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Mobius_loop
Reviews
The Fall Guy (2024)
Lots of fun and action where the stuntmen are the real stars
OK, first off if you are looking for a plausible plot, you won't find one here. What you do get is a stunt man on hard times who is offered a comeback...with a catch. The director is his former significant other who at the moment is truly not happy with him. They are working on her sci fi epic with a star who has gone missing. So the stunt double is basically doing his film to be filled in later with the principle. So far, pretty normal for the high strung types in the film industry, but something is rotten in the state of New South Wales (they are filming in Sydney Australia). This leads into a high action, very low credibility, plot with a lot of not so subtle digs against the industry pretentiousness, and producers who make politicians look like good honest folk. Just watch it for the fun and don't overthink it. It's enjoyable and you get to see some of the tricks of the trade you've seen hundreds of times before but never realized how it was done after some post production magic. To reiterate, the heroes in this movie are the uncredited stunt people taking the falls for the big name (and not so big) actors to make them look like superheroes.
Bullet Train (2022)
Rich with details too fast to see in one viewing, worth seeing again
Code name "Ladybug" (we never find out his real name), he is really really trying to be a nice guy. His therapist (never seen) is giving him a positive worldview to counter his self admitted terrible run of bad luck. He is undoubtedly the NICEST criminal you are ever likely to meet. He is however a criminal albeit attempting to be a non-violent one... something that he fails at miserably entirely at no fault of his own. The inexplicable twins (you'll see why) are also strangely likeable since they seem to have a code of keeping civilians out of their very violent trade craft. Lemon uses Thomas the Tank Engine as his metaphor for life and people, which he takes utterly seriously and with surprising success in seeing through surface appearance. Add a Yakusa father and son to flesh out the "good"-ish criminals and four very bad people (plus assorted henchmen) and you have the players. Stick them all in a train going 200mph and stopping for EXACTLY one minute per station, and that is the setting. BT has some of the best most crisp editing I've ever seen. You are bombarded by apparently trivial details which later take on importance. The dialogue is witty and intelligent interspersed with flashbacks that take you off the train and fill in each character's back story in viginettes. You can actually feel some sympathy even for some of the assassins who aren't just completely one-dimensional villains (except possibly the Hornet who has pretty much no redeeming features). In any case, beginning to end you have intense visual images moving along the plot as each character's story is told then connected back to the present. So much detail, that after the adrenaline rush of the first viewing, wait a while then watch it again on Netflix for details you missed. This is the kind of movie you can watch multiple times and still enjoy because you can get into the richness of detail.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch (2021)
Just watched the finale, promise no spoilers
After being so much disappointed by the J J Abrams arc live films (on Disney+ for the rewatching and I won't bother) the animated series bring back the joy of the original trilogy. The Bad Batch matches Clone Wars and Rebels in the ability to hold your interest throughout. Along with the live action series they have saved Star Wars from becoming a moribund franchise. TBB is geared for both children and adults and has enough complexity and plot to keep most ages interested. Yes, some episodes do seem a bit like filler, but then will come some great episodes which will pay back dividends. How can I sum up three seasons in one paragraph? I can't, just give it a try and make it through the few weaker episodes because it's a worthwhile story arc. Promise.
Le salaire de la peur (2024)
Please go watch the original and give this a pass.
The bits and pieces were there. Desperate men. Check. Burning oil well. Check. Nitroglycerin. Check. Trucks and a dangerous road. Check...sort of. Instead of being the real terror of carring a cargo that will kill you if you make the slightest wrong move on a road so treacherous only someone insane or insanely desperate would even think of trying, you get a cheap mercenary running a rebel gauntlet movie with a third rate Vin Diesel clone. For gosh sakes, literally hundreds of bullets fired around nitro and they aren't a giant smoking crater. Totally needless action hero HIGH SPEED chases thrown in for no purpose. With nitro (facepalm). The movie loses focus in the first 20 minutes and never gets it back. The original and the remake "Sorcerer" (a pretty good film in its own right) made you grit your teeth as they crept along dirt, gravel, and mud river and mountain roads, where the SCENERY is trying to kill you. Creeping along where every bump and jolt could mean instant death. In the original and first remake you had real terror always there where you could smell it, and some not so nice men so desperate they risk everything for the prize. All of that tension and terror is lost in such a mundane plot than any random action TV series would provide in a one hour format better and with less futzing around with unnecessary side plots. See the original, or see Sorcerer. Both much better movies with more honest gut wrenching emotion than this sorry excuse that just wasted two hours of my time.
Avatar: The Last Airbender: Masks (2024)
The best episode so far
I was actually afraid to watch this series since I was so disappointed by the first live action Airbender. Yes, this is different and compressed in some ways compared to the absolutely superb animated series (please watch it if you haven't already after finishing this live series), but so far the changes to plot and timeline have not been jarring. This episode goes into Zuko's motivations and his relationship with his tyrant father.
Spoilers: Zuko is forced to go against his father to free the Avatar after he had captured him and then taken away by Admiral Jiao. As the masked mercenary he succeeds but is in turn saved by the Avatar who has a long conversation with him, although at crossed purposes. Almost as a throwaway we find out about the sacrificial 41st division mentioned in the animated timeline. In this version their significance takes on a profound meaning and their relationship with Zuko changes irrevocably and his sacrifice for them was an act of courage.
AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)
Putting this in perspective of both franchises not all that bad
Seeing all the negative reviews I have to look back on the Alien and Predator franchises and put this movie in its proper place...which is surprisingly high up after Alien and Aliens, and the original Predator. If the reviewers at the time it came out had a crystal ball to have gotten an inkling of how low both franchises would go, singly and in combination, this would have been a much better rated contribution. After the first two Alien films the franchise went into steep decline. Even the great Ridley Scott couldn't put a shine on the rotten apple that was Prometheus and its follow up. AVP had a decent if thin plot, excellent cinematography and sets, and a reasonably plausible female lead. The "ancient city" idea has been used before, but the setting in Antarctica was novel at least and made for isolation versus the city setting of Predator 2 which just didn't quite work. The action was good (which is basically the raison d'tre of the genre) and the humans messing up the game made for an interesting twist. I actually liked the fact that the Predators go in expecting to be outnumbered but with high tech weapons, then suddenly having to improvise and even accept a human ally. All in all an enjoyable contribution and not worthy of the low marks people are giving here.
Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)
Not sure where all the hatred is coming from
I went into this with zero expectations and enjoyed it all the way through. My only disappointment was that I had to wait for the conclusion. Reading the negative reviews I see some valid criticism, but there is no justification for the one and two star reviews. Considering looking at the overall score even with these extreme low reviews, a LOT of people are upvoting without bothering to review. Is this a GREAT movie? Heck no. It has a lot of flaws. But is it an ENJOYABLE film if you just want to ride the emotional wave of despicable villains and stereotypical heroes? Absolutely. This requires exactly no more suspension of disbelief than any of the blockbuster comic book hero movies flooding the market. Do you want to put the same filter of realism on ANY of those? Do you think, any of the Marvel superheroes make any sense at all? Its all emotions and action which this movie has plenty of. It's bubblegum. So just get your emotional rush and leave it at that. It's not going to win any awards but does that make the slightest bit of difference for the majority of people who will like it?
The Execution of Private Slovik (1974)
The only US Army serviceman executed for desertion in WWII
A good but rather sad film. Private Slovik was not an upstanding guy. He was a petty criminal and ne'er-do-well individual, who probably shouldn't have been in uniform. It should be pointed out that he had at least two justifiable outs for deferment, only supporting son, and criminal record. But many equally deserving men were dying in Europe who did their duty willingly if but reluctantly, yet he did not. Note also that he willingly gave himself up to authorities, expecting a prison sentence, and not death. He never realized until the end he was going to be the one and only example to be executed for desertion during the war. Noting that others had been executed for rape, murder, and crimes against civilians (which were also civil capital crimes). The film pulls no punches, and sets up Eddie as a hapless and inoffensive guy who is just frightened out of his wits and refuses to continue. He expects to sit in prison, possibly for a long time, but didn't expect to die. His bad luck. Many in the military, even at that time, saw this as unequal justice, since all other death sentences for simple desertion (unaccompanied by other crimes) had ended in commutation and lesser penalties. Sheen does a great job portraying Slovik. You have sympathy for him as the entire military justice machine slowly takes him to his doom.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes (2023)
You've seen the end, now this is the beginning
What if you somehow know someone will do something horrible in the future? A dictator leading a cruel fascist state. There's that science fiction trope of if you could meet him as a young child what could you do...kill him, or teach him to be good instead of following the path to evil? In the sequels we saw the villainous old man and here we see the young frightened child and young adult living in dilapidated quarters clinging to former family glory. You have sympathy for him and if he chooses he could have love, freedom...or power. But not all of the above. Not having read the book this was a series of surprises which kept me guessing and hoping for the characters to overcome all odds. Well worth watching.
Stargate SG-1: Revisions (2003)
A very defective utopia
This is a very frightening episode, yet it has no violence, no real villain, and yet it plays on some very human fears. We ARE our memories. If you can't trust your memory how can you know what is real.l?
SG1 encounters a perfect community in a force field dome that survived the destruction of their world's environment. Everything seems idylic, if a rather small world. But gluing the community together is a computer AI with a mission to ensure the survival of the community...but not necessarily its parts. This is one form of an otherwise benevolent AI that experiences "peverse instantiation", i.e. Taking a perfectly rational order, and finding a way of implementing the instructions in a way that is totally against all human values.
The Twilight Zone: The Hitch-Hiker (1960)
Simple premise, catried to an inevitable ending.
Why review a sixty year old episode? Because twilight zone was about really great acting. I saw this as a very young child in reruns. It scared the heck out of me then. A young woman (Ingmar Stevens) on a cross country drive sees an impossible tramp hitchhiking, always somehow getting in front of her no matter how fast she drives. This alone is spooky. The episode opens with a mechanic fixing her tire marveling at her miraculous escape from what should have been a deadly wreck. This is an episode with no special effects or gimmick costuming. Just acting. Something that has become less important today. It's a solid episode, and my only criticism is the voice over first person hearing her thoughts rather than letting the images and dialogue carry the plot. Her increasing dread is palpable. The sailor she picks up is played extremely well and is an injection of reality at just the critical moment. We find out she is in fact dead and not realizing this, until the last minutes, having died in the first moments of her car accident. In hindsight If this episode was ever redone I wish I could have written a twist where all the people she meets and interacts with are actually the same as her and equally unaware, but different in that they are not running away.
The Terminal List (2022)
Leaves you guessing and changing reality until season end
Chris Platt does credible military fiction and this is no exception. He is the leader of a team where the mission goes wrong in the worst possible way. But the worst if it is it doesn't end when he gets home and his memory leads the viewer to believe he is heading down a dark psychological sinkhole. Each piece of information makes you alternate in believing he's crazy then not crazy, where what he sees isn't necessarily what is really there, but that doesn't mean that there's no basis for his fears. There's an old saying that "even paranoids can have real enemies". This is a psychological roller coaster which is disturbing, and may not be suitable for children and even some adults. Take the violence and gore warnings seriously if you are particularly affected.
65 (2023)
Too many unnecessary plot elements, so so effects
First off, I found the characters themselves well played, but in a terrible plot. Just piling on more and more coincidences to no point. The backstory of the pilot is tragic and touching and might be the best part of the movie in the way it ties in with his young charge. If they had left it at that, this would have been a better movie. Dinosaurs? Well, OK, but why add the Chixulub meteorite at that EXACT time with human looking people who aren't actually HUMAN? Accident and crash, OK, as a starting point, hostile planet to add drama, tight deadline to escape, all fine, but we're asked to add one more item after another until we're overwhelmed with coincidences. They could have done the Star Wars "in a galaxy far far away" motiff then time and place is irrelevent. Just two people in a bad situation. Then had total freedom to make any dinosaur-like creatures they could imagine and done away with the whole Earth 65 million years ago plotline (with a new name for the movie) and lost the really pitiful CGI and practical dinosaurs which frankly are way below Jurassic park quality from decades ago and are just embarrassing. A waste of two good actors and at least I saw it on free streaming and didn't shell out for theater tickets, otherwise I would have been far less kind in a review.
The Right Stuff (1983)
Entertaining but not respectful to the memory of Grissom
Too much humor and unfair to Grissom (who later died in the Apollo 1 fire). They took Wolfe's book and played up the laughs at the expense of history. Wally Schirra later validated Grissom's version of events by DELIBERATELY blowing his Mercury capsule hatch safely on the deck of the recovery carrier. Like every other astronaut who did this he had bruises on his arm to show for it, which Grissom did not, demonstrating he didn't trigger the mechanism. Entertaining movie, but historically flawed and not a fair treatment of Grissom who gave his life for the space program and his country. I give it a B minus.
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005)
Simply the best animated series ever
This is a very very late review. There's a live action Airbender coming out soon, and I wish them the best, but they have an impossibly high bar to reach. I have rewatched this series at least six or seven times. Each time it has been equally satisfying. The humour, the characters, the absolutely immersive world building. All these allow children and adults to lose themselves in an incredible story. I won't call it flawless, but it is so close as to be negligible. You laugh and cry and are moved by truly realized characters placed in genuinely ethical and thoughtworthy dillemas. When the tribute to Mako (who died during the making) appears as he mourns his lost son, I find it near impossible to not have tears in my eyes.
Fast X (2023)
Five stars for funny and high action but zero for believable
First off, I like all the actors. Even Jason Momoa as the villian does a good job of wacked out evil genius...BUT...the script is terrible. It is not believeable and the series has gone further and further into just implausible stunts that defy physics and logic. No, two muscle cars can't tow a giant vault (from the earlier movie this one flashes back to continuously). You'd get burning rubber and a rock solid vault. Cars can't fly forty feet in the air and land without smashing their suspensions. Nope nope nope. OK, it's fun, but you can only go so far before it becomes tedious and repetitious. Spoiler: only one, this movie doesn't have an ending. It is totally open to a sequel, and people in the theater I was in actually groaned and started talking at the end, because they couldn't believe it left off the way it did. Very disapointing, and you left the movie on a downbeat. This isn't "Dune part 1" where you know up front this is a two parter. It's a gimmick which leaves you frustrated.
Ambulance (2022)
Plot holes you can drive an ambulance through
The good? Lots of action. That was it, just action. The plot initially seems like an interesting premise, but whenever it comes to a logical out to each problem, they pick the pointless and dumb way. The Police seem unable to stop one ambulance with the full force of the LAPD. Never heard of spike strips? The outcome beyond the first half hour should have been entirely predictable.
INSTEAD, we have a layer cake of improbable plot add ons as the bad brother coerceses his unwilling brother as a last minute inclusion to a "sure thing" heist. I won't give anything away by saying the situation just gets worse and worse and worse. Not just for the bad guys. The LAPD has a level of casualties and collateral damage enough cause to fire every decision maker involved. So if you want mindless action and car chases, then this is OK. If you want an actual believable plot...then give it a pass.
Kate (2021)
Wasn't expecting much, pleasantly surprised
It starts rather conventionally. Assassin pushed to break her one and only rule. As a consequence she wants to quit. The rest of the movie flash backs to her life, from being recruited as a child. She's poisoned almost at the start and from this point on she's out to find her killer. Conventional so far. Then it gets complicated. On the way through her killing lower level Yakuza to get to the honcho it leads her to the exact person who was the reason she's quitting.
Thus starts one of the weirdest hate at first sight meet ups which you know will get complicated since the young girl is also an outcast. The action scenes are good and there is the occasional humor. There are some touching moments between the two main characters who essentially have no friends (just lackeys and bosses). Look out for one of the oddest selfie moments since the zombie pic in Shaun of the dead.
Maybe in some ways run of the mill, but it has enough going for it to be thoroughly entertaining and poignant. I disagree with some other reviews since I only initially found the kid annoying, since her life seems more tragic than shallow. Try not to overanalyze this movie and just go with the emotional ride. Even as just an action movie it's worth it.
Stargate Origins: Catherine (2018)
I really, REALLY, wanted to like this movie but...
As others have said this is amateur hour. It obviously had a tiny budget and the writing is if not abysmal, was not up to the par of the worst Stargate SG1 episodes. Throw in Nazis ala Raiders of the Lost Ark, in Egypt yet (how uniformed Germans could be running around BRITISH Egypt didn't make any sense in Raiders either).
Unlike some of the other reviewers I liked some of the characters, but they were a bit annoying. It did seem contrived and did not mesh well with what we know from future events. If you want to add backstory then it should at least be consistent and explanatory, or better still, ask intriguing new questions that demand answers in the rest of the series.
I enjoyed it for what it was, but it is a digression from the Stargate saga and not canon. Hoping for better attempts to come along.
Alien³ (1992)
I tried to think of one redeeming feature...zip, nada, zilch
Total waste of time. One of the few movies I've ever watched where I actually regretted it immediately while watching, since it retroactively ruins the really fine movie before it.
Dark, humorless, bleak, and pointless. I actually can't find enough negative adjectives to supply to let me express how this is one of MY ALL TIME LEAST ENJOYABLE MOVIES.
A dismal waste of time and money. Please, if you get the boxed set, SKIP this one and go straight to number four. It's not that great either but in comparison it shines. Just pretend Alien 3 never happened. In fact, scratch the DVD and do the next people to inherit it from you a proactive favor so they don't ruin Aliens.
Genghis Khan (1965)
Historically worthless but entertaining nevertheless
With notable Asian actors such as James Mason and Robert Morley how can you go wrong? Please don't take this movie for anything like even a semi-realistic docudrama. Some of the names are real as are a few scenarios, but largely this is an imaginative script cut from whole cloth. Omar Sharif is very good as Ghenghis. Borte was played by the beautiful but tragically short-lived Françoise Dorléac. The European actors in a story about central and East Asians is a bit grating, but if you can maintain a suspension of disbelief it is a very entertaining film. Just don't take your history from here. Get a good history of the Mongol empire, the REAL story is entertaining enough in itself.
The Twilight Zone: Passage on the Lady Anne (1963)
A ship from a lost age and a couple on the rocks
This episode is all about the durability of love and relationships, and the impermanance of life. As others have stated this is an unusual episode without science fiction or fantasy elements, just an extremely unusual situation.
The Ransomes are a couple whose marriage is rapidly spiralling down the drain. In a last desparate bid, the wife convinces the husband for one last try. In a momentary fit of pique, they chose an antiquated liner making a slow crossing (and we later find destined for the wreckers yard), against the advice of the travel agent. At the dock an elderly man makes them an absurdly large offer to buy their tickets to prevent them boarding but to no avail.
At this point onboard we meet the remarkable complement of couples, and a few unfortunate singles...all of them extremely elderly (played by some of the best British character actors of their time). They are initially shocked by the young couple, but come to accept them, and even like them. The oddity of the trip only increases as they realize they are the ONLY evenly remotely young people aboard, both passengers and crew.
The couple continue to bicker, but the romance of the enduring love of the couples around them makes them pause and take stock of their relationship. Towards the end, the husband realizes his obsession with work is not worth the end of his marriage, and they reconcile.
SPOILERS:
The husband notices that the ship has inexplicably turned North. At this point the wife suddenly disappears and the husband frantically searches for her. He is confronted at gunpoint and led to his wife who is already in a well stocked lifeboat on the water. The husband is nonplussed asking why and what have we done? But the wife understands. They will live, it is not only the ship destined to meet its end but all aboard, and they have been spared. The Captain assures them that their whereabouts have been radioed and they will be found. The Lady Anne sails into the fog never to be heard of again.
Still one of my favourite episodes, even though the premise is simple. I suppose the moral is you only live once, and get your priorities straight before you lose the most important things.
Foundation (2021)
Nothing to do with Asimov's classic
If you are drawn to it because you read the books then you will likely be very disappointed. Interesting and visually impressive, but only superficially resembling the original and departing in every way from the intricate structure of the original which made it a classic. The recent Dune is far closer to its model. For visual fluff this is as good or as bad as any of comic book inspired films of the last decade. As a rendering of Asimov's vision, a clear miss.
SPOILERS
For those who haven't read the book, the concept of predictive "Future History" WAS the central theme. I say was since while there were any number of memorable and pivotal characters, the central theme was the grand play of Hari Seldon's grand plan of Psychohistory steering the Galactic Empire away from thousands of years of a dark age after its collapse to a fraction of that, sparing trillions of people the misery of living in an age of degraded knowledge. The "Foundation" was the nominal keeper of the flame to carry kniwledge into the future age. However, its real purpose is far more complex. But above all, it is the STORY of vast periods of time and scope across many worlds. Personalities counted, but they were individuals who lived and died as normal humans.
THIS interpretation has people who span the ages by cloning or suspended animation. Who have preternatural "super powers" which totally defeats the HUMANITY of the original motiff, which was that Humanity triumphs NOT because of a few supermen, but untold billions and occassional extraordinary, but not superhuman people. The trinary emperor was not in Asimov's original, elevated from a background character to center stage and sucking the air away from the more important plot points. Who CARES about the Emperor. The whole point in the books was that he was IRRELEVANT. By changing the fundamental nature of most of the central characters and making them superhuman comic book heroes and villians, the original beauty of the books evaporates. I'm giving it 5 stars as a standalone work for comic book superhero storytelling, but zero for faithfullness to the original text which was far more clever and interesting, although evidently far to cerebral for current tastes.
Star Trek: Discovery: That Hope Is You, Part 2 (2021)
Keeping my expectations low, but not low enough it seems
I'll keep it simple. The writers have descended to zero believability. A SPECTACULAR trip through the ship in a space far far larger than the ship itself. This is not the TARDIS.
The Blacklist: Misère (2021)
Liz Keene is an idiot
Rehashing 3 months of really bizarre logic. She willingly abetted her mini-Hitler mommy in killing someone who actually risked his life for her on many occasions. Then enlisted heinous individuals willing to hurt innocent people at every turn. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid. This is the most ridiculous plot arc in television history. It lacks any believability and her vacuous credulity of her mother is absurd. I don't blame the actress, but the writers should be ashamed of what they've done to a remarkable series.