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Reviews
Futurama: Rage Against the Vaccine (2023)
Say, waaa?
How does this episode rate. 6.6 on IMDb if only one person (prior to me) gave it a 9? I found it both hilarious and disturbing; especially the use of the exceedingly long Q-tip. It did feel like the lab techs who shoved them into my nose were taking brain samples. The writers were also spot on regarding the anti-vax/anti-science crackpots regarding their lack of trust (and outright ignorance) regarding the disease's treatment. One of the funniest running gags was how many people (humans and aliens) wore their masks. I can't tell you how many real people I've noticed having a mask only cover their mouths and not their noses. But I have a question, if robots weren't susceptible why did bender wear a mask (albeit on top of his antenna like a condom) and later get inoculated along with the "meatbags"? Maybe he just wanted the doll?
American Guerrilla in the Philippines (1950)
Power Is Under-ranked
I found and just watched this movie on YouTube. I remember watching it repeatedly in B/W on TV over 60 years ago. I enjoyed it then, as I did now. However, I now have some issues.
First, the dialog was wooden at times. When it was revealed that the woman Powers had his eye on was married; I thought, "I hope she has a black dress to wear at his upcoming funeral."
At 36, Power was rather old to still hold the rank of ensign in the U. S. Navy. Secondly, while temporarily attached to the Army, he says his rank is the equivalent of a major. All the while he's wearing silver oak leaves of a Lt. Colonel. In the U. S. military, a lieutenant in the navy is the equivalent of a captain in the army.
I did think that it was daring to show a higher-ranking Filipino officer giving orders to a lower-ranking white American officer.
I also thought the close-ups of several tooth-challenged natives celebrating their liberation by Gen. MacArthur's forces was a garish, demeaning, and grotesque attempt at humor at their expense.
She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: Is This Not Real Magic? (2022)
Something's Just Not Right with This Series
Wouldn't Wong have been arrested on sight for his role in freeing the Abomination, albeit temporarily, from prison?
Would the judge have allowed an obviously intoxicated woman to testify? (See "Trivia" for answer).
Are most young men, and women, who do the bar scene or use dating apps that shallow and narcissistic?
With the possible exception of Wong, I have yet to find a sympathetic character I care about. Including She Hulk.
She could go work for a non-profit, or do pro-Bono work like her cousin did in Third World countries.
She's a freakin' super hero.
Why not represent the Avengers or other super heroes after all the collateral damage they cause fighting the "bad guys"?
Finally, where was Wong sending those "gremlins", Switzerland?
Death on the Nile (2022)
It's a Mystery to Me Why this Movie Was Rrleased.
I'm just going to focus on seven issues:
First: The beginning was supposed to be set in Belgium in October 1914, two months after WWI started. The trench system (including the concrete bunker and the extensive destruction of "No Man's Land") seemed pretty extensive for such a short time.
Second: As another reviewer noted, the Germans just stood and stared at the approaching gas/smoke cloud without sounding a gas alarm and putting on their masks or firing into it.
Third: Regardless of what the British nurse suggested, Poirot would not have been able to grow such a spectacular mustache through his extensive facial scar tissue. I kept staring at it during his closeups noticing absolutely no scar tissue under it.
Fourth: On the Nile boat, the killer fires a single round from a .45 caliber automatic pistol into a witness's neck. The slug, which would have easily blown his head off, just produces a perfect circular entry hole.
Fifth: Yet the murderer fires a .22 caliber derringer bullet in a suicide embrace into the back of her lover that travels through and his chest and into hers. I'm no Quincy or Ducky Mallard, but the small caliber soft lead .22 bullet would have broken up inside the man's chest cavity. Especially if it made contact with his spine or sternum.
Sixth: Where was the ship's captain in all of this. The murder(s) occurred on his ship under his watch.
(And what's the deal with the ship's staff leaving the ship after midnight?) Any ship's captain worth his salt would have taken charge and confine the passengers to their cabins (locking them from the inside) for their own protection until the authorities arrived. I find it hard to believe a vessel of that size did not have an operating radio in 1937.
Seven: By what authority did Poirot have in conducting the investigation? Perhaps the ship's captain could have asked him to assist in an investigation; but I am unfamiliar with that aspect of maritime law.
Jungle Cruise (2021)
2 Hrs. and 7 Minutes of My Life I'll Never Get Back
Let's just say I'm almost glad for the Pandemic Paranoia that induced me not to go to a theater and pay to see this overblown turkey. Too bad I can't get a refund from Disney+.😁
Winchester (2018)
Why Bother Checking Facts?
I know it's supposed to be a "fantasy horror movie," but, as a retired historian in American military history, I had several issues with this movie.
If Union Army soldiers killed the avenging ghost's Confederate soldier brothers, they would have been killed between 1861 and 1865.
During that time, Union soldiers were equipped mainly with Springfield or Sharps rifles. A select group of cavalrymen were issued Henry lever-action repeating rifles, which were the precursors of the Winchester repeating lever-action rifle. Problem is: the Winchester Repeating Arms Company came into existence in 1866.
The movie's production company could have chosen any of hundred, if not thousands of victims of Winchester Arms, from repeating rifle and carbines, to Pump-action shotguns.
Also, the movie never explained that the catastrophic shaking of the mansion near end was associated with the 1996 San Francisco Earthquake. The avenging ghost just took advantage of it. Maybe directing all the energy expelled at the time to Mrs. Winchester and the doctor.
Another problem I had was how all the Winchester rifles in the cabinets were varies of the same type of gun.
Like I alluded to, Winchester Arms made many different types of lever-action firearms, from rifles to shotguns. Yet, there were no examples of same.
Finally, did avenging ghosts haunt and attack the widowed wives and immediate families of other American arms manufacturers, like Remington, Colt, or Smith & Wesson?
On a different note, when the avenging Souther ghost revealed himself as a ghost, I though, "Oh, they're doing an "U see dead people," from "Sixth Sense." So I had to rewind the movie to every scene he was in that showed that the doctor might have been the only one to have seen him next to living people or alone at his doorway.
Midway (2019)
Historically Accurate?
I was all set to go see this movie on Veterans Day weekend.
However, after watching the preview clip, I had second thoughts about going.
First, it shows twin-engine Japanese bombers bombing the US carriers at Midway.
They look like Mitsubishi 3GM "Nell."
Although in service with the Imperial Japanese Navy from 1935-1945, they were land, not carrier-based aircraft.
The closest Japanese-held airbase for them to take off from would have been at Wake Island.
With a range of some 2,400 miles, the could have flown the 2,054 nautical miles from Wake to Midway and back, with 346 miles to spare.
However, Wake's airfield at that time would have been too small to handle a large number of land-based twin-engine aircraft.
Moot point, though, none of the histories of the battle I've read (books, not unsubstantiated web sites) report the presence of land-based Imperial Japanese Navy bombers.
The Orville (2017)
A Homage by a True Fan of the Classic Star Trek Series
It's everything the new Star Trek Discovery isn't: wonderfully loose. It also reminds me of Galaxy Quest, which was another homage to Star Trek. If the stories and dialog doesn't lower itself into burlesque or parody, I'll stick with it. Not like I did after watching the Star Trek Discovery pilot. I did notice that Holland Taylor and Brian George appeared in the original Star Trek and Deep Space 9 series, respectively. I wonder if McFarland will be casting other veteran character actors from the old series as "Easter Eggs"? That would make me want to watch the series based on nostalgia alone (I've been a fan since 1966).