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From the Ashes (2017)
Good Documentary Regardless of your opinion on the Coal Industry
This documentary does a good job of illustrating the pros and cons of the Coal Industry, what it's weaknesses are and proposes how to address the economic issues surrounding the flailing industry.
I am not personally convinced about "Anthropogenic" Climate Change which is unfortunately discussed heavily in this film, Coal is after all a high emitter of Carbon Dioxide, however I still found it very informative and am glad I sat through it.
There is a piece on the effects caused by pollution from the Coal Industry, most of which as documented in Gasland, are also caused by the Fracking Industry. Personally I'd prefer to see both Coal and Fracking become a thing of the past, and Renewable Energy or maybe even Nuclear Power (Thorium Fission Cycle not Uranium or Plutonium) become the standard.
The health effects portion of the film is highly emotive, which is common for documentaries trying to call people to action, and I was unconvinced that "Asthma" can be solely blamed on the Coal Industry, personally I believe that there are other possible contributing factors, food additives like Mono Sodium Glutimate (MSG) and Mono Potassium Glutimate (often used in "MSG Free" foods) for example.
Overall I would say this film starts out with a fairly unbiased view, is well put together, flows well and if one overlooks the constant pushing of Global Warming, addresses the issues and reaches an appropriate conclusion. 6/10
Hacking the Wild (2017)
Good Idea, Poor Execution
The idea of someone using common electronics, like a laptop, phone and even an electronics kit to complement their survival skills, sounded like an interesting idea, especially for kids to educate them about science in a fun and exciting manner.
Unfortunately this show doesn't really achieve that goal. The usefulness of the gadgets he makes are debatable, many are completely useless or at least inferior to a low-tech solution.
If you are looking for a show to illustrate basic science principles to kids in an entertaining manner, I'd look elsewhere, many people on YouTube do a far better job of that.
If you are looking for a new survival show, unless you want to watch someone who appears mostly incompetent at survival, negotiate highly staged obstacles, I'd give this a miss.
In saying that, I found that I had a good laugh, mostly at his ineptitude and the sarcastic remarks made by the real survival experts, who provide him with a little advice at the beginning.
The production values are on par with other survival shows like Dual Survival and Bear Grylls, so for that I give it 3 stars.
Is O.J. Innocent? The Missing Evidence (2017)
Who gave the Go-Ahead to make this Crap?
The production quality of this series is very good. Unfortunately nothing else about it is.
6 episodes and they finally work out what took the police back in 1994 seconds to see. Of course if they had worked out that their smoking gun evidence was total BS at the start then they wouldn't have a show.
Watching this show I felt sorry for the family of all involved, including the production crew. This show must have put a few lawyer's kids through university based on the Slander it portrays as evidence. There is the occasional disclaimer but even that is spoken in a token way.
If you want to see 6 hours of what many would describe as "Cyber Bullying" if done online, then watch the whole show, but all the info is presented in the last episode. If your still interested watch that first and judge if the show is worth it for you.
Given enough time and effort anyone could be linked to many different crimes or events. Especially if you only show evidence that supports your theory.
MythBusters: The Search (2017)
It's the Same Narrator...
I'm a fan of the original, however this is a Reality Elimination Show and isn't my thing. Would've worked better without the host and just the Narrator keeping the viewer up to speed.
Contestants compete with each other as they build cool contraptions and blow stuff up similar to MythBusters. Just don't expect any real MythBusting from this series, it's not what it's about.
I hope that the writers/researchers are able to provide the winners with enough content and that the team will have their own unique persona's and not be imitations of the original MythBusters.
If you like Reality Elimination Shows, or want to "get to know" the new MythBusters team before they start, watch it, I doubt it's worse than any other show of it's genre.
The Coming War on China (2016)
Argumentum Ad Hominem
This film is either incorrectly named, or it missed the point entirely.
It starts with human rights abuses committed by the US in the Marshall Islands arguably still continuing to this day. In fact if it ended there I would've rated it a 9 out of 10.
There is a little history thrown in about the Opium Wars and Pilger does a good job of surmising that this is where the US's foreign policy regarding China comes from, however he failed to discuss the impact these events had on China's opinions of the US.
He shows US military bases in Japan and Japanese protests against them. Whilst the argument is made that these bases are a threat to China, he spends more time portraying US military personnel in a very poor light, "they would be more liked if they weren't molesting Japanese school girls".
This film lacks an unbiased look at China, Pilger briefly mentions the Tienanmen Square Massacre and social inequality in China, but that's it, whilst the damning facts about the US flow like a tsunami. I have no reason to believe his claims are false, it's just that they do nothing to illustrate a coming war. "If War is Coming to China the US is the Aggressor" would be a more appropriate title, maybe even "I don't like the US and Here's Why".
Despite it's flaws this documentary is worth watching, mainly for the great piece about the Marshall Islands, but there are some other interesting tidbits throughout.