t-unknown-one Reviews

Stowaway (I) (2021)

Good acting, good cinematography, but nobody does what they did

[6/10 · 23 April 2021]

The actors are good and it doesn't play like a cheaply made film but the plot holes are a bit too much.

Why would David tell Michael, a guy he barely knows, that Michael needs to die then hand him an overdose of something expecting him to do it to himself?

And nobody would send the only M. D. on board out to risk their lives when they have David, whose algae's failed and who said himself that his research for the next two yrs on Mars ahead of them was going to be useless? Well because they wanted the most dramatic emotional impact and unfortunately the only way they could come up with it was to have the sweetest character sacrifice herself.

I love Toni Colette, I think she can do anything but it's too bad she got stuck with this.

Primal (2019– )

Read the synopsis then watch the show, too many reviews contain unmarked spoilers

[10/10 · 5 November 2020]

Yes, I'm trying to steer your experience, not because I'm a control freak but because I hope you get the full impact of the first episode. I was lucky enough to have no idea what I was about to watch other than a caveman & a dinosaur bonded by tragedy teaming up in a primal savage environment. So I watched it & it gets 10 stars from me because I just love this kind of stuff, read all the Tarzan books as a kid and Edgar Rice Burroughs other books featuring prehistoric adventures, loved Johnny Quest when I was little and generally grew up reading all manner of sci-fi adventure stuff that dealt with prehistoric themes, comics, novels, short stories, tv, movies etc and I'm 60 yrs old now so I'm somewhat of an expert on this kind of thing (lol) and this truly rocks! Just trust me.

Reckoning (2019)

Good looking people, some sexual intrigue but not much more

[3/10 · 23 October 2020]

Completely lacking in substance and believability, the actors get all 3 of my stars, they really weren't bad, the kids too, but the plot really stank - as somebody else said it had a Lifetime Movie feel about it after awhile. Leo's character arc gets so pathetic it's cringe-worthy. The other flaws would take a long time to type out, they are so abundant, so I won't bother but honestly, this had the potential to be so much better but the cheap writing really destroyed it.

Kajillionaire (2020)

Terrible, the most lifeless thing I think I've ever seen

[1/10 · 21 October 2020]

The movie is really as bleak as the lowlife penny pinching beggars it portrays. To call their pathetic schemes 'cons' is an insult to cons. The actors are good, Gina Rodriguez character actually has some life and bounce to her but there's nothing here unless you are entertained by pathetic people being as pathetic as possible. I don't mind that it's basically a vehicle for the message any love is good love especially if you've been deprived of it but the script is just terrible, the pace even worse. I can't really think of anything good to say about it. See it if you must but I'm telling you it's a clunker.

The Third Day (2020)

Might be your thing but really nothing makes any sense.

[5/10 · 26 September 2020]

I just can't get into a show where, as other reviews have pointed out, the main characters reactions to the situation just don't make any sense. Firstly if I ever, as a married man with kids, found a girl hanging herself in the woods, my first move would not be to put her in my car and drive her to a strange place that I suspect may be the root of her suicidal episode. My first move would be to involve the authorities or some type of healthcare professional. The girl is unconscious and I have no idea how she will react when she comes to and if she might actually be unstable enough to say I did something to her. The first move would be to have it on record that I brought her to the attention of the authorities regardless of how shaky a reputation child welfare agencies may have in my mind, I need to look out for myself and my family first. That would make for a whole different type of long drawn out story but at least it would be believable and less annoying. Then as he wanders around the island he hides when he sees other people. Why? He hides in the bushes while a man pees right in front of him. I thought they were going to have the guy pee right on him but they spared us that. Why though, is he hiding? It's just plain goofy. I give it 5 stars for the cast and cinematography but I'm going to have to find something less frustrating to watch.

Paul Shaffer Plus One: Donald Fagen (2019) Season 1, Episode 5

He does get great guests to appear but...

[5/10 · 7 September 2020]

Paul is not the best at interviewing, he talks too much and attempts to steer the guest where he wants them to go instead of simply asking the questions and letting them answer. A little prod here and there is useful with a reluctant interviewee such as Donald Fagen but he shouldn't have talked over him, it seemed almost manic on Shaffers part. When he's wrapping it up he says it's like a music lesson blah blah blah and Donald says "oh yeah, it was like school in 1953, staring out the window waiting for 3 o'clock" I laughed my a$$ off at that and it pretty much sums it up. At least he had opportunity to once again affirm the importance of Walter Becker to the entire Steely Dan songwriting process, both musically & lyrically.

The Owners (2020)

stupid teen horror junk

[2/10 · 4 September 2020]

It's shame to see the people who did such a great job of acting in GoT get stuck with these garbage roles, I'm pretty sure they wanted better for themselves, this is so far beneath Maisie Williams talents

Lovecraft Country (2020)

Surprisingly great first episode

[7/10 · 23 August 2020]

But Lovecraft Country took a drastic turn for the worse this past episode (e04). Wtf? I think they were trying to sort of parody a Raiders Of The Lost Ark feel but all they seemed to get was the lost factor right, it was all over the place and seemed really under-rehearsed and directionless like halfway through The Outsider mini-series if you saw that nightmare. I don't mind the racial tensions, I think we need to be aware of how truly scary it was for a black person to be caught out after dark, it's sick the way they were treated and that's the real horror story. This past episode was comical at best though and I really hope they can get this thing back on track and stop trying to shoot for cute in the middle of it all. They lost a few stars from my initial impression.

Inheritance (I) (2020)

one star each for Lily Collins & Simon Pegg but that's it

[2/10 · 25 May 2020]

Stupid movie, shallow characters who make stupid moves, just a mess - if you want to convince me Lily Collins' character is a district attorney at the top of her game then you have to write a character that behaves intelligently and that means you have to write a more complex plot to make any of the intended twists and thrills believable - instead they wrote a stupid incompetent emotionally erratic character who just does stuff so other stuff can happen and voila, they have a movie to sell - it's a shame because Lily is so darn pretty and so darn watchable, a potentially big star all around but she's in this sorry movie that lives maybe a few pegs above a teen horror movie

Siren (2018–2020)

Hard to believe this is still going and on a 3rd season

[1/10 · 11 April 2020]

I can't remember a series with worse acting, this is even worse than the recent The Outsider mini-series. I reviewed this the year it came out and am astonished it's still going.

Emergence (2019–2020)

The local Cub Scouts or Brownie troop must have written the rave reviews

[1/10 · 30 January 2020]

The lead actress was good in Fargo so I thought maybe the handlers that hooked her into that had hooked her into something good considering all the great reviews, but no, this is garbage if you're into sci-fi and it's garbage if you're not. It's yet another too-cute spin on the child with special powers and the cute relationship she has with a surrogate keeper who is not yet aware of what's going on. I suppose I could list the many shows that have done this & fizzled right out but none of them were memorable enough to recall the titles. Then you have the guy who was in Clueless & Scrubs trying to act seriously and he drops the ball pretty much every scene. If all you Cub Scouts & Brownies think you did your good deed of the day by writing nice reviews for this show, you didn't, you did a very very bad deed to the ppl who read them. Shame on you.

Motherless Brooklyn (2019)

I gave it a few stars for the caliber of the acting

[3/10 · 18 January 2020]

Motherless Brooklyn - what a waste. Ed Norton has tourettes and is a private eye seeking what got his beloved boss killed, fights the corruption/racism behind the eminent domain relocation of the poor being done so the slums can be torn down and developed by politicians who own the companies doing the developing. Hooks up with a hot black chick who is at the forefront of the protest movement, saves her life which was in danger for various reasons, (she's the secret daughter of one of the white politicians), so what do they do when they win and she falls in love with him? Move to a beachfront home on Long Island. Slums? What slums? The End.

Ad Astra (2019)

I liked it

[9/10 · 12 December 2019]

I don't understand the terrible ratings, I thought this was a great sci-fi mini-space opera with a great message. We're willing to spend so much in the hopes of finding other life and terraforming other planets when we have the perfect little fixer-upper right here. It would only take a millionth of a millionth the work to take care of home as it would to find other beings or terraform Mars up to spec.

If you couldn't pay attention throughout this short evenly paced movie, how did you ever make it through 2001 A Space Odyssey? Or didn't you.

Hustlers (2019)

Don't pay to see it whatever you do

[4/10 · 2 December 2019]

It's crazy that women who agree to make a living showing their bodies off to men see themselves as victims and the men who pay as villains or predators. Even the by line "savvy former strip club employees who band together to turn the tables on their Wall Street clients"

Really? Turn the tables on them? So their Wall Street clients were drugging and robbing them? It would be more honest to say a bunch of lazy who don't want to work for a living turn criminal when their legit stripping business dries up. It's unbelievable the light sentences they got for what should at least be considered felony assault and grand larceny. They could've killed any one of those guys and the damage they did to their lives was immense. Did they deserve it because they wanted to get laid? So who are we as a society, more open and accepting about sexuality or are we still "bad" for wanting it? Are only men bad for wanting it? Cognitive dissonance for 1000 Alex.

As for Jennifer Lopez, no doubt she still has a smoking hot body at 50 yrs old but I think the role of her lifetime is just about anything prior to this.

I still gave it a 4 because it was intriguing enough to make me want to see it all and find out what happened. It wasn't too poorly made but it's not all that deep of a movie either.

The War of the Worlds (2019)

Personally, I don't get all the negative reviews?

[8/10 · 26 November 2019]

I think it's about the best telling of the tale than any other put to film and the sets/effects are pretty good. So what it's not exactly like the book, a lot has happened since Wells wrote it, there's a lot of room for current social commentary. The big mistake is taking so long to get episode 3 out. Forget the naysayers and at least give episode one a try. That's it, short and sweet.

Evil (2019–2024)

The rating is mainly because I liked it in spite of

[6/10 · 8 October 2019]

We've seen it before, a too-cute supernatural series. Shows like this usually get cancelled pretty quickly so I'm not getting my hopes up too high. Somehow I like the show and want to see their take on the supernatural vs science but it's sort of veering off course already with a racist accusation going on and the lead spiritualist revealed to be using a drug to 'see God'. The kids are cute and the lead actress is cute and a good mom, her own mom is portrayed as the free-spirit wise hippy-ish/biker-ish relic etc...like I said, we've seen this before and they usually don't last but if you're interested in man's take on God it might give you a few things to think about but it looks like they're heading for drama over substance already.

Powaqqatsi (1988)

It's part two of a trilogy

[10/10 · 25 May 2019]

1.) Koyaanisqatsi: Life Out of Balance

2.) Powaqqatsi: Life in Transformation

3.) Naqoyqatsi: Life as War

all three by Godfrey Reggio featuring scores by Phillip Glass - check them all out

Black Summer (2019–2021)

You just need to like apocalyptic scenarios with fast zombies

[9/10 · 30 April 2019]

...and you should be fairly happy with this. There are some bad moves by characters but overall, they keep the tension high, the action fast, and the scenes uncompromising. Your favorites may die and your least favorite may live. I didn't care for the ending much but I wouldn't take points off for that. Also it helps if you like vignette type scenarios, though that kind of goes out the window after a few episodes and the chapter names begin to have nothing to do with changing character focus which I did take points off for. Definitely watch it if you're into this genre, you will likely get some entertainment out of it.

Hostile Planet (2019)

There's no agenda and no blame leveled here, just observable facts

[10/10 · 10 April 2019]

The facts are the global climate IS changing but never once did he say it was 'the end of the world' or that 'it's mankinds fault', I'm not sure what some of these naysayer reviewers were watching but they were hearing what they wanted to hear, not what he said. He did blame man for overfishing during the ocean episode and it wasn't a lie or liberal propaganda, just an observable fact. There is no way crews of cameramen, scientists and naturalists can spend this amount of time in the field gathering data and shooting footage without seeing the state of the environment. You want them to NOT report what they see and the data they record? I recommend watching this show for anybody willing to pull their head out of the sand and just learn a few things.

The Mule (2018)

Okay if you have nothing better to do.

[5/10 · 23 March 2019]

The movie wasn't really very believable but the plot is sort of like a foil for him to tell his ongoing stories of redemption, like the Unforgiven, like Gran Torino, like etc etc - it was great his first time at repentance with Unforgiven, but it's gotten cliche for his films now

Siren (2018–2020)

I was interested, but not for long.

[1/10 · 8 March 2019]

Briefly put it's a kiddie sci-fi fantasy and I mean it comes across as one too. Even some of the actors look like they can't take it seriously. They often look like they can't believe they're still making a paycheck off of this. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, it's a dud.

Vox Lux (2018)

Just watch it and pay attention

[10/10 · 24 February 2019]

There are more than enough details already given on this page, so my 2 cents will be short. Vox Lux means 'voice of light' roughly and Celeste means 'heavenly' as in 'celestial'. The young lady rises into a musical position somewhere between indie-pop and christian pop without really being pigeonholed into a christian artist label, christian record company or only christian radio airplay. There are a few real musicians who were able to accomplish this feat and thereby maintain a broader audience. Does it matter? Yes I think it's a major point of the story by the end especially in light of the last bit of narration by Willem Dafoe. Whether you believe in spiritual influences or not, it's still a great film. I don't believe in monsters but I'm highly entertained by monster movies at times. This film is, I think intended to disturb but in a subtle magnetic way and it worked on me, I even got the soundtrack for the sake of some of the earlier songs and both lead actresses Raffey Cassidy and Natalie Portman can sing a song worth hearing.

How the Universe Works (2010– )

I gave it a 3 because it's still interesting speculation

[3/10 · 23 February 2019]

For the most part I'm with reviewer engelhorn. This series lives on conjecture. While they readily admit not knowing much by the end of every episode they have it all figured out. In the one about whether or not the big bang actually happened or not, there are claims that out beyond not only the solar system, but beyond all galaxies and stars there lies empty space, however(!) it's anything but empty! There are particles passing in and out of existence, there's no doubt they are there, in fact, we can see them! Really? You can't even get a good shot of Pluto but you can see particles pass in and out of existence in the twinkling of an eye way way out beyond all of the galaxies. They'll say anything to appear correct and it's just hoodwinkery at it's most obvious.

Replicas (2018)

Get's one star for the idea...

[1/10 · 26 December 2018]

...but that's about all. The concept of bringing back dead loved ones (what could go wrong?) is as old as The Monkeys Paw written in 1902, but it does leave open the possibility of great emotional drama if handled correctly. So they get one star for that possibility but this film drops the ball at the whistle and never recovers. One reviewer said it sucked and Keanu Reeves does a great job of making it even worse. I laughed so hard at that one because it basically took the words right out of my mouth. Reeves cannot act. Cannot even pretend to act. His dialogue delivery has always been wooden and awkward, now he can't even run convincingly. There is one scene where he almost becomes emotionally believable but by then it's far, far too late. I am so glad I watched this on somebody else's dime, it wasn't worth a cent.

Tales of Poe (2014)

This is a case of 'must be the cast who gave the reviews and ratings'

[1/10 · 25 December 2018]

The worst piece of junk you'll likely ever watch. It looks like it was filmed in somebody's backyard. It may be ok as an acting class exercise but to be presented to the public is a sham. You've been warned.