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lisafarina
Reviews
The Twilight Zone: The Comedian (2019)
Great premise, awful execution
This episode was a pretty big fail for TZ. The premise is really interesting: what happens when, to get success, you need to erase someone from existence? What does that do to a person? The beginning and ending are good, and the acting (on the whole) is excellent.
The writing, though... woof. The main comedian has 1 joke -- ONE. So, each set that he tries not to kill someone (through his jokes), he uses this repetitive, not-really-funny joke. If the writers had given him a set of jokes that fell flat, it would have been better. Instead, it only felt like beating a dead horse.
The girlfriend is so under-explored that it actually hurts. I loved that her fulfilling career is ruined because of something that Samir did. But after that, she's only there as a catalyst.
There's a lot of hit or miss in this series. This one is a miss.
Late Night (2019)
More Message than Bite
This is an interesting movie. I love Emma and Mindy. They are both smart and funny women. I wanted to like this pairing so very much.
There are some really fantastic and heartfelt moments. However, moments don't make a great movie. This is one of the movies that will be looked at by movie historians as "a typical message movie" where the message is more important than plot, depth, or bite. It could have been so much more.
A.P. Bio (2018)
Sometimes funny, but also painful to watch
I watched most of the first season, and by about midway through I actually felt my IQ drop. I was excited to watch the show. I like a lot of the talent and they do a credible job with their roles, but so often the humor seems to be the lowest hanging fruit.
The good:
- There's some subversion on the super-unlikable main character, like calling out that he's not going to be a typical feel-good teacher outcome.
- The humor is hit or miss, but when it hits -- it's pretty good.
The bad:
- When the humor misses, it misses hard.
- The show glorifies and rewards mostly awful behavior while also trying to be edgy about bringing up difficult topics.
- The characters, even for a comedy, are so over-the-top stereotypical that it just makes me sad.
The Borrowed Christmas (2014)
Did the Rehearsal Get Distributed?
I love Christmas movies, even the shamelessly insipid ones. I can forgive the over-emoted, always-good-hearted, low-stakes movies because they are fun, guilty pleasures.
This movie is none f those things. It's a church play that didn't get beyond the rehearsal stage. Obviously flubbed lines, or awkward pauses while the actors try to remember their lines, and completely unbelievable emotions. Truly, it felt like a run thru the got accidentally recorded.
There is nothing redeeming here. It's not even worth a "so good it's bad" watch.
Solar Flare (2008)
Truly the worst
I love disaster movies, high budget, low budget, whatever. I don't expect great acting, story, or science. My bar is pretty low.
Even by those standards, this movie is awful. Unless you watch it as a drinking game. In which case, your options are:
1) Bad science
2) Terrible decisions
3) Scenery chewing villainy
The Twilight Zone (2019)
I want to like it but....
I'm a big fan of the original Twilight Zone. I love how it's a commentary on human behavior and how our prejudices and suppositions affect how we view the story. The twist is often a glorious subversion of our expectations. An example of this is "Third From the Sun" where the episode is set up for you to assume that the world is Earth in the middle of a nuclear crisis, but it's not. The escapees are heading TO Earth, rather than away from it.
This Twilight Zone tries to be like the original, but it just isn't. It lacks the subtlety of creating expectation. It does address human behavior and prejudices. But instead of playing with subverting the viewer's assumptions, it gives a message. It pounds a message into your head. I can't respect that like I respected the original.
Original Twilight Zone was subversive -- it was fighting against the censorship of the time with messages that were not otherwise in media. This version of TZ is saying the same thing as a lot of other media sources, not even in particularly novel ways. ("Not All Men", I'm looking at you, here)
A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song (2011)
Trite, of course, but the music is good
No one should expect anything ground-breaking out of any type of "Cinderella Story" -- so I am not docking points for that.
The antagonists, especially the step-monster, chew the scenery so badly that it's cringe-worthy. I really like Missi Pyle normally, but not here.
Finally, there's something very ironic that the movie blasts lip syncing, and yet, the lip syncing of the main characters is awful. I'm not saying that they aren't singing, but it's clear that they are not singing while acting. Further, the "live" performance at the end is very heavily auto-tuned. It's sad, because I actually like the songs, but those two elements really bother me.