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mouldypeach
Reviews
Palm Royale (2024)
Lacklustre
On paper, Palm Royale should be a winner.
1969 Desperate Housewives meets Why Women Kill murder/mystery intrigue? I snapped up the first episode like a Gucci Croc handbag from an unknowing elderly relatives wardrobe.
Sadly this isn't on paper.
The show itself isn't a snappy as it seems to think it is; bright bouncing musical cues try their hardest to make you think you're watching a clever, camp dark comedy but the plethora of talent is wasted on poor dialogue and boring scenes that go nowhere. The framing is supposed to hook you in to the overarching "who is questioning the narrator and why" plot, but I couldn't be bothered to watch the next one.
Kristen Wiig flounders with a bad accent and minimal charm or bite. I simply don't believe the character is witty or scheming enough for either facet of her chatacter - Kaitlin Olsen would have been much better casting in her role.
I probably will watch the rest of the series, but not straight away as it'll take me a Grasshopper or two to get over the disappointment of this faded beauty queen of a show.
Road House (2024)
Funny and great fight choreo
Absolutely baffled by the low low score, this is a funny, breezy popcorn film.
Not sure if people expected a dark and gritty drama but that's not what this is.
Yes it could have been a bit shorter, but that's hardly a 2* offence.
Prime putting ads in the middle does NOT help the pacing at all.
Jakey G's Dalton is a charismatic and nonchalant ex UFC champion who goes down to Florida to help clean up a Road House infested with local lowlives. The shenanigans ensue and he finds himself the small towns protector.
As in the original movie, everyone recognises him on sight but at least they've made him a famous fighter, rather than Swayze being "a famous doorman"!
It's well worth your time, I laughed a lot and the fight choreography is impressive and immersive!
Definitely will be on my rewatch list.
Good Omens (2019)
Season 2 a real step down
There is no plot to spoil in Season 2 - it's just Staged with costumes.
By episode 4 it became an actual slog to get through the 'prequel' elements that did nothing to develop either the characters involved or the gossamer thin overarching story.
I have no doubt people heavily invested in the pairing of Aziraphale and Crowley will enjoy it, because it's all them, all the time.
In S1 we had several plotlines weaving together, culminating in Tadfield, with a sense of humour and a lot of tension, and the partnership of Sheen and Tennant was a great bit of chemistry.
In S2 because theyve litrrally gone 'off-book' there is just Sheen and Tennant and a wafer thin subplot with a bolted on 'romance'.
Missing a lot. Not least the great and grim turn from Anna Maxwell Martin.
9-1-1: Pay It Forward (2023)
Fantastic Emergency, Failure to Land
So this episode is getting beaten with low star ratings - somewhat, but not entirely unfairly.
The first 35 minutes of the episode are tense, with the spectacular practical effects we love from 911 and a real sense of "anything could happen" with everyone in true peril; I could absolutely believe that any one of the Main Characters were at risk of being killed off.
Then it was all hand-waved away and they were all home or out of hospital in a matter of hours despite life threatening injuries.
Karen and Hen have a lovely season end, and I'm so please Bobby and Athena get their cruise (although, that's got Speed 2: Cruise Control written all over it). Chim and Maddie, similarly in a great place and that's lovely - can't wait to see their wedding in S7.
However! 6B has once again relegated Eddie Diaz to basically a supporting character, and now he's been squished into a relationship with a woman that had worryingly strong chemistry with her brother's character...
Buck had all these indicators that he was growing up, that he was learning to be his own man and that was just punted into the sun as he falls into another relaationship with a woman from a call, and doesn't even choose his own couch in the end.
I'd also like to see them remember that Buck and Eddie are supposed to be these great friends - they barely even talk these days!
I'm glad it wasn't the last episode ever, because that would have been an unworthy ending to the 118.
Smother (2021)
S1 - A Very Bingeable Drama!
Each episode ends with a nice cliffhanger, the acting is uniformily good.
Absolutely solid storytelling.
Agree that there are a lot of clichés in it, but I certainly didn't guess the killer in S1, but also I didn't find it contrived when they were revealed (which can often be a problem with 'twisty turny' dramas).
It definitely doesn't deserve the low ratings that people have given it, in my opinion. Although I can see that Dervla's whispering could get on people's wick easily enough - thankfully I use subtitles so that doesn't impinge on my enjoyment, selfishly!
Perfectly diverting for fans of family dramas and rainswept cliffs.
God's Favorite Idiot (2022)
A Gem
So much better than I expected. Ben Falcone is charming and really funny.
A sweet, gentle comedy which does not deserve the slew of bad reviews it's received from people who haven't even seen it!
Moon Knight: The Goldfish Problem (2022)
Bonkers in the best way
The plot is unclear, the motives not yet explored, and the world messy.
But Oscar Isaac is INCREDIBLE, and gives such a powerhouse central performance as Steven, a seemingly relatively normal (if bumbling) man in a very very weird situation, that as soon as Ep1 ends I was desperate for E2.
Found myself rewatching E1 a few days later, which I hadn't really done since WandaVision.
Thrilled to see where it goes!
Chad (2021)
Don't understand the vitriol
It's fine, I've no idea what all these crazy people are going bananas about.
The Other One (2017)
Middle Class nonsense
Oh, aren't poor people rough and stupid? Aha hahaha
The sitcom about two families who are thrown together when their bigamist Husband/Dad dies.
Then there are various scrapes that the poor family ruin, and the upper middle class family are embarrassed and uptight about.
Weak BBC, weak.
The Lovebirds (2020)
Ultimately just boring
I was hopeful, going in to The Lovebirds, because I'd read reviews praising the chemistry and likeability of the leads. That they are likeable is true enough, and there are a couple of jokes in there somewhere too but the plot is weak and, for a short feature film, it dragged like hell. I thought it was about 25 minutes longer than it was.
The best bits are when they couple are just talking about their problems. They could have made a modern Before Sunrise, but instead they made a bellow average murder mystery.
Shame.
The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show (2020)
Hit and Miss
Some sketches are funny, particularly the parodies of infomercials and programmes. The looser concept sketches veer towards gross out and go on a bit long.
But its certainly not 1/10!
Holiday Rush (2019)
Unfortunately unlikable
With the exception of Sonequa Martin-Green, there is not a single likeable character. She must have been exhausted carrying the whole damn movie!
It's not a *bad* film, but it feels about 3 hours long and the hideously unpleasant child characters kind of make you hope they have a crummy christmas.
Worst of all, sadly, is the dad... sheesh... wooden as a door!