joshuavogel79 Reviews

Guarding Tess (1994)

Deeply underrated

[9/10 · 18 June 2024]

My memories of this movie were pretty much entirely about its climax. I was pretty surprised when I came back to revisit it recently, and discovered that the bulk of the movie is this incredibly thoughtful and subtle and excellent story.

I mean truly there are so many little moments in this which are just perfectly done. Tess is beautifully written and Shirley maclaine's portrayal of her is fantastic. Nic Cage brings his A-game here.

There's even some memorable cinematography (not much of it but, one standout scene in the third act).

In the end of course this movie is all about character development. And it handles this exquisitely.

To sum up: this is a surprisingly deep and clever movie, I think it's a real gem and vastly underrated.

The Holdovers (2023)

A beautiful film

[8/10 · 7 May 2024]

It's hard to talk about this film without dropping any spoilers.

What I can say is that the acting was phenomenal, the writing was powerful, and the style of the film was absolutely captivating.

This film has a very melancholy tone. And I generally try to avoid melancholy movies, because if I'm watching a movie to alter my mood, why would I choose *this* mood?

The answer is: beauty.

This movie captures so many moments that just feel incredibly real, and are so relatable. And it does these things so artfully.

This is a master class on how to capture the tiny tragedies of life.

Don't get me wrong. This is not a joyous movie. And the heartbreaks in this movie do not make it a chore to watch. Quite the contrary.

Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie (2023)

I wish they hadn't made this.

[3/10 · 9 December 2023]

Look, I love Monk, and it was really nice to see all the old characters again, but this was a terrible epilogue to a story that had a pretty excellent ending years ago.

The series finale showed us an Adrian Monk who was a healed person, being happy, at long last, after years of torment.

This movie took this happy ending and flushed it down the toilet.

We're told that Covid made Monk regress completely, which was a real disservice to the character. I think a much more fun take would have been to visit Monk during Covid when the whole world had become like him, and to see him just enjoying life, and loving everyone's extra precautions.

But that's not the worst of it. The worst of it is that they turned Monk not just into an unhappy man again, but actually full-on suicidal. Tonally, this was an absurd shift for the Monk universe. Way too heavy on a good day, and just a horrific choice considering that when we left Monk he was having his happily-ish ever after.

The ghost of Trudy was also a terrible choice, but made so much worse by the writers going all-in on the ghosts at the end of the movie. It just didn't feel like Monk at all. It felt like some weird Lifetime movie or something.

Lastly, the central mystery of the story just felt too small for the final Monk send-off. The last case we saw was him solving his own wife's murder. This one was just... not weighty at all.

I think a better Monk movie would be a happy, Covid-era Monk, where he spent the movie entirely in his comfort zone, while it was the rest of the world that was newly and obsessively cleaning. A zen-like Mr. Monk against a panicking world would have given us the Monk we deserve, plenty of comedy, and movie worth making.

Arthur (1981)

Very mixed bag

[5/10 · 2 October 2023]

Some of the dialogue is great. And of the acting is terrific. The relationship between Arthur and his butler(?) is beautiful.

My main complaint with this movie is that Arthur's drunkeness seems WAAAAAY too over the top. Like, everyone in his life would be trying to get him hospitalized. It's unrealistic that ANYONE would want to marry him, yet both his love interests seem totally into him even though he can barely speak most of the time.

I think this movie might have played better had Arthur been a more high functioning drunk. As it is, just didn't find him likeable at all except when he was sober.

Yesterday (III) (2019)

A thoroughly enjoyable movie that isn't big enough for it's premise

[9/10 · 10 September 2023]

I love the premise of this movie, and most of this movie is extremely well done.

The covers were great. The acting was great. The dialog was good. The pacing was good.

If you think of this as a small story, it's of-the-charts great. If you think of it as a big story, it's rife with missed opportunities.

The premise of the story is simply too big to be thoroughly explored in a single movie. I mean, you could do an entire film just about the sci-fi aspect of the change in reality. You could do an entire TV series exploring a nobody artist being handed the Beatles anthology as their own. You could cover the love story alone in a movie. Other people being familiar with the Beatles could have been it's own fleshed out story line. The world building of a universe where coke, cigarettes, and Harry Potter don't exist could keep an entire TV series alive for a decade.

Therefore it's unfair to judge this movie on it's missed opportunities.... That list is infinite.

Instead of judging it for the big story it didn't tell, I'm judging it on the small story it did tell.

At it's heart, this movie is tragic. It's about a musician who is talented at playing music, but utterly lacking at composing it. Even as he's bringing the Beatles to life for this new world, he feels like a fraud. This central theme is never really resolved. It's just sort of... pushed aside. Thematically there's no great resolution here. We see him happy as a teacher, but there's no setup that makes this in any way a satisfactory conclusion.

The plot suffers from two major problems:

1.. He's obvious to a smoking-hot love interest who is throwing herself at him. This is more of a casting problem than anything else. If they'd gone with an actress who was not quite so strikingly gorgeous you could believe that he wouldn't be obsessed with her in return, but come on.

2. Our main character is overwhelmed by a sense of guilt and anxiety that he is a thief and a fraud. He can't enjoy his fame because he feels that what he is doing is just fundamentally wrong. This comes to a head when he is confronted by the other people who remember the Beatles. And it's a beautiful scene where they explain to him that what he's doing is actually a profoundly wonderful thing... It's a gift to the world. That should have been the end of his guilt. And therefore the ending didn't make sense at all.

3. Thematically the ending didn't fit at all. This story was far too big, and the stakes too high to make it about that tiny love story. We weren't nearly as emotionally invested in that that frankly unbelievable love story as we were in the fate world-changing music being injected into a planet that fit whatever reason missed out on it.

Ultimately I really liked this movie, and have found it very rewatchable.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Subspace Rhapsody (2023) Season 2, Episode 9

I wanted to like this episode, but I couldn't

[4/10 · 4 August 2023]

I'm giving 4 stars, all entirely for their bravery in trying new things.

The problem with the episode boils down to a couple of issues:

1) the premise for the singing was extremely bad and nonsensical. It would have been better to bring in a Q to do this or... SOME kind of intelligence. The idea that this was a natural phenomenon was just dumb. Ultimately this is a minor complaint compared to:

2) The songs sucked.

The lyrics and melodies were just awful. They dragged. These were boring, bad songs. They weren't even funny, save for a moment in the finale.

I could have forgiven all the bad writing if the songs had been great.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Lost in Translation (2023) Season 2, Episode 6

Very very weak episode in an otherwise great series

[2/10 · 21 July 2023]

This episode was quite the disappointment. Nothing about it worked.

The central story was a rehashing of a plot we've seen before. Next Generation did it way more artfully when it was Troi who was having the alien contact with 2D-beings.

The friendship between Uhura and Kirk was completely overwhelming by the fact that the only thing the we want to see from Kirk right now is a follow-up to tension between him and La'an.

The conflict between Kirk and his brother just felt uncomfortable and sad.

And the thing that really lowers this episode into the unforgivable is the sheer number of really stupid plot points... Like leaving a violent, hallucinating crew member on her own for most of the episode, security being unable to stop one crazy guy, and of course blowing up a massive refinery because they were too stupid to find a way to shut it down? Give me a break. They couldn't find one sub system to knock out? We just saw how much work it took to get this thing running... And they couldn't find ANYTHING to stop it shy of total obliteration?

Anyway, whoever wrote this episode needs to be fired and banned from ever coming near this show again.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Hide and Q (1987) Season 1, Episode 9

I've always hated this episode

[3/10 · 30 May 2023]

The key problem of this episode is Riker's instantaneous personality transformation when he gets the power of the Q, as others have commented.

Personally, I'm always annoyed at how these stories play out. When offered the power of a god, our character this small. What if Riker had wiped out all disease and aging? Would this morality play have a leg to stand on it Riker was preventing terminal childhood ailments?

And the final scene with the crew turning down all the gifts was profoundly silly and poorly written. Word comes out as asexual, Riker thinks robbing Wesley of ten years of his life is a good idea, Geordie give up a cure for his blindness for ... reasons. Worst was Data giving up the opportunity to become human because of some ridiculous sentimentality which Data could not possibly feel, and with wisdom he doesn't possess.

All in all just a bad writing.

Contact (1997)

Great premise, mediocre execution

[5/10 · 17 May 2023]

There's a lot to like about this movie. Good pacing, one of the best trick film shots in history, an interesting look at politics, and some great performances.

In the end, the movie fails to deliver. The aliens make no sense, and then neither do the humans.

So the big alien plan is to send instructions to build a device that would require the resources of an entire country... But then they make it possible for only one person come and visit them... And they make it impossible for that person to bring back any proof? Why?

I mean honestly, think about it. What could their test possibly be? First they declare that they aren't putting a test to humanity. So then this is a greeting? Why not make it greeting to all people of Earth? Allow more visitors? Send back tangible proof?

The worst part are the humans, though. Her flight recorder shows 18 and 1/2 hours of static. The duration of the static alone is evidence that she is telling the truth about her experience. But the higher ups that know this don't tell her? Don't make it public? Why? Just because the movie makers thought it makes it more dramatic to have her be vilified?

And there isn't a single tech who worked on the project whose job it was to look through this data, who noticed 18 and a half hours of static, and didn't let her know? Are they all psychopaths?

The movie is trying to make some Grand point about faith versus scientific endeavor, but it fails utterly. The movie just shows us evidence that Faith is a tool used to manipulate the public, and to be wielded like a weapon by politicians. Scientific data wins out time and again, up to an including the evidence that vilifies Ellie, which of the public never sees.

And yet, thematically the movie seems to be giving The upper hand to faith. It is Matthew McConaughey's character, You seen his position as a religious leader, expressing his face in Ellie, which is the emotional climax of the movie.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

This is a franchise that forgot what it's about

[2/10 · 15 May 2023]

Guardians of the Galaxy isn't really about a gang. It's Peter Quill's story. He's the only one of them who isn't a cartoon. We're emotionally invested in Peter from the moment our trilogy takes off.

In this movie, Peter takes a back seat to Rocket, a character whose best attribute is that he was used just sparingly enough that he didn't ruin the first movie. He was only ever comic relief. The tone of this character was clownish on the moment we meet him. It was an absolutely ridiculous mistake to the side to try to use him as the emotional centerpiece of this story.

He was an adequately CGI'd cartoon. Most of us tolerated him as a character, ask the necessary baggage required to bring a children's comic book to life. Whoever wrote this movie apparently thought that they could leverage a hatred of animal cruelty into some sort of emotional connection with a character that has not an ounce of believability.

The Russian space dog had more depth than rocket.

The movie we came here to see was the continuation of Quill's story. He has a second chance at love. We wanted to see that happen. Even a plot arc where we see Quill and Nebula find love would have been something compelling.

Or what about the next chapter in his evolution? We know now that he's half God... Does he still have some access to the extraordinary powers he tapped into in the last volume? Powers that he could use to... Oh I don't know... Guard the Galaxy?

No. Instead we get an incredibly boring story about Rocket, a character I can't even force myself to care about.

And of course, this movie suffers from an incredibly boring villain. Once again we are introduced to a villain who is so obscenely evil that he feels totally flat and unbelievable. Animal cruelty? Xenocide? Not a single personality trait beyond megalomania, narcissism, and psychopathy. *Yawn"

On the end of the day we're left with a movie that has no emotional weight at all. And it doesn't even have the decency to be fun or funny.

They were even scraping the barrel in terms of the soundtrack. It feels like a franchise that has run out of steam. What a sad send-off.

Star Trek: Picard: No Win Scenario (2023) Season 3, Episode 4

I let the other reviews fool me. Don't do the same.

[1/10 · 1 May 2023]

It was clear from the pilot episode that the writers and show runners were just terrible. It started off badly and just got worse and worse.

I had totally given up on the show, but then I saw that season three had insanely high reviews. "Did they get new writers?! Did they fire the fools who destroyed our beloved characters?!"

Nope. This show is just as awful and dumb as ever. I can only assume that the high reviews are because literally everyone who cares about star trek... Or even just coherent plots gave up on this show, and only the supremely easily amused people are left.

This show is unforgivably bad. These reviews are a joke.

Shrinking (2023– )

Beautiful, hilarious, feel-good show

[10/10 · 11 February 2023]

This show has me laughing out loud pretty frequently. I love the energy, the characters, the dialog... Everything.

The characters are lovable and smart. The show has drama, but also so much respect and kindness binding these people together.

The acting is superb. Great performances all around. Even the peripheral characters are delightful.

I just finished episode four, and the quality just keeps going up. This is quickly becoming a new favorite show.

The show also touches on some very heavily issues. I'm sure that this show will probably become a tearjerker at times. But I'm here for it. I give it my highest recommendation.

Quantum Leap (2022–2024)

What a tragic waste of an opportunity

[2/10 · 8 February 2023]

The tragedy here is how transparently underwhelming the writers are from minute one of the show.

It felt like they were sprinting as fast as they could to get us into the first leap. It was an ugly exposition dump that seemed to be trying to hit a checklist of items. It had the exact same emotional weight as if they'd just started the show with a narrator saying: "this is Quantum Leap. You know the deal. This guy is the new Sam. This girl is the new Al. Let's get into it!"

It felt like an unforgivable missed opportunity to intelligently build on the lore surrounding the quantum Leap project, or to give us an introduction to the characters in a way that would actually make us care about them.

I know the writers want to build tension by making it a big mystery why this new leaper with step into the machine without telling anyone why he was doing it... The problem with that is that there can be no possible explanation that will ever be satisfactory. They hung the show on a mystery that's simply doesn't pass the smell test. And everything else the writers have done in this episode demonstrates that they lack the skill to pull off anything clever.

It's sad to see yet another sci-fi property get destroyed by by writers who don't understand or care about what they've inherited. It happened with Star Wars. It happened with Star Trek. It happened with Jurassic Park. Quantum Leap deserved better.

You People (2023)

Tried to be two different movies

[3/10 · 28 January 2023]

This movie started strong, but quickly fell apart. The main problem was that it couldn't decide if it wanted to be a serious movie or a zany comedy. By aiming for both, it failed at both.

The problem wasn't that the white people were cringy. The problem was that they were ludicrously, unceasingly cringy. It would have been so much more powerful of they hadn't been idiots, but rather handled themselves like normal people, who occasionally put their foot in their mouth.

The jokes weren't funny enough to carry off a zany comedy. In fact, I don't think I laughed once during this entire movie.

Also, chemistry between the main characters just wasn't there. It wasn't terrible, but it certainly needed to be better than that to carry the movie.

1883 (2021–2022)

Perfection. An incredible adventure.

[10/10 · 7 January 2023]

This story had me instantly captivated. Amazing acting, absolutely top-shelf writing, a completing story, beautifully told.

It felt like a genuine glimpse at what life was like back then.

This is a raw, horrifying, hopeful, joyful, tragic journey. It's the sort of story that sticks with you forever. There's nothing quite like it.

This felt a bit like the remake of True Grit, in terms of the high quality of the writing, acting, and production. If you enjoyed that movie, you'll love this show.

I have no complaints. I went into this knowing nothing about the Yellowstone series, but I will absolutely be watching that next.

Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2022)

Extremely pleasant surprise

[10/10 · 25 August 2022]

This was my first experience with a Korean television show. The production quality was phenomenal, as was the acting and the writing.

This show made me laugh and cry, it was quite beautiful.

I don't generally enjoy reading subtitles, but it was absolutely worth getting out of my comfort zone for this.

Fantastic. I hope they make another season.

She-Hulk: Attorney at Law: A Normal Amount of Rage (2022) Season 1, Episode 1

Off to a disappointing start

[4/10 · 19 August 2022]

So far it's looking like our she-hulk is a Mary Sue. Everything comes easy to her. Everyone likes her immediately. Where's the conflict and the struggle that will define her as a person? How can she have any character growth when she starts off being perfect?

The violence in the show is boring because it's just so arbitrary, and has no emotional weight. She and Bruce have a slug fest for no reason, and which accomplishes nothing.

And in the final scene literally a nameless villain show up for absolutely no reason at all. Truly lazy writing.

This felt like an episode the writers didn't want to make, but had to make. It's possible that this will serve as more of a prologue than the actual beginning of our story. For that reason, I'll stick around for another episode or two and see if it gets better.

Westworld: Que Será, Será (2022) Season 4, Episode 8

Absolutely, unforgivably stupid

[1/10 · 15 August 2022]

Westworld has been descending into stupidity since season 2. I kept hoping they would find their way back to some echo of what they were in season 1, but they closed this season with the worst episode yet.

Just for STARTERS, we begin with the instant, easy restoration of Hale, who was shot directly in her pearl with a high caliber bullet at the end of the last episode. For a show that chronically suffers from a sense of meaninglessness and low-stakes because no one ever really dies, THIS resurrection takes the cake.

They didn't even try to explain it. Just.... She's magically fine. Wow.

Next we have an utterly senseless bloodbath orchestrated by robo-William, for literally no reason other than they decided he's just pure, mindless evil. What an absolute travesty of a writing team. What a waste of a beautiful nuanced character.

Raise your hand if you would rather have seen the redemption of the young William we knew from season 1. Or if you'd rather have seen William become a robo-warrior who champions the humans because he has the thoughts and memories of a human? Or if you'd rather have seen ANYTHING smarter happen with his character.

And then we have the entire ending hinge on Bernard's hidden gun. Because the writers went all in on the idea that not only did Bernard see a general vision of how things would play out on a global scale, he actually saw every single minute detail of every moment in time. As if that would be possible even with all the processing power on the world. As if a simulation could spit out data about things that it never even has any input about.

Next we have the Caleb plotline wrap up with the most forced, bottom-of-the-barrel nonsense fighting ever. How did Clementine find them? Why would she need directions to the rebels? She has all the time in the world to just walk out and kill them. Why is she suddenly super-evil also? What have they done to set her up as the final big bad that Caleb needs to fight?

And then, finally, we have Dolores the storyteller recreating Westworld for... Reasons.

There's all this talk about "a test". They spend the whole end of the show making a big deal out of it. But Dolores's own monologue says she's seen the best of humanity and the worst of humanity.

So what's the test? To see if humanity is good or evil? She just says she knows we're both.

Finally, I'm just disappointed in this whole season, and Westworld as a whole. Why works robots, who can turn off their emotions like flipping a light switch, find joy in hunting humans? Why would Dolores (in Hale's body), built for empathy, have become such a cruel killing machine? It never made sense. Conquering made sense. The saddism did not.

And why is the end of the world a given? Because ONE CITY went nuts? Is this happening around the world? They never show us. Also, we know there are always outliers popping up, fighting the mind control. Seems like they would thrive more now that they are fighting mindless, violent humans, instead of a collective robot hive mind.

Not that ANY of this matters or carries any emotional weight.. When death means literally nothing, the emotional stakes could not be lower.

How very, very far this show has fallen from the brilliance of season 1.

Honor Society (2022)

Pretty good

[7/10 · 15 August 2022]

This movie isn't great, but it's definitely watchable. Good performances all around. The writing was okay. Some things were just a bridge too far for the suspension of disbelief.

Mrs. Winterbourne (1996)

Too much is wrong with this movie

[3/10 · 15 August 2022]

The writing was terrible. One lead character changes their entire personality on a dime. And Ricki Lake just doesn't have the charisma to pull off this role. The whole movie hinges on the idea that this family falls in love with her despite her crude behavior and rough edges. Julia Roberts pulled that off in Pretty Woman, but Lake just doesn't have that magic.

The other massive problem with the movie is that Lake's character is taking the identity of a dead woman. This means the dead woman's family and friends think the dead woman is alive. We never see ANY fallout from this. Come on.

Westworld: Années Folles (2022) Season 4, Episode 3

The show is becoming unwatchable

[2/10 · 13 July 2022]

Season 1 had mysteries, but also clear rules for how the world worked. We understood what the stakes were in each scene. But now the show feels like a fever dream where the rules change every few minutes, everyone is always in danger in every scene, but death isn't real so consequences mean nothing.

It's just... Stupid.

Everything about this show has become terminally stupid. I don't even think it's possible to write themselves out of this mess.

I'm not sure what the characters are even trying to do anymore. And I certainly don't care about them anymore. They don't feel real their actions and motivations are inconsistent and nonsensical.

They kept trying to go for a bigger and more mysterious plot, and now it just all feels to crazy to even follow let alone care about.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: The Elysian Kingdom (2022) Season 1, Episode 8

A watchable but weak episode

[4/10 · 24 June 2022]

It's great to have the first Start Trek show in decades that FEELS like Star Trek. But like all episodic Treks, there are bound to be lackluster episodes.

The main problem with this episode is that it is a jarring halt to one of the few slow-burning episode-transcending plot arcs. They put a very short fuse on an issue that was compelling mostly because it was a slow, ever-present concern.

The resolution was very unsatisfactory because the problem it solved wasn't the problem we were sold for several episodes. It was something new and immediate.

On the plus side, I am loving this cast, and the dialog is strong.

The writing in this one was poor for the issue mentioned above, but particularly terrible in the opening scene:

A doctor in the future we'll has been researching genetic cures and nanotechnology is now doing 19th-century-style chemistry to solve this?

And safety protocols in the future allow the experimenter to have something blow up in his face and allow him to inhale toxic fumes before any containment kicks in?

Just stupid, stupid writing.

The good news is that so far the writing has been smart enough in this series that the stupid stuff really stands out. So that's something.

The Parent Trap (1961)

Few movies from 1961 hold up like this one

[10/10 · 11 December 2021]

I loved this movie when I was a kid in the 80s, and it was already old fashioned.

I just watched in again in 2021, and man... it is fantastic. Even by modern standards, the special effects really stand up. They did a masterful job turning Hailey Mills into two people.

The movie has a number of genuinely great plot points, fantastic acting, great dialog, and a fun score.

Dune (2021)

It's like the first half of Dune, but super boring

[2/10 · 22 October 2021]

Wow, what a colossal failure this movie is. It's confusing, dark, slow, and boring. One wonders why it was even made.

The 1984 David Lynch Dune had its flaws, but it was fun and interesting throughout. This new version is just a downer, through and through. There is no humor anywhere to be found. Nor is there any joy. It's just a bunch of moppy characters doing boring stuff very, very, very slowly.

I knew this movie was a failure from the moment Paul put his hand in the Box o' Pain. The only reason this scene worked at all is because we'd seen the '84 Dune, which actually explained what the heck was actually going on. This one had none of the intensity or drama of the first. It would be a muddled mess if Lynch's version wasn't seared into our brains.

The soundtrack was a step down in many parts as well. Which is a bummer, since this movie reeeeally needed an amazing score to carry these slow establishing shots.

I'm giving this movie SOME credit because they got over the insanely low bar of improving the Harkonnens, which were just unforgivably stupid in the '84 Dune. But this improvement was minimal. They were still too evil and sadistic to be believable characters.

The big difference plot-wise between this movie and the '84 version is that right off the bat Paul is told he is "the chosen one" (barf). The Lynch movie didn't give us this reveal until late in the movie, and Paul was more likeable for it.

Ultimately this movie fails because the dialog is terrible, and almost none of the characters are likeable or interesting.

I really wonder why anyone thought THIS version of Dune had to be made. What a wasted opportunity.

Ted Lasso: Carol of the Bells (2021) Season 2, Episode 4

I thought this series was better than a cheese xmas episode. Oh well

[2/10 · 22 September 2021]

I've loved this series from the start because it was so unique and interesting. But, his episode felt like a 1990s sitcom Christmas Special. It really felt as if they wanted to celebrate Christmas, and grafted the show onto a big pile of worn out tropes.

It wasn't terrible, but it definitely felt like a low point in the series.