Supergirl (1984)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1984
	Director: Jeannot Szwarc
	Actors: Helen Slater, Faye Dunaway (The Towering Inferno, Eyes of Laura Mars), Peter O'Toole (Lawrence of Arabia)
	Country: GB
	Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 26.09.2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen.

Synopsis: After losing a powerful orb, Kara Zor-El (Slater), Superman's cousin, comes to Earth to retrieve it and instead finds herself up against a wicked witch (Dunaway). Review: Continuing the series of original Superman movies, I had to watch this Supergirl after Superman III. It is not to be confused with the recent TV-series Supergirl with Melissa Benoist in the lead role. More than a few details tell you it takes place in the same Universe as the successful movies: we don't see Christopher Reeve playing Superman but a picture of him, we are told about his recent exploits and see the same Marc McClure playing Jimmy Olsen. The movie takes place in a small rural town in contrast to the New York-inspired Metropolis. What makes it better than the latest Superman movies is the mystic / wizardry story, and the presence of the experienced actors Faye Dunaway and Peter O'Toole who, even if they sometimes seem lost in the story, elevate the movie with their talent. This movie looks as kitsch and cheap as the others and contains the same amount of coincidences, the worst being Linda Lee (secret identity of Supergirl) finding herself roommate with Lois Lane's sister! And why does she want to blend in anyway? Also she has funny powers like generating the clothes she wants. The movie is well-shot with nice details like the light on the witch's eyes and slightly improved special effects, but many points in the story are laughable like the love potion story. The interlude in the phantom zone seems also out of place and here only to remind of Superman 2, but it is in fact one of the best moments in the movie (thanks to Peter O'Toole again) and a turning point. Also funny that in contrast to Superman coming from outer space, Supergirl comes from a city filled with survivors from Krypton, in inner space. Thus at the beginning she emerges from the bottom of a lake on Earth (!). I don't know if this was present in original DC comics, but with my modern references it reminded me of the quantum realm in Marvel's Ant Man. For 80's hardcore nostalgics only.   Rating: 4 /10

Superman (1978)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1978
	Director: Richard Donner (Lethal Weapon 1-4, The Omen)
	Actors: Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Gene Hackman (The Conversation, The Firm, Enemy of the State)
	Country: USA, GB, CDN, CH
	Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
	Conditions of visioning: 13.09.2020, VOD, 14" computer screen.

Synopsis: Kal-El, born on the dying planet Krypton, is sent to Earth by his father where he will grow up to be known as Superman (Reeves), a super-hero with god-like powers. Review: I am very sorry to give such a bad rating to such a classic movie but it didn't age well. I have to immediately mention that I watched the 3-hour so-called TV Extended Version, 40 minutes longer than the theatrical cut. You can read all about the different cuts on this Wikipedia page. This probably influences the rating as the added material is not essential and just slows down the pace and highlight even more the movie's weaknesses for the simple sake of seeing more of it. Superman is known as the first major big-budget superhero feature film, released now more than 40 years ago, at a time when little was known about how to make a successful comic book adaptation. They were just the first and had to kind of create a Genre. I had a found memory of the movie but hadn't watched it in at least a decade, and it looks much more kitsch than I remembered. It does contain some iconic moment like Marlon Brando's performance, but the one thing I give it credit for is the performance by Christopher Reeve who can make you believe it is possible to not recognize that Clark Kent is Superman: he is so clumsy and bent over and shy that he is easily ignored or overlooked. If the movie was released today I am sure his acting would be the source of many memes. But at the time it was original and pleased the audience. The heroic scenes did as well, most of them involving flying. Watched today, those scenes look really bad and artificial for a movie which was released the same year as Star Wars. Another iconic element of the movie is the score by John Williams. Unfortunately, past the main theme, it often drifts towards a Star Wars feeling, like if the composer had some musical pieces that he swapped between the two. The love story with Lois Lane also comes out of nowhere, and the character of Jimmy Olsen is annoying. Another annoying thing is the inconsistency of Superman's reactions: saving a cat here and lifting the San Andreas fault there, flying at the speed of light but wasting minutes to smile at people instead of rescuing Lois Lane. I hope that's a default proper to the Extended version and that the original one fixed it. I had a bit forgotten that Gene Hackman was known at the time for his incarnation of a goofy Lex Luthor surrounded by a team of idiots. This is part of the comic book elements the cinema crew had to play with. And as usual with Superman, he is over-powered and his interaction with the environment doesn't make any physical sense, until the very ending. At least they tried to make that look less awkward in the recent remake Man of Steel and the rest of the DCEU. I can still try to remember the few good elements with nostalgia, but in all objectivity this movie, or at least this Extended cut of it, is not very good.   Rating: 4 /10

The Expanse - Season 4 (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Creators: Mark Fergus, Hawk Ostby
	Actors: Steven Strait, Cas Anvar, Dominique Tipper, Wes Chatham, Shohreh Aghdashloo (X-men: The Last Stand, Star Trek Beyond, 24 TV-series)
	Country: USA
	Genre: SF
	Conditions of visioning: August 2020, VOD, 32" TV screen
Synopsis: An apparent peace is reached in the Solar System, while it is now time to colonize new worlds. Belters are on the forefront and the UN sends a ship to check what they found.
Review: When Syfy cancelled the series after its third season, fans pressure was so high that Amazon decided to buy the rights and continue the series, and I was glad to hear that because I love the first seasons. The result is unfortunately disappointing, although it managed to keep most of the same characters (and actors) and develop a story following the events of the previous season. The small annoyances from the previous season are still present, in particular how ships travel in vacuum: they are continuously in full burn and apparently stop moving when the motor stops. This doesn't make any sense and is in contraction with the understanding the authors have in other scenes of having to turn 180 degrees and use the reactor to decelerate. Also some easy shortcuts are taken by the same authors; physics fails when it pleases them, and the planet Mars is conveniently on the path between Earth and Uranus. For a series praised for its realism, this is a let-down. Anyway, those are details but what disappointed me most is the story. After a Solar System-wide conflict, a threat against the whole of Humanity and an opening to hundreds of new possibilities, we now settle for the exploration of a single world. And as the story didn't manage to put all the characters in contact, we follow three storylines that almost never connect, in particular the one of Bobby on Mars is totally disconnected and the one around Mao's daughter is too obviously trying to keep a connection to him. I would hate for the series to continue this way (one season, one world), so I rather take it as a steering towards future events, a transition season which introduced new characters and a larger Universe, necessary after the neat conclusion of the previous season which wrapped-up pretty well the three first ones. Indeed in this season we get a glimpse of future possible turmoil in the political landscape, as well as an opening to a larger Universe. Let's see how the season 5 goes. Its postponed release date is not yet announced.
Rating: 4 /10

Rambo: Last Blood (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Adrian Grunberg
	Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Paz Vega, Sergio Peris-Mencheta
	Country: USA, HK, F, BG, E, S
	Genre: Action, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 24.07.2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: Leaving peacefully on his father's ranch, John Rambo (Stallone) considers Gabriela like his daughter. When she wants to go to Mexico to look for her father, he advises against it.
Review: I thought Stallone had said goodbye to the franchise in 2008 with the powerful fourth movie soberly entitled Rambo, but he had to do one more and this one looks like the real goodbye, between the title which calls back to the first movie of the franchise First Blood (no, the name Rambo was not in the title of the first movie), and the end credits which shows scenes from all past movies. Looking at the list of Countries that co-financed the movie, it looks like the producers had to search everywhere to find the money to make this one which is to me a sign that it was maybe not much wanted. I hope they stop there but you never know... The movie is not too bad but doesn't rival with the first or fourth, and the second and third are dated but may be better as well when looked today with nostalgia. I wondered which enemy they would find for the Vietnam War veteran, and was slightly disappointed to see the story go the way of Taken or Death Wish but in Mexico. I was however pleased to see Stallone not play the confident killer like he does in The Expendables series for example, but sometimes nuance his acting to better match the traumatized Veteran we know him to be. I immediately caught 2-3 moments like that but they were unfortunately fleeting. Like in all movies in the franchise, Rambo goes through the usual defeat before rising again, and this time his motivation is stronger than ever, although I wondered if it had to be so. As the previous movie, this one is (very) generous with blood splatter and violent killings, but they look too much like fan-service and Rambo is not even in danger at any point. Still, those were the fun parts. For me, a fun addition to the series but one which was not needed.
Rating: 4 /10

Hitman: Agent Jun (2020)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2020
	Director: Won-sub Choi
	Actors: Woo-seul-hye Hwang, Jun-ho Jeong, Sang-Woo Kwon
	Country: ROK
	Genre: Action, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 09.07.2020, NIFFF2020, 14" computer screen.
Synopsis: A former spy fails to find success as a manga artist. One drunken night, he creates a comic about his top-secret adventures. It’s a hit, but his newfound popularity won’t come without its fair share of trouble.
Review: This movie is a comedy first, and (too) often goes out of its way for a cheap gag. But it also has a few good scenes, and several details that get you attached to the main character, like his unsupportive daughter and wife or his ex-partners. A very good idea is the flashbacks shown as drawn by the artist, but animated instead of a static manga. This makes a nice transition with the real world. Unfortunately, this movie which started with a good idea gets uninspired in its second half, and pretty boring by trying to stretch to 2 hours.
Rating: 4 /10

Ashfall (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Byung-seo Kim, Hae-jun Lee
	Actors: Byung-hun Lee (G.I. Joe 1-2, I saw the Devil), Jung-woo Ha, Hye-jin Jeon
	Country: ROK
	Genre: Thriller, Action, Drama
	Conditions of visioning: 26.06.2020, FEFF2020, 14" computer screen
Synopsis: In a fictional future where North Korea is about the be freed from nuclear weapons, Mount Baekdu, on the border between Korea and China, is about to erupt triggering a super-quake that will destroy half the peninsula.
Review: The big Action movie that opened the 22nd edition of the Far East Film Festival (even though you could watch it anytime as the Festival was online). I didn't have very high expectations of quality so I was not bothered by the poor special effects, the political winks or the absurdity of some story points. Ashfall copied the model of American blockbuster disaster movies like the recent San Andreas, but even more over-the-top, borderline 2012. In particular it starts with a huge destruction scene the likes of which you will not see in the next 120 minutes. It adds to it its own political context which I didn't know was allowed to be shown: the fratricide relationship with the North, the domination of American culture... The disaster story is boring (volcano with perfect timing, nuclear weapons, all on the shoulders of one guy...) so the best in this movie is in fact those political moments that make it different. It is funny that there is more criticism of the USA than of North Korea in fact, the topic of the latter being in fact carefully handled (no bad politicians or soldiers from the North, just a few people among the big empty cities). As often in Asian productions, the soldiers are dumb and unable to follow orders to the point that you wonder how they got the job (it reminded me of  Starship Troopers 5: Traitor of Mars). Brush all of that aside and what is left is the evolving relationship between the two main characters, a father-to-be which is brave but not a leader, and a spy with no attachments looking for redemption. Pretty watchable if you don't expect too much.
Rating: 4 /10

Kinta and Ginji (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Takuya Dairiki, Takashi Miura
	Actors: Takuya Dairiki, Takashi Miura
	Country: J
	Genre: Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 09.06.2020, NCF2020, 14" computer screen
Synopsis: Kinta and Ginji are best buddies. Sometimes they get on each other’s nerves, but they don’t hold a grudge for long. They are way too straightforward for that. Every other day, they meet up and roam the fields and forests, lie around in the grass, or make music. Just two normal guys – but one of them is a tanuki (racoon dog), the other a robot. Things get even more curious when other talking entities and objects appear!
Review: This is a very experimental movie presented in the VISIONS section of the Nippon Connection 2020 Festival. Basically two friends shooting scenes with a miniDV camera. This explains the lack of everything and the poor image quality. But that's not the point, in fact the image quality is irrelevant. Early on, this movie reminded me of Quentin Tarantino, because of the dialogs about small things in life, and which will have no impact on the main story whatsoever. This is something which is lacking in most movie, because every dialog has to contribute, but this characteristic made Tarantino's success. The whole of Kinta and Ginji is small talk in fact, and a weakness is that it doesn't have a main story, which makes it harder to watch as it goes. There is some conclusion (spoiler, highlight to read: they enter a fog so they think they died and then they come back), but it hardly makes a difference. But there are some hilarious scenes, I will come back to that later. The second connection I made is with the French Electro band Daft Punk (Dog and Robot costumes, the Homework album someone?), in particular their 2006 arty movie Electroma, which they released at the top of their fame, has a big budget and looks good, but is even less entertaining than Kinta and Ginji and not funny at all. So the concept of the movie is funny, as are the cheap costumes, but the best are the dialogs and sometimes juxtaposition of scenes. I have collected the favorite two scenes from each of the viewers from our group: Jo: the little song about peaches and insects made me burst of laughter, as did the little dance the dog does. Raf: the discussion about turtles and the Rocky movie (do their really breathe from their butts?) and the unexpected apparition from a stray rhinoceros, apparently filmed through the bars of a zoo Rudi: the static and narrow shots composing 95% of the movie, and the fact that there is just a handful of scenes depicting some kind of civilization. The rest takes place in deserts or forests. Alex: the dam scene, and ow they insult each other while keeping the same tone. In the end, we concluded that the movie is as if it were made by children: enjoying little things in life like polishing rocks or climbing trees, lying to each other to appear better, and telling more or less interesting stories one after the other with no precise goal. Warning: for hardcore fans of Japanese experimental Cinema only!
Rating: 4 /10

An Ant Strikes back (2019)

	Also Known As: Ari jigoku tengoku (original)
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Tsuchiya Tokachi
	Actors: -
	Country: J
	Genre: Documentary
	Conditions of visioning: 08.06.2020, NCF2020, 14" computer screen
Synopsis: The case of a moving company sales agent who decides to no longer accept illegal employment contract clauses and a humiliating work environment.
Review: This is the first movie we watched at the Nippon Connection Online Festival, and in that case it is a nice re-immersion in Japanese culture. A documentary that shows us a life far from what we know in the Western Countries. People working hard for the love of their company. But what happens when this company follows the principles of American ones like Wallmart or McDonalds? This leads to abuses that few people other than the Japanese would take: unpaid extra-hours (and I mean 40 hours a week extra!), holidays only if compensated with extra-hours, you have to pay for anything you break like a paper shredder but even a car, and not mentioning the racism and discrimination. It is hard to understand why the guy just doesn't quit, but in fact this is what is noble from him, not simply accept the situation, give up and leave others suffer after him. The main character that we follow is an example of courage and determination, even facing an adversary much bigger than him. One also wonders: what does the law do against such obviously illegal abuses? In the end it does its job, but it wouldn't have happened with years of fight from a supportive Union. I hope not all companies in Japan are like that. The Documentary itself is more of an advertisement for this story, something the main character promised to do to a friend who died from overworking (like one person a day in Japan as we learn). Nothing special about the editing or storytelling, rather straight-forward, and it could probably have been shortened to 1 hour for the same impact. So I cannot rate the movie-making skills very high, even though the topic is heart-breaking, and deserved to be broadcasted more, in Japan and outside.
Rating: 4 /10

Tokyo Drifter (1966)

	Also Known As: Tôkyô nagaremono (original)
	Year of first release: 1966
	Director: Seijun Suzuki (Branded to Kill, Lupin III: Legend of the Gold of Babylon)
	Actors: Tetsuya Watari, Chieko Matsubara, Hideaki Nitani
	Country: J
	Genre: Polar, Thriller
	Conditions of visioning: 04.06.2020, Arte, 14" computer screen.
Synopsis: The former head of a Yakuza gang dismantles his clan and is left with his closest henchman. When a formal rival gang tries to scam him of his property, they are both struggling to not reply with violence.
Review: In preparation to a month with not one but two Online Asian film festivals (the Nippon Connection and the FEFF), we found proposed on the Arte channel a series of Asian movies in different genres: A Touch of Zen, Blind Woman's Curse, Mr. Long, Ichi (the samurai woman) and this Tokyo Drifter (no relationship with The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, although...). As I am those days in the mood to watch movies from the 70's I chose this one from 1966. I knew a little about the Japanese Cinema of that period (I have been to many FEFFs!), but I was still surprised by the quality of some parts of the movie, the ideas in composition and music, and the modernity of the cities at that time, in par with their American counterpart. Japan was in fact on its way to becoming the synonym of High-Tech it will be in the 80's. It is a bit hard to follow at start, having read the synopsis before helped, and then it became obvious it was not only because of me that the film was hard to follow, this is how it is done. A quick research after watching the movie (see its Wikipedia page) clarifies things: the director Seijun Suzuki, in fact already known on this blog for Branded to Kill, was known by its studio (the famous Nikkatsu) for his style getting crazier with time, so they kept on reducing his budgets, which in turn forced him to go for more and more abstraction. It is funny to think that I have always the feeling that Japanese studios have no control or overview over their directors as often shown by the too long final product. Note that this director is responsible for five more movies in 1966 alone! Those were crazy times. This conflict with his studio explains what I saw in the movie: confusing ellipses, brutal editing (it feels like the movie was edited to half its lengths to please Western audiences), confrontations coming out of nowhere... It also helped reading that the movie is intended as a parody of other genres and of the Japanese Cinema system. I am not trained enough to catch that. On the other hand, the movie includes some great ideas: first the story of a Yakuza gang being dismantled, then the jazzy soundtrack and the Surf Rock playing in the discotheque scenes, the colorful palette throughout the movie, the setting in different towns (even though we see only little of them) reminding me of my own Japan train-trip, some artistic fight scenes, and the final theatrical confrontation. All in all it has some feeling of French New Wave. Not an easy watch, but pleasant and interesting nonetheless.
Rating: 4 /10

Scorpio (1973)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1973
	Director: Michael Winner (Death Wish 1-3)
	Actors: Burt Lancaster (Airport, The Island of Dr. Moreau), Alain Delon (3 hommes à abattre, Pour la peau d'un flic), Paul Scofield
	Country: USA
	Genre: Polar
	Conditions of visioning: 24.05.2020, Full HD, 14" computer screen.
Synopsis: Back from a mission in Paris, CIA operative Cross (Lancaster) and his partner Scorpio (Delon) are trailed, but don't want to report to the Agency.
Review: I am currently in the mood for 70's movies after watching Death Wish with Charles Bronson. The same director led me to this Scorpio which I thought I had heard about. Its peculiarity is that it stars two monsters of Cinema at the time, like there were in that period: Burt Lancaster in the USA and Alain Delon in France and a bit abroad. It is interesting that like their characters, one is at the end of his career while the other is about to reach the top. This cast doesn't lead to a fight of egos like I was expecting, although they do get all the screen time. The story is one like we don't see nowadays, one taking place during the Cold War and when the memory of WWII was still warm. And the depiction of spies from that time was not the same as we see now in any Mission: Impossible. In this movie the CIA seems all-powerful, while leaving a lot of freedom to mini-leaders in the Organization to fight their own wars, like is the case with this McLeod who wants the main characters dead. The motivation of everybody is a bit obscure, making the movie hard to follow (also because of many names not well introduced). The movie is ambitious, taking place in as many locations as Paris, Washington and Vienna. And it tries to make the characters relatable. It is good-looking in general, but in the end I found it too confused to me. Scorpio leaves many things unexplained to strengthen the Mystery, but this left me uninterested.
Rating: 4 /10

Mortal Kombat (1995)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 1995
	Director: Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil, Death Race, Pompeii)
	Actors: Christopher Lambert (Greystoke, Fortress), Robin Shou, Linden Ashby
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Fantasy
	Conditions of visioning: 08.04.2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: Three unknowing martial artists are summoned to a mysterious island to compete in a tournament whose outcome will decide the fate of the world.
Review: Watching this movie at the time when the video game was a hit and the special effects recent was something, watching it now is very different. Fortunately I manage to keep the time period in mind when I watch this kind of movies. One interesting side of it is that you get to see the story of your favorite video game characters developed... well again, that works only if you are 17 years old and in 1995. I managed to remember some of them and could get a few winks in the movie, like the fatalities for which the original game was most famous. The rest of the story is vastly extrapolated from the game, in particular the characters are not all equal to fight one-on-one, but some are powerful Gods (like Raiden played by Christopher Lambert) while others are simple mortals. I managed to take enough distance to accept the loose story (until the predictable but unrealistic ending) and wait for the fight scenes which are in fact not the best part of the movie. The martial arts background, colorful characters and dated special effects are. Indeed, two years after the Jurassic Park revolution, Mortal Kombat was ambitious with a combination of optical, practical and digital effects. The whole mix was for me fun to watch. I was impressed in particular by the giant Goro which I thought would be limited to a few scenes to hide poor effects but was in fact often present and not so bad, in comparison to the rest. I am amazed by the number of (likely bad) sequels that were produced over the years, teaching me that new versions of the video game are still produced! An ambitious reboot of the movie franchise will be released in 2021, but I don't know for which audience and with which hopes of success.
Rating: 4 /10

Paradise PD - Season 2 (2020)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2020
	Creators: Roger Black, Waco O'Guin
	Actors (voices): Sarah Chalke, David Herman, Kyle Kinane
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: March 2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen
Synopsis: In the glorious Paradise Police Department, some believe that the Kingpin has been captured, some not.
Review: This second season is at least as outrageous as the first one and I was waiting for it, but I ended up being disappointed. I don't know whether the surprise effect has just passed, or if this seasons really contains less good ideas. Maybe a bit of both. Anyway, I already can't remember much of it, and in particular not any particularly good episode. In general it is OK to watch as we get to spend more time with the characters we know, and discover a few others as crazy as them. The story is not badly done in that it escalates until the final episode, while giving us more background on the characters. It probably works better if you watch it with friends or under influence or both.
Rating: 4 /10

6 Underground (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: Michael Bay (Armageddon, Pearl Harbor, Transformers 1-5, Bad Boys 1-2)
	Actors: Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool 1-2), Mélanie Laurent (Inglorious Basterds), Manuel Garcia-Rulfo
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action
	Conditions of visioning: 09.02.2020, VOD, 10" tablet screen.
Synopsis: An underground team led by a billionaire is working on taking down a dictatorship.
Review: What to expect when Michael Bay directs this Netflix movie instead of  Bad Boys 3? Cinema is changing and not always for the best. As in many other Netflix productions, the budget is sufficient and the movie looks serious but something is missing, maybe a more thought-through story. The message of the movie is something like: whatever bad-ass you may be and strong motivation you may have, you still need something to fight for: friends, family, your country... We get enough exciting car chases, relatable main group of characters, a really bad guy, some high-tech... plenty of basic ingredients of a Spy/Action movie like a Mission: Impossible, but even though it tries to bring something new and more modern to the genre, it fails. One could say that this kind of movie is formatted for a Netflix-audience with short attention span but I am not sure that is true. Read my post about Bright for a comparison between the young movie-making industries and the young car-making industries. 6 Underground finds its place on the shelf of those strange recent movies which are hard to review because they are definitely not good but also not horribly bad, just somewhere in the middle hard to define, not like other average movies.
Rating: 4 /10

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Director: David Leitch (Deadpool 2, Atomic Blonde)
	Actors: Dwayne Johnson (Rampage, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle), Jason Statham (Transporter 1-3), Idris Elba (Thor 1-3, Pacific Rim)
	Country: USA
	Genre: Action, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: 06.02.2020, VOD, 40" TV screen.
Synopsis: When a super-soldier (Alba) tries to steal a deadly virus, both the FBI agent Hobbs (Johnson) and outlaw Shaw (Statham) are contacted to help with the case.
Review: I couldn't watch this movie in the theater when it was released because I was not yet up to date with the Fast and Furious franchise and this is a spin-off of it. Now I am (since The Fate of the Furious), and can tell I didn't miss much in the theater because the movie is not too good. Still, it could have been fun on a big screen. The movie does fit in where the franchise is going: mix of Action and jokes, ultra high-tech gadgets fitting over-the-top villains (nice Idris Elba) and shadow criminal organizations (a-la James Bond's Spectre), and a few car chases of courses. Putting those two main characters together in a spin-off was a good idea in fact, but the problem is in the story and the execution, which unfortunately has the same flaws as the main franchise but amplified. For example the jokes are a bit too long and insisting, the Action a tad more than too much, and especially the story and the logic behind the character's decisions don't make much sense. Also a good opportunity was wasted by not using more the character of Air Marshall Dinkley played by Kevin Hart. To its advantage, the movie has a couple of breathtaking action scenes, the chemistry between the main duo (well, trio), and the good idea to split the movie half/half between the birth country of each of the two, even if it doesn't make much sense either in the end. Now I just have to wait for Fast 9 which has just been announced delayed by a year....
Rating: 4 /10

Final Space - Season 2 (2019)

	Also Known As: -
	Year of first release: 2019
	Creators: Olan Rogers, David Sacks
	Actors (voices): Fred Armisen, Tom Kenny, Olan Rogers
	Country: USA
	Genre: Animation, SF, Comedy
	Conditions of visioning: December 2019 - January 2020, VOD, 10" tablet.
Synopsis: After their failure, Gary and his crew struggle to find a new goal.
Review: After a very exciting first season, I was looking forward to this second, and was thus rather disappointed. Most of the same elements are there, like the connection between Gary and Mooncake, but some energy is missing. Also the stakes are less relatable. From the first episode S2E1 The Toro Regatta new characters are introduced to fill in the gap of the ones we lost in the first season, and too add some more complexity to the show. This feels a bit rushed and I didn't manage to connect much to those new characters. I found the whole season less funny, maybe because less centered on Gary and his crazy traits (and his addiction for cookies). It reaches the level of the first season in the central episodes S2E7 The First Times They Met and S2E8 The Remembered, but then goes back to a lower quality. Again, the ending calls for another season but I will not be eagerly awaiting that one.
Rating: 4 /10