Star Trek: Enterprise: Season One

Star Trek: Enterprise, 2001-2002. A spaceship crew explores the galaxy.

Created by Rick Berman & Brannon Braga. Directed by Allan Kroeker (3 episodes), David Livingston (3), Mike Vejar (3), James Conway (2), LeVar Burton (2), Roxann Dawson (2), Terry Windell (1), Robert Duncan McNeill (1), Winrich Kolbe (1), James A. Contner (1), Les Landau (1), Rob Heddon (1), James Whitmore, Jr. (1), Jim Charleston (1), Patrick Norris (1), David Straiton (1), & Michael Dorn (1). Written by Berman (19 episodes), Braga (19), Mike Sussman (5), Phyllis Strong (5), Fred Dekker (3), Maria Jaquemetton (3), Andre Jaquemetton (3), Stephen Beck (2), André Bormanis (2), Chris Black (2), James Duff (1), Tim Finch (1), & Alan Cross (1). Starring Scott Bakula, with John Billingsley, Jolene Blalock, Dominic Keating, Anthony Montgomery, Linda Park, & Connor Trinneer.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: About half the characters have interchangeable personalities, and it took most of the season just to be able to tell them apart. There's only seven of them, but 26 episodes later, I still don't think I could name them all. D
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: When they use practical effects, they're often very good. C
Acting: D
Music: D
Enjoyment: There are two or three good episodes. And there are Andorians with animatronic antennae, which is wonderful. Other than that, it's all crap. Most of the cast are bad. There's almost no character writing to speak of (despite entire episodes that exist purely for character development). Most of the stories are painfully unimaginative, and those that aren't are too incompetently written to work. There was enormous potential with this show. The "right stuff" of the Star Trek universe, as its creators inaccurately describe it, would have been pretty damn cool. This is more like Scripts That Were Rejected By Voyager: The Show. D

GPA: 1.5/4

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Six

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season Six, 2001-2002. The vampire-hunter is raised from the dead with evil magic.

Created by Joss Whedon. Directed by David Solomon (5 episodes), David Grossman (3), James A. Contner (3), Douglas Petrie (2), Nick Marck (2), Michael Gershman (2), Whedon (1), Turi Meyer (1), David Fury (1), Rick Rosenthal (1), & Bill L. Norton (1). Written by Fury (4 episodes), Jane Espenson (4), Marti Noxon (3), Petrie (3), Steven S. DeKnight (3), Drew Z. Greenberg (3), Rebecca Rand Kirshner (2), Whedon (1), & Diego Gutierrez (1). Starring Sarah Michelle Gellar, with Nicholas Brendon, Emma Caulfield, James Marsters, Michelle Trachtenberg, Alyson Hannigan, & Amber Benson.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: B
Dialog: B
Pacing: C
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: C
Enjoyment: Every single potential source of joy in the show is systematically destroyed. Unlike early seasons, when they seemed to think brooding was romantic, or season five, when they were coping with heavy drama, this season it's just straight-up depression. And even the comic relief characters are given buckets of misery to wallow in. Not fun. C

GPA: 2.3/4

"Secret Agent"

"Secret Agent" (short), 1943. Superman helps a secret agent run from Nazis.

Directed by Seymour Kneitel. Written by Carl Meyer, based on characters by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. Starring Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck, Bud Collyer, & Jack Mercer.

Concept: Why doesn't he just clobber the bad guys? It's like Superman was added to the cartoon as an afterthought. C
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: D
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: Apparently the secret agent is not Lois in disguise? Looks like Lois to me. Very confusing. C
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: These last couple Superman shorts have been a mess. They seem unfinished. A lot of shots and entire scenes that are vital to tell the story just aren't there. C

GPA: 1.7/4

How to Train Your Dragon 2

How to Train Your Dragon 2, 2014. A dragon-riding viking tries to prevent a war.

Written & directed by Dean DeBlois, based on books by Cressida Cowell. Starring Jay Baruchel, with Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, & America Ferrera.

Concept: C
Story: B
Characters: The protagonist is absolutely awful, but the others make up for him. B
Dialog: Again with the protagonist being awful; he never shuts up. C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: Have I mentioned that the protagonist is awful? Listening to his voice makes me want to tear my ears off. I don't remember him being that bad in the first movie. C
Music: B
Enjoyment: There is some pretty cool Miyazaki-ish fantasy going on. And a surprisingly touching story between the Cate Blanchett and Gerard Butler characters. B

GPA: 2.7/4

"The Underground World"

"The Underground World" (short), 1943. Superman vs. subterranean bird people.

Directed by Seymour Kneitel. Written by Jay Morton, based on characters by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. Starring Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck, & Bud Collyer.

Concept: B
Story: D
Characters: C
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: B
Enjoyment: They go in some caves, there are bird people, Superman punches them, the end. I'm glad there's only one more of these cartoons; they are getting seriously half-assed. C

GPA: 2.2/4

Edge of Tomorrow

Edge of Tomorrow, 2014. An alien invasion Groundhogs Day.

Directed by Doug Liman. Written by Christopher McQuarrie, Jez Butterworth, & John-Henry Butterworth, based on a book by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. Starring Tom Cruise & Emily Blunt, with Brendan Gleeson & Bill Paxton.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: B
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: They didn't just steal the idea from Groundhogs Day, they studied it, they understood what makes it tick, and they nearly perfectly applied that template to an action movie. It goes without saying that Tom Cruise is no Bill Murray, though. And the ending is a let down. They eventually step out of the time loop (presumably with the understandable but misguided reason of providing a sense of peril), at which point the movie turns into generic, mindless action. B

GPA: 2.9/4

"Jungle Drums"

"Jungle Drums" (short), 1943. Superman vs. Nazi in the jungle.

Directed by Dan Gordon. Written by Robert Little & Jay Morton, based on characters by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. Starring Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck, & Bud Collyer.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: C
Music: C
Enjoyment: There are some nice images, and a good role for Lois. It doesn't really work, though. It's basically a pile of adventure serial tropes thrown together for no apparent reason, with a hearty dash of patriotism and racism. C

GPA: 2.2/4

"The Mummy Strikes"

"The Mummy Strikes" (short), 1943. Superman vs. Egyptian giants.

Directed by Izzy Sparber. Written by Jay Morton, based on characters by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. Starring Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck, & Bud Collyer.

Concept: C
Story: F
Characters: C
Dialog: F
Pacing: F
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: C
Music: C
Enjoyment: 90% exposition. There is literally enough exposition here for a feature film. What were they thinking? D

GPA: 1.3/4

"Destruction Inc."

"Destruction Inc." (short), 1942. Superman vs. ammunition factory saboteurs.

Directed by Izzy Sparber. Written by Jay Mortonr, based on characters by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. Starring Joan Alexander, Jackson Beck, Bud Collyer, & Jack Mercer.

Concept: C
Story: They never did bother to mention why any of this was happening. D
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: D
Music: B
Enjoyment: Some good action, featuring more Lois Lane than Superman. Plus Clark Kent, Master of Disguise. B

GPA: 2.3/4

The Breakfast Club

from my 100 Popular Movies Marathon, part 29 of 100



The Breakfast Club, 1985. Five kids of different stereotypes spend the day together in detention.

Written & directed by John Hughes. Starring Emilio Estevez, Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, & Ally Sheedy, with Paul Gleason & John Kapelos.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: A
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: B
Acting: A
Music: A
Enjoyment: My John Hughes experience was previously limited to Ferris Bueller and Home Alone, so this was not at all what I expected - quite a pleasant surprise. A

GPA: 3.3/4

"Eleventh Hour"

"Eleventh Hour" (short), 1942. Superman sabotages the Japanese navy.

Directed by Dan Gordon. Written by Carl Meyer & Bill Turner, based on characters by Jerry Siegel & Joe Shuster. Starring Joan Alexander, Bud Collyer, & Jack Mercer.

Concept: D
Story: D
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: D
Music: C
Enjoyment: No excitement, no fun - just Superman, destroying and killing. D

GPA: 1.6/4

Maleficent

Maleficent, 2014. A powerful fairy curses a princess.

Directed by Robert Stromberg. Written by Linda Woolverton, based on various sources. Starring Angelina Jolie, with Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, & Sam Riley.

Concept: A movie about Maleficent: great idea. Making her the hero: terrible idea. B
Story: C
Characters: They go through all that trouble (ie, the first half of the movie) effectively establishing why she's evil. Then she just stops being evil for no apparent reason. The original Maleficent is one of the most awesome villains of all time, and seeing a version of her that so easily softens is extremely disappointing. D
Dialog: F
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: A
Acting: Jolie is great. The narrator is bad enough to make me cringe. C
Music: B
Enjoyment: It's entertaining, but there isn't anything that wasn't much better in Sleeping Beauty. Still, movie producers without ideas of their own could do a lot worse for a source of material to mine. C

GPA: 2.2/4

The Cosby Show: Season Two

The Cosby Show: Season Two, 1985-1986. The day-to-day life of a large, wealthy family.

Created by Ed. Weinberger, Michael Leeson, & Bill Cosby. Directed by Jay Sandrich. Written by John Markus (6 episodes), Elliot Shoenman (6), Matt Williams (6), Carmen Finestra (4), Gary Kott (3), Matt Robinson (2), Ross Brown (1), & Thad Mumford (1). Starring Cosby, with Phylicia Rashad, Sabrina Le Beauf, Lisa Bonet, Malcolm-Jamal Warner, Tempestt Bledsoe, & Keshia Knight Pulliam.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B
Enjoyment: There's a handful of mediocre episodes, but for the most part it's as good as season one - occasionally better. A+

GPA: 3.2/4

[update of a previous post - original is here]