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Reviews
The Matrix Resurrections (2021)
Please unresurrect it back!
This is the worst movie I've ever seen! An insult to the first Matrix and all those who were hooked by it 20 years ago. The 2nd and 3rd parts were not great either, but they look like masterpieces compared to this shlock. It's truly amazing how much Hollywood has gone downhill in 20 years. So sad...
The Right Stuff: Advent (2020)
An insult to von Braun
This episode was truly awful. The sooner this show is canceled, the better.
The Right Stuff (2020)
A boring family drama set in an alternate history universe
I had high hopes for this show, but boy, what a disappointment it proved to be. This sleazy melodrama has nothing to do with space or the actual lives of the first American astronauts. It's just a story of three American families from the late 1950s and the early 1960s who happen to have the names of Shepard, Glenn and Cooper (only these three astros are shown for the most part; the four other astros are ignored almost completely). It's extremely slow and boring to boot. Avoid at all costs!
The Durrells (2016)
"The Dumbbells" is horrible, a complete travesty of the original trilogy!
First, this series should have been called "The Dumbbells". It is absolutely disgusting, I just have no words to describe it. "Mother" is particularly bad – too loud and hysterical, a very unpleasant voice, terrible gestures and facial expressions. She is too young as well. The boy who plays "Gerry" is simply ugly and repulsive with his sickening smirk. Also, he speaks very fast, and is a terrible actor altogether. "Leslie" (I'll put all their names in quotes) is absolutely characterless and has zero personality. "Margo" is pretty, but her wooden face fails to express any emotions. "Larry" doesn't look like the real Larry at all. "Spiro" is too young (and too sexy), and when he looked at "Mother" on the road during their first meeting, I thought he would screw her right away. Disgusting. The creators of this show must have confused Spiro for Captain Creech, the old libertine. Everything is bad. How can Lee Durrell (or anyone else) possibly like this travesty?!
The first three episodes were awful. I repeat: AWFUL. The show looks like a bad parody of some kind. Nothing has remained of the original trilogy. All stories are completely different, a product of the sick imagination of the scriptwriters. How can they possibly claim that this series is based on the original books?! It's definitely not. The names of characters and the place and time of action are the same, and that's all. The story in itself is bad as well. We see no animals, no sun, no warmth, no idyll. Half of the time is spent in a gloomy house, which eventually collapses. Everyone is shouting loudly and hysterically at each other. Everyone but little "Gerry" with his idiotic smile – he seems to be mentally retarded or something. This show is a grave insult to Gerald Durrell's memory and legacy. Its creators should be ashamed of it. Hopefully, something happens and they never get it to show any further episodes. This abomination must be cancelled immediately!
What is particularly disconcerting about this nightmare is that its creators did not bother to check some elementary facts about the Durrell family. Thus, in the series, "Mother" claims that she gave birth to her first child 21 years ago, which is wrong: it actually happened 23 years ago. Also, the description of the series says that Larry was 21 years old, and Gerry was 11. In reality, Larry (the first child) was 23 in 1935, and Gerry was 10. Gerry's and Larry's ages are even mentioned at the very beginning of "My Family and Other Animals". How could the scriptwriters have failed to notice that? They obviously never read the original trilogy. The ages of Margo and Leslie as given in the description are wrong as well.
As I have already mentioned, the actress who plays the "mother" is way too young. Louisa Durrell was 49 in 1935, while Keeley Hawes was 10 (!) years younger when they filmed it, and she looks even younger due to heavy makeup and plastic surgery. She could pass for Louisa's daughter. In Gerald Durrell's books, his mother looks and acts completely different. Hawes is totally unfit for this role. She always shouts, gesticulates and weeps, and sometimes even goes into fits of hysterics. On several occasions, I was afraid she would kill herself or one of her children. Hawes is probably not a bad actress (but not great either), and she would look fine in the role of, say, Anna Karenina, a hysterical and mentally unbalanced woman who eventually jumped under a train. But the role of gentle and wonderful Mrs. Louisa Durrell is certainly not for her. She should be ashamed of her pitiful and disastrous performance.
Generally, the original books are about little Gerry, and all events are shown through his eyes. This series, however, is focused on the "mother", and is basically a story of her (love) life. "Gerry" is barely shown, and when it happens, he just quickly says his lines, as if he were in a hurry, and then disappears again for half of the episode. Also, as I have already said, all stories are made up and do not appear in Gerald Durrell's books. The plot is completely different (Did Larry really have a burst appendicitis in the books?). This series is NOT based on the Corfu trilogy.
I think I'll just watch again the wonderful 1987 series with Hannah Gordon and Brian Blessed. A brilliant production, always a pleasure to watch. (The 2005 film, on the other hand, was a huge disappointment.)
My advice to everyone is: Read the original trilogy, watch the 1987 series, and ignore this garbage.
0 out of 10 (1 is too much for this abomination).