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erikjluna
Reviews
Air Force One Down (2024)
Dreadful...
At a certain point, you'd think that technical advisors would just quit. Look, I really like the cast. Some have been in some of favorite shows and movies. But come ooooooon. You don't salute at parade rest. Put your rank on properly. Security around the real AF1 is so tight, you could stop a gnat from getting in board.
Making a movie should REQUIRE that you don't make absolutely glaring mistakes. The writing needed work. The story, while I know it's a movie, is absurdly unbelievable. Regardless of prior experience, a Secret Service agent must go through extensive training before being put on to ANY protective detail. Not to mention, be assigned to the White House. To go from sharing a beer, to being on AF1 without so much as an "A year later" cut, is moronic.
This could've been done better had attention been paid to details.
Obliterated (2023)
Out-freaking-standing.
From other reviews, I did not set my expectations high. But dangit, I loved this series. The over the top story line. The way that "The Hangover" ran head first into "Die Hard". The setting in Vegas was epic, as I recognized MANY of the locations from my visits there. The sub-plots worked themselves awkwardly at times, but resolved in a way that made the whole story flow perfectly. Great foreshadowing moments (like the flare gun). Then there's the wicked action sequences. Like John Woo on an acid trip is my best shot at a description.
If you have the time, get this in you queue and watch the heck out of it. It won't win any awards, but it'll certainly give you a few good laughs.
The Stratum (2023)
Looked like a high school project.
This reminds me of a movie that might make it on SYFY at 2am on a Tuesday because they couldnt get anything else to fit the budget. Acting seemed forced. Writing was basic at best. The only reason it has a rating if 5 (for now) is because one of the stars of the film rated it a 10. (We see you Johnathan Medina) That's like saying you have the most beautiful baby when it looks like a goblin.
Avoid this flick, unless you:
1. Have the time to utterly waste.
2. You need to put something in the the hospital room of a coma patient (and they'll probably wake up to change it)
3. Run a CIA black site that needs to torture someone and you can't waterboard them.
Happiness for Beginners (2023)
Torture by professionals
I made it a full 23 minutes in. And I couldn't. Just couldn't. Like the leads marriage, I failed at this relationship. Characters are cold and it feels like a project at the end of a week-long improv workshop. The GLARING continuity error of Luke Grimes going from 100% clean shaven to his Yellowstone look overnight gave me Forest Whitaker eye. The overall air, of what I was able to stomach, ran like the writers of "Community" though it would be a good idea to try a rom-com but had only known what one was like because they had been told about it by a friend who read the definition on Wikipedia.
The Lazarus Project (2022)
Quite honestly, this never should have come back to life.
A series that has SO much potential, yet has more holes than a Swiss cheese sponge hit with birdshot.
Let's address a few of the issues...
Recruitment. Regardless of their ability, a person recruited to a group such as this would have to sever most, if not all social and emotional connection. Think MiB. No name, no family, etc. Otherwise, you have the absolute cluster that happens in this series.
Branching out from that, interpersonal relationships up to and including pregnancy. You're telling me a super-secret organization wouldn't just say "You need to be sterilized, or have a chemical method of birth control. To avoid situations as they happen in the series.
You have a man learning to fire weapons, and being shown the complete WRONG way to fire a pistol. (He's teacupping. The last time I saw someone shoot like that was with a cap gun or William Shatner on T. J. Hooker.)
The premise is great, but the execution is sub par at best. This series, billed as "new" despite being a year old when it premiered on U. S. television, falls flat.