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J_Blackshadow
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Invasion (2021)
Starting to suspect the main characters are actually just humans
I have to admit, after the first episode, I was very intrigued by the premise as I got this feeling that they were going to eventually reveal that the reason they focused so much on the interpersonal, family and local drama of these main characters and not show much of an alien invasion was because the main characters were in fact aliens, like sleeper sell aliens sent to impersonate humans and infiltrate the society and culture. But 3 episodes in and I'm starting to get the feeling that there's not going to be such a reveal, that these characters are simply humans. That being said, I'm still curious to see more, but I gotta say this is a really really slow burn of a show. Plus it feels like the aliens are really taking their sweet time with the invasion in order to leave so much room for family drama in random places. I'm really curious to see if there ends up any explanation for why of all places to strike first.... A random suburban NY neighborhood (As opposed to NYC itself), a random cornfield in Nebraska (I think), a random small village in Afghanistan. Like are there only 3 alien ships that are woefully under armed for an invasion? Or are they just doing initial testing of Earth's defense systems?
Plus, I can appreciate wanting to make your sci-if TV series look slick, but it really feels like they put so much screen time to showing off how awesomely they can do cinematography of contemplative no dialogue scenes. Like how many times do we need to see a slow shower scene while aliens are attacking?
And the married couple, that's the most interesting side story of them all, but wow, they really wrote that father to be the biggest douchebag in any sci fi series I've seen. Like.... SPOILERS........ what kind of guy tries to jump in another family's car leaving his wife and kids behind? That's so foul.
Christmas at the Royal Hotel (2018)
Amazing work on a indie budget
Putting together a period piece war drama on a micro budget is no easy task, but that's exactly what Craig McCourry and his crew pulled off.
A small, intimate story set against the backdrop of the biggest war the world would ever know. The production values are a big win for this film. I was amazed at how they were able to put together the world of these people's lives, circa 1941, with costumes and sets to match, on the kind of budget that often would only result in a running through the woods in modern day type of film. When you consider much of the movie was filmed in just a living room, repurposed to be different parts of a historic hotel, then you really have to admire how an indie crew could create from the bottom up what I would expect to see from a bigger budget History Channel production.
Story wise, it's not often that we see the lens focused on the regular people just trying to live their lives when suddenly thrown into such an overwhelming and precarious vet instanced beyond their control. We've all seen the kinds of war movies with epic battles on the beaches or the plucky gang of misfits storming the stronghold. I give a lot of credit to this movie showing us a bit of what it must have been like to try to keep a sense of normalcy while disaster looms just over the horizon. Nice performances from the whole ensemble cast of up and coming, Hong Kong based actors and actresses. I really hope this movie makes onto screens around the world.
Fame (2009)
Entertaining enough to watch on a Saturday afternoon with nothing to do
Yeah it's pretty watered down, easily digestible, non-memorable tripe... just like most remakes. Annoyed I paid money to see this in the theater, as opposed to accidentally stumbling onto it on HBO or something, but I didn't have much else to do so I went in with the right expectations. Some of the players in the film do seem to have talent, but the characters were very blah for the most part. Gets an extra star because Charles S. Dutton is the man, no matter what role he plays.
Overall, doesn't hold a candle to the original, which gives a better look at how life at a performing arts school would be. As opposed to this one which shows how life at a performing arts school directed by the guy who directs Britney Spears videos would be.