Movie review - "Migration" (2023) **1/2

 Absolutely fine. Some really funny gags, like Awkwafina (who must have the record for appearances in animated films) getting run over. For all its admirable diversity behind the mike I note that the dad still seems to make all the decisions. Decent animation and colour. Story a little iffy. It seems to lack subtext. Why did they bother bringing Danny de Vito's character along he doesn't do anything?

Movie review - "Men in Black: International" (2019) **

 I'm not a massive fan of this franchise but anyway here goes. Chris Hemsworth and Tessa Thompson were a great time in Thor Ragnarok but both were playing very specific, big characters - here it's less clear. She's a sort of Bridget Jones/Hermoine but not really and he's a sort of Han Solo but not really. They both quip. There's a lot of quips.

Decent effects and some cool action. But it lacks action. The reveal of who the baddy is is tired. So is the Europe setting.

It's not awful just feels a little bleh.

Movie review - "Doolittle" (2020) **

A film that hasn't gotten a lot of love and it's certainly flawed but I watched it with my five year old who loved it and we had a grand time.

The debits are easy to spot - Downey Jr's Welsh accent which is badly dubbed in, the undercast kids, the failure to milk dramatic moments (especially with the boy, why not have people trying to kill Doolittle more?), the not particularly good effects. I think a few more reshoots and clarifying of the drama would have worked wonders.

Still, it's a quest, and an adventure, and Antonio Banderas and Michael Sheen ham it up with the right tone - this film needed more adult actors to play it that way. And my daughter laughed a lot.

TV review - "Silicon Valley "- final season (2019) ***

The plotting remains strong and there's some superb moments and a very clever wrap up but for some reason this didn't fire as well for me. Some episodes felt tired, like the cast and crew were going through the motions. TJ Miller was missed, they did a little more with Amy but couldn't really think of much to do with her. It lacked another character and there was a bit too much Thomas Middleditch stuffing up - I wish they'd given him a girlfriend or something. Still, some magnificent moments.

Movie review - "Stuber" (2019) **1/2

A decent time to be had. This is a throw back to 80s buddy films - Kumail Nanjiani is very funny as the geeky uber driver caught up in cop Dave Bautista's attempts to get bad guy Iko Uwais. I'm not sure Bautista's got star factor... I kept wishing it was Vin Diesel or Van Damme or someone. And is he really old enough to be the father of Natalie Morales?

Betty Gilpin is funny as Nanjiana's lusted after BFF, Karen Gillan has a decent... cameo? would you call it?, it took me a while to recognise Mira Sorvino. The action scenes are very well done. It's extremely, extremely annoying how Bautista/Nanjiani don't call for help throughout the day... I mean they keep finding dead bodies and no one calls? Why didn't they make Bautista falsely accused of a crime or something? It's really irritating.

Also the film doesn't use the uber stuff enough. It touches on it - a rival uber driver, a bunch of other drivers... It's just a shame. It feels like a decent Netflix movie - not a theatrical experience.

TV review - Silicon Valley Season 5 (2018) ****

TJ Miller is missed and for some reason there aren't a lot of new characters in this one... they stick with their old crew, especially Richard and Gavin, when maybe some fresh blood would have worked (like girlfriends). I guess there are new employees but they aren't particularly memorable.  I did like the quiet guy who becomes a corporate animal - why not make that character female? It could be done.

But I'm nit pickig. The plotting remains strong and there's heaps of classic moments - the destruction of the robot, the sight gag of the violent video games, the comments about the weirdness of setting up in America. The climax episode is very strong.

Movie review - "The Big Sick" (2017) *****

Probably my favourite movie of 2017. I'm going to be biased because it's a about a man whose girlfriend winds up in a coma who has to deal with her parents who are having marriage troubles - things I've been through, and which the film gets right. And also it refers to cricket.

But it is warm and lovely comedy full of very good observation. It's got two aces in the hole - the coma stuff, which is done well, and the fact he's a Pakistani American and she's a white girl, so the look at the relationship is very fresh.

It's beautifully done - the casting is immaculate. Like a lot of Judd Apatow productions, even the small bits really shine - I loved the annoying flatmate who everyone dislikes and is perennially annoying, and the beautiful Pakistani girl who just wants a nice guy and a relationship so she "can finally relax" (she gets the end of the scene too).

My only gripe is it started to drag towards the end - after the girl told the guy she didn't want to see him again, I felt maybe some of those other goodbye scenes could've been truncated and the two other scenes where she tells him to go away maybe could've been combined or even deleted. Great end though.

Script review - "The Big Sick"

Smart funny and wonderful. It's not that fresh to have a rom com set in the world of stand up comics any more, but having him Pakistani is extremely fresh and the romance is well done - the female character is very fleshed out. And the stuff about dealing with a girlfriend in a coma is excellent. A simple, warm, lovely script.