Soukey Reviews

Dragnet (2003–2004)

New Coke or New Beetle?

[28 February 2003]

I like this show but you won't if you look at it wrong.

If you see it as the New Coke version, all you can see is something that's different from Jack Webb's classic. It has a different feel and the same name, different style but the same character, and it's too much like other shows on the air. It won't be what you want.

I prefer to see it a akin to the New Beetle; A 21st century re-take of a classic old show. It's not the same as the original but it doesn't claim to be. Joe Friday is a hard, cynical cop of our times. He's seen it all and yet he still cares. The voice-overs let you see how he sees the situations. It's different than Jack Webb but TV is vastly different now and audiences are more savvy. Look at shows from the 50's and 60's; stilted dialogue, simple plots, and hokey criminals. Audiences today don't think all answers are simple. Webb had audiences that were used to Perry Mason; today they're used to Law & Order and NYPD Blue. The New Dragnet had to take that into account or they would have been competing with TV Land. It's by the producer of Law & Order and has many similarities but the same can be said of Adam 12 in its' day. Webb's Dragnet was right for its' time and the new Dragnet is right for the new millenium.

I like the New Beetle and that doesn't change my feelings about the classic Beetle. And I like the new Dragnet too.

Battlefield Earth (2000)

I've seen worse

[5/10 · 12 May 2000]

I've seen much worse. It would have been an OK TV movie. I've read the book but it's been so many years, the movie's departures didn't phase me. The effects were as stunning as we've grown to expect from sci-fi lately. Travolta was as gleefully evil as the novel had his character. Everything was up to par as far as the movie was concerned.

But maybe that's the problem.

We've seen evil before so no big deal. We've seen fighters vs. alien ships before, no big deal. We've seen the planet devastated and the cities in ruin before. Same old, same old.

The movie's flaws were the same as the book: One thousand years would cause more damage to the earth than was shown. Rubber degrades in just a few years, fuel evaporates, batteries would no longer even be able to hold a charge. Even nuclear warheads have a shelf life much less than a millennium.

Also there's a problem of language. When isolated, language changes. Right here in America, we have several different dialects after a few hundred years and we're in constant contact with each other. After a thousand years no one would still speak english well enough to read the Declaration of Independence yet Johnny can talk to every human he meets.

I'll never understand how anyone can see a 1050 page novel and believe they can tell the story in a movie. They would have been better to have made a TV mini-series. But the movie as a movie, wait for it to come out on video.

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

The movie we've all been waiting for!

[9/10 · 19 May 1999]

A wonderful roller-coaster ride of a film. The CG effects earn an 11. Leaves you waiting for the next movie. The only problem is the obvious shoe-horning of C-3PO into the movie. I can understand Lucas wanting the famous droid in the film but I really think they could have found a more plausible way to introduce him.