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Reviews
Car 54, Where Are You?: The Auction (1962)
Visual comedy
I remember that one of the best things about the original Sgt. Bilko shows was the funny expressions on the actors' faces. I don't remember Phil Silvers appearing on Car 54, but many cast members did. Fred Gwinne, Joe E. Ross, Al Lewis, Charlotte Rae, Beatrice Pons. Paul Reed, and many others. The lines they spoke (or shouted) on Car 54 were extra funny because of the situations and expressions on their faces. Al Lewis's mouth as he shouted up to the old lady in I Won't Go. Beatrice Pons's expression as she shouted out her window. It occurred to me that Nat Hiken liked actors with naturally funny faces. And then I saw the painting in Toody and the Art World and laughed out loud. I suspected that Hiken or some of his staff were looking for ideas for props that were funny just in their appearance. The chair in The Auction confirmed it to me. The camera crew deserves credit for showing the moose shadow in a certain way. My reaction was, "What the ???"
Picket Fences: Forget Selma (1996)
When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.
My title is from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. Tuco (Eli Wallach) seems to be giving advice to killers. To me, it's a complaint about annoying screenplays in which the bad guy talks and talks, which allows the hero to save himself. Similar to Tommy Lee Jones "explaining himself" in Under Siege. Too predictable. How many "kidnappings" in TV shows turn out to be faked by the apparent victims?
From The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly:
Tuco is in a bubble bath. The One Armed Man enters the room
One Armed Man: I've been looking for you for 8 months. Whenever I should have had a gun in my right hand, I thought of you. Now I find you in exactly the position that suits me. I had lots of time to learn to shoot with my left.
Tuco kills him with the gun he has hidden in the foam
Tuco: When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk.
12 O'Clock High: The Slaughter Pen (1966)
B-17s scoring direct hits on ships?
I don't find it unbelievable that an experienced military flyer could pilot both a B-17 and a P-51, especially when the P-51 was used only for observing.
I do find it hard to believe that B-17 bombs were hitting mobile warships. At the Battle of Midway.15 B-17s attacked Japanese carriers but got no hits.
A pretty good episode, with Michael Rennie playing a British officer. Harry Guardino plays an irresponsible American officer. Also the postman is a German spy. In spite of all the Gallagher thinks up an effective plan to steal the new German radar technology and destroy the bunker containing it. A commando raid.
WWII in Color: Road to Victory: The Battle of the Philippine Sea (2021)
Wawro said "Forget Midway" in this video
The Battle of the Philippine Sea was very important, but without Midway it might have taken the US a year or two longer to take the Mariana Islands. At Midway Japan lost not only 4 of its best carriers, but also 2,000 pilots and crew aboard the carriers. Japan built more carriers but never recovered. The Japanese pilots at Philippine Sea were far less skillful/experienced than their Midway pilots had been.
This video did explain well Ozawa's plan and why it failed. Radar helped the US deploy and shoot down the attacking planes.
Here is something that the video could have included but didn't. After the Marianas were lost, Tojo asked a diplomat to make peace with the US. The diplomat answered that it is easier to start a war than to stop it.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Schizoid Man (1989)
Data's "Eulogy for Grandpa"
Data's speech is absurd, but not really funny (Data always has trouble with understanding "funny") . Since Data has been presented as a sympathetic character so often on TNG, the conceited tone of the eulogy (coming from a Data with Grandpa's brain) would be cringe-worthy if one tried to take it seriously. This reminds me of Polonius's advice to Laertes in Hamlet. "This above all: To thine own self be true And it must follow, as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man." This is ironic for Polonius, who uses Ophelia for his own benefit. Both "To know him is to love him" and "To thine own self be true" at first hearing may sound elegant and moving, but context belies both.
Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Big Goodbye (1988)
Tired, predictable cliche: somebody left off the "safeguards"
Deep Space 9, after several seasons, finally had a reasonable plot explaining why they could escape from the holideck but did not want to: If they did the Vic Fontaine (James Darren) character would be lost. Earlier Deep Space 9 holideck/holosuites plots were about as predictable as the TNG holideck plots which used the same trick again and again.
Seinfeld: The Cheever Letters (1992)
Susan's mother (Grace Zabriskie) is perfect as the bitter, sarcastic wife
I think Zabriskie is brilliant in this episode. She has all her husband's remarks memorized, as she demonstrates when he says "Cherish the cabin" (which Kramer had accidentally burned to the ground, but the embarrassing letters somehow survived). When she hears the news that the cabin burned, she and her husband have opposite reactions. George says the burning was somehow comical, and she heartily agrees.
Perry Mason: The Case of the Unwelcome Bride (1961)
Interesting cast
Those familiar with vintage TV will recognize Deforest Kelly from Star Trek and Alan Hale from Gilligan's Island. You don't even need the video to recognize Gerald Mohr as the announcer who said "Return with us now to those thrilling days of yesteryear. The Lone Ranger rides again!"
Bosch: Creep Signed His Kill (2019)
Review of Season 5: Enormously Ambitious
An enormously ambitious season! At one point I wondered if the show had bitten off more than it could chew....
1) The criminal drug organization with its clinics, doctors, pharmacies, airports, and murderous thugs
2) Preston Borders with his wife and crooked lawyers,
3) Harry Bosch working with Chandler and her investigator Hector Bonner. See "Two Kinds of Truth" below.
4) Jerry and the Jamaicans,
5) New homicide detective Vega finding body parts all over the place.
6) An investigation into a police shooting featuring Irving and a new DA
7) Drug addicted mother with murdered daughter unsolved.
8) In addition, the season began with a "flash forward" storytelling technique with the drug boss pointing a gun at Bosch's head and in a later episode pulled the trigger.
Season 5 and the Connely novel Two Kinds of Truth:
Some reviewers complained about the absence of Micky Haller (The Lincoln Lawyer) in the TV show.. A sincere opinion, but if I were producing this show, I would consider the cost vs. Benefits of such a change. In the Amazon series we have Honey Chandler replacing Haller and Hector Bonner replacing Haller's investigator Cisco (both big bikers and former members of biker gangs Outstanding performance by the actor who played Opie in Sons of Anarchy). Also I liked Mimi Rogers in he role of Chandler.
Season 5 had some things that others complained about. For example, at first I thought the "flash forward" in episode 1 was manipulative, but I got over that. Overall. I think there is a lot to like....
Endeavour: Arcadia (2016)
Good acting and character development but flawed by obvious fake kidnapping
Come on! Endeavour fans are too smart to fall for the worn out fake kidnapping plot twist. Also irritating was the unconvincing and creepy attempt to seduce Morse by Annette Richardson.
Another Life (2019)
Dumb, intrusive, annoying music....
Makes this series a lot worse than it should have been. Other reviewers noted problems with acting and script. I agree, but I could have ignored those problems, plus the overdone emphasis on sex in some characters, but the creators of this show should have let go their obsession with mindless pop music. Better scifi shows do not have such heavy handed approach to this. Maybe the producers are friends of Petras. Who knows.
Rain Man (1988)
What makes a great film?
Acting? Costumes? Directing? Music? Although those factors can contribute to or diminish greatness, I would argue that the real answer is great ideas. What ideas does Rain Man present?
1) Charlie's Redemption
This is a common theme in literature and films , and I think it was well done here. I certainly thought Charlie was an unpleasant, misguided character at the beginning. That impression gradually changed. Charlie started to learn things about Raymond. By the end of the film he learned to love his brother and also began to show more humanity toward his girlfriend and Raymond's doctor, and perhaps began to understand his father. In making this transformation, he also became happier and wiser.
2) Raymond's Rituals
We all have certain habits. Some of them are necessary, like doing work or study on some kind of schedule. Raymond's rituals include shopping only at a specific K-Mart store, eating the same dessert, watching the same shows on TV at certain times, and sleeping at a certain time. He also keeps repeating the classic Abbott and Costello routine "Who's on First?" See next idea. Raymond uses these rituals as a way to avoid new experiences, which he finds frightening.
3) Raymond learns about comedy
Charlie explains that the Abbott and Costello routine is not a puzzle. It's comedy. Raymond finally begins to learn at the end, when he makes a joke:
Dr. Bruner: Well, Raymond? Aren't you more comfortable in your favorite K-Mart clothes?Charlie: Tell him, Ray.
Raymond: K-Mart sucks.
Dr. Bruner: Oh, I see.
Charlie: Hey, Ray: you just made a joke.
Raymond: Yeah, a joke. Ha ha ha... ha.
20 years after Rain Man was released, the corporate media's late night "comedy" shows seem to have forgotten what comedy is. They consist mainly of endless political rants, and their live audiences seem to have forgotten too.
4) Chaos Can Lead to Beneficial Change
Charlie had the trip planned. They would fly to California, he would win custody of Raymond, and would somehow get some of the inheritance money. However, plans very quickly unraveled, and each brother felt that the other was stubbornly inconsiderate.
Charlie's point of view: At the airport, Raymond threw a fit . The trip became longer and longer because of Raymond's demands to make so many things conform to what he was used to at the institution. At the same time, Charlie saw the journey as ruining his own life, destroying his business and ending his control of what he had. Raymond's fear of air travel and interstate highways was an unnecessary, infuriating problem.
Raymond's point of view: He had lived at the institution for decades. Charlie was pushing him to accept uncomfortable or even frightening changes. All the airlines had had accidents and he thought all of them were too dangerous. In a way, these feelings were another way of showing that things were changing too quickly.
But the time the brothers had together allowed them to understand and love each other, and to learn things they otherwise would never have known.
Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018)
The appearance of the word "NETFLIX" in the movie
The idea of self-reference in art is not really new, but it can be quite interesting. In Hamlet, there is a "play within the play." In Romeo and Juliet_, Romeo dreams that "dreamers often lie," which is arguably a paradox, because if that statement is true, then a dream is a lie, but also the statement that dreamers lie must be false, because Romeo dreamed it, therefore dreams must be true. Don Quixote refers to someone writing a different version of Quixote.
In this case "NETFLIX" the streaming service created a movie set in 1984, and that movie mentioned and described "NETFLIX." And Stephan knows that some being or force is controlling him. Maybe this movie is a little deeper than some reviewers have realized.
The Break with Michelle Wolf (2018)
It got worse. I lowered my rating.
EDIT July 22 2018: Netflix, please cancel this show. It's about hate, not comedy.
EDIT July 2 2018; This never was funny, but now it's clear that Wolf wants to stoke up the hate. I asked Netflix why they want to pay for this.
At least she didn't have to try to explain a tedious "smoky eye" joke (from the White House Correspondents' dinner).
I expected 90% politics,bitterness, and direct anti-Trump ranting, but I don't think she even mentioned Trump this time. There was overt support for the notion that women should vote for women, specifically, for Hillary.
It was a good idea to make fun of the Amazon Alexa, but to me the final production was not really funny. OK, Alexa is supposed to act like a human, and humans eat food, but showing Alexa (and also Facebook) trying to spy on people would have been better. In fact, many real commercials are more entertaining than Wolf's satiric(?) fake one.
You may approve of insulting Sarah Sanders again, but, let's face it, it looks like a personal dislike rather than comedy. But given that personalities like Stephen Colbert perform lengthy political harangues thinly disguised as "comedy," I suppose that should not be surprising.
But I was expecting something much worse.
Unfortunately, Netflix seems to be descending into a one-sided political stance.I hope I am wrong about that. We will see how the new Obama series turns out.