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Reviews
The X Files (1993)
A Great Show that wilted at the end
First, let me say that I am a fan of 'The X-Files' I remember watching it on Friday nights and wondering why it was near the bottom of the rating pile the first season. But the show caught on and become the hit it deserved to be. David Duchnovny was the single-minded character who would take a backhoe to a desert to find the truth he so wanted to expose. Gillian Anderson was the 'smart is sexy' partner grounded in science almost to a fault. What made this show so wonderful is we saw the development of the characters and their relationship over the seasons: The resolution of Mulder's search for his sister, Scully's motherhood and the working relationship that became a friendship and then romance. Although I was not one for the when will they finally kiss' moment I enjoyed the banter between the two especially in War of the Coprophages.'
Now for the bad part, the last couple of seasons were a miss and hit with mostly misses. You could tell that Duchovny was at times walking through some episodes and was excess baggage at times. Scully after motherhood lost that tightly bound sexiness that made Scully. And there was no real development of Doggett and Reyes. I wish that Mulder and Scully had been written out of the series with a period (with room for more movies, of course) and the x-files taken over by Doggett and Reyes.
'The X-Files' is a great tv show with very good acting from Duchovny and Anderson. Catch it in reruns especially the stand-alone episodes of the first few seasons.
Everybody Loves Raymond (1996)
Love is such a strong word
ugh, where do i begin??
I really do not like this show. I find the character of Ray Barone just a spineless jellyfish and slightly masochist for living so close to his very bothersome mother. His mother is the character I really cannot stand and Doris Roberts is very good at creating an annoying, in everyone's business mother that would make
anyone move to Iraq for some peace. And I suppose that some of the cast
would like to after having Roberts rub her Emmys in their faces.
I do like Patricia Heaton's Debra Barone who is a strong character and a must be fun to play, Brad Garrett is at times hilarious as Barone's brother and Peter Boyle is good at Barone's one dimensional father who is good for one liners.
But these pluses cannot overcome the faults I find with the show, which I admit are personal. I wish that at the end of the show Debra would divorce Ray so he could move back with his parents, poetic justice straight and true.
Babylon 5 (1993)
A Great Show
Definitely one of the best scifi shows on TV. If you see one scifi show on tv see this one and not just one episode, to really appreciate this show you need to see it from the beginning where Capt Sinclair takes command of Babylon 5 to the very well written future mythos of Sheridan and Delenn.
Unlike Star Trek TOS and TNG, this show has a five year storyline that absorbs the viewer and takes them on a ride that is both fun and sad. The writing is consistently strong and very well interpreted by the actors. My favorite characters are Claudia Christian's Susan Ivanova, a very strong character who can laugh at herself and Stephen Furst's Vir Cotto.
Get the dvds and see why this show is one that should be a blueprint for future scifi shows.
CSI: Miami (2002)
Jerry Bruckheimer need I say more??
I have seen two episodes of this show and the consistently good thing about it is the photography, which at times becomes too stylized at times.
David Caruso, the star of the show (which I am sure is emphasised in the other actor's contracts) about a team of forensics experts in Miami. The cast is diverse, remember it is set in Miami, and at times pretty darn good but too bad they do not have better material to work with. From what I have seen the show tries to set the 'Law In Order' team in forensics and just does not pull it off.
I happened to catch an episode about a sniper terrorizing Miami, what did I get? About a half a dozen shots of the blonde in a tank top getting out of a car, shooting a rifle, walking, and examining evidence but not acting. Then we had at the end of the episode we had Caruso running around a crowded square trying to divert the sniper's attention, in such a scene any other actor would have us believing that he is actually helping people but with Caruso it is just the star being the STAR. I will admit that if he had better material to work with (like NYPD Blue) he might be able to pull it off but he does not here.
Hopefully, the producers and writers will notice this and give more to the ensemble cast more screen time because they are diverse and damn good (Go Khandi!!!!).
Will the show develop better material? Will Caruso give more to the other actors....Willingly?? Sure if he wants to the job to continue.
And it is always good to see Robert Beltran in something.
Nightfall (1988)
A waste of videotape
If you did not know the story line is about a planet surrounded by suns and knows no darkness but every couple thousand years an eclipse occurs and pure anarchy breaks out but this movie turns the story into a New Age Northern California Greek play set in the Arizona desert with people running around doing performance art.
David Birney is in this as a leader/astrologer or something that is never quite explained. Sarah Douglas is his former wife who left him for a religion or the religion's leader. Believe me you won't care. But it is nice to see her as something other than a villainess and this the only good I can say for the 'movie.' There are terrible sets, if you can call them that, terrible acting, editing, writing, and music that might have seemed advant- garde for 1979 but is just noise now
The most hilarious scene in the movie is the assassination attempt on Birney, it is something straight out of Ed Wood with the brute assassin foiled by the glare of some quartz or crystal that Birney picks up or it might be the performance art piece that the desert people put on or the performance art that the daughter does after killing someone or Douglas getting her eyes taken out by pet crows or...
If you are expecting a movie based on the Asimov story forget it but if you are a Northern Californian New Ager wondering what might have been then you might like this movie. Not Really.
Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986)
Am I the only person that did not like this movie?
I really really did not like this movie. I found Ferris Bueller's character way too annoying as the know-it-all under achiever that gets away with everything and drags us along for the ride.
As for Mathew Broderick well, he an actor much like Kevin Costner; which means if Broderick is to be a scientist then it is Broderick as the scientist or if he is to play Robin Hood then it is Broderick as Robin Hood. In other words he does not become the character the character becomes him.
And I am beguiled as to how destroying your father's prized sports car will prove anything???
The only movie I demanded by movie back for after watching it.