Alan Rapp

The Librarians and the Final Curtain

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Librarians – And the Final Curtain
  • wiki: link

The Librarians and the Final Curtain

The Second Season of The Librarians comes to a close with an amusing time travel storyline as Flynn (Noah Wyle) and Eve (Rebecca Romijn) travel back to the age of Shakespeare to stop Prospero (Richard Cox). Since his introduction in the season premiere Prospero has been an ill-defined, and largely absent, villain. “And the Final Curtain” helps explain the character’s creation and true motivations, although it doesn’t sell the character or help him look better compared to the much more intriguing Moriarty (David S. Lee), a character who is sadly cast aside like so much rubbish.

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Meru

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Meru
  • IMDb: link

MeruMeru documents not one but two attempts by experienced climbers (Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk) to scale the “anti-Everest” of Meru Peak in the Himalayan Mountains using the never-before completed “Shark’s Fin” route known by climbers as one of the hardest routes in the world given the complexities and challenges of the mountain.

With a mix of footage from both the failed 2008 attempt and the successful 2011 climb, the movie also documents the period in-between concerning Ozturk’s near-fatal accident and Chin being caught in an avalanche, neither of which deter either the men’s resolve to return to the mountain. The film also documents Anker’s loss of an earlier climbing partner and his struggle to return to his passion afterwards. Filled with breathtaking photography and first-account interviews taken before, during, and after the climbs, Meru captures the beauty and danger of mountain climbing while allowing the climbers themselves to explain their drive to do what they do.

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Agent X – Penultimatum

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Agent X – Penultimatum
  • IMDb: link

Agent X - Penultimatum

John’s (Jeff Hephner) decision to resign from the Agent X program is shortlived after he discovers Volker (Andrew Howard) has kidnapped Pamela (Carolyn Stotesbery). Forced to steal the Geryon, John is sent on a mission guaranteed to end in either the spy’s death or capture. Thankfully for John, even if he’s walked away from Agent X, he still has valuable friends in the right places.

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Hot Girls Wanted

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Hot Girls Wanted
  • IMDb: link

Hot Girls WantedDirected by Jill Bauer and Ronna Gradus, Hot Girls Wanted takes a look at the growing online amateur porn industry by taking us into the house of a small group of Internet porn newbies (few of whom will still be working in the industry by the end of the documentary). The directors succeed in getting a firsthand experience of the industry which tosses out young women at a rate, even once introduced into the industry, our starlets don’t comprehend.

Meant to be a shocking tell-all, Hot Girls Wanted is only partially successful (mainly because of how willing the young women all are to agree to and rationalize away any dehumanizing activity as long as it is 1. on camera and 2. pays the bills). The complicity to their actions undercuts the documentary’s message just as strongly as the documentarians taking further advantage of each of the women profiled for the purpose of their movie.

However, money is only half of the equation. A better film would dive deeper into the yearning for celebrity each girl is willing to go down an increasingly dark and fetishized path to achieve.

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