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Reviews
Taskmaster: An Imbalance in the Poppability (2021)
Fantastic Line Up
This group is possibly my favorite Taskmaster cast of all time. They all have their individual strengths. But every one of them is engaged, inventive and game for anything. A great start to an immensely entertaining series.
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
The Meh-trix.
While there are a couple of interesting ideas, and some clever, self-aware jokes, overall I found this a bit dull. The new characters are mostly bland, and the action sequences just don't have the snap of the original trilogy. And.no offense to Jonathan Groff, but his new incarnation of Agent Smith is a pale imitation of Hugo Weaving. I didn't hate it, but I have no desire to ever watch it again. And even Revolutions was worth a second watch.
Taskmaster: Their Water's So Delicious (2017)
One of My Favorites
This entire season was exceptional. All of the competitors were smart, inventive and hilarious. But this episode holds a special place in my heart because of Nish and Mark's brilliant song. After all of the frustrations the two of them endured throughout the season, it was so satisfying to see them knock one out of the park. I got genuinely emotional.
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
Quite Disappointed
I was really looking forward to this. I enjoyed the first Wonder Woman a lot, and I thought the trailer for this one was brilliant. But it's just a rambling, goofy mess. I love all of the lead actors, and there are a few nice moments. But overall it's unfocused, poorly plotted and honestly kind of boring. And some the cgi in the action scenes is laughable. Such a let down.
Tenet (2020)
At Least I'm Not Alone
I was so frustrated by the way the sound mix buried the dialogue that I did a Google search to see if it was just me. But it seems that I'm not the only one who had trouble with that. Overall I have to say I was disappointed. I normally enjoy Nolan's films, and I loved Dunkirk particularly. But this left me cold. The visuals were stunning. But ultimately it was just a cold, empty puzzle box. Many people have said it improves with repeat viewings. But I'm not curious enough to try, honestly.
Primal: Plague of Madness (2020)
Zombie Dinosaurs
That's really all you have to say. This episode has zombie dinosaurs. And that's just awesome.
Star Trek: Picard: Broken Pieces (2020)
I suppose we had that in common...
This episode was just brilliant. The scene between Soji and Picard in the mess hall, talking about Data was magnificent. And it pays off the entire history of Picard's relationship with Data. When Picard tells Soji how he hoped Data saw him, it's one of the best descriptions of a father I've ever heard. That's why Data's death hit Picard so hard. He might never say it out loud, but he thought of Data as a son.
Plus Raffi dealing with all of the holograms was a hoot, and Seven was a badass. Really a great episode.
Star Trek: Picard: Stardust City Rag (2020)
Ok, that was goofy
I've really been enjoying this series. But this episode was a bit weak. There were some good moments, overall it was kind of silly. Picard and Rios's disguises were ridiculous. And Picard's accent was atrocious. He's French, for god's sake. He should be able to do a French accent.
Star Trek: Discovery: Such Sweet Sorrow (2019)
No Mo Po. Please.
Po is the most irritating character I've seen on any show in ages. I'd rather listen to the complete works of Shakespeare read by Jar Jar Binks than watch one minute of her.
The VelociPastor (2018)
Worth it for One Scene
I watched the first three minutes of this. Then I fast forwarded to the end, watched the last five minutes, and laughed harder than I have in months. I can't offer an honest opinion on the movie as a whole (though it's almost certainly terrible) but that last scene is a laugh riot.
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
Late to the Party
When Discovery premiered I held off because I didn't want to subscribe to another streaming service for a single show. But I subscribed for the sake of Picard, and figured I might as well catch up on Discovery as well. It's a bit of a mixed bag for me, but getting better as it goes. I must admit some of the canon violations bother me. I wish they'd set the show further along in the timeline, rather than making it a prequel. But some of the characters are growing on me. And it's nice to see them trying something new.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Ensigns of Command (1989)
Gosheven's dialogue
I've always liked this episode. It's a great showcase for Data. And it's fun to see Picard and Troi struggling to communicate with some genuinely alien aliens.
But I would like to add my two cents about one of the minor controversies around this episode. Much has been made of the fact that Grainger Hines is not credited for his performance as Gosheven, and that all of his dialogue is obviously dubbed. Some people think this evidence of behind the scenes unpleasantness. But there is a simple, practical explanation for this.
The aqueduct in the village square set was a practical prop, with real running water in it. This means that all of the scenes shot on that set would have the sound of running water in the background. Consequently all of the dialogue in those scenes would have to be re-recorded and dubbed after the fact, to give the editors clean audio to work with. This is called ADR (Automatic Dialogue Replacement) and it is common practice whenever the audio from a scene has excessive background noise.
However, if Hines had some sort of scheduling conflict and couldn't make it in to do his ADR before the episode had to be completed, his lines would have to be overdubbed by another actor. And in order to make Gosheven's dialogue consistent throughout the episode, that actor would have to dub every scene. Even the ones with clean audio.
It's understandable that Hines wouldn't want his name on the episode when someone else spoke all of his lines.
Spider-Man: Far from Home (2019)
Fun but forgettable
I suppose that any ordinary Marvel movie will feel like a bit of a letdown after Endgame. This one is fine, but not spectacular. There is one plot point that really bugged me though - the fact that Mysterio and his cronies are all motivated by resentment and hatred of Tony Stark. Sure Tony could be egotistical at times. But he sacrificed his life to undo Thanos' snap. Statistically at least a few of these people would have been "dusted" and then restored. I mean, I've had a couple of bad bosses in my time. But if one of them literally brought me back from the dead, I could probably find it in my heart to forgive them.
1917 (2019)
Excellent Work
I have a lot of hesitation about films that try the "one long take" thing. Often it comes across as a gimmick that doesn't do anything for the story. And they usually suffer from poor pacing as the characters have to spend half their time just walking from place to place. But this film really pulls it off well. It's briskly paced, and very exciting. The central performances are all really solid. And the production design and cinematography are outstanding. It a gorgeous movie to look at, and well worth experiencing on a big screen.
Primal (2019)
Brutal and Gorgeous
I had the chance to catch a preview screening of the first four episodes of Primal on the big screen in Los Angeles. This is the most stunning piece of animation I've seen in years. It completely immerses you in a rich, fantastic world. The character designs are brilliant. The action is awesome. And it does it all without a single word of spoken dialogue. A triumph of visual storytelling.
Ad Astra (2019)
Sad Astra
Spaceman Pitt has to fly all the way to Neptune and back to work out his daddy issues. There are some stunning visuals, but the story is cold and mechanical. I would have given it a 5, but it gets an extra point for the space baboons. They were the only surprise in this otherwise predictable story.
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Always Bugged Me
The ending of this movie has always bugged me. Not because it's dark or depressing or subverts our expectations. That's fine as far as it goes. No, it bothers me because it makes no sense. John says in his closing narration that Skynet no longer has a single, central location. It has dispersed itself over the internet into millions of computers. Fine.
Except I'm fairly confident that the internet would stop working in the event of a global nuclear war.
Most of the computers in the world, like most of the people, are in cities. And those computers would be destroyed along with everything else in those cities when they were nuked. Not to mention that most of the infrastructure that connects those computers would also be destroyed.
Most of the computers that were not physically destroyed would be rendered inoperative by the EMPs from hundreds of nuclear detonations. Not to mention that most of them would lose power as well.
Skynet is a computer program. It can't survive without electricity, and a computer with enough memory to contain it. If it dispersed itself across the internet, and then nuked most of the technology that makes the internet work, it would essentially be committing suicide.
That's my two cents about that.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Change of Heart (1998)
What Constitutes a Plot Hole
This isn't the greatest episode of the series. But I feel a lot of the criticism of it is unfair. Previous reviews have pointed out possible ways that Worf could have saved Jadzia and accomplished his mission. But he chose not to. This isn't a plot hole. It's a choice. Worf makes a decision. Just because it isn't the best or most logical choice doesn't make it a failure on the part of the writers. The entire point of the episode is to show how Worf has grown and changed because of his love for Jadzia. For the first time in his life there is something that matters to him more than a duty. This isn't a video game. The point isn't to solve a puzzle. It's a story about a man who has spent his whole life denying his own desires in favor of his duty. And he finally finds someone he loves enough to break him out of that pattern. Who wants to see a story about someone doing what they've always done, and will do again?
Pulp Fiction (1994)
My Favorite Tarantino
This movie has been debated and analyzed and dissected for years. I could make a lot of detailed arguments for why I think it works so well. But the simple truth is that when I saw this movie for the first time, on opening day of its original release, I had one of the best times I've ever had watching a movie. And it's one of those films that I could rewatch again and again. It's a masterpiece.
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Sometimes a film becomes a place
I loved this movie the first time I saw it. And it grows on me a little bit every time I rewatch it. It's like going to visit an old friend's house. Anderson did such a marvelous job building this odd little world. It's just one indelible image after another. Gene Hackman is just marvelous. And that shot of Margot getting off the bus.
The Tall Guy (1989)
A Forgotten Gem
I own a copy of this on VHS, and it's basically the only reason I haven't thrown out my VCR. I watched this for the first time in college, and it's had a special place in my heart ever since. I'm so frustrated that it's not available to stream anywhere. Honestly, if you told people, "You know, the guy who wrote Four Weddings and a Funeral wrote a movie where Emma Thompson and Jeff Goldblum have sex on top of a piano" - who wouldn't want to see that?
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Children of Time (1997)
An Emotional Episode
The contrivances of the time travel plot are a bit forced. But then, most time travel stories have something in them that doesn't quite add up. But this episode still got to me. The scene where the crew helps their descendants plant their crop is really touching. It reminded me of a quote that is often attributed to Martin Luther. "Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree."
Capsule (2015)
Like watching paint dry... in space!
Want to watch a man fidget in a chair and hyperventilate for an hour? Then this is the movie for you.
It's possible to make a compelling movie about a single person alone in a tense situation. All is Lost (2013) follows a lone sailor on a sinking sailboat. Locke (2013) is just Tom Hardy talking on the phone in his car. This film obviously wants to be a claustrophobic thriller in that vein. But it simply doesn't know how to build tension.
The low budget forgives some of the unconvincing effects (they can't afford to show objects floating in zero g, so they just never show Taylor let go of anything). But the real weakness is the writing. Taylor never seems like a real, sympathetic character. The movie tries to explain his erratic behavior by saying he's hypoxic. But we have no baseline to compare it to. He's disoriented and agitated from the word go. So we have no sense of whether he's losing it due to lack of oxygen, or if he's just inept.
The ending is supposed to be a shocking twist, but it just feels like a cop out. The movie forces us to spend over an hour in a cramped space with a single character, then kills him off screen and explains what happened in some stilted expository dialogue from a character we've never seen before.
And finally, I'm sure most sensible people know this, but the British didn't actually put a man in space in 1959. Yuri Gagarin was the first human to go into space, in 1961.
Grand Tours of the Scottish Islands (2013)
Lovely Show
Sometimes you're in the mood for a gritty, suspenseful drama. And sometimes you just want to watch a man on a bicycle wander around a tiny Scottish island looking at ruins and chatting about birds. If you can't manage a vacation to the Scottish isles, this is the next best thing. It's brilliantly photographed, with all sorts of gorgeous vistas. And it makes nice use of archival materials, including historic photos and home movies of the sites. I watched the whole first series in a day. It was just the thing to take my mind off of my troubles for an afternoon.
What We Left Behind: Looking Back at Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (2018)
Really Lovely
I thoroughly enjoyed this doc about DS9 - my personal favorite of the Star Trek series. There are wonderful interviews with just about every major player from in front and behind the camera. It gave me some wonderful insights, and made me want to watch the whole series over again. And the remastered HD clips from the show look spectacular. The whole series definitely deserves an HD remaster.
Hearing all of the people involved talking about how much the show meant to them reminded me of something I've noticed about some of my other favorite shows over the years. The people who made this show loved each other, and they loved what they were doing. And that's why it's so magnificent. Beautiful things come from love.