TV and Movie Reviews - October 2020

These are some of the TV shows and movies I watched in October.

Movies

• The Godfather, Part 2: I don't think this holds up as well as the first movie, but I did enjoy watching it again. The scenes of Don Vito's early life in New York are amazing. (Netflix)
• Fear City: A documentary about how the FBI took down the heads of the New York mob in the 1980s. This was a good complement to the Godfather movies. (Netflix)
• Some Girls: This Rolling Stones concert doc was filmed in 1978, when the Stones still had something to prove. It's much better than I expected and livelier than the 1977 Stones' concert I saw in Toronto. (Amazon Prime)
• The Matrix: The parts of this movie that hold up the best aren't what I expected when I watched it again. The cultural relevance of the "red pill/blue pill" idea is what resonates today, rather than the special effects (which were ground-breaking at the time of its original release). (Neflix)
• Tremors: Shrieker Island: The sixth and probably final movie in the series. The first Tremors flick is one of my all-time favourite B-movies. This one isn't the best of the lot, but is still a lot of fun. 
• Mean Streets: Very early Martin Scorcese with Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel in leading rolls. Not Scorcese's best work, but it has a raw energy that some of his later movies have lacked.
• Thunderball: After Goldfinger, this was a bit of a letdown, but saved by Sean Connery's performance. 
  
  

TV Shows

• Challenger: The Final Flight: A four-part documentary on the 1986 Challenger disaster. The best, and saddest, parts are the interviews with NASA engineers who were involved in the decision to launch. (Netflix)
• A Year in Space: A documentary about the epic one year flight of Scott Kelly. I hadn't realized how important his twin brother, also an astronaut, who remained on the ground, was to the mission and to Kelly's life. The best parts were the scenes in Russia's Star City before the mission. Thumbs down to whoever was responsible for splitting the two-hour documentary up into 12 parts. (Neflix)
• Song Exploder: A four-part documentary exploring four different songs in depth. I'll have to find the podcast on which this was based. (Netflix)
• Jazz: Despite my life-long love of jazz, I've never managed to see the Ken Burns documentary series. It was a revelation, especially the episodes set before WW II. I can't recommend this series highly enough. (Hoopla)
• The Closer: I watched a few episodes of this while visiting my mother-in-law. Good acting, but I can't believe the lead actor would get away with what she does in the episodes.
• Hudson and Rex: A Canadian cop show featuring a cute cop and a cuter dog. If you like dogs and Maritime scenery, you might enjoy it. 
• War of the Worlds: Yet another attempt to bring Wells' classic alien invasion story to the screen in a British/French co-production set in the present. Three episodes in and I'm already losing interest. (CBC Gem)
• Star Trek Discovery, Season 3: They seem to be trying to bring back the feel of the original Trek, with a dose of Star Wars, but I don't think it's working. 
• Mystery Road, Season 2: One of the best Australian series that I've seen. Gritty, intense, with first-rate acting and plotting. Like the Canadian series, Cardinal, the land is a starring character. (Acorn TV)