dontspamme-76078 Reviews

The Andy Griffith Show: Three's a Crowd (1962) Season 2, Episode 27

All stars for Sue Ane

[10/10 · 26 September 2023]

I watched this episode for one of my favorite actresses, Sue Ane Langdon, and it didn't disappoint. She had an unusually large part with a good amount of screen time.

It was fun watching how she handled Andy's awkward and fumbling mating rituals. She knew what he was trying to do, but never let on (until the very end). At the same time she deftly dealt with Barney's oblivious insertion into their "alone time".

She ran rings around both of them.

There surprisingly were a few references to the fact that she was a well educated and highly skilled medical professional. Those were credentials that neither Andy or Barney could match.

The show was made better when she suggested taking her car on moonlight drive. It was a Ford Fairline Sunliner Convertable. Seemingly the iconic 1956 model. To my dismay, she let Andy drive. But that car reinforced her persona as a strong, independent woman with a joie de vivre.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)

One of my favorite movies

[10/10 · 14 September 2023]

I saw this movie in pre-release in 1967. I was 11 years old when my family came to NYC for a wedding and my uncle, who was an entertainment editor for a major magazine got us kids into the critic's airing of this movie. I always felt privileged to have been one of the first persons to have seen this movie.

There is one actress that I've always been fascinated by. She has a small part as one of the dancing secretaries in the "A Secretary Is Not A Toy" routine. She's the secretary on the far left of the three women who are tapping their pencils on their steno pads. She's wearing a peach and sort of grey outfit. She's not credited, but I feel she must have gone on to a good acting career. It would be great if someone could post her name.

A Man Called Otto (2022)

Seems like an easy paycheck for Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson

[5/10 · 5 June 2023]

Don't get me wrong. I think Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson are both very talented, and this movie is a fine effort. But there doesn't seem to have much effort exerted in it. Every wrong is righted, every variance away form the proper path is realigned. Poignance as needed is made perfectly clear with no possibility of mistaking its importance. The textbook checklist that any film making 101 graduate would build this movie from is ticked off in its entirety.

I haven't seen the Swedish original, I hope it isn't as pedestrian as this one is.

The major point that this movie seemed to be screaming to be made, but was never mentioned is that Otto seemed to be somewhere fairly far down the autism spectrum. I'm a pure layman, but what little I know was prominently displayed in this movie. He kept his former coworkers on strict schedules, he was incapable of having social interactions with his neighbors, he defined an ironclad set of rules that he vigorously enforced and was unable to tolerate any deviations. He meticulously cancelled his utilities before his suicide attempts. If you're going to kill yourself, what difference would a 33 cent difference in a length of rope make? Nobody was allowed to touch his deceased wife's things (her jacket on the coat rack, her wheelchair ramp, etc.) Even in his flashbacks it was the same. His only personal relationship was with his wife. His whole world was black and white, but she was the color. His concept of order was disturbed when she dropped her book on the train platform. Of course it was the vehicle for them to meet (tick mark on the checklist). She read books about human interactions that he couldn't fathom. Even his relationship with his father, who he did seem to care about, seemed more cordial than emotionally close. His only other friendship was based on their very similar habits and was dissolved over a disagreement on car manufacturers. All of this seems to me to be the behavior of an autistic person. The fact that he was able to overcome his genetic makeup through friendly prodding was a bit of a fairytale.

I read a one star review from someone warning people away from the scene where Malcolm explains that he is trans. I consider that to be bigotry of the first order. It is necessary in this movie because Otto later befriends Malcolm, showing his earlier unfriendliness was caused by his lack of social skills and not because of any prejudice.

The Green Room with Paul Provenza: Episode #1.6 (2010) Season 1, Episode 6

Maybe the best episode of this show

[9/10 · 9 January 2023]

As much as Tom Smothers is usually upbeat and funny, in this "behind the scenes" appearance he is shockingly serious. His extreme dislike of Penn Jillette is palpable because Jillette had recently appeared on radical far right wing Glenn Beck's show, and expressed a sincere affection for Beck. In their few direct interactions, Smothers does nothing to hide his resentment that Jillette would make any effort to justify Beck's extreme views. Jillette realizes Smother's disdain and plays off of it. Which only infuriates Smothers even more.

It's been over a dozen years since I saw this show, and my recollection may be a bit fuzzy, but the fact I remember it at all is notable.

Blue Bloods: Poetic Justice (2022) Season 13, Episode 8

What the???

[1/10 · 13 December 2022]

The term "separate but equal" has nothing whatsoever to do with the separation of church and state. It refers to the most racist (to date) Supreme Court decision ever handed down. It legalized segregation, and normalized the systemic racism that still permeates through American society. Of course the "equal" part of that clause never actually materialized, but the people at the top of the tilted playing field it created somehow didn't seem to mind.

For the writers of this show to put it in the script with a favorable meaning, and for any of the producers, directors, actors down to the people staffing the Kraft Service table to not immediately red flag that overtly racist line makes it come across that as an intentional dog whistle.

Or does this pass as acceptable knowledge of American history?

Law & Order: Vicious Cycle (2022) Season 22, Episode 6

Pure propaganda

[1/10 · 4 November 2022]

Nothing but lies that the police don't arrest, prosecutors don't charge, and courts don't convict. Coming from all sides (victims, cops and even the criminals). Add some (meaning a lot) of false information about cash bail, visuals of black stripe flags, and waddaya know. It's five days before a national election.

It's disgusting that this blatant propaganda is being smeared like this.

All that is required anymore is for misinformation like this to be broadcast into the compliant echo chamber and the acolytes eat it up like pudding.

It doesn't matter that the actual truth debunks these lies and distortions. People feast on their own righteous indignation.

The Dropout (2022)

Was Elizabeth Holmes really like this?

[3/10 · 7 April 2022]

I have to wonder if Amanda Seyfried's depiction of Elizabeth Holmes was anywhere close to reality. The character never behaved like she believed a single thing she was saying. Her head was always shaking like she had Parkinson's disease.. When she was in meetings it was like she didn't know where she was, or how to act. She looked dumbfounded at every question asked to her. I couldn't understand how she ever convinced anyone to invest in a concept that the whole medical community said was not feasible.

But maybe the real Holmes was like that and VCs still invest in things they don't understand.

At the end, the epilogue text made it seem like she was the victim of sexism, when that wasn't the case at all. She was a con artist, pure and simple.

Star Trek: Discovery: Coming Home (2022) Season 4, Episode 13

Against my better judgement

[2/10 · 20 March 2022]

So I temporarily paid for a Paramount+ subscription to watch 1883 (meh) and figured I would catch up with Discovery. I wasn't surprised to see that it was more of the same drivel. People going in long, existential crises about their deep emotional angst. All in the midst of a supposed real life crisis.

The 10-C story had some good moments, but they found multiple ways to ruin that too. Especially the end, "Hey, stop using that dark matter thingy". And the 10-C simply says, "OK". You can't even get that level of cooperation from the next door neighbor playing loud music at 2AM, but a super advanced race immediately agrees to shutdown a technology they depend on for their very existence.

And how come whenever a starship is under attack, waves of sparks keep flying out from the ceiling, walls and consoles. They've even enhanced that effect with fireballs that erupt from the floor along the walls. If I were on the crew, I would want to have a chat with the designers of the ship about that. But the characters don't even notice that it's going on because they are too immersed in talking about their feelings.

The Thing About Pam (2022)

Quirky

[3/10 · 20 March 2022]

I can see the "artistic direction" this show wants to go, I am not certain I like it very much.

It's painful watching the lead female character. I'm reminded of a TV show I saw maybe 20 years ago. A woman was about to give a live performance, and was psyching herself up with a pep talk. She said, "Acting is easy, it's just that Renée Zellweger makes it look hard".

Shining Vale (2022–2023)

F-bomb drinking game

[3/10 · 14 March 2022]

Take a whiskey shot whenever Courtney Cox unnecessarily and inappropriately uses the f-word. Then check yourself into the nearest emergency room for alcohol poisoning

The same goes for the kids too. It's as if nobody has a filter on what they are saying, regardless of the situation.

To the writers: This is lazy and distracting. If you were going for edgy, you failed.

The Nest (I) (2020)

Odd cinematography

[5/10 · 12 March 2022]

Not a bad movie overall, I kept waiting for the disaster. Outside the crumbling of the family and Rory's failing efforts to prop up a fantasy, there wasn't one. Maybe the effort to break away from standardized movie plot outlines was what they were going for. I didn't not like it, but I will probably have forgotten it by next week.

Maybe it's my monitor, but the whole movie had very dart visuals. Some scenes were almost too dark to see what was happening. And there was practically no color. Just washed out, pale earth tones. I actually stopped it to play another recording, just to see if the problem was there too. It wasn't.

American Horror Story: The Future Perfect (2021) Season 10, Episode 10

Double Feature race to the bottom

[2/10 · 23 October 2021]

So, we reach the end of another horrifically bad AHS season. This time with two unrelated stories vying for the worst ever. It's hard to pick a winner (loser?).

In "Red Tide" it's too bad the writers didn't take the little black pills to be able to put clever twists and surprises in the painfully predictable story line. It's not like anybody would notice if they became vampires. The same goes for Death Valley. Was it meant as a lesson against appeasement and complacency (and overt stupidity)? Why didn't the greys let humans see them? Was it to save them from being grossed out? Or was it to save on the CGI budget? And with all the thousands of out of work actors milling around Hollywood, could they not find more realistic lookalikes for the Eisenhowers, Nixon, JFK, Marilyn Monroe, LBJ, Kissinger, et al? I felt like they needed to wear "Hello, My name is ..." stickers that are handed out at conventions, so the viewer would know who they are supposed to be. And all that subterfuge for what? The betrayed the whole human race for microwave ovens, fiber optics and cell phones? BTW, here are a couple of goofs. Ike and Mamie ate TV dinners in foil trays that were cooked in the microwave, but microwaves don't penetrate foil. And they showed an exterior of the White House set around 1954 (you could tell because it was in black and white) but there was a 50 star flag flying on top of the building.

Pathetic.

American Horror Story (2011– )

For the Provincetown story

[2/10 · 8 October 2021]

I really wish the writers of this storyline had taken the little black pills so they would have produced a better script. There was no imagination in the tale at all. They basically explained what would happen in the first episode, and spent the next 7 shows unfolding it without any alteration. Any action or minuscule twist was telegraphed far in advance. I kept hoping they wouldn't do what they obviously were about to do. But they did. Alas.

Ghosts (2021– )

All the stars are for Rose

[6/10 · 8 October 2021]

I don't see this show getting off the cancellation bubble (but I felt the same way about B Positive). However, I really liked Rose McIver. She was delightful in iZombie. She needs to dial down the energy going forward, but IMO, she is the only hope for this show's continuation.

Star Trek: Discovery: That Hope Is You, Part 2 (2021) Season 3, Episode 13

What a world...

[2/10 · 11 July 2021]

With all the obvious solutions being conveniently overlooked throughout this series, I guess I'm not surprised that nobody thought to simply throw a bucket of water on Osyraa.

And how come every planet and race measures time in earth years? E.g. "The Burn" was 120 years ago. How does anyone from any other planet know how much time that is?

I'm trying to make the best of the $0.99/mo offer I got on the Paramount+ channel. I think I might have preferred to have my two bucks back.

Red Dawn (2012)

Oh the irony

[4/10 · 3 June 2021]

For some reason, Hulu recommended this movie. I didn't have much going on, so what the heck. Not my worst waste of 90 minutes.

Despite the references to the ongoing Iraq war which was in it's ninth year when this movie was made, I wonder if this movie's makers caught on to the unfortunate parallels it has to that war. Except now, the U. S. was the aggrieved.party. The Wolverines became textbook insurgents and hailed as heros.

Did they intend for this movie to mirror GWB's illegal and unnecessary invasion of Iraq? In this movie, the Americans lost homes that they might have had for a few decades. But much of the Iraqi population lost homes, towns and even cities that their families lived in for several centuries. Most Americans can barely manage a shrug in response to that atrocity. Iraqi insurgents were labeled as terrorists and evil for wanting to defend their homes. How were the Wolverines depicted?

It is important to recognize the humanity on both sides of the fight.

Mare of Easttown (2021)

Should you watch?

[7/10 · 28 April 2021]

If you are prone to depression/suicide or are deluded about so-called "American Exceptionalism" or have hope that the youth of today are tomorrow's brighter future, then you probably shouldn't watch this show.

Fortunately, none of the above applies to me.

The show is well written and acted. A bit too textbook maybe. Two episodes in and all the expected twists are being revealed on cue. The gaps are being (and will continue to be) filled in with new information that changes the overall picture.

I've narrowed down the killer to two people. Of course, these shows continue to introduce new suspects, motives and means up to the end, so it's possible the guilty party hasn't appeared yet. But that goes against the formula. It is more likely that we have already met the culprit.

Upper Middle Bogan (2013–2016)

Very enjoyable

[10/10 · 25 April 2021]

I just binge-watched the complete series (Bess of Both Worlds in the U. S.) on Hulu and I can honestly say there wasn't a single episode that I didn't like. I really got a kick pausing shows to look up the Australian terms, locations and personalities they mentioned. My only complaint is that 24 episodes weren't enough.

Because Margaret brought it up in one episode, I'm watching Underbelly next.

Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)

Really? $200 million for THIS?

[3/10 · 6 April 2021]

What did they do? Actually drill to the center of the Earth and then destroy the real Hong Kong?

90% of this movie was made by underpaid CGI animators. Where did the money go?

I was hoping that Kong would find others of his kind in Hollow Earth, and that he was actually the smallest, weakest and geekiest one of his species. And/or his mother would spank him for not writing or calling home.

Superstore: Customer Satisfaction (2021) Season 6, Episode 12

Amazing musical choice

[12 March 2021]

When the store is being flooded, the song playing over the PA system is Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction". It is probably the most poignant protest song of the 1960s. I had to pause the show and go to youtube to listen to it. Twice.

Attack of the 50 Foot Cheerleader (2012)

50 ft? As if.

[4/10 · 10 March 2021]

When Cassie and Brittany are fighting on the football field, they are barely over 10 yards long. I would put their height at 40 ft. max. (update). That's what I get for not watching the whole movie before reviewing it. Apparently Brittany did grow to 50 feet, if only for a few minutes. My bad.

And why didn't fluffy the mouse grow? It was injected a few days before Cassie was. Even the spider got big enough in a few hours to eat it. And it only got the serum splashed on its exoskeleton.

Even for an intentional B movie attempt, it falls a bit short. But for anyone who remembers Joe Bob Briggs and his drive-in movie reviews of the 1970s for movies like this: 6 breasts, no one dies (except the mouse and spider), not really any blood. But still, Joe Bob says "check it out".

A Child Is Born (1939)

How did anybody ever survive being born?

[5/10 · 5 March 2021]

What a movie. None of the expectant mothers look pregnant. They are checked into a ward, where none appear to be in labor. They x-ray each woman to observe the babies. The doctors make seemingly arbitrary and heartless decisions. They choose to give Geraldine Fitzgerald (Grace) a cesarean section operation knowing it will kill her, but that's ok. She's a convict who would spend her life in prison anyway. It's claimed she made the choice, but what of the Hippocratic Oath? Gladys George (Florette) downs a pint of liquor and smokes cigarettes in front of the nurses before giving birth to twins. A crazy woman has free reign of the hospital and even steals one of the babies, seemingly with impunity. Even after the babies are born, and their genders are known, they are still referred to as "it".

But, it's fun to see Eve Arden in a totally straight role, or Addams Family's Grand-mama scamming a cop. Worth spending 80 minutes to watch.

Sinners' Holiday (1930)

Pretty good until the ending

[6/10 · 17 February 2021]

This is a fun movie. Great to see some true movie stars in their earliest roles.

But the movie suddenly ends. It's as if they realized they were down to their last reel of film and decided to jump ahead several pages to the final scene.

It's still worth seeing.

Futurama (1999– )

A fantastic show

[10/10 · 15 February 2021]

I can't wait for there to be a better show than Futurama, because it will have to be beyond amazing.

I am focusing on some of the side characters in this review, because there isn't much background on them. Two in particular. Calculon and the manic villain robot with the narrow face (I forget his name).

I am currently watching a 1931 movie named "The Guardsman" about married actors going through marital strife. The husband (Alfred Lunt) behaves exactly like Calculon. An over the top ham who suddenly gives soliloquies with outstretched arms while looking to the ceiling.

Then there's the villain robot. He is exactly like Richard Widmark's character, Tommy Udo, in the 1947 movie, "The Kiss of Death".

The similarities between the Futurama characters and these movie actors can't be dismissed. After all, the inspiration had to come from somewhere.

The Trip Back (1970)

Hyperbolic and an indictment on the war on drugs

[4/10 · 6 February 2021]

I don't doubt Florrie Fisher's life experience, and her 2+ decades in various jails and prisons. Maybe she really had a severely addictive metabolism, but that doesn't mean everybody does

I was a couple of years younger then the kids in this video. But by 1972, I was exposed to all the same influences. I smoked pot fairly regularly during the 70s, did a few hard drugs, but not too much.

Guess what? I never became addicted to any of them. Neither did most of my friends. We all went to college and had careers. I recently retired after working steadily for over 45 years.

Not to say her experiences aren't relevant. I have one friend who had a similar downward spiral that was horrific. Even after his wife divorced him, she would come home to find he had broken in and stolen everything in the house. He died of a severe infection. But his experience occurred in less than 1% of the people I know who got high.

Even so, the dangers of addiction are worth heeding, but in Ms. Fisher's case, I would cite the draconian drug laws as the cause of most of her problems. During the 1940s, if she could have received treatment instead of incarceration, her story would definitely been much different.

And I have to call BS on the claim that she knew 6 people who were executed after committing murders while high on pot. Unless the victims got between the pot smoker and a bag of Cheetos (just kidding), there is no way that it happened once, much less 6 times.