Welcome To DirkFlix!

UPDATED 4/1/2025: Completely revised the When To See scale to reflect the extinction of rental stores and 2nd run dollar show theaters in today's streaming world. The original version of this can be visited here.
-----------------
Oh, fercryingoutloud! ANOTHER movie review blog?!? Another guy who thinks his opinion matters and wishes to inflict it on the overloaded Information Superhighway? (What ever happened to that buzzword? Haven't heard it in ages.) Why should we care?

A: Yes, yes, and why not?

The purpose of this blog when started after seeing Avatar in 2009 was to allow me to get back into the habit of reviewing movies and DVDs like I used to between 2004-2008 for IGN and The Digital Bits before life stuff and editorial differences ended those associations.

 Initially intended to not be 1000-2000 word chin-stroking epics, but mostly a few paragraphs about what I've been watching and whether they might be of interest to you, I unfortunately got slack about actually writing anything. While I logged and scored everything I've seen, I didn't write reviews in a timely manner and after a while and a dozen intervening movies, I couldn't remember enough specifics to properly review them, so they remained unpublished.

Since fixing hundreds of unwritten reviews is impossible, I've dedicated myself to knuckling down this year (2025), and as of this revised update only a few reviews need to be finished off out of over 40 this year. I may also go back and start publishing older reviews, even if they're just scores; perhaps adding a sentence or two. Use the hashtag options and search box to see if I saw something in particular.

With movies even more outrageously expensive and even an all-you-can eat service like Netflix and Amazon Prime can still cost you time (which is worth more than money because you can't make more of it), I give movies a numerical score (wow! original!) and how urgently it is for you to see it. Since the Hot Fad Plague of 2020-2022 completely upended going to the movies and everyone and their dog started subscription streaming services (as well as good old cable for Boomers), I have radically revised the When To See scale from six to basically three points:

 1. Pay full/matinee price to see it at a theater. Pretty self-explanatory. The rare times I now go see a movie theatrically, I'll rate whether it's worth going to the show and how much you should pay.

2. Catch it on cable/streaming. This is the most common recommendation now because I see the overwhelming majority of movies at home, but also not every movie needs the theatrical experience. Whether you choose to wait for it to come to your streamer/cable channel of choice, rent or buy it digitally, or hoist the black flag to obtain it, is up to your budget and/or morals. Movies with this ranking are worth your time.

3. Skip it. Even for free, life's too short to waste on bad movies.

For Blu-ray/DVD reviews, I'll recommend whether they're worth buying since there's no rental options anymore now that Redbox has joined Blockbuster, Hollywood Video, Family Video in oblivion. The quantity and quality of extras or the audio-visual quality factor heavily here.

As always, these reviews are just one lifelong movie fans opinions, except that unlike other critics & fans, mine is the only opinion that matters and all reviews are 100% correct in their judgements. If you disagree, that's fine, but understand that you are incorrect in your opinion. ;-)

 Enough of my yakking, let's review some movies!

"War Machine" 4K Review

 Time for this week's disposable Netflix Original movie, War Machine, starring Alan Ritchson (Amazon Prime's Reacher) as an Army Staff Sergeant whose brother (Jai Courtney) was killed in an ambush in Afghanistan where the unnamed soldier was the lone survivor. To honor his brother's desire that they try to become Rangers, he arrives at RASP (Ranger Assessment and Selection Program) two years later and is assigned the number 81 as his identity.

For 8 weeks, 81 and his fellow numbered candidates perform grueling training with members washed out weekly. Despite his veteran status, he refuses to bond with his fellow candidates or take the lead as pressured by his superior officers (Dennis Quaid and Esai Morales). When he makes it through to the final test phase, they want him to drop out to cope with his PTSD over his brother's death, but he refuses. Reluctantly, they allow him to do the Death March final test and put him in command.

The Death March mission is to locate and destroy a simulated shot down plane, rescue the pilot from a "prison camp", and get to the finish line at the base. The team of about a dozen soldiers is dropped off and while 81 fails to inspire them much, he is supported by 7 (Stephan James in what borders on a Magical Negro role). The first night the squad is startled by a fireball in the sky. The next day they locate what they believe to be the downed plane, but when they attempt to demolish it, it is unscathed. Then it begins to rise up, revealing itself to be an alien mech which scans the platoon then proceeds to blow the bejeebers out of them.

Half the numbers buy it and the rest are forced to run for their lives, sustaining grievous injuries which slow them down carrying the wounded through the mountainous terrain. 81 suffers flashbacks to his ill-fated attempt to save his brother and the survivors continue to doubt him. Unarmed (they only have blank-firing weapons) and pursued by a giant murder walker, who will survive? Duh.

Co-writer and director Patrick Hughes (The Expendables 3, The Hitman's Bodyguard) does a solid job staging the grisly action set pieces, but the characters are all stock tropes and the ending is not only not in doubt, but handled ridiculously in Temu Michael Bay fashion. (We're supposed to believe 81, carrying a wounded soldier on his back, heading for the all-important finish line, is surrounded by soldiers rushing around dealing with things but not one person intervenes to aid the wounded.) They also seem to be setting up a sequel because why not.

The 4K Dolby Vision presentation has some good highlights during nighttime action scenes, but it's a far cry from the eye-searing visuals the format can deliver as in Apple TV's 2nd season of Hijack which recently concluded.

An adequate concept adequately executed is War Machine's box score and is another watch-once-and-forget-it that Netflix churns out.

Score: 5/10. Catch it on Netflix.