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Reviews
On a Wing and a Prayer (2023)
So many tired tropes, so poorly done
Oh, where do I start. Is it the tired old "God has forsaken me - oh wait now he's saving me so we're all good" trope? Or the bratty teen who learns to love and appreciate family through a shared harrowing experience? Or (worst for me), the motley collection of aviation misfits who circumvent officialdom to bring in what's needed to save the day?
As a pilot I was particularly offended by the last one, and specifically the portrayal of air traffic controllers and pilots as being initially reluctant to even try to talk the guy down because no way a non-pilot could never fly a King Air. First off, ATC and especially those who are pilots are familiar with this scenario, but the movie makes it seem like this is the first time a non-pilot has ever had to be coached into a landing. Secondly, I've had lots of novices up in my high-performance plane and I can tell you that they just don't find it that hard to keep a plane straight and level and pointed more or less in the right direction when being coached. Not that it would be easy or guaranteed, but making it all like it's some kind of miracle and only ended well because of god and misfits - sorry, I couldn't stomach it and had to quit before it was even done.
The Widow (2019)
Liked it but...
Pretty good tale, I watched it all the way through and found some of the twists and turns to be clever and compelling. That said, I feel like the writers relied way too heavily on the tired old mechanism of unnecessarily sending people off on their own into dangerous situations when there's no good reason to do so, just so something bad can happen... bleah, pure lazyness. I liked this okay but too many of those moments when you know something will go wrong, and it does.
The First (2018)
A rare quality show
The advent of internet TV and the explosion of cable shows have brought two things:
1) A veritable flood of bad to mediocre shows
2) A tiny trickle of really really good ones
The First is right up there in the second category, right up there with Better Call Saul, the Handmaids Tale, and The Path.
What makes The First stand out is that it's a real human drama with excellent character development; a trait that too few shows of any kind manage to achieve -- never mind the science fiction kind. Not only that, the science parts are dead on, with few if any liberties taken with the real science, as is the case with far too many science / science fiction / movies & shows (yes, even the Martian to a small extent). The writers of this show have proven that it's possible to stick to the science and still make a compelling show -- or that sticking to the science is something that CAN make a better show.
The dama is definitely thick, and some might think that makes it drag on a bit. I suppose if you have a short attention span that could be the case. So if you need all action and movement, this isn't going to be a show for you. But if you can sit down and pay attention to something, The First is definitely worth it.
Salt and Fire (2016)
Was this a parody or something?
From the very beginning I kept thinking, are they expecting me to take this seriously? The dialog was just SO bad, and the delivery SO stilted, the camera angles SO affected, it's almost like someone set out to make a bad movie on purpose. I suppose there was a plot... something about scientists coming to a south American country to investigate an environmental disaster and getting abducted at the airport by scary gun- toting thugs wearing ski masks. From there it appeared to be going into some kind of psychological battle between the head captor and the calm and cool tall blond female head scientist. But I just couldn't bring myself to care, and I only made it 30 minutes or so into it before I realized it wasn't going to get better, and shut it off.
Collateral Beauty (2016)
Underrated
I'm not that easy to please and don't give ratings above 7 lightly. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this movie, especially given the mediocre average rating it's received. I found it to be touching and clever, well-acted, well-paced, good cinematography and a clever plot. There are some twists and surprises, more or less predictable but that didn't reduce its appeal for me in the least.
The Last Survivors (2014)
Spend some money on writers, please
Direction: fine; Acting: decent; Cinematography: good; Plot: WORTHLESS
I stuck it out till the end but alas, no plot was forthcoming beyond just: girl trying to survive in post-apocalyptic desert and fighting greedy murderous bad guys who are stealing everyone's water. SPOILER: In the end, she kills them. That's essentially it: done, finished. Well there is this flawed subplot where she's scavenging distributor caps from wrecked cars so she can fix this airplane and she and her sick boyfriend and some little kid can go... where? Who knows, or really cares. Oh and also, AIRPLANES DON'T HAVE DISTRIBUTORS THEY HAVE MAGNETOS, so no way that would work. I wouldn't bring it up except they kind of make a big deal about that. Why not pick some other thing that could be interchangeable or at least adaptable (generator maybe?) Oh well I suppose it's moot given the lack of a worthwhile plot.
Another Earth (2011)
disappointing
A disappointing experience.
The plot in a nutshell (without giving away too much) is that this woman causes a tragedy and spends the rest of the movie trying to redeem it -- oh and by the way there's this other "twin" of earth that is somehow involved in a way that doesn't become completely clear until the end.
The movie is mostly about the girl and the person upon whom she accidentally visited this tragedy. If they'd just left it at that, it would be a pretty good movie. But then there's this other earth out there, and along the way, we get tidbits about it without much effort at making any of it seem plausible, which I suppose we're supposed to not notice because of the way they dribble it out more or less in the background. Well I did notice, and by the way this thing is getting closer and closer and nobody seems to be concerned about that? On the plus side, the acting was excellent. The pacing and staging was decent too. But the contrived other-earth side of the plot just didn't hold together for me.