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jarmo-puskala
Reviews
Last Resort (2012)
Genius wrapped in mediocrity.
Last Resort could have been one for the ages. An epic drama of ordinary people far away from home unwillingly becoming the pawns in a global game for influence. All set in front of a backdrop of the United States government loosing it's moral imperative and Pax Americana coming to an end.
It could have been the show to capture the zeitgeist of the times, like X-Files and 24 before it. And it could have been an amazing drama.
It was so close, but it just wasn't quite good enough. To be fair, the fight was probably lost the moment it was picked up by ABC. This is a show that should have been on cable or online to become all it could have been.
As it is, it's a show worth watching, but I don't remember another show that would have made me so frustrated at the sheer genius wrapped in mediocrity.
Cowboys & Aliens (2011)
Where's the entertainment?
There's one thing and one thing only I demand from a film called "Cowboys & Aliens" and that's entertainment. Sadly, that's something this film offers very little of.
First we get a clichéd, poo-faced western that only pics up when we finally get to see cowboys fighting aliens. And at that point the attempts at drama go out the window with plot holes paved over with extra silliness.
In the end it's all a huge missed opportunity. As well made as Cwboys & Aliens is, it's just not entertaining enough to hold the title. The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. is still the king of sci-fi westerns.
2010 (1984)
Possibly the most underrated scifi film ever made.
How do you make a sequel to one of the biggest classics ever seen on the silver screen? It seems the best way is to make something very different, but utilize the world and ideas of the original.
2010 executes this strategy almost perfectly and is a scifi classic on it's own right. The sad thing is, it still won't be remembered as such, but as a sequel to a film that didn't need one.
Not to mention that poor 2010 has history conspiring against it as well. The large part the cold war plays in the film dates it way beyond it's years.
Yet, 2010 would more than earn it's place in the history of science fiction. It is still pretty much he only movie that captures the sense of wonder of realistic space exploration. And in many ways it is better interpretation of Arthur C. Clarkes novels than 2001 ever was.
Doctor Who: Blink (2007)
Doctor Who (and TV writing) at it's best.
"Blink" Is, simply put, excellent. Not only as a Doctor Who episode, but a great example in TV writing. Modern shows from The Sopranos to Battlestar Galactica shine in gritty realism, Doctor Who is unchallenged in pure imagination and creativity.
While a great show today, I can't imagine Galactica being watched over and over again twenty years from now, I believe this episode is enough to inspire (and traumatize) a generation of children. After all, if you look at history, it's not the everyday fears and challenges of Egyptian fishermen that are remembered thousands of years later, but their legends of gods and monsters. And Doctor Who is full of them.
I have to admit that I've been a fan of writer Steven Moffat since the "giggle loop" episode of his sitcom Coupling. What I felt set Moffat's writing apart from other sitcoms was his skill with structure. Sometimes using an entire episode to build up to the final punchline, yet keeping all of the show laugh out loud funny and entertaining. "Blink" was yet another great example in structure with Moffat and director Hettie MacDonald managing to keep the episode together, even though the time paradoxes we're definitely a "big ball of wibbly-wobbly... timey-wimey... stuff", to quote the Doctor.
But like "The Empty Child" and "The Girl in the Fireplace" in the previous series, this was also a feast of imagination, offering images that will get stuck in your head for time to come.