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Reviews
The Irregulars (2021)
I wish it were more Holmes and less ghosts
I everything Sherlock Holmes. Some are great and some are sad. This one falls on the sad end of the spectrum. I would have enjoyed this so much more if the stories were more scooby doo where the ghosts and spirits are all just illusions and trickery. It would have been much more Sherlockian to expose fakers than to go down this road.
Legend of the Lich Lord (2015)
Surprisingly funny and well acted.
There are many sad gamer flicks out there. Made by gamers, for gamers. Almost all of them are painful to watch (with the possible exception of Knights of Badassdom).
Not so this one my dear Frodo.
Yes, we know its going to be the usual set of DnD characters, but when they opened with rogue in a dungeon humor, I was willing to stick around for more. Oh dear, so much more. So much more, and done so well.
Humor! Plot twists! Decent acting! Wow. Just like a real movie.
Even the special effects were well designed camera tricks and compositing, creating magic within the budget without looking cheezy. They fit the movie, just like the effects on the scene changes.
Thank you. I enjoyed it.
GLOW (2017)
Laugh out loud funny
I wasn't sure about this, i just started watching on Netflix one night. Wow what a surprise. Yes, there's a little relationship quasi-drama, but that just makes the good parts even better. Alison Brie's campy over-the-top performances while she searches for her character are hilarious. And I'm glad to see a series for Marc Maron. It must have been written for him from the start. Nobody else could portray Sam the way he does. By the end of the series, with the girls in the ring, I'm rolling on the floor laughing at the whole thing. Great satire of pro-wrestling, and great acting by all the principals. Looking forward to the next installment.
Underwear (2015)
Compelling story with interesting insight into Japanese culture
I was surfing Netflix for something new and started watching Atelier out of curiosity. I'm not sure when it happened, but at some point I was drawn in and couldn't let go. I'll save you the trouble of looking it up: Atelier is a French word for an artist's workshop. The plot is a fairly predictable Cinderella story (even referred to in one episode): Young country girl just out of school goes to work in the big city. The store is a high-end custom lingerie shop. High-end meaning all hand made for an exclusive set of clients, and costing $500-$1000. Mayu is a fabric expert, not a designer. I think what kept me watching was that the show doesn't focus exclusively on young Mayu. There is strong character development of the whole cast as the series progresses. The obsessed and perfectionist owner, the assistant designers, the business manager, etc. I enjoyed watching how the story developed for many of the peripheral characters we see early on. We get to see how they are really integral to the story, and how they progress and influence things much later. My wife asked me why I was watching a chick flick and my only response was that I found it interesting even though I had to see the whole thing in subtitles. Kudos to the translator for bringing out a lot of subtleties, double entendre, and depth. I have heard the Japanese language is nothing but such things. The meaning is well-conveyed by the acting which was excellent across the board. The only weakness in the cast was that of Mirei Kiritani, the lead actress who plays Mayuko. In many scenes she just comes across as a stereotyped young Japanese girl, the kind we see portrayed too often. (Maybe that really is how they act? I don't know) My only other annoyance with the series was the strange time jumps that would sometimes occur without warning. They seemed to cut past some important developments or just jump too far ahead too fast. All in all I felt like Atelier was much like anything created by BBC -- It's better than 90% of any American commercial crap.