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True Detective: Night Country: Part 4 (2024)
Not sure why all the bad reviews
This season is hitting its Season 1 stride - the madness, the paranoia, the dark visuals. The Yellow King was the inspiration for the madness in S01 - why is everyone crapping on this for returning to its roots with a new spin.
I think it's been a great ride. The trails are complex and I for one am very glad this isn't yet again about pedo rings that go unsolved.
The only thing they should focus on a bit more is that dark madness afflicting everyone but by this episode it's hitting it's starting to fire on all cylinders. I think Foster is so talented and really carries this show. The thing with the "eye" it is of course an allegory and the wicked throat singing in prior episodes hoping this goes to satisfying conclusion.
Oppenheimer (2023)
This isn't a Masterpiece
Oppenheimer is a good biographical movie but it is not a masterpiece for the genre. Certainly not if you've seen Amadeus. That 1980s gem shone by encapsulting Mozart's life and bookending it with a masterful "villain" in as the jealous narrator.
Oppenheimer features such a talented cast with excellent performances but Nolan's tantrums with cinema/theater experience and storytelling is actually the weakest point here. Trying to create plot twists and curves that work in movies like Interstellar and Inception but not here.
When the movie was over we spent three hours looking at U. S. governments Cold War obsession with communism. And at its focal point Oppenheimer who helped build the bombs that ended WW2.
Who was Oppenheimer? Don't know they barely give you any insight. COld emotionless playboy who in fact does have some emotion on things.
The U. S. Government gave him a hard time.. how exactly? By making him go to a long meeting?
Strauss orchestrated things to make Oppenheimer the socialist red herring.. what was his motive?
What did his affairs really have to do with anything?
How did he die?
What was his lasting legacy? His kids? His wife? Did he ever visit Japan?
Truman was a sniveling litle weasel who talked about his trip to Japan and blew it off? Can we get some more of that as its pertains HEAVILY to Oppenheimer's legacy?
Nah. Lots of effects of atoms spliting I guess mean to indicate Oppenheimer was a genius at creating superb bass audio effects and spinning lines in his mind but as to what his contributions where to the Manhattan project... he talked to people and banged someone. That's what I got in 3 hours.
It will be the best U. S. picture in 2023 for the sheer fact that there is NOTHING else. But Masterpiece? Nope.
Cowboy Bebop (2021)
What if there was no anime
People would be pooping themselves. 10/10 so stylish. 15/10 amazing concepts. Half the problem is the brats and wannabe anime fans voting this show down because it's not animated instead of measuring the show by it's merits.
Don't even give me the "wanted to love this but 2/10". I LOVE Bebop. I've bought physical copies 4 times. Seen the series 10 times. What is the original anime missing? Can there be more Spike and Jet and Faye and Ein?
I don't want the exact anime AGAIN. That already exists. Live action would be a new medium. What can you give me? Off the bat Netflix flexes Dolby Vision and Atmos and spares no expense on the CGI and FX. Which is excellent since hand drawn animes usually don't give you that. The casting choices are excellent. Keeping the spirit of the characters alive.
Are the episodes identical? No. And thank you for that. I do not need to see frame by frame remakes of animes. Not do I need Ang Lee Uber arthouse filming.
I need fun.
I need action.
I need goddamn jazz.
This series delivers all three and it looks GREAT. I do not get the haters other than they are blindly and stubbornly sticking to the SAME cartoon format for our beloved show and shunning anything else. A very narrow view. As I will eat up any and all Cowboy Bebop you can give me.
On its own it's a FUN series. Enjoyable. Are there flaws? Yes. Viscious? Omgah horrendous choice. The worst and most glaring choice of all. Still. Cho and everyone else brings flair and love to the show and I can feel it. Have you noticed the people who have never seen the anime keep giving the show high marks? Even pro critics who never seen CB the anime? Because it's a fun show.
I have no interest in idolizing the original and putting it on an untouchable shrine. What for? I love it. I still do. It's been out 20+ years let's do something else.
Bottom line I love this and I hope they do Samurai Champloo too. Which is IMHO even better than CB.
Foundation: The Emperor's Peace (2021)
This is good scifi
There's no reason Foundation has to be pure Asimov. Especially considering the era of writing it came from and how disproportionate it is to today's encompassing society. I mean even the cloned Empire thing rings super cheese but some of Asimov's ideas are there so I'm able to move on.
What I asked myself going in was, is this good sci fi TV? You can't directly compare written mediums with visual. They inherently must differ.
Apple has hit this out of the park. As with all their productions it's in glorious Dolby Vision 4K and Dolby Atmos. Just beautiful shots. Beautiful effects. Let's face it - one of the premier things you'd expect from a sweeping space epic is amazing interstellar visuals. It's what the 4K medium was made for. Foundation's effects surpass that of my current favorite sci fi The Expanse by leaps and bounds.
Where there is a little weakness is in the story and some of the surrounding actors. Gaal and Hari have been superbly cast. Seriously the people crying "woke" nonsense need to sit down on this one. It's great casting. They bring great zeal to the series. Lee Pace as Brother Day is another decent cast and he's doing good in his role. Everyone else however is dry, and delivers their lines with a cheese factor almost to Farscape's levels.
I have hope this series keeps on bringing this fantastic and high production value each and every episode as the story is meant to continue down a dark path.
The Green Knight (2021)
How Not to do Terrence Malik
Let's get some thing out there right... the let's take an old story but make it "edgy" and "gritty" because we're modern now is yesterday's lens flare.
The Green Knight is one long lens flare intermixed with Malik style long shots. With none of the poignancy that should go along with it.
I was really looking forward to In-depth examination of the Arthurian Legend of Sir Gawain. A brave knight of the round who's only flaw perhaps was that he wasn't honest a full one hundred percent of the time. That's the legend.
The movie however Gawain is a sniveling coward. Dishonest at every turn. A drunkard. Who's favorite hobby is to lose his weapon and stare into the void for hours on end.
Is this what they teach is movie making now? Don't examine a legend... urinate all over it, that makes it 2021-style, because every legend can be retold 2021-style with vintage style clothes.
Using that idea as a model. I have a movie for Lowry. It's based on Little Red Riding Hood. Only the girl doesn't have a basket full of goodies for grandma. She has S&M and bondage toys in her basket. She dreams of running her own human trafficking ring. But she just doesn't have the courage. One day she meets a wolf. Who's really a Russian pizza delivery guy who moonlights as an actual human trafficker. Oh he's also a rapist so the basket full of goodies is very useful.
As true camera pans out for the credits. You see red riding hood. She tells her grandmother played by a purple Eskimo that she was violated. But also that her breasts are full of pollution. Then she explodes. We pan back to see a three hour long shot of an igloo. The Russian guy delivers a pizza.
Gritty and 2021 enough for you? Cuz let me tell you mayonnaise with green girdle preceding 90 minutes of forest shots was such a waste of film, time, and life. I hope everyone involved with this film take a long break and really re-examine where their careers have gone. It is a sign Lowry should never direct again and no one should ever listen to Ebert ever again. A man who is clearly duped by every Emperor's New Clothes nonsense filmed nowadays.
This movie gets 2 stars for having a good score. Another star for filming Patel staring at things.
The Suicide Squad (2021)
DC finally scores a win
Now look I rated this movie a 9 not because its Casablanca, The Third Man, or A Very Long Engagement... it's super for the genre it belongs in. As far as superhero movies go this IS it.
James Gunn was tossed aside by Disney and WB snatched him up in a blink. Geniuses and opportunistic and I applaud them for it. This is right up his alley. His style, the comic material are a match made in heaven.
I laughed. I laughed. I actually wiped tears from my eyes. Then I laughed more. There isn't a minute... a single minute of this movie I was NOT ENTERTAINED. That's what a comic movie is supposed to be right? Suspend reality. Commit to nothing. Let your baser instincts roam free for a moment. In this, The Suicide Squad EXCELS.
I love the soundtrack, the style, the colors, the one liners, the absurdity of this movie that knows its being beyond absurd. The short lifespan of 90% of all characters. It's perfect. This actually tops Deadpool 1/2 by a mile. It is also twenty leagues ahead of anything DC has done so far.
The Tomorrow War (2021)
Critics can't take it ... but they'll change their tune later
Reminds me of ID4. So much critic hate and hate on Roland Emmerlich. But everyone loved ID4 it was fun af. So is this movie. A little better in some ways. The sound and visual fx are superb. Pratt and cast do a good job of providing enough emotional range to carry the message and urgency needed. Is this a Thespian masterpiece. Hell no. It's the definition of summer blockbuster. It's transformers. It's ID4. It's Bad Boys. Enjoy it. When it becomes popular the same critics that trashed it today will be all like the "classic and beloved The tomorrow war" ...
The Year Earth Changed (2021)
I was misty eyed within minutes
The scale our human encroachment and destruction of our own beautiful world is soul crushing. This documentary puts a glorious 4K UHD beam of white light on our disgusting mistakes. We need to change. All of us. Been needing to change for a few centuries now.
The Invisible Man (2020)
Straight trash
Do you like a cardboard villain with no motive other than he is just a "man" who is mean and wants to control a woman?
A friend who is a detective but can't figure out a damn thing on his own?
Deus Ex machinas you can see a mile away?
Leaps in irrational character behavior?
Sewer hole sized plot holes?
Well. If that's the case this is your movie. I had a hard time feeling "thrilled" or scared or worried or caring about anything in this movie. Which is a shame as I love Moss and her abilities. This movie's insipid dialogue and elementary plot kills itself. Look the movie is about a crazy guy who is also a young rich genius and everything else is absolute tunnel vision to shoehorn and keep this silly story on track. Watch Unsane instead.
Locke & Key (2020)
Not sure where Netflix's head is at?
I know Netflix knows a good show series, they have Ozark, Mindhunters, and Stranger Things.
But...then they have Locke and Key. Like Umbrella Academy this is another graphic novel turned series (I haven't read the original source material). The premise seems very interesting. a traumatized family seeks refuge in a strange family estate filled with keys that open portals to all sorts of strange powers and abilities.
And Carlton Cuse is attached to this.. sounds like a real winner. And at times something interesting floats on by between horrendous pop/indie snippets which seem to be the producers vision of what really holds a show together (hint: it doesn't)
Let's look at the problems with this series:
Acting. Off the wall horrendous except for Dodge. She's ok.
Adults: the adults in this show are cotton brained automatons that struggle to work the intricacies of shoelaces, zippers, and chewing gum while breathing. They are morons that forget what they see because as the youngest character nonchalantly says "that's the way these things work". Adults are out of the picture - no real explanation it just is. Ok audience suspend your disbelief big time ... and try to move oh wait. That's not quite right because Ellie and Cho and their father DO remember the keys and their powers hmm pretty gigantic stupid loophole here guys.
Bode - squeaky voice momo that even when he knows what to do doesn't do it.
The older siblings - useless morons that are as interactive as a poster. These two will see something incredible, like a doorway to a prison dimension. And two seconds later after an indie song OHMAHGAWD it's Disney+ style teen pseudo drama. The teacher. The girl does she like me? They pitter patter on like this all the time. Sorry. But if my father died I would be a mess. If my father died and all he left was clues regarding doorways and keys with powers I would be involved in NOTHING ELSE. If I my father died and left clues and there was a crazed spirit monster and sociopath killing my family, well suffice it say I wouldn't be worried about the school fund raiser or if getting the attention of the local school film club.
Dodge and Lucas - the moment Lucas shows up. Dodge becomes stupid. Which is consistent for this show. Considering all the time they spent on the bad teen emo drama why didn't Tyler have a "moment" the second he realized he had with his fathers best friend in a doppelgänger suit? I digress. I have a problem with ultra powerful characters pinned down by absolutely stupid rules "you have to willingly give the key" to her. What? Explain things at least! Build a structure! Control the narrative. Something!
This is embarrassing and part of a slew of a Netflix shows that are just bad or really weak. Lost in Space is Disney Channel enough Locke and Key seems stuck between one of its own portals. On one hand it wants to be Harry Potter, on the other it wants to be New England Glee, but it ultimately trips on its own stupidity and poorly laid out narrative and then burnt alive by really bad acting and horrendously stupid lines. You'll cringe so much but I'm here at episode 9 and I'm still cringing. I want to know what the stupid keys will lead too but this drivel is starting to become too painful to slog through.
I know Netflix knows a good show, and they watched this before putting it on their service. Therefore I can only conclude they enjoy serving this garbage to subscribers. They think it's what we want. No. We want the good stuff. Not Mickey Mouse teen time.
Incredibles 2 (2018)
It's possible Russians have raided IMDB
Just a small commentary on the hilarity that is IMDb these days. There is an outcry of anti-Disney sentiment and a lot of garbage reviews.
"It's the Incredibles again!!" "It's the same plot!" "Disney just did the same thing again!"
It's the Incredibles. A super hero movie by Disney and Pixar. It is also a sequel. What did the Russian bots expect? Super Bambi?
Bird said he didn't want to do Incredibles 2 unless there was a good script behind it. Was the script out of this world ludicrously good? Not necessarily.
Incredibles 2 retains the same jazzy 60s style of comic book presentation that caught my eye 14 years ago. Taking off from the ending of the original the super family once again finds itself out of sorts.
In a great action sequence it becomes clear that being super doesn't solve all your problems, worse still having powers can inflict tons of financial and monetary damage.
While the stage is set to present once again super power people as a threat and they need to go into hiding the film suddenly takes a slight deviation. Perception. Marketing. Selling.
Interestingly it becomes the subtext to the entire film. Peoples perceptions on a large scale, and small scale alter the truth.
While some rile on radical feminism ruining movies, I loved the constant play between father, daughter, babysitter, hero, mother, and son that went on. Which role is more important? Who is suited for what role? Why a women here? Oh wait can't be stereotypical there.. but nevermind they are stereotypical and it works!
Regardless the plot is simple, the screenplay is what you'd expect for an Incredibles sequel and that's not bad. Because I went in for good animation and plenty of good moments and Incredibles 2 served that up in spades.
First of all. The animation and surround sound work. Wow. Just wow. Top notch.
As for moments there were plenty of laughs and some quick unexpected tender moments. Along with memorable action sequences and some dull whatever ones (no movie is perfect).
Incredibles 2 accomplishes what it should have accomplished elevate the successes of its original, while maintaining true to its theme, style, and characters. And it was a success in my eyes.