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The Secret Agent (2016)
Much Better Than Some Would Have You Think
I'm puzzled by the reviews that claim all of Conrad's brilliant story have been abandoned. Utterly untrue. All the main points of the original story are here. The betrayals, the ethical compromises, the cowardice. Not a single one missing. What had changed is how the story is told. Conrad jumped back and forth, a device that works better on writing than on TV. There are always some compromise made when covering a written story to a screen of any size. Those made here seen more than reasonable to me. The result is a thoughtful carefully constructed story that resists the urge to pick up the tempo just for the sake of a little "excitement". Some will find the pace slow, but it builds from the meaningless pretense of the characters lives and the mundane tempo of real life.
Some lovely performances by the whole cast. No one is cast as either superhero or supervillain. These are ordinary people of no great distinction, no matter thier place in life. Both evil and justice are flawed and banal.
Tin Star (2017)
Compelling Show About Awful People
The main characters (sheriff, his wife, most of the oil company folks, etc) are nasty, broken people. Tim Roth's lead is a manipulative, narcissistic alcoholic. He destroys everything he touches. By the end of the first season, he reveals just what a vile human being he is. Yet the show is well acted and directed through the beginning of the second season. I'm interested to see if they can continue to keep it interesting.
Terminus (2015)
A Solid Mid-Range SciFi Flick
This movie is nowhere near as bad as some reviews claim. At the bottom line you find a solid concept - the world stands at the edge of the apocalypse. A war in the Middle East threatens to boil over at any moment. But an artifact/lifeform from beyond Earth may be the answer humanity needs. Is it weapon or cure?
I will grant you that much of the story won't surprise you, but it's pretty well done in that comfortable storytelling zone. The acting is fair to good (sadly, the main character is the least gifted actor's role). This is pure average-guy-fighting-the-evil-government stuff. There are some dumb moments (an operation on a living person that uses a cast saw? Really?) but there's enough here to carry you to the end.
Great science fiction? No. Worth your time? Absolutely.
Lovejoy: The Lost Colony (1993)
The Worst of Them All?
If you ever wonder if there is an episode to skip, this is the one.
It's a mess. All the worst, self indulgent storytelling habits that increase in the later episodes. Add in the awful American cliches and you end up with an utter flop. We can only wish that it had been lost along with the Roanoke Colony.
Camelot (1967)
Good Idea Badly Done
Nothing like making a musical starring no trained singers. Harris is adequate, Redgrave less than, and Franco Nero is...well, let's be honest, he's awful, and that's with someone else doing the singing. And that puts a cramp in the production from the first moment.
Translating a musical to the big screen is harder than many realize. Musical theater is something of an acting specialty that requires acting, singing, and dancing . And movimakers insist on adding scenes to"keep the action moving" . This one manages to make all the possible errors. A wonderful show done rather poorly.
The Parallax View (1974)
Badly Aged Paranoia
The 1970's saw an outpouring of conspiracy movies in response to the assassinations of the Kennedys and Dr. King plus the revelations of the Watergate scandal. This is easily one of the lesser contributions. The script is vague, the plot (thin as it is) doesn't go much of anywhere and cinematic style gets in the way of storytelling.
While visually quite interesting, the effort is wasted on cookie cutter performances by a talented cast. Warren Beatty is riffing on his hip, iconoclastic rebel character. Sadly, he doesn't bring anything new or interesting to it this time. There's no character development for him, nor any of the other characters here. We learn nothing about the mysterious Parallax Corporation except that like many other movie evil corporations, they believe that the best way to cover up an assassination is to kill as many other people as possible.
The pacing is slow, the storytelling is weak, even the cinematography, while impressive, is seriously dated looking.
Trapped inside for a weekend? There are worse movies to spend a couple hours with. But if you have any other options, go for them.