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Game Changer (2019)
BIOHAZARD! Death By Laughter Imminent
Now that's what I call, "Damn good television!"
This show's concept is absolutely brilliant: simultaneously it's own animal and a laboratory with near perfect conditions to workshop other gameshow ideas. But that would mean nothing if the host and contestants didn't provide engaging follow through with charm, cheek, and wit. Luckily, everyone has that, not only in spades, but all the other suits as well. They act like they're not playing with a full deck, but they know exactly what they're doing, and by that, I mean they lean into not knowing what they're doing. It's incredibly refreshing.
Sam Reich (native to Cambridge, Massachusetts) is a genius. He's this whimsical wizard that is a hybrid between a well-dressed teddy bear (probably a descendant of much more posh Winnie the Pooh) and a mad scientist close to perfecting chewing gum that explodes in the mouths of unsuspecting children.
The Dropout writers/usual suspects are also a hoot to watch swing on the pendulum of winning generous gifts from their glorious benefactor and perform Diet Fear Factor tasks, with a twist of lemon.
The show is inconceivably preposterous: warm and well meaning with its gifts, diabolical and fiendish with its punishments, but always tempestuous and hysterical.
Turn on your TV and tune into Dropout, you won't regret it.
Enter the Anime (2019)
Superficial
Documentaries -by their nature- are meant to reveal, though I don't think they're meant to reveal filmmaking incompetence.
This is just deluded fluff that provides no meaningful insight into the medium of animation. Obviously the filmmakers have no idea how to even structure this film. No historical context, no insight into the influence of technology, nothing. This doesn't even work as a primer for instilling greater interest in the medium like the simple bite-sized series "Explained" does, and wildly more effective.
Honestly, the best way to learn about art is to experience it for yourself, not have some graduate from USC struggle to explain what it means.
The Last Airbender (2010)
Atrocious in every possible category, excluding CGI
This is one film that I am passionate about when it comes to sheer hatred and loathing. When I first viewed in theaters in 3D (which I wouldn't recommend) and walked out, I was disappointed, severely. This was largely in part due my high hopes because the source material was so solid. But then something inside started to decay, and I realized that my malice toward the man know as M. Night Sham-wow would not end until he was burned alive with a boulder tied to his foot, thrown out of a helicopter, and into the sea. Fire, Earth, Air, Water. Character development, imaginative locals, a sense of humor, incredible choreography, and real martial arts incorporated into the different bending styles; these are some of the elements present in the animated show, but lacking in the film.
There are so many oddities, fumbles, and screw-ups that I don't even know where to start. Well, what a better place than the casting: Aang? Aang who knows Kung-Fu? OH! You mean Ong! Pardon? Yeah...he's white. Fire Nation? Oh, yeah Imperial Japan! Nope, all Indian. Okay...what about the Water Tribe, are they Inuits? Nope, White Americans. The screenplay was cumbersome and too serious. Another mistake was filming all of the first season into one movie. It CAN'T be done without disregarding the source material and condemning different components unimportant. Special effects? People get hit with fire, ne'er a scorch be found. Water? No one's wet. 3D is horrible, even by 3D standards. What do you get when film a movie using 2D technology and decide to tack one 3D effects in post-production? Not a polite word, I assure you. *SPOILER ALERT* You remember in the movie when the fire nation was imprisoning earth benders from a nearby village and they were put in a camp in a canyon, SURROUNDED BY EARTH? Now in the animated series, imagine the imprisoning scenario, but on a metal barge in the middle of the God damn ocean. This is blatant disregard for the original story because M. Night Shyamalan didn't believe that the Earth benders were strong, courageous, and tenacious. Wrong. Dead wrong. It is implanted in the way they fight, how they move, their stance. *End Spoiler Alert* Just know, that I went into this with preconceived bias due to my love of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Please, watch something else, don't buy, rent, and yes even BitTorrent it, it's that BAD. Ugh, my heart is killing me just thinking about this so called film. Excuse while I take an antacid...