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Reviews
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Masks (1994)
I liked it.
I noticed the low rating before watching it, and therefore was primed to skip to the next episode, but it held my interest all the way through.
Highlights for me were Brent Spiner's various characters; he is definitely the best actor in this series and I enjoyed watching him dip into his repertoire of faces and voices. Also, the conversation about symbols used by ancient civilizations I found interesting.
I understand that this isn't enough for a lot of people, and I don't imagine I'll ever watch it again. If you're not a big Data fan you might want to give it a miss.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Timescape (1993)
Nothing but technobabble
It's just a long and tedious discussion of technical gobbledegook. I kept looking at the clock. As others have pointed out, there are numerous technical things that break the internal logic of the episode, but honestly I don't care so much about that sort of thing as long as I'm entertained.
The only reason to watch this episode is Captain Picard. He does a very impressive and funny impression of a boring convention speaker, and also shows his acting chops when his fingernails grow and when he has an unexpected encounter that makes him temporarily loopy.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Cause and Effect (1992)
Excellent idea but gets a bit tedious
I don't know how they could have improved on it, though, because unlike Groundhog Day the entire crew is stuck and has to figure that out together. So that means you can't have humorous encounters with unwitting participants by a protagonist who knows he's stuck. Bill Murray's character knew from the moment he woke up every day that he was stuck. That's where the humor was and what made his journey to being a better person possible.
This show is more like a thought experiment.
Conagher (1991)
Way too slow
I agree with everything that ma-cortes wrote, who also gave it 6 stars. It's poorly plotted and goes way, way too slow, which doesn't quite make up for the individual performances which are all very good.
Palm Springs (2020)
Worth watching once
If you're looking for a Buddhist influenced character building experience akin to Groundhog Day, this ain't it. The main characters do not care about become people. But Sandler was surprisingly OK in a lead role that required plenty of serious acting. The female lead? Meh.
The movie was good enough to watch once. I laughed a few times. I might even watch it again in the distant future. But it's no Groundhog Day. There, now that I've lowered your expectations you can watch it and be mildly, pleasantly surprised.
The White Tiger (2021)
A good, but somewhat Hollywoodized adaptation
I read the book when it came out and I loved it. It shocked me. Great writing and so believable. The movie successfully conveys the point of the book - that if you're poor you're screwed in India. It's dog eat dog. And it follows the book plot rather well.
But I have two quibbles:
1) The second half is more drawn out than necessary. The time between being forced to sign the document and him killing his master could have been easily compressed, but the movie making is so good that I didn't really mind.
2) The ending. I suppose the book's ending was deemed too dark for Western audiences and they may be right, so fair enough. It makes me want to read the book again. The writing is excellent.
The main actor is tremendously good. His transformation from subservient (but likeable) bootlicker (out of necessity, mind you) to stone cold Alpha male at the end is impressive. I want to see more of him.
The Girl Can't Help It (1956)
Terrible, Terrible, Terrible
I only watched this because Paul McCartney mentioned it when talking to Ronnie Wood. I fast forwarded through most of it because it is so bad. It's an important movie for him because it was his first chance to see some of his favorite groups he had only known from records, but we have YouTube now (that's where I found the movie) so there is no need to sit through this. And most of the music performances are other no name groups the kids' parents would have liked.
The highlights were Eddie Cochran doing Elvis and the black maid dancing.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Host (1991)
Great Idea
I love the idea - a lump that looks like an internal organ is actually the entity and it uses different hosts (humanoids) as needed. But the big shocker for me is that for once Babs McFadden's acting didn't make me long for the 2nd season doctor, who could act circles around her. Where has this talent been for more than three and a half seasons? Maybe she's just only good at "being in love" characters. But they really should have done more with the second host, whose personality didn't match. Maybe lesbianism was too racy for early 90s network TV. Oh well.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: Identity Crisis (1991)
Plodding plot and creepy Jordy returns
When Jordy gets around women he acts like a creepy simp. The earlier episode where he recreated the the woman scientist in the Holodeck was even worse. Javiergarcon described it well.
When Jordy interacts with others he's fine and I like him and he shows good acting chops, so I suppose it's the writing.
It doesn't help that the doctor had a lot of lines in this episode. She cannot act. That's why she got fired after the first season and it's beyond me why they didn't keep the 2nd year doctor, who wasn't as hot but was 100 times the actor the redhead would ever be.
So those two things, added to the plodding plot, had me looking at my watch and hoping it would be over soon. The idea, that an organism invades a human and changes them into another species, is a good one and and exploring that experience, rather than the tedious trouble shooting aboard the Enterprise, could have made for a memorable episode.
Fat City (1972)
A Drunkalogue
I can't stand watching characters on the screen who are in the depths of their
addiction. I'm a recovered alcoholic and I just don't find it interesting to revisit
that. The movie is full of lowlifes who don't change at all from beginning to end;
they just act out pointless, poorly-written scenes and never have any insights.
The obnoxious girlfriend is an absolute loser whose every utterance is like nails on a chalkboard. She should have had zero screen time. Actually, the entire movie should have had zero screen time. I skipped at least 30 minutes in the middle.