2021, Acceptable for teenagers, Comedy, Crude Talk, Eccentric cast of characters, Korean, Korean Culture, Mother-daughter relations, Netflix Streaming, Offbeat, Somewhat trashy, University Politics, Vulgar

The Chair (2021)

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From Netflix:

With the department facing budget cuts and low enrollment, Ji-Yoon vows to make some changes as chair while one professor struggles to keep it together.

From Netflix you can stream the only season of this academia comedy. Each of the 6 episodes lasts 30 minutes.

Sandra Oh as Ji-Yoon Kim plays the first Korean chairperson of the English department at small Pembroke College.  In this position she must play politics while managing a flock of eccentric, unruly, and most very aged professors. Indeed she has her hands full.

Welcome vulgar soap operatic relief from more violent entertainment.

1996, Amazon Prime, Amusing banter, Art theft, Boating, Bumbling Detective, Comedy, Pratfalls, Unloved Child

Two If By Sea (1996)

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From Amazon Prime:

A couple steals a Matisse painting on contract. They manage to escape the police. The sale takes place 4 days later on an island. Things don’t go as planned.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 35 minute comedy.

When you just want to relax and have a few laughs you cannot beat a Sandra Bullock movie.  Pratfalls always provoke a belly laugh from me even though I should not fall (get it?) for such nonsense.

However, here and in many of her films there is some amount of seriousness.  In “All About Steve”  she is encouraged to accept her very different personality. In “Two If By Sea” she works to convince her professional thief of a boy friend to go straight, talk meaningfully to her, and get a job.

What a relief such films can be!

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!

2014, Action Film, Action Hero, Amazon Prime, Love Story, Physical fighting, Romance, Russian Anti-USA Scheme, Suspense, Terrorist Attack, Violent

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

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From Amazon Prime:

Jack Ryan must quickly evolve from soldier to analyst to full-fledged operative to stop a devastating terrorist plot against the United States.

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 45 minute action film. Unfortunately the film leaves Amazon on November 1, 2021.

Kevin Costner as Thomas Harper convinces Chris Pine as Jack Ryan to stop  Kevin Branagh as the Russian Viktor Cherevin from destroying not only the US financial system but also some building in New York City. Keira Knightly as Jack’s girl friend Kathy Muller eventually learns what Jack is doing and helps him.

Kevin Branagh creates convincingly a determined and dedicated Russian menace.

Neither better nor worse than the fun excitement in most such action films.

1970, Acceptable for teenagers, Detective, DO NOT MISS, German Detectives, MHz Choice, Police Investigation

Tatort: Borowski (1970)

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From MHz Choice you can stream 5 seasons of this German detective series centering around detective Klaus Borowski. Seasons 1 through 3 offer 8 episodes each. Seasons 4 and 5 offer 4 episodes each.  Each of the 32 episodes lasts 1.5 hours.  Each episode is a complete story.

“Tatort” is the German word for “scene of the crime”.  MHz Choice offers 6 Tatort series of which Borowski is only one.

From Wikipedia:

Tatort (“Crime scene”) is a German language police procedural television series that has been running continuously since 1970 with some 30 feature-length episodes per year, which makes it the longest-running German TV drama. Developed by the German public service broadcasting organisation ARD for their channel Das Erste, it is unique in its approach, in that it is jointly produced by all of the organisation’s regional members as well as its partnering Austrian and Swiss national public-service broadcasters, whereby every regional station contributes a number of episodes to a common pool.

Because there are so many themes in the 32 episodes, that it makes no sense to attach categories to this blog post.

Klaus Borowski is a smart and experienced German detective.  If you follow all the episodes you can actually notice his aging. Along the way he has some love affairs and almost gets attached.  For the most part the plots are cringe-free and not very violent. Sometimes he gets hit over the head but, of course, survives the blow.

For me this is a superior detective series.

DO NOT MISS!

 

2009, Acceptable for teenagers, Amazon Prime, Comedy, Deaf person, Eccentric cast of characters, Happy ending, Hopeless Love, Journalist, Newspaper Culture, Outrageous Behavior, Pratfalls, Quirky, Sight Gags

All About Steve (2009)

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From Amazon Prime:

The Proposal’s Sandra Bullock, Oscar nominee Thomas Haden Church, and The Hangover’s Bradley Cooper star in a hilarious tale of a woman who, after falling hard for a guy, thinks they’re an item; unfortunately, he thinks she’s stalking him!

From Amazon Prime you can stream this 1 hour 38 minute comedy film. Hurry, because this riot of a film leaves Amazon on November 1, 2021.

Sandra Bullock’s Mary Horowitz creates crossword puzzles for a newspaper. She is a walking and constantly talking encyclopedia of assorted factoids. Her script must have been difficult to memorize because it truly is non-stop and exhausting to hear, let alone recite.

What makes the film fun to watch are the pratfalls.  Ignore the beginning encounter between Mary and Bradley Cooper’s Steve in his auto where Mary naively throws herself at Steve, because that is not in keeping with the rest of the film.

Both Kathy and I could not stop laughing.

2020, Alcoholism, Anti-Gay Laws, Anti-Semitism, B-movie, Bad Acting, Barely Acceptable Trash, Black struggles, Career Competition, Corny, Ethical struggles, Extramarital Affair, Family Conflict, Father-daughter relations, Feel Good Not For Children, Gay Bashing, Gay Prostitution, Gay theme, Happy ending, Hollywood Culture, Homophobia, Imperfect, Longsuffering wife, Love Story, Male Chauvinism, Male Prostitute for Women, Male Prostitutes, Marital Infidelity, Maudlin, Mediocre, Mostly About Sex, Netflix Streaming, Nudity, Oscar Awards, Preachy, Promiscuity, Romance, Satire, Sex Scenes, Sexual promiscuity, Soap Opera, Unhappy Marriage, Vulgar, Women's Equality

Hollywood (2020)

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From Netflix:

While waiting for his big break, aspiring movie star Jack Castello accepts a job at a local service station that pumps more than just gas.

From Netflix you can stream the 7 episodes of this soap opera. Each episode runs between 45 and 58 minutes.

Maudlin. Salacious. Corny. Subtle as a brick. Clichéd. Barely acceptable trash. Maudlin. Raunchy. Preachy. Woke. Terrible acting. Production errors.  And the list could go on.

My college freshman rhetoric teacher suggested that in order to better appreciate good examples of a given art discipline such as literature, music, and film, it helps to experience the bad examples. Well, with this film we now have a golden opportunity to experience one of the lesser achievements of the movie industry.

“Golden Tip Gasoline” is a gas pumping station that doubles as a gas pimping station for the young male gas attendants who will “fill your tank” if the customer uses the code word “dreamland”, no matter if that customer is male or female.   Not only all these attendants but also their boss and some customers have Hollywood aspirations. One way for such a gas pumper to get his start is to service those customers who are part of the Hollywood management nobility. Instead of casting couches it seems there were casting nozzles.

Rather than merely prurient attractions, this story offers a noble sub-theme: No longer would the film industry suppress black,  gay, and women actors.

Indeed from the goings-on we might suspect that half of Hollywood consisted of closeted gays .  As an example: One client, say Jake, is so stupid that when he drives up to engage Archie Coleman he can’t remember the word “Dreamland”. But they hook up and eventually fall in love.  Jake is told he cannot act. Nonetheless he forges ahead.  Because he could not remember two lines, his first screen text required 67 takes. Because Jake is as handsome as he is stupid, some producer accepts him but says “Jake” is not an acceptable screen name and must be changed to ROCK HUDSON (get it?). His boyfriend Archie is a black man (horrors!) who wants to become a screen writer. Camille Washington is a black woman (even worse!) who wants to have some screen role other than playing a maid (uppity!). And so it goes on and on for 7 episodes.

Is this a satire? Have I missed something here?

If you can last till episode 7, which is aptly named “A Hollywood Ending”,  you will be rewarded with a happy, sappy ending. Amen!

But just remember I LOVE TRASH!

2016, Alcoholism, Amazon Prime, Blackmail, Bloody scenes, Career Competition, Conspiracy, Contract Killing, Corrupt Corporation, Corrupt lawyers, Corrupt policemen, Cover-up, Divorce, DO NOT MISS, Drama, Environmental concerns, Ethical struggles, Extramarital Affair, Failed Father, Failed Marriage, Father-daughter relations, FBI, Frame someone for a crime, Gay theme, Government cover-up, Illegal Weapons, Lawyers, Mother-daughter relations, Murder, Office Love Affairs, Personal Betrayal, Police Corruption, Prostitutes, Revenge, Suicide, Suspense, Trial Scenes

Goliath Season 1(2016)

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From Amazon:

Once a powerful lawyer, Billy McBride is now burned out and washed up, spending more time in a bar than a courtroom. When he reluctantly agrees to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit against the biggest client of the massive law firm he helped create, Billy and his ragtag team uncover a vast and deadly conspiracy, pitting them all in a life or death trial against the ultimate Goliath.

From Amazon Prime you can stream 4 seasons of this lawyer series.  This review is just for season 1 which consists of 8 episodes where each episode is roughly one hour.

Billy McBride is played by Billy Bob Thornton who has often taken unusual roles. You might recall him as Lorne Malvo in “Fargo”.  In season one he is up against the Goliath of law firms named Cooperman and McBride which he helped establish.  His personal nemesis is the other name on the company name,  Donald  Cooperman. Cooperman as one of the best “bad guys” I have ever seen is played to stunning and eccentric perfection by William Hurt. Not that Cooperman is the only villain.  His most notable lawyer-in-crime, Callie Senate,  is played with cunning malice by Mollie Parker, whose every smug smirk is a masterpiece of acting.  When you really hate one of the villains, that actor is doing her job. Mollie Parker played Jackie Sharp in “House of Cards”.

Rest assured the daemons get their comeuppance.  But the journey to get to that point is agonizingly frustrating.

DO NOT MISS!

 

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.

2019, Acceptable Trash, Art Critic, Art Marketing, Art theft, Artsy Fartsy, B-movie, Bisexual theme, Bloody scenes, Eccentric cast of characters, Greed, Horror, Netflix Streaming, Nudity, Sex Scenes

Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

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From Netflix:

A feared critic, an icy gallery owner and an ambitious assistant snap up a recently deceased artist’s stash of paintings — with dire consequences.

From Netflix you can stream this 1 hour 52 minute horror of a film.

Perhaps the first horror is that  an accomplished actor such as Jake Gyllenhaal allowed himself to appear in this schlock festival.  Perhaps the second horror is that I allowed myself to watch the entire mess.

Imagine Gyllenhaal appearing as an effete, almost effeminate bisexual art critic. At first I did not recognize him.  As a first guess maybe he needed the money. Or maybe he just wanted to add a horror film to his remarkable resumé.

If there is an underlying theme in the film, it is that the collective of art critics here are a rare species that speak an inscrutable art language consisting of meaningless gibberish while all the time they are really only interested in fooling their clients into spending vast sums of money.

Alas, their greed is their undoing!

If you can afford to waste two hours of your life, then have at it!