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Reviews
Dragons: The Nine Realms (2021)
It had such great potential
There was an opportunity to make this show as exciting and as wonderful as The Race To The Edge. But it fell short on just about every count. Weak storyline, weak characters and the ending was just a huge let down. What exactly was the point of doing this series any way. If the point was to make sure that not another How To Train Your Dragon series ever gets written again, then mission accomplished. I doubt any network would gamble on another spin off especially with the show runner that created this monumental stinker of a show. I really hope the show runner has a back up job that isn't writing for TV.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022)
THIS IS STAR TREK!!
As a long time Trekkie, who grew up watching the OST when it first aired and then on reruns whenever I was lucky enough to catch it on TV, I have a great fondness for Roddenberry's world of Star Trek and it's characters. I have a special fondness for the character Spock and I am delighted with Ethan Peck's performance in that weighty role. The shoes that Leonard Nimoy left were indeed huge. Mr. Peck seems quite comfortable in them. And it doesn't hurt that he has the same baritone voice that Nimoy had. And it is a delight to see the show put more focus on Uruha and give her a more expanded role. I think Nichelle would be as pleased as I am. The actor who plays the captain, does so with the same charm and humanity that Shatner gave to the character. And Anson Mount is quite easy on the eyes as well.
Kudos to the writers for understanding Star Trek canon and following Roddenberry's vision. It is like coming back home to old friends. As I am a late comer to Strange New Worlds, I have many episodes to catch up on and so far I am delighted and impressed. May this series live up to the Enterprise's mission and last for at least 5 years.
Cidade Invisível (2021)
I wanted to like this show
This show could be so much better if the writers took the time to explain to the viewers who are not native Brazilian the mythology of the various 'entities'. The first season's flashbacks helped a little bit but the 2nd season is hobbled by the sudden appearance of these supernatural entities and really no explanation to the viewer. The script is very wooden and stilted. The actors try, but they can only do so much with a bad script and even worse direction. It would have helped if they'd used a vehicle -- say Luna's mom reading these fairytales to Luna when she was little in flashbacks. The viewer is left to try and figure out what's going on with the entities and who they are. And the story telling is disjointed. I gave up after the first couple of episodes.
Cats (2019)
OMG! I Need Eye Bleach!
I am a big fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber's staged production of Cats. I got to see a local community stage production of Cats back in the early aughts. It was magical, transfixing and entertaining. Every bit as good as the Broadway production on the video that I own. I finally tracked down the 2019 version by the idiot Tom Hooper (I shall avoid all movies by this idiot forevermore). I have no issue with the set design, the actors, songs or dances. But rather the ridiculous, hideously creepy CGI he chose to do instead of traditional costume, hair and makeup. Seven minutes into watching the horrible mutation of cat on human body with a human face is just too nauseatingly disgusting to watch. The whole charm of the Webber stage production was the enchanting and magical makeup and costumes that transformed humans into cats. Hooper should be forced to watch his abomination over and over and over and over again for at least a year and then never ever allowed near a movie or tv or even theater stage ever again. The man should be blacklisted and should lose his equity card and shunned from Hollywood, Bollywood, Broadway, TV and if he ever shows up at a community theater he should be tarred and feathered and run out on the rail.
We Have a Ghost (2023)
Where have the writers been in the last 3 years?
This movie is about a family moving into a haunted house and one of the teens makes friends with the ghost and helps the ghost find out who he was and what happened. The boy takes a video of the ghost and his dad posts it online and the video goes viral and attracts the attention of a certain government agency who wants to capture the ghost. The premise of the story is fine. What isn't fine is the scene where a government stealth team in body armour and assault rifles with green lasers break into the family's home in the middle of the night, without a warrant, to take the ghost. Did I mention the family is black? This scene was very disturbing to me after the last 3 years of the murders of George Floyd, Brionna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. It was so disturbing that it gave me nightmares all night long. What in the fudge were these writers thinking?
Preacher (2016)
Fun Ride
I Just finished binge watching this on Hulu. It was a fun ride. Not as good as Supernatural but pretty close. Loveed Tulip. I felt like the little girl in the pilot must have felt after realizing she just met her hero. Cassidy was awesome too. A good friend with a good heart even though he was a vampire. Jessie, cute Texas twang, carries Genesis, but still not as awesome as Tulip. Oh and just like in Supernatural, God is a total dick in Preacher. I wasn't fond of the whole Messiah story line though, not sure why the writer had to make fun of the disabled, mentally challenged and the disfigured, though. The actor who played Eugene gave his character grace and dignity.
Big Time Rush (2009)
Big Time Fun
I watched this with my daughter when it first aired (and enjoy binge re-watching the series every once and awhile). Thoroughly enjoyed each episode. As others have mentioned, it's kinda like the Monkees show. Silly, funny and a great song each week. But the writers gave all the main characters a back story (except for Kelly, Gustavo's assistant what's up with that?) and made them more than just props. And the writers manage to insert lessons on kindness and being there for your friends too. So much better than the Monkees even though I still enjoy watching old episodes.
I love how the writers made the boys childhood friends and how Carlos, James and Logan treat Katie as their little sister too and how she actually has her own life and interest and doesn't just mindlessly tag after them. She reminds me of a nonpolitical Alex P Keaton ( dating myself here). The adults are a lot of fun too. From Gustavo with his tantrums and writer's block to Griffin getting caught on hidden camera goofing off in his office to the silly rivalry between Rocque Records and Hawk Records as well as Bitters just trying to run the Palm Woods in spite of having to deal with the fact that most of the guests are kids and even with Buddha Bob's help the kids always get the best of him just adds more zany fun. My favorite episodes are the two Prank Day episodes. Watching Big Time Rush will make you laugh and feel good.
The Last Bus (2022)
Entertaining, but I see some glaring plot holes
Supposedly all of humankind has been safely tucked in for a long sleep and all their nasty carbon emitting activities have been stopped while nature reverses global warming. At which time everyone will be woken up. How ever long that takes. 2 years? 10 ~ 15 ~ 20 ~ longer? But then what? As we saw in the last episode the drones are capable of mass destruction. So does this destruction include the infrastructure? What about the population's houses? What about all the pets, domestic livestock and captive animals on farms and zoos that must be cared for? Will they starve while Duncan Monkhouse's drones restore the planet? What about the nuclear power plants that suddenly stopped having anyone watch over them? Will the drones be able to keep massive, multiple nuclear meltdowns from all of the nuclear power plants that currently exist in over 50 countries from happening that would bring about massive destruction and make the planet basically unliveable? What will all 9 billion humans eat when they finally wake up? Will the drones be planting food and storing it in preparation of the 'big wake up? And then technology will still essentially be the same, heavy on petroleum based energy, right? So mankind will pick up and go back to it's evil carbon emitting ways? Or will the drones be recreating society/civilization with all the tech and advancements but no carbon emitting, earth destroying technology?
What about all the military weapons, bases etc? Will Monkhouse obliterate all weapons of war? What about all the military base, shipyards, war jets?
And does Monkhouse really think the world will applaud him as the world's savior and give him medals, trophies and dinners? Or will everyone be so angry that countries stand in line to sue him into oblivion? What exactly is his plan?
Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist (2020)
Zoey was sooooo annoying
It's hard to watch a show when the main character is so annoying and unlikeable. The supporting cast was great. So was the music and dance numbers. The head geek of the company is sooo annoying and even more unlikeable than Zoey. I watched the Christmas show and I even found Mo annoying. The network suits were right to cancel this show.
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The Secret of Roan Inish (1994)
Delightful and magical
I saw this little Indie movie back in the 90s on cable. Except I caught the middle of it. I was entranced and charmed anyway and remembered the movie about the selkies until I was able to track it down recently and watch the whole movie. The cinematography is raw and understated. You can almost smell the salt in the air as the children travel by boat to Ronan Inish and Fiona makes the discovery that her baby brother, Jaime, is still alive and they decide to spruce up the cottages so they can come back home. The tale of the selkies is woven seamlessly through the movie and it is as charming as an Irishman and as satisfying as a pint of ale in your favorite pub.
The Ridiculous 6 (2015)
Really stupid, really offensive
And not even a bit funny. I agree with those actors who walked off the set. The movie was quite offensive to Native American Women. It was even offensive to the actors who played Sandler's brothers. Specifically actor Jorge Garcia. I felt so bad for him. I would like the 2 hours and 14 minutes of my life that I wasted on this crap movie. Adam has 2 daughters, so I don't understand how he can continue to denigrate women and dismiss it as 'comedy'. Not cool Adam. Not cool at all.
Club Paradise (1986)
Fun silly feel-good movie
I love this movie. It's light hearted, silly and has great island music. Peter O'Tool is a bright little jewel but Robin makes this movie shine. Every time I watch this movie, it makes me happy. It's been a while since I've seen it and I had forgotten that the island locals march up the beach to stop the show down between the bat crap crazy Minister of Finance and Tourism and Earnest Reed, owner of Jimmy's Cliff Club and basically stop a civil war. When the rest of the island show up, with the governor (O'Tool) dressed in his full military regalia on horseback no less, Gundy and his two dozen or so soldiers loose the air from their sails. War averted. Club Paradise is saved. Happy ending for everybody except poor Solomon Gundy. I laughed through the whole movie. It was a joy seeing Robin ad lib his way through the movie.
The Ice Pirates (1984)
Great Fun - Silly and Campy
If you come into this movie with lowered expectations, you're in for a fun ride. Like maybe a waterslide into the pool kinda ride. The ending is kind of a let down though. But still a pleasant way to kill an hour and a half.
SurrealEstate (2021)
Hate it when show runners fire actors.
The show is just OK. Now the show runner has fired the two characters that I actually like and look forward to seeing. Augie and Phil were actually a highlight of each episode. Not cool.
The show stories lack background and the actual hauntings are treated in an offhand way. Like an afterthought. More time should be spent on developing the backstory and the hauntings should be really more of a major part of the show, but they're not.
I tried to like it but the Susan character is completely unlikeable and Rozen is just irritating. The guest characters are actually more enjoyable than the main lead.
Vagrant Queen (2020)
The monarchists were annoying.
The show wasn't horrible until Elida ran into the monarchists who wanted her to come back with them. OMG, they were so annoying, I wished Elida had made good on her threat and vaporized them. I just lost interest because these characters (monarchists) were unlikable and irritating. I also thought the premise of a child ruler who was really just the pawn of her mother annoying from the outset and actually agreed with the rebels who overthrew the monarchy. I tried, but the writing was just awful.
Star Trek Into Darkness (2013)
Really just an Action Flick in Space
Abrams completely ignores Star Trek Canon and completely ignores the Star Trek opening that Pine recited at the end of the movie: "to explore strange, new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; to boldly go where no man has gone before". He rewrote an episode from the original series, and added a lot of explosions and destruction to stretch out a story that Roddenberry told in 50 minutes to make it a 2 hour 13 minute action flick.
At least someone went to the trouble to hire actors that resembled the original ST cast and the actors stepped into those roles so seamlessly it was like stepping back in time when I was a child watching Star Trek on TV. It is the actors who portrayed these beloved characters that made this awful schlock watchable. Even if Abrams took Roddenberry's Kahn and threw on a tilt a wheel and reassembled the story into something completely unrecognizable from the original story. At least the actors knew the great task that they had been given and they succeeded beyond my wildest imaginations. Bravo Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Keith Urban, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Simon Pegg and Anton Yelchin. Well done! Thank you Anton Yelchin for giving us a young Chekov again. Rip.
I hate that Abrams had no reverence for Roddenberry or the world he created under the Star Trek name. To him it was just an action flick where things got smashed.
I hope that more Star Trek movies are made and they hire a director who loves the Star Trek universe as much as its legions of fans and who will take Roddenberry's vision and canon as gospel and not try to give us a lousy reimagination.
The Rocky Horror Picture Show: Let's Do the Time Warp Again (2016)
Kenny Ortega ruined Rocky Horror Picture Show
Letting Kenny Ortega direct was the first mistake. Replacing Tim Curry with Laverne Cox was the second. The third was making it a weird 3rd person viewing experience. Awful and blasphemy. If someone were to do a remake and not mess with the genus that is Richard O'Brien, I am not sure who could do the lead roll of Dr, Frank N Furter justice now that Freddy Mercury is dead. But for Bob' sake, please don't give the roll to another woman. Be true to O'Brien's vision down to the actual words in the song and the choreograph. And please burn all copies of this stinking pile of garbage. And DO NOT let Kenny Ortega direct ANYTHING EVER AGAIN. All his movies look like High School Musical. Seriously.
Tom Ellis!! I can just see him in glam drag queen eyeshadow, corset, fishnet stockings and platform heels! Tom would do an awesome Sweet Transvestite!
Hunter Street (2017)
Premise is good, Execution horrible
This show is almost as bad as the Reboot of Reboot that got cancelled after 2 seasons. The premise is that a bad dude is after the family's inheritance of the fabled blue and red diamonds. The enemy named Saganash kidnapped the children's parents in hopes of getting the gems. The children are driven to find them and become embroiled in the intrigue. They come in contact, close contact with Saganash at least a couple of times in the first season where they could have overpowered their nemesis but fail to do so. The first time in a parking lot. If all four children had jumped on this black hooded and caped mystery person, who by the sound of his voice is in his 70s at least, they could have overpowered him and beat him in submission until the cops arrived. Max and Kate, two teenagers get another opportunity later in season 1 where Saganash tries to get the disc that helps decipher the map where the diamonds are hidden. Instead they run off. The writing is truly full of holes and is horrible.
Little Joe (2019)
Really Boring, Really Stupid
The jarring and annoying sound track was finally enough to make me turn off the movie. The whole premise is this plant could alter someone's personality. Hardly a horror movie. And all of the examples of personality change were so subtle that it was neither horrifying nor interesting enough to continue to watch. I really want my hour back that I wasted watching this dumb film.
Star Trek: Picard (2020)
Season 3 based on a lie
The premise of season 3 is the renegade changelings want revenge because StarFleet withheld the cure. That is not true. Odo took the cure with him to the great link and passed it onto the rest of the changelings. This is why you don't eff with canon Kurtzman. This is why Picard sucks so bad!!!
ReBoot: The Guardian Code (2018)
This is bad, really bad
What an abomination. Is the show about Bob the Guardian and his friends keeping the cyber world safe from Megabyte and Hexadecimal for the Users? Nope. That would be the original '90s series that has a cult following to this day. This 'ReBoot' is really just a cheesy Power Ranger's knock-off-wannabe. Except it doesn't have the 'cheesiness' of the Power Rangers show. No sign of Bob, Dot, Enzo, Friskett, Megabyte or Hexadecimal until the last episode of the 1st season. I wanted to weep for the horrible 'after thought' that the writers gave these original characters. These characters should have been front and center from episode 1. What viewers are left with is a really poor Power Rangers knock-off with an overload of teen angst. Oh Bob, what have they done?