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Reviews
Maestro (2023)
Such a wasted opportunity
I was very excited when I heard Maestro was coming out. With all this filmmaking firepower, it would have to be worthy of its subject. Now I've seen the movie and am stunned by the wasted talent and energy expended for what turned into another movie about rich, talented people who appear to have it all, but get sad and emotional just like the rest of us. They just talk about it a LOT more.
The film is beautifully photographed, but I have no idea what the format change and the black and white to color change accomplished. The acting was good, but rather than being shown that the characters are going through something emotional, we are told, All these immensely talented people seem to talk about is their feelings, not their motivations, plans and aspirations.
Leonard Bernstein wrote and conducted some of the most memorable music of the 20th century. He singlehandedly (with help from Bugs Bunny) kept interest in classical music alive when jazz and rock were kings. But we learn nothing of this in this film. Bernstein's talents and accomplishments are presented as facts, without exploration. What a waste.
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Great, but stolen
I really enjoyed this movie, just like I really enjoyed 633 Squadron, from 1964. Top Gun's mission and training plot is lifted from 633 Squadron, just swap Cliff Robertson and George Chakiris for Tom Cruise and Miles Teller. They even copied the bit where the good guys win in the end.
Succession (2018)
Add me to the people who couldn't make it through episode 2
I couldn't find anything to enjoy about this show, and I see I have a lot of company. The acting and production is fine, but the characters are so awful, in such predictable ways, that I just didn't care enough to watch any more.
Ojing-eo geim (2021)
Stock characters, and predictable drama weaken a good social commentary
I appreciated the importance of Squid Game taking on the inequality and cruelty of Capitalism for the first half of this series. Then things got muddled. The plot becomes full of holes and dead ends. We find out that the only motivation for the Game was some bored, over-rich friends looking for fun, That's all. I was really expecting something original.
Most of the characters never developed any subtlety. We are left with the Bully, the Greedy guy, the Crazy Lady, the Cool but Wise Young Women, the Clever Old Man, the Loser with a Heart of Gold, and a hundred Heartless Minions with no apparent backstory. And the VIPs were just comical.
Squid Game cries out for a second season to explain all the lingering questions about the origins and motivation of the people who started and ran the Game. But I don't think I care enough about that to sit through another few hundred horribly cruel deaths again.
La Brea (2021)
Wanted it to be good
I always enjoy any show that begins with the destruction of Los Angeles, but even that can't save this thing. I couldn't make it through the pilot.
Point of No Return (2018)
My, this is SUCH a bad movie!
My, this is SUCH a bad movie! Believe all the 1 star reviews. But it gets about 4.5 out of 5 stars on Amazon Prime. The reason is Amazon duplicates the score from the Brigitte Fonda movie of the same name from 1993, which was very good. A clever way to get you to watch their trash.
Everest: Beyond the Limit (2006)
High Altitude Reality TV
I am fascinated by Mount Everest and mountaineering in general. Climbers are usually admirable, courageous people who adapt and persevere using experience and thorough preparation and training. They often have fascinating life stories. This show is not about them. The main characters in Everest: Beyond the Limit are newbies who pay tens of thousands of dollars to have their hands held up the mountain.
There are plenty of interesting characters around, but the guides, sherpas and veteran climbers are just supporting actors who we learn little about. We actually don't learn much about anything, since this show is all about drama not education. The third-grade-level narration relies on about fifteen Everest facts and cliches that are repeated every episode. My wife and I eventually started laughing when our favorites came back. We still have one season to watch, and are considering a Bingo game for recurring statements like:
Even if they make it to the summit there's no guarantee they'll make it back down.
As they got higher, so did the risks.
If they can't find him, he's as good as dead.
And at this altitude that's a death sentence.
Eighty per cent of the fatalities happen on the way down.
In the death zone the body starts eating itself.
The effort has left them exhausted.
He knows he's lucky to be alive.
But this day isn't over yet.
He needs to get down fast
And X treads the line between life and death.
X is at a higher altitude than he's ever been.
X is in unknown territory.
After x his dream may be shattered.
For all the work and risk that went into producing this show, it seems like an opportunity wasted. Despite the problems, we are still watching, mostly for the scenery. The mountain, and the heroism of the sherpas and guides are dramatic enough to fill a show, and I wish they had.
The Irishman (2019)
Nothing we didn't see in Goodfellas and Casino
Unless you just love seeing computer-de-aged stars taking one more swing, there isn't much in this movie that wasn't already covered in the mob classics like Goodfellas. Sure, the acting is good, but these guys got tired out a decade ago.
Ad Astra (2019)
Too many distracting questions
I spent about half of Ad Astra distracted by questions I asked myself about the plot or the science. Why isn't he asking why they think his father is alive? Why hasn't lunar rover design improved since the Apollo program? If he's so important, and they know there are moon pirates, why not send more security, or put him in a safer vehicle? How can you accelerate a vehicle enough to get to Mars, and later Neptune, in a few days without killing the crew? How can you stop a vehicle traveling at those speeds to answer a Norwegian space lab SOS without using all your fuel and re-killing the crew with the acceleration? If the mission is to look for interstellar life, why put the station where half the sky is obscured by Neptune's rings? And if energy bursts from anti-matter release are bad, won't releasing all the anti-matter at once in a nuclear explosion be lots worse?
That's just the big stuff. It's hard to get the great message of the film when there are so many distractions. And speaking of messages, didn't we already learn that "there's no place like home" in 1939?