Reviews

I found this show to be unwatchable, the more I tried to watch the more I felt stupid for watching more. There is hardly any plot, because the story is so focused on race hatred throughout. Evil white cops who live to hunt and kill negros, and we cheer when they are killed. Stuff I couldn't even describe because why spoil it. When they did get to the fantasy plot it was rather convoluted. Why do these people care about missing pages from some evil magic book, and are willing to risk their lives. I didn't get it and I could not go on. Time wasted. Jordan Peel just feeds off of hate.

OMG, looking at the episode listing it's hard to believe this show lasted only two seasons of 14 episodes. That's not even one season of the American version that lasted 9 seasons. I think that shows the difference between the American and British ways of doing television. American writers, producers, and actors are hard working to a fault. The office was the show that would not die long after it should have, squeezing every dollar out of the ratings. While the British show was a bit lazy. How could Gervais have cut such a classic so short? One of the funniest sitcoms of all time David Brent is one of the great comedy characters. I don't think Gervais will ever match the heights of genius of this. Also a great supporting cast.

I think the biggest problem with After Earth is the message it tries to convey about fear, and how this message has no value to the story or to life. It's like the whole story is a way to get a point across about fear, about how fear is a delusion, how it is madness, how it isn't real and should be ignored. Strange advise. Fear is in our nature for very important reasons. Fear keeps us safe, as is often said, and our earliest ancestors had good reason to fear from attacks from wild animals, and had to rely on instinct of flight or fight to survive. It is only a sickness when there is no reason to fear, when a person is safe but becomes a danger to themselves because of hysteria. What you see in this movie is a character who has a perfectly good reason to fear, because he must survive on a wilderness while being hunted by a savage animal monster who wants to kill him.

After crash landing a boy's wounded father communicates to him that he must not be afraid, because this monster senses fear. If he is not afraid then the monster won't see him and he will be safe. So really, all he has to do is be nonchalant, see that the monster looks scary, but as long as he reminds himself that the monster isn't a true threat then he is safe. But if the monster doesn't represent a true threat then is it true courage to defeat that fear? It's kind of a mind warp to think about.

Most people would say that true courage is being afraid but not letting that stop you from doing what you must. This movie says we should feel no fear. But wouldn't that mean losing something that makes us human? This movie clearly has the intention of sending a message about the beliefs of Scientology. Why else would they make a whole movie about mental conditioning? The message just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. 3/10

When I went to see this I thought it looked kind of like Men in Black. When I saw it I was surprised at how many ideas it stole from that film. Instead of being as good as the first MIB it is even worse than MIB 2. It is drivel and through the whole move I kept thinking of ways they could have made better choices and made a better movie with it's intriguing premise.

Like MIB it: Is about a pair of supernatural law enforcement partners, one older, one a rookie introduced into this secret organization. They dress in cool outfits and drive an old fashioned car, and have special weapons that they use against the creatures. The creatures are like in MIB in that they pose as ordinary people who seem weird until they reveal themselves to be CGI creatures, aliens in MIB, here.. I don't know what they are. They are called Dead-o's. I guess they are dead guys who escaped from wherever they are from and turn into monsters when they sniff coke. None of this is explained.

Maybe it would have made more sense if instead the creatures were demons who escaped from hell and want to use an artifact to unleash hell on earth, and the RIPD are intrusted with killing them to return them whence they came. Maybe it would have been interesting if instead of just complaining about being dead and missing his wife, the hero realized that he now has what most people long for, to know that life after death is real, that God is real, heaven and hell are real, and he gets a new life to contemplate that.

The Deado monsters look like poorly designed crap. When you go to see a movie with CGI characters you expect more.

So much about this movie did not work. The biggest flaw is the running gag that they are disguised to the rest of the world to look like an old Chinese guy and a hot young woman. In MIB a big part of the fantasy is looking cool, and having a cool job. This fantasy is ruined by this cheap gag that isn't funny that continues throughout the movie.

Another thing that doesn't work is making the agents invincible. They can fall off a building, and hit their skull on the pavement and be fine and not even feel anything. This takes us out of the action and removes any sense of danger or being grounded and makes it look like a cartoon.

This movie wastes the talents of Jeff Bridges and Ryan Reynolds has become a magnet for bad would-be blockbusters. RIPD could have been to the mystery of life after death what MIB was to life in the universe, and it wasted that opportunity. 2/10

When I heard this movie was coming out and seeing a trailer of it I thought it looked like a really fun movie. I heard it was based on a short story by James Thurber, so I sought it out and listened to an audio version narrated by Ben Stiller. The story was really short, only ten minutes, about a guy with a dull life who escapes in daydreams that are so dramatic they are silly. I thought, is a ten minute story really enough to fill an entire movie. That is the main problem with the movie. They took a ten minute story and stretched it to... twenty minutes, and then they had to fill the rest of the time with something.

The movie does well enough with the daydream sequences and capturing the boredom of life in an office. The daydreams are too heavy on special effects though, but they are entertaining. I would rather they had saved their money on the effects and prolonged those kinds of escapes, since that is all that works in the movie.

The biggest problem with the movie is the convoluted and pointless reasoning for Mitty's journey. What is it that causes Mitty to live life and explore the world? He is looking for a photograph. That's it. A photograph was mailed to him and one of the slides was missing and his job is to process the photograph. But why is one photograph so important we ask? In a contrived manner the film explains the photo is incredibly important because it is meant to be the final cover of Life magazine which is ending it's publishing and restarting online only. It seems unlikely that after twenty years on the job of never losing a photo Mitty would loose one now, which is called by the arrogant photographer: "The quintessence of Life." If I was Walter I would simply say to the boss that it wasn't my fault, but the photographers' fault for being careless and I would be in the right, upon which the boss, who is a jerk would reply: "You can say that on your next job interview," upon which I would rejoinder "up yours I will do that." But why not just contact the photographer with a letter or phone call, tell him he screwed up and lost the photo. In the most tiresome manner the movie explains this jerk has no phone, no mailing address, no way to contact him, and he is out in the middle of nowhere. Well f--- him you might say. But Walter Mitty, maybe wishing to impress the love interest, decides to go on a world spanning journey to find one photograph.

Maybe a better way for the story to go would be to have Walter laid off by Life, and then he snaps, and decides to get a job that involves world travel, and finally living a more exciting life.

Walter's search for the photographer takes him to Greenland, where he meets a very drunken and unruly man, who informs Walter that he is a helicopter pilot and he is the only one who can take Walter where he can Possibly find who he is looking for. Walter thinks for a minute that this is not a good idea to ride a helicopter into a storm with a seriously drunken man. Then, in one of his fits of daydream he is inspired to say "screw it I'm going to live life." He gets in the copter and then ends up plunging in the water and nearly gets eaten by sharks. He seems to think this experience is positive because he is finally living life, even though he nearly had his limbs torn off. Similarly later he travels to a place with an erupting volcano, because what traveler hasn't, and that adds to his excitement. It's like the real life scenes are like daydreams and not believable. Is reckless behavior that nearly leads to disaster a sign of personal growth that is inspiring and something to be used to impress the love interest.

As he goes on his journey he passes through very beautiful scenery, and you have to think it is so strange that this one photograph could be worth more than the millions of dollars that went into filming all this. Why couldn't he have brought a camera with him? Maybe he isn't a professional but how hard could it be to look at a vista of mountains and say to yourself "that is the quintessence of life," *Click* then turn in the photo to the boss who would be impressed. That would be a better ending than what we have. When we see what the elusive photograph is, it is a let down, because clearly the writer had no ideas and wrote himself in a corner.

Another thing that bothered me about this movie is it's use of product placement. At first it started out cute when he talked to a guy on the phone from Eharmony. Then this character kept recurring, until you see that Eharmony is an entire character. Likewise they include Papa John's in a strange and distracting way. The restaurant had a deep meaning for the character because he worked there when his own father, or "Papa" died, which is sad, and makes me want to eat there. Then when he is in Greenland, a country which is describes as having 100 people, he finds a Papa Johns restaurant in the middle of nowhere, and eats there, because the whole world loves Papa Johns. I was paid to say that.

I wanted to see a positive and inspiring movie. Maybe I would be more inspired if it was good. 2/10

After watching the premier of Star Crossed I don't think I will watch it again. I thing the central problem with interest in the show is the same as in Beauty and the Beast. In that show the "Beast" is a handsome normal looking guy with a cool looking scar. In this show the aliens that are victims of prejudice look like good looking white kids with tattoos. C'mon, can't they give them antennas, or forehead ridges, or especially large heads. Something to make them look like aliens. A normal person could take a marker and draw a fake tattoo and look like them. How about green aliens, or blue. That would play up the racial angle they are trying so hard for. Would we accept a green person? This show remakes the civil rights era issue of racial integration in schools, and drains it of any relevance, so that is a parable of white hipsters trying to gain acceptance from intolerant humans. 2/10

In this documentary, the filmmaker rounds up a bunch of experts, many of whom are priests, pastors, or divinity professors, and presumes that these are unbiased experts who can help determine the validity of claims made by the bible. Their research tells them that everything in the bible is true, and hearing voice after voice make these affirmations we are supposed to be convinced that Jesus was actually God. It is a defense without an opposing argument. It is an artificial consensus.

They say that all the claims made about Jesus are true because there are eyewitnesses, and that is irrefutable proof. Eyewitnesses who passed teachings down by generations is irrefutable if you believe these experts and would stand up in a court of law. Not really. There are many eyewitnesses of UFO's, alien abductions, bigfoot. Yet who of these experts would consider that irrefutable.

So Jesus went around performing miracles, in a totally not magical way, and this was prophesied in the OT, therefore he is God. Look, I dunno, the universe is pretty big for one guy to create. So for me that left the Gnostic Gospels to believe in, which these experts dismiss as bull with no validity. Obviously there is some basis for Christianity or else billions of people wouldn't be believing in it, but just saying everything in the bible is true by experts isn't enough to convince anyone who isn't already convinced. This is merely a detailed recounting of information we already know: Because a tomb was empty, because people had visions of him, because people witnessed him perform miracles, because this was prophesied, he must be the Son of God.. This proves nothing.

4/10

I spent some time watching this show trying to decide whether to keep watching. I liked Johnny Lee Miller's performance a lot, but that alone isn't enough to keep me watching.

The biggest fault for me on this show is I really hate Watson, played by Lucy Lu. She is such a nag asking Holmes to share his feelings. Holmes says he doesn't want to talk about his lost love of his life. Watson says he Must share with her. Holmes says "I must? I hardly know you." She says "That's because you won't share." Then she proceeds to dig into his personal affairs. Let it drop lady he doesn't want to talk about it. Sometimes they try to involve Watson in a case somehow to make it seem like her presence isn't completely useless.

Watson is a "sober companion" an occupation I have never heard of in my life. It's someone who shows up on the doorstep of a recovering addict and says "Hi, I'm moving in with you to make sure you're not going back to drugs. I'm going to follow you around wherever you go, even at work, so all your coworkers who are supposed to respect you will wonder why I am there, and your secret will be revealed." Sounds reasonable, but why would he agree to that?

Another problem I have with the show is Holmes's notable eccentricities. Like when Watson forced him to go to a recovery meeting. He agreed to go, but rather than listen to their "natterings" he put himself in a self induced hypnotic trance. Typical Holmes. While he is groaning about natterings, I am groaning at the outrageous lengths he goes to deal with that. Another unbelievable thing he does is watch 7 televisions playing at the same time, to perfect his observation awareness, as if that is a thing people do. What a nut.

What about the mysteries. I have found them to be not very good. I have watched several shows that have the same strange patterns; Holmes arrives at a crime scene of a murder victim, and just Dazzles the detectives with his detection of minor details and vast knowledge of obscure information. Holmes follows a trail of clues leading directly to a suspect who must be guilty, but Holmes isn't so sure, because the show is only half over, there must be there to it, but the police say the case is rock solid. Holmes deduces that the person was set up by a mastermind, and everything Holmes figured out were things the real killer fully expected the police to figure out to frame the innocent guy and get away with murder. So all that flashy stuff Holmes did wasn't so impressive after all. The police would have figured it out on their own eventually. But then Holmes has to put away the real killer, but how? He does it by accidentally stumbling across some unlikely detail that proves the culprit's guilt. So basically he's a bungler who almost let a killer get away until blind luck allowed him to solve it. I have seen this played out in half the episodes I watched.

You know what is an easy job? Being a detective when there is Holmes to call. In the old stories Holmes was a consulting detective, like a private eye, people would come to him with cases, and occasionally he would cross paths with police. Here every week they get a case and call Holmes to solve it for them, because he is actually good at the job. Where are our tax dollars going?

Spoilers... These stories are not based in reality. In one story a suspect seen by a witness is in a coma. So how could a woman in a coma commit a murder? By conspiring with a doctor to fake a trauma, then put herself in an induced coma, so she could have an alibi when she is revived and kill of a lost heir to collect on an inheritance when she revives. The perfect crime, if you are willing to be comatose for months on end. Another story had a serial killer in prison, who some people had doubts about his guilt, when killings occur with his M.O. Holmes wonders why the man, who was illiterate, was quoting Tolstoy. It turns out the crimes were committed by the killers illegitimate son who worked in the prison library and who taught his father to read, in the hopes his father would be proved not guilty. So true to life it's practically ripped from the headlines. Everyone knows of notorious serial killer Charles Manson, whose crimes were continued by his illegitimate son who worked in the prison library and tried to prove his innocence. If a story has no bearing on real life it doesn't really work as a mystery because it's just a puzzle for Holmes to solve and not drama.

So I'm deciding against watching this show because: Watson is a terrible nag, Holmes is too eccentric to be believed, Holmes continues to show he is not only not the worlds greatest detective, but actually not very good at all, and the stories are not based in reality. And with Sherlock on PBS there is no comparison. That show is brilliant but only lasts 3 episodes per season. Unfortunately this show runs for much longer.

5/10

I wanted to watch this movie so I could know a little about this story that I was curious about and afterwards I wished I hadn't, because this is a movie that couldn't instill religious appreciation in even a child. Even by the standards of children's fare it doesn't measure up. He-Man is a more relatable character than Ram, who is essentially a robot of virtue, who overcomes adversity while exerting no effort, ably defeating dastardly villains who pose no real threat and are actually rather pathetic, and we are supposed to cheer him on when the outcome is without doubt. Part of the problem is the CG animation, which it seems they spent the whole budget on some impressive backgrounds, while the characters' faces look like dolls. Dolls don't make good substitutes for actors because they can't emote. The other part of the problem is that it is written as an action movie squeezing out any content that could have a serious religious or educational value. The film built up to a war that seemed to last ten minutes, then a climactic battle between Ram and the demon king, wherein all Ram had to do was aim an arrow at his weak point, and they hyped that ending as much as they could to make it look difficult when Ram could have done that with his eyes closed.

When I started watching this show I didn't expect much, but what I got was one of the funnier shows I've seen recently. After seeing the rather lackluster revivals in movies like Space Jam and Looney Tunes Back in Action, I had gotten used to the idea that the Looney Tunes would no longer be funny because they just cheaply rip off the old cartoons, and try to overcome us with zaniness. Here the characters are reinvented as a sitcom, so there's no classical style music and wild chases. It features Bugs and Daffy as roommates in a house. Daffy is funnier than ever in his over-dramatic tirades of jerkness. Bugs is also funny as an overly reasonable and easygoing guy. Porky Pig plays a lovable schlub. And they created a new and very funny character in Lola Bunny, an obsessive and silly sort-of-girlfriend of Bugs.

One story that comes to mind is when Daffy gets ridiculously upset when he thinks Porky ate his french fries, but Porky thought they were for the table, and this small infraction leads Daffy to take drastic measures. Another funny thing I recall is that Daffy drives a parade float of himself as a vehicle so he can get attention, and becomes a hazard on the road. One part of the show I usually just skip is the CG shorts of Wiley Coyote/Roadrunner, which repeat the old falling off a cliff gag over and again.

I wanted to write this review because I was surprised at the outpouring of hatred by some reviewers. It seems like some people just want the old "duck season, wabbit season" jokes repeated fifty years after it was funny. I think this is a worthy addition to the Looney Tunes legacy.