davegoes Reviews

María Félix: La Doña (2022– )

It was alright. Attention to detail could've made it better.

[7/10 · 7 September 2023]

Some things kept throwing me off like furniture and lamps were in the wrong decades. In the lobby scene when Maria Felix was working for a plastic surgeon during the late 30s/early 40s, the chairs were 60s danish modern, and the lights were from the 50s. Likewise the sofa and chairs in Augustine Lara's house in the late 40s were from the early 70s, and the dining table was 60s. It was distracting and made following the story confusing. It was obvious the set designer went into an antique shop, grabbed everything retro they could lay their hands on and figured it would cover an entire 40 year period. Also, at one point in the late 30s they show black and white footage of Mexico City and judging from the cars it was from some time in the 60s. The costumes were beautifully done though.

The other thing that threw me off was the final actor to portray Enrique Alvarez Felix who looked nothing like the previous actor so it took me a while to figure out who he was. He was also short, slim and tan, where as the real Enrique Alvarez Felix was quite tall and fair skinned. I think the actor who played his partner, Juan would've been a better pick. I also seem to have missed how Maria Felix's brother died at military school. I don't think that was ever explained or addressed. Otherwise I'd say it was fairly well acted.

Seekers (1993)

I can't believe I sat through 3 hours of this

[1/10 · 12 January 2023]

I stuck around out of curiosity but could've easily checked out 20 minutes in. First (and this spoiler is a biggie), you have to suspend belief that the bygamist husband was able to survive catching fire in a locked room before it explodes and was then then able to check himself out of hospital with only a few superficial burns a day or two later. Wife #1 has her house burgled by the baddies, then has the genius idea of stashing a bag full of thousands of pounds in a wardrobe in said house, which then quickly gets taken by those same baddies. Wife #2 gets robbed and beaten at her flat, goes into premature labor, and after a feverish day or two in hospital checks herself out with a perfectly healthy baby. The young girl who they found at the brothel turns out to be a computer genius in one episode, was then only capable of fetching coffee the next. I could go on and on, as this miniseries seemed to do. Save yourself the time and don't bother.

Reign (2013–2017)

Total Trash

[1/10 · 14 October 2014]

Historically inaccurate garbage. The story lines are trashy teenage fantasy, and to be honest quite crude. Mary was masturbating in a stairwell when caught by Henry II of France and propositioned for sex? It's a bit too much and completely unnecessary. The set designs are a mishmash of styles from every historical era possible. There was rococo, modern, even a reproduction Victorian claw foot tub. The costumes look like they raided the JCPenney prom dress dept. from 2002, they even had women in the court dressed in 18th century costume. One close up of a beat up white strappy shoe (seriously it looked like it came out of the Goodwill) was laughable. I just can't with this nonsense.

Toast (2010 TV Movie)

If you write a book report after only watching this movie, you'll get an instant F!

[7/10 · 4 October 2012]

The movie left me wondering who boils still sealed canned food? So I decided to read Nigel Slater's autobiography of the same name and I got my answer: No one. While his mother wasn't a keen cook and baked a Christmas cake that could anchor the Queen Mary, not once did I read that she prepared canned food that way or that she mistrusted anything unprocessed. While they did eat plenty of convenience foods, they mostly ate poorly cooked real food. Also, it was his father's idea to cook spaghetti bolognese, in fact he prepared it himself and it was Nigel who said the Parmesan cheese smelled of sick. These are only a few examples just from the beginning of the movie of the many things that where changed, exaggerated, or condensed from the book to fit a 1 1/2 hour TV movie script. Despite the many differences I found once reading the book, I did enjoy the movie which was quirky and well acted.