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ClaesW
Reviews
Dr. Death (2021)
An important story that is highly recommended
This review is for season 2, which is about the scandal surgeon Paulo Macchiarini. He was originally Italian, but active in Sweden about ten years ago, transplanting synthetic tracheas into some poor patients. The patients experienced serious side effects and all of them died sometime after the operation.
Four whistleblowers - medical collaborators to Macchiarini - warned that the research that formed the basis for the interventions either did not exist or was incorrectly presented in scientific articles. These articles are now retracted, and it was found that Macchiarini had been bluffing.
However, those responsible at the Karolinska Institute - Sweden's most prestigious medical university - did not react to the warning signs. They initially punished the whistleblowers and not Macchiarini. Karolinska Institute seemed to be driven more by organizational vanity than by a sound scientific approach.
Parallel to this, Macchiarini had a love affair with the American journalist Benita Alexander. It started well. Macchiarini offered expensive trips, exclusive restaurants and hotels, and fine vintage wines. But when Macchiarini claimed that the Pope would marry the two at their upcoming wedding, alarm bells started to ring. Benita Alexander started to check if everything Macchiarini had told her was really true and it turned out that it wasn't at all. Macchiarini was still married and living with another woman in Barcelona, while at the same time planning a grand wedding with Benita Alexander.
So here is everything a good drama needs, and it is handled well by the season's creators. It's an important story about how the charm of a sociopath can fool both a woman's heart and a highly ranked university.
As a result of the failed operations, Macchiarini is presently sentenced to prison for several counts of aggravated assault.
Estonia (2023)
Far too many fragmental narratives!
From a Swedish point of view, the sinking of M/S Estonia is the disaster that has caused the second most deaths in modern times. By far. It is only the tsunami in 2004 that has taken the lives of more Swedes. As is so often the case with this type of major events, there has been an aftermath with some conspiracy theory elements.
The event itself contains a lot of drama, and would therefore be grateful for a fictional depiction. However, this TV series manages this opportunity rather poorly. Much of the series focuses on the commission that was set up after the accident, which was supposed to investigate what the cause was. This is mixed with flashbacks from the actual course of the disaster.
The Commission is portrayed as a dysfunctional collection of people, to say the least, where not least the Swedish participants seem particularly unsympathetic and unprofessional. It's pretty much only the Finnish hero who behaves. Since the process is depicted so fragmentarily, it is difficult to get any context around the strange behavior that the characters exhibit.
The story is generally far too unfocused. There are many people involved whose story is told too briefly to get any understanding or any real commitment. This makes this basically very dramatic event in this fictional depiction quite boring.
Maybe they should have spiced it up a bit with a love story between a woman from first class and a man from third class. A scene where they stand in the bow and pretend to fly, to a ballad by Celine Dion might also have worked. But these ideas are perhaps already taken by someone else.
Blacklight (2022)
You may have seen most plot elements a hundred times before.
Have you ever seen this content in a film before?
A hero - often a white male - fights some bad guys.
There is a high-level conspiracy in society.
Some disillusioned folks in the FBI/CIA have gone rouge or turned bad.
Some old friend of the hero has turned to the bad side.
There is a disk somewhere that contains all relevant secrets.
The hero is invulnerable. His bullets tend to hit the target, while the bad guys - while well-trained - tend to hit everywhere but not the intended target.
The hero is incredibly lucky. Not occasionally, but all the time.
The hero finds an ally in the fight against the bad guys - often a young and attractive female.
It contains at least one car chase, one fistfight and one gunfight.
Most of the plot is intended to make you feel aggression towards the antagonists. Some good guys/girls have to be sacrificed for the sake of this cause.
When the hero kills or punish them in the end, it feels like a relief!
You might say that you have seen this before. If you want to see it once again, this is a great film. It is basically 1 hour and 45 minutes of entertainment, with the same clichés as numerous other action movies. If you are looking for anything original or spiritual, you will be disappointed.
Marcella (2016)
A good drama - a bad documentary about police work
Now, I have seen all three series of Marcella. And I must confess I was hooked. It is a good drama that fills 24 episodes, and it has a constant nerve. As one episode ended, I wanted to continue to the next.
Among the three series, the first two are more similar in that they are taking place in London, with Marcella is a detective sergeant. In the third series, she is an undercover agent in Belfast.
Some may complain about a lack of realism. Marcella has serious mental problems with blackouts, as well as uncontrolled and violent behavior. She is actually not well suited at all for being a police officer, despite being a good investigator. In real life, she would not be allowed to stay in the force. At least she would be offered some kind av adapted desk job.
The problem with reality is, however, that it is quite boring and not always that entertaining. So, writing a good manuscript is always a balance between reality and drama. In this case, the scriptwriters have allowed themselves to give priority to the drama. It implies that the characters occasionally behave a bit strange - especially the police officers.
But if you take it for what it is - a drama - it is quite an entertaining piece.
The Guilty (2021)
A decent drama but the Danish original has a more balanced acting
The film is about an LAPD officer who serves as a 911 operator after being reassigned due to suspected misconduct.
The special and unusual thing about the film is that it is almost only the main character that is seen, while other characters are only there as telephone voices. It still creates quite a decent drama. However, the main character seems to be far too emotionally unstable for such demanding work and he also has obvious problems keeping a professional distance from those he is supposed to help. At the same time, he has private problems, both with a separation and with a trial that will take place the next day. It becomes an unsolved mystery that he managed to keep the job, when he is in such a condition.
After watching the movie for a while, I thought I recognized the plot. After checking I realized this was a remake of a Danish film. However, it must be said that the Danish version is better. This remake contains far too much screaming, tears and overacting to have any contact with reality.
All Inclusive (2017)
Good actresses but is it a comedy or what?
Two sisters - one neat and one careless - take their mother to Croatia in connection with her 60th birthday. The mother is recently divorced after finding her husband with another woman. The sisters do their best to cheer up their mother but it doesn't always go well.
The cast includes three of Sweden's best female actors. But the script is thin. A vacation trip with an unlikely love story, two sisters who fight and bad self-esteem that is drowned in booze.
I'm having a hard time deciding what kind of movie this is. Is it a jokeless comedy or is it a tragedy? Or is it a film to portray a dysfunctional family? It is not really one or the other.
All the Devil's Men (2018)
A low-budget film based on clichés
This movie really screams low budget. The money seems to have been mainly spent on a trip to Morocco, where the opening takes place. Otherwise, the film mostly takes place in port and industrial areas of London, where state-employed professional killers in various constellations drive around and shoot each other. They are presented as professionals, but judging by their tactical behavior during their missions, they appear almost suicidal. And quite a few also manage to die during the course of the film.
A film with muscular men and one female fashion model. Too bad they couldn't afford a script and plot.