TV and Movie Reviews - July 2020 - Part 1

I was intending to start doing these reviews monthly, but this one has gotten long enough that I'm going to run it now. They're more for my benefit, so I can have a list of what I've been watching for future reference. But if you enjoy them, great. Comments are welcome, as always.

Movies

• Porco Roso: Early Miyazaki. Not one of his best, but still enjoyable. The flying sequences are especially well done. (Neflix)
• The Old Guard: An unusually good action flick about a group of immortals trying to do good, while fighting off unscrupulous agents of big pharma who want to monetize their genes. But their own angst may be their worst enemy. Based on a graphic novel, which is also very good. (Netflix)
• The Color Out of Space: Movie based (very loosely) on the classic story by H. P. Lovecraft. It's fairly good, especially if you like Nick Cage doing the crazy thing he seems to have trademarked. (Netflix)
• Only: After a comet releases a deadly dust, women start dying. The idea goes back at least as far as Frank Herbert's The White Plague. I found it quite disjointed, especially in the second half. It's also very grim (to be expected, given the idea), but there's not a lot else there to redeem it. (Netflix)

TV Shows

• Archangel: A British-made mini-series, set in Moscow, featuring the pre-Bond Daniel Craig. It's a fairly standard thriller but good enough that we watched all three parts in one evening. Gets bonus points for the Russian locations. (Amazon Prime)
• Perry Mason (2020): Tells the origin story of the famous detective. A lot of money obviously went into recreating 1930s Los Angeles. Given that it's being released weekly, I've only seen four of the episodes so far but I am liking it a lot. (HBO)
• The Tunnel: A complex, well-acted British/French co-production that starts with a body being discovered in the service tunnel of the Channel Tunnel. I'm only part way through the first season, but will keep going. (CBC Gem)
• Warrior Nun: Being a lapsed Catholic and having had a nun fixation since childfood, I had high hopes for this. Unfortunately, it it was only sporadically enjoyable and squandered a lot of potential. I also had trouble watching it because many of the scenes were very dark and I had trouble following what was going on. (Netflix)