Change Your Image
rob-rainthorpe
Reviews
Upstart Crow (2016)
When does it get good?
Episode 1: one smirk.
Episode 2: erm. And a repeat of the "problem with traffic" bit that worryingly seems like it might become a running gag.
I'll stick with it because of Mr Mitchell (and because I've binged everything else this pandemic) but currently this feels like one of those 6:30pm Radio 4 comedies that have three laughs per season but get endlessly recommissioned. Or a children's program with more innuendo.
Arrested Development (2003)
Season 4 really not as bad as people are saying
Midway through first viewing of the whole series and just wanted to encourage fellow lockdown bingers to push through and watch season 4. It's definitely different to the first three, but it's got more laughs and plot japery than almost any other show I've watched in the last couple of years. Give it a go, it's worth it (I think).
Apollo 13 (1995)
An all-time favourite for me
Right Stuff, or this? It's close, but personally I don't think there's a better real space movie for a Saturday afternoon than this. The effects hold up well after 25 years, the script holds close enough to the book (and its perspective of reality) that it's never jarring, unlike many "based on true story" pictures. The scenes filmed in the vomit comet still delight. Tension is built and diffused, then rebuilt with precision, leaning heavily on the excellent score. The astronauts' family scenes still evoke tears of shared pain or relief on repeated viewings. In short, the movie is close to perfect for me. The only slight bum note is the endless use of the journalists to provide explication. They could have cut 15-30% of these and the audience would still have got it. It's like those exposition gags in the Austin Powers movies. But in no way does it spoil the movie, you just feel a bit as though your intelligence has been insulted.
Cars 3 (2017)
Seems to upset idiots
When someone does something you don't like, some people's first instinct is to call them a "snowflake" or if they're slightly more honest "liberal".
Well this movie, bizarrely, seems to have got a few of that breed of morons upset because the "winner" doesn't look like them or wear the same underwear.
Get over yourselves, knuckledraggers, the world's moved on. Heroes can be boys, girls, whatever, and they can win in many different ways. The characters in this humble movie are better than any of you will ever be.
Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist: Zoey's Extraordinary Dad (2020)
Awesome series, excellent finale
Cried most of the way through, because of the conclusion of this story but also remembering how we lost my dad. I'm sure most people watching would recognise so much of what was portrayed.Thank you to everyone behind this marvellous work of art. If this is to be the only season, so be it. It was perfect.