Geo Sturm

Hey, somehow this Syfy movie ended up on the big screen. Someone made a mistake?

Someone made a network of satellites to control earth's weather... and basically you can tell the rest of the plot from there. Something goes wrong, people need to put themselves in danger in order to find out the next elements of the plot (such as it is). Various cities get destroyed, but none of them matter until it is somewhere in the USA. And the hero makes a sacrifice at the end.

Ultimately... this movie is just dull. It does nothing different to the bajillion other disaster movies before it, expect that it has a larger budget to be boring on a bigger scale. Gerard Butler gets out his lines (although apparently he kept forgetting them), and Jim Sturgess pretends to be an action star. Abbie Cornish gets the better part, so she isn't featured much.

Really, I can't even recommend this as a big dumb movie to enjoy. It's just a bunch of nothing that can't sustain the interest.

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2 Stranger 3 Things

Three more episodes, and we are out!

We start off with more Eleven plot... and this feels so incidental. I have no idea if there is going to be a third season or not (probably), and if so this feels like a set up for a third season story, but that leaves it not really part of this season.

Then we get basically a two-parter ending with various groups rushing about and doing things to achieve the end. There's a decent/satisfying mixture of characters and plot points swapping around at the end that I did enjoy it, however...

Last time, I made the observation that it felt like a movie idea that was padded out to eight episodes, and this time it was padded out to nine episodes. Sean Astin and Paul Reisner are good adds for this season.

And just checked, there will a third season, with them wanting a fourth and fifth, so we'll continue to have padded movies for a few more years yet.

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2 Stranger 2 Things

Okay, the next three set of episodes.

The menace is built up and we get some actual development of the monster. Well, okay, not actual development of the monster itself, but development of the threat of the monster. After all this, still have no clue where any possible big bad fills in. (It's only because I watch with subtitles on that I know they are shadow creatures.) And Dustin gets to act real dump so the plot can advance.

Which is just one of those really annoying things. Dustin has to act in a clearly stupid way or otherwise sensible results might happen and then bang goes the story. Although the other kids aren't exactly helping a lot either.

And then there is a the other plot around Eleven which is going nowhere so hard I wonder why they even bothered to include her in this.

So while things are happening, and it feels like the story is developing, as we head into the last chunk I'm not feeling that this needed to be nine episodes.

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2 Stranger 1 Things

The first season seemed to be immediately popular so of course there is a second. In this season I've seen... three episodes so far of the nine, so let's talk about them.

The theme so far is... introduction. We get some hints about the upcoming plot line for the season, but most of this season seems to be reintroduction. Which helps to a degree because I can't remember most of the characters, but we also get a new one. Or rather two, but the other guy I can never tell from one of the other chaps, and speaking of chaps there are two kids I can't tell the different half the time either.

But anyway, we get a lot of "hey, there are these people from the first season" and... not much else. Yes, there are hints, as I said, but they are really drawing it out and while we have a creature from Evolution just ready to go, but we are so eeking this out that either this is the most boring tease ever, or there is a bigger twist coming. I do hope the later, but even now I'm not sure I'm going to be surprised.

Come on, let's get on with this.

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Universal 1939B

Not a monster movie, per se, because man is the real monster all along. It's political thriller time with Tower of London.

Richard the IIIrd has plans on the throne, and we get to see the various machinations he puts into place to get there, with the help of his executioner friend Mord. Lots of people get caught up, and there is more than one battle sequence, but he's a bastard to wins... for a while.

Okay, this isn't Shakespeare (and there's a set of movies/plays I should get into sometime), and while it isn't really my thing, and not usual Universal fare, I kept with it. As Richard III is Basin Rathbone (so not the standard hunchback either), Karloff is Mord, and some new guy named Vincent Price is Duke of Clarence, I wonder if he'll move on to do anything interesting?

While taking a break from straight monster movie is a thing, hopefully we won't get this too often.

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Red Dwaf XII.III

Well, I can see what they were going for. However...

After five minutes of driving a terrible joke into the ground, the crew encounters a ship on which criticism is forbidden. Of course they can't keep their lips shut, so are stuck right in it. And guess what gets them out?

So yes, the episode does nearly have a point about criticism doesn't always help. Then makes the point of "#notallcriticism". Then throws that all away for the gags. And because we don't have any criticism allowed, we get a man in a dress and other men in pink outfits, and aren't we supposed to laugh at that?

There is a good bit of make up for Chris Barrie, but otherwise most of the choices of this episode is just weird.

Again it feels like a familiar retread of old ideas, but just done badly. Halfway through the series and the score is 1/3.

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Happpy Death Dayy

The main gimmick of this movie is that the lead dies and then comes back to life at the start of the day. Sound familiar? A bit. They even lampshade Groundhog Day at the end. But you know what? This is no Groundhog Day.

So yeah, the woman Tree wakes up in a guy's dorm room, goes about her business, then is killed. This keeps happening. What makes it worse is that it's her birthday. She struggles to find out who is killing her by... failing to not get killed. But at least she works it out. Or did she?

This is a stupid, stupid movie. And not a good stupid. This is a bad stupid. An angering stupid. She stays on campus and gets killed so she... stays on campus. Hello? First thing to do would be to go far, far away. And why is this happening? I'm going to reveal that... this isn't revealed, because the director wants to do that in the sequel. Sequel? This shouldn't have gotted a first movie!

This is just bad and stupid. Some might be able to enjoy how stupid it is, but it just made me mad.

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