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jtsmith-4
Reviews
Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)
FAR below the 1st movie
Muddled script that should have been no more than 2 hours... if that
There was NO REASON for her boyfriend to just 'disappear' 20 minutes before the movie ended... it was like the writer & producer & director were determine to make up a reason for Diana to be alone and unhappy
I am VERY disappointed... I liked the 1st movie and WANTED to like this one.
Transplant (2020)
Sorry... an American can't get past the accents
Wife and I are both struggling... people and plots seem to be great, when we can understand what they are saying... but the language hurdle means that we are going to have to stop... I hope the program is a hit in Canada
Zoo (2015)
Changed score from 9 down to 1
My wife doesn't care about SciFi but she watched with me, and she became really invested in the lives of the people (but she still didn't care about the story very much, except as being used to show how the people related to each other)
I do watch SciFi and I was more interested in the story, while still caring about the people in the story
My score during season one was a 9 for an interesting idea presented by interesting people
My score is now 1 - due to the spoiler below
Spoiler
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A
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MAJOR
Spoiler!
Season 3 ended with a HUGE cliffhanger concerning the fate of the human race... and then there was never a season 4 !!!
Really disappointing not to have a real ending
Zoo: Eats, Shoots and Leaves (2015)
One small error
Most of the time I am thinking "how did they do that" with the real (animated but real looking?) animals in the various scenes
In this episode, they made one small error... after having a house Serval for 20 years (baby to old age and death) the "Leopard" cub removed from the den was not a Leopard, it was a young (not baby... maybe 3 to 4 months old) Serval
Small error, but I'm going to guess getting an actual Leopard cub wasn't easy
Otherwise a good episode... as are all of them
Lucifer (2016)
A spoiler free review of Lucifer season 4
First... season 3 ended on a HUGE cliffhanger scene, and then Fox cancelled... so many thanks to Netflix for buying the rights and creating a season 4
All of the issues left hanging at the end of S3 were answered in S4 in a very, to me, satisfying fashion... there were, of course, twists and turns and a false trail or two, but by the end of episode 10 every loose string was connected to the loom of Lucifer and Chloe's intertwined lives
Two major (multi-episode) new characters were introduced... one only for drama, the other for a combination of drama and some levity... one of the new characters helped Lucifer learn a great deal about himself, allowing him to grow as a person
Every one of the other major cast members also learned about themselves and changed over the course of the season... leading each of them to a new understanding of their place in the world
And speaking of the course of the season... as the producers mentioned in interviews while the season was filming... not having 22 episodes meant there was no filler to extend episodes... all 10 episodes were full of the main story from start to finish... still working around the crimes that are the reason Lucifer and Chloe came together, but also concentrating on the goal of covering all of the issues that needed to be resolved by the end of episode 10
Now... hoping there is a Season 5 and that the producers read these comments...
Lucifer mentioned the confrontation that got him banished to Hell... but not WHY
Early in S5 Chloe needs to figure out a way to contact Lucifer, so she can ask him WHY he rebelled
Lucifer's reply should be that mankind was created... and then ignored... and that he was deeply troubled by the extent that "free will" was allowed to permit atrocities to occur
His confrontation consisted of saying... insisting, loudly... that evil be punished instantly... he did not know any humans at the time, but the idea of death and destruction bothered him
Lucifer's punishment for not shutting up was to be banished to Hell... where he was given the job of punishing the souls of evil doers... which does not, of course, make him happy... since what he wanted and didn't get was instant punishment when someone did evil... not after they later died
That after the fact punishment is why Lucifer came to loath himself... his rebellion did not help the living, and punishing dead souls does not, after all, have much of a point
Way outside any theology I know about, but my idea for Season 5
Love, Death & Robots: The Witness (2019)
Fantasy or SciFi - I liked the weird mix
This is what might happen if Alice fell down the rabbit hole after taking a dose of LSD
The story is weird and interesting and is, as far as I can tell, a combination of a small amount of real animation or "green screen" work... plus, for the actors involved, the result of running a video of real people through a digital special effects "rotoscope" filter
So (in my view) the people in this episode are mostly real... including the full nudity... after the original video was processed to simulate animation... do a search for rotoscope movies and/or rotoscoping to see what I mean
The 2005 movie Sin City and 2014 Sin City: A Dame to Kill for are included in a list of rotoscoped movies
Love, Death & Robots: Beyond the Aquila Rift (2019)
Almost classic SciFi with a twist
I like the combination of "classic" animation and actual people
The story is interesting and is, as far as I can tell, a combination of true animation and... for the people involved... the result of running a video of real people through a digital special effects "rotoscope" filter
So (in my view) the people in this episode are real... including the nudity... after the original video was processed to simulate animation... do a search for rotoscope movies and/or rotoscoping
The 2005 movie Sin City and 2014 Sin City: A Dame to Kill for are included in a list of rotoscoped movies
Polar (2019)
Vanessa Hudgens is more versatile than I thought
This is going to be a short review... only about Vanessa Hudgens
I have only ever seen her on TV or in comedy movies before Polar
She did a credible job in a drama, and I am now looking for Polar 2
Bonjour Anne (2016)
The last scene is the Director's message that it was all a joke
Paris Can Wait is a self-indulgent, meandering road trip that has a beginning and (thankfully) an end, and that has nothing much in between points A and Z
A mildly dissatisfied wife can't fly due to a medical condition, so she agrees to take a road trip with her husband's business associate. I don't know the French term, but American slang for the associate is "Hound Dog" which describes a man who is always sniffing after the next available, or not really available, woman to come along
He flirts. He smokes. Which she excuses by saying it reminds her of her father... who died of lung cancer. He has a tryst with another woman while they are traveling. But that doesn't stop him from pursuing her. The wife of his associate who he THINKS is available
There are great looking meals and wines that he describes in glowing terms. There is the French countryside, with remnants of the Roman occupation. There is his surety that all women find him irresistible. There is her putting up with him for no discernible reason. Except as a very flimsy reason to have a movie that is more than ten minutes long
There is ABSOLUTELY ZERO character growth or change during the entire movie.
While trying not to say so much that it is a spoiler, the final scene in the movie is, to ME at least, the Director's last laugh that says it was all a joke
My wife likes romantic movies, and she turned to me at the end and asked "was that real, and why did we just waste our time watching that movie about nothing?"
We watched on cable TV, not in a movie theater... or we would have both walked out and asked for our ticket money back
Since I can't give a 0 I will have to give a rating of 1
The Accountant (2016)
Ben Affleck is PERFECT as The Accountant
If you cross Rain Main with The Terminator the result is The Accountant... someone who can not only focus on the intricate details of what he is doing, he can take decisive (sometimes violent) action when he thinks that such action is the proper course of action, proper according to his moral code Becoming a criminal because his only friend was pushed into a situation where he was killed, horribly, he was still human enough to pause his life to protect an innocent woman... I would have added another point to my rating if he and the woman had done more than talk and look at each other, leading to a situation where he had to fight with himself over keeping her with him, or leaving her behind... maybe the sequel (if there is one) will show him taking the next step into opening himself to that life particular experience I don't know if the producer or director considered any other actors, but if they did... they made exactly the right choice by casting Ben Affleck... he was PERFECT as the Accountant
American Pickers (2010)
I am really tired of remixed OLD episodes advertised as new
I am really tired of programs that remix OLD episodes and advertise them as NEW in the channel guide to trick the viewer into thinking they are actually going to see something new I don't know if the "talent" has anything to do with this scummy practice, or if it only the "producers" who are remixing old content to be able to gouge a few more advertising dollars out of the sponsors... but I find the practice to be "jumping the shark"
Jenny's Wedding (2015)
An easy ride along the trail of life
No big blowups (but there are a few sparks) mar this tale of an average, albeit conservative family, coming to grips with the fact that their daughter is not what they though she was... parents had a harder time of accepting her than did her brother and sister (very believable, as one would expect from parents versus siblings)
Completely aside from the "stories" about work difficulties (some of which were more about her "momanager") she his a GREAT actor who has done well in every movie or TV show I have watched
Wife and I both enjoyed this movie, and we look forward to seeing what else she does in the future
Recommended
Hansel & Gretel: Warriors of Witchcraft (2013)
Thin plot that was padded with fluff
At the stated length of 83 minutes, this movie only really had enough actual content for the average 42-44 minutes of a one hour TV episode As well as the poorly done Buffy rip-off of the "mentor teaching the young woman to be a slayer" there was just nothing remarkable about this movie Plus, the only way this thing even made 83 minutes was with the addition of several minutes of meaningless shots of students walking around a school campus The brother & sister leads did not do badly... considering they did not have much to work with in the way of script or direction All in all... 83 minutes I could have used to watch paint dry