JohnBlund2001 Reviews

Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2024)

Star Trek? Nah.

[6/10 · 12 October 2017]

I was looking forward to see this series. Now having seen the first four episodes, I begin to feel a bit cheated. The lack of Star Trek feeling is immense. There is simply too much talk and lack of action to even be interesting and the pace is simply too slow. I don't mind slow pace in some parts as long as it at least moves the story along. The characters are not really interesting either and the Klingons looks rather fake. Why even bother wasting so much time writing long dialogues in Klingon that even must be subtitled in English. I would guess that probably must be rather irritating for English speaking people (I myself being Swedish though). Okay I can understand that they are trying to establish some baseline for the Klingon history background, but why not instead show us their story in an understandable summation, instead of letting us listen to long harangues of speeches and dialogues in Klingon.

I noticed that someone else reviewing this series mentioned that The Orville series is more closer to TNG than this and I must agree. I admit that I first was a bit doubtful about The Orville series since I have heard that it should be drifting more to the humorous side, which I normally don't like, since the risk of getting too silly is too big and what people consider humorous vary. Fortunately one can let The Orville get away with some bad jokes and some silly moments since in that series each episodes at least have a story in it ending in each episode. Anyway, enough about The Orville.

If STD is not picking up its pace anytime soon and start some action (not meaning someone fighting face to face with a Klingon) and the next episodes continues in the same manner as it has so far, I strongly will consider stop watching, since there is simply no point in watching in that case.

The Orville (2017–2022)

Better than anticipated.

[10/10 · 12 October 2017]

I admit that I first was a bit doubtful about The Orville series since I have heard that it should be drifting more to the humorous side, which I normally don't like, since the risk of getting too silly is too big and what people consider humorous vary. Now having seen the first five episodes, I can fortunately say that one can let The Orville get away with some bad jokes and some silly moments since each episode have a story moving forward in it and ending in each episode which I personally like best. The Orville series is also more closer to the Star Trek series than for example Star Trek: Discovery, which says something.

Family Album (1994)

Well worth seeing!

[8/10 · 2 January 2008]

The family happiness is crumbling when, the from the beginning rich father Ward (Michael Ontkean), gets poor and cannot support the family any longer. Then the mother Faye (Jaclyn Smith) has to take the role as the breadwinner in the family and starts to work in order to support the family and at the same time, periodically alone, has to manage the family life. Not always that good, but as good as she can. The family life hardly gets easier when the father learns that the son Lionel (Joe Flanigan "Stargate Atlantis") is gay and is living together with his lover John (Joel Gretsch "The 4400") also an old family friend, resulting in that the father makes clear to Lionel that he is no longer welcome in the family. Lionel is the one who meant the most to his sister Anne (Leslie Horan) during her up-bringing, since the family neglected her. Anne cannot stand the fact that their father have cut the cords with Lionel and therefore she run away from home. As this wasn't enough, the son Greg (Brian Krause "Charmed") enlists in the marines and is sent to war. The storyline in this film can on some occasions feel a bit thin, in spite of that it still has a lot of realism in it, which makes it well worth seeing. Since this film illustrates many sensitive relations and situations, I would believe that it is best appreciated by a mature audience even though it wouldn't hurt for teenagers to see it and get something to think about before adulthood.

Belphegor: Phantom of the Louvre (2001)

Belphégor - Le fantôme Du Louvre. A must see film!

[10/10 · 12 June 2007]

According to me french movies doesn't gets much PR around the world for some reason. However this movie is a proof of that France can make good movies and do. The first time I saw this movie was just a coincidence more or less... One evening I read the Swedish TV guide to see if it was something on worth watching. I didn't think so, however I turned the TV on anyway and zapped around a bit. I finally got to the channel showing this movie and somehow it caught my eye and I start watching, even if I discovered that I unfortunately have missed the first 10 minutes of the movie. I am really glad that I did watch it after all anyway!

About the movie: Much of the story (plot summary) is already available to read on IMDb about this movie, so I don't think one can consider this as a spoiler but to make sure you might think twice before continue reading.

The story starts 1935 in Egypt when a french expedition led by Egyptologist Pierre Desfontaines (Pierre Aussedat) discovers a tomb with a 3000 years old sarcophagus in it containing a mummy. Amongst other artifacts, they decide to bring back the sarcophagus and the mummy, to the Louvre museum in Paris. During the boat trip to Marseilles however all but one crew member strangely dies including Pierre Desfontaines himself. 65 years later during a restoration of the Louvre museum in Paris the mummy is found in a forgotten storage room. The museum curator Bertrand Faussier (Jean-François Balmer) brings in Egyptologist Glenda Spencer (Julie Christie), to examine the artifacts and trying to establish who the mummy really where and its name.

Lisa (Sophie Marceau) is an ordinary girl living across the street from the museum, together with her grandma Geneviève (Patachou). One evening they get an electrical problem and call for electrician Martin (Frédéric Diefenthal) who has helped them before when in trouble. When fixing the problem in the basement, Lisas cat runs off and they have to follow it and end-up in the museum after closing time. Will they be discovered by the guards? Lisa and Martin gets separated and Lisa accidentally discovers the mummy in the basement. Things happen and after that evening neither Lisa nor anybody else understand why Lisa begins to visit the museum every night. At the same time strange things starts to happen at the museum, alarms going off now and then and people gets murdered and rumors amongst the guards begins to spread that there is a phantom called Belphégor on the loose. The chase to get this phantom begins but soon they will be aware of that getting Belphégor will not be as easy as they from the beginning thought. And when they finally do, they don't know what to believe, believe it!

Sophie Marceau is a masterpiece when playing the role of Lisa and Frédéric Diefenthal is equally good playing the role of the electrician and later on her boyfriend as well. It's wonderful to see Julie Christie in this french film playing Egyptologist not to mention the french Patachou playing Lisa's grandma.