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VaughanMurrae
Reviews
How to Date Billy Walsh (2024)
At least the two lead actors were good.
The casting is good. Sebastian Croft and Charithra Chandran deliver strong performances given the material they had to work with. The issue isn't with its casting, but the writing and middling-level ambience. It's very evident that this film is trying entirely too hard to land. It's a 100 minute Steve Buscemi with a skateboard meme: "hello fellow kids". It's screaming Disney y2k era teen movie level of depth with a touch of Glee mean kid slapstick. The jokes just don't land and conflict is cartoonish. It's so... banal. It feels like not a single person who had creative decision-making power has ever met, a 2024 teen, let alone gotten to know them on any fundamental level. If this is what teens of today have for viewing, no wonder viewership is down. Do better.
Avatar: The Last Airbender (2024)
A great adaptation with an inclusion uniquely suitable for the maturity of a live action.
New "Avatar: The Last Airbender" Live Action Review
Off the top, I love it. It's not an easy task to truncate 24 episodes into 8 regardless of the triple time 50 min length per episode.
CASTING
They stayed true to the characters and their personalities. The casting is on point. And ask you, how many opportunities do you see a diverse cast ABCENT of leading white character(s) or a single white "hero" that saves a BIPoC cast... in original English language?
SCRIPT
They largely maintain the course of events well and even with the blending of arcs, they overlap and weave together without feeling crunched. I do however acknowledge they unnecessarily messed with Koh (the face stealer), though; but not enough to compromise the integrity of the production.
ART & VX
The costuming, colour timing, and editing are tight, and unrushed.
The bending... omg the bending. The care they took to create a realistic effect is SO MUCH subtler than what people appreciate. (I used to work in film) they are using a combination of digital and practical effects which results in movement that seemingly obeys physics. There's weight, and resistance to create the effect the bender essentially commands the element move in a manner within those properties. EXCELLENT!
LIVE ACTION vs ANIMATION
The motion and dialogue have translated well. It's difficult to find the right timing with humour. I think Sokka could have been a little punchier, but his sardonic wit is there, and I hope we see it expand as the character gains confidence with his place on the team.
THEMATIC INCLUSION
And now something I didn't expect, but it greatly suits the attenuated maturity of live action and not something that could be highlighted in an age 8+ animated show. THAT IS THE INCLUSION of war trauma and its impact on society, its people and how... generational it is.
The particular moment with Iroh, comes to mind, but there are many to choose from. Regardless of how much we love Iroh, and regardless of his desire to seek redemption and balance-and later his allyship with the Avatar, he was in fact a war criminal. He acted on the behest of an Imperialist conquest. His actions brought of pain and a generation of trauma-even to himself. Looking someone in the eye about that was... well, it was complex. And I appreciated the show not letting him off lightly about it, and also weaving in the consequences of war-its impact, in other places in the show. Shown in this manner, it is UNIQUE to the live action.
CONCLUSION
All in all, I think this is a great live action adaptation. It feels like there was great effort and consideration in the making of this show. I can appreciate it for its own unique merits without abandoning the intensions of its source work.
7.5 - 8/10.
Quantum Leap (2022)
Network TV style entertains without heavy emotional investment.
Quantum Leap revival is-if we judge on a scale for network TV, quite good. It doesn't shake my life, but that's kind of its attraction. It entertains without heavy emotional investment which makes it great for when you want distraction and to unplug from life. I hope it continues.
If I were to make a suggestion on it, I'd say drop the reconciled plot per episode. Take time with the leaps, let viewers become invested with the characters. Instead of single episodes, give the stories 3 or 4 episodes to conclude while maintaining interconnectivity with the seasonal arc.
Raymond Lee is a terrific choice for lead, and I am overjoyed to see diverse casting choices that bring Mason Alexander Park in front of audiences.
The Marvels (2023)
Disney tossing diamonds on a dung heap with a fantastic cast having to work with a clumsy script.
The Marvels entertained me. It didn't rock my world, and it's no fault of casting or the decision to make a woman lead film.
The writing is just a bit of a hot mess. I think Marvel writers across the franchise have written themself into a corner by not adapting to the needs of comic lore in a technomoderized world. The science in the film didn't sustain belief, and the motivations of the antagonist was unnecessarily convoluted, the furry subplot; an afterthought.
Without good science, narratives like the multiverse, cosmic settings and space ecosystems do not hold together in the minds of viewers.
The interpersonal politics lately has been unimaginative and way too human, and American, centric producing derivative content with space dressing.
In other films, the humour in Marvel films was there to support the main plot, and allow the audience respite through its more serious content. Since the serious content is falling flat, the humour is trying to do all the heavy lifting and it's coming across canned and awkward. You see this in Thor Love and Thunder, you see it in some of the series work on Disney.
Back to The Marvels. The cast carried themselves really well and were entirely believable in the characters they played. Honestly, I felt kind of like Disney was tossing diamonds on a dung heap with their fantastic casting having to work with a clumsy script with first draft energy, that leaves the audience distracted by its shortcomings. What a waste.
Imo, the person that truly carried this film, EVERY TIME she was on screen was Toronto's Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan. She lit every scene, and that says a lot with heavy hitters like Brie Larson and Samuel L. Jackson sharing the screen.
All in all, I do not regret my ticket purchase, and I WILL rewatch on streaming AND add the blu ray to my Marvel collection. I was entertained, but also a more than a little peeved.
I hope Disney and its Marvel Studios franchise can pull it together and remember how to create art.
6/10 stars.
I Like Movies (2022)
Made me miss the video stores.
I encourage film lovers to get out to see I LIKE MOVIES while during its theatre run.
Writer and Director Chandler Laveck has written such compelling and complex human beings.
The lead protagonist Lawrence Kweller is at all times amusing, frustrating, unlikable and endearing. What a tough sell! Actor Isaiah Lehtinen has done a fantastic job of hitting the right notes every moment.
Others Romina D'Ugo, Krista Bridges and Percy Hynes-White's solid chemistry on screen was steadfastly convincing throughout. The film is so tight with the smallest details from art direction, costuming, language, pop culture references, character motivations and development.
Bones: The Strike in the Chord (2016)
Fatphobic episode tells everything you need to know about the show's producers and writers.
The only intern in which body diversity was presented is as clumsy, sluggish and with lower mental acumen than her peers. Shameful, and definitely not the first time this show shows it's contempt for body diversity.
Bones: The Master in the Slop (2014)
Denigrates women in science
Sweets gets to be a chess master. Cam, Angela and Brennen are "honoured" for being women in science by wearing a bikinis. The writing denigrates the most notable strength of this show which is top women in science.