Category Archives: 2018

2018, Acceptable for teenagers, Acceptable Sci-Fi, Acceptable Science, Aliens from outer space, Amazon Prime, Amnesia, Astronauts, Brain Transplant, Government medical experiment, Medical Theme, Must suspend disbelief, Nice Aliens, Psychedelic Visual Effects, Sci-Fi, Talking Heads, Unusual

The Beyond (2018)

From Amazon Prime:

After observing an anomaly in space, scientists transplant human brains in to synthetic bodies and send them through the wormhole.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1.5 hour sci-fi fantasy.

Proceeding as a sort of continuous interview with the scientists, which means a lot of talking heads, the plot mixes fantasy with the personal lives of the participants.  In most sci-fi scenarios we usually have to suspend disbelief and this example is no different.  However,  this particular sci-fi film does not fit the usual clichéd mold due to its monologue plus action style of flow.

Depiction of the aliens is perhaps the most original I have seen.

Probably not for everyone but well done production.

2018, Adultery, America of the 1960s, Arson, Basically Sad, Depressing, DO NOT MISS, Failed Marriage, Father-son relations, Feckless Father, High school students, Kanopy streaming, Longsuffering wife, Mother Abandons Family, Mother-son relations, Pitch-perfect ending, Unhappy Ending, Wonderful acting

Wildlife (2018)

From Kanopy:

Family bonds are stretched to the breaking point in the emotionally stunning directorial debut from Paul Dano. Carey Mulligan and Jake Gyllenhaal star.

From Kanopy you can stream this 1 hour 44 minute complete film.

If Jake Gyllenhaal is in a film, then you probably want to see the film. “Wildlife” is just the kind of laid-back , sad drama that Gyllenhaal favors. For the most part Carey Mulligan as the mother and Ed Oxenbould as the son carry the story while Gyllenhaal as the feckless father is absent for much of the story (and a disaster when he is present).

Superb acting makes this film a piercing experience. If you can stand the unhappiness, then DO NOT MISS!

2018, Abduction, Acceptable for teenagers, Arson, Bloody scenes, Chase film, Culture of India, Drugging as a weapon, Explicit sex, Fantasy, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, Fight Scenes, Gangs, Gay theme, Highly acceptable trash, Human experimentation, Improbable details, Lesbian Theme, Martial Arts, Medical Theme, Monstrous Father, Murder, Must suspend disbelief, Netflix Streaming, Nudity, Sex Scenes, Violent

Sense8 (2018)

From IMDB:

A group of people around the world are suddenly linked mentally, and must find a way to survive being hunted by those who see them as a threat to the world’s order.

From Netflix you can stream 2 seasons of this fantasy soap opera. Each season has 12 episodes. Each episode lasts about an hour except for episode 1 of season 2 which runs 2 hours.

Members of a sensate group are mutually mentally and visibly present to one another.

Given all the sex scenes (sensate group sex anyone?) ,  romances, violence, evil villains, and impossible rescues,  a fitting category for this watch-a-thon might be “highly acceptable trash”.

Don’t be surprised if at times you are not quite sure what is happening in the plot. Just play along for the fun of it.

 

2018, Acceptable for teenagers, Amazon Prime, Androids, Attempted Suicide, Discussions about Emotions, Drama, Romance, Sex Scenes

Zoe (2018)

From Amazon Prime:

ZOE tells a tale of forbidden love between an engineer and a robot. ZOE (Léa Seydoux) and COLE (Ewan McGregor) are colleagues and veiled lovers at a lab working to perfect romantic relationships. But their
relationship is threatened when Zoe discovers the truth about their relationship, sending them into a spiral of confusion, betrayal and the most intense of human emotions, love.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 43 minute complete film.

Rather than a sci-fi story, this film centers on the divide between human emotions and manufactured emotions injected into a robot body indistinguishable from a human body. Can that divide ever be genuinely crossed?

In addition to the relation between Zoe and Cole,  there is a relevant third party Ash, also a robot (played by Theo James who plays Sidney Parker in “Sanditon”).  Imagine being sentient enough to realize you exist but can be “turned off” at any time.

Consisting almost entirely of discussions about emotions and the possibility of happiness, do not expect any action sequences.

2018, Abduction, Abuse of Women, Amazon Prime, Amputation as revenge, Amputee, Bloody scenes, Boating, Bullying, Clever Plot, Conspiracy, Controlling personality, Corrupt policemen, Corrupt Politicians, Corruption, Could Be Hard To Watch, Creepy, Dancing, Dark, Dark family secrets, Disturbing Image, Dysfunctional Lives, Eccentric Detective, Ethical struggles, Explicit sexual discussion, False Accusations, False Imprisonment, Father-daughter relations, FBI, Flashbacks, Forensics, Frame someone for a crime, Friendship, Gory, Grim, Grisly, Hopeless Love, Jealousy, Kidnapping, Masturbation, Murder, Narcissist, Nuns, Occasional gore, Personal Betrayal, Police Corruption, Prostitute, Psychopath, Revenge, Ruthless Killer, Sex Scenes, Sexual Perversion, Sociopath, Strongly Discouraged, Suicide, Suspense, Unscrupulous drive to power, Upsetting ending, Violent, Well developed plot, Wrongful Arrest

Goliath Second Season 2 (2018)

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From Amazon Prime:

Billy McBride returns to criminal defense, taking on a grisly double murder case. His client is a 16-yearold boy, and Billy’s damn sure he’s innocent. Billy, Patty, and the team fervently build their case in the seedy underworld of Los Angeles. As the murders’ true culprits come to light, the implications reach as far as the mayoral race — and the city’s preeminent billionaire developer.

From Amazon Prime you can stream 4 seasons of this lawyer series.  This review is just for season 2 which consists of 8 episodes where each episode is roughly one hour.

Normally I am recommending films. Here, however, I am strongly warning you that this is a ugly season. For one example, the chief villain amputates limbs from people who offend him.  For another example, one of the chief’s underlings suffers from “eroticized childhood trauma”, in which he can only get sexual pleasure from watching someone sooth an amputated limb. Heard enough?

To further clinch my discouraging review,   although some of the criminals suffer their just punishments, several innocent people are falsely imprisoned or killed.  As a final nail in this season’s coffin is that I purposely reveal that the chief villains succeed gloriously in their crimes and are so clever that they escape prosecution.

On the positive side (really?) the plot, good acting, detailed clever deceptions, utter evil of the conspirators, and the interactions of multiple characters make the story grimly watchable.

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!  STRONGLY DISCOURAGED!

2018, Acceptable Sci-Fi, Basically Sad, Bloody scenes, Drama, Dystopia, Father-son relations, Government human experiment, Military, Netflix Streaming, Nudity, Remarkable Body Transformation, Violent

The Titan (2018)

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From Netflix:

On a bleak future Earth, a soldier endures a radical genetic transformation to save humanity. But his wife fears he’s  becoming more creature than man.

From Netflix you can stream this 1 hour 37 minute sci-fi drama.

Because Earth is doomed,  the U.S. government has decided to try to populate Titan, one of Jupiter’s moons.  Titan’s environment (air, temperature, water) is harsher than that of Earth. Consequently a (mad?) scientist (played by Tom Wilkinson) has devised a radical restructuring of a body’s genome so that the resulting person can thrive on Titan.  Among the group of volunteers is Rick Janssen (played by Sam Worthington) whose wife Abi (played by Taylor Schilling) loves him dearly and is terrified by the treatments, suffering, and changes taking place in her husband.

Rather than full-fledged sci-fi, this is more a minor drama about how impending planet disaster affects a marriage.

Ignore the improbable details (how many people does populating a new planet require?), enjoy the yarn and the personalities.

2018, Acceptable Trash, Action Film, Action Hero, Action sequences, Amusing banter, Car Chase, Chase film, Coarse manners, Comedy, Conspiracy, Corruption, Crude Talk, Exaggeration Comedy, Explicit sexual discussion, Fist Fight, Frenetic, IMDB streaming, Improbable details, International thriler, Invincible Hero, Mayhem, Mercenaries, Mixed Martial Arts, Murder, Must suspend disbelief, Nudity, Physical fighting, Plot twists, Psychopath, Romance, Ruthless Killer, Satirical ultra-violence, Spy Versu Spy, Suspense, Violent, Vulgar, Vulgar Action Comedy, Witty dialog

The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)

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From IMDB:

Audrey and Morgan are best friends who unwittingly become entangled in an international conspiracy when one of the women discovers the boyfriend who dumped her was actually a spy.

From IMDB you can stream this 2 hour thriller comedy.

If you register with IMDB, then for FREE you can stream using IMDB some of the films you find on that site.  Locate a film and then on that page you will see a list of just which sites stream that film.  Now and then one of those streaming sites will be IMDB.

One of my guilty pleasures is watching acceptable trash films for which I need a new category.   As time goes by such films are in competition to provide the most vulgar conversations, the most explicit nudity,  the most explicit sexual activity, and the most violent scenes possible. Often such films are touted as “comedies”.  So from now on, if I call a film a “vulgar action comedy,” then you know what I mean.

This film under review fits all those criteria except that there is just kissing instead of sexual activity.

Until the end of the film you really do not know who the good guys are.  But as is so often the case,  each of the candidates can shoot guns so well that they never miss a shot.  In addition these candidates are superb athletes that have mastered gymnastics and martial arts and can leap over tall buildings.  Here the two leading competitors are Justin Theroux (from American Psycho) as Drew and Sam Heughan (from Outlander) as Sebastian.

Another requirement for such films are the wild, out-of-control car chases. Usually the car must travel the wrong way on a one-way street or highway.  There must be several collisions in which some cars are turned upside down.

Why do I love this type of film?

2018, Abduction, Acceptable for teenagers, Amazon Prime, Dark, Depressing, Dystopia, Father-son relations, Good Production Values, Government mind-control, Human spirit, Lesbian Theme, Longsuffering wife, Love Story, Nasty Aliens, Pessimistic, Possibly upsetting ending, Pseudo Utopia, Psychological Drama, Sci-Fi, Suspense

Electric Dreams (2018)

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From IMDB:

A sci-fi anthology series with stand-alone episodes based on the works of Philip K. Dick.

From Amazon Prime:

Based on the short stories from one of science fiction’s most prolific authors, Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams explores humanity in 10 standalone episodes. From 5 to 5000 years in the future, each story in the anthology will question what it means to be human in uniquely ambitious, grounded, yet fantastical worlds.

From Amazon Prime you can stream 10 episodes, each lasting about 50 minutes.

Highly original, sci-fi fantastical, expensive production details, but for the most part DEPRESSING.

Do most futurists promote dim prospects for the future?  If there is one recurring theme in these episodes it is that of mankind surrendering its self-determined responsibility.  Do we allow some domineering authority to think for us?  Has earth become uninhabitable?  Do we prefer dream life to reality?  Shall we program robots to take over?  Will aliens inhabit our bodies?

At least episode 8 has an impossible but happy ending.

Great sci-fi but somewhat dire prospects for humans.

2018, Accidental Death, Basically Sad, Bullying, Child abuse, Drama, Flashbacks, Friendship, High school students, Kanopy streaming, Personal Betrayal, Physical child abuse, Romance, Suicide, Teenagers, Tragedy

The Vanishing of Sidney Hall (2018)

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From Kanopy

An enigmatic detective (Kyle Chandler) embarks on a cross-country search for a once-prominent author (Logan Lerman) who’s mysteriously disappeared after a string of dangerous arsons have targeted his celebrated but controversial first novel.

From your local library you can get help joining kanopy.com. Kanopy offers free films for streaming. Each town has its usage rules. For example, belmontpl.kanopy.com allows you 10 films per month.  None of the films are current and many are quite old.  Quality varies greatly.  Among the selections are documentaries, science, as well as entertainment.

From Kanopy you can stream this two hour complete drama.  Acting, plot, and production values are well done.  Why has the successful author Sidney Hall become a book-burning recluse?  Watching the answer unfold is worth the effort.

2018, Abduction, Action Film, Action sequences, America of the 2020s, Anonymous network, Binge worthy, Black Ops, Blackmail, Bloody scenes, Car Chase, Character Driven, Computer geeks, Computer hacking, Contract Killing, Crime, Cryptocurrency, DO NOT MISS, Drug Dealers, Dysfunctional Lives, Ethical struggles, Failed Father, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Father-son relations, Financial malfeasance, Fist Fight, Frame someone for a crime, Friendship, Gangs, Germ Warfare, Haitian Gang, Love Story, Murder, Netflix Streaming, Panic Attacks, Personal Betrayal, Police Investigation, Psychopath, Redemption, Revenge, Russian Gang, Ruthless Killer, Sociopath, Suspense, Terrorist Attack, Torture, Violent

Startup (2018)

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From IMDB:

A desperate banker, a Haitian-American gang lord and a Cuban-American hacker are forced to work together to unwittingly create their version of the American dream – organized crime 2.0.

From Netflix you can stream 3 seasons of this series.  Each season consists of 10 episodes. Each episode lasts about 45 minutes.

If there is any current prototype of the 21st century technical world, this series is certainly in the running.  Topics include anonymous networks, cryptocurrency, NSA, security, CIA, black ops, offshore accounts, gang violence, crime ridden neighborhoods, criminal activity, Russian mobsters, rogue FBI agents, personal betrayal, and romance to name a few.

But above all for me the most important theme was redemption in the sense that people can change for the better.  First consider the character Ronald Dacey played by Edi Cathegi (born in Kenya).  Herein is a warning:  In the beginning of the series Ronald is the brutal leader of a Haitian gang in Los Angeles.  Don’t let the scenes of torture turn you away from the series.  Indeed the “redeeming” feature here is that Ronald in addition to being a brutal killer is also a loving husband and father.  As the story progresses, Ronald grows increasingly aware that the violence is self-defeating.  His basic and thinking humanity more and more shines through. He fights especially to keep his son on a straight path, not an easy task in their environment.  Ronald is never a saint, but his heart is more or less in the right place.

Next consider the rogue FBI agent Phil Rask played by the British actor Martin Freeman, who played Watson to Benedict Cumberbatch’s Sherlock Holmes.  Freeman’s consistently idiosyncratic portrayal of Agent Rask is a pleasure to watch. More to the point of “redemption”, despite his many misdeeds he does have a conscience which begins to nag at him, which becomes fortunate for other characters later on in the plot.

Eventually you may become intimately concerned with the other players:  Adam Brody as Nick Talman, Otmara Marrero as Izzy Morales, Ron Perlman as Wes Chandler, and Addison Timlin as Mara Chandler.

And if you want some really nasty villains, there are two remarkable sociopaths Vera Cherny as the Russian mobstress (if there is such a word) and Mira Sorvino as the ruthless NSA-CIA black operator Rebecca Stroud.

DO NOT MISS!