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Reviews
Leave It to Bryan (2012)
Friendly renovation expert who teaches as he fixes
If you own a home, watch this show. If you have dreams of renovating, don't -- until you've watched this show. You will learn many many things to be prepared for and things to consider before choosing a new design. Homeowners must relinquish their house, their budget, and the design choices to Bryan. Bryan expertly finds the biggest problems and fixes everything correctly while teaching along the way. You learn by watching other innocent home owners overcome the unknown challenges that obstruct renovation. After a few shows, you'll know what a rough-in is, what egress is, and why R20 is better.
Office Race (2023)
Run Fat Boy Run but less funny or clever
Simon Pegg, Thandie Newton & Hank Azaria made "Run Fat Boy Run" (brilliant). This movie, Office Race took that plot, removed the brilliant parts, and added toilet humor and crude sex jokes that fall flat. I own Run Fat Boy Run and I rewatch it every few months, best modern underdog story ever. So Funny. The landlord, the gamblers, the shoplifter, the characters are so memorable. I won't ever bother watching Office Race again.
The plot and the script are the problem. The players did their best. I just watched it before writing this review and I'm deliberately trying to forget it. Run Fat Boy Run is so much better.
Columbo: Forgotten Lady (1975)
This is the BEST episode, and there should be no doubt.
This is, without any hesitation, the best episode of Columbo ever made. Always watch this one when it is on. Janet Leigh & Maurice Evans tangle with Peter Falk and all 3 are as charming as they have ever been. It is brilliant from start to finish. Brilliant.
I logged in to make it clear that this is the BEST episode.
Don't Look Up (2021)
A metaphor for the end of democracy
This is plainly a metaphor to illustrate how simple it is to replace democracy with corporate autocracy just by convincing a small number of ignorant people to "don't look up" (= don't see the obvious).
The film illustrates that today it is simple to encourage people to group together and project hate at others. In this case, reject the scientific claims that a deadly comet (or virus) is on its way in order to celebrate owning (= blindly rejecting) the opponents. Group together and follow a belief system as long as you don't listen to any outside influence (don't look up at the comet coming to kill you). The scene with the red hat wearing bearded white guy who looks up at the comet and exclaims "damn, they lied to us" is memorable.
The movie is well structured. The hypothetical interpersonal dramas that could happen during this type of conflict are entertaining. If the world is ending I want to be near Cate Blanchett.
Prisoners of the Ghostland (2021)
Reconcile that post nuclear bombs, a culture saves itself by adopting US heroes
This film is really a commentary hidden in an absurd action adventure.
The commentary is about how absurd it is that a culture devastated by nuclear destruction, living in fear of nuclear annihilation, will simultaneously adopt the hero worship of the opponent culture and pray for the bombers to become the saviors.
Cry Macho (2021)
Clint shoots himself in the foot.
All the "Every Which Way" movies were way better.
And Clyde the orangutan is a better actor than these stereotypes.
The film deserves the low ratings. It is comparable to forgotten B movies from the early 1970s. Watchable & forgettable.
I'm going to speculate that Eastwood doesn't want his legacy to be that he hates Mexican immigrants. So, he presents a story (jam-packed with insulting Mexican stereotypes) in which an American rescues a Mexican teenager by bringing him to Texas. Talk about shooting himself in the foot. Eastwood's legacy will probably be that he really really hated Mexicans (unless they were lonely women willing to dance with him).
The Female Brain (2017)
Brilliant mea culpa
I am a retired neuroscientist. The science here is reasonable albeit simplified, and that works. I watched with skepticism and was initially appalled at the investigator's desire to retest until the data was more suitable. That would be nonsense. But the mea culpa resolved that. This indicates the direction was perfect. I was supposed to be upset (tension), and the tension was resolved with humility and self awareness. Brilliant. Each of the four romances were real, both sides were treated fairly. If I were nitpicking I would say the athlete owes more apology but that is the point really. We live with flawed people. We are flawed. Best line: " Jet lag is a social construct". Hilarious.
Free Samples (2012)
I think this film is charming from start to finish
I am retired, I watch movies every day, I collect them and I only stumbled across this gem in 2017. There should be more than just 23 reviews of this wonderful film so I am adding mine. I thought the movie Clerks was brilliant, and I think this movie is similarly brilliant. Similar themes, similar presentation, similar degree of profundity, but Free Samples is much more friendly and the acting is far more charming. And the charm stays with you as you contemplate the possibilities.
Kill Ratio (2016)
Action plus nonsense behavior and nonsense dialogue
Too many things don't make any sense. -SPOILERS SORT OF- The foreign president would not go on TV and then speak in English. If you just finished applying a bandage, leave it alone. Don't go back to the blood-soaked room. Don't split up. Give your cell phone to the president. If you can call each other on the cell phone, why again didn't you call the embassy? Don't hide the 3rd dead soldier's body while there is a floor to floor search coming. Don't delay to set a grenade trap that may kill innocents. The nonsense just piles up. Too many silly actions to list. New action hero though, good posture shooting assault rifles. Oh, and wash your hands before you remove shrapnel from someone's abdominal wound also. A sword fight?! in a small crowded room? whose idea was that? Why didn't the general just stab the president with the sword?