June 28, 2015

[Short-Lived Showcase] Cybersix, episode 7 "Brainwashed"

"By removing all of Henrique's agency, there's no drama to the choices he's been manipulated into making, no actual struggle between he and Julian as the boy struggles to defend Cybersix. This could have been a great character piece that boldly dropped Henrique into the scenario, but as it is, he's little more than just a cool mustache dude with nothing explored beneath a nice surface design, and no sense of victory when he ultimately sides with Cybersix, due to it being the result of a removed helmet instead of an actual choice on his part. And back to the Techno, the cartooniness of the scenario even strips out the reveal that José's mission to conquer Meridiana has reached a point where the CHIEF OF FREAKIN' POLICE is under his control."

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June 18, 2015

[Masters of Carpentry] Monthly Feature #16: Starman (1984)

"I've been saying for a long time that I thought The Thing is where he peaked. I actually think this is as good for me as The Thing was. I find the film beautifully shot, I think the script is great for the most part, I love the actors, I love the characters, I love the journey. It is a very by-the-numbers story, it is, so yeah, it's a very familiar story, a very predictable story, but I thought the actual execution of it and exploration of it really pulled me in. And it made me happy at the end."

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June 17, 2015

[Masters of Carpentry] Monthly Feature #15: Christine (1983)

"I find it a nice mix of the strong King plot and the strong King characters, that even he didn't handle very well, mixed with the style of Carpenter, and I love the mood of this movie, I love the pace of the movie, I love the way the movie is shot, the editing, the music. I really like this one. This one just really works for me, and it has a little more depth and meat to it than a lot of Carpenter's films, but it's also a lot leaner and tighter than the King book. So for me it's a nice, perfect fusion of these two styles."

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June 14, 2015

[Short-Lived Showcase] Cybersix, episode 6 "Blue Birds of Horror"

"There's very little actual violence, but the overwhelming flurry of the attacks really sells the danger, and even the growing flocks at rest on the rooftops has a skilled layer of tension to it. I especially like that we get outside of our main cast, finding random people around Meridiana who are falling victim in nicely staged ways. The couple who both delight in feeding the birds on their sill who suddenly find their home invaded and trashed. The guy who takes shelter in a phone booth only for the birds, instead of smashing into the windows like they did with Hitchcock, work up under the open ventilation gap near the ground, sealing him in with horror. The dude who loses a hairpiece he still has two payment on."

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June 7, 2015

[Short-Lived Showcase] Cybersix, episode 5 "Lori is Missing"

"José continues to be completely unthreatening as a villain, but he's still a hell of a lot of fun. I love how ridiculously simple yet ridiculously complicated his plot is, to dig through the basement of a bank vault, all hinging on a completely off scale 8-bit program. There's really no reason he couldn't just manually do the dig given how much control he had over the vehicle in the climactic battle, but that he's put so much reliance on his pre-programming, it speaks to how stubborn and immature he is."

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