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No Time to Die (2021)
They should have wrapped it up with Skyfall
Craig proved everyone wrong with Casino Royale and sadly proved everyone right with Spectre and puts the nail in the coffin with this mess.
The plot, if you can call it that is not just one deadly virus, but a bunch of them set to be unleashed because the baddie is, well, crazy - I guess. His motivation is never really clear and Malik is wasted in a part where he's barely in the film to begin with.
I guess they couldnt have predicted the Corona virus epidemic when this was written or filmed but it seems in really bad taste on that angle and they had enough time to totally put this mess in the garbage and make a whole new film.
The ending makes it clear that theres really no continuity to ever refer back to any of Craig's Bond tenure and the next film if there ever is ine will need to dump the entire cast in the waste basket and pretend this version never existed.
It's kind of a shame because the idea of the black woman 007 was intriguing reusing Bond's old designation to a new agent and though she's pretty one dimensional, it's interesting to see Bond come out of retirement and not bear her ill will and they work as a pretty good team as little time they have together.
But that's the only nice thing I can say about the film. Bond and his girlfriend have zero chemistry - you cant believe she's the love of bis life frankly - and the young girl actress is wasted too. You can't believe any if it really.
Another secret island lair and and an army of obedient lackies seems sillier that Austin Powers making fun of the worn out trope a quarter century ago.
Hell if they'd cast Mike Meyers literally as Dr Evil as the actual brains behind the whole thing it would have at least had some intentional humor!
This is the most joyless, unexciting and frankly boring Bond film and that's saying something considering the crap films with Pierce and Dalton. It's really that bad.
And they kill off Bond to boot.
Why not let him hop back in the submarine plane and make a nifty escape and live happily ever after and no one at MI6 knows he lived? That would have been a cooler way for Craig to exit the franchise.
It's a waste of time frankly.
Once word of mouth gets out I think this film will tank financially and it deserves to.
Them (2021)
Mixed results, though great looking production
It's not hard to understand all the 10/10 reviews, but would it have pulled the series to show at least one non racist white person? They didn't encounter any even in 1957 or whatever year this is supposed to be set it in?
The main premise seems to be the crazy old man in the 1800s made a pact with the Devil and the land Compton was built ones the graveyard of this cursed Norwegian community.
If you aren't a theist like me, the whole premise becomes absurd. The rules of what are happening are somewhat akin to The Shining in somedays, but in that film Kubrick left open that perhaps there were no ghosts or demons at all and that Jack & Danny were manifesting what appeared to be happening thru some form of telekinesis/mental projection of Jack's madness and Danny's fear.
Here, the ghost of Norwegian preacher man is unclear. Is he playing all the parts? When his story is finally revealed he seems to be too dimwitted and unimaginative to manifest much if what we see. Are the blackface man, the crazy Miss Anne school teacher other ghosts/demons there helping him on his mission? If so it would seem that it violates his pact with the Devil that Ghost Preacher man make the lives of black people on his patch hell on Earth all by his lonesome.
Is it meant to be a critique of white Christianity which is pretty toxic? The closest we get to seeing anyone try to break with their religious madness back in the 1880s is when the one lone woman reminds them that Jesus said treat the stranger as your brother. When after being blinded the doomed woman beseeched a curse on them all is that what causes them and their town to burst into flames? Is this the work of god or the devil? It's as dubious as Leviticus which is still the most offense writing that persists today in religion. If you believe that is the work of holiness you aren't a serious person!
So I have to say though it is an amazing looking production - the sets, costumes, effects and acting are all top rate, the script is all over the place.
Early on I can't believe Lucky doesnt accuse the boy of pissing on her sheets on her clothesline when she chases him out on the street. I grew up white in rural Mississippi in the 70s and I'm pretty certain my mom would have borrowed that stick from Lucky and tore my ass up and made me apologize to her if I'd done something like that.
Over and over those sorts of wildly improbable things happen outside of the thin supernatural part of the plot.
The one eye opening scene of the redlining scheme of the realtor group probably is he most worthwhile scene in the whole of the series and the realtor ladies regret for getting mixed up in it.
While I can see why so many of the 10/10 reviewers respond the way they do, this series as a whole is like a molotov cocktail tossed into an extremely volatile moment in American history. When it was being filmed back in 2019 maybe it couldnt possibly anticipate how badly 2020 would go, but I'm the context of what we've lived through since and with racial tension so very high I would have hoped for something that didnt demonize all white people so much.
Here in the middle of April 2021 we are seeing so much unrest that I wish the President would call a halt to ALL police traffic pullovers. Unless someone is driving in an extremely crazy manner why not merely treat it like traffic cams and issue a summons by mail? The physical confrontations on the side of the road have become too intimidating and provocative to trust any policemen anymore for the time being.
I want to reach out to all the people of color who see a series like this and are triggered that most ALL of us see what is happening and we care.
I hope we have more positive conversations, come up with solutions that bring justice and happier, coherent entertainment.
Call Me Kat (2021)
Give it a chance
At first I didn't like the show after the first episode, but I kept watching and I love the cast and I think it took time for them to shake out the problems and tighten how they do the show and find a rhythm. After about episode 5 I was really liking it and now I worry that it will get canceled because so many people seem to have not kept up with it and disliked it out of the gate.
If you wanted to like it and were disappointed, stream it and give it another chance. I think you'll be surprised.
The Andy Griffith Show: Mayberry R.F.D. (1968)
What a strange episode
This is apparently the very last official Andy Griffith Mayberry show, becoming the defacto pilot for the spin-off Mayberry RFD though for some reason it introduces the Italian family that moves in with Sam Jones that will never be heard from again once the new series starts. Sam's character is adverse for some inexplicable reason to having the hot sister and father of his Italian army friend move in when he was only expecting the friend.
The sister (Letícia Román) is quite pretty and ready to cook Italian dishes instead of southern fried chicken for him so clearly Sam is an idiot. The friend's father is treated as a buffoon who drives Sam's tractor into the barn door for what I suppose passed for comic effect.
Sam is shamed out of trying to pawn them off to an Italian family in a neighboring town when Aunt Bee meets them and has them come to a town hall meeting and gets Mayberry to embrace them as the newest citizens.
It's not bad, but it seems a strange note to end a TV show on. I came here trying to find out more about after seeing it on TVLand tonight, but there was nothing. I remember Mayberry RFD from my childhood, but couldn't remember the Italian family and now I know why. For some reason the hot Italian actress Letícia Román made this her last film role, at least according to IMDb.