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david2112
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The Expanse (2015)
The best near-direct adaption of sci fi novels to tv thats ever been done.
This is the best show on TV that people dont seem willing to watch.
Im hoping amazon or netflix pick it up for season 4.
Ive bought season 2 and 3 on amazon (seasons 1 and 2 are now on amazon prime).
The acting while not perfect is superb.
The effects while not big budget level are good and decent and represent the action from the novels very well given a somewhat limited budget (in order to film the show at all)
The plotting of the first two seasons is epic and ongoing; each episode goes into the next. As such for a short attention span public it may be a bit too involved but on streaming networks Im sure this fantastic show will find its core audience.
This show whether it contineues to season 4 or not is already a classic.
Lost in Space (2018)
Could have been so much better with only a few edits and if the season had been 2-3 episodes shorter
Way too derivative of the last movie reboot in basic plot.
The robot and a few of the kids (the actor who played Will) and the father were great. The rest of the kids were lackluster at best.
For kids the movie had plenty of fantastic special effects but I did not care for the planets fast geology and weather (it offended me as a college trained geologist) In that respect it ruined my suspension of disbelief. It was too derivative of the last movies plot.
Also the middle part of the first season dragged. I was so bored i fast forwarded to the last 2-3 episodes where it became more interesting.
The last episode with the robot doing X and the final event intrigued me. Season 2 if it occurs might be better so the show has some hope.
The writing was just well rather weak. The actors did a decent job though overall but not stellar.
I also really did not like the ridiculous anti-gun message (on a colony starship crash landing on a hostile planet no less) halfway through - pure netflix leftist bias there. As a big bill of rights person I cant support it for that reason alone.
As a sci fi film and tv show fan it was mediocre overall but has potential.
Flint Town (2018)
decent documentary on the police in flint.
A good documentary on the police in Flint and the issues they face.
the filmmakers obvious bias however was rather evident in a few episodes concerning the election.
No mention was made regarding the negative effects of globalism on the rust belt for instance.
That subtracted a few stars from what was otherwise a good series.
Back (2017)
Not funny just sad and dreary.
Watched the first episode being an avid fan of Mitchell and Webb Look.
Very depressing and sad first episode killed any interest i had in the rest of the show.
They seemed to be lambasting normal peoples lives and how they dealt with the death of a family member.
Passengers (2016)
An atmospheric smart Sci-fi movie that gets better with re-viewing. (spoilers)
The visuals and set designs are fantastic and make you believe you are on the ship. Its a shame they couldn't reuse the sets for another show about the running of the ship over the centuries (or a sequel with an entirely different plot)
The acting is good and the situation is haunting. What would you do in their situation etc.?
spoilers follow
I really liked the idea of the cascade failure of redundant computer monitoring systems due to the meteor.
The only real plot hole is the lack of some sort of plan for something like this happening on the ship. No matter how advanced this would be certain to happen given how long the ship is traveling and how many trips it is likely to make. I let it go though as this plot hole sets the necessary stage for the rest of the movie. Such "it cant fail" design arrogance has been seen before it will probably be seen again. (The Titanic disaster comes to mind etc)
Uchû no senshi (1988)
dated but far closer to Heinleins book
Its dated and conforms to early anime styles but this movie is far closer in tone to the original novel than Verhoevens far-leftist Crapfest.
The English dialogue in the dub was stilted and barely passable but the bugs and the power armor of the troopers conformed to the book rather nicely.
Too many young people have seen Verhoevens later version and never read the book and just assume its fascist trash based on scuttlebutt. This could not be further from the truth. I wish Verhoeven had made "The forever war" which was a far better anti-war response to starship troopers. Im so tired of Hollywood trashing SF books.
Ghost in the Shell (2017)
from a massive fan of gitsac the anime (seasons 1 and 2) this was a decent Hollywood adaption
It wasn't perfect by any means but the director did manage to retain much of the feel of ghost in the shell even if it was a bit too dumbed down for anime fans.
In a few years hopefully there will be enough DVD sales that a sequel might be possible.
In time this will be a classic. As long as ghost in the shell keeps going im fine with just about any adaption.
Its as good as the recent arise reboot. Just different.
Red Dawn (1984)
Don't listen to the progressive communist trolls on the net
This movie is about defending America against all enemies who would seek to destroy her and how hard it would be to fight a guerrilla war behind the lines against a ruthless overpowering totalitarian regime. The soviets happened to be the big bad totalitarian guys to the US at the time so are the antagonists. If you analyze the film at the end the heroes are probably all dead with 1 exception (the one girl survives i think to narrate the ending). But the monument explains they helped to stem the tide of the invasion by really giving the local division fits.
If you watch the film, not all the Russians and Cubans are bad, only some of them - the rest are along for the ride / under their orders. This is true of any invading force in history. Note the Cuban or Venezulan officer who lets Jed alone at the end of the film just wanting to go home (He too was sick of the war's carnage).
This movie was made for domestic US entertainment, not to appease and kowtow to the rest of the world every 2 minutes. Nor to appeal to far left loons running our educational system today.
Its about Freedom over Tyranny!
The Commissioner (1998)
good ideas and OK acting but poorly execution by director and horrible editing
Poor editing/directing, muddled scenes that go nowhere, and a long drawn out plot that doesn't really go anywhere by the end of the story ruined what could otherwise have been a good taut thriller with otherwise decent actors trying to do their best.
The actors saved it from being absolutely horrible.
It took far too long to establish the beginning of the plot and the middle part of the film was muddled and incoherent.
The last third of the film was OK, but the film suffers from an incomplete ending.
This strikes me as a TV movie of the week that suffered from either a limited budget or too short of a production period.
Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
a great old school sci-fi gem
This movie scared the XXXX out of me when i was a kid. Even in 1977 or so when i saw it, the low-budget enemy at the end haunted my dreams for weeks. So for me seeing the end on TCM a few minutes ago made me realize this should be more available on DVD
British Scientists discover an alien ship buried in London very ancient buried for 5 million years and empty?. Only later does the danger of opening this Pandora's Box become evident.
A good film and script that with a bit of modernization that could be remade into a great remake.
A classic from Hammer.
a couple minor spoilers follow
I also wanted to mention that it had some intelligently designed non- humanoid aliens (rare for the time). It has a great conclusion too. Sometimes the price of victory has a high price.....
Pearl Harbor (2001)
Terrible Movie thrown together about an Important Historical Event
The battleship sequences were OK - not perfect but acceptable. But practically everything else sucked.
Trying to pass off Spruance Class Cold War era missile/anti-sub destroyers as WW2 destroyers - unforgivable. I don't understand why the effects guys didn't buy a few Gleaves class WW2 destroyer models from a model company and scan them into the effect computers. See this page (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gleaves_class_destroyer)
Wooden acting by practically the whole cast (except for a few exceptions Cuba Gooding jr comes to mind)
Laughable scriptwriting with horrible dialogue.
Laughable plot twists (like ww2 single engine fighter pilots transferring to twin engine bombers and being assigned to the same mission).
Lame love story inserted into war movie for dramatic effect failing miserably
American Movie Classics is showing this right now on their channel and I have to laugh and ask myself "Why?" Is it to show people how bad a big budget American movie can be?
Please watch "Tora! Tora! Tora!" instead - a much better movie.
The Bermuda Depths (1978)
exciting; scared the heck out of me as a kid
I had a similar reaction as others did when I saw this movie on a local TV late night movie when i was 10 or 13. I still remember Jenny and the turtle. (and her spooky glowing blue eyes). The locations in the Caribbean were great. The scene with the doctor describing how the mans father died in the storm were a great way to set up the story. The movie is a great mix of romance and horror. Connie Selleca was very attractive when she made this. Creepy as heck for a Rankin/Bass movie. I finally found someone online about 5 years ago who was selling VHS tapes of it via ebay. I now have a copy. Rewatching it as an adult - the movie is still good but it has lost much of its allure. This should be on DVD. The VHS tape i have is OK but now there are only 5-10 videos i still watch in that format. This would be a great movie to remake with modern effects I think.
Avatar (2009)
Man is Evil Technologist raping planet; Aliens are cute cavemen
Movie is a sci-fi rehash of dances with wolves.
The Political Environmentalist Plot-Hammers in this movie completely irritated the xxxx out of me.
I don't need to be lectured on how man is evil and nature is good anymore than I have been.
While I like aliens in Sci-fi (like Nivens Puppeteers and Kzinti) - I would like to believe that man can be redeemed (eventually). I cant identify with an alien race and in the process damn mankind. Self-hate just isn't my thing.
I don't need to be lectured by a multi-million dollar producer/director who lives on a mammoth gargantuan estate on living in harmony with nature.
Cameron made his best movie in Aliens (the best hard-sci fi movie of all time). Along with the first terminator those are the movies that will enshrine him forever in sci-fi greatness
This eye-candy will be popular for 5-10 years I figure since it feeds on the enviro-hysteria sweeping the planet. But that will fade in time, and so will the cult following for this piece of cutting edge 3d tripe.
Spirit of the Wind (1979)
A good film
I haven't seen this movie in 25 years since it was on cable TV.
Good acting and a good soundtrack and a compelling story of a polio stricken Athabascan boy and later man finding his calling as an Sled Dog racer.
I love the scene where he falls off the sled and his lead sled dog pulls the team around and comes back to him. Now thats good training and loyalty. That scene almost made me cry as a kid.
A good movie about going beyond a disability (polio i think), the Athabascan culture and the Iditarod dog sled race.
I liked it a lot and wouldn't mind seeing it on DVD.
The Horse with the Human Mind (1946)
a well-trained Hollywood horse
I just watched the last half of this short film on turner classic movies. Amazing - best horse and trainer bit I've seen, although cutting in the film may have made the horse out to be smarter than it actually is. The horse seems to follow any command the trainer gives her with almost no cues other than his voice. I saw the horse calmly stand on a small platform 4x4 feet or so on command, then neigh, rear up get angry and snap on command. Then it laid down on the ground on command, acted wounded and sick and then on command it would try to get up and fall back down. At the end, she let herself back into her stall on her own - lifting the latch herself. Definitely at the very least a very well-trained horse. The end voice-over claimed she understood upwards of 400 commands.