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The Gentlemen (2019)
Hugh Grant with a terrible accent
If you want to see Hugh Grant do a terrible accent, this film is for you. He does a Cockney accent, which isn't bad in itself it is just that to do the accent he is pitching his voice up a few notes, which makes him sound stupid.
Actors who do not do their own accents often pitch up their voices, it is some sort of natural law. They think it sounds OK because in their head the ressonance sounds OK. Just like people who have a very nasal voice think it sounds marvellous, but viewers find it false.
At least the US actor didn't fall for doing a UK accent, thank God. Forgot his name, but he is still a good actor.
As for the film itself, forget it. Some good dialogue, very interesting ambience, etc, but just devoid of anything that makes you care. This is porn without the good parts.
Under the Banner of Heaven (2022)
Boring and too much religious storyline and dialogue
This series could have been cut a lot. The episodes could have been 45 minutes each, not 69 minutes. And fewer episodes needed. Slow burning here seems just slow.
The really annoying thing is all the religious dialogue. The writers should have focused more on the crime story, and less on trying to make a quasi Scandi Noir Slow Burning series where religious nutcases are the main feature.
This is not great writing at all. Narrative is slow, few on interesting characters. The detectives are OK but all the rest are religious nutcases. As we know, nutcases are allowed to act in a completely illogical and strange manner. And this series is also extremely strange. Not in a good way. Most of all it is boring. To be fair, the casting is good as they havbe managed to find actors who look like complete nutters. It is just too much. The director should have toned it down. He or she is probably an ex Mormon.
Not worth it unless you are especially interested in mormons. And even so, probably not worth it.
Dexter (2006)
High concept that is just plain boring
Watching Dexter is an exercise into boredom. What a boring series. The actor is not at fault but the writers. This series is so dragged out. So boring it is not even real.
The only thing that keeps one from turning it off is some hope that the premise will make the series exciting at some point. It doesn't. The acting is not very good, but then again they don't have much to work from. This is bad soap opera. In fact, soap opera is better.
With the premise, they could have done so much more. So much more excitement. So much more terror. But no. Lazy writing. North American shaite TV show, yet again. Just another example of how terrible most US writers of TV shows are. Thank God for Britain.
Big Sky (2020)
Soap opera pretending to be a high quality crime drama
You can't say that creator David E. Kelley is not good at creating story lines. But you can say that the story goes out of the window. There is no restraint. One just pushes and pushes.
I guess this is typical of TV series that runs over more than one season. One needs to milk it. But here they just seem to add too many characters just to get the right demographics in, for example. The main problem apart from a convoluted and unlikely plot is cardboard characters and cliched and unbelievable dialogue. Imagine if some talented British writer had written this based on the premise. It would certainly be better. USA is the home of the soap opera and superficial beauty. Britain is kitchen sink drama and ugly people. Truth.
The premise is not bad. And you do get quite a bit of excitement. The problem is that these writers treat TV drama like McDonalds treat food. Cardboard taste. This is old-school, bad soap opera from superficial North Americans. Compare to a tight and fascinating TV drama like Line of Duty. There is no comparison, and Line of Duty is not perfect by any means. Just that Britain has less air brushed actors, and writers who avoid most cliches.
Oh, and that actor playing a psycho cop, Lynch is his surname, he looks as if he is playing comedy while the others are playing US soap opera. I like him being so outré but he is obviously hamming it. Less is more, still. David E. Kelley should restrain himself, and work - not harder - but more intelligently. Perhaps he needs to stop thinking his audience are morons.
The Honourable Woman (2014)
Boring
Everybody praises the script, the direction (by the writer) and the acting. I think this TV series is overrated perhaps due to the fact that the writer knows a lot of people in the business, and is considered to be very clever.
Often, films and show trying to be clever and that has the right people get praises because those that praise are afraid of saying something against the others.
I am not going into the story here, let me just ask one question: why cast a US actress when the script calls out for a British actress? She may be a gifted actor but when focusing on speaking an accent that not comes naturally to her she would've needed to study and practice a lot more before filming. Not the only thing artificial about her interpretation. This is a detail but perhaps a telling one - just look at the way her feet are placed when standing on the podium and addressing an audience in episode one. Whoever stands like this? Is this the part or the actress? And on top of this you get a North American actress endulging in a British accent. Savourying e-v-e-r-y word like a ham actor. She is on a knife edge. The director should have pulled her down, but perhaps he adores her so much that he let her lose. A director should support their actors, but too much indulgence is dangerous.
The direction is not very good. Obviously the actors love the director and get very little friction. Particularly the lead. She has a free pass to over act as much as she wants. Sometimes directors need to reign people in. Sure, it is nice to see someone blossom on stage or screen, and with plenty of luvvie praise one can see that, but less is more. Stop using North American actors for British parts. And vice versa as the terrible TV show Code 100 shows us, for example.
The series could have a less indulgent pace, too. To me the show is just too slow and too trying-to-be different. A People who are in the business wil like it as they are required to do so. Regular viewers will object to the pace and the indulgent theatricality. If this is the future of BBC Drama, help!
The Hundred Code (2015)
Bad accents, poor writing, waste of time
The US accent that Brit actor Dominic Monaghan has managed to work out for this role is terrible. Why choose a British actor if the story needs a North American? They lose all naturality. They lose energy and truthfulness.
And why couldn't the cop be British, anyway?
Also, when Swedish actors must speak English, much get in the way of their acting. They think about the accent too much. Also because they are so pre-occupied by lowering the voice to be believable. Nyqvist (RIP) is not very good in close up scenes. He works everything too much, even if he tries to be even more low key than fellow Swede Stellan Skarsgaard.
I hopé we get rid of the ridiculous idea that all film actors need to speak with a whisper to be credible.
The killer is slick and non-interesting. This is a complete waste of time.
The wrtiting is terrible. Superficial dialogue and things that are unnecessary. Why does the Swedish cop need to be so antagonisttic to the NY cop from the first minute. This is not realistic. Why does the US cop insist on driving the Swedes's car? Realistic?
Forget about it.