Movie and TV Reviews - July 2021

Here are some short reviews of things I watched in July. It's baseball season, so there won't be as much as usual.

Movies

• The Tomorrow War: Another time travel war story but this one makes even less sence than Edge of Tomorrow. Not recommended at all. (Amazon Prime)
• Cosmic Sin: Bruce Willis continues his slide into irrelevance. Another waste of time. Just watch Die Hard again. (Netflix)
• The Color of Magic: This is one of the three adaptations of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels made about a decade ago for British TV. It's light fantasy, but because it's Pratchett, it has a bite to it. Recommended. (Acorn TV)
• Hogfather: The third of the Terry Pratchett adaptations that we watched. I think this was the first one to be produced and it shows. It's a satire about Christmas (called Hogwatch in the Discworld series) and it was somewhat uneven but redeemed by the quality of the acting, especially Ian Richardson as Death (Acorn TV). 
• Akhnaten. This is a new production of Glass's masterpiece by Opéra Nice Côte d'Azur. It's not as lavish as the Metropolitan Opera version and incorporates more abstract staging and orchestral interludes, reminiscent of the staging in Einstein on the Beach. I liked it, although I wish it had a full 5.1 audio mix. 

TV Shows

• Bosch (Season 7): Another light mystery series with twisty plots and enough characterization to bring it over the potboiler level. It's set in New Zealand but could just as easily be Australia or Canada. (Acorn TV)
• Russia: Empire of the Tsars. A three-part series that covers Russian history from the 17th century to the Russian revolution. It's not a period of history I know much about, and I found it quite fascinating. 
• Nova: The Ship That Changed the World. The excavation of a 17th-century Swedish ship reveals clues about the ships that launched the Age of Exploration. (PBS)
• Catastrophe - Asteroid Impact. Somewhat schlocky, but it did have some very interested and new to me footage of gas gun impact testing and supercomputer simulations. (YouTube)