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Star Trek: Discovery: Whistlespeak (2024)
Good Classic Trek Episode
No desire to engage with whatever discourse is happening in the reviews for this episode. To me this was a solid classic Trek episode. Go to planet, meet locals, learn about their culture and tie that together with an overarching plot thread and a moral/philosophical lesson.
Certainly not the best example of this kind of episode in all of Trek, but very solid. We also get some great Michael-Tilly time that we've been sorely missing. I can definitely feel the budget constraints in this and other episodes in the season, but that really can't be helped. I'm sure they're doing their best with what they've got to work with. Doing an extensive location shoot helped to offset it a bit.
In any case I liked it a lot. It's more sincere and heartfelt than many of the episodes this season which focus on rather vapid action and the pretty boring and rather annoying Moll and Lok. Would love to see more of these kinds of episodes, but this is the last season and they have all kinds of plot to wrap up so I'll just take it as it is and enjoy it.
Murderville (2022)
Fascinatingly bad
It's strange how bad this show is. With Will Arnett and the other comedy gems involved you would think it would at least be somewhat funny, but the writing is just terrible. It's just not funny at all. I laughed sincerely a grand total of 2 times, and that's where my generous 2-star review is coming from.
The tone, plot, and seemingly the budget, are what I would expect out of a bad 80's cop comedy that should have never made it out of the pilot process.
Nothing really works. Arnett's character is a goofy, but grizzled, clown-like collection of cop clichés. In these kinds of stories it usually helps to have a "straight person", who's there to highlight the idiocy of the idiot, but everyone's an idiot. It's strange to say that in a show that is essentially a farce from beginning to end, that the plots make no sense, but it shows just how poor the writing is when the plot of a farce is distractingly nonsensical.
It seems like one of the main conceits of the show is that it is highly improvised, and they lean into this by purposefully showing the actors breaking up, but they don't go far enough in this direction to make that aspect the funnier part of the show and the improvisation itself is again, just not funny.
Just bafflingly bad all around. Such a shame given the caliber of the talent in front of the camera.
Maybe it'll be your thing if you're into silly, cop shows from the 80's, but Sledge Hammer this is not. I would advise you to spend your valuable time elsewhere. If you want a legit good cop comedy please try out Brooklyn 99 and steer clear of this tragedy.
Away (2020)
Excellent
I will admit I wasn't sold on this after the first couple of episodes. There's never been a show like this that I've seen that evenly splits melodrama and hard sci-fi, and the mix was a little strange to me at first. There is also a bit of contrived conflict and cliche as it starts out as well.
As the characters and scenario evolve though I really got engaged, and characters and situations I didn't like at all in the beginning grew on me and had a lot of emotional weight.
In the end it totally works. Not entirely realistic in the drama or the scenarios, but really engaging and emotionally resonant.
It probably won't work for everyone, but I loved it. Give it some time to warm up and it will win you over. Can't wait to see more.
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Moving, beautiful, jaw-dropping
Umm ok so Alita: Battle Angel is HAWT! After seeing the trailer in theaters my expectations were decidedly low. It looked like it was going to be a shallow CGI confection that was going to be boring predictable and lifeless, and was going to totally miss the point of the source material. I can't speak to the last point, as I never read the manga, but I was utterly wrong about everything else.
Alita is visually stunning, exciting, fun, original and genuinely moving film. It really takes its time in developing its characters and relationships, especially Alita herself. I'm totally on board with her and her journey by the end. Again I was seriously not expecting that at all. The got a pretty amazing supporting cast as well and none of them are wasted. The all contribute performances that enhance the story.
As to the aesthetics, holy smokes this movie looks good. There is a lot of CGI and while it is obviously CGI it works for the world and look of the film. The merging of CGI cybernetics with human performers is really impressive and gives the film an feeling that is simultaneously kaleidoscopic and totally immersive. It's both subtle in Alita's look and performance and thrilling in the action sequences and those action sequences are completely jaw dropping.
Quite often CGI-heavy sequences feel dead and artificial. This is partly due to filmmakers just overdoing it with the amount of action and elements simultaneously at work. The composition is poor eye doesn't know where to go to properly follow the action. The other less obvious aspect of this is the physics. When we see physics that are out of whack we may not be able to articulate it but we know something is off and this also makes heavy CGI scenes unconvincing. Composition, physics and choreography of Alita's action set pieces are spectacular. When I'm involuntarily saying "wow!", "whoa!", "geez!" they're doing something very right. So good.
There are a few plot holes in my mind in terms of certain plot elements and character motivations at times, but by the end they were all washed away by how well-done everything else is. Nits to pick for sure though.
In all Alita is a pretty magical sci-fi spectacle, that looks amazing, has great characters and a lot of heart. I was not at all expecting this and it's that much better because of it.
Really hope they make a sequel happen.
What We Do in the Shadows (2019)
Brilliant!
Always sceptical about TV adaptations of movies, but this show is the real deal. Same feel as the film but with entirely new characters and setting. Consistently fun, clever and hilarious with great characters. Love it!
Wine Country (2019)
So much fun!
I loved this movie. So much fun. All of these ladies, their personalities and their humor work really well together. Maya Rudolph is definitely a highlight, but they're all great. A laid back, goofy comedy that I think really gets to at real things people go through as they get older. Great stuff.