RolyPolyOllie Reactions

Mini Review #141: Star Trek DS9 4x16/4x17 "Accession" and "Rules of Engagement"

Talks of the Emissary are back in the episode Accession (I think I kept saying Ascension oops!) and what a cool episode. Not only did we get some hilarious and heart warming O'Brien and Bashir friendship moments, but we also got to see Sisko really taking the responsibility of being the Emissary seriously, as well as some really interesting conversations surrounding religious figures in general. Right from the start, the episode challenged Sisko when a new Bajoran appeared from 200 years in the past claiming that he was the Emissary. Obviously, because of his nature, it seemed reasonable for Sisko to hand over his position. Granted it didn't seem like Sisko was upset about it thatttttttt much but soon, this new Emissary's decisions to implement an old caste system into Bajoran society prooved to challenge Sisko's beliefs as an individual. I loved watching Sisko step back up and fight for the position of the Emissary again and it is cool seeing how much more open he is about it. The conversation surrounding the following of religious figures was interesting as well. Kira and Odo, standing on a balcony looking down on the new Emissary, both discuss what is pretty obviously to opposing view points on religion. Odo is skeptical and sees this new Emissary as an illogical contradiction to Kira's religion while Kira states that logic doesn't matter when it comes to these things, only the belief. I think the show takes a pretty middle road when dealing with the subject as it seems to say it is ok to believe in this stuff but just don't follow these figures blindly or without question. Like I said earlier as well, O'Brien and Bashir were awesome and it was funny seeing them both depressed because Keiko came home meaning they couldn't see each other a lot!

Rules of Engagement was a courtroom drama! Did not expect that but wow it was so cool! Immediately, the filmmaking style used was extremely well done. I loved how all the flashbacks contained moments of the characters looking into camera and explaining their actions to us like we were a jury. It felt very unique to this episode in DS9 and was very engaging. The trail was set around Worf destroying an innocent Klingon shuttle containing hundreds of passengers. It was cool that right from the get go, it is clear the Worf DID destroy the ship so the trial becomes basically a trial on Worf's character and personality. While I hated this guy, I also loved the Klingon lawyer. The way he was able to weave his stories in and out of the witnesses was really cool and provided some very tense moments. Watching Worf punch him was so satisfying but also so a mouth to the floor moment because it really felt like he won right then. Of course he didn't and the truth, while crazy, was something I think I predicted earlier on. That is my only fault with the episode I think. I felt like the knowledge of the truth happened too fast and felt very sudden. Like the writers new the episode was gonna end soon and they had to wrap it up. Would have liked to see 5 more minutes of Sisko and Odo doing some detective work or something! Besides that small grip, I really enjoyed the episode and can't wait for next week!!

Mini Review #140: The Animatrix (2003)

Finishing off everything Matrix with this animated anthology set in the world of The Matrix. I did not expect this to be both beautifully animated in every sense of the word, but also thought provoking, riveting, and downright sad at times. I think there are about 7 shorts in this film and each one has their own unique style and vision for the world of The Matrix. From the extinction of humans in gory visceral animation to a private investigator tracking Trinity in cold black and white film noir, every single short is a feast for the eyes visually. While the visuals are insane, the stories they are attached too are also very good. The animations do a good job at keeping to the canon of the movies. Nothing they do changes anything about the films but instead, they add so much lore and world building. How does the world end? What happens to people if they fail to escape the Matrix? How do agents deal with a glitch? Could a machine work with humans? These are all questions answered in the anthology which overall creates a really outstanding piece of anthology storytelling. If you love any of The Matrix movies, I would highly suggest this as well!!!

EARLY ACCESS - THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS

A little confused at the end but overall really enjoyed this film

UNCUT - THE MATRIX REVOLUTIONS

The battles were so epic in this one

THIS MONDAY...

A collab between two Star Trek fans! Ok Christina and I watch First Contact together! We were planning to do it for First Contact day but life got in the way...

Video will be out just like regular videos so Mega Star Trek tier and above will get it this Monday and everyone else in two weeks :)

EARLY ACCESS - ROCKY AUR RANI

A beautiful and fun movie full of vibrant colours!!!

UNCUT - ROCKY AUR RANI

A big and bold love story!

Mini Review #129: The Matrix Resurrections (2021)

I have one word for this movie and that is: disappointing. The movie isn't horrible like some people suggest but it is nowhere near great. For me, The Matrix 4 fails to deliver on one of the key aspects of what made The Matrix series so great... entertainment. Even the third movie, with all of it's flaws, is still a crazy fun ride in the second half. This movie forgets the fun and leaves us with the dullest fight sequences of all time along with a story that tries to be philosophical through its meta commentary, which can be fun at first but slowly becomes more tedious as the film goes on. The action is the thing I am most annoyed about because if anything, you would expect great action with cool visuals in a Matrix film. Instead, we get a fist fight, oh and then another fist fight, oh and then a fist fight but a little faster, oh look another fist fight but with multiple people, oh finally a motorcycle chase that's cool is Neo doing anything cool on the bike? No just punching people and using the force gotcha. Every fight is pretty much the EXACT same with no originality or flare. And flare is another big point. Where did the cool Matrix flips go? The speed punches, the flying kicks, the leaping lunges and the wall runs? There was almost nothing of that in the film, only regular old fist fights. Even the Matrix powers that are shown are lame. Neo pretty much only uses this force like attack to block and push enemies and while it was cool at first, but the 20th time of use I was begging for him to do any other type of attack. Don't even get me started on the camera work for the fights. How in the world did Lana Wachowski go from directing some of the best action in film with beautiful wides to the most confusing and badly editing fights with camera work so close I can see their skin pores. I didn't really mind the story toooooo much but the fighting enraged me so much.

Mini Review #138: Star Trek Ds9 4x14/4x14 "Sons of Mogh" and "Bar Association"

Two more great episodes today on DS9! Sons of Mogh was a very interesting Worf episode where his brother Kurn, played by the man Tony Todd, comes to DS9 and begs Worf to kill him. Not only was the straddling of lines between the Klingon world and Federation values a cool part of the episode, but the presentation of Klingon depression was tragic. Seeing Kurn feel so deeply that he needed to die spoke a lot to just how insane Klingon culture is. Because of what Worf did in the Season 4 premiere, Kurn was ejected from the Council and all land and titles stripped from the House of Mogh. Kurn's progression of wanting death also fluctuated within the episode. It started out as something for honour. As a last stand as a warrior with nothing to lose. But by the end of the episode, Kurn's death wish had just become about dying. With or without honour, Kurn just wanted to die. And he got his wish in a way. Watching Worf try to deal with his brother, and in a way himself, was very interesting. Worf at first insists on helping Kurn and actually does stab the guy in an attempt to kill him. But there is a shift in the episode where Worf realizes that he is no longer Klingon, or at least does not subscribe to the values of being Klingon enough to ever re-join Klingon society. So this all culminates with the decision Worf takes to erase Kurn's memory in order for him to start a fresh life away from the dishonour. While it was a tough decision for Worf because Kurn is his brother, I also felt like it represented Worf's final push away from Klingon society. With Kurn gone, Worf his pretty much nothing left that attached himself to the Empire. Oh yeah, there were also mines in this episode. Why where the Klingons being so sneaky about that??

Bar Association was a ROM EPISODE YEAH! I love that he is getting his own episodes now he deserves it. The episode deals with Rom forming a... a... sorry this word is hard to say one second... a union. There I said it. It was really fun to watch him stand up for what he felt was right as well as stand up for his fellow co-workers against the evil boss known as Quark. He gave some good speeches, and showed just how far he has come from that bumbling, screaming buffoon from the first season. There were also some great interactions between Quark and Rom as well. Quark obviously does care for Rom in a way but he not only has a hard time expressing it, he doesn't understand Rom as well. He can't understand why Rom would want to form a union, or side with Moogie, or not only desire profits and that confusion can turn to anger a lot of the time. But Rom kind of set things straight in this episode and basically told Quark off about their relationship and how Quark treats him... it was great to watch! Finally, Rom got all of his demands but decided to finally quit the bar to pursue engineering (yay!!!) and seeing how happy his face was when he said that made my day. He'll be a great engineer!!

UNCUT - STAR TREL DS9 4X8/4X9 The Sword of Kahless + Our Man Bashir

Our Man Bashir was one of the funnest episodes to date

EARLY ACCESS - STAR TREK DS9 4X8/4X9 The Sword of Kahless + Our Man Bashir

BASHIR IS JAMES BOND

UNCUT - A FEW GOOD MEN

this was posted on Saturday but I will post again in case you missed it (and to keep to my schedule!) AVAILABLE TO ALL PATRONS!!

EARLY ACCESS - PLANET OF THE APES

The original is one of the best of the series!!!

UNCUT - PLANET OF THE APES

There were no bananas in this movie unrealistic

UNCUT - DIL CHAHTA HAI (Free for all Patrons!)

A movie about different forms of love!!!!

UNCUT - A FEW GOOD MEN (Free for all Patrons)

So remind me to never be in a room alone with Jack Nicholson because the man is creepy as hell. Also, thank you Jonathan for recommending this reaction!! Loved the movie!

COMING SUNDAY...

Another Uncut Patreon Recommended movie available for free on Patreon to all members! A movie about love and the heart set in a very early 2000's style (nostalgic for me)

Thank you Red Dwarf for recommending this movie!!

EARLY ACCESS - THE MATRIX RELOADED

Why do a lot of people say this is bad???

UNCUT - THE MATRIX RELOADED

Ok so I actually kinda loved this movie

SATURDAY...

An UNCUT reaction free for EVERYONE on PATREON!!!

Mini Review #137: Dil Chahta Hai (2001) (UNCUT PATREON EXCLUSIVE)

Thank you so much Red Dwarf for recommending this movie to me!!

A movie about love through the eyes of 3 different men, all friends, and their unique experiences and perspectives of love. The movie title translates to "The Heart Wants" which is a very apt title in my opinion as there are many instances of characters going against their heart only to realize that doing that was a mistake. Akash, the protagonist, probably had the biggest storyline of the 3 friends. He is the type of guy who doesn't believe in love and romance and for half the movie, he is very immature and pretty self centred. Then, he reunites with a woman in Australia where he starts to understand what love truly is. This storyline also had my favourite part of the film was was a scene in the Opera House. My goodness that scene was truly beautiful and made me believe in love (even though I already do it made me believe in love again). Sid, while maybe not having the brunt of the screen time, had the most interesting of stories as he starts to fall in love with a woman 15 years older than him with problems of her own. His storyline is really where the title shines as he knows she will never romantically love him back yet he still loves her. Sid has a great conversation with another woman on the beach near the start asking her why she is in love and her response, "Why, there is no why" was such a great summation of the feeling. Sameer's story was definitely the weakest of the three and felt the most generic but even then, his story featured a push back against arranged marriages. Overall, the movie was directed beautifully and had some fun songs but mostly contained a lot of heart and soul with many messages and emotions surrounding what love is to different people.

EARLY ACCESS - STAR TREK DS9 4X6/4X7 Starship Down + Little Green Men

Quark, Rom, and Nog are all Roswell what?????

UNCUT - STAR TREK DS9 4X6/4X7 Starship Down + Little Green Men

Two more fantastic episodes!!!!

Mini Review #136: Star Trek DS9 4x12/4x13 "Crossfire" and "Return to Grace"

Two more fantastic episodes of DS9 today! I don't know how this show manages to stay consistently this good but these two episodes were just more amazingness!!

Well actually, I hated Crossfire. Well not the episode I thought the episode was amazing but it was so gut wrenching watching Odo slowly realize Kira does not love him back that it was hard to watch. Odo is never really an emotional character and we have only really seen him act on emotion a few times; finding his people in the Omarian nebula is one. But this episode contained the most emotional Odo we have seen. It started out so cute. We could see how much he enjoyed Kira's company and he did so many things to make her day go smoothly and her happy. But then my guy Shakaar showed up, who I actually like, and Odo was just thrown for a loop. As the episode progressed, we could see the relationship forming between Shakaar and Kira while Odo just had to sit there and watch it all unfold and man... IT HURT. The directing in this episode was fantastic and there were so many beautiful intimate moments with Odo. An example would be when Shakaar was discussing his love for Kira to Odo and the camera stays firmly on Odo's face. He isn't saying anything, Shakaar is doing all the talking, but Odo's reactions are what is important. When Kira hugs him near the end, We see Odo's face centre frame letting us take in the hurt and sadness. Man when she hugged him I felt like was getting stabbed 1000 times in the heart. The end of the episode as well as brutal with Odo trying to distant himself from Kira. It felt like Odo was trying to almost cut her out of his life completely (besides work related stuff of course) and it was painful to watch because they had such a good friendship. Overall, this episode was like being punched in the face constantly. I loved it (but I don't love getting punched in the face).

Return to Grace was another Dukat and Kira episode! I was surprised at this because they literally had one together not 10 episodes ago but maybe the writers realized they struck gold as this combination is always good. I always love the discussions these two have together and this episode mostly revolved around the similarities both characters had. Dukat kept trying to tell Kira how well they work together but Kira was not having it and kept brushing it off. It makes sense as Kira really only sees Dukat as a murderer but I have to agree with Dukat here, if they both teamed up they would be pretty unstoppable in a war. I do think Dukat has changed and I am starting to forget the war crimes he committed in the past. The love for his daughter is amazing to see and the fact that he left her on the station at the end of the episode after Kira suggested it, without complaining one bit, proves his love and loyalty to her and her safety. Dukat's monologue to Kira about joining his resistance was my favourite part of the episode as it was both powerful but also showed that the old Cardassian way is still inside him somewhere. It will be very interesting to see how the Klingon attacks develop as they are still attacking Cardassian space with little to no resistance. And with Dukat off to fight them, maybe he will gather supporters and lead a resistance of his own.

EARLY ACCESS - MISSISSIPPI BURNING

An important watch but a heavy watch

UNCUT - MISSISSIPPI BURNING

This reaction is already up on Patreon for free to everyone but thought I would repost as the early access version is dropping today as well!

Mini Review #135: A Few Good Men (1992) (UNCUT PATREON EXCLUSIVE)

Requested by Jonathan!!!! Thank you!!!

Holy chicken and waffle sauce this movie was not what I was expecting but boy did I love it. I knew this was labeled a 'war' movie going into it so I was expecting, based off the title, a few good soldiers working together in some war somewhere in order to stay alive. Instead, I got a young puppy dog Tom Cruise lawyer working on a conspiracy murder case in an exhilarating courtroom drama. Exhilarating is the key word here because once we get to the court, the movie steps on the gas and only gets better and better every time we go back. Not to say anything outside the court is bad, it's just those courtroom scenes had me sweating buckets with the amount of stress and excitement I had. There is something so special about a courtroom and its ability to increase tension. For me, I think it is the silence. If anyone has ever been in a courtroom, you'll know just how quiet it is in there. If a fly farted you'd be able to hear it. Rob Reiner uses this silence perfectly and every blow both good and bad can be heard in the following deafening silence. Jack Nicholson was insane in this movie. He had about 15 minutes of screen time and was maybe the most memorable actor in the film. His presence was so grimy and gross while also being arrogant and strict. You hated him from the beginning and his meltdown was top 5 most satisfying moments of all time. Also, was the line "You can't handle the truth" from this movie??? I knew that was a famous line but man was it great to hear! Tom Cruise was also great in this role! I haven't seen many young Tom Cruise flicks but he was definitely on his A-game here. Felt like a very mature performance from him at times. Honestly, I didn't know what to expect going into this one but I enjoyed it so much. The movie flew by and I am actually glad I had to purchase the film in order to watch it as I would love to watch it again!

Mini Review #134: Good Will Hunting (1997)

Man!!! It is was so inspiring seeing Matt Damon and Ben Affleck's names as the writers for this movie! I am pretty sure this was their breakout roles as actors but more than that, the fact that they were able to write THIS was incredible... and at such a young age!

Everything about this film I loved. The subtly of the dialogue, the quietness of Danny Elfman's music, the coziness of the film as a whole, and the performances. Robin Williams was outstanding in this film and provided a much different role than what I am used to. He was very melancholy and monotone throughout much of the runtime giving me a much different perspective of him as an actor after the many comedies and whacky films I have seen him in. Boy he can act and I truly believed that Sean was carrying around demons of his own. Matt Damon was exceptional in the film as well as it may be one of the best performances I have seen from him. There was so much complexity under the surface of Will and Matt Damon portrayed them with such maturity. I love how the film played out and the pacing, only revealing Will's true emotional state with about 10 minutes left. I also loved how the therapy not only helped Will, but Sean as well. I also can't forget about Ben Affleck who ended up being one of the best friends someone could have. His little speech about wanting Will to leave was packed with love and the ending at Will's house made me very emotional. The movie was small scale, subtle and cozy but packed with a big heart and incredibly touching moments. Definitely worth the watch!!!

EARLY ACCESS - Dunki

The newest SRK flick!!

UNCUT - DUNKI

A movie on an important topic but never reaches the heights it promises...