NokotaMustang

I absolutely fell in love with this movie from the first intro scene with the synthy tones and footage similar to the first film, through to the story development and action, and the high stakes heist style mission and conclusion.

The entire movie is a well thought out and very well delivered action movie with some character development for Maverick and some heartwarming stuff as well as he overcomes some unfinished business lingering from the original movie.

There are some nods and throwbacks to the classic movie, and I admired them all. The romance segments were kept short and neat this time around, giving some growth and redemption for our hero without dulling the sharp storytelling.

After watching I was smiling from ear to ear. Another shout out to the action here, as it is nothing short of spectacular. There is nothing like it, with the air to air combat being of a level not filmed before in my opinion.

9/10 loved the characters, loved the production, loved the action, loved the heist style story, and loved seeing Maverick on his last mission for the navy.

They took the interesting idea from the 1995 movie, and made it better.

The characters are first and foremost the main reason why this is enjoyable and why the film works as a jungle adventure. The four teens are taken out of their world and dropped into the Jungle as recreated in the form of a video game simulation. The Jumanji game box updated itself, presumably with the same magic that allows it to create a world of its own.

The actors did a lot here to play as the 'game' characters as if played by the younger cast. The nesting of characters inside characters was very clever and allows some real exploration of the young characters and the predicaments of being stuck in the game.

The visuals are excellent, the action is paced out well and the plot is unravelled as a simple action adventure, but with the character work between everything it is very entertaining. Also very funny, a lot of the material is delivered excellently and this had a lot of very funny moments.

I can't speak to the older film, it was one I watched as a kid. Anyway, this is a clever rework of the material and I think they did an excellent job. Something that a lot of modern movies lack is 'soul', but I have to say this film has it in spades. The ending was moving.

8/10 excellent escapism in the style of classic adventure such as 'Indiana Jones' but set with some interesting concepts and twists with modern technology.

I love this show, I watched it several times through and through and you get a lot of value because of the high episode count per season as well as the mind boggling 15 seasons run.

This show has a lot of style and makes a case for itself by focusing on horror, as well as the interwoven character play form the main ensemble who get more and more wrapped up into a bigger story each season that follows.

There are a few issues, such as the pretty poor seasons 6 and seasons 12, which I am struggling to enjoy. However even in those seasons which I don't admire so much, there is progression in the characters, there are loads of fond 'monster of the week' style episodes (more on that later), and there is a plot that continues from the season before it, to the season afterwards.

The original book series had enough material for the first 5 seasons of this show. That's how it was planned out and made. Because of high demand, they continued the show. Purely for love of the cast, love of the themes in the series, and love of the audience. That is great, because for me this show is very entertaining with a mixture of witty humour, clever dialogue. Interesting monsters, and a demonic / Lucifer fallen angel plotline running throughout the entire thing.

The high episode count per season means there are a lot of monster episodes, which are more closed off to the main plot of each season, but are written well enough to lampshade as to why and seamlessly fit alongside the other episodes. These are not filler, but more a breathing room to let the story simmer while we get more horror/ghost stories/supernatural lore and backstory. This is one of those that has done this very well, barring maybe 3 episodes that the viewers hated and rated very low. Aside from those, the entire run has an impressive following and is well received (I'll get to the final episode in a minute). There isn't a single other show that has an impressive episode count with such high quality cinematography, settings, choreography, that this show has.

The acting is consistently very good in this show, only a few times I might have had a second thought; but particularly all the difficult work was handled expertly and they did a very good job convincing me to suspend my disbelief with all the supernatural elements in the show. My favourite characters being Dean, Bobby, Castiel, Charlie, Garth, The Trickster (Gabriel), Lucifer, and Jack, and Jo (from the early seasons). And even beyond that a large number of supporting characters were excellent and original and enjoyable as well. So many stories, and plots in 15 seasons, that I just want to watch the whole thing all over again.

The tonal shift after season 5 was a tad odd, but the show runner and writers need to create new material out of nothing. The new stuff they added over the seasons 6 to 10 were brilliant and staggering in scale. They did well there. Season 7 is one of my guilty pleasures, though maybe a little different to the rest of the run. Seasons 11 to 15 go even more nuts with the grand plot, and wrap in some complex character work with the 'Chuck' character. Seasons 11 to 12 try a little too hard to make the show a bit more action style, and I'm glad they dialled this back. In my opinion the final 3 seasons, of 13, 14, and 15, are excellent and some of the best in the entire run. The development of the Jack character is one of the best I have ever seen in a show and takes 3 seasons to bloom. The final season wraps up all the new plot lines and ends very well, with the penultimate episode.

The final episode is written more as a goodbye to the fans, and is a little disconnected from the rest, but the final farewell was touching and emotional. I was unsure about this at first, but really this was the only way the show was going to end, but I wish they upped the quality of the vampire hunt in the last episode, it came across as a bit limp and throw-away.

10/10 because of how enjoyable it is, how self aware and humble it is. A few poorer written episodes here and there (usually hand held camera style), and the removal of Crowley from the show in season 12 was a big fail idea (Mark Shepard stated he would have loved to continue the run). So it loses a few marks here and there, might be almost a 9/10, but otherwise this show is my guilty pleasure and I love the entire cast and the production team who made this, and made it good enough for so many years.