Avenue 5

Avenue 5 is a luxury space liner run by the Judd Corporation.  Herman Judd (Josh Gad) is aboard the ship, trying to make the voyage a success.  However, he is a socially awkward mogul who is more likely to get the opposite results.  Captain Ryan Clark (Hugh Laurie) exudes confidence and reliability.  He is famous for saving lives on the Avenue 3.  Of course, he disclaims any credit, stating that it was the fire suppression system that did all the work.  Right as the ship is approaching Saturn's moon of Titan, where they will get a gravity assist to send them back toward Earth, the ship's gravity resets.  This cascades into a series of disasters that cause the Avenue 5 to miss its window for rerouting the ship.  Suddenly, the three week cruise becomes a 3 year cruise!  The passengers are not happy.

Following the disaster, the actual working of the ship is revealed.  The high-tech bridge with its attractive and smartly-dressed crew are just a facade.  They are actors who deliver specific lines from a script.  Likewise, Captain Clark is just an actor.  The real captain was killed in the disaster and the real crew lives below decks in quarters that look like a World War II submarine.  Despite the luxury appearance, it turns out that the ship was cheaply made.

The show is a dark comedy, but the laughs are few and far between.  It has a distopian feel to it.  Among the regulars are Iris Kimura (Suzy Nakamura), Mr. Judd's executive assistant and yes-woman, Matt Spencer (Zach Woods) the ship's activity director and counselor who offers mostly unhelpful and sad advice, Karen Kelly (Rebecca Front), a particularly vocal and nosy passenger who horns her way into authority, Billy McEvoy (Lenora Crichlow), the lead engineer who emerges from below decks and is one of the few competent people aboard, and Spike Martin (Ehtan Phillips), a retired astronaut who is always eager to join whenever he sees an opportunity.

Much of the 'comedy' comes from characters doing obviously stupid things.  Why wasn't someone who knew better in charge of jettisoning weight from the ship rather than a bunch of busy body passengers?  That comic at the comedy club is dreadfully unfunny was not funny.  It was mildly amusing, maybe causing a brief smile but that he went on and on in an unfunny set that later required him to be unfunny was like milking a stone for laughs.  Ugh.  The characters are stupid enough for this to be pure slapstick silliness.  Then again, Herman Judd is quite stupid for a successful businessman.

Mediocre.  It has a second season.  Maybe it improves.

Tomorrowland (2015)

The movie opens with a dark monologue from Frank Walker (George Clooney), who paints a picture of inevitable doom.  However, his introduction is repeatedly interrupted by a woman off screen who thinks he is being excessively gloomy and also isn't starting at the beginning.  He starts again.

In 1964, young Frank Walker (Thomas Robinson) arrives in New York to attend the World's Fair and show off his invention, a jetpack!  Doctor David Nix (Hugh Laurie) is unimpressed as the jetpack does not work and, if it did, would have little benefit.  Nix sends Walker on his way.  Frank has hardly walked away when a young girl, Athena (Raffey Cassidy), announces that she likes Frank.  She chases after Frank, gives him a pin, and tells him to follow her.  He gets on a ride and, because he is wearing the pin, it takes him down a different tunnel that leads to Tomorrowland.  Tomorrowland is an invitation-only alternate dimension where the smart people have created a high-tech utopia.  Frank has hardly arrived than a giant robot makes his jetpack work and he flies through and about the futuristic buildings and structures.

Fast forward to today (i.e., the near future) and Cassie Newton (Britt Robertson).  Casie - who was the off screen voice in the opening - has been sabotaging efforts to dismantle the NASA launch site at Cape Canaveral.  She has dreams of being an astronaut, but the US is shutting down its ability to go to space.  The sabotage has not gone unnoticed and her next effort is foiled when she is arrested.  After being bailed out of jail, she finds that a pin is among her belongings.  However, when she touches it, she is instantly transported to a wheatfield on the outskirts of Tomorrowland!  Or is she?  As she walks, she bumps into the wall.  Athena, who has not aged a day since 1964, provided the pin to lure Casie into her grand plan.  From this point on, Casie finds herself hunted by robots from Tomorrowland and must somehow get to Tomorrowland to save the world.

The movie has a message that mankind is ruining the Earth.  Casie is the only person in the world who has both the innate technical know-how and upbeat optimism to prevent Armageddon.  However, as it works out, her real contribution was to jar Frank Walker from his apathy and get him to save the world.  Really, Casie is mostly along for the ride, a catalyst to get the story rolling and a 'normal' person to provide the audience with a window into this bizarre high-tech universe.

Mostly disappointing.  It has some good moments, but it provides mostly uninteresting characters in an unlikely setting.  Also, for a Disney film, it was off-putting how the robots would just disintegrate random people.  Yeah, murder robots aren't cool and shouldn't be played for laughs.

Skip.

Jeeves and Wooster

Bertram "Bertie" Wooster (Hugh Laurie) stands perplexed and speechless in a courtroom as the judge condemns his recent antics: he stole a policeman's helmet.  He pays his fine and returns to his untidy apartment where, still dressed, he collapses into his bed.  Seemingly only moments later, the doorbell rings.  All efforts to ignore it fail and he finally answers to find Jeeves (Stephen Fry) standing there.  "I've been sent by the agency."  Still speechless, Bertie stands mute as Jeeves glides through the apartment, leaving tidiness in his wake.  Jeeves mixes his own personal concoction that, when Bertie drinks it, brings back his capacity to speak!  "I say!  You're engaged!"  And so begins a most entertaining series based on the stories of PG Wodehouse.

Bertie Wooster is a member of the idle rich in late 20s to early 30s England.  He belongs to the Drones Club where many of his old school chums wile away their time with drinking and silly games.  Each of them have peculiar names: Tuppy Glossop, Gussie Fink Nottle, Barmy Fotheringay Phipps, Bingo Little, and the like.  Bertie's most pressing problem is usually avoiding marriage to any number of women that his Aunt Agatha or Aunt Dahlia send his way.  His clever ploys to avoid these engagements invariably fail miserably - and humorously - which requires Jeeves to save the day.  Certain themes are repeated, eventually to the point of failing to be funny anymore by the 4th series.  Notably, Bertie is the 2nd choice for groom to several women and thus he finds that he must mend broken engagements to avoid his own undesired engagement.  As a price to mend relationships, Bertie is often blackmailed into committing theft: a painting, a book, a statue, a string of pearls, and such.  Again and again, Jeeves arrives to save the day when such thefts go wrong.

Where Bertie is a lovable bumpkin, a happy-go-lucky and amiable playboy, Jeeves is a walking encyclopedia who seems to know countless random facts on any given subject.  Also, through his connections among the valet community, he knows a great deal about the upper-class families with whom Bertie interacts.  Bertie has an avant garde view toward fashion, which frequently irks the more staid Jeeves.  In these cases, Jeeves often suggests that Wooster expunge such items from the wardrobe in exchange for help in the current crisis.

All in all, a great series and worth watching.  Great popcorn fun.  Highly recommended.