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Reviews
The Sandman (2022)
Delightful!!!
Twisted and unique, bold and beautiful, this show dares to go where many other shows fear to tread. It's lead by an enigma of a character, the wise, powerful, and often terrible Sandman himself. Yet for all his age and knowledge, for all his wisdom and benevolence, at his core he's really just a wet emo cat. And I love it. He's so above humanity he doesn't understand emotions at all. He's so powerful, yet he wallows in self pity. He's so pathetic. I love him.
The rest of the ensemble contains characters that may only appear in 1 or 2 episodes (Lucifer, Death, Desire, Johanna Constantine, Hob Gadling, Gault, etc) yet stay in your mind for the entire show and beyond. I know the moving portrayal of Death will stay with me til the end of my days.
While recurring cast members may have more time to shine, their storylines are also more plot-based than character-based. Despite this, characters like the Corinthian and Rose Walker are absolute stars that you find yourself sympathizing with or rooting for - even if that pits them against the will of the Sandman.
At its core, this show has heart and humanity. Morpheus's character development is most entertaining to watch, and every other character grabs the spotlight and doesn't let go. It's amazing.
The Sandman: 24/7 (2022)
Amazing
This episode is one of the most gory, but also one of the most thrilling, and incredibly intense throughout. The buildup is slow but great and suspenseful, and the third act was an absolute showstopper. The acting was amazing, great performances from everyone. Highly anticipated, and delivered well!
I Was There (2022)
Good!
A bit overdramatic, but overall it goes into several very interesting spots in history, and the historical recreations are great! I especially liked the H. H. Holmes episode, and the one about the Johnstown flood. Those are two little known but absolutely riveting pieces of history!
Turning Red (2022)
Adorable movie!!!
This is an absolutely adorable, embarrassingly real story. I remember being a preteen girl once, and this is (at times painfully) true to the preteen girl experience. I giggled through the entire opening 20 mins, but by the end I was sobbing. Look guys. If you hate the movie because "it glorifies finding yourself and disobeying parents" you must just hate all Disney movies! And you're probably an overcontrolling parent that thinks you're owed every thought in your child's head and will subsequently give them parental issues for LIFE. Take a hint, will you?
For All Mankind: Bent Bird (2019)
WOW
Hands down the best episode in this season. Full of suspense, psychological depth, twists & turns, and just the right balance of satisfying resolution and cliffhanger to keep you watching - and all while being perfectly in keeping with the rest of the show.
Black Friday (2021)
Borderline plagiarism
Starkid's comedy-horror musical Black Friday from 2019 does it better, funnier, and with a good critique of consumerism and American capitalism to boot. It's on YouTube. Go watch it for free instead of wasting time and/or money on this one.
The Voyage of the Mimi (1984)
Utterly forgettable - except for the theme song.
Watched it in 6th grade science and pretty much slept or doodled through the entire thing, it was so boring. I think they got shipwrecked at one point...? The plot never made sense cause they were just trying to stuff in a bunch of how-to lessons on whales and taking a census that I didn't learn a thing from. I barely remember anything except how I liked to see what life on a ship was like and the theme song, which was an absolute banger. 4 stars for the nostalgia and the theme song.
Home Sweet Home Alone (2021)
Cute movie, but not a Home Alone one
Besides the kid being brattier and FAR more disrespectful than your typical Home Alone protagonist (and yes. More than Kevin. You heard me) and generally merely a tolerable character, this just didn't feel like a Home Alone movie.
For one, I get that the other three (we are NOT taking the fourth and fifth into account) were made in the 90s, but this one was painfully, tackily modern - from architecture and furniture to costuming and product placement. At times, the movie felt like one giant ad. I can't explain what made the product placement more prominent than a typical movie, but this one had a few scenes that were shot like ads for car companies.
Most of the jokes are great - each break-in scene had me in TEARS laughing - but there are too many quippy Disney-brand one-liners that just don't land.
You don't spend enough time with the family, not even the mother. I don't even remember who the father was because he had next to no lines and was just one of the mass of relatives Max had staying with them. The mom is genuine but has very few scenes, so you find it hard to empathize with her, which really is a problem with most of the characters throughout the movie.
However, the main problem is the antagonists, who are arguably the protagonists. Pam and - was it Jeff? I had to look it up. It was Jeff - her husband are the part that make this movie feel like it wasn't part of the franchise. I'm not talking about the actors; they played the parts as best they could, but the problem is that you empathize with them. Every home alone movie is clear-cut, black and white, good vs evil. The antagonists are villains that have no sympathetic motivations, and the kid just wants to protect himself and his home from evil people that want to hurt him for profit. That's why they work - that's why you can watch a kid giving grown adults major injuries and laughing about it, and laugh about it yourself. They "deserve" it.
Pam and Jeff do not. They just want to keep their family afloat, and they don't even intend to harm the kid - in fact, they struggle a lot with the implications of their unlawful actions! This makes watching them slip, slide, burn, and break bones simply painful. Sure, it's hilarious, but you can't get the horror of watching this happen to the protagonists out of your mind while it's happening. Because really, they are the protagonists. You spend just as much time, if not more, with them as you do with Max, and you understand and care about them much more!
The resolution is painful to watch as well - you're telling me you befriended the kid that just spent hours putting you in the hospital? You're telling me you spend Christmas together??? No. Nope.
Altogether, it's cute, but that's about it. That and the humor win it 3 stars for me, but my nephews loved it enough that I have to give it 4.
Song of the Sea (2014)
Beautiful!
Very artful. The story is cute and heartfelt, but it's the animation that makes the movie. A wonderful blend of art and movement that immerses you in a living painting and a world of magic and color. The soundtrack is gorgeous too, aided by Lisa Hannigan's vocals and the lilting flute. A beautiful, adorable movie.
Everybody's Talking About Jamie (2021)
Very good, true to the musical
Almost no plot points were cut or changed; however, several songs were. The new songs were wonderful (This Was Me will make anyone with a basic understanding of LGBTQ history - especially LGBTQ people and people who remember the AIDS crisis - cry) While I understand cutting Loco Chanel and replacing it with This Was Me to connect better emotionally with Hugo and establish a history of drag and the struggle drag queens have had throughout history, cutting Ugly In This Ugly World is a choice I don't understand (perhaps they didn't want to crowd too many songs together?). Some of the actors' voices lacked emotion or West End conviction, but their acting made up for it (although Mrs. New's performance in My Boy had the opposite problem - plenty of vocal emotion and not enough facial expressions). However, the emotion of the film is genuine and heartfelt, and overall, this is a wonderful film that is true both to the emotion and plot of the musical.
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)
Pretty good, all things considered
I waited three years to watch this because of the bad reviews. Honestly, I expected the worst, and so obviously I found it better than expected. I think that's probably the problem with the bad reviews; they expected it to be this revolutionary Disney hit, not to mention much closer to the ballet. Spoiler: it's nothing like the ballet, but this is Disney, so why would we expect it to be?
There are, of course, the cheesy lines and the Disney sap, but at the same time, I don't think it was as emotional as it could have been. It's about not only a daughter but an entire kingdom dealing with the death of a loved one - it should have included at least one tearful speech, but it didn't. However, there is no unnecessary romance, which I personally appreciated. The "not like other girls" tune isn't as bad as one would expect from your typical Girl In Victorian England Movie, and Clara never voices a word against dresses or corsets, merely saying that she's not good at that stuff. I feel as though they played up the "Clara is an engineer and a scientist" aspect and then didn't allow her to utilize her scientific smarts as she could have.
The climax of the film felt lackluster, as did a few of the performances, but overall it was good. I don't understand people criticizing Mackenzie Foy, as I felt her performance was perfectly normal. Kiera Knightley was absolutely wonderful as Sugar Plum, and Helen Mirren as Mother Ginger was great. Morgan Freeman didn't have much time to shine, but he made the most of what he got. Clara didn't fight much, or well, but why would she? She's a teenage girl in Victorian England, it's not like she's going to know jiu jitsu. Admittedly, rest of the fighting was clunky, which contributed to the anticlimactic nature of the climax.
I loved the costumes and the visuals, which very much lived up to expectations. I don't believe I was ever distracted from the film by bad CGI. The soundtrack too was amazing, repurposing the ballet's music, along with adding a little of its own flair. At times, it was very reminiscent of 2010's Alice in Wonderland and 2014's Maleficent, but I loved those soundtracks as well so I count that as a good thing.
I also liked the little details, callbacks to the ballet, such as the robotic Mother Ginger's skirt being a circus tent (in the ballet, Mother Ginger is played by a man on stilts in a VERY large skirt which acts as a tent that children run out from under). There is more ballet in this movie than I expected, and the end credits are worth the watch for it.
All in all, this was a very typical Disney movie, with good performances, great soundtrack, and amazing visuals. I really don't get the horrible reviews. Did we watch the same movie?
Band of Brothers (2001)
Incredible.
I'm not one for war movies or shows. Too often, they're just mindless pieces of media with too many explosions. This, however, is one of the most incredible shows I've ever seen. Though a few of the episodes drag at times, the length allows it to explore the human side of war; the emotions, the mentality, the bond of brotherhood, which is what I really appreciate about it. It's best (and least confusing) to watch this with a working knowledge of the military and its ranking system, but not absolutely necessary. You'll laugh, you'll be held in suspense, you'll cry. Yes, you will. These are 10 hours of your life you won't regret giving up.