Change Your Image
bluecoronet77
Reviews
Encounters (2023)
Excellent mini-series from Spielberg's Amblin Entertainent
There are way too many negative reviews here from people whose personal expectations were not met by this series. To be frank, that's their problem, not a problem of this series, which is quite excellent.
If you want to get the most out of this series, leave your expectations at the door when it comes to: "evidence" - "UFO footage" - "something new," etc.
That's not what this series is about. It's about human encounters, human experience; not only about what happened in an experience, but also how the experience affected people's lives. In that sense, it's often more of a humanities series than the typical UFO series.
This is, hands-down, the best series I have seen on the subject of people's encounters with UFOs / UAPs. Kudos to Steven Spielberg and his Amblin Entertainment production company for making a mini-series that goes beyond the hundreds of other UFO series that are out there.
Star Trek Continues (2013)
Incredible Series!
The original Star Trek series never had an "ending" - just a final episode. This series, which often ties in to episodes from The Original Series, adds depth and also provides the ending that TOS never received. Great, great storylines. This is a series I will be watching again. Star Trek Continues is light years beyond Star Trek: Discovery and Picard, both in plotting, continuity, acting and scripts. This is how Star Trek can be done with new actors: Vic Mignogna is fabulous as Captain James T. Kirk, Todd Haberkorn is a very credible Mr. Spock, likewise for Chuck Huber as Dr. Leonard McCoy, and Chris Doohan does a fine job, with echoes of his father, as Montgomery Scott. The other crew members, are also quite good, with special applause for Kim Stinger as Nyota Uhura and Michele Specht as Ship's counselor,Elise McKenna. Watch this series, then watch it again.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017)
A poor mess of a dark nightmare with characters that are caricatures and a script without coherence and continuity
Even Frances McDormand's academy award winning performance can't save this film. Yes, McDormand is excellent, but even great actors can't save a story/script this poor. Good movies perform magic, while "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" performs a street-hustle trick with a loaded deck of cards. The film drops names of important and timely issues and simply glosses over them, trading substance for melodramatic violence, constant foul language, characters that are mostly caricatures, and a story/script with close to zero continuity and coherence. The film is billed as a dark comedy, but it really is a dark nightmare of a film. Honestly, I've read comic books with a more coherent storyline. There are various incidents of assault, arson, and attempted murder AND not only is no one ever held responsible, but the incidents are forgotten five minutes later in the film! "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" is good at shocking the audience at times, but not much else. A huge waste of both good acting talent and your time and energy.
Star Trek: Voyager: Sacred Ground (1996)
Star Trek and Not Knowing
***WARNING*** This Review Contains Spoilers
There are many reviewers here who won't like this episode, simply because it steps on some (sacred) toes. This is a great story of Capt. Janeway as an explorer and scientist coming up against the limitations of one method or worldview -- the one she was brought up with. She now finds herself in a situation where it doesn't serve her. Many modern writers have written about how science has become like a religion in our culture. We "believe" whatever scientists say and take it as "the truth", regardless of the fact that history shows that we are only seeing a small part of reality and that scientists in 100 or 200 years will look back on our "scientific truths" and shake their heads. The same thing will happen to their "scientific truths" in an additional century or two. The episode 'Sacred Ground' questions our materialistic worldview and the "belief" that everything can be explained on a factual level. Janeway has experienced a "not knowing" that at the end has her questioning what she thought she knew. She isn't going to abandon science, just make room for some other perspectives. My favorite scene is at the end where the doctor is explaining scientifically how a crew member was able to recover and Janeway is hearing it as "blah, blah, blah", gobbledygook that tries to explain something that she knows she does not have an explanation for. If you have a problem with this episode, it may be because it questions something you hold to be true.
Roswell: Chant Down Babylon (2002)
One of the Worst Episodes of one of the best series
Chant Down Babylon is right behind Cry Your Name as one of my least favorite Roswell episodes. Even though it is written by series executive producer Ronald D. Moore (who wrote some fine episodes for Star Trek: The Next Generation), it seems as if he doesn't get the series and thinks he needs to remake it as a horror series. The episode goes against much of the characterization that came before. Breaking set can be good, but it seemed like he didn't like the characters and thought it would work better to have them act as if they were possessed. One of the low points of the third season -- and of the entire series.
Sonabai: Another Way of Seeing (2009)
Sonabai: Another Way of Seeing
I first saw this amazing film at a screening with the author, Stephen Huyler. There are so many responses Sonabai could have had to being locked inside her home for 15 years, yet the response she choose was to create joyful art. What would you or I have done in her place? It is hard to fathom how her response moved, not towards despair, but towards creation. This transformational documentary, which is included with the book of the same name (see Amazon for details), is about the art and influence of Sonabai, a woman in India who was isolated by her husband for 15 years. It is an inspiring and illuminating film on one woman's response to enforced isolation and the subsequent impact on her neighbors and her community.
Men in Trees (2006)
One of My Favorites
OK, as a guy I have to say that MEN IN TREES is a great show. Both the acting and the writing are excellent. The characters are people you can relate to as human beings. I haven't enjoyed a show like this since Joan of Arcadia. MEN IN TREES is not a chick-flick series, but a series about people, relationships, and the connections between us. Anne Heche and James Tupper lead a fabulous cast. The show has humor, family, romance and an amazing amount of soul. I missed it when it originally aired, but now I usually end up watching 2-3 episodes at once. Even the characters I didn't like at first have grown on me. I'm only part way through the first season and enjoying every bit of it. What it really needs now is a DVD release.
Dolphin Cove (1989)
One of the Best Shows!
I just finished watching all eight episodes of Dolphin Cove, having never seen the series when it ran in 1989. It had a short run, but given the quality of the acting and writing, I'd rather have eight episodes of this than none at all. The series incorporates quite a few themes including: family, healing, Aboriginal stories and practices, adolescence, communication -- both inner and outer, and between different cultures and different species. The acting was top notch and the actors were given very good scripts to work with. All in all, an outstanding series.
Does anyone know if they filmed any episodes that never were shown because of the series being canceled?
Coronet Blue (1967)
Coronet Blue Revisited
I just finished watching the 13 episode run (11 broadcast episodes and two work-prints). Coronet Blue had, with the exception of a couple of episodes, very good writing with great dialog -- so much so that you have to pay attention not to miss something said. The show also had wonderful guest stars -- Dick Clark, Susan Hampshire, Alan Alda, John Voight, David Carradine, Candace Bergen, Richard Kiley (the last four in one episode!) and others. Also the semi-regulars, Joe Silver as Max and Brian Bedford as Anthony, are very good, and have great acting chemistry with star Frank Converse, who puts in a moving performance. The series plays with how memory and reality don't always match, and also with the larger questions of identity and what does makes us who we are? There are word plays such as the club Max owns is called "The Searching I" -- which is exactly what Alden is doing -- searching for his Identity -- it also taken from "the Hungry I" - a legendary 1960s club in San Francisco. By the way, the New York locations are fun, 5th Avenue, Central Park, Hofstra University, and others. I believe I saw a handful of episodes in 1967 as a ten year old, the same summer that The Prisoner -- another series about identity -- came out.
It is interesting to watch Coronet Blue and then see Unknown White Male (2003), a documentary about a man in New York who completely lost his memory/identity and found himself on a subway.
Some people write Coronet Blue off because we never discover who Michael Alden (Converse) really is. After watching the series, I can say that it really doesn't matter that we don't find out. The stories are about Michael Alden finding himself through the journey, not the destination. In the 13th and final episode Alden says that he learned that he finds who he really is within himself, not through information from other people. Although the series didn't know it was ending, this last episode ends with Michael Alden sounding more at peace with himself than he ever had been. In that sense, it seems to me that it ended in a complete way. Bravo Mr. Converse & cast!
Resurrection (1980)
Burstyn played a larger role in Resurrection than is generally known.
Resurrection is an excellent film made over 25 years ago and it still holds up very well. Ellen Burstyn was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress for the film. It is a surprising film in that you think you know where it is going, but you really do not know. It strongly deserves a new life on DVD.
Contrary to what the trivia section states about this film, Ellen Burstyn was not pitched the script of Resurrection. In an interview with Burstyn by Blaise DiStefano, Burstyn states: "You know, Resurrection was a story that I had commissioned to be written, and it was inspired from the reading I was doing at the time on the re-emergence of the goddess and bringing the feminine into a religious figure."
Peaceful Warrior (2006)
A Breakthrough Movie
After having previewed and then screened the film twice for audiences in mid-coast Maine, Peaceful Warrior continues to deeply affect me. It doesn't matter if you are male or female, athletic or not. There's a lot of Dan Millman in all of us and we share the character's "normally insane" life, driven by fears and desires. Nick Nolte, Scott Mechlowicz, and Amy Smart all jumped in with both feet and do a wonderful job. Kevin Bernhardt wrote a great screenplay. Even when he changed some scenes from the book, it only added to the film.
The people who made this film could have focused on the love story or on other plot themes. Instead they chose to make a film that goes beyond competition, romance, and achievement. As Eckhart Tolle said: "See it and be transformed".