typrat Reviews

History of the World: Part II (2023)

About as un-funny as is possible to ever achieve.

[1/10 · 7 March 2023]

I think the jokes may be as old as Mel Brooks - that is way long before my time - and maybe this made people laugh in those days. No more. This is seriously the least funny 'comedy' I have ever watched. Now I must confess though that I could not watch all of it. No way. I have better things to do. Mel Brooks hit the peak with Young Frankenstein (which is funny today as ever - I LOVE Young Frankenstein) but why anyone who made it through History of the World Part I would think that a Part II should be made I cannot fathom.

I really don't understand how the cast got involved in this mess and how they held it together to say those lines. Maybe it was the money. Who knows.

So, dear potential viewer considering this, don't waste your time. Its not funny, it's not 'clever'....it's just ludicrously cringe-worthy and embarrassing.

Poker Face (2023– )

Awful low-rent Columbo wannabe

[1/10 · 16 February 2023]

8 stars. Really? This is awful. Bad acting (and that really bad fake accent from the lead) and really mediocre writing. No suspense, no intrigue, just follow alog as they explain the obvious as they go. No way you wanna compare this to Columbo as seems to be the case on the webz. Hey, even Murder She Wrote makes this look silly. Oh and our Heroine "knows when everyone is lying" - wow, what a convenient shortcut for the rather poor writers. Yeah, I hated Knives Out and that other nonsense sequel too. Ryan, time for some big-boy pants now or just move out the way and give someone with more of a brain a chance...

Trespassing Bergman (2013)

Wishing for more shots of the place

[7/10 · 6 August 2021]

A nice and entertaining documentary, but left wishing there had been a lot more shots of the actual house and grounds. Someone shoulda took a drone...

Defending Jacob (2020)

Most unlikeable characters ever

[2/10 · 5 December 2020]

Honestly, I cannot think of any movie or TV series I have ever watched in which *every* character is completely unlikeable! They're all a bunch of disagreeable and annoying jerks - all of them: Mom, Dad, Son, Lawyer, Policewoman, Opposing DA, Shrink...jeez not one single character I actually like or want to root for or whose behaviour I can relate to and to top it all their situation is so seriously bleak I just couldn't keep watching four episodes in.

Britannia (2017–2021)

Ye Olde Religious Fundamentalism

[2/10 · 20 October 2020]

Strewth! Every other sentence contains the phrase "the Gods" as though everyone in these weird times was some kind of 'religious' fundamentalist. It's just too much. Awesome locations, lots of money and all the depth of a coffee spill in a saucer. Its a pity. It makes you realise just how incredibly well-conceived and complex George RR Martins Game of Thrones world really is. This 'world' is trite and corny, riddled with racial clichés and my worst: contemporary slang in a 'period' (fantasy) setting. Enough of "The Gods", I ditched somewhere in episode 6, just couldn't deal with this crap anymore. Two stars for interesting locations, pity the rest of it wasn't as interesting.

Spielberg (2017 TV Movie)

Saccharine sentimentality, fawning and ultimately boring

[2/10 · 9 October 2017]

This could have been great, especially given the access the filmmakers obviously had and the stature of the people interviewed. Instead it's an overlong, boring and unimaginatively grovelling look at Spielberg's life and career. Apart from a few tantalizing clips of a young Spielberg at work there's absolutely nothing new here and it just sinks into an extended EPK-level parade of sycophantic comments and backslapping, intended, it seems, more to curry favor with Hollywood establishment power than to offer any perception or insight into a master filmmaker, his films and his methods. Like the syrupy sentimentality of Spielberg at his worst, this is more of a protracted, tedious, sugar-coated eulogy than a perceptive and insightful documentary. It seems to me that the filmmakers are more fearful of incurring Spielberg's displeasure than presenting something engaging, new and compelling. What an awful waste of an incredible opportunity.

The White Bus (1967)

Surreal foreshadowing of Anderson's features

[8/10 · 29 January 2012]

Cute, whacky and beautifully shot surrealistic short from Lindsay Anderson which clearly foreshadows if.... which followed a year later (plus O Lucky Man and Brittania Hospital too). The same cinematographer as on if.... plus the mix of black and white and colour shots.

Some key music sound cues from if... feature here for the first time plus the reading of the proverbs quote "wisdom is the principal thing..." which opens if....

There's also a bit of M Hulot's theme from Mon Oncle mixed in there plus some classic Tati-esque visual humor. I guess Mr Anderson had a whole lot of stuff already brewing that would come flowing out in force a little later.

Criterion definitely missed a trick not including this on the if.... DVD/Bluray - a little more relevant than the Oscar winning short about the deaf kids I'd say. All in all a charming, strange and chuckly way to spend forty minutes.

Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary (1997)

awesome - hysterical - hilarious!

[10/10 · 22 February 2006]

i bought this DVD on impulse based on all the ravingly positive user comments at amazon.com. ever skeptical i figured nothing could be that funny, but it was under $10 and so i thought what the hell, something with so many raves has to be at least worth a smile right? wrong!! its hysterical, rolling on the floor laughing your ass off funny. rarely have i watched something that made me laugh and laugh and laugh so hard. a whole bunch of rednecks going through some insane communal sleep deprivation exercise. and what a bunch of characters! i swear they will live with me forever. the smiley-happy black dude, his shoes and his snicker bars - just classic. it also has an ending/climax that couldn't have been better if an Oscar winning scriptwriter created it. the video quality is something awful, but in this case content rules! you really have to see this movie...really!