This is what I call the Sergio Leone approach to Star Wars. Taking its time to flesh out the character, and giving us the answer to many questions we never knew we had. Excellent episode.
Not a good movie, by far. Very predictable as the plot really is quite simple and many times makes no sense at all. Very cheesy and the ending is really a downer, quite depressive indeed. However, it has excellent shoot-them-up action sequences and it looks amazing on the screen. Really nice photography, make up and VFX. The moral of the story is - at least for me-, don't you dare to care for any of the characters. None of them. The documentary of the movie is way better than the movie itself.
It feels like a nice TV pilot episode, it has excellent action scenes and the acting is overall good. Michael B. Jordan does a decent job as a lead, and for a German movie, it's quite good. However it has nothing to do with Tom Clancy's novel, and that's a shame. Hope the follow up movie doesn't mess with the novel they mention in the after credits scene.
Stunning episode. Just brilliant acting.
After watching the whole season, this is the only episode I felt was fun, engaging and written pretty much like the original SAC series. It happens outside the story arc, so I recommend it highly.
The premise is directly taken from the Appleseed book. Not the best, but watchable. However, the graphics and animation are awful. ARISE looks beautiful compared with this cheap PS2 graphics fare. The music is also bombastic and muffles the japanese dialogue. Not worth the wait.
This fond homage to Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai is a welcome surprise. I'm so pleased with the path the show is following, taking its time to introduce characters and set the plot, despite the short running time of each episode.
Excellent opening for the season. I love the fact that they decided to film part of the episode in Moscow, very close to the Kremlin and inside the actual Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics, It's wonderful to see any American show feeling comfortable enough to be there, given the political climate. I think that they are also setting up the plot from The Cardinal Of The Kremlin for future seasons, and that's great. However, my sense of disbelief was kinda broken when I saw Bogotá standing up as Caracas, given that I know both cities and they are totally different in both landscape, weather and buildings, something that a little CGI could fix. Then again, the average American viewer won't notice that. The Spanish dialogues are accurate translations, and also accents.
It's not as bad as I thought it would be, after all the behind the scenes drama. However, the plot isn't something to write home about. It was top-notch VFX's (the train sequence is THE BEST in the whole movie), and some good action sequences here and there, but I couldn't care any less about the whole story. The main characters are totally underdeveloped by the end of the film, and those I could care about to know more, are dead. It this was a pilot for a TV series about Han Solo, then it's on the spot, because you can take your jolly time to fully flesh out and develop those characters on subsequent episodes. But this is one of the most expensive films ever made, a long and irrelevant side-story in a franchise that it's already in deep trouble since The Force Awakens. Suddenly issues that weren't relevant to the original trilogy (like the hyperfuel) are now the center piece for social commentary and some twisted political agenda that I don't care about. If you haven't seen it, you might as well skip it and wait for it on cable or something.
A really eye-opening experience. The way it affects everyone who invest in the US stock market (even those who use "safe" mutual funds) is frightening for all of us who are old enough remember all those financial crashes that happened in the past 3 decades... and the next one is coming from China, that's for sure.
It was quite unfair that this show got cancelled. Still one of my favorite shows.
With a different cast, this premise could make up for a nice thriller. However, this isn't Capricorn One, and I couldn't shake my sense of disbelief: the cameras and tape recorders they show on frame, are all from different ages (the wrong ones), so is the clothing, vehicles, and the vocabulary is American-contemporary. There are a few sequences that are good, and made me keep watching, but the ending is a complete letdown. One tidbit: the front projection screen technique wasn't first used or developed by Stanley Kubrick. It has been around since 1949 and it was extensively used in the early 60's, so it's unlikely that bright film students (as the protagonist are meant to be) that love international cinema wouldn't be aware of it.
Sadly, it has almost nothing to do with Adam's novels. They kept just the name of the main character, the clueless sidekick, the cat and the dog. The narrative lacks the british wit and crazy charm of the orginal series, the philosophical implications of chaos, or the novel's extreme confluence. Seattle (or should I say, Vancouver) is a lousy replacement for London, as in the novels the city becomes another character. It's enjoyable, but the original series did more in its 3 episode run than this in 8.
An excellent comedy, truly enjoyable, especially Joan Hackett's character. Actually, it feels pretty much like a modern TV pilot, as James Garner plays his character with the same easygoing manner as he did in "Maverick" (1957-62), and would reprise again in "Brett Maverick" (1981-82) and "Maverick" (1994). He was perfect for Westerns. This movie has a sequel of sorts, "Support Your Local Gunfighter", that I really recommend.
This is an excellent love letter to the 80's. I was 13 years old in 1983, so I get the whole feeling and ambiance from the sets and props. I love that the camera angles and narrative are those from the late 70's, instead of the usual steadycam-quick-cut fare we watch every day now. The story is slow and predictable (but just because we're already embedded in this kind of storytelling) but I don't see that as a failure at all. My problem here is that we get so emotionally invested in the characters and that's why the ending of this first season is a huge let down for me. I wouldn't mind another 8 episodes, but I don't see it progressing past certain point. Kids grow fast, so you can't get like 4 seasons without acknowledging the passage of time. They'll have to film as much as possible while the cast still looks like that, and release the episodes at their own pace, in my humble opinion.
I remember quite well the "World's Finest" arc from the Superman Animated Series and decided to enjoy it once again. Excellent, even after all these years, and I must say it has aged well, mostly because an excellent voice cast and GOOD WRITTING. Better movie than BVSDJ.
The first time I saw this movie, it felt all wrong. 15 years later, it still feels a lot is missing. It's still a nice flick to watch over while on the plane or catch it on late night cable, but not something I would spend money to buy.
Along with Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian and Sicario, Creed is one of the best movies this year. I'm looking forward for the Blu-ray release to enjoy the behind scenes features.
A beautiful and intimate film about Jiro Ono, an artist who tries to achieve perfection in the craft he loves: sushi. It also depicts how living under his shadow places a huge pressure on his sons. Discipline, beauty, minimalism, exhuberance of flavor and form define his art, and he shares it to the camera for us to enjoy. His lament about overfishing reminds me that sooner or later, we'll have no fish and traditional sushi will dissapear, or become very, very expensive. Dreams Of Sushi Is a relaxing and beautiful experience to enjoy.
Golgo 13 is a retro-style anime that draws heavily from sniper stories about impossible shots in adverse conditions during the turmoil of the Cold War. If you don't know the manga by Takao Saito (the oldest still in publication, since 1968 and most likely about to conclude soon), the whole vibe of the series will feel wrong to some viewers, as Togo's narrative hasn't changed since the 70's. There is not need of character development, as the series depicts vignettes in the daily life of a professional actually doing his job, and nothing else. The characters around him are either service providers (weaponsmiths, intelligence brokers and prostitutes), clients or victims, and pretty much following the structure of the classic Japanese gangster movies, characters fade in and out, and never cross paths with him again. These 50 episodes are just like the stories depicted in the first 70 numbers of the manga. We don't know anything about Duke Togo (that isn't even his real name), and we never will (other than his code name is an "engrish" word for Golgotha and the number 13 a reference to Judas). He has an asian appearence, but never in the manga is stated as Japanese (he travels with a passport from an unspecified nation), as he speaks fluently russian, german, spanish, french, italian, english, mandarin, afrikaans and portuguese, all of them well enough to pass as a native speaker. I happen to find Golgo 13 quite refreshing, as the "assasination of the week" nature of the show is my kind of thrill (L&O style), and I don't have to worry about what's going on next, as do I know he'll get the job done and collect his 3 million dollars... or else. Suggestion: don't watch the dubbed version, and try to watch before "The Professional: Golgo 13" and the "Queen Bee" OVA, so you can get in to the mood.
One of my favorite 70's mini-series as a kid was Martian Chronicles. I had just finished Ray Bradbury's book back then (1979), and I was "in the zone" the first night that the haunting theme composed by Stanley Myers came out my little TV (as a kid I had a B&W 12" General Electric portable TV that my grandmother gave me as a gift so I could watch series at night while lying on my bed). The story was a huge departure from the book, but I was thrilled, and hugely dissapointed that it was only 3 episodes long. Over the years, I have bought this series several times (Betamax tapes, VHS tapes and the infamous Collector's Edition DVD, and also the soundtrack CD from MGM Music), and today had the chance to enjoy it in 720p, in one sitting. It looks fantastic. The budget was spent in the main cast and locations, and very, very little in visual effects (as usual in most of BBC's fare of the late 70's), and the end result is fairly decent, with only a HUGE, AWFUL, BAD VFX shot in the third episode that even as a kid made me laugh, and a few matte paintings that aren't that good here and there. The sets, props and art design are early 70's top of the line (it was shot in 1978), some of them as good as anything NBC or BBC had on the air back then. The idea was that keep the story and message clear, despite the obvious flaws. The Martian props are just amazing, and I've been looking for Martian Conflict Masks since. As a modern viewer, you'll need to look at this show with you suspension of disbelief mode fully active (the sky is blue, there are clouds everywhere, water canals and more importantly AIR, on Mars), and take the astronautics "science" with it huge grain of salt (that part of the show was crap even then). You have to, in order to enjoy a great cast, a thoughtful narrative and an excellent ending.
While I'm glad that Aaron Ashmore was able to land a role so soon after Warehouse 13, this series feels too self-contained and yet overtly complicated. I don't see it moving past the first season.
After enjoying this movie in IMAX 3D, I must say I'm utterly pleased. It keeps within the original Mad Max story, so isn't a reboot as such. Miller makes his presence be felt at the helm every single frame and his bag of tricks is full, and generous. The movie benefits A LOT from the 3D conversion for its very jumpy-action nature (however there's one shot when a driver's wheel jumps from the screen, that feels so 80's, that made me chuckle, you'll know when you see it), and the score was surprisingly good (I'm gonna buy it at iTunes right away). Hardy's performance is in tune with Gibson's: few words, pedal to the metal and dry humour here and there. You have to experience this film on the big screen, and I'm gonna bet that you'll love it just as myself.
The visual effects by Universal Hartland for the pilot movie and some of the episodes were excellent, however this show recycled so many shots by the end of the first season that I truly knew them by heart as a kid. When Universal Hartland closed its doors in early 1981, the quality of the visual effects went down the drain, in a very noticeable way. This show benefited by Battlestar Galactica's cancellation, as many props, sets, costumes and even some visual effects were taken directly from that show. The Terran ships were designed by Ralph McQuarrie (of Star Wars fame), so even now they look sharp and timeless. It's great to see the grounds of Montreal's Expo 67 standing in for New Chicago, just as well as the Bonaventure Hotel. As for the writing... well, it's a Glen A. Larson show, so it varies from campy to awful. Gil Gerard wanted more serious storytelling instead of an "alien of the week" fare, but Universal and NBC deemed the American public of the 80's not ready for something like that. The second season was (at Universal request, actually) a direct copy of Star Trek: The Original Series, and that abrupt change made the ratings drop so fast the season was cut short after the eleventh episode. The fan base decided to ignore the second season, and actually Season One is the only one available on DVD right now (Season Two is out of print since 2004). My favorite episode is the one featuring Buster Crabbe (as Brigadier Gordon), the original Flash Gordon AND Buck Rogers.
The visuals are alright, nothing to write home about. What is to be expected from any blockbuster nowadays. However, the plot feels like it was written in a napking using crayons. I'm not sure why they even bother to release this nostalgia-driven mess.
Not a good sequel. It has its moments, but the plot is almost laughable. Very disappointing.
The first season of GITS SAC 2045 is so uneven and poorly written, that you can skip the first 5 episodes without losing a single plot point. The whole story could be summarized in 60 seconds of dialogue. The remainder six episodes are uneven, but enjoyable, except the last one. Now, the CGI is VERY distracting and subpar, with only a few highlights here and there. The producers made a poor choice leaving behind their wonderful ARISE hand-drawn animation style just to settle with a PS2-era garden-variety CGI fare. The music is intrusive and bombastic in many episodes, but there are a few good pieces in the last episodes. As the next season will keep the same look and plot, it's a shame this opportunity for a true GITS series is lost.
This episode is inspired in a real life member of The Zetas (also known as MS-13), Brenda Paz. She was killed in 2003 for informing the FBI about the gang's criminal activities; two of her former friends were later convicted of the murder. However, she was killed in American soil.
One of the most boring Godzilla movies I've ever seen (and I've seen all the Toho films). This one makes the most recent US version like Shakespeare. Nothing compares to the original Honda film.
Well, I saw it at last, and it was an utterly disappointing experience. Rogue One is a disjointed film with almost no real plot, badly drawn characters and tons of fan service. The first half hour is so jammed that it feels like a trailer, while the rest of the film is lacking character development. It really shows the places where the film was pierced together on re-shoots, as those are the moments of "fun" or when everything slows down with pointless exposition. I didn't see anything from the teasers and trailers on the finished film (where is "isn't this is a rebellion... I rebel", Forest Whitaker's speech or the many, many battle scenes on the ground?). The main character was so flimsy and flip-flopping on her resolution and motivation that I couldn't care any less about her by the end, even when they made a point negating any chance of a sequel. I gave it the benefit of the doubt after my lousy experience with The Force Awakens, but as for me right now, Star Wars ended on the Endor celebration. I'm not paying for nostalgia anymore.
