Reviews

FUBAR is just stupid. The show is all fouled up beyond any repair. HUGE disappointment. The acting is like a first read. No emotional connections for any of the characters, and the story reminds of me some middle school kid trying to rewrite the old TV show Chuck. In fact, Chuck is better than FUBAR by a bunch.

SPOILERS BELOW, as if that could ruin a crummy show.

The set-up is that the Arnold character is a retiring spy with the CIA. He is divorced and his daughter is also a spy, but at first he does not know that. After he retires, he gets called back in to do an extraction (a tooth extraction without anesthesia is better than watching this FUBAR of a show), but when the Arnold character and his "wacky team" go after the mission, only then does Arnold find out that his daughter is also an agent. Big shock, huh? Not.

Bad acting all around, and the stunt doubles for Arnold are so obvious, it is painful to watch.

I made it through three full episodes (I guess I have a high pain tolerance) but after that gave up.

There are a plethora of shows with comic spies that are better than this drivel of a FUBAR show.

The only thing this show does right is its name. It is all fouled up beyond any repair.

Guns of Eden is a very badly made movie. The premise is some campers see sheriff's officers murder a man. From there, it is a shoot and chase movie.

Positives: Some nice forest backgrounds.

Does point out the "gun nut cult" Parodies some current politicians as catering to insane ideologies.

Negatives: Except for Alexandra Faye Sadeghian (the female lead) no one else in the movie has any acting ability at all. Extremely crummy acting, and stumbling thorugh their lines.

Dumb plot.

Production errors all over the place. People in one shot, suddenly have different equipment in teh next view. Bodies disappear as the camera angle switches, and a host of other junk like that. A high school film class could do better.

Inaccurate depiction of how firearms actually work. "Actors" frequently have fingers off the triggers, yet the weapon is firing? Really? The special effects are added in and are just stupid and inaccurately placed.

This film makes Christians all look like ignorant, gun totting, cousin marrying, murderous, idiots.

STRONG RELIGIOUS BIGOTRY.

Supposed to be gruesome scenes, but the makeup is not even up to 1950s standards.

MAKES POLICE OFFICERS LOOK LIKE TRIGGER HAPPY FOOLS.

Except for the single black character, who is a good cop, and is then murdered, the rest of the law enforcement people are made to look bad.

My grade, is a strong F. This movie fails, fails, and fails again.

SPOILER ALERT; I really like the original book, Ferdinand, by Munro Leaf. I previewed it before letting my grandchildren watch it, and I am very glad I did. I am not sure what age child might like it, for it ranges from silly to dark in its themes. Maybe for kids ten and over?

That being said, this movie does NOT follow the book much at all.

Positives about this movie.

Nice animation. Some scenes which are very close to the orginal art of the book.

Pretty music, mostly. A few tunes I did not care for, but overall sweet music.

Based VERY LOOSELY on a superb book.

A basic feel good ending which is somewhat related to the book, but not very well.

Negatives: The plot falls apart as it stuffs lots of new characters, lots of action, and lots of filler to stretch the orginal story into a "madcap adventure" including car chases, trains, and sidekicks which were never at all in the book.

Ferdinand's mother is replaced by a father, and while the father is a nice character, just leaving the mother out bothered me.

The infighting between the bulls was over emphasized, and the fact that Ferdinand likes ot just sit quietly and smell the flowers was minimized. The end scene of the bull fight is not at all like in the book.

Three horses with weird German accents are added as some kind of comic relief or something, and they might entertain very young children, but tyhe dark themes of bull fighting and a slaughter house and way too mature for kids that young.

This movie tries to do something for everyone, and ends up being a mess. Too dark for small children, too silly in places for older kids, and way too drawn out with chases and additions which were never in the book, so that book fans will be disappointed.

Overall, I was very disappointed by the movie version of Ferdinand. Not recommended.

Apollo 10 1/2 is a great premise, recalling the year 1969 from a child's perspective, especially regarding the moon landing. I especially like the rotoscope style of filming, and that was done pretty well here. They used a variation of it on the historical footage which is shown on TV's and movies within the movie which ads to its unique flavor.

Yet, like so many Netflix produced movies, there is gratuitous tobacco product placements and character shown smoking cigarettes. Sure idiots smoked in 1969, just like idiots smoke in today's world, but I wonder who much money the tobacco industry pumps into Netflix to promote cancer-causing additions? Apollo 10 1/2 will appeal to children, by its child-focused main character, and its rotoscope style of filming, so why not just leave out the tobacco product placements? Is it because Netflix is paid to put that smoking nonsense into these films???? Probably.

I would give the film a 10 without the smoking, but because of all the tobacco product placements, the film only gets a 7.

Savage Planet has some of the worst writing I have found in a movie. Plot holes abound. Science fiction is indeed fiction, but should be driven by well-crafted ideas and plots. Not found here. A few attempts to explain deep space teleportation, but those few attempts are feeble and just dreadfully poor. Special effects are bad. The clips of the bear attacks are all pasted together and look very amateurish. Fair acting by some decent actors, but with the script they have, I doubt they could do better. Almost no entertainment value.

The Young Messiah is a fine film which looks at the time in Jesus' life from when his family brings him back from Egypt to Nazareth. The settings of the film are beautiful, the music is sweet (a bit minimalistic), and the acting is very good. There is an interesting plot and some very poignant moments. Some critics have written that this film is not based on the Bible, but I would say that it "writes into the gaps" which the Bible does not address. The Jesus in this movie is 7 years old. The Bible says that on one occasions, when Jesus was 12, they went to celebrate the passover and Jesus got separated from his family. But do not think this film is messing with that, because it is not. It describes a different trip to celebrate the passover. The Bible says that the family made yearly visits. Luke 2:40-42 "The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favor of God was upon him. Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival." and Luke 2:52 "And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favor." Those passages which speak about Jesus growing in wisdom and stature, are what this film covers. Yes, some of the events described are only written about in non-canonical ancient writings, or from historical accounts, but the flavor and tone of this film is very reverent. The virgin birth and angelic visits are discussed by Mary (Bible based). The massacre of the innocents is mentioned numerous times (Bible based), and the multiple crucifixions on the road to Sepphoris (a historical report) are all in this film. The demon (Satan) is portrayed in a very creepy and effective way. The new King Herod is also written as an interesting character. Joseph is well done. Mary is a sweet and loving mother who radiates warmth for her child. I had hoped that this film would show the fact that after Jesus was born, Mary and Joseph had other children (via the typical method of procreation). As one can tell from reading the Bible we know there were younger brothers and sisters of Jesus. Mark 6:3 "Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?" Overall, I found this an entertaining and inspiring movie, but one needs to keep in mind it was not trying to tell the exact biblical story, but an entertainment film which has biblical themes.