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Reviews
The Marvel Super Heroes (1966)
Great theme tunes for these "cutout" characters
First viewed as a pre-teen in late 1960's Australia, the memory is still vivid primarily due to the very catchy theme songs for all 5 characters (Cpt. America, Hulk, Iron Man, Sub-Mariner &Thor) - penned by Jacques Urbont.
...""When Captain America throws his mighty shield...""
...""Dr Banner doesn't like gamma-rays..."" etc etc
On re-viewing some 50+ years later, you are mainly struck by how cheaply the animations were put together mainly through static shots copied from the original comic. The lips are then animated during dialogue. Some pan and scanning occurs, and some zooming also. Dynamic animations due occur, but they are infrequent and basic.
If I did notice the primitive animation quality as a child (which I think I did) it obviously carried little weight in my eyes as I was entranced by the story telling and catchy music.
Do not watch if the primitive animation will distress you. I found it fascinating, & an important early chapter in the marvel super hero universe, showing how you can achieve quite a lot with very little.
Fans 7/10
Normal people 3/10 tehehe.
Aweful Movies with Deadly Earnest (1967)
Part of my primary school after-hours education
"Deadly Earnest" was Australia's successful 1960's answer to the USA's mid-50's "Vampira" - the original TV Horror Host.
"Deadly" was popular growing up in Melbourne, both with my friends and myself - my big sister was not so impressed. We would watch him introduce movies on Friday nights on Reg Ansett's ATV-0 Channel Melbourne. (Later to become part of the National 10 network.)
He would often take his google-eyes out of his head to "polish them".... this impressed me greatly and helped to set the scene for the movie to follow.
The phrase "Polish up my eyeballs" is forever embedded in my memory.
Drunk History: Australia (2018)
Well produced, but poor story & host selections at times
First the good... Good reenactments within an obviously limited budget, and the decision in this production to keep the interviewer behind the camera worked well.
Story selection was good when choosing stories with details not widely known. At least half the episodes revolve around crimes, murders & murderers who are then presented as a badge of honor - not sure if we should be 'toasting" them? Casting the story net even wider in future episodes would be great. Science, technology, engineering, literature, race relations, international relations, flora/fauna (I'm not counting "Emu Wars") etc, etc, etc. - give crime & sport a rest in series 2 please.
Choosing hosts who have become "celebrities" in the past for poor behavior when drunk just looks like they were hoping for guaranteed drunk footage from a professional, when the punters prefer seeing how amateur hosts behave in this situation.
Worth watching, and will hopefully mature well with any second series.
Planet of the Humans (2019)
Overpopulation the central issue - but the message gets swamped
A personal journey doco following the path of a long-time conservationist who has to confront his own biases and preconceptions. Almost all who watch will be confronted with the facts presented here. The argument put forward is that many of us are debating the smaller issues of climate change, renewables, bio-fuels, deforestation etc. which are merely symptoms of the much larger issue of human overpopulation which continues at the expense of every other species of the planet.
What muddies the water a little on such a massive issue is the personal attacks of those who the makers feel have been deliberately (in their opinion) misleading and/or profiting from current policies. This has the effect of distracting the viewer from the "big picture" issue and confuse us as to what the goal of the documentary actually is.
The exponential growth in population (its almost tripled in my lifetime) is the ultimate issue for discussion that should have been made clearer - even if the immediate answers to this are not. (Society tells us that to be happy and successful we must have children. This push is strong and comes from history, religion, self-doubt, social conformity, modern medicine, TV & chat shows, social media, and modern capitalism that requires growth at any cost.)
9/10