js-sherlock Reviews

Velma (2023– )

Who is this for?

[2/10 · 16 January 2023]

I'm not the biggest Scooby-Doo fan but I love Mindy Kaling. I don't want to take a guess at why or how this show was made as some reviewers seem to think they know.

Seems like it's trying to hop onto the adult cartoon bandwagon with the likes of South Park, Family Guy, Big Mouth, Archer, and F is for Family but it's not working.

Scoob has been a kids show but I think that most kids grow out of it at some point. I certainly don't know any adults who genuinely yearn for a Scooby reboot, or a Scooby "for them." And frankly, the humour isn't clever enough for adults to latch onto. I love a cheap laugh as much as the next guy, but even the aforementioned shows appear on the surface to be cheap, they are clever if you pay attention. There's nothing clever about Velma.

Given the content, this show is definitely not for children. It doesn't rekindle nostalgia for adults. So, I guess I just don't know who this is for.

Monster (2022– )

Disrespectful to Victims, Immortalizes the Murderer

[2/10 · 17 October 2022]

I couldn't get through the first 15 minutes of the first episode. The tone is completely off. They've written this show like a horror movie which is too good of a treatment for a villain like Jeffrey Dahmer. Jeffrey Dahmer doesn't deserve a TV show. His work doesn't deserve to be glamorized and showcased for a wide audience.

I think this would've been better as a documentary subject where we can give victims and families a voice rather than dramatizing them on screen and also where we could extract broader meaning to what his killings meant and what we cab learn.

I'm not trying to make a moral argument against true crime material. I've consumed as much as anyone, but certain subjects are only properly treated in a specific medium and I don't think TV miniseries is right for Dahmer. I only gave this a second start because I love Evan Peters.

The Redeem Team (2022)

About the calibre of an NBA Championship DVD

[6/10 · 12 October 2022]

Nice recap and highlight reel of the Redeem Team's 2008 Olympic run, but aside from that, it was a somewhat hollow rehashing of events. The documentary didn't tell us anything we didn't already know about this team. There was no greater message to take away from this event.

Since the first series of ESPN 30 for 30 was released, the standard for sports documentaries has been raised and ths doc didn't come close to that standard. The level of journalism here amounts to nothing more than an NBA Championship DVD.

Documentarians need to understand that the biggest stars and teams don't always make the best documentary subjects and this is a prime example.

Team USA definitely deserved the gold medal in this Olympics but my biggest takeaway tells me that there are major cracks in USA Basketball development programs and how the AAU is ruining American basketball. It was embarrassing to see a team of nearly-all Hall of Famers pounding their chests and talking trash about beating a Spanish team led by one NBA Hall of Famer, an all-star, and a group of fringe NBA role players and benchwarmers. USA needed every single ounce of effort that LeBron and Kobe gave to win that medal or else they wouldn't have been enough to beat Spain.

A more interesting documentary might be how Team USA has become a victim of its own success and how the 1992 Dream Team inspired a legion of international players to take on and beat Team USA.

Home Team (2022)

A Throwback for The Mighty Ducks Generation

[6/10 · 24 June 2022]

I watched Apocalypse Now for the first time and it sort of messed me up so I needed a light watch to follow. Enter "Home Team."

My expectations were low coming into this film. Was it a cinematic masterpiece? No. Did I still have a good time? Yes. Was it a PR stunt for Sean Payton and the Saints? Probably. Did I care? No.

The 1990s brought us a bunch of fun sports movies for kids like "The Sandlot," "The Mighty Ducks," "Rookie of the Year," and "Angels in the Outfield." This movie shares some of that DNA. While it doesn't reach the heights of the best of the kids sports movie genre, I had a good time watching this movie. If there's anyone that's itching for a feel-good, kid-friendly sports movies, "Home Team" will scratch that itch.

Eternals (2021)

Missing the Marvel Charm

[5/10 · 18 January 2022]

Not all of the MCU movies are necessarily good movies, but they all at least had something I liked about them. Eternals feels like it came from a whole different creative place. It was long, boring, and I couldn't find a reason to care about the protagonists. There was something alien about the look and feel of this movie thatvleft me cold (no pun intended. It alsonlacked the fun and wit that other MCU movies have. Jolie and Hayek were miscast. Their performaces were stiff and half-hearted. Also, when you have a main character named Sersi, who happens to share a name with a main character from a blockbuster like Game of Thrones, don't cast two other guys from GoT as leads. It was very difficult to to get into the film when the characters keep taking you back to another program. Honestly, I don't have any affinity for this film and I wouldn't care if I never saw these characters again in another MCU property.

Too Hot to Handle (2020– )

Tough watch

[2/10 · 21 April 2020]

I'm not a huge reality TV person but I get sucked into the occasional show. For me, what gives reality TV its charm is when the show helps the viewer develop empathy for the contestants (e.g. talking about family, life, job, etc.).

I couldn't get past the first 10 minutes of the second episode because I just thought the contestants were shallow, unlikeable people. They remind me of the stuck-up popular kids in high school that are finally experiencing consequences for their actions for the first time in their lives.

It's a very off-putting and boring show featuring people with no depth with a premise that's quite uninteresting.

The Devil Next Door (2019)

Well executed documentary

[10/10 · 21 February 2020]

I have a sense that many people who downvote this film are from Europe and have a difficult time with how the map graphics show that many concentration camps and death camps were located in what we now know is Poland. This causes some hurt because from one perspective it implies that Poland was responsible for the construction of camps and somehow dismisses Germn responsibility for the camps. I don't think the intention of the filmmakers was to somehow incriminate Poland in any way. I think they meant to help the viewer know the exact location of the camps in using today's geographic borders. I don't think anything more was intended.

Anyway, I think the documentary was well done. Excellent interviewees and clips were shown. The series did a great job presenting both sides of the argument and didn't show its bias until the very end, which makes sense once you see the series in its entirety. It was so well edited that it didn't need a narrator. I was captivated the entire time.

Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator (2019)

Good documentary, but check out the podcast

[7/10 · 23 December 2019]

The documentary hit all of the right beats. It explained the mania around Bikram yoga, the cult of the leader status he had, the power he leveraged over people, and his ultimate downfall, but I feel like it only scraped the surface. If you really want an in-depth look at the corruption and perversion of Bikram, check out the ESPN 30 for 30 long-form podcast on Bikram. I thought they did a better job on covering this.

The Lion King (2019)

Derivative and unnecessary

[3/10 · 7 August 2019]

Once again, Disney lacks original thought and makes the same exact movie. While the CGI is incredible, it somehow took away from the personality and feeling of the characters. I enjoyed Billy Eichner's Timon but that's the only nice thing I have to say about this.

One of the hallmarks of the original film was the music. Somehow, they made it worse with Seth Rogen's uncharming off-key singing in Hakuna Matata, the what-the-hell-was-that speak-singing dumpster fire they turned Be Prepared into, and the lackluster visual choreography that accompanied I Just Can't Wait to be King. They underused Beyonce and missed out on an epic opportunity to give Nala a solo. I don't know how they whiffed on not having Beyonce sing Shadowlands from the musical.

Other Disney remakes like Beauty and the Beast used the extra screen time to fill in some plotholes. The Lion King didn't do that. Why not show a flashback of young Mufasa and Scar and delve into how their relationship became so poisoned. They could've shown more of the struggle the lionesses had while Scar was in power. Also, how did Simba get so good at fighting? How did he go from not being able to pin Nala to suddenly beating Scar in a fight?

Overall, a disappointing and uninspiring cash grab by Disney. Save your money and don't bother with the theater. If you're dying to see it, wait until it comes onto a streaming service.

Instant Family (2018)

All the feels!

[8/10 · 7 December 2018]

Great film I felt all the feels watching this dramady. A bit of a clunky cameo at the end but it didn't ruin the movie. But who really stood out was Isabel Moner. She's a star and I anticipate she'll have a career in Hollywood for a long time.