blakestephenson Reviews

The Flash (2014–2023)

disappointing

[6/10 · 14 January 2015]

I watched only the first episode. I wanted to like the show but I got the sense that the whole show is going to be very formulaic and melodramatic.

There seems to be a connection between this show and Arrow, which has has similar limitations of being formulaic, even though I enjoyed watching the first season of Arrow.

Some of the ideas behind The Flash are interesting -- lots of interesting physics, for example -- but the show itself is pretty awful. Again, this is my assessment after watching only the first episode. I usually give a show two to three episodes before deciding whether to keep watching or not, but, as much as I wanted to like the show, I found it to be a bit painful to watch because of how formulaic it was.

Ayn Rand: A Sense of Life (1996)

Changed my idea of Ayn Rand

[8/10 · 3 November 2010]

I've read a couple of reviews which say that this documentary is biased toward offering a flattering view of Rand. Though that may be the case, I still found the documentary to be very compelling. There are many video clips of interviews with her which gave me a much deeper sense of who she is as a person.

Though she is a self-declared atheist and speaks of reason as being man's highest faculty, I think that those are simply the words that she uses to express something that for me isn't atheism and is beyond mere reason. Though I think that intuition in many ways is superior to reason, I don't know her description of reason and Objectivism necessarily contradicts the importance of spirit and intuition. She simply does not believe in a wishy-washy, New Agey mysticism and in a God who is separate from Man.

Though I'm not sure that I agree with her disregard of altruism and her call for selfishness, I again think that she and I may simply use the words in a different way. She offers a compelling call to honor that which is great within oneself and to honor oneself by being true to oneself. Doing so honors what it is to be human, and that honors all human beings.

This documentary helped me see that I had missed some of the essence of what she is about. Beyond her controversial use of certain words like selfishness and altruism, I share a similar understanding of life, what one might call God, and what it is to be human.

I am reminded to be more true to myself and not to live for others at the sacrifice of what is true for me. One can truly live for others only if one is first true to himself. Listening to Rand gives me a visceral understanding of this idea, not just a philosophical understanding.

This documentary deserves at least 8/10, if not more.

I Can Do Bad All by Myself (2009)

Not Perry's best but still love the positive message

[5/10 · 29 October 2010]

This movie was definitely the poorest of the Tyler Perry movies that I have seen. If it were anyone else's movie, I would have given it a much lower rating. However, there are definitely some laugh-out-loud moments and the positive message is, as always, so great that those two things warrant the 5/10 rating.

Ironically, I don't think that I would ever say that I was glad to watch a movie that I think is worthy of only 5/10. However, because Perry's message is so positive and because it does have some very funny moments, I think the movie is worth watching even if the movie itself is rather poor.