"FLY ME TO THE MOON" DAZZLES WITH A ROBUST CAST!!!

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - FLY ME TO THE MOON [2024] - PG13 - Apple+ - Directed by Greg Berianti. Story by Bill Kirstein and Kennan Flynn. Screenplay by Rose Gilroy. Produced by Keenan Flynn, Sarah Schechter, Scarlett Johansson, Jonathan Lia. Stars Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum, Ray Romano, Woody Harrelson, and Jim Rash. Budget $100 Million.

Not based on actual facts or historical events, this is a story about Kelly Jones [Johansson] who has worked most of her life as an advertising manager [of sorts], who has scammed her way through some high profile companies and made a name for herself. She is approached by a high Government official named "Moe" [Harrelson], who enlists her services to help save the American space program [NASA] by building enthusiasm in the America through some unique advertising ploys. Jones becomes smidgen with NASA Launch Director, Cole Davis [Tatum], and together they not only fall in love, but they work together to save the NASA space program from the clutches of Moe who plans to fake the entire landing on the moon.

THE GOOD - Fantastic location spotting. Transforming area scenes to the 1960's with some awesome classic cars. Some brilliant performances between Johansson and Tatum. Ray Romano plays a strong part in the film, doing very little, but some of his most impressive, dramatic works that I've ever seen from him. Harrelson brings a quirky, dark character to life and it's good to see him doing dark comedy again. Some very well produced CGI and practical effects which would help explain how a moon landing was faked and better yet, why. The story is perfect with the time and I liked how the "theory" behind needing to fake a moon landing was explained.

THE BAD - Even though there were some good selections in the sound track for this film, none of the tracks used in this film were memorable after watching the film. A time piece like this film should have a memorable sound track.

POST MORTEM - This was a pleasing film and had all of the elements that a good film should have. IMO the advertising for this film was poorly produced and damaged any chance of this film gaining strength in the box office. This film won't win any nominations as there were no sex scenes, no lesbians kissing or gays working together, no violence, no explosions or super heroes to save the day. Writing films like this has unfortunately gone the way of the Dodo bird. A film to watch when there's nothing else to watch on TV.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [4 of 5 Stars]

APPLE TV'S "INVASION" JUST CAN'T GET OFF IT'S FEET FAST ENOUGH...

🎥🎞️Series Review🎞️🎥 - INVASION [2021] - Season 1 - APPLE TV - [PG13 or TV MA] - Written by Simon Kinberg, David Well, Adam Benic, Gursimran Sandau, Andrew Baldwin, David Rosen, and Uzoamaka Maduka. Directed by Amanda Marsalis, Jakob Verbruggen, Jamie Payne, and Alik Sakharov. Sam Neill, Shioli Kutsuna, Golshifteh Farahani, Shamier Anderson, and Billy Barratt. There was a tremendous promotional push for this series with action filled trailers and TV ads.

This series spins plot about five groups of naive people from various cultures and countries who find themselves in the middle of an alien invasion, a few are too busy in their own personal worlds to see what's actually taking place around them until it's way too late for them to accept what's going on. After local communications and power grids are disrupted, we see how losing the internet, communications, and television can start a quick panic between countries. There is no standout star in this series, except it is somewhat expected that all of the characters presented in the show are surely going to cross paths at some point. There is plenty of chaos, unexplained explosions, some blame on terrorists, and love triangles that bend this sci-fi series in a direction that can either lead the characters to save the world or doom the livelihood they all lived in.

THE GOOD - There are no big names in the series, Sam Neill's part is cut short, but he brings a very interesting twist to the show's beginning. There is a story arc of some Navy SEALS who are presented in the series and I was pleasantly pleased with the tactical prowess and comradery of the team shown in the first four episodes. The location spotting for the series took tremendous effort for the series production team, and they presented some realistic locations for the show.

THE BAD - Apple TV pushes the gay/Lesbian agenda in this series, presenting right away that the earth's only hope to communicate with the alien race is the love bond between two women....and some viewers might admire the production team spending tons of time developing characters, and I feel that the method used in the screenplay seems to drag on a bit too long, cutting back and forth between the five sub plots and then having to read captions throughout most of the important scientific jib-jab in the show. The sound quality is very bad, especially where the director felt the need to focus on the sound of rain and wind, instead of making the characters clearly communicate during moments building up to some much desired action sequences; the whispering dialog is so bad at some points that I had to switch to a head set and then captions to understand what anyone was saying. The aliens aren't explained at all and most of their appearance is presented in shadows and dark places; very little detail to show expect that their fast, have a gaping mouth[?] area and they love to tear people apart. For all of the aliens know ability to shred humans pretty instantly, there's very little blood and gore.

POST MORTEM - I was not impressed with this series. By the time the aliens began to show themselves and make moves against the main characters, there was some cheesy reason why the alien advance was suddenly turned around and how several characters suddenly had the ability to suddenly control the aliens or see into their actions to prevent certain death. Watch this series if your seriously bored and have nothing else to do. On a side note, I stumbled on to the fact that there's a Season 2 already released and I was wasn't impressed that the new season presents the alien species suddenly attacking in full force and in broad daylight...and don't get me started with the notion that a "one woman warrior" now knows how to kill the aliens....puh-lease...I'll pass on Season 2.

⭐️⭐️💫[2.5 out of 5 Stars]

APPLE TV’S "THE MORNING SHOW" SURPRISES AUDIENCES WITH DIABOLICAL EASE

🎥🎞️Series Review-🎞️🎥 THE MORNING SHOW Season One [2019] - Apple TV - R - Created by Jay Carson. Executive Producers Jennifer Aniston; Reese Witherspoon; Kerry Ehrin; Michael Ellenberg; Mimi Leder; Kristin Hahn; and Lauren Levy Neustadter. Starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carrell, and Billy Crudup. Season One actually won a ton of Emmy and Independent Film awards.

The series covers a plot and story which is loosely based on the "Today Show's" criminal antics of Matt Lauer; who was disgraced from the popular morning show in 2017. Carrell plays "Mitch Kessler," a popular morning anchor who is accused of several instances of sexual assault and harassment in the workplace. Anniston plays Alex Levy, his cohost who is pushed into a political fight to try and keep her job, after Kessler is removed from the morning show. Witherspoon plays Bradley Jackson, a stern and upfront, small town reporter who is hired by the morning shows new executive producer, to fill in Kessler's void but also possibly replace Levy should contract negotiations fail. The series is professionally produced in epic movie format with stationary cameras, soft lighting, fantastic sound and controlled sets.

THE GOOD - Aniston and Witherspoon perform brilliantly in this series format, breaking away from quirky comedy and going straight for the dramatic. Carrell also stands up and portrays an overly dramatic character who has spent years being pampered by the shows network and he now finds himself on the edge of losing everything for his behind the camera sins. The show plays out a power struggle within the ranks; everyone trying to move up in the totem pole while the sexual misconduct being alleged against Carrell's character is investigated by the same network show.

THE BAD - The "Matt Lauer effect" for the members of the morning shows cast and crew is over dramatized for obvious entertainment. Even though the power of the dollar is an obvious attribute that happens in the network business, there's a little bit too much to swallow when the actors spend their time bitching out their paychecks. Other than that, there's nothing to actually complain about with this show.

POST MORTEM - This is a fantastically produced series. Overly dramatic at times, but it delivers the message well about how things could have went down when Matt Lauer was accused of both Sexual Misconduct and Harassment.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ [4 of 5 Stars]