SeriousMayhem Reviews

Tulsa King (2022– )

A cartoon with real people; as likeable as it is shallow

[7/10 · 20 February 2023]

Let's not pretend this is a smart and clever show, because it's really not. Let's also not pretend that Stallone can act convincingly, because he really can't.

But was he likeable as cartoon gangster Manfredi? Totally.

Suspend you disbelief because the silliness is dialed to eleven pretty quickly and this gets progressively worse (or better, depending on your taste).

The show doesn't seem to take itself too serious however, so paired with the rather short runtime of each episode, it's pretty easy to stomach and get entertained if you accept everything for what it is.

It's shallow, it's cliché. It's not even good. But it's entertaining.

This felt like a "thank you, Sly" send-off more than anything else. Well deserved, I reckon.

7/10.

The Peripheral (2022)

Strong start, weak ending

[7/10 · 20 February 2023]

This got me hooked straight away with decent acting, plenty of action and some solid mystery and drama.

That being said, towards the end, a good part of it fell flat and I feel this show's season 1 sports at least two or three episodes too many. It didn't get boring for me, but it became very obvious the creators wanted to push ahead ANY resolvement of the story as much as they could, which just gave it a very unnatural feeling.

Even worse, the ending -no spoilers here- is just a huge cliffhanger for season two. But it's not really a cliffhanger, it's more of a "we're only just starting in season 2" troll. It's what you'd end the first episode of a season with, not the last one. Lame and very disappointing.

The quick romance that developed between two main characters came out of nowhere, offered no foundation for it and felt shoehorned in. No chemistry, very unnatural.

Rather heavy suspension of disbelief is required to get through some of the many convenient plot advancement mechanics.

All in all, slightly above average as a whole, but please raise the bar for season two.

6,5/10, rounded up to a 7.

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey (2022)

Strong start, meandering middle, rather weak ending

[7/10 · 21 October 2022]

The show drags you in right away, through an intriguing premise and one of Samuel L. Jackson's strongest acting performances - if not the strongest - of his career. Dominique Fishback is equally convincing and fresh. Acting of most of the supporting cast is more than fine as well.

The story, while interesting, isn't as interesting as it could have been; it drags on for too long and the ending can be seen coming from miles away. I was hoping for a twist, but it never came. The show also hints at some possible paths it wanted to explore, but these all turn out to be dead ends. I guess they wanted to keep it simple and "real", but I'm not sure they should have, entirely anyway.

Some things that stood out to me: it's a bit heavy on the "white man bad" sentiment starting a few episodes in, which often feels forced, unneeded and unnecessary, especially when it concerns the stuff that plays out in the present. There's also the mention of some sexual attraction had our two main characters been of different ages. This came out of nowhere and was just weird and unfitting in the context it was placed in.

All in all, decent show, but I feel it would have been way better if it was condensed into three or four episodes.

7/10.

The Greatest Beer Run Ever (2022)

Decent enough but probably better suited as a documentary

[7/10 · 3 October 2022]

This was decent enough, with good production values.

The story takes a while to get going. Roughly the first half of the movie isn't nearly as good as the second half. This is unfortunate, because this movie really deserved a better first half.

The comedy aspect (mostly present in that first half) is very cringe for the most part. I'm not sure what the idea behind including it was. It definitely wasn't needed and drags the movie down more than it lifts it up. It's a shame, because Green Book, by the same director, mixes drama with comedy really, really well and ends up a much better movie in comparison.

The second half of the movie is a lot better, even if it's not overly deep and the ways the director uses to force a tear out of your eyes are pretty cheap and low-effort. As an anti-war movie it does manage to get its message across, although I'm not entirely convinced the director intended the movie to be an anti war movie.

That being said, the movie is what it is, which is to say not perfect, but also not bad. The story is better than the movie, so to speak, but the latter redeems itself in the end, at least partly.

7/10.

The Siege of Jadotville (2016)

A story worth telling that didn't quite get its message across

[6/10 · 21 September 2022]

While I appreciated this movie and the story it wanted to tell (a story which certainly is worth telling), I'm not quite sure it managed to succeed entirely in that.

The movie covers a lot of angles and viewpoints, but the end-result is that a lot of it feels shoehorned in. What I missed the most was fluidity; a more seamless and natural progression from scene to scene. You know, an actual movie, and not just a collection of scenes glued together.

It did manage to get most of the story across, but a lot of it felt like filler for in between the battle scenes, because the battle scenes are what makes up most of this movie.

The action wasn't bad and it has some good moments, but overall it's perhaps a bit more generic than it should have been.

I'm also not quite sure how close to the truth the actual battle scenes are, but I find it highly unlikely the battles turned out the way they did if it happened exactly as the movie showed us.

All that said, its greatest flaw: a missing emotional connection. The movie could have done with about half an hour more runtime to flesh out and develop the characters so that you're actually going to care for them. I didn't care in the end and that's a real shame for a movie like this. That's what this movie was about, right? The people fighting that battle, not the battle itself. Along with the rushed ending, it feels like a missed opportunity.

Not bad, not good. 6,5/10, rounding down.

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

A hollow shell. What a joke of a movie

[1/10 · 11 September 2022]

This is, BY FAR, the worst MCU movie to date.

I might have enjoyed the story, if I wasn't flooded by that endless diarrhea of jokes.

I might have enjoyed the CGI, if I wasn't flooded by that endless diarrhea of jokes.

I might have enjoyed the addition of some of my most beloved characters in the MCU, if I wasn't flooded by that endless diarrhea of jokes.

I might have enjoyed the jokes, if they were actually funny.

I counted 3 or 4 jokes that were actually funny. 3 or 4! Out of what felt like 12 gazillion. What were they thinking? Is this is a movie for 4 years olds? Made by 4 year olds?

Thor: Ragnarok, by the same director, already made a turn for the worse but was at least mildly entertaining. Thor: Love and Thunder is not; I find it hard to find any redeeming value here.

This felt like watching a 6 hour long unfunny version of the Naked Gun or Airplane. What is going on here? What happened to the MCU? Phase 4 is just plain terrible and this is rock bottom right here. Everything good about Marvel and the MCU apparently ended with Endgame.

Thor has become a joke, a parody of himself. What an absolute stinker.

1/10.

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Wow, I'm impressed. This is how you make a blockbuster.

[10/10 · 29 August 2022]

No, actually: this is how you make a MOVIE.

Movies like this one are a very rare exception these days.

I'll keep it short and sweet: Top Gun: Maverick is great and easily among the best I've seen in recent years.

It has a little bit of everything: drama, tension, action, comedy, and all of it is present in perfect quantitities. No shoehorning in political views or other preachy woke nonsense.

The direction from start to finish is amazing.

The flying scenes are awesome in every aspect; it's as if you're flying with them up there.

I fear this review might look like one of those glowing 10/10 bot reviews we see too often on here, but "it's the only one I've got".

If you haven't seen it yet, you're missing out. 9,5/10, rounding up!

Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)

Some atrocious writing, but not as bad as some make it out to be

[8/10 · 7 July 2022]

If you are able to suspend your disbelief at some of the stuff you'll see happening, like that bizarre chase scene in the first episode (there's something like that in almost every episode), this show is not as bad as some make it out to be. Let's also honestly not pretend big chunks of the original movies weren't of similar slapstick quality.

Some of the writing is really atrocious however, apparently written by children, which in turn makes me feel like a child for watching it and having to enjoy it. These writers really, really, REALLY need to come up with more original and intelligent ways to solve a problem.

The acting overall is decent and I liked most of the characters. None of them stand out as either great or terrible, which I reckon, is both good and bad at the same time.

Obi-Wan grows in this show, but the emotional range is only about as deep as a puddle and turns out pretty predictable in the end.

The woke narrative and empty virtue signaling is there, but it's luckily not as bad as it could have been, and definitely not as bad as in some of the other shows we've had to endure lately. You know, certain other shows with the word "Star" in the name. Yet, there's more of it than in other recent Star Wars shows.

CGI looks amazing, the musical score also very well done.

All things considered I'm left with the thought: why was this made? Did we need this? Of all the things this show does, it doesn't offer much or even anything new or fresh. It is however definitely not as flat as the show about Boba Fett, which was saved only (and barely) by the inclusion of the first two episodes of the Mandalorian season 3, so I guess Obi-Wan Kenobi can stand on its own legs.

In the end, I reckon this is the only thing it could have been, in this particular point in the timeline, story-wise and character-wise, without having to mess too much with any of the characters we already know and love or hate.

We even get Darth Vader, with the voice of James Earl Jones no less. This particular story line, albeit predictable (because it couldn't have been anything else) and not very deep, fits in pretty well also.

Unfortunately, Hayden Christensen is very, very underused. They could have done more for him in his role as Anakin, especially since they seemingly wrapped that part up completely.

I was entertained. I got my Star Wars feeling. Deserved complaints aside, this isn't all bad at all. There's even room for another season.

7,5/10, rounding up to an 8.

News of the World (2020)

Too shallow for what it wants to achieve

[6/10 · 23 March 2022]

For some reason this story doesn't play out very fluidly; moving from scene to scene doesn't feel natural, but more like the director ticking checkboxes, often in a rather ham-fisted way.

Everything you can imagine that might happen to a guy traveling the land with a young girl, will happen. It's all very predictable and unoriginal, the ending included.

Tom Hanks plays his part just about decently, but really mostly on autopilot and it's far from his best performance. His best parts are when he actually reads the news of the world, but that's about 4 minutes worth of content. Helena Zengel is a pleasant surprise and convincing as Johanna.

Some of the sets are great. CGI is mostly decent, with some highs and lows. The music is low-effort and forgettable.

It's obvious a movie like this wants to hit you in the feels and in theory it has all the ingredients to do so. But the recipe is off, or missing entirely, because it never manages to truly grab you. It lacks emotion, passion and tension, and for a movie like this, those are some key ingredients. The director apparently seemed unaware of this.

As a whole the movie isn't unlikeable, but it's way too shallow for what it wants to achieve. It's trying to cover a tad too many topics and doesn't manage to convince with most. A jack of a few trades, master of none. You'd almost think it's drab on purpose because it's quite something to pull off an end-result like this with everything they had at their disposal.

Not good, not bad (but almost bad). Pretty meh. 6/10, barely.

Formula 1: Drive to Survive (2019– )

Fake and insincere reality show that's not about racing

[1/10 · 14 March 2022]

What is this, a soap opera? This series is riddled with fake rivalry, manipulated video, manipulated audio, fake and manipulated everything, just to drag in some viewers. And if that's not enough, it does all that while missing the real tension, the real action and everything else that makes F1 great.

What a disgrace. Perhaps you should hire Michael Bay to direct season 5.

Riders of Justice (2020)

This was a pleasant surprise

[9/10 · 26 February 2022]

An odd mix of comedy, action, tragedy, darkness, drama and feelgood.

The beginning is a little rough, lacking that natural flow and fluidity when going from one scene to another. However, when the base of the story has been established, it does get going nicely indeed.

I expected a thriller, a revenge movie.. action mostly. That's how it was marketed in the trailer at least. I got that, but I also unexpectedly got a lot more and it was a pleasant surprise.

This movie features a little bit of everything. It will make you chuckle, it will make you laugh, it will make you wonder and perhaps shed a tear or two.

It will make you feel for the characters involved, each with their own personality, issues, history and how they deal with things in the present and the past.

If you can manage to suspend your disbelief just enough here and there, you may very well enjoy this a lot.

8,5/10, rounding up to a 9.

Copshop (2021)

So bad, it's bad

[3/10 · 25 February 2022]

I find it hard to find any redeeming value in this.

The movie is way too loud in what it wants to accomplish and never succeeds in doing so. It also seems to think it's way better than it actually is. It's not even so bad that it's good; it's just really bad.

This is an incoherent, illogical, wannabe Tarantino movie which managed to deliver a decent trailer able to trick people into thinking this might be something tasty. I say again: it's not. It's bad.

Did I mention it's bad?

3/10. What a waste of time.

The Book of Boba Fett (2021–2022)

Meh

[6/10 · 9 February 2022]

I didn't expect much of this show and Boba Fett as a character never interested me a lot either. I did manage to warm up to him, but the show as a whole doesn't convince.

Roughly the first four episodes tell us, in the form of flashbacks, the story of what happened to Boba Fett after he ended up in the Sarlacc pit.

So, he didn't die, he got "saved" by sand people and I reckon we're supposed to develop some kind of emotional connection with them. While I don't think this story was necessarily bad in itself, it really is very shallow and for what it is, way too slow. The language barrier (if you can call those donkey sounds a language) doesn't make connecting with them any easier. And then they're all dead, and that was that. Ok then.. This just felt like a huge waste of time and we have learned pretty much nothing about Boba in the process.

I didn't enjoy the flashbacks as a mechanism. They're used mostly to mask the fact that we're served hardly an episode worth of meaningful backstory content. At the same time it also cuts into the content that plays out in the "present", which in itself isn't that great either. The unfortunate end-result is a very shallow, unhinged jumble which barely manages to hold itself upright in the small area between bad and just passable.

The episode with the power ranger kids gang merits special mention in the sense that it was hilariously poor and stupid in almost every regard.

Then we get The Mandalorian S03E01+E02.

While I did enjoy these episodes for what they are (and let's be honest, what they are is fan service with a boatload of nostalgia more than anything else), the fact that they're included so profoundly in a show about Boba Fett is just silly. These two episodes are also better than the previous four, which makes this choice even more jarring. And by "better" I mean good; because they're definitely not masterpieces.

Truth be told, I'd rather have seen 4 full episodes worth of meaningful content of Boba and his endeavors. Leave The Mandalorian season 3 episodes for the actual The Mandalorian season 3.

The ending was a letdown with really nothing at stake, more fan service and bad CGI. It's crystal clear that all the episodes directed by Robert Rodriguez are, by far, the worst of the bunch. He is obviously not a Star Wars director, please keep him out of it in the future. Unfortunately, he directed 3 out of 7 episodes and with the two Mandalorian episodes in between, we're left with only 2 out of 7 Boba Fett episodes that are passable at best, in a show about Boba Fett. It really boggles the mind.

All in all, this show is flat and forgettable, not at all on the level where it should be. It's hard to dislike, and perhaps this is aimed more at kids/teens, but I found myself struggling to appreciate it as an adult. 6/10.

Reacher (2022– )

Decent popcorn fun that started better than it ended

[7/10 · 9 February 2022]

This show started very strong, with a nice murder mystery and a solid and likeable protagonist. No bs, no hidden agendas that the creators wanted to overload the viewer with; just plain, good old fun. You know you're going to have to suspend your disbelief for this one.

It managed to keep that vibe throughout, but it did go into silly territory a bit too often and a bit too far for my tastes in the second half of the season. As it turns out: heavy suspension of disbelief is required, even more than I anticipated.

The witty and clever remarks Reacher makes in the first half, get downgraded to mostly emotionless, borderline autistic comments in the second half, which is really a shame.

The story unfolds like an 80's action movie, where you know no one you like is going to get hurt and all the bad guys die. Reacher manages to uncover what's going on way too easily and out of nowhere, with what appears to be psychic powers and everything that happens is entirely predictable.

In that regard, much of the second half of the season feels rushed, because in the first half, the creators at least tried (and managed) to give most things a logical explanation.

Acting is mostly decent but otherwise nothing special. Willa Fitzgerald is a pleasant surprise.

The show doesn't try to be more than it is, and if you know what to expect, don't expect a masterpiece and realize it's ultimately pretty forgettable, this may be exactly what the doctor ordered.

7,5/10, rounding down to a 7.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021)

Decent hommage of sorts that's a lot better than the 2016 monstrosity

[7/10 · 4 January 2022]

It sticks close to the source material and you could even argue it copied a tad too much, turning this into a rather unorignal, even lazy and paper thin story as a result. That didn't get in the way of my personal viewing experience, but don't expect anything groundbreaking here.

I'm generally not a fan of groups of teens saving the day against all odds and logic, and sadly this was no exception.

Apart from McKenna Grace, who performs really well, I wasn't impressed by the others. Quite frankly I could have done without the brother and the other girl, who are just there to advance a certain part of the plot. Rudd and Coon play their part, but that's about it; there's not a whole lot going on because character progession seems to come to a standstill about half way through.

The movie loses its identity a little in the last part as well, providing fan service more than anything else. I enjoyed most of it, though.

CGI looks good, but there's nothing groundbreaking here either, unfortunately. The ghosts are unorignal, and actually mostly absent.

Decent laughs and grins throughout.

All in all, not great due to a lack of originality, but it's not a bad movie all things considered. If you're looking for a nostalgic blast to the past, this may very well be it.

7,5/10.

A Quiet Place (2018)

Shhhh.

[8/10 · 23 November 2021]

With plenty of clichés, predictable outcomes, silly decisions being made by the family and a premise that raises more questions than it answers, you'll have to suspend your disbelief quite a bit for this one.

But, do so! Because this is actually a very decent horror movie if you can enjoy it for what it wants to be.

Acting is very good, the CGI equally so, the sound is amazing. I also quite enjoyed the overall directing and camera work.

Good stuff. 8,5/10, rounding down to an 8.

Snowpiercer (2020– )

Some trainwrecks on board of this train

[6/10 · 21 November 2021]

Season 1 review. Will update if needed after season 2.

Not too bad of a show, but has some issues that really drag it down.

Acting is a very mixed bag. Jennifer Connelly does a good job as Melanie Cavill and I also enjoyed some of the supporting roles like Ruth and Miss Audrey, even though most of those supporting roles don't add a whole lot of meat to the story and often feel like underdeveloped, missed opportunities.

While not always or necessarily a bad thing, a lot of characters are one-dimensional caricatures, perhaps more fitting for a cartoon. This works well for some, like Ruth, but not too great for most, like LJ.

There's way too much overacting in general, where the performances of the actresses playing Josie and Bess stand out as pretty bad on average in that regard.

The biggest issue with the acting though, is the lead actor, Daveed Diggs. The guy can't act and he has no presence. His eyes are always empty and he is apparently only able to produce one facial expression. His monotonous voice and inflection also don't match the character. I always see the actor trying to play a character, never the character itself. It really breaks immersion. Massive miscast here and easily the weakest link of the show.

Immersion is broken even more by the fact that his character is all over the place and isn't believable at all in most of the contexts he finds himself in. This isn't a revolutionary leader, but a street corner criminal at best.

He's not even likeable, being that self-righteous smart ass know-it-all (while still failing to accomplish anything), with his unfitting nonchalant demeanor and hilariously large wig.

CGI is mostly well done. Music is good, and I do like the overall atmosphere it tries to create.

The general story is interesting enough to keep me wanting to know what's going to happen next. The first three or so episodes don't make a whole lot of sense in hindsight and I feel the story is a bit too shallow in most of what it tries to accomplish.

This could have been an easy 8 or 9 if the casting and acting would have been better, possibly also while burning through the story a bit slower and not focussing on the rather unoriginal and obvious stuff.

I can't really give this more than barely a 6/10 in it's current form, even though I enjoyed some parts more than that rating would suggest. Will update the score after season 2, if needed.

The Tomorrow War (2021)

Simple popcorn flick that falls short of several marks

[5/10 · 20 November 2021]

The acting is decent and so is the CGI. The story however, leaves much to be desired. For a time-travel movie you can -and should- expect more than this.

You really need to turn off your brain for this one, because only then you'll be able to enjoy it, with all the plotholes, general sillyness, overly dramatic bits that don't make sense in the context they're in, and a totally unnessecary last part.

Is it a bad movie? Well, yes. Truly terrible? No.

If you don't expect too much and can enjoy an easy popcorn movie without having to think, you may enjoy this.

5,5/10, rounding down to a 5.

Catching Killers (II) (2021– )

Decent, but not as fresh as I hoped it would be

[7/10 · 20 November 2021]

We see these stories being told from the perspective of the investigators and we get some insight in how they deal with the horrible stuff they have to deal with while doing their investigations.

There's not a whole lot of filler, which can be considered a good thing.

Sometimes it felt a bit overly dramatic, while still staying on the surface of the emotions that are shown.. To me that felt a bit cheap by the creators.. I wanted to know more about these investigators and how they experienced it besides seeing that single tear, but it never quite went there. A missed opportunity.

Perhaps this documentary didn't entirely know what it ultimately wanted to be or achieve.

What we end up with is reasonably interesting for what it is, but at the end of the day, rather forgettable.

6,5/10, rounding up to a 7.

Black Widow (2021)

Not bad, just released 5 years too late

[8/10 · 14 November 2021]

Along with Hawkeye, Black Widow is probably one of the least popular Avengers, I reckon mostly because of a lack of superpowers.

In the first Avengers movie, they tried to give Black Widow a human touch; the only person able to connect with the Hulk. Sadly, this was short lived and Black Widow was turned into what she always was: a badass female assassin with guns.

Is that bad? No it's not, but it's also no more than that, and (unfortunately?) this movie doesn't change any of it.

If anything, this movie is a marketing ad for the new Hawkeye series, with perhaps a little too much screentime for Black Widow's "sister" Yelena.

Florence Pugh nails her role, though, which is clearly better written than Black Widow's role in her own movie.

Scarlett Johansson performs equally fine, but the writers really did her a disservice with what they gave her, in a movie that would have been way better suited to fit exactly where it plays out in the timeline.

Making this 5 years later, when we all know what happened in Endgame, turns this into a tasty dessert that gets wasted because we're already full from the main course. A real shame.

The movie itself is fine for what it is. It has a bit of everything you might expect from Marvel. The jokes, the action, good CGI; it's all there. Just not much of a villain.

All in all: 7,5/10, rounding up to an 8.

Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)

Not much of a legend

[6/10 · 12 November 2021]

This movie leaves a lot to be desired.

The CGI is mostly well done, although not consistent throughout, with some pretty bad moments as well.

The action scenes are nicely done, but after the umpteenth martial arts fight scene, I have to admit, it grew a bit weary on me.

The story, while not truly bad in itself, is thin as paper and meanders along for too long, making the total runtime about half an hour too long in the process. It's also way too Disney; that new, not so good kind.

It's all pretty generic in the end, seemingly providing a sort fan service (or quite frankly pandering) to the Chinese audience more than anything else, by trying to cram as much Chinese mythology and history in it as possible. But also just as many stereotypes and clichés. It's all very shallow and it even went into shameless territory a couple of times, which is just weird.

Acting is decent to good, but the woman playing Jar-Jar Binks, no I mean Legolas, no I mean Katy, got annoying real fast.

With everything they had at their disposal to make a great movie, this sure could have been a whole lot better.

6/10, barely.

No Time to Die (2021)

What a disgrace

[1/10 · 11 November 2021]

This movie doesn't even deserve the time I have to take to write this review, so I'll keep it as short as possible.

This is an absolute disgrace of a send-off, killing an iconic character in more ways than just killing him off, even doing so in favor of being able to tick some checkboxes.

The only good things in this movie are the first 20 minutes and Ana de Armas, who for some reason only spends about 10 minutes on screen.

Whats left is a movie without without heart or soul, with equally soulless characters, that is easily 45 minutes too long.

You should be ashamed of yourselves for creating this monstrosity.

Boss Level (2020)

Turn off your brain and enjoy

[8/10 · 6 November 2021]

I can be short: this is an action-packed popcorn movie with plenty of laughs and grins to go around.

The action sequences are very well done, with slight or bigger variations as the same day is played out again and again.

The premise is paper thin and actually rather silly, even for a movie like this, but if you can turn off your brain for that part, what's left is pretty good. Just enjoy the ride.

Frank Grillo delivers a good performance and he even manages to easily outperform Watts and Gibson who both don't add much to the movie.

Good fun! 8,5/10.

Finch (2021)

Decent and risk-free, inoffensive drama that doesn't quite achieve its goal

[7/10 · 5 November 2021]

When I saw the trailer I said to myself: the trailer is probably going to be better than the movie. As it turns out, this is true, but ultimately I was not too disappointed by the overall experience.

For a movie that is meant to touch the viewer on an emotional level, I feel it fell a bit short of the mark. It also doesn't seem to really try, as it stays mostly on the surface, prefering risk free, somewhat cheap and shallow sentimental moments over digging deeper into the emotions and feelings of this man called Finch. It does try once, and it does it well. Why leave it at that?

If it weren't for Tom Hanks, I'm not sure the score would be as high. Hanks carries the movie; he really shines in solo roles like these.

As an overall experience I wouldn't say it's boring, but at times it did feel rather bland, with a good number of missed opportunities.

The CGI is very well done and production values are good.

All that said, the movie does have its moment and it's definitely not bad. It just could have been a whole lot better and it's likely not something you'll remember 5 years from now.

6,5/10, rounding up to a 7.

Nobody (I) (2021)

Enjoyable, but otherwise pretty average

[7/10 · 4 May 2021]

Let's be honest here: this is a simple popcorn movie and it only works because we get to see Jimmy McGill kicking ass, and we really like to see Jimmy McGill kicking ass. That's because we're rooting for Jimmy McGill, and not for *looks up the name* Hutch Mansell. Who?

Had it been anyone other than Bob Odenkirk in the lead at this moment in time, this movie likely would have gotten worse ratings, and probably rightfully so. Odenkirk plays the lead perfectly however, apart from just being there, and I really hope to see more of this. And alright, more Hutch Mansell.

Some of the action scenes are great, spectacular and sometimes even genius. I loved most of the music. The opening scene is amazing and beautiful.

Unfortunately, the level of quality isn't equal throughout the movie. While we're of course not really watching this for the story, the story is what holds this movie down in my opinion. It's a bit lazy with certain plot advancements, not always serious enough when it needs to be more serious and not always silly enough when it needs to be more silly. If you want to mix serious with silly, you need to do it right; hit the right notes at the right time. This wasn't entirely right and there are a few false notes as well.

But, in the end this is a "turn off your brain and enjoy the ride" kind of movie, and if you can do just that, it'll be entertaining. 7,5/10, rounding down to a 7.