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mckavelly
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A Discovery of Witches (2018)
Vampires like a good sun tan
The "vampires" in this show are not damaged by sunlight. They hold meetings in churches, where the cross and holy water seem to have no repellent effect. Probably these "vampires" like to munch on garlic bread and would choose a wooden stake through the heart as a suitable body modifying adornment.
The Young Pope (2016)
Fun, irreverent, amazing locations, incredible acting
The director shows his irreverence towards religion despite the seemingly religious nature of the topic. This makes for some hilarious moments. Loved it.
The acting is top, top. Every character perfectly cast. Only a few of the actors are conventionally good looking, but their acting is so good that I could not take my eyes off them.
The locations are beautiful. The sets are seamless. At every moment, the illusion of being inside Vatican City is perfect.
Amazing. Bravo.
Black Panther (2018)
Cringe worthy
How to describe the fake accents? Imagine trying to make a New York mob film where all the actors speak in a Texan accent.
No two characters speak with the same faux-African accent. Felt very sorry for the actors having to say lines in that faux accent. Can't think of any more cringe worthy moment for the very talented cast.
Then there is the complete disregard of actual African regions and differences.
Zulus wearing face paint? With designs from sub-Saharan Africa??
Boko Haram schoolgirls transplanted across the entire breadth of the continent?
And yet somehow this film was hyped as somehow authentic to African culture.
Star Trek: Discovery (2017)
Simply unwatchable.
Not a hardcore fan, but aware about Star Trek in general.
In the ST that I've seen, the convention is to address officers by their rank like Ensign, Commander, Chief, Captain. No first names were used. The convention is "Rank Last name". Only the ship's medical officer would use first names on occasion. The medical officer may at times say "Jim" but all others would say "Captain".
For some reason, this convention is not followed in Discovery and "Michael" is the term used to refer to the First Officer. Aside from the lack of continuity with established ST protocol, surely in a large vessel using only the first name and no title would lead to confusion within the ranks? It was subsequently difficult for me to accept the rest as an authentic continuation of Start Trek.
Il racconto dei racconti - Tale of Tales (2015)
Incredible locations, casting and costumes
This film is in the same genre as Game of Thrones in that it is set in medieval times, has nudity, gore and fantasy elements. Where it does far better than GoT is in the location, casting and pace of story.
The locations are truly otherworldly. I could not believe that some of these locations were not computer generated images. The cliffs at Alcantara, the castle at Roccascalegna, the throne room, the caves - all of them are real world locations. This is where they have far exceeded GoT and have greatly succeeded in creating a fantasy atmosphere to the film.
Casting was another success. Again, I could not believe that some characters were not CGI or prosthetic. The necromancer, the ogre, the twins, were all real people. Imagine seeing a real world Shrek in the flesh, that is how I felt when seeing the ogre.
Then the costumes, perfectly done to give to give a medieval setting, yet close to fantasy. Salma Hayek scene in the white dining room - pure class.
The other element where they do better in in the pacing. The story moves along well whereas in GoT there was always a feeling that nothing's happening, "winter is coming" but never gets there.
9/10
Shaadi No. 1 (2005)
Funny movie, lots of insider jokes
The best thing I liked about the film was the many references to other films. Lucky's "misaals" are mostly nods to well known lines from past films, Munnabhai, Sholay, etc.
The "misaals" are impossible to translate, and will make no sense to viewers who had no exposure to the cultural references contained in it. Perhaps this is one reason IMDb users rate it so low.
I found the film enjoyable. The scripted dialogue is very clever and quite funny. On a second viewing, I got a lot more of the jokes and cultural references. Most comedies do not warrant a second viewing, but this one improved with it.