m_imdb-905-691213 Reviews

Arcane (2021– )

10/10 for animation alone!

[10/10 · 11 November 2021]

The combination of matte and cell painting over top of CGI looks awesome, and the plot and the rest could be total trash (but luckily it isn't) and I'd still watch this just to marvel at the visuals.

Great job folks!

Babyteeth (2019)

Stark and honest about the dysfunction rampant in the contemporary Australian family and society at large

[9/10 · 19 June 2020]

Saddled with cancer and surrounded by pretentious, unhappy people posing as family and friends, a teenage Australian girl tries to find some happiness with a chaotic young man she meets through a chance encounter on a train platform.

Babyteeth is stark and honest about the dysfunction rampant in the contemporary Australian family and society at large, about the roles that people find themselves forced to play in order to 'fit in', and how they force this role playing on others. For a young girl facing her mortality, these machinations seem like farce - why would anyone live like that when their life is all that they have?

As the young man, Moses, says, why would anyone pigeon-hole themselves into being just one thing?

Why indeed.

The Twilight Zone (2019–2020)

Generation Woke Comedy Hour

[2/10 · 16 May 2019]

Don't get me wrong - the original Twilight Zone addressed social issues and that was one of its best qualities, but this reboot is so heavy handed it's almost impossible to take seriously. It also doesn't help that the writers have insisted _every_ episode have some sort of political theme, and to make matters worse they make it perfectly clear they sit on a particular side of the aisle - there's a Russian collusion episode and a (literal) child President, amongst others. Not only does it wave a flag saying 'vote Democrat', it waves it in your face.

My biggest concern with it is that it blows these issues all out of proportion and distorts the truth of them in order to be manipulative - the very definition of propaganda, and something Serling would have abhorred. Now, I will clarify I'm a liberal, and I agree with most of the messaging (although not as hysterically as they are presented) but that doesn't mean I approve of the idea that all and any methods to further 'the cause' are acceptable. And ruining a classic TV show is going a bit too far (especially when you're mostly preaching to the choir).

Project Blue Book (2019–2020)

Yes it's slow and cheesy and melodramatic -- it's supposed to be.

[9/10 · 21 January 2019]

It's obvious the showrunners wanted to make something that would remind the viewer of a 1960s science-fiction program such as the Twilight Zone or The Outer Limits -- limited special effects, few extras, small cast, exposition and stereotypes are all part of that milieu, so that's what you get in this show. Also, like those other classic shows t's a psychological drama about how people deal with extraordinary situations that just happen to involve government conspiracies and coverups and aliens(?) and telepathy and whatever-else weird they can throw in each week.

Obviously, if you can't sit through an episode of the Twilight Zone, you probably shouldn't bother watching this, but if you can, you might want to check it out.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (2018–2020)

8/10 for being a horror/comedy...

[9/10 · 1 November 2018]

I don't know why Netflix labelled this a drama, unless they meant melodrama! All of the characters are (ha!) like they're out of a comic book -- I'm not being funny here, the show does its best to try to _be_ serious, but all of the overacting and general silliness makes it feel much more like The Addams Family than Penny Dreadful.

The witches here appear to be Satanists, which if you're a stickler for occult detail is bound to displease. It's set in the 60s... except when it's not, and it's set in 2014(?) There's a gay witch (which is cool, don't get me wrong) and a feminism group at Sabrina's high school, but the parents and teachers are all 1960s caricatures (...?) But despite all of that weirdness, as a show (a horror/comedy anyway) it works.

But it's not a drama (or at least not a good one) and it's not scary. So do what thou wilt with it...

ReBoot: The Guardian Code (2018)

It's just not ReBoot...

[2/10 · 4 April 2018]

An AI guardian defends the denizens of a virtual world called Mainframe from the User, an unknown entity whose "games" progressively destroy that world until and unless they are defeated. Meanwhile, computer viruses attempt to take over Mainframe for themselves.

That's a pretty good plot, and it made for a pretty good series. However, the reboot of ReBoot takes that entire concept and throws it away, replacing it with a generic Power Rangers in Cyberspace that only shares its name, and a few tenuous references. There's a one-dimensional villain, whose unimaginative minions are easily defeated through generic FPS weapons - fitting, because the animation is done through a generic FPS engine, and is in no way cutting-edge. The protagonists could have crawled out of any of a thousand YA NaNoWriMo novels, and the care factor for any of them (save the AI VERA) is zero.

You'd think if it was boring it may as well be educational, but it's not that either. It's just... meh.

Star Trek: Discovery (2017–2024)

I sense death is coming (but does anyone really care?)

[7/10 · 25 September 2017]

There's a character in the show who, in the first episode, talks about how his species was genetically engineered to sense death, and that he could sense it was coming for the crew -- unfortunately, I think death is coming for this series.

What's wrong with it? Everything! It's shot badly, it's scripted terribly, the acting is stereotypical and cliché. It has very little to do with Star Trek, and seems to be trying to be more like The Expanse, but if you want to watch The Expanse you should just watch The Expanse.

They turned the Klingons into the bad guys out of Stargate. The crew squabbles and commits mutiny, and then just carries on like nothing happened. The Vulcans are annoying and the actors aren't very Vulcan-like. In short, meh.

Will (2017)

Not Historically Accurate, and Proud of It!

[8/10 · 10 July 2017]

As you might have guessed by now, Will makes practically no attempt to be historically accurate.

Critics everywhere have cried out in collective grief. But who cares? Da Vinci's Demons had very little to do with the real-life Leonardo -- that didn't stop it from running for three seasons!

Like Demons, Will is "historical fiction". Not a biography; not a serious reconstruction of the life of The Bard. It's a drama loosely based on characters loosely based on vague descriptions of people who lived at some point.

It's entertainment. And in that, it does a pretty good job. There's your usual cable TV "must-haves": violence, sex, backstabbing -- general depravity. Everyone's a little greasy, one way or the other. There are crazy sub-plots. If they hadn't called the main character Shakespeare, the critics would have been much happier with it.

But, alas, Shakespeare appears to be sacred. And maybe, that's the cow Will is trying to slaughter. Set the table, we're having steak.

Hunters (2016)

Hunters of the Uncanny Valley

[6/10 · 12 April 2016]

When something tries hard to emulate something else, but doesn't quite make it, it enters an area of psychology referred to as the "uncanny valley"; for example, a mannequin that is almost real, but not quite. When a person encounters something that takes them into the uncanny valley, it sets off an anxiety and makes them uncomfortable. This is why we don't make dummies that look too human-like, they put shoppers off.

"Hunters" lives firmly inside the uncanny valley. Virtually all of the actors are Australian. It's filmed in one of the most Australian of cities, Melbourne, inside Melbourne buildings and houses. They really try their best to put on American accents but outside of the veterans they often fail -- sometimes quite comically. Australia is not North America. Escalators are reversed. Vehicles have the steering wheels on the wrong side. The architecture is distinctly un-American. The list goes on.

It's a recipe for a perfect storm of distractions, and when the show itself is quite borderline in terms of plot, acting and editing the last thing you need is to then shove viewers out of what meager frame you have by shouting at them that this is "fake". At the very least the lead actors ought to have been North American. Maybe they could have anchored the rest of it but with all Aussies it's all at sea.

Air (I) (2015)

An "Outer Limits"-esque claustrophobic thriller with the typical small cast and the usual moral questions of life and death

[7/10 · 18 September 2015]

Dirty-bomb terrorism attacks have forced the US government to retro-fit cold-war era nuclear fallout shelters with suspended animation pods in order to wait out the irradiated atmosphere. Each facility has two maintenance technicians, who wake at periodic intervals to check the atmosphere outside and repair faulty equipment. However, when one of the technician's pods malfunctions, he is forced to venture outside and discovers the world isn't how they believed it to be.

Air is an "Outer Limits"-esque claustrophobic thriller with the typical small cast and the usual moral questions of life and death, and how humans react when pushed to the edge. However, with a notable cast, Air manages to rise above the TV or straight-to-DVD level by way of some decent production values and a script that's not entirely terrible. There's nothing too surprising about the plot twists, but it's a fine example of the genre and like a comfortable old shoe, you won't regret taking a walk in it, even if it's around familiar territory.

Star Trek: Renegades (2015–2017)

Needs scissors taken to it

[6/10 · 31 August 2015]

This doesn't work as a movie. It would work as a pilot, or maybe as cut-scenes in a video- game, but it doesn't work as a movie. The pacing is awful, there is redundant footage and dialogue just to pad it out, and drawn-out attempts to build suspense don't. (We just can't believe the 'heroes' are going to get wiped out while there's still running time.)

However, I don't think it deserves all of the low ratings it has received on IMDb. It's a low- budget third-party production and it doesn't make any apologies for that -- films should be rated based on their peers, and a JJ Abrams production isn't a peer of this movie. When compared to other "fan"-made shows, I think it's about average. If it was edited down to an hour, or even 45 minutes, it would be better than average.

Sadly, the "hand-held" camera style can't be fixed by editing, and I really wish they hadn't used it. It doesn't "jive" with the TNG-based productions and creates a bit of cognitive dissonance when watching it. I understand Tim Russ wanted to be "updated" and "edgy" but I don't see 18-year-olds lining up to watch this -- the audience is older Trekkies and hand-held just seems inappropriate.

Aquarius (2015–2016)

"The Following" set in the 1960s...

[8/10 · 29 May 2015]

...and that's okay! There's a serial-killer cult-leader who has dirt on various officials, a follower who has reservations, a down-and-dirty ethically-challenged cop teamed with an idealistic partner with a scandalous (for the time period) secret, all mixed with classic music and drenched in sepia.

The acting is reasonable (not great, but not horrible... especially for network television) with some good portrayals by serial-killer Manson (Gethin Anthony) and good-cop Damon (Brian Shafe), and the sub-plots give a good sense of place (civil rights issues, drugs, sexuality).

The beginning is a bit slow, but you would expect that (it's not the type of show where you'd jump straight into a manhunt or anything). It's probably a bit more on the character drama- side than the action-side, so keep that in mind.

In the continuum of shows out there I'd rather watch this than The Americans, but I'd throw Aquarius under the bus for Hell on Wheels.

Cymbeline (2014)

Entertaining but slow Shakespearean self-parody

[7/10 · 15 March 2015]

The play Cymbeline, with its stereotypical and at times silly plot devices, has often been considered to be a self-parody, a work Shakespeare devised as a comedy of 'in-jokes' and 'over the top' pretenses. The events are absurd, conveniently co-incidental and even impossible, at points. It is farce, like a Shakespearean "Naked Gun". It is not meant to be taken seriously, at least by those who know it isn't.

This has not been lost on the director of Cymbeline, the movie -- but it does seem to be lost on the majority of the audience that sees it. But, fear not, for now you have been enlightened and you can abandon any attempt to follow the plot and instead find amusement in Ethan Hawke's slimy scheming, Ed Harris' constipated look as he does his best to recite his lines, Anton Yelchin proving he can be as creepy as he can be adorable, John Leguizamo being John Leguizamo and so forth.

Now, it is possible to follow the dialog (and hence the plot) if you concentrate but it's probably advised to read the Wikipedia page on Cymbeline (the play) before you watch the movie. Then you won't get lost. Don't worry, it won't spoil anything (much). After all, this is a parody of Shakespeare written by Shakespeare -- there are no surprises. Everything is laid out in advance, or told to us in monologues before it happens. It's a play by the numbers.

Okay, so the plot is stupid and silly. But, is the film otherwise worth watching? Yes, for what it is. It's not pretentious, as other reviewers have suggested. Cymbeline does not take itself seriously. Firstly, it's set around Hallowe'en. The characters dress like stereotypes. The choice of decor and cars are somewhat unique. The actors overact, sometimes to the point of being hammy (I'm looking at you, Ethan Hawke!) If you take it as a parody it's amusing enough to be worth a hundred minutes of your time.

There's also something to be said for seeing bikers reciting Shakespeare.