namob-43673 Reviews

The Acolyte (2024– )

high production value, but cringe and horrible dialogue

[2/10 · 5 June 2024]

There are a two positive traits here. The production value is (mostly) high, and as always with star wars the sound design and music score is fantastic.

Sadly the money spent on making this look and sound good is also the only positives.

From the very start the dialogue is so cringe inducing I was almost throwing up. This feels like it has been written by a 9yo fangirl of Darth Kennedy. Some tiny little girl, filled with hatred of star wars and loathing of Star Wars fans, became the acolyte of Kathleen Kennedy and was then given hundreds of millions to put her incoherent thoughts down as a TV show. That is what this feels like.

The story, as far is there is one, is likewise confusing and make little to no sense. The acting is so poor I can only deduce they found these "actors" (I use the term very loosely) in a parking lot at KFC.

This is so bad, so badly done, so badly acted, so cringe, that when you see this surrounded by high production value your brain goes tilt. There is a disconnect and weird feeling coming over you. How did this become made? And who green-lit throwing this much money at someones hateful school play?

I give an extra point for the production value and sound design, plus I could not help myself laughing at the bad acting and cringe dialogue. And laughter is always nice. But 2/10 do feel like a too high score.

This is really bad TV, with the worst acting ever seen on this level. If you like star wars, stay away from this disaster. And if you do watch leave your cringe-o-meter at home because it will explode.

Star Wars: Tales of the Empire (2024)

Long Live the Empire, long live Thrawn

[4/10 · 29 May 2024]

Over time I have come to the realisation that the Empire, if done correctly (Thrawn) is far preferable to the chaos that came with the (new) republic. Despite doing everything to sell us on the evils of the empire, that feeling of the Empire being the better option has been proven correct yet again.

Filoni used to have a glimmer about him, like he actually cared about Star Wars, and the characters. Once in a while he even produces close to masterpieces and Ahsoka is still a great character, perhaps the greatest in all of Star Wars. But here there is nothing but nothing burgers with a side order of 'who cares'.

Kinda cool getting some background story, and I always wondered what happened to Barriss, she had a great arc worth exploring. But since nothing of this really matters, and have no real impact on anything, I kept wondering; what is the point with this show? Where are we going with this? And the answer is; nowhere.

The visuals are mostly great, music and sound design is as always with Star Wars, immaculate. But spending time with this? These characters? Why?

And of course we now also gone completely overboard with pronouns. Half an episode I was completely confused, and had no idea what they were talking about, or how many They were...

Jedi's are now as confused as a blue haired Kennedy alumn.

What a shame.

I hope they write Thrawn in a way that he actually wins. This world desperately need som rework and some new ideas, and a proper real empire with proper leaders would go a long way on that path.

This is a waste of time and not worth seeing.

Primeval (2007–2011)

Really fun idea, great acting and lovely entertainment

[8/10 · 26 May 2024]

This lack a lot of production value, and the computer graphics are supbar. A few minor storylines could also be written or handled better.

With that said, this is still lovely entertainment and a really fun watch. The acting really sells it, and the main arc is amazing. This has a lot of originality and that, by itself, is worth a lot.

If I had to sell one idea, one previous TV show, to be rebooted and given new life, I would pick this one. So much one can do with this. So, so much.

The characters are amazing, the acting fantastic, and the "portal" thing, although not completely new (stargate etc) has so much potential I would have loved to see more.

My main complaint about this show is that they rush too fast. They jump back and forth, and every season feels very disconnected from the previous seasons. There is an entire world to be build here, but at the time no one thought like that, they only wanted an episode per week to be able to sell shaving cream. That is so sad.

I give this a 8/10. Perhaps that is slightly too generous, but compared to what we have today, this is a freaking masterpiece.

Fun and lovely, and can be watched by the whole family. Highly recommend.

Atlas (2024)

An okay little adventure

[5/10 · 26 May 2024]

I expected this to be as bad as Dune2, but of course nothing can be that putrified. Instead I was surprised that I almost liked this, it was almost okay.

The key word here is however "almost". This is almost good acted, it almost has good production value, the movie has almost good sound design, the story is almost good, JLo is okay too. There is always something lacking throughout this movie, like it is a teaser or the director refused to make it as good as it could have been.

A couple of things are really good, such as the computer graphics, and I also really liked the ending. But this is just average at best. Worth the ticket price? Well, maybe, you could definitely do worse and you will not fall asleep or roll your eyes as one would do during the Dune franchise.

I give this a 5/10. This is an inoffensive okay little adventure you can watch with your whole family. Today, that is almost an endorsement.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

Worst movie made sine Dune2, and almost as boring

[2/10 · 25 May 2024]

This is an autrocious movie with some of the worst acting I have ever seen. The production value is about on the same level as a 4th grade school play, camera work horrible, sound design abysmal, and the story, omg... the story...

Dune2 is the worst movie I have seen in years, and this is almost as bad, and in many ways very similar. Lots of sand, lots of bad acting, lots of evildoers who are extremely incompetent, lots of things that make no sense and plot holes in every corner. I didn't think Anna-Taylor Joy could make a mistake and be part of a horrible movie, but yet here we are.

Any redeeming traits? Well, this is unintentionally funny. The acting is so bad I was laughing out loud several times. This is an amazing movie to do a drinking game to - take a shot every time someone is bad at acting and you will be dead before the 40min mark.

A very generous 2/10 since it is not the worst movie I have seen. But this is bad, really, really awful. The kind of awful that make you feel sick.

Dark Matter (2024– )

Not bad, but cliche and another multiverse show

[6/10 · 23 May 2024]

I wish they'd done something different with the main premiss. Instead this show too, as so many others, and the entire MCU now, rely on the dumb theory, which is very likely to be untrue, and idea of the multiverse.

This is also much more drama than it is scify. Or at least it tries to be drama. The main actors pull it off, but enough of the side characters do not which make you roll your eyes. Another thing that bothers me is the abysmal sound design with bad irritating background music, horrible intro music, and each fight and run or even driving in a car lack professional sound design.

With those negatives out of the way, this is neither awful or bad. As long as the focus is on the main actors the show is even compelling and sometimes suspenseful. The show also take time setting things up, which I really like.

I guess they could take this show pretty much anywhere, which is the benefit of the multiverse - the multiverse is the lazy writers wet dream, can do anything with it. So perhaps I am too early to judge, but so far I am not too impressed and since the main premiss faulted I am giving this a reluctant 6/10. This is still better than most other TV shows nowadays, but that is more a testament on how bad entertainment has got rather than an endorsement of this show. This is good for what it is, and if you are a believer in the multiverse theory (seek help), then you might think this is a great show.

Married by Mistake (2023)

Charming and fun, but nothing special

[7/10 · 13 May 2024]

This is a charming movie and for the genre not bad, not bad at all. I actually enjoyed this movie and I think it is a fun watch, but this is not anything fantastic and except for the decent original idea, much here is kinda cliche.

Acting is good, even great most of the time. This has a lot of charm, and except for a few cliches and some minor unbelievable events, most of the movie is a fun watch. Where this fail is with the script. There are simply too many plot holes and too many times you go "that would never happen" or "How can they forget everything? They'd been drugged?"

They could have easily made this into a much better movie with some minor changes to the script and exchange a few of the cliches to something fresher. If they had, this would have been a great romantic comedy. Sadly they didn't so this is only watchable. I give this a generous 7/10 for the genre, as a movie perhaps the score should be lower, but as said; I enjoyed this. You can do far worse.

Abigail (2024)

Fun, entertaining, gory and kinda B-movie but still worth the watch

[7/10 · 12 May 2024]

A mixture of "Ready or Not" and "From Dusk until dawn" with an excellent Alisha playing the title character. Great acting, nice setting, entertaining, and a fun watch.

The negatives is mostly that this is predictable, slightly cliche and the movie does not really stick the landing. I also think this movie could have focused a bit more on either the horror gore aspect, or more on the fun comedy aspect. One or the other. Now it almost feels like this movie do not really know what it wants to be.

Worth a watch and not bad, but also not as original as the two movies mentioned above and could have been a lot better with minor changes.

Civil War (2024)

boring formulaic simplistic movie and Garlands worst

[3/10 · 15 April 2024]

The idea that journalist integrity exists in the US, or that journalism exist at all, is the laughable premiss of this badly made movie. The secondary premiss is that orange man is bad and if we do not watch out the poor, the oppressed, the robbed and the fooled might rebell against an authoritative evil president. Oh no, that would be horrible...

The movie is about getting our so called "journalists" from point A to Point B while listening to the two premisses mentioned above. This is, as you can imagine, a boring and a nonsensical format for a movie. This is also supposed to be an anti-war movie, or rather anti civil-war movie. On this it too fails spectacularly. All I saw was that a civil war is really needed in the US, even that a movie like this is made is a sign that it is needed.

So in essence this is a boring, extremely formulaic, very simplistic movie which tell us nothing of value and have a laughable premiss to begin with.

I could forgive some of this if the directing was good and the cinematography was excellent, but even there the movie fails. Yes, Garland can apparently make a bad movie.

The only positives I can think of is that the acting is okay, the dialogue is not horrible and camera work and sound design is okay. For those not so bad traits I give this a generous 3/10. I should probably give this a lower score, but kind of enjoyed this hoping this would happen in real life and of course hoping that the ruling elite and its current senile leader would be meet madame guillotine. Something popcorn friendly about that thought.

Fallout (2024– )

Absurd, ghoulish, and a gory world that seem scarily real

[8/10 · 11 April 2024]

This is in many ways great TV with plenty of absurd twists and lots of gore. The scary thing is that this feels real, like this is actually what we have to look forward to in our future. Kinda strange saying that since this is weird world with contradictions, and characters that both feels out of place and right at home at the same time.

I played Fallout 3 when that came out, pretty good game, but I am not really a fanboy or anything and never played anything before or after. But from what I can tell this is pretty close to that game and we get a lot of nuggets of game hints, lots of funny signs hanging on walls and a lot of tech directly game related.

Although this is based on a post-apocalyptic game and the show plays out in a ghoulish wasteland, I get more fantasy vibes. The hero need to gather a McGuffin and gather a team to go on a quest to find item A which will lead to the next quest and item B. It sounds a bit formulaic, and it sort of is. Probably my one big complaint that things move kinda linear and mostly one can figure out what will happen before it does. I could also complain about a few details, a few actors, and a couple of story-points are not hundred percent, but at the end of the day this is very well made, sky-high production value, with great music, and interesting characters.

The contradictions with happy peppy people getting their limbs cut off and evil folk being kind and animals getting slaughtered in one scene and eaten in the next, puppies incinerated while the doctor save another puppy. It is all very strange, and fits perfectly with the vibe of the games and the vibe of this show.

The first season (because there will be more) is far better than most things on TV today. Yea, it does not say so much because the competition is garbage, but this is more than watchable. This is good, even great at times. I give this a 8/10 and I am all for expanding on this universe. Give this a go, even if you do not like everything this is definitely entertaining.

Adventures in Babysitting (1987)

Classic 1980s movie that dwarfs anything contemporary

[7/10 · 7 April 2024]

One of my favourite movies of all time. The entire movie is just one big smile. This is so charming, so 1980s. The entire cast is perfect.

With that said this is also pretty campy and it did not really stand the test of time. Although this was part of my childhood and I still love this movie, if I saw it today I would probably not be as impressed. This especially goes for the production value which is very low, even the wardrobe department seem to have been low on funds. One could also pick apart certain scenes or nitpick, and if one does it does lower the score.

However this is pure 1980s brilliance. Growing up in that decade we had plenty of fantastic TV and movies, and this is certainly one of those. Even though the small negatives mentioned above is true, this is so much better than anything similar today. Put any contemporary TV or movie next to Adventures in Babysitting and the latter will shine like a masterpiece. Probably says more about the the modern state of affairs, but it also tell you a lot about this movie. Only the first 2min of intro music with Shue dancing is fantastic and give us the perfect introduction to several characters and immediately get us invested in the movie.

This is the perfect family movie, can be view by anyone at any time. I give this a 7/10 but it probably should be scored a lot higher compared to many movies of today. Highly recommend for the whole family.

Girls on Film (2023)

Bad acting, no chemistry and lack of direction

[3/10 · 5 April 2024]

This movie does not know what it wants to be. On one hand this is sort of romantic drama, but sometimes it wants to be a erotic thriller, or perhaps a character study, or perhaps a LGBTQ friendly movie just because. This movie should have picked one, preferably the erotic thriller path and it would have been so much better.

Another thing that bothers are the actresses. Neither one is bad, but neither one is very good either. And when they have zero chemistry it all just falls flat. The awkward kissing and "oh no, I touched a boob" look is about as sexy as watching paint dry.

The dialogue is subpar and the directing meh. I could go on and pick apart more of the movie, but if all you want to see is two beautiful girls pretending to be into each other I guess this is alright.

I fund this very boring, mainly because the movie never finds its path and sticks to it. 3/10 and impossible to recommend. There are far better acted and scripted porn to watch if you want.

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Best of the series so far and very entertaining

[8/10 · 30 March 2024]

This is very entertaining movie with lots of big boss fights and all the action you could possibly handle. Seeing this at the cinema was a great ride. Not perfect movie in any form or way, but having a few beers and watching big huge monsters fight is something special.

The negatives are that the CGi is not always perfect, but it does not matter too much. Another thing is that the first team going down under seem inadequate. Not really the people (at least not alone) you should send on this type of mission. The third thing is that things get a bit too much. The characters are over the top, the dentist dude is way over the top, the action is over the top. We do not only have big freaking monsters fighting, we have an ice monster aiming to bring in a new ice age, we have some alien things, weird anti gravity technology, and humans just happen to have a big freaking mechanical arm ready for Kong - which of course is a perfect fit. It all culminate in a enormous fight on Earth's surface which is also over the top.

Extremely entertaining, but otherwise kinda meh. Still the best of the franchise so far and it is hard to really complain.

This is not an intellectual movie, and will never win any awards, but whooooooo cares. You wanted a huge monster movie with big monsters fighting, and that is what you get.

8/10 for this type of movie, but a lower score otherwise. Also a must see in the theatre - the sound design is amazing.

The Rookie (2018– )

A bit too soapy and cliche but saved by great characters

[6/10 · 28 March 2024]

I was surprised that I generally like this show, but it is well acted, well directed, and have plenty of good characters to keep you invested.

The problem here is that the show turns into a regular day time soap opera fairly quickly and that the characters, albeit lovely and great, are also mostly just there and are just soapy rather than growing developing persons. Another issue I have with this show is the sound design and music, which is actually kinda bad. I almost get the feeling the show-runners want to portrait a 1970s cop show and put in music and sound design to match. This is also a bit cliche. Most storylines and events we have seen a hundred times over and together with the soapy feel the show often turns into a chore. My final objection is that these police officers are tasks with solving murders, being arson specialists, they go undercover, they work with the FBI, they interact with and interview serial killers, and they solve all types of crimes... but they are normal beat cops... normal officers. When they for the 111th time singlehandedly solve a murder I'm just so over it.

With that said this is still a okay/good TV, especially for today. Compared to most other shows today this is good. I am especially happy with the acting and general feel of the show. The directors use the "shaky cam" and "body cam" to almost perfection. Another thing which they nail is the extras and temporary actors playing villains, drug dealers etc. They are all very greatly cast and very well acted, and that helps immensely to sell the show.

I have a few other nitpicks and positives, but at the end of the day this is a well acted, good procedural drama that, despite the somewhat soapy feel and cliches, is worth a watch. Perhaps the only really negative thing to say is that it overstays its welcome. This show as gone on for too long already after 2 seasons, and currently we are on its 6th. Don't get me wrong, this is still watchable, but there is no reason to drag this out. The writing and acting is not that great.

Worth a watch and a 6/10 from me, but don't overthink it. What make this show work is the acting and the characters, but in the long run that is not enough.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024)

Cringe nostalgia, horrible characters and bad CGi

[3/10 · 27 March 2024]

This is not the worst movie I have seen, but this entire thing is so cringe that I was in perpetual state of "freezing" throughout the entire movie. Everything is supposed to be fan service but comes off more like a really badly acted and horribly scripted Scooby Do episode. The computer graphics is awful, the sound design abysmal, and the acting is average at best.

I suppose the humor is somewhat okay, I even laughed once. And except for the negatives already mentioned the rest is okay, or at least competent.

The worst of the movie though is the characters. The main "new" ghostbuster team are all really bad characters and generally badly written. The actors are not very good either, but I cannot blame them too much, it is the writing and the characters themselves which are really bad.

I think this is somewhat better than the two previous attempts of rejuvenating this franchise, but that is not saying much. I think if you are 12y and have never seen Ghostbusters before and have a very limited grasp of what a good movie is then you might enjoy this, but for the rest of humanity this is a really bad movie.

I give this a generous 3/10 because this is not completely awful and for a laugh or two. But I cannot recommend this nonsense - my cringe-o-meter has never gone higher.

White Collar (2009–2014)

Run of the mill cliche saved by the actors

[5/10 · 18 March 2024]

This is a piece of very inoffensive, somewhat charming, cliche TV with pretty good actors. Nothing here is exceptional, or even great, but very little is also bad or horrible. These types of shows have been made by the 100s by now, and they are basically all the same, they all end up in the same place, and they all drag too much because there is not enough writing material to sustain the show.

The main problem here is that the entire show is on repeat. If you have seen 2-3 episodes, you have seen them all. The small variations and some temporary actors replaced does not change the actual story. This get tiresome very quickly. Already after the first season we have seen the same story repeat itself a dozen times.

The second problem is that not only is the story on repeat, they also do all the cliches. Bored rich guy robbing banks; check. Sexy female cop undercover as prostitute; check. Fake bombings and fake deaths; check. And so on and so forth. All on repeat.

The great cast with excellent actors cannot save this, but they make it bearable. The charming character's with decently fun witty dialogue make this a decent watch. You can do worse, and if you have absolutely nothing else to do sure, put on an episode. But the complete lack of originality and all the cliches make this a chore. A 5/10, this is not bad, it is just bland and cliche.

Dune: Part Two (2024)

Really bad pretentious nonsense with the worst writing and worst villains possible

[2/10 · 9 March 2024]

The first movie was an artsy pretentious documentary rather than a sci-fi movie. Wherein the first movie probably had 1 hour of wasted time such as useless establishing shoots and lingering camera on people doing nothing, we do get a bit more of the story and overarching geopolitics in this movie. It is not enough, and we still have no clue about anything, but at least a small positive.

A lot of things is a lot worse here though. And we get even more things which are never explained. The scheming mother is over the top, and every time they fight or have a war scene I keep thinking: "so... where are all the high tech weapons that can track and detect and blow people up across the planet?" There are some Sci-fi weapons and shields and such of course, but these sand people would not stand a chance even against an army from earth, so how are they able to survive in these movies? How do people get up and down from the sand-worms? How do the shields work? Why are they fighting with swords and spears? Why can a baron kill a duke? How are things ruled? Why are the people living in this planet in the first place and why has no one offered them water in exchange for the spice? How does spice work? Etc. Etc. The questions are endless and absolutely nothing is explained. This is the movie with the most plot holes I have ever seen.

All the new characters are horrible with Walken as the biggest disappointment. Most deaths are underwhelming to say the least. And in the end this movie turns into some weird mix of GOT season 8 and Avatar, and no, that is not a good thing. The villains are the worst in movie history. Absolutely useless villains. We could just have skipped over all of them. These movies do not need the villains, they are just there to be killed as the useless crash test dummies as they are.

My final major complaint is that the editing feels wonky. It is almost like entire scenes are missing sometimes, and many jumps from one scene to the other is too abrupt. In the first movie we jumped from establish shoot to establishing shoot with looooong dragged out scenes, here it feels like they cut some of that out i.e. Perhaps they did not listen so much to the criticism but rather just cut out some unnecessary fluff.

This is really bad nonsense and complete waste of money. A very generous 2/10 for the cinematography.

Castle (2009–2016)

Great pilot, then mostly okay until it gets boring and repetitive

[6/10 · 9 March 2024]

This show is watchable. This is, for the most part, harmless family fun. If you have nothing else to do, this is a show you can always put on and be decently entertained by for a while.

Sadly they dragged things out for too long. As with most of these shows of similar premiss, they have material for 2-3 seasons and after that things go on repeat and everything starts to become very cliche. I also think they wasted Nathan Fillion's character a bit. In the first episode he is suave, rich playboy, careless and cool. He starts out as a fun male character. However as the show progress he becomes a source of jokes and weird theories and turns into a kinda lame character. There are exceptions as with his daughters kidnapping, but in general the character we see in the pilot is not the character we later get in the show - which I think is a shame.

As already mention the quality goes down with time, and although the show never stops being watchable, the cliche stories and repeating stories, almost make it a chore to watch and in the last season even boring.

Despite my small complaint about the titular character above, it is the characters that drive this show and make it entertaining. All the actors do a great job. This is mostly loveable fun and you can do a lot worse, but don't expect any amazing greatness.

A 6/10 and I recommend.

S.W.A.T. (2017– )

A joke of a show

[2/10 · 9 March 2024]

This entire show feels off, and this for many reasons. The acting is not very good, we get plenty of "racial drama" which seldom work, the storytelling is so predictable you only need to watch 2min at the start of each episode and then jump to the next because you know exactly what is going to happen.

The show often also have very cheesy scenes with clunky dialogue.

And as several has already pointed out, and this bothers me a lot; anyone can just walk right into their (sort of) secret headquarters - this includes relatives, friends, and even randoms.

And apparently SWAT is solving crimes now too. As as with CSI wherein the investigators solve all crimes instead of detectives and actual police, we here have the tactical unit solving crimes. They are not just there to breach homes or be snipers, oh no, here they also do almost all the work and fix the entire process of crime solving.

If this show had much better actors some of it could be salvaged, but sadly that is not the case. Instead the actors take the very often clunky dialogue and predictable story and make it even worse.

I see no reason to watch this. There is nothing here. Nothing is fun, funny, exciting, scary or entertaining. This is just predictable sludge.

2/10 and stay away from this nonsense.

Damsel (2024)

Extremely predictable Medieval copy of Ready or Not

[3/10 · 9 March 2024]

Think Ready or Not, in a more medieval setting, with a dragon. Then picture that with clunky dialogue, okayish acting, and a very boring dragged out and super predictable story. Well, there you have this movie.

Is this a bad movie? No, not really. Everything is sort of competent, or okay, but this could easily have been a 30min movie and a tv episode. There is no reason to drag things out as much as they do. And since everything is so predictable this is just a chore to watch. Of course we also get some obligatory diversity, and coupled with the clunky dialogue that part feels more off than usual.

The best with this is the dragon which was voiced to perfection.

I give this a 3/10. If you have absolutely nothing else to do, and you do not mind a bit of dragged out dullness then perhaps give this a go. If you want quality, great acting and a more fun entertaining movie I suggest you go watch Ready or Not instead. That was a good movie, this is, at best, okay.

Tomorrowland (2015)

Bad premiss, horrible Clooney but pretty fun movie anyway

[5/10 · 26 February 2024]

The main premiss of this movie is that the world is doomed for destruction because of global warming and overpopulation. Both notions are of course complete fiction and more laughable claims than anything in this movie. With that faulty premiss, we are then suppose to trust in... positive thinking... or something. Apparently kids can change the world and fix non-existing problems with a lovely attitude and with the help of a magical Mcguffin.

With this in mind we also get a very preachy, very overacting George Clooney who is acting the worst of his career.

With that said, this is still kinda fun. I enjoy most of this movie, and as long as Clooney is not in it too much and especially not talking this is a decent movie. This could easily have been excellent entertainment. Perhaps if the evil WEF and the actual global cooling (which is a real thing) would have been the center of attention, and if we exchanged Clooney for someone who can act, then suddenly you have a good movie. There are a few directorial misses too, so I would also change the director and then this would have been excellent.

As is I give this a 5/10. Not the worst, and not too bad. I would say this is watchable, but I cannot recommend.

Madame Web (2024)

Not a bad idea, but messy with horrible dialogue

[3/10 · 16 February 2024]

This movie rank among absolute garbage like Justice League, Love & Thunder, and Superman III. The script, directing, and everything cinematic in this movie is about as good as a 2nd grade production of King Lear, if it was shot on a cellphone... in the dark.

What make me a bit angry is that the idea is not bad, and since the actors are okay this could have been pretty okay. But looking at the bio of the director, writers and pretty much everyone involved in this disaster, then the mess of a film is partly explained - not a single good job among them. The only ones decently holding up are the actors. We know Dakota can act, and some of the others are not horrible either, but no one, not a ton of A-list stars could have even started to make this into something coherent and watchable.

The only thing that make sense is if someone deliberately wanted to make the worst superhero movie of all time, hired a lousy director and the worst writers team in living memory to accomplish this feat, and they almost pulled it off.

A very generous 3/10 because the acting and idea is good, but this is awful with atrocious dialogue.

The Menu (2022)

Partly saved by Fines and Anya, but still a pretty bad movie

[4/10 · 16 February 2024]

The concept here is pretty good. I love the idea. Most things cinematic works very well. And Ralph Fiennes, and Anya Taylor-Joy are both fantastic and almost manage to save this movie. Sadly this movie was executed in a bad way.

The main problem with the movie is that it has no point. I assume they are trying to tell us something or give us some revelation, but naha, nothing, nada. I also assume they wanted to chock us with some scenes and some events, but I was just watching my phone and yawning. The movie also tries to be clever, and even tries to be funny at times, it all fails.

Personally I blame the director. A bit of a script issue, but bringing all the pieces together and making this into a coherent well executed movie is the role of the director and that really fails. I would also say that some of the other actors weren't on point - it was almost like Fines and Anya were the only ones who liked being in this movie.

This movie is not horrible, but since it fails at everything it attempts to do and nothing really fun or insightful happens, I have a hard time giving this a better grade than 4/10. A great idea and two great actors do not make a movie, at least not in this case.

Taylor Tomlinson: Have It All (2024 TV Special)

Opposite of what I said - advice to Taylor

[5/10 · 15 February 2024]

The last special was to 80% great. When Taylor was talking psychology, pharmaceuticals, dead parents etc. It was fun, insightful and very good comedy at the same time. The other 20% was typical mainstream girl stand-up i.e. Relationship, male organs and dating and I found it very boring.

So I said in my review on that special just that, but did she listen? No. Instead she here does the complete opposite; takes the 20% that did not really work and is boring run of the mill girl stand-up and do a full hour of it. Why Taylor? Why?

Taylor Tomlinson is a comedic genius and is so funny, so insightful and can make a sponge laugh but for some reason she is dragging herself into the same corner as all other female comedians end up in. A lot of sex, a lot of phalluses, dating and all the rest. It is like female comedians think they cannot get the audience to listen unless they talk about orgasms. Why?

Talk politics, talk world affairs, make fun of dwarfs, or do anything but this. Taylor can do it for sure, and probably better than anyone else, sad that she does not.

With that said, and me pretending she will read this and listen to my insane ramblings, this is still good. Although she is overusing the tropes and cliches she does it very well and she is still funny, but not as great as this could have been.

Worth a watch, but 5/10 is all I am giving it.

A final advice from me to Taylor: take a break. Travel the world, come to Europe and visit Spain and I will buy you a few beers. Just get out of the comedy business for a while and start writing the insightful hilarious jokes about things that are more fun to listen to. You are on your way to becoming one of the biggest stars of all time, don't get stuck in the female cliches and instead do what you do best.

Margin Call (2011)

Great premiss, great acting, but still do not nail it

[6/10 · 31 January 2024]

This is riveting for the most part with excellent acting from everyone involved. The premiss, albeit easy and straightforward, is exciting and brings you along for a ride.

This could have been absolute masterpiece with tiny changes, more time for production and directing, and with a few minor changes to the script. The problem is that those seemingly minor issues causes big problem with the flow of the story and if it wasn't for the fantastic acting this would fall apart as a deck of cards fairly quickly. Perhaps most notably is the ending, the last 5-10min is meh, and do not stick the landing at all. The entire riveting plot and amazing acting lands in a dog getting buried and a character we never seen before uttering sentences about another character we never meet or sees. With no other real conclusion, it feels like the movie cheat us of the ending we should have got.

Another sad thing is that nothing is mentioned about the main culprit; the government - which was the driving force behind these derivatives and other scams that led to the crash. Instead it seem to be implied that unscrupolous corporates do not care about the people, which is true but its only one part of the story.

Another thing to note is that the crisis of 2007-2008 was a minor one. The one we have ahead of us, coming soon, is much bigger and the reason is pretty much the same.