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Reviews
Mr. Monk's Last Case: A Monk Movie (2023)
lazy writing all over. poor tony salhoub.
I don't know what to say. I wasn't expecting very much from this tv nostalgic movie, but even what was going was pretty lame story.
So let's start by asking what was the purpose of this movie ? And the answer is very clear: try to milk some nostalgic 'Mr Monk' fans.
As we see, since that the main purpose of this movie is just to exploit the fans, then the quality of the story is not important, or the integrity of the story is not important.
That put us in a situation where nothing in this movie is really important, but the nostalgic parts' like the re-introduction of randy, Nataly, and Leyland.
So since the story is not very important then what we are left with is some poorly crafted tv episode, when everyone know who is the bad guy in advance, and all we got to do is to wait till the film will be concluded.
The only redeeming g thing in this movies was the introduction of the 'dark Monk' persona, however since this behavior is so different from the monk we used to like in the TV show, then it is probably not going to be liked by the avid fans of monk.
I was missing Harold's character' (it is mention in monk's letter), since Harold became almost a regular character in the show last season.
So it's ok film for a Monk's fans, but with more budget and dedication, it could have been much more.
The Stand (1994)
good, althought spoiled by pg13 production, and (bad) misacting
This stand tv version was very entertaining. There was a nice flow of events, and there were some really nice moments when characters could prove their depth, and make you care about them.
Also the bad guys were pretty good including the main villain.
Unfortunately most of the stand , like many king books is about the build up, but the end is a bit disappointing, like many other kings books. King always claim that evil cannot prevail, because it sort of feeding on itself, from the moments are heroes, overcome their difficulties, passed their tests, and form a united front against Randal flag , god is standing with them and the outcome is already known.
So, what ruin it, or actually is well remembered thing about this production are the miscasting, or strangecasting of some of the use to be stars at this series. Mostly molly Ringgold , who is totally unfitting to her character, and then Cory nemec with his strange red zits, who vanished suddenly. And then we had other of over the top performances from other stars. We had pretty boy rob low playing deaf-mute character, ridiculed as "mini mouse" in some stage, and other very cringe performances by other characters.
Bright (2017)
mashing lotr with cops movies is not working in this movie
Bright is a mash of 2 different genres.
First, we have the good old cop movie being made like a 1000 times before. In this movie we have 2 different partners, that are not suppose to fit together, because they are too different - one is a veteran , the other a rookie. They are both from different races, one has a family the other is single, somehow they manage to become partners and best friends, and on the way they catch and neutralized a lot of bad guys.
The second genre is the lotr fantasy world, in which men are not alone. There are other races, there is magic, and there is an ongoing power struggle between the good and bad, that last of millennias.
So the idea of the movie was to somehow mash this two different genres together, and by that create something original that has not being done before.
The problem is that if we mash up a lotr fantasy and an action subgenre of cops drama, we are going to need a lot of glue - that means star power, over the top acting , and a lot of humor to overcome the absurdity of what is going on (see who framed roger rabbit, and the fifth element as an example). The problem is that the only star power here is will smith and he can't carry this movie by himself, and he is not adapting himself to this world - he basically just play the cop, that by chance is now part of this mashed world, but is basically your normally cops drama cop (he should have done more of the things he did in men in black when he was younger). There is also the tendency of this movie to take itself very seriously, which really makes it hard to watch, or show any interest in the silly plot.
The Mist (2017)
dissapointing
The mist could have easily cashed on the movie, but it didn't.
From some reason it decided to be more original, and decided to mix
the supernatural with the creatures horror. So that's how the mist became more similar to the fog movie then the mist movie. Beside that, the series had almost no buildup. So the mist is introduced earlier on, so that's left us with 9 chapters left to fill, and that's were the production lost its way, as expected.
Basically they divide the story to 2 locations - one is the church, very much like the fog movie, and the second the mall - very much like the supermarket in the mist movie.
Plot is then become more similar to the mist. The fanatics and lunatics are taking over. People are killing each other. People are more scary then the monsters out there. In the middle the plot is filled with some family drama, to which we really don't seem to care too much, since the main actors are so annoying , so we really don't care what will happen to them. The plot become more chaotic and there seem to be no resolution about what is the mist, and how to deal with it.
The end is also very weird, and doesn't make much sense, like the all series.
Trailer Park Boys: Jail (2021)
not the same without Jim Lahey and other TPB characters
What made TPB great was about serving the dish, while keeping all characters in the right dosage. Little bit of randy, a sparkle of Lucy, a few shots of Mr. Lahey, throw some Sam lasco in, some Phil colins, some ray, teaspoons of jayrok and t, mix some Sarah moment, caesar bits, and mix it with lot of Juliann, Richie , and bubbles, compare to that this dish has all the main ingredients , but kind of tasteless and lame. It look also like they run after ideas after few episode, and just improvised something for the rest. I don't know if that's the reason it is not on Netflix, because there are worst stuff showing there. I suspect the main reason was the luck of diversity , and no women, unlike in previews seasons (its mostly white men series).
Ted Lasso (2020)
very stupid and silly
Ted Lasso is supposed to be a sitcom about football (what Americans are calling soccer). As comedy its mostly unfunny (when the majority of laughs are probably exerted in its 1st season). As a drama about football, it looks like it was written by people who don't understand the game, and thus its pretty much insulting the game, and anybody who enjoy the game in every episode. Actually as soap opera it is doing a little bit better (with lot of hallmark sticky moments) . A lot of the series is revolving about how the americans are much more wise and balanced, and basically better then their unstable english partners, which probably appeal to the american audience. There are a lot of stereotypical characters , that are basically are quite annoying, because they always act the same way.
Since really the main conflicts of the show resolved already at the end of the first season, the next seasons had little to add, so they just added more woke and nonsense elements.
To sum it, I guess the first season is mostly watchable, even being quite dumb. Other seasons can be skipped.
En corps (2022)
Lack story and too predictable feel good movie
This film actually started promising with the ballet scene, but very early it was clear what is going to happen next. And After 20 minutes I knew exactly how it's going to end , and indeed no surprises. Everything I predicted happened.
I liked the photogenic like cations, and young people do look well on camera, but that's it. The reminder of this film was mostly looking like self promotion or documentary for the Israeli choreograph, and a lot of fillers in between the almost no existing plot.
So while the dancing parts are ok or entertaining at best, there isn't much else' to draw anyone in.
This film is Recommended ,I guess, for french people, who like to indulge on their high culture, or people who like modern dance. There is no much of actual film beside it.
Jericho (2006)
so bad it is good
What can I say abut this series ? It was suppose too be dark, and grim series, but because of clueless script writers, it became something like the A-team or MacGyver kind of a show.
Just an example of quote from chapter 6 : some dude say "so that's it - we are in war"
(that's happened after all USA was nuked and millions of people died, which the town people haven't shed much tears)
sometimes you want too pinch your self how bad this could be, like mayor settle an argument with his opponent by punching him in the gut (by thee way the other guy was 100% correct, blaming him for totally neglecting the hospital shelter). The mayor (the king) is also sick and can't function, but during this time of crisis refuse of let someone else run thee show, so his sons (the 2 princes the repented, and the sinner) try to run the show. While our princes save the day, most of the town does in this times of crisis is drink themselves to death at the local bar, that from some reason, accept their worthless dollar bills.... and so it goes and goes ..
and what about the women ? They are mostly manipulative beaches, that lure the horny dumb drunk country dude to their traps.. what about any wokness ? No - no woke - there is one black dude, but he is someone you really don't want too have as your neighbor, or in your neighborhood.
Ender's Game (2013)
total letdown
I did read the book years before they made the move, and back then i thought to my self "man this could be a killer film - a huge hit, like
harry potter in space". It took some time till this thought really fulfilled.
Unfortunately movie was a huge disappointment.
The reason were very obvious:
a. They really chopped important parts of the story, and characters
B. Casting was awful - Harrison ford is just look angry and grunting all the tome, so this is probably the guy that should have helped carry the film, and he is totally unlikable.
The main character casting wasn't that good either. I guess its not is fault that he grew liken in 30 centimeters during this film, but it looked weird, other kids were just carton figures.
C, script was thin, something to connect few scenes.
D, lot of things that were awkward in the book (12 years kids given full authorization to run the space flit, and all this advance weapon systems...) don't work on screen - its just look like a Disney movie for kids.
Katla (2021)
This could have worked much better as pure drama without the clones.
First of all, the location is amazing (10/10). Acting is pretty good.
The series has a lot of Stephen king vibes to it (although its Icelandic).
But unlike king's books, which are centered on the horror aspects, this really feels like a sort of a dark drama, when events are initiated by the appearance of human clones, that are somehow spewed out of the local katla volcano (hard to believe, and doesn't make much sense - even "pet cemetery" made more sense, because you had to burry someone there in order for him to come alive, and then he always turned evil) .and you can feel that it actually could have been the same or even better without them - i guess in this case it would never appear on NETFLIX.
So to sum it up - it is watchable. If you looking for horror, you will probably disappointed. Could have been better if it was chopped to 6 chapters without all the clone nonsense.
Awake (2021)
same post-apocalyptic formula we saw before.
I'm trying to remember how many post-apocalyptic titles came out with the
same "the girl with all the gifts" formula, and the list is getting larger with each year. This one is a new entry. The apocalypse happen this time because of some solar flare, that create sort of an EMp phenomena, and also prevent people from sleep, so we can say we are getting 2 apocalypse stories in one, but from some reason the movie choose to only relate to the sleep prevention one as the main apocalypse hazard, although the Emp impact seem to be much more threatening (no food supply for example).
Another difference is the girl race , who is hispanic this time and non black, if we compare to those creation like "the girl with all the gifts" and others similar entries (like "children of man" or "the passage" tv show).
So we have the girl, which doesn't do much, beside being what she is.
Then we have the non functioning mother (similar to those mothers we already encountered in similar titles like "swan song", which was probably the original, or the "passage" which copy a lot) and their sour face teenager brother.
The plot is as usual some voyage this family is taking, that will save the world. There is of course the NETFLIX wokeness that irritating (minorities are good, although they are criminals, and white are stupide/bad) eventually. I must admit that i fell asleep during this film 2 times, and i hope that i will finish it eventually, because it was so stupide and non interesting.
Uchuu Senkan Yamato 2202: Ai no Senshitachi (2017)
graphics was good, the story was not that good.
I guess, they could have made this series in 1 season instead of 3.
There is not enough story to hold for 3 seasons, so instead we got endless
repeating space battles, and some fillers in between. Introducing a lot of new characters doesn't help either , cause we not care about them, and they mostly disappear in after few chapters.
To sum it - it is not battleship yamamomo, it might be better, if it will re-edit, removing lots of unnecessary repeating moments , and endless battles,
The White Tiger (2021)
Netflix PC version of the book.
Movie adaptation was good.
However the book is much more darker then the Netflix soften version.
Netflix version, however being close to the book, makes this guy an Hindu robin hood, while in fact his character and motives in the book are much more selfish, and hatefully then its character in the movie.
Anyway i enjoyed both versions.
Hokuto no Ken 2 (1987)
Only for avid fans of the first series
This series act as a sequel to the first series, and take about 10 years in the
future. ken is back after living in exile, and save the world again.
the plot is very similar to the first series. ken need to beat a line of bosses
from the easy weaker ones, to the stronger ones. like the first series, he gain more and more powers on the way, that allow him to defeat even the strongest foe.
there is basically nothing new here - you got those supporting characters who starting as foe, continue as friends, and ended up dead as before. the downside of this series that characters are not interesting, and you don't care about them.
lin is just princess lea character/sleeping beauty clone , and bart has only small and almost meaningless role at the first act. as i mention they do try this time to copy some starwars return of the jedi elements, including the villain who look like darth vader, and story about the evil part of the north star versus the good part of the north star, and they even had some guys look like yoda. as i mention the story was not very thrilling, since they didn't manage to build reliable and human characters. there was no humor, and almost no romance, not a boob, and all the family story sub plot at the end seemed very forced. even the violence became more like starwars jedi style, instead of the karate.
for conclusion - this series is more for avid fans. i found myself skipping the last chapters, because they were basically just prolonging the end , when it was clear what the end is going to be.
Dark (2017)
i liked the "dark" concept , however it should have ended after 1st season thought
Pro :
1. European dark atmosphere (to those who like it).
2. New take on time travel.
3. it does raise some interesting philosophic and moral issues from time to time.
cons:
1. acting is problematic ( i guess its because this is the German culture)
2. drags , and getting too convoluted (season 3)
conclusion :
season 1 was great. should have left the story as his.
Seinfeld: The Raincoats (1994)
if you ever watched Schindler's List you will be disgusted with jerry seinfeld for ever
If you haven't watch this movie, or you are not familiar with story that's ok for you to laugh, but if you watched , you are probably going to identify with jerri's parents.
Snowpiercer (2020)
netflix should have released it for binge-watching
As a one week release it is pretty weak, and not interesting.
but i think if it was released fully , it would have been great for binge-watching.
while the premise, is good and proven, and jeniffer conely still looking pretty good for her age , the problem is the all detective story is really corny and done before , and we got the classes gap thing already, and then why netfllix is constantly insist on casting black actors everywhere, and showing mixed couples, and gays and lesbians, like we are in some democrats party Raleigh. this all forced political agenda doesn't help the story very much.
Dérapages (2020)
french trying to do breaking bad/ozark
So what can i say about this series ?
it is french, but uses the american breaking bad formula.
we have eric cantona as the hero - start as some kind of depressed loser
walter white, but turn into heisenberg character in 2 episodes.
that is one of the big problem about this show, because it took walter white couple of season to go this way. another problem that cantona range is from unlikable rude french to criminal selfish sociopath, and basically you really don't care about is character at all, unlike walter white's.
and who are the bad guys ? since we are in europe then instead the cartel we have a multi billion corporate, the probelm is that also non of them is interesting since their only purpuse is to be cantona's punch bag.
another problem is that the story is over the top and seem amusingly unreliable. this is ok in american series i guess, because americans are better in sugar coating their shows to drag you into them, even if you know how impossible the story really is, but in the french one , you become very much aware and irritated about the implausible of all this situations that cantona is going to.
for conclusion - it is watchable if you don't have nothing to do, but in the end , you just want it to be over.
Marco Polo (2014)
feel like an old HK exploitation movie
Its very much like those 70-80s exploitation movie like caligula, marco polo is just an excuse for showing lot of extreme violence, and nude skinny asian girls (within netflix limits). i do remember the previous marco polo tv series , and it was much more interesting. i guess this one was intended more for the YA crowd, and guys who like asian chicks. basically i use a lot of netflix shows to get me to sleep. it took some time for this one to do the trick.
Vis a vis (2015)
first season great, second very good, third ok, fourth - not worth watching.
First season had what every WIP flick should have : great cute bimbo heroin ,violence, lesbo sex, tits and ass, sadistic guards, and of course the prison break.
second season was very good, but had no tits and ass, less lesbo stuff, but lot more violence instead.
third season was even more sterile, and without the star macarena. instead we got a lot more of crazy zulema instead ....
fourth season started really bad... so that's was it for me....
The OA (2016)
season one was great - season 2 is ok at best
I really enjoyed the first season.
it was not the standard "super hero" kids stuff you are seeing today all over.
i guess it was more like the "lost" type of series meeting K-PAX, but much more tight, and interesting, with a great lead role, and supporting actors.
and i did liked the open ending , it wasn't clear if this is a science fiction series, or a drama series
i also did like the 2 stories - and the story within a story concept. every week you learned more about the lead character, and sympathized with the other roles.
and i did like the performance from the lead actor , and other actor.
and even the unfinished/uncleared mysterious ending.
season 2 was so far a huge step back. now its not a mystery any more - it is indeed a sci fi TV series, and lost its originality (they are doing the parallel dimension shtick again !), so now we have the 2 disconnected stories, that will collide eventually. the problem is that they are not very interesting any more.
it looks like one of the stories only purpose is to promote a netflix PC policy,
by putting a black guy at the lead (not very good) , add some more blacks, and orientals ,and then add the racist card , with the bad white racist cups ...
(and we saw it so many times already with netflix shows)
again, this very lazy, and doesn't do anything good to the show.
the other story is basically a repeat of the story within story of the first show (like watching prison break repast the same plot withthe same characters in different location) , but when everything is already explained to us from the beginning, and if we didn't understand what happen, they are going to repeat it for us every time. again this is very lazy writing. and it really looks like they just cashing in on the first series now.
so, you should defiantly watch the first season, watch the second only for the binge worthiness of it.
The Last Ship (2014)
it should have ended after the first 8 episodes.
the last ship is a harmless fun. if you are bored, and have nothing to do its something that can pass your time, however if you look for more then this, then you will be disappointed. basically, its the "battlestar galactica" plot, but not in space. the characters, as expected, are one dimensional cardboard made. there are a lot of potential "redshirts" characters, that you don't care about , that might be killed in any moment. there are lots of cool detonation and firing , specially at the start of season 1, that draw attention, but without them the series has little much to offer. the main plot line of the series is finding the vaccine, and by episode 7 , not that it already was found but also the evil Russians were demolished, by the end of episode 8 we just lost all the major plot lines, and now the series tried to look for some new ones, which were less appealing. i must say that i really lost interest, when they reached the shore, and the plot became totally ridiculous. so i would recommend to watch the first 7-8 episodes, but not the rest.
Vacation (2015)
actually need to be a grown up to appreciative this.
i know for that some people, this movie is a poor remake of the original vacation series.
in most parts vacation seems to be a really stupid typical American comedy, but it is quite funny (tend to slapstick) and full of good intentions, with life wisdom.
the best moments of this comedy comes pretty late, thanks for a few great chevy chase & beverly d'angelo lines.
this guys are actually gonna make everything turn OK, in the end.
i really liked the family - they were doing great job. ed and Christina and the kids. they were looking very real, like a normal dysfunction family.
hope to see the sequel.
Fear the Walking Dead (2015)
OK for this type of fiction
i like zombies flick - usually they are entertaining, if you don't take them very seriously, and you want to burn some spare time.
so i've seen the first 5 chapter - they were all OK - not something special, but not something bad.
basically, doing this kind of fiction is supposed to be really easy. all you got to is to replicate romero's "day of the dead" and his other films with perhaps some modern additions like "28 days later".
and for this you got to have a decent budget, and enough hype so people will buy in.
so this is what was done very well in "the walking dead" series. get this bunch of people : some are good, some are bad, but most of them are OK people, and get them through the zombies attacks.
but the problem with this kind of fiction, is that people are basically, like in a porn film, expecting to get the same "plot". yes they will accept to get minor changes to "spice up" the predictable plot, but if it will be a bit too many, then they will refuse to watch.
so far "fear" was mostly following the rules. the main problem so far with the series, in comparison to other similar flicks, was the idea not having any "good" or even "bad" characters, not even a "normal" characters - and that makes the audience start to root for the living dead instead for the heroes, and when that happens it's really not a good sign.
and why is that :
travis - (suppose to be a leader, but look helpless. can't even kill a zombie).
madison - (travis's girlfriend and right hand, but act like a bitch that nurses her spoiled kids, also aids a psychopath).
travis's other wife - another bitch, but has some functionality cause she can treat people.
the Mexican barber guy - is suppose to be the tough warrior, but turn out to be a psychopath who kidnap and torture American soldier for exchange to is ill wife.
there are 3 spoiled kids, that make you think where are the living dead when we need them.
"crave to power" crazy American militia guys - we saw them in all the similar flicks. here their motives are not really clear even after the last chapter.
Storage Wars: Hestered in the Highlands (2014)
this is the end (oe not ?)
this was the finale of season 5 or 6, was disappointing as was predictable. i think only 2 units were auctioned, so i guess it was really the leftovers of what they shoot.
hester was brought back, but he was just a gimmick. the guy is obviously out of this business, and just act like a cameo.
the good thing was that they got rid of the annoying padian woman. i don't know why she was brought, maybe to add more sex-appeal to the show, but she wasn't reliable at all .
the others players kept close to their role so nothing interesting really happened. everybody looked tired and so bored, so i think they probably know this is the last season for them. i guess this is the last year, or they are going to re-shuffle the all show with new actors.