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Reviews
A Brief History of the Future (2024)
Trite and pretentious
This sounded really good, but watching it got boring very fast. Aside from some nice visuals there's not much going on here. Which is probably what I should have expected from someone who makes his living by being glib and nonthreatening to the corporations who purchase his services.
It's nice to hear from some of the people who are trying to make changes for the better, but what struck me was the total absence of attribution for the problems being addressed. I suspect that's because the corporations causing so many of the world's problems are Wallach's clients, or at least potential clients.
I'm not pessimistic about the future, but this kind of.rose-tinted glass view isn't going to help anyone deal with the changes we're facing.
Moonage Daydream (2022)
Excruciatingly pretentious
The idea of doing a movie narrated only by quotes from David Bowie interviews must have sounded good as a pitch, but the result is a lot of repetition filled in with random visuals. This seemed to drag on for an eternity, with the only relief from monotony being the scenes taken from live performances.
Some insights into Bowie's character from those who knew him well would have added so much more depth to the movie. As it is, the movie never strays from the surface while covering the full span of Bowie's performance career.
I can only think that anyone who honestly enjoyed this must have been really high at the time. If you're not high, please don't watch it, you'll only hurt yourself!
1pm Daily Update (2020)
Must-see TV!
The first season kept us on the edge of our seats through the original lockdown, with a strong, suspenseful, launch gradually transitioning to a reassuring daily routine and the ultimate victory of the Team of 5 Million. Now the surprise launch of the second season has us back on tenterhooks, not only confronting the return of the original villain but a whole side drama (mostly only a subtext onscreen) around the attempts to bring down the heroes and replace them with a set of dubious characters who seem to question the whole point of the conflict. I'll be watching every day, but hoping this season is much shorter than the first!
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Too long and too slow
This is almost a 3 hour movie, but it honestly felt like at least 4 hours watching it. The pace starts off okay, but then seems to lag as minor plot lines take far too long to work through. The original had atmosphere and character; in this one they work very hard to create similar magic, but fail.
666 Park Avenue (2012)
Stupid, stupider, stupidest
If you devotedly watched all umpteen seasons of Lost and loved it then this is probably a great series for you to see. But if you like your TV to have consistent characters and a somewhat coherent plot line stay away.
I won't go into spoiler details, but this is riddled with inconsistencies on so many levels that it's hard to watch. Lost is the only other series I can remember that did this, and they at least made it interesting enough to keep most people engaged through the first one or two seasons. 666 doesn't pull that off - the characters are unlikable, unreasonable, and ridiculous.
Do yourself a favor and just say no to 666 Park Avenue!
Insidious (2010)
Painful to watch
This movie is boring and painful to watch. The acting is mediocre at best, with the father, in particular, showing the emotional range of a clam. The story is trite. I kept waiting for some kind of kicker that would make the movie worth watching, but was left at the end feeling I'd wasted 2 hours and 20 minutes of my life.
There are many bad horror movies made, but most of them at least try to compensate for bad acting and stupid plots with lots of sex, gore, or both. This one has neither.
I can't believe they're making a sequel. Who are the people who would actually want to watch this? Do yourself a favor, and stay far, far, away from this (and from the sequel).
Lo imposible (2012)
Blah Family in Disaster
We went to see this based on a trailer that looked great combined with excellent reviews, but were very disappointed. The worst of it was that the characters lacked depth. "Blah Family in Disaster" would be a better title for this movie, since that's what you get. It seems like the director made a half-hearted attempt to establish some emotional depth for the characters before the disaster struck, but couldn't figure out how so just gave up and hoped that seeing them going through a hellish experience was all the plot he needed. What came out is chaos without any real drama.
Need to pad this for the line counter, so if I'll just say that if you're looking for a disaster *drama* rent Earthquake, or even Deep Impact - just about anything with a disaster theme is better than this, except perhaps Mars Attacks!
V (2009)
Great actors, decent special effects, idiotic plot line
I really wanted to like this, and despite the disappointments of the first few episodes kept coming back because the actors are excellent. But the plot! The human characters show unbelievable naivety, acting with extreme stupidity and then somehow lucking out (for the most part). The visitors monitor everything - except, apparently, within their own ships where they're not only completely blind but also totally lacking in any other security mechanisms (such as locks). Worse still, the visitors (at least in the first season) haven't actually done anything all that shockingly bad (if I was an alien commander wanting to show the human resistance as terrorists, for instance, I'd arrange for them to blow up a ship full of school kids on a cultural outing, not...).
I gave it 3 out of 10 mostly for the actors. Morena Baccarin (Anna) gets special recognition, with her movements and facial expressions very well suited to her role.
30 Days of Night (2007)
Horrible waste of time
This is one of the worst films I've ever watched. The basic idea sounds good - 30 days of night sounds like an all-you-can-eat buffet for vampires, right? - but the plot, dialog, and acting are all uniformly bad. Only gore-fest fans who don't care about anything else will find this film enjoyable.
The lead vampire does nothing except screech and glare, but I'd rate him as the best actor in the film. At least he shows a much better range than the wooden performances of the leading man and woman. Unfortunately the vampires, despite their superhuman powers, are made into bumbling idiots by the plot. 30 days of night and they can't even search a small town? I thought vampires were only supposed to sleep in the day time, so what was this bunch doing the whole time?
I could go on for a long time, but don't want to include anything that might be considered a spoiler. Though the word "spoiler" is not something that could meaningfully be applied to this piece of trash.
The Dresden Files (2007)
Excellent show
Very nice rendition of the books to TV! Paul Blackthorne is excellent as Harry, as is Terrence Mann as Bob. I was surprised by this - I was half expecting some more typical private eye-type for Harry, and to instead have him cast with a less beefy and more intellectual appearance was a pleasant surprise.
Perhaps people who don't really enjoy scifi or fantasy would have a hard time with the show - but there's plenty of crap like 24 for them to watch instead. Thanks for catering to those of us who do enjoy the genre!
Let's see more along these lines!
What the #$*! Do We (K)now!? (2004)
Don't believe the negatives
Don't believe the negative reviews. I suspect they're from Bush "Christians" who don't pay much attention to what their deity is supposed to have said (including "These things and greater..."). A very well done movie, and if it takes some words out of context and goes off in some strange directions don't let that distract you from the core message.
And don't be too distracted by the physics part, either. Physics is an evolving view of a possibly mutable background and whatever we "know" now is likely to change in the future. Is the movie an accurate portrayal of the current consensus view of the physics community? Probably not. Is it within the range of views that are reasonable? Yes.