Change Your Image
larry-d-christensen
Reviews
Fallout (2024)
Top-Notch Adaptation
I was a huge fan of the Fallout 1 and 2 video games. I also loved the later games, although the gloominess made the them difficult for me to play for extended periods. While I don't remember a lot of the details of the games, this series felt like a spot-on adaptation of the spirit and aesthetics of the games.
The production quality is first rate. The acting, writing, sets, and visual effects are superb. One thing I loved in particular is how they solved the problem I had with the later Fallout games: breaking up the gloom. They did this by alternating between gloomy scenes and vibrant ones. Not only did this make the gloom manageable, it helped to emphasize the contrast among the different worlds. Very well done.
The Boys (2019)
Best Worst Show Ever
The previous seasons were really good, but season 4 is top notch production quality. They've stepped up the shock value significantly as well, making Tarantino's worst seem like Mary Poppins.
The Twilight Zone (2019)
Second Season Nailed It
The first season seemed too straightforwardly preachy, almost lazy. The original series, like all good science fiction, encouraged examining one's views to arrive at a more enlightened viewpoint. The first season of this most recent iteration, however, felt like it was just telling people what to think, but failed to provide the intellectual motivation. The second season takes the more time honored Twilight Zone approach and does a fantastic job.
Season two is beautifully executed in terms of production quality and in terms of being science fiction that makes one think. Separately I would give season one a 6, but season two a 9.
The Box (2009)
Good Holdout Until the Next 2001
It was a fairly cool movie, kind of a postmodern half Stanley Kubrick 2001, half David Lynch type of thing, but there was some inexcusable cheese I just couldn't get past. Besides several 'weird movie' clichés, there was the ridiculous premise of some alien race trying to assess our fitness for survival. Obviously if we are too depraved to survive, then why expend the time and resources to determine as much and ultimately to facilitate our destruction? Why not just let us kill ourselves?
I'm typically opposed to such anti-humanism (and irrationality for that matter), but this was a good enough to hold me over until the next great director (+storyteller) comes along.