RIFLE RANGE BOY

Penguin Miniseries (8 episodes) Even though it was supposed to be shot in Gotham City, we do not see a single shot of Batman or any resemblance to his existence in this miniseries. After all, it is a spin-off from Batman 2022 . It tells how Penguin turns to become a wealthy mobster that he is. It also serves as a cooling period before the first sequel to the trilogy comes out in 2027. This miniseries helps to maintain the DC Comic fans' interests before the dark-caped one makes his presence again.  The series explores Penguin, aka Oswald Cobb, 's rise to power. Often ridiculed for his physical handicap, Mama's boy decides to fight his tormentors through his devious, twisted mind and planned outbursts. From a disfigured run-around nobody, he becomes a feared gangster. Along the way, he picks up a faithful, quick-thinking sidekick. His nemesis is a lady from a gangster family who Oz killed and pocketed his new designer drug. At the end of the day, when one is well-heeled, no...

Money Monster (2016) Director: Jody Foster That it is. There is no shortcut to making that first million. First, one must realise that one's journey to the land of gold and honey may meet impassable obstacles and not reach the intended destination. Or, he may be skewed away from the path and end up in a ditch. Or, he may be swallowed by a beast (or troll under the bridge, if you still believe in fairy tales!) Wealth is finite. It is a zero-sum game. For one to make a million, somebody else must lose a million. The way advertisers do their thing, prospectors buy the idea that no one is a loser. They entice you into the gravy train, which never runs short of curry! With the advent of complex algorithms, the unholy union of data scientists and conniving dupe masters never had it better. Speaking in incomprehensible jargon that they do not understand, they create a smokescreen that can cleverly hide their true malfeasances. Their spick appearances and polished social etiquettes belie t...

Fool Me Once (Miniseries, S01 E01-08; 2023) The thing that piqued my interest is the apparent class difference that happens in the UK. It is common knowledge that European societies were separated based on their professions. Pretty soon, the professions were imprinted on their surnames. Weavers became Webbers and Webster, clerks to Clarke, shoemakers to Schumachers, scholars to Scully, tillers to Tyler, and the various Smiths and Taylors. Specific surnames denoted aristocracy and privileged them to move around the royal family and stand a chance to pick a bone strewn by the monarch. Hanging around with the right crowd ensured prosperity and opportunities to venture out to exotic lands and further fatten the family coffers. Talking about making an overseas trip and coming back rich, besides the Pirates of the Caribbean, we have, from the East, Robert Clive. Robert Clive owes much of his existence to India, and he had appropriated the word India into his name. Clive of India had amassed ...

Dead to Me (S1-S3, E1-10; 2019-22) TV Series The fallen will often be pacified with the conviction that truth will eventually prevail. If someone is accused of something he did not do, he will find solace in telling himself that the truth will set him free. Everybody thinks the Universe will take its own sweet time, but justice will meted out in the end.  Everyone is told to look at the bigger picture and concentrate on winning the war, not merely the tiny battles.  At least, this is what the lawyer will advise his client. The truth will not come out breaking through the walls with a flying cape to save the day. It has to be fought with tooth and nail. Court cases are won by shrewd legalese minds with all the money they can continue paying. The promise of justice at the higher courts is shrouded by the need for more retention fees. Therefore, I have come to think I will follow the wise words of the not-so-wise Malaysian parliamentarian who went Hansard saying, "It is not wrong...

Fauda (Chaos, Hebrew/Arab; 2015-2019) (Miniseries S1-3) Is it not ironic that the Western nations want to police the whole world but failed miserably at finding peace at the heart of the Judeo-Christian stronghold. It seems that the brothers of the Book perform poorly when it comes to showing brotherly love. Also funny that a place that four great religions of the world look up to as their holy land cannot be protected by their Protector. A land hardly larger than 30,000 square kilometres, but this piece of land had not seen peace since time immemorial.  The feud has lasted so long that nobody can remember who drew first blood. Both parties, the Palestinians and the Israelis, claim legitimate historical rights on that piece of land. Looks like all that talk of the religion of peace, the religion of love and the religion of compassion is mere rhetoric. The reference to 'brotherhood' is only offered to the brethren of the same faith, not of the whole of mankind. I am sure God mus...

Severance (Miniseries, S1, E1-9, 2022) Director: Ben Stiller, Aoife McArdle Apple TV First, we were told that our vocation determines us; staying true to fulfilling the goals of our job is equivalent to being close to Divinity. But just see what it let us to - a social classification system that essentially pigeon-holes one's future by birth. Karl Marx then asserted that life is more than mere monetising one's labour. Man has to find balance in maximising time spent on Earth by indulging in things that excite him, maybe hunting, art, music, etcetera. And that led to Lenin extrapolating it to stir the working class to rise against their enslavers. Now we are told that we should find a life-work balance. We should not bring home the stresses of our workplace home and vice-versa. We cannot let our personal dilemmas affect our work performances as well. So what better way to severe these two intertwinings?  This is the premise of this miniseries. Workers of an unspecified company d...

The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021) Director: Michael Showalter It is not only Islam that provokes the name of God to legitimise each and every one of their actions. In the late 70s, when the US economy was in the doldrums, and a plethora of social issues hogged the headlines, Ronald Reagon, despite his not so-Christian background, being a divorcee and his pro-abortion stance as Governor of California, decided to woo the Christian Conservatives and the Evangelists to his side. This practice, having proved successful, continued through the campaign of a born-again candidate, GW Bush. And we know how that divided the world with a wide fissure - you are either with us or against us! (or should it US?) In the zest to cow people into submission, to coax the herd in the intended direction, money was infused indiscriminately into megalomaniac projects that never materialised. A point to note in the Malaysian context. Over the past decade, many shady foundations were created with the zeal to imbibe ...

The 10th Victim (La Decima Vittima, Italian; 1965) Director: Elio Petri Riding high on her fame as Honey Ryder, 1962 Dr No's Bond Girl, as the Ultimate Bikini Goddess, Ursula Andress continued making movies banking on her sex symbol status. She also appeared in the 1967 Bond spoof 'Casino Royale' as Vesper Lynd, whose grave we saw in 'No Time to Die'. In between, this Swiss vixen also found time to act in this B-grade Italian movie.  'The 10th Victim' is a futuristic movie set in the 21st century, where the world enjoys peace as society has managed to put a stop to wars. Man's predilection for violence is curbed by having society-sanctioned killing. Each person has the opportunity to kill ten people in a computer-drawn programme named 'The Big Hunt'. In five of the hunts, the selected play hunter and the other five, he plays the hunted. The hunter is given all information about his target but not the hunted. The hunted is clueless about who the a...

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season 8, final season) After a long hiatus, Brooklyn Nine-Nine returned with its last season. A lot of things happened after the previous season. George Floyd's mishandling, Black Live Matters movement and calls to defund the police did not put the police in the best of light. Despite the public sensitivities and the problems of filming under pandemic situations, the team managed to churn out an entire ten-episode season. The producers decided to keep it neutral by avoiding too much police work and limiting the storyline more to the precinct's pranks. Fonzie on water skis, in a scene from the 1977 Happy Days episode "Hollywood, Part 3", after jumping over a shark Maybe it is just me; I feel that actors have all grown lethargic playing their roles. The initial glow and enthusiasm seem to have been lost. Perhaps the producers saw that too. Rather than creating a 'jumping the shark' moment or even 'nuke the fridge' scene, they wisely ...