Change Your Image
johnr_roberts
Reviews
Red Dog (2011)
Had potential - the colour of the dog's coat was nice, for a start - just the wrong team worked on it. Ho hum.
Let's get the extremely moronic error out of the way - no cigarettes shown ANYWHERE on set. This was the 1970s, after all. They didn't need to show the actors SMOKING them, just holding them and placing them back in the ashtray would have been sufficient. No - banned.
Then, in interviews, the producer crows about running the moral high ground and lecturing the viewing public about how we should appreciate them NOT including cigarettes in a period piece.
Uh, no - wrong.
It makes you wonder if these same people made a movie which was set today whether they would show the actors vaping, which is eclipsing smoking numbers these days.
However, the same HYPOCRITES have no qualms about showing the constant consumption of alcohol (the drug that causes more death, poverty, rape, injury, health issues and misery than the rest of the drugs combined). Especially when you consider the couple or so women in the town are outnumbered by all those drunk men, and what that implies.
I don't smoke or drink either, by the way.
Too many anachronisms to ignore (in addition to the smoking). The movie opens in 1971. The Western Australian town is set HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS OF MILES from any location with a radio station, so night AM reception would be, at the VERY best, the weak crackly government ABC playing classical music fading in and out due to the rise and fall of the heavyside layer (if you received anything at all).
They should have made it a Twilight Zone episode anyway, as that was the only way a 1974 song could play out of an truck AM radio in 1971 as it did in the movie! Maybe the Twilight Zone might also work for the 1980 Holden panel van that appears, or the 1978 song that plays in the background later in the movie.
"U be needing an ed-u-cation". If I'd heard that one more time during the movie I was going to scream - or kill the producer! Yes, Australian country town life is boring (especially this town) and the story is a bare-bones one, but including a stupid catchphrase ad nauseam before a fight begins does not change this. Creative writing does!
Let's put it this way - the dog's screen test for 'Red Dog' was far more entertaining and less tedious than the movie itself!
Ford v Holden (2023)
It's good - but have been much better
Overall, quite entertaining - didn't like the red half-screens throughout, though.
A few inaccuracies crept in (in fact, the whole documentary was more about the 'vibe' than the facts) - the main correction needing to be made was that Ford ALSO submitted a plan to the Australian Federal Government (in 1945) to build motor cars here - at no startup cost to the Australian taxpayer - unlike Holden, who was funded at startup and propped-up during its lifetime to the tune of 2 billion dollars.
And 'the HQ Holden went through to the end of the 70s'. Uh, no, the model designation ended in 1974; in its varying configurations and names the HQ chassis lived on till 1984. And then they had the 'DUNNY MAN' hosting, instead of a really-knowledgeable guy like John Goss? P-lease.
The most glaring omission is the complete lack of mention of Chrysler (and the Leyland P76 - they could have deleted all the multiple-repeated footage and stuck it in there!), despite Valiants and Chargers continually appearing in Bathurst racing footage! Chrysler actually started the Ford-Holden 'power race' with the V8 Valiant released in 1965! It wasn't called 'The Big Three' for nothing, you know.
Hell, even Toyota got a mention! They then showed a Chrysler Sigma whilst implying it was built in Japan! Chrysler also projected a upmarket image for its vehicles that was never mentioned, but that kept the other two honest.
Get Smart, Again! (1989)
Sorry about that, Chief
I LOVED the sixties series, but by 1989 all the actors had aged (how does a robot get cheek jowls?), and 99's hairstyle, while it suits her aging appearance, emphasises that she is just another housewife. Sadly, had Edward Platt lived, he would have been like the Admiral.
Don Adams' sunburn-ravaged skin, overdone blepharoplasty and too-high toupee are like a car crash that you spend 75% of the movie looking at, trying to ignore but failing miserably. BUT MOST OF ALL the lack of cigarette props (which gave him a sophisticated air, as well as the opportunity for more gags), lack of tight scene-framing with electric guitar scoring, NO canned laughter, and a plot not even as strong as that of The Nude Bomb, just make this movie another typical not-great 80s sitcom. Should have left well enough alone.
The Beverly Hillbillies: Topless Anyone? (1968)
Smut has no place in 1960s comedies
Must disagree with the previous reviewer. While the idea of injecting adult humor into a comedy to shore up flagging ratings doesn't raise an eyebrow these days (today the show would not be allowed on television for having an all-white cast, for example - how times have changed), remember this was the 1960s, when Americans would not even speak about going to the BATHROOM in shows, let alone toilet. And the Beverly Hillbillies was watched by CHILDREN.
When Jed's mistaken impression of 'topless' (ie. Being without a hat) is corrected at the end of the show, and the announcer breaks the wall and sleazily states, "Why Jed, you're blushing!" it made me squirm and want to sink thorugh the floor from embarrassment - and I was watching it in my living room!
The Simpsons: The Longest Marge (2022)
Another pointless episode, but not in a funny way.
Mr. Burns appears to have caught Marge's (permanent) laryngitis. That's the only thing I remember from this episode. That, and lots of brandy being drunk.
The Simpsons: I'm with Cupid (1999)
Loved it
I only took 1 star off because it's obviously not Elton John's (nasal) speaking voice. In fact it sounds like Hank Azaria's pig from "King-Size Homer".
The Simpsons: A Serious Flanders (2021)
Why the heck wasn't this prefaced by "Treehouse of Horror XXXIII"? Some words flashed by so quickly I missed them!
Of course, by prefacing this with T. O. H., it indicates the episode is not to be accepted as canon as well as being unsuitable for young children.
I watched this with my young grandchildren and I had to turn it off as I wanted to vomit. I also had to explain to them that Disco Stu and Mr. Burns weren't really killed (I think). Gore for the sake of gore is not 'edgy' - it is a show of lacking ideas.
Of course, the Simpsons is so politically correct now, there are only bodily emissions left to show, because the writers can't think of anything else. Ironically, this last was exactly the sort of thing that would get a cartoon banned in the 60s!
The Simpsons: The Last Barfighter (2021)
Sorry, but I don't speak Spanish
What was with all the Spanish in this episode? What used to happen was that Bumblebee Man would use Spanish words that were close to English equivalents (or used Spanglish), so that even non-literates like me could work out what was going on. The ending was also very unsatisfactory - they strayed so far from the drunken Homer premise so as to make his relapse so unpalatable that the series should end right here and now!
The Simpsons: Manger Things (2021)
Maude Flanders as Miss Hoover on steroids is Depressing
Yes, Maude gets 'resurrected' yet again as Flanders' sidekick, but rather than extracting humor from her somewhat misguided support of her extremist husband, the new writers have turned her into a b**ch on wheels. And she ain't funny!
And, here yet again we have the non-talking Carl. It is clear the writers are frightened about the backlash when he actually talks with his horrible new voice!
Why are they talking about Uber when Lisa is 2 years old and Homer has hair?
Lenny has now caught that HORRIBLE laryngitis that has been affecting Julie Kavner's voice for I-don't-know-how-many-epsiodes-now.
Scrap the "gauche gag" (sorry, couch gag) at the start because it's just STUPID now.
Moe watching Marge and Homer making out is no longer funny, just creepy!
Todd "Homer" Flanders? Maggie "Lenny" Simpson? It's clear the money is the only thing keeping this going and the writers are scraping the bottom of the barrel because they've run out of ideas.
The Simpsons: Bart the Bad Guy (2020)
Really - another pathetic attempt at an Australian accent?
Hank Azaria has said he was through with voicing Apu, yet the so-called "Australian accent" of 'Airshot' (done by an American) is so poor it transcends parody and is just plain bad ( you can't do Australian accents, get it in your head! The only non-Australian that can is, ironically, Tracey Ullman). Nobody speaks like Apu in real life, just like no-one in Australia speaks like Airshot. As usual, the overly-sharp graphics, colour-muted palette and boring storyline make it hard to watch. Don't tell me it's going to be like this forever.
Ford v Ferrari (2019)
Love the 60s
Great movie. Ah, the good old days of characters and seat-of-the pants motor racing! One small thing - early in the movie they go out of their way to paint a typical 60s garage on a typical '63 American street, then Caitriona Balfe comes out to meet her husband in an anachronistic modern-style mini dress! She should have been wearing period-style women's beach shorts which would have ALSO shown off her 'loverly pins'.