CorumJI Reviews

Dolemite (1975)

My god this movie is horrible, even for an ultra low-budget film!

[2/10 · 14 May 2024]

It's been decades since I saw this in the theaters, so I cannot recall an awful lot about it, but one of the most glaringly bad elements of it was the horribly done fight sequences.

I specifically recall cases where they shot a kick from an angle, and it was obvious from that angle that there was no actual contact made between the kicker and the supposed target. And we're not talking a small difference, here -- this was easily a miss by more than six inches!! And this happened more than just once or twice. No effort was made to even hide the bad stunt work.

It's not the absolute worst movie I've ever seen -- that would be Manos, Hands of Fate -- but it's pretty low down on that bar. The only way you should watch this is by giving it the Mystery Science Theater 3000 treatment -- get a bunch of your buddies together with beer or drugs, and popcorn, and rag on it from start to finish.

Trust me, it deserves to be ragged on, more than 99% of all films.

Legion of Super-Heroes (2023)

Wretched, vile, and offensive... to almost any Legion fan.

[1/10 · 14 January 2024]

OK, YMMV -- as a Legion fan from back in the Adventure days, this is easily the worst DCA I've seen (I grant, I have not seen them all).

It ignores literally 90% of all the Legion canon, is literally nothing more than an excuse for a Supergirl romance story, has as bad guys one of the stupidest, most irrelevant ones possible (e.g., not a classic Legion villain at all), has one of the team's main good guys turn out to be a bad guy, and just flat out sucks. And most of the team is not present for even part of the story.

Probably about as disappointed as possible in this. It's as though whoever wrote it, and the people in charge, had zero actual knowledge of Legion Canon. They basically just used the character names and made up whatever dreck they wanted to make up from there. Horrible.

If you have no knowledge of the Legion, AND are under 16, you'll probably think it's ok. Anyone else, well, you've been warned. Again: YMMV. But that's my take. :-(

Rated "1" only because I've not been given any better option.

P. S., also, what the hell is it with replacing gingers with whatever idiot "Diversity swap" they are making? ALWAYS. Wally West? Black. Now Lightning Lad ? Black. Why not Rokk, if you wanted to make someone black? I'm not even a ginger, and it's disturbing. Fact is, the LSH doesn't need diversity swaps. It's always been about mixed-races -- including alien races -- PLUS you can expect considerable homogenization after 1000 years of intermarriage. Karate Kid is from Japan, and with the early 80s, Invisible Kid became Jacques Foccart. Dawn Star is "native American", And Gim Allon is Jewish. So there is no reason to swap them... if you want to add diversity, make sure you include those characters, and add more of the other planetary factions, too. If you insist on more in the base team, again, ok, but... do Rokk instead of the redhead, you know?

Matilda: The Musical (II) (2022)

I'm not the target audience...

[7/10 · 29 December 2023]

... But it's an ok movie. The girl playing Matilda does an excellent job playing the role without seeming pretentious, and much of the rest of the cast does well. Emma Thompson is over the top, but it seems to befit the movie. I don't really think any of the songs are particularly striking or great, but I will state that the children selected for the dancing are pretty talented to be able to do even some of the moves (a few of which are likely to be adults with perspective shots to hide this), but even the synchronized stuff is impressively well done given the fact that many have to be young teens at best. All in all, it's a decent, watchable movie for adults, if not great. And it does represent a good movie in terms of social values, which is not always common these days. Also, if you're an adult, you should --seriously-- do a search on a mashup: search on "Matilda Rob Zombie". It's one of those things like the fabled "Dark Side of the Moon" with "The Wizard of Oz" that seem to match up very strangely.

Pennyworth (2019–2022)

Best DC series since Smallville

[10/10 · 21 August 2023]

I have to say, I just watched S1 of this, and, if you haven't, you should give it a chance. I hope s2 and s3 are as good, and if they are, then it having been cancelled is just a shame. I would say it's the best DC series on any channel since Smallville. It has a lot of that "Avengers" feel (the 60s series, not the superheroes) -- just a little surreal, enough to feel "quirky", slightly tongue-in-cheek ("nudge nudge, ha ha, but seriously...") and really works very well. The only actor of note I recognize is Jason Flemyng, of "Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels". The opening title music has a very 60s feel to it, and the musical choices, while not always "60s" era by artist, are usually 60s-era with covers by more modern artists. Jack Bannon does a great job as Alfred, getting a brit accent that sounds very much like Michael Caine's, so it "fits" since Caine played Alfred in the Dark Knight movies.

This, to me, is a remarkably well done series. YMMV, and all that, but it's smart, fun, and well-done. 10 out of 10 stars.

It is nominally set in the 1960s, but exactly when is unclear, as it mentions "The American president planning to put a man on the moon" (1961) but has "Inna-Gadda-Davita" (1968) in its music. We could assume this is an alternate universe where those two things happened in the same year, perhaps.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023)

If the animation style is not an issue, this is awesome.

[10/10 · 6 June 2023]

Up front: I can see how the animation style might turn off some people. Not many, but some. Also, it is "continued Next Movie", much as "Infinity War".

Given those two as a codicil, this movie ranks as one of the best animated movies ever done. I currently rank things as The Incredibles (#1), Big Hero 6(#2) and Inside Out (#3). This one might take either #1 or #2, it'll depend on re-watchings, and the conclusion movie... Probably #2 -- at worst it's tied with BH6.

The reason for the rating is pretty simple -- it's very strong on characterization, giving much more focus on Gwen and her relationship with her father, as well as Miles and his with his family. It does also develop some other characters further (spoilers would be required for more information, so no more comment there) and has quite a bit of fun to add to it. In addition, Miles becomes much less of a whiny insecure type, and more of a true "Spiderman".

It also provides considerable development of the "Spideyverse" concept (for this movie series, at least), and may define its own version of that in the end -- that's part of the "continued next movie" aspect of it.

In general -- strongly recommended, and I suspect it's worth more than a single re-watch, as well.

Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)

Very decent film...

[9/10 · 1 November 2019]

Now, first off... I am going to say, I don't hate on T:Genesys. The problem with the Terminator films is that they have a very tight causal loop which makes it exceptionally difficult to actually tell a new, interesting, and decent story. Plus T2 was an awesome, ground-breaking movie. T:G was an effort to break out of that loop so other aspects of a story could be told. But whatever. Too many people Did Not Get It. Fine. So now we get T:DF. Which is a different effort to somewhat do what T:G did, and an equally good, if not better, effort towards that end.

Yes, they did do a female centered take on it as far as the heroes go. I'm totally fine with that. They did not rip its arms off and beat you over the head with them, they just bopped you on the top of the head a couple times lightly. Enough to be obvious. but not enough to be distracting overmuch. They could have edited the speaking parts out and just let the movie slide on its own female-centric merits (you don't need to be TOLD about the limited need for male saviors, you can see it for yourselves), and that would be an improvement, but not a significant one.

All in all, for an action-movie, as you expect from a Terminator movie, the drama and plotting is well-done, the characters thinly but adequately developed, the motivations clear and reasonably derived. The stunts and FX, as you would expect, are top notch. There are one or two issues, perhaps, but nothing much. It certainly holds together better than a typical Fast and Furious film.

Counterpart (2017–2019)

First episode only... so far, so good...

[8/10 · 14 December 2017]

This is an odd, quirky piece, not a lot of action, but a lot of "what the hell...?" to keep you engaged.

The central character, played by well-known character actor JK Simmons with aplomb, discovers that the agency he works for has a strange little secret, which he had no inkling about before. Decades before, the agency inadvertently opened a portal to another dimension, with an earth that was identical, but, once the portal opened, they began to diverge steadily.

It's clear that this is not so much a "whodunnit", as a "whosdoingit and why?" I expect to enjoy this one. It seems to be a very subtle, low-cost SF thriller.

Anne with an E (2017–2019)

Excellent Show

[10/10 · 13 June 2017]

I didn't expect much from this, as, being an older male, I'm generally not the target audience. I was somewhat interested because I heard it was helmed by Moira Walley-Beckett, of Breaking Bad notoriety (yes, I find the extent of the dichotomy amusing). I do find historical drama entertaining, so was certainly willing to pay attention.

Set ca. 1910, it tells the (now) classic story of Anne of Green Gables, a young orphan girl who is, perhaps in error, delivered to a taciturn pair of middle-aged siblings, in lieu of a boy (a boy would have been a good help in maintaining the farm of the aging couple). After almost being sent back, her loquaciousness and imagination draw out the couple, who find her growing on them.

It has a lot of charm, and the young star of the show, Amybeth McNulty, manages to steal it from much more experienced adult actors as the precocious title character, "Anne with an E". She starts out almost gratingly self-effacing, but her ernest winsomeness and obvious intelligence overcomes that.

Anne makes the case for why women are more than wives, and does so without beating you over the head with it, in the modern feminist manner. It just shows how smart and imaginative Anne is, and makes you know she has no business being relegated to being a mere housewife (not to denigrate "mere" housewifery -- it's just not ALL that a woman should be ABLE to be).

The rest of the cast does a marvelous job as well, R.H. Thomson and Geraldine James as her defacto parents, Corrine Koslo as the gossipy and somewhat pompous, but decent neighbor, and a wide array of others as peer schoolchildren and their parents and others of the area.

Seriously, even if you think this is not your type of show, give it at least two eps. I think you'll appreciate it when you see it.

Good Behavior (2016–2017)

Decent acting ruined by horrific writing

[4/10 · 11 June 2017]

I WANT to like this show, I really do. The characters seem genuine and approachable. But... but.... but... every time you turn around, some PREPOSTEROUSLY STUPID, ridiculously UNLIKELY event occurs to hype up the dramatic tone to the point where you're torn between laughing at how inept it is, and throwing things at the screen in lieu of the writers and editors.

It's sad, really.

I'm going to mention a couple examples, "spoiler warning", but I'll try and make them vague so they won't be.

1) Long trip. In a Ƥhũcking TESLA. Right, shorter than usual range, ANY other car would have better range, but hey, we're making a LONG trip of about 350 miles, so we first need to hype the tension. Turn off the nav system, because we don't want to be followed, so we have to download an APP that will tell us where there are electrical filling stations for this thing. OOP. Middle of nowhere, so "no signal". RIGHT THERE you have ALREADY met, and pushed past, your allotted "manufactured drama" quotient for this current event sequence.

ARE WE DONE YET? Nope. Stopped at a stop light. Not sure why there's a stop light, here, but... whatever. BAM rear-ended out of NOWHERE. Sure, it HAPPENS. But EXACTLY at the worst possible time? And the driver insists on trying to trade info, when they very much DON'T want to trade info.... Flee!!! DRAMA OVERLOAD ONE FINALLY, 30 miles remaining, signal, app, and hey, THERE is a place to recharge the batteries. Oh, wait, the "pump is broken". DRAMA OVERLOAD TWO. Well, do you have a 240v AC outlet? Yes. Plug in there, but it'll take an hour to charge up far enough to get to the nearest alternate location. OK, fine. WAIT, we'll have two assholes break into a FIGHT right outside the convenience stop, meaning the cops are going to be called, only 15 mins into that hour. DRAMA OVERLOAD THREE. Sure you do occasionally have fights outside of convenience stops, but RIGHT IN THAT NARROW WINDOW so as to Ƥhũck with them? I call "bovine excreta".

BUT WAIT, we aren't done yet -- having been forced to "flee" before the charge was sufficient, we're going to take the car to the sheer, utter end of its range... and then arrange for a tow truck. BECAUSE WE COULDN'T **possibly** HAVE THOUGHT TO DO THAT back before we were STUCK BY THE SIDE OF THE ROAD... DRAMA OVERLOAD FOUR.

Ridiculous.

But wait, THAT WAS ALL IN ONE EPISODE.

The next point is less drawn out, but equally stupid...

Our heroine is attending her 15th HS class reunion with one of her besties from HS. She's staying with her bestie and husband, said husband whom our heroine was doing back in HS (i.e., the bestie already has reason to feel jealous). NOW, bestie apparently believes her husband is fooling around on her -- no proof, just "missing lots of nights". And directly ASKS our heroine (she has a very disreputable past) NOT to sleep with her husband. So, LATER, when our heroine finds out the hubby is doing HEROIN, and gets accused it being our heroine's, by her bestie, she takes the rap and then confronts the hubby over it later at the Reunion... back in a room privately... yes, of course. And you can ALREADY SMELL WHAT IS COMING no less than FIVE MINUTES BEFORE IT "happens". Yup. For reasons I won't go into (I'll allow them, but not attempt to explain) she tells the hubby in no uncertain terms that he IS going to seek assistance and that the bestie IS her best friend and she is going to make sure HE DOESN'T HURT HER.... and then kisses him (again, explicable in context but not going to explain)... GUESS WHO BREAKS IN AT **EXACTLY** the moment of the kiss? Right. The bestie.

I just stopped watching it right then and there. I SO wanted to let it work out, but Ƥhũck that's just wretchedly bad writing. SHAME on whoever it is wrote both of those sequences. YOU SHOULD STOP WRITING. If you don't understand what is wrong with those sequences, you're an INCOMPETENT, and there's someone, somewhere, out there with VASTLY more talent stuck waiting on tables thanks to you.

Go write Hallmark Gift Cards. They're more your talent level.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

Finally, DC gets their s*** together

[10/10 · 24 March 2016]

This is definitely up to the hype. They take two major comic events, one for Batman, one for Superman, and meld them into a single screenplay, while not slighting either.

Decent characterization, decent plot, decent balance of action and story. It's not as funny as the first Avengers, nor quite as good as the "first" X-Men (i.e., "First Class"), but it's as good as anything DC has put into a movie, including Dark Knight, and as good as any of the better Marvel movies.

Well worth your time, if you're a comic fan at all. You get to see glimpses of the other "JLA" heroes, too -- Flash, Cyborg, Aquaman.

And Soon the Darkness (2010)

Idiot Plot AND Coincidence Plot...

[3/10 · 19 July 2015]

Wow. It is indeed rare that someone makes a "thriller" which relies on BOTH the Idiot Plot and the Coincidence Plot, but this one is one of them.

That is, the ONLY reason the plot advances, is because EVERY SINGLE SOLITARY person involved is a complete and total idiot.

AND the only reason the plot advances, is because of one or more RIDICULOUSLY "Convenient" COINCIDENCES (Notably, the usual "vehicle won't start at EXACTLY the wrong moment, when it's shown no signs of issues prior to this point).

So this movie manages to get a "3" ranking out of me, which is near impossible for a reasonably "major" film -- that is, something that didn't get made out of someone's garage in Poughkeepsie.

This movie has only two things going for it, and that depends on your liking slender girls, both of the females in this one are model-thin -- I grant some guys don't like that.

Oh, and the focus. The guy(s) running the cameras did know how to pull focus. So they had at least one competent person working on this. That certainly can't be said for the writers and the director.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014)

Groundhog Day Meets Alien Invasion Action Pic

[9/10 · 8 June 2014]

That summary pretty much tells you the whole general plot, but it does a great job of making an interesting story out of it, nonetheless. It's not the classic that GHD was, but it's a very effective, very competent SF thriller... and for Hollywood, the fact that I said it's good SF and not merely Sci Fi says a lot. I use SF in a fairly restricted way, unlike most. This is not some deep thinking picture, though it can and could elicit some good college dorm BS sessions as can any time-travel sort of film. I would liken it in quality to another pretty good Tom Cruise pic, "Minority Report". I can recommend this as both an entertaining movie as well as a movie worth seeing on the big screen.

GasLand (2010)

Zero Truth.

[1/10 · 7 February 2014]

The mindless zombies supporting this twaddle are going to tell you everyone who debunks this crap is in the pay of someone with an interest in promoting fracking. They SAY you should just research for yourself, but they will then TELL you that anyone who calls them "fools" is just lying.

Ask yourself a simple question: Are there not jobs to be had working for environmental organizations? Is there not a tremendous amount of money in the Green Lobby, as well? So don't buy their garbage that they are any more honorable and forthright than their opposition. They have money and jobs on the line, too. They have an AGENDA, just as much as the oil companies.

And DO do your own research. Here's one from a site the anti-frackers deprecate as "in the pay of the oil companies"... http://energyindepth.org/Texas/flaming-water-nobody-acknowledge/

Pictures -- yes, PICTURES from BEFORE any of the fracking was started showing that the groundwater there was ALREADY highly flammable... exactly as has been claimed by the companies under attack.

Gasland Part II (2013)

The Truth. Gasland is a SCAM.

[1/10 · 7 February 2014]

The mindless zombies supporting this twaddle are going to tell you everyone who debunks this crap is in the pay of someone with an interest in promoting fracking. They SAY you should just research for yourself, but they will then TELL you that anyone who calls them "fools" is just lying.

Ask yourself a simple question: Are there not jobs to be had working for environmental organizations? Is there not a tremendous amount of money in the Green Lobby, as well? So don't buy their garbage that they are any more honorable and forthright than their opposition. They have money and jobs on the line, too. They have an AGENDA, just as much as the oil companies.

And DO do your own research. Here's one from a site the anti-frackers deprecate as "in the pay of the oil companies"... http://energyindepth.org/Texas/flaming-water-nobody-acknowledge/

Pictures -- yes, PICTURES from BEFORE any of the fracking was started showing that the groundwater there was ALREADY highly flammable... exactly as has been claimed by the companies under attack.

So think about that while watching this, and go hunt up the video of the director openly claiming the facts didn't matter, he had a story to tell.

This "documentary" ranks right up there with Triumph Of The Will as a piece of work.

Getaway (I) (2013)

Decent car-chase-crash film...

[7/10 · 29 August 2013]

I got a free ticket to go to a preview of this. It's certainly not a high-class, grade-A wonderful film, but, if you go in expecting it to be what it is -- a film designed to have lots of cars moving quickly and getting crashed, this movie certainly provides and entertains. It's not as inventive at any point as Fast And Furious, but, unlike F&F6 it never really quite manages to "jump the shark", in terms of kicking your suspension of disbelief out the passenger window at 60 mph.

Selena Gomez is a better actor than I am. Given that I have all the acting talent of a 2x4, this is not a high bar to straddle, however. Ethan Hawke does as well as he can with the limited script and the plot limitations, though he certainly doesn't rise above those, as a deeply talented actor would manage.

The plot has a few minor holes, but they aren't so severe given the film's thin MacGuffin, to be worthy of even spoiler-protected discussion. You should look at this film and not be EXPECTING too much, just from what it is, when it is being released, and so forth. It's OK in those terms. If you're out for an action movie, this is not an awful one.

Manos: The Hands of Fate (1966)

Worst movie EVER released in theaters.

[1/10 · 13 May 2013]

Y'know, people often cite *Plan 9 From Outer Space* as the worst movie ever made, but it truly isn't even close.

No, not even c-l-o-s-e !!

I mean, the most obvious defense you can make, that anyone can see, is that the camera operator had some concept of how to "pull focus", that is, the entire picture isn't in FuzzyVision.

No, I would argue that the worst movie ever made -- certainly the worst one I'm aware of -- which got any kind of theatrical release, is "Manos, The Hands Of Fate"

Amongst its many qualifying "features" are: a) Entirely filmed in full power FuzzyVision. No cameras were properly focused during the production of this film. b) Most, if not all of the footage is poorly chroma keyed -- it's washed out and dull looking. This impacts not only the overall film, but also makes "c" below even worse... c) It's about 30 minutes worth of actual footage/story padded out to 74 minutes by endless -- and yes, I do mean truly interminable -- shots of passing scenery -- along with throwaway scenes of people and events who appear nowhere else in the film and have no relevance to the plot or the story or anything except adding time to the movie. d) Oh, gad, the dialog is soooo slow and boring you want to rip your ears off just so something interesting will happen. e) Acting? Wut dat? f) Music. Ewwww. Just ewwww.... Either the soundtrack was also sold as the intermission music used in Drive-Ins throughout the 60s and 70s, or the other way around.

In fact, it would be hard to list a single redeeming feature ANYWHERE in this movie. The only reason it got a "1" rating from me is because they don't allow negative numbers.

I do not recommend you find an original copy. It's only tolerable with the MST3k commentary track. In fact, it's so full of things to complain about and make fun of that this is clearly the only way to watch it -- either with friends just as capable as the Mistie writers, or with the assistance of the Mistie writers.

Safe House (2012)

Competent but unimpressive

[6/10 · 29 January 2013]

It's not bad for the type of spy flick it is, but it does nothing unusual, really, goes pretty much where you expect it to, and has no particular surprises on any level. Some of the behaviors seem questionable -- "Why the HELL did he do that?" and so forth. Not enough to mess up the film but all too much to make it at all good, too. Actions that only serve to advance the plot, not ones that make sense in the context.

In short, if you're bored on an afternoon, this is probably watchable, but there are definitely better action flicks out there. It's on the cusp between a six and a seven. I gave it the lesser of the two just because of the lack of anything to recommend it on.

Haywire (2011)

Sucks Donkey Testicles

[4/10 · 28 January 2013]

I usually like Soderberg, but this one is just... lame. This is one of those movies where, if you watched it in a theater, someone near you would be going "Who's that?" and "Why did they do THAT?"... only this time it would be YOU.

This movie has so much "WTF?" in it that it makes a typical Hong Kong action picture make perfect and complete sense by comparison. The fight sequences are probably fairly honest -- she does get her butt kicked as often as she kicks ass, and doesn't win against other martially trained males easily. The lack of swelling after getting clocked in the face a few times is a bit unrealistic, but we'll give them that much...

I give it a "4" for the fight sequences. But that's -really- the only thing that's any good, and only a little bit of those are really inventive in terms of moves.

Cloud Atlas (2012)

Very Good, "Thinking" picture.

[9/10 · 28 October 2012]

This is not a fantastic movie, but it's a very very good one. If you go into it expecting another "Matrix", you'll be disappointed. Like "The Matrix", it's a thinking picture -- you'll likely leave it with friends talking about what it says and what it means -- but unlike The Matrix, it's a lot less of an action picture. There's one segment which does have a fair amount of action, but most of the story isn't filled with very much of things like that. It's a lot more "characterization" based.

The trailers are slightly deceptive, too. They make it look as though it goes from the distant past into the far future, but in reality, it spans about 500 years starting in around 1830 or so.

The theme is the connectedness of all humanity, and of how what goes around comes around... Karma, in the classic sense. Even if you don't believe in Karma, it's still the kind of picture that engenders discussion about why you, or those around you, believe or disbelieve.

I'd suggest its cinematography does make good use of the large screen, and will suffer on the small one... so it should be seen in a theater and not just in the home cinema.

Revolution (2012–2014)

Inexcusably Wretched

[1/10 · 19 October 2012]

Production values. THAT it does OK. It looks like the cameramen are vaguely competent. Another plus.

Can't think of any others. This show is just ASTOUNDINGLY, inexcusably bad. It's got freakin' JJ Abrahms and Jon Favreau involved with it. How the hell do they not demand their names be replaced by "Alan Smithee"? I wasn't impressed with the pilot. Gave the show six stars, though, because the concept wasn't awful... but... but... the writing is SO insipidly bad, the characterization, the character motivation, is just amazingly incompetent. They've managed, from the comments in the IMDb forums, to create, in "Charlie", the most widely reviled character since Wesley Crusher. She has a few defenders, but most, like me, think she's the most appallingly bad and inexcusably poorly motivated character in decades.

This is a story about SURVIVORS of the greatest catastrophe to ever strike human civilization... and it's like the creators didn't put ANY thought into that, into the effect it would have on adults or, even more importantly, children raised in the shadow of that event.

They should be shooting things in run-down, neglected spaces, and instead they took (for example) a newly renovated amusement park (Yes, you could SEE the FRESH PAINT all over the place), tossed a few vines on things, and set their story in it. WHY? No reason, it was just a cheap set, as far as I can figure. The fact that it was an amusement park didn't play into the story one whit. There was literally no reason to set it there for the story. None. Zilch.

The show just doesn't make sense. The people's behaviors, their affect, everything about them... doesn't make sense.

They took a great concept for a series, then did the most half-assed, in-it-only-for-the-paycheck hackjob developing it for TV.

Star Trek: Enterprise: Dawn (2003) Season 2, Episode 13

"Enemy Mine" Regurgitated

[29 July 2011]

This is, as other reviewers have mentioned, another variation of "Enemy Mine", a moderately effective classic of SF. The reason for the low rating is not the mildly derivative nature of the episode, but because it displays all the subtle flaws of the first two seasons of all the revival Star Treks, most notably execrable writing and excessive misuse of "Duh!?!? Why not...?" dramatic points demonstrating an almost complete lack of really obvious escapes not made to enhance so-called "drama", which is why this is *melodrama*, not *drama*....

For this one, we've got several melodramatic macguffins -- things placed there specifically to create drama, which rationally are unlikely. One of them is perhaps vaguely explicable but the others are inexcusable. The first is that the shuttle is out with neither a translator nor, apparently, a hand phaser, which, sorry, ought to be **standard equipment** on ANY shuttle when leaving the confines of the ship -- that this is kind of DUH would be obvious to the Malcolm Reed character even if no one else. After all, it's his job to be slightly paranoid and to expect problems and prepare the ship and its crew to meet them.

That's the excusable problem. The inexcusable ones include the lack of proper survival gear as well as the fact that "we can beam you out, but we can't figure out that we can beam DOWN that survival gear -- including, say, a **environmentally controlled tent** -- which we rather stupidly forgot to include on the shuttle."

Another is the factoid that the alien can't be beamed out. THIS species is too sensitive, apparently. Just a bit conveeeeenyent, if you think about it. So the episode goes on for five more "dramatic" minutes while you're busy looking for something to throw at the screen as a proxy for idiotically incompetent writers and directors.

The first two seasons of all the Star Treks after the original series really, really blow, big time, with regurgitated, hackneyed, and recycled plots and BAD, uber-melodramatic stories. After that they get notably more tolerable.

InSecurity (2011)

Mildly Amusing

[7/10 · 20 January 2011]

I spotted this one somewhere so I gave it a chance, and I've seen the three episodes that have aired so far. It's not great, and a lot of the jokes are a bit clichéd and fall flat, but they do get a smile or a laugh often enough that there are *much* worse things, like, oh, -Everybody Loves Raymond-, to spend your time watching. It'll be interesting to see if the writers work their way up or down with the quality. ATM, there's about a good joke every 5 mins, while the intervening stuff is mildly entertaining distraction. You can certainly watch this show in the background while doing something else more significant.

The best conceptual comparison to the show is probably the classic -Get Smart-, only focused more on '99' than Max. It has four "competent" characters('99' + three quirky ones), and two comic-relief bumblers. Some of the humor comes from the quirks of the three, some from the two bumblers, and some from other situations involving the villains... the '99' character is often a straight man for the humor, and that works fine.

Whatever you do, don't go in expecting the vaguest sort of realism -- note even the level you see in -Burn Notice- or -Chuck-. As was "Get Smart", this is lightly absurdist farce.

Watch the first episode (or any episode, if you want, they don't really need to be watched in order) -- If it makes you smile -occasionally-, then give it a chance. If it doesn't, then it's a safe bet it's not your cup of tea.

Circle of Iron (1978)

One of the most unique Martial Arts films ever made

[9/10 · 26 February 2009]

This is a great movie, unlike just about any other martial arts film ever made.

The idea behind it is not just to show off martial arts, but to dig into the deeper core "Zen" philosophy behind martial arts, as well.

I personally wonder what Lee would have said about David Carradine taking his role (it is said that one reason Lee left Hollywood to go back to making films at home was when he lost out the role of Caine, an obvious Chinese, to Carradine, an American), but the actors all do a credible enough job, if not spectacular, in their roles.

It would, indeed, be pleasant to peak into an alternate universe where this film was made with Lee and Coburn in their respective parts, however.

The Next Man (1976)

A decent B-movie, Remarkably prophetic

[8/10 · 14 December 2008]

The remarkable thing about this movie is that it was fully conceived, filmed, and released *before* Anwar Sadat and the Camp David Accords, and, in its own way, echoes the events in its own future. If you are too young to remember these events, then I recommend you look it up in Wikipedia... Then realize that this movie did not follow that history, it preceded it.

Not much should be expected of the movie, it is a definite B-movie from Connery's lower-rent period, when he did a lot of doubtful pictures following his "Never Again" appearance in "Diamonds Are Forever", and before his talent, so evident in his early, pre-Bond pictures, was re-recognized by critics and fans alike.

It is a decent and effective, if not surprising picture, and Connery himself does an effective job as an Arab leader seeking to end the strife with Israel, against substantial political opposition. At the time, the whole idea of it seemed preposterously far in the future, but in reality, the Camp David Accords were less than 4 years away.

Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation (2004 Video)

Not Great, But Not That Bad Either

[5/10 · 7 July 2008]

*********************** Spoilers Follow ***********************

This movie has not the slightest thing, really, to do with Starship Troopers.

But it's not quite as bad as people are saying, either.

It's a moderately competently done "Enemy Within" horror story.

My advice: ignore the title, expect it to have nothing to do with the original. Watch it if you feel like seeing that sort of movie, but expect nothing else.

Do note that it does have a distinct antiwar element absurdly warped into it, however, which is at direct odds with the background story. Ignore it. You're facing species extinction, but... hey, "War is not the answer!!" Ummm, yeah.