HULU'S "11.22.63" BRINGS TIME TRAVEL TO A WHOLE NEW LEVEL!

🎥🎞️Mini-Series Review🎞️🎥 - 11.22.63 [2016] - HULU - Created by Stephen King & J. J. Abrams. Starring James Franco, Sarah Gadon, Daniel Webber, Chris Cooper, and George McKay. Directed by Kevin McDonald, Fred Toye, James Strong, James Franco, John David Coles, and James Kent.

This is a mini-series [8 episodes] based on a 2011 book by Stephen King under the same title. An English teacher named Jake Epping [played by James Franco], is friends with a diner owner named Al Templeton [Chris Cooper], who introduces him to a time portal hidden within the diner. The portal takes any traveler to the 1960s, where one can change events in history and reboot his mistakes by simply returning through the portal and entering back again. Jake is asked by his friend to enter the portal and do his best to prevent the assassination of John F. Kennedy  [JFK] on November 22, 1963; in order to prevent the assassination, Jake has to become close friends with Lee Harvey Oswald [played brilliantly by the talented Daniel Webber, who also portrayed Vince Neil in THE DIRT]. Jake's trip in time will equal minutes to years, so when he returns through the portal, no one will miss him while he's gone. The catch is, Jake has to live in the 1960's for over three years; find a job, make a life, and do his best to not interfere with events that could change other historical moments in time; as time has a way to make things hard for him to do so.

THE GOOD - The cinematography is simply breath taking and the layouts on the set locations are pristine to present the 1960s in their own unique style. Many of the locations used in Dallas, Texas are the real locations that exist today as a tourist attraction following the life of Oswald following the assassination of JFK. The props for the series are the best part; classic cars, wardrobe, and actual technology of the time. Episodes flow seamlessly from one scene to another, and the editing in each new episode is sharp, keeping the viewer in tune with the story and keeping the flow of the plots moving perfectly in order. There are some brilliant performances by the cast, and some very emotional "cultural diversity" moments that will leave some viewers stunned.

THE BAD - This series was under promoted and advertised, and I was shocked to only learn about this series after seeing a YouTube interview with Stephen King  over his love for the leading character; wanting to attempt writing a second season, however he just didn't have the heart to disrupt the perfect presentation of the current season, reflecting on the fact that many of his previous "book to movie" productions often fall short of their intended goal.

POST MORTEM - Totally binge-worthy, this is a great mini-series and I was floored with the amount of detail the producers provided to bring locations and performances together to make the series seem real. Even though Franco was on his top game bringing the character of Jake to life, I truly feel that it was Webber's stark portrayal of Oswald that brought a cold insight into the mind of politically confused man during the harsh and volatile atmosphere of the chaotic 1960s. In hindsight, I'm sure J. J. Abrams breathed a sigh of relief that this series closed with a solid ending; something that often eludes the plethora of movies he's associated with.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️[5 of 5 Stars]

TAKING A LOOK BACK AT J. J. ABRAMS' "SUPER 8"

🎥🎞️Movie Review🎞️🎥 - SUPER 8 [2011] - Amazon Prime - Directed and written by J. J. Abrams. Stars Joel Courtney, Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler, and Ron Eldard. Produced by J. J. Abrams, Steven Spielberg, and Bryan Burk.

Strange things are afoot in a small town in Ohio during the summer of 1979.  First, there was a train derailment that was witnessed by a bunch of teens shooting an indie movie; then there were some power outages, large machinery was stolen, and all of the dogs in the local county went missing. Making things seem worse, the derailed train was owned by the U.S. Air Force and suddenly a large fire threatens the lives of everyone in the small town, forcing an immediate evacuation. What could be the cause? Are aliens involved?...watch the movie and fall into the dark spell of intrigue that only Abrams can bring to life with his trademark lens flairs and quick action film formats, that seem to dazzle the new breed of action seeking viewers around the world.

But honestly, SUPER 8 had a lot of potential when it was first released. The train derailment alone was a masterful piece of action and surprise, completely not expected when I first saw the movie in the theaters. The entire theater was aghast with the energy from the crash, that I witnessed everyone look about the theater wondering how such an event was produced on camera. After that, the innocence of the film lost its luster and the magic of film making just tanked into a world of never ending stupidity, which Abrams' has learned to sell to the big wigs in Hollywood, but not the fans that watch his movies. Using an old 80's format, something that he admitted to in interviews, as a large aliens full appearance was kept out of camera until the third act of the film, something that Steven Spielberg did in JAWS [1975] while he was waiting for the practical effects machine to be put together and work properly. Once the new CGI monster was revealed, and it was huge and ugly, the total embodiment of a large beast turned out to have the heart of a smaller ET monster.

THE GOOD - The story arc with the teens was the best part of the film. The character development between the six teens was well scripted and developed for the film; I actually began to give a shit about what was going on around them and the way their parents treated them. The visual effects and sound were pristine and some of the camera angles were filled with epic little wide screen shots.

THE BAD - Oh my God is the film filled with some really bad technical crap and lens flair galore! Abrams, known to prove that he has little knowledge about how the military actually works, goes off the rails in this movie. Nothing is ever explained, and this claim that "the little box with a secret" is a hallmark to his writing ethic, just falls apart at every little attempt to show the "dark side" of the military and how officers and soldier act and carry out their duties without any regard for civilians. There's a chaotic scene in the fourth act of the film where tanks are firing, missiles are flying, and machine guns are shooting off all on their own, with the help of the aliens control over machinery...??? The alien never seemed to have presented this ability before, such as shutting off cars, buses, or anything else; just that this was happening in the fourth act in a "wouldn't this be cool" segment of the film. It was totally silly and the film suffers a lackluster ending because of it. Abrams continual use of his "nothing education" about how things actually work, is so evident in this film. How he was chosen to lead the new Star Trek movies is beyond comprehension, especially in a SciFi universe that demands to present how things work. No wonder why he felt more at home directing and writing the last of the George Lucas Star Wars trilogy, where nothing needs to be explained.

POST MORTEM - The 80% of SUPER 8 that totally got wrecked by Abrams continual bad writing bullshit was actually saved by a short zombie movie that was being produced by the teens in the film. I remember sticking around through the end credits when the film suddenly presented the teens finished film in it's entirety. That small film was a total gem and something that should have been a larger staple in the film. For all of the work the veteran actors put in the film, it suffered horribly and could have been a major part in bringing a more heart worthy appearance in the film early on, proving that maturity is the best medicine for any horrifying event to bring a town together, than just tear it apart. Showing that at the beginning or middle of the film would have been "mint!"

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 [3.5 out of 5 Stars]

WHY HOLLYWOOD ALLOWED J. J. ABRAMS TO SINGLE-HANDEDLY DESTROY FILMMAKING

In his early years, J. J. Abrams was a brash and creative project director who  brought solid teams together to bring hit shows to TV like Alias, Felicity, and Lost. From 1998 to 2006, world wide audiences were caught up on his shows, which built up a variety of dramatic, spell bounding, plot twisting, story-lines that kept the fans coming back to new seasons of his hit shows. I guess early on it was just something fresh to see, seeing some interesting character build ups, an entertaining variant of casting changes that bulked up the idea that these new shows were going to reveal something BIG in their final season.

Before Abrams began directing, he spent a few years working on movie sets with screenplay and assisting script writers to polish up each new script dropped on his desk. He had a quick wit with just adding those little things to make scripts read better, driving the screenplay to seem more natural to keep each passing scene flow by flawlessly, giving the each new film a realistic feel for the audiences. When he began to produce films and make creations for TV, he seemed ready to deliver the best ideas that could bring a whole new audience to the networks. And for a while, they did. Each new series he brought to the world, brought him a step closer to the ultimate goal of any series producer; the chance to work on big budget films.

When Abrams sold the idea of the film CLOVERFIELD to Paramount in 2008, claiming the film could be produced in twelve weeks, he was more than excited to get the ball rolling on the film and get a chance to go up against some of the other big films being released later that year. He found Matt Reeves to direct the film and commanded him to begin filming sequences to CLOVERFIELD even before the final script was even completed. Even though Reeves admitted that he had never worked in such a "top speed" environment, he did as he was told; producing scenes out of sequence that weren't even put to script, and then adding them to the film and adjusting the scripts afterwards to officially add them successfully to the entire plotline. And don't forget the flashy lighting in the film and the addition of lens flares that follow in all of the films created and produced by Abrams; I'm sure that you're way over tired of seeing them in his films by now.

But there was one BIG problem with the script and production to CLOVERFIELD, something that also plagued those network show's that brought him up to the spotlight of success in the film industry...the movie lacked a solid ending. As a matter of fact, ALL of Abrams film and network creations all had bad endings, many that pissed off fans who watched his network show's for years; trust me, I was one of them! I watched LOST endlessly and in the final season it was revealed that the entire show was just a dream and that all of the passengers and characters had all died in an opening plane crash from season one. The failure of bad endings would [and still do] plague many of the Abrams new movies. But did he try to fix this one bad issue with all of this past films, of course not. He explained to the big wigs in Hollywood that "fans will watch whatever is tossed at them."

So, when Hollywood decided to give Abrams the keys to the Star Trek franchise and launch it with a reboot. The new STAR TREK movie of 2009 also brought with it a slew of creative problems that would also be noted in every new and old movies led by the startling new producer and director. Fans began to learn quickly that Abrams had absolutely no grasp of technical know-how on how things actually work; i.e. he knows that a key turns the ignition to a car, he knows the gas pedal makes the car move, but has no concept of how a car engine works or how combustion leads to the production of carbon, except that when the car is low on gas it needs a fill up. If you're making a movie about car manufactures and designing a new engine for a car, the concept for knowing how a car motor actually works and how to repair it, are vital.

First of all, in the STAR TREK movie alone, the concept of military ranking, officer etiquette, and advancement eluded the storytelling. Even the ship's concept and designs, required for building realistic sets were tossed out of the window. Bit by bit, the STAR TREK movie was filled utterly with "bullshit" technology that fans began to see through the hype and eventually the movie itself proved that Abrams was way out of his league when it came to writing and creating SciFi movies. His reboot of STAR TREK II, entitled "Into Darkness," was also a complete BUST with Star Trek fans. What's a bigger shame is that newer, more popular actors were brought in to try and save the new film, but that idea fell under harsh reviews and a Rotten Tomatoes Rating that even today wouldn't save anyone's career in Hollywood.

So, how could Abrams escape the fracas of ruining a top notch SciFi franchise? Well, Hollywood decided to give him the reigns to the STAR WARS franchise, where the details on knowing "how things work" were never explained in the first six episodes of the franchise and how presenting military etiquette truly never meant a hill of beans. But the writing to the new scripts for this reboot presenting a complete misunderstanding of the force, how light sabers work, ship's designs, and slew of other odds and ends that Star Wars fans first ignored, but then eventually had to acknowledge that Abrams was again far out of his game. His miserable talent for creating series began to rub off on other Hollywood executives, keeping in mind that "fans will watch whatever is tossed at them" on the big screen. I feel that Abram's true failure with the Star Wars Franchise was his decision to release a trailer to the film that had absolutely nothing to do with the true scenes of the film.

And the philosophy built up and openly shared by Abrams has held him in the limelight now for over fifteen years. He is not the authority in SciFi productions, but his long list of films, his staple amplified on IMDB and his name sharing by the plethora of Hollywood elite will not let this jackass fade away. We are surely in for a long ride and in my lifetime we will see a plethora of Abrams wanna-be's who know that its not about how the ending to their films are delivered, but about the money that fans will bring in just to watch another reboot to another old idea that didn't need to be rebooted. Don't spend your money too soon just to see a reboot that [in the end] you won't like.

STAR TREK PICARD FAILS TO DELIVER A BELIEVABLE EXTENSION OF STNG!

🎥 🎞 Series Review 🎞 🎥 - STAR TREK PICARD [STP] - Amazon Prime/CBS All Access - Okay, most people know that I’m a huge fan of Star Trek, but that I especially  don’t like anything that has to do with the J. J. Abrams rebooted crap or Kelvin timeline. 

In STP, there’s a fantastic opening sequence with CGI lens flares that bothered me, but seeing Patrick Stewart back on the little screen was such a relief to my empty SciFi tank.  It was great to see the old NCC 1701-D roaming through the cosmos again, even if it was in a dream sequence. Brent Spiner returned for a cameo as Data of sorts, but with an all new, unfamiliar look [probably due to him being older] just took the nostalgia out of seeing the old crew again; hence, there was a reason why the cast of Star Trek - The Original Series [STOS] stopped making movies. 

Sir Patrick Stewart is looking frail in his old age and the studio has done very little to hide this fact, even using it as a tool in an action scene where he is barely able to gain the strength to help escape on foot. The pacing is slow and there's no real sense of danger throughout any of the performances where it needs to be. This will be a cause for concern for most fans of the old series, but the addition of new "unknown actors" is sure to bring more apprehension to accepting the new format of the show. I think there was an idea during the initial design of the show, but it just lost its course during the production and the clear message was lost about how important this is to the human race and not just the vanity of one man.

However the show took an extra step to be too mysterious, too cerebral, too BLADERUNNER-ish, and filled too many with old ideas; for its own good. The whole “holographic technology” of on tapping glass or watching projections in thin air are not awe inspiring anymore. In the series following STNG, the perfect and clean setting of the series in the past have been turned into a gritty, don’t comb your hair society that has no class or structure for superior intellect. The is no explanation of how the future society had fallen prey to social media again is totally not believable; especially as it was told in STNG that the need for money, television, fame or social media ran its course and that man had found a better way to spend its time...well, apparently not. 

Bringing the Romulans to earth was a nice idea, but reasoning behind it was a little dry in its explanation, and also used as an excuse in J.J. Abrams crap-universe. It doesn't help that Picard's need to take action to save lives against orders seemed a little retrospective of “ST-Insurrection.” Plus, I’m not sure what it is about today’s young female actors having the bad habit of constantly adjusting their hair behind their ears in a gesture of what “looks normal” to most, all while the camera rolls on; the little lady, who plays Data's "daughter" does the gesture five to seven times in one scene. 

Fans can also expect to see new characters being introduced that cross over "gender revealing" shock-jock scenarios which are planned to bring new and old fans to accepting how gender issues are clearly important in the utopian future that Gene Roddenberry designed well over fifty years ago...it's disgusting actually.

The trailers for future episodes looks interesting, so I think I’ll wait for the entire season to load up before I even consider to pay to see it again...you should too.

 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ (3 of 5 Stars)

MOVIE REVIEW - STAR TREK BEYOND

This movie is DOGSHIT!

...And this blog entry is going to be a good reason that I will never be promoted in media as a film critic "who has good taste and delivery."

I am completely convinced that Hollywood is trying to damage Gene Roddenberry's dream and universe, by unleashing a myriad of bad writers...yeah YOU, Simon Pegg, and bad directors to produce and sell a bad idea with bad plots, no character development, shoddy presentation, and no chemistry performances that level out a new genre of CGI crap B-Films that have no foundation of creative genius and will die out as a "bad conception" as time passes on. 

What is MOST absurd, was the transparent plotline where the crew of the U.S.S. FRANKLIN was responsible for being the bad guy in the film! If Roddenberry wasn't tossing and throwing up in his coffin, I was surely tossing and turning in my bed last night...."Gravitational Slipstream???"....seriously, my trekkie folks!?!?!?...you were happy with this shit pile?????