Reviews

Like a lot of other viewers I've been a lifelong fan of the Star Trek franchise... And I've religiously watched every movie and series... Even the ones that weren't that good. Unfortunately, Discovery is a horribly written series and, in my opinion, the worst one produced yet.

First the good... The actors do a good job portraying the characters as they were written. The special effects are top notch and it's visually stunning. I love seeing the new species included in the Star Trek universe, and as a general rule of thumb, I enjoy how they're portrayed. Unfortunately, this is about the only good thing I can say about the show.

Now the bad... My biggest complaint with the show is it's not about the ship and the crew. As it's been on every other version of Star Trek. This show is quite literally about the character Michael Burnham and how everyone in it revolves around her. Now to be clear, my objection to this character has nothing to do with Sonequa Martin-Green. She's a fine dramatic actresses and I enjoyed her character on The Walking Dead. She's simply playing the part as it's written.

It's simply EVERY crisis on the show has Michael Burnham at the center of it, in one way or another. The writers seemed have made a conscious decision to make her the single most important character in the Star Trek universe. The fate of the entire universe has hung by a thread because of her. She'll regularly unilaterally deciding the direction and actions of the ship, and usurping the Captain's authority. There will be a crisis, and she'll simply get some intuitive feeling about it, and suddenly the Discovery is off following what she's said. Which is wrong enough times, someone should tell her to shut up when she starts talking.

And of course, there's the countless times she's used some moral superiority to decide she had the authority to break the chain of command, or go on an unauthorized mission only she knows about. Her character is about as self indigent as they come, and seems to lack any situational awareness. The character Michael Burnham regularly comes up with some emotional rational (Really weird for someone that grew up on Vulcan being trained in logic) to justify going rogue. Next thing you now, she's off creating a crisis the crew of Discovery must save her for. As someone the claims to value the institution of Star Fleet, her self obsession with her own idea of right and wrong is baffling. Even Spock called her "self important" once. Which fits to a T.

Next the Michael Burnham character has some weird balance of absolute certainty and insecurity at the same time. To be honest, it's annoying. Pretty much every crisis has the same formula. At the start of a crisis, she's dictating what the entire crew of Discovery should be doing. Next she's question what the crew is doing and why. And once the crisis has been resolved she gives some long winded speech.

Which brings me to something else that annoys me. The character Michael Burnham is CONSTANTLY giving these weird motivational speeches. For some reason, when she starts talking, everyone shuts up and listens to her. Including the Captain. A large group of the crew will be together in some situation, and she'll be the only one giving some long winded speech. Michael Burnham is always talking, and talking, and talking and giving speech after speech to everyone else.

This brings me to my next complaint. Pretty much every character is good for emotionally puking at least once per episode. Literally, every episode contains a speech from some character (Usually Michael Burnham) about "family", love, loss, acceptance, respect, cooperation, etc. They do this at the weirdest moments in the show too. On more than one occasion, the crew have been furiously working to resolve some life threatening crisis to the ship, and suddenly every character will stop doing what they were doing, to validate their or someone else's feelings. It's so predictable I can tell when someone's going to launch into a uselessly emotionally draining speech. Between the speeches and emotional puking... That's roughly 1/3 of every episode.

I could go on, but my last complaint is about the absolute lack of humor or jocularity. In pretty much every other version of Star Trek to be produced, the writers would find a way to work a little humor into their shows. Which always made past Star Trek shows fun. I understand there's a time & place for humor in a show, but Discovery is almost completely devoid of humor. This version of Star Trek is flat out depressing with how serious all the character's are.

Now how this show has a 7.1 IMDB rating is beyond me... It's horribly written. Other than the occasional mention of the Federation, I can't image any Star Trek fan recognizing Discovery as one that belongs in the Star Trek universe.

So they say this is the end of the franchise... But I suspect that like Palpatine... It will be mysterious resurrected with little explanation and making as little sense as Palpatine's appearance somewhere down the road

I've worked for several large financial firms and feel I have an insight to how executives at financial firms behave.... And because of that, I felt the movie didn't do the best job accurately portray this class of people during the financial crisis.

While the movie got it in the ball park with an amoral tone that comes from individuals that work in investment banks... It completely missed the mark on how intensely cautious individuals can be in them. Most people employed at investment banks border on being paranoid when it comes to losing money. and don't even like discussing the possibility. It's well documented that people were fired in this time period for simply making presentations outlining the dangers of Mortgage Backed Securities.

Decisions that were made in the course of a couple hours would have been drug out for weeks. I found the fact the events of the movie portrayed were presented over the course of a single evening to be laughable. Something like this would have been kicked around in meetings for weeks, out of paranoia someone was going to make a mistake, and to verify it's veracity before kicking it to the next level of executives.

I just kind of assumed this unnamed investment bank represented Lehman Brothers. Because of the timing of events and the fact Jeremy Irons character (John Tuld) seemed like a serious nod to it's CEO Dick Fuld. If that's the case they really missed the mark with Jeremy Irons character's calm demeanor. Fuld was known for many things, but his zen like acceptance at the thought of losing hundreds of millions of dollars was not one of them. Fuld was well known for his ruthless competitiveness and was even nicknamed the "gorilla or Wall Street".

Something else about the movie that irritated me was the fact that everyone looked as good at the end of the movie as the beginning. These people literally hadn't slept and spent the whole night debating their actions of kicking off a financial crisis. Yet, every tie was pulled up tight... Everyone was wearing the suit coats... Every suit looked fresh... every hair was in place... and about the only person that looked- remotely haggard was Demi Moore. I don't know about anyone else... But I have worked through the night in a suit and by the next day you're a mess.

I found it very puzzling that people were potentially losing millions of dollars in annual income, and seemed to understand they were going to start a financial meltdown.... and not one person lost their cool or raised their voice.

Overall I thought the actors did a good job... But I just found the lack of emphasis on how much stress was going on at investment banks to be unrealistic. It came off like the director didn't think viewers would believe a bunch of investment banks would have completely lost it.

Like most other re-boots or re-makes... This misses the mark as a continuation of the original Gong Show. What viewers of the modern Gong Show probably don't get is the original was made by stoners for stoners... But was silly enough it slipped passed most straight people of the 70's.

The Gong Show was great simply for being at the right place at the right time and was a chaotic mess based on mindless entertainment. It was made during a time when rules and regulations weren't as controlled, and fact this show was fueled by weed and cocaine was an open secret.

More acts than not, they were just goofy and silly acts that made absolutely no sense and were done by oddballs that just wanted to be on TV. Look up acts like Gene Gene the Dancing Machine, the Unknown Comic, the "Popsicle twins", or the time one of the shows judges, Jaye P. Morgan, flashed her tits... And try to tell me that show is reproducible. That kind of genuine spontaneity can't be reproduced.

This version of the Gong Show comes off more as some kind of cheap knock off of America's Got Talent with mildly funny actors.... than a show worthy of the namesake the Gong Show. As far as I'm concerned it's something that was thrown together by some people trying to use the name familiarity of the Gong show to pick up nickels and dimes off the street using the. I also personally suspect Michael Myers, who's in some weird make up and doing an oddball accent, is more embarrassed by this show than anything else and is doing his best not to be recognized.

I get that this is suppose to be a drama about a bunch of struggling comics in the 70's... But it would be nice if the comics on this show could tell a funny joke once in a while... The main problem that I can tell is it's a drama set in the 70's but written with 21st century political correctness... I lived thru the 70's and it's obvious whoever is writing this show didn't.... It's missing the some of things that were essentially the 70's.... sex, drugs, and rock & roll!!! I mean it was the 70's and the height of the sexual revolution! Random hook ups happened all the time.... but the sex in the show revolves around depressing relationships where the characters just want to be understood and accepted for who they really are.... And who thinks a bunch of comics living in LA in the 70's weren't coke'ed out or high all the time? I mean cocaine & weed were huge in LA in the late 70's but all this show delves into it is the occasional joint... And the best anyone can expect in the way of music is the 5 seconds of some little known song from the time period... For the most part the entire show can be described as the same 8-9 sad people bitching about who's act sucks worst and getting mad because they don't like the time slot they got.... it's nothing but a slow depressing failure

Over the last 20 years De Niro has taken a lot of crap for putting out a lot of crap movies.... And justifiably so in my opinion... He went from being one of the greatest living actors to being a parody of himself. It seemed like this movie was his attempt to redeem himself by attempting to really act again. Sadly, he feel short. This movie was evidence he's totally lost "it" and he's never getting it back.

Just saw this on youtube...not sure why anyone would confuse this with the movie Clerks... There's no Jay or Silent Bob.... They seem to replace those two with some some random ice cream store employee... Dante's obsessions are gone... I guess the original Dante & Randal auditioned for the show but didn't get the parts (How that happens is beyond me)... The humor is lame and that 90's G rated type humor that came with a laugh track at the most un-funny moments.... It came off more like an episode of Save By The Bell set in a strip mall... It even had the same sort of oddball half ass moral message at the end of the show like an episode of Save By The Bell ... The only thing that remotely reminded me of the original Clerks was they had "Can't Even Tell" by Soul Asylum at the end

"Riddick" gets back to the roots of the original Riddick character in the movie Pitch Black. Which I was glad to see them do. I LOVED the movie Pitch Black and the original Riddick character is one of my favorite tortured bad a$$'es with a heart anti hero's of all time.

When they evolved the character to be some superhuman battling metaphysical forces in "The Chronicles of Riddick", it really irritated me. I loved the simple bad a$$ role and I just didn't get off on the over the top comic book approach.

The movie does get back to the Pitch Black roots a bit to much and the plot is surprisingly similar to Pitch Black. Enough so it had me going "wtf?" towards the end... I mean if you're going to spend $20-$30M to make a movie, at least take the time to come up with an original plot.

With that aside, the drama was sort of tired and recycled. While I love the Riddick character, I didn't find myself caring to much for any of the other characters like I did in Pitch Black. There was also a slight subtle humor in Pitch Black, and the original Riddick character had a really dry sense of humor that I thought was great. Unfortunately it was utterly lacking in this.

There was a lot of action in this, which I would expect in a Riddick movie. Some of it was a little over the top with a certain degree of comic book silliness in my opinion, but I'm sure it would satisfy most fans of the character. The effects were pretty good, with one that was graphic enough to surprise and excited this cynic.

Overall I liked it... And I think this should have been the sequel to Pitch Black in my opinion. My expectations might have been a bit high and I was a little disappointed, but it was much better than the 2nd Riddick movie in my opinion and leaves me with faith in the Riddick character.

I loved the first one and have been waiting for this with great anticipation! When I saw it on Comcast On-Demand I immediately rented it. Like most sequels, this wasn't as good as the first and it's hard not to make comparisons to the first movie.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of a good soundtrack that went with the first movie. Scenes like Hit-Girl whooping ass to Joan Jett's "Bad Reputation", or the old Banana Splits song "Tra La La" Song totally made the first one awesome for me. The soundtrack was as important as the characters.

As the movie was unfolding I kept waiting for some funny/rocking music to play. Unfortunately, I was pretty let down that they didn't spend the money to acquire some interesting/funny/rocking songs for this movie.

Then the plot was sort of handicapped by the fact the characters had matured. I felt the actors all did a good job, but the built in humor that came along with an innocent naive Kick-Ass character getting his butt beat, or the irony of a 10 year old foul mouthed girl killing someone with the same zeal she would pursue a boy band with was gone.

I think they spent a little to much time developing the idea of a group of super hero's and and not enough time developing Kick-Ass & Hit-Girl characters. Overall, I liked it, and I'm sure most will... It just wasn't as fresh and new as the original.

Apparently, I'm practically the only reviewer that wasn't there or personally knew Hilly himself. I grew up in a smaller-ish mid-western town and was introduced to punk by a girl from high school in the late 70's, and became aware of CBGB in the mid 80's. CBGB was always a mecca I wanted to visit but never got the chance to, so I leaped at watching this movie.

First off... It' important to remember this is the fictionalize account of the legendary New York city punk club CBGB and Hilly Kristal, and not a documentary. I went into watching this with the expectations there would be many factual errors. I noticed some items like band stickers on the walls from the wrong decade, but it's a Hollywood movie... not a documentary. I think the end credits says it best where it says "And we know that Iggy Pop never played at CBGB... Just deal with it.".

This location was so instrumental to music that I doubt a 3 hour movie could have done it justice. They had to pack a lot of story into a short amount of time so no one watching this movie should do so expecting a historically accurate movie. I enjoyed how they interweaved Punk magazine into the story. I felt it helped keep an upbeat, lighthearted message about Hilly and CGBG and kept the plot moving.

Now it's a double edged sword here with my criticism. The plot got pretty thin in the middle of the movie as the director tried to give the viewer a idea of the energy that was going on with the bands playing there, and some of the insanity I'm sure went on there on a regular basis. While the plot got non-existence, it was still enjoyable to imagine being there and seeing bands like the Ramones, Blonde, Patti Smithe playing.

Even though I thought there were points where the plot got lost, and the acting was somewhat awkward and forced at points, I still thought it was well done. My one big complaint is the ending was sort of sudden and anticlimactic.

Overall I really enjoyed the movie personally... but I didn't have high expectations on what it was going to be either. I guess if you're a punk purist or were actually there, then someone might be disappointed in the movie.

I'd heard this movie was a horrible stink-fest... While I'd doubt if I'd recommend anyone spend movie to watch it, I've certainly seen worse. I've even seen worst M. Night Shyamalan movies (Which isn't saying a lot in my opinion).

One thing I'd heard was it was slow moving. Which it was, and I attribute that as a typical characteristic of an M. Night Shyamalan movie. He always seems to try and turn action movies into some type of Hitchcockian thriller and he always fails horribly at it.

While I found the general premise of the overall plot to be intriguing, it was simplistic and predictable. There was an attempt at character building to make you care about them, but it simply didn't develop them enough. As the movie unfolded I just didn't care what happened to these people. Considering the premise of the plot, I'd usually be rooting for the characters, but I never really did.

It seemed to promise a lot on action and simply didn't deliver either. I come to expect a lot of action out of Will Smith movies so I was disappointed at the pace and felt it was a poor choice in venues for him.

The acting wasn't the best at all... I think this is the first time I've seen Jaden Smith in a movie. As an actor he's simply not ready. I found his introduction of the movie to be extremely annoying. It seemed like his dictation and pronunciation of what he was saying was off. Almost like he has some sort of speech impediment. As an actor, he simply isn't skilled enough to carry a movie like this. He should keep it small and build his craft and slowly move into larger roles. He certainly bit off more than he could chew.

I'm not sure if I felt Will Smiths poor performance was his fault or the fault of M. Night Shyamalan direction. It seemed extremely forced and unnatural. Most of M. Night Shyamalan characters tend to have a lack of passion and emotion to them, and they tend to come off as boring. Will Smiths character in this movie is no different. While I usually enjoy his movies, I'd have to say he should probably stay in his nitch of fun action movies.

There were some thought provoking scenes and some so-so minor action but overall it was a long movie that was hard to keep my attention. If I were to guess, I'd say this might be the last we see of M. Night Shyamalan. I'd give this 4 stars out of 10.

OK... After seeing this movie get ripped apart in the reviews I had to come to it's defense. It's hilarious! Is it stupid? yup! Is it sophomoric? yup! Is it stoner humor? yup! But those are it's charms... I've seen other Pauly Shore movies and I was bored with them & never found them funny, Bio-Dome is the exception. A lot of my friends as well find this movie funny so it's not just me

If I were to give any reason as to why I find it so funny it would probably be the interaction between Pauly Shore an the Baldwin guy. They are so stupid their funny and I put them in this movie on par with Dumb & Dumber.

If this movie doesn't tickle your funny bone then go to the doctor and have the stick removed from your butt.

This was produced by a company called The Asylum. They are known for "Mockbusters" type movies. Movies that have a similar plot and title as blockbuster movies released around the same time.

I first became aware of them 10 years ago when I grabbed one of their movies by accident thinking I was grabbing the real movie at Blockbuster. I'm guessing they made a lot of their money from people that didn't realize the title of the movie they were grabbing wasn't the right movie.

This particular movie was released around the same time Tom Cruises War of the Worlds came out. It's has cheap production values, the special affects suck, and the dialog is horrible. If you aren't looking for anything good... and want something campy, and cheap then this is for you.

Now one finally fyi... the company that made this movie did recently score a hit with sharknado.

I sorta kinda remember hearing about this movie a few moths ago, but didn't think much of it at the time. I was bored this evening and saw it being promoted by Comcast so I figured what the heck, and I rented it.

They sort of slowly unveiled the plot, which was good... If they had sprung the concept of the movie on me in the beginning I possibly would have disliked it... But they eased into it, which let me work my suspension of disbelief into it.

Maybe my expectations were low but I thought it was hilarious. It was obvious a lot of the dialog was ad libbed... but with a few exceptions where I thought the dialog was a little awkward & forced, I cracked up through the whole thing.

I particularly enjoyed how a lot of these actors let themselves get parodied & particularly thought some of the cameos were hilarious. Which possibly made this movie for me. Between Danny McBride, Michael Cera, the big scene for Emma Watson, and Channing Tatum towards the end... I was laughing threw the whole movie.