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finnbarius
Reviews
NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service: Royals & Loyals (2010)
Hilarious
Or it would be, if this episode wasn't so badly ridiculous.
Much as I like this series, it's impossible to know where to start with this episode; it's so full of stereotypes and impossibilities (Gibbs just walks on to a RN vessel and sabotages it; his team walk around without an escort, etc.).
What actually had me laughing out loud though, was Abby's new electron microscope, which looked suspiciously like an optical microscope with a video camera on top and apparently had a magnification magnitudes greater than any current scanning electron microscope.
Only the monumentally stupid or cloistered could take this episode seriously.
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit: Pandora (2003)
Clumsy, lazy writing
I have to agree with the Peter Hall's review.
This is a poor episode of an otherwise pretty good series.
The patronising and, frankly, insulting portrayal of the Czech Republic is a travesty. Any Czech watching this episode would probably wonder if the writers could be sued for such a pejorative and offensive distortion.
There are so many other little things wrong, too, which make it lack credibility.
Example : The supposed Europol detective/agent/employee is clearly meant to have an English accent rather than American, yet she says "entrepen-oor". Only somebody who spoke American English would use that pronunciation. The English pronounce it "entrepen-urr", as the French do.
It may seem trivial, but it's the lack of attention to minor details like this which draw attention to the clumsiness of the appalling clichés.
If you can suspend your disbelief to the required degree, you'll probably enjoy the episode, but I advise you to have a large pinch of salt handy to take it with.
Red Planet (2000)
makes Mission to Mars look like a classic
This film is absolutely awful. It has very few redeeming features, although the special effects are quite well done.
The dialogue is so poor that I suspect George Lucas may have been involved and the plot is full of what can only be described as a series of incredibly fortuitous coincidences.
However, my main problem with this film was the terrible science. The idea that in a few short years algae could produce an atmosphere with enough oxygen in it to breath, yet too thin for the crew to detect, is arrant nonsense.
Nematodes are worms. Not insects! Even if they could evolve into insects (a very dodgy evolutionary path) it would take millions of years.
Science fiction is, by its nature, fiction. However, the point of *science* fiction is that it should be at least vaguely plausible/theoretically possible, otherwise it is simply science fantasy.
This just assumes a level of ignorance about science in the audience which is frankly insulting. It's suggested that die-hard sci-fi fans will like it. I think that most sci-fi fans will have a level of scientific knowledge that will make them the people who dislike this movie most of all.
As the title of this comment says, this film makes Mission to Mars look good, even though that's also pretty dire. One to avoid.
Battle of Britain (1969)
The turning point of WWII in all its awful glory
What can I say that anybody who's seen it needs to know?
A factual (ok, a little storyline padding, but who doesn't do that?), well anyway, an essentially factual dramatisation of the battle for the supremacy of the skies in 1940, when Hitler intended to invade Britain, once the RAF was out of the way.
Outnumbered nearly 3 to 1, the Royal Air Force (along with volunteers from within the commonwealth and beyond - yes,even American volunteers, before Pearl Harbor forced the USA in to the war) fought by the skin of their teeth to hold back the Nazis.
And succeeded.
The dramatisation of personnel is average, the special effects look a bit silly now, yet this film still gives me goose-pimples when I hear the outstanding score taken from William Walton's Spitfire fugue. This isn't about how well the film was made but about the outstanding courage of these men and women, in unbelievable adversity. This does it in spades.
In terms of a factual representation of part of WWII, as good as it's going to get...
A special mention should go to the Americans who fought in the battle - they joined up to fight the Nazis while the USA was not yet at war :
The seven 'official' Americans in Fighter Command in the summer of 1940 are:
Pilot Officer Arthur Donahue, 64 Squadron Pilot Officer J.K. Haviland, 153 Squadron Pilot Officer W.M.L. Fiske, 601 Squadron Pilot Officer Vernon Keough, 609 Squadron Pilot Officer Phil Leckrone, 616 Squadron Pilot Officer Andrew Mamedoff, 609 Squadron Pilot Officer Eugene Tobin, 609 Squadron
I can't comment on casualties specifically, except to say that Philip Leckrone of Salem, Illinois, died in one of the greatest air battles in history and is presumably the reason for the name of your airfield (Salem-Leckrone).
I hope you guys have a statue, because this man deserves it.