cleverfox Reviews

Prodigal Son (2019–2021)

Great premise but weak start

[7/10 · 14 November 2019]

I recall seeing the trailer ads for this leading up to the premiere. Being a huge Michael Sheen fan, i've Not been disappointed. Main actor Tom Payne is new to me but he seems to be more detective than profiler. The actress who plays his mother has a shrill histrionic voice that has grated on me since her days as Millie on Scandal.

Although I do like the dynamic between Lou Diamond Phillips and Payne, the rest of the interactions with other supporting cast seem to have been severely miscast - especially the oriental medical examiner and her "sweet on Bright" comic relief is way outta place.

The girls who plays Ainsley? Never heard of her until this show and until the recent run in with the escaped mental patient who stabbed her boyfriend, she didn't get much screen time. Now that dad colleague serial killer in his own right "Paul" maybe her character can flesh out.

And we really need note Sheen screen time - particularly dad and Malcolm.

And, does anyone know the parable of "The Prodigal Son" from the Bible? It has absolutely nothing to do with Malcolm's relationship to his dad in this show. In the Bible, the Prodigal Son left home and squandered away his heritage and his wealth yet was lovingly accepted back at home by his loving father. Unless you look at the Surgeon's loving acceptance of his son who is well educated and has dedicated his life to fighting crime as penance . . . oh, well.

Game of Thrones: The Bells (2019) Season 8, Episode 5

Found no problems with the episode

[8/10 · 11 June 2019]

A whole lotta folks got really excited about what they perceived as a poorly wrapped series vis-a-vis a mediocre final season. My wife and I, both in our 60s weren't diehard gamers. One of our sons stopped by the house a few weeks back and encouraged us to watch via the HBO "On Demand" function. We got hooked and binged the entire series but, due to the complexity of the plot lines and vast number of characters, it really wears you out watching so we couldn't watch > 4-5 episodes/day.

We thoroughly enjoyed Season 8 and felt that S8E5 really tied up many of the plot lines neatly. My wife was really bummed that Arys Stark didn't ultimately kill Cersei, rather she was killed, literally, by a ton of bricks! And I anticipated and enjoyed the final fight between The Hound and The Mountain. Did anyone else feel that the character of "The Mountain" resembled the "Darth Vader" character of "Star Wars"? Right down to his grotesquely disfigured face revealed when the helmet came off?

The House of God (1984)

Too real

[8/10 · 18 February 2019]

I graduated from Med school in 1986. I bought this book as a recommendation from upper class men who had just hit the hospital wards. I thought it was just sarcasm.

Then, a couple years later, I hit the hospital wards and was taken aback at how true that sarcastic novel was. If you ever want to know what interns and residents do for kicks (and keep the morale high) READ THIS BOOK. Oh, I'm one who thought the book was better than this movie.

The Pretender: Not Even a Mouse (1996) Season 1, Episode 8

A great heart warming Christmas episode

[10/10 · 24 January 2019]

This is a great episode and one of the better "series TV" Christmas shows. We begin to see the interactions of a young Jarod and a young Miss Parker. We begin to see the cracks in the relationship between Miss Parker and her dad.

Bonus scene: Sydney visits someone special in an extended care facility - his twin brother. Jared found out about him and visited the sick Sydney and gave him a Christmas present he had received when a youngster at the Centre.

Sort of leans towards the sick twin as possibly the Sydney who was strick on him growing up and the present day Sydney as a twin who is sympathetic to grown Jarod. Would help explain the difference in how Jarod is treated now versus how "Sydney" treated him as a youngster. Would also help explain how current day Sydney is not able to seem to remember specifics of Jarod's childhood.

Hill Street Blues: Hair Apparent (1984) Season 4, Episode 20

Classic Sikking scene

[10/10 · 20 January 2019]

In the opening montage of this episode there's about a 30 second scene where Lt Hunter is teaching Dietz to play chess. He goes into a soliloquy about classic chess openings and moves and tells Dietz, as he moves one of his pieces to capture Dietz' queen, that with more training he could be really good. Dietz then moves one piece and says "check Mate". The look on James Sikking's face is one for the memory books.

The Pretender (1996–2000)

From the future . . . This show still rocks

[8/10 · 20 January 2019]

Caught an old rerun of this show this evening by accident. Was looking for something else and ran across. Brought back a llooott of memories.

I'm of an older generation (born late '50s) but was glued to this show every night in late '90s. I caught the first movie but not the other.

Agree with a lot of the other comments- this show rocked . . .for ~ 3 seasons. Agree 4th season was responsible for its demise. I will say that this show seemed to have spawned some other intelligent shows like Dexter, The X Files and JJ Abrams' shows which still dominate the airwaves. I will say that Abrams picked up a lot of bad habits from this genre and that includes ending a show run with a lot of plates still spinning in the air and lots of unanswered questions and unresolved story devices.

Oh, and in 2019 you can watch any episode of this streaming online so you don't have to hunt it on TV or worry about the DVD/BlueRay disks.

Perry Mason: The Case of the Telltale Talk Show Host (1993 TV Movie)

I liked it

[7/10 · 31 December 2009]

I've been a Perry Mason fan since the original B&W TV series in the '60s. That being said, I enjoyed the re-introduction of the Burr character with the series of made for TV Mason movies of which, sadly, this was among the last.

As has already been mentioned by others, the formula was getting a little old. In this show, as in several others, there were so many characters introduced in the opening several minutes to whom the victim was so rude and mean that killing them was an obvious solution, that it reached ridiculous levels. What was even more ridiculous was Lt Brock immediately seizing upon the fact that the good doctor was the only viable suspect. Yeah, I know that other evidence was presented which supported the theory that the doc did the killing but even dedicated cops are supposed to fully investigate all aspects of active cases. Sorry, but he was too quick to jump on the obvious evidence and too aggressive at ignoring and discounting alternative theories. This was evident not only in this episode but several others around the same time, as well. This made Brock not only annoying but irresponsible as well. In the Perry Mason universe - He likely would never actually investigate a case which ever got successfully prosecuted due to his incompetence!

The Patriot (2000)

Liked it - see below

[9/10 · 2 April 2008]

Just watched this movie for about the 20th time (I have it on TiVo) and for the life of me I cannot find the disdain many who have written here have commented on. Last I heard, this was FICTION - NOT a documentary; Ken Burns did not produce not write nor direct nor narrate this piece - Roland Emmerich, a man known for action FICTION did. Yes the depiction of the Revolutionary War was NOT 100% accurate but was never intended to be; just a drama set against the background of a war and it was refreshing to see the war in the background, whereupon American blood is spilled on American soil, was the Revolutionary War and not another Civil War piece; indeed, the Civil War has been played so many times in films over the past quarter century it was just refreshing to see a different war....

Being somewhat of a military historian I will say that the depiction of soldiers going musket to musket in the open field was indeed accurate; many may find it interesting to know that according to the gentlemanly practices of King George's army, both sides would also recess for tea at noon every day and resume the fighting afterwards - guerrilla warfare was not popular during the day which is why Gibson's militia unit was so overtly successful early on. That being said, the comments about the accuracy with the muskets are fairly accurate but I will say that I only see straight barrel musket rifles - none of the bell shape tipped muskets; the longer you keep a projectile on a straight course the more accuracy at longer ranges despite the lack of rifling grooves in the barrels (I spent time on Rifle Teams for 5 years). The prime inaccuracy I noted was when Tavington shot the rider (running away on horseback) in the back with a musket pistol at probably 40 yards or more - so unlikely, it tarnished the whole scene.

My favorite person - Billings; Leon Rippey's cynical, almost giggly snickering laugh completely stole the every scene where it was used and he is a long term favorite actor of mine; Jason Isaacs absolutely best screen villain of this movie (and perhaps in top 10 screen villains of all time).

I guess it boils down to "different strokes for different folks" we all have our opinions on this and I've aired mine.