Review by Sean Boelman
Many modern-day Westerns tend to be bleak and dour, so seeing one that just wants to be fun to watch is refreshing. The latest film from writer/director/star Mario Van Peebles, Outlaw Posse, is a revisionist Western that adheres to most of the conventions of the genre but is consistently entertaining nonetheless.
Outlaw Posse follows a notorious outlaw who returns from hiding to find a hidden cache of gold, only for a dangerous man from his past to be on his tail, kicking off an explosive adventure. Although it doesn’t reinvent the wheel, Mario Van Peebles has made an enjoyable throwback with enough action and quippy one-liners to keep you smiling through its sometimes quotidian story. The most interesting thing about Van Peebles’s latest film is what he does with it thematically. The Western is not a genre known for being particularly progressive — especially regarding race — but Van Peebles takes these cliches and uses them to reclaim the genre. It’s not exactly subtle, but there is some sharp dialogue where Van Peebles’s character satisfyingly lays it onto the racist white guy. Outlaw Posse is a little scrappy and rough around the edges when it comes to the visuals; it doesn't have the same level of polish that some of the studio-backed Westerns have today. But there’s so much passion and love for the genre in every frame that it’s easy to forgive some of its flaws.
The throwback nature of the film also reveals itself in its characters, who are all on the archetypal side. These arcs are all familiar: the straight-laced son of an outlaw who learns his estranged father may not be who he thought he was, the villain who’s seeking revenge against the antihero for a wrong committed against him long ago, and, of course, the band of misfits that makes up the posse.
Still, everyone in the cast seems to be having a blast, lending the film an infectiously fun vibe. William Mapother is the biggest standout, chewing the scenery as any good Western villain should. Even the A-listers, who one would typically expect to be phoning it in for a smaller production like this, give it their all for their few scenes — Whoopi Goldberg, Cam Gigandet, Cedric the Entertainer, and Edward James Olmos among them. There’s also something incredibly lovable about how much of a full-circle moment this film represents for Van Peebles. Though he’s since become prolific himself, Van Peebles got his start working with his father, Melvin Van Peebles. To see Mario sharing the screen with his son, Mandela, is a fun little moment for cinephiles. It also lends itself to the film nicely because they have a natural rapport. Outlaw Posse doesn’t have the most polish or originality, but it’s consistently entertaining nonetheless. A game cast and Mario Van Peebles’s obvious love for the Western genre allow this to overcome its familiar beats to deliver a memorable entry into the genre. Outlaw Posse hits theaters on March 1. Rating: 3/5
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Review by Sean Boelman
Jennifer Lopez isn’t exactly known for being humble. While her latest album might make you doubt your presumptions about the artist, the documentary The Greatest Love Story Never Told reinforces every one of them. If you’ve seen the album film This Is Me… Now: A Love Story, there’s very little value to be derived from seeing the documentary. If you haven’t seen it, there’s even less.
This documentary follows musician Jennifer Lopez as she independently produces a new album and film (This Is Me… Now), which becomes her most personal project yet. This documentary is being billed as the “third piece” of Lopez’s passion project, but instead, it feels like an attempt to milk every bit of money she possibly can out of it. If you’re a big fan of Lopez’s newest album and its companion film, The Greatest Love Story Never Told has all the information you could want to know about it. This documentary shows everything, from the ideation of the album through casting, choreography, production, and distribution. It shows maybe too much, in fact. The most entertaining part of the documentary isn’t actually meant to be entertaining — and it’s Ben Affleck’s participation. Affleck clearly does not want to be part of this; he even says so himself. He looks about as happy to be on camera as he does in the meme of him smoking, but he loves his new(-ish) wife, right? So he has to do it to support her… right?
This is perhaps the most damning thing about The Greatest Love Story Never Told. The album film This Is Me… Now: A Love Story was incredibly vulnerable. It did a surprisingly good job of humanizing the diva. In this documentary, she comes across as callous. Lopez desperately wants to paint herself as an auteur. Every choice she makes is brilliant and right, regardless of who it may hurt. Whether it’s revealing private love letters against Affleck’s wishes or pressuring someone to be in her film despite scheduling conflicts, her divalike behavior has never been more apparent.
Worse yet, the documentary isn’t even particularly well-made. The presentation is incredibly straightforward, consisting of a blend of fly-on-the-wall behind-the-scenes footage and talking head interviews. Most frustrating, though, is the fact that there are several needle drops of popular music that isn’t from Lopez’s new album — including an egregiously obvious use of “Under Pressure.” At a certain point, one will begin to wonder why they are watching an 85-minute documentary about the making of a mid-length album film that’s only around 50 minutes long. Furthermore, what more is there to learn about Lopez from this that she didn’t already convey in her “tell-all” of an artistic project? Somehow, The Greatest Love Story Never Told has the exact opposite effect of what it intended to do — you will walk away feeling less appreciation for This Is Me… Now. It’s a shame because (like it or not) Lopez’s latest project is undeniably ambitious and creative. We don’t need this bland ego trip to tell us that. The Greatest Love Story Never Told streams on Prime Video beginning February 27. Rating: 1.5/5
Review by Sean Boelman
Despite only lasting three years, the cult classic Nickelodeon animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender has a lasting legacy, including being one of the most popular shows of all time on the streaming service Netflix despite not being an original title to the streamer. Although there are certainly some strong elements to Netflix’s new live-action adaptation, it doesn’t focus enough on the things that make it unique for it to stand out in a crowded genre.
As with its source material, the series is set in a world where different tribes control the elements, and a young boy arises as the “Avatar” — the savior of humanity who can bend all four elements and is destined to unite the warring world. Even if you haven’t seen the animated show on which it was based, Avatar: The Last Airbender tells an incredibly familiar story, and it ends up feeling like just another hero’s journey. Interestingly, unlike many adaptations, Avatar: The Last Airbender is working with a similar runtime to its predecessor. This is eight one-hour episodes, while the animated series was 20 twenty-minute episodes — each adding up to eight hours in total. Yet, this live-action adaptation often drags, feeling like it’s going through the motions rather than telling the story earnestly. The show does an incredible job of building the world of ATLA through mostly excellent production design and CGI. The series’s creators clearly wanted to make an adaptation that was faithful in the ways fans would demand. The only thing they don’t quite nail is the tone, which feels a bit too self-serious to work.
That being said, the scale of the series is massive, allowing it to give the audience some truly awesome action sequences. The bending scenes look great, and the spectacular finale that the entire season builds up to is shot in a way that is creative and exhilarating. This show has come far from being a Saturday morning Nickelodeon cartoon.
As far as the cast goes, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. Gordon Cormier is excellent, having all the charm he needs to be Aang, nailing the delicate balance between maturity and youthfulness the role calls for. Kiawentiio and Ian Ousley are fine — not making much of an impression, positive or negative. The weak link is Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko, who seems utterly unable to deliver his lines seriously. In terms of the adults, the show has an incredibly talented cast. Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Daniel Dae Kim, and Ken Leung all do a great job in their roles, propping up the younger, less experienced actors working alongside them. Fans of the series will also be delighted by James See’s performance. Ultimately, Avatar: The Last Airbender is a passable adaptation. Strong casting for its lead and some very well-done action sequences make it worth watching, even if the writing has glaring weaknesses. But hey, it’s better than the M. Night Shyamalan film — although that’s not a very high bar to surpass. Avatar: The Last Airbender is now streaming on Netflix. All eight episodes reviewed. Rating: 3/5
Review by Sean Boelman
Denis Villeneuve’s Dune was one of the biggest successes of the pandemic era — a sci-fi epic so massive and good that it became a theatrical event despite a simultaneous release on HBO Max. After the success of the first film, Villeneuve was given a bigger budget and more creative free rein, allowing him to make Dune: Part Two into something more grand, more ambitious, and more epic than the last, even if it’s occasionally a bit long-winded.
Dune: Part Two picks up with Paul Atreides on the run with the Fremen, plotting a way to get revenge against the Harkonnen and the Emperor who killed his father. Although Lynch’s 1984 adaptation showed this portion of the story, it crammed it into around 45 minutes — meaning much of the two hour and 46 minute runtime of Villeneuve’s sequel feels completely different. From a purely technical standpoint, Dune: Part Two is a masterpiece. Everything from the production design to the CGI and the cinematography is on point. A few scenes can be difficult to see, but these decisions feel very deliberate. And as with the first movie, the MVP of the below-the-line team is Hans Zimmer, whose booming score is incredible and transports you to the world of Arrakis. Something that was missing from the first film was the political context of Herbert’s writing. While Villeneuve doesn’t explore the anticolonialist elements as much as one might like, he does go into a lot of depth into the property’s religious themes. Frequently, this subplot is just as — if not more interesting — than the bids for power among these various groups.
The one area in which Part Two is a step back from its predecessor is its pacing. There are a handful of really incredible action sequences in this sequel, but all in all, it feels somewhat anticlimactic. The finale, which we have spent two movies building up to, feels particularly unsatisfying — like it is holding back the level of battle we have been teased with.
In the first movie, Timothée Chalamet was the weak link in an otherwise astounding cast. Chalamet has thankfully stepped up his game for this second entry, likely owing to the much meatier role he has here. However, nearly everyone else in the cast has also taken their performances to the next level. Rebecca Ferguson, Dave Bautista, and Josh Brolin all add new layers to their roles. No one quite takes their role to the next level like Javier Bardem, though, whose turn is gripping and humanistic beyond what a movie like this should require. The weakest link here is Zendaya, who is fine but feels like she is trying too hard. In terms of newcomers to the cast, the biggest splash is made by Austin Butler, whose performance is shockingly sinister and unhinged. After his very first line, which has lingering shades of Elvis, he goes fully chameleonic in a horrifyingly effective way. Florence Pugh and Léa Seydoux are solid, but don’t have large enough parts to make much of an impression. Christopher Walken does stick out negatively, though, as it feels like he’s phoning it in most of the time. Dune: Part Two is one of the most impeccably-crafted blockbusters in years from a technical standpoint. It truly is a feat of filmmaking. Even if it is almost held back by some pacing issues, this is such an undeniably epic, visionary achievement that it’s hard not to be astounded by the level of artistry on display. Dune: Part Two hits theaters on March 1. Rating: 4.5/5
Review by Sean Boelman
Rick & Morty kicked off a new trend in adult animation that many have tried (and failed) to replicate. We may finally have something that lives up to its precedent. Leveraging its tremendously talented cast and premise that is ripe for wacky, creative adventures, The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy ends up being one of the funniest, most charming adult animated series in quite a while.
The show follows two alien doctors who work at a hospital specializing in “rare sci-fi illnesses.” The elevator pitch for this show would be a cross of Grey’s Anatomy and Rick & Morty — and if that mixture of medical drama with absurd sci-fi humor appeals to you, this is sure to be an addictive new watch. As far as world-building goes, there’s nothing to really distinguish The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy from any number of other animated sci-fi comedies, but it accomplishes its goals well enough. The character design, while straightforward, is playful and colorful. And even though much of the series is set within the hospital, minus a few adventures outside, it feels satisfyingly expansive. That being said, where the show does stand out is its incredible sense of humor. There are lots of funny premises to be found in the series, from time loops to alien STDs, and the writer’s room really takes advantage of them. There’s a lot of really insightful and funny sex humor, but it never feels overly crude or out-of-place.
The show also deals with some incredibly mature, complex themes, although this is par for the course for recent adult animation. Despite having a premise that’s inherently absurd and ridiculous, this show has what might be one of the best, most sincere depictions of anxiety that has ever been attempted.
Part of what makes the show work so well is that it gets us to care about the characters. We buy into the friendship between the two heroines immediately in the first episode, but we also get shockingly invested in the lives of all their coworkers. Even though some of them only take part in a few episodes, it feels like everyone who has a pronounced subplot is fully developed. The voice cast of The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy is also stacked, adding a lot of charm through their performances. Keke Palmer and Stephanie Hsu are great leads, having impeccable chemistry and infectious energy. Kieran Culkin nails the quirky and awkward love interest. Pop musician Sam Smith is also a stand-out in their supporting role. And that just scratches the surface of who’s in this cast — Maya Rudolph, Natasha Lyonne, Jay Ellis, Bowen Yang, Tracee Ellis Ross, and more all make appearances. Although the world of The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy may not be the most original, the writing is incredibly refreshing, allowing this to become one of the best new adult animated series in a minute. Between Hazbin Hotel and this, Prime Video is really stepping up its game in the adult animation sphere, and it’s an exciting time to be a fan of the genre. The Second Best Hospital in the Galaxy streams on Prime Video beginning February 23. All eight episodes reviewed. Rating: 5/5
Review by Sean Boelman
You do not often see animation in the horror genre, which is surprising considering how the medium allows imagination to flow freely. Despite an interesting concept and some very spooky imagery, Stopmotion is underwhelming because it struggles to find its narrative rhythm and hold the audience’s interest.
Stopmotion follows a stop-motion animator who finds the line between reality and her imagination blurred after the death of her overbearing mother. For the most part, it’s a very standard psychological horror flick, but what makes the film stand out is its incorporation of stop-motion animated sequences as the protagonist’s work comes to life. Considering that director Robert Morgan’s background is in stop-motion shorts, it’s no wonder that the animated sequences are the strongest part of the movie. With horror animation, Morgan’s creations are crude and grotesque, but they have an incredible level of detail nevertheless. Although the images and symbols aren’t particularly novel, Morgan uses them effectively to create a lingering, unsettling effect. However, Stopmotion is dragged down by its dreadfully slow pacing. It’s clear from the moment the movie starts that this is designed as a slow burn building up to an explosive climax. While the conclusion is satisfyingly gory and weird, the hour and 15 minutes that precede it feel like Morgan and co-writer Robin King were more interested in creating eerie imagery than telling a cohesive, compelling story.
The themes that Morgan and King explore are nothing new to the genre: grief, obsession, legacy. A few moments show the potential to be something unique — like a storyline involving the protagonist’s toxic relationship with her mother — but these are generally brushed aside because of the emphasis on horror rather than drama.
This emphasis also wreaks havoc on the character development. Although the protagonist has her arc (albeit a conventional one), none of the supporting characters are remotely interesting. We meet the protagonist’s boyfriend (Tom York) and a mysterious, nameless girl (Caolinn Springall) whose role in the story is needlessly confusing. Frankly, it would have been more interesting to see this story told from a wholly isolated perspective, with Aisling Franciosi as the only performer in the movie. Franciosi is an incredible actress, and she made a lot out of this role despite how little it gives her to work with. The character has few defining personality traits, yet Franciosi makes the role feel entirely authentic — even during the far-fetched final act. Stopmotion is the type of directorial debut that is more effective as a demo reel than a satisfying film in its own right. Robert Morgan is clearly very talented, with a knack for creating genuinely unsettling imagery, but this movie lacks the focus on storytelling and character development that is necessary for effective horror. Stopmotion hits theaters on February 23. Rating: 3/5
Review by Sean Boelman
The pairing of Canadian provocateur Bruce La Bruce (The Misandrists) with the source material of the infamous Pier Paolo Pasolini (Saló, or the 120 Days of Sodom) seems like a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, The Visitor delivers on little of that promise — an exercise in grotesque style-over-substance that, while aesthetically intriguing, doesn’t amount to a particularly rewarding experience.
Billed as a “pornographic remake” of Pasolini’s Teorema, The Visitor tells the story of a refugee who infiltrates the lives of an upper-class family, seducing them one by one and causing them to have a spiritual awakening. Frankly, if you’ve seen any of La Bruce’s past work, you know what you’re getting into. And while the ambition of this project is admirable, it’s not always as thoughtful as it wants to be. La Bruce clearly has a lot on his mind, and while this concept seems like it could be fertile ground to explore his anger — anti-capitalism, anti-colonialism — it’s all a bit frustratingly executed. Although it clearly wasn’t the intention, there are certain points at which the film treads dangerously close to the “magical negro” stereotype, even if La Bruce is ridiculing the white characters. The most frustrating thing about The Visitor, though, is how painfully direct it can be. Everything La Bruce wants the audience to know is delivered via an expositional newscast voiceover or as on-screen text. Although lines like “eat out the rich” are enough to get a decent chuckle, they’re also frustrating in how they bash the viewer over the head with the message.
As a result, the movie feels like it is missing the substance that really sets apart Pasolini’s work. Although Pasolini’s films are certainly shocking, and subtle is not a word the filmmaker had in his dictionary, they built to something. The political message came first, and the shock was just a method to convey it. With The Visitor, it feels like La Bruce wants to shock, and the message is simply the justification to do so.
Unfortunately, the movie runs out of steam far too quickly. The edgiest and most provocative moments happen early on, and the rest of the film largely feels like it’s just weird for the sake of being weird. The final act, largely devoid of sexual content, somehow feels even more meandering than the belligerent barrage of depravity that proceeds it. On one hand, the over-the-top performances work in the movie’s favor to an extent. What we are watching is meant to be exaggerated and theatrical, so it’s fitting that nothing feels rooted in reality. However, this undermines the character development in many ways. Bishop Black’s performance never feels particularly mysterious. The rest of the cast is never particularly alluring. The dynamics don’t entirely work. In many ways, The Visitor seems like someone trying to imitate the work of Pasolini without truly understanding the essence of the filmmaker’s substance. As a stylistic exercise, it works and can be pretty entertaining. However, it’s frustrating that Bruce La Bruce didn’t take this opportunity to make something more meaningful. The Visitor premiered at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival. Rating: 2.5/5
Review by Sean Boelman
Cobweb is the latest film from prolific Korean director Kim Jee-woon (The Good the Bad the Weird, I Saw the Devil), and on paper, it sounds like a home run: a meta comedy with a fantastic lead. However, the movie’s ambitious guise is only a facade, as it feels far too reminiscent of other films about filmmaking to make much of an impact.
Cobweb follows a film director who assembles his cast and crew for a hectic few days of reshoots, trying to capture the perfect ending, much to the dismay of the censors, his producers, and the cast. The premise promises an intriguing work of metafiction, as the on-set drama and the drama in the film-within-a-film become inextricably intertwined, but viewers will soon realize this is heading nowhere. The biggest issue with Cobweb is that, despite its intriguing premise, the movie all too often feels hollow. There are a few interesting tidbits about censorship and artistic freedom, but Kim says his bit on the matter early and spends the rest of the bloated 2+ hour runtime needlessly hammering this point in. Unfortunately, the film also lacks the comedic zing of Kim’s finer work. The humor tends to track either too broad or too specific — resulting in a mildly amusing watch, but never truly funny. The chaos of the melodrama can be entertaining enough to carry the movie at times, but too much of it falls back onto familiar beats for it to be fully engaging.
There is also the matter of the characters, which are all frustratingly archetypal. If you’ve seen any “behind-the-scenes satires” of film sets, you know the deal. The director is a visionary but a bit of an egomaniac. The actors have diva-ish qualities played for laughs but are empathetic because of some of the over-the-top ways they’re being treated on set. The only people who really shake up the formula here are the bureaucrats, but they, too, feel like shallow caricatures.
Kim doesn’t even manage to get particularly impressive performances out of his cast. Song Kang-ho (Parasite, Broker) plays the lead role, but his talents feel wholly put to waste. Although he has a few funny moments and a few more that are endearing, the role calls for Song to be flashy, lacking the quieter, subtler characteristics that made his last few turns so impressive. The one area in which Cobweb unequivocally excels is its visuals. The cinematography does a great job of creating a dichotomy between the chaos of the film set and the (black-and-white) beauty of the Hitchcockian film-within-a-film. The production design also does a great job of mimicking both a film set and the type of movie being shot on said set. Although there are a lot of things to like about Cobweb, Kim Jee-woon’s latest film does not congeal into a particularly satisfying whole — a massive disappointment considering the caliber of his past work. Much like an actual cobweb, Cobweb is the type of movie that will leave you itching your head for much longer than you probably need to, and similarly, you won’t really know why. Cobweb hits theaters on February 9. Rating: 2.5/5
Review by Sean Boelman
Halo is one of the most popular, enduring video game franchises of all time, so the small-screen adaptation was always going to be met with derision by fans after changing several important elements of the game’s lore. Season two of the Paramount+ show backtracks on some of those elements, resulting in a new season that’s even more of a mixed bag than its predecessor.
This season of Halo follows Master Chief and his team of Spartans as their war against the alien race, the Covenant, escalates to new levels. Season two is much more combat-focused now that the premise and world were set up by the first season, but one has to wonder if this is too little too late to salvage an IP that should have been absolute gold for blockbuster television. Relatively speaking, Halo has managed to be much more exciting with this batch of episodes than the last. The production value has always been high, of course, but it didn’t amount to much in the first season. The second season feels far more cinematic, even if it is cinematic in a generic sci-fi epic sort of way. Yet despite the increased focus on action, the action sequences aren’t all that impressive. One 15-minute sequence in the first episode sets the stage for a more exciting season but feels derivative of any number of other foggy/smoky action sequences we have seen in sci-fi movies in the past.
However, much like the first season struggled to juggle all the different storylines, so does this new entry. This season verges on incoherence because of how needlessly complicated its different entangled threads become. At least it all made sense with season one — even if it was incredibly dull. Season two manages to somehow feel both chaotic and uninteresting.
Pablo Schreiber’s performance this season is rather disappointing, considering what the role calls for in this batch of episodes. Viewers will remember that, at the end of last season, Cortana had taken over Chief’s body. Schreiber sadly does not do much with this duality in his performance. It is nice to see more of Bokeem Woodbine, though, as his character gets a more prominent arc as a bounty hunter tracking down the location of the now-fugitive Dr. Halsey (Natascha McElhone). Woodbine’s wise-cracking offers a welcome reprieve from some of the overly straight-laced drama of the rest of the series. If people thought The Rise of Skywalker was bad for buckling to the demands of crybabies on the internet, wait until they see season two of Paramount+’s Halo. In some ways, the improvements are welcome — particularly this season’s greater focus on action. However, the entire affair feels somewhat spineless, like it’s desperately struggling to strike the line between what fans want and doing something new. For the most part, it fails. Halo streams on Paramount+ with two episodes on February 8, with new episodes streaming on subsequent Thursdays. Four out of eight episodes reviewed. Rating: 2.5/5
Review by Sean Boelman
Bertrand Mandico’s She Is Conann is the type of film that it would be understandable to have an extreme reaction in either direction — love or hatred. Unique in its vision and executed stunningly well, She Is Conann is incredibly intriguing, so long as you embrace it on its surface and don’t try to dig too deeply into it.
The movie is a gender-swapped riff on Conan the Barbarian, telling the story of a fierce warrior traveling through time from the Sumerian era to the near future. Those looking for a traditional retelling of this story will be disappointed — although who would come into a Mandico film expecting anything traditional or faithful — but the French filmmaker creates an entertaining, fascinating movie nonetheless. By featuring the protagonist played by different actresses, each ten years apart, Mandico essentially creates an episodic structure. Some sequences lean more into the familiar tropes of the fantasy genre, while others go in a more radical direction. Yet Mandico manages to make everything flow together nicely in a dream-like way. Some of the weirder sequences might be a little difficult to palette for audiences. The final act, in particular, goes over the top in a way that’s likely to disgust those who are squeamish. However, considering how violent Conan the Barbarian and many of the other movies of the genre are, it’s fitting.
The actresses who play the various iterations of the protagonist are all outstanding — Claire Duburcq, Christa Théret, Sandra Parfait, Agata Buzek, Nathalie Richard, and Françoise Brion. Parfait probably stands out as the best of the group, but she also gets the meatiest of the sections. Elina Löwensohn’s supporting performance is also incredibly transformative.
If we’re evaluating the film on a purely aesthetic level, She Is Conann is utterly masterful. It’s such a unique, esoteric, and frankly chaotic vision, yet every frame works. It finds the perfect balance of scrappy yet epic and ambitious yet scaled to allow it to work as an homage to a genre known for its opulence. However, as transfixing as She Is Conann is, it’s just a bit pointless. That’s not to say that it doesn’t have any themes or deeper meaning — there’s a lot to be found in the text about what barbarity actually means and how some things we embrace today might be the true barbarism. This is definitely a case of Mandico having a lot of ideas, and while many of them are incredibly compelling, the way he explores them is not always satisfying. She Is Conann must be admired for its ambition alone, and as far as experimental films go, it’s a lot more broadly entertaining than most, apart from the extreme content that might put off some viewers. Granted, viewers seeking out the latest movie from a director like Bertrand Mandico probably know what they’re getting into, and that target audience will be delighted. She Is Conann is now playing in theaters. Rating: 3.5/5 |
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