rblaa Reviews

Dave Chappelle: The Closer (2021 TV Special)

preaching is just not funny

[4/10 · 17 October 2021]

I watch all of Chappelle's shows I can, he is one of my favourite comics.

Chappelle has a brilliant comedic mind, but his purpose here was to explain things, defend himself against previous critics.

He's a smart, perceptive guy, I think the controversy is overblown.

But, being preached at is just not funny. I watch him to laugh, and wanted much more.

A Teachable Moment (2016)

relentless

[10/10 · 29 January 2017]

What a mom! She would not let anything slide, at all. Guy is dying, she has no mercy, she is fiercely out to keep her son on track.

As an actor, Grace Glowicki is just excellent, very vivid, intense. She is a force of nature.

The poor bastard bleeding out just couldn't believe it.

This short was really all about her, her practicality, her intensity. It rather stood out amongst the standard airline fare it was competing with (I saw it while flying Air Canada).

Grace has this vitality that makes me curious about her other works. I will be following up.

Oblivion (I) (2013)

naysayers are right, but I still liked it

[8/10 · 29 September 2013]

Reading through the previous reviews, I find myself agreeing with the negative reviews in one sense, but still disagreeing overall. I walked away quite liking this movie.

Most of the complaints are around technical/realism stupidities, or else being a rip-off of previous movies.

Re stupidities: there are plenty, most of the negative reviews are correct, but they miss the point, which is given a more or less silly premise, do the characters fulfill their struggle properly.

For me the answer is strong yes, I tend to respond to the emotions a movie is trying to convey, ultimately this is a story of loss and love, a nice universal theme that always resonates.

Given that theme, the movie's style, effects, music all worked really well to reinforce that. I liked all the performances.

Be careful about critiquing modern SF movies about technical stupidities too much. Most of these have a fatal flaw that would destroy most of them. How about the likelihood of star travel? OK, you have to grant that otherwise most SF movies pretty much fall flat.

But still, the basic premise is not realistic: a star faring race, searching for energy, is not going to bother going to earth for its water, that is so much more easily available anywhere else, energy itself is much more easily accessible without playing with water for fusion, just stay with your own star, mine your own asteroid belt or gas giants.

Sure, it makes no sense for the Tet to make and use human clones, but given that, do we have a good story? I think so.

To me, valid criticisms are when characters, immersed in their realities such as they are, do not act true to their nature. And thus a movie like Prometheus failed since there the highly trained biology experts acted like complete morons.

But that is not the case here. In this movie we have passion, loss, and love, the struggle to persevere.

Plus the drones looked really really cool.

Re copying other movies: get over it. This movie is distinct enough to feel its own. I saw and loved Moon (which granted is the better movie), but I enjoyed this one for what it was.

I think it helped for me to not see any trailers, and to come in with low expectations after hearing about bad reviews.