Space Force (Season 1)

Upon hearing that President Trump wanted a space force, I’m sure many of us wondered what that might look like.  You might be excited to go into space.  You might think it’s a waste of time.  Maybe you’d sign up, or have someone you’d like to see permanently stationed there.  (Would that make The Sea of Tranquility into the next Siberia?)

Either way, our friends at Netflix gave us Space Force.  When General Mark R. Naird is promoted, he assumes that he’ll be taking over the Air Force from his predecessor, General Kick Grabaston.  Both Naird and Grabaston are surprised to find out that this isn’t the case.  The President has created a new branch of the military, which is to be headed by Naird.  He and his wife and daughter are thus sent to Wild Horse, Colorado.

A year later and things are not going well.  Wife Maggie is in jail for an unspecified crime and daughter Erin is resentful for being stuck in the middle of nowhere.  Also, his parents are in failing mental health and he has the pressures of a new branch of the military weighing on him.  There are all manner of setbacks and he doesn’t always get along with members of the scientific team.  Plus, General Grabaston would love to absorb Space Force and get its budget.  Talk about getting it on all sides.

I often wonder how much of a TV series or movie is fictionalized.  The hope here is to get some laughs.  Some may come at the expense of The President, who is painted as a tweet-happy idiot.  Many will come at the expense of the military, who can be aggressive at times.  The scientists are overly cautious, as Naird points out early on.

I think there is a little bit of hope here.  For all of Naird’s shortcomings and problems, he is someone who is willing to learn.  He comes into conflict with the head scientist, Dr. Adrian Mallory, about once per episode.  Mallory usually has a point and Naird comes around to doing the right thing.

Naird is someone who plays by the rules, probably because he doesn’t know what else to do.  He’s faithful to his wife because that’s what a husband does.  He took a vow to be with her and her alone.  He tries to help his daughter, which isn’t easy.  And he’s commanding a new division of the military.  There may be protocol, but it’s still new.  You know he’ll hit the mark eventually.  You also come to feel for him when he misses.

Considering how the season ends, it will be interesting to see how a second season unfolds.  (At the very least, I want to find out what happened to the Chimpanzee.)  I am also wondering what Maggie did to wind up in prison.  I’m guessing it wasn’t deemed necessary to be disclosed to the audience, but might serve for a good laugh if we find out it was something minor.  (It’s stated that she’s looking at another 40-50 years.)  I would look forward to season two as much as I might look forward to an actual space force.

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UglyDolls (2019)

I’m in a difficult position.  I like animated features, but not all of them.  I also realize that school will be letting out soon, which means that the theaters for animated features will soon be full of small, noisy children.  Do I se an animated film just to see an animated film?  I regret to inform you that in the case of UglyDolls, the answer was yes.  I had seen the coming attractions.  I knew that it was going to be about being true to yourself.  I also knew that the best part of it would probably be the music.  I went to see it anyway.

The movie is about several dolls who live in Uglyville.  Specifically, they’re the rejects from an unnamed doll factory.  All they know is this nice little seaside village where they’re all happy being who they are.  Many of the characters are either named for what they are or some defining feature.  The leader, Ox, has one good eye and one exed out eye.  (O  X)

Moxy is one of the residents of Uglyville.  She desperately wants to be adopted by a human, so that she can feel a child’s love.  Alas, most of her fellow residents realize that this is not possible.  Ox set up Uglyville expressly for this purpose. (The alternative was being shredded and recycled.)  She leads a few of her fellow dolls through the pipe that brings in new UglyDolls to find the Institute of Perfection.

The Institute is where the dolls are supposed to go.  They’re all models and have some great career like scientist or architect.  Once they go through training to avoid imperfections, they’ll be sent to live with a child.  Moxy realizes that this is her chance to get what she’s always dreamed of.  Standing in her way is Lou, the doll who trains the other dolls in preparation for The Gauntlet, the final test to see if a doll is ready to go to The Real World.

There’s nothing really unpredictable about the movie.  You know moxie is going to have her heart broken by the truth only to come back and get what she wants.  This is so close to the template for other similar movies, it wouldn’t take much to make into a satire.  There’s the defeated hero who makes a comeback.  There’s a big secret that gets revealed about a main character.  There’s even one perfect character that’s revealed to have an imperfection.  In the end, everyone is happy.

If you’re an adult going to see the movie, it’s probably going to be as a chaperone for a young child.  It’s going to be entertaining, but not memorable.  The movie is definitely geared towards children.  I wasn’t aware of this, but the movie is based on a series of dolls.  The dolls were first released almost 20 years ago.  I’m not sure why the movie was released so late relative to the toys’ release.  Even considering that the movie spent several years in development, it’s still a long time.

The good news is that it’s going to be fairly safe for children.  There’s maybe one or two scenes where there’s some sort of mortal danger, but even that’s not too scary.  Adults will be entertained mostly by the music.  It was the one aspect that was most memorable for me.  If you’ve seen the coming attractions, you know that says something.

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Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018)

If there’s one defining characteristic of Ralph, it’s that he wants to be the good guy.  In the first movie, he comes to terms with the fact that he’s cast on the role of his game’s villain.  People start to respect him.  He even makes a friend of Vanellope.

If there’s a second defining characteristic of Ralph, it’s that he doesn’t want things to change.  Six years later and he has his routine down.  He spends his days as the bad guy in Fix-It Felix, Jr. and his nights drinking root beer with Vanellope.  She wants change, though.  She’s beaten all of the courses in her video game.

In a way, she’s having the same crisis that Ralph did in the first movie.  There has to be more to life than what her video-game world has to offer.  She wants to try something new, which Ralph helps her with.  Despite the good intentions, this leads to a broken controller on the Sugar Rush game.  All of the characters make it out before the console is unplugged.

There is a possible save, though.  A replacement part is available on eBay.  Granted, it would cost more than the game could ever make, but it gives Ralph the means by which to save Vanellope and her friends.  Luckily, Mr. Litwak’s video arcade just got wi-fi.  So, Ralph and Vanellope head off to eBay in hopes of putting things back the way they were.

If you haven’t seen Wreck-It Ralph, you should.  It’s an awesome movie that happens to have an awesome sequel.  It’s not necessary.  I don’t think that this movie would have anything that would be a major spoiler.  Yes, the presence of a sequel implies that everything works out in the first movie.  Like you wouldn’t have known that going in, anyway.

Similarly, you know everything‘s going to work out fine here.  Both Ralph and Vanellope have some growing to do.  Ralph means well, but he can be a bit suffocating at times.  Vanellope is, technically, a Disney Princess.  (The other princesses actually make a pretty good case for inclusion here.)  She also finds that if she really wants something, it’s ok to go for it.

If you’re a parent thinking of taking a child to see the movie, don’t worry.  There’s plenty in the movie for you, too.  The layout of the Internet is a sight to behold.  There are also a lot of references to the Internet and other movies.  Major sites like IMDB and Google get their own buildings.  Stormtroopers chase the main characters.  Pop-up banners have proprietors, such as J.P. Spamley.  (There’s even a nod to Geocities for those of you that have been around a while.)

I had wanted to see it on opening day, but my work schedule would have none of that.  I was able to see it Saturday in 3D.  I don’t know that it’s going to be worth the extra money for most people.  Given the option, I do like 3D.  (I’ve also recently started using AMC’s A-List, which doesn’t charge extra for 3D if it’s one of your three movies for the week.  If you have A-List, go for the 3D.)

There is a certain lesson to be learned in not reading the comments.  You’ll always end up reading something you don’t want to read.  The irony is that the messages that need to be put out there don’t always get across.  It’s hard to say something necessary to someone you’re close to.  I suppose there’s a certain symmetry to the two movies.  In Wreck-It Ralph, Ralph learned that it’s ok to be the bad guy.  In Ralph Breaks the Internet, he learned that he doesn’t always have to be the good guy,


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Paul (2011)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Alien movies are nothing new.  You have E.T., Starman, Close Encounters of the Third Kind and all sorts of other titles.  I had wanted to see this one in theaters, but not having much money kept me waiting until it came out on DVD.  Part of the appeal was that it had Simon Pegg and Nick Frost as Graeme Willy and Clive Gollings.  They're friends that have come from Great Britain to the United States to attend Comic-Con.  Afterwards, they decide to take an RV to various paranormal/alien sites such as The Black Mailbox.

Their journey is cut short by Paul, an alien on the run from a secret government facility.  (Paul is voiced by Seth Rogen, in case you can’t quite place it.)  Paul has been giving the United States Government all sorts of information, contributing to everything from technology to movies.  Since Paul has given up every bit of useful information, the only thing left to do is harvest stem cells for biological research.

Shortly into their journey, they meet Ruth, a very religious woman that can’t accept the existence of aliens, even after meeting Paul.  Paul, Graeme and Clive are forced to take Ruth with them as they continue to run.  Because of this, they not only have federal agents, but Ruth’s fundamentalist father, Moses, after them.  Eventually, Paul, Graeme, Clive and Ruth make it to Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, a reference to the aforementioned Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  This is where Paul intends to meet his rescue ship.  I don’t want to give away the ending, as it’s probably best not to know.

If this isn’t your first alien movie, you should catch a few references like Devil’s Tower.  There are all sorts of in jokes and mentions.  I even missed one or two.  Because of this, the movie isn’t necessarily all that original.  I’m not say that this is wrong.  It’s probably one of the few cases where they can get away with it.  Even if you don’t get the references, you can still usually laugh at the jokes. Some of the humor is crude, high-school stuff.  Anal probes are mentioned a few times and Paul does like to use drugs.  There are maybe one or two scenes that wouldn’t be appropriate for small children, but nothing that would scar anyone for life.

This is the third movie I’ve seen staring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost.  You may remember them from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz.  If you liked those movies, you’ll probably like this one, although I’d say that this one is the most different of the three.  I’m not saying that it’s better or worse.  It just has a slightly different feel, probably owing to the sci-fi theme.

I’d definitely recommend seeing it, even if you’re not a big sci-fi fan.  Like Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the dead, much of the movie works because it’s not being shoved down your throat.  It just works.  There were maybe one or two jokes that were seemed a little random.  (I spent the whole movie wondering what kind of last name Zoil was.)  Either way, it’s definitely worth watching. 

IMDb page

Wreck-It Ralph (2012)

Sometimes, it’s hard to break out of a mold.  If you’re destined for greatness, you don’t question this.  However, if you’re destined to be the bad guy, you may just want a chance to prove you can do better.  Such is the life of Wreck-it Ralph.  He’s a good guy, but he’s been cast as the villain in a game called Fix-it Felix, Jr.  Everyone loves Felix because he comes to the rescue.  No one wants anything to do with Ralph because he’s a big oaf and all he does is destroy stuff.

This is how the game was designed.  Characters have to stay in character while the game is on, but this seems to extend into their off time, as well.  Ralph has his purpose, but he also has his place, and that place happens to be a pile of bricks at the end of the day.

One day, he decides to take matters into his own hands.  One of the residents of the building he always destroys tells Ralph that if he can win a medal, he can have the key to the penthouse.  He then goes into a first-person shooter game called Hero’s Duty and manages to get the medal, but inadvertently puts another game at risk.  Also, since Ralph wasn’t in his own game, Fix-it Felix, Jr. is assumed to be broken and may be unplugged.  He’s given the key he was promised, but is further ostracized.  To make matters worse, he has endangered a third game called Sugar Rush Speedway.  While in the game, he meets a character going through a similar plight.  (Vanellope von Schweetz isn’t even allowed to participate in her game.)

This is one of those movies where you can probably figure out what’s going to happen.  If Ralph doesn’t get what he wants, he’ll at least put things back close to the way they were and maybe earn some respect.  The fun of the movie, at least for adults, will be nostalgia.  We get to see a lot of video-game characters for 30 years ago, like Pac-Man and Q*bert.  Some of the games were designed for the movie, either to make it easier to write the story or to at least avoid copyright issues.  The characters live in their own universe with games connected by the power cords.  (Those whose games were shut off live in power strips.)

You’d think that animated means simple, but this was one of the more interesting animated movies I’ve seen in a while.  The main character is a villain trying to be a hero.  He meets another character that also just wants to be accepted.  Yes, a few of the characters are a little exaggerated, but this is a movie about video games and their characters.  This is to be expected.  You can empathize with Ralph; the people in his game aren’t necessarily nasty to him, but they could do a lot better.  He’s not asking for much.

There were a lot of references to video games, a few of which I missed.  Those that grew up in the 80s will probably recognize many of the characters and games.  There are a lot of throwaway jokes based on games, both classic and current.  Most are simple, like graffiti in bathrooms and stuff.  It’s definitely a fun movie.  I’d recommend renting it.

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