Michelle Yeoh really steals this episode. So far, so good with the story and character development.
I love that I didn't see that one coming at all. Great ending.
Way better than I was expecting. I'm pretty sure the show will find its footing right away. The story is compelling and it really follows onto events that are part of Star Trek's canon. As they say, I am all in for the journey ahead.
Tertia Optio is the motto of the Special Activities Center (SAC), and it means Third Option, as covert action is the next option available after diplomacy and the military.I like how the plot is unfolding so far.
I had to activate my sense of disbelief at 100% for this film. I've read the manga, seen the anime, the Japanese live-action films (all 3 of them), and the recent Japanese live-action TV series. So, I decided to give it a chance, standing on his own... and I love it. This is an 80's style film, and follows the classic terror storytelling plots of that era, and the music and photography style follows suit. Everything that we as fans might see as a deviation from the original, are precisely the little tidbits that make it stand apart. It has better acting and dialogue than the Japanese live-action films, and the psychosis from Light is what I might expect from someone who is experiencing an emotional breakdown. Anyway... this is already a hit on Netflix from the amount of viewers alone.
What I find more compelling about this show is how it uses an alien invader to create a narrative and commentary about terrorism (its motivations, drives, philosophical justificaction) and counter-terrorism in the post 9-11 era, mixing elements from World War II and the 60's anti-colonial movement in Africa and Asia. Excellent show, I really hope it gets more than two seasons.
This entire season was a delayed response to 9-11. The Twin Towers became the Xindi (themselves surrogates of Osama Bin Laden) attack on Florida and Venezuela. As such, it feels like a snapshot of the American collective state of mind that prevailed during the early 2000's. "The Mission". Enemies everywhere. Compromises. Torture. The character crossed lines that no other crew had in Star Trek history, and that had a huge cost in viewership. Even after 10 years, it's hard to watch it without wondering... it was worth it?.
An excellent documentary. After following for years in the press this case, I was expecting someday a "behind the scenes" documentary of the case inner workings like this one, and it really was an eye opener. Amanda Knox must be one of the most dumb, egocentrical, deceitful, unreliable, manipulative and superficial persons that I've ever seen in my life. She's guilty as hell, of course. You can see clearly in her body language and expressions that she's lying during the whole documentary. Most of the time, she's acting like it's a joke for her. Sadly, the Italian police made crucial mistakes during the investigative process and the judicial system there isn't precisely the best. It must be clear for the viewer that she wasn't declared "innocent", but got the equivalent of a mistrial (twice) and the prosecution wasn't able to create a new case against her sucessfully to stand against their appeals. That's such a shame, because she should be behind bars instead of everyone treating her as the spoiled brat that she is. There was no justice for Meredith, and Amanda's family is deeply in debt after all these years (and probably will be for over a decade). Hope she rots somewhere, someday.
I do happen to like the way they subtly hinted that The Doctor has enough regeneration energy for another go, at least. What I don't like is that this comes along with recent Peter Capaldi's comments on interviews about him being too tired of shooting Doctor Who, after just two series. That means that he's leaving after series 10?. Most likely. Cast a 57 y.o. actor in a physical demanding role, and what do you get?. The episode introduces the concept of a new Doctor in just a couple of lines, and that kept my attention off for the rest of it. When I went back to watch it again, there it was, I wasn't wrong. So, I'm expecting the beginning of the casting process after S9's Christmas special, and a proper send off after wrapping S10. Wearable technology?... sure.
It's a pleasure to have Sir Stewart having a ball on this show, that really takes aim at his comedic skills. I must say it's a very British kind of show (in pace, humour and delivery), so I'm not entirely sure if it'll please the American Kardashian-loving kind of people in the 18-35 age group that seems to be the only audience that Starz is looking for (they cancelled Magic City, that was a great show just because it was weak at that demography, and renewed Power barely). This show has dark humour, hidden golden eggs, wits and great acting moments, and I truly hope it gets more than the two seasons already ordered.
Damn. Goddamn. This is the best episode so far. Pure delight and joy, and some of the best Star Wars canon to date.
This is what I call "to boldly go...". A wonderful episode that respects the legends, and builds up upon them to reach for the stars.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 thing about this movie are the wonderful background landscapes. John Sturges loved widescreen formats, in an age when most cinemas still had 4:3 screens, as a norm. However, the cast feels lost against the backgrounds. Anyone familiar with retro-TV will recognize most of the supporting cast members as popular character actors that used to play antagonist roles in all the popular shows of the late 60's and 70's, including my favorite "heavy", Ron Soble (Wyatt Earp in Star Trek's "Spectre Of The Gun" and Queng-Dri in The Six Million Dollar Man's "The Coward"). This is nothing but a minor work in Sturges' and Eastwood's filmography, but it's well worth watching it.
