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67. Intouchables
It's okay. It's a perfectly entertaining two-very-different-people-meet-and-end-up-as-friends movie. It's fine. It's just - that's all it is. Very feel-good, not really that much anything else, and it's fine, but I don't quite get why this particular movie got all that attention...
68. Kapringen
It's well acted and well made (bonus points for telling most of the hijacking from the pov of a single crewmember), but the problem with this movie (there's always problems when it's me talking, isn't there?), is that - how to put this - it never goes off script? Pirates hijack ship, pirates and owners negotiate while pirates put on psychological pressure by way of threatening the crew, eventually a deal is made, ransom dropped and pirates leave ship. The end. No surprises, no twists, no - if you already know at least a little about Somali pirate hijackings, this is about as straightforward a tale as it can be...
69. Cargo
The only odd thing about this was that everybody spoke German, despite having, well, non-German names. Though maybe somewhere in the 200+ years German might have ended up playing the role English does now? Anyway, it's okay - you start out thinking it's like Alien and along the way it turns into something closer to The Matrix or possibly The Island. It's okay - it never feels that original, but it's entertaining enough.
70. The Experiment
So, I can't quite decide whether or not Travis Fimmel looks strangely fetching in eyeliner... Apart from that, this is a pretty disturbing movie - also possibly a commentary on the evils of religion based morality, but mostly, it's just disturbing.
71. Consuming Passion
This is a surprisingly funny little movie - admittedly, it has bits that get my embarrassment squick going, but mostly, it's a fun, little, self-reflective story (three stories, to be true) about how real life isn't a Mills & Boon novel (except when it is). It even has a bodice that doesn't get ripped (yes, this makes sense in context). Also, I sort of like the term 'consensual force fantasy'.
72. Death Proof
It's okay. I might have liked it better if I had more familiarity with the genres Tarantino is playing with.
73. Defiance season 1.
This series managed to gradually grow to annoy me more and more. First, because it's such an embarrassing collection of western clichés (yes, it's sf - still western clichés). Among the characters we have: ex-soldier drifting into town and ending up local lawman, town doctor with past as war criminal, whore with a heart of gold, etc. Even the aliens are pretty cliché and not very alien - of the two sorts of Voltans we get to see most of (completely coincidentally, the most conventionally attractive by human standards), we have the Irathians, who are basically Indians-from-space (wild bordering on animalistic, tribal, shamanistic, literally redskinned, the group we mostly meet call themselves The Spirit Riders, for crying out loud) and the Castithans (albino, very patriarchal, aristocratic, hierarchical...). And the plots - yeah, you know where I am going. And let's not even get started on the fact that I don't get this tendency to automatically make central governments or attempts to form such into villains - yes, the Earth Republic are clearly bad news in Defiance, but honestly? Post-apocalypse, someone trying to rebuild an actual nation - what's so great about being a tiny town of about 5000 adults anyway? That is a post-apocalypse cliché that annoys me beyond reason...
But what annoys me the most is how it keeps teasing a more liberal future society - for instance, in the first episode it is strongly suggested that prostitution is a) done by both genders and b) respectable. But in the following episodes, we only ever see women prostitutes, and we see plenty of traditional anti-prostitute behaviour (though honestly, why a town of some 5000 adults would need a brothel to begin with... (of course, that's another the western cliché, from back when the frontier was mostly populated with men - but in a town with no apparent gender disbalance - why?). Another example: in one episode we learn that polygamy is legal - by meeting a woman with two husbands. Cool, right? Except the husbands are of course total wimps, the woman is a villain planning to have them murdered anyway, and in general it was not treated well at all and basically forgotten again after that episode.
Anyway. I liked the steampunkish look. Also, I found myself at times almost liking Stahma Tarr - she had such potential to be a sneaky, manipulative, behind the scenes magnificent bastard (and she might yet be) - on the surface submitting to her people's traditions and her husband's rule, while in reality being the one in charge... Yeah, I could have liked Stahma, except even she was never that well built as a character. Ah well...
74. Dexter season 5.
I enjoyed this season a lot more than season 4. Dexter trying to rebuild his life after Rita's death was good, as was his relationship with Lumen (though why is it always the fucked-up girls he ends up with? At least this one was nice). Also, why is always the nasty cop types who start to suspect Dexter? Anyway, I liked it.
75. If These Walls Could Talk 2
You know, I think I prefer when these three-segment-movies weave them together like The Hours or Consuming Passion, rather than this first one, then second, then third. Makes it feel more like a movie instead of three short movies, you know? Anyway, the first one was just basically depressing and the third never got me really interested, but I liked the middle story, about the 70s feminist lesbians. Especially the scene when the four college girls lesbians drop in at a local working-class lesbian bar - ah, cultures clashing - such sweet music they make.
76. Johnny Guitar
Hmmm. So what else has Joan Crawford been in?
77. Mr. Selfridge season 1.
The visuals of the early 20th century store is just plain gorgeous. Also, Lady Mae is a little bit awesome. That said, I was kind of surprised to notice how one of this shows primary themes themes seems to be how the upper classes - whether aristocratic, new money or simply the superior at the store - exploit the lower classes sexually (and we're not solely talking men taking advantage of women), while the lower classes attempt to exploit them right back in an attempt to gain various advantges, with varying degrees of success. Though considering it's a series about buying and selling, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.
78. Now You See Me
You know, a good magic trick and a good heist movie has a lot in common. You know while watching that it's all a trick, clever smoke and mirrors and misdirection, all there for your entertainment. That said, this particular movie - doesn't quite get there. It's got some gorgeous magic scenes (you know, some day I'd like to go see a proper highclass magic show, just to let myself lean back and be impressed (I don't get magic debunkers - yes, it's all smoke and mirrors, I know that already, why are you butting in?) and yeah, I didn't actually see the twist coming (though I was wondering what FBI guy had done to apparently get singled out for the humiliation conga). But it never quite manages to not seem as if they have it all planned out (or maybe I've watched too many heist movies and episodes of Leverage (no such thing)), and the romance plotline felt stiff and awkward and shoved in on account of it being a movie and movies need romance plotlines. Also, I am now left wondering if the Eye is real or if it was just Shrike Jr. exploiting the legend to cleverly manipulate four magicians into helping him get his revenge.
79. Highlander the series season 5.
So, why did they never make a proper Methos spin-off? The episodes focusing on him were the best of the season - and Duncan annoyed me, because thick-headed Scot or not, I found him immediately siding with Cassandra unfortunate, even if Methos had endured an evil period. After all, Methos was the one that helped Duncan recover from his case of evil, and yet Duncan was awfully quick to judge. Apart from that, well, while killing him might have been extreme, I can't really say I'm sorry Ritchie is now past - he was a pretty annoying brat, that one. Though I found Joe crying in Methos' arms pretty touching - I find myself shipping Methos/Joe far more than Duncan/anything. Except I mostly want them as friends, really. Anyway, mostly, I enjoyed the episodes that had people meeting up with old friends and having sheenanigans - the whole "evil immortal of the week that Macleod kills" thing is dull and overdone and really, can't we think of something new already. Also, while it was nice to see Duncan questioning the validity of acting as judge, jury and executioner in some episodes, it was kinda undermined by having him doing it again in the very next episode...
80. Frankenweenie
While I got that they were references to various movie monsters (and those sea monkeys were just creepy), I found it somewhat annoying that the post-lightning-pets basically all went on rampages. I mean, what does that say about those kids as pet owners? Admittedly, most of said kids were brats, so it's not beyond reason that they were less than brilliant at having pets, but it annoyed me that the cat/bat went wild, considering there was no sign that the cat in any way disliked its owner...
It's okay. It's a perfectly entertaining two-very-different-people-meet-and-end-up-as-friends movie. It's fine. It's just - that's all it is. Very feel-good, not really that much anything else, and it's fine, but I don't quite get why this particular movie got all that attention...
68. Kapringen
It's well acted and well made (bonus points for telling most of the hijacking from the pov of a single crewmember), but the problem with this movie (there's always problems when it's me talking, isn't there?), is that - how to put this - it never goes off script? Pirates hijack ship, pirates and owners negotiate while pirates put on psychological pressure by way of threatening the crew, eventually a deal is made, ransom dropped and pirates leave ship. The end. No surprises, no twists, no - if you already know at least a little about Somali pirate hijackings, this is about as straightforward a tale as it can be...
69. Cargo
The only odd thing about this was that everybody spoke German, despite having, well, non-German names. Though maybe somewhere in the 200+ years German might have ended up playing the role English does now? Anyway, it's okay - you start out thinking it's like Alien and along the way it turns into something closer to The Matrix or possibly The Island. It's okay - it never feels that original, but it's entertaining enough.
70. The Experiment
So, I can't quite decide whether or not Travis Fimmel looks strangely fetching in eyeliner... Apart from that, this is a pretty disturbing movie - also possibly a commentary on the evils of religion based morality, but mostly, it's just disturbing.
71. Consuming Passion
This is a surprisingly funny little movie - admittedly, it has bits that get my embarrassment squick going, but mostly, it's a fun, little, self-reflective story (three stories, to be true) about how real life isn't a Mills & Boon novel (except when it is). It even has a bodice that doesn't get ripped (yes, this makes sense in context). Also, I sort of like the term 'consensual force fantasy'.
72. Death Proof
It's okay. I might have liked it better if I had more familiarity with the genres Tarantino is playing with.
73. Defiance season 1.
This series managed to gradually grow to annoy me more and more. First, because it's such an embarrassing collection of western clichés (yes, it's sf - still western clichés). Among the characters we have: ex-soldier drifting into town and ending up local lawman, town doctor with past as war criminal, whore with a heart of gold, etc. Even the aliens are pretty cliché and not very alien - of the two sorts of Voltans we get to see most of (completely coincidentally, the most conventionally attractive by human standards), we have the Irathians, who are basically Indians-from-space (wild bordering on animalistic, tribal, shamanistic, literally redskinned, the group we mostly meet call themselves The Spirit Riders, for crying out loud) and the Castithans (albino, very patriarchal, aristocratic, hierarchical...). And the plots - yeah, you know where I am going. And let's not even get started on the fact that I don't get this tendency to automatically make central governments or attempts to form such into villains - yes, the Earth Republic are clearly bad news in Defiance, but honestly? Post-apocalypse, someone trying to rebuild an actual nation - what's so great about being a tiny town of about 5000 adults anyway? That is a post-apocalypse cliché that annoys me beyond reason...
But what annoys me the most is how it keeps teasing a more liberal future society - for instance, in the first episode it is strongly suggested that prostitution is a) done by both genders and b) respectable. But in the following episodes, we only ever see women prostitutes, and we see plenty of traditional anti-prostitute behaviour (though honestly, why a town of some 5000 adults would need a brothel to begin with... (of course, that's another the western cliché, from back when the frontier was mostly populated with men - but in a town with no apparent gender disbalance - why?). Another example: in one episode we learn that polygamy is legal - by meeting a woman with two husbands. Cool, right? Except the husbands are of course total wimps, the woman is a villain planning to have them murdered anyway, and in general it was not treated well at all and basically forgotten again after that episode.
Anyway. I liked the steampunkish look. Also, I found myself at times almost liking Stahma Tarr - she had such potential to be a sneaky, manipulative, behind the scenes magnificent bastard (and she might yet be) - on the surface submitting to her people's traditions and her husband's rule, while in reality being the one in charge... Yeah, I could have liked Stahma, except even she was never that well built as a character. Ah well...
74. Dexter season 5.
I enjoyed this season a lot more than season 4. Dexter trying to rebuild his life after Rita's death was good, as was his relationship with Lumen (though why is it always the fucked-up girls he ends up with? At least this one was nice). Also, why is always the nasty cop types who start to suspect Dexter? Anyway, I liked it.
75. If These Walls Could Talk 2
You know, I think I prefer when these three-segment-movies weave them together like The Hours or Consuming Passion, rather than this first one, then second, then third. Makes it feel more like a movie instead of three short movies, you know? Anyway, the first one was just basically depressing and the third never got me really interested, but I liked the middle story, about the 70s feminist lesbians. Especially the scene when the four college girls lesbians drop in at a local working-class lesbian bar - ah, cultures clashing - such sweet music they make.
76. Johnny Guitar
Hmmm. So what else has Joan Crawford been in?
77. Mr. Selfridge season 1.
The visuals of the early 20th century store is just plain gorgeous. Also, Lady Mae is a little bit awesome. That said, I was kind of surprised to notice how one of this shows primary themes themes seems to be how the upper classes - whether aristocratic, new money or simply the superior at the store - exploit the lower classes sexually (and we're not solely talking men taking advantage of women), while the lower classes attempt to exploit them right back in an attempt to gain various advantges, with varying degrees of success. Though considering it's a series about buying and selling, maybe I shouldn't be so surprised.
78. Now You See Me
You know, a good magic trick and a good heist movie has a lot in common. You know while watching that it's all a trick, clever smoke and mirrors and misdirection, all there for your entertainment. That said, this particular movie - doesn't quite get there. It's got some gorgeous magic scenes (you know, some day I'd like to go see a proper highclass magic show, just to let myself lean back and be impressed (I don't get magic debunkers - yes, it's all smoke and mirrors, I know that already, why are you butting in?) and yeah, I didn't actually see the twist coming (though I was wondering what FBI guy had done to apparently get singled out for the humiliation conga). But it never quite manages to not seem as if they have it all planned out (or maybe I've watched too many heist movies and episodes of Leverage (no such thing)), and the romance plotline felt stiff and awkward and shoved in on account of it being a movie and movies need romance plotlines. Also, I am now left wondering if the Eye is real or if it was just Shrike Jr. exploiting the legend to cleverly manipulate four magicians into helping him get his revenge.
79. Highlander the series season 5.
So, why did they never make a proper Methos spin-off? The episodes focusing on him were the best of the season - and Duncan annoyed me, because thick-headed Scot or not, I found him immediately siding with Cassandra unfortunate, even if Methos had endured an evil period. After all, Methos was the one that helped Duncan recover from his case of evil, and yet Duncan was awfully quick to judge. Apart from that, well, while killing him might have been extreme, I can't really say I'm sorry Ritchie is now past - he was a pretty annoying brat, that one. Though I found Joe crying in Methos' arms pretty touching - I find myself shipping Methos/Joe far more than Duncan/anything. Except I mostly want them as friends, really. Anyway, mostly, I enjoyed the episodes that had people meeting up with old friends and having sheenanigans - the whole "evil immortal of the week that Macleod kills" thing is dull and overdone and really, can't we think of something new already. Also, while it was nice to see Duncan questioning the validity of acting as judge, jury and executioner in some episodes, it was kinda undermined by having him doing it again in the very next episode...
80. Frankenweenie
While I got that they were references to various movie monsters (and those sea monkeys were just creepy), I found it somewhat annoying that the post-lightning-pets basically all went on rampages. I mean, what does that say about those kids as pet owners? Admittedly, most of said kids were brats, so it's not beyond reason that they were less than brilliant at having pets, but it annoyed me that the cat/bat went wild, considering there was no sign that the cat in any way disliked its owner...
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