marksweller

This spin off from the Blue Thunder movie has nothing in common with the film other than the LA setting and the helicopter. Aside from the chopper, gone are the serious themes and grit and overall sense of paranoia. Instead, into the TV production have come multiple TV tropes: The tough lead cop who breaks the rules to get things done; his comedy relief partner; two ex football jocks that are as the brawn ; and the Chief who yells at his subordinates a lot. Plots are generic (stop terrorists, stop an assassination, stop another assassination, get an old girlfriend out of trouble, foil a kidnaping, stop a drug runner, transport a MacGuffin), and the writers had to work harder and harder to find something in the air Blue Thunder can confront (choppers, WWII planes, space shuttles). BUT the star of the show is clearly Blue Thunder itself, a mock up of a French Chopper that steals the scene whenever it appears. Although stock footage is often used, there is new footage each episode of some dam fine stunt flying happening as well. The last episode, which took the Blue Thunder flies away from LA to stop a coup on an island nation was ironically much improved. Although to be honest it was a lot more like an Airwolf plotline with its foreign mission and cold war elements..

Previously, I have always advocated the Canadian documentary series "The Ten Thousand Day War" as the best, most even handed, of the documentaries of the Vietnam War. And it still has the benefit of being done early, when many of the players were still alive and available for interview. But the passage of time has given Ken Burns several advantages. People are now more willing to talk about their experience without self editing, the historical perspective of the conflict is now clearer now that the Cold War has been over for some time, and the disclosure of new information from sources as diverse as the White House recordings of President Johnson through to new information from the Hanoi Politburo provide a fresh understanding. Plus, Ken Burns has an oft-cited and valuable ability to create a compelling narrative out of interviews, narration, photos, footage, and music in a way no other doc producer comes close to. And - it is not without it's own POV - which seems to be a somber sense of the near inevitable. The story unfolds like a Shakespearean tragedy, compelling and appalling. Excellent film.

Many Project UFO episodes are somewhat dull procedurals, but this installment had the added bonus of fake French exteriors filmed on the Universal lot, fake French countryside exteriors obviously filmed on a California movie ranch, really fake French accents, translation sequences (what did she say? Ah monsieur..) that ate up way too much of the run time, a UFO that was an obvious kit bash with a tank model in order to provide the required "tank tracks" explained in the script, and snoozy stock footage of planes. Oh and I forgot to mention the resolution of both the mystery subplot and the "reverse Scooby-Doo" (were they actually visited?) plot line didn't make any sense!