I haven’t had time to do clean write-up reviews of various movies every time, so here are some random thoughts about recent content. In no particular order…
Netflix: Heart of the Hunter is advertised as “John Wick, but in Africa”. No, not even close. Just a string of cliches and not even well done at that.
THE MAGIC PRANK SHOW with Justin Willman is the latest magic show on Netflix. In my opinion, the reason this and his prior show didn’t work won’t last, is the same reason as the prior prank shows don’t last. They keep trying to evolve when the basic formula, if done right works, but not for terribly long before it just isn’t different enough. So the show fizzles out, a few years pass, and another pops up. Often with the same people involved. For the magic shows, they keep showing what seems like amazing magic, but we’re not ignorant new people to this genre. We know what TV editing is, and some of us have seen a lot of magic on TV. So what bits are the magic vs TV editing? Because the sloppy, shitty pedestrian lead-ins to the final reveal of a prank remove some of the mystery, not lend to it. As such, we’re going to assume it’s more TV editing than actual magic. In this latest, you have magic experts being wowed over magic 101 which is immediately off putting. Remember, this is not the first magic show most of us have seen most likely. There’s been many others including Penn and Teller, which has far superior magic and has been running ten years. Next, the “behind the scenes” bits are way too staged with said professional magicians acting surprised over pranks that are a dime a dozen on YouTube.
More random thoughts on the show: How many viewers does Netflix have? How many customers that’s what his show was going up against. And it’s a very different audience than mainstream TV. But Penn and Teller, what’s their best viewership? And then for their network, NBC or ABC or whatever it is, what’s the most that network has ever had for one viewing and then compare to the rest of the networks. For mainstream TV, what’s the biggest viewing the Super Bowl has had? Give us a little bit of context, as far as the audience that a show has to reach to be successful and may give us a lowest common denominator. In this day and age, even if it’s not about magic shows, the viewers are smarter than they were ten years ago. It’s gonna be harder to keep and impress viewers. So my recommendation is to go for something more intelligent. Something more revealing, more luring, and not just what is ultimately a simple prank. Because by withholding showing that magic, even the little things, and then in this series having it all staged it’s just ridiculous.
General commentary on movie warnings at the start of films: Shows that say they have nudity and by any definition historically, at least, there’s absolutely no nudity or such trivial and fleeting nudity, seem like they are using it as a teaser to get people to watch.
If you like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, then watch Hero. But do not watch Sword of Destiny because it is worse than Crouching Tiger. All the elements of a good movie are there except no cohesive plot. The plot is a one liner, but it’s missing all the details. Oh, this sword is so powerful! Okay, cool, bro. Why is it so powerful? Who created it? Why do we care about anything around it? They develop characters to try to make the story more interesting but their backstory is essentially unrelated to the sword itself. Why does one person have it? Why does one person think they can use it? Why does one person even know about it? The premise is “hide the sword”. And yet, all these people know about it, so odd.
Netflix, the new Squid Game: The Challenge is so beyond staged it is ridiculous. From the staged shots of people waiting to be picked up in a couple cities to the forced interactions on the start line to the first game. Ten minutes in and I turned it off it was so bad.
Netflix TV: Who is Aaron Carter? The series suggests one thing will happen, that it may be cliche, and then I found myself pleasantly surprised. It isn’t until the final episode or so, when there is a good plot twist. That said, the fight scenes are straight up cliche, in general it is a typical spy / assassin type movie, where the lead character simply would not have the kind of fighting experience based on her past. And more importantly, she would not be able to take the kind of abuse she does and keep on fighting, like most action movies. From there it goes from bad to worse. Cliche after cliche after cliche. This series, and many others, follows a pattern where they start out relatively strong, have some relatively new fresh angle, then they devolve. As viewers, we can’t reward these shows with a thumbs up just because two thirds was good. We have to rate them on the final third in my opinion. Unfortunately, I don’t think Netflix really uses that simple of a review to really guide anything other than at the most high level.
The Marvel Universe (MCU) can be divided into two buckets: entertaining but pedestrian, and the more gritty, real series like Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Punisher, and Echo.
SWAT season seven. They are quickly and systematically setting it up for an all minority team. Last episode, maybe two, even the white guy commander didn’t appear. Otherwise, the latest episode pushed out Deacon, Luca, and Street pushed out episodes before. Street, one of the cornerstone characters is out, so the show is breaking seriously from the originals it is a remake of. The amount of scrambling they’re doing to change the team is very clear. I suspect this is their last season unless they can pull some serious ratings. And I suspect they’re going for the underdog, all minority team to be the vehicle to those ratings.
Netflix, Ballerina is a Korean action / drama movie and pretty good overall. It had some really clever and refreshing fight sequences which is increasingly difficult to manage these days.
Finally, Civil War is out during an election year. I don’t want to get political but this type of movie is just going to fuel some people that are already itching for a fight. Some observations, and a bit pedantic, but every single person with a gun is carrying a pretty custom AR-15. No shotguns, no off-the-shelf vanilla ARs, none with a broken scope, no one runs out of ammo, and until the end little reloading. No one uses ear protection but manage to have regular volume conversations. There are a few parts showing helicopters or planes, or some other vehicles and they are silly for not doing anything normal or rational; but they make for dramatic clips. The movie is neat in that it follows the press and uses good audio production and strategic silence, as well as still shots simulating wartime press photos. Unfortunately, the last 15 minutes go downhill, which is a theme with just about every movie these days. Absolutely ridiculous across the board for the finale.
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