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Reviews
Gordon, Gino & Fred's Road Trip (2018)
Such a fun time
This is like going on the most amazing road trip vacation with your two best friends in the world who also love food and travel. Except you're living it vicariously through a show about Gordon, Fred, and Gino. There is so much chemistry between these three friends, and in virtually every scene you see the value that each of them brings to the trio while getting educational tidbits about fun places. You get sucked into their good time and there is a sense of sharing in their happy moments from afar. I tend to avidly consume Gordon Ramsay's shows but oftentimes they clearly have to try to cover a lack of usable scenes to fill the time by manufacturing drama, whereas this show gives you the feeling like so many hilarious moments transpired that there are many more sitting on the proverbial cutting room floor. And being reminded of the beauty of those times when our friends help amplify our best qualities just makes me smile and feel good about the future. What a wonderful thing to be able to translate into a TV show? Truly a joy to watch.
Ancient Apocalypse (2022)
Poorly researched Pseudoarchaeology, no substance
I made it most of the way (95%) through an episode of this before deciding I could not possibly subject my brain to any more of it. I don't work in archaeology, but I majored in engineering and minored in classics... so I'm an extremely logical/critical thinker with an understanding of complex math/science and some limited context on how archaeologists look at ancient civilizations.
This guy is spinning a tale without any substantial data to back it up, and instead of doing any real analysis he tries to create magic credibility for himself by pointing fingers in another direction... making vague 'othering' statements about archaeologists and academics who make this their life's work not knowing what they're talking about / implying some sort of conspiracy and appears to think that random clips of him repeating the same unsupported drivel on notorious pseudoscience quack Joe Rogan's podcast somehow lends him intellectual credibility. The whole vibe is "I don't have to prove what I'm saying is right or provide any factual support if I just create a conspiracy insisting everyone else is corrupt and wrong" (classic misdirection). While I certainly think there is plenty for us to learn about ancient civilizations and there are many things we might be a bit off on, even if the guy gets one or two things right he taints ALL of his claims with the stench of his overwhelming BS and failure to analyze or present information in any rational way. It is really clear in the first 5-10 mins of this show that this guy isn't searching for truth, but rather throwing together a haphazard show to try and suit his own novel fictitious narratives (presumably to make a quick buck and gain notoriety). It feels like a random YouTube conspiracy video that an exec mistakenly greenlighted into a Netflix special after a few too many cocktails. He makes a lot of empty claims without providing any real evidence or support for his statements (like 'I went diving in a totally different part of the world and also saw some stone I decided without testing or consulting anyone must be the same basalt columns so this is all connected and there is no other possible explanation than a sophisticated ice age civilization'... bruh, that stuff is all over shallow waters and typically easily attributed to much more recent civilizations, and stuff like what he showed would have experienced significantly more erosion if it had been there for 20k+ years), repeatedly tries to pass off normal information as some sort of revolutionary secret discovery, and overall does a gross disservice to real professionals in both the investigative reporting and archaeological fields. This is so intellectually dishonest that I wouldn't even call it bad reporting, it's more like a peek into some uneducated rando's stoner thoughts journal to the point I was surprised to not hear the phrase "ancient aliens". This guy lacks common sense and seemingly has no fundamental understanding of science. This has no substance, ditch it and learn from someone who knows what they're talking about.
King Richard (2021)
Good movie, great acting despite miscast lead
Overall this is a really good movie, but I kept being thrown out of enjoying it by Will Smith's poor performance. The other actors in the movie are great, and I found myself really impressed with the girls' ability to make me feel like I was looking through a time window to their characters' real childhoods. So you have all this great acting and an interesting story, and then you have Will Smith giving a performance that feels like a bad parody by someone who watched one old clip of the guy. He wasn't in their league and failed to convey the presence and intellect of the real man. I repeatedly felt baffled at his lack of chemistry with anyone else in his scenes and at times it felt like he was trying to do an impression of a Fred Armisen impression. He did manage to hit the mark maybe 10% of the time by tapping into one or more believable aspect of the character, but the other 90% he gave a mediocre-to-poor performance that was terribly pale when compared against everyone else in the film. I resented that as the title character he should have been able to carry the movie, but instead it was like all the other actors in the movie carried him. So it's a good movie despite him, and it highlights a lot of social issues that provide good opportunities for parents of teens to have adult discussions with their kids.
Dual (2022)
Fun, dry humor, classic horror film
This is a non-gruesome psychological horror artistic film with a lot of deadpan humor, which is what I think they were going for. It was an interesting watch and I enjoyed it, but within the first 15 minutes I found myself thinking "this is 100% a festival film for artsy film types, now I get why it's only playing in one theater for one week in the largest city in America. Sure, it could have been a bit more polished, but they told the story they were looking to tell and succeeded in bringing it to life. The story is surely imperfect, but it surprised me more than once by taking me places I hadn't expected it to go, and there was a touch of beautiful tragedy to it. So if you like that kind of thing, I think it's worth a watch or two. If you don't, I think you'll struggle to pick up on and understand the layers in this film unless you've done something like taken a film analysis class.
The only thing that I hated about the movie was Aaron Paul pronouncing "cache" (as in, collection or stockpile) as "cash-shay"... how did nobody in that entire production not tell him it's pronounced "cash" - like money? There's no plot relevance or humor value to it, so it just feels like a huge oversight. Also, I count the table as a weapon.
Spencer (2021)
World's most boring movie?
Quite possibly the world's most boring movie. I made it through 30 minutes before I gave up, and kept skipping through parts because it was so awful watching Kristen Stewart's uncomfortable performance - this is maybe the second movie I've ever come across that was so bad that I had to stop - it was so boring I felt like it was somehow draining life and energy from me.
It never stopped looking like Kristen Stewart trying way too hard to do an over the top Diana impression. Her accent was often ok, but her body language was so exaggerated, awkward, and situationally inappropriate that it was like watching somebody's bad SNL audition where there are random snippets of useless dialogue and the punch line (and plot) never seem to materialize. She was so jittery and wholly incapable of making eye contact with the camera or other characters I could not help but wonder whether she was having small seizures. She seems so like some horrid, twitchy bird-creature in an 80s suit with her slouched posture and her arms hunched like claws, and there was so little dialogue between the grating and clanging of the horror movie score, that I was genuinely surprised when she would sometimes briefly speak. Script, directing, acting - all boring, but left me feeling irritated because everything in this film was just trying too hard to foist the impression of cold discomfort on the viewer. As a woman, I also found the way they portrayed her as some weak, crazy, tweaked out thing with no personality disconcerting and offensive. A strange, disjointed portrayal by people clearly trying to portray a dark imagining a word they know nothing about. No substance here. Save your time, If you want English historical drama, go watch The Crown or something. A lion in winter. Beckett (1964). Those White Rose series. The Tudors. Hell, even Doctor Who probably contains more historical context than this oddness.
Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet: Everlight (2021)
A love letter to fantasy.
This was a really beautiful episode. Really uplifting, masterfully told story that was truly a joy to watch. You could see how much love and care went into it, and the characters' hope was infectious. Fantastic episode that felt like an incredible fantasy movie and left me feeling warm fuzzies.
Copshop (2021)
Fun watch
This was really fun and had me guessing a few times. The story is fresh and funny. The actors generally connect with their roles and have good comedic timing. Sometimes the acting/directing/writing could be a bit better, but it has the general feel of a well-done independent comedy. Really nice use of subtle (and not so subtle) subtext on gender and race dynamics, and it was nice to see how the story evolved its badass hero(es).