Monday, February 19, 2018

Cloverfield Paradox 2018 5 out of 10



Cloverfield Paradox  2018  5 out of 10

An interesting concept that doesn't live up to it's potential.  Originally a movie called the God Particle this movie was slapped with the Cloverfield title after the fact which is an insult to the audience.   The concept behind the movie is interesting and the movie could have been something along the lines of "Event Horizon"  but instead it becomes a standard trying to fix a broken spacecraft movie instead of exploring the story it sets up.

The story features a group of scientists on a space station testing a device that hopes to solve a dying Earth's energy crisis.  Instead they end up propelling themselves into an alternated reality with Earth no longer on their radar.  They discover a crew member they don't know trapped inside a panel of the spacecraft with wires stuck in her.  Then other unexplainable strange events begin to happen.  The film uses many sci-fi space ship tropes in scenes that mirror other sci-fi films you have seen before.  There is an a scene that is straight out of Alien when a crew member is infected. 

 The film blows its potential as it turns as the crew tries to get back to their Earth and turns into a  predictable battle with the crew member from the other universe.  And then at the end they throw in a random ending that ties it to the Cloverfield universe.   It really isn't a Cloverfield movie -but that franchise name holds some weight so they decided to try and link it to draw more people into what was just an average Sci-Fi film



Listen to our Movie Podcast here




For All Disney/Pixar/Marvel and Star Wars Reviews 
 go to my Disney Page. 


Altered Carbon TV Series Review


Altered Carbon is a strange yet intriguing Sci-Fi Series on Netflix. It is set in a future that is visually ripped off from Bladerunner (down to the neon and rain soaked streets)  that features a world where consciousness is digitalized and stored in cortial stacks implanted in peoples necks. It allows humans to survive physical death and basically have immortality (if you can afford it that is).  It delves into the lose of morality of those who are basically immortal.

The story follows a trained assassin who is downloaded from a prison and is uploaded in a disgraced cops body by some super rich person in order to solve his murder.  The TV series basically starts out as a an interesting murder mystery set in this weird future but about 6 or 7 episodes in takes some strange tangents into a much more personal story for the protagonist.  I personally wish the story had stuck to the murder mystery roots, but instead it went into a different direction.

It is a visual interesting story series with some really cool Bladerunner style sets that provides some cool action sequences and gratuitous nudity.  It is definitely worth a watch for Sci-fi fans and at 10 episodes in length easily binge worthy.  I binged it in a weekend.  I wouldn't say that it is great, but it was still an enjoyable watch.
  

.


Listen to our Movie Podcast here




For All Disney/Pixar/Marvel and Star Wars Reviews 
 go to my Disney Page. 


Saturday, February 3, 2018

Office Christmas Party 2016 6 out of 10




Office Christmas Party   2016  6 out of 10

This movie has a great cast that includes Jason Bateman, Jennifer Aniston, T. J. Miller, and Oliva Munn to name just a few.  Unfortunately like so many modern comedies it just never achieves the level of humor of a classic comedies.  This movie is meant to be "The Hangover"  of office comedies, but comes up short. 

The premise of the story features on uptight CEO (Jennifer Aniston)  that threatens to shut down her brother (T.J. Miller) branch.   Profits have been down so she cancels the companies rinky dink wine and cheese holiday party and tells them they will need to layoff 40% of their staff.    Instead they decide as a hail mary to throw a major christmas party in an effort to land a big client that will save the branch.    Like many current day comedies it has funny moments.   Kate McKinnon in particular shines as the follow the rules HR lady.     I love Jason Bateman, but he plays the same character way too many times.  Jennifer Aniston is wasted as the uptight CEO.   

Some of the outrageous politically incorrect party scenes are entertaining, but the plot just falls flat.  The wild party lends itself to a great trailer --but not necessarily a great film.  It especially derails when the branch manager realizes they have failed in their effort and goes on a bender with a pimp that leads to a car crash and ends him up in the hospital with no consequences.  I guess the film makers figured they needed a big action scene.

A couple days before I saw this movie I stumbled across some Re-Runs of the TV show The Office with Steve Carell.  I found myself watching a mini-marathon of this show I used to love back in the day and found myself laughing out loud several times.   The Office Christmas Party didn't get me to laugh outloud.   I would enjoy an episode of a Christmas party episode of The Office more than this movie.











Listen to our Movie Podcast here




For All Disney/Pixar/Marvel and Star Wars Reviews 
 go to my Disney Page.