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The Goop Lab (2020)
This is literally an Infomercial
How in the world did Gwyneth manage to get Netflix and their customers to pay her to for a series of infomercials? Shouldn't she be the one paying Netflix to advertise her products? Just amazing. This is labeled as a documentary, which is only true in the sense that infomercials document the products they sell.
I Shouldn't Be Alive: Alone in the Amazon (2010)
Don't watch this if you are a dog lover
The guy in this story is really incredibly stupid. To think he could find Alderado at age 22, while knowing absolutely nothing about the area is mind boggling. Then he leaves his original guides for an offer to be guided for free from a couple of guys he just stumbled into. He says he bacame paranoid, then heard the two new guides talking about killing him, so he fled. I seriously doubt that he heard them talking about killing him. That's probably a rationalization to justify his paranoia. Moreover, what motive would those guys have for killing him? Although it is possible they were joking.
Anyway, what ruined this episode for me was learning that he does something awful to a dog he made friends with. I just can't emotionally handle that.
Islam: Empire of Faith (2000)
More Islamic propaganda than documentary
The story structure is okay, in that it has a logical easy to follow flow. It uses maps which are helpful.
However, this documentary completely buries the atrocities Muhammad and his followers committed. Everything is spun to make Mahammad appear like a perfect humanitarian. When it claimed that citizens of its conquered cities converted to Islam willingingly, and that the threat of death for refusing had no impact on their decision to convert, I could not bear it anymore and stopped watching in disgust.
The Spanish Civil War (1983)
Very heavy focus on personal accounts of the events
I went into this wanting to get a broad overview of the Spanish Civil War, and account of the military strategy and tactics used by each side in the form of a timeline. I was hoping for frequent use of maps that clearly show borders and areas occupied by each side. Unfortunately, this documentary is fairly light on these aspects.
It does use lots of maps, but most aren't presented in a clear way until closer to the end. Initially the maps just show flags in general areas without borders filled in with colors. Although the last part shows this. They are shown for too short of a time for my taste, so I needed to pause a lot to fully digest the changes to the borders.
The vast vast majority of this documentary talks about the awful way each side killed and tortured innocent people. This is important information. However, it became too much after awhile. I didn't need to be told over and over again so many times how awful each side was. The point was already made much earlier. This made a lot of the documentary rather boring.
All in all I'm on the fence about whether to recommend it. It could be a good documentary if someone made a cut down version, as there are huge portions that are repetitive and and no useful detail.
Cosmonauts: How Russia Won the Space Race (2014)
Easy to follow documentary
The story structure and editing is quite good. Lots of very interesting and important guests give great first hand testimony.
I only have a couple minor gripes:
One is that most of the Soviet failure were either not mentioned at all, or only briefly mentioned. It gives off the impression that their accomplishments were much easier than they really were.
Second, some important historical information was left out. There is no mention of the R7 design originating from the German V2 program. When the Soviets took over Germany, they took the V2 plans and many of its engineers. Moreover, the development of the R7 began as soon as the war was over. The show makes it seem like it started much later.
I'd recommend watching the BBC's 4 part documentary called Space Race for a more accurate account.
Game of Thrones: The Long Night (2019)
Could hardly see anything
Well, biggest problem was everything was so dark, so I couldn't really see much of what was happening. Secondly, the events in general was very confusing and difficult to follow. And the ending was very anticlimactic. Far too much is concentrated into just one episode.
Six Days (2007)
One of my favourite documentaries ever
I've probably watched this about 6 or 7 times now over the years. The storyline is very well organized, and easy to follow all the events. The music choices and timing are perfect. It always causes me to feel very emotional about everything. By the end, it feels as if I had experienced the whole thing myself. This documentary was the gateway drug for me that lead me to become interested in middle eastern affairs and its history. Prior to this documentary I didn't care too much about this subject.
Also, in a really rare and amazing way, this documentary made me feel empathetic for both the Israelis and Egyptians. I left with the impression that neither side really wanted this war, but were sucked into it by a number of unfortunate circumstances and mistakes.
Liberty! The American Revolution (1997)
Mostly good, except for the the cringey character acting segments
Around 4/5ths of this documentary is great. It really goes into the roots of why things happen, and is presented very clearly.
However, the other fifth of the time are segments with actors dressing up as historical figures and reading out things they had written. The acting is so incredibly awful, and just comes across as corny. Thus, it really takes away from the seriousness of the rest of the documentary. It is so bad that I just have to fast forward all those sections.
Channel Zero (2016)
Season 1, and maybe 2, are the only ones worth watching.
Season one is pure gold. I've watched it like 3 times. Season 2 starts out slow, but picks up kinda. It it tolerable. There is certainly some bad acting. Season 3 and onwards was is just awful, especially the acting and incredibly cheesy dialogue. I do not understand how something that was so great in the first season went downhill so quickly. It is a real shame. Why didn't they bring back the actors from season one?
Undercover Boss: Belfor (2011)
Overly emotional and wimpy CEO
Having done construction work myself, I found it a bit pitiful how much this CEO complained about the most basic work. He breaks down and gets emotional over the smallest of issues. It makes me wonder how it is possible for someone like this to run a company.
Anyway, other than that, the episode is okay. It is all positive encounters with the employees. I watched this because the description says he gets emotional and breaks character. I thought that meant that an employee screwed up really bad, and it would be an anger thing. That wasn't the case at all.
Undercover Boss: Checkers & Rally's (2012)
Will satisfy your desire for justice
This is one of those episodes that feature a work place where things do not go well. You'll see things that will make you very very angry. However, it is well worth pushing through the frustration. There is swift and strong justice that will make you feel great.
It's not all bad scenarios though. There are good and positive segments as well.
My only real issue is with the ending reveal. The CEO doesn't really try to improve the lives of all employees. Just the lucky ones that got to work with him.
Undercover Boss: Hooters (2010)
Good episode, but the CEO is frustrating
This is one of those episodes that feature a bad employee. Very very bad. The CEO recognizes that there is a problem, but doesn't take it very seriously, which makes parts of this frustrating to watch. However, aside from that issue the episode is pretty good. The CEO does a great job of maintaining and creating his cover. It is very clear that no one had any clue who he was. And the CEO seems to really enjoy the experience.
Undercover Boss: White Castle (2010)
CEO does not try very hard to hide himself
Overall this isn't too bad of an episode. My biggest problem with it however, is that it seemed that some of the employees caught on to who he might be due to a lack of effort into maintaining his cover. When people ask him why he is doing this job, he offers no explanation. Also, he asks a lot of questions about the work environment that usually only management are concerned with. He also uses management vocabulary rather than words normal people would use to describe things. As an obvious result, some of the employees respond as if he has authority to change things. So a lot of this had a scripted feel to it.
The ending where employees get rewarded is fantastic though. This isn't one of those episodes that feature terrible workers. It's all feel good type stuff.
Marathon: The Patriots Day Bombing (2016)
Too much time spent on the victims personal lives for my interests
I went into this with the expectation of getting an account of the lead-up to the bombing, the bombing it self, and the subsequent investigation. These things are covered a little. Those parts were well done.
However, the documentary spends the vast majority of the time talking about the injuries to a few specific victims. That was interesting, initially. But it dragged on too much, and started to feel repetitive. This wouldn't be as much of an issue if all of personal stuff was segmented to one continuous timespan. Then I could just fast forward. That was not easy to do here, because it frequently jumped back and forth between stories about injuries, and information about the events and investigation.
Manhunt: The Inside Story of the Hunt for Bin Laden (2013)
They somehow found a way to make this about feminism
I went into this thinking this would be about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden. What I found, was a story about women investigators talking about their struggle to work in a male dominated organization.
I only made it about a quarter of the way in before I couldn't take it anymore. I figured, surely it can't all be about this, and must get better eventually. But it didn't seem to be improving. Perhaps it does get better after the quarter mark. However, I don't have the parience or enough trust in it to find out.
Frontline: The Gang Crackdown (2018)
A very cynical hopeless perspective, that seems to ridicule anyone trying to stop MS13
The editing and story structure is great.
The narrative on the other hand is mind boggling. They start out doing a great job explaining how big of a problem MS13 is. Then briefly, without much detail, mention efforts being made to step them. Most of the episode talks about how all these efforts are doomed to fail, and ridiculing the people trying to help.
For example, they show a clip with the local police chief talking about plans to step up law enforcement efforts. In the next scene, some guy is ridiculing the police, with the argument that law enforcement alone isn't going to solve everything. Well of course! The cop didn't say anything about law enforcement being the only solution. But law enforcement is his job, so that's obviously the only role he's going to talk about. It's like getting angry at a plumber for not doing the electrical work when a home is being constructed. Obviously other organizations need to get involved to solve the issue with MS13.
The episode is also very one sided when using examples of people accused of being gang members. They interview their family members, that obviously paint a picture of them being innocent. But they don't spend the same amount of time exploring the evidence of their criminal involvement in the gang.
Terrorism Close Calls (2018)
Horrible editing, and disorganized incoherent script
I really really wanted to like this show, as the subject is very interesting to me.
However, the first major problem I noticed was the awful editing. There are so many jump cuts and unnecessary special effect, that it made me uncomfortable keeping my eyes on the screen. It's as if the editor is using the show off all the digital effects he or she can do, rather than focusing on making the show enjoyable. I dealt with this by looking away from the screen every once in awhile, and focusing on the audio.
The second, and almost deal breaker issue, is the structure of the story. The majority of almost every episode is spent talking about the context and potential implications of various successful attacks. They go overboard with context, to the point that they almost forget to talk about the actual close call incident. In the case of the Israeli Honey Pot episode, it's so bad that I can't even recall them ever talking about a failed plot. This might not be so bad if the context was at least explained in a coherent organized way. However, it's not. They try to cram too much in, and the sequencing of each piece of information often doesn't follow from the last. So someone that knows nothing about the context is likely to end up very confused.
The only real reason I'm not giving this lower than 5 stars, is because of my intense interest in the subject. To make the show tolerable, I recommend using the fast forward button liberally, especially in the first quarter of each episode. There are brief sections in some episodes that actually spend a little time talking about the failed attempt in a somewhat coherent way.
The Making of the Mob (2015)
Not entirely accurate, with some ridioulous choices in guests, but just good enough
The acting is pretty ify at times. But it's just barely good enough to endure and follow along the story.
For some ridiculous reason, they bring in actors from fictional mob movies, to talk about the history of the mob as if they are experts or have real experience. It's so hard to take the show seriously when I see them talking with a tone of authority. However, there are historians and actual people that were in the mob, or related, that speak from time to time.
Also, if you have spent any amount of time studying the history of the mob, you'll notice many inaccuracies. So it's best to take it all with a grain of salt, not take it too seriously, and view the show mostly as fiction that's inspired by real events.
Declassified: Untold Stories of American Spies (2016)
Entertaining and Essential Viewing for Anyone That Votes
I don't think I can come up with enough words to fully express how important it is for voters to know about the investigations documented in this series. It does a fairly good job of demonstrating how important espionage and counter espionage work is for a nations security. As well as the legislation that enables investigations to succeed. Hearing about these cases on the news, doesn't provide the depth needed to really understand the threats that exist to the US, and the work being done to stop them. This show does a better job of doing that.
It's also interesting to me how well this show manages to be as neutral as possible. If you're like me, and often feel that CNN News has too much of a left-wing bias, then you'll be surprised by the lack of that bias in this particular TV series.
If you were a fan of shows like The FBI Files and Forensic Files, and were looking for a similar style of show to fill the void, this will likely provide your fix. The focus of the show is usually on the investigation itself. However, some episodes spend a lot of time talking about the context of why a certain suspect is important. Sometimes, the amount of time spend on context feels a bit excessive. Other times, not enough.
My only real complain about the show, is the repetition after the end of advertising segments. It gets on my nerves after awhile.
The Conjuring 2 (2016)
An Almost Perfect Sequel and Horror Movie in General
I was incredibly impressed by the way this movie kept the same general theme, vibe, and strength of scares as its predecessor, while also being fresh and adding just the right changes to subvert expectations. I also loved how they actually called the police this time, and based on the common sense theory that some sinister prankster was behind everything. Although the mother really should have thought about that. But whatever, at least someone acted rationally, which is incredibly rare in horror films. I was then impressed again by the fact that paranormal events happened while the police were there. Words can't describe how satisfying and refreshing that was to see.
The only thing that really bothered me about this movie, was the part where everyone suddenly concluding that all the hauntings were fake, due to one incident. In what universe would a rational thinking adult believe that a little girl could fake everything that happened? That scene was so frustrating.
However, the aforementioned weakness was connected to a strength in this film. I loved that Loraine wasn't able to see the demon. That is something I didn't expect. The way they found out later why she couldn't see the demon, was also a very exiting addition to the story.
The ending of this film is a big improvement over The Conjuring. Mainly in the sense that the final battle with the demon was shorter. These final battles, where the demon fully possesses someone, aren't as scary for me. Demon's are more scary to me when they aren't in a physical form, because things that I can't see scare me the most. At the point of possession, I don't see a demon, just a crazy acting human that my brain associates with someone with a mental health problem.
Jackie Brown (1997)
My Favourite Movie of all Time
What's amazing to me about this movie, is that it managed to fully captivate my attention, despite the fact that I generally don't like drama movies, and have ADD. Usually I need horror films with jump scares, or high action films with lots of loud fighting to keep my attention. But in some mysterious way, the director of this film made even the slowest most non eventful parts incredibly interesting to me.
In all, I can't think of a single scene that didn't deserve to be in the movie. There are some rare parts that don't seem entirely essential to the story to me. But those parts are still great just on their own, and would stand on their own as short films.
One thing that really makes this movie unique for me is the strength of its female lead protagonist. Strong aggressive female characters in other movies almost always feel forced to me. Like they are trying too hard to be seen as respectable leaders, but actually just come off as jerks. I don't think I am sexist, but I might be on some subconscious level. However, the actor playing Jackie Brown plays the part of an aggressive strong protagonist like a natural. The fact that she is a woman taking on an authoritative and strong role, against violent and strong men, didn't stand out to me at all during the movie. It all felt natural. Jackie still comes off as a nice likable woman, and not a jerk at all.
If I were forced to come up with just one criticism, it would be that it wasn't long enough. The story is completed by the end, in a satisfying way. But I cared so much about the characters that I wanted to keep seeing more of their lives, even if it was not eventful.
It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Dennis' Double Life (2017)
The Show Has Officially Jumped the Shark
This one episode managed to ruin a lot of things I loved about the show. Charlie never getting the waitress. That's gone. And the reason the waitress gave for turning him down earlier is beyond ridiculous for so many reasons. She seemed to think Dennis was the most amazing person ever at one time, but didn't seem to think she wasn't good enough. Although the plot hole doesn't really matter that much. It's more that it ruins a funny part about Charlies character.
Although the part that makes way less sense, and did way more character damage, was the deal with Dennis wanting to be a father. It destroys the whole idea of him being a sociopath. And having a sociopath as a member of the Gang made for great chemistry. What I love about this show is that it was basically a big slap in the face of feel good romantic comedies, which I hate. This episode started sinking down to that level.
Deep in the Heart of Texas: Dave Chappelle Live at Austin City Limits (2017)
The older Dave Chappelle seems to share little resemblance to the Dave on the Chappelle Show
I really really wanted to like this. I am a huge fan of his older stand up specials, and The Chappelle Show. To me, it seemed like he was barely even interested in trying to be funny. I got the impression that his motivation for doing this show was political, and just made a half hearted attempt to put a funny twist on things to satisfy distributors/producers.
As for the politics he was preaching, it was pretty meh, and not really original or insightful. Typical messages that I've heard others parrot a million times. The show is only interesting in the sense that it shows how quickly and significantly an adults personality can change if thrown into a certain environment. It seems that Dave can't handle fame and publicity too well. And come to think of it, I seem to recall Chappelle admitting this after he ended the Chappelle Show. Which adds to my suspicion that he got back into stand up comedy for reasons other than comedy, since he admitted that he ran out of ideas after season 2 of the Chappelle Show.
Annabelle (2014)
Consistent Quality With The Rest OF The Conjuring Series
I've been a big fan of The Conjuring and The Conjuring 2, and somehow only discovered this movie just now. In my opinion, this movie is scary. Now, what is scary is obviously different from person to person. But one thing I think everyone should be able to agree on with this film, is that being scary is at least the goal of the writers and producers. A lot of films under the category of horror, don't necessarily have fear as their primary goals. For example, movies like Cabin in the Woods, which are comedies with a horror theme.
In contrast with the rest of The Conjuring series, this film starts a bit slower, and gets stronger towards the end. Also, the intensity of the story line isn't on the same level. In my opinion, this gives Annabelle a slight advantage over The Conjuring, since I become desensitized to threats on screen if they become too intense.
Die Hard (1988)
An almost perfect movie, with one minor but highly irritating flaw
The way with movie blends action, mystery and comedy together is amazing. Bruce Willis really is the perfect actor for this role. What I really love about this, is the way John torments the criminals, as if the criminals were in a horror movie. Namely, the elevator scene, where he leaves one of the dead bodies.
However, the way the police were written was infuriating. I can't help but suspect that the writer has some deep personal issues with police in general. I just can't imagine both the NYPD and FBI being that stupid. And it's not an enjoyable "haha" kind of stupid either. Like, for example, when they send one officer to check out the building. This implies that they think there is some remote chance that what John said is true. If it is true, sending one cop in is a suicide mission. It just makes no sense what to ever. Moreover, the idea that criminals would cut phone lines and make it impossible for victims to call police was not unheard of. It doesn't make any sense to ignore a radio call. I'm only scratching the surface on the level of stupidity. I would have to write a whole book to cover it all.