2005 evacuation of settlements in Gaza, the bulk of the 2007 film "Disengagement" takes place in France. Uli (Liron Levo), an Israeli policeman, travels to Avignon for his wealthy adoptive father's funeral. There, he reunites with his flighty sister Ana (Juilette Binoche). In his will, Uli and Ana's father leaves most of his property to Dana (Dana Ivgy), the daughter Ana gave birth to when in her early teens. Dana currently lives on an Israeli settlement in Gaza. Per her father's instructions, Ana must travel there to meet the adult daughter she has not seen since infancy.
"Disengagement" is very short on dialog and exposition. Many questions -- like, "Who is this person?" "Why is she singing opera?" and "Why is she acting like that?" -- arise, but few are answered. Scenes and shots, on the other hand, tend to be very long and very static. This style of filmmaking does allow emotions and meanings to emerge nonverbally from characters and settings, but few scenes in "Disengagement" really benefit from this treatment.
Aside from a brief encounter between Uli and a Palestinian woman he meets while traveling to France, all of the film's strongest scenes come during its final 15-20 minutes, as Israeli police prepare to remove settlers from Gaza and then begin doing so. The initial encounter between Ana and her long-lost daughter Dana is touching as well, but, as with everything else in this film, drags on far too long.
"Disengagement" would probably make a good short story or novella, but as a film it is a failure. Don't waste your time.
Missing: Pilot (2012)
Not very promising, but possibly worth a second look
The most memorable thing about the premiere episode of "Missing" is Ashley Judd's terribly forced acting as former CIA agent Becca Winstone. She coos over her son Michael, cries over her lost husband Paul, gasps to see Michael abducted, rages at the CIA agent who stands in her way -- all without seeming even the teeniest bit authentic or honest.
This is not entirely her fault: the dialog is clunky and clichéd, the plot is clunky and clichéd, and the other actors, working off of a crappy script, play clunky and clichéd characters.
Fans of the very-similarly-themed Liam Neeson movie "Taken" will be disappointed; Judd exudes little of Neeson's barely-contained violence, his stone-cold competence, his I-will-damn-my-soul-if-I-have-to ruthlessness, or his quick and clear-eyed improvisational skills. She isn't a CIA agent who happens to be a forty-something mom, she's a forty-something mom playing at being a CIA agent.
A number of reviewers have compared the visual style of "Missing" to the Bourne movies. Nonsense. The action sequences in "Missing" have no more dynamism or artistry than those in the typical TV cop show.
Tip: In case you haven't watched it, USA's "Covert Affairs" is no more realistic than this show, but the acting and dialog are better and it's a lot more fun.
Unforgettable: Friended (2011)
What's up with the accent?
This was a very forgettable episode.
The main thing that stood out for me was Carrie's/Poppy's accent, which kept slipping back and forth between more or less generic American and a southern drawl. I know Poppy's Australian, but her accent has been pretty consistent and unnoticeable up to this point. Did the writers suddenly decide Carrie was born in the South?
The case of the week concerned a snarky fashion/gossip blogger of the Perez Hilton variety. When the blogger vanishes, her arch-rival and her boyfriend are the most likely suspects. The missing blogger, however, turns out to be something other than she seemed. Has she been targeted because of her nasty gossip, or has something/someone from her past perhaps caught up with her?
The plot summary sounds OK, but the execution was not so hot. The story was unnecessarily convoluted, and the suspects and their friends were neither appealing nor compelling. Ho-hum.
One note: The writers draw attention to the past relationship between Carrie and Al in every episode, and they make clear that Carrie has some unresolved issues with Al and the reverse might also be true. I suspect that they're building up to a romantic encounter between the two of them before the end of the season. (It will, of course, go badly.)
True Blood: Spellbound (2011)
Shocking, eventful, and much better than the preceding episodes
The season's story arc is nearing its peak. The battle between the vampires and the witches has been joined. We now know who's haunting Arlene and Rene's baby and why. Hoyt's relationship with Jessica goes past the point of no return. We learn the identity of Luna's bad-tempered ex-husband, and it's an surprisingly unsurprising surprise. There's even some humor, most of it courtesy of a hapless vampire and the ever-incompetent Bon Temps police. In all, it's a much more satisfying and engaging episode than #4.7.
----- Spoilers Begin Here -----
The highlight of the episode is Hoyt/Jessica breakup, for which the show gives us two different versions. In Jessica's dream, Hoyt tells her he'd rather die than lose her, so she obligingly kills him; in the "real" version, Hoyt angrily denounces Jessica and bans her from his house. Both scenes are shocking because we never expected such extreme behavior from either of them. Shocking is good -- it's something that has been missing from most episodes this season.
When Jessica turns to Jason for support and Jason throws her out, we can see how devastated she is ... and we know that we can expect her to do something desperately bad in the next episode or two. The show has toyed with poor Jessica almost as much as it has with poor, poor Tara. I've generally been more annoyed than entertained by Jessica, but she's been one of the most interesting characters this season, giving us a clear, raw view into the conflicted vampire heart.
The next highlight ... maybe ... is the V dream that Sookie and Eric enter after exchanging blood. It's not as good as the visions Jason had with Amy back in season 1, but it's a welcome change of pace from the usual soft core stuff that still won't disappoint anyone looking to see Sookie's bare chest or Eric's bare butt.
Nondumiso Tembe does an excellent job playing Mavis, the disturbed woman whose ghost has been haunting Arlene and Rene's baby. Mavis does us a favor by demonstrating something that Lafayette suspected and the rest of us may not have realized -- the poor man can be possessed by any stray spirit that happens along. Nelsan Ellis doesn't play Mavis nearly as well as Tembe, but he makes a valiant effort.
It was inevitable that one side or the other would break the agreement that Antonia made with Bill to meet in the Bon Temps cemetery, but I admit I was surprised that both did. That's fine, but the ensuing chaos was ... pretty much just chaos. Inconclusive battles are part of any war, but this one could have been staged better, I think.
It's clearer now why we've been following the saga of Alcide and Debbie. The Marcus-Luna-Sam triangle is not necessarily a bad move, but having Alcide so attached to Sookie that he runs off to Bon Temps just in case she needs him ... it's not entirely plausible and, more importantly, it's just another complication that we really don't need.
So, while this episode gives this season a well-needed shot in the arm, it's still way messier than I would like.
P.S. The IMDb credits for this episode don't say this for some reason, but Dan Buran plays Marcus Bozeman and Paola Turbay (yes, the same actor who plays Marissa on "Royal Pains") is Antonia. No offense to Fiona Shaw, who does an excellent job with Marnie/Antonia, but couldn't the producers use the usual device and have Turbay play Antonia once it's established that she's really in Marnie's body?
True Blood: Cold Grey Light of Dawn (2011)
Humorless, mean, and soapy -- "The Days of Our Undeaths"
True Blood is not the first show to take a Great Leap Forward in order to inject some new energy (think Battlestar Galactica at the start of season 3). It's a big risk, and it may eventually pay off, but so far Season 4 has been a terrible disappointment -- not because of the changes, but because of what the writers and producers have done with them.
There are far too many subplots, most of which are not engaging. Watching the show this season is like channel flipping, but without the satisfying power of choosing when to push the button. The subplots aren't inherently boring -- though we could easily do without the Hoyt/Jessica thing, the Alcide/Debbie thing, the Sam & his brother thing, and the Andy acting like a bigger jerk than ever thing -- it's just that there are so many, they have so little humor in them, and they're so mean-spirited. Seriously, it would be kinder to kill Tara every episode (like Kenny in South Park) than continue torturing the poor woman like they have.
As for this particular episode, there's not much to say. It's just as busy and unengaging as the rest of the season has been. Yes, there are some important developments between Sam and his brother and, more importantly, between the Spanish necromancer and the local vampires, but frankly, with everything else going on in the show, it's pretty hard to get excited about anything.
The Final Storm (2010)
The apocalypse has never been so boring
This movie was good enough that I watched it from beginning to end, and bad enough that I watched at least half of it at double-speed. The acting, dialog, and production values were about what you'd expect from a CW TV series. The plot, of which there's not a lot, is driven by two main questions: Is this the End of the World? Is the polite, bible-quoting, tattooed stranger a good guy or a bad guy? Both questions are answered in the last five minutes or so of the film, but the answer to one makes the answer to the other completely irrelevant. This leaves the viewer with a third question: Huh?
Here are the spoilers:
First, Silas (the mysterious stranger) turns out to be a homicidal maniac. Second, the world ends. Poof!
Given the end of the world, the true nature of the Silas subplot is revealed: it's 50 minutes of filler. The Silas subplot casts no light on why the world is ending or on how people can or should reconcile themselves to the end or to death. In other words, this movie is a complete waste of time.
Question: I am guessing that everybody except Silas, the family, and the thugs in town disappeared because they were vacuumed up to heaven in the Rapture. (Not many Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, or atheists in town, I gather.) Was there something evil about the Grady family that kept them from being swept up by the Holy Broom of Salvation?
Defying Gravity (2009)
Grey's in Space
What an awful show! Grey's Anatomy is a soap opera set in a hospital, aimed at people who know and care very little about hospitals, clinicians, or illness. Defying Gravity is a soap opera set in a space ship aimed at people who know and care very little about space, astronauts or science. It is also scripted, acted, shot and laced with musical interludes in the distinctive style of Grey's Anatomy. As one professional reviewer said, the show is mainly about "girl talk", and virtually everything else in the show screams "Don't take this crap seriously! We really don't mean it! It's all about the boy-girl stuff!"
Somebody asked "Why isn't this on Syfy?" It is, sort of: it's called Stargate Universe, which is coming in the fall. Except that, like any other show on Syfy, the boy-girl (and almost never boy-boy or girl-girl) stuff is an undercurrent, not the main attraction. The main attractions are action, cool gadgets, and, occasionally, a little intellectual challenge.
Other folks talked about the relationship between Defying Gravity and Virtuality. The two shows have a lot in common, including the fact that both are bad, but Defying Gravity has the unintended effect of making Virtuality look smarter, more serious, and a lot more socially and politically relevant than it seemed at first glance.