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. 

Showing posts with label Charlie's Angels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charlie's Angels. Show all posts

Friday, July 26, 2024

4k-UHD/Movie Review: Charlie's Angels (2019)

 


The 2019 version of Charlie's Angels is an action/adventure movie directed by Elizabeth Banks and starring Kristen Stewart, Ella Balinkska, Naomi Scott, Patrick Stewart, Noah Centineo, and Djimon Honsou. The film is a reboot of a reboot, which was very likely a large part of why it did not do better at the box office. That, and the lack of significant star power. Of course, the 2000 and 2003 movies had Drew Barrymore, Lucy Liu, and Cameron Diaz, all of whom were very well-known. This one has Kristen Stewart, who is probably the biggest star, aside from Patrick Stewart and Elizabeth Banks (who has a prominent role in the movie as well as directing the film). Stewart (in arguably her best role to date) plays one of the Angels along with Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska. They all did a fine job as the "Angels" but did not have the star power to drive many people to see the movie. Some well-known actors and actresses are in supporting and cameo roles, including Patrick Stewart, Ronda Rousey, and more, but their roles were relatively small. The film does partially tie into the TV show and the prior movies.

My biggest complaint about the movie is that it lifts too much from the prior movies, including a villain from the agency, an updated version of The Thin Man character (played by Crispin Glover in the prior film), a mogul bad guy, etc. The "empowered woman"/"girl power" theme of the movie was fine, even if a bit ham-fisted at times. As you can see from some of the comments on Amazon, it turned many people off, but it is not something that bothered me all that much.

The 4k set is a two-disc set containing a UHD disc and a regular Blu-Ray disc. The movie looks and sounds great in the UHD format. The UHD disc has previews that play before the menu loads, then the movie itself. The rest of the extras are on the regular Blu-ray disc. They include deleted scenes, a gag reel, several short (5-7 min, give or take) making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes, a feature on Elizabeth Banks in her roles as actor and director, and the music video for the movie's theme song. Overall, it is a decent movie, but not great. It is not as good as the original 2000 movie but on par with the 2003 sequel, full throttle. It will definitely not appeal to everyone, but for a two-hour action movie, it is worth checking out as long as you accept that it is not award-winning material.