Film: First Man

GENRE: Biography

RATING: PG13 for thematic stuff & brief language
RUNTIME: 2 hours and 21 minutes

STARRING: Ryan Gosling (La La Land, BladeRunner 2049, Drive)

Claire Foy (The Crown), Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty)

DIRECTOR: Damien Chazelle (La La Land, Whiplash)

WRITER: Josh Singer (The Post, Spotlight, West Wing)

PLOT: Neil Armstrong and the journey to be the first on the moon.

FULL DISCLOSURE: Had some high expectations based on trailers.

STORY STUFF: Pretty disappointed actually. Armstrong’s life is not all that exciting. Sure he goes to the moon and tries out a bunch of space equipment, but he’s too stoic and quiet with his family. They should have called this ‘Second Man’ and focused on Buzz Aldrin instead; he seemed a lot more interesting. While there are some great moments here and there it is threaded together with really slow family tension. It did remind me how dangerous space travel is and how I would never want to do it.

ACTING STUFF: No shocker that Gosling is once again playing someone who thinks a lot and says few words. He did not keep me interested. Foy did what she could with the material. Corey Stoll (Ant Man, House of Cards) was a breath of fresh air as the blunt Buzz Alrin. Kyle Chandler (Friday Light Nights) fits the part but it makes me miss Coach Taylor.

ARTISTIC STUFF: Most of the space shots were impressive and artsy, something I would expect from Chazelle after La La Land. Lots of shaky camera work and giving us Armstrong’s POV which works for the most part but gets a tad repetitive. Actually, the worst part for me was the score by Justin Hurwitz who apparently felt we needed to hear some more La La Land. This jazzy music completely pulled me out of the film (even though I thought La La Land was pretty decent). Chazelle find another composer; this one’s stuck on repeat.

VERDICT: Two and a half stars out of five

SEE IT IF: You love space travel and staring at Ryan Gosling.

UPCOMING REVIEWS: Winter Movie Preview

Fall TV Review

Thought I’d take a minute to let you know how some of the new shows are doing. I tried the Murphy Brown reboot but the laugh track was so annoying and the jokes were pretty forced. I get enough Trump jokes from late night. The Hillary cameo was cute but everything on the shows seems so desperate. Anyway, here are the shows I’ve tried out:

TOM CLANCY’S JACK RYAN [AMAZON]

Network/Time: Amazon Prime

Genre: Action Drama

Starring: John Krasinski & Wendell Pierce

Premise: Early years of Jack Ryan from analyst to operative

Seen: Two episodes

Pros: Krasinski is his charming self and has upgraded to action hero; they obviously have a big enough budget to blow stuff up which helps; the equal time from the terrorist POV is also interesting

Cons: Some of the analyst epiphanies come too quickly; I didn’t realize I needed to put the subtitles on to see the Arabic, so I first thought I was supposed to just get the gist of what they were saying

Verdict: I’ll keep watching for interesting escapism

KIDDING [SHOWTIME]

Network/Time: Showtime, Sundays at 9pm

Genre: Dramedy

Starring: Jim Carrey & Catherine Keener

Premise: A famous children’s icon struggles with a crumbling family life

Seen: Five episodes

Pros: Some oddly funny moments; Frank Langella is great as Carrey’s father; like the Jeff Pickles show and imaginative puppets and such

Cons: Carrey seems to channel Andy Kaufman at times; hate his haircut

Verdict: I’ll watch but just out of curiosity

MANIAC [NETFLIX]

Network/Time: Netflix

Genre: Dramedy

Starring: Jonah Hill & Emma Stone

Premise: Two strangers are in a mysterious pharmaceutical trial

Seen: Four episodes

Pros: First couple episodes were intriguing; Hill & Stone play their parts well

Cons: The mind/dream sequences weren’t doing it for me

Verdict: I quit, I didn’t find myself rooting for either character

MANIFEST [ABC]

Network/Time: NBC, Mondays at 10pm

Genre: Supernatural Mystery

Starring: JR Ramirez & Josh Dallas

Premise: A flight disappears and reappears five years later

Seen: Three episodes

Pros: Premise is intriguing enough to hook me

Cons: The opening voice over is annoying – show me, don’t tell me; it’s also not quite ‘Lost’ enough

Verdict: I’ll keep watching to see where it goes

HAPPY TOGETHER [CBS]

Network/Time: CBS, Mondays at 8:30pm

Genre: Comedy

Starring: Damon Wayans Jr.

Premise: A married couple take in a mega star and try to keep up with him

Seen: Two episodes

Pros: Love the main couple; love that they like being with each other – we can relate

Cons: The laugh track is a bit much at times; premise seems limited

Verdict: I’ll keep watching, it’s fun.

Here are a couple shows that I was unaware of when I was making my previous Fall Preview.

The Good Cop premiered on Netflix

Tony Danza & Josh Groban as father-son cops with different styles

The Romanoffs premieres Fri, Oct 12 on Amazon Prime

Anthology series by Matthew Weiner (Mad Men) 

Camping premieres Sun, Oct 14 on HBO

Jennifer Garner & David Tennant at a disastrous campout

The First premieres Wed, Nov 14 on Hulu

Beau Willimon (House of Cards) directs Sean Penn trying to get to Mars

Escape at Dannemora premieres Sun, Nov 18 on Showtime

Ben Stiller directs true story of using a female guard for a prison-break

UPCOMING REVIEWS: First Man