TV REVIEW: Dimension 404 Season 1 – All 6 Episodes Rated and Reviewed

Do you have Hulu? Enjoy anthology TV shows with a more technology focus like Black Mirror?

Narrated by Mark “Luke Skywalker” Hamill, this is Hulu anthology series is heavily inspired by The Twilight Zone, Outer Limits and more recently Black Mirror.

It was released in 2017 and hasn’t been renewed for a second season. I didn’t see anybody saying it was canceled either, which means maybe it will be back for another season(?).

The trailer:

The reviews that follow are all SPOILER-FREE, so if you want a little more detail about each episode, my rating and review, keep reading.

Episode 1 – “Matchmaker”
Air date: April 4, 2017
Run time: 40 minutes

Adam, a lonely blogger (hey!) meets a date though a popular dating app. He falls in love a little too quickly and finds out things aren’t all that they seem — with the dating app, with his date and with himself.

2019 was the year for movies involving artificial intelligence (AI) on phones, dating and love mixed with technology, which this episode digs deep into. Make-A-Match.com is the site that is referenced as the dating app. I looked that site up and it’s a missed opportunity by the showrunners to redirect to Dimension 404 page on Hulu (at the least).

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ 

Episode 2 – “Cinethrax”
Air date: April 4, 2017
Run time: ? minutes

Comedian Patton Oswalt plays Uncle Dusty taking his teenage niece Chloe (Sarah Hyland) to see a new 3D movie. He brings his own special glasses that turn 3D into 2D (huh? Why?). Guess he’s the ultimate geek old Uncle. Chloe’s friends meet her at the theater and she wants to sit with them instead of Dusty, so he takes the seat behind.

Things get weird when Dusty sees a black snake-like creature emerge from the screen, trying to reach him and suck his brain. He’s kicked out of the theater, only to realize Chloe is left in danger and wants to stay with her friends, unknowing the horror on screen that awaits.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Episode 3 – “Chronos”
Air date: April 4, 2017
Run time: 43 minutes

A physicist grows up watching a superhero cartoon and suddenly one day she wakes up and the superhero is gone. He’s left the world, pulling a Last Action Hero and come into her world.

My least favorite episode, it just drags.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️

Episode 4 – “Polybius”
Air date: April 11, 2017
Run time: 45 minutes

A new game appears in an arcade called Polybius and a young gamer wants to learn its secrets so he can write about and review it in a gaming magazine. Soon, he realizes the game is more sinister than it appears.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️½

Episode 5 – “Bob”
Air date: April 18, 2017
Run time: 42 minutes

A soldier psychologist is assigned by the NSA to counsel a supercomputer that is a gigantic brain with an eye and is named Bob. The computer is having a psychological malfunction causing it to be unable to track a criminal and the soldier is sent to counsel.

Something about a big sweaty brain is a bit comical. In a way this episode loosely reminds me of the classic Twilight Zone episode “From Agnes With Love” sans the romantic implications.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️½

Episode 6 – “Impulse”
Air date: April 25, 2017
Run time: 46 minutes

A special energy drink becomes inspiration for a First Person Shooter (FPS) gamer. It’s just the edge needed to get to that next level, slowing down time. The problem is the time and advantage gained is multiplied by the “snap” when the user comes back to reality and misses an amount of time based on how much was consumed.

The whole bounce back like a rubber band with time was used creatively. I liked how this ended. My favorite episode of the first (and only, seemingly) season.

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Summary

Can see why this wasn’t renewed for a second season. Am wondering if maybe they split it into two anthology movies it would have been better served. If you’re a diehard fan of anthologies, like me, then it’s worth watching, but wouldn’t put it too high on the watch list. Instead, check out Upload ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½ on Amazon or the aforementioned Black Mirror (see: TV REVIEW: Black Mirror Season 1 – All 3 Episodes Rated and Reviewed).

Overall Season One Review: ⭐️⭐️½ 

FIRST LOOK: Love, Death + Robots (TV Series) – Netflix

During our current times, we’re constantly reminded just how massive the amount of movie and TV series choices are out there. This title I’ve seen, but had no idea what the lineage and inspiration behind this Netflix Original TV series was until digging into research on a classic adult animated film I enjoyed almost 40 years ago.

If someone tells you there is “nothing to watch” they clearly haven’t spent much time looking. Right now there is a huge amount of original content being produced everywhere: streaming channels wanting originals so people will (stay) subscribed, movies, TV … it’s a great time for movie and TV fans.

After the successful Yellow Submarine watch-a-long on Saturday (see: Just Watched The Beatles Yellow Submarine with 71,000+ People), I was reminded of itching to rewatch and review the 1981 classic, Heavy Metal ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½, which served as inspiration for creator Tim Miller’s Love, Death + Robots.

Love, Death & Robots is a collection of animated short stories that span the science fiction, fantasy, horror and comedy genres. With a bold approach to each story?s narrative, episodes are intended to be easy to watch and hard to forget.

Love, Death & Robots – Rotten Tomatoes

The trailer:

Official trailer for Love, Death + Robots

Love the teaser, “short, sweet … lethal.” Looking over the run times, the 18 season one episodes are around 10 minutes or so each, which is definitely on the shorter side, but those can be ike little bites. Sharp, quick and nasty. I’m looking forward to checking this out. Know I’m very late to the party because this came out over a year ago in March 2019, and a second season has been greenlit. Reviews for the entire first season are scheduled.

Love, Death + Robots Season 1 (18 episodes) is available for streaming on Netflix.

Linda Hamilton Wrongly Thinks Movie Audience Today Are “so unpredictable”

Put me in the Linda Hamilton fan club.

Unfortunately, I must disagree with her assessment of today’s audience (emphasis mine below), but very much agree with her on big budget movies (emphasis also mine) being high risk:

“I would really appreciate maybe a smaller version where so many millions are not at stake. Today’s audience is just so unpredictable,” Hamilton tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I can’t tell you how many laymen just go, ‘Well, people don’t go to the movies anymore.’ It should definitely not be such a high-risk financial venture, but I would be quite happy to never return. So, no, I am not hopeful because I would really love to be done.”

Linda Hamilton “Would Be Quite Happy to Never Return” to ‘Terminator’ | Hollywood Reporter

So much to talk about in these bolded quotes, so let’s tackle them one at a time.

Today’s audience is just so (NOT!) unpredictable

Blaming the audience for the reason a movie doesn’t do well isn’t a very sound career move. Linda Hamilton is well past those concerns and I don’t think she meant in her comment to be blaming the audience, but it came off that way to me. It’s like standing at the door of your business and telling customers not to enter your store.

The film business isn’t rocket science.

If you make a great movie on a reasonable budget, you have a better than good chance of turning a profit at the box office. I would say financial unpredictability arises when the film budget is too high, see: $100+ Million Movie Budgets Are Stupid

The problem with Terminator: Dark Fate⭐️⭐️½ had nothing to do with audience unpredictability. The director, Tim Miller was submarining the film with misguided promotional efforts (see: How To Better Promote Your Next Films, Elizabeth Banks and Tim Miller), the story was ill-conceived and the most important thing: the movie was essentially unnecessary reboot that wasn’t as good as the original T1+T2 punch.

Why did audiences need Dark Fate? We didn’t, because we had the originals that were far superior. This is coming from a fan of the franchise, not somebody who wanted to see the film underperform. We provided more lead-up coverage for Dark Fate on this blog than any other movie to date. Just do a search for terminator and you’ll see how much I wanted to see this movie succeed.

And let’s be clear: making over $250 million at the box office is not a failure or a “bomb” or any of the other headline clickbait slams. Audience interest was there, but when your budget is too high, filmmakers, that isn’t on us, that’s on you.

Despite all this Terminator: Dark Fate Might Eventually Break Even.

People Don’t Go To Movies Anymore

Obviously, this doesn’t apply to me, nor many of the 1,200+ movie bloggers I’m following. But are people becoming apathetic to the theater experience? Yes, many are.

Movie theater audiences have been declining, unfortunately, but I think the numbers could flatten, especially with more promotion of unlimited passes and better movies released throughout the entire year and creative business moves, see: Yes, More Perks and Quirks to Entice Moviegoers Please.

People aren’t going to go watch a bunch of bad movies. Honestly, if we gauged January 2020 movies there is little incentive by and large to go see movies like these. January is a well known terrible month for studios to dump on audiences and this year clearly is no exception.

From a business perspective this is just stupid. What if McDonalds chose to sell food of a lesser quality in January, would that make sense? But for some reason, Hollywood studios think it’s OK to shovel lesser quality film on moviegoers every January. Dumb, dumb, dumb.

So what if a movie has a less chance of winning a gold statue. A wise friend of mine used to say, “you can’t eat plaques, pins and awards.” Alas, the movie business is letting down its customers 1/12th of the business season.

If you just fail to try and change business trends, you accept the dying process.

It should definitely not be such a high-risk financial venture

Let’s end on a more positive note. This is the one part of what Linda Hamilton said that makes the most sense. Movies don’t have to be high risk financially. I’d like to see a move back to more financially responsible, lower budget, CREATIVE films. Stop making so damn many reboots and sequels and rehashes. Focus on adapting great novels that never have been adapted and fresh, original, inventive screenplays.

I refuse to believe the problem is with the creative content available, it’s the choices being made by the studios to finance and produce movies they think we want. We don’t need another Spider-man movie, and I’m not saying that because I dislike Spider-Man, but give us movies about Harley Quinn, The Joker, etc. Those are less trodden paths.

Why does it take millions to make good movies in 2020? It shouldn’t. Syfy did pretty well with some crazy, creative movies like Sharkanado. Blumhouse has been banking it with some of their lower budget genre horror films based on older properties. So, there are some studios thinking out of the box. Need more to follow the lead of the smaller guys.

A lot depends on what Disney does, since they are commanding some 40-50% of the box office revenue. Will Disney continue making their massive blockbusters only or will they encourage their “smaller” studios (see: Disney purges “FOX” name – the FOX has left the 20th Century Mouse House) within the mega large company to make lower budget, creative films.