It has been a number of years since I've read the comic so my rose tinted glasses might be at full force but it seems like both of these movies gutted the comics they were based on. They kept the skeleton: the plot points and some of iconic images from the books, but they almost completely gutted the character development not only by excising most of the monologue but by hiring voice actors that just could not do their roles justice. So not only do you only get a glimpse of the rabbit hole but that glimpse is just a picture of the hole in poor lighting with a finger in the frame. One other problem that needs mentioning is that the pacing is really problematic as you'd expect from trying to fit 4 hours worth of material into 1.5 hours. But hey, who wants character development and media satire when you can have overly long, highly implausible action scenes.
Reviews
4 Reviews
The Fades
(2011)
Developed pretty well till episode 4 and then it was way too rushed
23 May 2013
All the problems with this show pretty much stem from the rushed ending. Through episode 4 everything was entertaining enough; probably an 8.3 or so but then the booster rockets ignited and a lot of weight (i.e. subplots and believability) were jettisoned in order to fit what probably was intended to be another seasons worth of plot into 2 episodes. So, most of the side characters became plot devices instead of people and what could have been somewhat believable developments, given enough time, became lobotomizingly absurd. It is a shame too because I think the writers had a lot more story to tell and they could write some believable and interesting characters. I think they knew they were going to be canceled though and decided to give some kind of ending even though it basically ruined it for me.
I can't recommend this show but there were some performances that I think are worth mentioning. Mac steels the show for me as his character is very well performed, mostly well written, and given some evocative scenes that left quite an impression. Neil, is another mostly well written character, well performed and is my favorite anti-hero of the show. Also, Anna and Paul need to be mentioned for similar reasons.
I can't recommend this show but there were some performances that I think are worth mentioning. Mac steels the show for me as his character is very well performed, mostly well written, and given some evocative scenes that left quite an impression. Neil, is another mostly well written character, well performed and is my favorite anti-hero of the show. Also, Anna and Paul need to be mentioned for similar reasons.
Portlandia
(2011–2018)
Mostly miss
26 January 2013
Portlandia is a version of anti-comedy that doesn't realize anti-comedy is only good about 1 out of 30 skits, not all of them. Anti-comedy is comedy that tries to be funny by not being funny or trying to be ironic and usually is not good. Sometimes the jokes are too front loaded, sometimes they are just flogged to death in the attempt of making something that isn't funny funny by repetition. So, basically this just didn't work for me. It might work for you; the closest thing off the top of my head is another show I didn't like: Curb Your Enthusiasm. I only watched one episode of Curb and only 3 of this so maybe it's not a good comparison.
Cape Fear
(1991)
I want 2 hours of my life back
7 June 2005
Warning: Spoilers
I'm surprised this movie is rated so highly, although if I were to go with typical grade scale 71 is a c- or d so perhaps that's all right but this movie was just a typical thriller except boringly slow and unrealistic. Not that a typical thriller is realistic but this one seemed to be trying to, and yet the woman who got rapped didn't press charges because she didn't want to be cross examined in a court even though she would be putting the man who broke her arm beat the crap out of her and raped her away for life not but also protecting the lawyer whom she had feelings for and his family not just random people she didn't even know. There were other similar problems with the movie which would have been all right if there was some kind of moral to take away from the movie but the few moral questions like whether it was right to try to kill/beat Kady before he did anything illegal were presented a little one sided since Kady ended up being just a crazed bastard bent on revenge so sure the lawyer was justified in protecting his family since waiting for Kady to actually rape his daughter so he could do something legally about it would be a bit absurd. So now I've just waisted more of my life for this stupid movie so please don't see it so at least your life won't be waisted and that way my 2 1/2 hours or so has meant something.
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