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Reviews
Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)
A movie you'll want to forget
All of the tropes from the original only poorly done. Miss it. We skipped the last half. The whole revolves around a kid left alone by the parents and foolishness that ensues. No spoilers to say that this is one lame physical gag after another. Take hard pass.
The Expanse: Gaugamela (2020)
Inevitable, but stunning
The viewer thinks (s)he knows what's next, but what happens is a real stunner. This episode carries us to the intensity we've come to expect, and goes one step further.
Valentine (2017)
I "knew" it would be bad and it was
Maybe it's just the style of Indonesian movies but this was so disjointed I had trouble keeping score. The highly stylized fighting was okay, but the camera angles and continuity issues made that tough. Even when it was over I shrugged "huh?"
This flick was clearly a vanity piece. And it shows it with more flaws than value
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel: A Jewish Girl Walks Into the Apollo... (2019)
Truely pain played well
We get to see a side of Susie we haven't seen before. It's clear she's thrown away Midge'd money along with hers but the emotional breakdown changes her character for the viewer dramatically.
Midge's downfall is clear from the minute Reggie says "talk about Shy". What viewer sees as the "don't open the door" Midge sees as a wrlcome mat. So the plot twist isn't a twist to anyone except Midge. The apparent f'up with the contract is the twist we don't expect.
Having actually seen Mams Mabely I can tell you that Wanda Sykes was great in that role.
Goliath: Happiness from the Ground Up (2019)
"Am I high"
That was my question to my wife about half way in to this episode.
This is what has become normal for early into a Goliath season. Disjoint, random events. Different things that make me say "I have to remember that for later", but by the end of the ep I've said it so many times. Something that's so obvious, but I'm not sure what it is. Yet another f*up in his f*ed up life. And a cuter than hell goat in a sweater. "Am I high" indeed.
Think Twin Peaks only with lots of profanity and no pie.
Goliath (2016)
A great way to burn through a weekend
I've not been a big Billy Bob fan. But I am now.
The series has just dropped season 3, which I have yet to see. But it should be another rock star.
Season 1 took some warm up, as there is a dense and complex back that's neccesary to understand. Which is a benefit of bingeing. It's a well scripted show with a cast equally skilled in pulling it off. The pacing swings around but never hurts the stories.
Note that it's stories. The series is dense with interwoven stories. And stories inside stories.
"Goliath" is worth wasting a Saturday. Or a weekend.
Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
Stupid but worth it
This is one of those goofy flicks that's worth watching on SyFy.
Like others have said, this NOT high cinema. But it's also not "I wish I had that hour back".
Destination Wedding (2018)
Learn how to speak "Snarky"
This movie is essentially a disection of all that is wrong and can go wrong in relationships and life in general. Not exactly Oscar material for either, but entertaining. I found myself irritated by Frank, but I think that was precisely what he was intended to be. And my wife said the same Lyndsey. So it seems to have worked.
The conclusion is "obvious" from early on, but the film is about the journey, not the destination.
The Falcon and the Snowman (1985)
Fairly accurate and well acted
I have an interesting view of this movie. In 1979 I started out of college in the dept at TRW where Boyce started. When he escaped there were jokes about a re-hire who could mix a "mean 'rita" and was a pretty good outfielder.
As far as the story goes, there is obviously some compression of both time and characters. Otherwise it would have been a three plus hour mvie "with a cast of thousands". But it actually plays well for the movie because it allows us to see the Boyce-Lee dynamic and the chaos that develops between them. You also get to see the heartbreak as Boyce sees the collapse of their scheme even as Lee goes blindly forward.
Houton ( Boyce) annd Penn (Lee) do a great job portraying boys who are, in reality, only legally men pursuing what becomes a poorly thought out and dreadfully executed plan.
UFO (2018)
Left disappointed
The premise is strong but the execution is off. We're presented with two pretty strong actors who seem to get a lot more presence in the trailers than their actual roles, a moody, self-important too smart for his own good kid, an "I could be your girl friend if you weren't such a f-up" and a perpetually five minutes away from suicide roommate.
The math is almost there, but not quite. If my diff-eq prof blew through the material like Ms Anderson's charscter does I don't know that any of use would have passed.
I'm giving it a five, you should find something else to waste 90 minutes of your life.
The Numbers Station (2013)
Great acting of a reasonably good script
First in full disclosure: I'm a "crypto guy". My master's thesis was on private-public key signing.
The premise was very interesting and reasonably well written. A little weak on the technical side but functional.
This is primarily a two person set piece with conflicting emotions. Well done and satisfying resolution to the issues at hand.
This could have been a spy thriller but instead it's a conflict of personalities and personal conflict.
The Orville: A Happy Refrain (2019)
No such thing as a 10. How about a 9.9?
A well done episode. It's nice to see something with almost no "silly Seth". This is the kind of episode that every show needs to stay fresh. I was concerned that Seth McFarland would get in the way of his show but he's shown a skill that I guess I'd missed. He's more than a comedian and this has turned out to be an example of that.
NCIS: New Orleans: Crab Mentality (2019)
Still too rushed
The last season and this have been written as if the episodes are 2 hours long. Lots of development and exposition and suddenly it's over. This leaves things feeling unsettled and disappointing.
This ep have two excellent and merged story lines and they needed to be merged. "The Arc" got some more development and the core of the episode worked well.
I'd love to have given it a 9(.25) but for the fact that the last 1/2 hour took place in five minutes and, frankly, was somewhat predictable.
Princess of Mars (2009)
It could have been worse
I'm not sure how, but that can be applied to almost everything.
This flick was another example of a $1000 movie trying to cash in on the heels of a $100M movie. And that one wasn't worth 3 stars.
There no spoilers here because it's your basic badly done scifi + testosterone + hooters movie.
La comtesse noire (1973)
Three versions, untold subversions
This is the "softcore" although it might be a little more.
I saw the hardcore and is very much so. This flick isn't really "main stream" but was aimed at something more than the dirty old man audience. Except that the hardcore probably couldn't even get a NC17 today.
One thing that everyone notes is that I eventually got bored with Luna Romay's nudity. Let's just say there wasn't much of a budget for her costumes.
I've never seen the horror version but the softcore seems to lose some of what passes for plot due to some redacted scenes.
For hardcore it actually had something of a plot with a beginning, body and ending. Dialogue is thin and in the hardcore version the sex is random and to 2018 standards meh (from what I've heard).
If you're bored and can get it for free O say "why not?". Otherwise three stars, so be forwarned .
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
Disappointingly overacted, underacted, just plain not acted or no script to act with.
I've never thought of Ben Affleck as someone who overacted a role. He managed to do so. Henry Cavill constantly looked like he either needed a teleprompter for his lines or the laxative had just kicked in and the bathroom was too far away. If Lois Lane is supposed to look like "little girl lost" then Amy Adams did a good job. Jesse Eisenberg just made me want to reach through the screen and choke his little throat. Diane Lane and Laurence Fishburne did well with limited screen time and, for Mr. Fishburne in particular, limited and wimpy lines. Holly Hunter's character was scripted all over the place and she could never build anything. Jeremy Irons. Now there was a character worth watching. Well played with a droll and from time to time dismissive attitude ("if there is another ..."). Gal Gadot might have been more impressive if there had been a little more development for her. Either as the "secret identity" or as WW. The most realistic characterization was MIchael Shannon as Zod. And he was dead.
If someone hadn't given me the tickets I'd want my money back. I want their money back. For me the best part of the movie was seeing it at the Alamo Drafthouse and having an excellent dinner.
If you haven't seen it yet, wait until a friend buys the disk but he has to provide the beer and pizza.
Firefly (2002)
FOX 5crewed the pooch, and the show
When I saw the first episode I was confused, it made little sense. Much later I learned that FOX decided to show the episodes out of order. Kind of like showing a football game with 10 minutes left in the 2nd quarter.
The show was well written and acted. It seemed that the actors knew each other well enough to react naturally (Mal acting surprised versus "Mal acts surprised"). I've sometimes wondered how much of the show was ad libbed.
I've enjoyed Nathan Fillion in "Castle" but but Summer Glau was my favorite in the show and continues as such.
The show had a unique and different view of the future and space travel. Not utopian, not distopian. Kind of what society is like now. Some bad, some good, some selfish, some selfless. And the characters, although intended to be likable, did have a dark side to each, which made them human.
I was sadly disappointed with "Serenity", although it did have a solid conclusion.
Buy the show (sad when you can get the entire series on one Blu Ray disk, WITH extras) then watch it as intended.
Cybill (1995)
It's back on Oxygen
Cybill is a delight all around. Witty and smart, with absolutely no socially redeeming value, which makes it all the better. The show has almost no supporting cast, everybody on it shines.
If you get Oxygen, watch it. And "Cybill" is NOT a chick flick. :-)
Lola rennt (1998)
Watch carefully
The movie is full of vignettes and small twists and turns. Watch while things change. It may even make you start asking questions. Fortunately, the dialouge is brief enough that the subtitles don't get over run.