Reviews

I can confirm Late Night with the Devil (2023) really captures the vibe of 1970s horror, and TV. I grew up in the 1970s, regularly watching a lot of what is now classic TV shows, and all the classic horror movies. The Exorcist (1973) was phenomenal. I was in high school when my buddies and I went to see Halloween (1978) when it first came out, and everyone was freaked out by it! Everyone was talking about how The Amityville Horror (1979) was real!

I can imagine, if we had seen Late Night with the Devil at that time, we would've been freaked out by it and thought it was a classic, like Scanners (1981) or something. Even now, as of 2024 (I'm 60 years old) I still had some pretty horrified reactions to certain scenes in this one. I know enough by now to know it's not real, but it's still a lot of fun to have the (bleep) scared out of you every once in a while.

As for the AI images apparently in this movie, I would not have known about them if I hadn't read about it elsewhere. Some people are being convinced to get an outrage rush about this, and boycott something. I've been a professional software engineer for 36 years, and increasingly AI is being used by programmers to generate code. What are you going to do, boycott all software with AI generated code? Do you want to get the thrill of an outrage from that too?

I'm writing this review on 2/16/2024. Alexei Navalny is reported to have died today while imprisoned by the Russian authorities in Siberia. President Biden alleged in a press conference that Putin is responsible for the death of Navalny.

Having seen this fascinating, eye-opening documentary last year (2023) I have no doubt what Biden alleged is true. This is an amazing and terrifying depiction of an assassination attempt on Navalny in 2020, followed by his own investigation in to who carried it out, exposing them for who they are, and ultimately exposing the actual nature of the corrupt Putin regime. This erased any remaining doubts I may have had about what Russia is capable of.

This is one of the all time great documentaries. If you want to understand what is behind a lot of what is wrong with our world today, and how Russia and Putin are behind so much of it, you should take a look at this.

I just got done watching all episodes of The Mick on Hulu (as of 2024). I'd be willing to keep watching if Hulu or Netflix or somebody would please just produce more episodes! I'm a big fan of Kaitlin Olson. This is one of the funniest comedies I've watched in the last 5 years (and I've been watching A LOT, having been shut in due to the pandemic). The whole main cast is really talented and funny. I really enjoy the comedy and singing skills of Carla Jimenez. I'm trying to think of what my favorite episode is. I don't have a favorite episode. I like all of 'em! And I like the whole cast! C'mon, somebody bring it back, I want to find out what happens next!

If you came here for dogs talking about sex from a dog's perspective, dogs making more poop jokes than Triumph the Insult Comic Dog could ever dream of, a pack of dogs making a cross country road trip on foot, then you came to the right place! If you came here for something like Citizen Kane or 2001: A Space Odyssey, well, those are motion pictures. And so is this! In that, at least, all these movies have at least a few similarities. This is an extremely raunchy, hilarious comedy, where it doesn't hold back and follows through on everything. There are no loose ends, no questions unanswered, and a completely satisfactory ending for...well, almost...everyone. Will Ferrell and Jamie Foxx are perfectly cast as the voices of the two lead dogs, and the rest of the cast are also in fine form. Note, Triumph is not actually in this movie. Just in case, you know, some people didn't realize that. This movie has real dogs, not puppets.

This is a fun and totally absurd (that's a good thing) action movie. I like the cast, I like the storyline. I like how the story is told in linear order, no flashbacks. At the same time as I was enjoying the story and the entertaining characters, I was cringing at the editing and cinematography: alot of quick cuts from multiple camera angles, and really fast panning to give the illusion of a lot of fast action. But it's just annoying to me. I never watched the original TV show so I can't compare it to that. I can compare it to contemporary action movies that also have a lot of over-the-top action, and I have to say The A-Team comes out favorably despite its technical shortcomings. And I am not going to forget this line of dialog: "Overkill is underrated!"

Idris Elba plays a passenger on board a jet airliner that gets hijacked. He uses his savvy as a professional negotiator of corporate deals, to try to bring about the best possible outcome under the circumstances. The flight takes about 7 hours and the action plays out over the course of 7 corresponding episodes. There are several surprises that gradually get revealed along the way. The motivations of the hijackers - and what happens in response on the ground by various air traffic control or government officials - might not be what you'd expect. There is alot of tension, it's actually really thrilling, and kept me guessing right up to the end. Idris Elba is always a fascinating actor, and all the other actors are also really good in this. The production as a whole is very high quality.

I've started watching season 2 of This Fool and I'm increasingly impressed by how funny it is. Each episode is packed with loud-out-loud comedy moments. I was born and raised and lived in the greater L. A. area all my life, and this show really conveys the spirit of this area, in particular the Latino culture. I'm not Latino but that doesn't make any difference, this show has universal appeal.

Each episode is like an almost self-contained mini-movie. I watched all of season 1 and it has been a little while but I feel I don't even need a season recap. The relationships between the characters and what is going on in their lives is all conveyed through natural sounding dialogue. That is how well written it is. There are plenty of references to classic movies and TV shows. And music videos: season 2 episode 2 has a parody/homage to Randy Newman's classic "I Love L. A." music video. Clearly these guys love L. A. just as I do and I'm enjoying the ride alongside them.

I was one of the few lucky enough to see Idiocracy in an actual movie theater (in Brea, CA) when it was first released. At that time I thought it was a great satirical comedy by Mike Judge. I also thought, yeah, maybe that will happen...someday.

And here we are, now it is, in fact, someday. I recently watched Idiocracy again on my so-called "smart" TV (is it?). (Unfortunately, I wasn't sitting on my toilet seat. Our society hasn't "progressed" that far...yet...) I was a little startled as I watched and realized it was merely an exaggeration of how things are right now. We are surrounded by garbage, pollution, and excess heat in the atmosphere and oceans. Just like in the movie. People really do act inexplicably stupid, now more than ever before, and seem to be proud of it. Just like in the movie. Yep, Mike Judge has created a satire which is ostensibly set far in our future, but really is about the here and now.

This movie is funny, entertaining, and a horrifying depiction of urban conditions. It's reminiscent of everything from classic 1970s blaxploitation, Stanley Kubrick's Clockwork Orange, to Jordan Peele's Get Out and Us. Here we are presented with an explanation for why certain urban conditions are the way they are for African-Americans, which probably is fictional. I said probably. But anyways, folks in the movie are being exploited by...whoever...just as exploitation is going on in real life. Like all good science fiction, this is really just based on our current reality.

I like how Teyonah Parris's character is the smartest one. She's a smart, tough woman, who is probably respected the least of anyone in the movie but doesn't let that stop her.

I read the Foundation Trilogy when I was a teenager in the 1970s. I've read hundreds of science fiction books since then. This was, and still is, one of the most impressive series of stories I've ever read. I was excited when I learned of this adaptation. Then I learned they had taken significant liberties with Asimov's original writings, and I hesitated to watch it, thinking I wouldn't like it. How dare they mess with the great Isaac Asimov?

I changed my mind and decided to watch it. Now I can see they are adhering to the spirit, if not the letter of what Asimov wrote, and it is actually a pretty great series. The acting, the production values, the clear way in which all the storylines are being told, all are very well done and engaging. Some of the ideas being presented are really fascinating.

The original trilogy is Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation. All of these are present in some form here. Asimov ultimately tied his robot stories and novels into the overall massive story arc, and at least one robot is present here as well. Gaal Dornick mentions the Mule in the first episode so I'm looking forward to seeing how that plays out.

I don't have a problem with Gaal Dornick and Salvor Hardin being women, instead of men as Asimov wrote them originally. It's good to see strong, intelligent women in stories like this. There are other, even more significant changes, that have been made. I don't recall the Galactic Emperor Cleon being a series of clones, but that is a pretty cool idea they have incorporated.

I'll also point out this is not the first time someone who was not Isaac Asimov made significant changes to the original story. Gregory Benford, Greg Bear, and David Brin (3 of the greatest s.f. Writers of the late 20th century) wrote a new Foundation Trilogy in which they significantly reimagined it. I just want to point that out for anyone who thinks the original Asimov text is sacred and can't be played around with. Asimov was perfectly fine with other authors (such as Harlan Ellison who wrote a significantly different script for I, Robot) reinterpreting his own books.

I'm a huge fan of Haley Bennett. If I see her name in the credits I have to drop everything else, and watch. In Swallow, she gives a mesmerizing (to me) performance as a lonely, isolated housewife. She swallows things (like a marble) a normal person would not eat. She's such a great actress, she conveys just with facial expressions and subtle body language the inexplicable pleasure that gives her. As the movie unfolds, we gradually learn some clues which might explain why she does this. It's pretty shocking and distressing to learn the reasons for it, and what she ultimately decides to do in order to deal with it.

I have to point out, the excellent cinematography by Katelin Arizmendi. I enjoyed the calm, steady shots throughout this movie, of really beautiful vistas and architecture. If you're not a fan of shaky handheld camera movies, I think you might appreciate this.

Cocaine Bear is about a bear who gets high on some cocaine accidentally dropped into the forest from an airplane, and the people that happen to get too close to it. And that's pretty much it. If you were expecting something more epic, maybe you should've paid more attention to the title.. But you really should not take this too seriously - the film makers obviously did not - and you're not coming away from this with any major revelations. Except maybe: You should avoid bears, and cocaine!

Almost everything in this movie is exaggerated for comic effect - the dialogue, the character interactions, the movements of the bear. The bear coked up and moves fast, running, jumping, climbing. If you're thinking that's not realistic...well...no, it's not. It's not supposed to be. It's a movie. Just have a good time. I recommend seeing it with a good natured audience. It's more fun that way.

I've only seen a bear once up close (at a National Park in Canada) so I'm not really an expert about what bears look like. I can't imagine they used a real bear in this movie. But what is depicted looks pretty real to me. So kudos to the special f/x people. Of course this is what we have come to expect ever since Jurassic Park (1994) so, yeah, I know, that's no big deal at this point.

The cinematography is pretty good. A lot of the action takes place at night, but is filmed in such a way that it looks dark but you can see perfectly well what is going on. So that is a sign the film makers know what they are doing.

R. I. P. To Ray Liotta. I remember first seeing him in GoodFellas, and always such a great and likeable actor who was able to hold his own opposite the likes of Joe Pesci and Robert De Niro.

If you're looking for the hilarious kind of stuff Mel Brooks did back in the 1970s, you'll be disappointed. If you're looking for actual history, you won't find it here. There are a few hilarious moments - if you understand the context - and there is also a lot of just really dumb stuff here.

If you're familiar with Curb Your Enthusiasm, then you might get a kick out of the Curb Your Judaism sketch. It doesn't have Larry David, but J. B. Smoove is on hand and it's still pretty hilarious. (It helps if you know something about the story of Jesus, which, even if you're not a Christian, is still a pretty fascinating story in itself.)

"The Last Sermon" sketch is a funny satire of the Beatles "Get Back" documentary. I think it may be only funny if you know something about the Beatles to begin with. And the story of Jesus. And the infamous quote John Lennon said about the Beatles and Jesus.

"The Civil War" sketch is just plain dumb. We know in real life U. S. Grant drank a lot. But a sketch in which that is pretty much the entire joke, well, it's just not that funny. West Virginia, in real life, remained loyal to the Union. So why are West Virginians depicted as Southerners? It's just dumb.

Wanda Sykes as Shirley Chisholm is a silly, sometimes mildly amusing satire of 70s sitcoms.

Most of the sketches are just kind of forgettable. The one about Kublai Khan meeting Marco Polo is actually pretty funny, but the rest of that one just didn't do anything for me. A lot of this stuff is the kind of thing where you're waiting for it to get funny, waiting for the punch line, it just doesn't happen.

If a movie with an A. I. robot is your thing, then...this one is mildly entertaining, but there are better ones out there (A. I. Artificial Intelligence being one good example). In this movie Cady is a sad lonely girl, but luckily her aunt Gemma is now her guardian and has developed all the technology to provide her with her own artificial friend, M3GAN. Ordinary toys are boring, but M3GAN soon becomes the toy/friend Cady can't do without, and M3GAN becomes overly protective of Cady. What could possibly go wrong?

This is entertaining enough and held my attention throughout. I was interested to see how it would all play out. But there are a lot of odd moments where the actors are overdoing it. A lot of the behavior at the company Gemma works at would be considered sloppy and unprofessional. There are moments where you would expect a normal person to react a certain way, but...they don't. The way the dialogue is written and delivered in this over-the-top manner just took me out of the movie too many times. There is technical sounding jargon that just doesn't work, like the near-disastrous moment when one character says something like "I forgot to put in the polypropylene barrier" which is gibberish. (In Star Trek they know how to do this kind of fake technical jargon the right way.)

Anyways this movie is good for a few laughs of the non-horror variety, and you might find yourself in the uncanny valley looking at the creepy doll M3GAN. If you're up for that kind of goosebump-y chilly kind of feeling then this is your thing right here.

Gerard Butler pilots a plane in Plane, going through a storm and crashing on a remote island. Then the real dangers start to happen to the surviving crew and passengers. It's always hard for me to pay attention to anything, but this movie fully engaged me from start to finish. There is never a dull moment. The action propels along at a steady pace. The story has a satisfying beginning, middle, and end.

Gerard Butler plays the only really interesting character, captain Brodie Torrance. Mike Colter's character, Louis Gaspare who is being extradited on a homicide charge, is a very intriguing character who also gets in on a lot of the action. Tony Goldwyn plays Scarsdale, brought in to manage the crisis, and it becomes clear that he should've been managing the whole airline company. All of the actors do a good job, but we don't learn much about the other characters. There is no single interesting villain, but I have to admit the group of villains is pretty terrifying when operating on their home turf.

One good thing about the movie is, they avoided every cliche that could have been thrown in there. They established the premise of the movie, which is not entirely realistic (but so what? It's a movie!) and then set things in motion from there. And from there, all the characters act like you might expect normal people would, if they happened to find themselves in that situation. And all the actors are good enough, that they sell it. You're getting your money's worth.

As a teenager in the late 1970s, I read almost everything Robert A. Heinlein had written up to that point - including Starship Troopers. The movie only superficially resembles the book (and I bet Heinlein would not have been amused), but I don't care! I think they're both great! Starship Troopers is another great science fiction action movie from Paul Verhoeven. For me it doesn't pack quite as much of a punch as RoboCop or Total Recall, but it's still one of the better science fiction movies of the 1990s.

In this movie Earth is under attack by aliens. As always in war, the older people who are actually running things recruit the naive youngsters to go off to war - this time in interstellar space. The true nature of the enemy is not really known - everybody just thinks of them as horrifying giant bugs.

Over the course of the war, the soldiers start out excited at attaining a quick victory, but then it drags on, there are some wins and losses, and by the end of the movie they have learned things. They have become transformed into something more confident, and more sinister - perhaps even fascist. Critics perceived the movie as promoting fascism at the time the movie was released, but it is actually a satire on fascism. So if you magically turn into a fascist by watching this movie, that is probably your own problem.

I watched the movie and it didn't turn me in to a fascist. I just enjoyed it for what it is: A great science fiction action adventure, and a critique of jingoistic warfare. I also learned that if I ever see a giant bug I'm gonna shoot it with my big gun before it gets anywhere near me!

RoboCop is an epic science fiction action thriller, plus a huge satire about corporate greed. I remember when this first came out it was called ultraviolent, and that is certainly true. And it's exhilirating. Peter Weller plays the badass cop Alex Murphy, who, because of an act of criminal violence is near death, but is brought back to life as a hybrid human/robot - a cyborg - a robocop. Part of the motivation for this monstrous creation is a private corporation (OCP) that wants to take over every aspect of running the city of Detroit - including its police force. All hell breaks loose as Murphy seeks vengeance against all those who did this to him.

Paul Verhoeven has made several science fiction classics of a similar nature - extremely violent and satirical takedowns of corporate and government corruption (e.g. Total Recall and Starship Troopers). RoboCop is probably the best of these.

The whole cast does a really great job here. I want to give a shout out to Ronny Cox who here convincingly plays a corrupt corporate executive (just as he did similarly in Total Recall), but if you look at his career it shows he has quite an impressive range. I mean look at what he did in Deliverance and you would not recognize him as the same guy.

If you want to see a great science fiction movie, or relentless action, or one of the greatest satire movies ever, RoboCop is a classic.

I am an American and when I was in high school around 1980, Ronald Reagan was elected president, and I was taught in school in no uncertain terms that the Soviet Union was our enemy. So here I am 4 decades later, astounded to find myself watching a TV series about Soviet agents impersonating Americans on American soil, and cheering them on to succeed!

This is not because I'm a sympathizer with Russia (quite the opposite, actually) but rather because Keri Russell and Matthew Rhys are so good at portraying their characters, I want to watch them continue what they're doing. I don't want to see them found out, arrested, or killed. That would ruin the fun!

These performances are amazing. They are Soviet agents from Russia, who have to pretend to be a normal American middle class couple in the suburbs. Raising a couple of kids who have no knowledge of their parents' real identity. While they are pretending to be Americans, they also have to assume alternate identities in the course of their spy work.

Meanwhile, as if all that wasn't enough, even though their work requires them to "be American" 100% of the time, they still must remain loyal to their motherland, and not get caught up in American capitalist values or consumerism, even though constantly being surrounded and enticed by it. I can't imagine what kind of mental gymnastics this would take.

Anyways this series is pretty amazing. I've been mostly isolated at home for the past 3 years (as of 2023), watching a lot of streaming video, and "The Americans" stands up there with the best.

Imperium is about FBI agent Nate Foster (Daniel Radcliffe) who infiltrates a network of white supremacists in the Washington, D. C. area. Up to now, everything I've seen Daniel Radcliffe in has been high quality and worth watching at least once. I really enjoy a movie (or TV show) about a guy who assumes an identity at risk of getting found out by the wrong people. So I was expecting this to be pretty good, but it's a whole lot better than I thought it would be. Toni Collette, as always, does a fantastic job here as special agent Angela Zamparo who recruits Foster for her ongoing investigation of the white supremacists who may or may not be plotting an act of terrorism.

The IMDb rating is a little lower than I would have expected. So I'm wondering what I'm missing here. If you're looking for something like the superior "Donnie Brasco", well..."Imperium" doesn't have that kind of epic scale. "Imperium" doesn't have a whole lot of action or violence, it's actually more character driven, and has the kind of intrigue and tension that might actually be involved in a realistic investigation of this nature. If you're looking for something comparable, which is a little more exciting and epic and actually is realistic, there is "The Infiltrator" starring Bryan Cranston.

My own opinion, I enjoyed "Imperium" a lot more than I thought I would. Fans of Daniel Radcliffe, and/or Toni Collette, and/or "assumed identity" type movies might feel the same.

You People has a lot of Jonah Hill's weird, awkward, cringey style of comedy. The entire movie seems to be a presentation of how not to act, or what not to say. Especially if that someone is of a different ethnic background. They really went overboard with that kind of stuff, and Jonah Hill really went overboard with being the awkward weirdo. Eddie Murphy is really low key in this one, like he didn't really even create a character, he just says his lines almost in his normal tone of voice. If you do get a laugh out of this (your mileage may vary) it will be more likely because of being shocked at an inappropriate line of dialogue being uttered aloud.

There are some things going on in Cleaner that require a pretty big suspension of disbelief, and some other things that are, sadly, all too real. But I like Samuel L. Jackson in everything he has ever done, and this is no exception. Keke Palmer and Eva Mendes are also great in their roles. I like Ed Harris and as usual he also does a pretty good job here, but I think a different actor might have been better in his role. Renny Harlin does a good directing job. Some tension, not much action, a lot of blood. Did they really need to show that much blood? Where is Dexter when you need him? Anyways I was bored and didn't know what to watch on Netflix, so this filled the time well enough.

The Terminator is a great science fiction action thriller. When I first saw it, I didn't have much of a clue as to what it was about. So when this android arrives from the future, inexplicably looking for "Sarah Connor", it was very mysterious and increasingly terrifying. As the movie progresses, it becomes increasingly clear this thing has no conscience, and is nearly unstoppable. Arnold Schwarzenegger gives it a suitably deadpan performance which only adds to the sense of dread. Linda Hamilton as a woman named Sarah Connor initially has no idea why she - a waitress in a coffee shop - would be a target of a thing like this. Only one man, Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese, seems to have some idea, but everyone else just thinks he's crazy. Who would believe a ridiculous story like this? This is only the first of the many of James Cameron's great science fiction action thrillers. It's fun, it's crazy, it's terrifying, and it's essential viewing for any science fiction aficionado.

I have a thing for movies about investigative reporters, on a journey of discovery about some important topic. "She Said" is this kind of movie, and sure enough, I found it fascinating as Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) tracked down the shocking story of sexual assaults in Hollywood.

I haven't been living in a cave, so I've already seen this in the news. So I kind of knew some of what the outcome would be. But I didn't know how they had made their discoveries. There are moments in this film that are tense because the reporters are on the verge of a breakthrough - but then it doesn't happen. It's particularly interesting to me that there are a lot of women who know things, but most of them are terrified to reveal any of it publicly, and only very few are willing to be the first. As a man, this sort of thing never even occurred to me before, so I have learned a lot by paying attention to things like this.

The impact the Beatles had on Western Culture, and my own life, is incalculable. I'm not exaggerating when I say on the death of John Lennon in 1980 I felt a terrible sense of loss as if he were a member of my own family. I was in high school at that time and had just started collecting Beatles records, and their solo albums. I was also collecting other rock records but the Beatles were my favorite. And they still are (as of 2023).

I studied every detail about the Beatles I could read about, far more than any other rock band. I knew their history from the beginning to the end, including these recording sessions as depicted in Get Back. Before the release of this movie, I kind of wondered about what the "Get Back" sessions had really been like. Were they really just getting tired and irritated of working with each other? Were they arguing and yelling at each other? What was it like to have Yoko sitting in there? Was she really the divisive figure some people made her out to be? Turns out, no, she was not divisive, and they were all getting along just fine!

As shown in the movie, at the time the media was trying to give this impression about the Beatles - that they were fighting and stuff. Meanwhile, we get to see them having a laugh as they look at the latest made-up story about them in the tabloids. It's refreshing to see them just making a joke of it and having a good time regardless.

The reality, for me is mesmerizing. This was a group of friends who were having so much fun working together on making some of the greatest music of the 20th century. And the chance to watch as they worked on these songs is, for me, a thrill of a lifetime. I was just basking in the experience of them working on some of my favorite songs for the first time.

I love seeing Billy Preston just go in there and start playing music with them, picking up these new songs immediately, and this huge smile on his face. I was smiling right along with him. Just an amazing musician who made a positive contribution to the sound of the Beatles at this time.

I must give special thanks to the great film maker Peter Jackson, who has with this created a document that preserves no less than an important contribution to Western Culture.