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The Pacific, a review by Antares

The Pacific (2010) - 3/5

I was really disappointed in this mini-series. Band of Brothers was an excellent story about a unique group of soldiers who fought in Europe. There was rich character development in the first episode and throughout the following 9 episodes I cared about the individuals who were part of Easy company. The Pacific, on the other hand, had virtually no character development until the later episodes and this caused the series to be confusing at times, because you just didn't know what was happening to what soldier at a given time in the story. I had a sense that this series was made because some ex-WWII Marine got pissed because the Army got all the glory in BoB, and Spielberg and Hanks said OK, we'll do it. The first 6 episodes had a schizophrenic structure to them, there was no coherency to the narrative. Episodes 7 - 10 righted the ship and saved this series from being a disaster.

My second hobby is military history, and it's rare that I don't care for a film about warfare, but this one tried my patience in the beginning. If you liked BoB, I'd go into this with caution, you may also be as disappointed in it as I was.

(From Antares' Short Summations on February 16th, 2011)

Kansas City Confidential, a review by Antares

Kansas City Confidential (1952) 75/100 - For 90 minutes this film slowly and methodically moved its way up to the top tier of the noir/crime films I've ever seen. But then, in the last 3 minutes, it shits the bed completely. I couldn't figure out how the story was going to play out and obviously, neither did the director or the screenwriter. Maybe it was the Hays office that made them tack on such a saccharine ending, and if that's so, then we the film loving community were robbed of what could have been considered a masterpiece if they could have kept the edginess that purveyed throughout the story, all the way to the end.

Teal = Masterpiece
Dark Green = Classic or someday will be
Lime Green = A good, entertaining film
Orange = Average
Red = Cinemuck
Brown = The color of crap, which this film is

(From Antares' Short Summations on July 16th, 2021)

Tom's TV Pilots marathon, a review by Tom

Corner Gas: Season One (2003/Canada) IMDb | Wikipedia (Canada) Length: 290 min. Video: Full Frame 1.33:1 Audio: English: Dolby Digital 5.1, English: Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo Subtitles:

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Plot:
Consider this your deed to the laughter-rich plains of Dog River, Saskatchewan. Thanks to a cast of way less than thousands you'll find more hilarity in this little box than a pick-up truck full of jerry cans.

Dreamt up by prairie son Brent Butt, he stars as Brent Leroy, the town's number one and only gas jockey. He and the rest of the Dog River locals get up to a whole lot of nothing in the middle of nowehre actually. And that's where it all happens. At Corner Gas, Canada's number one roadside attraction.

Corner Gas
1.01 Ruby Reborn
Writer: Brent Butt (Created By), Brent Butt (Writer), Mark Farrell (Writer)
Director: David Storey
Cast: Brent Butt (Brent Leroy), Gabrielle Miller (Lacey Burrows), Fred Ewanuick (Hank Yarbo), Eric Peterson (Oscar Leroy), Janet Wright (Emma Leroy), Lorne Cardinal (Davis Quinton), Tara Spencer-Nairn (Karen Pelly), Nancy Robertson (Wanda Dollard), Mark Farrell (Man), Andrea Runge (Waitress)

This is a series I enjoyed throughout. The first episode has already the characters established very well. They already have found their stride here.

Rating:

(From Tom's TV Pilots marathon on April 1st, 2011)