Change Your Image
macmcleod
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Columbo: Double Shock (1973)
Soap opera easter eggs
Fun Easter egg... the "soap opera" stars appearing on the poor battered TV in this episode were all co stars of Martin Landau on the science fiction show Space:1999 which was being broadcast at the same time.
The show is solid and has a unique feel. For one thing, Columbo talks to four different characters as possible suspects. As a result, it feels a bit more like an traditional detective story.
Another fun fact... the mystery food being made is hollandaise sauce. This scene I found very engaging. Falk really plays the star struck detective, almost unable to speak when he is suddenly on live TV.
The explaination for how the murder occurred isn't apparent until the end. I think the show generally had a fun feeling and may have been a bit indulgent as they knew they had a hit by then.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Random, dystopic, deconstructionist film ends my intererest in spending money on star wars
This review contains Spoilers
I'm a minor fan. Seen the movies, read a half dozen books, never played the video games.
There are several types of flaws.
First, it doesn't follow from any prior film. After a series of victories in every prior movie suddenly the republic is down to 3 ships and a few hundred people. If they keep winning at this rate, there will be nothing left.
Second, there are screamingly huge plot holes. The republic can't escape but can send characters off to different planets. Uh-- why didn't they send some people with them?
Early in the film, Poe ignores Admiral Leia's orders. Okay- I can buy that. But why does every other ship with him also mutiny and ignore Admiral Leia's orders?
And how did every ship with him just suddenly appear next to the big ship? Were they cloaked? Well, why weren't the First Order forces using their cloak ship scanning while they are in battle?
The bombers are modeled on B-52's but are apparently made of tissue paper to fix the fact that they appeared out of nowhere right next to the ship.
This kind of huge plot hole continues throughout the film.
Third, Artwork has structure. Star Wars is a trilogy of trilogies.
S1-3 is about Anakin's story.
S4-6 is about Anakin's children's story (Luke nad Leia)
S7-9 is about.. some random person picked by the force. What!?!?!?
Okay, so Rey is a "mary sue"- she's good at everything without training. But there were hints that her parentage would reveal why that should happen. For example....
S7-9 about Luke and Leia's Children (Kylo... and Rey). Now we have a young Rey getting to fly the millenium falcon as a child with blocks on her feet (which is why she's so god at it) and her father Luke trained her (which explains why she is so good at using the force) and then when things went sideways with Kylo- little Rey got whisked away and fell into hard times on a random desert planet. Luke is heartbroken of the loss of his family and the corruption of his nephew.
But they don't do that. So it's essentially a hail mary random person. Which means Rey has no agency. She isn't in control of her destiny. She's Jonah. She's good because the force made her good. Why hasn't the force done that before? Because reasons.
---
Okay so getting to the actual movie.
This movie needs a good editor. First- everything about Finn and Rose should be cut. It's pointless, doesn't advance the plot. It takes time from the rest of the movie and/or just pins you helpless in your seet for an extra 30 minutes for no reason.
Johnson decided to make this movie about failure. Which means *anything* you do, choose, or try to do-- is wrong. It's like an outer limits episode. Literally everything the protagonists (I won't call them heroes) is wrong, will fail, will fail in the worst way possible, and be a pointless waste of time.
Structurally, a trilogy goes like this.
Introduce
Falling action to lowest point followed by redemption.
Rising action to conclusion.
This trilogy of movies goes like this.
Introduce- end on a down note going into the middle trilogy.
Episode 5 is the lowest point and Return has the redemption.
And now none of that matters- everyone is wiped out. There are *literally* a dozen republic people left. That's a gang- not a rebellion.
There is no credible way they can end this movie in episode 9. It will be along the way of tossing a god out of a box to solve all the problems.
This is an awful terrible movie. They need to erase it from canon like they did over 300 star wars books that were probably all better than this waste of film.
Kansas City Confidential (1952)
Strong direction and actors, well written
The performance of the actors in this movie is very strong- comparable to modern standards with subtle moments of shifting emotions well displayed on their faces, a complex plot with characters who have more depth than they get in many films like this. All have their own motivations and none are simple stereotypes.
The action is also creative and surprising with some actions taken which I've never seen in a movie before.
I suspect that the director has something to do with the uniformity of the excellent performances by the cast. In the case of Jack Elam, his work here was extremely strong and he wasn't alone.
Production values are nothing spectacular but don't distract.
I'm going to look for other works by this director. I think this is a gem among movies in this period and budget range.