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Space: Above and Beyond: Ray Butts (1995)
This is why this series only made it one year
I've been re-watching this series, I remember hating it but I had to be reminded of why and this episode brought it all back in its shallow mimicry of actual good stories. Some of the first shows weren't great, but not bad. This episode was a stupid cliché riddled POS that started badly and ended worse. What a load of badly written, silly tripe.
Now I remember why this series sucked so badly. I love sci-fi, and I love war dramas, but these writers only had a superficial understanding of either genre. Ray Butts would have been killed by two bullets to the chest in the first five minutes of this show! And he stood a very good chance of being fragged at almost any point after that. The time worn re-run of the badass with a heart of gold who only has to kick the ass of every soldier to get their respect.
BS Butts lied to and manipulated everyone of the soldiers and yet somehow this translates into grudging respect after he kicks their asses. Formulaic and Wrong.
This series (and this episode in particular) remind me of some coke addled Hollywood brains trying to write in two genres and failing at both. Too often I wanted to like a good space opera, war saga and all I could do is be astounded by how many times I said "you've got to be kidding" out loud. I even liked most of the characters but the story lines betrayed a lack of understanding of tactics, protocol, and even realistic human emotions. Good sets, mysterious enemy, interesting personalities and lousy basic story lines capably stitched together by experienced but clueless TV hacks.
These writers must have spent waaay to much time in the hot tub and had no clue about a good credible story. An even shallower version of the beautiful and vapid Starship Troopers. The best attempt at this genre that I have seen was the CGI Starship Troopers Chronicles and that with real humans could have been even better.
4: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
This truly bites hard
This movies commits every "sin" that can be done to a film based on a "comic book." It's the "comic" part that confuses film people.
Campy humor and self aware parody are just sad when the original stories didn't have any of this. Its like the writers are embarrassed to be working on a movie based on a "comic" and so they have to stick in the snickering crap so that everybody realizes that the writers "know." This one doesn't go as far as the old TV version of Batman, (BIFF-POW) but still cheapens the story with too much juvenile fluff.
Why rework the characters and give them different personalities rather than use what has been developed for so many years? Why not cast people that resemble the characters? Jessica Alba is very tasty but her complexion is too dark to make sense as a blond, and her "brother Johnny" has an entirely different coloring. Alba looks oddly enough, like a Latina with a bleach job. The Storms are both blonds, cast two blonds & be done with it. Or in the name of PC diversity, make both Storms Latino, but pulease don't mix em...
The "Thing" is all rubber, so there is no reason why he doesn't look like the original Thing. Seems like Stan Lee has been distancing himself from Jack Kirby since Jack died... The look of the originals are indebted to Kirby and I think Stan wants to gloss over that fact & take all of the credit.
Why essentially dump Galactus, and insert Dr. Doom without his characteristic man/machine look? Why is Doom even in this???
The story of the Silver Surfer & Galactus is awesome in the classic use of the word and intense of a grand scale. Why rewrite that story & downplay the most visually impressive elements? Simplify the story sure, but why turn Galactus into an amorphous cloud? ? ? A little filmic license is to be expected, but when you remove the elements that could have made a bigger, better movie, and replace them with funny business, and weak cgi - the you end up with tripe like this stinker.
A not so Fantastic Four...
Time Bomb (2006)
Instant critique
I'm watching it right now on CBS, at best it is an average ticking clock disaster story. Acting is all quite capable. Nice editing in the action sequences. Good feel for the chaotic moments. That's hard to depict well.
Nothing new here, bombs planted in a football stadium. Lots of people as potential victims & shots of agents sweating over wires & LED countdowns. A few plot twists, but they aren't even novel. It's not clear to me how the explosives were embedded into the structure. This would imply an absurd lead time for the plot. Maybe that was explained better & I missed it. Why bother to cut holes in support beams & plant bombs? That would take a lot of time, & make lots of noise. That is a huge plot hole
Nice to see Jayne Heitmeyer again. She played Renee Palmer in Earth Final Conflict, & I enjoy seeing her again.
David Arquette often just seems too stiff in dramatic roles. he's a funny, likable guy, but I'm not quite buying him as the lead in a taught action role. He has some good moments, but I don't feel the grit & determination that I see when I watch Southerland in 24. I love the Arquette girls & I was a fan of Cliff, but right know David reminds me more of a city planner than a tough guy Homeland security agent.
Ouch, Arquette just shot a guy in the hand. Its ruthless, but Arquette isn't the tough guy type to do this. The bomb jacket on his wife & son are a bit much. The plot is getting rather convoluted as the story draws to a climax. Arquette jogging with a bomb vest on is too much. They jump & wrestle with these bomb vests on like they were some kind of film prop. Oh wait, they are...
Climax is on the silly side, & the ending shots with the American flag are pretty manipulative.
A one shot deal on a Sunday evening. Not bad, but if you didn't watch this broadcast, you will probably never get a chance to see this again. Oh well, probably as a re-run this summer.