landrykkb Reviews

The Love Boat (1977–1987)

It was what it was,for better or for worse

[7/10 · 28 November 2015]

I have read the previous reviews and while I do realize that every episode of The Love Boat was predictable and cheesy in hindsight,were most television shows of that era or some even since any different?You got to also realize that Aaron Spelling specialized in the fantasy genre realm(Starsky & Hutch was a lot more reality based in comparison to this and his other offerings,mind you).It was escapist entertainment at its finest and Fantasy Island following it Saturday nights on ABC made everybody's night home who decided not to venture out.I even remember when ABC aired the reruns on their daytime schedule.By that time,they were on the air long enough to justify showing them daily.One knock against the show to me is that at least Fantasy Island had that moral-of-the-story element that The Love Boat didn't.

Vacation (I) (2015)

It's worth checking out,even if only out of curiosity

[7/10 · 13 September 2015]

I never went to see this movie with the expectation that it was going to top or at least compare to the original,so maybe that's why I wasn't disappointed in it like obviously many others here and in general were.The 1983 Vacation that kick-started this franchise was even better than the sequels that followed,and I'm honestly one of the few people in this world who didn't see the appeal of Christmas Vacation beyond that one scene with Bing Crosby's Hawaiian Christmas song.Anyhow,this was a decent reboot with a now-adult Rusty Griswold with his own family.The crude,adulterated humor and foul language in this one is not so over-the-top in this day and age as it would have been 32 years ago had it been prevalent then.Ed Helms was a great choice for the role of Rusty as was Christina Applegate as his wife Debbie.On top of her obvious risqué humor that we know she conveys so well on screen,she can play the straight woman convincingly enough that you forget for a brief moment that she was "Kelly Bundy" on "Married With Children" 3 decades prior.While I won't exaggerate by giving this modernization of Vacation 10 stars out of 10,it definitely deserves 7 for sticking with tradition and yet standing out on its own in a Hollywood that's become too formulaic.