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Reviews
China: A Century of Revolution (1989)
A treasure trove of rare and unseen history
Deng Xiaoping in a cowboy hat.
A grainy video of communists caught in Shanghai in the waning days of a civil war, executed with a single bullet to the back of the head.
A son of a landowner talking about how he survived the Cultural Revolution, giving up everything he had to survive.
A mix of footage and eyewitness stories, this epic three part, six hour documentary tells an unforgettable story. This is modern Chinese history everyone from China knows all too well. Yet I know very little but the most general things about the history of China starting in 1911.
This is history you didn't learn in school, and I'm grateful for all the detail, specifically the unforgettable images. The sweep of China's history on the 20th century can be summed up in one word: tumultuous. Tragic is another word that comes to mind.
If you want to understand where China is today, you need to watch this to give your understanding of China some context.
The White Lotus (2021)
Well if this is the Golden Age of TV this is worth a watch
I don't watch much television, as my life is busy and complicated enough. But when friends recommended it my spouse and I did not have high expectations.
This show blew us away, in its excellent writing, casting, musical score, photography and most of all story. After watching Season 1 (and haven't started Season 2 yet) I can say the drug use and sex scenes seemed... a little over-done. Yet the outstanding performances, the believe-ability of the characters, their motives and their limitations, come shining through.
It took the second or third episode before I could see the genius and the story arc's starting to collide into each other. I didn't think there was enough 'there' to pull it off, but it certainly paid off in spades. The final episode of Season 1 I simply did not want to end. It was played picture perfect.
IMHO this is some of the best television I've seen in many years, it's that good.
Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America's Elections (2020)
Why is this documentary not more widely known?
For those wondering how in the world the 2020 election could simultaneously be heralded "the most secure in US history" by election officials, and called "the greatest theft in the history of America" well then "Kill Chain: The Cyber War on America's Elections" (2020) is for you.
Harri Hursti is from Finland, and to establish his credibility we take a look at the Russia / Finland border and see a few of his childhood records establishing his rock-solid security and computer expertise. The highlight of this well-produced documentary was a recent Defcon hacker's conference, where one of the machines revealed a Windows XP login accessed remotely and hacked into.
Not unexpectedly a number of parties declined to be interviewed for obvious reasons - the software is proprietary, the hardware had all kinds of ports to connect into, they travel to an eBay reseller in Ohio who has stacks of Dominion Systems machines from 2002 readily for sale, still with voting records from 2012 in them.
Is there a Venezuelan connection to Dominion? Servers in Barcelona and Frankfurt? Data on flash drives that get 'lost'? I was told there was an air gap, that these machines are not connected to the Internet. Who knows, it really doesn't matter - these voting machines are hopelessly compromised in their current state.
All you have to do is watch this and see for yourself how compromised our voting system in the United States is at present.
Still Alice (2014)
I have no idea why people liked this one so much
It's unquestionable that the subject matter, Alzheimer's, is a worthy topic, and accurately portrayed as far as it went.
But as a 'best of 2014' movie it IS NOT.
First a stereotypical Hollywood family, secondly a character (Alice) we really don't know very well until after her mental state starts to go awry, third a marriage we also don't know very well although Alec Baldwin does a decent job with the script he has. It's as if many parts are left unsaid and not communicated to the audience, and we're supposed to make up relationships and history as we go along.
Alice's strained (or not) relationships from her past just illustrated with grainy video and photos and schmaltzy music? Come on, my intelligence got insulted many times during this film, and I found myself wanting to walk out in the middle of it.
I could predict the ending, and of course the prediction came true. Was holding out hope that it would get better, that there was some redeeming fact or revelation that would redeem the first sections, but no such joy.
Alas if movies could give out refunds, I'd apply for one.
Stoker (2013)
A waste of time - terrible
My SO really likes to watch Nicole Kidman, so I dutifully watch just about every movie that comes out with her in it.
This one has to be one of the worst movies I've seen in some time.
I just did not care about any of the characters - thinking about why I thought it was so bad preoccupied me for several days afterward. The main character, a just-turned-18 year old, should have been positioned as a 'coming of age' kind of story. But she was (and is) a mystery. I was always trying to guess what she is like - even after the ending with its twists and turns, I still have no idea.
And then there's the disturbing parts which the only way I can reconcile it is to think that it is her 'awakening'. But I can't believe there are people who actually think this is 'art'. And very disappointed in such a high rating of almost 7 - do people really think this stuff is worthwhile to watch? Are you kidding me? Here's to hoping my small contribution brings down the overall rating to the mid-5's where it belongs.