MacProTX Reviews

9-1-1 (2018– )

Well written, well acted.

[9/10 · 19 April 2022]

I don't understand the haters of this show. Is it realistic? No, not really. Is it entertaining? I'd say it's one of the two or three best scripted dramas (a dying breed of show, alas) presently airing. The acting quality may vary a bit, but Angela Basset is brilliant, and Peter Krause is not far behind her. The actors playing Hen and Chim are terrific. If the rest of the cast doesn't always reach their level, none of them are terrible.

The stories themselves may not be terribly realistic, but the writing is good regardless, and is frequently quite moving. Well worth your while.

Face/Off (1997)

Imperfect, Yet Fun, and Great SciFi and Actioner

[9/10 · 6 July 2021]

I can't give this movie a 10, as so many here have, because it's not a perfect film (though it is perfectly enjoyable). But it's far from a 1, as many others have rated it. (If you want to see what rates a 1, try 2 hours of Battlefield Earth.)

All science fiction requires us to 'willingly suspend disbelief' for at least one thing we know to be untrue. Star Trek cannot exist if we insist that spaceships cannot move faster than the speed of light. (Warp 9, Scotty!) This movie asks us to accept not only that face transplants are possible, but that that alone is sufficient to assume another's identity. Complete brain transplants might make this story more plausible.

So the viewer must grant that absurdity for the movie to work at all, but once you do, what a ride it is! Cage and Travolta not only draw distinctive portraits of their respective characters, but it mid~film, trade them with one another. I thought their ability to do that was magnificent when I first saw the move twenty plus years ago, and it's no less impressive now. If you watch what they do, and how they do it, one can only shake one's head in admiration.

Now add John Woo action sequences, sense of pacing, and first-rate actors in the non-lead roles, and you're looking at a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours.

I'd give routine action movies, e.g. The Transporter (or about 50 others that come to mind) a 6 or less often a 7. This movie may not be perfect, but it's head and shoulders ahead of so many routine and even good movies in the genre, hence my rating of 9. Movies in this genre I'd rank ahead of this are few and far between. (Leon, the Professional, comes to mind.)

Relax, put your logic on hold, and the actors and action will give you a great time; they certainly gave me one.

All Rise (2019–2023)

Don't be afraid to ride the Lola-coaster!

[9/10 · 11 May 2021]

Ignore the haters and bad reviews (what are they thinking? Or expecting?). This has proven to be a very good scripted show, of which we have too few on network television these days.

I'm a 64 year-old white ex-lawyer who dislikes most lawyer shows (and movies) as unrealistic. I think what I like most about this show is watching the Judge when she is wrestling to figure out what is the right thing to do, the right way to act. Almost always I agree with her resolution (including joining a BLM protest).

Across the board, the acting is excellent, with the leads being exceptionally complex and interesting characters. Some of the very poor user reviews suggest this show is all about knee-jerk liberals. Lola is an ex-prosecutor, and her sympathies often lean that way. But it's her struggle with how to be fair, in a new role, which is interesting to me.

I think teleplays all flow from the written word, and none of these can quite reach the soaring rhetoric of my hero, Aaron Sorkin, whose four television series and who knows how many movies generally hold me captive.

But the reviews trashing the writing on this show actually made me angry. If the rhetoric can't quite soar with Sorkin, neither does it sink into the muck. It seems to me that it makes it up with heart, which it manages to express not through just the lead character, but through every character, and far too often to be an accident.

No, I haven't been knocked out of my socks by every episode, but many have made me cry with emotion. (It's stupid, but while as a white male I'll never likely share it, I absolutely understand how Lola can so value her Uhuru toy as her most valuable possession, that it moves me to see that portrayed.)

Throw in Peter MacNicol, and you've got me as a fan for a few years.

Haters, Shut up. Newcomers come in. Leave your thoughts after a few.

The Law (1974 TV Movie)

Outstanding but then-unknown cast...

[10/10 · 6 July 2018]

John Hillerman, a long while yet from being recognized as Magnum PI's Higgins, co-stars in this made-for-TV drama as an over-zealous and under-insightful prosecutor. But it was Judd Hirsch's public defender Murray Stone that made this such a compelling drama to watch. Hirsch is a terrific actor, and I have enjoyed him in so many roles over the years, but I can't think of a one that truly surpasses this early portrayal. Murray Stone was humorous yet full of passion, determined to get off the only truly innocent client he'd ever represented.

This low budget effort was beautifully filmed and presented, and far surpasses any other courtroom drama in my memory. If you can find it anywhere to watch, you'll not be disappointed. (The super lawyer who almost steals Murray's client away is a thinly-veiled representation of F. Lee Bailey, by the way. Audiences of today are unlikely to recognize that, but it was a spot-on characterization at the time.)

Airspeed (1999)

Horrendous!

[1/10 · 5 November 2011]

The spoiler in this review (and in the movie), is that the little girl lands a 727 and saves herself and the day.

This may not be the worst movie I have ever seen, but with confidence, it is in my bottom three. Understand that I love this genre beyond all reason, and never fail to root for the hero/heroine of the Our Pilots Are Dead or Disabled, Can Any of You Passengers Land This Plane movies. And goodness knows, I've watched some stinkeroos.

But my goodness, never before have I rooted against the happy ending so aggressively! Please, please let her be sucked out the hole in the fuselage! Or have her neck broken by flying debris! Or let her simply die of hypoxia, since she's too stupid to make a connection between the oxygen bottle she's playing with and consciousness at 35,0000 feet!! When nonesuch come to pass, then I will settle for the smoldering wreckage of the devastating fireball in which the movie (and all aboard the doomed flight) should have ended.

I won't even discuss the realities of aviation, (nor insist on compliance with basic laws of physics), but who can possibly find drama in this dreck? Never mind Capt. Sully's extraordinary competence (encapsulated completely in the word "unable"), let's celebrate the true heroics of civilian aviation. If a writer cannot find drama in the single finest piece of emergency civilian flying ever (with full credit to Captain Haynes and F.O. Records), then this crap is all we'll ever be left with. (Haven't seen "Crash Landing: The Rescue of Flight 232," but I'll be looking.) They saved 185 lives which should have been lost; this movie saves one thirteen-year-old who's personality would have been improved by an early demise.

If you like the genre, and want civilians saving the day, seek out "Terror in the Sky," and leave this one to the sub-teenagers for whom it may have been written, but who are also much smarter than the writers.

Oh, great Joe Mantegna of Things Change and Searching for Bobby Fischer, how could you have led me here?