ppacct's Reviews

NCIS: Rule Fifty-One (2010)

Season 7, Episode 24

8/10

15 August 2022

Warning: Spoilers

Ms Obradors as the drug queen Paloma Reynosa is a very bad girl and it's a very good thing for this story arc. It's hard to believe she's the same cute bundle of girl in Six Days and Seven Nights. Well acted in both. Gibbs is in trouble and knows it. However... as usual, in the end Gibbs outmaneuvers the bad guys in the windup to this arc.

When the dust settles, there are lead-offs to other story lines that are picked up as the series moves along confirming that things you did in the past have a way of catching up with you. Fortunately Gibbs has loyal friends willing to keep the wolves at bay for him.

The base action that sets this whole thing in motion is a Mexican drug lord killing Gibbs' wife and daughter which is in an earlier arc. Gibbs later goes down to Mexico and kills the dealer. Guess who Paloma is. Hint: not the wife. IMHO, this is one of the better sub stories in the series. There are a number of subplots as episodes that make it a fun segment/arc to follow. Remember Mike Franks?

If you are an NCIS/Gibbs fan you'll enjoy this arc and it's offshoots.

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Tom Swift (2022)

1/10

politically correct and totally a rip off

14 June 2022

I read Tom Swift books and then dug up Tom Swift Sr. Books when I was in junior high. They were great fun. This travesty of a derivative is not bad in it's own way but if they think stealing the name and the base backstory is going to make the show work, they've already lost me, and apparently others. Think of the travesty remake of Wild Wild West. Same mentality.

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Debris (2021)

4/10

Meh

3 December 2021

It looks like a modern variant of X-Files. Lots of odd things going on. The problem is there never seemed to be a strong current carrying the episodes along. I think towards the end we were starting to get some sort of driving theme but it seemed fragmented to me.

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Greyhound (2020)

7/10

Hanks does it again.

28 March 2021

We missed this the first time around so I had to get a back copy to watch. I am glad I did. I've been a fan of submarine movies since the 60's. This one does not disappoint. Tom Hanks has a nose for good movie scripts and usually winds up with a really good director and producer crew and somehow manages to round up a great supporting cast. I won't go through the list but everyone must have at least one Hanks movie on their favorites list. This one should be on many of those lists. Enjoy!

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The Astronauts (2020–2021)

7/10

good kids show that adults might like as well

16 January 2021

The wife and I tuned in to the first couple episodes after finding it by accident while scanning the cable offerings. It is definitely a tweens/teens kid show but we became addicted to it as it is good fun - no sex, no swearing, no murder, no mayhem, but lots of fun 'OMG!' moments for the kids to deal with.

If you can offerings like The Goonies and Super 8 as a break from 'adult' movie fare, you'll enjoy this.

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Dark Matter (2015–2017)

8/10

weird but great fun - BRING IT BACK

1 June 2019

It took a it of getting used to but we got to like it. I was really disappointed to find it had been canceled. They added some nice plot twists to keep the show moving along.

I'd love to see it come back. It's not too late as the actors have not aged much in a couple years so they would appear the same on camera.

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Holmes & Watson (2018)

2/10

eeeeeeeYUCK!

14 March 2019

I love send-ups of previously 'serious' movies. Having said that I have only ever seen one movie with Will in it that I could stomach - Bewitched, and only because the other actors carried him and his role as a doofus in love with himself was a perfect fit.

IMAO, the best Homes send-up was by two of the greatest actors ever - Sir Ben Kingsly and Michael Caine, in Without A Clue. If you want to see real parody done with panache and skill, watch it. If you wasted money on this amateurish effort you'll probably cry for your loss if you watch real actors doing proper acting.

I expect this has already hit the 99 cent table at Menards or Wal-Mart. The two star rating instead of one is a small hat tip to the rest of the crew whose reputations have suffered for being on the credits.

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Black Panther (2018)

4/10

Okay for $1.75 rental I guess.

25 May 2018

Warning: Spoilers

Nice costumes. Palace intrigue. Fighting. Bigotry. Nice CGI scenery. More intrigue. Token white guy. More fighting. King becomes SJW. The end. Okay for $1.75 rental I guess.

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The Great Race (1965)

10/10

One of our all time favorites!

26 January 2018

My family just loves this movie. The characters are wonderfully played up by the top notch cast. As noted by others, Professor Fate is just a hoot. Then there's the sight gags like the sun glinting off Leslie's teeth in one shot. After you watch the movie the gag line, "Push the button Max," will stay with you forever *grin*.

Of course the most fabulous scene in the movie is in the confectionery near the end of the movie. I suppose others have given more of a description, but I'll just say it is the absolute best scene of its type ever done. I can't imagine what it would be like if they'd had to do a retake, ha ha. While there are just too many great scenes in this movie this scene makes watching the movie worth every minute.

It even has one of the better endings as well. Certainly a movie worth watching. And again. And again. *smile*

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Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017)

6/10

we enjoyed it

21 December 2017

I don't know what folks are whinging on about. This is not Gone With The Wind or some such. It's a send up of the Bond types while pretending to be a bit serious. The wife and I actually enjoyed this one more than the first. That might have a lot to do with the very annoying Jackson and his grating voice which is absent in this one (thank goodness). It's worth a look if you've run out of top drawer movies to watch.

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Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries (2012–2015)

9/10

absolutely fun!

21 December 2017

Essie is such a delight. She's a Thoroughly Modern Millie in the flesh. Being a Yank, the setting is great because it's 'new". My wife and I really enjoy the characters and the plots. The whole thing is just good fun to watch. If you like detective dramas but are a tad burned out on the usual fare then by all means give this a try!

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The Circle (I) (2017)

4/10

slo-o-o-o-w

11 October 2017

The plot premise is a good one. As all good stories go, it extends something currently happening to a good or bad conclusion. This does that. The problem is that it does so while dragging an invisible anchor around with it, zzzzzz.

Ms. Watson's character seems to be sleep walking through the entire movie. Hanks' character is lively and engaged, so are many of the others.

There are a number of overdone scenes including a gratuitous overboard sexual visual. Follywood just can't hold back from trying to see how crass they can be. Things like that do not add to the movie. A similar scene without the overboard visual would have been just fine. (/rant)

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Baby Driver (2017)

5/10

Not up to the hype.

11 October 2017

It was entertaining. I'm glad I only spent a buck and a half on it. This is another "almost, but not quite" offering from Follywood. The plot line and action were decent enough. The characters were "bad" enough. Jamie's character was overdone though, really irritating. I'd have shot him if I had been in their group.

For some reason the whole thing felt two dimensional. We got zero background on the bad guys, including Spacey's king bad guy. We got flashback background on Baby but no background on the black guy who turns out to be very important in Baby's life until well past mid point.

The cast was well chosen for 'the look' and did a fair job with the script and directing. It just lacked. Rent a DVD and make some popcorn and enjoy it for what it's worth. Warning: like so many other offerings today there is a plethora of bad language.

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Alienate (2016)

1/10

b.o.r.i.n.g

21 July 2017

the entire cast was sleepwalking through this turkey. It rates right up there with Plan 9 From Outer Space for really bad scifi. I have to type in five lines or they won't publish the review. How many ways can I say yuck, boring, terrible, a total waste of time and money to view it, and about a hundred other similar words. If you can't sleep, this is the cure.

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The Great Wall (I) (2016)

6/10

almost but not quite

26 May 2017

Great costumes and scenery, decent CGI effects, but only fair acting. My wife and I like SciFi and Fantasy movies if done well. One of the most annoying parts of this flick was Damon seeming to sleep walk through his scenes. His physical acting was just fine. He just never seemed to be able to emote to match the scene, but then that's been his rap since day one. His flat performance subtracted from the overall good movie.

There were a few other annoying devices in the movie as well. The bungee jumping women warriors was just plain silly. The Chinese are well known for training special squads of women warriors, body guards, and assassins so their appearance in this tale is not surprising. However, the woman taking command of the entire army was an anachronism based on modern day thinking rather than historical period culture of China.

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Live by Night (2016)

5/10

slo-o-o-o-w

26 May 2017

This movie had a lot of good talent in it. The plot and sub plots were classic. Yet with all that this came off more like a TV mini series. Several times I felt like walking out and getting popcorn or checking the news blogs. Perhaps they tried to cram too many plot lines into one movie. 'Epic tales' don't seem to translate too well to the big screen. You tend to lose interest when distracted from the main story by too many side issues.

I will not be buying this one for my video library.

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Dark Matter (2015–2017)

8/10

Leave it to Beaver

30 June 2015

[*begin rant*] movie and TV writers have been thrashing to death the cultural fad that girls are natural leaders with advanced intelligence, men are stupid 'warrior' types of brawn and small IQ's or they are wimpy little boy-men, all of whom must be led and/or saved by the girl.

While history advises us that such women exist (queen Boudica, Cleopatra, Hangaku Gozen, etc.) they are a rare breed indeed. So then, why is it all the new shows keep hammering this idea? This show and several other new ones have latched onto the idea with lockjaw tenacity thus spoiling the story line. Brave women of wily intellect and the ability to fight ARE fun to watch but not at the expense of reason.

In shows like Castle they are partners, each bringing something to the team in partnership. In Prometheus the girl is the last man standing yet the men are not denigrated at all. I tire of 'girl smart, men dumb'.[*end rant*]

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