So she has a fancy security system but doesn't lock her keys or windows?... Okay, but then it's your own fault if you die, stupid.
[7.7/10] Another really entertaining episode. This is more explicitly doing Bewitched and 1960s sitcoms, and there’s a lot of sheer entertainment to be had from a riff on tropes of odd couples trying to fit into their idyllic neighborhoods.
I also appreciate the recognition of classic sitcom tropes and how they’d evolved in the subsequent decades. That goes beyond just the different decor in Wanda and Vision’s home. We see them walk outside and go seemingly on location, beyond the confines of a single set. We also see many more people of color populating their white picket fence town. It’s small details, but they add up to show change.
The notion of Wanda trying to impress Dottie, the queen bee of the neighborhood (Emma Caufield, aka Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and Vision to get in good with the neighborhood watch, so as to further their joint initiative to fit in works as a great premise for the episode. There’s a lot of humor to be wrung from off-beat Wanda trying to fit in with the Stepford-esque ladies under Dottie’s purview, and awkward square Vision accidentally fitting in with the guys of the watch.
What’s more, the set piece of the two of them trying to pull off a magic act at the local talent show, where Vision is functionally drunk due to some literal gum in the works, and Wanda has to work to make people think it isn’t magic, is fantastic. There’s a great, frantic energy to the whole routine, and both Olsen and Bettany play it to the hilt.
This was also a great episode for stray lines. The running gag of people chanting “For The Children” in unison brought a lot of yuks. The poor mustached man from the prior episode going “That was my grandmother’s piano” when Wanda turns it into a wooden standee was a solid laugh. And one of the housewives in the audience asking “Is that how mirror’s work?” when Wanda uses them to try to explain Vision’s phasing hat trick had me rolling in the aisles.
But it’s not all laughs. There’s more horror at the edge of the frame that’s done quite well. The presence of an airplane that’s visibly Iron Man’s colors seems to shock Wanda as revealing that something’s wrong here. When Wanda assures Dottie that she doesn’t mean any harm, Dottie says “I don’t believe you,” in genuinely frightened tones, while a strange voice cuts through the radio, causing her to break a glass and bleed fluid that likewise breaks through the black and white color scheme. It’s another superbly done unnerving moment.
There’s also some interesting lines that have double meanings that are quickly glossed over, like their new friend saying “I don’t know why I’m here,” seemingly referring to the garden party, but also suggesting she’s been wrapped into this fantasy world somehow and doesn’t know why. There’s a lot of little bits of dialogue that work like that in this one, and it’s fascinating.
We also see and hear some loud thumping, played for laughs in the “move the beds together” scene (another wink toward classic TV changes), but also witness it used for legitimate scares. There’s some frightening imagery when the man emerges from the sewers in a beekeeper outfit and more “Who’s doing this to you, Wanda?” calls are heard, especially when Wanda uses the power to rewind the tape. The advent of a pregnancy is an interesting development, and the arrival of color with their kiss is some great effects worth.
I’m nursing a theory that this is all part of Wanda coping with the loss of Vision, feeling sick or afflicted and unwittingly creating this fantasy world out of some kind of grief, wrapping more and more people into it. Whatever the answer, color me appropriately intrigued by the mystery, charmed by the pastiche, and appropriately disturbed at the hints of something deeply wrong with all of this.
Let me start this off by saying that this sequel did not feel outside of what we remember.
Blade Runner 2049 maintains the mood and feel of its predecessor. The visuals, the sound... the dystopian future, it's all there.
| FIRST THOUGHT |
I love writing reviews, it comes somewhat naturally to me after watching something that I learn to feel passionate about.
This movie taught me to be passionate.
But... it's really hard for me to express judgment. And I'm going to explain why:
Actually, it's very simple. This was a 3 hours movie. Of these 3 hours, 2 were simply... air. Now, don't get me wrong, that isn't always negative, like in this case. It was refreshing air, but still... it doesn't (at first glance) hold anything on the plot.
Because of this, the viewer (me at least), is left with a lot of questions, the picture doesn't explain itself. Also; as a side note - you most definitely need to watch the first one. The great majority of the runtime is inexplicably useless.
The longer it goes, the longer it begins to add new stuff, and then some, then it seems somehow related to what's actually going on, but right after it deviates the actual story on an ideal from the characters involved, that at a certain point, evaporates. I'm really conflicted about this because it looks to me like the screenwriters and director wanted to leave all of this to theory and the fans.
Why is this confusing? Because it's a very strange mixture of linear narrative and non-linear narrative. One is focussed on one objective, the other starts a bunch of other objectives and then it simply dies. No explanation was given, no closure was given.
And this is aggravated by the fact that it's a 3 hours movie, of which 1 hour of the actual story is spread and mixed amongst 2 hours of absolutely nothing. VISUALLY IMPRESSIVE NOTHING. A VERY INTERESTING BUNCH OF LITERAL VOID.
This is actually the only thing I did not like about the movie. Which, again, if you are like me and enjoy movies that aren't patently explaining themselves, it's not a bad thing. I just feel like it could've been much more interesting if they explained somehow what happened to all the side characters, or just cut them out.
|STORY & ACTORS |
Aside from what I've mentioned before, the more "linear" part of the story is actually not that bad. It's nothing impressive. A part of what I said earlier connects to the fact that this movie constantly keeps juggling between what is real and what is not. Be it by robots, or actual reality that the characters are living. So it came out pretty obvious that the movie would have a twist at some point, somewhere. I will admit that I did not get it until the very end, so, don't be discouraged.
Ryan Gosling was great, also because he as an actor was perfect for his role. Being so that he has this way of being and looking conflicted, and so it portrayed really well on the protagonist.
Harrison Ford had less value to this movie than he did in the last Star Wars.
Jared Leto's character is a mystery to me, but he did a phenomenal job talking random shit.
All of the other actors, Jared Leto included, were there to push the story forward (or to add random bullshit) and that's it. They did a fantastic job, but unfortunately, as mentioned above, at first glance it looks like they don't mean shit.
| CINEMATOGRAPHY |
The movie is visually pleasing, it's bliss for people with OCD. It's perfectly round and at the same time perfectly square. It keeps smooth lines combining great color combinations in the palette, and utilizing great solid colors at the same time.
As I said before it holds perfectly a spot near its predecessor, the mood and feel are almost identical. (Having watched the first one only an hour before going to the theater to watch this one)
I have to say, this one looks A LOT, like A FUCKING GIGAZILLION LOT more gruesome and splatter than the first one. The fighting scenes are brutal, they do not go into dramatic effects, they just are what they should be. A punch in the face, exploding heads and blood.
There is no doubt that this movie looks fucking amazing.
It sounds amazing as well. It has a collection of deep, pure sounds. There is not a lot of music, but when there is it's powerful and present and it makes you wake up and amaze. Same goes for the special audio effects: I have watched it in ATMOS and I have to admit, they did not utilize it at all, except for one scene later in the movie, but the way it goes from absolute silence to seat trembling sensations it's really amazing. The sounds were so powerful I could literally see the movie screen shake and the subwoofer hit made the whole room shake.
I would also like to add that in the Italian version, you can clearly see that they used "incorrect" words grammatically, they used a lot of anglicisms, I guess they've done that to express how language is evolving? It's actually current of our generation, I see a lot of people adapting English words in Italian, so I was very impressed by that.
| FINAL THOUGHT |
I feel like everyone needs to understand, before watching this movie, that you need a time, a mood and a place perfectly fit to sit for a 3 hours movie that it's going to feel like a 6-hour long journey into colors, shapes, and absolute "living" silence.
This is NOT a Marvel movie, there is action, well-done action, but it's not about action. You need to sit, relax and don't think about time, because, trust me, it's going to fuck you.
Please like my comment if you enjoyed my review, it makes me really happy.
Note that all of this is driven by my personal opinion. If you think I wasn't objective in some of the parts of what I've written, you're welcome to make me notice where.
On Twitter, I review the entire world -> @WiseMMO
This show is incredibly stupid and bad. But somehow it became a guilty pleasure for me.
It's so bad but at the same time in a way that it is entertaining to watch, just not how it was intended to be.
This show must have the most plotholes I have ever seen in a TV series.
If this wouldn't air on a major network like CBS it'd be cancelled after 3 episodes max despite the really, really low production costs that it must have, I suppose.
But since it's on CBS it got a full first season order of BS technobabble making no sense and characters so unlikable and sterile that I don't care for a single person and wonder how they made it through life so far. Not to speak of the positions they literally fell in.
Katharine McPhee (Paige, the waitress) is the only exception and good "feature" of this series.
Not because she is such a great actress, haven't seen enough of her to judge on that, but being the only halfway reasonable person on this awful cast of awful actors makes her the only likable person, in a way.
It's helping that she is cute, too.
I could go on and rip the premise and every episode apart and make fun of its absurd plots, terrible reasoning, repetitive and dumb dialogues but others did that already well enough.
Although being very nit-picky when it is about technology and terminology, that is basically raped on this show on a regular basis, my biggest pet peeve isn't within the above-mentioned.
Surprisingly it is with the blatantly wrong use of HTML syntax in the opening.
You have the maincharacter narrating that he has a higher IQ than Einstein and is one of the four people with the highest IQ on earth but it is subtitled with stuff like </starring> following the "stars". Ugh.
This contradiction is seriously annoying me and shows the technical and intellectual precision that this show has to offer throughout.
[8.2/10] What a blast this is. I’m impressed both at how well WandaVision is able to replicate the 1950s sitcom vibe, especially for supernatural-themed comedies like Bewitched mixed with The Dick van Dyke show, while also including a subtle but palpable sense of existential terror beneath the three camera confines of the show.
I really enjoy how this first episode plays on the classic sitcom tropes: a couple not remembering an important date on the calendar, a wacky neighbor, a boss coming over for dinner who needs to be impressed. The show does a nice spin on them, while also feeling true to the sitcoms it’s paying homage to. I’m particularly stunned by the cast, who are able to replicate that acting style, and the editors and other behind the scenes craftsmen, who are able to replicate the rhythm, to such perfection.
What’s neat is that the episode works pretty perfectly separate and apart from its larger MCU connections as a solid old school sitcom pastiche. There’s a lot of nice setup and payoffs of gags, like Wanda repurposing a magazine's “Ways to please your man” article to distract her husband’s boss and his wife, or Vision singing “Yakety Yak” after decrying it earlier. Even the lobster door knocker routine was a fun and comical grace note to an earlier bit. As cornball as it is, there’s something charming about this sort of thing, right down to the “What do we actually do here?” gag about the computer company. And despite the light spoofing at play, this works as a solid meat and potatoes sitcom episode.
But the show goes a step further and has real fun with the fact that its leads are a self-described witch and a magical mechanical man respectively. There’s tons of amusing gags, starting with the intro, about the pair using their powers in trifling 1950s household sorts of ways. At the same time, it does well with the jokes about hiding their true identities. Vision writing off Wanda’s behavior as “European”, Wanda reassuring her neighbor that her husband is human, and Vision taking offense when a coworker tells him he’s a “walking computer” are all entertaining bits that make the most of the weird premise.
And yet, what really elevates this episode is the unnerving hints that there’s something terribly wrong going on here. It’s not hard to guess that after the events of Endgame, there’s still concerns about what happened to vision. The show plays with the melodic rhythms of the sitcom form to suggest something off at the edges here, in a really sharp way.
For instance, there’s an interstitial commercial featuring a Stark toaster, and not only does it feature the only bit of color in the black and white presentation with the beeping light, but the toasting takes just a beat too long for comfort. Likewise, the fact that Wanda and Vision can’t remember their story or how they got married is initially played for laughs, but then it becomes creepy when Mrs. Hart demands answers.
The peak of this comes when Mr. Hart chokes on his broccoli and the artifice freezes for a moment, leaving everyone paralyzed by the departure from how things work in this sort of situation. It’s a great piece of work, of a piece with the likes of Twin Peaks and Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared in its quiet horror.
I’ll refrain from speculating about who’s watching the broadcast we see or who’s in the monitoring room we seem to have an eye on, but the hints at what's really going on, and how that influences the images the audience witnesses, creates a great organic mystery and another layer to the proceedings.
Overall, this is a boffo debut for the series, and I’m excited to watch more!
The funny thing is that after the episode ended, I came here to give it some stars.
The real question is why the hell did the guy charge money for snacks at the white house?
First of all I’m a really GREAT fan of The Orville :) But start of this episode looked strangely familiar, then i remember it. Black mirror, season 3 episode 1 - Nosedive :)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt5497778/?ref_=ttep_ep1
Anyone seen that?
Best Snyder movie so far. Sadly it is deeply misunderstood. Movie is way more deeper and complex than it looks like on first glance.
People don't realize Sweet Pea is the protagonist, Babydoll is a figment of Sweet Pea’s imagination. Babydoll does not exist. Babydoll's story is Sweet Pea’s story. Sweet Pea was sexually abused, killed her sister and is in psychiatric hospital in therapy. Babydoll is Sweet Pea's avatar. Way of dealing with grief, with guilt, and way to manage her current situation and overcome it. Babydoll is also Sweet Pea's guardian angel.
Sweet Pea is the only fully rounded character, other girls represent aspects of her psyche. Babydoll represents strength and courage, Amber loyalty, Blondie fear, and Rocket represents guilt. In the third level reality her psyche fights for the things to get her free from her current state. Second guardian angel (the Wise Man) guides her through. To fully recover she needs to get over her guilt (Rocket dies as a symbol), also other girls represent things which she needs to leave behind to fully recover .
Babydoll is one of those things. She is the fifth thing (“The fifth is a mystery. It is the reason. It is the goal. It will be a deep sacrifice and a perfect victory.”). Lobotomy of Babydoll represents Sweet Pea’s mind of taking control. Sweet Pea needs to sacrifice Babydoll to be “cured”. Escape at the end is a symbol of that process of being cured. That’s why the driver is the Wise Man, he guides her further.
Sucker Punch is Sweet Pea’s journey from “madness” to “sanity”. Movie is philosophical / psychological investigation wrapped in a special effects action-fantasy. As the movie changes realities (mostly in the third reality), Snyder uses more fetishized image of the girls. He uses clichés and cluttered iconography (nazi zombies, sexy schoolgirls). It is a way to detached and disconnected characters from second reality. Second reality, the brothel, is the “main” reality. In which everything happens.
I gave this series a 10/10 for the first 3 seasons, but could only watch 20 minutes of episode 1, season 4 before being completely disinterested and bored. Even the "previously" on.." didn't bring me up to speed on what was going on from season 3. It's only been a couple of months since I watched season 3. Something to be said for binge-watching a series after its ended.
It's OK -- they bought the rights to the concept and butchered the original 2012 Swedish version, appropriately titled 'Real' Humans ( https://trakt.tv/shows/real-humans ) - "Äkta Människor". It wasn't adapted from a book, the creator (Lars Lundström) developed it as an original screenplay for Swedish television: www.svt.se/akta-manniskor/
The original was outstanding, both seasons -- by the end of the 1st season of the remake, there isn't anything from the original plot -- it's been simplified and homogenized. The original, with English subtitles, can be found on Vimeo. As they've completely changed the story, no need to worry about spoilers... ;-)
"Real Humans" trailer: https://vimeo.com/35140857
So no one is going to talk about how the order of episodes for this show is messed up? And it's not Trakt. Even on Peacock the order is like this. They threw in the Olympics episode after the season 1 finale?
Glenn still has his job. Chey is still pregnant Disorienting for binging purposes.
I see many people here complaining that the message of this episode was blatantly obvious and simple, but I don't really think that is the point of the episode.
In my interpretation, this episode was mainly here to tell a story of a tragic character that does immoral things out of desperation whilst also showing glimpses of humanity in his actions, which in no way justify his actions. Similarly, they try to humanise each and every side of this story. Even the big CEO of the company that arguably does a lot of social evil has his big humanising moment, where he admits that it all spun out of control, and I think we can all relate to that.
There is no evil character. It is all a complex web that creates evil, and the point, as I see it, was not to bash into the heads of people to not text and drive, or to stop using social media, but simply to tell a story. A story that utilises the all-consuming technology in our society, and I think it does that job fantastically. It is suspenseful, layered, and incredibly moving.
A wonderful goodbye to a decaying show. After quite a few underwhelming seasons, against all odds, they gave us a genuinely funny and very heartwarming episode. Ain't gonna lie, I shed a tear or two (and not only during Sheldon's Nobel speech). They've truly put some heart into this series finale, there isn't a single thing I can complain about it. The show ended on the highest possible note.
I was prepared to be disappointed by the lack of guest stars in the final episode, but then Buffy the Vampire Slayer :heart:
Twelve seasons is a big chunk of life, and I'm glad to have The Big Bang Theory being a part of mine for this long. I will miss these guys.
These ladies are HILARIOUS! I really enjoyed watching this. I laughed out loud a whole bunch of times and really love the actors in these particular roles. I can already see several long-term quotable lines coming from it. Chris Hemsworth was also a riot.
While it's probably technically a remake, this movie has its own original plot and its own original characters. I'm glad for that. I loved the nods to the original without (always) hitting you over the head with it. Keep an eye out for some old friends.
Having said that, the movie does drag a bit around the 2/3 mark before kind of getting its mojo back for the finale. And make sure you stick around through the credits (which go by surprisingly quickly)!
There are going to be people who will hate this no matter what. But don't pre-judge this movie based on the trailer. Give it a chance and you may laugh as hard as I did.
Great movie, I loved it. And the less you know about it before watching, the better.
Legend has it, that the script took forever to finish. Every time they finished a line, it disappeared
Damn! Dark, the trilogy as a whole is a very well written show with a captivating story. This only becomes more apparent when you realize how consistent the series has been throughout the three seasons and how everything was so well thought out beforehand. Granted, calling it immensely complicated would be an understatement as it may require careful attention or multiple viewings to grasp and remember everything but once you clear this hurdle and understand this show, its brilliance will readily become apparent.
This show may very well go down in history as one of the greatest Sci-Fi content both in terms of films/tv ever made. We will be darn lucky if anything ever comes close to the greatness of this show in future. Or maybe considering how it is a sleeper hit, it inspires studios to order more thought provoking contents, but who knows.
I think , once they prevent the deaths and time-travel from being invented, Jonas'(Split Reality 1) and Martha's(Split Reality 2) universes(realities) are annihilated, the Scientist's "Original reality" splits/branches again, to form another "3rd" Split Reality which is the one shown in the end.
Since "Endings are beginnings and beginnings are endings or everything is predetermined and past/future can't be changed", this would make the most sense without breaking the show's rule because if the Scientist didn't try to invent time Travel, there wouldn't be 2 split realities and with that no Jonas or Martha coming to change the past, and if they didn't come, he would invent time Travel, a Paradox.
So the original reality still exists alongside the new 3rd reality. However Jonas and Martha are erased from existence since their universes no longer exist.
Hannah deciding to name the unborn child 'Jonas' was also a nice way to spare us a completely sad ending.
But hey who knows! The series is open for multiple interpretations.
Here's something you might find helpful:
How To Understand Dark
1. Determinism:
I. Watch Predestination (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2397535 ) to acquaint yourself with the general idea of a closed time loop. Also maybe give Triangle (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1187064 ) a shot.
II. Arrival is also great.
III. Watch Devs (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8134186 ) [Ignore the last episode, unfortunately Alex Garland still can't stick a landing] to really get the essence of a deterministic universe on the quantum level.
2. Split/Parallel Realities:
I. Rick&Morty has several episodes dealing with the concept. However, S02E01 A Rickle In Time(https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4462494 ) and the recent S04E08 The Vat Of Acid ( https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10655692 ) both do the best job of explaining IMO.
II. Steins Gate is a masterpiece if you are into anime (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1910272 )
WARNING: trakt displays the order of the episodes in the way they were aired by FOX. But FOX aired them out of order, from how they were created and intended to be watched. I don't have enough space here, to tell you the right order, so check out Wikipedia to see the correct order.
Shouldn’t the TARDIS have caused the Cyrillic sign in the underground tunnel to appear as English?
Great dual moment at the end with them both realising they have met. And so the game of cat and mouse begins!
I like how flawed they both are, it's such a rarity to have layered female characters written well. Really liking this show.
Finally, a good sequel. Good god the animation, it's so beautiful. And the action was so smooth. Also, Pixar better gives us a short movie about Edna babysitting Jack-Jack.
Designated Survivor is great and enjoyable because of the people involved in it... but also increasingly predictable. They have this structure of:
I like the show because I love to see Kiefer Sutherland and the supporting cast has been wonderful as well, and it's been a "feel good" show, really - even when the outcome of Kirkman's problems is not that great, there is still a positive message being shared. And what can I say about Lyor's scenes, always on point. However, I fear that without innovation the show doesn't have much of a future, especially with the investigation stuff not being that interesting. We'll see what happens.
What the hell was that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Once again, so. much. stupid. My two faves: (1) Four missiles are headed for DC and so a message goes out that residents within 400 miles should evacuate. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! As if folks in DC would even be able to make it to the Beltway in that amount of time. (2) After all of the time and drama surrounding which people to pick for the ark, they basically just herd everyone who happened to be at Tanz into the silo when the time comes. So not only was Jillian the most annoying character on the show right up to the very end, but she was the most useless, as well. There's so much more to mock, but it's just piling on at this point. It's over. Maybe now I've finally learned my lesson regarding "science" fiction and CBS summer shows. But probably not. I'm pretty desperate at times.
I watched this to the end because I couldn't believe it could be so bad the whole way through. I was wrong. What a terrible movie.
At first, thinking of how this show once consisted of (and was catapulted by) fairly unknown actors, I was a little perturbed by the abundance of celebrity appearances. Then the twist happened… and that was actually all really clever.
Come on son! Amy Pond, Sarah Connor, Spy Kids Mom, Tina Turner, and Emperor Georgiou, take on the menfolk ala "Shoot Em' Up, and "Smoking Aces" having a baybay. Not meant to be cerebral and over analyzed, but a manifest celebration of feminine badassery. Yes the bad guys were inept, as the only casualty on the female side was clearly the result of a lucky shot, (and a surprising lack of body armor in an otherwise awesomely stocked armory), But, then, even Bruce Lee's opponents surrounded him in a circle and came at him one at a time. Honorable, yes, but madly inefficient.
In any case, this was a fun, entertaining watch, and, Chloe Coleman is a delight as "8 and 3/4" year old Emily, the flashpoint of all this chaos and conflict. Nothing that hasn't been done before, but, still, a nice take on the genre. They could possibly get a sequel out of it if they really wanted to, and, I'd be down for that one also.
@Callum - To paraphrase Dr. Raymond Stantz, "...You never studied"..., Those who are comparing "Gunpowder Milkshake" to the "John Wick" trilogy aren't saying it's a shot for shot comparison, or even a stylistic doppelganger, but, they ARE similar in world building, in that BOTH movies feature an underworld organization, with a hierarchy, rules, and regulations, which if violated, will earn one a visit from one (or in this case several dozen) highly trained, variously skilled, assassins, who will "balance the ledger" with your blood, bowels, and/or a bullet to the dome. What GM did that JW didn't, is to juxtapose the Peckinpah-esque (that's slo-mo, for those in Rio Linda) carnage and bloodletting, with a wry bit of levity, and to break up the somber situations with comedic beats on occasion.
Thus you have bits like the "Rag Doll" sequence, which was IMO hilariously done, yet JUST plausible enough that it could work. (no, stainless steel medical trays won't stop bullets any better than a car door, but that hasn't stopped countless hero's from hiding behind them in EVERY gun driven movie, EVER) But it was FUN, as was the Bowling Alley sequence, or the laundry room escape. In fact, if you look at most of the positive comments, they include the word "FUN".
You see, with what at times feels like the majority of the world being "woke", seemingly pissed off at anyone and everyone not affiliated with their particular "tribe", or insisting that YOU should be equally pissed off, socially stagnated, and intolerant, not to mention the unchecked romper stompering by feral humanoids that has infected cities nationwide like the T-Virus on steroids, sometimes, the remedy (at least for me) is a couple of hours of diversion in the form of some cinematic FUN. There of course is always a place for the cerebral and analytical, but that's not what this movie was going for. With age comes wisdom, and I have wisely learned that just because something does not fit my particular tastes or expectations, doesn't necessarily make it "bad", just not for me.
Watching a movie for the soundtrack is like going to see "Cats" because you're a veterinarian... Just sayin....
