Change Your Image
vercinger
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Lists
An error has ocurred. Please try againReviews
Into the Woods (2014)
Two pieces that don't fit together
8/10 until a certain event where you think the movie's ending but instead it goes in a completely different direction and people start dying in stupid ways. It just doesn't fit with the rest of the movie, which is pretty humorous and fairly light-hearted, and excellent because of it. The sudden tone shift ruins it completely. Better to just machete the final part of the film and jump to the credits.
Mind you, I get that this is consistent with the source material, but the tone of the first part is just the wrong set-up for the dark second part. It's like 2 different movies spliced together for no reason.
American Dad!: Live and Let Fry (2009)
Irresponsibly misleading approach to the topic
While the basic idea of the episode - Stan goes from "all laws must be followed" to "stupid laws should be ignored" immediately upon something he likes getting banned - is good, the show really screws up in its portrayal of trans fats. Over and over again it's drilled into the viewer that trans fats make food taste good and that it will taste terrible without them. This is total nonsense, as food made with other types of fat tastes no different. Trans fats are used because they slightly reduce cost and somewhat increase shelf life, not for their taste. And given how ridiculously unhealthy they are, it's irresponsible for the show to portray them as something people would want in their food. Especially given that other types of fat (even saturated fats, despite their now-discredited bad reputation) are among the most healthy sources of calories. And you just know there are people out there who will get their opinion on trans fats from this episode, and many more who will have their opinion shifted at least a bit in the wrong direction. Cue reduction in pressure on manufacturers to phase out trans fats, leading to tens of thousands of unnecessary early deaths from heart disease.
Web of Lies: Divorced and in Danger (2016)
Very weak
Quite a poor episode. Most of it is spent talking ominously about the "dark obsession" of BDSM when that ends up having nothing to do with the crime.
Hell, there's actually nothing here that warrants inclusion in this show. It's all forced. The victim's online dating ends up as nothing more than a false lead and an unsuccessful "someone else did it" defense when the son is caught.
It feels like the only purpose of the episode is to have the victim's sisters talk about how shocked they were that she was talking about BDSM with someone. How unbelievable it was that their sweet average Kansas sister was actually having "naughty" chats with a hot guy.
And the investigators keep droning on about the dangers of online stalkers. Mind you, the BDSM online boyfriend probably did have a fake profile, as the police discovered the photos of his plane and house weren't genuine. But even though they never proved he had any nefarious intentions, they were fixated on the assumption that he was some kind of predator.
Also, I'm ticked off by how the narration assumes that the girl wasn't interested in BDSM in the slightest and was just pretending so as not to offend the hottie she was chatting with. She died without sharing her true feelings on the matter and all they have to go on are the chat logs. And from what we see of the logs, she appears hesitant, not disinterested. But the narration goes out of its way to point out how she was supposedly hoping that if they met in person, the guy would "let go of his dark sexual obsession", and they "would become the couple she wants them to be". Quite presumptuous on the part of the writers.
The Iron Lady (2011)
Fails miserably both as a biography and as a historical documentary
This... thing (I don't really know what to classify it as) had two possible subjects to explore - the character of Margaret Thatcher, and the background, specifics and impact of her policies as Prime Minister. The latter being, by far, a more important topic.
Instead, what we get is a boring drama about an aging person's descent into dementia. Seriously. That's the focus. Of all the things the filmmakers could have done, they decided to film an actress pretending to hallucinate for what felt like most of the film. Margaret Thatcher's actual life and career, pre-dementia, are presented via mostly superficial flashbacks.
The lack of depth here is really staggering. It is never explained WHY she made the decisions she did, WHY she held such brutal libertarian beliefs, WHY she hated unions and working class people, WHY she wanted inequality, WHY she rarely listened to advice. All these things are presented as having happened and being part of her character, but it's lacking detail - there's little information on the background of the various events, on the reasoning behind her decisions, and on the history behind her beliefs. Everything important is glossed over, especially the details of the various situations she had to deal with, such as the various strikes, the problems with unions, the state of the country at the time she became Prime Minister, Irish nationalism, the problems with the economy, etc.
The most annoying thing is the complete lack of information on the results of her policies. Because of her neoliberal economic policy, she's often accused of greatly damaging the economy, especially outside southeast England, by wiping out industry and doing nothing to compensate, resulting in decades of high unemployment and poverty. Her deregulation policy is accused of destabilising the country's financial system and aggravating income inequality. Her housing policy is responsible for destroying communities and leaving the poor, of which her policies and the resulting crises created many, without state housing as a safety net. None of this is explored in the film.
Overall, just skip this. It's uninformative, uninteresting, and not worth anyone's time.
East to West (2011)
Sabotages its own point
The point of this documentary seems to be introducing historically uniformed people to the legacy of civilisations they probably don't know much about, and how that legacy is intertwined with important and well-known periods of history like ancient Greece, the Renaissance, etc. Yet the narration constantly contradicts the whole 'intertwined' idea by dichotomising East and West. I know it's in the title, and is the theme of the series, but they've taken it much too far, as there are several segments in just the first episode, a few minutes long each, where every single sentence contains the words 'East' and 'West'. Even when the point is that there was no such distinction between East and West in the period/location they're talking about. It's not only bothersome, but demonstrates that whoever approved the final version of this production was not aware of or did not understand what the series was talking about.
This, and some suspect pieces of information presented, lead me to believe that this documentary was not as thoroughly researched as it should have been, and instead focused on fitting whatever relevant segments it could find into its theme of 'East to West'.
Still, it should be mentioned that, if you can persist through the aforementioned 'East' and 'West' heavy segments, there's a fair amount of interesting information available.
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Change of Heart (1998)
Writers dropped the ball on this one
This is probably one of the worst episodes of DS9. The reason is a critical plot hole. Now, I know plot holes are quite common and usually too insignificant to notice or be bothered, but this one is so jarring that it made me yell at the screen.
What am I talking about? Basically, Jadzia and Worf have to go on a 2-day, 20km trip through a jungle, meet up with someone, and return the way they came. Jadzia gets shot a third of the way through the first trek, with a wound that gets worse if she walks. The patrol that found them is entirely eliminated. That's where the writers demonstrate a complete lack of spatial orientation and/or common sense.
What happens in the episode: Worf and the seriously wounded Jadzia continue towards the rendezvous point at a slow pace. Once they're nearly there, Jadzia becomes unable to walk further, so Worf has to continue without her. They exchange goodbyes, making it clear that Jadzia is being left to die. But almost as soon as Worf sets out, he has a change of heart, goes back, and carries Jadzia all the way back to their entry/exit point. The spy they had to extract is executed and information that could save millions is lost.
Why it doesn't make sense: This is a 2-way trip! They're going to be pretty much retracing their steps on the way back! So Jadzia could just have stayed where she got shot, minimizing the bleeding, and waited for Worf and the spy to get there on the return trip! Worf would then clearly have no trouble carrying her along the rest of the way back. At most, he would have to, before leaving, carry her a kilometer or so away from where they encountered the patrol, so she isn't found by whoever is sent to search for the missing patrol. And, not being slowed down by a wounded Jadzia, he would still make it to the rendezvous point in time. And thus, both the spy and Jadzia get to live.
But the writers, in their desire to shake things up by having the hero not get both the girl and the mission done for once, failed to notice that all the tension and drama relies on an obvious plot hole. Quite disappointing.
The rest of the episode - the Tongo plot line and Worf & Jadzia's married life interactions, is pretty good. But the episode overall leaves a bad taste due to the script stupidity described above.
The Legend of Zorro (2005)
Painful to watch
I sat through most of the movie feeling terrible. I knew that if I quit (and I really wanted to stop watching after 30-40 minutes!), my memories of The Mask of Zorro would be somewhat ruined by this truly terrible sequel. So I sat there, hoping it would get better. It barely did.
The first half of the movie is a bad joke. Zorro is no longer a hero, but a stupid drunkard. His wife is an annoyance. Some of the fights are visibly overdone and thus not nearly as exciting as in the previous movie. The whole "Yay! We're gonna become part of the United States! We're gonna be free, and Americans, and free, and everything's gonna be awesome, and we'll be free!" setting is insulting in itself. We're never told what they're gonna be free of, or free to do.
Many scenes involving Zorro and Tornado fall flat. Don Luiz's new calling as a teacher doesn't fit him. Zorro's child not knowing about his father's exploits is baffling. Divorced Zorro's drunken (and otherwise) jealousy scenes achieve nothing beyond making me feel uncomfortable. The western-style shoot-out is out of place. So is the whole espionage and conspiracy subplot.
The only thing I'm not annoyed with is the fanatically religious racist prick of a villain/henchman. He's just average.
It feels like things improve slightly in the later parts, or it could just be my expectations going through the floor. Most likely it's the fact Zorro stops being drunk. Regardless, I'm not going to spoil anything further. Just in case there are people out there who will enjoy this.
Overall, it's like the creators wanted to put everything possible into a 2-hour movie. It's part comedy, part action, part soap opera, part western, part spy story, part mystery, part whatever-the-first-movie-was, part immature belch jokes. As can be expected, it doesn't work. It's a mess, made worse by the fact it's the sequel to a very good film. I highly recommend avoiding this if you have good memories of The Mask of Zorro. Don't spoil them like I did!