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Reviews
Lore (2017)
Awful
The narration and story telling are awful. Considering this is done by Amazon I would have expected much better.
There is a podcast called Dark Histories (@DarkHistories on YouTube) which is done as a side project by one person and it is superior to this show.
I have been watching that for years so when I heard Lore as a similar concept of telling historical horror events it sounded interesting. Other reviews talk about the narration dropping off after series 1 which must be really bad because series 1 narration is so bad. Very bad speaking style considering the subject and it seems like the person had never narrated a show before. Again, seems weird that this person passed the audition.
The storytelling is also bad. It's rushed, over the top, with poor sound effects that are annoying and do not instill horror. Someone tell the creators that less can be more.
The Bad Batch (2016)
Yes slow, artsy, but good
I saw another review of this that pointed to negative reviews as Marvel lovers that were expecting Mad Max 4 with endless big explosions. And I think that is pretty accurate. The only thing related to Mad Max is the dystopian aspect and nothing more.
This movie is slow and drawn out as the protagonist tries to find her identity in a prison wasteland between two groups. The vibes I get from this are much closer to Natural Born Killers. The characters are interesting, nuanced and it takes time for you to get to know them and what to expect. If you want bad guys vs good guys, this isn't for you. If you are okay with artsy and violent then this could be right up your alley.
The Great Escapists (2021)
Too Contrived and technical issues
The show is presented as a story as the means to show off building contraptions. They did this as purely documentary type filmmaking has already been done on this subject such as mythbusters and duct tape island. The problem is that it is overly contrived and not very entertaining. The broad concepts aren't amusing however there are a lot of more subtle jokes and dialogue that is pretty funny.
Technically there is one big problem, the color grading is horrible. It wasn't a style choice because some shots are more contrasty and saturated. Most of the scenes are very grey, unsaturated and seem barely adjusted above plain log c. On a tropical island I really want to see the blues of the water and green of the vegetation and it's not there.
James May: Oh Cook! (2020)
May greater than Ramsay
Perhaps May was inspired to get in to foodtribe and this show after making a better fish pie than Ramsay while drunk.
Anyway, I have always loved him as a presenter from toy stories and man lab. He has a knack for speaking while performing a task and makes his adventure in cooking very fun to watch. Especially because he is very passionate about it. The show is informative, it is funny, and it makes fun of traditional cooking shows by including the crew with more amusing banter.
If you liked previous May shows you will like this.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Mad Max: Beyond Stupid
When this first came out I had no interest in seeing it because it looked so stupid. Four years later it is free on Hulu and based on high reviews, also that I found out it is the original director, I thought I'd give it a shot.
As others with real reviews have stated, it is one long car chase with constant explosions and extreme re-dick-ulous-ness. Alternatively, lot of people seem to love this movie for action and cinematography. However, the same type of bizarre car getting blown up over and over again is boring. Also the cinematography is not great. It is filmed with ultra dynamic range and there is little contrast (most certainly not shot with REDs). I don't call that good cinematography, just a stylized quality that makes it look like a real time rendered video game. In fact I would say that the action and camera work is atrocious because they need to rely on many fast cuts to hide none existent practical effects.
Also, I don't get the premise because it doesn't seem to have anything to do with the Max from the previous movies. This is more like an alternate universe where, despite limited resources in a post apocalyptic world, there are unlimited resources and Max has zero resemblance to the original Max. Also, somebody should have told Hardy that he is not playing Batman. He can speak in a normal voice and not grunt out overly raspy lines. They took about 66% of the way through the film to even start with any resemblance of character development and even then there really isn't any.
So basically, the action is dumb (and very, very repetitive), there is nothing interesting about the characters or dialog, and there is no plot at all. I mean none at all. Start driving down the road with a big chase. Chat a little. Then turn around with a big chase. That is it.
Now, if you think that the Avengers is the greatest movie ever made, theeeeennn this is right up your alley. If you are moderately intelligent, then don't do what I did. Skip this movie for the rest of your life. It is not worth watching even once.