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Reviews
Continuum (2012)
Good Sci-Fi Program on Time Travel
I just finished watching the first season of Continuum on blu-ray. I'm looking forward to Season 2 on disc.
I enjoy the way that the series deals with time travel. It's more about the consequences on societal changes than about gadgets and flying cars, although tech development plays a major role. By setting the show about 60 years in the future, it's within a generation or so of the characters involved -- not too far in the future nor too near. The series raises the dilemma of how current actions affect the future, and this leads to a constant moral struggle among the time travelers.
The series blends action, drama and suspense. The show's dialogue, story line and character development is A+.
This is the second Canadian series I've discovered by accident. The other series is Copper, and it's well-written and keeps you involved.
Drop Dead Fred (1991)
Not really a kids' movie
Several reviewers talk about memories of this movie as children or watching it with children, but I don't believe it is a children's movie. Sexual relations are a big part of this movie (cheating husband later groping wife, Fred's references to, "doing it like pigeons," etc.) Two of the gags in the movie where Fred is looking up Marsha Mason's dress ("Cobwebs!") and Bridget Fonda's dress ("She's not wearing panties!") are definitely adult humor.
It does follow, as several reviewers suggest, British humor in the style of Benny Hill (sight gags, sexual innuendo, sound effects). I'd say the broad humor is in the same vein as Beetlejuice, with about the same level of comedic punch, certainly better than the 4.5 (below average) rating the film has on IMDb when I referenced this site.
It does have a very definite feel to it, like a lot of movies from the late 80s, early 90s, and this is probably because it was made in 1990. It has that indefinable feel in its music and pacing of other comedies of the period: Beetlejuice, Mom and Dad Save the World, Stay Tuned, Skin Deep. But that's not a condemnation, just an observation, and these other movies were successful although they do show a certain style.
It's actually nice to see Phoebe Cates as the protagonist and toned down a little with a pageboy haircut and sack dresses that understate her natural beauty and sexiness. It's a shame she isn't making many films now, because I think she could have aged gracefully on the screen with more mature roles that don't depend on her solely as a sexual kitten (See Desperate Housewives).