By Dave B.

The Titan is another example of Netflix’s growing pains. Nearly everything about it is mediocre. The acting, the script, the cinematography…none of them are noteworthy in a positive or negative way. I’m not certain that I’ve ever seen a movie that left less of an impression on me. What can I say about a movie that was both too average to be boring and too average to be interesting? Let’s find out.

​I want to be absolutely clear: CBS is evil. Directly charging people money to watch a Star Trek television show is clearly against the spirit of Gene Rodenberry’s vision for Star Trek universe. Hell, he made the dominant society a post-monetary one. The world would be a better place if CBS lost the rights to Star Trek. That said, at times during its first season, Star Trek Discovery was likely the best show on tv. 

By Dave B.

​Have you ever learned something that you can’t believe that you (nor apparently anyone else that you associate with) didn’t know? Pure shock. That’s the feeling that the Netflix documentary, Wild Wild Country, will leave you with. Possibly for days. 

By Dave B.

​Ravenous (Netflix), a horror movie that takes place in rural Quebec, is one of the best “zombie” movies ever made. Although that isn’t necessarily a high bar to achieve, Ravenous is an impressive entry in 2018’s horror movie lineup. What makes this movie so good? I’m glad you asked.

​What would happen if it were scientifically proven that existence (of some sort) existed after death? That’s the central question in The Discovery (Netflix). This movie received generally negative reviews from both critics and fans on Rotten Tomatoes, with scores of 47% and 44% respectively. I think the critics and the fans are way off the mark in this case. 

​Before I get into this review, I have to get something off my chest. Jared Leto is kinda creepy. I don’t necessarily mean that in a disparaging sense. I mean that he’s one of those people with internal timing that is a fraction of a beat off from the rest of the world and makes people (possibly only me, I admit) uncomfortable. I don’t understand why he continues to get cast in significant roles. He isn't always terrible, but he's terrible often enough that it doesn't make sense to me why a studio would risk any amount of money on a film starring him.

By Dave B.

​Future Man (Hulu) is an odd show. I’d call it a sci-fi, time-travel, dramedy. On paper, this combination could have been a mess, but the first season of Future Man is solid.

​Fun fact: Netflix released the second season of Daredevil 11 months after that show’s first season. It has been nearly 28 months since the first season of Jessica Jones (JJ1) initially graced our television screens. That has nothing to do with anything. I just like to remind people.
 
For a few reasons, I wasn’t expecting to like the second season of Jessica Jones (JJ2) as much as I liked JJ1. I think JJ1 was Marvel’s best television offering to date, bar none. However, JJ2 wouldn’t have the “SURPRISE! This Is Great” factor, wouldn’t have Michael Colter as Luke Cage, and would barely have David Tennant as Kilgrave. That said, I try to keep an open mind as much as possible and judge things on their own merit. In this case, I failed.

​Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (now free on Amazon Prime) tells the story of two agents who become embroiled in a convoluted (yet simplistic) interstellar conspiracy. It currently has a critic score of 49% on Rotten Tomatoes. For a little background to this review, I had heard a lot of bad things about this movie. Most of those things were exaggerated, in my opinion.

​Godless (Netflix) attempts a rejuvenation of the Western genre and it largely succeeds. It tells the tale of a town that is predominantly populated by women after over 90% of the men were killed in a mining accident a couple years prior to the events in this story. For the long-term, I believe that Netflix has shown that the miniseries is the ideal format for Westerns. Through a combination of good story-telling and amazing character development, Godless rarely disappoints and oftentimes wows. However, it commits the ultimate Hollywood sin; the thing that pisses me off more than anything else that happens in Hollywood movies, and that really cast a pall over the entire series for me.