Movie review: Nikki Glaser Bangin'

 

 Without sparing a single detail, Nikki Glaser examines her sex life, sobriety, and her own insecurities in this stand-up special.

Nikki is absolutely hysterical and apparently afraid of no topic. Nor does she fear discussing her own peculiarities and insecurities in detail. Did I mention; in detail? Nikki loves to dig into the soft brown spots of just about any topic. Sometimes she is spot on or from an obvious perspective, other times facts get a bit twisted or her approach is unusual.

Stand-up stage work, camera work, lighting, sound, and the rest are standard stand-up.

As for acting, Nikki may not be your flavor of comedy but her timing and expressions are very good and add a lot to her routine.

Overall Nikki is an entertaining, and raunchy. If you can stand the topics and the details, you will likely enjoy this one and her humor. If instead you are offended by her first topic, delivered in the first 30 seconds, find something else to watch because the ride just gets more bumpy.

With plenty of sexual references and gestures, foul language, and adult topics, save this one for the oldest teens and above.

Released: 2019
Reviewed: 10.30.19
Star rating: 4 out of 5
Genre: Comedy, Stand-up Comedy

copyright ©2019 Dave Riedel

Movie review: Hyperdrive

 

 Specialized racers from around the world, using their own cars, compete on one of the largest automotive obstacle courses ever created.

Stacey-Lee May, Michael Bisping, Mike Hill, Lindsay Czarniak, Rutledge Wood, Tyrei Tokyo Woodbury.

Hyperdrive pits elite racers from around the world against one another on one of the largest, most convoluted, racing tracks ever built. From balancing scales to lakes, these drives must do it all. Adding more interest to the competition is the variety of drivers in the competition with drifters competing against rally drivers and that they are all using their own cars. The result feels less like competition against other drivers and more like strategy against the track itself.

Billed as Reality TV, there should be minimal acting. Instead it was obvious the drivers were being coached and encouraged to ham it up and be larger than life. Thankfully those moments were brief and quickly obscured by tire smoke.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds were all nicely done. There were plenty of cameras both on the track, and in the cars. Perspective switching fit well with the racing. Use of split screens was nice as well, allowing us to see both the driver actions alongside car movement. Narration was fairly ridiculous and could almost have been left on the cutting room floor. Driver comments and interviews however were decent.

Overall Hyperdrive is less about the cars and drivers than it is excessive, brightly overloaded excitement. Lots of bright lights, ridiculous tracks, and lame attempts at drama leave this in the TV series junk-food pile.

Nothing much here to limit audience age.

Released: 2019
Reviewed: 10.19.19
Star rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Reality TV, Competition Reality TV, Auto Racing

copyright ©2019 Dave Riedel

Movie review: MegaTruckers

 

 Familiar with trucks from a young age, Jon Kelly has built a unique family business hauling the largest, most cumbersome loads through the Australian wilderness. MegaTruckers follows Jon and his crew as they tackle some of the largest, most difficult loads ever seen using a stable of gleaming trucks.

Hauling large loads through less than hospitable environments is often a feat of engineering itself. Combining big rigs and large loads only makes the story better. On that front, MegaTruckers does a pretty good job with a fair amount of detail regarding the freight and how it is handled. At the same time, being  a Reality TV series, MegaTruckers has a bit of drama and dives into the personal lives of the drivers and Jon. Thankfully the drama is kept to a reasonable level leaving most of the focus on the trucks.

Acting, such as it is in a Reality TV series, was decent. Jon seemed to be the only one, or one of two maybe, that seemed to be playing to the camera at times and appeared to overact intentionally.

Camera work and narration is good. Interjection of graphics to provide detail fits pretty well in the series. Dialogue appears mostly unscripted and realistic. Sound is handled well.

If you like trucks as I do, you should enjoy this one with the heavy loads and impressive stable of trucks Jon uses in the business. Those looking for more drama than driving may be disappointed with this one.

Nothing here to limit audience age.

Released: 2012
Reviewed: 10.19.19
Star rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Reality TV, Australian Reality TV, Reality TV Series

copyright ©2019 Dave Riedel

Movie review: Replicas

 

 When his family is killed in a car accident, scientist Will Foster dedicates himself to bringing them back to life without anyone ever knowing. But when he can only bring back three of the four, his plans begin to unravel.

Keanu Reeves (William), Alice Eve (Mona), Thomas Middleditch (Ed), John Ortiz (Jones), Emjay Anthony (Matt), Emily Lind (Sophie), Aria Leabu (Zoe), Nyasha Hatendi (Scott), Amber Rivera (Margaret).

Replicas begins by introducing us to Will's work and family. Setting in place, the main story rolls out with a horrific car accident that leaves his wife and three children dead. Grief stricken, Will realizes he can migrate his work with robots to humans and bring his family back to life, but only three of them. From there the story spirals into a muck of ethical and moral questions punctuated by bits of drama and action, finishing with a nice Happy Ever After ending.

Acting was pretty good with Reeves delivering a fairly emotion performance. Eve did nicely, as did Middleditch, and both added depth to the film. Ortiz was well cast in his role and delivered well, as did Anthony, Lind, and Leabu. The remainder of the supporting cast was solid.

Camera work, sets, and backgrounds are mild suburban fodder that fit the film well. CGI and effects were nicely done with a solid, realistic feel throughout. Dialogue was good and brought nice depth to the story. Sound and soundtrack are enjoyable.

Replicas is a sci-fi thriller that has a lot going on. Sure, the story has plenty of holes and even some consistency errors, but the ethical and moral questions raised overcome those easily. Fans of futuristic sci-fi or thrillers should enjoy this one.

With some nudity, sexuality, violence, gore, foul language, and potentially disturbing images like needles in eyeballs, this should actually be fine for teens and above.

Released: 2019
Reviewed: 10.9.19
Star rating: 3 out of 5
Genre: Sci-Fi, Thriller, Drama, Sci-Fi Thriller, Sci-Fi & Fantasy

copyright ©2019 Dave Riedel