Netflix Documentary Review: The Wheelchair President

I am a big history dork so I like to watch documentaries.  It's good to learn something new and interesting while never picking up a book or leaving the couch.  I am fascinated with World War 2 so when I saw this documentary on Netflix I gave it a shot.  It's two 45 minute episodes and it was originally put togehter by the BBC.  The narrator is obviously a British guy so you have to deal with the snooty accent, but its not that bad.  This documentary goes into how FDR had polio at an older age and was never able to walk after his diagnosis. However he was seen as an up and coming politican in the 1920's and if you could not walk, people would see you as weak and not even consider voting for you.  He had to get his legs fitted with iron leg locks to hold him up right so we could speak at political conventions.  People would have to help him walk and he basically had to keep his paralysis a secret from the public in order to have people vote for him. After we wins his 1st term as president in 1932 the documentary goes straightforward to 1944 and shows FDR running for a fourth term.  He was a very, very sick man in 1944 and I can not imagine him winning today being that sick. (I just remeber when Hillary Clinton coughed people were losing their minds.) FDR had polio and a failing heart.  He won the 1944 election and then worked tirelessly until his death to found the United Nations. He wanted to found the United Nations in order to avoid another World War.  (so far. so good) but in order to found the United Nations he needed the backing of Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin.  Two completely opposite people.  Unforunately FDR died in 1945, but because of his death and Stalins relationship with FDR, Russia agreed to found the United Nations with the US and Britain.  It's interesting how FDR and Churchill had a relationship with Stalin, since he was clearly a sociopath, but I guess you can say he was the lesser of two evils compared to Hitler.   Also the documentary talks a good amount about Eleanor Roosevelt.  Apparently it was not a rumour that Eleanor was a lesbian, but at the same time FDR was not loyal as well. Not sure how a guy that is paralyzed is having extramartial sex with two other woman, but it happened. Ladies love power I guess.  Final note: The narrarator says FDR, refered to Eleanor's lesbian companions as "the she-males".  He liked Eleanor's lady friends a lot, but he still called thim that.  In today's world FDR would of been impeached for that choice of words.

Overall don't bother watching it if you don't like history. But if you are a history nerd like myself, especially when it comes to World War 2, give it a watch.

Grade: B-

Netflix Review: Michael Che Matters

I saw a small clip about this new comedy special on Netflix on the twitter machine last week.  The clip I saw was pretty damn funny, so I decided to give the whole special a watch.  I was not disappointed.  The topics Michael Che hits on are gentrification, homophobia, racism, Donald Trump, gun violence, Hitler and Black Lives Matter.  His comedic takes on all these issues were unexpected and funny.  For example, Che is not a Trump supporter but he likes Donald Trump.  His reason is that you always need that one over confident buddy in your group of friends.  We all know that guy and Trump is that guy.  Also Michael Che involves two guys from the crowd as part of his routine. That part of the special impressed me, because he took two random guys from the audience and made it a really funny part of his act.  All in all the special is 60 minutes long and I laughed out loud for about 57 of those 60 minutes. 

Grade: A-

HBO Series Review: WestWorld

Alright I realize everyone and their mother has watched this show, so writing a review about it is pretty damn dumb, we all know the show is straight fire.  I think the goal of this show, from the perspective of the big wigs at HBO, is to have Westworld be the franchise of all the HBO programming after Game of Thrones hangs it up in a few years.  Game of Thrones has two short seasons left.  The next one is due to come out in Summer 2017 and I think the last one will come out shortly after that.  Let's say Spring 2018.  At this point you'll see Westworld come back.  It's not due to come back until 2018, since in my opinion, I do not think the executives at HBO had much confidence that the show was going to be a smash hit.  Well it was and we can not complain that it will not come back for another 18-24 months.  There is plenty of other stuff on TV to watch to keep us occupied.  (you could also start a hobby other that watching TV, but that would take to much effort) If you have not watched it, please do and do not read past this sentence. To everyone who has seen it, get ready to have your mind blown.

The acting of Ed Harris and Evan Rachel Wood was awesome, and Anthony Hopkins was so damn good. Extra showouts to the girl who played Maeve and the guy who played Bernard/Arnold.  All around just great acting and all the special effects were great too. I can not praise this show enough. But now I wanted to write about mind blowing aspects of the show that I can not figure out and cause my mind to melt.

1. Arnold/Bernard:
   
   I get that Arnold is one of the founders of Westworld. I also get that he programmed Dolores to kill him, because he did not want Westworld to go active and Dr. Ford disagreed with him.  But how come Dr. Ford creates another robot that looks exactly like Arnold and just renames him Bernard?  I know Dr. Ford is a bit of psycho so he does not think it's a big deal to change his name, but some one else out there had to know Arnold was Bernard.  Did we all just agree to not call Arnold, Arnold anymore?? We know Arnold worked with other people, as we see Dolores in the hallway of the office and one random guy doing into Dr. Arnold Webers office.  So how come no one seems to question Arnolds name change?
2.  Armistice:
   

Armistice is a bad ass character. We can all agree on that. But what is the point of the full body snake tattoo?  Why put all the extra effort into the snake tattoo for her?  The tattoo is not programming it is just a feature to her character.  Also we know Armistice is a new robot, since William, when he is the man in black, claims he has never seen her before.  So that means Arnold did not create her at all, Ford created Armistice.  She clearly has no fear and is seen as an ally for Hector, if not the leader of the gang in Westworld. I think here is a hidden meaning to her tattoo that may be brought up again in season 2.

3. Felix:

I think Felix is a robot.  He just knows too damn much about the place.  He gets refered to as a "butcher" by Sylvester and is mocked for tryiing to code a bird, but he basically pulls off coding the bird.  Which tells me he knows more than Sylvester is givng him credit for. Sylvester is smart and knows what is going on but is always hesitant to do anything, because he does not want to lose his job.  Slyvester is a human, no doubt in my mind, but Felix I think is a robot.  He justs knows to damn much not to be and he obeys basically everything Maeve tells him to do.  No pushback what so ever.  Time will tell if I am right about this theory,but as of now I agree with my theory.

4. Stubbs and Elsie:

Are they dead or are they alive? And if they are dead, are they DEAD DEAD or did they get re-created as robots?  My call; Elsie is now a robot and Stubbs is dead. Why did Ford re-create Elsie as a robot? Because she's smart as fuck and knew way more than even Ford expected. He can trust her with the park beyond his years. Maybe she'll challenge Charlotte in the future? I just can't see someone like Elsie disappearing from the series.  Stubbs was not as interesting as a character in my opinon as Elsie, but he could sense someting FUBAR was going on in the park.  However if Ford has no problem killing Theresa, why would he be hestiant in not killing Stubbs? Sorry Stubbs, it was  good run buddy.

5.  William:



The guy who played William did an excellent job, but every time I saw young William all I could think about was Liam McPoyle from Always Sunny.  Such a damn creep, you can not outlive that character.

Thats all I got, and finally time to grade the show.

Grade: A


Disney Movie Review: Moana

Did I want to see "Moana" last week? No, not really, but when you are the father of two girls and they have a cousin sleep over and it is raining and cold outside and you live in a small house, spending $55 to get out of the house seems  like a great idea.  From the points of the movie I saw when I wasn't telling my kids to sit down, this movie was OK, and I'm grading on the kids movie scale, I'm being realistic here.  The story is a little weird.  Basically the girl who plays Moana is going to be the princess of her island nation.  However the tribe that she rules on the island can no longer find fish to eat and all their fruit crops are dying.  So Moana's grandmother tells her that she needs to get rid of some sort of curse.  Moana being the pain in the ass teenager she is, says she won't do it.  Of course, since this is a Disney movie the grandmother dies and Moana changes here mind.  She's goes out to the ocean and finds Maui.  He is the guy in the picture above and voiced by "The Rock".



Anyway The Rock's character is some sort of mythical god that helps Moana fight some other demon.  This is the part of the story where I got lost, again I'm sure it's an easy storyline but as I said I was telling my kids to sit down and I forget what happened.  All in all they fight a bad guy, defeat the bad guy and when Moana returns to her island home the fruit crops are now healthy and the tribe can fish the waters again.

Frozen , Zootopia and Wreck it Ralph were 5x better than this movie.  The story line was OK and the songs were not as good as other Disney Flicks.  It is not a giant turd, but compared to other movies of Disney's past it wasn't as good. So don't rush to the theaters with your kids to see it, wait till it hits the Redbox and you only have to pay $1.29 to rent it. (Yes I still rent DVD's, I know its 2016 but don't judge, I like saving $.) Lastly this is the one song that got stuck in my head.  The girl who plays Moana has a great voice, but what is weird about the songs in this flick is that the Rock sings one too.  It was really odd. 

Grade: C+

Amazon TV Review: Goliath

Amazon has created a lot of shows for their Amazon Prime streaming and most of them suck.  Just steaming piles of horse excrement.  Of course not all their shows are shit.  I really like Bosch and I know transparent won a ton of rewards, but I have no real interest in watching that show.  I guess that makes me a transphobe since I don't want to watch a show about an old man who is transgender.  Oh well. I watched Man in the High Castle as well, but that didn't turn out to be any good. I really loved the premise of the show, and the pilot of Man in the High Castle was great, but then after the pilot episode the show went nowhere.

The reason why this show is decent is because you can't go wrong when you have such a great actor as Billy Bob Thornton as the main character.  He plays an alcoholic lawyer who takes a big case of unreasonable death from the victim's sister.  The company that is defendant is a defense contractor and the CEO of the company is creepier than dick cheney.  The defense company hires the law firm that Billy Bob character help found with his wife.  Apparently he got fired a long time ago and making the firm that screwed him over look bad is his main mission.  Maria Bello plays his ex-wife who works at the law firm who also happens to be having a lesbian affair with one of the lawyers at the law firm.  HOLY MOLY!

Overall if you are fan of shows like Law and Order you'll like this show. Or if you are a fan of Billy Bob Thornton, just think of this show as an 8 hour movie and you will not be disappointed.  That's another reason why I liked this show because the plot is good and you need to cover everything within eight 1 hour episodes.  Network shows would drag this thing out for 20 episodes and you would lose interest by episode 12. 

Grade: B

HBO Movie Review: Eddie the Eagle

Life can be a real pain in the ass most days.  Your kids don't appreciate you. Your wife constantly ponders why she married you. Your boss denied you a promotion... again, and your car won't start.  All in all life can be a kick in the pants and you feel glum.

Since life can be a kick in the pants I recommend watching Eddie the Eagle instead of Saw 8, or whatever number the Saw franchise is on now.  The reason I recommend this movie is the story line of always being the underdog and never taking NO! for an answer.  Eddie the Eagle Edwards in real life was one ugly motherfucker, (see below.  YIKES!) but he has a really good story.  This movie will motivate you to try harder at your goals.... well I think it will and if it doesn't well at least you will come out of the movie realizing how crazy of a sport ski jumping is.  The story is good, and the acting is solid. Hugh Jackman has a few dumb moments and I will never figure out why his character who is American, is working at a ski resort in Germany, but I never claimed this movie was going to get nominated for best picture.  Also Christopher Walken makes an appearance at the end of the flick. That alone should make you watch this movie.

Grade: B -

Netflix Review: Dana Carvey Straight White Male, 60

This is a new thing I wanted to do.  Write about all the stuff I watch on Netflix, HBO, cable, espn and maybe I may even get out of my house and go to an actual movie.  Living the life of a suburban father is not that exciting.  Which is really a good thing, because if I was living a life where I was never around that would be bad for my wife and kids.  Read this or don't. I dont care.  Well if we are being honest I do hope you read it, but if not thats fine as well.


The first thing I want to review is Dana Carvey's new comedy special on Netflix.  It. was. hilarious.
It is hard to beleive it has been 24 years since the first Waynes World came out.  I was 12 when that move came out and I think it should of won best picture in 1992.  Actually I still do beleive that.  Carvey has kind of been a ghost lately, but this special is a great comeback.  Dana Carvey is known for his unbelievable impresssions and he starts out his special with some great impressions.  He does Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders and Barack Obama.  All spot on.  His Obama impression was the best. His Sanders was good, but I think Larry David is still the king of the Sanders impression.

Other things Dana Carvey talks about in this special, is visiting Italy, havings teenage sons, his family (mostlly he talks about his father and his older brother who he based the character Garth from his SNL Waynes World skits) the difference between younger and older woman and we ends the special doing a bit where John Lennon calls Paul McCarthy from heaven and they have a hilarious chat about the last 35 years.  All in all, if you like comedy, you will not be disappointed.  I say this is a must watch.

Grade: A +