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Frasier (2023)
Canned Applause, really?
I had a lot of affection for Frasier, his brother, father, hose cleaning lady and all the other characters... that was a long time ago and things have changed. There is hardly a TV show now that relies on canned laughter to make jokes more funny. Watching this now, with this old crutch in action, is really embarrassing, or at least it must be for the writers and producers of the show. That they need to rely on this artifice to make the setup jokes more funny is just lame. Comedy has moved on, Frasier has not, and despite being made this year, seems intolerably dated to me. Canned laugher is the reason I could not ever watch shows like Friends again, and sadly the creators of this offering made a very poor decision.
Madres paralelas (2021)
Heavy handed, tiresome, pretentious, miscalculated
I thought the mass graves bit was very poorly delt with. I had no care for this part of the story, it really seemed like a point Almadovar wanted to make and stuck it in... Digging up the past, digging into DNA, digging into the truth... HMMM. Nah, it was poor IMO. Performances good, but the heavy duty music score seemed like a desperate attempt to make something of this misjudged movie. I'd have preferred nothing about the mass graves. I'd really have preferred it to be a bit of a camp comedy instead of it trying to be serious but then having a rom-com type happy-ish ending... with the protagonists getting what they want. It came across as heavy-handed, pretentious and actually a bit tiresome.
The Order (2019)
Absolutely brain dead dull
What a poorly scripted, poorly acted, corny, laboured and dumbed down show this is. Spare yourself the time... AND it was cancelled, so Season 2 does not end satisfactorily, I guess they were thinking it would continue... really, don't bother!
Sometimes it comes across as a school play, the staging and dialogue is stilted and delivered in the most obvious and predictable way, while I try to think of something redeemable about this drek, I'm trying to cast a necromantafabuloso spell so I can never again spend time on a show like this, hoping it will get better... I'll leave it to those who don't expect to be interested when watching TV.
The Banshees of Inisherin (2022)
Tedious and depressing, makes one simple point in too much time
4/10 very disappointed by this super depressing simple allegorical story about someone who decides to shun their friend, but then harms himself to make a point... and I guess the point the movie makes is that our resentments or self righteousness really end up hurting ourselves as well others. But why does SUCH A NEGATIVE movie need to be made to make such a basic point. The acting was great, but sheesh, I did not enjoy that AT ALL. I would not recommend this movie to anyone as it seems pointless. It is well constructed, well acted, but the metaphor/allegoric vessel is just so ugly and unnecessary.
Keep Breathing (2022)
Shallow, boring, awful
I managed to half watch all of this as my wife was watching it... It's absolute rubbish, bad acting, trite "meaningful" interactions, supposedly some sort of healing the lead character has due to her pain while surviving the crash. Just shallow and boring.
For Sama (2019)
Stunning, devastating, poetic
I saw this last night and was completely blown away, had to bite my lip to stop myself from crying aloud... but it is also magnificently inspiring too, to see these wonderful people, their commitment to their community and values... poetry in motion.
Sadly this awful situation is not unique, and it seems the same tactics, bombing hospitals and the like to demoralise and crush the human spirit, is happening again in the Ukraine, by the same Russians...
The Undoing (2020)
Wow, worst script in TV history
Such excellent actors and such an abysmal script. How did Hugh Grant, Nicole Kidman and Donald Sutherland agree to act in this embarrassment of a TV show? The clichéd, artificially created tensions, illogical behaviour, implausible corniness etc make this hardly bearable to watch. Kidman is overly waifish, vague, confused, Hugh Grant is much better, Sutherland is great.
Stray (2020)
A work of genius
I absolutely loved this documentary.
I'm shocked it is not nominated for best feature documentary at the academy awards 2021.. why?
It's an honest look at street dog's lives in Istanbul but as seen from the dog's point of view, both literally, with the camera kept low on a gimbal, and in the narrative, there is no explanation, very little human voice talking, just experiences the dog has in it's day to day life.
Wonderful.
Catastrophe (2015)
Hate Sharon, hard to get over that.
I found it hard to enjoy the show when the Sharon character was so horrible as a human. The show is really good, real, funny, but Sharon's incessant repulsive behaviour made it hard to care about their relationship as much as I might have if I understood why ANYONE would want to be near her.
Alita: Battle Angel (2019)
Surprisingly good
This movie is highly entertaining and never lags or feels excessive. Often action movies have boring, disjointed fight scenes, but the fight scenes here are clear, logical, well constructed and beautifully crafted. The acting is excellent, three Oscar winners and the storyline is engaging and strikes a great balance between humour and tension. Loved it and am hoping for a sequel.
Roma (2018)
Beautifully filmed, void of characters
The cinematography is simply amazing and almost every frame seems like a street photography masterpiece. Sadly the characters are extremely lacking in depth and personality. I didn't care about any of the characters and that is really a failing of the film. In particular the character played by the nanny was very dull Bland and boring, and where as I could see that this was possibly quite an accurate portrayal of a particular character I don't think it to be a character that is worthy of seeing in a film.
Zerkalo (1975)
Lovely images - pretentious twaddle
Seriously people, a poem? You can't be serious.
The film has merits, some lovely shots, some good mood stuff, but I found it utterly painful and pretentious... self conscious and messy.
Apparently Tarkovsky stated that the artist himself does not necessarily know the meaning of an image but is compelled to express his vision. What a grandiose sense of self... guided by God, I suppose. Taking a pile of snippets of history and then blurting them out and sticking bits together with an almost invisible narrative does not make "poetry".
I didn't mind the occasional sloppy filmmaking, like the sight of the tracks on the right of frame in the last shot, or the microphone shadow in one of the dull dialogue scenes, but really did mind that it was just utterly painful to watch.
Perhaps I am not intelligent or deep enough to understand this poem. Or perhaps this is the most over-rated movie in history.
Top of the Lake (2013)
Elisabeth Moss awful actress - atmospheric, engaging show
Overall, the first season was really good. The script, cast, directing was all very good, keeping you engaged. My main gripe is Elisabeth Moss' acting. I became so aware of her interpreting the script and hamming out an over-acted, telegraphed version of what the script calls for, I had to laugh a few times. These moments are particularly when she is not talking. We can hear her silently repeating in her head "she looks thoughtfully across the room, then nods knowingly to herself..." It's almost a though she was acting for stage, just too blatant and obvious. Most of the rest of the cast were pretty good, at least not annoyingly bad. The best thing about the show is the creepy, seemingly lawless sub culture of kiwi rednecks and a cult of damaged (by men) women. Champion seems to like stories about men being brutal and cruel towards women for some reason... but it is a good story (The Piano was masterful).
Suicide Squad (2016)
Abysmal predictable rubbish
WOW! WHAT UTTER RUBBISH!!! Seriously, this is one of the worst action hero movies I have ever seen... nope, it is THE worst. An abysmal insult to the intelligence of an average person. Every move is totally predictable. It is filled with clichés and has absolutely nothing one could say in it's favour. The roles played by the villain heroes were all cardboard cut-outs and you felt you could write their next line before they even spoke it, it was THAT BAD. One becomes so conscious of the contrived, staged nature of this "badass team" that you can almost hear the director/hairstylist/set dresser running around just off camera. Suspended belief is usually because a story is so fantastical that you make allowances for the way laws of physics can be broken, and you still become enchanted, wrapped up in a movie that has merit. This movie has none, and the suspended belief I found myself having to constantly endure and overcome was the belief that this was a story worth caring about. So shallow and vacuous is this plot that all you can see is a movie that fails dismally at drawing you in. I did not care at all about the characters, their loved ones, their children... 1/10 is generous.
Il racconto dei racconti - Tale of Tales (2015)
Great film with an unsatisfying ending
The film is beautifully made, well filmed, surprises and entertains the whole way through. When it ended I was convinced this had to be part 1 of some trilogy, because the three separate stories that are told do not have anything (really) to do with one another. There are a few common themes, but the brain will perform wonders to make up connections that are not intended or where intended to be vague and iffy. The acting fluctuates from great to a bit cardboard-cutout, like the mother of the albino prince... and the albino twins themselves, though their on screen awkwardness added to the oddness of the narrative. It's definitely worth seeing on the big screen, sit close up and enjoy, but could have been a lot better if there had been a reason for three separate stories being told and not woven together.
Knight of Cups (2015)
pedestrian in message, visually interesting, boring after 12 minutes
Firstly, a spoiler alert is entirely irrelevant. The movie says one thing, over and over and over and over and over... etc. It does it well, in pretty pictures, and is intriguing for about 12 minutes, but then you start wondering why you decided to come see this movie, oh yes, the director, the cast... yes... so you wait to see Cate and Natalie, you wait a while, they come and go, don't add anything, because there isn't a plot to add anything to, so you wait for the end to come, hoping that perhaps there will be more than a singular point to this movie. There isn't. It is not worth seeing, unless you like pretty pictures and hearing the same thing again and again.
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013)
Meh film of little warmth and compassion
I have just watched ILD and am disappointed. I generally love the Coen brothers, but this was decidedly lacking. Lacking in anything special, or anything particularly interesting. The film craftsmanship is typically good, well shot, well acted etc, but I did not care too much for the well being of our main character... whether he became homeless, lost the cat, lost his mind, I really did not care. For that, I blame the un likability of Llewyn. I wonder why he did not travel to see his 2 year old child? We go the point, him being a loser, early on, and nothing much else happened. I have seen slower paced films which i found far more engaging, for example, LOCKE, which is fantastic, and features simply a man in a car talking on the phone... for the WHOLE movie. That is way more powerful than this film, and I put that down to a lack of empathy one experiences when following the life of Lewyn Davis. His dilemmas, whether to quit or not, and whether to compromise his art to make money, are universal, but we don't really get INSIDE Lewyn Davis, certainly not enough to really care.
American Sniper (2014)
Clint Eastwood has lost the plot... poor show!!
Usually Clint makes intelligent, well conceived and executed films. This is a major exception to that rule.
I am quite shocked at the degree to which American Nationalism seeps into the core of this film, and even more surprised it would be considered for an Academy Award.
There's nothing wrong with the premise of the film, and the technical execution is great... it is what the plot does, and more what it does NOT do, which is such a disappointment.
The issue of America's appalling track record of interference and manipulation in Asia is well known and documented, but aside from a few subtle comments from minor characters in the movie, the presiding flavour is one of heroism and sacrifice. That, is offensive to most the people living on this planet, myself included.
The flag waving and conversation about "em savages" would all be well and good... IF it was done ironically, or to counterpoint the underlying message that a war like that is pointless, destructive, if not illegal. Those sentiments do not come across. There was no attempt to show the Iraqi people as normal people who just want to live their lives with their families, in peace. The only time we see an Iraqi family who show kindness to the American troops by offering them a meal, guess what? They turn out to be "evildoers, terrorists, on the side of the bad guys."
Awful, Mr Eastwood, seriously bad.
Neighbors (2014)
Very average & clichéd - with the usual irrelevant Jewish references
There were some funny bits in this movie, Seth and Rose do a good job, both very accomplished actors. I got the feeling that the plot was pandering to the fraternity crowd, with the excessively long scenes of wild party stuff, irrelevant to the plot. The other type of pandering, which seems ever more important in American movies, is to SOMEHOW mention that the main actor is Jewish. God knows why this now seems to be a RULE in Hollywood - perhaps a cynical ploy to get the (often Jewish) reviewer's nod or something... but it is most usually utterly irrelevant to the story, but seems necessary "for some reason"... financial success is my guess.... I find this really annoying. There are over a hundred completely different nationalities on the planet, why do at least 65% of the movies I see, like this one, make reference to being Jewish?
Anyhow, this is a common gripe with these commercial movies. This movie is OK... just OK. Acting excellent, script pretty crap.
Life Unexpected (2010)
Good but REALLY annoying - should be called incredible lies...
I am not surprised this show got shut down after two years. It has great potential but has several major problems.
1/ relying way too much on the often implausible hiding of truth is frustrating when there is so much potential with some good plot line... a but of an easy option for creating tension.
2/ the story line skirts between cheap daytime TV soap drama and some insightful moments.
3/ the characters flip between being idiotic, pouting morons and offering poignant vignettes... all very frustrating.
4/ nobody EVER kisses Lux... this is extremely weird, what kind of family is that, that do not kiss each other??? very odd and utterly unnatural.
Pity, it had potential. And BOOO to CBS for pulling it before things resolved, only 6 weeks before the season end.
Noah (2014)
Heavy handed and shallow - dismally poor storytelling
First off, there is no need for a spoiler alert for this film. The animals come in two by two, there is a massive flood, they survive on the boat... yada yada...
The movie fails to address basic questions, why did Noah interpret "god's word" in the way he did, and why did he come to the conclusion it was god's will to punish ALL people, and therefore he had to murder his son's twin daughters to obey god...
The idea of a god who would do this is ridiculous, but the biblical story of Noah is obviously not true, and casts the image of a very black and white god, who would see all the people on earth as "bad" and save a small family, no wait, not the whole family, Noah's father was not good enough to be saved, so he had to die too... minor detail, the issue is never addressed at all.
The utterly bombastic effects and sensationalist heavy movie came no where near explaining or even giving us an indication of what may have caused people to do what they did, we were just to assume that Noah was very pious, and would rather murder children than not do what he (incorrectly) interpreted god to say/mean.
The reason for this disregard for subplot is that there is no place for it. This is an action movie with zero depth and understanding of humanity. The brush strokes are thick and stupid, and if there was an antonym for masterpiece, this would be it.
Kelly + Victor (2012)
Misguided film-making - predictably dire - spoiler
I saw this last night, and was impressed by the grittiness, good acting and directing.
There seems to be a misguided notion in certain circles of British and European Indie film-making circles that a messed up tragedy is "higher art" than something which has a more positive outcome.
Why, oh why would I actually WANT to see a movie which offers very little other than a display of lost individuals who make idiotic decisions? How does that enrich my life? Does it tell me that there are such moronic individuals on the planet, and if so, why would I want to waste my time watching a depressing movie, how does that help these actual people? It does not.
So then again, why would one watch this drivel? Like Breaking The Waves, it is a pathetic romance of being messed up, which belongs in the rubbish heap of misguided notions, like the one that you have to be tortured to be a worthwhile artist.
Give it a miss, go see something that is both gritty, intelligent as well as enlightened and uplifting. Why wouldn't you want that for yourself, I know I do.
The movie gets 0/10 for plot and 8/10 for the good acting. Pity the film-maker was so obsessed with an obsolete notion.
Gravity (2013)
Vacuous - just like space
What really perplexes me is how many people liked this movie. That it is nominated for Best Movie of the year... well, I am stunned, and have lost respect for the people who nominate movies for these awards.
The entire movie is a puerile string of calamities and relies entirely on Sandra Bullock's superb acting skills. The story? There isn't one really. It is a glitzy 3D orgy with a great actress and lame script... nothing more. How do I know the script is so empty, well, watch the movie in 2D and you will get the message pretty quickly. There is no story, it's like a long, boring computer game where one mishap after another besets you, and you have to do your best to survive.
The moments when Sandra B realises she will probably die and she begins hallucinating, are smattered with trite philosophical drivel... absolutely not credible, and seemed to pander to low-brow masses.
I did not see any of the 3D effects, which were probably fantastic. A movie HAS to be a lot more than the quality of the effects it throws at you to cover the lack of depth, plot, anything at all that challenges or reveals something. There was none of that worth watching or hearing. Sadly, this was a disappointing waste of $100m with some fantastic acting on a mediocre script.