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Reviews

Hunter: The Biggest Man in Town
(1985)
Episode 3, Season 2

More Kramer singing (yawn)
I love Hunter, it's my favourite TV show and this episode had some of the wonderful and seemingly improvised banter between Hunter and McCall that made it so great. But it's yet another attempt by Kramer to shoehorn her frankly rather mediocre singing into the show and with zero subtlety (there would be more in future episodes). She even tells Hunter she 'writes songs in her spare time.' There's a reason you've probably never heard of Stepfanie Kramer the singer and it was a shame she left after the show after the 6th season to pursue a singing career that never really took off. Her chemistry with Hunter was the magic behind the show's success but it became annoying how she would try to find opportunities in the scripts to showcase her hobby. Fred Dryer was a professional American football player before acting and yet I never recall him going undercover as such or working that angle into any show.

Anyway, a standard episode with good guests stars in Stuart Whitman and Don Stroud, both of whom also guest starred in The A-Team, another Stephen J Cannell production. And at least Ms Kramer looks good firing a big gun.

RoboDoc: The Creation of RoboCop
(2023)

Brilliant Documentary about an Absolute Classic
A brilliant compendium and documentary about one of the greatest films ever made. That sounds like hyperbole but when you learn about the sheer depth and breadth of creativity and talent that went into making the film, the toils and the struggle, you'll understand what I mean. I can't believe how they managed to get hold of virtually everyone that was involved in the film, even the actresses who played the 'models' at Bob Morton's house and the other officers at the precinct. Even the female newscaster! This is as replete as a study and love letter to a film could be. Nancy Allen still looks gorgeous and thankfully hasn't subjected herself to the awful plastic surgery that most women in Hollywood of her age seem to. Peter Weller has become notably more pretentious in his old age but at least they got him on camera. Surprised he didn't mention his PhD in art history. Oops, I just did it for him. Everyone interviewed is so funny and effusive with admiration for the film you can see how much they loved being a part of it, even after all these years. Only a shame that they couldn't get the great Rob Bottin, who designed the Robocop suit, to share his insights. Excellent documentary series.

Heart of Stone
(2023)

Another hollow and generic product from Netflix
It beggars belief how Netflix can spend so much money on cliched, generic trash like this and cancel other great shows like Mindhunter. The script and dialogue for this movie sound like it was written by a computer programmed by a ten year old after watching a load of other films. Every idea and concept is stolen from somewhere else. Even the 'cholinesterase inhibitor' was straight out of The Rock. This is what constitutes entertainment now. Insipid and bland conveyor-belt product, utterly hollow and superficial where every close-up in every action scene is in front of a green screen. I realise they're trying to build a franchise around Gal Gadot, but she deserves better and everyone else is either annoying or miscast and completely unbelievable. Most of them surely can't believe the cringeworthy lines they have to deliver. Hope they were well paid. Up to you but this is one to avoid. Believe me when you finish you won't remember or care about what you just watched.

The Lost City
(2022)

Truly amazed these actors signed up for this.
Two minutes into this film and you know what you're going to get. And what you get is a studio product, the very definition of mediocrity. Despite ripping off the premise from the infinitely superior Romancing The Stone the writing is atrociously unfunny and the direction completely by-the-numbers. As if the director was telling everyone he needed so many shots that day so let's get on and get through the pain of it as efficiently as possible.

I realise Sandra Bullock has had a lot of work done on her face, which is now permanently dour, but she looks embarrassed and bored in almost every scene. Even being carried away from an explosion her lifeless facial muscles are completely expressionless and she is discernibly counting down in her head to the detonation. Channing Tatum has difficulty even just playing himself and is he's clearly bored too, as indeed is Brad Pitt in his cameo, evidently thankful for the brevity of his role (taken as a reciprocal favour to Bullock for her cameo in his movie, Bullet Train). None of them manage to wring any excitement or life out of the terrible script and dialogue and the adventure itself is so utterly boring that not even the lazy vista shots can help.

The people who like this movie are clearly an undemanding generation, who have probably never seen more skilfully crafted examples within this genre such as the aforementioned Romancing The Stone.

Anyway, do yourself a favour and avoid this one. It's genuinely awful and you can easily tell that even the cast thought so too. They certainly don't need this kind of rubbish so why they signed up for this drivel is anyone's guess.

The Undoing
(2020)

Too much plastic surgery Nicole
It's a watchable show, although the ending is little rushed and somewhat disappointing given the constant teasing of twists. But the most distracting aspect is Nicole Kidman's utterly emotionless face, and not through a choice by her character, but clearly because of her copious and unfortunate plastic surgery. Even when running and screaming her expressionless face is simply fixed to her skull. The botox clearly works. I've never thought of her as a particularly good actress and now she has diminished one of the most important tools of drama - her face.

Everyone else in the show does well, Hugh Grant is always watchable and charismatic, but the writing is not particularly original and Edgar Ramirez is criminally underused.

In conclusion, had I not watched the series I'm not sure I would have missed anything. Other than to reel in horror at Ms Kidman's stapled face.

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