nyutkamarko Reviews

Bridge of Spies (2015)

Not historically accurate

[4/10 · 25 December 2018]

No mention of Donovan being a spy himself. Half of the movie we listen lots of speeches about democracy values and justice as an explanation of Abel's great luck of staying alive. Meanwhile, if you compare the final sentences - 30 years for Abel and 10 for Powers - you'd be a bit confused. If you ever notice that of course, because Soviet court scene is shown quite brief, loud and weird. I haven't even heard what judge had said there first time I watched the scene. They switched the way how Abel and Powers were treated as prisoners (Abel wrote that he was hit once, while Powers mentioned he stayed in a comfy cell and was treated well) East Germany was shown as it was straight after Berlin surrender in 1945 (gloomy, with tanks, army, dirt, 100% bombed buildings + blue colour filter). It looked much better in 60s, just google it. Look at the pictures of Elvis visit for example. Soviets put loads of money there (as well as USA - to West Germany) to keep up with the race, it was their "shopfront" back then. And of course it could not be bloody snowing there in summer! Abel was considered a hero after the exchange and officially was praised as a great spy. (They lied about it in the final afterstory credits)

I think if you take real events as a base for your movie, it's not fair to twist all the details like this. Even if you're dying to show countries and events stereotypically, please check the sources first, your movie only wins after that.

Hostages (2017)

Poor kittens fighting for freedom

[1/10 · 23 December 2018]

It's based on true events, but it shows a completely different characters. The movie depicts those people as victims, who just wanted freedom. In reality, they were spoiled brats of quite rich powerful people, with all the money and means to immigrate (as they wished so much) peacefully. Instead they chose to hijack the plane and become anti-soviet heroes in the western world, asking for a political asylum. (Because there is a difference between an unknown immigrant and a high profile political victim, sponsored and promoted by the other government PR agents) According to the real documents and witnesses they didn't act as scared good guys on the plane, they didn't help wounded - they inflicted those wounds! They acted as all classic terrorist act - killed people who showed any threat, tried to keep the crowd scared and under control by abuse and humiliation (e.g. didn't allow them visit the toilet, keep beating flight attendants when they felt like it).

Same story about the special forces, authorities, the trial and the person who inspired the group - it was all shown a little bit opposite of what it was. Authorities were shown as eager-to-assault people, aborting the negotiations. In real life "hostages" refused to talk to their parents themselves. Nobody mentioned that they threatened to bomb the plane with all the passengers on board (because they had grenades). Nobody showed how special forces managed to bloodlessly secure the plane in 8 minutes (I would be keen to watch this part instead). Court speeches included more "political" parts from the real trial than the parts about murders and violence. The initial mastermind of the whole attack (the priest) was shown as a completely uninvolved innocent person, guilty of only gifting someone Beatles records (although Beatles were not banned in USSR in 80s, they were quite popular and were sold legally at the music stores). Of course as a result the final verdict seemed like a cruel over-reaction in the movie.

I think that if you wanted to film something about the dark sides of USSR regime, you should have picked something else. Anything but the bloody terrorist attack, organised by wealthy attention seekers, where real innocent hostages have died or became disabled for the rest of their lives.

McMafia (2018)

definite YES

[10/10 · 5 February 2018]

You've got the right amount of thrill/suspense there, personal drama, characters are also written very well. Really liked the pace of the show, it's not slow at all, it's how it should be! Loved how they portrait the global scale and connections between crime organizations like a whole globalized crime world. And of course an awesome choice of native speaking actors, locations and decorations made this thing believable and alive, wasn't expected to see that level of accuracy in a tv show. The only weird thing there is the show title. People apparently think that it is connected to McDonald's or burgers, not the best name for criminal show like that I reckon. I hope it'll have good ratings and I'll see the 2 season

Legion (2017–2019)

So boring.

[1/10 · 9 March 2017]

This show became the first huge disappointment of the year.

I don't really understand how they could have done it, the first episode was quite solid, intriguing and promising. But then there were just boring long paced hollow scenes, with simple empty dialogues, cardboard characters (in absolutely tiresome way). And now, after the 5th episode, which was possible to watch only with 2x speed, I can officially say that I can't go on with this thing.

And you know, I'm not the person who's bored because there is no action, explosions and special affects. (Let's just forget about all this unnecessary for a superhero novels stuff.) I can really enjoy some slow paced dramas, but only when there is something (anything) deep and multi-dimensional going on, like some personal development or contradictions not boring to look at. But here... You can call it a phenomenon, but they have it all there, on paper, in the scenario: split personality disorder, multi layers of reality, love story with problems, kidnapping, mixed childhood memories. But OMG how it turned out absolutely one-layered on the screen. I can't remember when I cared less about characters, and felt so sleepy during their long dialogues about David, just waiting and waiting for the same feelings that I had with the first episode.

No mystery, no action, no integrity, just some weird trip into nothing with expectations.

The Expanse (2015–2022)

The best space opera I have ever seen!

[10/10 · 2 March 2017]

I'm a very lazy person when it comes to reviews, basically it is my first one. But I just really want to support this show as much as I can!

I've never seen any space opera TV show with the same attention to details, high quality graphics, mind blowing storytelling. Gosh, even costumes are superb! Usually I like to search for some holes in the story or illogical stuff, but here everything comes together just precisely like it should.

The show combines everything that I love in TV shows - politics, intrigues, technology, controversial but solid characters, multiple "worlds" etc. And I really didn't expect that level of bad-ass production from SyFy, great job guys! I'm looking forward to the next episode and really hope there will be more seasons to come.