justhandguns Reviews

Jack Ryan (2018–2023)

Good on its own, but don't expect this is genuine Tom Clancy stories

[5/10 · 21 December 2022]

I have totally forgotten about this series until they are saying that Season 3 will be coming out tomorrow, literally. So I binge watched S1 and S2 for the entire day. The stories have little resemblance to any of Clancy's novels, even though there were still dirty bombs, bio weapons and lots of fundamentalists and dictators running around in the series. There are also quite a lot of actions as well, and this version of Jack seems to be a combination of a smart analyst as well as a super soldier. And randomly sleep with some woman that he picks up in a foreign bar? Seriously? As a Tom Clancy fan, I am disappointed. Not sure if they have issue with the copyright of John Clark in the series, anyone who have read the novels would know that John does all the 'hands-on' operations for Ryan. Those who wrote the stories seriously need to go back and read the books again. I have no problem modernising some of the geopolitics and background histories used in the stories, but it could be much better.

Am I going to watch season 3? Yes. But I hope they will do a better.

The Terminal List (2022– )

Decent Military/Conspiracy/Revenge thriller

[7/10 · 2 July 2022]

To be honest, there is nothing new in terms of the plot of the story, a combination of SpecOps+Revenge+Conspiracy. You can almost predict every move that the story would go. If you like military actions, there's plenty of it and of very high quality. Chris Pratt plays a combination of Jason Bourne, Rambo, John Wick and Jack Reacher all rolled in one, and he just has one mission and one mission alone. It is a pure male macho entertainment with plenty of brutal torturing scenes. Some of the plots are pretty weak and the pace is slow with way too many flashback scenes. I had to do some fast-forwarding just to avoid becoming bored. And as usual, if you want to enjoy the show, you don't scrutinize every single detail in the story.

Chris Pratt has done a great job coming from his Marvel and Jurassic (and the Office) impressions. I would give 9/10 for the action scenes especially with some of the minor details such as gun handlings and the survival and evasive tactics that played out in the series. The story however, is very predictable, I would only give it a 5/10.

Trigger Point (2022– )

Nothing spectacular

[4/10 · 13 February 2022]

I was expecting it to be at least on par with 'The Line of Duty' with a shorter story to tell. First episode tricked a lot of people into thinking that it would be great, but what followed was unrealistic and illogical. Everything happens with the one and only bomb disposal team in London, with an unstable and irrational bomb disposal officer in the middle of a micro world of domestic terrorism, branched with unnecessary personal love affairs (to extend the run time). What a waste of the good cast.

City Hunter (2018)

Better than I expected, a refreshing live action City Hunter adaption

[7/10 · 8 December 2020]

By far the best live-action adaption of the City Hunter manga/animation. Not that it is excellent, but at least all the characters and the background story are faithful to the original City Hunter manga, unlike most of the Hollywood productions. The actor who played Umibozu (Mammoth) really looks the part, and not just some big bold guy wear a pair of shades. The story itself is a straight forward, comedic one, with some (subtle) adult humors, a bit like the old Benny Hill show if you are old enough and English. I do wish they will carry on making some sequels with the same cast with some additions of the regular characters in the manga.

Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2024)

Visually stunning, but certainly not a Star Trek series

[3/10 · 26 September 2017]

The only connection to the original ST canon is Sarek. I personally do not like the movie remakes but at least they have real Spock in there and were quite entertaining. Discovery basically goes against everything that Gene Roddenberry created. The stars that I give here is because of the visual, strong casting and good acting. The rest are simply wrong. I do not understand why Hollywood producers are all addicted to those Dark Knight theme production, but first one who created it was a genius, and whoever follows..... sucks.

I suspect those producers, writers and directors have ever watch any of the older Star Trek series or movies. They simply have not grasped any of Gene Roddenberry's idea of equality, humanity and vision. Having African/Asian females as leads simply means politically correctness. They had everything with the original series where you have crew members from the Cold War and WW2 enemies, an African female officer etc. Then you have a captain who always had an angel and demon on both sides, logical or emotional. And what do they have now? De- evolved Klingons to their stone age while having cloaking space ships? Then you have such an erratic first officer brought up by the Vulcans from small? It simply does not make sense to me.

Honestly, The Orville wins hands down.

Security (I) (2017)

Movie 1 + Banderas 3 + Sir Ben 3

[7/10 · 16 August 2017]

Honestly, this is more like a Steven Segal direct to disc movie. But I watch it simply because it's got Banderas and Ben Kingsley in there. Almost the entire movie is shot indoor in a studio, but you know, it is simply satisfying to see the old Zoro kicking arses once more.... in a mall.

Six (2017–2018)

Better than most

[6/10 · 14 February 2017]

I watched the first few two episodes with a bit of skepticism. It turned out to be OK, but do not expect it to be like Zero Dark Thirty. This show actually reminds me of one British made SAS short series, the Ultimate Force, which had a very good 1st season with real ex-SAS as show writer and adviser, and on a tiny budget.

I am not sure how much budget they got to make 'Six'. I think if the show is intended to be played on the History channel, it should be a bit more documentary like. Like some of the other reviews said, the show put too much emphasis on the personal 'problems' of team members. Not all SF members have family or relationship problems, and they are more professional than that, in real life.

What is lacking is the technical (and tactical) side of things, SEALs are not your local fire department or some fast response units. Most missions are meticulously planned. I would love to see things like in 'Tears of the Sun'.

I hope the later episodes will not spiral down to become some sort of soap opera about moral conflicts of soldiers and PTSDs. I would not be too happy if I were a real DEVGRU personnel watching it....

Jason Bourne (I) (2016)

Borne movie without a story

[2/10 · 21 November 2016]

4th instalment of Matt Damon's Bourne series, probably the worst of them all in terms of the story plot. This further confirms that the current crop of Hollywood writers are simply 'shxt'. If they did not have Robert Ludlum's original novel to based on, they just did not know how to plot at all. Besides from the lack of an 'intelligent' storyline, this latest movie offers nothing new to the audiences visually. The fight scenes and the chase scenes look amateur when compared to all the previous movies. It deviates so much from Bourne's original idea (the complete opposite of James Bond) that it is becoming like the new Bond movies. I think the director forgot that we want to see how our hero tricks and fights his way through all the hurdles rather than one depressed agent looking for his ever mysterious root. All in all, if you just want pure Bourne action and brainless entertainment, this would be a good movie, but if you are thinking of buying up some platinum Bluray collector's edition, you can just forget it.

MacGyver (2016–2021)

Disappointing Pilot

[2/10 · 27 September 2016]

After watching the remake of Lethal Weapon TV pilot, I was so eager to see what the new MacGyver is on offer. And I must say I am totally disappointed. Like many had just written here, the only resemblance is that Mac has long hair. Of course the boss is now a woman, just like in the recent Bond movies, and that basically what they are trying to portray MacGyver as Bond (with a Swiss Army knive.....)! And instead of MacGyver trying to defuse the situation all by his own ingenuity, he now has a team of expert hacker and a trigger happy special-op bodyguard with constant com in their ears? Seriously? Team MacGyver?

I wonder what sort of audiences they are trying to appeal to, old time nostalgic people (such as me?) or younger audiences who have never seen a single episode of the original series. For someone who grew up with MacGyver, I would at least love to see someone who resembles Richard Dean Anderson. They will have to do much much better to keep the show running.