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JMN80
Reviews
The Wrong Woman (2013)
McKeller did her best
I won't criticize the lead, Danica McKeller, too much. I feel she was convincing in the scenes early in the movie where her life is falling apart and the evidence continues to mount against her. I genuinely felt sorry for her. About halfway through the movie though, when her character arc goes from helpless deer in the headlights to spirited pro se lawyer, her performance starts to lose credibility for me.
Still, I was marginally entertained throughout, especially in some of the more ludicrous scenes that were unintentionally funny. Special mention goes to her lousy lawyer trying to assault her in plain view of the court, a bizarrely choreographed jail fight scene between Danica and another inmate, and a completely pointless testimony scene where a person from the accused's past shows up to strengthen the prosecution's case - only to almost immediately reverse course once Danica starts "grilling" her on the witness stand.
At one point I was hopeful the producers would surprise us with something interesting, like a multiple personality disorder plot where McKeller IS actually guilty and just can't remember (the movie seems to be hinting this quite often early on) or perhaps a more sinister plot development where the accused creates a sweet, innocent persona to mask her homicidal tendencies. (I held out hope this would be true until the very end, right up until the lame ending with the true assailant showing up in the hospital and holding our heroine up at gunpoint before the obligatory feel good ending where she finds happiness with a new man and reconciles with her daughter.)
P. S. And speaking of that new man, wth? I found the introduction of this character to be the precise moment where the movie loses its intrigue. Again, the movie was hinting something far more interesting with this character, as we only see glimpses of him throughout the early scenes where he seems be infatuated with McKeller to an unhealthy degree. So what payoff do we get? A lame explanation about how he was just interested in her case and didn't have the courage to talk to her. Really? Even more maddening, as soon as he opens his mouth you know he's going to fill that "perfect guy" arcetype that Lifetime movies are known for, his only purpose being to give McKeller the ideal man she so richly deserves. Yawn.
Anyway, I would check this movie out for the first half alone, after that it's all downhill.
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
This is funny?
Sorry but as someone who is forced to watch this show (my wife unfortunately likes it) I cannot begin to wrap my brain around the idea that this show is/was actually popular...
No amount of awful canned laughter can make me laugh at these obnoxious characters and their stupid, stale jokes. Oh look, Howard is using a recording device to film the dumb blonde's cleavage.....lol....now they are mentioning that Leonard is lactose intolerant for the 3rd time this episode....oh boy, that's really funny.....now the blonde is having a psychotic meltdown at the expense of Leonard because she blames him for finding her jerk boyfriend with some girl's legs wrapped around his head....too funny....looking for a dorky Indian immigrant who can't find the courage to talk to girls and speaks with an exaggerated British accent?? Yup, Big Bang Theory has got you covered...
I literally watched the whole first season and can count the number of times i laughed on one hand. The Howard quip about Sheldon coming with a manual admittedly made me chuckle but that's about it. The Leonard/Penny dating saga (which comprises about 50 percent of the storylines in the early seasons) seems to be a complete rip off of Friends or some other generic soap opera masquerading as a comedy type show. When I see that this show was number 1 in the ratings for years it really gives me pause to wonder how such a thing is possible? But of course we all know droves of people also feel very content eating at McDonalds everyday so I suppose there is just something about blandness that appeals to the masses.
P. S. I laughed one other time in the first season....when Penny comes home from work and opens her apartment door without even using a key. Actually, on second thought it was more of an eye roll mixed with a smirk.
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
not great
I am watching this series for Obi Wan (I enjoyed McGregor's portrayal in the prequels and still think he's doing a fine job here), however the series as a whole is pretty underwhelming so far. The story is weak. The bad guys are incompetent and always infighting (not to mention Disney's continued reliance on 5th columnists in Star Wars so we can see the heroes repeatedly escape capture). Darth Vader appears briefly to confront Obi Wan in a completely forgettable encounter which ends when Vader (and the accompanying imperial troops) decide to take their ball and go home just because some fire gets in their way. Scene after scene of little Leia being captured, only to be freed through some plot contrivance, lastly followed by Obi Wan and Leia just wandering around some empty landscape looking like completely bored. No plot development whatsoever, just a lot of filler. Also, captured Jedi being placed in amber?? Huh? That was so weird and felt so out of place for Star Wars.
On the positive side the series looks good visually, the acting is okay across the board. Unlike others here who clearly have an agenda (the ones that wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat uttering the word 'woke') I don't think Disney is guilty of shoving their politics down the viewers throat. Yes, there are more women and people of color in this series than classic Star Wars. And yes, they very often perform heroic acts but overall it's fine and not a true detriment to series. That being said none of those characters are memorable and definitely not interesting enough to care about (again, blame the writers more than the actors who seem to be doing the best they can with the mediocre material).
In closing I really wanted to like this series but just can't recommend it. Disney desperately needs to hire better writers for future star wars projects.
The Twilight Zone (2019)
Not bad
I have seen all of season 1 and most of season 2. Overall the show has some stuff going for it....solid acting, good production values, Jordan Peele's naration...
Once you put that aside though you come to the bad, which is considerable. Every episode from season 1 is about a particular issue, with the writers hitting the audience over the head repeatedly with their personal opinions on illegal immigration, racism, toxic masculinity, etc.
Episode 1: Solid for the most part, but way too long. This episode started running out of steam around the 30 minute mark and just became a drag after that.
Episode 2: The ending is absurd, but the atmosphere is quite good, the acting is ok, and, most importantly, the episode is only about 30 minutes which helps keep the audience engaged.
Episode 3: bad. I thought the acting was quite good, and having a device that rewinds time was also something i would expect from the Twilight Zone, but episode was so heavy handed with its depiction of a racist white cop, that it made the episode unwatchable for me.
Episode 4: Went nowhere interesting.
Episode 5: Ridiculous. The story is pure garbage. Any adult who votes for someone who promises free video games is probably not playing with a full deck.
Episode 6: Decent. A little boring (and once again, too long) but overall an improvement over the last few episodes.
Episode 7: Hot garbage. Completely offensive and stupid.
Episode 8: Passable. A little weird with the 50's atmosphere and the British bad guy.
Episode 9: Pretty average but probably the best episode of the season. That speaks volumes about the quality of the show.
Episode 10: I liked it. It wasn't a traditional Twilight Zone episode, more like a love letter to the Twilight Zone, but i enjoyed it.
So season 1 has more misses than hits. And even worse, the show has some episodes that are so bad you will wonder how they got green lit in the first place.
Thankfully, I just started watching season 2 and it's much better. Not great by any measure, but at least the show is focusing on story now instead of just hitting you over the head with politics non-stop. The first 3 episodes are all worthy of watching, with the second and third episodes being particularly strong. It's a shame the show got cancelled, because it felt like they were finally moving in the right direction. Oh well. Guess we can look forward to the next installment of the Twilight Zone in another 15 years or so.
East of Eden (1955)
Really Good
I watched this movie earlier today and was really moved by it. I loved most of the characters, especially Abra and Cal. I was not turned off by Dean's performance, as I feel he brought incredible sensitivity to the role. I'm not one to get teary eyed during a movie, but in the last hour my eyes welled up on at least 3 or 4 occasions. Aside from the moving performances the film is also beautiful to watch for the gorgeous scenery of Northern California.
One other thing, a couple of reviewers criticized the choice of Julie Harris as the love interest of the two brothers, deeming her not pretty enough. I could not disagree more. I personally loved her and thought she was gorgeous. I've read she was good friends with Dean in real life which certainly translates well to the screen as they share some beautiful moments together in the film. The one complaint I would make is the bizarre camera movements in certain parts of the film, as I found them so exaggerated they actually took me out of the scene and made me conscience that i was just watching a movie, something which is at odds with the riveting performances which really pull you in.
Charmed (1998)
Never great but got a lot worse towards the end
I have watched many of the seasons of Charmed and have found that while the early seasons were never great they were at least solid enough to keep me interested in what was to come.
By season 5 this feeling no longer existed. I started finding all the main cast members, particularly the two Charmed sisters who had been on the show from the beginning, Alyssa Milano and Holly marie Combs, completely insufferable.
Whole episodes were just turned into an ego fest for these two, with the story always finding a way to put them on a pedestal at the expense of anything interesting.
Towards the end i started wondering (or hoping) that the producers would surprise us by revealing that the Charmed ones were actually evil all along and needed to be vanquished for the sake of humanity, lest their bloated egos cause the destruction of the entire world.
Unfortunately, no such luck.
Instead, the show continued in this vein for 8 interminable seasons. In each episode the Charmed ones would invariably act selfish, dress trashy, and vanquish the one dimensional guest villain with enough time leftover to celebrate their awfulness at the local club they owned.
People who claim this show was good are either in denial or they watched this show as kids/young adults and hold it in high esteem due to some misbegotten sense of nostalgia.
4 stars for the first four seasons, which were good in spots, but no additional stars for the remaining 4 seasons which were an exercise in stupidity and awfulness.
Modern Family (2009)
Went on 5 seasons too long
This show ceased being funny after about the 6th season. Yes, the show was always about silly stereotypes, even when it was good, but it didn't really matter because the show was entertaining.
Fastforward to season 7 and beyond and the show became painfully unfunny, too much focus on zany antics and the dating escapades of the various teenage kids which were never engaging. Sorry to say this but all of the kids were fine as child actors/comedians but none of them were very good as they got older and most of their storylines were forgettable.
Also, by the end of the show I started getting so sick of certain behaviors of the characters, Gloria's constant talk about how her native country is full of brutal people who will cut your ear off at the drop of a hat, just insulting to anyone from that part of the world. The Alex character practically having relations with her boyfriend in front of her parents (who she obviously doesn't respect) and Manny being especially irritating with his fussy, pretentious personality.
And lets not even get into all the incidents over the show's history where the characters, who are all related either through blood or marriage, display incestuous tendencies toward each other for laughs. Yuck.
Did the writers just give up after about 2015? Or were they switched out? Either way the show became awful. If you manage to get to season 10 get ready for the absolute nadir when Cam and Mitchell's adopted daughter experiences her period for the first time. Because they are gay, and therefore completely ineffectual at almost everything, they call in the entire family to deal with this sensitive, very private situation. Literally, by the end of the episode almost every character has walked through the door (incidentally, do these people use door locks?) and offered some sage advice to the poor, unwilling girl.
So to sum it up, great or very good through about season 6 (I liked the Las Vegas episode a lot from season 6) and after that don't waste your time.