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The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power (2022)
It's just not doing it for me
I had middling expectations for the series and am a huge fan of the three films (and to a lesser extent the Hobbit trilogy). I wanted for this to be in the same league as those projects. But it just isn't.
First off, the series thus far has focused on 4 stories - Galadriel, Elrond, the Harfoots & Nori and an elf named Arondir who watches over a town of men. Personally, the only one I'm really interested in at the moment is Arondir and his love interest Bronwyn.
Obviously the LOTR trilogy cut between multiple characters too, but not only did they all have the same underlying goal (as well as being part of the same quest) but all stories were kept interesting. The Harfoot stuff feels like filler to me, and to some extent so does Elrond's, although he at least seems to be actually working up to something.
Also I don't know how they managed this, but some of the elves look simultaneously too old and too young to play their characters.
The obsession with making Galadriel into some warrior Princess I think feels ill-advised and motivated by the need from the writers to have a "strong woman" archetype in here. The problem is Galadriel hasn't been that likeable so far. She's cold to almost everyone she meets and there's an ongoing trend of people telling her she doesn't know what she knows again just so she can presumably be vindicated later down the road and have a "told you so" moment. As a result, a lot of the wisdom of the elves seems absent here just so the writers can have Galadriel shown to be the best among them. It certainly didn't help matters when Morfydd Clark said she needed therapy to get through the action sequences.
The series leans into comedy more than it should. Yes, the hobbits were funny and mischievous in the LOTR, but the underlying seriousness of Jackson's middle earth is absent here.
Many characters feel unrealistically obstinate, like a scene where Bronwyn is explaining the scene of a village destroyed by orcs and she's dismissed as overstating a landslide or sinkhole. To the point that people get angry at her. My worry is many characters (especially male characters) will be portrayed as overly dumb or ignorant for the sake of uplifting female characters, which makes the writers seem a bit hacky.
A lot of what's in this show feels like generic fantasy. Albeit high budget, but generic fantasy all the same. The music, the characters, the places, too much just feels interchangeable and not from the legends of Tolkien.
What does the show get right?
The orcs so far look great. There was a scene in the second episode where an orc came up from a hole in the ground and watching that felt excellent.
The show itself looks good. Aesthetically it is fairly nice to look at.
I gave this a 4/10 and that's almost all down to aesthetics/effects and makeup. It's a very nice show to look at but it could have had some stuff trimmed out. The Harfoots could have been a temporary stop in the journeys of Arondir or Galadriel. Having them apparently going to take up 20-25% of screen time just feels like a mistake to me.
The Ward (2010)
As is often the case, the biggest disappointment of the movie is its twist ending
SPOILERS
This is just another of many shallow psychological horrors like Identity, Shrooms, Hide and Seek, etc. It would have been far scarier and more interesting had the big reveal that all the patients are the same person not come to pass. Movies like this don't need a big plot twist. People watch horror mostly to turn the lights out and switch their brain off for 90 minutes.
It's not "bad" it's just not great. Should you watch this movie? Sure, it's a fun movie. Kinda like Shutter Island meets One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest (though with less humour).
The biggest disappointment is despite being directed by John Carpenter, there's nothing about the movie to really suggest it's a John Carpenter film. It feels like the movie was planned to the last detail with the director being decided on at the last minute and Carpenter had no input on anything.
Lethal Virus (2021)
Just plain bad
The title credits gave me false hope... the opening credits are kinda cringe but the effects are good and it's crystal clear (low budget movies like this typically have that annoying blur).
This movie is simply bad. The story doesn't make sense. The acting is awful. The zombies aren't good. The sound editing is atrocious. I don't believe that anyone playing a zombie in this is in fact a zombie. The necessary suspension of disbelief for a movie like this just sadly isn't there. Feels like a movie trying to cash in on the name recognition of Covid but it's literally just a garden variety zombie movie. Any actual connection to Covid is practically non existent.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars: Landing at Point Rain (2009)
This is why I'm here
Landing at Point Rain is exactly what I went into Clone Wars hoping to see.
If you're like me and you LOVED the battle at the end of Attack of the Clones as well as the clone action in Revenge of the Sith, this is precisely what you love to see.
I'd love to have seen this as a feature length movie, especially live action.
Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008)
What can be said that hasn't been said already?
I'll start by listing what I DONT like.
Many episodes in the series - I'd guess about a seasons worth - are nothing but filler. The Padmé and Jar Jar episodes... what were you thinking? It often felt like the show runners had been asked to deliver 22 episodes, they could only make the great stuff fit into 16 so they decided "let's have an episode where Padmé is in trouble... um let's have a couple based around R2 and C3PO... and let's have one where Jar Jar is the hero". Some of these episodes were just a chore to watch, and that's not something I want to say about anything Star Wars. I was here for clones and Jedi. Worth noting: at the time the show aired I was in the target audience, this isn't some 50 year old venting about how it was too much for kids. When the show started I was 11 and I found myself getting so bored with too many episodes.
Onto the good stuff.
The actual clone wars action? Wow. Just... wow. When we'd get those great episodes that were the actual clone wars, every time I was just blown away. I was taken in by the characters (especially Rex), the clone trooper armour designs, the battle scenes, the plots, the tension some episodes had, etc. Landing at Point Rain is one of the most entertaining things I've ever seen. Same thing with story arcs like Ryloth, Rookies, Umbara, Bad Batch, Mandalore, Fives, Geonosis, etc. The clones we were introduced to were awesome, whether it was individuals like Rex, Fives, Echo, Gregor and Wolffe or cool looking units like the Wolfpack, Doom's unit, the 332nd or the Arc Troopers.
We get to find out more about the history of the prequel era, such as the investigation into Sifo Dyas, the discovery that Dooku is Tyrannus, more Darth Maul, etc.
Anakin was given a good interpretation and we were able to get a better glimpse into his evolution towards the dark side.
The Jedi we'd only seen a few minutes of were given depth and story, such as Ki Adi Mundi, Plo Koon, Saesee Tiin and Luminara Unduli. Thanks to Clone Wars, when I watch Ep.3 and see Order 66, every execution means something to me and I can put a character to a face.
I do wish the show runners had given us more in depth battles. I wanted to see more AT-TEs, Juggernauts, AT-OTs, etc. Longer sieges and drawn out battles. Maybe a few extra battalions and squads. But what we got was certainly awesome!
True Grit (2010)
One of the finest westerns ever made, one of the finest Coen brothers movies ever made
Let me begin by saying I love the Coen brothers as filmmakers. I've yet to see a movie by them that I didn't like. This one? This one is up there as one of their best. When you eliminate comedy movies, it is their best (well, perhaps tied with No Country For Old Men).
First, Bridges plays an incredible Rooster Cogburn. He really ties the movie together (get it?). You like him almost immediately and get the feeling that isn't going to change.
Matt Damon doesn't start off a likeable character but he grows on you and you can't help but like him by the end.
Hailee Steinfeld plays a strong albeit pretentious character out for revenge.
I can't promise you'll like it... but I do think if you're curious about westerns, this is as good an entry to the genre as any. The story is compelling, the scenery is beautiful and the characters are incredibly interesting and good to watch.
Police Academy (1984)
Top contender for best 80s movie ever
Despite being a young man, I grew up on '80s movies. I remember, in the early 00s, having a stack of video tapes that included Stripes, Ghostbusters, Return of the Jedi, Goonies and Breakfast Club. I didn't get around to seeing Police Academy until later in life but, once I saw it, couldn't believe I'd gone so long without it.
This movie is just pure, simple fun. It's hilarious. Every single main character contributes something different to the story, with Mahoney and Jones being the funniest, and Tackleberry, Lassard and Harris being pretty funny within their situations. The music, the acting, the story, the jokes, etc, all top notch. As blasphemous as it might be, I'd rank this above almost every '80s movie out there.
This movie is a pop culture must see!
The Big Bang Theory (2007)
TBBT - A simultaneous story of success and cautionary tale
The first four seasons of The Big Bang Theory are excellent. In my opinion, the second season was peak comedy at that time, with shows like Frasier and Everybody Loves Raymond having ended not long before and Two and A Half Men having surpassed its peak. For me, 2008 comedy was defined very much by TBBT.
Unfortunately, around season 5 and 6, the show takes a turn. Where the show had previously been the idea of four nerds having a sort of clash of cultures with the midwestern prom queen type character Penny, by season 5 and 6, this dynamic is basically dead. Sure, the guys still talk about stuff she doesn't understand and she still talks about stuff they find mundane and unimportant but the older chemistry has faded. Penny is now used to Sheldon's rules and quirks, Howard being a creep is less of a thing due to Bernadette, Leonard is obviously going to stay with her and Raj's selective mutism is barely an issue. Seasons 5 and 6 are by no means "bad", they're just a disappointment.
I don't even think the whole show should have been more like season 2. But at least half of it should have. I feel almost cheated by how suddenly the direction changed and fans like me sorta felt left behind by a show that wanted to be something else. I think the four guys should have been single at least for 6 seasons. Ok, Leonard has his on/off thing with Penny but Howard at least should have been single that long. Sheldon and Amy should have been more plutonic for longer. Raj should have found someone.
It's hard to say exactly when but at some point this show gets woke. It's only subtle but damn is it there. The avatar of wokeism in this show happens to be its weakest main character: Amy. Once Amy becomes a central character and it's clear she's here to stay, the show takes a dive in quality as well as plots. Bernadette was a fun addition (even if she practically neutered Howard) but Amy wasn't. Amy actually starts off fine. When she enters, she's presented to us as a "female Sheldon". But by the very next season she's clearly a very different character. She *isn't* "female Sheldon". Instead, she's actually quite a creep as she's always bringing sex into conversations with characters like Penny and Sheldon and has very little interest in anything remotely nerdy. She's smart and works in STEM and that's about all she has in common with Sheldon. The wokeism becomes apparent when, out of nowhere, characters start discussing "gender equality" and such in a way that just seems forced, like the writers wanted the conversation to happen but couldn't Figure out how to make it work. Ironically, the "anti woke" or "red pilled" comments often come from Sheldon of all people. I did watch every episode. The finale was meh.
As the show goes on, there's just too many moments where you roll your eyes at the screen and think "people don't talk like that". Character development is virtually non existent for about 5 seasons then almost instantaneous out of nowhere. Some characters are basically 2 dimensional caricatures. It does that dumb thing Chuck Lorre does where characters we haven't seen for 6 seasons and only had a minor role are showing up to dinner parties and such as a sort of mini reunion way of saying "hey, remember this guy? Lol!". Dumb characters like Zack keep showing up for no reason other than to make fun of dumb people I guess? Always comes off as low hanging fruit though.
The 7/10 I leave is mostly goodwill accumulated by the first third of this show that was gradually worn down as the series went on. Seasons 1-4 are a 9/10. Seasons 5-6 are an 8. Seasons 7-12 are lucky to be a 5. My advice is quit the show after season 8 episode 1 (the latest decent point of closure).
TBBT's status in pop culture cannot be overstated enough but it should have been better.
Matilda (1996)
Matilda is a great children's movie
I'll start off by saying show your kids Matilda - they'll thank you for it.
Now, I don't actually really like this movie per se. If you gave me a pen and sheet of paper and told me to list off my favourite movies, I doubt if Matilda would ever come to mind. But it is as much a kids movie as you'll get. Its a magical, childhood adventure and a story I think children should see. While virtually all characters are basic archetypes (the sociopathic authority figure villain, the kind teacher with nothing but endless warmth and love, the cheap and greedy car salesman father and fake, dumb blonde mother, etc), the story has a nice, satisfying conclusion and I think children have always found something here to relate to.
I'm not the biggest fan of Roald Dahl, but I do think his stories connect to children in a way that many modern kids movies just don't.
This isn't a movie that i think I'll ever go out of my way to watch but is certainly one I think makes for a great kids movie.
Bone Tomahawk (2015)
The Hills Have Eyes meets Tombstone
I don't really know how else to describe this other that the title.
The movie is just interesting to watch. The filmmakers keep you in suspense for most of it, with about 65% of this movie being the main characters' journey.
The basic premise is this:
There's an ancient tribe of native Americans who have become, as one character describes them, abominations. Like I said, think Hills Have Eyes. Their sacred land is disturbed at the beginning of the movie by two criminals. They kill one, the other escapes and shows up in a small western town. Kurt Russell plays a tough, no nonsense sheriff and he takes down the drifter with a bullet to the leg. The towns doctor - whose husband is played by the great and underrated Patrick Wilson - is among three people abducted by the abominations in the middle of the night, leaving Kurt Russell to round up a posse to go find them.
I watched this with a friend who said the middle of the movie was too boring, but the fact is if you like westerns, you shouldn't feel bored by this at all, no more so than the journey sequences in True Grit or Hostiles. Back in the old west, moving a great distance took time and this shows it. Think back to I Am Legend. We don't need to see the "zombies" every waking moment to feel the tension of knowing that they're there.
Once this movie gets going, it embraces its horror element and will be sure to satisfy you gore lovers. The final 30 minutes are truly excellent and the dialogue and acting throughout is top notch. This movie feels less of a horror movie set in the old west and more of a western movie with a horror story.
Definitely recommend!