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Blind Date Book Club (2024)
Hallmark Star Power
It's refreshing to see Erin Krakow in a Hallmark movie that isn't a period piece. She and Robert Buckley (of "One Tree Hill" and "Chesapeake Shores" fame) are both big Hallmark guns, and are both well cast in an original and well-written story (no tired tropes or cliches to be seen here!) set on Nantucket, but filmed - like most Hallmark movies - in British Columbia.
The chemistry between Krakow's Meg, a book store owner, and Buckley's Graham, a writer suffering from that terrible affliction of writer's block, is on point from their very first scene together. It's this chemistry that makes the movie so good.
I enjoyed this one. Hope we see more movies with Krakow and Buckley starring together.
Falling in Love in Niagara (2024)
Another on-location Hallmark winner
Niagara Falls is the backdrop for this Jocelyn Hudon (one of my favourites) /Dan Jeanotte vehicle and arguably should receive top billing with the two stars, as the scenery is nothing short of spectacular.
The plot is similar to what we've seen before: Hudon's Madeline is a very organised organiser whose fiance gets annoyed with that trait and breaks up with her five weeks before the wedding. And five weeks before their Niagara Falls honeymoon (which she has planned to the hour), so Madeline goes with her sister and there meets Jeanotte's Mike, a tour guide who is Madeline's opposite. He teaches her to step outside of her comfort zone...and of course, after some early hostility, they fall in love. It's your classic Hallmark plot, nothing new or imaginative.
However, "Falling in Love in Niagara" works thanks to the stunning backdrop - at times it's like a travel doco / love letter to Niagara Falls - and the chemistry between Hudon and Jeanotte, which is off-the-charts good.
Living with My Mother's Killer (2024)
A decent twist
Just when you think you've got "Living with My Mother's Killer" all figured out - like, who's bad and who's good - the twist comes, and it changes everything.
Not my first Lifetime movie but probably, based on the twist alone, the best one I've seen. The cast, including Australia's Rhiannon Fish (to be honest, the only reason I watched this - she is one of my favourites) and Canadian Greyston Holt, who had had a few notable Hallmark and Lifetime roles during his career, is pretty good, and there are enough gasp moments to keep you entertained.
Apparently based on a true story. Not sure how much poetic licence has been taken for the film, though.
The Hunt for Red October (1990)
The best Jack Ryan film
Pound for pound, the best of the Clancy novel adaptions, fractionally beating out Patriot Games. Of course, you can hardly expect the movie versions of these Jack Ryan thrillers to be anywhere near as good as the books, given the many intricate plot lines (that play out in length fashion) and details Clancy has in his novels - there simply isn't time in a movie to include them all. Director John McTiernan and the writers have captured the gist of what is an undeniably thrilling story.
Alec Baldwin is just okay as Jack Ryan. This might be the best Ryan movie but he trails Harrison Ford as the best Jack Ryan.
Sean Connery, despite his complete abandonment of anything approaching a Russian accent, does a good job bringing Captain Marko Ramius, who wants to defect to the United States with a brand-new Russian attack submarine, alive. One of Connery's more iconic roles.
Courtney B. Vance, Sam Neill, James L. Jones, Joss Ackland, Stellan Skarsgard and Tim Curry - all good.
Less of a balls-to-the-wall actioner than some might have expected but there is tension - below the ocean surface and in the halls of power in Washington D. C. - aplenty.
A great film!
Sahara (1995)
An obscure gem
For a TV movie, "Sahara" had very good production values allowing for some impressive battle sequences, and a strong cast including the headliner, Jim Belushi as Sergeant Joe Gunn of the US Army Tank Detachment, and some good Australian actors including Mark Lee (of "Gallipoli" fame) and Underbelly's Simon Westaway.
An uncomplicated movie, where the desert is as much the enemy as Rommel's Afrika Korps was, set shortly before the events of the Battle of El Alamein and after the Fall of Tobruk, Gunn's tank picks up a motley crew of British and Australian soldiers stranded in the desert, and they must find water whilst retreating to rejoin Allied forces to make a stand.
There are a few cliched moments, but that's to be expected in a film like this - Westaway's Australian soldier, Williams, is straight from Central Casting. They certainly don't make it any less watchable.
Thor: Ragnarok (2017)
A huge improvement on the last one
"Thor: Ragnarok" is, if nothing else, the most Antipodean Marvel universe movie ever made, with Australians and New Zealanders playing pivotal roles in what was a much better, more coherent and more interesting film than Thor: The Dark World. Throw in a New Zealand in the director's chair, and there's definitely plenty of ANZAC flavour.
That director, Taika Waititi, brings out the best in a cast littered with big names - Chris Hemsworth, Cate Blanchett, Sir Anthony Hopkins and Jeff Goldblum - and definitely pulls the franchise back from the brink.
A good story, a script with lots of funny moments and characters, helped, too. Hemsworth is so good in the titular role. Sad we didn't see Natalie Portman. Cate Blanchett was good in a limited role. Ditto, Karl Urban.
Great entertainment.
Stargate: Atlantis: The Siege: Part 2 (2005)
"The Siege: Part 2"
It would have been a straight ten star rating for me, except for one thing: the portrayal of United States Marine Corps Colonel Everett, who arrives from Earth with a detachment of soldiers to hold Atlantis against the Wraith threat and sets about stamping his authority for better or worse, but mostly for worse. I almost preferred the Genii, who have a cameo in the season finale, to Everett.
Clayton Landey is the actor responsible and he has put in one of the all-time shocking performances. In fact "shocking" really doesn't do his efforts justice.
Other than that, "The Siege: Part 2" was high on thrills and tension as the Wraith attack Atlantis. There are some really cool action scenes and the season finale fades to black with Sheppard on a heroic mission... I guess we'll have to wait until next season to find out what happens.
Stargate: Atlantis: The Siege: Part 1 (2005)
"The Siege: Part 1"
"The Siege: Part 1" is - as you would expect from the title - the first of a double episode to close out the first Stargate: Atlantis season and it is a good one.
With the Wraith approaching, there is no time to lose. McKay thinks an Ancient weapon can be repaired in time and head off to try and make that happen. Elsewhere, the tension between Teyla and Bates reaches boiling point. The latter thinks the former is a serious risk to the Atlantis team since it was revealed that she has some Wraith tendencies, especially when under their influence. And there are suggestions of a Wraith spy on Atlantis...
A spectacular ending to the episode sets up the season one finale perfectly.
Justice League: Crisis on Infinite Earths - Part One (2024)
Over-long and not very good.
There is so much going on here and it's so messy, confusing and lengthy that I don't know where to start.
The story is centered around Barry Allen aka The Flash, The Justice League has expanded with heroes pulled from the various earths of the Multiverse to fight back against the Anti-Monitor, which is out to destroy all the earths. Barry must get tired moving from one universe to another.
There are more costumed superheroes than you can poke a stick at, and other DC favourites like Lois Lane and some bad guys, with a talented cast of actors voicing these characters. But it's all too helter-skelter to be any good.
Suffice it to say, there have been many far better WB Animation movies featuring the Justice League than this one. The second instalment can only get better. Hopefully...
Stargate: Atlantis: The Gift (2005)
"The Gift"
The first use - that I can remember, anyway - of a dream sequence in Stargate: Atlantis. Also, the first episode that is centered wholly around Teyla, one of the more interesting characters. Been waiting for this kind of episode.
In "The Gift", she is haunted by nightmares and ends up finding out via an elderly Athonosian woman that she can sense the presence of the Wraith. It turns out that she is actually part Wraith, thanks to genetic experimentation in the past. Teyla can even communicate with the Wraith, though when she is under their influence, it's as though she is an extension of them...which is definitely bad news for the Atlantis crew.
A strong episode with a cliffhanger.
Stargate: Atlantis: Letters from Pegasus (2005)
"Letters from Pegasus"
Letters from Pegasus picks up where the last episode, "The Brotherhood" left off...with the Wraith fleet ("an alien armada," according to McKay) is bearing down on Atlantis and things don't look good.
Thankfully - to a point, anyway - McKay is able to come up with a way to get messages back to earth. The Atlantis team have the chance to record limited personnel communiques. Except for Teyla and Sheppard, who are off spying on the Wraith fleet, on yet another primitive planet, with specific orders not to take on the entire enemy fleet.
A bittersweet episode with the Atlantis crew facing their mortality and recording messages for their loved ones. Declarations of love, as well. And some record their gripes, too.
Sheppard and Teyla disagree initially about getting natives off the planet before the Wraith arrive. Then they witness the Wraith culling a village.
Samantha Tapping has a cameo right at the end of the episode as her Stargate: SG1 character, Samantha Carter.
Stargate: Atlantis: The Brotherhood (2005)
"The Brotherhood"
Not as good as the previous episode, but you get through to the end, through all the usual drama that comes with strange races and the ever-present Wraith threat, and you realise it's only the beginning of the crisis - cool mini-cliffhanger to whet our appetites for the next episode.
This episode sees the return of the Genii, who are always looking for ways to cause Sheppard and co trouble - you can always guarantee there'll be drama and some good action when the Genii are involved. And it also guarantees that Major Sheppard will get a chance to go full-commando, which is never a bad thing.
There's a mysterious brotherhood and the presence of a deep-space scanner is revealed.
Stargate: Atlantis: Before I Sleep (2004)
"Before I Sleep"
Off the top, it's hard not to agree with the vast majority of previous reviews: "Before I Sleep" is the best episode of Stargate: Atlantis so far. Good acting, a good script and an original story that was very engrossing. The forty-two minute episode flew by.
Sheppard figures out - somehow - that it is Dr Weir's birthday and presents her with a token to mark the occasion. Then, when patrolling through a laboratory, the Atlantis crew find a woman who has been frozen for thousands of years. The big surprise? That person is a time-travelling Dr Weir, who hails from an alternate timeline, where the Atlantis mission didn't quite happen as it did in this timeline.
Masters of the Air: Part Nine (2024)
"Part Ten"
The final chapter of Masters of the Air was as good as I expected, with American POWs sent on an unrelenting march through the bitter German countryside, assailed by snow, wind and sleet and freezing temperatures, as their German captors tried to keep them away from advancing Allied forces. The scenes where the camp they end up in is finally liberated will definitely tug at your heart strings.
Ultimately, the war ends and the men of the Bloody Hundredth are left to take stock. The last 15-20 minutes were very poignant, as was the information about the main protagonists. Well done to those in charge of casting: they really nailed it.
Brilliant television from start to finish. And a fitting tribute to the men who flew countless missions over occupied Europe, often paying the ultimate price. We should be thankful, as the world we live in today is in large part thanks to their bravery.
Masters of the Air: Part Eight (2024)
"Part Eight"
Lots going on. The June 6 1944 D-Day raids over Normandy take place during the first third of the episode, and there are some stunning visuals of planes flying over the enormous Allied fleet, then over the invasion beaches. "Masters of the Air" is nothing if not visually spectacular.
For the first time, Tuskegee airmen feature - not before time, either. The African American pilots are going after French targets in support of the D-Day invasions, and face race-related roadblocks for promotion, not to mention taunting by Germans when they are shot down and captured. That these men continued to fight and die is quite a story of heroism. They deserve a miniseries of their own, really.
Meanwhile, the rest of the downed Allied airmen learn of D-Day and the Russian's breaching German borders and are left to ponder and prepare for what that might mean for them in the future.
Masters of the Air: Part Seven (2024)
"Part Seven"
There are two key storylines running through the seventh episode: the fate of those downed fliers who are German POWs deep behind enemy lines trying to get every little scrap of information about the progress of the war and when/if they might be rescued...and the men of the Bloody Hundredth who are still flying missions over Germany and especially over the heart of Nazism, Berlin.
Black Monday - March 6, 1944, three months before the D-Day invasions - is referenced early on, as a notably horrific day for American forces. The Hundredth is not spared.
Rosenthal's crew makes their twenty-fifth successful mission, which is the threshold to send them home. But there is news on that front that truly upsets the pilots, and Rosie himself makes a momentous decision.
Masters of the Air: Part Six (2024)
"Part Six"
"Human beings weren't meant to behave this way," is perhaps the most poignant and correct line of all that have been uttered to this point. Not meant to behave...but somehow we did, and do. Food for thought.
A tense episode. I like how 'Masters of the Air' doesn't just show the fate of the pilots in the air, but also those who are lucky - or perhaps unlucky - to be shot down and survive. The scenes of Americans landing in Germany and set upon by the local populace who call them "terror bombers" (rough, but understandable) are very hard to watch at times. Well done, but hard to watch. That's the mark of good TV though.
Enjoyed hearing the "Over-paid, over-sexed and over here," to describe the American forces in Britain. This was a popular saying here in Australia when the United States Marine Corps arrived in places like Melbourne.
Strong episode. Again.
Le Cinquième Élément (1997)
Really fun Bruce Willis sci-fi
There is a lot that can be said (and probably has been said at this point) about The Fifth Element, but the main thing is that the movie is undeniably a truckload of fun.
A good versus evil storyline (who doesn't love one of those?), Hollywood superstar Bruce Willis plays Major Korben Dallas with a wink and a nod to the audience, the action is almost as over-the-top as the personalities of some of the other characters - I'm looking at you, Chris Tucker - there are one-liners galore, and the visuals are just brilliant. And, honestly, who doesn't love a movie where the bad guy is played by Garry Oldman. He does it better than most.
From start to finish, "The Fifth Element" delivers A-grade entertainment.
Stargate: Atlantis: Sanctuary (2004)
"Sanctuary"
More than halfway through the first season of Stargate: Atlantis and in "Sanctuary", we see a more diplomatic side - and, dare we say it, romantic side? - of Major Sheppard. By now, we all know he can get into and out of a gunfight like it's nobody's business, but seeing him take care of business sans a machine gun was a good piece of character development for Atlantis' main military man.
The Wraith loom large over this episode, as they have over pretty much every one so far. Sheppard and the Atlantis crew meet with a high priestess from what seems like a fairly primitive and spiritual race about a weapon that keeps the Wraith at arm's length.
Wolves (2014)
Supernatural
Werewolves, small town America, bloody violence, gorgeous girls (I only discovered this movie because Merritt Patterson is in it, and you definitely get to see plenty of her...), starring the guy from the MacGyver remake (Lucas Till) and also Jason Momoa, well and truly pre-Aquaman/DC Comics movie fame.
A weird mishmash of themes and actors, but entertaining enough and considering it was a low-budget movie, the production values are pretty good.
Nothing really exciting to write home about, but there are worse ways to spend ninety minutes of your time if you're into werewolves and/or Merritt Patterson.
Toy Soldiers (1991)
Die Hard, in a school, with teenagers
A fun 90's action film. One of many Die Hard-adjacent movies, and one of the better ones.
Regis Academy is a high-end prep school famous or infamous for being home to a lot of hot-headed kids with anger issues who have been expelled from other institutions. Included amongst them is the cocky Billy Tepper, played by Sean Astin.
When terrorists take over the place and take the student body and teachers all hostage due to their beef with the parents of one kid - who, ironically, had already been taken away by the government - it's Billy and his friends (including Wil Wheaton's Joey Trotta) who have to save the day.
The late great Louis Gossett Jr. And the late great Denholm Elliott co-star, along with everyone's favourite gunnery sergeant, R. Lee Ermey.
Bridesmaids (2011)
Funny, but also heartfelt.
Not sure what was funnier: the cameos by Rebel Wilson and Matt Lucas as the creepy-as-F brother and sister or the scene that starts in the Brazilian restaurant, continues in the bridal store and, for Maya Rudolph's Lilian, ends unfortunately in the middle of the street.
I thought Melissa McCarthy's turn as Megan was brilliant. Literally every scene she is in is funny. One-liners, facial expressions, personality, the lot. She stole the show.
"Bridesmaids" has scenes that will make you laugh out loud and scenes that remind you of the importance of friendship and love. A well-balanced movie in that regard.
Fun stuff. Good rainy day entertainment.
Wimbledon (2004)
Entertaining sports rom-com
Kirsten Dunst is like a ray of bright sunshine in any movie that she stars in, and her chemistry with Paul Bettany in "Wimbledon" (apparently from the same creative team that brought us "Notting Hill" is pitch-perfect. For me, she's appointment viewing.
There's absolutely nothing ground-breaking in this somewhat - okay, completely! - predictable sports rom-com about two tennis stars, an aging Brit playing in his last big tournament (Bettany's Peter Colt) and an up-and-coming American (Dunst's Lizzie Bradbury) who fall in love during the famous Wimbledon championships.
That said, it's entertaining and funny (laugh out-loud funny at times) and easy to watch, with likeable leads and a supporting cast including Sam Neil, Hornblower's Robert Lindsay and real-world tennis stars John McEnroe and Mary Carillo.
Varsity Blues (1999)
Good if, at times, stereotypical football drama
Whilst largely stereotypical in terms of the characters and situations they find themselves on - last-minute touchdown on miracle play to win big game and an unheralded backup thrust into the starting role following an injury to the incumbent star, as chief examples - "Varsity Blues" also takes a moment to get serious, and describes the dark side of high school football, largely through the bully, racist and win-at-all-costs coach Bud Killmer.
Effectively and menacingly played by Jon Voight, Killmer is a school legend, allegedly, who bribes and blackmails and berates kids to get what he wants. He wins, but not through inspiring his players. The dark side of football in "Varsity Blues" was handed well.
James Van Der Beek was fine as the afore-mentioned second-string quarterback. Scott Caan played arguably the most stereotypical role, until near the end. Same goes for Ron Lester as Billy Bob.
And, let's not forget to mention Ali Larter as cheerleader Darcy, responsible for the most iconic - for better or worse - scene in the film: the infamous whipped cream bikini.
Entertaining, even though you knew what was going to happen, and a cool early 00's sports movie time capsule with a good soundtrack and plenty of stars from that era.
Stargate: Atlantis: Hot Zone (2004)
"Hot Zone"
Atlantis scientists are unwittingly exposed to a deadly virus that claims a few unfortunate souls...and looks set to do the same to everyone else who comes in contact with it.
"Hot Zone" is notable the first episode where we see real friction between the military commander Major Sheppard and the scientific chief Dr Weir. Obviously competing interests and two strong personalities butting heads. Was bound to happen eventually. A little inter-team conflict makes things interesting.
As another reviewer noted, this is a strange episode to watch in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic - rewatching in 2024 - but ultimately one of the better episodes in Stargate: Atlantis' first season.