mlorenzen-1 Reviews

The Continental: Brothers in Arms (2023) Season 1, Episode 1

Incontinence

[2/10 · 2 October 2023]

Intriguing for any John Wick fan, they've clearly talked into a creative world of the John Wick franchise. However, after the opening it drags. Too many characters, not enough character development. Also, has some content not congruent with the film series, but rather for the streaming television norms, which detracts.

This is one of those shows you could just have on in the background while doing something else around the house.

The series also tries too hard to be a '70s cool. Think the first Suicide Squad film (the one that stank) and it's wannabe soundtrack. It also feels like it's copying elements from other series, nothing new to see here.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

StrangeVision

[4/10 · 20 March 2023]

The title makes it sound like it'll be a great complex storytelling of a film, but sadly this comes no where near the first Doctor Strange film by Scott Derickson.

This is more a Doctor Strange movie meets WandaVision movie.

Sam Raimi is given the helm, and he includes many classic Raimi scenes ala Evil Dead, including his go-to Bruce Campbell! But the writing by Michael Waldron sucked rotten eggs big time, to make the Evil Dead world bored with this one.

So many scenes dragged, and felt like would never move forward. Character-driven elements were flat and cliched, almost "Martha" like from Batman v Superman (i.e., Doc being tempted with a universe where he's with Christine, Wanda with her kids, just wasn't believable by the characters, nor the script). Creativity lacked. With a title like "Multiverse of Madness" you'd expect many (hence the meaning of "multi-") universes, but alas, they only highlight about two and a half. Characters were quite boring and one-dimentional. There were some neat tie-ins with Fox Marvel (X-Men, Fantastic Four), but didn't really go anywhere.

Bottom line: Spider-man: No Way Home did much better with the multi-verse. Bruce Campbell was the best part of this movie!!!!

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

Hello there

[7/10 · 22 February 2023]

Great concept, entertaining, okay writing. Early episodes feel like the plot to WaterWorld. Later episodes feel like the plot to The Dark Knight Returns. Hayden Christensen gets a bad rap in the prequel films, he did what he could with what he was given, and as shown here, he can nail the part given, really plays Vader well here. There are some conflicts of plot compared to the original trilogy, but can sort of be looked over and possibly explained away. If like me you don't really care about all the other Star Wars projects Disney is putting out, this was one I welcomed and overall glad I watched.

Pinocchio (I) (2022)

Wooden

[5/10 · 11 September 2022]

Tom Hanks is great. The remaining left us wondering who the casting director(s) were and what they were thinking. Joseph Gordon-Levitt's take on Jiminy Cricket was distracting and we were not able to get used to it.

Some of the original story elements surprisingly made it through (some of the Biblical references) while others dropped off and/ or detracted (i.e., lying actually helped get something solved, Pleasure Island was not as evil as the cartoon successfully illustrated).

Overall it might be worth a watch for the latest remake, but not too watch again and again. Not one to own either, nor worth seeing in the theater-- the only cool scene might be the sea monster...

Alan Silvestri's score was really good.

Supergirl: Reality Bytes (2020) Season 5, Episode 15

The one where they copy off of Ready Player Two and...

[4/10 · 4 August 2021]

....and a PSA on Trans and where they use the word "community" in a single episode to make a new world record! They also copy off Coma at the end.

It's still funny how Nia somehow still has a secret identity when Dreamer described herself exactly like her and even has the same hair and allergies.

Stargate Origins: Catherine (2018)

Stargate Snore-igins

[3/10 · 29 July 2021]

Follows a basic Stargate pilot episode / original movie plot line, which is fine. The tie-ins to the cannon are cool. However, this drags in many places, the script has several plot holes and contradictions, the earthlings' makeup are over-the-top, acting overall subpar, and casting somewhat questionable.

Supergirl: The Bodyguard (2020) Season 5, Episode 14

Super snooze fest

[2/10 · 23 July 2021]

Yet another episode where Supergirl gets knocked backward and breaks through shattering glass, another episode where Andrea Rojas can only pronounce names in a Spanish accent, another episode where over-the-top dramatic speeches fall flat, another episode where Alex proves she isn't much of a hero without her fingerless gloves, and another episode where technology follows no rules...and yet this is supposed to be on the same earth universe as the other Arrowverse shows now where Obsidian hasn't yet been seen, but it's supposed to be so popular?...

Maverick: Benefit of the Doubt (1961) Season 4, Episode 30

No wonder Bret and Bart didn't talk much about this brother

[4/10 · 5 June 2021]

His second episode and he still tries to out manuevre someone with a gun drawn him by turning around and slowly moving.

Tired lines, tries to hard to deliver, too stoic, too much trying to be the hero.

This episode really suffers from poor writing. The main girl's beau, dead. Her sister, killed. At the end... happy as a lark!

Maverick: Last Stop: Oblivion (1961) Season 4, Episode 22

Thankfully not the Last show...

[3/10 · 14 May 2021]

This episode suffers from very poor direction. It's an odd story to start with but still could have worked with better execution. It feels like they never watched an episode of the series and just phoned it in.

Arrow: Star City 2040 (2019) Season 7, Episode 16

Great the future kids get their own episode

[1/10 · 15 January 2021]

If only it was better written, better acted, less overdramatic, less dialog circles, less who cares about these characters, less vigilantes are evil now let me be vigilante like, blah blah blah.

Bam Bam Bamford's direction is good as usual, at least, if only they gave him a better script to work.

Oh but horrible fight scene where Mia somehow loses her shoes becoming barefoot and then magically has soes again.

Arrow: Unmasked (2018) Season 7, Episode 8

Broken Arrow

[2/10 · 2 January 2021]

Like an arrow in flight, this season just keeps a downward trajectory. Episode 10, was first episode I ever reviewed in Arrowverse, but it's getting bad enough it's hard not to. Oliver is so wided eyed innocent boy this season, like he's still pre-arrow on yacht thinking everything was sunshine and no evil in the world. Future storyline is stupid and not interesting. I mean where is one-armed Oliver? If there's anything Arrowverse has taught us, it's that the future can change, so who cares about this storyline? And why do all future characters act so overly dramatic?

Arrow: My Name Is Emiko Queen (2019) Season 7, Episode 10

Cheese 🧀 Arrow

[1/10 · 2 January 2021]

It's like they thought the C Team of Supergirl was doing a good enough job to start taking lessons from this season. Just a few minutes in this episode is nearly ridiculous enough to think the Batwoman character from the Elseworlds cross-over was actually clever written and well acted (hint: not at all). 1) why all of a sudden does Emiko stop wearing her full face mask? 2) two guards walk up to a recently fired arrow and just stare at it with a blank stare instead of looking towards the direction of where it came from and/or take defensive measures 3) she's a little buff so maybe 110 lbs wet, but she couldn't crash through that thick of a window and metal frame that easy

I had heard from others the show should have stopped after season 5, but I was enjoying it too much, figured they could keep it going... season 6 was ok enough, but now... 👎