Shameek Reviews

Mortal Kombat (2021)

Fails miserably

[4/10 · 12 December 2021]

The opening scene of Mortal Kombat (2021) looks somewhat promising. But it ends there.

The movie fails miserably at almost every aspect other than visuals. Everything including plot, casting, character development, dialog, editing, music score, and action sequences is just awful. It doesn't matter whether you judge it as just a movie or a Mortal Kombat movie, it's bad either way.

Draw no comparisons to the original Mortal Kombat movie, which was quite good. This movie is objectively worse than the sequel Annihilation, which itself was a fairly poor movie.

The Witcher (2019– )

Impressive visuals attempt to hide sheer mediocrity

[6/10 · 6 January 2020]

I love medieval fantasy. So naturally I was bound to watch this series. I've also played Witcher 3. But all that aside this show was just too hot to miss out on, with everyone hyping it up. But I knew better than to go in with sky-high expectations, even though it's a high budget series.

I wasn't too impressed with the pilot. But my friends insisted that I keep watching and that it's going to pick up in later episodes. I forced myself through 3 episodes. That's all I could take. So please note that my review is based on that.

The show is not horrible. It's just not exciting. There's not one interesting character in the show. Even if the lead character was interesting I could have kept going. But Henry Cavill's performance is just as flat as the rest of them. I suppose the story seemed ok. But how can you stay interested if there's so little going on that's exciting. It's not just the cast or acting. The show fails to create any real suspense or drama altogether. It's almost as if the creators were banking on the fact that it's a very popular genre right now and that fans of the Witcher games would automatically talk it up. So far that's exactly how it has turned out. But I suspect it'll get called out at some point if the show doesn't improve drastically.

It's definitely not unwatchable. If you're not very picky about what you watch you can certainly watch this show. But if you're looking for a high quality show this is not it.

Narcos: Mexico (2018–2021)

Decent, no more no less

[7/10 · 17 October 2019]

Narcos: Mexico is effectively the 4th season of Narcos. While the story it tells is definitely a story worth knowing, it just doesn't have the same kind of charm as the ones in Colombia. The characters are fairly interesting with the exception of Miguel Ángel Félix Gallardo played by Diego Luna. He delivers a very flat performance and since he is the main character that is a huge turnoff. And even though most of the other actors do a decent job there's still no real standout. The story overall is interesting but lacks high points or dramatic events. After watching the whole season I definitely got the impression that Mexico was a far smaller player in the drug trade than Colombia. The stakes just seem lower.

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016)

Probably the best X-Men movie to date.

[8/10 · 14 September 2016]

X-Men movies over the years have been pretty inconsistent in terms of their quality. You might like one only to find the next is disappointing. But even the ones that were good were still quite rough around the edges. This is where Apocalypse stands out. It doesn't just feel good but also feels like a well polished movie.

The movie has a lot of strong points. Story, casting, dialog, music score, graphics, editing and action sequences are all very good. Character background/development in such a jam packed movie is always gonna be a little rushed but its still there, enough for the viewers to be able to sympathize with the characters. That is probably helped by the fact that the movie is quite long, which is a good thing.

I wouldn't say X-Men Apocalypse is a classic mainly because it lacks truly epic moments. But it is nonetheless a very good and entertaining movie that may well be the best ever to come out of the franchise.

Warcraft (2016)

So not great

[6/10 · 12 July 2016]

Warcraft had the potential to be a great movie, and looking at the sheer quality of the visuals/CGI it's clear that the necessary budget was there. But the movie is not great. It's very average.

The visuals alone would probably ensure that the project doesn't incur loses. But that is about the only thing this movie has going for itself.

The core story itself is good enough but it's missing details, sub-plots, and proper execution in story-telling. So what you see seems very generic. The pace at which events unfold seems very inconsistent and often rushed.

There's no character development at all which is always a big deal but even more so these days with Game of Thrones setting the bar so high. Durotan and Gul'dan are the only characters that you may (or may not) find even mildly interesting. Garona feels like a completely unnecessary character with no real importance in the story.

The acting is poor. Most of the cast did a lousy job here but Paula Patton as Garona seems like a rank amateur. So not only is her character poor, but she herself seems just as bad.

The score is uninspiring. A movie like Warcraft needs a great soundtrack but it just doesn't have it. Think Lord of the Rings, Troy, 300, Game of Thrones.... You can't create epic scenes without epic music. But I suspect there is more to blame for that than just the music - the editing.

The visuals and some familiar faces may make this movie feel rich on the surface. But it's very shallow. That's very sad considering how rich the source material is. Its still a watchable movie if you go in without very big expectations.

Raja (1995)

So bad !

[3/10 · 4 March 2016]

Raja has got to be one of the worst Hindi movies I've ever seen. The plot is stupid and almost everything about the movie is terrible. It has a couple of good songs and that must have saved it from taking a complete nosedive. The dialog is not just corny but also completely over the top. The acting? It's tough to tell because Madhuri is just too good to mess anything up. But she can do little when the very character she plays is so bad. Actually pretty much every character is idiotic. I saw this movie 20 years too late but it wouldn't have made any difference. The '90s produced some very good Hindi movies so there's really no excuse for a movie this bad.

Home (II) (2015)

Just a good little animation movie

[7/10 · 24 July 2015]

Home is a good animation movie, nothing more and nothing less. It is not as horrible as some are making it out to be. It does start off slow but then it picks up and you start liking it. In the end it depends a lot on how much you like the 2 main characters and the music. I did like the characters enough to care about them. The music was just OK except one song which was great.

Home is not what I would call a great movie though. You can't compare it to the likes of Beauty & the Beast, Lion King, Tangled, etc.

My advice to anyone who is planning to watch Home is to be patient at the start and follow the interactions of the main characters closely. This is a movie about relationships. If you liked Frozen then chances are you will like Home.

Tangled (2010)

Moving and entertaining

[9/10 · 21 May 2015]

Tangled goes down as one of Disney's best. It does not quite have the grandeur of movies like the Beauty and the Beast or the Lion King, but that does not mean that it is lesser, just different. The tone is light and yet feels deep. The characters Rapunzel and Flynn are extremely likable. The story is simple but moving. The visuals are great too. And most of all the dialog and the interaction between characters are excellent. The one weakness seems to be the soundtrack. The background music works but the songs are not that great. I feel like this is the only thing that keeps this movie from being truly great. Nonetheless, Tangled is very good and I would recommend it to people of all ages.

Hercules (I) (2014)

Disappointing

[6/10 · 5 November 2014]

I'm disappointed. I had high hopes for this movie. A Hercules movie made in 2014 should have been so much better. If you use 300 or Troy as a benchmark this movie falls utterly short. It's still a watchable movie, but it just fails to impress.

This is no low budget movie. It's clear they spent plenty on it. That makes it even worse because you know that they had the resources to make a great movie, but squandered it.

The story is weak. There's nothing captivating about it. Hercules doesn't seem interesting enough. His companions add very little and take a lot away.

The dialog is ordinary. You are unlikely to hear anything that will stay with you for very long.

The soundtrack is average, though not poor. A great movie needs a great soundtrack and Hercules doesn't have one.

Character design/development is very bad. It's hard to say how good the acting is because if the very design of a character is flawed no amount of good acting can make up for it. Most of the support characters seem very uninteresting and for the most part act randomly. Dwayne Johnson as Hercules seems OK. He certainly has the looks but I don't think he received the necessary support required to really make the character his own.

The only great feature of the movie are the visuals, which are stunning. In all other aspects the movie is average. It's not unwatchable though. Just go in without big expectations and you should be treated to a decent action movie.

Gotham (2014–2019)

Touch above average

[6/10 · 23 September 2014]

Lets get something straight here - this is no Game of Thrones. It's not a TV show of the highest quality. So it's advisable not to watch the pilot with very high expectations. However, it's not a bad show either. The pilot makes a fairly good first impression. It seems like a decent TV show that may just be worth watching, especially if you are a fan of the Batman universe.

The lead actor is not outstanding, but good enough. The same can be said of the rest of the cast. They all look very good but the acting has to pick up.

The plot seems fine - pretty much what you'd expect from a Batman show without Batman.

The soundtrack could definitely be better. You almost get the feeling the show takes itself too seriously. The music needs to be more dramatic, maybe even a little over the top. Right now it's too dull.

I could go on with more details but the bottom line is that this show is watchable, but not great.

Judaai (1997)

More than decent

[7/10 · 30 June 2014]

Judaai is not bad at all for what it is - a typical Hindi movie. I actually saw it back in the day but I just re-watched it, and thought it deserved a good review.

The story is quite interesting, albeit a little over the top. The acting from Sridevi and Urmila is very good. The part Sridevi plays is a tough one but she holds up amazingly well. Urmila's role is more generic but her acting is still worth mentioning. Anil Kapoor does OK. There are a good number of side actors, mostly comedians, who do a good job as well. The soundtrack isn't bad overall even though I only really liked two of the songs. Finally, I thought the dialog was very good, almost unexpectedly so.

If you enjoy Hindi movies from the 90s this is a shoe in.

Bitten (2014–2016)

Bad

[2/10 · 2 February 2014]

This show is just bad. It's a very typical vampire/werewolf show with no stand out qualities whatsoever. It's the same formula - a story line just for the sake of it, pretty actors with no character development, some cheesy emotional scenes, and some sex scenes. In fact, it seems that the creators were quick to realize how bad it was and added tons of nudity and sex scenes to at least have a selling point. I can't help but judge people who like shows such as this. That is why it's beyond me how it currently has a 6.7 star rating. While there are such wonderful shows like the game of thrones, the big bang theory, or modern family still around, why would you watch such a horrible show ?

Transformers Prime (2010–2013)

Absolutely amazing series !!

[10/10 · 26 August 2012]

Quite admittedly I had never been a Transformers fan until recently. I often tried the original series when I was a kid but I always found it too childish, even as a kid. I preferred G I JOE. The concept of transformers always interested me but I never actually found a cartoon that did justice to the franchise. The movies rekindled my interest but they were far from great. Too much emphasis was given to the human characters to go with other problems. In Transformers: Prime I have finally found something that I had always wished Transformers to be.

The basic mood of this series perfectly suits Transformers. It's serious but has enough humor. It has a dark feel to it which seems to be a missing ingredient of all previous Transformers series.

The picture quality is amazing. The robots look fantastic and the humans look fairly good too. The background quality does vary a bit from episode to episode but even the minimum level is very good. The camera work is excellent.

The writing is generally very good as well although there are times when it feels a little stretched out. The dialog is impressive.

The musical score is excellent and that really helps the mood and tension of any scene. Transformers is meant to be epic. That is exactly what the music reflects. At times the power of the music is such that if you get involved enough it will take you places.

But the true strength of this series is the characters. Every single character has incredible depth and development, and you can really feel that every character is unique. The bad guys are always more interesting but here you'll also come to love the good guys because you'll feel that you really know them and get to ride along in their emotional journey. The writers did not throw cheap characters by the hundreds but instead carefully chose a few and decided to make them complete.

I would go as far as to say that the quality of the show is wasted on young viewers who would probably struggle to realize just how good it is, but enjoy it all the same. This is art, not just entertainment for kids.

If you will ever love Transformers then this is it. Even if you never liked it before give it a try. You might just fall in love with it.