Change Your Image
kenmaz
Reviews
Civil War (2024)
Another love letter to "journalists."
I was hoping to see an overview of a civil war in the United States. What we got was another "journalists through a war zone road trip," another over-used trope.
The combat scenes were shown in snippets and were far apart and as few in number. So much for the "action."
Too much time was spent on the news crew waxing philosophically, along with the tired "development" of the characters: you have the war-weary one played by Dunst, the fresh naive one looking for her chance at the big-story, the hyper-active cynic "fixer," and the old fashioned 'war horse" just wanting to get to Charlottesville.
Not to miss out on a couple of overused tropes, they also used the "good old boys" violating the civil rights of a couple of looters while profiteering off the conflict. It was amusing, though, to see their eyes light up when offered Canadian money rather than American. Not to miss a trick, they had to throw in a scene of "ethnic-cleansing" where two add in characters get slaughtered by a psychopath.
Credit to the writer: there were no "good-guys" or "bad-guys," and no political message. The cinematography was first class, as well as the sound-editing.
The ending was no surprise with the main character's death while saving the life of the naive girl coming into her own as a hardened war-correspondent.
Battle for the Western Front (2022)
Very Low Production Value
I don't know what the budget for this film was, but it was money wasted. I get it that there is supposed to be an amount of suspension of disbelief, but the requirement exceeds reasonable expectations. I've seen better Junior High School productions than this.
Completely overlooking the amateur acting, you would think that the producer would take the time to eliminate all the anachronisms before rolling the cameras. Not with this turkey. You have supposedly senior officers who neither shave nor get haircuts. You have senior NCOs with hair down to their shoulders, sporting shaggy beards. Then there's the recruits with the long hair.
If anyone had paid to see this, I'm sure they would've demanded their money back.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023)
Disappointing
I really wanted to enjoy this show and looked forward to it.
After all, it's going to have Godzilla in it, right? Should be entertaining, right?
So, what do we get? We wind up with the obligatory diverse brother and sister who don't like each other because they come from different mothers, since Dad was a bigamist. They're Japanese. Along with the brother, we get his black ex-girlfriend who .also, doesn't like him, is an accomplished hacker, and is extremely cynical and has a big chip on her shoulder.
After watching 5 episodes, I felt it was too much to stomach another. So far, it's been a litany of their bickering amongst themselves.
And Godzilla? We get less than 5 minutes of him because he is not the star of the show and is only there for background filling. Same with Kurt Russel. More background.
Big disappointment.
Tom Swift (2022)
Another childhood Icon Destroyed.
You would have to really despise the two previous generation's popular young boys' adventure books to produce something as unpalatable as this. If the CW wonders why its stock is going down the tubes, they only have themselves to blame.
The Plot Against America (2020)
You know you're going to hate it when...
"The Republicans are the bad guys!" Jesus wept...if this is the best that they could produce after spending all that time and money, then it's time to pack it in.
The Wheel of Time (2021)
I really wanted to like this, but....
A lifetime ago, I started reading Robert Jordan's "The Wheel of Time" and I just couldn't connect what I read then to what I watched in the first episode. To think all the time treasure that went into this was only able to produce this: a missal extolling the virtues of strong female characters to the point of overreach, at the expense of an otherwise interesting series of books. Sure, a few hardcore feminists will enjoy this contrived piece of work, but not the original fans who spent time and treasure reading the actual books.
Challenger: The Final Flight (2020)
Rehash of old information.
With every documentary coming out about the Challenger incident, there's an expectation that something new will be revealed. Such is not the case here, other than a more in-depth look at the astronauts lost. Disappointing.