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Reviews
Ragamuffin (2014)
Best part was the end credits
I knew Rich Mullins had written songs I liked (I did not remember which ones), knew he wrote with more lyrical depth than his contemporaries, and knew that he'd dedicated a portion of his life to helping people on a Native American reservation -- you might expect that I'd appreciate him all the more after this movie. Honestly, if not for the end credits, where a few brief clips of the real Rich Mullins are shown, I'd have walked away not liking him. That's a poorly made movie.
Rich is portrayed not just as troubled -- almost always vaguely frustrated and melancholy with very little range or specificity in the emotions, but portrayed with a contempt for the inauthenticity of those around him. That's the great flaw in this movie, and it is completely and directly contradicted by a clip of the real Rich Mullins in the end credits. Really the entire movie is. In the end credits he's charming, appreciative of the church, not self-absorbed. Throughout the movie he's the opposite of all of that. He even wears a clean shirt in the credit clips -- something I can't remember seeing in the movie!
The writing is horrible. Well, maybe 15 minutes of good writing in a movie 10 times that long. The non-Mullins characters are flat. They're drawn into Rich's orbit by his talent, and thrust away by his dissatisfaction, but have no character of their own with maybe one minor exception. Mullins is only drawn to two characters in particular, but they're written so flat that you can't appreciate those bonds. And Mullins himself (portrayed) is obnoxious, unless I suppose you share his general contempt for the "inauthenticity" of everyone else -- an inauthenticity which is declared, but almost never shown. Again, the end credits reverse this image.
The casting of the lead was probably a disaster. I get it -- it's hard -- you want musical talent, it's nice to have some physical resemblance, they probably wanted a Christian, and you need someone who can act. Good luck finding all that for a movie this size -- but they cast someone who portrayed Rich as someone whom I think most of the audience wouldn't not want to spend 15 minutes with, and that's a fail. It took less than a minute of the real Rich Mullins in the credits to reverse that.
The casting of the rest of the crew didn't matter -- they had no characters other than to reflect various aspects of Rich -- that's just how it was written.
My guess is that whomever controlled the movie (the brother?) has a real hang-up with the inauthenticity of anyone in the church who appears to have a normal or worse-yet successful life, and just hammered that one point endlessly. That's a shame.
Star Trek Beyond (2016)
Watched again 4+ years later. Had managed to forget the stupid stuff.
I love the new Star Trek cast. Top to bottom, I think they're fantastic. They do great here. And the dialog in this movie is on par with the other reboot movies. The plot is not.
I was wondering, re-watching this, why I remembered less about this movie than the 1st two reboots. I also wondered whether JJ Abrams directed it. (He was a producer, not a director). The high-level of destruction that starts out the movie -- almost so high as to be depressing, is what you might see in an Abrams. But the unparalleled stupidity of the ending is exactly what you hire Abrams to avoid. It is Jar-Jar level dumbness that can tank a whole franchise. And, four years later, they should be hoping people forget. This is a hide-in-the-vault-and-pretend-it-never-happened sequel.
The Orville: Mad Idolatry (2017)
Science fiction preaching
I've never seen space faring science fiction be compatible with any real life religion, and I never expect to. That's all fine. The premise is incompatible. So if a writer decides to go there, there's an agenda. And that's the writer's privilege.
But let's be honest. Space faring sci-fi is one of the most scientifically illiterate forms of story telling. Maybe THE most scientifically illiterate. Even to the extent that they may try to be accurate, they are horrible communicators, or just ignorant. Space faring sci-fi is a terrible predictor of the future, terribly implausible, a terrible teacher. And yes, that includes Contact, Asimov, all of it for anyone willing to be honest.
That's OK, we love it anyways. And I personally love the Orville brand of humor, and the premise of the story.
So to use that scientifically illiterate foundation as an opportunity to convey that real-life religious beliefs are backwards, and anti-religious beliefs are enlightened -- that does a disservice to everyone. And it's hard to watch.
Oh, and when the root of the space faring sci-fi and real-life religion incompatibility is the imagined intermingling of intragalactic intelligent life -- well, good luck with that. And with SETI, and FTL, and even with that Mars colony. Now let's get back to the entertainment.
On Wings of Eagles (2016)
Ip Man in running shoes
I was excited to find out that Liddell's life post-Olympics had been made into a movie Thinking that his family had found a way to have this part of his life told. But about halfway through the movie I began to wonder how the Chinese had managed to so influence the story and apparently it was just a Chinese-interest story from the start.
Yes, it's pleasant enough to watch, in the same way that Ip Man is pleasant. But you'll find a lot of parallels, and that's not by accident! For those who believe this is the story of Eric Liddell's life, ask yourself how many times "Christ" is mentioned in the film. My wife and I could not remember a single time. Nor was the gospel seen. There were a few bible verses, generally thrown at the Japanese to condemn them. Nothing that I could recall from the New Testament. There is far, far more of Liddell's faith presented in Chariots of Fire, and I expected it to be the other way around.
The movie is fine for all the things that I normally would want to see in a movie. Acting, script, etc., no complaints here.
A Most Beautiful Thing (2020)
Beautiful sport, most beautiful film
Rowing serves as the backdrop of this film is about creating hope in Chicago's West Side. Struggles, hope, mistakes, redemption, setbacks, courage, kindness ... these are the materials that form this documentary. I think it's fair to say it presents without preaching.
As a former HS and college rower with kids just now entering HS rowing, there were plenty of ways for me to connect to the rowers in the film. It was great to also hear their unique struggles coming from Chicago's West Side, and how that shaped their rowing experience.
This film is not what I think of as #woke. The athletes and those around them are shown looking inward -- at the difficult hand they were dealt, but also at their own mistakes and opportunities, and always also looking at what they can do to offer hope to the community. Things that I value: rowing, the church, academics, peace, courage, hard work, family dedication, forgiveness and sacrifice -- all of these things are honored at various points in the story.
And it is a beautiful story, I'm grateful to all those who were a part of it.
The Unit: 200th Hour (2006)
Profoundly stupid episode
The portrayal of missionaries comes across not only as wholly biased (they have zero redeeming qualities), but also ignorant, and really quite ironic. In this story, they find a place where nobody wants them, and decide that's where they should construct a building. And of course they are thankless, stupid, and endanger others.
(In truth, of course, missionaries first find people who want to hear what they teach ... the building, if it is ever built, is done later. And they are the most culturally sensitive people I've ever met, and at least among the most self-sacrificing. They often bring with them some combination of food, medicine, and education.)
But the ultimate irony is that the accusation that missionaries go where they aren't wanted is leveled by a man whose entire career is to show up in places where he isn't allowed, and to kill the people there. But I guess that's better than thumping a bible.
I just can't watch a show this stupid.
The Blacklist: Pattie Sue Edwards (No. 68) (2018)
The hypocrisy blew through the roof on this one
The show has always had a liberal slant, ridiculously carrying the anti-gun message while spraying the screen full of bullets nearly every episode, and making an appealing anti-hero of a mass murderer. Here he goes on a liberal political rant (while committing and planning to commit every sort of crime). Just the worst of several political Easter eggs in the episode. So now, having heard the message, I'm going to vote liberal ... well, OK, maybe not. Maybe just vote here on IMdB instead. What a waste of screen time.
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
Better than TOS -- by about a parsec
EDIT: My previous 10/10 review was based on the first 4 or 5 episodes. The story begins a rapid collapse after that -- just diving into progressive trope. The bad guys have weird blood purity obsessions. When the good team uses a natural resource, they make the world better in complete defiance of all natural law. When the bad team uses that same natural resource, it threatens not only all life on a planet, not just all life in the universe, but all life in all universes -- I'm not exaggerating. Gay love is pure and transcends death itself. Straight love is, in every single case, based on deception, exploitative, and cruel. It just gets dumb and recycles every other SciFi show you've seen in the last 10 years. It also decided to drop the f-bomb, which I don't appreciate.
Some of that I can take, but it went from 0 to 80 on terms of that stuff ... felt like a whole new writer took over. The acting was still strong throughout, as are the gorgeous sets, but the writing just tanked to the point that I couldn't finish the season.
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The set design is absolutely gorgeous, giving a much needed upgrade to the old 60s set.
As for story, TOS episodes fell into 3 categories -- Twilight Zone in space, overcome our enemies in space, and social justice in space. All were welcome, but the later series just bombarded us with social justice -- Discovery, 5 episodes in, concentrates on the first 2, and all centered around overcoming the enemy.
In terms of the science, like TOS, you'll see some absurdities, like everything system on a ship going down except the ever-reliable artificial gravity -- and rather than trying to explain such things, it's just accepted as a necessary, not to be dwelt on.
In terms of characters, TOS had the big three, representing emotion, logic, and arbitration of the two. Discovery has characters that you will recognize from the workplace -- rashness and fear, over-promisers and those refusing to change, the protagonist is something of an agent of chaos so far, but we'll see.
I rolled my eyes when I saw that the main character would be a minority woman, but unlike the many other series, it doesn't feel like you're being hit over the head by a SJW. None of the characters are without real flaws, and their flaws seem quite necessary both for the drama, and possibly for the situation that they're in.
I'll agree with those who say this does not fit in terms of taking place *before* TOS -- but I'm happy to get over that and enjoy great sci-fi drama in an exciting, beautiful world with people who read quite real. I LOVE IT!