Reviews

I started out wanting to like Poker Face. I know it is billed as a comedy/crime/drama, but even under the rules of any one of the three it still has to make sense. We are long past the stage of accepting infinite zoom/enhance in the various CSI incarnations and we should be far less forgiving of glaring forensic errors, and especially basic physics errors. As an example, vapor from dry ice flows downward, as is evident in the scene in Exit Stage Death, yet the vapor somehow rises from beneath the trap door and upward through the floorboards onto the stage.

In the episode, Rest in Metal, the camera that the drummer mounts to record his feet are pointing backward at him, yet somehow it manages to record the shoes of the other band members in the opposite direction.

But the most glaring problem is asking us to accept that a woman as intelligent and insightful as Charlie is shown to be is still somehow stupid enough to approach the killer in private and basically say (on more than one occasion) "You committed murder and I have proof that I will take to the cops as soon as I leave this room."

GotG 1 was terrific. GotG 2 was OK. This chapter is just a waste of time.

Primarily, this movie suffers from the same rot that permeates most Marvel movies over the last few years. It just doesn't make sense.

How, for example, would Nebula know that Rocket's reaction to the med pack was a result of High Evolutionary tech?

How did Adam Warlock go from being skewered by Nebula to being back with the High Evolutionary?

How is it that except for being stabbed in the back, Adam Warlock was easily more than a match for essentially everyone in their first confrontation but clearly inferior to the power of the High Evolutionary, yet the Guardians are able to defeat the H. E.?

We've seen this so many times in other movies. Captain America is no match against Hulk. Hulk is no match against Thanos, yet Cap can stop a punch from Thanos and hold his ground.

I'm done with Marvel movies and situational abilities.

I am a great admirer of just about everything Rowan Atkinson has done. I first saw him in Mr. Bean and loved the quirkiness and creativity. Following that I binged on Black Adder and was likewise impressed and amused. His work as a dramatic actor in Maigret is engaging.

But Man vs Bee is neither clever nor entertaining. Rather, it is stress inducing. I couldn't even make it through the first episode. It is a series of mishaps, all resulting from the ineptitude of his character. For example, you know that as soon as the manual is introduced that something will happen to it. Everything that happens is telegraphed. Valuable and easily breakable art objects placed on narrow, unstable pedestals, in a house with a dog? Seriously?

Like cringe comedy, another unfortunate modern trend, Man vs Bee just falls flat.

From the top - the haircut. That thing looks like it was molded out of plastic, spray painted, then glued onto the good doctor's head. It is an abomination, but at least after a fight or two it gets tossled and thankfully remains that way for the rest of the movie.

This is a movie about magic, as one would expect from a movie about the master of the mystic arts. But that doesn't mean it can forego rules or logic. And intelligent characters shouldn't just get stupid. Even at the beginning of his training the doctor could create portals to quickly move vast distances in an instant. So why would he not use this ability when trying to escape Wanda? Why stand in the tunnels, patiently waiting for Wanda to break through the door instead of teleporting to a place of safety?

Why does Reed Richards, the smartest man in the world according to Mordo, tell Wanda the one thing she needs to do to render Black Bolt powerless? He is apparently the only one who could have defeated Wanda and Reed just threw him under the bus. Doesn't seem like a smart thing to do.

And finally, quoting the good doctor, "The Scarlet Witch is a being of unfathomable magic. She can rewrite reality as she chooses and is prophesized to either rule or annihilate the cosmos." If this is the case then why was she so ineffective against Thanos? It seems to me she could have taken care of him the way you or I might swat a fly.

But this is a problem with all Marvel movies it seems. Hulk is almost infinitely stronger than Captain America and Thanos can easily defeat Hulk. Yet Captain America is shown resisting a direct assault by Thanos. The relative power and abilities of the characters are defined as "whatever is necessary for a particular scene".

This is another fine chapter in the Bosch series that I have enjoyed for years starting with the original books. Titus Welliver, of course, is superbly cast as Bosch. My only problem with this season is in the closing moments of the final episode where Maddie commits the sin of "unexplained stupidity". It's already been established that she is intelligent, and has learned a great deal about proper police procedure both from her T. O. and her father. She has already displayed a concern for safety - her own and others'. She is aware of the existence of the serial rapist, as well as his M. O. of obtaining access by cutting a window screen. How then can we explain why she would leave her window open, allowing the rapist to easily get into her residence? It makes as much sense as having a cop back into a room simply because the plot requires it. It is completely out of character.

This is the Picard/Q scene I've been waiting 30 years to see. It confirms what I always thought. After a few appearances in STTNG I always felt that Q had some sort of affection toward Picard.

For anyone who ever wondered "how could this happen", watch this movie. Genetic blind chance, and denial explain a lot. While it takes some time to get a handle on how the story unfolds due to the non-linear narrative, it pays off to see it through.

My only complaint would be the over-use of the colour red. I get the symbolism and foreshadowing. I don't need the director to beat me over the head with it. Might as well just have a giant sign saying THERE WILL BE BLOOD!!!!!

So far season 2 has been the best of the series. While season 4 has an interesting story arc, I am seeing far too much time spent on characters having heart to heart discussions. This is Star Trek, not group therapy. It seems no crisis is too dire or time critical that time can't be taken for inappropriate (in the moment) conversation. Billions of lives are at stake but let's pause for several minutes to tug at the old heart strings, or perhaps just to pad the show out to a full episode.

Season 5 was not as disappointing as season 4, however, it still disappoints. On the plus side there was a lot less touchy-feely stuff and I was able to just fast forward through the scenes with Saru and T'Rina without (I imagine) missing anything of substance. But characters still do, or do not, do things which make no sense. For example, while in full Breen uniform in the Breen ship where time is of the essence, Burnham still takes time to have a heart to heart talk with Book.

But the biggest problem is that when Mol is on Discovery, the remainder of the season could have been cut short by having T'Rina take the required info from Mol with a mind meld (exactly what Spock does in The Undiscovered Country), then making her forget that same info, like what Spock did in Requiem for Methuselah.

I'm not sorry there will be no season 6.

This is what great sci-fi is all about - ideas. Not lasers and space battles, but ideas. If special effects and action is you idea of proper sci-fi then this movie is likely not for you.

This is a movie based on a story by Jerome Bixby, who might be remembered by most as the author behind the Star Trek (TOS) episode, Requiem for Methuselah (and several others). There has always been speculation as to whether or not John Oldman is supposed to be the same character as Flint from that episode.

An intriguing story, well told, but at times it gets a little slow. The pacing could have been tightened up a bit (pointless scenes of Stella swimming, for example). Having said that, the characters and events are very believable. Some things are implied but not explained. For example, we are led to believe that Jim Burns is a survivor of the same boys' institute where Paul was abused as a young teen. If this series had been done in the US, Paul would have escaped the hospital and died in a fiery crash or a hail of bullets after a lengthy and pointless car chase. His death in the actual series was believable. Other than the pacing, my only criticism is that Gillian Anderson wore only one expression on her face for all three seasons.

I've read the Foundation Trilogy, plus the additional novels including the Elijah Bailey/R Daneel Olivaw "prequels" at least three times over the last fifty years. I am now into another reading of the original trilogy. I found this necessary to reassure myself that my now ancient brain was not mis-remembering the original material.

The TV series shares only the odd name and the idea of psychohistory with the source. Everything else has been scrapped. One of the major ideas, violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, has beem completely tossed out the window in favour of suicide bombers, gun battles, and crashing spaceships. Asimov would never have approved.

A tenet of Asimov's fiction writing was that things had to make sense. How then does it make sense that Gaal dives from a dock at the edge of a building to retrieve an item underwater, then resurfaces in the middle of a watery expanse to climb back into a boat? How is it that the Huntress can escape her handcuffs by detonating an EMP device? And why is it that all of the guards have disappeared leaving only Salvor Hardin to deal with her? How is it that an Imperial battleship can be taken down by effectively lobbing a rock at it, especially when it has already been established that the Empire has shield technology?

Nothing makes sense. But why should it? It was written by Hollywood hacks who have no appreciation for great science fiction, and no respect for the masters.