Welcome

Welcome to my ever-evolving blog. It started out as a blog on Beachbody workouts and products, mainly when I was a Beachbody coach. I no longer coach, not because I don't believe in Beachbody's programs (I subscribe to Beachbody on Demand and use their workouts every day), I am just not a salesperson and hated that aspect of it. I am more than willing to answer questions about my experiences with their products and the various workouts, and I feel freer to do so without the appearance of giving a biased review of something.

I have also started adding reviews for various things I have purchased like movies, books, CDs, and other products. This was brought about by a fight with Amazon in which all of my reviews were removed over a completely bullshit allegation that I posted a review that violated their terms of service. After going back and forth with the morons in the community-reviews department (even after they admitted that my posts did not violate their guidelines) they restored my account (which took them six months to do), but I have been posting my reviews on my blog to have them preserved in case something like that happens again. And here, I will post uncensored reviews so I will swear from time to time and post reviews that may be longer than Amazon's character limit. Everything I post here on any topic or product is my personal opinion, and I take no compensation for any product reviews I post. I am a member of Amazon's vine program and because I get those products for free, I keep those reviews on Amazon only, but everything I have purchased with my own money, whether from Amazon or some other store/website/outlet, I will post here.  

I also plan to do some longer blog posts on various topics, such as how to learn physics, how to get through calculus, and longer reviews of workout programs as I do them. Basically, whatever strikes me as interesting at the time.  As you can see if you navigate around the blog, I had many years in between postings. During that time I was going back to school to get an engineering degree, and learning material that I avoided my first time through college was a different experience and one that gave me a lot of insight into how to do well in those classes, which I will try to impart here for those who are looking to get a science or engineering degree. 

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Blu-Ray/Movie Review: Point of No Return

 


Point of No Return is an action-thriller from 1993 directed by John Badham and starring Bridget Fonda, Gabriel Bryne, Dermot Mulroney, Anne Bancroft, Miguel Ferrer, and Harvey Keitel. This is one of a few different adaptations of the French film La Femme Nikita. The most notable, at least in the US, was the series that aired on The CW called Nikita and starred Maggie Q. There was also a TV series called La Femme Nikita, which aired on the USA network years ago. This is the only American film adaptation of that story. It stars Bridget Fonda as Maggie Hayward, a teenage delinquent who kills a security guard during a robbery and is sentenced to death. Her death is faked by a government agency, and she is given the choice to be trained as an assassin or killed. Needless to say, she chooses the former, and the remainder of the film deals with her training and then assimilation into "real" life as she tries to balance having a normal life with being called for assassination missions.

The Blu-Ray's A/V transfer is okay, but it definitely did not get a high-quality restoration. It definitely looks like it is a 1993 movie and not brought up to par with even the late 90s/early 2000s AV quality. There are no bonus features to speak of, just the theatrical trailer. Overall, it is a decent movie that you can totally have on in the background and get the story.  Even with a loaded cast, the film is definitely not as good as it could have been. The writing was okay to decent, but not stellar, and while I would not say that any of the actors seemed to be phoning their performances in, they have all done better work. It is not a movie that you need to pay rapt attention to in order to follow along. Fonda did a good job in the leading role, and I think, had she chosen to do so, she could have really used the role to propel herself into a more extensive career. I would not call it a must-see movie, but it is a good choice if you are looking for an action movie to kill a couple of hours.

No comments: