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Reviews
Star Wars: Tales of the Empire (2024)
More Star Wars Barbie
The show stared off strong ( as many do ) and lost the thread early. These nonsensical actions make it impossible to buy into the characterization. I'm bad but now I'm good. This is just another wasted opportunity from a decimated Lucasfilm that shows they have no idea how to tell a good story. I really didn't expect much and I wasn't disappointed. The animation was rough and seemed to rushed. And I no longer believe Lucasfilm has the ability to make me care about any characters in the Star Wars universe anymore. I think the bigger problem is the demographic this is aim to is not the main Star Wars demographic. They even have one anymore.
Things don't make sense. Affect does not seem to follow cause and light sabers just give you a boo-boo. It's so predictable and tiring. I think what's most telling you is that none of my kids even wanted to watch it at this point and they used to love Star Wars.
The Deep (2010)
Starts out strong and then takes a nose dive to extreme boredom
By the middle of the third episode I just didn't care. There's some kind of mystery and it's impossible to care. The plot started to fall apart and the behavior of the characters became ridiculous and unreasonable. I thought there was the bones of a fantastic story in here but between the horrible acting and even worse dialogue, I could not even force myself to finish. I don't even know what happens and I don't even have enough interest left to look at a summary. That's how bad it went from compelling to losing my interest completely .
I'm not even interested enough to delve into what went wrong here. Despite it having the pace of a snail they managed to dangle plot threads and completely miss out on the chance to deliver some compelling mystery and drama. I'm not even judging the scientific inadequacies of this thing but it was clearly written by someone that knows nothing about diving. About the pressures involved in the challenges. It's completely ridiculous by the third episode and it really did start out strong. It's sucked me in with characters that vanish to be replaced with empty planks of wood.
Honestly by the end I was hoping everybody would just die.
Coroner (2019)
Start it off Strong mobile looking for getting worse overtime ready
I really liked the show in the beginning and actually I thought it was a way to show diversity and inclusion in a way that was organic to the story I didn't hit you over the head with a social justice hammer. As the series progressed eyes started looking less forward to the next episode without really thinking or understanding why until in season three I just lost the urge to watch it
Three reasons for this the first one being the plots lost focus on the the drama of being a corner and started focusing on the messed up lives of the characters.
The second the characters that were very flushed out and reasonable realistic and likable became ridiculously overdramatic in their trials and tribulations began to be implausible as the plot started feeling more and more contrived.
There is also the irritating overuse of hallucinatory scenes, flashbacks and dizzying camera work that attempts to take the place of good storytelling.
And the last was the focus on characters that nobody really cares about. I really don't want to know the whole episode about a minor characters journey it's just another overly melodramatic depressing story. I really don't care. What about the dead people what about the crime what about the forensics? The show had essentially lost its way from being a interesting medical crime drama into being a soap opera.
The Devil's Hour (2022)
Another slow slogging forgettable entry into the streaming market
If you've got stuff to do then don't waste your time. This series spreads out two hours worth of material over God knows how many hours and it's just forget about the boring. I can barely get through the first two episodes and I will never waste another minute watching this. The acting is fine but the direction is incredibly pretentious and self-aware are using all of the trick that have become cliché over the years for avant-garde directors of psychological horror, slow motion set to old music, lingering on people's eyes, the blurry photographs pull back.
It's all been done and in much better and more exciting ways. I guess if you're really young and you haven't seen as much stuff you might be interested in this but trust me, it's been been done much better and in a lot shorter amount of time.
My guess is the people that have given this high reviews just haven't seen many of the classics. This is just another pretentious attempt it being a Clockwork Orange.
Andor (2022)
Boring and unnecessary
Aren't we getting a little tired of these "slow burn" titles which is just a codename for boring.
Not only is the show unnteresting and slow bit it is telling a story that I really don't care about with the same plodding formulaic drivel that they always use. I really don't wanna watch 50% flashbacks to some little kid. Who cares. Childhood trauma origin story, check. Jealous simp boyfriend turning the guy in, Check. Strong woman better than any man around, check.
They even made the fight scene somehow uninteresting. Too bad the boyfriend didn't get gutted by a light saber rather than wind by a blaster shot. Then he would've been fine.
But the entire show hinges on premise based on stupidity. All he had to do was put the blaster in the little guys hand, sprinkle some booze and money on the two, and we have an altercation gone wrong. No one looking for Andor.
Not to mention why were the guards outside harassing him when they just came into the bar to get laid. He left right away so he should?ve been an hour ahead of those guys at least. OK three minutes at least. And don?t tell me that they gave up getting laid in order to go harass some loser.
The entire set up that leads the groundwork for the stories seems so unrealistic and contrived within the context of its own universe. That leaves me at every point wondering why the story is even here. If you can really call it a story. It?s the same boring bland hackneyed lazy writing that we get in the rest of the modern Disney offerings.
The one thing that stands out is Stellan Skarsgrd's unbelievably good performance. But what else would you expect from him? Even indoor is good but I don't have any interest in watching a good performance inside of a hollow story.
Breach (2020)
I figured it out....
People were wondering if Bruce Willis needed to pay his taxes or lost a bet or some thing. My guess is he had a crush on that crazy hot chick who spends most of the movie asleep, and he did the movie to try to hook up with her even though she's engaged to another woman.
Because after watching this I have to assume that he would've rather gone to jail than pay his taxes with this drivel. But the dumbest things most men I know have done have been because of a woman. Either that or he needed to buy an organ for himself or one of his loved ones.
Thick as Thieves (1999)
Top 5 favs of all time.
To the best of the record collection and this was one of those made for HBO or Showtime films in the late 90s. The premium cable companies were just beginning to do their own thing with shows like criminally under appreciated shows Rude Awakening and Stargate SG1 and original movies. This movie was lightly promoted about a week before it's released and I caught it and was just blown away by how amazingly good it was.
The pacing is perfect the acting is fantastic and the dialogue is very much in the Elmore Leonard not a word is wasted vain. There is not a bad performance in the bunch. Even the minor characters had some great lines and had a chance to fill the screen with charisma. Rebecca De Mornay and Bruce Greenwood are eminently likable. And Alec Baldwin plays an understated and more intelligent version of his Miami Blues idiot Junior.
This film was part of a trio of unbelievably good hidden gems of that time along with the Zero Effect and Permanent Midnight. Those three films make a perfect viewing marathon of the detective, the thief, and the screw-up. If you need some stronger female leads you can throw in Sharon Stone's again grossly unappreciated Gloria and the stellar Jackie Brown for a complete evening of criminal viewing.
There's plenty of more specific reviews so I don't need to go into details. But I will say this, I watch this movie ever so often, at least four times since it came out and as recently as this year, and it always holds up.
$200 million of CGI and special effects BS can't hold a candle to this tiny unassuming low budget little indy film. That has what all of these blockbuster flops are missing, great story, great performances, and great dialogue. No amount of post can make up for that.
Titans: Dick Grayson (2018)
Pointless!
No matter how cool the episode the effects the acting the plot, it's not possible to get emotionally invested in what you know is essentially a dream sequence. Yeah it's true probably the rest of the show should've been like this but we know this episode doesn't count and it makes it absolutely pointless to watch. Maybe younger audiences can still revel in the action, The world has no shortage of cool action sequences. Without story, characters, and emotional connection, it's absolutely meaningless.
This reflects messed up the story for me but DC is in an awkward position. They've launched their own service and are so desperate for content so they're going to take two hours the storyline and stretch it over 10 hours of episodes and it's going to be slow and mostly filler. It's not like we haven't seen this a lot. Despite any aspects of the show you like, everyone agrees that it is Slooooooooowwwwwwwww.
As we get older you have less time to watch the stuff so we really want to make it count.
9-1-1 (2018)
Love the show excepting a few characters....
So I really love the first season of the show. The second and third seasons are OK but I really am not a fan of the character changes that were made.
The main core cast is amazing the characters are well written and flashed out. Quirky but not to the point of being hipster work. The show is surprisingly enjoyable. I think I watch the first episode by accident or there was nothing else on at the time. I was expecting another formulaic Emergency / Adam 12 type show, I was not expecting how engaging the story and the characters became.
The main character Is played Peter Krause. He's no stranger to hit shows and I really loved him in Sports Night and 6 feet under. He does a thoroughly convincing job of playing a damaged person trying for his own redemption.
Angela Bassett is the other main character and is awesome as usual though as in almost every character she plays she seemed a little more angry than the situation calls for at every point in time. Stella got her groove back but she still seems a little about it.
Starting the tales through the point of you of the 911 on operator is more than a gimmick it turns out. It adds a and aspect of emotional engagement that makes watching the show less of a voyeuristic experience and more of a participatory one.
And I really can't stand Traci Thoms' character, the wife of Hen. In fact I think she's an amazingly unlikable actress and I'm really surprised at all the great rolls that she gets. She just has one mood which is cranky, passive aggressive irritant. I will typically fast forward any scene she's in. I'm really looking forward to the episode where they kill off Henrietta's wife. One can only dream.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Legacy (1990)
The doctor learns nothing
Another hum drum unsatisfying episode with massive potential. The main thing I noticed is that Beverly Crusher's attitude about insisting on beaming down to a violent area is puzzling. She insists that she can take care of her self however she recently almost got herself and everyone else killed in a terrorist episode that recently preceded this one, the High Ground. At the end of the episode she admitted she should've listened to the captain and beamed up at the beginning. Apparently she learned no lesson that stuck.
I get in this era of longform storytelling the lack of continuity of TNG is even more frustrating than it was during its initial run.
The best part of this episode is Beth Toussaint's compelling performance and it's a shame that they had to throw her away so quickly rather than make her a recurring character .
Elementary (2012)
I am getting SO SICK OF SHINWELL!
Easily the worst creation in the show's entire run. I have not even finished watching season 5. I usually devour the episodes but Shinwell has brought the show to an absolute slog for me.
And the drama he creates between Joan and Sherlock is absolutely artificial feeling. I breathe easy when the "previously" does not include him.
He has twice as much screen time as Kitty, Dad, and Mycroft ever got. it is like the darned Shinwell show now.
Just can't wait for the season to end.