I did not read the book, so I had no frame of reference before going in. I did hear there was a Willy Wonka-esque story line where the creator was dying and wanted to leave his creation - the Oasis - to someone before he passed.
With that said, I liked it and I catch myself still thinking about it. Then the more I think about it, the more questions I have that the movie didn't answer, but more on that later.
First, the visual and sound effects were great. I noticed a lack of background music to enhance what was happening in the action filled scenes. Downside to those scenes, they start to feel like the first Transformers movie and it's hard to follow the action when all the CG objects are just crashing into one another, giving no weight to the scene, just a beautiful spectacle bordering on a mess. Sure, you can glimpse something nostalgic here and there to ground you back into the scene, but you care about the nostalgic CG character, not the human behind it.
With that said, I did found myself caring about the main character and his group of friends, but nobody else in the film. I think we were supposed to care about the crowd / residents of Columbus, Ohio because they are tasked not once but twice to come to the aid of the main characters that call themselves High Five. The narrator/main character mentions some bad things happened in the world, but they didn't go into detail on why things are so bad and if the Oasis helps with that. It seems like the IOI corporation uses the Oasis to get away with slavery. Multiple times military-esque IOI team comes into the Oasis or real world to make things hard for our heroes as they are the main antagonists. I thought they were the law in this future 2045, but then the actual police are shown at the end, so there is some sort of law and order that you don't know exists until the very end of the movie.
Also, I don't know if I missed it, but what does the main character do for a job? Sure, you want to spend all your time in the Oasis because you can do and be anything, as long as you have the coins to do so, but you need to work to buy food to eat and such, and that's never shown. Sure, I wanted as much Oasis as I could get, but we needed more reality to make us appreciate the real characters behind the action. The message at the very end of this movie is how important reality is so it's a little bit of a curve ball after spending 5/6 of the movie in the Oasis and not really caring about reality.
With the aforementioned gripes aside, I did like it and I want to see it again to spot all the nostalgia nods possible. I was expecting to see E.T., and maybe some Star Wars things, but I didn't spy either. The Millennium Falcon did get a name drop. I do love the Iron Giant, and even though he flew in his own movie, he doesn't fly in this one which I was semi expecting. I'm not a Gundam fan, but I enjoyed that reference when it appeared. The movie had some good laughs, but it didn't make me tear up like other Spielberg movies in the past, so I'll give it 3/5 stars.
Thursday, March 29, 2018
Wednesday, March 28, 2018
Too Much TV - Currently Watching
I've watched a lot of TV this week and it's only Wednesday.
Family Guy S15 E8: I'm not sure why I still watch this show as it's been very hit or miss, but I guess it's those hits that keep me coming back even though they are very few and far between. Unfortunately, this episode was another miss as it was a Sherlock Holmes homage that very much borrow from the movie starring Robert Downey Jr. The episode also tried to make jokes about how meta it was, but it just came off more annoying and sad. "Enjoying these old-timey jokes? Look, we're really trying!" No, you're not.
Homeland S7 E7: With 12 episodes each season, I remind myself to be patient as the big surprises won't pop up until later in the season and this was a good episode with a lot of big punches in the gut for our players. Unfortunately, the real victim in these episodes have been Franny, who I wouldn't be surprised if she grew up to be a serial killer. She really shouldn't be with Carrie and based on the previews, I actually agree with what her sister is about to do. Other than that, everyone is getting what they deserve and nothing is easy - just like real life!
Billions S3 E1: I love this show and I really need to make it a habit to watch last year's season finale prior to starting a new season. The recaps before the show aren't enough and I was kind of lost on certain relationships. I highly recommend this show if you haven't watched it yet. Damien Lewis and Paul Giamatti are fantastic.
The Walking Dead S8 E13: Only three more episodes left this season to hate watch and I'm actually excited to delete this series recording from my DVR. I just don't care anymore and the people on these shows keep making the worst possible decisions. Characters like Carol and Tara are so inconsistent and poorly written and very poorly acted, yet both are given more screen time than people we care about Rick or Negan. This show is lost and I'm getting off the train. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner.
The Last Man on Earth S4 E12: I'm not really sure where this show is going, but it's not as good as it once was. Since it's only 22 minutes, it's not a huge commitment, but it's falling into the same problem as I mentioned above with Family Guy.
DC's Legends of Tomorrow S3 E16: A very odd episode but they're all kind of odd, which makes them interesting to watch.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine S1 Eps 1 & 2: I know I'm late to the party since this show is in its 5th season, but I just heard from an old interview with Terry Crews that this show comes from the same group that did Parks & Rec. Since I loved that show, and SNL has been crap since Andy Samberg and friends left, I decided to give it a shot and I'm happy to report that I loved it. I will definitely be watching this in my leisure and catching up.
Roseanne S10 Eps 1 & 2: It wasn't too bad. I don't typically watch shows with laugh tracks, but my wife wanted to watch so I mostly paid attention. It was 10x better than Fuller House.
On my Watch List for the rest of the week:
The Mick, Modern Family, Arrow, and more Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Thinking about watching eventually:
Barry, The Goldbergs
Honorable Mentions:
Netflix
Voltron: Legendary Defender - be about it. So good!
Jessica Jones - Season 2 - gave up after 2 episodes
Family Guy S15 E8: I'm not sure why I still watch this show as it's been very hit or miss, but I guess it's those hits that keep me coming back even though they are very few and far between. Unfortunately, this episode was another miss as it was a Sherlock Holmes homage that very much borrow from the movie starring Robert Downey Jr. The episode also tried to make jokes about how meta it was, but it just came off more annoying and sad. "Enjoying these old-timey jokes? Look, we're really trying!" No, you're not.
Homeland S7 E7: With 12 episodes each season, I remind myself to be patient as the big surprises won't pop up until later in the season and this was a good episode with a lot of big punches in the gut for our players. Unfortunately, the real victim in these episodes have been Franny, who I wouldn't be surprised if she grew up to be a serial killer. She really shouldn't be with Carrie and based on the previews, I actually agree with what her sister is about to do. Other than that, everyone is getting what they deserve and nothing is easy - just like real life!
Billions S3 E1: I love this show and I really need to make it a habit to watch last year's season finale prior to starting a new season. The recaps before the show aren't enough and I was kind of lost on certain relationships. I highly recommend this show if you haven't watched it yet. Damien Lewis and Paul Giamatti are fantastic.
The Walking Dead S8 E13: Only three more episodes left this season to hate watch and I'm actually excited to delete this series recording from my DVR. I just don't care anymore and the people on these shows keep making the worst possible decisions. Characters like Carol and Tara are so inconsistent and poorly written and very poorly acted, yet both are given more screen time than people we care about Rick or Negan. This show is lost and I'm getting off the train. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner.
The Last Man on Earth S4 E12: I'm not really sure where this show is going, but it's not as good as it once was. Since it's only 22 minutes, it's not a huge commitment, but it's falling into the same problem as I mentioned above with Family Guy.
DC's Legends of Tomorrow S3 E16: A very odd episode but they're all kind of odd, which makes them interesting to watch.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine S1 Eps 1 & 2: I know I'm late to the party since this show is in its 5th season, but I just heard from an old interview with Terry Crews that this show comes from the same group that did Parks & Rec. Since I loved that show, and SNL has been crap since Andy Samberg and friends left, I decided to give it a shot and I'm happy to report that I loved it. I will definitely be watching this in my leisure and catching up.
Roseanne S10 Eps 1 & 2: It wasn't too bad. I don't typically watch shows with laugh tracks, but my wife wanted to watch so I mostly paid attention. It was 10x better than Fuller House.
On my Watch List for the rest of the week:
The Mick, Modern Family, Arrow, and more Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Thinking about watching eventually:
Barry, The Goldbergs
Honorable Mentions:
Netflix
Voltron: Legendary Defender - be about it. So good!
Jessica Jones - Season 2 - gave up after 2 episodes
Monday, March 19, 2018
The House [2017] review
The House had its moments and I did laugh, but it was kind of a mess. Will (Ferrell) and Amy (Poehler) have some good chemistry, but I didn't believe them as husband and wife. Their characters were very inconsistent throughout, and then they each adopt weird alter egos. Concerning these two powerhouse comedians, it was hard to care about them or their cause for their daughter. Personally, I cared more about Jason Mantzoukas's character of Frank and his quest to better his life and get his wife back. That was the heart of the movie and since he was the one that thought up the idea of the casino, he was also the brains of the movie. There lies the unbalance. Jason carried the entire movie on his back while Will and Amy were along for the ride.
The daughter character was nice, but under developed and under utilized. Then the writers add public figures like the idiot police officer with a heart of gold, and the jerk city official that is corrupt; then mix in a random crime boss with no connection to either, you're not really sure what's happening, the writing isn't making much sense and therefore you get the mess I alluded to in my opening statement. Like I said, there are some funny parts, and I did laugh, but I wouldn't recommend you go out of your way to see it.
Tuesday, March 13, 2018
Coming to America [1988] review
Since I was 7 years old when this first came out and it was Rated R, I don't think my parents let me watch this especially with the cursing and nudity. I do recall seeing bits and pieces on Comedy Central over the years, but I never got into it nor watched from beginning to end. Now, 30 years later, I can finally say that I've seen this movie in its entirety.
With that said, for the jokes to land, you definitely need the cursing. There isn't a lot of cursing (or maybe I'm desensitized to it), but there are definitely two comedic payoffs where you need to watch it uncensored. The nudity, while very brief, is needed because one of the first laugh out loud moments of the movie is said by the female bather. This scene is probably cut entirely for public television as it was brand new to me.
I love James Earl Jones and he definitely shines in his role. All the barbershop stuff is great. The rally scene was odd and the comedy didn't land for me, but it was needed to push the plot forward with Eddie's character and his potential love interest.
A lot of this movie actually remind me of parts of Black Panther, to be honest. The African culture that was established was played serious with humor at the right parts so it didn't feel like they were making fun of the established fake country or its culture, just the characters in it. The matte painting of the palace was super obvious, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment.
I'd give this 3 out of 5 stars as I found it entertaining overall with very minimal slow parts or parts that I wasn't laughing.
With that said, for the jokes to land, you definitely need the cursing. There isn't a lot of cursing (or maybe I'm desensitized to it), but there are definitely two comedic payoffs where you need to watch it uncensored. The nudity, while very brief, is needed because one of the first laugh out loud moments of the movie is said by the female bather. This scene is probably cut entirely for public television as it was brand new to me.
I love James Earl Jones and he definitely shines in his role. All the barbershop stuff is great. The rally scene was odd and the comedy didn't land for me, but it was needed to push the plot forward with Eddie's character and his potential love interest.
A lot of this movie actually remind me of parts of Black Panther, to be honest. The African culture that was established was played serious with humor at the right parts so it didn't feel like they were making fun of the established fake country or its culture, just the characters in it. The matte painting of the palace was super obvious, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment.
I'd give this 3 out of 5 stars as I found it entertaining overall with very minimal slow parts or parts that I wasn't laughing.
Monday, March 12, 2018
Black Mirror Season 4 review
S4E1: USS Callister - The focus of this episode is essentially a virtual toy box where the main character got to play with his work friends in a Star Trek themed environment. It borrowed from an earlier episode where you can make a virtual copy of a person in real life using their DNA. This digital copy identified as a real person and didn't want to be trapped inside the game. In the Christmas episode, we saw Jon Hamm's character torturing one of these digital copies to make it obedient. In this episode, we saw what it would be like if the copies were not obedient.
Since I'm not a huge fan of the original Star Trek episodes, it was difficult getting into the episode, but I started caring about the digital copies and wanted them to win, but also I wanted them to lose because it wouldn't matter because they're not real people, they're just digital. I was hoping for more of twist, but I didn't get one and it was actually semi hopeful for the copies - at least they would be living a better "life" than what was originally tasked of them.
S4E2: Arkangel - This is the first episode of the last series of episodes that I really liked. I understand a mother's desire to keep tabs on their child and I thought the idea of not only tracking them but being able to report on their vitals was very interesting. They could have focused on keeping the child balanced on medication and the effects of big Pharma, but instead the writers focused on the location of the child turned teenager instead. I liked that a mother would want to shield their child from the bad things in the world, but that comes with consequences that could potentially damage a child's mind when he/she becomes aware of what he/she had been censored to. The end was very fitting and I loved how it mirrored the beginning of the episode.
S4E3: Crocodile - I thought the premise was very interesting except I was a little confused on why a claim agency would (a) have such powerful software and (b) have it displayed on a tiny CRT screen. I guess it was supposed to represent the haziness of memory I suppose.
Side note, if I'm sharing a memory of what I think happened, especially getting hit by car, or something quick happening like maybe a soccer player running and scoring a goal, my brain isn't going to store how fast the car was going or how fast the soccer player was running, just that it was "fast" or it happened "so fast" so it seems like the software is only there to try to catch you in a lie. So I suppose the software and person collecting the memories is doing a good job if they catch people lying and reduce the number of claims paid out for the company.
I felt the ending was a little on the shock value side especially since I think the one investigator says the baby was blind making the death even more meaningless.
Out of curiosity, I researched why the episode was called Crocodile because the only thing I could think of was "See you later, Alligator. After while Crocodile." In actuality, according to IMDB, it's called "Crocodile" due to a crocodile's cognitive ability to associate memories with senses such as smell or hearing which is the same technique used to access the memories of the people in the episode. I didn't know crocodiles could do that.
S4E4: Hang the DJ - This is the first episode with a positive ending that I actually enjoyed. When I saw the coaching device it initially reminded me of the Christmas episode where Jon Hamm's character was coaching the guy through the date. I'm glad it was not a person behind the coaching device, but an actual program. It was a really great concept that out of 1000 simulations that they choice each other in 998 of them. I wonder what the difference was in the two outliers, but I guess it doesn't matter because they ended up together in all the other scenarios. The program within a program was a nice touch as it could have gotten very dark and the main characters were living some sort of Groundhog Day scenario, or the program was designed that they would never be together.
S4E5: Metalhead - I think this entire episode is shot in black and white to give it that dystopian feel which it pulled off well. I also thought the main antagonist(s) was convincing and threatening. Sadly, I figured out the ending and when it turned out that 3 people died for what boiled down to nothing, I was left with a feeling of disappoint. I will hopefully never have to experience a kill or be killed situation in real life, but I would think that every move should be clear and calculated before doing anything. In the battle for survival, once I had food, water, shelter, then maybe I would crave some comforts like maybe soap. But to go after something that provides nothing other than emotional comfort/support didn't make sense to me especially when the protagonists had no offence or defense against their enemy.
S4E6: Black Museum - It felt like this episode was trying to be a lot like the Christmas episode in the way it attempted to combine multiple technological elements to tell its story. While it wasn't as good as the Christmas episode, this one did a very good job. First thing that was great was the museum itself and seeing technology from past episodes collected into one place. I also applaud this episode for not relying on past episodes even though it could have and it was kind of what I was expecting. I appreciated the fresh story based on a piece of technology concerning the brain, how it failed, improved, and grew from there constantly building towards the end. There was a small twist that one could possibly see coming towards the end. While it wasn't a total surprise, there were still a few smaller twists to enjoy that pulled at the brain strings (instead of the heart strings). I wouldn't mind seeing a part two to this story with the characters that were still alive at the end. It was a happy ending compared to some of the more dismal endings from prior episodes, but there is definitely more story that could be told.
Since I'm not a huge fan of the original Star Trek episodes, it was difficult getting into the episode, but I started caring about the digital copies and wanted them to win, but also I wanted them to lose because it wouldn't matter because they're not real people, they're just digital. I was hoping for more of twist, but I didn't get one and it was actually semi hopeful for the copies - at least they would be living a better "life" than what was originally tasked of them.
S4E2: Arkangel - This is the first episode of the last series of episodes that I really liked. I understand a mother's desire to keep tabs on their child and I thought the idea of not only tracking them but being able to report on their vitals was very interesting. They could have focused on keeping the child balanced on medication and the effects of big Pharma, but instead the writers focused on the location of the child turned teenager instead. I liked that a mother would want to shield their child from the bad things in the world, but that comes with consequences that could potentially damage a child's mind when he/she becomes aware of what he/she had been censored to. The end was very fitting and I loved how it mirrored the beginning of the episode.
S4E3: Crocodile - I thought the premise was very interesting except I was a little confused on why a claim agency would (a) have such powerful software and (b) have it displayed on a tiny CRT screen. I guess it was supposed to represent the haziness of memory I suppose.
Side note, if I'm sharing a memory of what I think happened, especially getting hit by car, or something quick happening like maybe a soccer player running and scoring a goal, my brain isn't going to store how fast the car was going or how fast the soccer player was running, just that it was "fast" or it happened "so fast" so it seems like the software is only there to try to catch you in a lie. So I suppose the software and person collecting the memories is doing a good job if they catch people lying and reduce the number of claims paid out for the company.
I felt the ending was a little on the shock value side especially since I think the one investigator says the baby was blind making the death even more meaningless.
Out of curiosity, I researched why the episode was called Crocodile because the only thing I could think of was "See you later, Alligator. After while Crocodile." In actuality, according to IMDB, it's called "Crocodile" due to a crocodile's cognitive ability to associate memories with senses such as smell or hearing which is the same technique used to access the memories of the people in the episode. I didn't know crocodiles could do that.
S4E4: Hang the DJ - This is the first episode with a positive ending that I actually enjoyed. When I saw the coaching device it initially reminded me of the Christmas episode where Jon Hamm's character was coaching the guy through the date. I'm glad it was not a person behind the coaching device, but an actual program. It was a really great concept that out of 1000 simulations that they choice each other in 998 of them. I wonder what the difference was in the two outliers, but I guess it doesn't matter because they ended up together in all the other scenarios. The program within a program was a nice touch as it could have gotten very dark and the main characters were living some sort of Groundhog Day scenario, or the program was designed that they would never be together.
S4E5: Metalhead - I think this entire episode is shot in black and white to give it that dystopian feel which it pulled off well. I also thought the main antagonist(s) was convincing and threatening. Sadly, I figured out the ending and when it turned out that 3 people died for what boiled down to nothing, I was left with a feeling of disappoint. I will hopefully never have to experience a kill or be killed situation in real life, but I would think that every move should be clear and calculated before doing anything. In the battle for survival, once I had food, water, shelter, then maybe I would crave some comforts like maybe soap. But to go after something that provides nothing other than emotional comfort/support didn't make sense to me especially when the protagonists had no offence or defense against their enemy.
S4E6: Black Museum - It felt like this episode was trying to be a lot like the Christmas episode in the way it attempted to combine multiple technological elements to tell its story. While it wasn't as good as the Christmas episode, this one did a very good job. First thing that was great was the museum itself and seeing technology from past episodes collected into one place. I also applaud this episode for not relying on past episodes even though it could have and it was kind of what I was expecting. I appreciated the fresh story based on a piece of technology concerning the brain, how it failed, improved, and grew from there constantly building towards the end. There was a small twist that one could possibly see coming towards the end. While it wasn't a total surprise, there were still a few smaller twists to enjoy that pulled at the brain strings (instead of the heart strings). I wouldn't mind seeing a part two to this story with the characters that were still alive at the end. It was a happy ending compared to some of the more dismal endings from prior episodes, but there is definitely more story that could be told.
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