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yamagata-45166
Movie enthusiast and fan of Roger Ebert and Jeremy Jahns movie reviews.
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Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)
This was so good.
I am a fan of the original animated series. I am not a fan of the M Night Shaymalan movie. What makes this live action series great for me is the casting. The main cast character I fell in love with is Uncle Iroh played by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee. I thought that Mako defined this role, but I was wrong. Paul's Uncle Iroh is so endearing, supportive and cares and that caring goes beyond Zuko, he cares about the world. I feel Paul was born to play this role. I also thought that Daniel Dae Kim does an excellent job playing Firelord Ozai. He plays Ozai as a coniving, manipulative, power hungry character, that is a terrible father. I love the complexity of this evil character. The other standout character and actor is Amber Midthunder as Princess Yue. She played this character so close to the animated series, it was uncanny. I also loved the choices for Aang, Katara, and Sokka. They were right on the mark for playing these characters versus the movie. Gordon Cormier, Kiawentiio and Ian Ousley were perfect for the roles. I also loved animated Appa. This character is the best Appa of the three. I loved his tale and his face. Also, the special effects for the Water, Earth, and Fire bending is better than the movie. I do not expect live action to be as good as the animated series, but it comes very close and was satisfying for me in this live action series. What I could not believe happened to me, is that I was sucked into the series and I binge watch it the first time and could not stop watching. I was hooked on the series emotionally and was tearing up, laughing, yelling at the TV screen and all in all thoroughly engrossed in the characters and the story. I read somewhere that someone calls this a love song to Asian actots. Well, I loved all the actors in this series. The scenes that were especially impactful were finding the Avatar, visiting Kyoshi Island, finding the Southern Air Temple, visiting the Fire Temple, visiting with Bumi at Omashu and the climatic battle at the Northern Water Temple. I really hope that Netflix renews this for at two more seasons to play out the story. If not, at least I got to see this excellent live action remake and I like that they made it more for an adult audience. Thank you Netflix for an emotional good time.
True Detective (2014)
Jodie Foster still is great.
True Detective is in its forth season. After the great beginning in season one, season two was a great disappointment in terms of story. But, the directors are able to draw out great performances, even though the vehicle is sorely lacking cylinders, story wise. Season three was a return to greatness, because the story held together and the acting and direction was superb. Now in the fourth season after watching the final episode, I think the story does not hold together and has so many holes in it. There are connections that need more scenes and explanations. I was left in some ways dissatisfied like that itch you cannot scratch. But what made it all worth while was the acting by Jodie Foster. I have been watching her on the small and large screen since the 1960s and I was entertained as I saw her mannerisms seep through her performance. I found this endearing as I watched the series. I have to say her acting had moments in the early episodes, but the last episode really had powerful emotions and scenes with Jodie that had me in awe. These scenes also did much to explain the enigma of the character and her past, but I still think there should have been more flashback scenes. In the final analysis, once again the directors got a great performance by Jodie Foster and she is the reason this season of True Detective was watchable. I think she should be nominated for an Emmy. Her performance awoke emotions and feelings and that is a sign of a great actor.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Subspace Rhapsody (2023)
I loved this musical episode!
I loved this musical episode. It showed the musical range of the cast, showing off their abilities to act on the stage. There is a career after Star Trek! The writers or should I say composers have to be complimented and it was unique how they worked the musical into the storyline. I also compliment the producers and show runners on taking the chance on this episode. I may be in the minority in loving this episode, but I loved Steve Bochco's Cop Rock. I also do not dismiss that it seemed to me the cast loved doing this episode and such energy is infectious. At the very least, this episode will go down in the annals of Star Trek as the first Trek musical. In my book it was a success.
Five minutes (2018)
Marvelous short film.
This is a marvelous short film, as it says, about a funeral. But, the interspersed scenes and multiple story lines make this shot the equivalent of a movie. She directs the multiple story lines, no less than 5 stories, and weaves them all into a coherant story line. This director has a gift for the short format and directs shorts for Amomama on Youtube on the DramatizeMe and Lovebuster channels. These episodes that I know of have Filip Walcerz acting in them. It is through his FaceBook page that I rediscovered this short film.
Five Minutes made it to the Davis Film Festival as a selected short. Davis, CA enjoys a unique connection to Ukraine as the sister city of Uman. This film is a real treat to watch. Enjoy!
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Those Old Scientists (2023)
Had to write this review!
This episode was a real treat. This must have been fun for the writers to write. I love Lower Decks and I love ST SNW. This episode really captures why I love both shows. Writing this review is like trying not to break the Star Fleet time travel directive, trying not to write spoilers while writing about the episode. Hence, the fun the writers had while writing the episode! Not oly did I love this episode, this episode made me feel young again, like when I was watching the original TOS ST's Man Trap. This episode reminds me of why I am a fan of Trek. The episode really brought back the feelings I felt as a fan of Ansom Mount's portrayal of Capt Pike and the joy of seeing him in that first episode he appeared of STD. I am such a fan of Ansom Mount's Capt Pike and the main reason I continue to watch this show. But this show also made me realize why I love this shows examination of the classic Sar Trek original characters. But ultimately, I have to agree, Capt Pike has GREAT HAIR!!!
Survivor (2015)
This is the worse action movie I have ever seen with an all star cast..
The only redeeming feature of this movie is Milla. I bought this movie because she and Pierce Brosnan are on the cover. It also listed Robert Forster (JACKIE BROWN), Angela Bassett, Roger Rees, and Dylan McDermott. I told myself that this has to be a good movie. Well, it is not, because the plot has holes in it that detract from watching the movie. Milla plays an embassy security agent that just got in from New York that is so bad ass that the marine snipers on the roof of the embassy know who she is. She is that hot shot security agent that broke up a terrorist attack in the US. If this is the case, why is she assigned to checking visa applications? The plot is so convoluted that it quickly becomes more and more unbelievable. At a certain point, when she has everyone against her and she infiltrates her way back into the embassy, the person I watch IMDb 250 movies with, demanded that we turn this movie off. He is a Milla Jojovich and Robert Forester fan, but Robert Forester had since exited the film and Milla cannot carry a bad movie all by herself, unless it is a Resident Evil movie. I love Angela Bassett, but the script called for her to play a character that I grew to dislike and hate. All of the characters, I grew to hate, except Milla, but again she could not carry this movie by herself.
The plot line involves the use of a weapon that is tested in London, which causes huge destruction. The people take that weapon and smuggle it to the US. In the mean time, the US embassy believes that Milla is the person driving events forward. HOW THE HECK DOES AN EMBASSY SECURITY AGENT assemble and transport a weapon to the US, then set it up for detonation. Then she makes it from London to New York with everyone looking for her, and some how stumbles upon the location of the bomb and foils the plan -- unbelievable. It is more unbelievable that she is not just shot dead by the US anti-terror units. The ending is so contrived and I can only shake my head at how bad it is. How did Milla figure it all out?
I went back and finished the movie and looked at the special features on the disk. I found out things, like this movie script has been floating around since the 1970s, which makes all of the sense in the world. No one wanted to finance this disaster -- until now. And the first actress that they asked to consider this roll turned them down, which brought in Milla. If I thought that the movie could not get any worse, I looked at the deleted scenes and I discovered, it could have been. The deleted scenes make for an even worse interpretation of the background, like what the real motivation for the McDermott character's belief structure, which was pure lust, not professional respect.
The way the movie ends, the true evil character has not been addressed at all and for all you know is out there, ready to try it all again. In the cut scene, there is an unexplained helicopter that takes him out with a hell fire missile, along with his chauffeur and body guard as he is being driven over a bridge in London. London must have a high tolerance for bomb destruction.
Meet Joe Black (1998)
The perfect love movie
This is a movie that I can watch over and over again. It shows how the mechanics of love work in real life. When Joe meets Sue, the chemistry between them is so real and the scenes with them are movie magic. When they leave each other, the question is, do they look back? And they do. There are countless other scenes in this movie that are well executed by the actors. The scene where Anthony Hopkins character comments upon his whole life is something that William Shakespeare would have penned today. I really love this movie for its writing, direction and acting. Marcia Gay Harden and Jeffrey Tamborn also do great jobs portraying their parts and help the movie along. But Brad Pitt makes the movie and there is no question in my mind that he captures what being in love feels like on the screen.
Michael Clayton (2007)
This tightly scripted movie is excellent.
This tightly scripted movie is perfect in my opinion. Events unfold and follow one another with perfect synchronicity, making complete sense. The story is entirely plausible and where you see things that are incongruous, they fit perfectly into the plot. There is a character that has bi-polar disorder and he is written to perfection and perfectly acted. There is only one scene that does not make sense, but there is a book that is referred to in the storyline with a graphic and if you accept that "child's flight of fancy," that one scene makes sense. I have seen this movie many times and each time, I see something new in it. The script is excellent. The direction is excellent. The acting is first rate. This movie in my opinion is a 10.
Marudukku sukuranburu: Haiki (2012)
Watch this anime movie for its music.
Of the three movies in this Mordock Combustion series, I find this one the most watchable. I only had to watch this movie once to understand what was going on. It was entertaining, but I still have not figured out what the resolution of all of the story lines at the end. I thought that this might be due to poor translation, so I watched the movie in the original Japanese with subtitles and found no help there.
What I found enjoyable was the music of this production. I am partial to "Amazing Grace," but the end theme over credits, "Tsubasa," was captivating. The singer starts out over light music that builds through the song, so she has to have a good voice to pull that off, especially at the beginning of the song. After listening to the theme song, several times, I did research and found that the voice actor, Megumi Hayashibara, was the vocalist. She also was one of the duet that sang "Amazing Grace." Also, the end credit theme song, "Tsubasa" made it to the Tower Records top 10 chart at Crunchy Roll, three years to this month that this review is being written. Because of the music of this movie, this is something that will make it into my collection of movies that I will be viewing over and over again.