Author Archives: tldrmoviereviews

TV Review – Disenchantment: Season One

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TL;DR – What we get is a series with some interesting moments and characters, but feels more of a prologue to something than a season in its own right

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

 

Disenchantment. Image Credit: Netflix/Rough Draft Studios

 

Review –

When you think over the parody genre, it is surprising that there are not more quality entries into it. Part of this is because many take the easy way out and just fill their shows with pop-culture references that instantly date them. To really do a parody justice you really have to understand the genre and works you are parodying to an almost obsessive level. These are your Galaxy Quests, and your 22 Jump Streets. Today we take a look at a new series working in this territory Disenchantment which delves into the myriads of tropes around the Fantasy genre, and mostly succeeds. Now we will be looking at the season as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Movie Review – To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before

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TL;DR – It looks at the complicated emotions of love and how we respond to it.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

To All the Boys I've Loved Before. Image Credit: Netflix

Review –

The teen romance is a genre that use to be very popular but you don’t see it as much anymore in recent times. Part of the reason is that quite often these were the mid-tier films falling between Indy and Blockbusters that got squeezed out of oblivion in the rush for everyone to make their tent pole crossover franchises. Also the genre has gone through some shifts in the wake of works like John Green’s The Fault In Our Stars. However, as people realise that the big multi-film franchise can’t happen all the time, we have started to see the resurgence of these mid-tier budget films and all of this brings us to today’s film To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before a Young Adult/Coming of Age film about love and loss and the need to hide your letters better from well-meaning but potentially destructive siblings.

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TV Review – Disenchantment: A Princess, an Elf, and a Demon Walk Into a Bar

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TL;DR – An interesting start that gives us a real direction as to the tone and where the series is going.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

 

Disenchantment. Image Credit: Netflix/Rough Draft Studios

 

Review –

I was coming into Disenchantment with a bit of a mixed mind as I have an interesting relationship with Matt Groening’s work. When I was growing up we were not allowed to watch The Simpsons so when you did see it at a friend’s place it was this little rebellion, so I hold some of those early episodes to be quite dear to me. However, I can’t tell you the last episode I watched, at this point, I could be over seven seasons behind. On the flip side, while all this was happening Futurama came and went, and then came again and then went again, and I would count it in the top ten TV Shows I have ever seen. So where would Disenchantment fall? Well from the first episode we can see that it is at least going to be interesting.

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Movie Review – BlacKkKlansman

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TL;DR – Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman is at times hilarious, at times deeply provoking, and at no time will it hold your hand as it explores the deep centred racism in America (spoiler: it is not just America)

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

BlacKkKlansman. Image Credit: Focus Features/Universal Pictures

Review –

I was not one hundred per cent sure what it was that I was getting myself into when I walked into to see BlacKkKlansman. I knew it was about a black police officer infiltrating the KKK and that it was based on a true story but that was about it. Spike Lee is a filmmaker whose work I am unfortunately not that familiar with, so was this going to be a comedy, was it going to play it straight, was it going to do both while being deeper for it? Well with that in mind let’s take a look at the race relations of the 1970s which in no way reflects on America of today … in no way …

So to set the scene, in 1972 Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is hired as the first black police officer in Colorado Springs. While this is meant to be a step forward for race relations, Ron is hidden away in the records room taking abuse from his fellow police officers. That is until one day an important African-Amerian activist Kwame Ture (Corey Hawkins) comes to town and they need someone to go undercover at the speech and well every other member of the police force would stand out. It is here where he meets Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier) one of the event organisers, and listens to the speech which focuses on promoting the cause of African people from white oppression, up to and including armed resistance. Happy with his success the police decide to move Ron into the intelligence division and on his first day he responds to an ad in the paper about a new KKK chapter starting up in the town. One slight problem, just a small thing really, but it kind of won’t work if they ever have a face to face meeting. So Ron enlists officer Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), Ron is Ron on the phone, and Flip is Ron in person, and all of it flows from there.

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Movie Review – Vitamania: The Sense and Nonsense of Vitamins

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TL;DR – Where this documentary excels is in both illuminating complicating an issue, namely vitamins, that many people take for granted which are part of that is $100 Billion dollar industry with very little or in some cases no regulation.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Vitamania. Image Credit: Screen Australia/SBS

Review –

As a society, I really feel that we are becoming more and more attuned to what it is we are putting in our bodies and the negative consequences that could have. We’ve had the discussions about fat, salt, carbs, and most recently sugar, however, in all those discussions have we missed something that we need to have to give that same level of scrutiny to. This is, of course, vitamins and I think you would have already guessed from the title of the documentary. Many of us take all sorts of dietary supplements, but are they actually beneficial for us? This is the question that the documentary helmed by Sonya Pemberton and hosted by Derek Muller is out to explore. This is a question that I am interested in myself as I grew up taking vitamins and as an adult there is a lot of noise in this issue ranging from “You are just making expensive pee” to “You are killing yourself if you don’t” and it is difficult to work out what is the reality. Which is what this documentary sets out to do through information, interviews, case studies, and the occasional song.

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Movie Review – The Spy Who Dumped Me

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TL;DR – At times deeply funny, and also quite shocking, while it doesn’t quite reach fantastic it is clear that a lot of talent and care has gone into the film, even though the full frontal nudity and language will be a barrier for many.

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There are mid-credit scenes

Image Credit: Lionsgate

Review –

This was actually quite a bit of a surprise, there had been a lot of bad buzz about the film floating around, and I honestly had no idea what to expect of the film other than the most blatant rip off of a Bond title since Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. However, the one thing that was clear from the first few minutes is that a lot of care has gone into the construction of this film, because there is a lot they could have phoned it in, but no they put the effort in.

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Article – Australian Survivor has a Huge Representation Problem

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TL;DR – They should have done better, and we know they could have.

 

Australian Survivor banner. Image Credit: Channel Nine.

 

Article –

Last night the first episode of the new season of Australian Survivor aired down here and there is a lot we need to talk about it. Indeed, there are some really fascinating things, like how a lot of the framing of the show is clearly tapping into the female gaze, the fact that someone acting like a complete ass actually got them booted off the show by the contestants, the Champions v Contender dichotomy that just exists to force more c-list celebrities onto our screens, or how they continue the Australian tradition of taking a format that works in an hour and pad it out to fill in as much runtime as possible. However, the area that we will be focusing on today is the representation and the complete failure of the show on multiple fronts.

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TV Review – What is Music?

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TL;DR – A fascinating documentary that looks at all facets of music, from slow motion uvulas to metal screaming and everything in-between.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

What is Music? Image Credit: ABC

Review –

Music is one of those things that is both universal but also deeply personal, everybody on the planet loves music in some way even if we don’t agree on the particular style. One of the things I have started to look more at as I delve into the realm of cinema is the impact that music has on me, so a series exploring all the different facets of music immediately caught my attention. With this in mind, today we are going to look at the first three episodes and also the number of shorts they have created which seems to be a good barometer of how the series will progress. But before we go on, just a reminder that the show is also being posted online, so you can watch all the episodes here.

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Movie Review – Extinction

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TL;DR – This is a film with a lot of promise and an interesting hook, but it’s missing that final level of polish needed for a film like this and the ending did feel like a cop-out.

Score – 2.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Extinction. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

It has been a good year for Science Fiction TV on Netflix, I mean it is only halfway through the year and we have already had such gems as Altered Carbon (see review), Lost in Space (see review), Star Trek Discovery (see review) & The Rain (see review). However, when it comes to Science Fiction films it is a bit more of a mixed bag, ranging from the excellent Annihilation (see review) to the quite disappointing TAU (see review). Today we look at the next film that Netflix has saved after having its theatrical release pulled Extinction, which has some good ideas going on but didn’t quite get there with the execution.

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Movie Review – The Breaker Upperers

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TL;DR – At times hilarious, at times incredible farcical, and at times a deeply moving look at the trials of friendship.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit scene

The Breaker Upperers. Image Credit: Piki Films/Madman.

Review –

For a long time, there has been this growing bubble of particular dry absurdist comedy coming out of New Zealand. You see it in the work of Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie, Rhys Darby, Rachel House, and also some of Peter Jackson’s early films. These are films that mix comedy and emotional understanding in equal measures. Whenever one of these movies like Hunt for the Wilderpeople (see review) or Hibiscus & Ruthless (see review) make it across the ditch I always really look forward to seeing it. Well, today we get the chance to look at a new entry into this wonderful genre The Breaker Upperers, from the comedic team of Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek.

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