jaymcr Reviews

Stargate Universe (2009–2011)

Wow but real shame

[9/10 · 23 May 2023]

Vastly underrated and much more serious than all the previous Stargates but be warned.

This show has a cliffhanger at the end of S2 that will really annoy you because it's never addressed as S3 was cancelled due to lower ratings and viewership than the previous Stargates.

Still worth a watch but keep that in mind as absolutely nothing is resolved.

Real shame because the plot was great, the characters were relatable and grow on the viewer but the lack of resolve is a real shame.

So annoying when clueless execs at the top of these shows don't realise that sometimes you just have to let things run and resolve themselves rather than just dropping because of a bad period.

So many shows have fallen foul to TV execs.

Tetris (2023)

Great film. Forgive the Wests view of Soviet Union.

[9/10 · 1 April 2023]

Hollywood really milked the "decadent Soviet" angle using drab, drained of colour camera shots of Russia in the 80s but the story is a good one.

In all honestly you can't expect the West to ever do a movie about Russia or the Soviet Union without massively demoting it so take it as it is.

Even shows Maxwell on the downward spiral with his £5bn debt he tried to cover by stealing £900m of the workers Pension fund. 🤣

It's a good balancer because it shows whichever model society operates under there is always going to be shady business dealings and corrupt humans.

Interesting line is "Communism failed because of Human Greed" and in truth all models succumb to the same flaws but some last longer than others.

Wishmaster 2: Evil Never Dies (1999 Video)

So many glaring errors in this one

[4/10 · 2 June 2022]

Let's take the very first wish. Guy wishes he's never been born.

That should've been the end of the movie as the heist would never have happened and the statue wouldn't have been broken but instead we see a pointless reversion to a foetus.

Then the next wish is not even a wish as a cop tells the wishmaster to freeze with a single word "freeze" to which the wishmaster responds "did you say freeze?". Cop says "yes" and wishmaster says done then the cop freezes on the spot.

Then the third wish of the guy saying he wants to walk through the bars and walk out of the jail. What happens? He gets forced through the bars and collapses in a heap on the floor so where's the part walking out of the jail?

That's just 3 wishes one after the other and the only one where someone started with "I wish" was the robber who wished he wasn't born.

While this one is more entertaining as the Wishmaster is now in prison so getting people to sell their souls is a lot easier, it's just all over the place. The only real entertainment is when the convict wishes his Lawyer "would go F himself" lol.

It's like they just run out of ideas after the first one. As an example remember when the Auction House owner was willing to give up the address of one of his employees for a million dollars and to get it his Mother is killed in a Plane Crash meaning he gets the life insurance?

See that was clever. This is just too direct and none of it ever seems believable. This sequel was just lazy writing.

The Pentaverate (2022)

Mike Myers does it again

[9/10 · 8 May 2022]

You'd think in 2022 and with Comedy become a very dangerous minefield Comedy would no longer be funny.

Mike Myers has proved that comedy can still be funny and the opening scene is great with the Helicopter as I'm guessing many thought from the cover shown on Netflix this would be set in the Medieval era.

It isn't but you keep expecting something like time travel to come into play.

As a truther I expected to be taken for a ride making a joke out of everything learned over the last 7 years and yes it does address and ridicule many but it does it in a really funny way.

The part with the 5 dollar bill was funny because anyone who took time to research would be expecting that to be a totally different result.

With it being a mini series we may not see a Season 2 however there was a hint there may be. Either way it started and ended with a conclusion so whether there is or isn't a Season 2 you won't be left hanging waiting for it.

Great attempt by the International Man of Mystery. Keep the ideas coming Mr Myers.

My Dinner with Andre (1981)

Just look at New York in 2022

[8/10 · 6 May 2022]

In My Dinner with Andre a scene that has over the years gone viral is when they are discussing New York and how it's citizens were basically in the process of unknowingly constructing their own open air prison.

This was made in 1981 just as Orwells 1984 was released in 1953 (the Book) but they were both predicting the direction the West would take and both were way ahead of their time.

It may sound boring with it being a movie described as two men talking in a restaurant for 2 hours but give it a go and you'll see what you learn from this is far more entertaining and valuable than most of the stuff you see on TV today?

Why? Because it's relatable. You listen and you understand. You may not agree or you probably didn't in 1981 but in 2022 it does look like this movie was meant as a warning as NYC is almost totally overrun with greed, poverty, disease, etc and the logical next step would be to imprison those who remain.

Sounds crazy right? Well it would sound crazy a few years ago but only recently the world learned both Australia and Canada are not allowing people to leave the country via public transport.

So yeah its a long film and a lot is said but give it a go. You may actually learn something that you refused to see even though it was right in front of you the whole time.

Reaper (2007–2009)

Another classic bites the dust

[7/10 · 6 March 2022]

Terrible finale. Honestly if they were planning to cancel the show why didn't they just get Sam to beat the Devil with the competition rather than lose and have absolutely no closure?

Worst people in the world are TV Network Execs and they might as well be working for Hell. How they make their decisions feels like they are punishing the audience intentionally rather than providing entertainment.

Don't forget if you watch this all the way to the end then just imagine the opposite of what happens in the end and there's your closure.

The Matrix Resurrections (I) (2021)

This really didn't need to be made

[1/10 · 29 December 2021]

Hollywood will go bankrupt at this rate but it's their own fault. They seem to have completely insulated themselves from the outside world and become those elites you see in the movie Zardoz where they believe they know what people want without asking them.

That's what this movie is. Why was the only one of the agents in the whole film Black? I am aware of who that agent was supposed to be but among a sea of white agents faces it feels more like a token gesture and virtue signal than a plot point.

There were really only 4 main characters in the Matrix that stuck throughout the Trilogy and they replaced all of them except Trinity and Neo. Then they turned the whole concept into a videogame for most of the movie lol.

Also very disappointing to see that despite Reeves gun and fighting skills not once is he required to even use them!

Only one of the Watchowski sisters wrote this. You can see where the talent was.

So when Hollywood drown in their own self-egotism and virtue signalling maybe we'll see better movies. Until then it's only downhill from here.

Columbo: Sex and the Married Detective (1989) Season 8, Episode 3

No more music!

[6/10 · 17 August 2021]

It was a good plot. Good setup. Good conclusion.

That music on the other hand was used way too much and by the time the episode reached the conclusion you were totally sick of it.

Seriously is that the only music they had? No variation considering the episode was a good 90 minutes long?

The Premise that therapists themselves are insecure is pretty accurate. They operate on ego but have the same problems as everyone else as well as the same drives.

Columbo: Murder with Too Many Notes (2001) Season 10, Episode 13

One of the more nonsensical episodes

[4/10 · 16 August 2021]

The actors are fine including Billy Connelly and the idea was sound but the conclusion made no sense.

I don't even know which part of the evidence was conclusive enough for the killer to give up and confess. That's how obtuse it was.

Also was the very slow drive to his Bel Air home just filler considering we already know Columbo is quite a reckless driver evidenced by the state of his car and the episode with the overly nervous driving instructor.

So yeah not one of his best and probably ranks in terms of timewasting to a nonsensical conclusion up with that episode with the boat captain where Columbo spent a good 5 minutes messing with boat lettering on a dock.

F9: The Fast Saga (2021)

Low expectations?

[2/10 · 27 June 2021]

Well you need to go much lower than that. You literally need to turn off your brain to get this because you won't enjoy anything if you are trying to figure it out.

Think James Bond but with absolute zero logic and even defying the law of physics despite physics being quite important here.

How Fast & Furious went from the first one to this is a testament to just how braindead you have to be and more to the point how Hollywood thinks about it's viewers to give them this mindless nonsensical trash.

Any Spoilers? What is there to spoil? The Plot? What plot?

Two stars is generous at this stage.

The Orville (2017–2022)

This is more Star Trek style TV than even Star Trek in 2020!

[8/10 · 17 February 2020]

And i'm not sure why that puzzles me but it seems the actual Star Trek franchise has been taken over by directors and writers who wish to take it to a very dark place.

The release of Star Trek: Picard sadly confirmed that with the introduction of profanity and for the first time in a Star Trek show the M for Mature rating so it's good to see The Orville keeping the tradition of Star Trek while even managing to create its own universe and characters.

The Orville has proved that the Star Trek serialized format is still a popular one with the viewers and I hope the creators can keep it going. Fantastic show that addressed many of todays insane ideals (gender pronouns, sex change, etc) while maintaining the comedy. Genius.

If this is your thing then check out the British comedy that was missed by many called Hyperdrive.

Star Trek: Picard (2020–2023)

Not even close

[2/10 · 14 February 2020]

Based off TNG seriously? I'm guessing those who made this tripe never really watched all 7 seasons of TNG because there is nothing vaguely familiar between this and TNG. And since when do Androids age and put on weight? That opening scene was terrible and 4 episodes in very little has happened. I remember when each Episode of TNG had a reason and a moral lesson but now it seems they are trying to turn it into a long and drawn out feature film. It just doesn't work. Face it, when Gene died so did any semblance of the Star Trek we know and loved.

This is so painful to watch. If you are new to Star Trek try watching The Next Generation first then watch this. It's an insult to Star Trek to credit this as based on TNG because it just isn't.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum (2019)

This film has one saving grace

[4/10 · 21 October 2019]

And that is it ends.

Is Hollywood just run by adolescent schoolchildren these days?

The interesting thing about John Wick was the whole secret society angle and the rules of the game but this movie threw all of that out window which resulted in a 2 hour film with three quarters of it the same repetitive fight scenes with props placed just so John and his faceless waves of attackers could be thrown through them.

What happened to the plot? What amazes me is this film is actually showing a near 8 out of 10! Does story no longer matter these days as long as our protagonist turned bullet sponge killing machine is always in a fight scene at least once every 5-10 minutes?

So yeah the first one was good, the second was not so good and the third is worse than the second and they left it open for a Chapter 4? Maybe they will listen to real critics and make an effort on the story this time but the way the movie industry is going it doesn't seem too likely. These people live their whole lives with their head up their own arses and criticism will just be construed as "hating" just as it was with Ghostbusters 2016.

Does this review contain spoilers? What's to spoil?

Midsommar (2019)

Would the world be any worse off if this movie was never made?

[2/10 · 12 October 2019]

Seriously this is the question I am asking at the end of what appeared to be the promotion of Pagan ritualistic Satanist Sun worship to Mainstream Society.

Take the beginning sequence for example. What purpose did it serve for her sister to do that to her Parents and herself when it had absolutely no bearing on the plot as a whole? There was no reason given for it even happening.

The entire plot can be summed up here. Swedish guy is part of a cult and invites his friends in America to what he calls a Festival that is only celebrated once every 90 years (strange re-occurrence of the number 9 in this movie from the 18-36 both equal 9 in numerology, 36-54 again 9 and to the death at 72 again 9) when we know by now the real purpose of inviting his "friends" was to sacrifice them to the Pagan Sun God Horgus (not far from the real practices ritual sacrifice to the Sun God Horus).

So he invites them and one by one they go missing or are killed for breaking the rules. Then they get the main character into a competition perhaps purposely allowing her to win to distract her while her boyfriend is being bewitched by the love spell and forced to have sex with a girl while a load of other girls/women watch and repeat the grunts and groans.

Then the main character returns only to hear this going on and sees her boyfriend getting busy in the temple which makes her pick him for the sacrifice at the end? Why? Is she that twisted that she would happily see someone she was way too hooked on burn in a pyramid shaped barn along with 8 other sacrificial offerings? But just burning was not enough apparently because they had to gut a bear and get him to wear it as a animal costume!

And the worst thing of all? People actually follow this Pagan worship of the Sun God religion! No doubt when you saw it you were thinking the same thing as probably 99% of the audience. That this community were absolutely bonkers.

You'll have some people saying this is a masterpiece. Make your own minds up but to me this was absolute trash with a plot line that seemed to only exist in order to make this into a mainstream movie.

A Little Late with Lilly Singh (2019–2021)

Have we devolved as a species?

[1/10 · 2 October 2019]

Is this comedy in 2019? That's my only question after seeing this.

The Twilight Zone: Nightmare at 30,000 Feet (2019) Season 1, Episode 2

Who is rating this stuff?

[3/10 · 12 April 2019]

7/10? Seriously?

I don't know where to start with this one so i'm not going to start at all. I just ask people watching this to go and watch the original episode and compare.

The Twilight Zone (2019–2020)

And this is why you should never remake a classic

[1/10 · 12 April 2019]

Too much Politically Correct BS has happened since the last iteration of The Twilight Zone. As a result the narrator is now Black and the subject matter relates to racism or guilt tripping which totally misses the point on all counts.

Weak to even think you could bring this back. Even weaker to think you needed to.

What happens when the facile and totally lacking in innovation industry loses its touch? This is what you get.

Stick with Black Mirror because they know what they are doing.

Hyperdrive (2006–2007)

Stop comparing this to Red Dwarf!

[7/10 · 16 January 2019]

If anything this show relates more to the Mighty Boosh form of comedy and the only thing it really has in common with Red Dwarf is that it was set in Space!

The Gags are very different and that show had a laugh track to help the less able to understand a joke. Try watching Red Dwarf without the laugh track (the Tikka to Ride episode on Netflix has no laugh track as it was originally pulled from airing due to the content of the show and the timing) and strangely enough you won't find yourself laughing as the jokes come in.

Hyperdrive did not have the luxury of the laugh track (to it's credit) so it relied on the general public to recognise something funny which clearly did not work for many.

There are some funny moments in this especially the British Hyperdrive version of Star Treks Holodeck which seems really cheap but that's the gag. When Henderson takes a walk through a forest using a treadmill then asks for realistic terrain and gets leaves, fag packets, dog waste and condoms! Then when he is finished with his magical journey through a British Heritage Forest he has to clean up the terrain afterwards!

Give it a chance but don't go in expecting anything close to Red Dwarf because this is more like Mighty Boosh in space with wacky aliens and ridiculous plots.

"Watch me disintegrate his body with my doom ray.......in under 3 days! Keep still!"

Gotti (2018)

Kudos MoviePass

[1/10 · 20 June 2018]

Just like your last terrible addition to the movie world you went ahead and decided to artificially inflate the ratings on this as well. Will it work? Only time and possibly the competence of RottenTomatoes will tell ;)

As for IMDB well considering how badly RT works i suspect they will always remain the preferred ratings site for TV shows and Movies with the added bonus their script is not as bug ridden as RT.

Whats interesting and probably a first time i have seen this is that not a single critic liked this movie giving it a dismal 0% whereas the user reviews push into the 70% approval rating. Genuine? Most likely not considering Critics usually say anything good about any movie just for the incentives.

Yet none of them said anything good about this movie. Hmmm

The Brotherhood of the Bell (1970 TV Movie)

A film still as relevant today as it was then!

[10/10 · 14 June 2018]

Brotherhood of the Bell was a movie that i must have missed on my list of things to watch and i am glad i finally got to see it.

Replace Bell with Skull & Bones and you have a pretty good telling of a how a secret society works where you enjoy material wealth in return for selling out your values and ethics.

Of course this being made in the 70s it doesn't really go into the reasons why 'blowing the whistle' is expressly forbidden and met with the complete destruction of your fabricated life within society (lets just say initiation is not pretty and involves some pretty disgusting things used for leverage) but it does address the feeling of hollow emptiness when finding out everything you thought you and your family worked for was simply given to you including your wife!

The problem with this member was he had lived the care free life for 30 years and when actually asked to repay his good fortune by following the orders of the Brotherhood he suddenly develops a conscience after forcing one of his best friends to commit suicide brought on by his actions.

When he tries to go public he is initially lied to by his closest family members and then ridiculed by mainstream media who push out theories of a Jewish or White or Religious privilege conspiracy. Pretty much what you see today when those stories make the mainstream news. The host in particular is exceptionally slimy pandering to his masters in pushing the mad man line. Again just like James Clapper and Anderson Cooper (CNN sucks right? lol) who will say anything for the material gain.

A simple look at how America is controlled and a real message to those who decide to leave the Brotherhood of the Bell.

The ending i thought was a little abrupt but the message was clear. As the Brotherhood only initiates one person each year with the previous one their shall we say Sponsor, Glen Ford and his new initiate broke the chain of continuity by both leaving the Brotherhood. So yes quick to end and probably not that easy in either Freemasons or Skull & Bones as they have international influence but you get the idea. This was after all a TV Movie with a petty budget but they did well depicting the life of living a lie knowing everything you have can be taken away in the blink of an eye.

Real freedom? Sometimes i think the uninitiated are the ones who get more freedom than the members! What kind of a life is it to have everything given to you from the shadows?

I have read many comments from other viewers who are actually cursing because they haven't been picked to do the bidding of controllers. Perhaps they missed the moral message in the film ?

Forget horror films. If this film doesn't scare you with a look at how the entire planets Political, Industrial, Financial, Social and Economic Structure is run then you may as well go back to your indoctrination with shows like Supernatural :P

A Quiet Place (2018)

The only almost all silent movie that gave me a headache!

[7/10 · 15 April 2018]

Not to say the movie or even the concept was bad but in a two hour movie where there is very little vocal dialogue the parts where there is are so loud it literally feels like someone is whacking your head with a hammer every 25 minutes.

It's a good attempt from Comedy actor turned Director and the idea is clever and even executed well but you will come out with a pounding headache afterwards so be ready for that if you plan to watch this in a Cinema with huge bass speakers!

It looks like this might be seeing a sequel considering how it ended so let's wait and see if the headache thing wasn't just a coincidence and the product of a stressful day.

Dunkirk (2017)

Its official. Movies are no longer about telling a story.

[1/10 · 22 July 2017]

I am sure that the critics that write the reviews are paid shills because anyone who considers that movie to be a masterpiece has either never seen a war movie or is just taking money to lie to the public.

Dunkirk was more spectacular than 7 or so boats, 3 planes and less than 300 men in a line on a beach.

And whose idea was it to pay Tom Hardy a ridiculous sum of the budget to once again hide his face and never actually do what he is paid to do which last I checked was acting? It's obvious he was used in this movie to give it some credibility just like they did with the Mad Max debacle where he spent 3 quarters of the movie with a face covering on preventing him from speaking.

The noise was awful and apparently some of that noise was considered to be music! Dull bass throbbing in every scene.

Story? Lets not even go there. I can sum up the Story in one paragraph although you cannot really consider it a spoiler because there's nothing in this to spoil.

"Trapped on a beach awaiting rescue but the ships keep getting destroyed by dive bombers with only 3 planes to protect those ships. Ends with Hardy finally revealing his face when he is captured after landing his plane which has run out of fuel."

That's it. Everything else in between is just noise.

To the people who consider themselves to be critics I say this: If you want the movie industry to become like the gaming industry where the main goal is most profit in shortest time regardless of the content then keep spouting the BS otherwise you need to start telling the truth for once.

Two hours of noise and it cost them $100 million to make? It's obvious where that money went because these so called movie creators couldn't even be bothered to use CGI to expand the number of men, ships and planes to really set the scene.

There was nothing in this movie and Tom Hardy was thick or corrupt enough to be used as the marketing tool.

Don't waste your money.

Kill Kane (2016)

Poor Vinne what have you got yourself into?

[1/10 · 26 January 2016]

I could sum up this story in a few short sentences.

Guy witnesses a gang member being shot so gang go after him and kill his wife and kids and he goes after them one by one until he gets to the big boss. The End.

So many plot holes in this its unreal. How did he just happen to get the names and locations of everyone involved and turn up at their front door, car and club and just kill them?

Was it intentional to make the big boss out to be a derivative of a cross between Tony Blair and David Cameron?

Seriously I should've checked the IMDb reviews before subjecting myself to this drivel but was looking more for a solid story with Vinnie at the head of it all with some originality.

Gone are the days of Lock Stock and Midnight Meat Train. Welcome to the world of spend a budget because its there and to hell with the result.

Dumb and Dumber To (2014)

Why?

[1/10 · 28 December 2014]

OK i've been reading the negative and positive reviews (not so many positive) and have to ask: Why was Bill Murray even in this film? You never get to see his face and in the whole film he has 1 line.

But let's get onto the film itself:

Dumb & Dumber is one of the classics i loved during my childhood years so you can understand how excited i was to learn there was going to be a sequel but boy was i disappointed...

The only remotely funny part of this film was when Lloyd was playing with the dog and even that lasted all of 5 seconds.

Also, when is it funny to make a joke about 2 parents who lost their son through a biking accident?

Jeff Daniels acts more like an elderly gentleman with downs-syndrome and Jim Carrey seems to have taken all of the being-stupid-without- knowing-it acting of Lloyd and turned it into sadistic and evil.

Both of which do not bode well for a supposed comedy.

Well done America. Instead of actually putting some effort into a pair of misfits that have stood the test of time you just completely destroyed them and made Bill Murray out to be a desperate man who will take anything he gets these days.

Bravo.

Don't waste your money on this unless you want to destroy a pleasant memory of a classic.

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

What were the noted actors thinking?

[2/10 · 8 June 2014]

I started watching this film with high expectations after all the trailer did show some noteworthy actors but within 15 minutes it became clear that these cameos were only provided to offer a false perception of a movie.

I mean why did they cast Bill Murray or Jeff Goldblum if their only screen time lasted less than 5 minutes each?

The plot started off as interesting but loses its way about a third of the way through the movie then the rest is really bad cgi effects (the ski scene was notably bad in particular).

And why did it need to be a flashback story? Was the appearance of Jude Law really needed to tell that story? You would think for a title including the hotels name there would be a real story behind the Hotel itself but alas no, just the previous lobby boy and his protégé who is accused of murder and has to clear his name.

It seems to me that the story was thrown together after the budget was spent on the special effects and pointless high-end actors that had little to no connection with the actual film.

What surprises me the most is that IMDb gave it over 8 out of 10? What were you thinking?

The only reason i continued to the end was Ralph Fiennes excellent acting otherwise without his it would be just 120+ minutes of bad cgi and pretty scenery.