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Reviews

Star Trek: The Next Generation
(1987)

One Of The Best TV Series I've Ever Seen - Engage
I grew up watching TOS and TNG completely slipped past me. I was abroad when it was released and just through circumstance never got round to watching it.

Also, I was a bit of a TOS snob. No Kirk, Spock and McCoy meant no Star Trek as far as I was concerned and I simply couldn't imagine a Starship Enterprise without them.

My eventual journey to finally watch TNG took a pretty weird and long winded route.

To be honest I learned more about TNG through watching The Big Bang Theory and the peppered TNG references and guest star appearances. Especially the episode "The Bakersfield Expedition" where the cast dress up as TNG characters to attend a fan convention. I got the fanboy trekkie references of course but I didn't really know the characters that well at all.

Eventually The Big Bang Theory ended and my first foray into post TOS Star Trek started with "Discovery" which I tried to stick with but it felt like I was watching The Michael Burnham show and eventually gave up midway into Season 2. It just didn't click with me and I actually found it more tiresome the more I watched it. I actually preferred the appalling "Another Life" to Discovery which ran roughly at the same time. That's how anti-Star Trek I found Discovery to be.

Then, last year I came across this Youtube video entitled "Star Trek Acid Party" which is a psychedelic editing and music extravaganza featuring clips from TNG and it was obvious that the level of creativity and work involved in putting it together was mindblowing. Whoever put it together must have been a true fan no doubt. And at approx 45 mins in length it's like watching a spaced out lost TNG episode. This is what really stoked the need to watch TNG frm start to end whenever the opportunity arose.

It was soon after this that TNG came out on Netflix earlier this year and I finally sat down to watch it from beginning to end.

And I finally get it.

Of course there are a handful of mediocre episodes here and there, but overall TNG is an epic ride from start to finish and I've loved every second.

TNG really does go boldly where no one has gone before. It covers political corruption, racism, sexism, cults, individuality vs collectivism, cultural customs, religion, old age, teen age rebellion, euthanasia, addiction, exploitation and a myriad of subjects intertwining them within a scifi story more often than not in a balanced way. Messages aren't force fed to the audience and often counter narratives are given allowing the viewer to see opposing perspectives and to make up their own minds.

Above all it paints a hopeful picture of humanity while at the same time showing that the worst of us will always be there lurking beneath the surface in greed, selfishness and the need to dominate and exploit others. I think that while TOS will always be special to me, TNG has taken Gene Roddenberry's vision where it really needed to go.

The characters and the relationships between the them were portrayed superbly from Picard right down to minor characters such as Q, Lwaxana Troi, Captain Jellico, Lt Barclay, Holodeck Moriarty and too many others to list.

Amongst the stories being told there were some true laugh out loud comedic scenes as well as some real tear jerkers, and this is coming from someone who can't even tear up at funerals.

It really felt like a 7 year voyage aboard The Starship Enterprise.

The only reservation I have is that it was filmed in 4:3 and not in full widescreen format resulting in the two black bars either side of the screen. I do hope that in future AI image generation can be used to seamlessly fill in the bars along with a 4K upscaled version. The surround sound is pitch perfect and an upgrade to Dolby Atmos or DTS:X would just round off the package superbly.

I'd buy a BluRay boxset version of that in a heartbeat.

Make it so.

The Umbrella Academy
(2019)

3 courses of Michelin star chef prepared delights followed by a stale donut for dessert.
I was so looking forward to the final season and repeat binge watched seasons 1-3 in preparation for the final season.

By E5 I just couldn't wait for it to end and had to stop myself from skipping forward on several occassions. It felt rushed, unplanned, the actors gave half assed perrformances, even the overuse of montages started getting on my nerves. The humour was weak, the storyline felt as though more episodes were needed to fully bring the story to a conclusion, there were gaping plotholes and and a string of events were either contrived of never even explained.

It just didn't even feel like I was watching The Umbrella Academy anymore. The chemistry was gone.

The actors may have been so fed up of switching the personalities and characters on a dime just to suit the current narrative. I was certainly suffering from fatigue trying to keep up with why certain characters were acting completely out of character.

The only saving grace is that the story was somehow concluded and a TV series actually made it to the finishing line without being cancelled.

I'm still glad I watched seasons 1-3 though. With season 4 the writers have gone for a "Dark" type ending but they just couldn't pull it off. How could they? Dark was a dark show from E1 to the end and the ending suited the show unlike TUA. And how do you just erase yourself from history by just killing yourself? Nonsensical!

What a crying shame,

Today is Spaceship Day
(2019)

Completely nonsensical - yet it works beautifully. A dream on screen.
If you're a sci-fi fan and a vivid dreamer then this superbly wierd short will most definitely appeal to you.

It has a dreamlike quality to it that ordinarily would seem to be a complete disjointed mess, yet in a wierd way was engrossing, hilarious and deeply profound. I doubt that the AI that wrote this was specifically aiming for this level of quirkiness, but it is interesting to think about how it pulled information from other movies and came up with something quite like this.

Also, I think that this era of AI has produced something unique. More advanced AI's will most likely gravitate towards more realistic and structured storylines and these types of fantastical scripts will be rarely produced ever again.

Unique.

The Paper Tigers
(2020)

Retains The Essence Of Old School Kung Fu Movies
If you grew up watching kung fu movies of the 70's and 80' on worn out old VHS tapes you'll already know that essentially kung fu movies never had any sort of in depth plot, the acting bordered on the hammy side, the humour was often weak and the fight scenes were obviously choreographed to the hilt. Literally every movie was the heroes journey retold again and again. Guy gets crap kicked out of him, is then taken under the guidance of a master and eventually triumphs, or some variation.

Yet somehow combining all these seemingly weak ingredients led to something magical which I honestly don't even know how to explain. It just worked. If you were really being critical you could level exactly the same criticisms at Drunken Master, Snake in Eagles Shadow, Fist Of Fury, Mad Monkey Kung Fu etc as you would at The Paper Tigers.

In all honesty I doubt I'll ever watch The Paper Tigers again as it just doesn't hold the same nostalgia value as the classics from the 70s and 80s, but it is definitely worth that one time watch. It has the essential ingredients of classic Kung Fu movies with a particular focus on honour, loyalty and wisdom that fans of the classics will enjoy.

Spaceman
(2024)

Tries Way Way Way Too Hard
Having read Andy Weirs "Project Hail Mary" a month ago I couldn't help noticing some of the similarities, but this was soon completely overshadowed by the massively ham fisted attempt at being overly dramatic and emotional.

Instead of telling a story and letting the viewer just enjoy the unfolding of that story, I just couldn't help feeling as if the makers of "Spaceman" were solely focused on the emotional manipulation of the audience.

"This is an emotional story and we're going to force feed it to the viewers until they choke on it". - The makers of Spaceman.... probably.

Well as the movie went on my eyes just couldn't stop rolling. And this is coming from someone who loved Ad Astra so a more drama and emotional sci fi story is just fine by me.

To be honest by the end I was more pissed off than anything else.

Zack and Miri Make a Porno
(2008)

A Romantic Comedy with depth for Dudes Who Hate RomComs
As someone who despises chick flicks and romantic comedies I stuck this movie on expecting a raunchy, slap and tickle, Benny Hill meets Seth Rogen type souless but funny movie.

For me though while the comedy was OK there weren't that many laugh out loud moments, but what really sold this movie to me was something I wasn't expecting at all.

Using sex and porn as a catalyst Z&M beautifully examines the platonic/romantic battle that can often take place where two friends who feel an attraction to each other then try to walk the platonic tightrope to keep that friendship going.

Is it better to self sabotage a potential romantic relationship to protect a beautiful friendship, even though you may well be perfect for each other as a romantic couple? I'd imagine most people at some stage in their life have had that dilemma be that just a crush or flat out infatuation with a platonic friend.

On the other hand, once you do cross the line from just a platonic relationship to a romantic one, does that signal the end of the innocent "just good friends" relationship? Even just the mere suggestion that there may be sexual tension or romantic feelings beneath the surface of a friendship could well be enough to negatively impact that friendship forever. How do you even approach having such a discussion knowing that merely the suggestion alone may be enough to derail that friendship?

As someone who has had "that" one and only conversation with a very good lifelong friend of the opposite sex, where we literally both mercilessly ridiculed the notion of there being any possibility of us having romantic feelings for each other, while both knowing full well looking into each others eyes that we were deliberately and blatantly lying to each other and ourselves. Does such a conversation even kill off any romantic feelings or are they simply amplified and surpressed forever?

The performances by Rogen and Banks were perfect. Beautiful even. The emotional molotov cocktails lobbed at each to protect their friendship, each other or just themselves was pretty emotional. In particular the scene where Zack was being led to the bedroom by Stacey as Miri watched on just after giving Stacey consent to ask him was heavy.

Is it worth nuking a potential romantic relationship to preserve a very good friendship? I really can't think of an answer because I don't really think there is one without travelling forward in time and seeing the ramifications of your decision.

If after forwarding a decade Zack and Miri were to still be a romantic couple then you'd have to say that moving on from just a platonic relationship was the best decision possible.

If on the other hand 10 years in the future they were both divorced and hated each other, then you'd have to say it was the worst decision and that they would still have remained good friends had they kept their romantic feelings in check.

Thoroughly impressed with the depth of this movie. While not for everyone, this movie will hit its intended target pretty hard.

Ad Astra
(2019)

Flips the 2001 Space Odyssey playbook on it's head
Stanley Kubricks 2001 has inspired so many nods, tributes and retellings of first contact stories and unlike alot of fans I never get offended or preachey no matter how obvious the comparisons may be. And I never get tired of watching them.

From well known movies like Contact, Interstellar, Arrival and Annihilation to lower budget movies like Dark Encounter, Alien Code, and the much derided 2036 Origin Unknown and Magellan (both of which I quite liked) and so many more. Each with it's own interpretation of what first contact could possibly be like. So many movie producers and directors have openly stated that they drew inspiration from Kubricks classic.

Ad Astra though even when drawing alot of inspiration from 2001 goes entirely in a different direction which as a scifi fan who thought he'd seen it all took me quite by surprise. Pleasantly.

I don't think that I can recall a scifi movie that explores isolation quite like Ad Astra does, not just on a personal level but looking at us as a species.

We point radio telescopes up at the skies, send more sophisticated and expensive equipment into space, hoping for a signal, a sign from someone, somewhere. We've imagined little green men on mars, lizard people among us. We click on youtube videos showing 'UFO sightings', watch a variety of movies showing first contact with aliens, or TV series 'exploring strange new civilisations'. There's an inexpicable yearning.

'I want to believe' was the tagline of the X-Files movie. And it's something that resonates with so many of us that we'd even jump at the chance to go into deep space to another star system or galaxy even if that meant never returning back home. From sci fi movies, to physicists and cosmologists looking up at the night sky and saying that the sheer size of the universe and number of stars and galaxies mean that there HAS to be intelligent life out there.

But what if in reality there is effectively nobody out there?

Even if the universe is infinitely large meaning that there definitely are an infinite number of intelligent civilisations out there, intelligent life perhaps is so rare that even an infinite number of intelligent species is each locked in it's own observable constantly expanding universe and never able to make contact with another. Moving ever further and further away from each other.

What if to all intents and purposes we truly are all alone? Truly isolated.

Nobody else for billions, perhaps even trillions of light years in every direction. Yet despite our yearning for someone, anyone out there, we're unable to even establish healthy relationships with the only other intelligent beings we will ever know: each other.

While Ad Astra isn't a perfect movie, and I definitely saw the action scenes on the Moon as entirely unnecessary and abit off tone with the rest of the movie, I found the approach taken to be truly unique and thought provoking.

Ad Astra is definitely a movie that every true sci fi fan and especially fans of 2001 needs to watch.

Black Mirror: Joan Is Awful
(2023)
Episode 1, Season 6

Superbly Dark Story, Utterly Ruined.
Why, why, why does every story now have to be ruined by the need to be funny and light hearted?

I've always worried about the possible decline of Black mirror since it's Americanisation.

This is a brilliantly crafted story. The entire plot and the way the story unfolds is classic Black Mirror. Saddly though it is told in a quirky, lighthearted, nudge-wink, one liner fashion that just kills off the existential vibe the story is trying to tell.

Abit of black humour is fine when suitable, but if I want to watch something humorous, I'd prefer to stick a comedy on.

The story gets a 9 from me. The tone and overall direction and vibe a 1 so unfortunately what should have been a classic Black Mirror episode just turns out to be a 'meh' episode.

Dark Planet
(1997)

All Basil Exposition, No Austin Powers
This has to be one of the most over dramatic movies I've seen in quite some time. It is over dramatic to the point of being hysterically comical.

People overacting seriously, running around frantically, attacking, or defending something, getting dramatically in and out of spacesuits, entering and exiting spaceships......dramatically, saying serious stuff, making serious decisions that could have dramatic consequences with ominous orchestral music playing in the background.

Why all the drama? I honestly have no idea. All I could tell is that it was something really, really serious. The life or death type or end of the world type serious.

Michael York of Austin Powers 'Basil Exposition' fame plays one of the most serious characters out of the whole lot. Maybe even one of the most serious characters in the history of cinema. He's obviously in charge of a very important mission, with a crucial objective and is deadly serious about his duty, but what it is that he was trying to acheive throughout this movie completely mystifies me.

But trust me. Whatever it was, it was serious.

The weird thing though is that I actually enjoyed this movie and I have absolutely no idea why because it is a pretty bad movie and the IMDb rating given is fully justified. My score just reflects the fact that I am a massive fan of good 'bad' movies, and 'Dark Planet' is a superbly enjoyable awful movie.

Even as the credits started rolling at the end and the dramatic music started playing out, I knew without a doubt that something really serious had just played out in front of me,

Really serious.

The Neon Demon
(2016)

Creepy Visually Stunning and Hypnotic
Even those of us who claim that beauty is only skin deep and that real beauty lies within cannot deny the power that true physical beauty possesses.

We run like manic hamsters on treadmills, starve ourselves, and apply all manners of lotions and creams. We'll cut, file and fill parts of our bodies even sometimes with disastrous results just to get to that elusive 'ideal'.

"I don't want to be like them. They want to be like me"

What I find interesting is how TND explores the craving for beauty not from someone who is unattractive but in fact from people who are already attractive themselves. It's never enough though. It's now a common occurrence to watch a new movie and notice something odd about the way a well known actor or actress now looks only to find out that they've had some 'work' done. In some cases cosmetic surgery definitely works, but in so many cases you're just left wondering why anyone would ruin their face and leave themselves often just looking creepy.

And TND explores this craving for beauty with a pretty creepy yet beautiful lens. You can hover between accepting your looks and striving for something better. Or you can go to the extremes of accepting yourself no matter how unhealthily overweight you may be, or constantly and obsessively going under the surgeons knife.

The story is definitely 'way out there', but is so well directed and acted that it comes together really well. And Keanu Reeves certainly shows his acting chops here as a dislikeable and creepy hotel manager. I don't think I've seen him in any role like it.

RRR (Rise Roar Revolt)
(2022)

ZZZ
Decades ago my father used to get hold of Indian movies on VHS and back then most households were one TV homes. So we'd have to watch whatever it is our parents used to watch and I pretty much endured a constant stream of formulaic Bollywood crap.

It didn't take long for me to realise that you could map out the entire plot of the movie within the first 15 minutes, unless of course you'd seen the VHS cover art in which case you could suss out the entire story line from that alone.

Is it two brothers, or two best friends, or two characters from identical family backgrounds one of whom turns to crime and the other to law enforcement? Add in the obligatory romance, a badly choreographed fight scene with heads thrown back half a second before a punch is thrown, someones mother being killed with the hero yelling 'maaaaaaa', and some chreographed dance scenes ridiculously thrown in for no reason. Just imagine the UN security council breaking into a song and dance routine midway through discussing the war in Ukraine. That is what would happen in a Bollywood production of a UN security meeting.

Anyway, after years of staying well away from Bollywood movies in a moment of weakness I thought I'd give RRR a chance as it seems everyone was talking about how great it was.

Apart from some CGI, nothing has really changed. Even the storyline reminded roughly me of an Indian ripoff of 'Escape to Victory' which I think was redone with a Cricket match against the British. And even the CGI was meh! The tiger scene which everyone seemed to be raving about was laughable. While the detail of the CGI was good, the movements were cartoonish.

There is nothing new to see here unless you've never seen a Bollywood production before in which case you may end up enjoying it for it's novelty value.

The IMDB rating is obviously bumped up by the number of Indian reviewers marking this movie as a 10, which RRR most certainly isn't.

So while my rating of 1 may be abit too low, it's justified in response to the ridiculous 10 ratings it has received.

The Triangle
(2016)

It's No Surprise That People Hate The Triangle
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown"

H. P. Lovecraft

The Triangle suffers from the same issue that almost every single Lovecraftian (is that even a word) movie suffers from.

When you're trying to convey a being that is totally beyond our understanding, beyond our comprehension, you will always be faced with an audience who's reaction will ultimately be 'what the hell was that all about?'

Even though with a Lovecraft type movie, that is the entire point. The sense of bewilderment and our inability to wrap our heads around what it is that we are trying to understand. Some movies like The Thing, Annihilation, Alien while being essentially Lovecraftian movies at least have a being with a physical manifestation that audiences can at least make some sense of.

The Triangle though aims for the more 'Event Horizon', 'Colour Out Of Space' and 'The Endless' type of entity. The type of entity where the biggest horror is the realisation that you can't even figure out what it is you're dealing with.

In addition to being a Lovecraftian movie, The Triangle is also a Found Footage movie so if you're not a fan of either then this will definitely have you moving the cursor to the 1/10 star rating.

Overall The Triangle was definitely my kind of movie although the build up was alot slower than it should have been. The sense of dread and the more terror elements was only made up in the last quarter of the movie.

The Invitation
(2022)

A Truly Horrific Movie
First of all, I have to say that the whole 'woke' labelling of movies is getting pretty tiresome. It's just lazy, boring, repetitive and means absolutely nothing. If by labelling this movie 'woke' you're just offended by a coloured female lead then I'd rather you were honest and just admitted that you're a racist, or a sexist, or a racist and a sexist, instead of chickening out behind a 'woke' shield.

Wokeness, whatever that is, has nothing to do with the fact that this is a truly awful movie. I didn't see the trailer so went in with a completely open mind but after showing abit of promise it quickly descended into a total laughable farce. It's just a series of typcasted clichés. The English are shown as either a bunch of snooty posh snobs or domestic servants. The Americans on the other hand are plucky and streetwise with a no nonsense in your face attitude. It's a cliche ridden car crash.

The writing is disjointed, the acting is wooden and amateurish. Apart from the actress playing the Scottish servant the acting from nearly all the other cast members was appalling. The jump scares are predictable and yawn inducing. The movie tries to shock but comes across as campy and almost comical. When the first shocking scene at the feast was shown, I just burst out laughing at the total silliness of it.

I've seen kids trick or treating who were scarier than this highly polished amateur effort to make a horror movie.

As a huge fan of bad movies, The Invitation doesn't even work as a 'so bad it's good' movie.

Its just awful. Simple as that.

Intersect
(2020)

Tries To Cover Too Many SciFi Concepts To Enable a Coherent Plot
Looks like it is a prerequisite now that if you give a positive review to a movie that many consider to be trash, you need to write a discaimer declaring that you're not a shill.

In that case, feel free to check my IMDb profile and the list of my reviews. I've been reviewing movies on IMDb for 15+ years and my favourite genre is sci-fi, and in particular low budget sci-fi flicks.

And I'll be honest, my scores for alot of indie sci fi flicks are often almost always higher than avarage. I'd rather reward an independent movie maker for trying to take a risk, attempting to create something abit different and abit 'out there', than fawn and salivate over a big budget, A-list starred, play-it-safe boring CGI fest.

And I really wanted to like Intersect, and to some extent I did. The problem with Intersect is that it tries too hard to be too many things. It tries to be a time travel movie, an inter dimensional movie, a conspiracy movie, it's a drama, a love story, and above all a Lovecraftian monster movie.

And this is where Intersect fails to hit any of the targets cleanly. A Lovecraft movie is near impossible to make for a typical mass audience.

"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown"

H. P. Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature

A Lovecraftian movie by it's very nature needs to be ambigious, inexplicable and unexplainable. How do you even convey something that can't be explained or understood without the majority of audiences reacting with a collective "what the hell was that all about?"

As a result, nearly most of the plot is left hanging in mid air. Which is unfortunate. Combine that with the other 20 genres you're trying to cover and you are left firing in all directions and hitting next to nothing.

It's not all bad though. The direction and overall flow of the movie is fine. The acting is OK especially the child actors. The special effects were surprisingly good. There was no jilted or awkward dialogue.

If you aren't into indie sci fi flicks I'd personally avoid this movie. There's a very limited audience for a movie like this and I'm probably one of the very few number of people who actually liked it.

Darkening Sky
(2010)

Another Surprisingly Good Low Budget Sci Fi Flick
Maybe I've just become so jaded by the type of 'sci fi' that is pumped out by big budget studios nowadays that I'm just finding anything even slightly off the wall far more interesting and engaging.

And by using sci fi in commas I mean just that. Alot of big budget sci fi simply isn't sci fi, but a highly polished, test audience approved, generic, safe, play it by the numbers bland, kid friendly, boring fantasy flick.

Darkening Sky is far from an original movie. In fact it reminded me abit of The Arrival (1996) starring Charlie Sheen. But the what Darkening Sky does extremely well is opt for a more psychological route with a massive dose of paranoia. In fact you could even make the case that this isn't so much a sci fi flick but rather a psychological thriller against a sci fi backdrop.

Whether you believe in alien abductions or not, what you can't deny is the phenomenon of people claiming to have been abducted by aliens.

I certainly do not believe that humans have ever been abducted by aliens but at the same time I do like to have my beliefs and assumptions challenged. Darkening Sky does a pretty good job of putting you in the shoes of someone claiming to be an abductee. Assuming that someone claiming to have been abducted by aliens isn't being disingenious, you only have two feasible explanations. They're either deluded or suffering from psychosis, or they were in fact truly abducted.

Darkening Sky maintains the balance between explanations throughout very well. The acting by the two leads especially Rider Strong is pretty good for a low budget movie. I don't really recall seeing him in anything else but he certainly didn't come across as your typical B grade low budget incapable actor.

The low budget obviously shows in the quality of the effects, but the last thing to impress me about a movie is the quality of CGI. For me if you have a poor movie, top notch CGI just amounts to putting lipstick on a donkey. It's meaningless.

The music is sombre and suspensful, the direction is of a reasonable standard, the dialogue is realistic and doesn't come across as forced.

All in all Darkening Sky is a pretty decent movie, so if you're into low budget sci fi flicks don't miss it. If on the other hand you're more into your big studio releases and can't stand a movie that doesn't adhere to the cheery hollywod ending formula then this movie definitely isnt for you.

Hulk
(2003)

The Hulk For Grown Ups
Bruce: You found me.

Betty: You weren't that hard to find.

Bruce: Yes I was.

Wow! Just, wow! This short exchange after The Hulk transforms back into David Banner after a rampage against the US military conveyed so much depth of how Bruce gets completely consumed when The Hulk takes over.

If anyone has ever let their own "Hulk" take over even once in their life, you will know the feeling. Whether you've smashed your keyboard to bits, or destroyed that "easy to assemble" flat pack furniture with the incomprehensible instructions having spent an entire day trying to put it together, or gone into uncontrollable road rage, in the moment, your rational self is gone. The Bruce Banner in you who knows that you're only harming yourself, that you could hurt someone, or frighten your loved ones, or end up injured or in jail is long gone because when you completely lose control and as a result your rational self is locked away, it.....just.....feels....good, to lose yourself in the rage. It's like an out of body experience.

And when the mist has faded away and you see how counter productive your rage really is, then comes the regret, the self reflection and the realisation that as good as it feels to totally lose control, you should never allow that to happen.

For me, this is the essence of why The Hulk is one of the most beloved characters in superhero mythology especially in more adult comic book fans. The Hulk is a truer representation of our struggle with our inner self than any other superhero.

Ang Lees 2003 Version for me showed the pure, visceral, intense rage of The Hulk on one hand, and the calming effect of Betty Ross on the other. The back story and trauma behind the rage of the Hulk was portrayed sympathetically.

On the other hand the MCU gives us a truly moronic lullaby, and a Hulk making cocktails and taking selfies. As much as She Hulk dunks on the character of The Hulk, Waititis Thor: Ragnarok is for me the worst MCU offender out of the lot. Ragnarok is where The Hulk is turned into a total clown, a truly pathetic joke, a laughing stock. No wonder he got slapped around by Thanos within minutes. Hulk had already been beaten into submission by Marvel Studios long before Thanos got his hands on him.

Don't get me wrong, I started out really liking Mark Rufalos Hulk. The first half of the first Avengers movie was pretty much perfect. The Hulks rage just bubbling below the surface. The intensity of Rufallos "DON'T LIE TO ME" and the look of fear in Romanoffs eyes who just a few scenes before single handedly took apart a bunch of crooked Russian military personnel. The other Avengers apprehensive and fearful of The Hulk being unleashed. But Marvels need to turn every single storyline into a child friendly lighthearted joke just led to the gradual clownification of The Hulk. Over subsequent installments of the MCU I was just left shaking my head and by Endgame I despised his version intensely long before She Hulk came along. She Hulk only dumped all over The Hulk as a result of the preceding dumpfest already initiated by Marvel.

Even though Marvel were unable to release a Hulk Move due to distribution rights issues with Universal Studios, they nevertheless had a Hulk story arc running through the MCU movies. Almost a movie within a series of movies which showed the Hulk in a pretty pathetic light. In a way I am thankful that Marvel were unable to release a standalone Hulk movie as I shudder to think of the abomination they would have produced. No pun intended.

So I, and it seems many other Hulk fans have done a full circle, and returned to watching the 2003 and 2008 movies having realised that the Hulk we'd been waiting MCU to come up with was dead on inception.

I have now come to appreciate both the 2003 and 2008 versions even more than I already did. For me though Ang Lees version has always been my personal favourite even when 20 years ago everyone seemed to be trashing it.

The acting was top notch by all. The action scenes were fed in small, yet extremely powerful doses and showcased the raw savagery of the Hulk. Just compare the 2003 Hulks hammer throw of the tank across the desert to the first Avengers Hulk punch of the Leviathans. One exuded power, ferociousness and realism, the other looked unrealistic and cartoonish.

Even the SFX which were lambasted at the time look far more fluid. I may be wrong but it feels as though the MCUs Hulk was pure animation whereas Ang Lee himself did the Hulks action scenes which were motion captured.

The music by Danny Elfman was haunting yet beautiful and just stands out from the typical action hero generic soundtracks.

Is Ang Lees 2003 Hulk a perfect movie? Of course not. But what I'm giving this movie full marks for is the effort by Ang Lee and the respect shown to not only the character of The Hulk, but also the fans.

Having watched Mark Ruffalos interviews, I'm also beginning to think that either he never got The Hulk, or he just capitulated to whatever the studio wanted or he perhaps actually despises being typecast as The Hulk and secretly resents the role. Eric Banas' Bruce Banner has far more intensity than Ruffalos Hulk as did Edward Norton who was a true Hulk comic book fan. Waititi definitely doesn't get the Hulk and I doubt I'll ever watch his Jo Jo Rabbit version of the Hulk ever again.

I've already watched Ang Lees Hulk many times, and will do again in future.

Pungo: A Witch's Tale
(2020)

Brilliantly Bad - Awesomely Awful
Making a good, bad movie is not easy. More often than not, such movies come about by complete accident. They're either big budget laughable flops, or low budget amateurish attempts with the filmmakers trying to take themselves way too seriously. There's no formula to making one and some film makers actually try to make a bad yet enjoyable movie and it very, very rarely comes off.

THIS is how you make a really bad movie. It is really bad, but it somehow retains a certain charm and it certainly had me hooked. I thought that the story was interesting, the special effects were decent yet laughable, the acting was sketchy and it didn't take itself too seriously and actually looked like alot of fun.

I have to say that I really enjoyed it.

In fact, it is so exceptionally bad (in a good way) that I intend watching it again.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law
(2022)

RIP - The Incredible Hulk
Marvel started digging Hulks Grave with Age of Ultron.

They then threw him into it in Thor: Raganarok.

Then started shovelling the sand into it in Infinity War and Endgame.

And with She-Hulk, they've laid the gravestone in place so we can finally say our last goodbyes.

In truth, we rarely saw the real Hulk throughout the entire MCU saga and in She Hulk and it would have been a far better show if the makers had shown a bit of respect to fans of the Hulk, by not having him in the show at all.

Forget the lame jokes, the poor cgi, and the ludicrous ending of She-Hulk, I could even live with that and have come up with a 5 or 6/10 rating, but this show to me represents more than anything, the final death of The Incredible Hulk. Because that's what Hulk fans always wanted to see the Hulk do: Make flipping cocktails. MCU have turned one of the most fearsome Superheroes into a side gag. A total and complete buffoon.

And it seems as though I'm not alone as more and more fans of The Hulk seem to be now turning full circle and are now appreciating Ang Lees 2003 Hulk and 2008 Incredible Hulk movies.

Rest in peace big guy, it was nice knowing you.

Holmes & Watson
(2018)

Inner Monologue: Write review...give a 10/10 rating.....call other reviewers a bunch of idiots....result......a constant stream of thumbs down
No Way Is This Movie a 10/10.

Neither is it a 3.9/10. The current IMDb rating.

And it most certainly isn't a 1/10 movie either.

Its probably somewhere around a 4-6/10 depending on your taste.

Holmes and Watson swings from some brilliant absurdist comedy to just plain and simple absurdity so it is very easy to just fixate on the Python'esque quirkiness and just apply it slap dash to the whole movie.

It does a brilliant job of sending up the Guy Ritchie versions which I also enjoy

"Check number of characters.....still not enough to make the 600 character count.... continue with rambling inner monologue in the hope that by the time I end this sentence that I will have"

Done!

Strippers vs Werewolves
(2012)

A Nightmare On Albert Square
I'll admit that as a fan of awful movies, this one had me completely stumped.

The best bad movies I find are the ones where a serious effort has been made, but due to budget constraints, an amateur director, and poor actors falls flat on its face. Or, a big budget movie with A list actors and bucket loads of money thrown at it that somehow turns into an embarrassing failure.

I couldn't quite get my head around this one. S vs W had a fair sprinkling of decent actors who all came across as overacting amateurs, the make up/prosthetics were laughable, the dialogue felt as though the actors were just winging it without a script, the editing was all over the place.

Overall, Strippers vs Vampires was a complete train wreck. No too ways about it.

The main nail in the coffin, or silver bullet in the heart for me is that the producers have actually aimed for a Sharknado and when you're actually aiming for a 'so bad it's good' movie you need to be absolutely spot on. Good bad movies usually just happen. There's no effort and no formula. The magic just happens unintentionally.

In the case of S vs V all you have is just simply a bad movie. End of.

Project Ithaca
(2019)

Decent Low Budget Sci Fi Flick
Looks like it is a prerequisite now that if you give a positive review to a movie that many consider to be trash, you need to write a discaimer declaring that you're not a shill.

In that case, feel free to check my IMDb profile and the list of my reviews. I've been reviewing movies on IMDb for 15+ years and my favourite genre is sci-fi, and in particular low budget sci-fi flicks.

And Project Ithaca is definitely one of the better sci fi movies. I've watched it twice and if you gave me the choice between 'Project Ithaca' and 'Arrival', I'd take the former each and every time over the big budget, superbly shiny, polished turd that is Arrival. BTW I've reviewed Arrival years ago as well so please feel free check that review out

The effects are decent, as are the acting, directing and overall special effects. I enjoyed watching it and found it interesting and thought provoking and a million light years from the repetitive big budget dross that everyone seems to usually fawn over.

If you enjoy the more Twilight Zone, Outer Limits or Black Mirror type sci-fi and are bored to tears of typical Hollywood big budget flicks, Project Ithaca may be right up your street.

If not, then it's best if you stick to your yearly dose of 'new' Star Wars, Alien, Predator, Terminator, Transformers and Star Trek movies.

Intouchables
(2011)

Well That Came Out Of The Blue
My taste in movies is pretty narrow. Untouchables was recommended to me and about 10 mins I could tell that it was going to be at the very least a worthwhile watch even though its not what would typically be on my 'To Watch' list.

Give me low budget mind-bending sci Fi, and I'll be satisfied with anything you could throw at me. While I enjoy typical dramas on occasion, you'd rarely see me mark one more than a 6 or 7. Even something like 'The Father' had to have a certain twisty element like it did to work for me.

To be brutally honest 'Intouchable' is far from an original movie. The 'odd-couple who end up bringing out the best in each other' trope has been done a million times.

Yet Untouchable feels fresh and unique somehow. The acting is excellent, as is the direction, cinematography, music and sound.

Miranda Veil
(2020)

Maggie Brown's review earned an extra couple of stars
I was going to give this movie a 7 but after reading the producers own review of her movie I decided to up my score.

I have no issues with a political viewpoint. Everyone has one. What really annoys me is when it is shoehorned into a movie in an attempt to preach to the audience.

The fact that Maggie took the option to tell a good story instead deserves kudos.

We primarily watch movies for entertainment and abit of escapism and Miranda Veil ticks both boxes with a nice big dose of quirkiness sprinkled on top. Definitely my kind of indie movie.

More mainstream movie makers should take note.

Knock Knock
(2015)

And Now For Something Completely Different
And boy was this different.

Movie watchers really have no idea what they want nowadays. They'll moan about how predictable and samey movies are nowadays, saying that they knew exactly where Knock Knock was going to end up, and then whinge about the ending saying that Keanu Reeves character should have turned into John Wick and gone all Gun-Fu on the two girls.

Maybe we just deserve to be force fed Star Wars 23: The Jar Jar Binks Origin Story, Marvel: The Pancake Warrior, Transformers: Optimus Boredom and The Fast And Furious 637 forever.

I too was expecting in typical Hollywood fashion for Evan to pull a rabbit out of the hat and turn the tables on his abusers. And even though I was sickened, angry and frustrated by the ending, on reflection, I'm glad that Knock Knock made me actually feel something, because 95% of movies are just formulaic, test audience approved, regurgitated, cut and paste souless crap.

Knock Knock is no masterpiece. It's not even a good movie.

It just really isn't as bad as everyone says it is.

If Knock Knock makes you feel uncomfortable, angry and frustrated:

That's the point!

Final Space
(2018)

Netflix Does It Again.
Have you ever sat down to read a really good book only to turn the page to the final chapter where there's nothing there?

Or have you gone to watch a movie and with 20 mins of the movie left, the projectioninst decides that he'd rather go home early and leave the audience sitting in the dark watching a blank screen?

Or have you ever ordered a take out meal only to discover that the fries and soda are missing?

This is now a standard model for all streaming services. Just list a TV series, with an exciting synopsis, the actors and directors, but fail to mention one important fact:

The story that you will spend hours watching, HAS NO ENDING!

If you're going to sell me a half baked product and expect me to spend hours consuming it, at least do me the courtesy of listing a disclaimer saying "THIS IS YET ANOTHER SERIES WHICH WAS WAS CANCELLED BY THE MORONS AT NETFLIX".

Final Space would have gotten a 9 from me, but I'm done giving high scores and writing a detailed review for yet another brilliant yet cancelled series.

Either commit to finishing a story, or don't waste any more of my time.

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