Change Your Image
jonathan-972-150139
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)
Does telling the reader "ignore negative reviews" EVER work??
People come to review threads to get some semblance of an idea of public sentiment. That includes negative & positive takes. You either like something, dislike it, or feel ambivalent towards it. People are allowed to have those sentiments. No matter what the paid contributors might have to say on the matter. And if they are disregarded in the forums by having their opinions blacklisted, believe me, they will vote with their wallets.
My personal take on this movie is that it was indeed completely unnecessary. It doesn't feel glued to anything else canonical. Indy is a miserable shell of his former self. It has been made crystal clear by the creators that some of the casting decisions are there strictly for the purposes of agenda. But the biggest crime IMO is that it simply isn't good.
PWB is shoehorned in there to add dimensions of a character without any depth. She's not funny enough to be comical. She's not attractive enough to be appealing. And don't get me started on her pithy diatribe about capitalism. There's nothing more that I want to see than a bunch of elitist actors funded by one of the most monolithic corporations on the planet lecture me about the evils of a capitalist society.
Bottom line: If you like it, it's your business. But this one is a solid "no" for me.
RIP, Indy. We'll always have Raiders and the Last Crusade.
Good Eats: The Return (2019)
I know I'm in the minority.
In the days when people need validation from a majority of people in order to have their own opinions, let me just say that if you like the reboot, that's completely cool. For me, it's not the same on a wide range of levels.
Let's start with the fundamental topic of cooking: Odds are very good that I'm not gonna be making steak tartare anytime soon. I'm not going to buy fresh coffee beans on a daily basis to make my brew. Pho's Special maybe good, but you wouldn't know it by the look of it. In short, much of the food is antithetical to what the original series was about. It's a bit pretentious.
Many of the cast favorites aren't here (Chuck, McGregor, Deb RIP) Their lack of presence is felt and missed.
The tone of the show isn't as bright, familial, and wholesome. It's darker, more macabre, and there was even some mild profanity in one or two episodes. Again, if that's no big deal for you, whatever. It's just something that they never would've done in the original series.
Finally, and most significantly. Alton's not the same. He's lower energy. He doesn't seem like he feels well. And he seems more incendiary with his fans than he used to be.
I could be wrong about that. I sincerely hope I am. But if the goal of this series was to revive the series of my youth, it fell short for me.
John Q (2002)
John "Que the Socialist Handwringing"
In some ways, this movie surprised me. This was an all-star cast of some really exceptional actors. Ray Liotta, James Woods, Denzel, and Duvall are in a class all their own. The story is compelling enough. The sacrifices the father is prepared to make on behalf of his son are enough to resonate with any parent who loves their children.
This main thrust of the story is overshadowed by two grotesquely annoying factors: 1) That when you work for an institution, they have the right to change your health insurance plan without your consent. (They don't, by the way.) 2) There is a tired, worn-out montage of "bipartisan" representation at the end of the film telling us that the solution is socialized medicine. This is all well and good, until you've lived through the results of those policies.
Before the ACA was enacted into law, you could get what would be considered today a "Gold PPO" Plan for seven dollars and change. After it was passed into law, the cost of a plan went through the roof. More companies had higher operating costs through insurance mandates so they had to downsize, and independent people and businesses had to pay penalties if they opted out. Competition evaporated from the marketplace in exchange for single payer, and you could no longer compete for the best plan in the market. I know. I was there.
Another HUGE flaw in this film is that it is absolutely, positively, completely against the law to deny someone treatment if they have to go to any ER in this country.
So while Bill Maher and Ariana Huffing and Puffington care to virtue signal to everyone about how terrible the healthcare system is, an appropriate message for our times to remember is that "You get what you pay for." If an industry can't make money, it can't stay solvent. If it can't stay solvent, the supply of its goods and services will diminish. If that happens, medicine becomes rationed, balkanized, scarce, and astronomically overpriced.
There are many things to be improved upon in the healthcare system. Redundancies on your statements, charges for procedures and services you never had being attached to your statements, and the absence of torte reform are all improvements, to be sure. But having Karl Marx M.D. ain't the way.
Luke Cage (2016)
Woke Cage
It's been said that if you want something to starve, you stop feeding it. It's also been said by reviewers here that this series starts out strong, but goes downhill fast. There are reasons for that...
Luke Cage starts out as an archetypal example of what a good man looks like. Not a good (black) man, but a good man. He is of use to his community. He holds his peers to a higher standard. He understood through Pops that young black men needed to see a man put on a uniform, and go to work. He understood the toll that it took, particularly on the young men, to be brought up with guns in their hands, but no fathers.
As the story unfolds, it comes to the flawed conclusion that the solution was to move "Sometimes backwards, to move forward." Which is a fancy way of excusing the show's reversion into tribalism; blind willingness to accept the wrong actions of others on the basis of their skin color, and, a tired, unproven, evidence-free trope about "white privilege."
To it's credit, the show was at least honest enough to show where those broken mindsets lead, and that is to a culture of perpetually endless victimhood, tons of collateral damage in its wake, terrible decisions that lead to terrible consequences (ironically, no white people made those decisions for them), and if they're lucky enough to leverage their way to power, their lack of integrity, moral compass, and that chip on their shoulders all add up to an abuse of that power.
Luke Cage was a far better man at the beginning than he was at the end. I suppose in that way, it's singular redeeming virtue is that it can be considered a cautionary tale. Pops would not be proud.
A Christmas Story Live! (2017)
You'll wanna shoot your eye out, kid.
I have no words. Every horror you could've conceived about this anathema has come to fruition. For the sake of you and your family, if you loved the original, stay as far away as you possibly can.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Uh oh....Someone's lost their forcefulness.
Typically when I see a bunch of creatives and critics pushing a narrative that people don't like a movie because they have deep-seeded prejudices and hatred towards minority groups, it a) gives me a sense of where their own headspace is (which is clearly not making movies) and b) tells me that I'm in for something....well...special... So, since it's a favorite of SJW's, let's start with the aforementioned prejudice.
Sexism- Think you reserve the right to be actually entertained with your hard earned dollars? Oh no, ya don't. We in the entertainment industry see injustice and we'll shove that down your throat at every opportunity. After all, it's a misogynistic culture, right? Hollywood has no sexism of its own, right? That must be why it felt the need to run the audience down with the idea that all men, from Luke to Finn to Poe, are reckless, impulsive, dangerous, neanderthals, and their saving grace in every instance is strong, female leadership. Nothing wrong with solid, female leadership, but I get tired of the same old, "Men are foolish idiots who don't do anything right, and just assert their evil recklessness" drivel. Grow up.
Breaking the 4th wall- When this was done in Deadpool, it was at least canon. You expected the character to be aware of his own fantasy. When I hear Luke talk about his "laser sword," I know authenticity has gone out the window.
Plot- Not sure what to make of this one. This thing was so disjointed, I'm not sure what I was supposed to walk away with. In an almost three hour snoozefest, I saw something about a girl going to an island to get all the Jedi training she needed in three days, telepathic connections between the dark and the light, casinos, fields, "ski speeders?," tiny droids operating imperial walkers, a codebreaker who was in prison and able to break out, but decided to stay so he could apprehend rebels who happened to be in the same cell only to sell them out at the end? Make no mistake. Jar Jar is real, people. He wrote the script.
Characters- Minor characters we previously were uninvested in pretty much monopolized the storyline, major characters (i.e. Luke) apparently died after having projected himself to help the rebels escape. So he wasn't there, but he died anyway. Yoda was posthumously appearing to destroy Jedi history so Luke can go on teaching Jedi history, but he's dead. AAAAGGGHH!!
Snoke bought it way too easily, as did Phasma. Carrie Fisher has left us, but they kept her character, which leaves me to wonder how/if they're going to write her out in a way that pays her the tribute she so richly deserves.
The singular reason to see this anathema IS Mark Hamill. He has gravity. He's funny, and he's quite an actor these days.
The one upside is that with a gift card coupled with a 1/2 price movie day discount, we didn't have to pay a dime to see it.
Worth every penny.
Stranger Things (2016)
Incredible series
This show is practically perfect in every way. It's very true to the aesthetic, culture, look and feel of the 80's, the actors are excellent and perfectly cast, and it's sort of a juxtaposition of seemingly unrelated attributes. It manages to be a fantastic homage to the pop culture of the era while at the the same time being altogether refreshing and new. One of the best series ever.
Stranger Things: Chapter Seven: The Lost Sister (2017)
Pointless Filler
I give it a 6/10 simply because I love the show, love Millie's acting, and am enthralled with the entire franchise. That said, this one seems like a wasted opportunity. Loving Millie's acting alone cannot be the sole reason for watching this series. She's incredible, no doubt, everyone else onboard is pretty great in their own right. (Noah Schnapp is INCREDIBLE this season.) Before, Eleven killed in order to protect herself or others. This episode focused solely on Eleven becoming so emotionally unhinged, that she was a stone's throw away from killing strangers just out of spite. Bottom line, this episode was an altogether pointless one that didn't really add anything of value to an otherwise excellent series. We have a solid plot line. We have a vested interest in the actual trajectory of the series. At this point, we have some pretty high stakes, and from a creative standpoint, we have two brothers who have set a four year timeline for the show, and then want to call it quits. With those projections, it seems that you would want to make the most of the time you have. This had nothing to do with ANYTHING that came on before, except the intro of the very first episode this season. A few apologists have made the case that the rank and file fans of the series go nuts if there's any deviation from the formula. Those people can feel free to watch a disjointed series with no plot, or rhyme, or reason. There are plenty of them out there. This isn't one of them. The standard of excellence has been set very high from the get go. There are a few who disagree, but the majority opinion remains clear: The one was the weakest of them all, and such a great franchise deserves a better effort than this.
Blade Runner 2049 (2017)
Blade Run....Er....Walker
Okay, Ryan Gosling was a perfectly good choice for this role. Aesthetically, it had a remarkable look and feel that paid homage to the 1982 movie in a very nice way. The story itself was good. However, one of my biggest prevailing problems with this film is the pacing of it. I can't think of a single scene that couldn't have been cut in half (some could've been done away with entirely) without the story suffering in any way. There are seemingly unending sequences of repetitive dialogue and glacially paced movement throughout.
What was a good movie in concept was badly hurt by incredibly sluggish pacing. If you're a fan of the original, do yourself a favor and watch it when you have a solid day to commit to it.
American Made (2017)
American Remade
Fun movie, if not for the fact that the truth was changed to protect the guilty.
In real life, Barry Seal was fired from TWA in '72 when he was charged for smuggling plastic explosives across Mexico. He flew tons of coke into the States for multiple drug kingpins, including Escobar. When he was busted, he started working for the DEA as an informant. He was overweight, poisoned his fellow Americans with drugs; and didn't care about his family enough to enter WITSEC.
From a historical perspective, it should be taken with a grain of salt that a guy like Seal, given his position, can be placed in a situation where everything is cool, time after time after time after time again.
The Tick (2016)
Wow....What a tremendous disappointment
Let me preface this by saying that I LOVE the comics and animated versions of the series. Even the Patrick Warburton version had its positive elements. This is an anathema. What's more, I cannot believe that a creative the caliber of Ben Edlund would sign off on this steaming dump of a once great franchise.
First, the original was family friendly, and over the top hysterical. Well, we can't have that. Not in this culture. No, we have to delve into Arthur's deep psychological issues. We have to make it depressing. We have to dumb it down for the masses.
This is neither safe for families, nor all that funny. It's crass, vulgar, the language is terrible, the bloodiness is amped up, it's pretty dark, and most of that is completely unnecessary. I don't understand how incorporating unnecessary vulgarities is a perfectly acceptable societal norm. The cartoon was much smarter and unfathomably better written.
The cast is perfectly capable, and would've been equally as good if they had just canonized the series instead of trying to make it something it was never meant to be. 3/10 for the acting chops, but for the writers I say to you in The Tick's own words, "Stop being bad!" Make a franchise that fans of the TRUE series can appreciate again.
Jessica Jones (2015)
Sigh....Social Engineering Strikes Again...
I'm not gonna lie. I was really looking forward to the arrival of this show after watching Daredevil. One episode in, and I'm tired of the same old platitudes: the evils of men and their attraction to power, political leanings, suggestions about how we should all feel regarding sexual proclivities and orientation. Quite honestly, an original show in this day and age, would be one that didn't try to inundate me with a particular brand of programming constantly telling me how I should feel, think and speak about such things. Sometimes, I don't want to have to deal with that. Sometimes I just want to be entertained. Is that too much to ask?