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Reviews
Sugar (2024)
I want ... I need ... season 2, season 3...
This is a wonderful homage to Film Noir with the additions of old detective movies here and there giving up some atmosphere! And Colin Farrell is delightful, as always. He digs up that old Hollywood dirt hiding in plain sight so easily. But the cool vibe is the story until it isn't. It becomes very very dark.
Sugar's assured coolness, his total control without seeming to be in command is felt more than shown. And it is felt so very well. He is full of hidden power. And that Hollywood dynasty of the great father figure who really made some good movies to his half baked son who makes run of the mill action flicks to the semi-good actor grandson who wallows in the Hollywood muck as if it is his god given right.
They are portrayed so well: they are corrupt and crippled and willful. And they take everything as their natural do.
And then we have Sugar and his detective pals who are just so good: WE are not like that....
What is the mission? Where is Sugar's sister?? Why did he take that dress? Is a dress, just a dress??
Who are they? What is earth? Why?
Rebel Moon - Part One: A Child of Fire (2023)
A interesting Start
I really like this very real Si-Fi world and the characters. There could be a little more funk, I suppose. And it is definitely Kurosawa Akira's "Seven Samurai" redone with some added features. But I don't think all the "samurai" have been collected yet. The movie still needs the Mifune Toshiro Samurai wannabe character unless that's going to be the robot... the visuals are very well done. I want to find out more about that robot.... I'd like a few more space-like features perhaps... The scenes in space on the planetoids is very real. I would have like a bit longer collecting the different participants. The Kurosawa movie does that so well.
American Symphony (2023)
Not at all what I expected but exactly what I needed!
What was I expecting? The typical rock star vibe, I guess. Absolutely wrong! Not even close. This is an amazing film about a person who is more than we suppose him to be.
John Baptiste is an amazing human, amazing musician, so much feeling expressed through thoughts, actions, movement, embracing everyone, leading everyone. Feeling expressed as action, music, words, thoughts. It is a heavy burden to carry. This film portrays all of this so well that you feel what is happening. You do not just watch it. And it is not all happy but it is moving towards a better outcome.
Now, I want to know more about this interesting person through his music, through his good works, through his writing. Our world is made better, larger with him in it, I feel somehow. I need to experience his music to understand more. And this film, this documentary, is an exceptional way to experience the mystery that is John Baptiste.
Leave the World Behind (2023)
Makes YOU Think
This movie is much better than you realize. I couldn't stop watching it. It will make you think and re-think a lot of issues and preconceived ideas. I really recommend this movie.
At first it seems to be going one way, then another, then another, then it pops up in a different direction all together. And the real horror becomes apparent.
Yes, there is symbolism. Yes, there are clichés. But there is art too.
We have the prepper ready to out gun anyone, we have the totally clueless modern man and woman who are as blind and helpless as babies without their electrical devices telling them what to do, we have the intelligent man who knows a lot, a lot more than he realizes and it still doesn't really help him. In fact, all of them are in the same position. Totally blind to events. Helpless in the face of the inevitable. Too late at every turn.
Dahaad (2023)
Very powerful psychological thriller
This is a very intense psychological procedural. And it shows the mind-set and issues during a many months long investigation of all the people involved: the perpetrator and the people around him as well as the police and their family issues that are affected by this intense investigation. No one is left unchanged by these horrific crimes and their aftermath. In reality, it is in many ways a metaphor for modern society in India regarding the caste system - a system that is changing but not completely. Things are changing regarding the social castes, but still many old beliefs still exist. And this causes many hardships for women trying to navigate the new world that is opening up for them. Often, doors are also closed as people with old beliefs want to control woman and give them no choice.
This police-who-done-it keeps you interested and glued to the story till the last minute.
Extrapolations: 2037: A Raven Story (2023)
You must READ: The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
You all should read the book: The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson. It covers many of the climate situations shown here, not exactly but in a similar style. It is a number of stories about various possibles that could happen, most likely will happen like this series shows. It will get more terrible than we can imagine. There are some places in the world that will suffer terribly but the richer countries will do nothing, perhaps can't really do anything. And the richer counties will have to pay somehow to fix what they have done, we halve done. We can not possibly image how bad it is going to get.
Vargur (2018)
USE or be USED at any cost!
The last half of this movie was very hard to watch. I kept wanting to turn my eyes away. It is indeed a bit slow in the beginning and you wonder what is really happening. Who is doing what and why, you may think, but you only learn the truth slowly. Are they idiots you think. All of them. What is unfolding it NOT what it seems in the beginning. Treachery of the worst kind is a foot. You have 2 amateurs, 3 actually, if you count the mule/girl, who are trying to solve some money issues by smuggling drugs into Iceland. The sort of dumb, do-what-I-am-told brother who has a record of drug abuse and jail time who is passive and unthinking. The "smart" lawyer brother who has used the company's money to feed his addition, which is a beautiful woman who he can't really have try as he might. We know nothing of the girl except she is Polish and has a child.
The one with the real problems is the fancy, lawyer brother who has seemingly made good in life on the surface at least but who done the stealing, over reached his boundaries, ruined his life chances, damned himself, destroyed his family such that it is because of his longing, lust actually, for this woman he can NOT have at all, who needs to solve all of that somehow with money, with violence, with lies. In the end, he saves himself, but loses his soul, what little soul he may have had though treachery of the most base kind. The other brother had his thoughts and actions in "sort of" the right place, but could not carry though, he was passive and always waiting to be told what to do by his big brother in the end is used, used up, chewed up, spit out WITHOUT A THOUGHT. With relief. The girl, used and abused, remains silent. What happened? We don't know. It wasn't shown. What did he say to her? What did he promise?? Why does she obey?? She looks away. She is mostly silent the whole movie and her silence is the our silence in the face of powerful people having their way in this world.
The moral seems to be that the "powerful", those in power, can cover up so much with pretty lies, blank faces and half truths, no truths, promises. Those dead eyes of the lawyer brother at the end say so much.
Karppi (2018)
Wonderful, Dark, Mysterious
I have enjoyed this Finnish Noir Police Procedural series from season 1 all the way down to season 3. And I can't stop watching once I start. It's more that just detective work, it is discovering and seeing the connections... Thise connections are everything... The stories and scripts are well done. I always watch in Finnish, reading the sub-titles. I much prefer to hear the actors real voice. It makes a big difference, I think.
The main character, Karppi, really pulls you into the story. You want to know more about her and her life story, but you do not get much information in each episode, or the series series. The acting is very good, the stories are great, gritty and dark. Greed leads down the dark path to death and destruction. Everyone in this show has a dark past or secret, something that keeps them down and not fully connecting with others. Karppi has her demons, but it soon becomes clear that Narmi, her partner, is hiding something too.
This last season, season 3, pulls together lots of threads of Karppi's life from the first two seasons together and ties them up. But you only realize that at the end. I would have liked to see some more about what finally happened to her step-daughter. She got mixed up with some bad people but you realize she is trying to do the right thing. Well, I guess, she is on the right path. Narmi seems to come to a good place in the end. And surely Karppi has found some resolution to what happened to her husband at the end. It may help her to be more at peace. And she is connected with her son again...
I hope they do a Season 4, but who knows. They seem to have tied so much up, this may be the end.
Inside Man (2022)
Some key elements are far fetched
OK, one of the most important elements of the plot, THE most important element, the KEY ELEMENT, is kind of overboard and forced, - you just have to get over that. The rest is much more enjoyable if you can do that. I think in this short series they're trying to show how people can become unhinged and do things that they would NOT normally do. They think they are doing them for the right reasons, but actually they are totally wrong and selfish. They can not stop themselves. You sort of have to suspend your disbelief. After that it all plays out. You have to look at this series as a satire played way over the top, but in a stylish way. This 4-part mini series is played out very much in the old "everything gets resolved just in time and by good happenstance" and "all is well that ends well". But does it?? The tangled webs we weave do indeed catch us in the end.
The Women and the Murderer (2021)
An amazing documentary
They tried very hard to give the victims their voice. The families too. The section of the documentary dealing with the trail was most telling. The prosecuting attorney does an excellent job of questioning him directing the outcome very skillfully. I would have liked more on the fact that this case and trail led to the creation of a DNA database in France. The fact that this was a serial killer only became clear after many killings were done and just by chance, DNA was matched in several of the cases. Something that is not mentioned in the documentary but I believe he most likely committed more murders but they were not connected to his case from lack of DNA evidence and also lack of ease of checking for similar cases in other places in France because recorders were not computerized yet.
Another point that is fascinating is that all the important roles were held by women in this case. Something very rare I believe.
I would very much like to know what has happened to him at this time. Is he still in jail?
Perdida (2018)
Better than you might think
I watched this in Spanish and read the sub-titles. I generally find a dubbed movie totally bad. Even though I do not understand Spanish being able to hear the actors voices makes so much difference in the quality of the movie in my opinion. This movie is more about trust and betrayal as well as keeping secrets more than just a straight mystery story. I think the movie has issues and the story could've been portrayed in a better way I think.
Let Him Go (2020)
They left Peter!
I don't know. The grandmother/mother-in-law was...is over bearing. She makes no bones about it. The way she snatches the baby away while the young mother is trying to prepare the bath in the beginning. She even admits it partway through the movie. And probably will try to get better but I don't think so. And they make a connection with Peter, who is alone and confused. And they USE him and leave him at the end, no doubt to a terrible fate. A terrible ending. A lot of broken people. The bad family is made really, really bad. They get what they deserve as they are painted super black. Would they really do all those things?? The psychopath mother with her psychopath sons? Of course you root for the "good guys". And there is the rear view mirror Peter waves good-bye... Not a satisfactory ending.
Encounter (2021)
A Very Moving Story -Done Very Well!
I don't understand the bad reviews. They were looking at a different movie perhaps. This movie keeps you guessing, what is really going on?? What is really happening? Aliens? Really? A secret mission?? Maybe not. What is mental illness? How does it manifest itself...? He is fully within his madness but gradually he is able to see that what he thinks is real is not really happening at all. His military training gets into high gear when the two armed to the teeth men come gunning for him and he disarms them even though he has no weapon compared to their automatic guns. And he does not shoot them. This is what starts to bring him back to reality...but he does not know how to STOP. Luckily his son sticks with him.... And is able to help him stop. I am glad that we did not have the typical scene at the end where the cops kill him in a hail of bullets. We know that things will not really end well of him but that he might get some help. And his sons know more about their dad....
For All Mankind: Rules of Engagement (2021)
Be Proactive!!
I like this show a lot, BUT they are just too reactive instead of proactive. As soon as the Soviets started going into the US mine several episodes ago putting in monitoring cameras, why didn't they move the Base to be next to the mine entrance???? Or start working shifts??? They could have had a sub-base building near the mine entrance which would have been good for safety, no long treks back to Jamestown. And it could have been constantly manned. It would have made working shifts easier to manage AND it would have been easier to keep security next to the mine entrance. It is actually illogical to have to drive to and from the main site for every working shift. It uses too much fuel and too much time oxygen wise. Also, why haven't they constructed storage warehouses for this material they hope to be finding??
Snabba cash (2021)
They are all no good
Here we have some characters in a morality play who all want something very badly and who are all no good - they are all bad in the end. Except one who admits to something he didn't do in order to protect someone else. And suffers the ultimate fate for it. This is a well done story and it will surprise you who is worst of all. We are all weak, but some of us are truly strong.
Trauma (2018)
A waste of talent, waste of time
The whole show hinges on the doctor saying AT THE END that he made a mistake when he pulled a balloon in the patient's trachea a little too far. But what I find totally unrealistic is that not all patient's are the same, not all injuries are the same and it's not possible to do everything exactly the same every single time in the stress of the moment.. AND Doctors do make mistakes because they are human and working in a tense and chaotic situation in an emergency room. I didn't really find that to be a defining mistake, a mistake that needed to be taken responsibility for it. It's not like he tried to kill the boy on purpose. And the father never blames the person who did kill his son, the person who stabbed him. It's an unrealistic concept for a drama.
Hunters (2020)
Super heroes hunting nazis!
This is an amazing story! An amazing series. What if there were Jewish super heroes to root out evil, Evil Nazis?? Things would be/ could be so different. These are those super heroes!
I think this is a masterful piece of story telling. We have so many Imaginary superheroes hunting imaginary criminals. Superman hunts some criminal. Batman too. But in our real world, we have real EVIL that really exists. But no super heroes to deal with them. But what if we could have real super heroes?? To go out and make things right?? This is a master work of imagination! A wonderful WHAT IF...
I can't wait to see the next episode!
Take Shelter (2011)
Curtis takes shelter
This is a very sad and moving motion picture about the progression of mental illness. And it is not really a movie about Curtis having some special ability where by he feels or "sees" a terrible storm coming. The attacks and the storms that he sees in his dreams are his mind's way of dealing with real life. Dealing with the fears he has in real life.
At the end of the movie when they go to the beach, Samantha also sees the rain that seems like brown motor oil and the daughter sees the tidal wave and the tornadoes coming for them. But what it means for Curtis is that his greatest fear is not going to be realized. His greatest fear as he moves into mental illness is that he would be abandoned like his mother was. And that he would be put into a home of some sort and left alone. All of his dreams and his nightmares up to that point showed his fear of abandonment and loss. He remembers all of his fears even becoming a child and wetting in his bed. All of his dreams are about abandonment in different forms. But the very last dream - and it is indeed a dream, not real life - in this last scene of the movie, we see that his wife Samantha and his daughter become a part of his dream and see what he sees and feel what he feels. They see all of the things he has been seeing and he knows that they believe him. Of course, this is HIS DREAM, not something that his wife is actually seeing or participating in. In this last dream he accepts that he will not be abandoned. In other words, he's not alone, they are in the dream with him. So the fact that he is mentally ill has not changed but I believe he now realizes at the end of the movie, in that last dream, that Samantha will not leave him and his daughter will not leave him and he will be with his family working through this issue not by himself but with his family.
Seuwiteuhom (2020)
A Lot of Fun!
I can believe I am really really liking this show. It is overdone in a good way. Not too much, just right. I really like what they're doing. A real comment on modern Korean society- people being left behind because they don't happen to match up to some spectacular expectations. Here we have a group of failures and real bad people....battling their monsters.
Flavorful Origins (2019)
Visually enticing
This is an amazing show about the food culture in China. I don't understand Chinese so I'm listening to the English. It is so well filmed and so interesting! I want to try every dish that is mentioned and I want to get all the ingredients that are talked about, that is just how interesting this series is.
Flavorful Origins (2019)
Visually enticing
This is an amazing show about the food culture in China. I don't understand Chinese so I'm listening to the English. It is so well filmed and so interesting! I want to try every dish that is mentioned and I want to get all the ingredients that are talked about, that is just how interesting this series is.
The Walking Dead: World Beyond (2020)
Two Worlds - Are the the Same?
WORLD BEYOND starts 10 years after the zombie crash. But THE WALKING DEAD must be already at year 12..... Judith Grimes has to be about 12 years old... And yet, Alexandria and that whole side of the world is just in a bad state of chaos and barbarity but in Omaha we have a college campus surrounded by a brick wall with a lot of people going to school and living their lives. I guess they were more "organized"?????? More together?? But I liked this first show, yes, it was a little slow. I think it will get better. OK, the stage is set. And it's a road movie! Our cast of characters are going on a quest! But you would think they would go a little more prepared... Everybody with a canteen at least. And some better weapons than they took with them. And they brought flashlights with them! They have to know that they can't buy spares..... and the dead may be getting older but they are not downed yet.
Fear the Walking Dead: End of the Line (2019)
They Had to Move On
I think being on the road saving people got old real quick. The writers decided to move on into different territory. I think this last episode put everybody in place to move on with the next terrible Ginny-situation. We have all our folks finishing up their story arcs as they stand now and the next segment is poised to start. We have our cast of characters, we know their breaking points, their needs....their hopes.
But I like this episode a lot. It finished this part of their lives and moves them on. Shows how vulnerable they are.... I'd like to know what Ginny has on everybody so that she is the boss.....has to be a story there..... and now we have Morgan all alone again. Will he die, we don't know...
Fear the Walking Dead: Channel 5 (2019)
Where was their common sense?
Once they saw the broken bridge, they should've backed the big truck safely off the bridge and just stayed there with food and water. Everyone could've gone inside or on top of the big truck for a few days. Or in the cars they had even without any gas. They could've easily killed off those walkers that came. Then they could've sent a scouting party to check out this new place instead of everyone walking 10 miles there with all the kids and sick people without any food or water. All their cars, what little gas they had left and the military jeep as well as all their stuff will be taken over by Jenny. How stupid! They were all shouting WE ARE GOING TO SHOW HER! so mightily but they caved in a minute. It is just NOT LIKE THEM. They are smarter than that!!
Dwayne is the only smart one. He leaves as soon as he realizes what the situation is because he knows that Jenny is just Nigan in a "dress" figuratively speaking.
Fear the Walking Dead: Leave What You Don't (2019)
Getting Back on Track
Logan was a weaker villain ..... actually just a bitter old man who lost his way. And he just took it out on everybody. I liked this episode a lot more than the last couple. They have moved the story forward, away from Logan and molded our main characters in to their new form - of people getting ready to settle down. It looks like a lot of people are trying to create the "new post zombie society" and our new "villain" is one of those with her own ideas of what it will look like. You can't just keep looking for unopened cans of food and sharing that with others. Sooner or later you have to start creating something from nothing and making the world go round that way. People have to actually start building something, growing something. And stop killing each other for their stuff....