All User Reviews

Follows the books in spirit, mostly.

Possible spoilers...
The casting is incredibly close to the books. That is, except for Deb. In the book, she was aware of what Dexter was up to before the story line began. She was also a tenacious, reckless driving, detective who was accused of getting promotions due to her full-figure beauty. That doesn't describe Jennifer Carpenter. In the book, the Dark Passenger was a sentient, etheric being who basically possessed Dexter.
The series:
The TV series is addictive. It's as bingeable as a show can get. I believe it's the interactive narration provided by Hall that makes it so entertaining. If you like bad guys with moral codes that you find yourself cheering for, this is for you.

Successful action flick, failed critique of conservatism

As action sci-fi, this works great.

As the devastating denunciation of the dangers of conservatism, which director Verhoeven intended, well, it's the usual leftist fail.

Mostly because Verhoeven is quite ignorant of European history. To his defense, he had been a European for barely 6 decades at the time of shooting.

Of course, as intended, I don't agree with the overly fascistic rhetoric and the obvious Nazi imagery.
And then I remember, Mussolini had been a top-dog Italian Socialist before he went off and founded his own party, and the Waffen-SS were literally the armed branch of the National Health bureaucracy of Germany's National Sozialismus.

So, prescriptive collectivism is the opposite of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness? Socialism bad? Not quite what Verhoeven intended to say, but what he ended up saying anyway. Pretty much like Showgirls denounced female exploitation by means of round-the-clock naked smokeshows...

The beginning is actually good...

...but that's pretty much it. It fools you into thinking this is actually a decent Die Hard clone for the first 20 minutes or so. The main character is ok, Jason Bateman as the villain is fantastic, Dean Norris is always a pleasure to watch, and the story is your typical Die Hard / Speed wannabe, no problem there.

But it is Netflix, and we all know what that means: of course it HAS to have forced DEI, a man saying "my husband!", a butch black woman making the cringiest face expressions and walking ever, another woman who is clearly more calm and focused than the main character, and another gay man doing something heroic out of nowhere. Not to mention the obvious female politician involved in the story.

If that weren't enough, the script becomes very stupid very fast, with lots of cringy moments (like the car scene, one of the cringiest scenes I've ever watched in my life), lazy writing moments, and situations that are just unnecessary or make no sense at all.

Honestly, at this point, I will just start avoiding everything Netflix releases from now on. I'm so tired of this crap.

Could have been good..

This started off very good for the first few episodes, interesting storyline and characters.

But then at the start of episode 3 ruined by faggotry.

I'm fucking sick of this bullshit where they make a show that guys would obviously be interested in, then get them into it and a few episodes in the most masculine character who you would expect to be picking up women is fucking gay.

I especially don't want to see guys kissing.

Disgusting. Avoid.

DEI Crossed

Yes, the waters are shifting in that direction. Although the series is entertaining and only seven episodes are currently available, the screenwriters have clearly made distinct narrative choices that reflect the application of DEI principles. A clear example is (SPOILER ALERT) the inclusion of a transgender character in the cast. However, it’s not this inclusion that makes it “woke.” What highlights Netflix’s injection of political messaging into the Korean production are the excessive explanations and justifications for THAT character’s motivations in relation to the plot, which feel out of place within the dynamics of that universe.

The 2025 Tournament of Roses Parade

Woke elements:

1- Global warming- From the beginning of the parade.
a. Starts out with the “Humans Destroying the Universe” message. i. In effect a Honda advert how they will save the world. BS ii. All the usual buzz words like BS bingo. 1. Sustainability- No EV is sustainable or clean in any way. Have you seen a lithium production plant? 2. Carbon Neutrality- This is a complete lie. Most of the materials are mined in China, etc. using Oil and Coal.
b. The horses “Vehicles that use no electricity but only use horse power”
i. Well Al, the farming needed to feed them uses oil. Diesel to run the tractors, etc.
1. And Oh No, they fart releasing methane that is killing “The Universe”.

2- Gay is great. About half way into the parade.
a. Billy Jean King is the Grand Marshal. Ok but why all the usual socio-political spin. i. Social Justice- DEI, Affirmative action. ii. Gender Equality
1. The Bobbi Riggs tennis match. Really?
a. Beating Bobbi Riggs was her watershed accomplishment? iii. The battle of the sexes- Feminism

3- Feminism
a. All female mariachi band.
b. Billy Jean King.

4- Racial Bias in the Bands. I liked them, they were good but… I did not see the usually Rose Bowl team bands that would have been Oregon and Ohio State. Why? DEI- Equity?
a. LA HS Band is mostly Hispanic
b. Panama band is all Hispanic
c. Jackson state band is from a historically black college

Other observations-

“We’ve got a parade to start”- What’s the first part of the parade, singing dancers that have nothing to do with the parade. No clue who they are nor do I care. Get on with the parade. FYI- The lady singing was off key but I liked Avicii. Luckily it was short unlike the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade where you see very little of the actual parade anymore.

In the end, it’s on NBC. I wonder if they are given a script to read written by their Woke producers. The nice back and forth between Hoda and Al was nice and likely genuine but not the rest of it.

Odd observations- Only one US High School band from LA. But a band from Panama. Why not more bands from the US?

I should have cued up “Cord & Tish” with Will Farrel and Molly Shannon. At least there wouldn’t have been “The Message”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB8vPuAYGSY&pp=ygUZY29yZCBhbmQgdGlzaCByb3NlIHBhcmFkZQ%3D%3D

Just glad I’m no longer paying for this crap in any way. 34 minutes on my DVR minus the commercials. It felt like 2 hours. Since it’s in your face it’s a minimum 3/5 woke. If I watched this with the sound off it would have been a 1/5.

Advertisers to avoid; NBC products, Comcast, Xfinity, Peacock, Universal, Honda.

Watchable Only For the Decent FX and Kills

DEI heavy casting. Terrible acting. The writing and dialog are bad. I didn't realize until half hour into the movie its actually supposed to be a comedy/horror. Unfortunately that doesn't make it any better as the comedy isn't very funny. The story is very cliché and has been done to death. On the positive side the FX are actually not bad and the kills pretty well done. There is plenty of blood and gore on screen and the action starts early. Be prepared though if you do watch this it's another movie where all the characters are very unlikable so you just want to see them all die anyway.

Not a Good Sequel Unfortunately.

This is a step in the wrong direction after Godzilla vs mechagodzilla II. The acting isn't as good. The Godzilla suit doesn't look as good. The sequences in space look terrible. The fx in general look worse than the last one. The blending of godzilla with the structures and city all looks off. While there is still a lot of action it doesn't look very good and distracts from what going on.

Hard Pass. Extremely Woke.

55% Storytelling, 45% Ideological enforcement.

Season 1 isn't woke.
Season 2 starts to get woke.

Another Boring PG-13 Horror Movie

Another mixed race couple-black female and white male. The acting for the most part is about average with the notable exception of the lead male Sam Claflin whos acting is terrible. This suffers the usual problems most of these PG-13 horror movies have. The absence of blood and gore due to rating means they need to rely on atmosphere, sounds and visuals for their scares. This fails completely. There is nothing
scary at all here. I mean the sound of a zipper going back and forth at night is just silly and makes these scenes laugh out loud funny.
Pretty sure that's not what they were going for. The story has been done to death with these kinds of monster movies by now and there
is no originality at all. The writing again is very bad. They hear noises inside the house at night and assume there is an intruder though
they don't see anything and the next day the entire police force is crawling all over the house and yard in full body major crime scene csi suits. They are shown to be heavily in debt, defaulting on payments and broke yet later somehow are able to have a security company install a full house system. This is a boring, bland paint by numbers PG-13 horror movie that does nothing to stand out.

Excellent

Sticks to people of it's time.

No "messaging".

Great story, genuinely great film with great performances.