Change Your Image
daydreamer-90147
Reviews
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022)
Decent, but chain-of-command issues make it hard to watch sometimes
This is certainly a standout creation from the recent spate of Trek universe shows (STD, Picard, LD) . The stories are coherent, the characters consistent, most of the actions are rational. Many of the flaws that plague the others aren't as bad in this one, at times they aren't there at all. I like the plots and the storylines. But the officers openly questioning direct orders, especially in tense life-or-death situations... it's a painful distraction. It's the reason it's taken me so long to finish season one (just now before writing this). I hope the writers take note of some of these reviews, and maybe will take this one to heart (so few reviews - might happen). If they can cut out the blatant disregard for chain-command-issues that could and would never exist on any military vessel, then I think that will release this show to reach the next level.
Those officers need to acknowledge and execute their orders when given without hesitation. If they have any questions or reservations about those orders, they should privately discuss their concerns with their next-in-command (after they've executed them). If they are not satisfied, they can continue those discussions higher up the command chain, if need be to the Captain himself. I know the writers perhaps think this is entertaining. And maybe I'm wrong, perhaps for some it is (the show is getting good reviews). But for me, it's a constant reminder that this isn't 'real' Star Trek. Every single time it happens, it knocks me out of the place where I can really get into the show and accept it as alt/main-timeline canon. It's jarring and, in my opinion, it's holding the show back.
That said, I like it. I look forward to Season 2. I've recommended the show to others. Hopefully it won't take me 6 months to plod through the entire season as it did this one. There is great potential here and they've already expressed some of that potential in the first season. Let's see what's she's got.
Under the Stadium Lights (2021)
Hmmm... Yeah... Ummm....
So the acting by the young high schoolers was pretty atrocious. Hopefully it isn't a reflection of their talent, and is more a reflection of the fact that none of them have actually ever been competitive athletes and/or come from challenging backgrounds themselves. I don't fault them that. But it does bring the overall believability of this true-to-life film down. The only character I would say was believable (and was well cast) was the head coach. And they just over did it with his motivational speeches. Solid messages, but few good coaches would ramble on that long. I got the distinct impression that every other 'fan' that was given significant coverage in this film, family members and such, were actors that are indeed among the 80% of the population who have never had any interest in sports as fans or otherwise. And that includes Fishburne. Not sure why he took this part. There is nothing especially compelling about the film. They tried to portray the kids as interesting because of their challenged backgrounds (I guess?). But the problem with this is that lots of kids who play sports come from these backgrounds, playing on teams that are wildly successful to playing on teams that are average/mediocre to playing on those that are very much under-performing. That's nothing new at all.
The one reason why I've given it 4 is that they did the high school setting scenes very nicely. They didn't ruin it with dialogue or background music. The sights and sounds just came through. It felt authentic. I'm not sure it wasn't. Very well conceived and very well done.
(Spoiler) So about the plot. You don't actually know what the plot is unless you read the summary in the info on your service provider or on the streaming page. Mine got it horribly wrong and said it was an Alabama team. But I can't really blame them for this error, because the fact is I didn't know what was supposedly so special about this team until I saw the end epilogue descriptions. **It seems that the best talent on the team were all undersized.** Now the offensive linemen and the bulk of the defensive players (inside linebackers, D-Line) were all likely as meaty as you'd expect of any state championship Texas team. But the quarterback, tailback, one of the receivers, and I guess one of the outside linebackers (?) were all short and of small stature. This is why they were not expected to be very successful. That fact is never portrayed or mentioned during the film, which limits the intrigue that I think is supposed to be there. Add in the fact that they were consistently clobbering their opponents one right after the other, made you wonder why anybody should care anyway.
The scenes where they were doing live action of football with the actual actors had various gaffs. Cringeworthy at times but ignorable I suppose. The one that capped things off the most to me was at the end when the announcer said they had 2nd and goal on their own 5 yard line. Now this is theoretically possible by a couple of means. But the series of catastrophic events that would have to take place for this to occur would possibly alone be worth its own separate film.
The most glaring problem with the movie was that one of the central themes - "Brother's Keeper" - really didn't apply to this movie. I kept expecting at some point that you would see how the main athletes' lives were so intertwined that they would immediately be available to give each other support through any of the worst experiences they were having. NOPE. They suffered their respective travails alone individually. Hey it's great that they all played football well together. But that has nothing to do with the very serious issues surrounding the lives of these young men. The pastoral coach appeared to be worthless and I'm not sure what that person's role actually was in real life. The whole "Brother's Keeper" thing either didn't apply, or they completely failed in portraying it properly in any way. Sure there were a few "It's all going to be ok" scenes, but nothing that would make you think that these people were always there for each other during the best of times as well as during the worst.
Anyway, if you want some throwback to your high school days, the movie is worth fast forwarding through to those scenes. The first scene in the restaurant with Fishburne was pretty good. That's about it.
Resident Alien (2021)
Basically an updated Mork and Mindy
Where the entire town of plays the part of 'Mindy'. Fortunately I liked Mork and Mindy. Some nice caricatures. Well presented and produced. Good humor. Tad bit woke in some places, but not overtly so. Are there some logical gaps? Even serious ones? Well... yes if you take it seriousy - but not so much if you're willing to just let things slide. I imagine this is one of those shows that is actually fun for the actors and crew to work on.
My one critique, which may be retracted later, is that they made the government (presumably) alien hunters sociopathic. That's a stretch even for a show like this that is clearly happy to stretch things afar. Maybe this is a plot device that the writers decided they needed to put in now for a key element in the story later? Are these characters like this in the comic book version? It stands out, and awkwardly so. But perhaps this will eventually be sorted out satisfactorily.
**UPDATE: So it seems that the previous critique was/is indeed in keeping with the book. So let it pass.... it was played upon a couple of times for some great humor.**
Anyway it's a good watch. I'll be keeping up with this first season for sure. They've left themselves plenty of room to develop this show. Hopefully they keep the momentum up.
How to Fake a War (2019)
Keep your expectations midland to low, and it's a nice little comedy
So about the actors: Jay Pharoah probably figured out after about an hour on the set that what he needs to do is just put all his energy into portraying his character to every ridiculous extreme. I think he does this well, keeping in mind that this is a parody, and thus over-the-top is not only allowed, it's certain. Katherine Parkinson has got a great body and I'm glad we get to see it to some degree. There are a number of women who have had children that look wonderful. Congrats to her for being one of them (and to the directors/producers for getting that into the film). I was a bit surprised by Lily Newmark. Most models have pretty much only that skill and nothing else to fall back on, which is fine if you can make a living on that. However she demonstrated some useful physical comedic skills. She might just actually have a bit of a future once people get tired of taking pictures of her. Not predicting she will ever be a huge celebrity. But I could see her eventually doing more movies at this level for some years to come.
** Spoilers **
The movie wasn't written to be serious, though there were some undertones heavily alluded to. The way people can swiftly be 'influenced' online to believe something, no matter how reality or all sorts of easily verifiable facts demonstrate otherwise. There is not even a millisecond of preaching, so don't worry. The big 'I'm you're mother' reveal surprises exactly noone. The actresses even naturally look like each other in real life. Same height, same hair - I seriously wondered if they were genuinely related. There were some prop issues in the film that kind of stand out. No need to list them here, but the (very humurous) scene where the ladies cut their binds really should have had them throwing their freshly cut ropes to the side afterword. It seems small, but it gets really glaring, especially when you throw in the 'guns' and 'explosions' and 'military uniforms' and other little prop things I said I wouldn't list. The movie flows naturally and logically with no twists. People will probably complain about the acting, but in fairness, there is just nothing about this movie that would really challenge any actor to show what they've got. It's no Blazing Saddles nor will it ever be any sort of cult favorite, and I already knew this as it was practically released direct to DVD/streaming/cable. A fluffy ham-it-up parody was my expectation, and in my opinion, the acting and script lived up to that just as much as they needed to.
** End spoilers **
If you're prepared to go along with some silly little leaps of faith, and open to a few easily won laughs, you'll be entertained for an hour or so, and will move on, perhaps with a smile on your face.