Linda Naughton's Blog: Self-Rescuing Princesses, page 9
August 31, 2018
Hidden Figures Review
Hidden Figures isn't the sort of movie I typically review here, but it's a subject near and dear to my heart so I'm going to make an exception.
I don't know how it took me 18 months to finally getting around to seeing this movie. It caught my eye when it first came out in theaters, but it was up against Rogue One and, well... Star Wars. Better late than never!
Hidden Figures is the long-neglected story of three ground-breaking African-American w...
July 14, 2018
Spirit: Riding Free Review
When I heard that Netflix was losing its Disney content in 2019, I quietly resolved to cancel my subscription once Disney rolled out its own streaming service. Nearly everything we watched on Netflix was Disney content. But just when I thought I was out - they pulled me back in! Or rather, they pulled my kids back in with a series of engaging original and exclusive kids shows.
The firs...
July 3, 2018
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Review
The best movies in the Jurassic Park franchise feature intelligent, resourceful characters struggling to survive while caught up in events outside their control. Alan saving the kids from the car in the tree; Ellie surprised by a Raptor in the power room; Tim on the electric fence; Owen hiding under the truck from the I-Rex; Owen and Claire dodging fighting dinos on the boardwalk... in these moments the peril was organic and believable. The thrills were ea...
June 15, 2018
The Crossing Review
By the time I got around to writing about The Crossing, it had already been cancelled. Figures. But I'm going to review it anyway, because the first eleven episodes hold together pretty well as a self-contained mini-series even if it goes no further.
SPOILER ALERT! This review contains minor spoilers for The Crossing's first (and apparently only) season.The central conceit of The Crossing is neat and pretty original: five hundred tr...
May 28, 2018
Women in War Movies: 2018 Edition
It's become an annual Memorial Day tradition for me to salute our veterans by highlighting women in war movies. As usual, the pickings this year remain pretty slim. Hollywood may be getting better about including strong female characters, but apparently the idea of strong female soldier characters still hasn't caught on.
You can read past editions of the Women in War Movies series here.
Megan LeaveyMegan Leavey follows the true story of the Marine corporal who fought to adopt her bomb-sniff...
May 14, 2018
Timeless: Going out with a Bang
The episodes leading up to Timeless’ second season finale were, frankly, awesome.
The Time Team brought a young JFK back to the future to save him, and in a poignant twist he reads his own Wikipedia article and learns about the tragic fate of himself and his siblings. Sa...
April 28, 2018
Timeless: Second Chances
Timeless returned for its second season a few weeks ago, staging a comeback after briefly being cancelled. The show certainly seems to have stepped up its game.
Twisted Rittenhouse conspiracies and "WTF is Flynn up to" mysteries have given way to a more straightforward narrative: Rittenhouse is out to strengthen its stranglehold on the present by manipulat...
April 15, 2018
Tomb Raider Review
I confess, I never played the original Tomb Raider video game. Shameful, in hindsight, but the blocky Lara Croft - with her giant chest and barely-there shorts - always felt more geared towards teen boys. The Lara in the 2018 remake, on the other hand, is the sort of character I'd be pleased for my daughter to watch when she got older. Played by the stellar Alicia Vikander, this Lara is tenacious, smart, loyal and athlet...
December 23, 2017
Star Wars: The Last Jedi Review
Let's be honest - Force Awakens was an impossible act to follow, blowing away (most) critics and audiences. Last Jedi didn't really live up to the expectations set by the first one, but it was still a solid outing. I enjoyed it.
A lot of the criticism surrounding Force Awakens centered around how it hit nearly every story beat from A New Hope verbatim. I persona...
October 29, 2017
The Brave - Review
Fall TV season. So many shows starting, so little time to review them all. New on NBC this season is The Brave, which has got to be one of the lamest titles I've seen in recent memory.
The Brave follows a group of special operations soldiers in some nebulous government agency - a military cousin of Jack Bauer's CTU from 24. Like 24, it features agents in the field assisted by analysts in a tactical center with near-omniscient intelligence capabilities. Together they hunt a variety of Bad Guys - the Taliban, rogue Russians, drug dealers, etc.
But where 24 was a non-stop thrill ride, The Brave is just kind of... bland. It somehow manages to make gunfights and hostage rescue feel anti-climactic. The plots are at least grounded in reality, unlike the "you've got to be kidding me" twists of 24, but I wonder how long that will last in a genre that continually feels obliged to ratchet up the stakes. The dialogue is painfully awkward at times, with clunky exposition like, "I can't believe she's actually here... her only son died in combat ten days ago" (Who talks like that?) or hum-dingers like: "Is this mission official or unofficial?" "It's officially unofficial." (Thanks for clearing that up.)
One thing that makes the show stand out is its impressively diverse cast, including three female regulars (two of whom are people of color). The characters, like the plots, don't stand out - they're sketches more than fully-developed people. Hannah (Sofia Pernas) is a former undercover agent with a traumatic past. Patricia (Anne Heche) is the tough-as-nails director who recently lost her son. And Jasmine ("Jaz") is a snarky sniper played by half-Lebanese actress Natacha Karam. "Were you raised Muslim, Jaz?" asks the new guy. "I was raised a New Yorker," she snaps.
It may not be off to an awesome start, the characters have a nice rapport and I like what I've seen of them so far. I think it has promise, especially if it can devote less time to the "bad guy of the week" and more to fleshing out its good guys. I'm a sucker for military action shows, so I'm going to give it some time to see if it gets better.
Ratings
Princess Power:
Overall:
Bechdel Test: Pass
Learn about my Ratings System.
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