I found it supremely entertaining with a terrific lead actress and a compelling story (up to a point), 14 October 2017
Wonder Woman seems to be one of those movies that splits people. Reviewers on IMDb seem to either love it or hate it. There doesn't appear to be much middle-ground. Well, put me in the "love it" category. It's not perfect, but I found it supremely entertaining with a terrific lead actress and a compelling story (up to a point).
Entertaining – For me, the 2+ hours just flew by. From Diana's backstory as a small child growing up on the Island full of Amazons to her first steps off the island to her battles with the Germans, it was pretty much a thrill-a-minute. And I appreciate the fact that the filmmakers decided to inject some humor. My biggest complaint with most of DCs other efforts is the complete lack of anything remotely funny. They're dark and depressing – and as a general rule, dark and depressing do not equal entertaining in my book.
Lead Actress, Gal Gadot – What a woman! As someone who adored Lynda Carter in the Wonder Woman TV series, I'm glad Gadot resembles Carter. It made it easier for me to believe in her performance. And what a performance it was! For someone with a relatively limited acting background, I thought she was magnificent. She held her own acting- wise. Her comedic timing was spot-on. She delivered some of the best deadpan funny lines I've heard in a long time. And her ability to be at least somewhat convincing in the fight scenes was a real plus. She's just amazing!
The Story – I enjoyed most all of the plot. If I have one complaint, it's with the film's ending. The whole god vs god thing at the end just didn't work on me. There was too much CGI and too little storytelling. But, as evidenced by my rating, it wasn't enough to spoil the entire movie for me. I was having way too much fun to let this get in the way. And up to that point, the plot worked for me. I bought the rest of Wonder Woman's story hook, line, and sinker. They made her a believable, real character – something that's hard to do with a superhero. Sure, there were holes and illogical things going on, but as I've repeatedly said, when it's this much fun, who cares?
9/10
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The Revenge of Dr. X
A real mess of a movie, 14 October 2017
What a disaster of a movie! It's billed as Ed Wood's lost "classic", but I'm not sure Wood is to blame for the mess that is this movie. Most of his films are light-years better than this. In The Revenge of Dr X, Dr Bragan (James Craig) leaves the stress of his high-powered job at NASA and seeks the solitude provided by a remote Japanese retreat. There, he begins experimenting with plants by splicing together different Venus Flytrap type plants to create his own super, meat- eating monster.
First, what's with all the title confusion? This thing seems to have been billed under several wildly different names – The Revenge of Dr X, Venus Flytrap, Body of the Prey, and more. It's even listed on IMDb under two different names with two different release years – Venus Flytrap (1970) and Akuma no niwa (1967). Finally, the copy I saw listed Eddie Romero as director. Romero might have been responsible for a lot of junky movies, but as far as I can tell, he had nothing to do with this mess.
There are so many issues with The Revenge of Dr X that listing them all would be impossible. I'm not even going to try to enumerate all the technical problems – suffice it to say that it's a technical disaster. Instead, I want to write about a few of the illogical plot points presented in the movie drove me nuts:
1. I understand that the pressure of being a top-dog at NASA might lead you to want to take some time off to relive stress, but why go to the middle of nowhere Japan? Wouldn't a few weeks in Palm Springs or Club Med have recharged Dr Bragan's batteries? And would he really leave the US just after a spacecraft he was responsible for was launched. I would think that even the most stressed person would want to know the outcome of their life's work. Not Dr Bragan. He never so much as mentions NASA again.
2. I'm not sure how Dr Bragan was able to achieve anything at NASA given his wild mood swings. This man takes bi-polar to a whole new level. And why would his Japanese assistant stay with him? He treats her like complete dirt. It makes no sense.
3. I haven't researched Japanese customs regulations from the late 60s, but I have trouble believing the Japanese government would allow Dr Bragan to bring a non-native plant species into the country so easily. Wouldn't it have had to go through quarantine or something similar?
4. Dr Bragan needs "heart blood" to feed his new creature. As movie luck would have it, there is a ready supply at a nearby sanitarium for Dr Bragan to take advantage of. That sanitarium was never mentioned until Dr Bragan made his late-night visit. How convenient!
5. Did Dr Bragan buy the Venus Flytrap with the wild idea of creating his killer plant creature? It seemed like more of an impulse purchase with little thought behind it. Next thing you know, Dr Bragan and plant are in Japan staying at a large remote, abandoned facility that just happens to have a greenhouse and other equipment that he needs for his experiments. You'd think that his plan of splice plants together to create a new living creature and all that was required would take years of planning to pull off. Here, Dr Bragan just sort of stumbles into being a mad scientist with a fully stocked lab.
That's probably enough. Writing about the many problems of this movie is like taking candy from a baby – it's way too easy. The lone highlights for me are the creature design and the decision to let Atsuko Rome (if I've got the right person) use her own voice instead of dubbing her. But that's the extent of anything positive I have to say.
2/10
Better than the first episode, 14 October 2017
Slade is hired by A.S. Batson to prove that a mine was fraudulently "salted" prior to its sale/purchase. As you'd expect from a 1950s era program, Slade is surprised to learn that A.S. (the "A" is for Alice) Batson is a woman.
I learned something from The Salted Mine. Going into this episode, I had no idea what was meant by "salting a mine". Turns out that an unscrupulous seller would spread just enough gold dust around a worthless mine to make the buyer think he was getting something of value.
The Salted Mine played better for me than the first episode in the series. My enjoyment came primarily from all the back-stabbing and double-crossing going on among the cast. It's not hard to spot the baddie with such a small cast and less than 30 minutes. Still, the way it all plays out is reasonably entertaining. I'm still not a big fan of Scott Brady (and most likely I never will be). He just seems too unnatural to me. I did enjoy seeing Marie Windsor in the role of A.S. Batson. She's been a favorite of mine since I first saw Abbot and Costello Meet the Mummy over 45 years ago.
5/10
