eratomartha's Reviews

Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023)

6/10

17 May 2022

What I like in Mandalorian is that is titled Mandalorian, neat and simple.

It includes a lot of references to the saga, but it is not called Star Wars : Baby Yoda.

What I don't like in Star Trek : Picard is that it follows the fashion of making extensions ( sequels,prequels otherquels) dozens years after the originals using nostalgia to support otherwise a mediocre screenplays.

But if you want to see if some Star Trek actors aging well you may want to watch the season one, however the second season is clearly an abuse.

First, Star Trek is about travel in space and 'boldly' does not refer to the haircut of Partick Steward.

Second, Star Trek characters have plenty of symbolic meaning , Data resembles the pursuit to define something that cannot be defined, Seven of Eleven is the process of understanding what a human person means.

Third, the crew members from each continent represents the human race that has advanced, which you can hear in almost each episode when the captain patronises lesser species in the style

we had similar issues in the past, wars, crime, money, greed but we have evolved-.

I suppose the Star Trek movie should base on some of the above elements.

Instead we are served with a poor written one episode story artificially spread into ten parts, which is basically about two old pensioners who are looking for something, and maybe they are in state of a conflict of some sort , but it seems they forgotten what they are really fighting about.

I keep the middle score as for visual effects.

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The Further Adventures of Tennessee Buck (1988)

8/10

Don't look for the dead bodies but alive ones, Indiana.

17 May 2022

A perfect example of 1980's culture with half naked bodies and some sex but presented more as the affirmation of life, strength and fitness, not the sleazy Payboyesque manner. 'Indiana' Buck does not pretend to be the professor and instead of archaeology focuses on the live matters and so here is stunning Kathy Shower with her immortal beauty that once had inspired Ancient Greeks and Romans to create the sculptures of their Goddesses. But my attention has been taken by Italian/Latino charm of Tiziana Stella. Looking at her and other actresses from the era, Paloma Prati, Sabrina Salerno,or Rachel Ticotin I feel really sad. While Arnold or Sylvester were succeeded by Rock or John Cena the female actresses.. oh well..

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Killer Eye: Halloween Haunt (2011)

5/10

Soft erotic slasher

22 February 2022

But then the movie does not pretend to be anything more that that and unlike many of the similar genre ones , here the plot is somehow consistent which overall reminds the baton of Mars or Snickers, you get what you expect to have, a sugary few minutes of fun.

There is nothing wrong with it and I think that the concept of the eye has some potential, but the way it is depicted in this movie may not be the best one.

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Goosebumps (2015)

4/10

Average

3 February 2022

You can see the movie if you don't have anything else to do, and, i suppose you are in the targeted age group.

The movie is children safe, the actors performance is plausible, but their characters are somehow generic and the plot is as original as a new brand of cereals placed on a supermarket's shelves.

And like with the box of cereals everything is down to the taste, which here means monsters, but again don't expect to be surprised.

And another minus for a single parent family motive, overplayed in plethora of US movies.

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Stillwater (2021)

6/10

Bourne reborn

30 January 2022

As expected Matt Damond delivers his solid performance, also other actors play well, especially charming Lilou Siauvaud.

The characters are believable and the story includes plenty of realistic elements ( except the crime itself - I am not an expert here).

The plot is somehow original and there is a clear message at the end of the movie, but that is all of positive aspects I can find.

The crime story is generic and rather weak if you compare it to other crime or action movies.

The story of a single parent family trying to patch up and restore broken ties has been overused in US cinema to the extent that the spectators would be rather surprised to see both parents together.

The message from the story( what movie tries to tell in the last minutes ) although logical is artificial.

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Finch (2021)

3/10

Psychopathic Wally-E

24 January 2022

The movie is disturbing and it is hard to understand why it has been made in the first place.

The story is too trivial for adults and too unclear for children.

A guy is about to die so he creates a robot that would feed his dog.

And so the guy dies and the robot takes care about the dog.

But before we start clapping let's think for a while.

Here is the catch : after creation Finch tells the robot

Trust nobody, humans are evil,

I don't need your friendship, I need you to take care of my dog -.

Now it should be easy to realise what is going to happen when the robot trying to find the food encounters the new people.

Certainly the life of a dog is more important then the life of a human.

And this is the only message from the movie, anything else is like putting a glitter onto the guano, it may shine but does not change the substance.

But don't get me wrong , Tom Hanks can make the movie entertaining even if he is the only actor, he proved it in Cast Away, but again Chuck from Cast Away can survive because he believes in something, he has an imaginary fried as there are no other people around.

On contrary, Finch is surrounded by (evil) people so isolation is his own choice.

It should be common sense that in dangerous times the only way to survive for people is in groups, so even when ones has the issues with trust they should reach out to find the others. Because the life without other people is meaningless.

And so Finch dies living as his legacy the psychopathic robot that would kill humans over the can of dog's food.

Now we can clap.

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The Matrix Resurrections (I) (2021)

2/10

Don't

16 January 2022

Warning: Spoilers

Lets take the first Matrix movie, strip it off all the philosophic balast and other elements that attributed to the stunning success of the trilogy.

So, instead of the saviour of the mankind we have the aging John Wick analysing his life on the shrink's couch.

Let's add some fight scenes, but the again the agents are so yesterday - replace them with the zombies (what the ?])and as Keanu is too old to fly on ropes , let him do the Steven Seagal stuff,cross the hands and all the enemy within a mile radius collapses immediately.

Lets replace phone booths with the swinging doors from The Adjustment Bureau.

Pathetic John Wick now has found the real purpose of life in the shape of a respectful mother of two teenagers, attention of her he would need to fight for.

Yes, Ms Wachowski you are right, Neo without Trinity would not be completed but the same applies to the other characters like Oracle,Agent Smith or Morpheus you seem to forget about.

They have been replaced by some generic actors, no disrespect to their performance, but we have no idea who they are and what is their purpose in the story.

Fortunately for us the shots from the original trilogy have been inserted in key moments of the plot, these 'flashbacks' serve as cue cards to the sitcom audience - Who's that guy ? Who's that guy ? ( face of Agent Smith ) - boo Who's that guy ? Who's that guy ? ( face of Morpheus ) - yikes Then at the end everyone is clapping as the story ends well, but does it really ?

To be with Neo, Tiffany leaves two children of her without blinking an eye,which is inhuman, and overall sad.

(Even the possibility that they are a piece of software does not justify her actions,take a closer look at the character played by Priyanka).

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Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012–2015)

2/10

Boring

5 January 2022

I've started to watch the series with some interest how the Australian take on classic criminal stories would look like, but soon became disappointed. The stories of Agatha Christie, Raymond Chandler, series like, 'Murder she wrote' or even 'Colombo' feature an interesting plot and spin on spin that makes them interesting and rises the questions who,how or why ?

Nothing of such is present here, in one of the first episodes a car hits a man, and if it is a mystery , I am sorry I am not interested.

Miss F also seems to be more interested not in solving the mysteries but in finding another item to add to her rather hedonistic collection.

Which is fine, but this is more the mentality from at least 1970s , moreover many of room interiors like a painters studio or jazz club look like from 70/80s, and I think that the whole story would be more logic if placed at that era.

Instead the girl from 70s is artificially moved into 20s, which would be ok, but she seems to be placed in the opposition to other members of the society, like for example her helper, a simple,shy, Catholic girl, who openly admires miss F envying her freedom. Patronizing the temporary society and showing an emotionally empty miss F as a progressive woman at some point starts to be unpleasant and shallow, because at that time the main factor that blocked women was not the morality, or beliefs, but mother nature.

And the world of 1920s was full of progressive women, like the one, who in 1911 received her second Noble Prize, or the one , who in 1921 became first aviator woman of color, but that would be a different story.

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Humanoids from the Deep (1980)

7/10

Solid B movie

30 December 2021

The ambient I like rural America form 70/80s with all temporary haircuts, makeups , clothes and big cars.

A small town with its small issues is suddenly covered with fear.

A sheer panic at the beginning, but the town gets composed and start to fight back with the enemies.

Maybe the men are big boys with shotguns, but they protect their families with everything they have, women are fragile and fully feminine, at the same time they can operate an army-knife better than Rambo himself.

And although I don't especially like the Jaws-like topics, the story is clear and has some logic, compared with today's movies like Black Widow ( otherwise a splendid, entertaining movie ) where it is hard to understand what is she fighting for and where even a simple hug is too emotional.

Everything is nice and sound, but there were already dozen of similar 'water' movies and definitely it needed something more that the gore elements, that suggested that the creatures destroy everything around and there is no much difference between them and any violent force, flood, locusts, or fire (Backdraft).

One idea would be for example add more material to the role played by Ann Turkel , possible some tragic story .

The added nude shots spiced it up, but overall added some dimension to the humanoids, that might have some other emotions, intelligence perhaps ?

Maybe they are just immature and need some time to evolve into more sophisticated beings, it seems that actually at least one did ( The Shape of Water).

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Top Sensation (1969)

5/10

Twisted love boat

28 December 2021

The movie for the ones, who would like to see young Edwige Fenech ( and other candid actresses ) or the ones, who like the culture of late 60s, as it has a lot of elements attractive to the viewers from the era, the rich people in a luxury boat, sun, bikini, excitement spicing it up with animals, lesbian threesome, virginity and ... an artificial plot built around a handicapped guy.

But the guy is not the protagonist here, his illness is just used as a justification of otherwise random actions of other actors.

Their play is not bad itself, but prompted by the other title - The Seducers, and the teasers that sounded like - the orgy ... the terror - one would expect rather intense feelings and emotions of various kind, none of those are visible in the movie.

Instead, there is a group of good friends cavorting on Mediterranean(?) and that is all.

Well, there is something one could call seduction, but this is as far away from the real thing as the movie ketchup from the real blood.

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What Every Frenchwoman Wants (1986)

6/10

Do they really want this ?

28 December 2021

I think it is obvious that the story should be treated as a fantasy of a young boy, otherwise the sanity of the protagonists should be seriously questioned here.

But as a dream it is quite charming, the journey of the boy to the adulthood in the safe environment where everybody is friendly and supportive ( sometimes even a little too much).

And having Serena Grandi as a sensual guide it is a dream many would subscribe to.

There are plenty of funny moments in the historical ambient, actors wearing the clothes from the era and the copy I have seen was of a good quality, that should be enough to provide some entertainment.

The high rank notes are lowered by the incestuous topics, that does not fit for this genre of the movie.

Also, however it may be addressed to the novel, not the movie, the nickname young Don Juan is an abuse to the great literature protagonist who was everything, but a country retard.

Not like the English movie title is any better.

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Schoolgirls in Chains (1973)

3/10

Swap the girls in the basement with the producers of this thing

28 December 2021

The pointless death in the first minutes of the movie ended my interest in. The senseless killing was just used as a tool to excite the audience, that pretty much sets the ambient for the story - the random acts of senselessness action of some sort, because it is hard to call it abduction(?).

Some of the girls feature nice pre-Farrah Fawcet haircut, and putting on a good face for a bad movie, in which they were abducted, all right, but not by the brothers, rather by the producers, who presumably lured the girls to the basement with the 'you will star in my movie' crap.

And for that and for wasting my time the producers deserve the place in the basement themselves.

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The Road (1954)

10/10

Butterfly

20 December 2021

The story of a woman, who is different from the rest of society, her mind has been blocked on the adolescent level, and the others consider her a fool.

Finally she's being sold to a circus man, which sounds cruel, but gives her the possibility to see the other people and try to interact with them.

During her travel with the circus through the countryside, step by step we start to look at the average people's problems,their actions, through her eyes and discover the complexity of her inner world. Which brings the reflection that the real loser is the local society , that is incapable or unwilling to accept her differences. She meets some friendly people, but that is not enough, the life is tough and the story has a sad ending.

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Naked Vengeance (1985)

5/10

A mild soft core with elements of a mild slasher.

20 December 2021

Fortunately it is not a senseless running with the chainsaw but the violence is justified somehow by the vengeance, still overall the movie is mild and it can be skipped.

I place it in the middle of the scale as

the story ( although exaggerated ) has some inner logic within.

I have seen quite a good copy given the year the movie was made.

Deborah Tranelli is handsome, natural and gives quite a good performance considering the material she had to work with.

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Lady of the Night (1986)

10/10

The Riders of the Lost Excitement

18 December 2021

The movie starring Serena Grandi, a woman of a strong personality, who ( though the story may suggest otherwise) dominates the men around her reducing them to mere background decoration like a table or a curtain.

The story tackles the issue that happens to quite a lot of couples after some ( long ) time of relationship.

Everything is fine but they know each other well, so they can hardly surprise each other, hence there is no excitement.

And there are many ways of trying to find it back like role playing, swinging, cheating.

Serena enters her search after the accident, and her journey is dangerous, that could easy end with self-degradation or even self-destruction.

But the movie offers the way to stop the journey , finally the new experience instead of destroying the relationship brings the couple back together.

Which is an interesting point of view and that ( and Serena ) brings my high score of the movie regardless what I think about the probability of the whole story.

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Red Notice (2021)

4/10

Kindergarten Pool

17 November 2021

The story is a spinoff of Ocean 12 with some echoes of Bond and some other action movies, but this is rather not a compliment.

I suppose that the comedy element is included in one-liners , but these are delivered with the grace of kindergarten children, that prompts an impression that the script has been written with some other actors in mind, as I don't find their performance very convincing.

Still, if you are a fan of Dwayne, Ryan or Gal it could be the movie worth seeing.

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Reminiscence (2021)

5/10

Altered Wolverine

25 September 2021

I am definitely going to remember this movie, why, because it revealed that the real name of Thandie Newton is Thandiwe, which is somehow exciting.

The rest of the movie is boring, which is a shame as the story had the potential for the movie better than Altered Carbon.

Actually, Hugh Wolverine is not boring but bored, you can see it even on the movie trailer.

The boredom leaks from his voice narrating the story, possibly because he has to read pearls of wisdom like -I will never understand this woman completely - or he is trying to comprehend the fact, that now men and women are get equally paid in the movies.

Rebecca Fergusson masks her boredom much better, still she has to wear horrible clothes, that make her stiff, which again is a shame, if we remember her performance from ,for example, Rogue Nation.

Thandiwe doesn't even has to pretend to be engaged as she plays the character that is bored by nature and drinks plenty of colored water from a flask.

I left the middle rate of the movie because of the actors worth watching despite all the flaws.

I mean if you like to watch bored Thandiwe watching bored Hugh peeping at Rebecca of bored clothes.

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The Tomorrow War (2021)

7/10

The Guardians of the Earth

25 September 2021

The movie is watchable, Chris Pratt looks more mature, the time travel plot is intriguing and the special effects are not overdone.

I lover the rate due to aliens and the movie ending.

The aliens - I have seen something like this before, but let's pretend they are the new ones, so I would like to know a little, why they are here, why they look like this and why they behave like that.

And the end of the movie offers some explanation, but it is a very weak one and, regarding that this is a time travel story, the ending solution is a little confusing makes me uncertain, what was the story about, similar to the last "Terminator", but then the action movies are made for action not meditation.

I am not going to reveal who won, humans or aliens, but that should not be easy to guess, regarding the fact that the Earth is backed by the hero, who already saved a galaxy, or two.

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Black Widow (2021)

4/10

Isn't she already dead

13 September 2021

Warning: Spoilers

Few years ago Marvell decided to kill its superheroes and that includes Black Widow.

When a person dies, watching the movie made earlier with them is not the prequel is mourning over the loss of a friend or a member of a family.

The movie is about a girl raised as a professional assassin, who escapes her boss to live a normal life,the boss sends another assassin after her , but later the boss finds he needs her, and so they live happily ever after, wait this is not from this movie, this is a base story of 'Barely Lethal' that makes more sense whatsoever.

No, this time the girl turns against the boss and wants to kill him - wait, isn't it the story from the movie with Angelina Jolie ?

But, I suppose Scarlett Johansson is obliged by a contract to play a Russian, so be it, and if I were the Marvel bosses I would pay her that 100 mln of dollars without hesitance as she is the person that saves the movie.

I would watch her, while she is reading a book, watching TV or even washing the dishes, (disclaimer - I don't consider it a feminine occupation,it can also be done by men ).

Ah, men, so here is a bad guy, who has other people to wash the dishes for them, here is a fluffy bad guy, who looks like he doesn't even know how the dishwasher looks like, and a guy , who lives in a cardbox, hence needs no dishes at all.

So all the dishes are left to be done for Rachel Weish, who plays splendidly, given the fact that she had to wear the bicycle in front of her body and pretend that it is a gun, she is going to protect her pigs with.

Then there is Florence Pugh, Natasha's sister, another bright element in the movie.

And I would love to see more movies with her, I only hope that the screenwriters would create the roles more coherent that this one.

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Passengers (I) (2016)

3/10

Handmaid in Space

13 September 2021

Warning: Spoilers

The movie is nicely done, the actors are fine, but the story is nonsense.

Let's treat it realistic.

If, for whatever reason you justify opening one capsule, what prevents you from opening another one ?

Nothing and nobody, then this is only a matter of time when they start to open other boxes.

How fast? Well, you may ask Mr Pratt how long can real love last, then that will be your answer.

But let's treat the movie as a metaphor.

The guy decided to open the statis capsule, hence to destroy the dreams , the life of another person in the name of what?

The love requires some interaction with another person even the trivial love description is the exchange of pheromones - but there are none of them.

Any form of physical attraction is based on something live, her moves, her talk, the way she smiles, the look in her eyes,but again, none of this is present here.

The girl is in the statis, does not even breathe, so basically she is a corpse in a sealed coffin, and when we realise what is going on it starts to be creepier and creepier.

Anyway it is neither love nor passion but loneliness and boredom driving the decision of opening the box, which just suggests that he is going to be bothered soon again.

Let's think about the girls side of the story.

When she is awaken her position is similar to a girl from Handmaid's Tale, and she could resits, fight back, possibly even throw the guy into an open space, she could find supporters ( after opening few more boxes) but all she does is accepting her life with the oppressor and even possibly love him.

Which, as a male, actually I like

.

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