justinmo-1 Reviews

Ängelby (2015)

Very much like a Swedish "Haven"

[6/10 · 25 January 2019]

Like Haven it's a new girl in a country town apparently by chance but occultly predestined to be there and supernatural forces are thought to be at work. There's less of the concretely reified majic than Haven shows and less episodic storylines but it would seem to be derivative, not helped by the fact that Mia Skaringer looks like an older Emily Rose. But it's watchable and entertaining if you can binge-watch it. It's probably more for "Nordic Noir" fans than those of standard mystery series.

Dead Lucky (2018)

Competently executed detective thriller that seems to generate polarized reactions

[7/10 · 8 August 2018]

It's weird that all the other reviews so fare are either 10s or 0-3 and the comments either damning or lauding, it just seems to be a normal detective thriller to me. Maybe it's the cross-cultural Chinese foreign student element that creates the huge reaction but since SBS specializes in multicultural progamming you'd think viewers would expect that. A normal well plotted twist-and-turn detective thriller for mine.

Defiance (2013–2015)

A Western

[2/10 · 17 February 2014]

Another mediocre Western spoiling SFs name by pretending to be it. During the depression studios still made obsolete swashbucklers because they only had the sets and costumes for them, they had a poverty of material means. These retro Westerns can't claim that excuse. They're as rich as anything now; but it has made them all backward. What they suffer now is a poverty of soul and mind, destitution of spirit and imagination, absence of intellect. We continue to hope for the day Hollywood actually films some SF not just lousy mafia and Westerns. I wish they'd go back to some good writers and actually film decent SF not reduce SF to retard Westerns. If you like Westerns Defiance might be OK. I don't, it's rubbish.

Paul (2011)

Pegg and Frost minus Brit-Com synergy, Just OK

[4/10 · 21 October 2011]

Paul is a comedown from Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, it's not as good at all despite what promoters say. But as those two were excellent movies this one is still watchable and funny, just less so. As an opinion I think this is because Pegg and Frost work best in context of their background in British comedy and a lot of the quality of the earlier movies arose from working with a lot of other less known British comedians in a synergy; while this one, sans-milieu, shows up the gaps in their laid back presentation and makes humour a bit thin on the ground and they seem a bit vapid. The sublimated social commentary which energizes their humour works best at deeper levels of involvement than those they have for America. Paul shouting "horseshit" at a creationist doesn't have any of the resonance of the "hoodies" theme in Hot Fuzz. The Americans and the X-Files themes are good in their own right but the CGI special effects with Paul aren't as interesting or funny as all the other personalities and senses of humour they could have accessed in the UK. I think I'll still be snapping up anything they make in Britain but if they keep going in the USA I'll leave it till it's remaindered to look at it.

Wrong World (1985)

Nhillistic film! Gives expression to socio-political & cultural disaffiliation and shows how the criminal/drug subculture closes in to hoover up the otherwise free dropout.

[7/10 · 11 July 2006]

This is an Australian Road Movie. There is a town on the Victorian/South Australian border called Nhill, along with names like Mount Disappointment, Nhill gives one an an idea of how the Europeans greeted the semi-arid expanses of Australia. This film starts in 80's South America, in famines and poverty and a NGO doctor giving up on the whole idea of making any impact on the problems and dropping out into injectable drug use and seclusion. Returning to Australia and Melbourne drug culture, supported by handouts from rich friends, he starts a journey that turns out to be an ironic existential voyage, to return a hooker-like drug addicted girl he meets to her home in Nhill, and they pursue their headlong flight to Nhill with a relentless, heady and loving nihilism that is a delight. Road to nowhere? Exactly!

Crusade (1999)

Wow, Earth destroyed because media moguls cut funding for salvation mission; almost a parable of our time!

[6/10 · 11 July 2006]

I saw this series belatedly; it's fairly good, not exceptional, sci-fi fare. Some of it's philosophic moments are more profound than usual and the intellectual level of the discussion shows that the writers actually used classical allusion; or looked up the references anyway. Apart from that the characters are engaging and the plot's the usual ever-present danger but no-one important ever gets killed stuff. The problem is that the series is unfinished, apparently pulled before being resolved; this is a problem because the essential issue was that if they couldn't find a cure within five years then the population of the Earth would die of an alien plague. The discursive way the story writers approached the central theme indicates they expected to ride this horse for about 5 years themselves. But it stopped after one partial season, 13 episodes. Which means that the Earth actually died somewhere around 2004, and no-one noticed! I always knew media barons were bad guys; but killing off the Earth on a marketing decision is too much! This habit has become almost typical of American television's approach to SF ever since, everything good gets a short run and pulled, The Chronicle and Firefly stand out as other examples. They could have made one more episode of Crusade to solve the plague and wrap it all up at least... Boo, hiss!

Descent (2005 TV Movie)

clichéd; but watchable

[4/10 · 16 May 2006]

For sci-fans this will be better than anything likely to be running on TV at any given time; that's about the best you can say of it. Good points; repartee and sense of humour is less dull than usual in such movies, the plot is coherent and doesn't use any magical mystical revelations. Bad points; the writers try to do good science but it falls down in direction and production (eg, a rock drilling mole using superheated rock drilling equipment breaks surface underwater with nary a bubble or boiling cauldron to be seen), the characters are cliché's and the plot unfolding is pretty stock standard. OK for a too-tired-to-do-anything-else type evening; but don't expect any major edification or even talking points really.

Deep Shock (2003 TV Movie)

begins dreadful; radically improves

[6/10 · 10 May 2006]

This movie surprised me, after coming close to forward speeding it by 8 times after 45 minutes of lousy acting, ill conceived SF premise and virtual GI-Joe intellectual and philosophic discussion; it gradually and weirdly takes on a life of its own and ends as half a very interesting and credit worthy SF adventure and exploration. The female lead for a while stops just looking like Katherine Hepburn but starts acting like her as well, and though it isn't much and the animation is borderline shlock-horror comic the whole cooked up alien contact eco-catasrophe, deep sea adventure mish mash works a bit in the end. Surprisingly enjoyable!

Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 (1976)

One of the few genuinely politically conscious treatments of society present in the film medium

[10/10 · 3 September 2005]

How was this film ever made? It presents many aspects of the left wing of politics genuinely, as they see themselves; not as reinterpreted through a capitalist middle-class filter or stereotype. Film has been such a capital intensive medium that it seems none ever get made without the approval of some millionaire or corporate backer, and that all structure themselves, and the worldviews they express, to win this approval; consequently people on the left get used to caricature or demonization as their only screen presence. Not so in "Jonas...". In a way the characters are archetypes, representing: sexual freedom, generosity and social consideration, intellectual expansiveness instead of reductionism, atheism, naturalistic identification, communality in spirit, stoicism etc; but I find identification with the characters easy. But it is not Utopian; the consequences for generosity of spirit in a greedy context are dramatized in the story of imprisonment and persecution. As with all good politics, the underlying message is not a mere power squabble; but a reflection on cosmic order, what the right tends to call "spiritual" concerns. The inflowing of people into the energy of the birth of Jonas and the disintegration of that unity after the event has transpired makes "Jonas..." a profoundly philosophic and satisfying story. After 30 years this is still one of my favourite movies.

Come and See (1985)

Unforgettable snapshot of fascist war atrocities

[9/10 · 17 August 2005]

Set in Nazi occupied Belorussia during WW2 "Come and See" tells the story of one boy who joins the Soviet partisans, of his mother's despairing appeals for him not to, of his whole family's death in the Nazi reprisals on his village and his struggle with hate, guilt and the extremities of mental stress in its wake. In an amazing, almost surreal, piece of cinema technique the effect of being deafened and shocked by an artillery barrage is portrayed in the soundtrack, muffled and indistinct noises emerging from moving mouths. Apart from this personal story this piece of late Soviet film-making attempts to capture a "typical" atrocity of those times in the fate of another village, and largely succeeds. It ranges from the black comedy which the Soviets found in the behavior of their oppressors, a German motorcycle rides through the village with a corpse with a sign on it warning of the fate of partisans; but no-one sees it because it's raining and everyone's indoors; through exacting military historical detail - a Focke Wulf "Owl" reconnaissance plane slowly tracking through the sky is the recurrent motif signifying German presence - down to collaboration and partisan atrocities in turn. It makes it's devastating comment in the final credits when it names how many hundred Belorussian villages suffered the same fate. A magnificent piece of realistic film-making about a repellent and compelling subject.

Enemy at the Gates (2001)

A fair beginning; Hopefully the first of many films of the Russian front.

[7/10 · 30 April 2005]

The story of a duel between a Russian peasant enlisted man sniper and a Prussian aristocratic Nazi officer sniper during the WW2 battle of Stalingrad. Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev, the Russian sniper, was very real; but some doubt has been cast over the historical truth of the personal duel. Because it is a member of a much too rare breed; movies about the most momentous land battle in history, the Russian front, this movie falls short on many levels, it tries to give some sense of the scale of events, and early on it succeeds; but it retreats before the sheer immensity of its historical context into a personal story; and in the end it's almost as if the war has stopped so these two can shoot at each other. Other than that it weaves historical content into a human story, the nature of totalitarian regimes and the indifference to human life that the Red Army displayed early on, the Party involvement in morale making, the front line role of women etc; it was enormously refreshing to see a story told from the Soviet side; almost all prior movies on the subject were Nazi-sided (See Peckinpah's - Cross of Iron). It also contains excellent action shots; making the humble bullet a mighty dangerous object again, as it should be. Though it falls down in not being able to devote enough money to huge battle scenes (almost every German vehicle sighted is stationary); and so cheats on a real sense of the battle, it's good for what it is. Those who like historical war films can only hope that the true balance of land fighting of WW2, ie: the Russians with some help from the Western allies toward the end; starts to be reflected in cinema; at least Enemy At The Gates has given a start.

Vanilla Sky (2001)

Excellent movie, makes a brilliant innovation of a worn cliché

[7/10 · 26 November 2004]

I realized how highly I thought of this movie only on the second viewing when I couldn't remember how it ended. It is coherent without being transparent, a great achievement in movie storytelling. I remembered several endings as the movie unfolded; all of which were true and none of which were the conclusive one. It takes many twists and turns, all enthralling and ends with the worst twist in movies, "It was all a dream.!" but that's not the end of it either. I thought of a joke that I must share.

Variety may be the spice of life but Vanilla Sky is the splice of life. You have to watch it really to get that. A great movie I reckon.

Power Play (2003)

excellent plot, schlock execution

[5/10 · 10 November 2004]

The contexturalization and plot of this movie are nuanced, non-clichéd and real worldly ambivalent. It weaves sci-fi, ecology, spy and corporate drama into a plausible mesh; in direct contrast to the implementation which is car chases, reflexive gunfights and a "just a scratch" hero. For a change the unbelievability isn't in the whole worldview but only in the the personal charm and invulnerability of the hero. In a novel twist; as bullets fly and bodies hit the pavement our hero never carries a gun, only a camera that keeps getting broken, and doesn't kill anyone; though handy with his fists. A realistic approach would have made it very heavy weather. As it is, it's good fun and better politics than usual.

Thoughtcrimes (2003 TV Movie)

Good

[6/10 · 13 August 2004]

Rented it on the title thinking it would be either a rip-off of Minority Report or something Orwellian. Was neither, but could be a distant prequel to Minority Report. But in its own right it's Psi-Fi of a high order (even down to a guest appearance from Joanne Vannicola from TV's "Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal"). Good stylized secret intelligence world around a plausible rendering of telepathy. The main actor did a good job with the bewilderment of the naive telepath and the guided recovery to functionality. The ending was too smug and triumphal for my liking and spoilt (a little) an otherwise fairly thoughtful thriller. I only recognized one actor but all played their parts well, the suspension of disbelief wasn't really broken at all. Recommended to anyone who likes a good story well told.