WeHeldTheCum
Joined Jan 2015
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WeHeldTheCum's rating
The opening paragraph is a little off-topic rant/opinion dump, If any potential reader is interested in the review itself, I would recommend skipping it.
It's sad how prematurely this show was scrapped due to low ratings. Now, I'm sure people can find a whole bunch of reasons "The Goode Family" never amassed the necessary popularity to survive, but I personally see it as tragic case of preconceptions determining public opinion. Now, I'm not from the USA myself, so any political BS people throw around about satirical shows such as this one was never that interesting to me. If I'm not mistaken, the main creative force behind the show (Mike Judge) once stated, that his work is more about people's way of thinking and social processes - not political events. Even so, people just love to label things as "conservative" or "liberal" to simplify them. It really sucks when folks can't appreciate a good joke, or a piece of art in general, just because they have a stick up their arsenal about some recent political event that no one will give a fudge about in 5 years or so. Quite sad, indeed.
The show itself is based around episodes with individual plot lines - there is no connection between episodes, save for the characters and setting. The humor is varied, ranging from lighthearted jabs at different stereotypes that doesn't really stand out that much from other satirical shows to slapstick moments which work surprisingly well and occasionally - surprisingly cynical and nuanced humor, which is the highlight of the show.
The series does have several shortcomings, some of the running jokes, namely the dog not being fed properly, could have been handled better. Some of the supporting characters aren't developed properly and don't fulfill the potential their overall concept had planned. Out of the 13 episodes created, the later ones show more refinement and potential, (especially the "lime dew" one) proving the series had a good starting point. Sadly, corporate pulled the plug.
In its unfinished state the series exists as more of a curiosity, but I would still highly recommend seeing it, as it still shows time, effort and creativity was put into it, what little there is.
It's sad how prematurely this show was scrapped due to low ratings. Now, I'm sure people can find a whole bunch of reasons "The Goode Family" never amassed the necessary popularity to survive, but I personally see it as tragic case of preconceptions determining public opinion. Now, I'm not from the USA myself, so any political BS people throw around about satirical shows such as this one was never that interesting to me. If I'm not mistaken, the main creative force behind the show (Mike Judge) once stated, that his work is more about people's way of thinking and social processes - not political events. Even so, people just love to label things as "conservative" or "liberal" to simplify them. It really sucks when folks can't appreciate a good joke, or a piece of art in general, just because they have a stick up their arsenal about some recent political event that no one will give a fudge about in 5 years or so. Quite sad, indeed.
The show itself is based around episodes with individual plot lines - there is no connection between episodes, save for the characters and setting. The humor is varied, ranging from lighthearted jabs at different stereotypes that doesn't really stand out that much from other satirical shows to slapstick moments which work surprisingly well and occasionally - surprisingly cynical and nuanced humor, which is the highlight of the show.
The series does have several shortcomings, some of the running jokes, namely the dog not being fed properly, could have been handled better. Some of the supporting characters aren't developed properly and don't fulfill the potential their overall concept had planned. Out of the 13 episodes created, the later ones show more refinement and potential, (especially the "lime dew" one) proving the series had a good starting point. Sadly, corporate pulled the plug.
In its unfinished state the series exists as more of a curiosity, but I would still highly recommend seeing it, as it still shows time, effort and creativity was put into it, what little there is.
The First paragraph of this review consists of exposition. If a potential reader wishes to read about my opinion on the movie, skipping to the second paragraph is advisable. It's been about two years since I saw this movie at the cinema - something is compelled me to organize my thoughts and write this now. Why? I'm not entirely sure, I guess "Guardians Of The Galaxy" was always kind of an enigma to me. How could a movie so inept in everything it tries to do be so praised? It's not your typical Michael Bay-esque Hollywood cookie-cutter garbage, so It's success can't be attributed to following the same, overused, cliché-infested formulas. It could be that I am insane in my own specific way, but outside of production value I found no redeeming qualities here. I know the movie is an adaptation (of sorts) of a comic book series. My knowledge of comics is incredibly limited, so I'm judging this thing on it's own merits.
"Guardians Of The Galaxy" reminded me of one of those sci-fi stories I would come up with when I was 10-13 years old. It was a favorite pastime of mine, coming up with characters, who were blatant rip-offs of others from franchises I enjoyed at the time, putting them in nonsensical situations (of course, to 12 year old me it all made perfect sense) and just admiring my creation as any narcissistic child would. Of course, my stories didn't have movie adaptations with astronomical budgets.
I compared "Guardians Of The Galaxy" to a child's sci-fi story because of it's complete lack of direction - too many plot lines (more akin to plot doodles) that are individually unrefined and irrelevant to the overall story, which somehow manages to be even more undefinable. It's like a space opera chopped up and stitched together in some horribly messed up jigsaw puzzle. Now, some movies thrive on a lack of continuity and direction (Tarantino practically mastered that form of film-making), but this specimen is different. Again, it's as if the script was written by a child and the whole thing was directed by some individual who somehow had the skill of a top-notch director, but again possessed the mindset of a 12 year old.
What's even more surreal about the whole thing is that it feels incredibly solid - it's not "The Room" where every seen is irrelevant, because of the writer/director's sheer incompetence. Somehow, "Guardians..." holds itself together quite well, again everything else is top notch: Excellent CGI, detailed land/spacescapes (albeit of unoriginal, uninspired design) and pretty good acting with some minor exceptions. As I said before, this movie doesn't play out like a typical Hollywood schlockfest would - there are too many plot lines and too much time is devoted to character development - if this was typical garbage, we would have had a lot more action scenes and female characters in suggestive positions. All these attempts at complexity feel sincere, again, it's like a child trying to do his best, but they have no purpose. To illustrate: why should it matter that the green chick and the blue chick (sorry, too lazy to look up names) are sisters - it could matter, but the movie makes no attempt to give some importance to this statement, they share some scenes, the talk about about each other, they fight, but nothing really comes out of it. It's the same with every single plot point you can think of. The Villain? Well, he's pale blue and angry and he has this massive spaceship fortress and wants to rule/destroy (not sure) the universe, but wait it turns out he's not the main villain, there's another guy and he's even...yeah a 12 year old might buy into this being legit character development, but I've grown far too old and cynical.
In the end, "Guardians Of The Galaxy" feels like it starts from nowhere, goes nowhere and accomplishes nothing. A very empty, yet confusing (albeit visually spectacular) experience. But all the glitter in the world can't make this shine. Sorry.
"Guardians Of The Galaxy" reminded me of one of those sci-fi stories I would come up with when I was 10-13 years old. It was a favorite pastime of mine, coming up with characters, who were blatant rip-offs of others from franchises I enjoyed at the time, putting them in nonsensical situations (of course, to 12 year old me it all made perfect sense) and just admiring my creation as any narcissistic child would. Of course, my stories didn't have movie adaptations with astronomical budgets.
I compared "Guardians Of The Galaxy" to a child's sci-fi story because of it's complete lack of direction - too many plot lines (more akin to plot doodles) that are individually unrefined and irrelevant to the overall story, which somehow manages to be even more undefinable. It's like a space opera chopped up and stitched together in some horribly messed up jigsaw puzzle. Now, some movies thrive on a lack of continuity and direction (Tarantino practically mastered that form of film-making), but this specimen is different. Again, it's as if the script was written by a child and the whole thing was directed by some individual who somehow had the skill of a top-notch director, but again possessed the mindset of a 12 year old.
What's even more surreal about the whole thing is that it feels incredibly solid - it's not "The Room" where every seen is irrelevant, because of the writer/director's sheer incompetence. Somehow, "Guardians..." holds itself together quite well, again everything else is top notch: Excellent CGI, detailed land/spacescapes (albeit of unoriginal, uninspired design) and pretty good acting with some minor exceptions. As I said before, this movie doesn't play out like a typical Hollywood schlockfest would - there are too many plot lines and too much time is devoted to character development - if this was typical garbage, we would have had a lot more action scenes and female characters in suggestive positions. All these attempts at complexity feel sincere, again, it's like a child trying to do his best, but they have no purpose. To illustrate: why should it matter that the green chick and the blue chick (sorry, too lazy to look up names) are sisters - it could matter, but the movie makes no attempt to give some importance to this statement, they share some scenes, the talk about about each other, they fight, but nothing really comes out of it. It's the same with every single plot point you can think of. The Villain? Well, he's pale blue and angry and he has this massive spaceship fortress and wants to rule/destroy (not sure) the universe, but wait it turns out he's not the main villain, there's another guy and he's even...yeah a 12 year old might buy into this being legit character development, but I've grown far too old and cynical.
In the end, "Guardians Of The Galaxy" feels like it starts from nowhere, goes nowhere and accomplishes nothing. A very empty, yet confusing (albeit visually spectacular) experience. But all the glitter in the world can't make this shine. Sorry.
