Reviews

This group is possibly my favorite Taskmaster cast of all time. They all have their individual strengths. But every one of them is engaged, inventive and game for anything. A great start to an immensely entertaining series.

While there are a couple of interesting ideas, and some clever, self-aware jokes, overall I found this a bit dull. The new characters are mostly bland, and the action sequences just don't have the snap of the original trilogy. And.no offense to Jonathan Groff, but his new incarnation of Agent Smith is a pale imitation of Hugo Weaving. I didn't hate it, but I have no desire to ever watch it again. And even Revolutions was worth a second watch.

I was really looking forward to this. I enjoyed the first Wonder Woman a lot, and I thought the trailer for this one was brilliant. But it's just a rambling, goofy mess. I love all of the lead actors, and there are a few nice moments. But overall it's unfocused, poorly plotted and honestly kind of boring. And some the cgi in the action scenes is laughable. Such a let down.

I was so frustrated by the way the sound mix buried the dialogue that I did a Google search to see if it was just me. But it seems that I'm not the only one who had trouble with that. Overall I have to say I was disappointed. I normally enjoy Nolan's films, and I loved Dunkirk particularly. But this left me cold. The visuals were stunning. But ultimately it was just a cold, empty puzzle box. Many people have said it improves with repeat viewings. But I'm not curious enough to try, honestly.

I've really been enjoying this series. But this episode was a bit weak. There were some good moments, overall it was kind of silly. Picard and Rios's disguises were ridiculous. And Picard's accent was atrocious. He's French, for god's sake. He should be able to do a French accent.

Po is the most irritating character I've seen on any show in ages. I'd rather listen to the complete works of Shakespeare read by Jar Jar Binks than watch one minute of her.

When Discovery premiered I held off because I didn't want to subscribe to another streaming service for a single show. But I subscribed for the sake of Picard, and figured I might as well catch up on Discovery as well. It's a bit of a mixed bag for me, but getting better as it goes. I must admit some of the canon violations bother me. I wish they'd set the show further along in the timeline, rather than making it a prequel. But some of the characters are growing on me. And it's nice to see them trying something new.

I've always liked this episode. It's a great showcase for Data. And it's fun to see Picard and Troi struggling to communicate with some genuinely alien aliens.

But I would like to add my two cents about one of the minor controversies around this episode. Much has been made of the fact that Grainger Hines is not credited for his performance as Gosheven, and that all of his dialogue is obviously dubbed. Some people think this evidence of behind the scenes unpleasantness. But there is a simple, practical explanation for this.

The aqueduct in the village square set was a practical prop, with real running water in it. This means that all of the scenes shot on that set would have the sound of running water in the background. Consequently all of the dialogue in those scenes would have to be re-recorded and dubbed after the fact, to give the editors clean audio to work with. This is called ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement) and it is common practice whenever the audio from a scene has excessive background noise.

However, if Hines had some sort of scheduling conflict and couldn't make it in to do his ADR before the episode had to be completed, his lines would have to be overdubbed by another actor. And in order to make Gosheven's dialogue consistent throughout the episode, that actor would have to dub every scene. Even the ones with clean audio.

It's understandable that Hines wouldn't want his name on the episode when someone else spoke all of his lines.

I had the chance to catch a preview screening of the first four episodes of Primal on the big screen in Los Angeles. This is the most stunning piece of animation I've seen in years. It completely immerses you in a rich, fantastic world. The character designs are brilliant. The action is awesome. And it does it all without a single word of spoken dialogue. A triumph of visual storytelling.

This movie has been debated and analyzed and dissected for years. I could make a lot of detailed arguments for why I think it works so well. But the simple truth is that when I saw this movie for the first time, on opening day of its original release, I had one of the best times I've ever had watching a movie. And it's one of those films that I could rewatch again and again. It's a masterpiece.

I loved this movie the first time I saw it. And it grows on me a little bit every time I rewatch it. It's like going to visit an old friend's house. Anderson did such a marvelous job building this odd little world. It's just one indelible image after another. Gene Hackman is just marvelous. And that shot of Margot getting off the bus.

I own a copy of this on VHS, and it's basically the only reason I haven't thrown out my VCR. I watched this for the first time in college, and it's had a special place in my heart ever since. I'm so frustrated that it's not available to stream anywhere. Honestly, if you told people, "You know, the guy who wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral wrote a movie where Emma Thompson and Jeff Goldblum have sex on top of a piano" - who wouldn't want to see that?

The contrivances of the time travel plot are a bit forced. But then, most time travel stories have something in them that doesn't quite add up. But this episode still got to me. The scene where the crew helps their descendants plant their crop is really touching. It reminded me of a quote that is often attributed to Martin Luther. "Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree."

Sometimes you're in the mood for a gritty, suspenseful drama. And sometimes you just want to watch a man on a bicycle wander around a tiny Scottish island looking at ruins and chatting about birds. If you can't manage a vacation to the Scottish isles, this is the next best thing. It's brilliantly photographed, with all sorts of gorgeous vistas. And it makes nice use of archival materials, including historic photos and home movies of the sites. I watched the whole first series in a day. It was just the thing to take my mind off of my troubles for an afternoon.

I thoroughly enjoyed this doc about DS9 - my personal favorite of the Star Trek series. There are wonderful interviews with just about every major player from in front and behind the camera. It gave me some wonderful insights, and made me want to watch the whole series over again. And the remastered HD clips from the show look spectacular. The whole series definitely deserves an HD remaster.

Hearing all of the people involved talking about how much the show meant to them reminded me of something I've noticed about some of my other favorite shows over the years. The people who made this show loved each other, and they loved what they were doing. And that's why it's so magnificent. Beautiful things come from love.