Film and TV

The Svengoolie film was an amusingly silly and generally well-paced film from 1960 (Dinosaurus!) about two dinosaurs and a caveman coming back to life. Toss in a cute kid, a stereotypically bad baddie, and some stock characters (the semi-love interest has the most flavor), and you have a fun drive-in type film. The caveman comes off as the most interesting character! (The actor also has the most credits.) 

An engineering team is doing some work on a Caribbean island and finds two dinosaurs in the ocean. A caveman pops up too and all are brought back to life with some lightening. Forget about the dinosaur. The whole thing works out fairly well special effects-wise.

The final battle seems a bit tacked on. Why does the T-Rex go to the outpost where they are planning to stage a last stand?  Do they lure it there in cut footage? The caveman dies saving others and the gentle dino is attacked by the T-Rex and sinks in some quicksand. 

Torrey DeVito is the lead in Write Before Christmas (ah a pun), a Hallmark Channel film that successfully (overall) tries something a bit different. She breaks up with her boyfriend and sends the five cards she planned to send to her to people she cares about. And, we see various subplots involving them too. 

Various familiar faces. The actress has been in a few t.v. shows including Chicago Med, which I checked out (the library didn't have the first two series, so I checked out the third). Didn't interest me.  

The Native American-related book recently referenced cited something a character on the television show Longmire said.  Longmire is a Western crime drama. 

I thought the first episode was well done. The acting and setting kept my interest. Nonetheless, yes I have a low threshold these days, a few things bothered me. It has various stereotypes that annoy me.  

For instance, you have a big city detective working for the sheriff's office and she is surprised by basic tactics about interviewing people without showing all your cards. He has a sense of honor that involves basic things that make him supposedly special. 

His daughter secretly dates (or has sex with) his deputy. Come on. He personally goes alone to dangerous places, setting himself to be shot in the very first episode. Tiresome. I know the drill. I liked The Closer though it has various limitations. 

It still annoys me. You cannot just have a simple murder mystery. Two shows in. Everything has to be fraught. I'm not in the mood for it.  Also, so much killing after a while gets a bit much. I will try to find a series to delve into elsewhere.  

I guess I'll just take it as a one-off though the female deputy and maybe his daughter have some potential.