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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
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This was - in almost every aspect - a terrible movie. Despite the All-Star cast.
But, that said - a little bit ahead of the curve in the prescient foreshadowing of what's now come to pass, from the wet-markets, social distancing, bad actors (definitely not enough of those!!!) reactions, etc.
Where it fails is in the imagined response of the US reacting to the threat. Because nobody could have imagined the Trump. Or - wait - maybe somebody did...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 1095
Finished Season 2. This is the bleakest fucking show ever. No kidding. There is no light whatsoever.
Still a little thick on the stereotypes, one imagines casting: "Skid #47 ...", "redneck #3", "preacher hillbilly #248", "Wal-Mart Clerk #12", "crazy-ass-chick #4", "Mexican Killer #22", "Dumb-ass #11", "Freaky Guy #2", "impulsive sociopath #2", "come-back-as-a-ghost #1", "junkie", film literate in the worst of all ways, still, I'm sucking it all up, the real world looks cheery by comparison, even right now. It manages to trivialize the Quarantine, can't imagine things getting worse? Immerse yourself in this, here it is...
Overall, too many despicable people doing despicable things, the taint of drug money permeating every layer of society, the characters, every one of them too wrapped up in self-interest to effectively give a damn about anyone else, Bleak lives, bleak furniture, the American nightmare, and this was before the virus...
The plotting, a little transparent, the game is afoot, did she poison his tea, will it take effect before he can stab her? The plot reveals itself before ... but - "cyanide in your coffee from ground up cherry pits..."....Yeah. No. Maybe the foreshadowing is too effectual, or - ? WTF? And Darlene? Who hasn't dated Darlene, or some version thereof?
The Plot Twists are never that twisted, or they are, but the too frequent twists become anticipated, ...
It's no "Breaking Bad", by which I mean Vince Gilligan was a genius, and wrote the show on a number of levels, this, a similar message, - populist, now, even, to the point where every time a character "bites it" you're like "Finally!!!", and never, ever like a character as that's an sign they'll soon be dead, each smallest speck of decency is too quickly extinguished, even the forces of "good" are unilaterally bad, "Agent Petty", the name says it all...
2 seasons, I don't think I can do another. Kudo's though to Jason Bateman for producing/directing it.
In the end it could be a tale of redemption, but I doubt it, I'm cutting my losses.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 760
Killing time indoors watching "Ozark" with Jason Bateman. Not nearly at the same level as "Breaking Bad", filled with the worst of stereotypes, weak dialogue, (although at moments funny: "Stripping might be every girls dream..."), obligatory inclusions of minorities, but - trapped indoors in foul weather, will finish the season and see how it progresses. Funny, Jason Bateman is always the same character - Michael in "Arrested Development" is no different than his role as Chief Technical Officer in "Office Christmas Party" and this.
***
And so I finished Season 1. The writing and character development got a lot better. The "Hillbilly" couple - Ma and Pa Heroin dealers, and their "staff" party - made me laugh - been to a few of those, they were pretty spot on for Valley folk, although I've never dealt with them on other than social terms. Maybe I'll watch season 2, but, really, it would be a lot wiser to find something a little more cheerful to watch.
***
It becomes increasingly apparent how long I've lived here and how blind I've been...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 715
This was an interesting watch. Brutal, dark secrets that everyone both conceals and knows, the desire to hurt and be hurt, betrayals, taboos, for a bit you might suspect it's satire, but it's not - if you're paying attention. Like - "The Office", by which I refer to the original - was satire only if you had never worked in an office.
I was intrigued by it, a little bit baffled, certainly Verhoeven's richest work that I've seen, driven more by the people and circumstance, less "2-D" and richer characters than his other films.
It reminded me how much I like, how I need to watch more European cinema.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Film
- Hits: 709
Been meaning to watch this for a while - missed it when it first came out - largely because of lousy reviews, but it actually deserved better.
How to describe it? Stupidly good looking, blue-eyed Aryans travelling to the ends of the galaxy to stomp out bugs. The sets, effects, bugs, spaceships, costumes, all first rate. The dialogue and plot is stilted and 2 dimensional, but is intended to be that way - it's a satire, after all -- and if you understand that you'll be laughing all the way through - at the call for a medic, at the good-natured butt-slapping in the Co-Ed showers, at the pun "Roger Young" - look for it, the complete unaffected aspect of the troops when roaming through wastelands of carnage and bodies, at the 1-limbed infantryman who welcomes Johnny Rico to the infantry with a "One day you'll be just like me", at the ever-younger recruits, at the eagerness to die for "the species", the suspiciously prescient propaganda of the state "Would you like to know more...?".
Not a great movie, but a very good one, and certainly well ahead of it's time.
Other films by Paul Verhoeven include Robocop and Total Recall.