Reviews

This episode marks the ending of the pilot. There is a lot to cover and it took three episodes to do it. If they had cut the last scene I think they would have a better story, but it is obvious they wanted to show us just how devious Rush could be.

Rush didn't hide when he knew for sure that Destiny would survive the entry into the sun; we could see his reaction when he saw the view of the Destiny from the Kino. Anyone paying attention should have noticed it. But when Young made the statement that Rush refused to go on the shuttle before he knew all would be well, Rush played coy.

So we have Rush showing he believes he can refuse a command order during a combat situation (usually gets you shot) and intentionally does not level with the commander by keeping him properly informed. On Young's part, he is an incompetent manager, except possibly during combat. I am at a complete loss how O'Neill pi0cked Rush and Dr. Jackson picked Rush. And why the heck didn't Daniel Jackson and Sam use a couple of stones to do an examination of Destiny and compile a manual that could be used by all the other scientists on board. Rush refused to share with anyone for a long time.

I've tried three separate times to get though the first epoxide and have not made it yet. I may try again in the future. The beginning was very funny and I have hoped it would get that funny again, but the arrival of the senior detective, Eddie, makes me doubt that will happen. Too bad.

I see Dulcie was in Rake, an Australian show that my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed. When Eddie showed up, as she had no idea where she was and interrupted everyone else while talking almost non-stop I would have asked if she was drunk. If the answer was no, I would have been tempted to knock her out and dump her at the edge of town. Not sure that kind of character fits into a comedy exactly. As the ep continued and Eddie stole objects while interviewing the deceased's family, I had to stop watching again.

I may try again, because generally we enjoy Aussie shows. We'll see.

I don't care much for literature, Jane Austen in particular. So I wasn't about to do any comparisons. However, I do care for comedies and this one was not very funny. Liza Lapira is very capable of stealing a scene and she tried here, but even she couldn't do much with the dialogue. Mark Moses had the best scenes with Alicia Witt and others. He probably came off the best of everyone. They needed to get someone, anyone other than Shane McRae as the male lead. The best I can say is his heart does not appear to have been in it. I will say the cat was great.

I love Alicia Witt. I know she can act and do comedy very well. This was not her best effort. She does not appear to perk up until the very last scene. And then she does her usual great job of kissing the guy. But unfortunately that did not make up for the previous 90 minutes. If I didn't like her so much I would've turned it off before the first half hour was over.

The opening scene is bad. Almost turned to something else. But as soon as the two leads meet, it perks up. I don't give the script writer much credit. The. Ending scene has no dialogue; instead it depends on a particular song playing over the 'action'. I wonder if getting the original hit version of "At Last" was what held this movie up for 2 years. HOWEVER, the actors saved the show, The character actors stole almost every scene they were in. The leads were ok, they did work well together, but the best friends were the best. Michael Rispoli (who I will always refer to as Joe Jr) was terrific. Olivia D'abo born in London did a NYC accent that occasionally slipped, but was also very likeable. My wife and I both enjoyed the movie and would have no problem watching it again. Unlike so many movies today, there is no one to hate in this one. Well, except Bobby Love.

The plot was far better than some movies, though a bit here and there the action was contrived and unbelievable. For example, I've watched Highway Through Hell enough to know that big rigs aren't that easy to right on ice. Also, the activity in the cave seemed very stilted and incomplete. These guys should have been fighting for their lives. And just how many killers are on this mine's payroll?

On the other hand the truck action was fun and there was some suspense as they went along. Unlike others I had no trouble staying awake and involved. However, that had to be the absolutely worst fighting between Ben Walker and Liam Neeson that I have ever seen. They served the script in that each man got up to fight again without serious injury. That was really unbelievable!

I try to steer clear of "reality" shows because most of them have drama that appears manufactured and dialogue that sounds scripted. I found this show a long time ago on cable and watched only because of the old planes. Watching the mechanics work on them and the pilots fly them in the Northern Territories was a LOT of fun. But then the humans got in the way.

If the scenes with Buffalo Joe and mechanic Charlie are to be believed these two have to be the most simple guys you could ever meet. Not a brain between them. As for the rest of the crowd, there is not a decent manager among them. Even the outside manager they hire (Duane) is an idiot. They don't know how to manage projects; they don't know how to manage people. No wonder they have a hard time keeping good people working for Buffalo,

One thing that tells me it must be fake is that you are there for important drama - e.g. How does the camera crew know that Gord is going to get a call from an outside airline with a job offer? If it plays like they show it, they can't possibly know ahead of time. So what we saw was a recreation - if in fact there was a job offer in the first place and the whole thing wasn't just that Gord wanted off the show. That's the thing. You can't really know.

So just ignore the manufactured drama and enjoy the scenery and the flying. Everything else is a waste of your time.

The only actor I recognized in this waste of time was Eric Roberts. I assume he only took the movie for the money - or maybe he had a couple days to kill. They say a really good actor improves a scene by making other actors work harder. That did not happen here. Eric was just as stilted as everyone else. It seemed like the actors saw the script right before shooting the scene with no rehearsal whatsoever. That's how the entire movie came across.

Veronika Issa as the assumed lead tried hard to project toughness and authority, and was sort of successful. Unfortunately the dialogue was poor and the makeup was worse. In fact, after traveling all day to get to the bedside of her sick father, the women appeared to have been made up by a teenage Goth. In fact you have to gather from the dialogue that her dad died before she got there. Thankfully the heavy makeup disappeared after that scene.

The special effects were high-grade schlock, apparently making use of readily available video editing software. Overall the idea was not the worst I have seen, but execution was waaaay below standard. If you really want to waste your time on this movie, then the only way to watch is to stream. Then you can fast-forward through the middle crap and get right to the laser beam business.

I love this movie and have watched it several times. The whole case is terrific and the science is better than most, as several scientists have pointed out. True there are some conceits here, but a movie without conceits is either a documentary or very boring or perhaps both. The design of the spaceships and the other hardware was first rate; I don't know that there was hardware we saw that couldn't actually exist in the near future.

Mark's emotional progression was very well done. There would definitely be some very high highs and some very low lows during that ordeal!

I did end up hating the NASA director (Jeff Daniels) because he seemed to embody the worst of the recent NASA managers with his decision making. If I had been Mitch Henderson, my response to being asked to resign by the NASA director would have been to say 'I'll put my resignation on top of yours'. Not sure if future space travel will include a NASA manager in charge. Might be more realistic to have a corporate person in that position.

I do wonder about the reviewers who tried to point out inconsistencies. One being that Mark could have just replanted everything after the storm destroys his crops. I think this statement completely ignores the fact that when Mark established his 'farm' he was working off the food supply left from the original mission with only some slight rationing. His energy levels would have been at their highest. Existing off mostly potatoes by the time the HAB was compromised he would not have had the energy or the will to re-establish the farm. With a supreme effort he was able to get to the Aries IV MAV. There he got better food (you can see he is having an actual meal) before he had to strip down the MAV for his launch. So there were certainly some conceits made as this was a movie, but his inability to restart his farm was not one of them. I think it was certainly a satisfying movie and will undoubtedly watch it again.

My wife picked this film based on the trailer and the fact she knows I like Lucy Punch. If you haven't seen the first three Vexed or the first six Doc Martins, you're missing something! Anyway, this film started like some others, but quickly veered into its own lane. While some was a bit stupid and perhaps even predictable, major portions were laugh-out-loud funny and completely unexpected. The competing wedding complete with Titanic entrance and fancy port-o-let, the dancing sequence, Raif's greeting of the river boat tourists, the Mother of the Bride's speech...but most of all, Lucy and Raif's video tour of the private rooms at the "Hall". That last one will stay with us for quite a while! Everyone was well cast and did a superb job. Much better than it had a right to be, I guess. But I do love Lucy!

After reading my summary, it should be quite easy to predict a quick death for the show. Other shows have started slowly and yet stayed around long enough to turn into fondly remembered classics, STNG comes to mind. So why not SGU? In looking through other reviews, talking to friends and co-workers, and to stars of other SG shows (for some reason no SGU stars have come to my local Con), and in watching the complete SGU series on DVD several times (most recently finishing last night) I have to say responsibility lies with the writers and the character of Colonel Young. I can safely say that I never saw anything this Colonel handled well or was good at: military command, strategy, discipline, dealing with civilian authority, husband, boyfriend, space battles, first contact, you-name-it. If a humor-less loser is your idea of someone you want to spend an hour with every week, you're welcome to him. To me, he's a character better left to a play or a movie you see once. Rush was also a problem character, but Rush didn't put himself in charge. He needed to be dealt with in the harshest way possible every time he stepped out of line. But almost as bad were the other people. These 'scientists' had to be the dregs of the SGC. Not only did they have one, but it seemed like every scientist was mistrustful of military authority...on a survival situation. Where did they get these people? The producers took some hits on the continuing plot lines versus the shows that reset every week. I do like story arcs, many series have done them well. The problem? If you miss a week or two, you won't know what's going on. That hit me with this show when it initially aired. I missed a couple of weeks and tried to watch when I got back. No idea what was going on. I got so tired of pointless arguments between Rush and Young, I gave up. However, I did buy both seasons on DVD and have watched several times over the years. So what did they do right? The sets and props were terrific! The Destiny design was first rate. The new 'old' stargates were interesting. Alien designs were very good. Space battles and other CGI were well done. Plot lines got very good (over time). I didn't mind the jerky camera shots so much (I think they're much worse in other shows and movies). But the biggest missing factor? Humor. They had two stand-up comedians in the cast who weren't given really funny material until the second season. Why was this needed earlier? To offset the blind rages of Rush and Young. Eli was it and he wasn't enough by himself. We know Carlyle can do humor; did you see "Full Monty"? Ferreira was hilarious in the behind-the-scenes shots. And so on; but it seems instead the humor was sucked out of each script. This is the writers' fault. They say it was supposed to be more serious, dark even. Okay, case in point. SG-1, early episode, O'Neill and Carter stuck in a frozen cave on an 'ice planet' and Carter can't get the Stargate to work. O'Neill is badly injured and they're freezing to death. They huddle for warmth and O'Neill says to Carter, 'I swear that's my sidearm'. Couldn't get more serious, but O'Neill has a joke to make us smile. This is real life, not all the doom and gloom on this show. However, I do hope they someday bring the show back. If it continues like it was when it was canceled, I will watch it. Update Finally someone from the show came to my local con: Mike Dopud came this year. He's one of the nicest people I've met! Great stories, funny, engaging, and willing to listen to me while smiling. He also had little Jodelle Ferland horrified with some stories about stunt work. Anyway, would still like to see a miniseries or movie to put a decent ending on this show.

Saw the trailer in theaters and on TV and was intrigued. However, for one reason or another did not get to see it when it was out. Now have seen it several times on cable, in HiDef on a large flat screen TV and with enhanced sound. Not exactly like the theater, but pretty good. Before seeing, I had seen some of the reviews here so I was probably more critical when watching it then I might have otherwise been. But my wife and my reaction after repeated viewings is, what was all the fuss about James Franco? He was exactly what the part called for. He was a smarmy con man who, as an unlikable small-time carnival magician, was out to get his due. Miscast? Puleeze, he was dead on. He presented the character as it was written and much closer to how it was written in the original books, and we thought he was fine in it.

Remember, you're not supposed to like him for the first third to half of the picture. Over time, his character changes and adapts to his situation, but he certainly leaves some destruction in his wake. Not the least of which is the broken heart of the one who becomes the Wicked Witch of the West. "She's worse than the other one", as we're told in the MGM movie and now we know why! Scorned women and all that.

Speaking of Mila Kunis, we thought she was quite good as Theodora, the younger of the two sister witches. The only thing that I would like her to have changed was that her anger sometimes devolved into shrieking that sounded a little too much like Jackie from 'That 70's Show'. But although she had anger management issues, you still feel for her as OZ strings her along.

The older and most evil sister (at the start anyway) is Rachel Weisz as Evanora. Rachel was terrific and wonderful as all have said. She always is and anyone should be able to tell you that the third Mummy movie desperately needed her, even though it did have Michelle Yeoh.

But speaking of a Michelle, it seems the one person so often overlooked in this OZ movie is Michelle Williams, who played Glinda. This Glinda was wonderful! I was transfixed at how far Michelle has come from her Dawson Creek Days. As someone who read all the OZ books in elementary school in the later '50's, I think she came the closest to the character as written on the page (except for lacking red hair).

Michelle to me was every bit as perfect as Rachel. And Sam Rami's version of an OZ prequel comes the closet to any OZ book I have read. I fervently hope Disney has a sequel in mind with this cast. Just remember folks, if they ever do a version of Dorothy's story, it's Rachel who gets the house dumped on her head!

Some movie makers can take another person's idea and make an entertaining movie of their own out of it. That does not describe these movie makers, though. The Day After Tomorrow was a very watchable movie, even if the science did take a back seat to story. In this mishmash, many scenes, including the opening on the ice shelf and the climactic scene where they all finally took shelter in the lab (re: in the NY Library in Day After Tomorrow) while the walls froze up to and including the door, were copied and poorly done at that. The acting was sub-par, the special affects were laughable, but basically the writing was horrid. Hardly anything anyone did made sense. Case in point: Why on Earth would Bryn leave her child alone while attempting to rescue a man trapped in an elevator, when she could have simply told him she would see that he was let out when the men returned? She could never have opened those elevator doors by herself. Also, didn't him not stopping the elevator when she was on top tell her that this is not someone she would want around her child? What good is a movie when all you do is yell at the idiots on the screen? Not much. Give it a skip, even if you like Erika Eleniak. You won't be sorry.