Revengue of the NEEEERDS!

This is the actual final one, although I wouldn't be surprised by any announcement of a fifth one, or a reboot...

Booger's getting married, and of course his new family are upper class, anti-nerd types. Lewis and the crew from the next generation turn up, but it's mainly about Lewis and Booger, Jeanie and her family. There are attempts to sabotage the wedding, with claims of a daughter, and a tape of infidelity... but of course the bad guys get their comeuppance, and the leader of the family reveals who he is and gives in to his true self... a nouveau riche!

Actually, this is a fairly decent movie. There aren't childish pranks passing for comedy, and while we aren't talking sophistication here, it's a high-class low brow comedy. The actual arc of Booger evolves the character, and the other characters are actual supporting cast, as opposed to trying to one-up with their own gimmicks. And we get another decent female character beyond Betty with Jeanie, played by Corinne Bohrer, so... yes.

This actually counts as a movie not to be avoided! It took them some tries, but they got there in the end.

And with that over, let's head back to more usual territory.

[END]

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TP 4.1

We start a new season, and we have yet another Tomorrow Person. This is One Law.

Mike Bell is a.. well, chav, really, but he has a magical ability to open locks. Some unscrupulous people find out about this, and in various ways force him to help them open locks for wealth. The other TPs return from the Trig and find out there's someone else running around with abilities, and track Mike down. They rescue him, but then he raises more than a little suspicions when he seems to team up with the bad guy... but it's all a ruse.

Mike Holoway was a kid in a band at the time, thus famous, thus a good pull for crowds for this show. However, this story shows that they couldn't really find enough for four people to do, Tyso is incredibly sidelined, and Stephen isn't up to much, so with five people some kids are going to have to leave. But that's to come. For now, we focus on Mike and the others hang around looking useless.

And speaking of useless, back in the day, an extra wasn't allowed to speak (then you'd have to pay them more!), so we get silent acting from Mike's mum and sister, and extreme shocked, yet completely silent, reaction from a meals on wheels lady. Very ridiculous.

The story is a bit too common, with just normal jewel thieves, to really raise an interest for the TP series, but the point here was to bring in Mike, so that job is done at least.

[END]

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Thunderberps

Yeah, it's not a new film, deal with it. And I doubt I'm going to say anything new about this either.

The Tracey's are lured away by the Hood, but fortunately the Kids(tm)! are on the island to confound them. Which they do by getting captured while the Hood gets away with what he wants, so that's good. The Hood is off to cause trouble in England, but is defeated by the Kids(tm)! because of course he is, even though the final defeat of him is rather confused. But hey, that's not new. Yay, the Kids(tm)! are all right!

Yeah, as has been said, we have the kids, not the Thunderbirds. Indeed, the machines are only in a third of the movie. That seems to be missing a very important point about seeing a Thunderbirds movie. But I will say this... if you ignore the Kids(tm)! scenes (and you will want to), this actually does feel rather like a Thunderbirds episode, so I can see how that might work. Instead of putting team out of the way while the Kids(tm)! have the movie, just split the team, and you'd have the same story really. Only without the annoying Kids(tm)!

However, aside from the Kids(tm)! the other worse part is the cutting. It feels about a cut every five seconds. Ye gads, that is terrible.

People wanted a Thunderbirds film. And still do, I think.

[END]

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Revengue of the NEEERDS!

And we progress further, from sexual objects to... well, basically sidelining them and not featuring women at all. This is good?

This is some time later, so this is the Next Generation, with a new set of nerds at Adams. The Tri-Lambda's are doing well, but the Alpha Betas are complete idiots. Two old ABs turn up (including the bad guy from the first movie), the bad guy becomes dean, and nerd hating renews. Lewis is still around, but now he's Lew, and becomes "friends" with the bad guy. However, eventually Lewis is disillusioned by the friendship, becomes a proper nerd, and strikes back at the hate. But behind the bad guy is a badder guy who orchestrates Lewis' downfall, until finally... the bad guy reveals he is a nerd and sides with the nerds!

I've seen saying 'bad guy', because while he's played by Ted McGinley, I cannot remember the character's name. And frankly none of the characters are memorable, and just feel like second-rate versions of the nerds from the first movie. And speaking of that... this whole movie feels like a second-rate version of the original movie. There is a sort of original plot line involving Lewis, the bad guy, and the lead female from the first movie, but other than that it's basically a repeat.

And there are women in this movie. There's the lead female, there's another chick that hits on Nu-Lewis, and... a couple of others, but they are just in the background. There's no boobs on display here (not even in a wet tshirt like the second movie), so I'm guessing this is progressive for the times. Now if they could only pass the basics of the Bechdel test...

We didn't need this updated version, but then we didn't need the second movie either, so I can't imagine anyone would let a small point like that stop them.

[END]

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TP 3.4

We get quite the returning cast for the last episode of season three. This is the Revenge of Jedikah.

An Egyptian tomb is opened, and a mummy takes over the body of the archaeologist. Cut to a copy of Stephen being on TV, drawing the attention of the real Stephen. The TPs slowly realise Jedikah is involved, and being a shape changer, they don't know who is real and so who can they trust? Jaunting around too much, John and Liz are attacked, and Jedikah finally has the other two at his mercy.

As well as Jedikah, we also get back Professor Cawston, Tricia Conway (who becomes a proper TP), Evergreen (Tyso's sister), and Colonel Masters (who is barely on screen before he's shot so they didn't get that actor back). And Philip Gilbert appears as his clones again. Gathering all these up, at the end of this, all the TPs are whisked away to the Trig and Jedikah is left a real man...

This is clearly an end of the series, with an opening left of "possibly coming back". This is a good ender, and would have made a good complete set. However there are some good stories still to come, so onto the next season.

[END]

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Maona

I saw this at a somewhat empty Embassy. Certainly, I was up the front rows in the pit, and there was no-one else in there, so I wasn't bothered by the annoying children. Great way to watch a movie!

Moana grows up in an insular society and questions who she is. Eventually, she gets away to have a journey where there are problems and finally a big battle. With songs. Which, by and large, could describe nearly any movie (and any Disney movie when you include the animated and songs bit). But to get to the point...

I enjoyed this! Yes, some parts felt rather generic, but this was well told, and yes, I even got emotional at times. Auli'i Cravalho is great as Moana, although I did have a little problem at times differentiating the Rock from Maui. And, of course, I already knew some Maui myths, so enjoyed that too. The songs... yeah, if there is one point in this movie I could have skipped, it would be the songs, they were really the parts that highlighted just how generic some parts were.

Anyway, great movie, and preceded by a short, the moral of which is never listen to your brain.

[END]

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Revengue of the NEERDS!

I will give that this movie is 100% better in its treatment of women. Now they are merely sexual objects, not actual characters that get dumped on!

The Nerds need to represent their school at the gathering of fraternities in the beach area of somewhere, but of course the Alpha Betas of another college don't want them there. And for some reason Ogre is back and with the other ABs? Anyway, the Nerds are mocked, but set up their own base to work from. The fraternities try to get physical requirements added to representation (which the Nerds won't meet), but the Nerds get that struck down, but are a part of another amendment to throw out any frat that disgraces their college with anything illegal. Can you see where this is going?

Yep, the ABs frame the Nerds in a way that is easily refutable, and the Nerds get marooned on an island with Ogre, at which point he basically joins them. (This is where we get the 'bush!' line, referring to weed in this case.) They make their way back and get back just in time to not get thrown out, and for Lewis to punch out the lead jock. (Again with the other Lambda Lambda Lambda people giving them a chance, in a way that seems racist, but again we've had no race issues?)

Gilbert is barely in this, perhaps the actor decided it was too stupid, but is around for basically a day of filming. Lewis, the other main nerd, who got the lead babe in the last movie, and even though is still with her?, gets the lead babe in this movie too. Wut? And from belching last time, we get spitting this time.

But this does seem like just another dumb frat boob comedy movie, with the unpopular people against the popular people. With even less effort put in. The frame up is stupid, and even the lead bad guy can't be bothered putting up a defense when confronted. However, this is after the Nerds smashed through the hotel with basically a tank, so, I'm thinking they still disgraced their college and should be thrown out anyway? But I seem to be the only one to notice that.

Okay, with decent into generic-ness, we're done, right?

[END]

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TP 3.3

It's the comedy episode... a lot of comedy... some might say too much comedy. It's A Man For Emily.

It's a ship of The Momma, Emily and Elmer, and they arrive at the Earth. They get a bad impression from seeing too many Westerns, but send Elmer down to get food... and so the TP get involved to help sort of the resulting mess. However Emily decides she wants John as her own manboy, but can he can get out of it?

The main problem is that it is a comedy, and everyone is treating it as much. The TP actors themselves are completely playing it up, with Peter Vaughn-Clarke grinning inappropriately in every scene, and Nick Young having to ham it up in the last episode. And then there are great lines like "Friendly as well as fat." Why did they think was going to get a sequel?

Amusingly the commentary, because the discs are produced by Big Finish, features Peter Davison as well as Peter and Nick. This is his first televisual appearance, and after this he wanted more... (although he doesn't say too much about this in his autobiography). The three of them take not just the piss but other elements out of this too. It's a great listen.

Certainly this episode doesn't stand up, but the commentary does.

[END]

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Passangars

This is one of them dramas pretending to be science fiction in order to get a different audience in.

It's a ship travelling to a far and distant planet, when an accident happens and one of the passengers is awokened. He stumbles around for a while, is unable to do anything useful, but decides to wake up a female passenger he's crushing on. [Note: This should be a spoiler, but the movie gets to this point before anything you've seen in the trailers, and this isn't a point of mystery at all.] What happens then is the two of them have the rest of their lives together because they will die before the ship arrives... except more accidents happen and it's likely the ship will blow up.

First up, this isn't really science fiction. The meat of the story is that man wakes up woman and they spend time together. That could be anywhere, and doesn't need to be in space let alone on this set up. That set up just provides for some action sequences, but this is a story that doesn't need it. So that's a thing.

But the main problem is that person one wakes up person two [as I said, the movie makes no mystery about this, whereas perhaps it should have?]. Yeah, the guy's a dick for waking her up, but I can see the motivation for him doing so. And without that, we wouldn't have much of a movie. As least, not the romance drama we have here. (Again the sci-fi trapping is getting in the way of the story, they want to talk about 'what if a man and a woman were the last people around?', and cludge it up with this wrapper.) Split this part out into a more concentrated on that movie and it could work. And being alone in space could work. But not really like this.

So after all that, if you are still wanting to see Passengers, at least you'll enjoy Laurence Fishburne and Michael Sheen.

[END]

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Boon Tomohowk

This is a modern western, in that it is a western, but now we are able to use modern techniques to really sell the gory details.

Some people are abducted from a small western town, so a group of four form a posse to go out and get them back, including the husband of the one woman taken, the sheriff and sort of deputy, and the stuck up guy who knows what's best. We follow them through the desert for a very long time, with one or two encounters, before finally getting to the cave of the evil peoples, and what that entails.

This gets graphic, but it's only really in the last part of the movie that it indulges in it. For the most part, we are following the four characters through the desert, and there is good stuff happening, but the movie really takes its time.

Like the other big western from recent memory, this features Kurt Russell in a gruff grizzly role. We also get Matthew Fox with a(n intentionally) terrible mustache, and Patrick Wilson, who I can't remember what I last saw him in.

The effects are very good, but I did spend the odd moment going "I think I can see where they put the wound application", so I wasn't completely involved. Still, very well done.

A good movie, check it out if you have any interest.

[END]

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Revengue of the NERDS!

Yes, it's that classic movie that has now become a symbol for misogyny. Let's check it out!

Two characters, Lewis and Gilbert, are new to college, and now they have a chance for going after women! Only problem, they are extreme stereotypes of Nerds! They team up with other nerds, and form their own fraternity, but have trouble with the jock fraternity of Alpha Beta, and then get their revenge!

With how we start, fine, the jocks are obnoxious. But you know what? The nerds aren't any better! This isn't the tale of the underdog, this is the tale of a bunch of unlikeable characters all over the place not doing anything good!

However, let's get into it. The nerds form Lambda Lambda Lamdba, but the Alpha Beta's aren't interested in them. Fine, the ABs are jerks, and their big prank is letting some pigs into their opening party... which is a standard fraternity prank (from what I understand of movies), but this leads to the revenge. First against the AB associated sorority Pi Beta Pi by going into the sorority and setting up cameras...

...okay, even without the cameras, and with understanding that there is panty raids, this seems like straight up assault. Never mind being a prank, the LLL should be evicted, or put in jail or something! Instead, we get the gratuitous nudity, and they even involve minors (a young lad watching it). It doesn't go on as long as you might remember, but it isn't good.

Compared with this, the revenge prank on the ABs is putting liquid heat on their jockstraps... um, that seems like basic huge scale difference. This is just a stupid fraternity prank, the kind you expect. How does this compare with the invasion?

And then we have a big competition thing to decide who is the next top fraternity/sorority. The games session has some tricks by the nerds to get over the jocks, but the jocks win. Then there is the charity booth, and fortunately the nerds have pictures of the topless Pis to sell their pies... er, again, I'm thinking criminal charges? And around this point is where Lewis fakes being the main jock to have sex with the lead Pi. Again, I'm thinking rape charges, but she enjoyed it so it's all right? The last is a skit session, where the Alphas actually show a more fun side by dressing as cheerleaders, but the nerds are the only ones with an actual set up, so of course they win.

The Alphas get mad, trash the Lambda's house, but the dean finally stands up to them and the coach, with the help of the sponsor behind the Lambda's who shows up to silence everyone because... I'm not sure. What the hell is the point of this bit? Is it because they are black? But the Alphas haven't shown any sign of being racist, so... what? Anyway, big nerd speech, everyone embraces their inner nerd, yay!

Okay, some problems with the handling of Pis, but otherwise this is just another stupid college fraternity movie. Certainly not something make a series out of.

[END]

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TP 3.2

After all this talk about Galactic Trig and such, we get our first story on another planet. And it's rather dull. This is Worlds Away.

The reason telepaths are so late in breaking out on Earth is because the Egyptians are to blame. The Egyptian gods that is, who are, of course, aliens. They have a telepathic nullifying field and the machine only recently stopped working, hence the Tomorrow People. This machine is still working on another planet, so the TPs are sent there because they are used to working without powers. And lo, we get our 'peasant village' standard tropes, complete with witch telepath burner. Fortunately, the TPs are there to... shoot the machine, and everyone is saved!

Which is stretched out over several episodes. It's only three, but it feels like more. And the first episode they aren't even on the planet yet! When they get there, there's obviously the machine responsible, but instead of heading straight for that and dealing with it, they take the time out to deal with the locals. GET ON WITH IT!

This story is notable for two things. The first being the explanation of why telepaths now and not before. The other is the on screen presence of Philip Gilbert, the voice of TIM, who plays various clones with the acronyms of TIM (because, GET IT????).

This just isn't a riveting story, but it should be. With the Egyptian gods and another planet, this should be exciting. But it's dull. The next story however...

[END]

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Ass Cree

Yeah, I went there with the title. This is the latest movie to prove that games can be movies. Where by 'prove' I mean actually 'test'.

Some dude sees his mother's death when he is young, grows up traumatised, then is kidnapped by a company to regress into a past self. SCIENCE! There he relives some of the deeds of his ancestor to find out where he put an apple. The apple, in this case, holds the genetic code for people that will enable the company to eliminate violence. SCIENCE! Everything goes wonderfully and everyone lives happily ever after.

I can't really express how... boring this movie was. It was just dull on every level. The basic story, of needing this macguffin is badly presented, and I don't care about it. The regression technology isn't even slightly believable, even with the graphics, so I don't care about it. And what happens in the past is just action scenes with no plot to speak of, therefore I don't care about it. Even that most of the scenes were filmed in real, with not much CGI, doesn't move them up the scale to narratively interesting. Just because the dullness was shot for real doesn't make it less dull.

And then we have plenty of set up for more movies, because we must have franchises these days, and if they can pull out a new game every year, why not a movie?

Just... snore.

[END]

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