NoWo's Reviews
TL;DR: gets worse with Time (Lords), watch the older stuff
I'm rating the newest batch, assuming most readers to be young'uns.
Also because I finally got around to see what the protest was about.
New-Who is atrocious. It's uninspired, slop propaganda writing at its worst. Or best. Pinnacle. The agenda was clear when the Doctor got to be a woman, then a black foppish man. Both are flat, amateur actors, and their companions are no better.
Honestly, I watched less than 2 hours worth of these new series. More like desecration rituals. All the leftist talking points.
The revival series do have some merit. Eccleston is a solid actor, works brilliantly with Piper, and benefits from excellent scripts.
Tennant does a good job of bringing together traits from the previous Doctors, and has a few smashing episodes (Weeping Angels, anyone?). His comeback was a sell-out, though.
I didn't really follow Smith's and Capaldi's tenures; good actors, but the show was going to shite, and I just didn't bother, so, maybe some good in there.
The classic series are definitely 10s out of 10 in my book (nostalgia alert). Pertwee's Doctor is fully inhuman, going from disarmingly child-like to monstrously calculating in a jiffy, and Baker's is the incarnation of madness-with-a-method. And a scarf.
The show did flounder in the 80s, but we had high expectations at the time; it probably was still pretty decent.
I guess an apt comparison in the US would be original Star Trek vs Lower Star Trek. TOS had some many things to make fun about, and yet, well, the dog's bollocks.
Created: 11-06-2025
The dizziest cow
The premise of this one is trivial: the hairdressing X-games in rural England.
Rickman, Richardson, Griffiths, Clarke and Nighy are just having a smashing good time. And it's contagious. They're brilliant. They also show range. Griffiths, in particular, once again goes above and beyond.
Hartnett and Cook, not so much. I guess their characters are meant for teenage Romeo & Juliet appeal, but they sound so much out of place. What with the accent, lad? Frankly, jarring.
Mrs Shircore gets a prominent place in the credits: she did make-up and hair design for the movie. With a dozen-strong team. They're basically the VFX team for this. I also think they do drugs.
As for woke, well, we do have a lesbian couple. Which is not pushed as anything special. They're good characters, pushed by good actresses. That's enough for me.
Possible male homosexuality, as well.
Then again, they're hairdressers. Clichés exist for a reason.
This is not ZAZ comedy; this is the very English, very serious treatment of a very stupid concept.
I find it very endearing.
Created: 10-23-2025
The makings of the modern boss bitch
Full disclosure: 2nd screen viewing while doing some light work.
This movie follows the misadventures of a mother-daughter team of marriage con-women, in a long-form vaudeville format.
Could be good, but 1/ Weaver has neither the presence nor the charm to pull this off, and young Miss Hewitt does have the slutty sex appeal if not the acting chops but 2/ their characters are utterly unlikeable. They're not Newman/Redford, nor Caine/Martin, Clooney/Pitt, and so on.
They're boss bitches prototypes, devoid of morality, compassion, and with all the aggressivity of a weak man. Early-adopters feminist 'baddies'. Or simply, remorselessly evil.
With the explicit assentiment of society at large, making this a realistic movie after all.
Another woke point for trying to normalize female-on-male violence and exploitation.
Pedantic detail: no idea if they had focus issues or the lenses they used were too soft, but there's some serious blur going on at the edges. And not the artistic kind.
The script is paper-thin and predictable, which is forgivable in the genre, considering it's meant to proceed quite briskly. Here, it does not, the movie clocking in at nearly 2 hours. It has time to go cringe. Both female meet their cookie-cutter male foil, expected plot twists ensue, but not hilarity.
OK, the Beatles by a balalaika band was fun. The Inara George piece was eerily reminiscent of Dear Prudence, though.
Speaking of, Hackman and Lee seem to be having fun with their roles. That's two happy customers.
Might not be many more.
Should have listened to some music.
Created: 10-22-2025
Where no comedy has gone before
Pretty well-known Star Trek parody, nothing to add there.
Rickman, Allen and Shalhoub are all criminally under-rated actors, and rock-solid in this. The rest of the cast is very competent, but in far less demanding roles,
What sets this movie aside, in my opinion, of the slew of parodies of the times (back when we still had comedies), is that it makes fun of the source material without making light of it.
Roddenberry, self-awoved socialist scoundrel that he was, knew that the whole point of heroic stories is to breed more heroism, and that mankind's destiny is to look up and rise.
Galaxy Quest follows the standard hero's journey for they who pretend, but is also a clever meta-commentary on fiction, fandom, and those who choose to believe.
Plus a good movie.
Created: 10-22-2025
Unexpectedly charming
Still not a good movie by any means; more like the curse of having a teen-aged daughter.
The movie does not dwell into "deep lore" or the pathos of the genre, but keeps it light-hearted and comedic. Although it's amusing more than funny.
It's a chick flick, so, not the audience.
The main cast is hit-and-miss.
Silverstone is good, but ironically looks rough for mid-forties. Hollywood ages women.
Ritter is bubbly, and Weaver had been on a downward for some time already by this movie. Her attempts at comedy have always been tepid anyway. Galaxy Quest was Rickman and Allen.
Supporting actors do shine through, though. Mostly by not taking this seriously. Always a pleasure to see Shawn and McDowell (hey, at least they make rent), and Kirk, well, got to love what he did.
Some very discreet representation in the background, but nothing to cry about. Some parts did put a smile on my face.
Could be worse.
Created: 10-22-2025
They even botched being a family.
Thunderbirds, retro-futuristic aesthetics are on point. Though it looks atrociously non-functional, especially the robot. And the fashion. We never should have stopped dressing like this, especially the women.
I'm pretty sure it's full of Easter eggs for the true fans. Which I am not, but many details look a bit forced, like they could be there for the true believers. The rocket is named Excelsior; I got this one. I think.
The Thing's head is weird, so is his voice; Human Torch is emasculated, so is Pascal; he's living proof of the existence of a third sex at this point. Clearly not male, but not female either. And then there's the all-too Visible Mary Sue. And the ever-present black female authority figures.
As with other recent movies, this one bears a lot of small, discreet scars; weird hiccups or suspicious danglings at the end of a scene. Feels like the brunt of the woke ended up on the cutting room floor.
And then there's Shalla-bal. Always thought it was a place, thanks to Satriani. But I knew it had to do with the surfing alien. Why a female surfer, and why butt-ugly (tits-ugly too)? Because current year.
Seriously, VFX have dropped off a cliff in the last 10 years. Same for many tech fields, really.
The emphasis is mostly on visuals there: Thing and Torch are wearing their watches left-handed, which is good for the symetry of the composition in one scene, but they act clearly right-handed. Form over substance details, everywhere. See the surfing scenes.
Pet peeve: they clearly show the baby being upside up at the end of pregnancy, and nobody cares. And there's far worse regarding the handling of the baby. Crap, Torch clearly is the most thoughtful among the four. And Richards is a moron's idea of a pathologically intelligent man.
There is some good in that movie, in unexpected ways. But they botched the expected, easy ways to shine. They made a sort-of-maybe-nice-if-you-don't-think-too-much movie where great was within easy reach.
The overall script is shallow, and (I think) they purged what woke they could in the last minutes, because (surprise) it's not bankable, leaving a pretty, polished but empty and direction-less shell.
Meh. The curse of the Fantastic Four.
Created: 10-21-2025
They named the dog Indy...
The director achieves the tour de force of having a dog as his main actor. He uses his own dog, Indy. Yes, he named the dog Indy. And the result is impressive. The acting, not the name.
The downside of this is, dogs don't really pretend. For one who speaks fluent canine, Indy's behaviour or mood are often incongruent with the purported situation. Well, not when reacting to the actor's feigned distress. Indy really is a good boy. Fun part is, one can guess how the director got his dog to act.
As a (horror) movie, it's atmospheric, well shot and decently scripted. Not much acting or dialog, obviously. It does have the obligatory naked shower scene, though. And the dream sequence scare jump.
It was apparently done on a tiny budget, which shows in the photography, and shooting from the dog's point of view is a tad gimmicky. The short run-time helps it not get tedious.
Pleasant movie. Don't watch with the little ones, unless you want to have one of the complicated conversations.
Created: 10-19-2025
Unfinished
Despite its 2+ hours runtime, this movie feels unfinished and incomplete in many ways. It tries to summarize four years in the life of a wide ensemble cast, and ends up more a collection of disjointed vignettes and under-developed characters.
It also focuses on the wrong ones, in my opinion.
Still, it does a banging job of capturing the vibrancy and exuberance of young hopefuls, and to an extent the harshness awaiting them.
Strangely, the titular song is barely present in the movie (it was completed after the shooting I seem to remember), and its expression of youthful, devouring ambition is equally absent from the narrative.
Cara and her character Coco deserved better than they got here. Especially the scene with the pseudo-French 'cinematographer'; I get Parker's point, but it's awkwardly put.
On the other hand (end?), the closing piece, I Sing The Body Electric, weirdly never met with the success I think it deserves, with its brilliant stylistic syncretism.
I'm a sucker for a good literary reference, and it manages to evoke both Whitman and Bradbury, so, kudos.
Also, the young actors are no frauds. They obviously can sing, Cara chief among them, but they also play well enough to look totally legit on screen, at least for the instruments I've played myself enough to judge their performances.
The very diverse cast does not feel forced - it's New York after all - and to be honest, most black characters would now be decried by your garden-variety leftist (but not in my backyard) as 'acting white', 'bounties' or 'coconuts'. Or whatever they say this week.
Acting white, like being punctual and working hard toward a better future.
Diverse does not exclusively mean black here, but also Jewish, Italian or Puerto-Rican; background conversations come in a variety of languages, such as the bickering Russian pair, or one of the dance teachers' thick French accent.
All in all a good watch, that never feels lengthy but seems rushed in retrospect.
Created: 09-11-2025
Fossil trail of 80s early woke
I watched the first few episodes out of nostalgia. Shouldn't have. It's meh.
The music, the cinematography, the pocket-change budget: yep, this is one of the long litany of Cannell shows that graced the 80s. Theme song to this one's really good, though.
What sets outs as a touchy-feely take on Superman turns out more nuanced than expected after living through one quarter of the 21st century.
The main characters are pretty on the nose: Katt's (whose name shall not be uttered due to an attempt on President Reagan's life) a frizzled blonde surfer dude special ed teacher, Culp's a 3-piece wearing, ex-mil FBI op. Guess who votes Republican.
And yet, Super non-threatening Male does defend G-man, mansplaining to his girlfriend that while they were drinking coffee, young G-man was down in the trenches defending their country.
Unexpectedly true and truly unexpected. The modern audience would want Culp to be pigeon-holed as the apex of toxic masculinity, and stupidity too. Instead, he's a bona fide badass, with many imperfections but undeniable grit. Then again, they would want the woman to wear the suit, which would then be perfect.
Instead, Selleca's character butts heads with Culp's, who's an outspoken derider of feminism. And she does not systematically come out on top, as taking bullets is mostly a meritocracy. And Katt's is a custodial divorced dad. Pure fiction.
By the way, Selleca is (well, was, probably) a very fine woman, but she's been rendered as bland a humanly possible (and then some); they manage to make her actually unattractive. Not ugly, just, well, barely there. Impressive feat. Feminism hating women's traditional image. Contrast with Charlie's Angels a few years earlier, which was pretty unapologetic. Or the Dukes of Hazzard. Or the Fall Guy. Or Riptide. Riptide never got the memo.
Crap, this show heralded the beginning of the end. It even ends with handing over the mantle to a woman. Precursor show. Not in a good way. 1 woke star because it's early and timid messaging diluted by 80s common sense.
Created: 09-04-2025
Quietly brilliant
The pacing is slow and thoughtful, so not everybody's cuppa, and can be surprise for the average anime fan I guess. In many ways it reminds me of Mushishi.
The animation is gorgeous if not flashy. Music is perfect but understated, always taking the back-seat to the visuals.
It tackles the subjects of both impermanence, most obvious example being the death of heroes, and permanence, most obviously through the legacy of heroes. It also brooches, quite brilliantly, on the themes of humility, and true strength.
On a more grounded, and political, level, demons are openly instrumentalizing human empathy to exploit and deceive them. "Demons learn the tongue of humans only to deceive them." "Why do you say this word?" "It's a magic word. When I say it you do not kill me."
The Japanese are naturally based.
Which is funny, in a way. Western culture (what passes for nowadays) has adopted pervasive moral relativism; well, the self-proclaimed mainstream has, and has imposed it on the soft belly of the IQ curve. At the same time, the Japanese, and Asians in general (in the US understanding of the term, not Yookay's) are savagely defending essentialism: what is evil cannot be good, and there is no misunderstanding.
They're literally doing us better than us. Making us look like right muppets in the process. Cheeky tossers.
Frieren herself is a new - at least to me - mix of cute elven girl (sans the ADHD) and 70s movie stone-cold bad-ass. Think Eastwood with longer ears. Being high level is not only about overwhelming power. Although the series features some high-powered fights to rival Dragonball. And Macross too, with its missile saturation attacks. Beautifully animated.
As for Himmel, well, he's a hero of the common folk. He's dead from the start, but damn well present.
By the way, if you know a modicum of German, the names are unimaginative and on the nose. They might be exotic for a Japanese audience, but they rather break the immersion for me.
Anyway, the characters - all of them - are solidly written, with adult and rather subtle arcs, if somewhat predictable. Should be a treat for the teen crowd. By treat I mean a good start for moral analysis and discussion.
Good fiction explores important themes; great fiction leads one to explore them by oneself.
Frieren is a decent shot at greatness.
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KiepskiLover-782
• 2 months ago
Created: 09-02-2025
