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Fargo: Bisquik (2024)
An emotional rollercoaster, and a must watch
This review is for the whole season 5:
I've perceived it as filmmaking on a very high quality level, with beautiful cinematography, as an emotional rollercoaster, as non-stop tension of various sorts, as wonderful acting from some of the key cast, with incredibly strong punches being thrown towards our present and past realities, all carried by a very strong soundtrack that isn't afraid of existing outside the box.
Lastly, I've been laughing tears at one particular scene near the end when the two realites started clashing (not spoiling) like I haven't been laughing in a long time.
I have no criticism for some "dumb choices" made by characters according to certain reviewers on here assuming that this story is based on a real story, as it states, and is being told like it happened, as it states, so who am I to criticise choices made by real people in the real world in real situations. It all computes, people are not machines.
Fargo delivers, and this is a must watch.
Unbelievable (2019)
A relatively friendly version of the world in a nutshell
As far as generic detective shows go, this is more than that. It's gorgeous in acting, compositing, chemistry, the sublime score carries the whole story on its broad shoulders, there is a religious aspect, but not forceful, you have both sides, it feels like there is a balance to it, which we need more of in this world. And even though there is obvious fictional padding (as it's been said before) in terms of how peope react, in reality the scissors would open much wider, people would behave much more extreme in both positive and negative. The reality is grittier than this, but then again you have to make it watchable and you can't reach an audience with heavy-weight graphic violence, and would be disrespectful to the countless victims out there. All in all, this is beautifully crafted with three very strong leads, and an important watch, regardless of who you are and what system you exist in.
I onde dager (2021)
Sadistic
If you like sadism, this is for you. The well-done premise can't save the rest of the film. Don't get me wrong, I like violent films where violence makes sense, even part of a dark comedy, but this one fails both at dark - as most violence seems totally misplaced and forced for shock value - and comedy - because it can't make its mind up what it wants to be.
The film could've been great, but ultimately failed trying to satisfy shallow movie goers with a dulled down sadistic side laugh, in which according to many reviews it succeeded.
This is neither Fargo, nor would Tarantino be proud of this trash.
Stargate: Atlantis (2004)
Fantastic story
Well, I never really liked the original Stargate SG-1.
Why? It kinda seemed utterly ridiculous to me, paired with some really bad acting.
And MacGyver didn't really fix that.
OK, the bad acting stayed with Stargate Atlantis and many things are pretty cheap (effect wise and such). But that all doesn't makes the fantastic storyline less interesting. What adds to it is the dry humor and all that sarcasm by John and McKay.
In fact I think this - next to Firefly - is one of the fresher sci-fi shows I've seen so far.
9/10
Surface (2005)
One of the best sci-fi shows at the moment
I have to admit that the acting and the CG special effects in Surface are both rather weak, but seriously this must be one of the best sci-fi shows at the moment. It's storyline is rather deep going, interesting, the character development is pretty nice, and since episode 1x12 it's got a very nice twist to it. Sure, it has its ridiculous moments as any other show has but after all it's quite captivating and always makes you wait for the next episode. Especially now that it's going towards the season finale things are getting more and more interesting.
Besides current shows like Supernatural with its magnificent cinematography and scary atmosphere or Threshhold which started out very well but ended in me cancelling it because of its ridiculous always-the-same per-episode story lines this show - Surface - must be on par with Stargate Atlantis. Both shows have weak CG and weak acting but in the end they got stuff to it that makes you really wanna see what's happening on next. And that - I say - is good entertainment.
I will review again after the season finale, but at the moment I can clearly recommend this show. Thumbs up!
Fight Club (1999)
Impressive
My my, this must be one of the best films ever made. Beautiful camera work/flights, amazing storyline, amazing acting, impressive cinematography in general, and the list goes on and on and on. There's almost nothing to criticise here. I've just watched it for the second time and it was even more impressive than the first time. Of course, people with weak stomachs watching the uncut version of this masterpiece might have some problems processing it. This is definately 18+ imho.
Some people will immediately call Fight Club violent, disgusting, repulsing, and/or cruel, but those of course didn't have an eye on the actual qualities of this movie. They range from brilliant acting and even more brilliant filming to many hidden messages and to some covered social critisicm contained by it as well.
My overall rating: 9.5/10. Highly recommended!! I won't rate the individual components of Fight Club since they'd all receive 9.5 to 10.
The only thing that got a 10 from me so far is Band of Brothers.
Final Destination (2000)
Good one
A good mystery/horror flick with decent above average acting. Kerr Smith was kinda annoying and the first half of the decapitation scene seemed very cheesy (doll noticable) to me but overall I liked this one quite. It's got that really creepy atmosphere that you've been griefing for for many other movies. And the plane crash scene of course was very well done. I also liked the final scene with that broken power line.
However, if you're going for crazy death scenes you'll like the sequel more. It's got nice ones there with a really cheesy man-in-car-hit-by-truck scene where you could clearly notice the doll once again. FD2 is probably not as creepy as FD1 but I liked the ending more.
My overall rating: 7.5/10 - great horror flick!
Very Bad Things (1998)
Disgusting and stupid
Well, I've been watching this one directly after Final Destination 1. Compared to Very Bad Things FD appeared like a kid's movie. This is supposed to be dark comedy? Excuse me, but you think a silly disjointed script, psychopatic people, pervasive murders and actions, annoying women, etc. are in some weird kind of way funny? They're not! This is a really disgustingly stupid perverted movie which isn't even funny at all. There are very few places where you could laugh but sorry, black comedy is something totally different. Other than that Cameron Diaz must be the most annoying actress there is in this universe. I can't believe this movie was rated R. Its perversion gets close to Natural Born Killers (like someone else commented), which at least got a good storyline.
My overall rating: 5/10 - not worth watching!
Novocaine (2001)
Freaky
This has been a quite entertaining movie. Not really a top notch movie, not really working as a comedy, but still pretty entertaining. It started out veeery slow and boooring - it took a little too long for it to evolve. But when it started to it got better and better. There's that very freaky story and a wrecked Bonham-Carter (she's good playin such characters ;-) adding most to this film. However the ending was a little too fantastic since it shouldn't be a problem for the forensics to ... no, I won't spoil hehe.
My favourite scene was Martin's call where he spoke to that guy who answered the phone with "barbie's bakery. it's mr. muffin man speakin." LOL
My overall rating is: 6.5/10 - if you're not sure what to watch, try this one. It works pretty well as entertainment.
Miranda (2002)
Great!
A quite underrated movie that's very well acted and shot. It's got good romance, decent humour, madness, spiced up with a good bit of sickness. I think the story is a pretty nice and interesting one and especially Rod made me laugh all the time. Kyle McLachlan fits his role perfectly, that sick psychopathic dude. Of course this movie misses the realism, but take it as an entertaining and twisted crime comedy flick with a tawdrily ending (no clues here!). During the scenes at the beginning where Ricci starts falling in love she's really, really charming and quite sexy as well. Her "other self" is more the opposite. Good acting there. John Hurt was nice too, but I don't really like him since his role in Rob Roy ;-)
This movie deserves more than just a poor 5.9 rating. I won't rate the individual aspects of this one with numbers since I've mentioned some of that stuff above already (mostly positive), however my overall rating is: 7.2/10.
Great entertainment! Worth watching!
Crossing Jordan (2001)
Started out well, but got oh so damn bad.
well, when i started watching this show the first thing that annoyed me was that "semi-incestive role play" (quoting an IMDb reviewer). it's really ridiculous. i read another IMDb review where someone said "if you've seen one episode you've seen em all". by the time the show got better and i absolutely disagreed with that statement. but: seeing that i'm nearly through the 2nd season now i won't be watching this c*** anymore. it's simply ridiculous and i can only agree with that "...you've seen em all" statement. it's just plain silly and/or ridiculous story writing with an annoying lead role (jordan) that is represented by an absolutely uncharismatic and wanna-be-sexy jill hennesy. ferrer's character is a wreck and the others are either mad or dumb. if you had said that i will be mentioning woody as the most interesting character i would have laughed at you. but it's true.
the best and most unique episode so far was the one where woody goes to los angeles. this one was refreshing and surprisingly fun and entertaining. firstly because you didn't see the rest of the lead cast and secondly because the female cop he met there was the perfect actress to represent jordan. when i saw jordan again in the end of that episode i zapped right away.
i'm simply fed up with this sad stuff. i don't really hope for it to get any better since i don't really care about it to be cancelled anymore.
really not worth watching. it's like 1 good episode amongst 20. and you notice that's 19 episodes of wasted time.
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000)
Nearly at season III and still entertaining.
CSI: Las Vegas - WOHOO! CSI: Miamo - BOO!
This is probably the best show on TV here at the moment. Nothing can beat it's quality. Sure, there are those well known ridiculous scenes using futuristic technology or security camera 10-times zooms with perfect image sharpening, magical recreation of crime scenes in perfect 3D, etc. for which you could permanently slap the authors and its kinda annoying how the main characters all seem to be omniscient gods and goddesses (sometimes really sad...) (why can't they simply fail sometimes or need to look stuff up?), but still this is the best show there is right now.
The soundtrack and music picks are the most brilliant ever. A lot of electronic music that you'd want to hear in other shows or movies as well. Grissom is probably the most unique and interesting character I've ever seen on a TV show so far. Petersen's acting is at least as great as Grissom's intense character. Petersen knows how to express Grissom right. Not to mention CSI: Miami where everyone seems to be a supermodel with that sad attemp to let Horacio clone Grissom's superiority. In fact CSI:Miami is more about ridiculous crime stories than about the actual bit that C.S.I. stands for. I won't be watching CSI: Miami anymore.
I'm happy there are more episodes of CSI: Las Vegas to come! Absolutely worth watching!
Band of Brothers (2001)
The cream of the crop!
What can one say about Band Of Brothers? This is probably the ten best movies (I intentionally don't say mini series) I've ever seen. There is so much detail, knowledge, and skill in these unbelievably powerful movies it took me a while to work up what I have seen. Perfect story (note that these are not really stories, but real happenings retold), perfect directing, perfect acting, perfect effects, perfect sound, perfectly authentic... the pure perfection! I bow down in front of the almighty gods who made Band Of Brothers. Mr. Spielberg, even tho you can sometimes be an arrogant f**k - I are totally belong to you!!
My ratings: not applicable, cause I'd give every single aspect 10/10.
My overall rating: 12/10! - A MUST SEE! A MUST HAVE! FOR EVERYONE!
Mission to Mars (2000)
Awfully wasted potential!
My my... what an awful movie. It's really a big shame having to see how the makers of Mission To Mars have wasted a wonderful story and kicka** effects. It's also very disappointing how extremely badly developed and played the characters (except Tim Robbins' one) are. Another confusing bit is that alien creature. What the heck? Who made this sad thing? It looks like it was made for an early CG movie around 1990 (equally worse like the CG in Lawnmower Man) or by some amateur designers. Compared to the other effects (storms, starship, station, etc.) which are all absolutely dazzling this alien character was pure impertinence. Similar with the evolution scene. I don't know who animated the animals but it seems someone seriously tried to save money.
All of the characters in this movie are awfully represented and expressed by their assigned actors. Half of the blame has to go to the director. The way they react to happenings is simply ridiculous. In many scenes they look like they don't have a clue what to do at all. In one moment they shout "we gotta hurry up" in the other moment they just stand there staring at something when they'd have to hurry up like crazy. I haven't seen any tears in this movie. Good friends die, a wife dies, a husband dies, and the characters just handle these situations as if it was just bets they've lost at the race track. The facies/expressions don't fit at all. By the way, why he heck are people like J.O'Connel or A.M.-Stahl in this movie? Those were the most annoying.
Half of the movie passes and they crew is still trying to land on that stupid planet. I think the best scene was the initial storm. It was really breath-taking and very very well done. The best actors in this movie are definately Don Cheadle and Tim Robbins. But "best" is pretty relative here cause overall the performances weren't satisfying at all. I would've expected better from Gary Sinise as well. But I think his best role was Lt. Dan in Forest Gump. He will hardly beat that in future. Finally, the movie was cut off with a cheap "The End" as soon as the rest of the crew left the planet. What the...?
Anyway, now after all that negativity here's the positive bits about the movie: the story is fascinating. It's a rock-solid fantasy/sci-fi story that's absolutely great for all dreamers out there. It kinda reminded me of Contact which had a wonderful story as well. The CG effects and sound mix during the storm sequence is really breath-taking. The other filming related effects are also very very nice. Take the scene where they are walking around in that torus like station. Very well done! But it's really sad Mission To Mars is all they have gotten out of the story.
My ratings: story 8.5/10, acting 5/10, characters 2/10 (terrible!), CG effects storm sequences and similar 8.5/10 (very nice!), CG effects alien creature and evolution sequences 5/10 (oh my..), other non-CG effects 7.5/10 (unique ones there too), cinematography 7.5/10, directing 5/10 (terrible... just see how great actors like Robbins perform here... I blame the director on that).
My overall rating: 5.5/10 - NOT worth watching unless you want to have a peek at the great story (that inspires your fantasy) or at some of the great CG effects.
Unbreakable (2000)
Exciting!
Unbreakable: Drama, Mystery, Suspense.
What a great movie. It started out slowly and lengthy but then it turned and had some really exciting scenes. The point where David (Bruce Willis) starts following the man wearing the orange clothes, finds the two girls, fights him and falls down into the pool where David starts to sink slowly. Or the scene where Elijah falls down the stairs. Breathtaking scenes, breathtaking camera perspectives and placements in other scenes (kinda like someone who's observing from distance, eg. beginning, first talk with Elijah @ stadium, etc.), wonderful acting (all actors, including boy and Shyamalan himself). A quality movie with quality actors, and a quality director - a quality movie staff in general. However the ending was a little twisted. I mean it gave the whole thing that weird comic superhero touch... but I guess that was simply intended. Nonetheless I have to admit that the ending gave the movie that surprising bit. Exactly what it needed.
My ratings are: acting 9/10 (excellent!), story 8/10, cinematography 8.5/10 (unique observing camera perspectives, great 'sterile' environments and colour tones), audio effects + music 9/10 (without the great ambient effects and intense music this movie wouldn't have been that suspenseful).
My overall rating: 8/10 - MUST SEE!
The Ice Storm (1997)
Well done drama!
First of all you may have noticed the amazing cast. Tons of well-known good actors. This movie is extremely even-tempered. It's very calm for a while before it starts to unfold its complexity. The casual comedic elements are very good and made me laugh, the dramatic elements made me feel for or with the characters.
The characters in this movie are totally screwed up. Every single one of them is either weird, psychotic, mad, or psychopathic. They all live in a screwed up environment and a society of screwed people where no one really knows what to do with his life somewhere at a place called nowhere. That's probably one of the interesting aspects of this movie.
But there's something else that's really unique. If you have observed well then you might have noticed that everybody has lost everybody else. Allen lost Kline, Kline lost Allen, Weaver lost Czerny, Czerny lost Weaver, Czerny's family lost son, Wood lost Ricci, Ricci lost Wood, Holmes' boyfriend lost Holmes, Maguire lost Holmes and his family as well (a while ago), and so on. In the end it is only Kline's family that's visually complete.
Some of the urban scenes (eg. the railway tunnel) were really damn creepy and even these ultra-short scenes were more suspenseful than most cheap horror movies out there. Ang Lee did an amazing job on directing this movie, however there are things that simply didn't fit or make sense. If you watch the movie carefully you'll notice them yourself.
However there's something that annoyed me throughout the whole movie. The story takes place in 1973, right? But there's really just a minority of things that makes it look like 1973. Most of the people and furniture, etc. looks like it took place 10 years later, like in 1983 or 84 or something. Many things were just too "modern aged".
Okay, some of my ratings are: acting 8.5/10 (great!), story 8.5/10 (great as well!), directing 7.5/10, cast 7/10 (Weaver was annoying me), cinematography 5/10 (below average, but probably intended), environments 8/10 (cold, dark, fits the screwed characters well).
My overall rating: 8/10 - A MUST SEE!
Space Cowboys (2000)
Good entertainment
Well I didn't expect too much from this movie but then again I was surprised. It's of course a lot better than .. say Armageddon (what a dumb flick). Sure this movie was totally unrealistic (99.9%) but the first half was pretty good fun, especially when the old men went through the vision test. The beginning of the second half surprised me again. It was kinda creepy and suspenseful when they had the rendevouz with that huge "satellite". There are two things that were extremely annoying in my opinion. Firstly there is "Gene" (William Devane). His performances were so terribly bad they almost made me cry out loud. His whole character was so misdeveloped. Secondly there is the fact that you didnt see the actual atom heads blow up and you even saw "Hawk" (Tommy Lee Jones) in the end sitting there (apparantly dead), but in one piece. I mean, a crash down onto the moon bound to a huge satellite with six mounted atom heads...? Sorry, what the heck was that? Someone really has to kick the writer's butt. On the other hand the computer graphics animations and the CG and non-CG effects in general were absolutely breathtaking. Some of the space scenes were so extremely well done it was simply amazing me.
My ratings: story 5/10 (blablabla.. russian atom heads attacking the states), acting 7.5/10 (the four leading roles were okay but they could have done better. the rest was awful.), CG effects 9/10 (satellite scenes in space = magnificent), other effects 7/10 (above average), comedy 6/10 (first half).
My overall rating: 7/10 - DUMB BUT GOOD FUN AND ENTERTAINING!
Le fabuleux destin d'Amélie Poulain (2001)
Fantastic!
To be honest I'm not really a fan of French movies - same with French music - however this movie is simply fascinating. The extremely charming and attractive leading role Amelie (Audrey Tautou), the brilliant acting and the intense universe created by the makers makes this movie stand out from the rest. It's not just the romance but also the comedy in this movie that tied me to the seat. For example take the "toilet scene"... it made me laugh out like crazy :-) This is probably one of the funniest scenes ever.
So, my ratings are: story 9/10, cast 10/10, acting 10/10, romance 9.5/10, comedy 9/10 (decent, but not overcharged), cinematography 9/10, camera movement 9/10 (many great camera flights!), music 4/10.
My overall rating: 9/10 - WATCH IT! WATCH IT! WATCH IT!
I didnt give it 10 because I think the music is pretty annoying - especially the main theme - however it is that classic old kind of French folk that probably fits this movie perfectly even if I dont think so.
Cast Away (2000)
Smart and breathtaking!
Wow what an amazing movie. Wow what amazing acting. Robert Zemeckis is definately (still) one of my favourite directors. The script is extremely smart (except some little things) and well-written. Cinematography is awesome, so are the special effects. Well, in some places you see how Tom was copied onto the background (eg. ship going by the raft). The three scenes that amazed me most are the airplane crashdown (I sat there and held my breath!), the first time Tom climb up the big rock and looks down and the scene where he meets Helen again.
This movie's simply excellent. A class of its own in its genre. Worth watching and watching over again even just for Hanks' acting.
My ratings: acting 10/10 (tom hanks!), story 9/10, directing 9/10, cinematography 9/10, special effects 7.5/10, drama 7/10.
My overall rating: 9/10 - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED TO ANYONE WHO APPRECIATES PERFECT ACTING!
Paulie (1998)
Heart-warming again...
This is a really heart-warming family movie. It has absolutely brilliant animal training and "acting" (if you can call it like that) as well (just think about the dog in "How the Grinch stole Christmas"... it was plain bad training). The Paulie story is extremely well done, well reproduced and in general the characters are really elaborated too. Not more to say except that this is a GREAT MOVIE!
My ratings: story 8.5/10, acting 7.5/10, animals+fx 8.5/10, cinematography 8/10.
My overall rating: 8/10 - BIG FAMILY MOVIE AND VERY WORTH WATCHING!
Go (1999)
Awesome!!
To be honest this movie started out pretty weird. But by the time it got more complex and the absolutely crazy (as a positive thing) storyline started evolved. It's fascinating how many different aspects this movie provides. Some scenes were absolutely hilarious and I simply couldn't stop laughing my butt off. Katie was (somehow) annoying probably because I've seen her too many times before. Sarah was great except in some very few scenes where I wasn't sure if that either was perfect acting or lacking self-confidence, but I bet it was the former. Jay and Scott (my surnamesake) were absolutely great as well. Taye, Desmond and the rest too.
Well what can I say more about this movie? It is simply hilarious, great fun, refreshingly entertaining and really surprising.
My ratings are: acting 8.5/10 (wow! kickass), story 8/10, directing 8/10 (someone really drilled the actors and actresses here to get the best out of them), comedy 7.5/10 (many very fun scenes!), ... aw I think I can save the rest.
My overall rating: 8/10 - ABSOLUTELY WORTH WATCHING!
Romeo Must Die (2000)
Who needs it?
Terrible acting, terrible story, terrible fx, terrible soundtrack (except some bass guitar licks), it's all simply terrible. This is probably the most stupid action flick I've seen in months. What a waste of time... geez
My rating: overall 4/10 - if at all !
NOT RECOMMENDED!
The Art of War (2000)
Very sad
What a big piece of bull. This must be the worst action movie I've seen in years. Horrible acting, horrible story, horrible level of "realism". Oh my, just skip this M:I-alike cra*, you won't regret it.
My rating: **** out of 10 - "hell, what's that?"
What Lies Beneath (2000)
Amazing piece of suspense
Robert Zemeckis, Alan Silvestri, Harrison Ford. What else should a good movie have? Seriously, this was one of the most suspenseful movies I've seen for many months (including so called "horror" ones). The first half was pretty boring (that's why I won't give it a 8.5 rating) and the acting and content seemed rather stiff.
However the second half was simply great. Top-notch acting by both Michelle and Harrison and perfect suspense. I was just sitting there with my mouth open staring at the screen waiting for more (although I thought I knew how the story was going to continue). Especially the bath tub scene ... geez, this was one of the strongest scenes I've ever seen in a thriller. The finishing scenes (car escape and underwater) were really thrilling.
Zemeckis filmmaking is simply great. Camera movement was also amazing, especially in two particular scenes. Did you notice how the cam was filming Michelle lying there on the wooden floor when it suddenly moved from a top-down view into a bottom-up view below(!) the floor? Wood turning into glass. Also the finishing escape with the car. The camera was filming the front of the car while Michelle was driving it when it moved down below the car, the cam stopped there and the car + trailer (with boat) drove over it. These were two of the most interesting camera movements in this movie. I guess there was some CG too?
Anyway. My summary: boring first half, kickass suspense, some very strong scenes and very good acting, *very* well done and thrilling mystery bits, awesome score by Alan Silvestri.
And my ratings: story 6/10, acting 8/10, suspense 9.5/10, mystery 8/10, complexity 7/10.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED FOR PPL WHO LIKE MYSTERY AND GREAT FILMMAKING!
Overall: ****/5 [ imdb 8/10 ]
Bicentennial Man (1999)
Heart-warming
A really heart-warming movie. Action is superfluous here. Perfect acting (especially Robin Williams - as usual), amazing never-before seen and unique special effects/cg, a really great story, wonderful cinematography, a very charming Embeth Davidtz and a big message make this movie oh so worth to be watched. It's easy to call it a spin-off or whatever, but for most it's too hard to understand the ingeniousness of it.
My ratings: acting 8.5/10, story 7.5/10, cinematography 8/10, special effects 8.5/10, cg special effects 9/10, drama 7/10, comedy 7/10.
Highly recommended!!
Overall: **** out of 5 [imdb 8/10]