rickspung Reviews

Shōgun (2024–2026)

It Worked For Me

[8/10 · 29 April 2024]

I really liked this series. I didn't watch the Richard Chamberlain series, so I didn't know the story. I liked coming into this raw, because everything was a surprise.

They spent a ton of money on the budget, and it shows. Great, scenic shots. Completely immersive. Costumes, locations, sets all 100% real to me.

Other reviews talked about VFX. Evidently, the tech has improved to the point that, when it is done correctly, the average viewer can't tell. For this show, I couldn't tell. Everything was real to me.

Midway through, I was hoping for another season, but the last two episodes made me realize there was nothing left to tell. The death of one of the characters was devastating and I couldn't imagine another season without her.

I have one rule for a TV series or movie: It is either a success or a dud, based on one thing- did I feel immersed? Did I buy into it and lose myself in the story? With this one, the answer was yes.

Really, that's all I need to know. If I find myself questioning the plot, the dialogue, the casting, the sets, etc. Then it didn't work. Harsh, but that's the job - either sell it or fail.

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Great Effort, Lousy Story

[5/10 · 24 April 2024]

Dune makes no sense at all. A desert planet with zero vegetation and zero surface water somehow supports widespread life.

What do people eat? If they eat meat, what does the meat eat?

How did Paul send a metal wand with a message to the Emperor on another planet?

Why didn't the Fremen defend their home when it was attacked? They obviously have intel, because they know when/where the spice harvesters are, and they can attack them from long distances with some type of energy rays.

Where do the Fremen get their clothing, tents, tools, etc?

How can Fremen load dozens of people, with massive packs of material, onto the backs of worms that are constantly moving at great speeds?

Where do the worms get material to grow so big? There is no carbon (plant matter), almost no meat and almost no water. How do they grow?

How do fleets of ships from several other worlds ("The Houses") travel to Dune so fast?

Nothing makes sense. The massive budget produced a nice story to watch, but logically, it cannot exist.

3 Body Problem (2024– )

Bad Adaptation of Good Sci-Fi Story

[4/10 · 10 April 2024]

This is an adaption of a three-part sci-fi novel series, written by a Chinese author. This movie is projected to be the first of three or four, covering the entire trilogy.

The generous budget and some of the science made it interesting, as well as the story line in the novels.

My main problems with this adaptation are the insistence of the show creators to insert unnecessary romantic entanglements between several of the young scientists who are the protagonists. Completely unnecessary and off-putting. Gave the show a "Friends meets Big Bang Theory" element that took away from the original story.

In addition, all the scientists are unrealistically cast. They are all under 30, yet they are supposed to have spent a decade-plus earning multiple, advanced science degrees. Pretty faces over-emoting, to amp up the social drama, instead of just telling the great story in the trilogy.

One part that made me laugh at the TV was when the young, idealistic nanotechnology "genius" violates all her funding agreements, decides to open-source her tech and destroy any chance of the financial backers from developing real-world applications. In real life, this could be considered a criminal offense that would result in her bankruptcy. In the movie, nothing happens to her and she decides to travel the world, making water treatment filters.

Then it shows her in a third world Central/South American country, ridiculously screwing on a nano-filter cartridge to a village's water pump.

As a chemical engineer who understands water filtration, this was a comical fail.

First of all, the pressure drop across the filter would be strong enough to prohibit hand pumping. It would require an large, electric motor/pump assembly, just to produce any output.

Secondly, the more a filter catches, the faster it plugs. This filter wouldn't last more than an hour or two (at best). After an hour, it would need replacement. The used filter would be unrecyclable garbage.

This water filtration exercise would be prohibitively expensive and would require electrical supply installation/upgrades at every application.

The scientific illiteracy is mind-boggling, just for that one tiny example.

I won't even get into the 300 nukes in space issue. Completely impossible to achieve. Oh, and the suspended animation technology? How many decades are we into the future?

Completely unrealistic.

Never Let Me Go (2010)

Someone Needs to Explain Science to Alex Garland

[1/10 · 7 March 2024]

This is the guy who wrote Sunshine (one nuke can totally re-ignites the Sun, you guys!)

Now he decides to make a movie about kids who grow up to be organ donors. And they find out about it, but they're still kind of OK with it.

What? How is this a believable concept?

I just can't buy into scripts for the scientifically illiterate. Like someone else said, after they take three organs out of one of the donors, she dies and they leave her lying there.

Um, guys? There's about two dozen more things you could take out. And it could save the lives of a bunch of the other kids, right?

But I digress. Here's the thing- people die every day, from a variety of causes. If you're going to be a fascist society, where some people have no rights whatsoever, why not make organ donation upon death mandatory?

Then the little kiddos don't have to get cut up, right?

*Sigh*

Sunshine (2007)

What???

[1/10 · 7 March 2024]

I don't understand how anyone intelligent could watch this film. Igniting the Sun with a nuke is like filling the ocean with a semi-truck load of water bottles.

Scale, people! The Sun is 1.3 MILLION times the size of the Earth.

One nuke would do almost nothing to the Earth. Imagine exploding 1.3 million nukes on the Sun. Same ratio. Nothing happens.

Sure, you get some radiation in a tiny, miniscule percentage of the targeted area.

Sure, you perform the equivalent of lighting a match in Wembley Stadium (or the Super Dome, or Texas Stadium... you get the idea).

And they sent ONE NUKE, to re-ignite the Sun?

I'm sorry, I just can't. Even putting aside the science, the rest of the plot is a meaningless slog through irrelevant "drama" about people cracking up in space.

12th Fail (2023)

Very Good (from an American)

[7/10 · 15 January 2024]

I'm a Texan who enjoys foreign films. I have a soft spot for Hindi movies and TV series. Just finished this and it's good. Maybe not 9.2 good, but still good.

I liked the fact that it is based on two real people, and there were photos of them during the end credits.

The acting, dialogue, scenery, editing, music, editing and plot were all well done. I got sucked in, emotionally, and everything felt real. That's the difference (for me, anyway) between something I'm going to stick around for, verses something I bail from in the first few minutes.

Not much more to say. Didn't expect my eyes to well up at the end, b/c I'm not usually that way. But it happened.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Eileen (2023)

Gave Me Nightmares

[1/10 · 8 January 2024]

This is a short movie. Not much to it. However, there is a secret (this is a mystery, after all).

And the details about the "main event" are horrifying. I couldn't put the mental pictures out of my head for days.

Background: A bored 24 year old woman works as an admin assistant at a boy's prison in Massachusetts in 1964. The residing doctor retires and is replaced by a free-thinking young female doctor.

The doctor (more of a psychiatrist) starts flirting heavily with the secretary, and at the same time she discovers The Secret.

She tries to investigate, brings in the secretary and then we hear the stomach-turning details. Everything falls apart in a hurry and the movie ends.

That's it. And I'm wondering, "Why bother?" How is this a story worth telling? It's not even a complete story. Just an incident, with a little build-up and a very brief aftermath. Wish I would have passed.

Slow Horses (2022– )

This is Really Good

[7/10 · 4 January 2024]

I'm a hard-to-please guy. I have to be able to buy into characters, the plot has to make sense and the scenery/locations have to be genuine.

This hits all marks, with the possible exception of Jagger croaking the theme song. I always fast forward through that.

It's based on a series of novels about the British intelligence service, and a London field office where a few "failures" are banished to. They are just minor screw-ups, though. If they did something major they would by kicked out of MI5.

Anyway, it's easy for me to buy into everything. The writing is great, the actors are great, the plots make sense...

What can I say? Somebody found some really well-written novels by an author who knew what he was doing, and they successfully translated them into a series of 6-episode seasons.

It works for me. Just the right blend of comedy, drama, mystery, action and story-telling.

And because the seasons are fairly short, it doesn't take a lot of time to make new ones. Three seasons in two years, and two more are projected. So, that's nice too.

Nowhere (II) (2023)

Shipping containers don't float

[1/10 · 15 October 2023]

What else do you need to know? They are metal and they are not air-tight. Water seeps in. They sink. Fairly quickly.

Do I really need to type another several hundred characters to flesh out this simple concept?

Did the brain-dead, bubble-dwelling producers not bother to do a tiny bit of research first?

Show me a photo of a floating shipping container. Go ahead, I dare you.

I'm a consulting engineer who has clients in the metal-fabrication industry. (Also known as "The Real World".)

I work outside of Hollywood, in that mysterious place called "Reality".

It's an interesting place. A place where things make sense. A fun place.

Silo (2023– )

Philip K Dick Ripoff

[1/10 · 1 August 2023]

PK Dick wrote "The Penultimate Truth" in 1964. It was about people who were kept in underground silos for their "safety" b/c the surface was "too toxic to live in". It was a lie that was eventually uncovered.

Decades later, some guy wrote essentially the same book and it was made into a series called "Silo".

As an engineer, it pains me to watch Rebecca Ferguson play one. She welds, she goes into enclosed vessels and uses pipe wrenches on equipment? What? That's not what an engineer does. Not even close.

Just sad, and completely unrealistic. The sets are a joke as well. Spacious quarters and tons of people with desk jobs, typing into computers? What?

Nothing makes sense. Painful to watch.

65 (2023)

Oh man this was lame

[3/10 · 8 April 2023]

Spoilers? You bet I have them.

First: Thought I would like this, from the previews. Astronauts, spaceships and dinosaurs. Sure, why not?

But, no, it was not meant to be. Script was lame. Dialogue was cringe, more cringe and fast-forward cringe.

Way too many over-the-top attack scenes. There was a dinosaur behind almost every bush and tree. Come on. By the end, the little girl was making poison spears, flying fifteen feet in the air and stabbing a huge, attacking T-Rex in the eye.

Also (I swear this happened), she stopped another attack by playing a hologram of a person and getting the T-Rex to chase and bite it. I guess they forgot about how effective those little red laser dots are.

Finally, we have to talk about the tiny little emergency escape ship. It survived an asteroid belt on the way to the planet, the ship getting ripped apart, a crash landing on the planet, meteor strikes, falling down a mountain and several Tyrannosaurus Rex's ripping it apart. Literally.

So, there you go.

Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023)

Depends on How Much You Like Guy Ritchie

[7/10 · 12 March 2023]

I am a big Guy Ritchie fan, so I cut this offering a lot of slack. I had it on my watchlist and the release kept getting pushed back. Usually a bad sign. Re-shooting, bad test audience reviews, etc.

It is full of plot holes, but if those can be overlooked if you are in a good frame of mind. Guy's trademark is lots of witty dialogue and fast pacing, which helps keep your attention.

It's not one of Guy's best efforts, but it is entertaining enough. Hugh Grant and Jason Statham are good. Aubrey Plaza and Josh Hartnett are so-so.

Lots of action, lots of scenery, lots of bang-bang and chase scenes. I gave it a 7. If you are a Ritchie fan, it's probably worth your time.

Hello Tomorrow! (2023)

Visuals yes, Plot no

[3/10 · 6 March 2023]

Warning: Big time spoilers

Five episodes in, and it's dragging. Episodes are only 30 minutes long. But they seem longer.

I really like the idea of an alternate world with 50's Sci-Fi stuff everywhere. There's a subtle undertone about advanced things not working that well, which is nice.

But the plot? OMG it is lame. First episode lets you know Billy Crudup is scamming everyone. Fifth episode shows people finally starting to catch on.

Needs a better plot and juicier pacing. Just slow and boring.

Jeez, I need 95 more characters. Ok, what else can I say? They put some bucks into the sets, which look nice. I like the 50's style interiors of the buildings.

Ok, met the limit.. See ya!

Paatal Lok (2020– )

Amazing

[9/10 · 28 February 2023]

I am a hard sell when it comes to ratings and reviews. You can check my IMDB history to confirm. But this show blew me away.

I am an American resident who enjoys high quality shows made outside the US. It requires wading through a lot of disappointments while searching for the good stuff. I struck gold here.

This pulled me in from the start. The characters, plot, pacing, dialogue, acting and cinematography exceptional.

It's a crime mystery that takes place mostly in Delhi but also in a couple of other rural areas in modern day India. It's one season, nine 40-50 minute episodes. Wraps up perfectly. No need for more. So glad they didn't water it down and stretch it out.

I am not giving away anything b/c the viewer deserves to enter with a clean slate.

It touches on the friction between Muslims and Hindis, but doesn't overdo it. I've never been to India, but it seemed 100% realistic and authentic.

Sorry to gush, but I can't say anything bad, except there were a few small plot holes. Easily overlooked, though.

I just wish I could find more shows of this quality. Anyway, hope you enjoy as much as I did.

The Consultant (2023)

Soooooooooo Bad

[1/10 · 27 February 2023]

Warning: Lots of spoilers.

I can't believe how incredibly awful this show is. The writers have no idea how real life works. Nothing makes sense.

CompWare is "the largest software development company" in Los Angeles. And yet, there is no organizational chart, no succession plan, no board of directors, no CFO, no COO...

The CEO is a young creative genius who is shot and killed by a young student who is touring the facility. When I say young, I mean roughly 5th grade.

No cops show up, no criminal investigation happens, no other corporate officers, lawyers or board members show up. Insanity.

A very strange guy walks in the next day, says he is a consultant hired by the deceased CEO and takes over. That's it. That's the premise.

I don't know where to start. Is this some kind of weird joke? Did a Prime Video exec lose a bet? Are junior high kids now developing TV shows?

The consultant has a key to a storeroom in the basement nobody knows about. What??? Nothing like this could happen in the real world.

I'm 2 shows in and not sure what to do. It's almost so bad that I need to see how much worse it can get.

I noticed they dumped the entire season on the release date for the 1st episode. Are they washing their hands of it? Whatever. You have been warned.

Oh Hell (2022– )

Pleasant Surprise

[8/10 · 12 February 2023]

Warning: Spoiler in last paragraph.

It took me a couple of episodes to get into this, but it was an excellent watch. I highly recommend it. In fact, I'm bumping the rating from 7 to 8 while writing this.

The writing, pacing and plot lines kept me interested. Maybe the fact that it was created by people outside the US helps. It was more imaginative, well-written and non-predictable than most of the other series I've seen recently.

The best series are when three things happen: (1) you get pulled in (and stay there), (2) it unwinds perfectly (no filler episodes) and (3) unpredictable plotting. This is why I gave this an 8. I got the full package.

The lead is pretty amazing. She pulled me in, because she has an amazing screen presence and she fit the character exactly. I felt like this role was a perfect fit.

Shows like this are why I watch foreign TV. Seeing how people live and society works in another country is fascinating. So many little things about daily life.

Spoiler: I have a feeling this will be the only season, because the last episode had too many doors closing to just pick up again. Kind of sad, but fitting.

Ancient Apocalypse (2022)

Excellent Watch

[10/10 · 1 January 2023]

I thought this was well researched, well documented and well presented.

There's a lot of controversy surrounding Graham Hancock, because a large segment of mainstream archeology is violently opposed to his theories. However, their criticisms seem to be petty, arrogant and almost desperate.

There are eight episodes here, each one in a different area of the world (except two in Turkey). He uses carbon dating whenever he can, but most of his evidence is stone-based, so he is limited by what he can test.

His theory is straight-forward: a massive meteor/comet shower took place approximately 13-14,000 years ago, at the end of the last Ice Age. It caused the Younger Dryas period (an intense cooling period at the end of the last Ice Age).

At the time of this apocalypse, there was an existing civilization that was more advanced than the hunter/gatherers that followed. His reasoning is the existence of many sites with advanced stonework on several continents, all with similar designs and imagery.

When it is possible to date them, the data is in agreement- they were constructed after the apocalypse and served to document it.

The episodes are fairly short and flow together well. I enjoyed it. And I love the idea of him conducting independent research and not being afraid to question accepted history, when he finds evidence that disputes it.

Archive 81 (2022)

Lame

[1/10 · 6 December 2022]

Lousy script, ridiculous overuse of casual profanity, slow, illogical plot.

But other than that? Well, it's still bad. Main actress is trying WAY too hard. Her girlfriend is even worse.

They took a short, lousy cult story and expanded it into an 8 hour series. It would have been too long if it was cut to half of that length.

Sooooooooo many plot holes. This production must have been purchased by Netflix back in the good old days (pre-2022) when they were throwing cash at anybody who asked for a pitch meeting. No surprise this was cancelled almost immediately after release.

And all the good reviews? Please. Obviously bought and paid for, just like the claim that it "entered Netflix's self-reported Top 10 list".

Unless, of course, the Top 10 list includes people who bail after the first or second episode.

1899 (2022)

A Mix of Very Good and Very Bad

[4/10 · 20 November 2022]

The Bad:

First of all, the characters talk to each other all the time in English, French, German, Polish and Chinese. And they understand each other. Just not believable.

Very slow paced. Nothing makes sense. Literally anything can and does happen.

Kid falls off ship into icy water and then reappears in liquor cabinet. Holes open up to locations a thousand miles away. Black stalactites appear magically in the corridors.

Completely random and logically impossible events happen every ten minutes.

People in 1899 are using technology that isn't even available today.

A little green bug opens doors by crawling under them. What?????????

The soundtrack is absolutely ridiculous. 1960s and 70s songs for a series set in 1899? Again, what????

The Good:

Lots of budget for sets, costumes, etc. Easy to feel immersed in the concept of an 1899-era steam-powered passenger liner.

The acting is good.

The plot is barely interesting enough to make you want to stick around.

More of The Bad:

This is going to be a multi-year series, so there's really no point in watching any of it until all the episodes are finished. It is going to be too frustrating to have to wait another six-ten months for the next installment. By that time, I will have forgotten most of it and will have to start over.

My recommendation- put it on hold until it is done, and then prepare to suffer through 80% of it until enough of the questions are answered. Only then will there be any hope of an enjoyable experience.

Love, Death & Robots (2019– )

Three seasons - spotty plots but great artwork

[8/10 · 21 May 2022]

I have been reading science fiction short stories for decades and always thought a fair amount could be great on the screen.

I recognize two or three each season. They should do better research because about half of each season's episodes are lame. The good news is the other half are really good.

Animation is amazing for every story, though, so it makes it easier to suffer through a bad story.

Severance (2022– )

First Season Review

[8/10 · 28 April 2022]

Went into this not expecting much but it hung in there and didn't pull some of the stupid tricks other TV shows do (endless repetition of flashback scenes or one/two episode time-fillers about irrelevant plot branches).

It was drawn up well and ended great. Hooked me for next year. I was caught up and it moved fast.

You have to suspend a little belief and accept the alternate world premise. Easy to think of plot holes if you want to try.

Inception (2010)

Perfect Combo

[9/10 · 21 April 2022]

Leo and Christopher Nolan. Plus other good casting. All that was missing was Benicio Del Toro.

I bought into this right at the start and it stayed interesting the whole way. The ending was unexpected.

I re-watch every few years to get the full effect. I can't think of any movies I give 10s to, so this top-of-list for me.

This is like Memento and Tenet- it takes more than one viewing to absorb everything.

Saturday Night Live (1975– )

Political Trash

[1/10 · 17 April 2022]

They focus more and more on politics, and the jokes always go in the same direction.

Each year the quality drops.

They have no competition, so there is nothing pushing them to improve.

Their target audience is the same as Colbert, Kimmel, etc.

Why bother? There are too many alternatives available.

Atlanta (2016–2022)

Downhill Fast

[1/10 · 15 April 2022]

The first season was good. Actual storytelling and character development. Amusing plots.

The second season took a step down by solving everyone's money problems with instant wealth. Not realistic. And the woke started seeping in.

The third season is a disaster. Now they are touring Europe and incredibly rich/famous, and race is every show, all the time. Almost every white character turns out to be either a clown, an exploiter, a hypocrite or a racist.

Half the episodes in the 3rd season (2 out of 4) don't even bother to show any of the regular characters.

Sad. It could have been a contender.

Nr. 10 (2021)

I Don't Know What I Think

[7/10 · 14 April 2022]

So many questions. Don't read further if you don't want explicit plot reveals.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

What the significance of the new painting shown to the priests in the spaceship?

Why did the daughter not care about finding the filming set?

Why so much attention to unimportant plot lines in the first half of the film?

Why would they travel to Earth, release children, wait a few decades and then bring them (or the ones they could find) back home?