Weekend movies
Spent most of the weekend watching Nexflix. Here's some of the treasures we've experienced;
The Gamers: Dorkness Rising ^^^^ (4 wizard hats)
This was very funny - it had a good balance between poking fun of some common gamer personalities, and an honest view of game-running and playing. I've met those people, I know those people, and I don't mind being reminded of those people.
Gamers ^
If we had watched this first, we would have skipped Dorkness Rising. The constant, over-the-top mockery of gamer stereotypes was grating, to say the least. While I have met the various stereotypes presented, they are much rarer than portrayed here. The excessive number of excessively tasteless jokes would have been a better fit for a fan remake of Porky's than a gamer mocumentary. I suspect the real target audience (teenage gamers who want to make fun of hardcore gamers) would rate this higher, but my reaction to most of the characters was "Oh, why did you have to remind me of HIM?"
(edit: I just determined that this is not the prequel to Dorkness Rising, but a completely unrelated film. Unfortunately, Netflix does not currently have 'The Gamers".)
Buck Rogers - Time of the Hawk ^^^
The first episode of the second season of Buck Rogers, in which Buck & Friends are traveling around the galaxy in an ersatz Enterprise. The crew of this vessel wear very fetching sailor suits, reminding me of old Love Boat episodes. Said sailor suits show a fair amount of female skin, which earns them some forgiveness in my book. We are also introduced to: a much more annoying version of Tweeky, Kryten(a know-it-all robot), and Dr Something-or-other, a TV-scientist-who-knows-about-every-subject-you-care-to-name. The major fight scene in this double-length episode was much less realistic than those in the first season, possibly because they had about 10 or 15 minutes to fill.
Monsters Inc. ^^^^^
Too good to make fun of, in my current mood.
White Nights ^^^
Movie about a dancer who has defected from Soviet Russia, who is be aboard a jetliner that makes an emergency landing as a Soviet airbase. Fairly good for the Struggle-against-the-Ruskies genre, but a bit formulaic. Did anyone doubt that they would get away in the end?
Spymate ^^^
Movie about a cute chimpanzee(with a jetpack!) helping a retired spy rescue his super-genius daughter, who has invented a new kind of laser. With a premise like that, I don't expect any sort of scientific accuracy, and I am not disappointed. Oddly, the monkey does not use his jetpack nearly as much as he could.
Lightspeed ^^
An atrocious attempt at a superhero movie. I'm pretty sure the villain is a minor enemy of one of the Marvel Superhero Stable, I've never heard of the hero, and don't expect to again. The overall story arc was actually not bad, but the implementation left much to be desired, with hammy acting and a lot of Python(the bad guy) doing evil things just 'cause he's evil. Also, the hero made very poor use of his powers, wasting energy taking out minions he was perfectly capable of evading, and repeatedly allowing himself to get into strength contests with his bigger, stronger, tougher enemy.
The Gamers: Dorkness Rising ^^^^ (4 wizard hats)
This was very funny - it had a good balance between poking fun of some common gamer personalities, and an honest view of game-running and playing. I've met those people, I know those people, and I don't mind being reminded of those people.
Gamers ^
If we had watched this first, we would have skipped Dorkness Rising. The constant, over-the-top mockery of gamer stereotypes was grating, to say the least. While I have met the various stereotypes presented, they are much rarer than portrayed here. The excessive number of excessively tasteless jokes would have been a better fit for a fan remake of Porky's than a gamer mocumentary. I suspect the real target audience (teenage gamers who want to make fun of hardcore gamers) would rate this higher, but my reaction to most of the characters was "Oh, why did you have to remind me of HIM?"
(edit: I just determined that this is not the prequel to Dorkness Rising, but a completely unrelated film. Unfortunately, Netflix does not currently have 'The Gamers".)
Buck Rogers - Time of the Hawk ^^^
The first episode of the second season of Buck Rogers, in which Buck & Friends are traveling around the galaxy in an ersatz Enterprise. The crew of this vessel wear very fetching sailor suits, reminding me of old Love Boat episodes. Said sailor suits show a fair amount of female skin, which earns them some forgiveness in my book. We are also introduced to: a much more annoying version of Tweeky, Kryten(a know-it-all robot), and Dr Something-or-other, a TV-scientist-who-knows-about-every-subject-you-care-to-name. The major fight scene in this double-length episode was much less realistic than those in the first season, possibly because they had about 10 or 15 minutes to fill.
Monsters Inc. ^^^^^
Too good to make fun of, in my current mood.
White Nights ^^^
Movie about a dancer who has defected from Soviet Russia, who is be aboard a jetliner that makes an emergency landing as a Soviet airbase. Fairly good for the Struggle-against-the-Ruskies genre, but a bit formulaic. Did anyone doubt that they would get away in the end?
Spymate ^^^
Movie about a cute chimpanzee(with a jetpack!) helping a retired spy rescue his super-genius daughter, who has invented a new kind of laser. With a premise like that, I don't expect any sort of scientific accuracy, and I am not disappointed. Oddly, the monkey does not use his jetpack nearly as much as he could.
Lightspeed ^^
An atrocious attempt at a superhero movie. I'm pretty sure the villain is a minor enemy of one of the Marvel Superhero Stable, I've never heard of the hero, and don't expect to again. The overall story arc was actually not bad, but the implementation left much to be desired, with hammy acting and a lot of Python(the bad guy) doing evil things just 'cause he's evil. Also, the hero made very poor use of his powers, wasting energy taking out minions he was perfectly capable of evading, and repeatedly allowing himself to get into strength contests with his bigger, stronger, tougher enemy.