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Eric (2024)
More a social drama with societal comments than a crime mini-series
The story takes place in the Big Apple in the middle of the 80s.
A kid grows up in an apartment building with his mom and dad, who
are close to divorce.
The dad works at a local TV station as a puppeteer in a TV show he has come up with himself. The kid dissapears on his way to school a morning after mom and dad has yelled at each other again and NYPD gets contacted.
The progress is really slow in the series, where we slowly get to know the surrounding area and the possible suspects. They have done a decent job of recreating the 80s and Benedict Cumberbatch is fairly good at his role.
Since the people the dad is working with are also puppeteers, expect a lot of childish humor and impersonation of voices. Also, the dad seems to be loosing it, imagining the monster his lost kid has drawn, a monster called "Eric". Like the TV Series Ally McBeal we see both real and imaginary characters playing inside the dad's head. Expect to see the monster "Eric" now and then as a side comment throughout the TV series.
I am not sure, but this do not really seems like a crime mystery or crime series , more like a social drama and comment on societal differences. Because of genre confusion and slow progress I give it a half decent rating.
Atlas (2024)
Great effects, riddled with illogical scripting and J-Lo Screaming
First of all, if you are a geek or nerd who loves science fiction movies and movie effects and computer games, you will be entertained !
Much of the movie is centered around the movie star, singer and pop culture symbol Jennifer Lopez. She does a great job in this movie and her mature age is not showing so clear, kudos to Hollywood to using a grown woman in a lead role and even in a genre where women not so often are given the lead role, sci-fi / action / adventure movies.
Now, the movie is packed with illogical script. The FICTION part is way stronger than the SCIENCE part.
First of all, humans are able to send spaceships to distant planets in other galaxies in a short time, with some unexplained hyperspace jump technology. The magic trick that makes humans go to other galaxies instantly.
Next, humans are also dumb enough to just send a single ship which looks like a small assault frigate to a planet where the antagonists live, obviously evil A. I. gone rogue and uncontrollable.
In the last years, the chanting of AI stealing jobs, AI being evil and other scaremongering against AI is a perfect timing to launch a movie where we hunt down evil AI army at the "end of the Universe" and kick their butts and J-Lo saves the day as the popstar queen and heroess she is. Like a latina Xena the Warrior Queen, she kicks AI butt in a very sophisticated mech warrior suit that got a million tricks up its sleeves and also offer therapeutic services and jokes and everyday good buddy advice and affection to the tested J-Lo on the strange alien planet.
That said, the CGI and atmosphere of the alien planet, the visuals and everything with this movie is solid and thorough. For a Nextflix movie, it is a big budget movie of much higher quality than the "TV Movies" they usually make.
Most likely you will be entertained. Don't expect a movie of quality as the more wellknown movies created in this genre. But if you are looking for a decent well made sci-fi flick and are willing to let yourself be entertained and can "sync" with the movie (watch it and you will understand), you will see that the movie is at least as good as "Pacific Rim", but not up there with "Avatar" or any of the later "Star Trek" movies with Chris Pine and his away team.
I am looking forwards to "Star Trek : Strange New Worlds". But in the meantime, you can watch this flick, watching J-Lo experience her own strange new world.
Spaceman (2024)
Adam Sandler meets Dr Phil in space
Earthlings are witnessing a strange cloud in the night sky and South Korea and Czech Republic decide to send spacecrafts to investigate. Seemingly it is a race, but we never see the South Koreans.
On a first note, it is refreshing to see Adam Sandler doing a good performance in a serious role playing the main role in a science fiction movie. We are used to see Adam as a comedian yelling at golf balls or perform his usual slapstick comedy. This is however quite a different type of movie and it shows his versatility. He does a good job in acting in this movie.
The downside of the movie is the slow progress of it and its entangled story of it both being a movie taking place in outer space and at the same time we are devling into the inner thoughts of Sandler's character experiencing that his woman back at Earth carrying his child are about to end their relationship.
Luckily, despite being far away from Earth, outside Jupiter orbit (500 million kilometers), it turns out that the spaceship carrying our main character as the sole traveller has got a stowaway. An alien shows up to his great suprise. The alien got a peculiar look, it looking like it has been bough at the nearest toy shop and is best described as being a large spider monkey which as the same type posess telepathic abilities and empatch insight at the level of Dr Phil.
The movie is dotted with references the Czech Republic. It is possible in the future to do instant telecommunication using "quantum technology" and people can talk instantly with eachother on distances of about 500 million km. It should take some 1500 seconds both ways or about 50 minutes in real life since lightspeed is the speed limit in the Universe.
Moonfall (2022)
For the Moonwatch!
The movie manages to combine a strong cast and good use of CGI to combie with pseudo-science and hogwash of utter nonsense.
Our Moon is loosing its orbit and a janitor turned scientists portrayed by Samwell Tarly, I mean John Bradley, has done the math. Evidently our moon is not what it seems to be, that is - a natural satelite of the Earth.
There is no doubt that the movie has got some pretty spectacular usage of CGI as the Moon closes up on Earth. As a fun fact and side note, the Roche limit for Moon-Earth dictates that when the Moon comes closer than some 18,470 kilometres above the surface of the Earth, the Moon will disintegrate as the tidal forces will rip it apart.
In the movie, good usage of a trusty old spacecraft is being used to reach the moon on such a short notice as it has in a short time done drastic changes in its orbit.
I will not disclose too much of the movie and it does as a science fiction movie touch quite a few sci-fi topics seen in earlier works and postulated by different authors, such as dyson spheres. The movie is some of the more imaginative sci-fi movies that has been created and often people dislike it when movies tosses science and reality away. Sci-fi movies are meant to sometimes let us imagine the far fetched theories that exists out there. Evidently, some of the writers of this movie might on a daily basis prefer a hat made of tinfoil as they feed on some conspiracy theories of the Moon not being what it looks like.
But I think also it is a fair piece of entertainment and will be a lot of fun for many viewers, as long as they remember to switch of their brains a bit and ignore the goofy "science" going on.
At the same time, the movie do in fact contain some basis in science-fiction that makes it worthwhile to watch. I will suggest the viewer to view the entire movie to understand the most of story. Just like in Oblivion, things are really disclosed at the end of the movie.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Subspace Rhapsody (2023)
Great singing, but where is this season going ?
The singing and music is quite good, for a refreshing space musical and yet another episode of our "Space Oddity" that is "Strange New Worlds". But I am wondering where this season is going. In the previous episode we had cartoons. It looks like the writers are having a blast of annoying us Star Trek fans. It is no doubt that Star Trek : Strange New Worlds is way better than Star Trek : Discovery, but they are diverging the script so much I cannot keep up with the overall plot.
It is an episode format, but in the 10-13 episodes per season we expect progress of an overall plot. Right now, I do not understand the main plot of this season.
Overall, it is a good iteration of Star Trek, but they need to cook up something more consistent, soon. We have heard a lot about Klingons on the offensive and this "Gorn" species, and temporal warriors travelling through time. But the script is all over the place. It looks like the iteration has too many writers with different ideas where the season and the entire franchise will go. And devoted fans having watched Star Trek in decades question themselves : Dude - where is my Star Trek ?
Hubie Halloween (2020)
What is up with the negative reviews ? Hilarious comedy !
The movie is packed with jokes, just like "The Waterboy"!
Once more we have a challenged 'young man' living at home
with his momma growing up in a small town (Salem, where the
famous witch processes took place) who is obsessed with
Halloween but at the same so easily scared!
The movie got a lot of well known actors and I found it a positive vibed
comedy. We need humor in this world and Adam Sandler is a champion
at creating these. Yes, it is goofy but it is good for you !
Expect a classic Adam Sandler movie and of course we have. Rob Schneider with us in a Sandler movie ! Also, the performance of. Kevin James is funny, being a tough but somewhat lazy cop of the small town. If you want to train your laughing muscles a bit, this is the movie for you !
Lou (2022)
Rated M for Meh and S for Snooze
The most impressive is how 62 years old Allison Jenney beats up younger males in their prime. An outstanding performance by this old lady. They have trained her fighting skills well. The locations are also great, the badges say San Juan County, so it is just near Vancouver Island.
However, the movie is too long and the script is often not engaging. It also feels predictable. The filming and musical score is good, but the story is too unrealistic. Just another assembly line Netflix movie. But I guess if you enjoy action movies combined with family drama, this is a great choice.
The plot picks up a bit at the end, but not much.
Det norske hus (2017)
Absurd comedy about Norway and immigration
This movie is a parody of recent developments where immigrants in some countries must prove their good intentions. For example in America, immigrants are told to learn the national anthem and pledge their loyalty.
In this movie, immigrants are tested through a series of absurd trials to prove they are qualified for living in Norway.
Now, this movie might be an ironic movie which is trying to ridicule these steps, whoch in many cases can make it easier for immigrants to understand the country they have chosen to immigrate to.
What is so funny in this movie is that many of the trials are just stupid and unecessary, for ezample learning to do Sunday walks. Norwegians love hiking in nature, so it is a trial or test the immigrants must pass.
This movie is perhaps easiest to understand for Norwegians, as we know and understand the quirkiness of our own nature. I still believe this movie could be enjoyed by people living in other countries (including ilmigrants!)
Uncharted (2022)
Mediocre "National Treasure" and messy scripts
This movie has got some good parts, but it destroys much of itself due to poor scripting. The treasure finding part is a huge part of this movie, as it is an adoption of the "Uncharted" video game series. Tom Holland does a good job as the athletic treasure hunter.
However, what I cannot tolerate is that they build up a villain using Antonio Banderas and they kill him in the script far too early in favor of a more mediocre character. The casting in this movie for the less prominent roles are a bit average. Also, Mark Wahlberg's performance is a bit too familiar. He is starring in so many movies that he is getting a bit predictive.
This movie is in some parts very entertaining, but it also feels actually also a bit boring due to messy scripting. The musical score is also terrible.
Mot i brøstet (1993)
Quality Norwegian comedy with renowned actors
The main cast in season one of "Mot i brøstet" was a seasoned one, well known from theatre and Arve Opsahl was a well known playing the villain Egon Olsen in the movie series "Olsenbanden". Nils Vogt and Sven Nordin is also well known, starring in both theater and movies. The later seasons broadens the cast, with women also taking the spot. As many humor series, it all revolves around a few locations, most often at Karl Reverud's house, played by Nils Vogt.
It is the theatrical background of the actors which shines through and for people who has live a few decades, it is a heart warming experience to see old reruns of the show on DVD or streaming.
Tore Ryen made a number of comedy series following "Mot i Brøstet", like "Karl & Co" and "Hos Martin". This TV series is the original, packed with humor. Please note though, that after modern days standard the humor is borderline controversial, with the occassional swearing and a bit of "theatrical humor", which often is a bit on the edge.
The TV series is probably not easy to graph for younger people who has not lived through the 90s, a bygone era. However, this is a treasure of Norwegian comedy and culture from the 90s, some years ago. It is worth a binge, especially for 30+ people from Norway.
The Gray Man (2022)
Stunning visuals and great action combined with predictable script
Netflix finally did a decent action movie with great locations and good action choreography! There are some long sequences here, I also like some proper dose of violence. But the protagonist Ryan Gosling lacks the wit and muscles of Arnold Schwartzennegger and other pro action heroes. Fighting technique is good, but good action movies should also include humor.
The movie resembles Jason Bourne movies a lot, especially the dark project background of Ryan Gosling character "Sierra 6". But there are no proper love story in this movie either. Despite the movie being intense and impressive - it feels somewhat vague in its script. The musical score is also a bit bad. Still, a strong seven from me.
Big Timber (2020)
A great reality show from Vancouver Island
This show is about the Weinstob family and their employees working at a mill on Vancouver Island and we also see other parts of this great island and beautiful nature. What is impressive is how the boss Kevin Weinstob, and also his employees and family tackle everyday challenges with ingenuity and admirable effort to survive in a world of timber industry which favors big industry compared to this small mill.
There is some talk in the reviews about this series glorifying the timber industry and cutting down trees and forests. That is so wrong. Timber industry is actually environmentally friendly. It is way worse to live in concrete and steel housings and forests are reusable industry which we must harvest.
What better way of honoring this tradition by watching this show showing the lives of everyday honest canadian workers making their dough ? I cheer for these people more than big mill industry !
PS ! I have several times seen multiple episodes in a row and season two is now out on Netflix ! Binge-worthy !
The Long Road to War (2018)
Interesting documentary revealing the long path to The Great War
At school we have long been taught that it was the 'shots in Sarajevo' and assassination of arch duke Franz Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was the start of The Great War.
But however, I suspect that some of the motives of this documentary is not only to enlighten, but at the same time promote this idea of the 'south slavs' of countries like Serbia and Bosnia is done by the movie creators to support an idea of unification of Serbia and Bosnia and several other countries (such as perhaps Monte Negro). The movie is funded by Serbia on different levels and we are told many times that Bosnia and Serbia consists of primarily the same people.
So it is a very well performed documentary going into depth into the decades before the war and thouroghly describes the advesaries and their different conflicts and interests.
At the same time, I am not sure which parts of the documentary is a documentary and which parts are more motivational talk by Serbia to try to argument for Serbia's reunification of Bosnia and perhaps Yugoslavian grandure.. I feel I have to be a historian to pick apart the documentary part from propaganda or 'wishful thinking' fra Beograd..
Snoop Dogg's F*cn Around Comedy Special (2022)
Average good standup combining some music from Snoop Dawg
It is set like a party and people sit in a sofa and smoke ... well they are smoking some heavy shi..
Performances of comedians telling jokes are pretty average and we have heard a lot of the jokes before. But I guess this show has its fan base and listening to Snoop telling about growing up and admiring pimps is at the same time a sad story on the struggles of everyday life.
But these black entertainers now got a lot of money and I liked seeing that guy from Chapelle show. Missed the robot dancer.
But we get it Snoop. He is rich bi**tch!
Katt Williams was really infunny btw.
The Lincoln Lawyer (2022)
Uninspiring Law drama from Los Angeles
Some lawyer with two ex wives and trying to get into his business again after a period of drug misuse, walks around in LA playing investigator, visiting crime scenes and trying to solve the case outside the court house.
First episode, the first case is solved almost instantly. While our lawyer hero get cheered by his two ex wives having a crush on him still.
The musical score is also random and not a good fit to the scenes. This is definately a family TV show where you do not need to think much. But somewhat binge worthy as there is not much to see on Netflix these days anyways..
A plus to see Neve Campbell again as wife number #1.
Our Great National Parks (2022)
Great photography and less great narration
The visuals are great, but the narration from Mr Obama and overall script seems a bit whimsical. We follow some animals and watch what they eat, before we follow some other species. It lacks an overview and listening to Obama read one sentence at a time per scene in a dozy manner is with his calm and soft voice more like a lullaby than listening to a biologist actually teach us something new. Netflix documentaries often are more about entertainment than enlightenment. But this series is well above average at many aspects still.
Star Trek: Discovery: Rosetta (2022)
A painfully long march towards a plot
This entire season 4 has been one whopping drag towards something
of a conclusion. Now the starship "Discovery" has travelled out of our Galaxy through to inter-galactic space to find a meaning behind the mysterious race "Ten-C" which is behind some interstellar mining device, which is also functioning as a a von Neumann device - destroying planets on its either intentional or accidental path through the vast stretches of space..
So we now have got to some weird gas planet where some giant creatures live in the skies on floating asteroids, where baby skeletons of their infants still outsize the away team of our four heroes.
These creatures emits chemical markers of emotions (feromones) with FEELINGS (!), which is all this show has degraded into.
Star Trek Discovery got its good sides, such as a high quality of CGI for a Television series, excellent use of scenery and costumes and so on. Its problem in STD (yes, the show is abbreviated to this..) is it sets so high goals to cover so much and still it becomes one entire drag to get to the bottom of the plot of each season. We have now come to the TENTH episode and still no proper display of Ten-C race, are they extinct?
Mother/Android (2021)
"Working Joes" of Alien: Isolation have come down to Earth
This movie probably has some gamers among its writers. The "Working Joes" from the Alien:Isolation game, Androids with evil robot lit up robot eyes are on a rampage again. Or at least that is what I think is the inspiration of this movie.
In the future, Man has made butlers of Androids and filled every US home with them. Suddenly, a strange signal is beamed out into the suburbs and the Androids becomes homocidial maniacs, killing everyone they see. We follow a pregnant mom and her boyfriend along a route into the woods to evade these maniac-Androids let loose to identify and kill every human they see.
At the start of the the movie, you hardly see any US Army soldier and National Guard during the Android "uprising", only a few vigilantes and survivors dug into the deep woods later on show up.
But it seems the Americans did not see this disaster of disobedient Robot Butlers / "Working Joes" be a possible outcome with no seemingly easy way to switch off the robots except EMP bombs and crude weapons such as a machete and a simple fire arm such as a revolver. Apparently, the Robot Butlers have already went to Guns'n Ammo and bough up every weapon in America, on of the nations in the world where people have the best home protection and such be prepared for any Zombie or Crazed-Robo apocalypse.
A lot of these Netflix movies seems like an assembly line of goofy writing and poorly used CGI / effects. This movie feels like a B-movie and should not deserve more than a mediocre verdict. If you still give it a good rating, you probably accept a lot of plot holes and accept that Robot Butlers one day will fool us all with their so-called fine manners and scheme to achieve World Dominance.
Corporate (2018)
Modern comedy from the dog eat dog corporate USA
This show is packed by jokes of both obvious and less obvious twists of the cynical work environment of a profitable large corporation resembling Honeywell, called Hampton deVille.
Many american comedy shows are a bit superficial and exaggerated, but this truly is a show written by talented writers. I have only watched two episodes, but it is already an enjoyable comedy.
The show's target audience are white collar university graduates who work in IT / tech companies, for many other viewers the show contains probably a bit too non-mainstream jokes and the show will feel a bit irrelevant and nerdy.
But this show grew on me quickly.
Eden: Untamed Planet (2021)
Great visuals and kudos to including lesser known species.
The first episode from Borneo skips much footage of elephants but instead shows clips of the sun bear, proboscos monkeys and pitcher plants. I have seen nature TV shows for decades and this is a trend I hope to see more of. If you watch nature programmes, they usually are about the big mammals. Seeing footage of lessEr known species is a great thing about this series.
The narrator is obviously a choice maybe suited for children TV shows like Peppa Pig instead of a quality nature documentary series. She obviously do not have a degree in biology. I would rather listen to Sir David Attenborough. She also adds interpretation of what the animals are thinking, all in all it sounds very corny like listening to a fairy tale.
Away (2020)
Cell phones in space
Apparently we can talk to one another accross vast parts of the Solar System with no delay, given we use the cell phones handed out to the actors of this series. Whatever space age technology these cell phones use, the signals seems to travel at Warp 100, with a pre warp technology space ship.
I liked the idea with a lunar rocket base, the gravity well is far easier to overwin from the lunar surface than from Earth's surface. So the writers seemed to create a halfway credible space age tv show with lots of drama and space age cell phones. Probably to attract a younger audience.