Change Your Image
ckootstra
Reviews
Tula: The Revolt (2013)
Clean slavery
Being a slave was a clean and easy job in those days. At least that was the only conclusion I can draw after having sat through this screen disaster. Everyone was wearing clean clothes all the time (c'mon guys, dress up, you're on camera !); slaves could wander freely through the woods without being hindered and without getting dirty (or caught for that matter), and they had no trouble adjusting to the lifestyle of their masters (well okay, that was possible). The story had no real beginning or end and when the credits ran, you were just wondering what had been the purpose of it all. Danny Glover must have felt like a stranger amongst this Dutch gang; he certainly looks and sounds that way. What a waste of money and energy !! The only somewhat decent job was done by Jeroen Willems (sad he is not among us anymore); to determine the worst performance is more difficult: so many actors are vying for that slot ! Having to chose I would take Jeroen Krabbe. His Gouverneur was beyond any believability. It was Jeroen Leinders' (were they all chosen for their first name?) first movie. Unless he decides to start following a course, it should be his last.
The Paradise (2012)
Quick last minute solutions
After watching all episodes but the last of this costume drama, I was still able to agree with almost everything my preceding reviewers have written. No it's not great; yes, the acting isn't always spot on; no the writing leaves a lot to be desired, but the series stuck like glue. But with the last episode on the screen, I found out what I really had been watching all that time: the prelude to a terrible accident. What a disaster that last episode was ! Did the original screenplay writer collide with the number 12 bus, and did the producers then decide to employ the Sun's editor? Did the screenwriter say: I still have material for five episodes, to which the producer said: put it all in the last one? Did everyone just improvise on camera? We will never know. What I do know though is that it was about nothing; it looked like nothing and it sounded like nothing. Characters changed overnight; Evil Tom Weston got hit by a magic stick and started loving his wife and daughter; Jonas Franks got it suddenly all wrong in his desire to serve and protect; Moray lost his last braincells and started gambling for the store; and Denise became a makeup inventor and .... (I forgot what else she was up to; it was all too confusing). Soooo, after 15 episodes of intrigue and drama, the 16th took care of all ills in a jiffy. Incroyable !! Send me Bill Gallagher anytime that I need my drains pumped; I can do with a quick problem solver.
By Any Means (2013)
relax !!
As other reviewers here I've never written a review for any series. But what I read here made me get behind the keyboard. Clearly all the low voters have never had to endure public or commercial TV in other European countries. This show is part of Britain's BBC heaven. En indeed not every show is entitled to occupy center stage in the programming, but it definitely has the right to get shown. It's different, funny and generally fast paced. The young actors must have had a good time making it, and I certainly have a good time watching it. Yes indeed, sometimes it is somewhat taxing on your intelligence, and I would hope that the writers are less easily satisfied at a next occasion. For instance that fact that in one episode our dream team apparently has never heard of mobile telephone triangulation, only to apply it themselves in the next episode as if they've never done anything else. Please writers, don't do this to us. It puts us off from a show that is otherwise a pleasure to watch when we got nothing better to do, and, as said, many shades better than the skin cringing stuff we see elsewhere on TV screens.