Change Your Image
imfieldingmellish
Reviews
Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)
Self indulgent
Quentin Tarantino used to be a good director, making original films. Now he's become a self-indulgent mega- narcissist (he actually includes "the eighth film by Quentin Tarantino" in the title sequence...who does that?? Is it supposed to be some sort of world-noted milestone??). The purpose of this film is to show the rest of the world that he's a big Hollywood insider who makes movies and you and I are just useless chumps. If you want to sit through several hours of his own love letter to himself, then go ahead and see this film
This brings to mind the Steely Dan song: "Show business kids making movies of themselves/ you know they don't give a @#*& about anybody else..."
Don't waste you time.
Murdoch Mysteries (2008)
A quirky delight
You have to appreciate this lighthearted series for what it is: a campy satire that never takes itself too seriously. The quotes and quips about the future are funny, and nobody can seriously believe that the show is trying to accurately reflect the time period in question. Of course it isn't. It's a flight of fancy, folks, not a serious drama, so lighten up. It loves to take potshots at America in typical Canadian fashion, but there are plenty of jibes aimed inward as well. My favorite was Murdoch's incredulity that Brackenridge and Crabtree were investing their money in highly risky stocks like Coca-Cola, Standard oil and Ford when, quote, they "Could be investing in the safety of CANADIAN GOVERNMENT BONDS!!!"
Priceless!
Plus, nowhere else on TV will you see a more impressive collection of fake sideburns and moustaches.
A Man in Full (2024)
On the current streaming scale, not bad
Having seen some real dogs on Hulu and Netflix recently (seriously, there's some real dreck these days) this was not great but not terrible. The Jeff Daniels story line was interesting, while the police brutality storyline was trite and predictable. I wasn't sure who to root against as between the clueless tycoon and the nasty bankers. It was an interesting selection of really awful people all around. Plus the show never really explains a few things: why exactly is one of the bankers living in a cheap apartment and driving a clunker? He's a banker after all. And why exactly is this bank going after this guy with no mercy when there seems to be no impetus whatsoever for them to do so.
But the highlight of the series has to be the plastic erect phallus that was amongst the most impressive movie props since Dirk Diggler.
The Tourist (2022)
No Outback for Old Bournes
I can see the writers' meeting: what if we took the plot and the characters from The Bourne Identity and combined them with the plot and the characters from No Country for Old Men...maybe if we set it in the Australian bush, nobody will catch on.
Actually not a terrible show, but such a cliched and tired storyline that it became difficult to watch. The character of Anton Chigurh, I mean Leonard Smalls from Raising Arizona, I mean Billy, was entertaining in this iteration, played by an Icelandic guy with some sort of pseudo-American accent. And Jamie Dornan's acting is improving since 65 Even More Shades of Gray. So not the worst show on Netflix, but zero points for originality.
Masters of the Air (2024)
Boring and ridiculous
The simple fact is that the makers of this series took an interesting and exciting topic and made it irredeemably boring and unrealistic. The characters are all one-dimensional stereotypes who are all impossibly gorgeous. How realistic! The dialogue seems to have been written as part if some screen-writing class exercise in how to use clichés.
It is amazing that the same guy who brought us the mostly-realistic Saving Private Ryan brought us this nonsense.
And what's with all the Nepo-babies? Do we really believe that spielberg's kid and jude law's kid and who knows who else are really the most qualified actors???