Reviews

Sigh. I almost turned this off after about the first 20 minutes of the first episode, but I stuck with it, and although based on this first episode it's a complete train wreck of a script/plot, there is some potential. Sometimes it takes a few episodes for a show to find its groove, for the writers to organize their thoughts, and develop characters and plot lines into something the audience finds interesting and entertaining. I hope this is the case here, because again, the show has some potential.

I am a giant fan of Carla Gugino, and she's criminally underutilized thus far with dumb material to act within. Regardless, as of the end of episode one, there's not a character in the show that I care anything about yet.

I'm going to give one more episode a chance, and if I keep watching I'll come back and adjust my score, but a six right now is generous.

I've only watch the first episode, and I'll come back and adjust my review after I finish the series, but I can tell already I'm going to like it. I do like it.

First of all, the writing in this is outstanding. Most productions would make everything black-and-white, good and evil, without any intrigue whatsoever. Bass himself is not perfect, in fact he fights for the confederacy willingly. Even as a slave, he has a sense of honor, of right and wrong, but he serves his master until his master no longer deserves his allegiance.

I know quite a bit of the history of this character, and so far they've been faithful to trying to replicate the authenticity of Bass Reeves.

As sets, locations, costumes, and related are outstanding. The casting is outstanding. No caricatures, and everyone plays the role right on the money neither under nor over playing it. This is smart writing that doesn't insult the intelligence of the viewer.

If the first episode is any litmus test, this is one of the smarter shows on television right now. I've been a critic of Taylor Sheridan lately because I want him to FINALLY finish Yellowstone, but if this is what he's been working on instead, I'm gonna give him a bit of a pass because the show really is outstanding.

Many people believe Babylon 5 is the greatest science-fiction series to have ever existed. For me, it's the greatest series that has ever existed. It's certainly the most influential on me. I watched the series when it first came out, I've spun through the DVD set at least five times, I've streamed the entire series twice since the HighDef remaster was released. And right after my second streaming spin, this delightful little love letter was released.

This was both a trip down memory lane, more than just nostalgic, but an actual reliving of a significant part of my philosophical education.

And this wasn't merely an animated replication of the series, but rather an interesting story in it's own right, with all the characters -- heroes and villains -- we've come to love with such cherished memories.

I didn't just like it, I loved it. I recommend it to anyone that has any affection for Babylon 5, and/or loves a good sci-fi action story.

Rarely, does a series producer stay faithful this long and this intensely to the fans that got him to where he is. Kudos to JMS and all involved in the making of this. THIS is how you respect long term faithful fans. Disney and Amazon could take a lesson from this.

Before I get into a more in-depth review, let me say that this movie was perfect filmcraft. The writing, the acting, the casting, the editing, the cinematography, it's all incredibly impressive. If you like movies that are well crafted, you will love this one unless you just can't take the subject matter.

Now that said, there are NO explicit molestation or rape scenes in this movie. Indeed, this is part of its achievement. It drives its point home without needing to show it.

Based on a true story, with the usual creative license taken, the plot is essentially about a US agent who takes particular interest in two abducted Honduran children and becomes a "man on fire" and indomitably goes on a rescue quest. But it is NOT an action movie.

This movie is so very well-crafted, touching, heartbreaking, inspirational, and meaningful. I will see it again. Lastly, I very rarely rate a movie as a 10. It's that well-done.

I don't give movies, even less so series, a "10" very often, but this one deserves it.

Before I speak more about it, let me also review how I think non-Japanese speaking people might want to view it. Ordinarily, the voice acting in dub-over work is horrible, so I usually watch in the native tongue with English subtitles. I knew halfway through the first episode, that I was going to be into the series, so I switched the language to English with English subtitles, and started the series over, and I liked it very much. The voice acting work was outstanding here and deserves praise in and of itself. The producers put some time and money in this.

So for most primary English-speaking people, I think watching the series in English is the best experience. I did try both.

Now onto the series. I liked essentially everything about it. The writing, the acting, photography, the special effects, the editing, the all-around storytelling, and as I have already stated even the voice acting for the English version.

The series gets right to the point, and at times it feels like an action movie. But the writers knew how to tell a story, and the human element is never neglected for the sake of action. In addition to telling a true story, it was also a very touching human drama. I looked forward to watching each sequential episode, and each episode was necessary for the story. They did not stretch it out like some productions do Just for the sake of length.

So if you like well produced storytelling, this series is definitely for you. I'll probably watch it again in a month or so because I liked it that much.

This is a spoiler free review, so if I was to say anything negative about the series - and I'm nitpicking here - the last few minutes of narration toward the end was just a little bit too "campy" in its moralizing. I think it would've been better to just end it five minutes earlier, and let the viewer think what they think. But again, I'm very much nitpicking here because the series was near perfect.

If you loved rise of Skywalker, you're going to love this absolute train wreck of storytelling. In fact, they're basically the same movie except rise of Skywalker was executed better. Yeah, I know, a wild statement.

Both films are complete with legacy male characters who have become stupid, weak, and who have lost all sense of self. Both films have "Mary sues" who without much struggle at all, flash onto the screen stronger, smarter, and better than their male legacy character who they are there to replace.

Disney did it once again - they have destroyed a beloved franchise. Seriously, other than the first few minutes of the film, it felt like the writers of this movie resented Harrison Ford even being in it. His only purpose that I can see of even being in the movie is to be the whipping post of one of the most unlikable lead actresses I've seen in a film perhaps in my lifetime.

I regret seeing this movie. I really do. I knew going in this might be the case, but never in my wildest imagination would I have thought they could've produced this bad of a movie. Rise of Skywalker is a masterpiece compared to this

Before I end this review I have to talk about the editing, which might be worse than any movie that has ever been made. Ever watched one of those low budget Netflix movies, and as you're watching it you just scratch your head and think huh? Well, that's this movie. It's as if the editor ate some mushrooms and then constructed the movie out of about eight different movies. It's really that bad. Half the time you can't even tell what they're searching for, the other half of the time you don't care, because regardless of what part of the movie none of it makes sense.

I was literally getting fidgety and begging for the movie to end after about a quarter way in. I don't know what's going on at Disney, but they seem to run everything they touch these days. I'm completely serious when I say I could've stayed home last night and played with my cats and had a better entertainment experience than this monstrosity.

My goodness. And I think I had high hopes for this. I wish there were something positive I could say about it. I can only think of one thing, Sloan Avery did a pretty good job of acting and should have been the lead. Every other actor played their roles in a wooden and perfunctory manner. The lead actress, Brittany O'Grady, seems like she might have come fresh out of acting school? Bat Wolff, I would say the same about. Their characters, Elaine and Craig respectively, are idiots. But the problem here isn't that the characters are idiots, it's that the writers want us to think they are brilliant, brave, noble, etc. They are boring and actually quite despicable. I stopped watching at the end of episode three, but throughout I was hoping they would get killed off. There is nothing about their portrayals of their characters that made me want to invest in those characters. After three episodes if you don't care about the lead characters, the actors and/or the writers misfired hard. Again, the only character of interest is Rosie (Sloan Avery), and she just fades out of the story.

The writing is dumb. If you loved the last season of Game of Thrones, you may very well love this too. Perhaps if one took it as a satire, it could be more defensible but even then it would be bad satire and bad comedy. Good satire and comedy is grounded in reality, and it's doubtful whoever wrote the screenplay ever had a corporate job.

Most of the plot revolves around "shocking scenes" just for the sake of shock. It is as if the writers were all narcissists and they needed to be viewed as great writers, but they're not great writers so all they have are shock scenes merely for shock's sake in a futile effort to be "cool" by breaking expectations.

Well, by the end of the third episode my expectation was that it wasn't worth my time to continue. I'm writing this review to save peoples viewing time for something else. This title is a dud.

Three episodes in, and I am hooked on the show. I will certainly keep watching.

Elizabeth Olsen is just delightful and within this particular role she plays a wide range of emotions. This is her best acting work of her career.

The supporting characters are also outstanding. Krysten Ritter steals every scene she's in and Lilly Rabe plays so well perhaps one of the most dislikable female characters ever written, Betty. Neurotic is an understatement, and her intense neuroses undermines her marriage.

Candy (Liz Olsen), is charismatic and socially confident, a true pillar of womanhood within her social circles. Incredibly friendly, even flirty, and nearly impossible not to like. She seemingly has everything, but she wants more. She seeks intimacy, a connection, something beyond marriage that will fill her heart. But there's trouble brewing in paradise because someone she loves "shushes" her and her emotional slide begins.

I loved the George Foreman movie!

The movie was very good.

It is a boxing-focused movie. A non-Christian who likes boxing would love this movie.

However, even for people who don't like or know little about boxing, I think it's very possible and perhaps even probable that a person can use the boxing as a metaphor for the "fight of life" in general.

We get knocked down, we are discouraged, perhaps even bitter, angry, and full of rage -- and we just want to give up and say life isn't fair. We want to lay on the mat and just stay there. Or we even get mad at God and mock him in our minds and out loud.

But there is a spiritual force that will forgive us, heal us, guide us, give us courage to carry on, and assist us in making better choices for better reasons for a better promise.

This is what the movie was about to me.

Rarely are there movies made better than this. Even more rare on Netflix. I found this movie emotionally touching, intellectually stimulating, with the riveting suspense of a thriller.

It explores the philosophical question of, "what does it mean to be special and what is the cost of such a choice?" What is the price of excellence? And what are the distortions of one's life. Indeed, love distorts indeed but hate distorts still more.

Delightfully not "woke" in any way. The central protagonist, a young woman, is not tokenized whatsoever, but rather finds self esteem in somethings she happens to be very good at. But she is no "Mary Sue". She struggles, she has a doubt, she fails. She is discovered by a brilliant and exceptionally demanding mentor, stumbles much but learns, and then has to make some very hard life choices.

In summary, this is a refreshingly delightful movie. It checks all the boxes of production, writing, acting, editing, etc. I really enjoyed it and will probably watch it again soon with a friend.

FYI, I watched the first five minutes in the movie's native Thai, and then turned on English dubbing. The dubbing was pretty well done, and although there's always a little bit of culture lost in translation, I was nevertheless able to follow the movie as the voice actors emoted very well.

Let's be honest, Netflix original series can be very "hit and miss. Well, this one was a surprise hit. I really loved it.

I don't give 9 stars to a Netflix original series very often, perhaps just a few times, and my average is probably around 4 or 5. But this series simply surprised me, and in such a delightful way. I was happy and thankful I invested the time watching this show and enjoying the interesting and at times very funny story.

First, the writing is very refreshing. It's intelligent, funny, dramatic, intriguing, and there are several ties between past and future episodes that make for delightful storytelling. Too often, when lesser writers use non-linear timelines, flashbacks, etc.... It makes for a very confusing and hard to understand plots. Not here, because the editing was perfect. The flashbacks, and time resets, made complete sense given the story that was being told. They made for an interesting and a dynamic storyline that was ao engaging. We don't get this type of writing very often and especially in the Netflix series. So congratulations to the writers and the editors. It was very well done.

Second, I want to sing the praise of the producers. In short, they hired great actors. Everyone played their characters, primary and secondary, so very well. And speaking of secondary characters, there were several who were fantastic "scene stealers", and the show did a very good job of tidying up the subplots with these interesting secondary characters incredibly well. Indeed, the series ended with me wanting to know more about them. I will absolutely watch another season should they produce it.

Speaking of the actors, what a breakout role for Abby Lee. Wow! She played this key role with great finesse neither over or under playing her role and lines. I've added her as a favorite actress and look forward to future projects.

But again, every single actor in this entire series played their roles perfectly. So congratulations to the director and the producers. And of course to the actors themselves. I am very impressed.

Third, there is a lot of cultural and racial diversity in this series, yet it is not "woke" at all. I find this refreshing because I'm getting bored with such "listen to the message" entertainment. No one was written in as a "token" role for their race or their gender, and the writing was so good the characters became an end to themselves within the story itself. Again, incredible writing.

There are a few sexual scenes in the series and a few scenes of violence, but none of it is gratuitous. It makes sense within and is needed for the grand arc of the story.

I highly recommend this series.

Episode one was pretty good and it drew me in.

I almost didn't even start the show because I figured Paramount was going to make it "woke", but they did do 1883, 1923, and Tulsa so I thought I would give it a chance. And just when I thought they were not going to go down that rabbit hole open (pun intended) the script takes on a silly dialectic after he saves her life but she says it's all about racism. Talk about throwing something out of the blue for the sake of "the message".

I know I'm not alone, but people are getting tired of this nonsense.

This is one of those shows that are pretentious, that want to be perceived as being well written even though they are not, but there's more plot armor in this than about anything I've seen in a long time.

First of all, all of the "serious" reviews on this movie are hilarious in themselves. Some people are reviewing this as if it was a Meryl Streep or Cate Blanchett movie.

Second, the movie stars Julia Voth - the character model for Jill Valentine of the Resident Evil game remake. Already there's a giant audience for this since they finally get to see Jill Valentine the way they've always wanted to.

Third, of course this is not a great movie. But if you liked sexploitation B-movies of the 50s 60s and 70s, you'll probably love this. In addition to the abundant use of T&A in the storytelling (boob aficionados will be in heaven), campy humor is sprinkled throughout.

Fourth, this is not a movie that takes itself too seriously. It is both a satire of and a tribute to every sexy B-movie of American cinema history. If you will let yourself enjoy it, it's very enjoyable. For what it tries to achieve, it accomplishes quite well.

I watched the first episode of this quite simply because Carla Gugino was in it. I like her work generally and figured it would be something like say "Jett".

It wasn't. It's hard to completely describe this series without giving spoilers, so let me say it's like an anthology that is never the less interconnected. The connection to episode one may not come until episode four, etc., and this is part of the genius of the writing. The series is a little bit like Pulp Fiction, in the sense that it is a series of connected vignettes.

And speaking of the writing, I was certainly impressed. Actually no was first notch, direction was outstanding, principal photography was beautiful, and the editing was done very well in the telling of a most nonlinear story.

And for people who like eye candy (male and female), there is a large supply of it as the series tells a very sexy story. If you like beautiful female buts, you'll be in heaven. If you are prude about such things, this series is NOT for you.

There are no ugly characters in this entire movie, and everyone is pretty much smoking hot in their own quirky way.

All the sexiness aside, the writing is rather philosophical and there's some wonderful little gems of human relationship sprinkled all through the series. Usually when writers and directors go down the sexy road of strategy, storytelling suffers, but not here. This was a interesting story with a satisfying ending.

I did not expect to like this series as much as I did, but it became pretty addictive from the first episode. I also like that the episodes are only a half hour long, which makes it easy to start and stop the series in between your life schedule.

And oh yes, Carla Gugino just shines in it and just about every way.

If they make a season two, I will absolutely bite.

Game-to-movie adaptations are hit and miss, and mostly miss, but given the first episode it seems that they have hired great actors who are working off of a good script and have good direction.

I knew the story from the game, so I did view with some expectations. Those expectations have been fulfilled and it seems like this is going to be a pretty faithful adaptation to the video game in a way that actually expands the story beyond the game. In my view, this is generally what's necessary for good video game movie adaptations.

I'm definitely going to keep watching, and I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I think HBO has a winner here.

It's a mystery how one season of the show can be pretty darn good and the next season is beyond horrible. It's as if the show fired all its writers and got new ones for the second season.

Pretty much everything that made the first season "fun" is dead now. The writing of every episode in S2 (I stopped watching after episode four) is stupid. It's difficult to understand how writers were actually paid to write this?

I think highschoolers in a literature/writing class could do better.

And it's not just the writing, the acting is pretty horrible too. I don't know if that's from bad direction, bad production, whatever... But let me see in closing I feel sorry for the poor souls who watched every episode of season two.

Enjoy season one and just walk away.

I've been a professor now for 30+ years, and every year it seems like the next cohort of students becomes less driven, more entitled, and more neurotic.

The reviews here go along way to explain this phenomenon. People think they are protecting their kids, but they're not. They're just virtue signaling.

I have four grown daughters, and if this movie was around when they were young I would've absolutely let them watch it. No child was ever traumatized by this movie; however, I do believe children have been traumatized by their helicopter parent's reaction to it as they infuse their own neuroses into them.

Regardless, as to the movie itself it was not a great movie. But it certainly was not a bad movie either. Voiceovers often are hit and miss, and these were indeed not very good, and as someone who does cat rescue, let me tell you feral cats DO face many real dangers.

Helicopter parents may hate this for their children, but the more "free range kids" parents will find the movie opens up a smorgasbord of opportunity for discussion with your child.

This movie was worth watching. However, it is a bit schizophrenic in its storytelling and I suspect this is due to poor editing. As they say, there's the movie you write, the movie you shoot, in the movie you edit.

Regardless, there's a significant number of scenes in the movie that one wonders why they're even included? As an example, I didn't see the need to have the Elizabeth Taylor arc included at all. It added nothing to the character development.

And then there are the scenes where they seem to cut to another scene either prematurely or on a lagged basis. Sometimes the facial expressions did not match the emotions that were supposedly being portrayed.

And distracting technical oddities like putting out a gasoline fire with a few handfuls of snow. At times the CGI was laughable. Babylon 5 was better and that was 30 years ago.

Like the title of my review says, this was a good movie and it's worth seeing, but it really could have been a GREAT movie. The producers could not decide what they wanted it to be. Personally, I liked the "human story" very much, and it's a shame the writers and producers didn't believe it more.

I am a fan of Alexandra Daddario. I'm a fan of this genre. I am a fan of sexy people on television. I'm also a fan of a coherent story, and although I've only finished episode one, I'm still waiting to care about even one of the characters. This is disappointing because the potential of this show is incredible and I WANT to like it. But right now, everyone, protagonist and antagonist alike, could be suddenly executed and I could not care less.

I will keep watching, because perhaps they're taking time to set up the characters, but it's hard to set them up when it's difficult to tell who's who and who's doing what and of course the time we are in?

So I'll give it a few more episodes before I cut and run. I had the same problem with "House of the Dragon" when it debuted, but ended up loving it around mid season.

I'll edit this review in a few weeks if things improve.

I started watching the show about a month ago and I'm on the early episodes of season seven right now.

However, I'm going to stop watching because it's becoming increasingly dumb with inconsistent writing and contrived plots.

It's a sad thing, too, because the show definitely had its merits. But it's one of those shows that seem to destroy its own characters. As if they hired new writers every season? Indeed, they turned one character, Louis Litt, into perhaps the most annoying person who has ever been written into a television series. Each season I hope his character is killed off, and it never is. And to add insult to injury, with every season, he is written (and acted) more and more moronic. His "manchild" personality, was a little bit cute during the first season, and even provided a little bit of comic relief now and then, but now he is a full-fledged, emotionally unstable borderline-personality-disorder, total mess.

The plots are increasingly "woke" with simplistic diatribes with no shades of gray. Indeed, in this respect, they turned one of the best characters in the show, Mike, into an utter "might makes right" buffoon. If his efforts, save "victims" from "evil, corporations" the no law or confidence is unbreakable.

And it's a shame, because I think if I would've stopped watching say by the end of season three, I would rank the show as an 8 or 9.

When it works, it really is great television. "Mike" and "Harvey" are a real charismatic duo, and then there's Donna who is one of the most entertaining and fascinating characters in television history. She's the real star of the show, and is what has kept me coming back.

I would have loved a spin off "Donna" as she steals about every scene she is in.

The show is worth watching. At least the first few seasons. But the writers blew it as the show progressed, and it has become absurd as I write this at the beginning of season 7.

I echo what many people have said critically against this series. It's poorly written, poorly acted, poorly directed, poorly edited, and it seems they've embarked on a path of no return already so that they will never get back to the story of the books.

I almost didn't even bother with this series, given the incredible almost criminal demise of Game of Thrones over its last two seasons. D&D ran that show into the ground, and I made sure that had nothing to do with this one before watching.

So I was excited and pumped to watch the first episode. Then I watched it and I was so disappointed. Almost nothing redeeming about it. Not one character that even remotely had me rooting for them, or even hating them.

But I thought to myself, this is only the first episode, keep watching. So I watched the second episode, and I was disappointed in the exact same way. Then by the end of the third episode, well, now I have a statistical pattern with 2° of freedom.

They chose to depart significantly already from the GRRM story, and I don't think they can recover from it. I predict the show gets canceled. In the name of diversity and a high "woke coefficient" they have literally sacrificed storytelling. As an example, it seems obvious the show runners cared more about having a black person play a Valerian, rather than intelligently through a well written script tell the audience what a Valerian is.

And this is the main culprit. The script is awful. The acting on that script is awful. The editing by which the piece of story together is awful. The sets are not thawed out well at all, and apparently according to the show, the technology base is the same as it will be in 200 years.

I will not be watching any more episodes. I've written this show off. It's just not worth watching. I suspect the people who think it is "awesome", or probably more or less the same sorts of people who thought season eight of GOT was awesome television.

My goodness!

Edit I made it through episode nine and I'm definitely calling it quits. There's really not even one character left in the show that I care about. I wanted to love this, only because the producers of Game of Thrones had nothing to do with it, and I thought I would give HBO another chance to get it right. This show is a fail.

Perhaps I should've titled this review, "I want my one hour and 40 minutes back". There is no movie I've seen all year that I would NOT prefer to see over this ridiculous mess of a story. Beyond deviating so far from the actual story to such a degree that even Dumb and Dumber of Game of Thrones infamy would be afraid to go. They absolutely massacred the novel.

Imagine "A tale of 2 Cities" and they make Sydney Carton the villain. Or they put Atlas Shrugged to film and made John Galt a communist. Or they made a movie about Karl Marx, and they made him an industrialist. The examples could go on and on and this movie is a prime offender.

The creator can make whatever movie they want, but if one wants to tell the story of a classic beloved novel, they ought to tell the story of the classic beloved novel. This movie clearly has an agenda and and with all the bad writing and acting, it comes across as preachy propaganda.

But the worst crime of its creators is they seem to think Fahrenheit 451 is primarily about censorship. It's about people becoming intellectually brain dead because of mass media and the unintended consequences thereof.

This is not my opinion but Ray Bradbury's himself.

Many people, perhaps most people, will probably want to skip this. Again, I want my 1 hour and 40 minutes back.

I've loved the various permutations of the Arthurian legend, but this isn't one of them. In short, I stopped watching at the end of episode three. The writing is bad. And when I say bad, I mean Baywatch bad.

Every story has to have a little bit of plot armor, but this one goes to extremes. In this respect it is the "Banshee" of Arthurian lore. Neither respected viewer intelligence very much.

Even the set and the environment were disappointing. None of it looked like first millennium Britain. Not even a tiny bit. And combine with bad writing was bad acting. Not even one character was believable as that character.

And it's an absolute shame because I love this genre so much.

Backgrounders: I stopped at the end of season one. It was just too over the top and fantastical. The writing and storytelling is just absurd. It insults a person's intelligence, as the writers LOVE their Mary Sue's. The protagonists in the series are basically superheroes. They can take incredible damage and seemingly not be that hurt. After being gutted, stabbed, beaten, tortured, sometimes within days they're out and about like nothing ever happened.

Indeed, plot armor everywhere. And I mean everywhere. In this respect, this series almost ought to be categorized as fantasy. Nothing in the series correlates to the real world.

And then there is the massively annoying and distracting gratuitous nudity displayed throughout the series. I'm no prude, and I enjoy sexy woman but almost all of the nudity was unnecessary. The love scenes were not very hot, and usually just showed a boob or two. So when I say gratuitous I literally mean it.

Which leads to the series Achilles' Heel. Character development. It's almost nonexistent. I found myself rooting for the villains. They were more interesting and believable. The characters that did have some likability seem to be emphasized the least by the shows writers.

Although I'm not going to go farther in the show than the first season, I do want to say something a little bit odd only because the season WAS entertaining. In this sense, it's a little bit like a "Baywatch-ized" cop show.

I do not know how accurate this series is, but regardless it was incredibly entertaining and held my interest every episode till the end.

Furthermore, it isn't necessary at all to have seen any of the Godfather movies to appreciate the series. The series is really about the costs and benefits of pursuing ones dreams.

Well written and acted. I highly recommend this series.