YRLY59E Reviews

White Hot: The Rise & Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch (2022)

Documentary that targets one company for stuff that happens everywhere

[3/10 · 29 April 2022]

Top down this is just a lesson in demographic marketing that exists even if it is offensive, being woke and pressing on one company doesn't make a movie about it, and it isn't really even the rise and fall it is mostly rise and wokeness. Right? Wrong? Doesn't matter it happens because it's all about the corporate bottom dollar. I mean this stuff happens to ANY demographically targeted brand. Should we pick Against All Odds and their urban targeted clothing? Should we pick Sears for targeting men with Craftsman because there was no Craftswoman? Pac Sun? Ron Jon? Is an upscale store considered to be forcing out the poors? Someone will always be offended. Supposedly non discriminatory hiring won't help. A white wino and a well dressed black guy walk into a suit store applying for a job the black guy would get hired. A preppy computer nerd doesn't usually turn up at a Cabela's gun counter. Is it necessarily legal? No. But it's not an exclusive Abercrombie & Fitch issue and didn't need a movie. It's not even the reason brands like A&F fall, people move to new brands because it gets old.

Damaged Goods (1937)

Along the lines of Reefer Madness

[5/10 · 21 February 2022]

Well hardly anyone has really reviewed this. It's a campy exploitation film like Reefer Madness except about Syphilis. Unlike today where it's easily treated though the movie goes out of the way to scourge and scorn the hapless victims. The acting isn't bad but the over the top presentation of the material makes it almost laughable. As if they were lepers the victims are nearly immediately outcast by society. It probably was over the top for its era much like those anti smoking and vaping ads they air today. It's moderately better than Damaged Lives which follows similar precedent (and you can ignore all the smoking and drinking in that one because that's fine in 1933, but Syphilis not so much). I am not sure what one gains by watching this, it's an interesting period piece if you're a fan of stuff like this. I found it more comedic than dramatic. In reality that's what it is, essentially an hour long public service ad. If you substitute opioids, vaping, steroids, alcohol, gambling etc and you essentially would have modern topics you could expound the ads of to achieve this result.

Archive 81 (2022)

I liked this and it's well filmed

[7/10 · 30 January 2022]

I liked this and it's well filmed with great atmosphere. I'd probably rate it even higher than 7 except the actor that plays Dan couple be the literal doppelgänger for one of my best friends and his deeper voice it drew me out of the show more than a few times. Nothing bad on him he did a great job it's just kind of disconcerting to see a guy that looks eerily similar to one of your best friends in a show, he even worse wore the same type of clothes. I get the same weird vibe when watching stuff with Alicia Silverstone who looks quite a lot like my sister.

On My Block (2018–2021)

Enjoyable worth a watch

[8/10 · 5 January 2022]

Kinda reminds me of Degrassi in some ways. Basically the story of a few teenagers coming of age in a less than stellar (but not really terrible) suburb. It's a little cheesy at times and the sub plots sometimes are a tad silly but it's not bad, plays a kind of halfway between drama and comedy. I flipped it on one night when I was bored and watched it over a few weeks on days my wife called it an early night. The nearly straight 30 min run time seems good for it. I enjoyed it and I'm not really even remotely close to the target audience for this either (rural area upper middle class white guy). If you've got some time to kill even if you're not the target audience give it a try it's not bad.

Fantasy Island (1977–1984)

Now Streaming in Glorious HD

[8/10 · 31 December 2021]

In my final two years of high school one of the local broadcast broadcast station was re-airing various 70s shows at 6AM, they'd run every episode back to back over the course of a few weeks then switch to another. One of them was Fantasy Island. While I never caught every episode of those runs I caught a few. The fantasies of the guests could border on ridiculous, petty, strange etc. Mr. Roarke, the ever mysterious proprietor would fulfill their wishes with his trusty employee Tattoo. To them it was the business and they'd often share some humorous exchanges. Sometimes there'd be a twist or lesson for the guest, sometimes a happy ending. Many stars cameo in guest roles on the show. Recently the series has popped up on streaming with almost every episode in 16x9 Widescreen HD and gone are the scratchy old syndication copies replaced with crisp almost Technicolor prints dripping with color that almost makes things seem all most like a fantasy captured in time. Not the greatest show ever produced but an odd endearing quality about it which no doubt spurned the reboots.

The Great and Terrible Day of the Lord (2020)

Interesting enough

[6/10 · 28 December 2021]

Interesting psychological movie that draws a persons faith into question and the potential ramifications of their beliefs. It executes what it does quite well. My biggest gripe is it's easily 30 minutes too long. After a certain point enough of the premise is set that it becomes somewhat repetitive in what it's trying to explain (something I can't get into without spoiling the plot too much). I consider it worth a watch, I just wish they'd have tightened it up in terms of length.

The Ice Road (2021)

Your typical Liam Neeson action/thriller enjoyable but don't look deep

[7/10 · 24 December 2021]

Let's be real here. These later career Liam Neeson action movies are all schlock. The plots are laughably unbelievable for most of them. But like the Jason Statham ones where you can give them a one word title like "Boom!" they have a certain element of enjoyment. That is what this is. Don't look deep sit back and just watch it. Do that and it comes out OK. This one seems a bit more plausible than Cold Pursuit and the scenery is nicer so I will give it a 7. The biggest drawback is the CGI is awful, its like early 90s bad. In HDR 4K it stands out against the crisp landscapes.

Being the Ricardos (2021)

Not a lot gained here and not the best casting

[5/10 · 21 December 2021]

Lucy fans won't gain much here it's mostly stuff you already know. The casting is iffy. Nicole Kidman kind of can pass off a huskier voice like Lucy and despite being older than Lucy was during the timeframe covered looks about the right age, but she's too thin and seems to lack the moxie. Javier Bardem is too old a cast for the role of Desi because Desi was younger than Lucy. He doesn't seem as exuberant, more like he's trying to play a suave charmer. But again any Lucy fan doesn't gain much here this leaves the plot pretty bland because nothing is really extrapolated upon, more so it's compressed to fit the movie. I mean it's Ok to watch but that's about all.

Christmas Thieves (2021)

Live action with animated sequences

[6/10 · 10 December 2021]

Tom Arnold and Michael Madsen play two neighborhood thieves who get mistaken for babysitters. The theives end up babysitting and reading stories to the kids which are played out in animated sequences. I think the animated characters or sequences are taken from another film but their actions are told and narrated by Arnold, the Kids and to a lesser extend Madsen (Madsen's character instead provides the bulk of the live action comedy relief during the story sequence cuts).

It's not awful. It's not great. For the most part just a typical holiday movie more geared to kids. Tom Arnold is too soft feeling in family movies to really come across as a convincing thief. Madsen is so laughably sleazy looking in a "Santa's Helper" costume I can't help but laugh seeing it.

Family Matters (1989–1998)

It gets worse as it goes on (but I still like it to a degree)

[6/10 · 29 November 2021]

This show got way worse as it went on. It isn't that Steve even ruined the show. The plots just became absolutely ridiculous and in later seasons 95% of the plots stuck essentially to Steve trying to get Laura, Steve and Carl involved in something and Steve messing it up or some combo of those two. Steve and Carl would basically trade the same back and forth types of cliched lines and that was that. It's largely harmless fun but those later seasons get repetitive and ridiculous at times. I think Jaleel White was worried about Steve as a type cast but it's really Reginald VelJohnson I absolutely cannot see and immediately think Carl.

The Zeme (2021)

It's OK

[4/10 · 19 November 2021]

Nice filming location in BC, acting seems bad because they dubbed the dialog or badly mixed it due to cost cutting. The story is largely a cross between Stephen King's The Shining and Bentley Little's The Vanishing. The musical track is interesting and good at times and bad at others. A little more effort it would have been better, too much budget cutting.

Acapulco (2021– )

Solid but not perfect

[8/10 · 6 November 2021]

Don't get the negativity. If it's too "woke" it's bad. If it's too "simple" it's bad. If it's too "deep" it's bad. What's wrong with a light hearted simple comedy like this these days? Nothing.

This is just a rehash of an old stereotypical story of a Mexican guy becoming rich, except that's kind the point, the comedy is supposed to come from this because parts of it are silly as older Maximo tries to tell the story of how he got to be rich while kind of embellishing the story (which takes place in the 80s in a resort in Acapulco) and telling it to a young kid. Light hearted simple stuff. Pretty solid if that's what you're after and nicely filmed.

I think what the real problem is Apple doesn't market these shows well. The trailers give no real sense of what it is, who it's for, or even do a good job of making the show attractive to any audience let alone it's target.

Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021)

Moderately more entertaining than some of the others in the series

[6/10 · 29 October 2021]

I mean it's not bad, it creates a good found footage atmosphere a few elements are just a bit too cheesy and some of the shots detract from the ambiance. Maybe 15 min less chopping some of the cheesiest parts and a few of the camera cuts would have made this a really decent movie. As it stands it's kinda long. It's still entertaining enough and just creepy enough to make a good watch for the Halloween weekend.

Dopesick (2021)

Extremely well acted and produced but flawed message

[8/10 · 28 October 2021]

The acting in this is great. Michael Keaton, Will Poulter, and Kaitlyn Denver really nail this. It looks fantastic as it's filmed. The story is interesting and I'd give it 10 stars. I do think though it really tries too much to demonize opioids. While Purdue did have its part in this opioids do have a place and really are under prescribed. The issue was about education and screening. Failure to screen out addicts and educate those prescribed were large contributors to the opioid issues. The story in a show like this is more the agenda of opioids bad, big pharma bad, people poor and helpless and that's not the case. Good for entertainment if you don't look it as the gospel.

Mr. Corman (2021)

Opinions on this show will vary

[6/10 · 17 September 2021]

This show is interesting on a few levels. First off it's not intended to be funny, however it is at least to me.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a 30ish (I don't recall if he says is age) teacher with anxiety and depression. This isn't the funny part. The intended part of the show is that. It's ok for what it is. It's pretty watchable and Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a great job in playing this role.

So what is funny then. Well Joseph Gordon-Levitt is my age. My stepson is 20 years younger and I watched this with him. We concluded that this is my generation's interpretation of how someone of that age group is, my stepson who's also about 10 years removed agrees. This is the generation between the two of us. We both found it hilarious.

The interpretation we came up with is as follows:

Say a light bulb dies in your apartment.

My generation would complain about doing it (40 at the time of this review)

My stepson's generation (21) may not know how to do this but would Google it and figure it out, probably procrastinating though for some time.

This generation (30 ish) would see the lightbulb was dead, cry and sulk on the couch for several hours. They'd go to work the next day think about it and return home that evening only to be emotionally distraught over it.

This isn't really our stereotyping of that generation but rather a societal one and it's rather how this show comes across as being written. While it's an exaggeration this is how someone of my generation would write a show like this, and here we now have it, the end product.

I like how it's filmed, it's well acted, my only real gripe is the dream sequences.

This is likely to be viewed in different regard depending on viewership age.

Candyman (2021)

Doesn't deliver

[4/10 · 17 September 2021]

This sequel to the 1992 film comes off as woke and cheesy. The pacing is off so it seems like almost nothing of great consequence happens for nearly 2/3 of the movie (you could throw maybe 40 minutes in the middle out and make this an episode of The Outer Limits). Even if not related to the original I don't think I'd rate it any higher. All the elements are supposed to be an allegory to "a window to the past" so to speak, but it doesn't come across as deep in any way, which I think they want you to think this film is. The acting is good though and the special effects are decent. Maybe something to toss on during the Halloween horror season but unlikely to leave a lasting impression.

The Card Counter (2021)

It's OK but kinda slow

[5/10 · 17 September 2021]

This is a slow burn. I feel like they tried to make this a poignant introspection into the main character's past but is takes long to develop (in my opinion). Bouncing from casino floor to his own reflections when outside of it leaves it feeling jilted at times and this creates more of an emotional disconnect for the viewer than it draws them into the story. It's OK but not anything groundbreaking.

Old (2021)

Typical M. Night Shyamalan Fare

[4/10 · 17 September 2021]

Throw a bunch of stuff in and see if it sticks. He based the idea on a book? Wouldn't matter. The premise is interesting but it's poorly scripted not all that well acted and reminds me of the low end Gravitas Ventures produced horror movies you see, and some of those are better executed. Seems overly long because it's largely a one trick pony. I had looked forward to this one and let me down.

Don't get me wrong I don't generally mind Shyamalan's movies, this one just didn't do it for me.

American Horror Stories: Drive In (2021) Season 1, Episode 3

This one is a just a borrowed plot

[2/10 · 26 August 2021]

The evil or cursed film aspect is really an overdone trope and this wasn't not a well executed version. In movies some that come to mind that have done this are The Ring (cursed found video tape), Ringu (Japanese original version of The Ring), In the Mouth of Madness (book that droves you crazy eventually released as movie that does), White Melody of a Curse (cursed song/music video), Antrum (lost film kills those who see it) etc.

Amber Print, a short story by Basil Copper does it in a book form.

I know I'm forgetting others with those lists too.

Like many of the series this one drops to cheap gore effects, except they're over the top and look cheap to the point of comical. This ends up working in some of the similar adaptations of this story, like In the Mouth of Madness because the whole story was written in such a way it makes sense. Here though it's cheap looking.

So with a much recycled plot there isn't a lot to this storyl and it's not one of the better ones.

Schmigadoon! (2021–2023)

Solid fun

[9/10 · 16 July 2021]

Oddly having just watched Birgadoon last weekend I just learned of this and gave it a try, it's a fun show if you don't take it seriously and just enjoy. Had some good moments and was funny. Presuming they can keep the story going it should be decent for a while.

The Profit (2001)

Largely a loosely disguised movie adaptation of The Bare Faced Messiah

[6/10 · 28 June 2021]

This movie isn't great. It's kinda like a Lifetime movie based on true events with low production values. It's essentially a very loosely disguised adaptation of the book "The Bare Faced Messiah", a few things changed here and there but if you've read that book it and know about Scientology that's essentially all that this movie is. Now The Bare Faced Messiah is laugh out loud funny at times but the film largely focuses on the more serious aspects leaving out the funniest stuff. I dunno what genre you could classify it as, it's a fictionalized adaptation of a biography, but you can't really call it a biopic. It's OK I guess, not great but interesting. Worth a viewing if you know about Scientology.

False Positive (2021)

An attempt at a metaphorical meaning

[5/10 · 26 June 2021]

First its not Rosemary's Baby.

From what I can gather this supposed to be analogous at to what one wants vs. What one receives.

In this case she wants a childbirth via midwife and a daughter. She goes to the fertility clinic in attempt to get pregnant. She conceives multiple babies, the boys survive, the daughter dies in childbirth. Her midwife, at least the one you see, is actually her psychiatrist. The movie is largely a reflection of the ordeal and her placing blame on others for the outcome. The ending represents her releasing the anger but not necessarily come to terms with the guilt.

This could have been done better but there are a variety of clues that suggest this is the intended meaning.

Cruella (2021)

The Devil Wears Prada crossed with a Disney movie reimagined

[6/10 · 3 June 2021]

This is a really weird movie. Not bad just weird.

Who is this even for? It's too dark for kids, I don't even think it would appeal to anyone until they're a teen. Nostalgic adults, teens and 20 somethings who like Disney? They've got Estella/Cruella getting drunk yet she can't have her iconic cigarette holder because I guess that's somehow worse?

The plot is weird. It's supposed to be the backstory of Cruella, it's largely lifted from a cross between some cheesy crime movie or tv show and combined with The Devil Wears Prada. It often avoids going too over the top so it doesn't really break the dark aspect much.

Other than that it's interesting enough and nicely shot. I just can't figure out what they thought the target audience should or would be if they even knew. This is more one for the late teens through adults.

Swimfan (2002)

Good because it doesn't try and be more than it is

[7/10 · 11 May 2021]

I decided to rewatch this after many years. This movie was burned into my head because I was coming down with a migraine and ditched school about halfway on the drive in and opted to see this on it's day of release mainly because it looked like a simple enough plot to follow.

All these years later I recently saw 2016's "The Follower" which has Erika Christensen do an essential role reversal of this movie in what is basically a plot clone of Misery. So I ended up rewatching this and Misery.

This is essentially a teenage version of Fatal Attraction and largely who it was aimed at when it came out (exactly me when I saw it first). This plot is a one and done, you can see the same general stuff on many Lifetime movies. So why does it work. The acting is pretty solid and it doesn't try and be anything more than a bigger budget one and done like it is. The cinematography gives it a decent foreboding feel. There are no attempts to drag it into an overly elaborate backstory with twists. It doesn't overstay the welcome and drag on. This results in a decently paced of predictable thriller.

It's really more a 6 1/2 than a 7 but I bumped it up because it's better than versions of this which overthink the trope.

Bloods (2021–2022)

Not terrible for a few decent laughs and a simple watch

[7/10 · 9 May 2021]

A pretty easy watch if you just need something basic, couple of good lines an episode worth a laugh. It's one of those comedies you've probably seen better and you've probably seen worse. I'd continue to watch it if it gets another season. I'm from the US and don't know where precisely you'd find it there though.