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vaughanstarr
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The Chosen One (2023)
So far pretty good
Four episodes in - the child actors are very, very good in their respective performances. The cinematography is very authentic to the period (2000). Much of the dialogue is in Spanish with a smattering of English so for those not fluent expect a lot of subtitles. Personally, this is something I don't mind but individual preferences vary. The production company can't help but insert its by now notorious and much ridiculed ideology. The fact that these scenes could be wholly deleted and the story would suffer no issues with coherence speaks much in regards to narrative causality. So expect it, and fast forward through it if it is not your cup of tea. Going in I was aware of the comic so knew where the story was headed, the question was, would the kids pull it off? So far they have.
The Old Man (2022)
Crashes and burns at the end of ep 4
There is much to love about this show. Both Jeff Bridges and John Lithgow shine. The Amy Brenneman character of Zoe though...why? Just, why? Completely uninteresting in background and wholly superfluous to the narrative, by the end of episode 4 she becomes delusional and putrid. The story could have killed her off and most of the audience would have been left relieved that the show could continue on at a high level. As it is I am done. Another potentially great show ruined by utterly stupid choices.
The Time Traveler's Wife (2022)
Goes down hill fast
First two episodes are quite entertaining, after that the quality of the writing really drops. If having your male lead engage in oral sex with himself and encourage his future wife to sleep with as many men as she can is your idea of the perfect scifi romance crossover go to it. For me this goes in the garbage.
The Northman (2022)
I found myself skipping through quite a bit
The story just wasn't there. The visuals? I can imagine they would have been pretty spectacular on the big screen. Being of the heritage I don't like having to score low. But it just wasn't great. Not bad. But not great. Most of the actors did a fine job. Nicole Kidman seemed completely out of place though. Oh well.
The Legend of Vox Machina (2022)
Starting to get really good!
Okay, there is a big difference between a roll playing campaign and a good story. And the first couple of episodes demonstrate this in spades. On top of which they really want to ram the woke crap down your throat. But stick with it. The writing gets a lot better. The woke crap is there, but not quite so bad. A distasteful aside rather than the main course. In fact you can edit it out and suffer disruption to the story at all.
Reacher (2022)
Mixed bag
Guy is roided up to the gills. But then again so is every other action hero these days. Height is 6 foot 2, not 6 foot 5 as claimed, but still a hell of a lot bigger than Tom Cruise! Guy is not much of an actor. Script? A little silly, especially when the bad guys take the time to intimately explain every facet of their diabolical machinations to the heroes! Don't you love it when they do that prior to killing you? Lol. Some of the action scenes are pretty good, but that realism is butchered by comic one liners at their conclusion.
Dexter: New Blood (2021)
Terrible ending ruins the whole thing.
It beggars belief that the reason given for this revisit was how badly they crapped the bed in ending the series the first time around. Well, as the old saying goes, 'Hold onto your hat, because you ain't seen nothing yet!' Rushed, discordant, unsatisfying, wholly lacking in character consistency and motivation, all in all absolutely terrible. You dug up a corpse just to pee on it. Congratulations. If there is one saving grace it is that Dexter is now dead for good.
The Wheel of Time (2021)
My God this is bad
Want to see grown men grovelling on the ground before ridiculously made up women? Want to see a European medieval fantasy world overwhelmingly populated people who genetically never lived there? Basically, want to see the same woke trash that is regurgitated again and again these days? Well look no further.
The Green Knight (2021)
Epically stupid
"An epic fantasy adventure based on the timeless Arthurian legend" - where apparently East Indian's abounded! Lol.
Black Summer: Heist (2019)
What the hell?
I honestly have no idea what the hell is going on in this episode. Am I even watching the same show? Most of the time it is too bloody dark to see anything, the rest of the time what you do see makes no sense! It's as if they hired completely different writers who had no knowledge of what had taken place so far and were just told to make something up!
The Boss Baby: Family Business (2021)
Soundtrack overlays every dialogue scene!
What lunatic thought it a good idea to overlay every single dialogue scene with distracting soundtrack? Were they getting paid for each second it was included? It made it impossible to focus upon what was being said a number of times, especially when the "new" Boss baby is speaking at a mile a minute. The rest of the time it diminished the scene. When used judiciously the right soundtrack passes right by conscious awareness and just seizes your emotions. When you are aware of it constantly though, so that the brief periods of its absence (and they are oh so brief) are greeted as merciful respite, then it has not only failed its purpose but is actively working against the movie!
Loki (2021)
How to utterly emasculate a God of Mischief!
Want to see Loki by turns either pathetically pleading for permission, or just outright begging for mercy from a predictable line of female diversity representation? Then this is the show for you!
Superman & Lois: A Brief Reminiscence In-Between Cataclysmic Events (2021)
So Nazi's are the biggest problem Metropolis has? Seriously?
This episode...Lois complains about how the city needs someone to tackle the real issues the city has. What are these profound problems she cites? Gang violence? No. Drugs? No again. Drum roll please, 'And what is the correct answer Alex?' That's right, it's Nazi's painting lightening bolts on walls for 200! A alien flying around in tights made for him by his mommy is far more believable a notion!
Sweet Tooth (2021)
A mixed bag
Child actors can be a hit or miss affair, not their fault, they are kids after all, but the lead in this series is amazing. The cinematography likewise is outstanding. The chief protector of the child (an ex-football star) too, shines in his role. The story in parts is beautiful, particularly that of the relationship between father and son. In other parts though? You have a small, dumpy teen girl, who is the leader of a likewise teen gang who are all dressed as if they just stepped away from a furry convention. I kid you not. But wait, it gets better, it is this group, who between them don't have enough muscle mass to fill a hamburger, who are master warriors with knives and bows, so much so that they can take out grown male soldiers armed with automatic weapons! How did they become so skilled I hear you ask? They put on VR helmets and jumped around in a video game! The utter absurdity of this asks too much of the suspension of disbelief. A half-deer child is supposed to be fantasy and can be accepted as such. A bunch of teenage furry convention rejects as master warriors though is presented as reality, and as such comes across as clear evidence of mental illness. Another huge fault in the story is the presentation of how those who present with the "sick" are treated, that being, they are burned alive. Why? Burning corpses? Sure. But wrapping people up in cling film "Dexter" style before setting them on fire while still alive as a crowd gathers outside and sings a rousing song? This is apparently what Joe and Jane average do now. Congruent to sensationalistic visuals it makes perfect sense. Congruent to any sort of believable behavior it is absurd and serves to hamstring the story. Then there were just the plain missed opportunities. You have a half-deer hybrid who has been sheltered from the outside world for nearly all his child life, as such, when at last he does step out into world, a whole smorgasbord of emotional and sensory experiences abound and invite the watcher to explore with the character. But such hardly happens at all! Such a waste, as I am no doubt the actor could have really sold such. Could have been great. But the fatuous elements really drag it back. Still, a lot better than much of what is on offer these days and for that worth a watch.
That Sugar Film (2014)
Decent info but heavy on the racism
If you enjoy seeing black people portrayed in the most paternalistic, belittling way possible, while all the while some white presenter adopts a cares so much more than you shtick as so sad piano music plays in the back ground, then this is the film for you! If though, you wretch at the idea of this, then this divergence the film takes midway as the presenter visits an Aboriginal community will sour you on the whole production.
To present Aboriginal people as so pathetic as to be incapable of understanding that a high sugar diet presents disastrous health effects without Big Gov funded intervention is nothing but the contemptible racism of lower expectations. The fact of the matter is that all people know what is good food and what is bad. They just choose the bad a lot of the time. And that's people for you.
The movie Fat Head, another doc on high carb consumption and its effects on health combats the racism of That Sugar Film, and is to be commended here.
On the info? Some of it is good. But not all. It becomes very melodramatic and ventures into Super Size Me territory with is fantastic weight gain by the presenter, so much so that one is left to question the honesty of food/macro intake. To use again the film Fat Head for comparison, in which Tom Naughton eats nothing but fast food for a number of weeks while keeping his carb intake to 100g (25 tsp sugar) a day and as a result loses weight and improves health markers. The presenter here, eating just 15 teaspoons (60g) more of sugar a day, piles on the weight? Talk about things that make you go Hmmmm! Too mate, the apple you hold up as a perfect representation of Mother Nature, is actually a perfect representation of man designed produce. No wild apple looks like that. What you hold is something that has been carefully bred and crafted for years and years. So that now we have something that tastes sweet and is good for us. Though the presenter's predilection for idealizing nature at the expense of a more honest appraisal of reality is to be noted as such crops again and again throughout.
Would all of us do better eating less sugar? Undoubtedly. Does this film with its racism, hysteria and dubious integrity on the part of the presenter and his weight gain help in this more than it hinders? Yes, but not by much. Those interested in the topic are encouraged to give Fat Head a view. You will laugh and leave far better informed. Too, not once will you see a black person portrayed as of inferior intellectual capacity to a white person, so an added bonus there!
Update: taking the recommendation of another reviewer in this thread I took a look at the BBC Horizon Doc Sugar V Fat (watch 4 free on dailymotion). After viewing I take back my allegation of less than forthright behavior on the part of the presenter when it comes to cals and weight gain. Why? Simply in the horizon doc, 1 of the twins after going on a high fat very low carb diet for a month experiences horrendous blood glucose functioning when tested on this at the end of the diet. Thus, if the presenter came from a similar position but one of years, not a month, it is perfectly conceivable that even on a mild carb intake they would be hopeless and experience weight gain plus a whole host of other adverse side effects. Is this an indictment of high carb diets though? Or is it a slam on high fat low carb diets and how they ruin your ability to process carbs properly? The latter in my book. All other critiques stand. To the reviewer who recommended Sugar V Fat, thank you very much.