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Reviews
God's Not Dead (2014)
Serious Review
Here's a review from a successful banker with a business degree and a passion for grammar. Yes, I'm a Christian as well.
I'm now daily watching our society collapse into chaos. The fact that this movie has such horrible reviews is a prime example.
I'm not a movie director or actor, so you could claim I'm not a good judge of movies, but who the heck is? We're all humans. It's completely subjective and we're not perfect.
I enjoyed this movie because it's 100% fact. Aside from the God/no god debate, everything in the movie is realistic. The historical and scientific references are real. I've witnessed all types of people just like the characters in this movie.
The problem with society and movies is that everyone is quite literally TURNED ON by fantasy, what they want to be true, rather than pursuing what is actually true. I appreciate the facts here. I could care less about the music or acting, both of which I still enjoyed.
People are so concerned with their emotions that they hold movies to higher and still higher standards. There isn't going to be any sex, nudity, or swearing here because that's literally not what we're here for. The purpose is to discuss the existence of a creator, which is exactly what the movie did. Everyone has a right to an opinion, but that doesn't mean everyone is informed on how to develop and opinion. Again, human.
Bottom line, several reviews are from people that either didn't like the truth or people that wanted something else to happen with a movie that wasn't appropriate.
Underclassman (2005)
Keeping it short
I'm going to try to keep this short because I have better things to do than to balance all the movies that deserve more credit.
If you don't believe me or the other reviews, ignore us all and just rent the movie or find it on a streaming service to check for yourself. I higly encourage that.
I haven't seen the movie in a hot minute, but was shocked to see such a low rating. I love the movie, from what I can remember. I can only assume people gave it a low rating for similar reasons they gave National Security a low rating with Martin Lawrence. From what I saw, everyone got triggered about some racial issue or this movie simply didn't have enough (or any) sex scenes or nudity, the perfect recipe for my favorite comedies. People forget that issues in our society are perfect for comedy because we need a way to destress after a long day, and making fun of issues (if that's what this movie does) are what helps.
This movie is like a family friendly (God forbid) 21 Jump Street, but with a single black cop (which might have triggered people---for some reason). I love this movie and I loved and recommend National Security as well.
No other comedies seem to have a chance at being good because directors, producers, screenwriters, and studios end up throwing in a mix of stupid stuff that ultimately ends up poisoning the whole batch.
I'm going to pay full price for this movie's digital version, because I LOVE IT.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
This movie is a give or take for me
This movie, like everything post Thanos/Iron Man, didn't really hit me like it should have. The CGI effects are impressive and likely super expensive. It was good to see Doctor Strange and Wong again, but I didn't really connect with the characters.
America Chavez' first name is actually Italian, not hispanic, based off Amerigo Vespucci, who the continents were named after. Not a big deal, just seems a little strange. While she obviously has the power to travel the multiverse, she's implied to have no control but can make star shaped carvings out of random objects she punches...for some reason. With her LGBTQ association, I get that Marvel has to start being more "inclusive", but like in other movies, pride based relationships tend to hit a big mother nature brick wall. She has two mothers, which either means she was adopted and they aren't her biological mothers, or her bisexual or changed mother divorced/broke up with or received fertilization from her real father, who we also don't hear anything about. This may be inclusive and realistic to some, but to me it's a plot hole that seems futile for the movie as a whole. How is there only one America Chavez but infinite Doctor Stranges??
Next, yes the movie has scary parts. I'm fine with horror and I'm usually into jump scares. However, a lot of what bothered me about this horror is what felt like conveniently placed laws of physics for the "magic". Wanda can somehow take away a guy's mouth, but can't do the same to Doctor Strange or use other simple "spells" to just defeat everyone. Why does she take so long to steal America's power giving Strange time to fight himself? Also, I'm not into the violent deaths of characters we're introduced to and lead to believe are powerful and lovable. Captain UK, or whatever her name is gets Darth Mauled, but Captain America can catch his own shield without injuring his hands. There's sexism there somewhere. Also, single villain takes out an entire army, minus the main character cliché from Thor: Ragnarok.
I'm ultimately not really a fan of major science fiction witch craft and fantasy demonic abilities that are used by both sides.
I loved the John Krasinski cameo, but I've never been a fan of Marvel hail marying their lot of characters into the same universes. Xmen and The Fantastic 4 are completely separate universes to me. Quicksilver was somehow two different characters, one American and the other with an accent.
To summarize, the movie was flashy with impressive Marvel studio effects and humor, but the plot felt convenient and had some serious holes. I also found myself wanting the movie to end sooner. It's over 2 hours long, but I definitely believe it didn't need to be. It was like taking a CGI scenic route.
Wild (2014)
I love IMDB
One of the reasons I love IMDB is because of how much of a heads up it gives me for disturbing content released by other humans.
The director literally wrote nude scenes for herself. I don't really understand how people somehow aren't disturbed by this. Reminds me of Tammy 2 in the library. I could care less how much of a story we have here. I want a story that doesn't use pornography to get me to spend money on it.
Yes, pornography is why this movie has such a high rating, yet Captain America has a lower rating...somehow.
This is one more movie I'll be adding to "never spend money on". I hope it was worth the exposure Ginormica...I mean...Reese Witherspoon gave to everyone. So many actors have lost an innocent reputation with me.
Make a quality movie where I don't have to watch un-related humans crawling over each other naked and guess what! I might just give it a higher rating.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022)
Still not what it should be
I just watched the first episode. I'm posting the review before I forget why I'm posting it.
The issues I still have with Paramount's/Alex Kurtzman's Star Treks still exist here, sadly.
My biggest complaint: continuity. The uniforms only look similar. They brought the traditional colors back, smart. Going from blue, gold, and red to silver, copper, and gold and then back to blue, gold, and red will always be a massive anomally now forever present in the franchise. However, there's too many uniform variants. The original series had a simple mix of shirts for men, skirts for women, and jumpsuits for chiefs. Only the captain and chief medical officer had unique single alternative shirts.
In reference to the colors, this new show has two different blue colors, which should not be the case. The doctor first featured wears a blue color that's actually lighter like Earth's sky that truly resembles what all science officers actually wore. Spock's shirt is "pretty", but not Star Trek, at least not until 100 years into the future during TNG. Nurse Chapel's actor is beautiful, but she has too much of a supermodel look and wears a white jumpsuit that looks nothing like her nurse outfit from TOS. WHY IS IT A WHITE JUMPSUIT? There are several other strange uniform variants present for other characters that aren't quite simple solid shirts. The only thing that still remained the same, seemingly, is the ranks are present on the wrists and the badges are accurate.
Another issue I have is with the bridge. As it's a primary set location for Star Trek and my favorite part of a ship, I tend to notice how different they are from each other. In this show, I appreciate how they put everything just about where it should go, but the viewscreen has been turned into a window. I was skeptical about this on the USS Kelvin, but it only looks like they're copying Star Wars' concept of visuals. 2nd, the two stations directly in front of the captain's chair for Sulu and Checkov and manned by redshirts. THESE SHOULD BE MANNED BY GOLD SHIRTS. Not sure why this is different.
Everything is produced well, not necessarily written well, but the effects look amazing. However, due to the odd mix of continuity inconsistencies and corny storyline, we have yet another Paramount+ original that just doesn't exist as a true spinoff/prequel for its intended franchise. All of these shows really feel like completely different SciFi shows on their own. I'll also point out that Pike is seemingly played to actually be more like Kirk in the first episode, which is exactly opposite of himself in the Kelvin timeline films.
Not sure if I'm going to continue this show. Life is stressful and limited and I don't see the value in all the hype for this show.
Let's Be Cops (2014)
Wish my review could be better
I love most of this movie, passionately. It portrays a comedic story of two men who dress up as police officers, love the attention, then impersonate police officers with a happy ending after a life threatening challenge. This movie got me into I Want it That Way by the Backstreet Boys. The intro and jokes were great.
This would be one of my favorite comedies if it weren't for one of the stupidest adult-rated scenes that could have been added to a movie. Thanks 20th Century Fox.
The scene to which I am referring involves an obese burgler, naked for some reason, tackling a character and having to be dragged off of the character while his scrotum is drug across the character's face. I doubt this was prostetic, so this actually happened and someone wrote it to film a comedy. If I was the Backstreet Boys, I would sue for association with something disgusting. (I'm aware this would be difficult. I don't care.)
This scene is disgusting, makes no sense, and the movie would be perfect it it didn't exist.
I will never spend any kind of money to watch this movie ever again.
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
The reality
After so much conflict about whether I like enough of the show to say I like the show and whether I hate enough parts of the show to say Paramount needs to be sued by Gene Roddenberry's estate, I'm going to simply say this:
"Star Trek" Discovery has obvious elements of Star Trek in it. However, its biggest issue is still that it's a giant continuity error. One of the reasons I'm a die-hard "trekkie" over my love for Star Wars and Marvel is the simple fact that Star Trek never answered everything with the "another timeline/universe" token, though JJ Abram's movies pushed the envelope, being saved simply by awesome effects and the realistic theory of the Butterfly Effect.
Discovery also incorporates ideas that aren't at all Star Trek related which makes it a show that I've vowed at first never to watch, but not vow never to return to after watching it all the way through once. It's not worth anything to me and in the end, I wish they would destroy any record of its existence. From what I understand, the actors typically earn up to a certain amount of royalties until a cap, so ultimately no harm would come from their hard work. Just less harm to a once flawless franchise.
The only thing I liked about this show are the weapons and a select few characters.
If you're a progressive younger generation looking for a ripped-off sci-fi universe including the most up-to-date inappropriate "inclusive" ideas using the "Star Trek" branding in its title, this is the right show for you. Also, the majority of people that support this show appear to simply be those of a newer generation using this as their excuse to get introduced to Star Trek. This means they will never have a proper introduction to the real franchise, may it RIP.
If older, wiser people were able to use the internet more with their own voices, this show would have half the stars it does.
Star Trek: Discovery: Into the Forest I Go (2017)
The one episode
This is the one episode that kept me from watching this show for the longest. I only do so now because I rent Paramount+ for Criminal Minds, so I'm not ever monetizing it.
I'm a huge trekkie. The reason so is because I'm a fan of a future where humans and aliens become allies to explore our ashtonishing universe together, acompanied by the occaisional lightshow. I enjoyed all the characters in the past, though I did not always agree with their actions/lifestyles. Not a problem, since it's all acting. The one thing I've been more aware of that's caused me to literally retreat into my world of Star Trek, is the cringy idea that two actors (or more) taking their clothes off to expose ANY sexual organ in front of a camera (while paid) somehow ISN'T pornography.
I admire the fact that his show has likable characters, storyline, and effects. However, there is not and has never been a legitimate reason to put any kind of sexual content on screen. If there was, so many other sitcoms, romances, and drama shows wouldn't exist without this content. Espectially so for Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry's goal was to have a show available to anyone of any demographic, including age. Sexual content, as well as other content, has forced this show to receive a MATURE rating. That means you've pushed the boundary too far. It's no longer a family show. This is part of the reason other fans and gamers I've spoken with disown the new Star Trek content.
I can think of 1,000,000 ways to portray a Klingon woman forcing herself onto a human prisoner. None of which involve a real woman letting the world record her nipples.
I'm not just referring to women. For equallity purposes, I don't care for shirtless men either. We love the show for the uniforms as well. Let's keep them on.
It feels like now CBS and Paramount are trying to replicate the trends from Game of Thrones and HBO, which explicitly do not belong in Star Trek.
Supah Ninjas (2011)
Legitimate review, seen the entire show in person
The show follows an interesting story about some high schoolers that become ninjas fighting sometimes seemingly supernatural villains. People have hated on it, but it honestly makes me furious that the show ended on a clif-hanger.
The sets and costumes are nice, the acting is good, the villains are unique, and the plot is gets pretty deep. Like other reviewers say compared to the other Nickelodeon shows with honestly hella creepy, underage face sucking, this show is extremely decent with a perfect set of dry humor comedy.
Honestly, the only people trashing this were probably expecting blood or something stupid to happen.
I'm planning to buy the show digitally simply because it was a good memory for me when I was younger. This is what I plan to raise my kids with.
Plus, SULU CAMEO, YEAH! Shout out to all my Trekkie friends.
Plus, Asian Jim from The Office cameos!
Again, I'm pissed that it ended so abruptly.