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Reviews
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
A promising series that ultimately failed miserably
The series started out with a great first year, then a second that turned up the Sci-fi ten notches. By the third year it had the opportunity to become a breath of fresh air into the franchise and start a new Canon in the far distant future where no boundaries could hold mankind back.
Unfortunately a staff of writers that couldn't write and a lead captain that couldn't lead or act doomed this Entreprise and it's crew to an early cancelation and it was time.
So sad that this may end the voyages of Star Trek and is fans. Burnham has replaced Kirk's the butt of endless jokes about acting chops not being up to the role. Where Jean-Luc could command a screen, her portrayal of a young human trying to put Vulcan a Vulcan was dry and hollow. Her two emotions gave little nuance to the role of a brash young Star fleet officer swash buckling into danger around every turn and inspiring those under her command to feats of heroic splendor trekkers at home could cheer like they did with nearly all the other crews of the famous starship Enterprise.
I'll miss this show. And I'll be praying that another captain gets the chance to go where no one else has gone......but after this mess of culture messaging over story I don't be holding my breath. Thanks for nothing Hollywood.
Reacher (2022)
9* on the series 3 on the network
I'm paying streaming prices for the content that may as well be broadcasting on the CW network.
Amazon's recent inclusion of commercial after commercials into their content is a spit in the face to every Prime member that's seen membership fees skyrocket. Bezo decided he wanted to become a player in Hollywood so he threw a billon away on trash writing from a bunch of idealogs who proceeded to churn out the 2nd most hated films and series of the 2020's so far with the exception of Disney.
And to recoup his enormous losses he just passes the cost of this failure to read the waters of public opinion to the very fans of the source material that made the original movies so profitable.
Way to go Jeff. I hope Amazon bleeds money until you lose everything and the new wife takes half of what little is left in the next divorce.
Maybe you'll enjoy the Camry to get you back and forth to the shareholders meeting when they replace you.
Yesterday (2019)
Wonderful comedy drama for couples on rainy weekends
I loved this film. It had everything you need for a couples watching on nights they want to snuggle up and remember why they feel in love to begin with
The concept was out of this world. It's both a love story and a cautionary tale about fame and wealth. The pairing of the two leads was not your traditional coupling but by the end you'll be rooting for them to find their easy back to each other.
It's got a good supporting cast and well, the soundtrack is OK too.
Don't be looking for action or expensive sets or locales guys. This is an indie project with more spent on the music budget than the cast or production.
Blue Beetle (2023)
Understand the reasoning for this movie now?
I totally get why this movie at this time for the brand. Testing the capability of the Latino market to carry a movie to profitability was smart. Problem is casting. Feels like Eternals. Poor writers that don't understand or really love the source material.
It worth a watch since it's free on MAX but it's not really good. Like an afternoon special with decent special effects. The Latino market made the character a draw in comic book format but got a lot to do make back a couple hindered million budget. A much better story would have been needed to introduce a new character aimed at kids basically and throwing in a few cuss words isn't enough to make this a must see for it.
The Continental: Brothers in Arms (2023)
Fast paced action with a story worth staying for.
The first episode takes a few minutes to get going but that's part of the trouble with this TikTok generation were living in. If we aren't grabbed by the hair on thirty seconds we tend to move on.
This show feels like the movies in terms of the action. Up close and violent. Bloody is a good word. But the characters start to matter about half way in too. By the end of the first episode I was hooked. No spoilers but you'll definitely want to set your timers for episode two if you made it this far.
Lucky for me all three are on peacock now so I'm microwaving some popcorn for a long night binge watching the next four hours of this one.
Salvation (2017)
Across the board bad acting even worse after seeing it for the second time.
Watched this about for years ago and kept up thru the entire two seasons. Mostly to laugh at the writing and acting, but I love Walter from fringe so I looked over the first season after he guest starred. By season two I just wanted to see how they tried to wrap it up.
Grace is the worst of the bunch No real power just magically inserts herself into a scene and things work out for a minute until the rest of the govt screws it's up again. Charlie Crowe is a close second but even he can't compete with Finnigen.
It's a cookie cutter apocalypse series with nothing new to say it fit the actors to do. Supporting cast is really weak other than. Ian Anthony and John Noble.
Watch if it really like sci-fi coupled with apocalypse themes. Just really mediocre all around. 🙁
I Hate Suzie (2020)
Sad state of writing on another promised payout at the end
I love Billie Piper. Penny dreadful. Doctor Who. She was likable and progressed in successive roles as a fine actress but the writing on this show was too much for any actor to overcome.
And since when do I as the audience owe the writer the time out of my schedule to let the show develop? The writers strike is another example of Hollywood turning into a social commentary at every turn instead of an entertainment medium.
I like to be informed by documentaries and the rare series with something new to say but after a decade of this constant drivel by the younger writers who seem incapable of original material I've had it.
Capture my attention with a new idea instead of just shock for shock sake or I'm out in one or two episodes. Period.
The English (2022)
It's ok western
I love a western and I'll forgive most things during a western just to support getting them made in today's Hollywood.
So here comes Emily Blount and a host of Western European actors with the deepest accents so is stupid Americans can be sure who they are telling the story of American expansion.
I live in a eastern NC country were the three original races still live together and are trying to come to grips with the racism of the past and it's effects so I'm familiar with the narrative of white imperialism. So to have an English actress star in a preachy western about indigenous people's oppression and racism is the top of hypocrisy.
Ms. Blount is from the most imperialistic nation in the west that set up colonial rule on every continent and still does today. She's made millions in California of the industry that most narcissistic while preaching to everyone else. Wonder if she or any of the cast give anything to the indigenous Americans portrayed in the series? But she's so rich she and her husband have homes all over the world they are constantly jetting to whole preaching about climate change. It's so laughable I could hardly watch the series without picturing her being fanned by a native American staffer being paid minimum scale during shooting.
The series so far is ok but between the actors and the writers that got paid crazy money by Amazon because Amazon is definitely one of the biggest producers of this new entertainment with a cudgel writing, it's getting difficult to endure so I find my time watching tv lately spent mainly watching old comedy and sci-fi.
Rest in peace Hollywood.
The Wheel of Time (2021)
Second season is not building my expectation
Season one's downfall was spacing. I'm two episodes in on season two and I'm not feeling good about the director and editors having listened to the reviews much. You can expect to keep spitting out the same old dialogue and exciting the viewers. Amazon learned nothing from the last two years of over priced flops. A shame really as the books are excellent opportunities to introduce powerful female leads which is what they are intent on putting out and even then the writers and directors can't even take content already hashed out by an author and produce a compelling fast paced series. This isn't even good network TV.
The Ruling Class: The Miseducation of Betsy Devos (2023)
Love the absolute lack of self awareness of this hit piece
The first episode in this series was a good barometer of what you can expect in the rest.
An interesting look at how the left looks at any opposition to the current direction and ideology of American and global systems of power.
Betsy Devos was there Sec of Ed under Trump Admin and the teachers unions and the DC power brokers who are nearly all left leaning in education were not having it. Now skepticism is a good thing but just like the total media and deep state systems quickly aligned themselves against everything trump and trump supporters in 2016, they did the same to am his appointments. Even though they were even more guilty of the use of appointments to high level cabinet and department level posts as payoff for support. Financial and public exposure.
You see the hypocrisy in the voices selected to speak out against Devos in this episode. Anyone can disagree with the agenda of Trump and in this case Devonshire to portray her tenure as some religious takeover of the education system. School choice, vouchers so the poor and middle class can select education options that more closely align with their values socially and on the basis of the quality of public systems in America is not new and not based solely on religious beliefs. And this is known by the creator of this episode and the whole series.
So watch this program knowing the whole thing is slanted. To those who hold power need to be watched carefully and critiqued with a heavy hand? Of course they do but there are powerful forces in the left and right trying to control these systems. Look at the results of education that's been monopolized by the left and the near Marxist teachers union leadership for forty years. How's that been going. Where have your school system test scores been headed lately?
From (2022)
Good so far. Season one was a good start but flaws abound
THIS REVIEW IS FOR SEASON ONE
The obvious comparisons to Lost are true in what we've seen so far but this is a different opening season.
First major flaw. It's slow and plodding. The use of Flashbacks is tired but probably the only way to go to give the context to characters needed to move the story along. But for goodness sake, if you are going to use them, at least give us an emotional connection to these people. That's where Lost was exceptional and fresh. The back story on many of the characters was compelling and made you care about them right up to the point the writers killed them off. GOT used this emotional connection with its characters even better so the template is already there if the FROM writers would just invest the time that's wasted throughout the episodes to do it.
Second flaw is the abuse of and overuse of adult language throughout. Every episode and every scene is a barrage of the F bomb and careless use of offensive religious themed cursing. I'm not a prude but it makes it difficult to watch the show with family members or more importantly with a group. Think of it as GOT on steroids. It only shows a lack of creativity and wordsmanship by the writers. No imagination, just have the character drop a few FUs and insult a third of the planet's deity. It limits the audience, insults the viewers intellect and frankly gets annoying pretty quick.
Third flaw is the acting for some major characters.
Ellis the sheriff's son gets few chances to emot any real feeling to show us he is in the place he's in. I think he's supposed to be brooding maybe but I think in the end we'll discover he's a Vulcan.
Then there is Jade the software tech millionaire that is so anti-social and crude he would have been left outside to the monsters the second night and he turns out to be a central character of the season. What the heck? Terrible acting and crappy writing have created one of the least likable characters of the decade.
Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of other people guilty of bad acting in this thing as well as writers who will be replaced hopefully for the second season but the show has a chance. I think the story outline was most likely promising and given the comparisons to Lost your hope they've got an ending wrap up to the storyline that's compelling. But the show needs a better writing staff to tighten up the scenes and dialog.
Tian jiang xiong shi (2015)
Sadly one of the worst action movies ever made.
Bad script and horrible acting are a waste of some amazing sets, costumes and cinematography. You could have made 3 or 4 great Chinese action movies for the budget of this stinker. John Cuzak should never be cast in another action movie ever! It is a shame Adrien Brody will be tied to this catastrophe forever. And the director of this should be relegated to 30 minute Power Ranger episodes in the future at most.
Really stunning fight sequences with backdrops most directors would kill to be able to have in a movie are wasted just like the two hours of my life spent on Dragon Blade. Save yourself a heartbreaking experience if you love Jackie Chan.
Doctor Who: The Woman Who Fell to Earth (2018)
Proof bad writing can't be overcome
Change begs to happen. 11 seasons of the new Dr and finally a woman transformation. But the writing team the BBC put to the task was obviously looking to force it rather than having a concept or idea that needed the Doctor as a woman to tell. If you love the doctor skip this season. After a promising first episode this season is a poorly crafted advertisement for social change. Change the doctor could be a prefect show for if done by good writers. But this storytelling is amateurish and clunky from every angle. And I've watched the old series.
I can't tell if the cast are worth saving because the writing and directing is so horrible.
Just like all the remakes with gender or racial swaps you see in franchise after franchise lately. If the story is worth telling why not create a new character? A new storyline? Where is talent of these writers and directors that demand we look at the world thru these gender and racial lenses?
Seems like studios are held hostage to the same fringe elites that demand the masses embrace their world view on many issues and they aren't afraid to flex their control now that they've succeeded in taking over the few media conglomerates left running things in this globalization craze. Same stories no matter where you look. Accident or coincidence? Nah.
These stories and narratives are top down, coordinated social change driven propaganda. Sadly they are not just driving division and mistrust but now there's skepticism at every message coming from media. From the news we hear to the shows and stories we loved.
These 50s style propaganda pieces are going to be studied by film students as a lesson in how NOT to create enduring art.
Monarch (2022)
Nope. Too much rebooting.
The temptation to rebrand everything successful is Hollywood's stock and trade. Something works. You make a copy. And a copy of the copy. That's monarch. And it's just diluted Yellowstone/Empire.
I like a few of the "stars" of Monarch. But never Sarandon. Nope. And in a country music drama series? That just goes against all the laws of nature and morality. I couldn't help but think of the old SNL skit with John Love as the obnoxious sleazy actor in the smoking jacket. I half expected her to end every scene by taking a bow and declaring she was only "Accttiinng"!
If we keep tuning into this unimaginative writing and acting we are just encouraging the ultra wealthy Hollywood regulars who crank out this mess to take for granted the gift artists are afforded. You inspire or challenge or even shock us with something new or just creative and we make you wealthy and famous beyond your contribution to anything really. All we ask is that you don't take a crap on us while you look down your nose at our ordinary lives.
The Umbrella Academy (2019)
Poor writing disguised as social commentary
The first year was good writing and half the cast did some decent acting. Second season the story was starting to collapse and could have been over in three episodes. The time agents are the only thing that made it watchable. Season three can't even make it three episodes and it's already devolved into a mess of over the top lgbtq-lmnop over compensating to hide the writers lack of imagination. Unless they've got a gem of an act four,this thing is doomed to the same disastrous fate as The Doom Squad.
The Boys (2019)
Not so good
Same woke drivel disguised as superhero series. I'll never get the time back. Not sure why I need to write 150 words. That's more thought than the writers put into it.
Star Trek: Picard (2020)
Season 2 5 episodes in and please help me
It's not enough to write good sci-fi it had to be an ego trip for LA angst. Hey. Little advice. You are the tax base for LA. You live in the hills. Take your privilege and fix the tent cities. Find a way to keep the millions of illegals from devastating the urban streets where regular people live. Billions are in the bank accounts of all you progressive preachers. Show the rest of us by example instead of expensive green screen effects.
Go all in. Then I'll be able to watch this crap without barfing on my single wide trailer floor.
Until then take Captain Kirk's advice and just go. Where no man has gone before.
Free Guy (2021)
Big failure to launch
What a shame. Every time you try and write a social justice commentary into a "blockbuster summer movie" as the first objective you can believe it's gonna be a disaster movie instead.
Despite some of the best cgi ecru thrown at a movie, and trust me this one got it in spades, it's just an unsatisfying mess.
Don't waste 12 bucks at the theater on a ticket to this one.
SPOILER
Barely worth the Redbox rental fee three months from now to see the only fairly funny part of the whole movie. Reynolds as a beefcake body builder bad guy.
Irresistible (2020)
John Stewart: Shoulda known
Typical Comedy Central slant. Condescending while being snarky about condescending people. Heavy handed DNC John Stewart bs. I didn't learn anything about them. They clearly didn't learn to say anything to me. Democratic morale booster of a movie.
Van Helsing (2016)
2 seasons and all I can think is why.
First. The worst acting and directing ever and that's saying something for a SyFy series. I mean everything for two seasons is terrible. Writing, directing, acting, sets. I bet the food truck sucked.
Second. They canceled Dark Matter and kept this pos? How in a sane world does that happen? Makes you think the higher ups have a bet as to how many kicks to the sack will a SyFy viewer take before they walk away.
I'm walking away. Sore and walking funny but I'm done with SyFy.
Prime Rewind: Inside the Boys (2020)
Shut up already with the the T word
Could not get 5 minutes into this disaster of a rewind show before the writer guy starters interjecting himself into politics. STFU and let me enjoy meeting the cast. I don't give a happy damn how you feel about the POTUS. Ruin everything with this constant social justice/Trump hate. Shut up!! My last episode of this crap and if season 2 of The Boys starts with the same I'm canceling my Prime.
Apostle (2018)
Why the big buildup?
I thought it was ok. Something to watch when nothing to do but no Casablanca.
Designated Survivor: Equilibrium (2017)
Another propaganda episode for SJW
Another episode to prop up the narrative that all the illegal immigrants pouring out of Mexico's squalor are so innocent in this political game that's been orchestrated by Democrats for votes. Shame on DS for furthering this so called hot button topic. It's not good writing or helpful unless the goal is to muddy the water on the real issue. Illegal immigration in modern society. We are not the EU and we continue to be a Sovereign Nation.
The Circle (2017)
Better the second time.
After first watch I thought this is a very forgettable film but I just rewatched it and I'm left with a higher opinion. This is a film that sometimes offers an oversimplified portrayal of Corp like Google and Facebook but it also beware is over the head with the warming that these companies with huge market saturation. That gives companies and the very small percentage of people that control them the ability to influence national and even world perceptions of reality. They monitor every online account and sell your info to every individual and company that has a buck. Do you think they are any more likely to be interested in your well being than a politician or oil company? They exist to make money not to server us. No matter how idealistic they seem in the end we have watched the Bill Gates and Mark Zuccerburg' s of the world turn into CEO of the market share and stock price. Companies are not our friends and if we turn our lives over to them instead of demand their services under our terms well keep getting the Chester of our lives for their profits. So stop blindly clicking that service agreement that gives every app permission to invade your life in exchange for a crappy piece of software you'll only use once or twice before you are bored and move on to the next one giving info sweet for free again. These online lives are beginning to be too costly.
The First (2018)
Should have been a 10
Astonishingly, agonizingly slow paced, beautifully shot, incredibly researched I'm sure astronaut show. I want to love this showi promise. I need a great sci-fi type show. But this isn't even that. I've told myself it takes a few episodes to build a backstory to make you care about all these characters. But damn. They're all flawed and that's all I've got after 8 episodes. Come on. Sean Penn wants to be this remembered, revered actor but he's the most one dimensional character of all. I'll watch it all but I'm not excited. I'm just committed to the genre so much I'll try to get the audience up hoping others will too so the next big idea can get the cash to shoot. It's a waste of great time on a big platform and sci-fi is hanging by a thread. You have to entertain us first.