ArgonRyan

This was bad. I love the mask comics, and gave this a chance with trepidation, really wanting to find something to like. But no, just really awful filmmaking on every level, from writing, to cinematography, acting, direction, editing, sound mixing, effects, you name it. The filmmakers obviously have some charisma and all the passion in the world, but these things alone do not a good film make. It plays like a first year film school project, using friends as actors, edited at home on a laptop, and mind-numbingly drawn out to feature length. I sincerely hope nobody got paid for this. The Mask is a great property, and hollywood should be remaking the crap out of it, doing fresh takes with the best directors - sort of like the concept behind this, except watchable.

This show -the first season at least where they build Mike Jr's new home- is like they took Holmes Makes it Right, cut the 'Making Things Right' content in half, and filled the gaps with family melodrama, product commercials and fake 'sometimes we guys like to cool down by sitting in a circle and spraying each other with water' (seriously) daily activities. The added content is so transparently and awkwardly forced in, as though the execs polled housewives with a question like, "what would make you consider sitting through one of these shows with your significant other?" It kind of ruins it. Also there's an unusually high percentage of recapping where we are and what we're going to do next. It's just not as meaty of a show as it should be for ostensibly a home improvement show. There are a number of 'on the ground' changes that are used as conflict tension, but are so clearly due to poor initial planning it's unbelievable. These guys are talented builders, not entertainers, let them do what they do best. They're also super opaque and phony with the financial end of things. Junior starts out saying he wants to pull out a wall and redo all the finishes of his little starter house (featuring a clearly artificially aged garage door) with 50k he 'saved up'. It's an optimistic thought but doable, hardly worth a whole season of a show - then the show asks you to believe that "Big Mike," on camera, sideswipes him instead with the idea of completely rebuilding his house from the foundation up, adding a story, using solar panels and all the most modern materials and finishes. There are a couple sentences to the effect of, "Whoa whoa what that sounds like more than 50k" and some hand waving about the bank taking care of it. What?? They end up with a half million dollar house with 5 (FIVE) bathrooms owned by a 25 year old and a prospective 'doctor of holistic medicine'. Just go ahead and don't mention the money, pretending to be folksy-relatable. "Oh geez this minor setback sounds like I'm going to have to compromise in other areas to be still able to afford the whole project ....even though your "garage" we built last year is an estate with its own postal code and I'm cleaning your yacht on camera because I lost a scripted hammering bet"