4 Razors

Beverly Hills Cop

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Beverly Hills Cop
  • IMDb: link

Throwback Tuesday takes us back to 1984 and the birth of the action-comedy. Originally a far more straight action film that at one time was a vehicle for Sylvester Stallone, Beverly Hills Cop became a much more humorous break-out role for Eddie Murphy cementing him as a bankable movie star and arguably carving out a new niche for the action-comedy (with the script being rewritten on the fly while the film began shooting under director Martin Brest).

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The Old Man – I

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Old Man – I
  • IMDb: link

An old adage for stories like these is how much trouble you can get into when you don’t let sleeping dogs lie. The opening episode of The Old Man introduces us to relatively normal looking Dan Chase (Jeff Bridges) whose time in hiding has come to an end when an old file is reopened and agents are sent to find and collect the agent of the CIA who disappeared decades before. I’ll give the show credit in casting Bill Heck as a younger version of the character in flashbacks who fits perfectly into what the show needs (at least for this episode). While we see glimpses into the skills Chase had, he isn’t John Wick or Bryan Mills, he struggles with dealing with the far younger agents sent after him.

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Fairfax – The Circle of Hype

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Fairfax – The Circle of Hype
  • IMDb: link

A trip to the Fairfax Flea Market leads to revelations for each of the kids as Truman (Jaboukie Young-White) learns to enjoy the moment when playing with a mom band, Dale (Skyler Gisondo) and Benny (Peter S. Kim) find something unexpected on the shady side of the market where older brands have been shunned, and Derica’s (Kiersey Clemons) purchase of a new jacket leads to immediate hype, hallucinations caused by dehydration, and then eventually emotional insight and a chance meeting.

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Tron

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

Remember when Frisbees were Cool?

Tron is something of a novelty.  The film was the first to rely heavily on CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) during a time when no one used computers in movies. The technology was new and limited, but because the film was made at such a time the movie has a look and feel that no other film is likely to duplicate. 

The way Tron was colored and backlight by hand, frame by frame, is too labor intensive for our Star Wars / Jurassic Park era and beyond.  Rather than using CGI to create more believable images or other worlds, the creators of Tron realized the limitations of the technology and instead focused on using light against the black background to produce a one of a kind art form.  The difference is important.  Even after 40 years have passed the movie still holds up even though the technology used to create it has long been passed by.

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The Serene Squall

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – The Serene Squall
  • wiki: link

Although the episode relies on a twist you’ll likely see coming, “The Serene Squall” has the feel of a classic Trek adventure with the Enterprise fighting space pirates on the edge of Federation space. Themes from the season continue to be played out here including Spock (Ethan Peck) and  T’Pring‘s (Gia Sandhu) relationship and the tease of Nurse Chapel‘s (Jess Bush) feelings for the Enterprise’s Science Officer. Jesse James Keitel is well-cast here as the main guest-star whose character needs to be insightful and empathetic to Spock but also to turn on a dime when the plot calls for it.

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