Reviews

I had never watched Dexter until I binged through this particular series. I gave the series an overall rating of 8 because it hooked me into going backwards in watching Dexter from the very beginning. All I can say is that the final episode of this limited run series is disappointing to say the least and deserves a 1/10. I echo what others have already stated - what's the point? Please ShowTime, do a reshoot of the episode and magically wipe out the hideous storyline and treatment Dexter received. A large number of us will be glad to pretend "it" never happened! Heck, it'll be awesome if the son never happened!

I get it. It's been 18 years and we're not sure if Trinity died and whether Neo's sacrifice saved humans from future wars. There had to be a storyline about getting back to that past in order to save the present, but this installment was lackluster, empty, boring, and could not improve upon the witty dialogue nor the action and fighting choreography of the past Matrix films. There was this incessant need to replay clips from the past - this made the cheese factor skyrocket to 10. The fighting scenes were pedestrian at best, the Architect 2.0 with Neil Patrick Harris is super annoying with elementary dialogue, Agent Smith not really Agent Smith, and where is the bad-ass plugged-in Matrix ensemble - this ensemble was weak? Trinity can fly? That was some quick non-existent programming she had undergone towards the end. This movie was better left on the shelf to preserve the integrity of the franchise, not present itself for some quick holiday bucks. It was frustrating to watch.

This movie is utterly trash, perhaps worse than many 80's B movies. I was certainly expecting a good story line, excellent fighting action, stellar CGI, great acting, and convincing characters. What I got was a tiresome love story, villains that aren't truly dark, Toby Maguire era Spider-Man CGI, bad jokes, pedestrian level fight scenes, and a story line revolving around wishes. Diana must save the world from... wishes. You can't make this crap up. If they were going to make a movie set in 1984, then at least have a good 80's soundtrack!

It's Disney cheese with an extra pound of stink sprinkled on top. Here's the low-down:

1. Donnie Yen was great as always. He's clearly THE martial artist and his acting was good too. Side by side, no one matches with him. His martial arts should not have been that stellar, when the heroine was supposed to be Mulan. 2. Mulan apparently was gifted with extraordinary fighting prowess without being taught anything as a child. A cliche that would have worked is if she was actually taught how to fight...by Donnie Yen maybe? Shoulder shrug to this blunder. 3. Was Jet Li in this movie? Great makeup work. 4. Mulan's village was a bad rip off from Kung Fu Hustle. Disney cheese was added to make the village clean and spotless. In fact, it was clean and spotless in every location of the movie, even extending to the wardrobe and objects. The dad's sword, which was used in prior battle, was spotless and unblemished. 5. Mulan's character could have been so much better developed. With good directing, she would have been much more endearing and charismatic. You don't randomly make her hair curled when she is fighting baddies. The actress did a good job for what it's worth - it's the directing that made her character plain silly and unbelievable. 6. I get it - Mulan is a woman in a male-dominated society. At the end, all the males bow down to her and all of Chinese civilization owes their gratitude. What I don't get is why this has to be in-your-face so obvious? 7. The CGI characters and fighting scenes stunk up the movie. It was also very stylized a la Hero, but the latter actually had stellar fighting choreography (Jet and Donnie obviously) and a coherent story line that was enriched by actual Chinese language, not English.

If you want to waste $30 for streaming, have right at it and entertain the little kids. Otherwise, fire up Hero or Crouching, Tiger Hidden Dragon to see what real female empowerment (Michelle Yeoh and Zhang Ziyi) can accomplish in good movie productions.

This particular episode, unlike all other episodes in this series, is the worst. Thank Lindsey Vonn for being an ultra-competitive, ungrateful, and petty idiot. Bear does what Bear normally does and displays his survival skills, while baby-sitting celebs through a 48-hr adventure outside their comfort zone. However, Vonn must have ate some crappy Granolas or simply was being herself, which was very annoying and irritating on full display. There was one segment where she vocalizes a series of acronyms representing urban language (i.e., LOL), trying to show off Bear -- sort of denigrating him in a way -- as to suggest he has no clue about urban language (of the American variety). Well, so F'n what? He did get back at her in the most hilarious way by telling her LTMA - less talk, more action. She was not even appreciative of the adventure and knowledge she gained from the overall experience at the end. Skip this episode and enjoy all of the others.

Let's cut to the chase: The kids will love this SW movie and propel it to making another $1B for the house of mouse. They've yet to develop any critical understanding for elements of a good and bad movie, so they are forgiven for now until they grow up. For the rest of us with some sense of appreciation about plots, writing, and character arcs, SW TRoS fails to deliver a palatable ending to a beloved saga. Why bring back Palpatine? Why is Rey a Palpatine? What's the purpose of Finn wanting to tell Rey that he's Force-Sensitive? Why did Palpatine have all the resources to build another fleet of ships that could easily overwhelm the Resistance? Leia's Jedi training reveal was rushed - she's a legit Jedi? C'mon (wo)man! By holding up two light sabers, Rey suddenly has enormous electric power over Palpatine -- especially being the least trained and accomplished Jedi? So many burning questions leave the entire narrative very unbelievable.

The only thing that made sense in this movie was Charles doing the RIGHT thing by giving young Jean a new life by believing in her (that she's not a train wreck) and allowing her to hone her (uncontrollable) powers. Fast forward, he's on an apology tour defending himself against Raven, Beast, and Jean for apparently being a liar - yes, a liar. Meanwhile, some aliens are trying to destroy humankind by recovering some glowing power that Jean accidentally (or by design?) absorbed. And yes, there's a fair amount of men-bashing by the female characters. I simply don't get this apologetic movie-making any more. If you want to place women in the lead, then place them in the lead. They need not revel in their own glorification of a man-hating heroine with powers beyond nuclear fusion at the wave of a hand. At the end, by doing the right thing (Xavier), he gets booted out of his own academy so that Jean can be immortalized in her own academy? But wait, Charles takes it in stride somewhere on a sidewalk cafe to have a chess match with the only person who actually likes him - Magneto. What a mess.

Shane, Lori, Abraham, Glenn, all in that order, signalled the slow, dying death of what was once a great show with a great cast that imbued endearing characters struggling through a post-apocalyptic world. Since Glenn's death, it has just been Negan over-talking, over-thrusting, and giving the illusion to a smart viewing audience that he's intelligent. He is downright annoying and needs to die (JDM's character, of course). All of his Saviors act like him, even down to the body language and the pauses during a line. It's pathetic. The other characters - Morgan, Tiger Dude, Jesus, and the rest of the Kingdom and Scavengers, are characters that deserve no attention and are simply background noise with the decibels too high at times. I tried watching through Episode 9 Season 8 and it was just unbearable knowing that Morgan still teeters between having balls and having no balls, Zeke is still just a plain phony with phony hair extensions, and Carol got weaker by holding Morgan back on killing Gavin. The script, like all of the scripts for Season 8, continued its recent history of being trash along with very poor acting, even from some of the main cast. Take for example the final exchange between Carl on his deathbed and Rick. I couldn't even shed a tear because it was long-winded with Carl professing and pontificating about the goodness in humanity while Rick uttered 2nd-grade level words to his son for the entire show -- nothing eloquent, nothing deep, nothing to make you pull out a Kleenex. Nothing. Kill Neegan already and move on. I can't wait for the Punisher, Daredevil, GOT, and Vikings to resume!

It was enjoyable watching this film on Blu-ray after painstakingly trudging through that dreadful Disney made-for-children-TV-show "SW: The Last Jedi" (1 star for me, but that's on a separate review). I was lifted by the humor, action, and outright silliness of this sequel. Never mind the haters because it served its purpose - to entertain. While Eggsy was Eggsy (Taron Egerton), shooting out F-bombs in rapid fire, I particularly found the Whiskey character played by Pedro Pascal to be genuinely comical -- he reminds me of a young Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit -- and perhaps that was the genius of the movie. I think they knocked it out of the ballpark with his lasso-wielding moves and homage to the western cowboy. There was a bit of disappointment with Channing Tatum (Tequila) having a brief acting role -- yet at the end he does appear in England dressed in a Kingsman suit. That likely alludes to him having a bigger role in a third installment. Also, sadly Merlin (Mark Strong) met his demise but did go out with a bang, excuse the pun. But these disappointments were offset by Whiskey and the reprisal of Galahad (senior) by Colin Firth, whose solid acting continues to carry the movie beyond what Eggsy could do alone. In all, it's goofy and fun with less potholes and plotholes than SWTLJ!

I was totally baffled during the movie and when I walked out of the theater, had become lost of thought and empty of any emotion - perhaps because I was in a state of shock. I won't regurgitate the many valid negative points that previous reviews have already discussed. They are all valid and should be up-voted every single instance. I just want to comment on how utterly disgraceful it was for the handling of four main characters:

1) The writing was careless for Luke's character and his fate. Even Mark Hamill himself disagreed with Rian Johnson about Luke's character and fate, which did not end well for long-time SW fans of the greatest Jedi! In this movie, what we get is an old grumpy Luke, not the spunky fighter Luke who took on baddies, blew up a Death Star, learned the force, and brought down the baddest Dark Jedi/Sith Lord of them all. Granted, he's not young anymore. He's been stuck on a desolate planet for years. He has every right to be grumpy because that's what happens with age. We get it. Instead, the Luke Skywalker in Johnson's adaptation of a beloved series is no more than a jaded, self-preserving, pessimist. C'mon! Does every old hero have to go down this road? It was perfect for Wolverine in Logan, but it is not in this movie! It would have been much better if we see Luke with every last bit of Jedi force, leading the last remnants of the Rebellion away from the grips of destruction, then breaking into Episode IX with some questions to be answered. Instead, we were left with yet another Jedi biting the dust knowing that we'll see him again in spirit. Wow, how great was that? We can all feel wonderful now that his spirit lives on. Give me a break! He could have taken on Kylo just fine given what was shown of his powers and fighting skills in a few scenes . And why oh why did he have to fall down when he had already shown Rey who was still the boss? Luke, you were shamefully disrespected by this director.

2) Rey's Jedi force and training were poorly developed. She came to Luke and went through some very superficial training. Luke didn't have her doing any physical training, there was no time spent on teaching fighting skills or how to control her light saber. There wasn't even a "control your anger" type of training that Luke went through in TESB. She simply had it all endowed coming in to Ach-to. If that's the case, then why the hell did she even need Luke? The writing failed miserably with her development as THE last Jedi. While Daisy Ridley did well with her part as an actress, it was the writing that failed her.

3) Snoke's fate...need I say more? The most powerful bad guy in the universe got killed! We didn't get to learn about his vast knowledge about the Jedi, their origin, and how he turned Kylo. All we know is that Kylo is still angry...dating back to SWTFA (and unfortunately Han Solo was on the receiving end of that anger). Did I mention that Kylo is still angry? Angry at his dad, at his uncle, at his mother - three pillars of the SW saga. That's still all we know.

4) Leia. OMG, Johnson gave her floating powers. This is no disrespect to Carrie Fisher. She did a fantastic job as usual. But Leia now has powers unbeknownst to us.