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Frankie Drake Mysteries (2017)
Frankie take a hike and let the rest shine
As many of the reviews here have already said, the lead actress is not likable or convincing and is just seriously annoying. Then you have Trudy, who is great, and. Mary and Flo who are solid sidekicks. If they had someone decent in the lead this show could work. If they wrote out the lead and let Trudy take over with the others it could work. Every time the rest of the crew shows up it gets better and then Frankie starts mugging, or trying to act tough, or controversial, or whatever and it goes down the drain..... Tweaking the featured review title, Miss Fisher she aint!!!
Tried to watch it and ignore Frankie, but it's like hearing a band where the lead singer is Yoko Ono screeching away, it just overpowers with badness the rest of the good things in the show......
Barnaby Jones: Daughter of Evil (1977)
Morgan Fairchild!!! Morgan Fairchild!!!
Fairly average episode that goes a little cheesy on the "good prostitute" stereotype at times. Special appearance by Lee Meriwether's daughter who is also quite attractive. But the highlight of this one is all visual, Morgan Fairchild in a black bikini. A classically lovely woman. 10 points for that and 6 points for the rest and you get an 8.....
Star Trek: The Lorelei Signal (1973)
Star Trek Meets Shaft, perfect timing for Uhura to kick butt and take names
This episode features something unique to any Star Trek episode, music featuring a "waka waka" guitar. It's not as upfront in the mix as usual but it's heard during the scene when Kirk and the landing party are running from the compound to the giant vase/plant. For anyone wondering wth the sound is, play the theme to Shaft, although it's found in a lot of songs from the early 70s. ST is more known for more classical style than soul/urban music....
As to the episode, Uhura kicks butt and Nurse Chapel gets to step up too. But there are too many holes in the story to rate it high overall. I give Uhura a 10, the episode a 5, and a bonus point for music making it a 6.
Nero Wolfe: The Blue Ribbon Hostage (1981)
Kidnapped orchid
The story line for this is wrong, it applies to Episode 5, but IMDB won't let me add a second plot or storyline.....
A criminal who assisted in a burglary is afraid he will be charged with murder. His way out is to steal Nero Wolfe's prize orchid and then offer to return it if Wolfe can clear him.
This is one of the lighter episodes with a good bit of humor including the entire orchid storyline. There's also some good action that's not too over the top in a couple of scenes with Archie and mobsters and during a killing.
As is not uncommon, there's perhaps too much book to fit in one hour and Nero makes a couple of jumps of logic to get to the end. But it's a fun ride and one of the better episodes.
The other reviewer nailed it with the totally bizarre (glue hair spray??) hair style for Nelson.
Land of Doom (1986)
Come on, deserves a point for the jamming music!!!
Plenty of reviews to the quality of the movie already that are pretty accurate.
One classic part was where the guy drove the motorcycle off the cliff. He makes a face like "oh no" and you see him jump off and the bike goes over... to explode of course. But the the shot back up and he has fallen over the cliff and is just hanging on, where he was on the ground several feet behind it.....
And no one has commented on the pants the star wears. What's with the giant black V think that looks like a big thong on the outside? It made her backside look pretty big..
And then there was the cave girls. The villain has four women in slightly skimpy clothes we only see briefly.... but they really needed MORE clothes. Obviously someone doesn't understand the idea of background scenery in sci-fi.
A few people knocked the music, but the last 15 minutes or so during all the fight scenes the music was very inspired, if you like cheesy action stuff. Bit of batman, intro to baywatch, maybe a little A-team or incredible hulk fight scenes. The composer did a good job ramping it up to try to give it some energy, needed since much of the fight scenes were dumb at best.
And then there's the theme song that plays at the end. It has lyrics including:
"talkin' bout, warriors of rape, of death and hate, killing for fun"
"cannibalists, living amidst, are hunting man"
How can you not give that a thumbs up. If you search it's available on u tube with a whopping 8 comments. Maybe go there and add one...
Anyway, have to upgrade this from a 1 to a 2 for the music in the last 15 or 20 minutes. The music achieved the fun cheese that the rest of the movie was never able to...
The Rise and Fall of Legs Diamond (1960)
Deadly Dancer
Return to old style gangster movie. Filmed well and the pacing and energy are high and keep things moving along. Entertaining and well done even if not historically accurate.
There's only one thing left to say...
"I'm the deadly dancer, Legs Diamond is my name.
Legs Diamond
Deadly Dancer
Legs Diamond
Midnight Prancer......."
Craith (2018)
Slow is OK but who cares what happens?
The reviews seem to focus a lot on it's great or it's too slow.... Yes, it is very slow paced and really doesn't build a faster pace until right at the very end. The bigger issue I had is not caring about any of the characters or really what happens. The lead detective spends half her time on problems with her sister and father (as someone said shades of Wallander) but outside of that and she smokes too much you never know more about her than stereotypes. The partner has a pregnant girlfriend and wants to jump the cute girl in the office. The girl who is kidnapped cuts herself, continually puts off her only friend, and whines a lot. The mother is mean, so there's the backstory for the villain, and even he is boring with all the whining about his childhood and stupid behavior at his workplace. How did he get away with all the others when he goes off the rails with just a few days with this one? Add in that the leads don't do a number of simple things they should have, as mentioned in multiple reviews, and you're hoping that the villain's house blows up and kills them all by episode 3..... Yes, it's dark and has some horror movie type set stuff, but in other dark series, Tunnel, or way back to Prime Suspect, you know, and like to some degree, the leads, and some of the other characters. Finally the continual on again off again subtitles was irritating.
On the plus side most of the outdoor shots were very interesting and added some of the only character to the show.
Suspects (2014)
ADAM 12 for 2014 with bad acting, extreme criminals, and continual cursing
The prior review comparing to CSI is on target. A few additional things to mention...
The "accused" always have a solicitor that sit and take notes but never say a word. Even when the police cuss them out and go overboard they do nothing.
That's a regular thing as the only thing the guy cop does is get obnoxious and rude in every interrogation. Since every character that is ever interviewed is a liar, then he is right with his genius attack interview style.
Beyond the immediate forensics, which is unbelievable, is how they get it. They knock on doors, force their way in, search everything, have "soco's" checking apartments, cars, homes, all immediately. Must be easy to close cases when citizens have no privacy rights of any kind.
The criminals in this are also ridiculous. It's never just a murder, but a serial killer, something with kids, or sex crimes, and everyone but the main criminal are family abusers, druggies, pedos, whatever. It's possible to do twisted characters with style or even fun like Midsomer Murders. In this one they just seem made up, and you don't like or relate to any of the "civilians". It wasn't so bad the first show or two but then you see it's a regular feature of the writing.
Also don't like the police either, the guy is arrogant and obnoxious, the boss jumps into speeches unrelated to what's going on, and is totally wooden.
It doesn't balance when the bad camera work and doc style is to make it "believable" but then what goes on, whether it is the crime, or how they abuse everyone's rights, or the dumb confessions, all are totally unbelievable. The stories and some of the people need to be believable for it to work, and it just doesn't. ADAM-12 looks like a masterpiece compared to this.....
Enchanted Island (1958)
Matthew Capitano says it all!!!!
Matthew Capitano, a salute to you for the funniest review I have read in a long time. If anyone has not watched this and is in doubt, the review is also accurate.....
Maybe do this as a drinking game and do shots every time someone says "Fayaway" and you've got something.....
The Naked and the Dead (1958)
Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens in the army????
Lots of reviews but not one has mentioned the thing that was the most strange and unreleastic in the combat scenes, the magic hand grenades. Yes the scenery and the visual use of the environment was very well done. But in the combat scene in the field and the one by the mountain pass the same thing happened - after some shooting then someone yells to use hand grenades and they do. Both times they throw them extremely far and right to where the Japanese are. It's more clear in the mountain scene, you see them throw with a sidearm toss that looks like it might go 15 or 20 feet. Then the angle changes to behind them and it blows up maybe 150 feet or 200 feet away right where the enemy is. The first time they also conveniently started fires around all the enemy soldiers. It's ok, if you can't shoot them with a rifle just throw a grenade at them!!!
Cannon: The Melted Man (1975)
start a fire, start a fire.....
I guess Cannon forgot that he was locked in a a similar cool room maybe 15 cases earlier. That time he started a fire which just happened to burn through and blow out the electric to the cooling unit. This time he sits there bending over and waits for the police to show up???
Cannon: Search and Destroy (1975)
falls off the cliff in the last scene
Amazed at the high ratings on this one. It was well above average and pretty good until the last big fight scene, which looked like it was staged by a 12 year old.
First off, how does Cannon know to jump out of the car and run full speed into the cabin? How does he know the villain is there at that point?
In the fight scene, the gun is going down and away as they wrestle but somehow the guy gets shot in the upper body? Then the bad guy misses the girl with two shots at about 6 to 8 feet and falls down? Then when cannon runs in the guy also has him at about 8 feet but instead of shooting Cannon, he decides to drop the gun and fall down because Cannon threw some plastic chess men at him?
Even if you say hey, it's action, and go with it up to this point, then the bad gun runs away. And Cannon shoots him with a snubnose revolver at maybe 4 or 500 feet, into a car, and kills the guy nearly instantly. The way he was hit would have had to go through the back windshield too. He could have stood on the hood of the car and made faces while Cannon shot over and over trying to even get close to hitting him at that distance...
A good episode ruined by a lazy and completely unbelievable ending.
Cannon: Death of a Hunter (1974)
Writers were tired by the end?
As Martin Hafer has mentioned the writing was pretty lazy from the beginning of this as far as creating any suspense. The bad guys decide to start attacking Cannon when he really has not learned anything to put them at risk. But the ending is really bad.... were the writers tired and just decided to do it quickly?
The villain goes in the cage and gets attacked by the lion... who wrestles with him instead of biting him and throws him around. At this point the guy has very minor injuries when he would really have major damage or be dead. Then Cannon pulls up fast, jumps out, and goes running in at full speed... because he knows the guy is being attacked... how? I guess they imagined he was yelling for help, but he never did. Then some random pistol shots scare the lion off... maybe.... but then when Cannon talks to the guy he immediately confesses to everything and explains it. Why? Cannon sees you attacked by a lion so he has proof? Even though he had figured part of it out he still had no real proof. But hey, there is only 10 minutes left and we have to finish the show, right.....
Dont Look Back (1967)
Donovan ruled the music, Bob rules the press
I wonder how many of the people saying how Dylan put Donovan in his place singing "baby blue" are really saying that because either they think it's a better song, or they just like Dylan better? Expecting down votes, but in that scene Donovan's song was much better - guitar work nothing major for either one, but his voice and singing was much better.
With that out of the way, Dylan is not a favorite. But I still found this pretty interesting as a snapshot of the times and to see the debates with the press. It kind of confirms how Dylan wanted to play the 'artist' but knew that being difficult with the press would actually sell more records and help give him the credibility he wanted so much.
So even if you aren't of a certain age, or don't think Dylan was the big thing, you might still like this as a look back to a different time.
Mannix: Bird of Prey: Part 2 (1975)
Joe is still south
A little surprised at the relatively high rating on this two part show. There are some good parts, but they are kind of strung together for no purpose - when you step back it doesn't work so well.
The beginning of this has a nice set up where Joe is framed for an assassination and goes on the run. His old restaurant friend helps him and there is an elaborate plan to hide and help him escape. But after an elaborate transfer and set up to lay low, he takes off and goes straight to the wife of the guy he is looking for.... so why even waste all the time being ferried in secret and the new outfit? Then Joe deduces where a key person may be and the police decide to go along with it, even though before they caught him they didn't believe him and were talking a next morning execution! The way Joe convinces them who is the real assassin is pretty thin also.... then when he runs off the police just stand around leaving Joe the only one chasing him... huh? But the chase scene and scenery - on foot- was well done and leads to an exciting finish... until... well, the bad guy's wife just stands there when she could save him. It's long and drawn out and makes no sense at all, as she earlier said she would back him no matter what.
So... you have some good scenes but some of them don't really fit the story... Going back to part 1 - Joe could have finished what the client wanted and didn't. Now that the full story is in, the wife also could have taken the reward and bye Joe, he knew nothing at that point to interfere with their plot.... but she didn't do that either. In the credits this one was based on a book, so maybe there was just too much to fit in 2 hours... it just had too many key things that didn't really make sense.
Mannix: Bird of Prey: Part 1 (1975)
Joe goes south
The big change in this one is that Joe has traveled to "San Leone" described as a long way from home. Joe's client wants him to find someone so he can deliver a reward. But the first person who helps him is murdered, then officials say the guy he is looking for is dead. Joe doesn't believe this and keeps looking as guys keep beating him up to leave. There is one good scene on the dock where Joe outsmarts the bad guys and knocks them into the ocean with minimal effort. But then near the end is a classic move where he knocks the bad guy out but instead of taking the weapon on the ground he runs off so the other bad guys with guns can catch him 30 seconds later! There's also one big issue near the end where Joe would be able to give the reward to Adrianna and meet the clients request... but of course instead he sneaks into a villa and overhears some political intrigue, leading into part 2.....
You can see how they were trying to change things up, but it comes across as more of the same, an average episode.
Mannix: Design for Dying (1975)
Hey, was that Magnum?
This is one of those "bird dog" episodes, but instead of someone sending Joe to find someone the client wants for other reasons, it's reversed to where the client doesn't really want the person but just a trail of sorts. If that doesn't make sense, watch the episode and you'll see.... that it doesn't really make sense either. The wife could just have called the chauffeur to pick her up and used him as witness, instead of the whole setup with Joe. Some episodes have Peggy say something that tips off the whole thing, but in this one the idea she leads to is just more goofy. Hard to recommend this one....
And yes, Magnum (Tom Selleck) is in it. Almost missed him as he has a short appearance, but the main thing is he is talking with a very nasal voice nothing like in Magnum or other shows.....
Mannix: Quartet for Blunt Instrument (1975)
Big money in methanol
Once again Mannix has a non-paying client after the hitch hiker he picks up is arrested for murder just a few minutes later. The guy is charged with killing his employer who was working on a breakthrough to make methanol that would be worth millions. Once Joe investigates he finds the wife, three business partners, plus two loan shark collectors, and surprise, another murder before long.
The basic plot of this was okay but it suffered from never having seen the murder victim. If you had seen and got to know him then the rest of it might have been more believable. A lot of the story with the loan shark and his guys kept things moving, but doesn't really make a lot of sense if you think about it. Probably should get bonus points as no one shoots from a moving car and misses, but still a very average episode.
Mannix: The Empty Tower (1975)
Joe Mannix in Die Hard
The prior episode, "A Ransom for Yesterday" was one of the best final season shows and a strong one in the whole series. That one featured Bill Bixby as director, although it seems like more of the credit might go to the writer in that case. Well in this one Bill is back both as an actor and a director, and in this one much of the credit has to go to the director, as a high amount of the show is action scenes.
This starts with Joe and Bill Bixby going fishing but Bill forgets his lures so they swing by his office in a high rise. They walk into a robbery and get locked in a vault. Soon enough Joe has broken them out of the "unbreakable" vault. Bill has a foot injury so Joe hides him and then goes to escape. Soon enough it's cat and mouse with the bad guys, chase scenes, fight scenes, guys not answering the walky talky, and more. One of Joe's early decisions with a car seems like pretty bad strategy, but all the rest of it is well paced and well filmed. The final scene on the roof is definitely not the usual fight scene, with a lot of work done via camera angles and showing you the terrain as things develop. Nice job directing by Bill and a good action episode. Makes you wonder what he could have done with a bigger building and budget... like Die Hard!
Mannix: Edge of the Web (1975)
Joe goes Columbo mode
A professor has an argument with someone, then his wife returns to find him dead. The person he was arguing with is a student getting his PHD, and his father is a friend of Joe's and asks him to help.
There's the wife, two other professors and a secretary, and it seems like everyone has an alibi although things keep changing. Evidence points to the father and he confesses, but Joe is sure he didn't do it.
No one shoots at Joe from a car and then races off, and no one even hits him in the back of the head. It's more of a traditional case where Joe asks questions and people keep turning up dead, until he finds out who did it. At that point the killer, who is not a good one, runs away and then stops standing next to a pool. So... punch him... kick him... just give him a little push into the water and call Art. But no, Joe does a flying tackle thing so they can thrash about in the water before subduing him. No shooting, no knockout, you gotta have a fight even if it is not much of one!!!
Mannix: Man in a Trap (1975)
Mob Whodunit?
This one starts out with a PI getting shot by Erik Estrada, a druggie crook with a blinding red check jacket!!! The investigator is a friend of Joe's and when he wakes up he tells him his client, a syndicate leader, is going to be killed. Joe gets there too late. The brother tries to hire Joe to clear him but he's working for nothing - of course - to catch who shot the other PI.
This one did a good job of throwing clues around but not making it so obvious early on who is behind it. It leads up to a syndicate meeting to punish the killer, of course Joe busts in to set them straight.
The last 30 seconds of it are way off, multiple people have been shooting and are shot and the police just run right in the middle like no one has guns expecting no one will resist. Well no one does, but it's a stupid way to run into a room during a shootout. Except for that a pretty good last season episode.
Mannix: Chance Meeting (1975)
Full of Holes
This one just didn't work. Peggy's sister and husband are traveling to LA and during a bus stopover he sees an old army buddy - Vietnam this time. They talk and then he sees another guy from the unit but when he yells the guy keeps walking. The friend then says that wasn't who he thought he was, because that guy is in Singapore and wanted for going AWOL. Next thing that guy walks in on the husband in the restroom and kills him. Then Joe gets a call the sister is in danger and shows up to stop her and Peggy from being run down. After that we never see Peggy's sister again.
Joe goes to see the friend and it almost is the "small town syndrome" where bikers and a bar owner try to run Mannix off. There's a side drama with the friend and his daughter with autism, and how he's helping the other guy bring drugs in by military channels, and a speech or two about why the guy deserted.
One small highlight in this one is when the bikers try to attack Joe in a car. That's in movies a lot and always seemed stupid, pretty easy for a car to run them over. This time Joe swerves near one and he crashes, and the rest turn around to check on that guy. A funny part was when a guy with a rifle tells Joe to drop his gun as "you don't want to take on this rifle with a pistol do you" or something like that. He didn't see the other 20 episodes where Joe ducks and shoots from ankle high to hit someone way far off!!! This time Joe drops the gun only to outwit the motorcycle idiots again.
The big problem with this one was the beginning. The husband had no idea anything was going on, yet the friend volunteers that the other guy is AWOL, giving him a reason to kill the husband and wife. And he plans to get the drug money in a day or two anyway, so even if the guy reported it he would likely be long gone.
Mannix: A Word Called Courage (1975)
Another one better as Mission Impossible?
Seems pkfloymh and planktonrules have stopped. May not be as thorough but we'll keep going....
This is another episode that could have been a MI script redone for Mannix. To start off you have another guy from Mannix's army past... who was court martialed... and was a munitions expert. The first point has been done many times and the next two a time or two so far. The earlier episode where the warehouse was full of traps was also the "munitions" guy. (Sidenote... it had to be easier for the writers in the old days, when that first show was on years earlier. With box sets or binge dvrs we can see these in a shorter time frame to remember these things better....) But instead of blowing Mannix up, he wants to put him in a no-win interrogation situation, by telling the syndicate Mannix knows about their leak. How he would learn any of this is not real clear. And except for the stupid stubborn factor, why does Mannix care? If they are all criminals why not give up the leaker right away? Later it's mentioned the leaker was maybe helping the police intercept drug deliveries, but Mannix didn't know that when he was being tortured.
As to positives, the part where Joe retraces his tracks by sound and smell is a nice touch. Anthony Zerbe is almost always good as a guest and does a credible job of being the slightly nuts torture leader. But too many stretches to get into the main story here, combined with a poor ending lead to a rating of 4 for this one.
Mannix: Mask for a Charade (1974)
Someone besides Joe has a concussion?
Agree with the other two reviewers on the merits of this one. Although there are plenty of hints it's not over when it might be, it keeps the twists going as it continues. It also features one of the funniest lines in the series. At the lake scene Joe is fighting with a guy and they punch back and forth and then when he grabs Joe he gets his arm twisted and thrown over to land in a couple of feet of water. Other things happen then to end the fight, and his buddy comes over and says are you okay, and he says something like "Yeah, but I got a concussion".
Did the writers put that in as an inside joke? By now Joe has been knocked out 187 times and hit over the head an addition 243 times and has never shown any signs of wear. This guy gets thrown into shallow water and gets a concussion!!!! Hilarious....
Read some of "Planktonrules"'s well written reviews and he mentions the concussion issue in a number of reviews, so was pretty surprised that he did not comment on it this time!!
Mannix: Race Against Time: Part 2 (1974)
Nice fire, where's the marshmallows
The other reviews have pretty much covered this episode but there is one real low part that has to be mentioned. While the good guys are all in that building doing the medical procedure the double agent tries to get away to warn the government. After some action he is shot but that leads to an explosion and a large vehicle fire. Joe looks over at the fire that looks to be maybe 15 feet across and 8 feet up, then walks off back into the building. When you are hiding out, doesn't it seem like a giant fire would draw fire, or police, or some type of authorities? Or be spotted from a plane or helicopter or even a distance away from the smoke? But no one even tries to put it out. Depending what was on the ground it might have spread to the building they were in, but no one seems to care and we don't see any more fire after that.
There were lots of bad moves in this one, but that they just walk off and ignore that the whole complex might be burning up was ridiculous.