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Reviews
Bad Cupid (2021)
What a surprise treat!
I wish some of the people who rated this movie so low had written reviews explaining why. I laughed all the way through it. It's a whole new genre, dark comedy romcom. The scenario is outrageous, Rhys-Davies and Briana Marin even moreso. It's hard to describe without giving too much away. If you're looking for "You've Got Mail" or some traditional romcom like that, walk away. But, if you want to take a risk on something out there, give it a try.
Palm Springs (2020)
What you do matters
When Groundhog Day came out, I hated it. I felt like I was the only person in NY to feel that way. The message to me was one of a spoiled generation: keep doing what you're doing, however cruddy, and suffer no real consequence. Eventually, you'll figure out how to benefit.
Palm Springs turns that on its head. Starting with an existentialist take on that scenario, it inches forward to find personal meaning (even in a potentially meaningless world), with a lot of fun gags along the way. I wish this was the movie that had been made 30 years ago. Now, it's a great response.
Extant (2014)
Polemic instead of story?
This is what the world needs now: An anti-science, anti-scientist, science fiction show?
At least, that's what I got out of the first episode. Scientists are arrogant. They disrespect others' belief systems. They can be manipulative, corporate, deceptive. They go into denial over things that hint of immaculate conception and don't recognize what it fundamentally means to be human.
Normally, I like to look at creative works based on how they deliver their message, not what the message is. But, this is polemic thinly disguised as fiction. And it is a socially irresponsible one.
Troy (2004)
So much potential
Such a great story.
Such a shallow rendering.
I don't understand why they needed to trivialize so many of the relationships and change so much of the plot. Agamemnon's vanity is too trite. Hector is not nearly represented as the great warrior he was. And Patroclos was no warrior at all.
The best (and it was fabulous) was Sean Bean's rendering of Odysseus. Sly, confident, tricky, desirous to be home with his wife. He was a treat.
Read the book. There's much more drama and action in it.