Change Your Image
Graf_Z
Ratings
Most Recently Rated
Reviews
Together: Treble Winners (2024)
Skip the first 2-3 episodes, then you'll enjoy it.
If you want a really good Man City documentary, watch Together on their youtube channel for free.
They tried to recapture the magic, but the first two episodes are unwatchable, it's pointless marketing nonsense, there's very little understanding or appreciation for the game or the talent that goes in. This feels like it was made by the marketing department, no one else.
The worst of it is that they are trying to make everyone like it, and the result is just bland. It's not horrible, but as a fan of the game, I really don't want to listen to some journalist explaining what Champion's League is for a full minute.
All the things that worked in the original are out of tune here. That was a proper documentary, although it's on Youtube.
At first, this feels like content. Well-made and well-polished, but still just lifeless content, not a documentary.
Around the third episode, they tone down the nonsense and get back to football. There are still issues, there's still commentary from the two "reporters" who get plenty of airtime to say absolutely nothing of substance, but it's a mild annoyance.
The rest is about the football, the team, Pep's talks - all the things I loved about the original Together.
All-In (2021)
Not a good documentary
There's just too many things that don't make sense.
There's a ton of shots that physically could not be candid. There are whole sequences that had to be staged or at least rehearsed beforehand. And the whole thing seems very contrived. We're seeing only glimpses of real people, they seem very aware of the camera most of the time.
I also don't get how they got permission from the hotel unless they gave up final cut. I refuse to believe that a huge hotel would allow thing kind of filming without some guarantees that they will get positive publicity, and that's exactly what the movie delivers. What's the point of watching a hotel documentary that obviously had to be approved by the hotel?
The Orville (2017)
Season 3 killed the show
I don't know who wrote the last season, I hope it's not Seth Macfarlane himself. This is nothing like the previous two seasons, the brilliant storytelling with underlying themes turned into sanctimonious preaching with virtually no regard for the story itself. It's as if the writers come up with the sermon of the day and then outsource the actual story to interns. Who cares what happens or why as long as the Big Lesson is hammered into the audience's minds? It's too painful to watch, I'm giving up 15 minutes into s03e05.
RIP Orville.
Minamata (2020)
Waaay too preachy, but Johnny Depp is magnificent
I was giving this movie benefit of the doubt right until the credits line "In 2013, the Japanese Prime Minister declared that Japan had recovered from mercury pollution, denying the existence of the tens of thousands of victims who continue to suffer today".
I googled that statement, it was for a Minamata Convention on Mercury. It literally says "My heart goes out to those who are still fighting these illnesses as well as to their families."
It also says "The amount of mercury used in Japan has been reduced to 0.4% of the amount used in the 1960s, even though the size of the economy has grown enormously since that time. Japan experienced a crisis due to mercury and then recovered from it."
Why lie about words on record? To make the story more "relevant"? It sounds perfectly relevant without bs, without lying about things that do not require that. Also, a much better choice would have been to build the movie around the main character. Johnny Depp is doing a thing of his own in an otherwise formulaic movie, exploring a very complex character, and through him - the point and nature of photography, the meaning of work. Depp kind of stuff. Without it, it would have been just an insufferable very manipulative movie despite an incredibly interesting story.
If you wanna know the story, just get Smith's actual book ("Minamata: The Story of the Poisoning of a City, and of the People Who Choose to Carry the Burden of Courage")
Clarkson's Farm (2021)
It gets quite good, don't judge too quickly
It starts out rather wobbly with Clarkson's insufferable incompetence, get gets really good over time. He's his usual cocky self at first, but I think he gets genuinely humble along the way. And everyone helping him is just brilliant. They aren't presenters, they don't seem to show off, they are who they are and that's wonderful. There's a lot of humanity and humility there.
1971: The Year That Music Changed Everything (2021)
Way too uneven
The concept is interesting, the music is great, but it feels like the creators had to deliver a certain number of episodes, so it became a free-for-all. They just can't seem to pick a lane. Let's do a documentary on Rolling Stones, let's do some historical context, let's do some social commentary, let's do one about black people. There's no natural flow or consistency there. It's not a coherent body of work consisting of 8 episodes, it's a collection of 8 episodes loosely held together by the fact that it's 1971. Some of them are great, some miss the mark so widely it's painful to watch.
Admirable effort, mediocre result. Definitely better than nothing, but so much wasted potential.
Nobody (2021)
Good old action
The best thing about this movie (besides the brilliant Bob Odenkirk) is that it doesn't pretend to be something it's not. It's just pure well-executed action. There's no strained motivation, no tired plotlines about a guy getting revenge for a dead girlfriend or some other bs. Nobody drags an unwilling hero out of retirement. Everyone is willing to kick ass, and that's beautifully done. It's honest action for action's sake, that's what drives the movie in general and characters in particular. I just loved the honesty of the whole thing, it was truly refreshing.
Sorry for the blasphemy, but I enjoyed almost as much as the first Die Hard.
The Grand Tour (2016)
Money can't buy inspiration
'member all those amazing Top Gear specials?
'member the emotion-filled tributes to Jags and Aston Martins?
'member the iconic celebrations of cars like Ferrari Daytona?
'member the ridiculous races?
'member the times when it was about the love of cars?
That was BBC, those were three honest petrolheads enjoying themselves and not giving a flying toss what anyone else thought. They also had to deal with budgetary and administrative constraints, which only spurred creativity.
This, however... This is a loud, very American commercial product that tries to compensate for the lack of inspiration with huge budgets. Like Hummer drivers.
These guys are really talented, but all life has been sucked out of them, all joy is gone. They are like cocaine addicts, just snorting more and more, being more and more outrageous just to feel anything, yet they never do.
Selling out to Amazon was a bad move. They should have gone back to basics and just had some fun, like they used to. But they made their choice, and that's the result. A very sad ending to an amazing trio.
The Grand Tour: The Colombia Special Part 1 (2019)
The magic is long gone, it's unwatchable and very sad
I was hoping for something at least watchable. But no...
It's not funny, utterly devoid of life, horribly boring, the whole thing looks and feels like a lobotomized version of the Bolivia special.
But the worst of it, they are not enjoying themselves. They pretend, but doing a horrible job. Grand Tour never got close to being really good, yet it was palatable, even fun at times. But now that post-BBC adrenaline has worn off, they just look sad. Hammond and Clarkson are especially painful to watch. Captain Slow is the only one who's still more or less himself, but that's not enough.
Jokes are stale and stupid. Everything is nauseatingly fake and makes no sense.
Guys, just stop. Stop torturing yourself, this is like watching drunk old Elvis singing some incomprehensible nonsense off-key.
Perfect Sense (2011)
A timeless fable about life and a litmus test for being human
This is not a love story, this is not a contagion story, this is a beautiful, accurate and honest depiction of what it means to be human. Of what keeps humanity afloat despite all the ignorance and hatred surrounding us. This movie helps to stay sane in this insane world, to not lose track of truly important things, all the things beyond fat and f...ing flour (you'll get that last bit once you watch it).
Ultimately, it's a fable. A fable about human life, about each and every one of us, about things we all go through at some point in our lives and the way we deal with them.
This movie is timeless. And flawless. Writing cuts to the bone, so does camerawork and direction. But what amazed me the most was acting. Everyone is great there, and you can feel the chemistry, but no-one can hold a candle to Eva Green. She's breathtaking. I cannot imagine anyone else in that role, she made it hers completely. As the movie itself, it's incredibly nuanced, it requires a certain level of taste and intelligence to understand (hence the average rating on imdb).
Anyway.
You will cry at the end. But you will smile doing it. And if you have someone to hug, make sure they are around. You'll really need a hug after it, you'll really need to feel connected to someone (if you're human, that is).
Wild Wild Country (2018)
Great documentary and an incredibly sad story
It's kinda funny in a perverse way how people of Antelope were railing about their way of life being destroyed by newcomers without even thinking how Americans destroyed the way of life of Native Americans. The Mayflower mentality, as Sheila put it. If only those hicks had the sense of just leaving them alone and letting those people live their lives the way they wanted, there wouldn't have been any conflict. They never wanted to take over anything, yet every step of the way they were confronted by bigots and racists. And when patience doesn't work, when love doesn't work, when nothing works, what do you do? You devolve into chaos and violence. Very predictable and tragic.
It was really hard for me to watch sometimes, because racism and hatred won, the old white men and women in glasses won, and they keep winning, simply by dragging everyone into their gutter. And an idealistic movement of extreme individualists lost. It was painted as a cult for years and eventually became one. It was painted as a public menace for years and eventually became one.
I'm sure it wasn't perfect, and I'm sure it was no paradise on earth, and I'm sure it would have eventually collapsed anyway, as all idealistic constructs do, but why all the hatred? Why do these morality-obsessed people have this insatiable need to tell others how to live their lives and destroy those lives if they don't get their way? Those are rhetorical questions, and the scariest part is that they are as relevant today as they were almost 40 years ago.
A Good Year (2006)
Maybe not a cinematic masterpiece, but it's perfect.
Stop reading the reviews, just watch it.
Or don't =) It actually depends on what you want from it. you're not gonna get any plot twists, it's just not that kind of movie. the whole story becomes obvious after 10 minutes or so. but that's not the point. it's an experience. somewhere in the movie there's a line about enjoying simple pleasures of life. this film is exactly that kind of simple pleasure. and simple does not mean primitive by any means. it's obvious that the film has quite a few Prouste allusions, but they are not straightforward, just name of the wine or memories evoked by smells. every single frame is like a bite of something incredibly tasty. if you know this feeling, if you are able to enjoy it, then you should definitely watch the movie.
This movie might not be a cinematic masterpiece, but it's perfect. Cast is perfect, music is perfect, directing is perfect (it's an incredible feeling, when you're sitting in front of a TV and feel the heat, smell lavender and taste the wine). You know, whatever may seem artificial in other movies, works here. Everything works here, absolutely everything.