justin-74-890942 Reviews

Travelers: Bishop (2016) Season 1, Episode 9

Easily in my top 10 favorite episodes of TV ever

[10/10 · 22 October 2017]

... and that's saying a LOT as I watch WAYYY too much TV. Very vague spoilers ahead.

Like all the best episodes of Travelers, this episode keeps you guessing until the end with one great twist after another. For the first half you're asking yourself - what's in the mysterious package?? For the second half you're screaming at the TV with the knowledge of what's in the mysterious package.

It's gripping, heart rending television once you realize what the stakes actually are, and the characters make their desperation clear and palpable. The ever nebulous agenda of the powers-that-be yanking the strings of our heroes just adds more layers of intrigue when you're grappling with the question of "obey blindly for the greater good?" or "save your friends!". When the antagonist is supposedly an all knowing entity from the other end of time what good could possibly come from disobeying the mission?

Again, some of the best TV around - it is an absolute crime more people aren't watching this show.

Travelers (2016–2018)

Fantastic series, can't believe I'm just finding out about it now!

[9/10 · 17 October 2017]

Clicked on this randomly because I was out of things to watch on Netflix and the description was interesting, pretty sure I would quit after the first episode.

BOY was I wrong. Hooked me right out of the gate with it's quirky premise and promise of a rich backstory, the acting was great and the writing was tight. Best off, over the first season run, it was NEVER predictable and always had me guessing.

I'd describe it as 12 Monkeys meets Fringe with a Stargate attitude. If those are things you like, you're in for a treat!

White Rabbit Project (2016)

I'm probably in the minority, but I'd like more SCIENCE and less SILLY.

[7/10 · 13 December 2016]

I'm a huge fan of these guys and have been since they first appeared in Mythbusters. I enjoyed the last season of that show, but felt like losing these three was a big loss.

Therefore I'm super happy Netflix threw some bucks at them and got them their own gig, and it's a great time revisiting a gang who feel like old friends now - already this show gets a big pass from me.

My issue here really is with the presentation. Each subject they cover is LADEN with silly over-the-top sketch performances by the gang that easily eat up 60-70% of the screen time, with only 30% left over for the actual meat of the science. I realize that I'm in the minority of the public who find the tech stuff fascinating and the fluff, well, fluffy, but I could really do with a lot less "estrogen crazed Hitler dancing through the tulips" (in an especially egregious example of this from the "world war 2 crazy weapons" episode) and more fun experiments-gone-wrong. If they had cut out, for example, all of the "Farting Germans at a Cafe" and "Hitler gets boobs" feature-ettes from that episode they could have packed in at least a few more crazy weapon schemes which I would have found WAY more interesting.

To summarize, I watch a TON of hilarious sketch comedy shows already, when I want science I want to turn to these guys. Dial back the "acting" just a bit and you've got a winner.

Review (2014–2017)

Love it so much I'm going as Forrest for Halloween this year.

[9/10 · 8 October 2015]

IF that doesn't sell you, let me just say that this show is deceptively simple and deeply brilliant. Andy Daly's performance as Forrest is absolutely pitch perfect, by the end of the show you really feel like you've gotten to know and understand him and love him despite his many, many flaws.

His pure devotion to his "reviews" to the extent that he completely ruins everything good or decent about his own life is always difficult to watch but my sides are usually sore from laughing by the end.

Having not seen the Australian version I can't speak to that, but missing or dismissing this show because it's an American knock-off would be doing yourself a great disservice.

Terminator Genisys (2015)

Total, complete and utter sh*t.

[1/10 · 1 October 2015]

Everything about this mess was absurd. Where should we start?

Time-travel logic. Some movies have been able to pull it off, this one does not. T:G creates more logical paradoxes in 2.5hrs than the entire series of Star Trek: Voyager, and that's really saying something.

Casting: I've got an idea! Why not cast a beloved time-travel icon like Matt Smith, and then have him appear on screen for 5 minutes? Then cast two roided-up nobodies and have them grunt there way through thousands of lines of insulting mono-syllabic action-movie dialog for two freaking hours? Also, JK Simmons is there for some reason! At least he has the decency to look embarrassed during most of his scenes.

ANY SORT OF LOGIC: Helicopters do not work like that. At multiple points during this movie the creators prove they have an extremely tenuous grasp on how even basic gravity works.

You want to prevent an apocalypse and you have a time machine? Show up TWENTY FOUR HOURS BEFORE THE APOCALYPSE. Great idea. You somehow prevented the apocalypse anyway and you want to be sure it doesn't happen again? I don't know, maybe don't hump Kyle Reese again and make another John Connor?

I could go on for hours. The screenwriters seem to have the same view of logic as Dick Cheney does of accused terrorists, ie they torture the living sh*t out of it.

The action scenes? Meh. I guess those were OK.

The Babadook (2014)

Really, really good.

[9/10 · 26 February 2015]

If you're like me and aren't really a b-movie "shock and gore" fan and just enjoy a well crafted film then you will enjoy this. If you want jump scares and fountains of blood I'd stay away.

This is a disturbing and deeply unsettling psychological thriller that is incredibly well acted by both it's leads, and ultimately something that will be crawling around the back of my brain for a few weeks.

I'm guessing all the 1 star reviews here are due to this film being marketed poorly. I had the advantage of seeing it with absolutely zero expectations, I literally had no idea what it was about or even what genre it was, my wife just told me "you have to check this out!" and that was it. I'm assuming it must have been mass marketed as a "Horror! Scary!" movie, which, while it is extremely unnerving is not at all what this movie is.

The Master (2012)

If you're a "There Will Be Blood" fan, you'll probably like this

[4/10 · 7 August 2014]

I (stupidly) went into this movie knowing absolutely nothing about it other than the fact that Philip Seymour-Hoffman was in it, and I'd watch that man eat lunch. If I had known it was directed by Paul Thomas Anderson I MAY have passed as I completely didn't get the critical acclaim for "There Will Be Blood" either, but I think that comes down to personal taste. I also can't stand Stanley Kubrick movies who I feel is Anderson's closest analogue. I am aware that I am lonely in this opinion, but give me the Coen brothers or Tarantino any time.

Anyway, this movie goes nowhere. It's like you took a movie with a great plot, fascinating character growth and mind-popping acting, then cut out various bits of it and just added a whole bunch of B-roll footage to pad out the missing parts. It jumps around like a waking dream, I'm guessing to try to connect you to the broken psyche of the lead protagonist, but in my case at least this just made it ultimately unrewarding and ungodly boring.